Day 7 - Green Hill Park

Caitlin only woke up once last night for a bottle and went right back to sleep - next to Daddy :) For the 4th day in a row, it's been foggy and misty.  The temperatures aren't quite what we had hoped for.  Last week it was in the 80's, but this week a cold front has blown in!!  Lucky us!  That hasn't stopped us from seeing a few sites. Today Belinda took us to Green Hill Park which is the largest in Nanning.  It is so lush an beautiful here, I'm sure with a little sun peeking through it is gorgeous here year round!  Our first stop in the park was on the top of the mountain at a Buddhist Temple.  We were only allowed to take photos outside the buildings, so we only have a few.  There was a Buddhist ceremony in honor of one of the gods' birthdays while we were there.  Their chanting was beautiful to listen to as it could be heard throughout the complex.  This chanting seemed to be familiar to Caitlin as she was mesmerized by the sound.

Belinda (back of her) Dad and Fred checking out an incense  burner outside the main gate.  People purchase the incense sticks and light them, sending their prayers to the Buddhist gods.  There were all different size sticks, the bigger the stick the more the gods will hear your prayers and watch down on you. 

View inside the incense cauldron.

Maze of flowers in Green Hill Park.

Belinda explained to us that " The flowers represent the beautiful woman and yellow represents the bull s&*# man". Okay?!

Caitlin was starting to get fussy, so we left the park early to get her back to the hotel for some lunch and her nap.  After her nap we had some family play time in our room and she really started to open up and enjoy playing with Zachary and Noah.

Our cutie!

Still not giving smiles away easily.

I think she might be a Star Wars fan in the making!  Zachary and Uncle Nathan will be excited for her to join their club!

Playing in the room in the afternoon.  She loves her little purse!

Quite the little snacker - a girl after my own heart!

Playing with gege.

Caitlin is not eating her congee (contrary to what her paperwork says!!) or anything from a spoon for that matter.  (We even tried oatmeal and rice cereal - but to no avail!)  She has however taken a liking to Cheerios, puffs, freezed dried strawberries and bananas, yogurt puffs, crackers and gold fish.  Thank goodness she's eating something.  I decided that we weren't up to eating dinner at the Shen Zhou restaurant on the lower level, but I would get some stuff and bring it back to the room.  So Dad and I wandered down to the restaurant while Zachary got some more QT with Nana and Grandma.  While we were waiting for our food, out of nowhere Caitlin wanted to get down and raced all around the room holding my hand!  What a relief for my back!!!!  She was having a great time with her new found freedom!  Even after the food was ready we continued making laps around the lower lobby and then moved our way up the stairs to the main lobby for a few laps.  At one point, Dad reach over and grabbed her little hand and she accepted it!!  So sweet!  There were a few times she lost her grip but would look up and reach out for his hand again.  She is like her cousin Ivy, favoring the men!  GO girl!  :)

We finally made it back up to Nana and Granpa's room (after the scary ride in the elevator - she hates being in small confined spaces!) for some dinner.  She CHOWED!!!!  She had fried rice with peas, fried dumplings and watermelon.  She couldn't get the food in her mouth fast enough!!  The heck with the congee - give me some real food!  

Later that night we all went back down to the lobby to watch her walk around (and around and around).  Zachary grabbed her hand at one point and then that was it; she loved walking with her gege and only wanted to walk with him!!!   She was smiling and laughing! What a beautiful moment!  They were having a great time until she saw someone that reminded her of her mama, then the crying started again.  

My heart feels her pain and I want so much to take it away, but I know only time can heal her pain.  I know too that we need to be strong and push through the rough times (and I have faith we will make it through - but please pray for our family - especially Caitlin), but we can't help be mad at what they have put her through by not removing her from her foster home earlier to ease the transition in to her new family - why would anyone think this would be good for her?!  Why?!  As well, there really is no support from the different adoption entities to help us navigate through this emotionally unchartered water.  It is frustrating to watch three other families here in our hotel with their children, whose children seem to be adjusting well. Unfortunately, not one family is from the US or speaks english so we feel isolated.  At least when we get to Guangzhou, we will be with 10 other families from our agency that we can compare stories and draw upon their experience.  

