A Day in Guangzhou (Day 12)

Today was different than our usual Sunday routine.  No church for us to attend (in Beijing there is a foreigner-only church, passports required), but we haven't heard of such a thing here.  Even if we were able to attend church somewhere we think it would be a rough situation to be in with our new children.  Sitting still and being quiet is not yet one of their learned behaviors.

We enjoyed the time together as a group anyhow, visiting Shaiman Island, a more touristy location of shops tied to the area's heritage with British colonial days.  The architecture and trees were beautiful.  One thing China far surpasses the US in is landscaping.  In the few parks and green areas, they are well designed and kept.

It was a hot, hot day.  Guangzhou seems to be a lot like Florida without the nice ocean breeze.  We all got sweaty and worn down pretty quick.  Shopping is hard in a group (stragglers and wanderers change the pace), but we did get to make one good shopping stop for touristy trinkets. It was fun shopping, but we think the group loved the short visit with air conditioning more than anything.

After the Shaiman Island walk, we visited a large pedestrian mall area. In one small section of shops was the most amazing collection of wholesale pearls.  Bags and bags, and strings and strings of pearls.  We were directed by our guides to a trustworthy shop and had fun shopping and bartering for pearls for keepsakes and gifts.  It is amazing how God uses such a tiny creature to create a remarkably beautiful treasure.  Can you tell if Ali likes pearl shopping?  Poor daddy...

Although we've enjoyed the proximity (next door to our hotel), familiarity, and price ($3 for a full value meal) of McDonalds, our group decided to attempt a dumpling dinner together.  We had a ten minute walk ahead of us, but thankfully our guides decided to join us.  They were invaluable for our ordering process...not sure what we would've gotten otherwise!

We ended up with an appetizer of potatoes that were awesome...thin, long, crispy, buttery French fries (but not fried) is the best way to describe them...they looked liked noodles to us.  We also had an appetizer of small barbecue niblets that went into a tiny tortilla-like roll.  The best part was the dumplings...pork, beef, and egg/chives.  Yummy.  We finished with a special dessert of sweet potato wedges stacked and covered with a carmelized sugar. You had to dip it in water to harden the sugar before you ate it.  Delicious.

We were encouraged in our chop stick skills as we asked our guides the proper way to use chop sticks.  They confessed that their way is incorrect and that each person seemed to use them in their own style.  Brittney is doing really well with chop sticks,  Jonathan occasionally uses them in spear-like fashion, and Alia uses her God-given chop sticks...everything is a finger food to her!  Our restaraunt experience was finished with the staff singing a nice (we think, haha) song to us,  it was a great meal!

We feel like we are back in baby days again with Alia.  Nap time and bed time can be a good solid 30-45 minutes of screaming.  Thankfully her screams have limited volume and are hoarse like.  It is kind of funny when she yells Chinese stuff at us too...we make our own interpretation of what she is saying.  We didn't think to burp her at bedtime (our girls are well past the burping stage, and Alia should be too at 2.5 years), but tonight she just needed a couple good burps.  She made her daddy proud. :)  Although we started our time with Alia with an extreme diarrhea challenge, now we are on the other end of the spectrum: constipation.  Maybe our prayer warriors prayers were too effective, haha.  So now our request is for normal bowel movements...soon.  We appreciate your prayers and miss you all.  We wish we could make it home sooner, but today was the first full day of our TB-test wait.  Five more days until we are flying (like the below origami cranes) home, Lord willing!

A Day of Checkups and Paperwork (Day 11)

Today we experienced an amazing breakfast in Guangzhou.  The ladies especially appreciated the wide assortment that was more Western than in Beijing or Guiyang.  Brittney prefers the donuts that she has craved for a week and a half.  Many of the men still seem to prefer the Chinese assortments.  Jonathan loves rice and dumplings for breakfast.  Alia seems to eat most anything that we put in front of her.  Everyone loves the wonderful juices, fruits, and the massive size of the buffet.  Plus this hotel smells amazing and has incredible fresh flower arrangements.

The best part of this morning's breakfast was seeing three families again for the first time since Beijing, this time with their new children.  It was so wonderful to meet their newest additions and such a joy to see them interact with their new families.

