Home

Yesssss. We are home. We didn't even have to run through any airports. The jet lag is still rearing its ugly head, but it is a little better every day. The first night home (Thursday), all 4 kids were watching Sponge Bob at midnight -- sort of the epitome of jet lag.

They all did amazingly well on the flights. We did learn, however, that the boy must have dramamine if there is turbulence.

I wish there were some way the American Consulate could let the adoptive families video tape the little speech and oath. It was so nice both times. This time they told us there were 30 families from 21 different states on this particular day, and several families were adopting for the 2nd or 3rd time (mentioned us by name as one of the examples). Some of the parents' professions were listed: law enforcement, naval commander, art director, doctor. The Consulate representative was very charismatic and friendly. He actually spoke quite a bit like my friend Bob Li, for those of you who know him. He said he loved this part of his job, because he loved to process "the cutest immigrant visas."

We had a little pre-Consulate stress when our safe's battery died, causing it to refuse to open. Unfortunately, the girls' passports were in the safe, and there is no entry to the American Consulate without them. The White Swan had two suits and a maintenance man up to our room in 6 minutes. They checked Scott's ID and room key, and then they had us personally empty the safe after they opened it. Lastly, we had to sign a paper agreeing that they had taken nothing from it. Wow.

I'll keep the blog up for a few more days as we settle in.

The American Consulate appointment went well. Jon Wiley will officially be an American once we pass through immigration in Minneapolis. Our bags are packed. Our wake up call is scheduled for 4:30 AM. Ouch. Because of the time zones, we will have the interesting experience of taking off from Tokyo at 3:25 PM and landing in Minneapolis at 12:15 PM. Time travel!

We are all ready to be home. We had our last dinner in China, and JW did some serious clowning around. It was a lot of fun.

I sure wish we could be beamed home, though.

Free Day

Today we did group pictures at 11:30, but we were otherwise free. We had a long, lazy breakfast, then went to the playroom

Breakfast at the White Swan

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About 11:00 we went up to the room so that Mia, JW, and Devyn could change into their group photo clothing. I was sure JW would cry during the photo session, but he was fine.

The little emperor surveys the koi pond.

Family photo




Eiley and JW




Cassie and Devyn

Ready for the group photo!

I am as surprised as you are that he didn't take off the hat.

The kids in our half of the Guangzhou travel group.

After the photos, we strolled around Guangzhou and went to Lucy's for lunch.
We ordered ice cream for dessert, and it was actually good!

Yay! Ice cream!

On the way back to the hotel from Lucy's, we bought the kids the feathered shuttlecock/hackey sack things that are used for Jianzi. Here in Guangzhou and at E Ling park in Chongqing, lots of people are practicing this game.


After lunch we went swimming in the hotel pool, and JW actually got in the baby pool of his own volition. Alert the media.
Following the swim, some of us took naps while others of us watched Myth Busters -- the attack dog one.

Now we are trying to decide what to do for dinner. Noodle bowls from 7 Eleven? Room service? Lucy's? Thai Zen? La Dolce Vita? I think my bathroom scale will go into shock when I get home. But it won't suffer long before being crushed.

Blossoming Boy

Every day I am more impressed with Jon Wiley. What a tough, smart, intrepid little guy.

Yesterday, he and Devyn accidentally crashed into each other in the playroom. His toy nicked her leg. He stopped immediately and came over to her, gently touching her leg, patting her head, and cooing at her. Good. We can check off empathy, a great sign.

Until yesterday, he has tolerated Scott but not much more than that. Every time the hotel delivered a paper under the door, Jon Jon would bring it to Scott and then walk away. We wonder if he simply didn't have much interaction with his foster father. Yesterday he ran up to Scott with outstretched arms, "asking" to be launched into the air and caught. Check off trust of father figure (also recognition of him as safe amusement park ride).

Last night we stayed up a little later than usual, as I went on a mini-medical call to the room of one of our traveling families. When I got back, everyone was amazed that Jon Jon had climbed into his crib himself. He was looking at us like, "People! Have you checked the time?" Check off adaptation of routine and listening to body signals.