I have counted and there are 175 steps up and down our hallway (multiply that by 35-40 time and we've got some serious miles clocked!) - we know it all too well!! There really needs to be another way to get her to sleep at night!!!  (We weighed her today and she is 9.8 kg or but if you ask my back - she weighs a ton!  She's one solid and tough little girl!)  After she finally fell asleep, we put her in the crib for the first time - success!  She didn't wake up during the transfer.  Meanwhile we read bedtime stories to Zachary sitting on the floor in the foyer of our room so we would not wake her up.  

Baby steps...I know!  

 

Day 6 -- It's Official - she's finally our daughter legally!!!

Caitlin slept through until about 7:00 am which was great!  Noah, Caitlin and I went with Belinda to the notary's office and registrar's office to finalize the local adoption portion of this process. Unfortunately the registrar's office was in the same building as yesterday, when we had our "Gotcha Day".  So needless to say this made Caitlin very upset - and her search for mama continued.

Waiting for our turn to be called in to fill out the paperwork.

We each took turns signing and thumb printing (in red ink) our signatures on all the paperwork.  The orphanage gave us a small gift which included a silver child's bracelet with the name of the orphanage on the outside and her Chinese name on the inside.  As well they were kind enough to to give us a cd with pictures of Caitlin on it.  (Can't wait to see them!)

It's official!  Here we are with the director of the orphanage after our paperwork has been completed.

Daddy's little girl!!  :)

The garden at the Chinese Welfare Lottery building.

Passed out from a combination of all the crying and fresh air.

Once we got back to the hotel, we picked up the rest of the crew and headed to Wal-Mart (Mom's been waiting for this!) for some supplies. Unfortunately I do not have a photo our camera so I will have to get it from Mom's to download it to the site!  We picked up two pizzas from Pizza Hut and took them back to the hotel for lunch.  While we were waiting for the pizzas, Grandpa W., Zachary, Caitlin an I went for a walk around the mall.  Grandpa bought a remote control car for Zachary, which both he and Caitlin enjoyed watching/playing with in the mall.

Caitlin fell asleep in my arms while walking the halls (it's been rainy and overcast all week) only to wake up as I tried to lay her down.  So, back to the hall we went and she fell back asleep.  This time I sat in the chair and let her sleep on my chest.  Noah was exhausted from last night so he napped too.  After she woke up I got her something to eat and we went with Nana and Granpa for a walk around the park at the South Lake (which is where our hotel is). She fell back asleep on our walk which was nice because she needed it, but I found out the hard way that Baby Bjorn's are not meant for bigger kids and she's not exactly a peanut!!  But it was recommended that we use this for bonding purposes.  

When we got back, I got her something to eat and then Zachary and Caitlin stayed in the room with Noah while the rest of us went down to Zhen Food Street Restaurant on the lower level of our hotel to grab some dinner.  When I returned, there were cheerios and puffs all over the floor (such fun throwing them and stepping on them!) and everyone was having a great time!  Zachary and Caitlin were playing together and she was smiling!!!  Zachary would drive his new car in the room and Caitlin would go pick it up and bring it back to him to so he could do it again!  (She's better at fetch than Otis!)  Zachary is so happy that she finally wants to play with him!  I almost cried when I saw her bend over and give him a kiss!  It warms my heart to see such brotherly and sisterly love growing before my eyes!!!

All tuckered out!  We can't wait to play some more tomorrow! 

Day 5 -- Gotcha Day!!

First of all, I'm sorry it took so long to post, but these past two days have been crazy and heart wrenching as I'm sure you can imagine.  So our local guide, Belinda and the van driver picked us up at 2:30 pm and we headed to the China Welfare Lottery building to meet Caitlin!  By this point the butterflies in my stomach were going crazy!  Now our agency had warned us that this moment would not be like that of a fairy tale where our daughter would come running to us with open arms calling "Mommy", "Daddy"!  After all, we have been waiting and anticipating this moment for over 2-1/2 years now, but she doesn't have a clue as to what's about to happen!

The gang in the China Welfare Lottery building on our way to meet Caitlin!!  (She's only 4 floors up!!)