Everyone was kind of in a rush for breakfast though since we had all had a late arrival and we had a group medical checkup for that morning.  We journeyed over across the street from the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou to an office building.  As we walked into the building we encountered a wine bottle dispensing machine...weird.  We headed up to the fifth floor and entered into a room filled with an additional 25 American adoptive families. It was a bit crazy but encouraging to see so many families adopting from China (about 2,500 children are adopted by Americans from China each year, roughly a third of all US international adoptions).

Here is Alia playing peek a boo before her exams...

As we entered the room we all had a photo taken of our child for their medical exam.  We then waited another hour or so until our paperwork was ready for our exams.  We went through a series of four steps, the first being a basic height, weight, and temperature reading.  Alia, at almost 2.5 years old weighed in at a whopping 7.9 kgs (17.5 pounds)...she is tiny and delicate, oftentimes we feel like we are caring for an infant.  After measurements she was seen by an ear, nose, and throat specialist (not sure if a doctor or a nurse) and was passed in about 30 seconds.  Our third stop was a general exam where they did a more thorough exam of her body (think annual checkup).  

Poor Alia's last stop was the same as all kids older than 2 years old...a blood draw to check for tuberculosis.  All parents adopting children older than two have to spend an extra two days in China in order to await test results.  When they took Alia in for the blood draw we were not allowed in which was heartbreaking to hear her screaming before, during and after.  No fun.

Following the medical checkup we headed back to the hotel but one adult member of our group had to head to the hospital out of some personal medical concerns.  Did you know a CAT scan in China is less than $100?  And an MRI is only $150?  Any they are pretty much seen immediately in the ER and given their records to take with them?  Pretty different than the US system, haha.  Despite its low cost and speed, no one wants to go to an overseas hospital if they don't have to.  Thankfully the Lord provided quick and helpful answers and no hospitalization was required for our friend.

One of the neatest parts of being in a larger adoption agency (American World Adoption Association: AWAA, we love them!) is traveling in a group.  It has been so encouraging to see how we pull together as a family.  When one member went to the hospital, several others went with them, and kids changed hands to ensure everyone was free to help.  There is a constant process of looking out for one another and each other's kids on every excursion and while in the hotel too.

We then spent our Saturday afternoon hosting a "paperwork party."  The purpose was to pull the correct documents out of our thick paperwork collections and correctly compile them in order to apply for our child's entry visa to the US.  We only had one sheet of paper to fill out, but the specificity of huge process took a good hour+.  Jonathan was our families paperwork party representative while Brittney stayed with Alia.  Ali took a bit to go to sleep, but then took a great three hour nap!

After the paperwork party, we wandered the hotel to explore.  We found a Starbucks (awesome!) where we got a passion fruit drink that had small bits of jello within, weird but good!  We also found the hotel pool (just looking, no swimming yet) and a little kiddie playroom.  We took Ali into the playroom and were again amazed at her intelligence and determination as she assembled large Lego type blocks into a castle.  We were so proud to see what she accomplished mostly on her own.  We also discovered that she likes slides (but hasn't fully figured them out yet)...boy will she have fun with her sisters!

We finished our hotel exploration by ordering Papa John's pizza (we're roughing it now) and having a hallway pizza party with another AWAA family.  We got a few confused and disapproving stares for our hallway rendezvous, but we enjoyed the fun time eating and sharing together.  Every family has an awesome story of their adoption and it is fun to hear it and to get to know their hearts for God's love.

The best time of the whole day was our late night FaceTime Party.  We called Sophia,  Lydia, and Brittney's parents.  Despite the internet slowness and VPN shut offs we managed to have a great conversation with Sophia and Lydia. We miss them so much :(  It was great to see them and hear how their week was going and to watch them interact with their sister.  We can't wait for them to meet Alia and for us to hold them again. Thanks for your prayers and support, six more days!

A Day of Smiles and Laughs (Day 10)

Today started off with the usual slow wake up.  Alia is not a grumpy morning person, but she stays kind of semi-comatose for the first fifteen minutes of each day.  Shortly after waking up today Alia began to share her smiles and laughs with us.  We thought that her smile was simply a straight faced teeth baring for. That was all we had gotten out of her before, but today we discovered that she has all kinds of smiles!