He has learned that when he is finished with a wrapper, banana peel, or kleenex, it is not acceptable to throw it on the ground or floor. He will scan for a trash can and whisper "Tash, tash." Check off acquisition of new social norms.




He is really doing so well. He has absorbed the "no hitting" message to the point that his high fives have become a little lame. He understands and speaks more English every day. Several times a day he says something in Mandarin that I don't understand --or maybe it is in Chongqing dialect; he speaks a mixture of the two. His solution to this is to gently hold my face and repeat it veeeery slooooowly, as if maybe my hearing aids aren't turned up all the way or the Chinese part of my brain is broken. I'm so glad I learned a teeny bit of Mandarin over the last 10 months, but what I wouldn't give for a babelfish.

He tolerated his medical exam. It was much more thorough than Devyn's; probably more Hague Convention nonsense. He weighed 11kg with shoes on, and he was 81.5 cm tall. This puts him at just less than the 5th percentile for height and right at 5th percentile for weight, on the American chart.

Guangzhou photos

I like this picture not only for the dapper gentleman but also for the example of the enormous volume which can be carried on a bike.

A fashion photo shoot on the streets of Guangzhou

Lest one forget one is in China.....

A school. Doesn't look all that different from the previous photo.

The awesome neighborhood playground

The neighborhood playground again

The reason for the playground, spelled out in pebbles.






The koi pond at the White Swan

Self-explanatory.

I wonder if they will put the second one just across the street.

I think they are filming a movie or a commercial. I am enamored with the combination of mad scientist's white jacket plus grim reaper's scythe, plus a nail through the head. One or two of those wouldn't convey the full message.

Walking to La Dolce Vita, the Italian restaurant

One of many sculptures in Guangzhou

I'm taking a picture of a sculpture of a guy taking a picture. How clever.

Asleep on take-off

The wing of our plane from Chongqing to Guangzhou

The Air China snack. I wish I had taken a better picture. "Wrapped peanuts, Strange favor bean, and Deep fried legume." They were rather tasty and a touch spicy.

Kelly viewing her memory book of our 2005 group.

Arrival at the White Swan Hotel

How did you get a boy?

My response: it is becoming more common. Really, it is. Look at these pictures.

At the White Swan's koi ponds. Yes, that is my son on the right, being restrained by Eiley.

Waiting for the medical exam: 3 boys (the one on the right is in our travel group)

Cassie's little brother, Christian.

Another boy in our group, being adopted by Americans of Chinese heritage.

At the neighborhood playground.

Ahhhhhh. Guangzhou

I love Guangzhou. I love Shamian Island. I love the White Swan. I think I love it even more this time than in 2005. The East meets West feel of the place. The climate that reminds me of my time at Rice University. The gardens. The little neighborhood around the White Swan with all the sculptures, coffee shops, Thai restaurant, Italian restaurant, "Western" restaurant. The koi ponds and waterfall. The swimming pool copied from a Hawaiian resort, down to the lava rocks and date palms.

We boarded our Air China flight yesterday morning. Boy, that airline has greatly improved. Gone are the tiny, aqua-colored velour seats, replaced with standard airline seats. Gone, also, is the choice of Western breakfast or Chinese breakfast, although I sorta miss that. The reason for the changes is printed on each of the headrest covers: Beijing Olympics 2008. For reasons that I can't fathom, our boarding music was "Santa Baby" and a hip-hop version of "O Come All Ye Faithful." Very surreal. JW fell asleep on take off and did pretty well throughout the flight. He was not in agreement about the need for a seatbelt during landing, however. But Eiley and I prevailed.

Upon arrival in Guangzhou, we claimed our luggage (100% success rate on luggage arrival so far), and went out to meet Kelly Wu. It was so wonderful to see her, and we gave each other a big hug. I made a little book for her with recent pictures of the girls from the 2005 Hunan adoption travel group. She really enjoyed it, and looked through it several times. She was excited to find out that 3 other families from that group are also in the process of adopting from China again. She proclaimed Xiao Yu (Devyn) beautiful, and she gasped when I had Devyn take out her hair clip to reveal her wild, crazy, curly hair. The last time Kelly saw Devyn, she was "the skinny baby with no hair."