We are taken up to Reception Room 1 on the fourth floor to wait for Caitlin to be brought to us. We have given each person their assignments - Fred's on video, Mom and Chloette are on cameras and Dad is in charge of helping out with Zachary.  We're ready, now bring her to us already!!  As we wait, we watch as the different orphanage nannies and directors bring child after child in to be adopted.  We must have seen at least 15-20 children (ages 9 months to 4 or 5) herded down the hallway, and I could not help but tear up.  These children are going to have the world they know turned upside down within a matter of minutes.  I know they will all have loving and caring families but that doesn't make it easier as I watch them go by.

Caitlin is the first child to be brought into our room!  As we are watching out the door, I see Belinda walk in followed by two nannies from the orphanage.  One has to match our travel approval letter with her records and the other has Caitlin in her arms!!  She is dressed in a blue and white snow suit of sorts - she reminds us of Ralphie's brother on the Christmas Story with her arms sticking out to the side - unable to move them.  The nanny places Caitlin in my arms and my heart melts - our family is now complete!  She begins to cry immediately, trying to push herself out of my arms.  Who are these strangers?  After a few minutes, Noah holds her but still she continues to cry.

Caitlin in Daddy's arms for the first time.

As you can see from this photo, Zachary is so excited to finally meet his mei mei (little sister) and tries to make her smile.  He's going to be an amazing big brother!

After a few minutes, we are moved across the hall into the Ceremonial Room to bond with our children.  It is here that Belinda speaks with the nanny from Caitlin's orphanage and told to us that Caitlin was removed from her foster family THIS MORNING and brought here on a 2 1/2 hour train ride to meet us.  I can't believe they did that to her!!!  It's horrible!!  We were told that they normally remove the child from the foster family 1-2 weeks prior to the adoptive parent's arrival, easing the transition period.  Caitlin had lived with this foster family since March 3, 2008 - a whole year, so obviously that's all she knew and there was a strong bond between them.  Belinda also tells us that Shi Lan (pronounced Shu Lan- her given Chinese name) likes to be outside and suggests that we take her out to the garden to try and soothe her.

Caitlin and Daddy heading out to the garden to walk around.  The panda that she is holding was in the care package we sent to her for her birthday.   The photo album we sent to her so she could start recognizing members of our family was returned with and additional two photos.  They were of Caitlin by herself smiling and one of her with her foster family.

Our family walking through the garden trying to calm Caitlin down.  Unfortunately nothing is comforting to her, she continues to call out for her "mama".

After many laps up and down the hallway, Caitlin finally crashes and Zachary takes this opportunity to give Caitlin a hug from her ge ge (big brother).  Zachary has tried so many times today to give her a big hug but she just screams and pushes him away.  He just wants to show her that he loves her!

Our adoption agency also prepared us for the fact that it is normal for a child to bond more quickly with one parent than the other.  In time she will open up and bond with the second parent.  Honestly, I thought I would be crushed if that initial bond was not with me, after all, I am her mommy.  But after seeing how upset she was those feelings went out the window. Noah is an amazing father, and Caitlin responded to his gentle soothing ways and I was truly happy they were beginning to bond.  She is definitely Daddy's Little Girl!  :)

Whenever she sees/hears a Chinese man or woman she screams out "Mama" as if she is trying to find her.  This cry breaks my heart, to think we have caused her any pain.  I know in my heart that we will give her the best life we possibly can and that her foster family was never going to adopt her, but just seeing the pain and hearing her desperate cries makes me sad.  She does not like being inside our room because she can not search for her mama in here, so we are constantly walking the halls trying to calm her down and show her that her mama isn't out there but "wu shi mama" (I'm your mama) or "Je shi mama" (she's your mama).  Hearing this only sets her off screaming again.  

Zachary is having an especially hard time with everything.  He has come to me feeling sad or I have found him crying on the bed several times today.  He keeps wondering "Why doesn't Caitlin's mommy want her?" and asking "Why can't she just see her mama once more?  She keeps calling out to her."  I hold him tight and try to hold back the tears as I try to be as honest and explain the best I can.  He had seen a photo of her foster family in the photo album and wonders why they don't keep her.  Such a difficult concept to grasp, even for me.