Children that come directly from orphanages we have noticed tend to be much less expressive the first few days of an adoption, almost stoic.  As time progresses the children begin to show the whole range of emotions...so with the smiles and laughs also comes the screams and meltdowns...at moments we miss the calm, stoic days, haha!

Alia has a devious and sly smile.  She curls up her lips into the biggest smile, baring her beautiful teeth. If you just watched her eyes alone you could see how she smiles  with them too!  Her laugh cracks us up too!  She didn't respond to. Tickling the he first few days but now will laugh hysterically when tickled.  She also loves to laugh when grabbing noses between her ring and pinky finger and when playing peek a boo.  She is a blast (except when hungry or tired...as we type this she is having a meltdown to avoid nap time).  Even how she finishes her meltdowns is funny as she just abruptly stops screaming and started snoring (just happened as I am typing, praise the Lord!)

Today was our last day in Guiyang, Guizhou so we took a final trip to the supermarket.  It was fun to get out of our rooms before being bus and plane trapped.  Their supermarket is a lot like a two story walmart, but includes a much cooler meat section (Jonathan thinks).  Brittney was too grossed out to enter into the meat market portion.  Dinner anyone?

This final day is also when we get back our children's passports.  While batting .800 or getting a 80% grade may be an accomplishment, 4 out of 5 passports does not fly when traveling internationally.  Although we has Alia's passport in hand, one family did not and it was obviously distressing to them.  We all prayed together and waited together on our bus, stopping by the passport office on the way to the airport.  The kids went stir crazy on the bus so we took them on walks back and forth on the street.  No luck. We ran out of time and had to go to the airport without one of the adopted children's passports.  Thankfully we had other paperwork indicating who the child is, so we were able to check in obit hour it.  Just before going through security, the passport was hand-delivered!  God has his perfect timing!  For future adoptive parents, we found out later (because another family from our group in a different province had this happen), you can travel without a child's passport and they end up delivering it to you in Guanzhou.  Not the ideal way, but possible.)

Our first airline trip.  A dreaded day.  A precursor of our impending 14 hour international trip.  How was it?  Short but rough.  Pretty much every kid had a melt down at some point in the trip...misery loves company, haha!  We practiced the art of bribery, distraction, and redirection.   Alia especially enjoyed the introduction of her baby doll finally (she hasn't liked it much untill today) and loved the food service on the plane.  The flight could've been worse but it didn't exactly give us much encouragement about the 14 hour trip (10 times longer than our 1.5 flight today).  In one week we will wake up at 4am and travel on three flights (Guangzhou to Beijing, Beijing to Chicago, and Chicago to Louisville) for 19 hours of total flight time and a 30 hour long day...crazy, right?!? It doesn't help that Alia almost always prefers to be held by Brittney alone now...should be interesting! Lord, please help us!

After a 9:30pm arrival we walk a long, long way to our bus.  You think American airports are big?  We're pretty sure that Beijing and Guangzhou are much, much bigger.  We has a nice bus ride to the hotel and finally got to bed near 11pm.  We are staying at the China Hotel by Marriot which is huge and amazing...hopefully it's amenities will make the next week pass by even quicker!

A Day of Quality Time (Day 9)

A Day of Quality Time  (Day 9)

Today was another great day of quality time together. 

Each night seems to get better with sleep for Alia, and her appetite has begun to increase.  She still has her stubborn two year old moments with eating, but is broadening what she will try to eat.  She has fully recovered from her stomach bug and we are so thankful for better health!  Alia definitely has a stubborn streak, we think that she may have learned that if she threw a big enough tantrum she would get fed.  Her few fits tend to crack us up with her priceless facial expressions and the way she collapses onto the floor for attention.  

She will still go back and forth to daddy but has definitely become more attached to mommy, requiring mommy to stay within sight and to be the primary feeder, etc.  she is so precious in how she blows us both kisses and will wave and say bye-bye or 'xie-xie' (thank you) to others.   Evening her interaction with others, Alia is clearly most comfortable holding on tight to Brittney.  We are so thankful for this precious bonding.