We have already delivered 6 bags of laundry to A Home of Love, and received it back 8 hours later, clean, for only 252 yuan. We totally got ripped off in Chongqing. We borrowed a stroller from A Home of Love, also. We have been to Lucy's restaurant. Mia and Devyn got PBJ. Scott got a hamburger. I got grilled chicken breast. Eiley has been eating sweet and sour pork every day for a week, so she branched out and got sweet and sour chicken. That girl cracks me up.

In a few minutes, Eiley and I will take JW for his medical exam and photo, required for his US immigration. Thank goodness we just got in under the April 1st deadline for the new Hague Convention rules. I won't bore you with my diatribe, but let's just say that more Homeland Security regulations are not necessarily beneficial to international adoptees. If we were under Hague guidelines, the medical exam would be more involved and JW would have to receive vaccinations here today. What a great idea that is: vaccinations in China, or Haiti, or Ethiopia, or Vietnam. Brilliant.

Got to go torture the boy now. More later plus pics.

Daily Chinglish

I don't know why the warning signs are my favorite; perhaps it's their earnestness.

Will someone who can read the whole sign (Anne? Tye?) please tell me why xiao is the first word in the second line? Little careful? Little fall/slip?

Daily Chinglish

Correct grammar. Strange syntax.

Ciqi Kou -- Porcelain Village

This morning we took a bus trip to Ciqi Kou, also known as the Porcelain Village. It is a very old village, where the citizens used to craft porcelain dishware and decorative items and then ship them down the Yangtze River to Shanghai. There is an awe-inspiring, 2000 year old Buddhist temple overlooking the village, and we were able to visit it, too. Now JW, Scott, and Devyn are napping while Eiley and Mia do homework. So I have some time to update this and add a bunch of photos.

Jon Wiley is doing better and better every day. He looks to us for permission before he does something. He understands the word "No" and can use it himself when appropriate. He sits in his high chair at breakfast without argument; dinner is still a struggle because he can usually find a big sister willing to hold him. He is actually talking about me when he says "Mama" now, which is nice. He can clearly say "Bye Bye" complete with wave. Now when the groups of people stop and stare at us, he waves at them and says "Bye, bye" really cheerfully. Too bad it doesn't work. When we leave the hotel rooms, he checks to see if any sister is getting left behind, and if so he will go up to her, take her hand, and yell, "Go."

He knows exactly what a nail clipper is. He saw one on our nightstand, brought it to me and then stuck out his index finger for clipping. He loves to have his fingernails and toenails clipped. Really, kid, you hate the bath, but you tolerate nail trimming? What kind of two year old are you? He also just noticed his dirty feet today. I don't know why they haven't bothered him all week, or his whole life for that matter. All that was left of the original grime consisted of some black stuff where his nails meet his cuticles. Honestly, I think it may just have to grow out. He did a lot of fussing and muttering about his toenails, and then, sure enough, brought me the nail clippers and stuck his feet out. One of the pinky toenails is split in half (tight shoes? aggressive kick? ran into furniture?), and the lateral half is just totally black. So I had to delicately clip off as much as possible before he would accept it.

He had another ice cream tantrum at the Porcelain Village today, but it lasted about 1/10th as long and had 1/100th the fury of the original ice cream tantrum. [Before any grandparents get upset, I submit for your approval that we had just bought all the kids some cotton candy -- the craziest cotton candy I've ever seen.] Sophie said, "I think maybe his foster family have little bit spoiled him." My thoughts exactly, Sophie.

Ciqi Kou is one of the few districts where the citizens are not required to have a pet permit. So every shopkeeper had at least one dog and one cat. In most of Chongqing, pet permits are expensive; therefore having a dog is a sign of wealth. Each evening we see people walking dogs near the hotel, and they all seem to be purebreds: huskies, great pyrenees, shelties, pomeranians, etc. etc. The dogs in Ciqi Kou are mutts. All 4 of my children felt compelled to pet every single gou gou and mao mao who crossed our path. Jon Wiley is so excited at the site of them, I'm thinking he will be thrilled to go home to 4 cats, 2 dogs, and a rabbit.