It's bedtime and Noah is out in the hall doing laps, when she makes it clear that she wants to see what's inside that door.  (Nana  & Granpa's room).  So Noah and Caitlin wander in and check out what's out side etc. while the rest of us all gather in the hall to watch through the doorway.  Nana smiles and waves to Caitlin and out of nowhere she shows us a huge smile!!  It's the most beautiful site I've seen here in China!!!  So everyone begins to wave and smile and she continues to flash those pearly whites at us!  But soon the moment passes and she is crying again.  Noah is able to calm her back down, give her a bottle and get her to fall asleep on Nana's bed.  Noah stays with her all night while I stay with Zachary and comfort him. 

I have faith that things will continue to get better each day.  We love you Caitlin!! 

Day 4 -- Travel Day to Nanning

Well, today's the day we head south to Caitlin's Autonomous Region!! (Guangxi is not considered a province)  The whole group of adoptive families boarded the bus at 10:30 and headed to the airport at the same time.  Our flight was not until 2:10 pm so we had some time to hang out and relax.  While walking through airport, Zachary was a celebrity - a woman stopped by as we waited and asked to take a picture of her daughter with Zachary.  So I figured what the heck, I might as well take one too!  :)  

When we landed in Nanning, our local guide, Belinda met us at the airport with a sign reading "Wenzel Family".  We ended up having two vans - one for us and one for our luggage.  Belinda is a really sweet girl and gave us some history of the area as we drove 55 minutes to our hotel. Nanning has a couple names: the Green City and City on the Motorcycle.  Apparently, since the city isn't large like Beijing or Guangzhou the main mode of transportation in this city is by motorcycle.  Even though the day was gray and rainy, the vegetation is amazingly beautiful!  So green and lush compared to the brown and dismal coloring of Beijing.  The are flowers, palm trees flowering bushes and much more!! 

When we got to our hotel room, they wheeled Caitlin's crib in and set it up for us!!  It's starting to sink in - but not completely yet.  Tomorrow is the day!!  We headed down to the Chinese restaurant in the hotel and struggled a little with ordering until the waitress happened to find another guide, Hannah who could help translate for us.  Thank goodness!!  She also recommended some dishes for us to try and dinner was delicious!!!  Unfortunately Zach missed out - he passed out on Grandma's lap at the dinner table.  Quote of the day by my Dad: "I've eaten more Chinese food in the last 3 days than I have in my whole life."

Zachary has his own site if you haven't checked it out, look for it on the right side of my blog. It's called herecomeslegomen.  He has Anakin and R2D2 travelinf with him on this journey.  He has since added this new traveling friend - Jing Jing (one of the Olympic Mascots).

Chloette made a new friend too - Candy.

Granpa, Zachary and Nana waiting to check in at the Beijing airport .

The Chinese are fascinated with us Americans, especially little children, constantly touching and rubbing their heads and asking to take photos with them/us.  (The paprazzi got some shots with Noah in the stadium yesterday!)

Zachary "helping" Grandma with the luggage cart!

Tool Booth in Nanning - why aren't our tolls booths this elaborate?

A person's day would start so much cheerier if this was the toll booth on the Powhite! :)

Our room - with the crib!!!  It's really happening!

Here's Caitlin's crib - to be filled TOMORROW!!!

Jade Family Generational Balls

Climbing the Great Wall (Zachary is in the Orange sweatshirt)

I think I can, I think I can...

I did it!!

We all did it!!  (Zachary's giving Noah bunny ears)

Applying copper strips on the Cloisonne Vase.

Blue powder applied to certain areas as per the design.

A birthday celebrating for Joseph at the Friendship Store / Cloisonne Shop 

The gang at lunch!  Yum!!

Noah hanging with a Terra Cotta Soldiers - you're SO tall Noah

Day 3 - Jade Factory, Great Wall, Cloisonne Factory, Olympic Stadium, Acrobatic Show

Believe it or not, we had to wake Zachary up this morning - he slept all the way through from the bus ride back to the hotel last night!!  Mr. Zhou had yet another incredible day of site-seeing planned for us today!!  Once again we had a 9:00 am departure time for the bus.  We headed north of the city to a Jade Factory to learn how to determine the quality of jade and see how they carve such incredibly beautiful pieces. One particular piece that they spoke about and specialize in making called the Family Generational Ball.  The ball begins as a solid piece of Jade and is carved into several intricate free floating interior balls, one inside one another. They said that some pieces take a lifetime to create due to the level of detail.  We purchased a small ball which had a dragon and a phoenix carved on the outside layer. 