In order to prevent us from going stir crazy, we had a three hour excursion around town.  We started by heading to the city park that is called Qianling Mountain Park.  It is a beautiful lake side setting where many people go walking and exercise.  Different groups performed Tai Chi to include a sword-wielding version, a ballet version, and an American music version.  We also noticed several men playing a one person version of tennis, using a ball that is tied to a long elastic rope.  Jonathan couldn't resist the temptation and asked permission to borrow a racquet and ball and a nice man let him play.  Jonathan also wanted to use the Tai Chi swords but the adoption group didn't entrust him with swinging sharp weapons.

After the lakeside wandering we ventured up to the top of the mountain to see the monkeys.  Not your typical zoo exhibit but rather wild monkeys roaming free.  The guide warned everyone about not feeding them and shared how she had been attacked twice by the monkeys and personally hates them...then she said, 'let's get off bus and see the monkeys.'  Lol.  The American ladies were terrified and corralled their children and themselves.  The American men were ready for a little Planet of the Apes action, but the Chinese simply fed the wild monkeys and kicked the rascally ones.  It was amazing to have monkeys so close.  The mother monkeys were really cute with the babies holding onto their bellies.  When the adoption group was finally surrounded by 100+ monkeys coming out of the woods, the guide and women requested backup and the bus came to the rescue for pickup.

Chinese history and architecture is amazing, and we saw both in an ancient Buddhist temple in the park.  Despite the cultural interest it was saddening to see so many making sacrifices to the demonic and to false gods.  The smoke of their sacrificial incense was overpowering and we prayed that they might come to know the one, true living God who sent His Son Jesus to be the final, perfect sacrifice for sin.

Later in the day we had the joy of hearing the most beautiful sound.  China has a government sponsored, regulated, and controlled Catholic and Protestant (Three Self) church.  Although some of these above ground churches are faithful to the Scriptures, they are rarely so.  In the whole of Guiyang (population 4 million+) there is only one legal above ground Protestant church.  Thankfully the Lord has provided for many believers to courageously meet in their homes despite the government opposition to such gatherings.  Our ears joyfully heard (we couldn't visit for fear of endangering them) them singly Christian hymns boldly and beautifully out the windows of their skyscraper apartment.  May the Lord continue to multiple His disciples in spite of the government opposition.

On adoption day we had the joy of another family joining us.  They are Europeans who choose to live in China to care for orphans.  They have three biological children and have adopted five children from China.  On our group's gotcha day they adopted the sweetest little six year old boy with cerebral palsy (who otherwise would've died without their care).  They are such an amazing couple who provide love, care, rehabilitation, and education for hundreds of orphans.  We toured their school and it was amazing to see how our newly adopted kids thrived in that environment.

Their school freely takes in orphans from foster care and the orphanage by day to provide them a loving and nurturing environment in the midst of their difficult situations.  One of the children adopted in hour group had actually come weekly to this school with his Chinese foster parent.  It is so amazing to see Westerners moving and sacrificing to help these children survive (literally) and thrive.  If you'd like more information on how to support this particular family or another couple amazing foster families in China, please contact me by email (jonathan.l.carl@gmail.com).

The coolest part of this visit to the school was seeing Alia in action.  She absolutely loved it.  She pushed strollers, grocery carts, played with toys, climbed stairs, and bounced on a trampoline.  Our hearts were so encouraged to see her determination to play and keep up with all of the other kids.  She is amazing and inspiring.  We also found a green toy that we had to have her picture on...you see, this pose was almost identical to one of our most favorite pictures of her from a year ago as we waited for her.  How cool it was to be with Alia in a similar environment in China a year later.

Our travels by morning were by a chartered bus, but our afternoon travels were a new experience for most as we traveled by crammed full Chinese public buses.  It was an adventure but as we became the spectacle we also became a platform for a fluent brother to boldly share the Good News!  God is good!  We finished the late night with a pit stop at KFC and went back to rest out weary legs at the hotel.  It was a great day of quality family time together, bonding with our sweet Alia.