In Ciqi Kou, we saw men hammering out paste for sesame candy, a traditional apothecary, a pretend haunted house ("Hell House" Sophie called it), a beef jerky shop with a salesman out front who was dressed like an ancient emperor. There were shops of every kind, with little residences tucked behind them. To paraphrase Scott, it was like the Renaissance Festival or Silver Dollar City of China....if Silver Dollar City allowed spitting.

We got back to the hotel to see the end of a wedding at the Sichuan restaurant across the street and another at our hotel. Sophie said that Chinese weddings are now very Westernized, including the tux, the white dress, the flower girl, and the ring bearer. However, the engagement pictures are still often in traditional garb, with the bride wearing a red dress.

This is our last night in Chongqing; tomorrow morning we fly to Guangzhou. We did a test run today, letting Jon Wiley ride the bus without dramamine. There was no puking. Hooray! We'll see how he does on the plane. Perhaps he hadn't been in a car before the trip from the orphanage to Chongqing.

This is a Dancing Water Bowl . You wet your hands and rub the handles, making vibrations that eventually build up resonance to make the water jump out of the bowl. Scott and Mia got it on the first try. Devyn got it on the second try. Eiley finally got it after much coaching. I opted out, as a crowd had gathered and the thing clearly had an anti-blond device on it.

Gate at the Buddhist temple. The Buddha statue is to our right, inside, but we were not allowed to take a picture of it.

Mia at the Buddhist temple waterfall.

Lighting incense at the Buddhist temple

Sophie helps Devyn place her incense after lighting.

Sophie and Devyn

The "Many Armed Goddess of Longevity" at the Buddhist temple.

An ancient incense burner.






The "toilets" at the Buddhist temple, which (in the women's) consisted of 4 "stalls" with waist-high stone walls on the sides and open fronts. All along the floor in the stalls ran a communal trough at a slight angle from right to left. You strip from the waist down, squat over the trough, and do your business. No water runs through the channel, so liquid wastes leave and solids wastes....don't. I held Jon Jon over the trough, and Scott held Devyn over the trough in the similarly equipped men's room. He reported that Devyn yelled out, "Dad! Did a bunch of people have diarrhea down there!?!"

Baby octopus on a stick. Perhaps it is the next state fair treat.

The outside of the Haunted House (Hell House)

Buddhist temple steps.

Buddhist temple.

Three gargoyles.

Beef jerky salesman, made up to look like ancient emperor

Making a huge batch of sticky rice, with a wooden paddle and a stone urn

Gourds R Us

Crazy cotton candy. Why in the world don't we have this stuff in the U.S? It's really cool!
The little plates below show the different sizes available to order.

Pig blood jelly (the brown squares) with chicken innards (the yellow floaties). We declined.

Coffee or tea? A coffee shop in Ciqi Kou.

Scott and Devyn bought a fan.

Cleaning fish on the curb. Why not? Keeps the smelly juice out of her house.

This statue is of a Communist spy who was disguised as a "Stick Man," a porter who delivers items for people by hanging them in baskets from a long stick balanced on his shoulders.

Pounding taffy for Sesame Candy.

Peek a boo on the bus

A wedding car.

A vegetable carver at Ciqi Kou

The fan seller at Ciqi Kou

Eiley and Jon wiley on the steps in Ciqi Kou.

Chongqing

A cruise ship on the Jia Ling River.

Mia is really hoping Jon Wiley does okay without dramamine.

These houses will be demolished to build high rise apartments, but people are still living in them right now. Somehow.

The most expensive housing in Chongqing. Four villas on the top of Purple Mountain, with private pools, large yards, and 360 degree views of the Yangtze and Jia Ling Rivers.
They are 1 million US dollars each.

Sleepy men.

Just take those old records off the shelf....... (movie reference).

The hotel kleenex cozy and the adoption memory book really are covered in the same material.

Our official adoption photo.