Next it was on to the most anticipated event of our site-seeing tours - The Great Wall of China!!   We went to a town called Badaling which is where many tourists go to climb the Great Wall.  Since it was in the mountains and the temperatures were pretty chilly, we all bundled up (except me - it wasn't until I got to Badaling that I realized my jacket didn't make the trip!! Ugh!), strapped on every camera we owned and headed in the direction Mr. Zhou suggested.  There were two options from this location - one which was an "hour" loop and the "all-day" loop and since we were on a strict time schedule, the group all headed out on the "hour" loop.  We spent the first 15 minutes taking photos of all of us at the starting point of our big hike.  Once we finally got started, we had to go down three sets of extremely steep steps - two sets of which were in a dark tower stairwells. The stair treads had been worn away over the years due to the weather and high foot traffic, which makes for unsteady footing.  The stair riser heights were in no way standardized, it went anywhere from 1-4 brick widths high.  This definitely made the climb both mentally and physically strenuous, as you always had to be aware of changes in the heights.  There was no rhyme or reason to the heights, except the wall simply follows the terrain.  After the first set of steep stairs UP, Mom and Chloette decided to turn back and wait for us at the end.  There was no stopping Zachary though - he was on a mission to complete the loop!!  I have to say I was incredibly proud of him for hiking and climbing the whole thing!  He was actually running and trying to beat Daddy up each set of steps or sloped sections.  Granpa N. and Grandpa W. toughed it out and conquered the Great Wall with us!  Noah and I were trying to keep up with Zachary and photograph and video every step he took :)  Once we reached the top of the last section, we waited for the g-pa's to catch up so we could get another photo (imagine that!! ;)) and then descend together.  I'm so glad we were able to experience this together!  Once we made it down to the bottom, we met up with Nana and Grandma.  We really need to work on their sign reading abilities, okay so maybe you can't read the Chinese characters but a 2-foot sign with an outline of a man means "men's room"  :)  This definitely got a chuckle out of the locals as these two peas in a pods came rushing back out giggling and into the entrance with the 2-foot sign with the woman on it.  

Next stop, the Cloisonne Factory.  For those of you who don't know what this is, let me give you the 10 cent summary... Basically they craftsmen/women make vases or other objects out of copper, then a design is etched onto the piece, from here women tediously adhere thin strips of copper perpendicular to the vase following each line of the design, inside the copper strips several layers of a colored powdered material (like powdered paint) are infilled in between each piece of copper, then it is fired, gilded, buffed and polished.  We weren't allowed to shop until after we eat because we were behind schedule!  (I can't imagine wrangling 33 people and keeping them on schedule, but Mr. Zhou does a great job!)  

Lunch was fantastic.  We tried ox tail soup, garlic sprouts, fish (served complete with head, tail and lots of bones - but it was delicious!), sauteed green beans, dumplings, sticky rice, breaded chicken strips (and a few other dishes I can't recall right now) and french fries for the kids.  Zachary is definitely getting his fill of carbs on this trip.

On to the Olympic Stadium - the Bird's Nest.  This structure is amazing!!  Being the architecture geek that I am, I took many photos of the construction details - I could help my self!  I couldn't imagine designing this structure - it looked impressive on tv last summer, but it doesn't compare to seeing it in person.  We were able to walk inside and down onto the track and infield area.  Zachary even got his picture taken with Jing Jing, the panda mascot at the 2008 Olympics (there were five different mascots in total- one for each color of the rings).  The Cube was right next door but we weren't able to tour it. 

Finally our last stop of the day was an Acrobatic Show.  It's unbelievable (and a little disturbing) how these kids can contort their bodies!  Throughout the show there was a variety of Chinese music being played - at one point Noah leaned over to me and said "think we can get the soundtrack?"  It was all I could do not to crack up!

Back to the hotel for a little snack then off to bed.  I had passed out cold as Noah was downloading the day's photos, that is until I heard Noah yell at the computer - we lost our photos from our camera. Luckily we we had photos on Joy's little camera, our video camera, Nana's camera, Grandma's camera and Grandpa's camera as back ups!  None the less, it was still frustrating to loose those shots!!!  

Travel day tomorrow!  We're headed to Nanning which is the major city in the Guangxi Region.  Only TWO more days!!!!!!