Trip to China
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008 SHE SLEEPS!!!! YaYa (yes, it's going to stick) passed out just before us and slept through the night. The only people not sleeping through the night were us (because I snore and April makes me stop, so we're both awake). Not only did she sleep through the night, but she just kept on sleeping. It's a little slice of Heaven after being up every night, all night, with Keaton. Today is the day the adoption became official. We had to go back to the adoption registry to get family pictures, and be interviewed a couple times. From this, the adoption would be final in China's eyes, as it results in certified copies of the vital records (birth certificates and other adoption records). The interviews were interesting - we walked into one room and sat down with a lady who asked us a series of questions no longer than one sheet. The questions were very basic like names, birthdates, number of bio-kids, etc. Then there was a brief narrative about why we chose to adopt. We also had to promise never to abandon her or prejudice against her (Yeah, AS IF). Then we had to commit that all these statements were true. The interview took all of 2-3 minutes. After that we waited a brief period and went into another room to do another interview. We're thinking "what could this be about"? Turns out it was familiar territory as we had just done the EXACT same interview. Government efficiency at its finest. The questions will be very familiar to you because by now you will have answered them 5 or 6 times (they correspond with the Adoptive Parent Information Letter). Ah well, we didn't care much because the kids were having fun playing and running around. Once these tasks were done, there was a round of applause from everybody because the kids were legally ours in China's eyes. We just have to make it legal in the US now. That means we get her passport tomorrow from the local police office, and then start the US visa proceedings on Saturday (today is Tuesday in China BTW). We have a few down days over the next week in which Holt has planned some outings like the Jade market, a porcelain factory, shopping, etc. On Sunday, we're going to take a tour of our own to a mountain region near here. The White Swan is great. There is an extraordinary amount of choices for breakfast and we tend to load up on it so we can eat a very light lunch and save some moolah. Lunch usually consists of a protein bar. Also, before coming here you hear a lot about the accomodations - hard beds, hot rooms, etc. Well, like I said before, the beds ARE hard (and seems like they're getting harder), but the rooms are ice cold (I'm freezing while sitting here writing). They're a welcome respite after walking the steamy city streets. You can roam the halls of the hotel for hours and not get bored. There's a museum section on the first floor with carved ivories and jades. There's lot's of woodwork and of course, terra cotta soldiers. Dad and I were laughing that we should be allowed to create our own poses for the terra cotta soldiers and have them made up ourselves. Okay bad idea. Then you come across the embroidery. This isn't your grandma's embroidery. At first they look like paintings, but upon closer inspection, they're actually embroidered, with seemingly microscopic fibers. In short, everything has more detail than you think is actually possible. You can even buy this stuff for relatively good prices - and then pay the difference to ship it across the ocean. Although she eats like a horse, YaYa doesn't seem to be taking to the bottle well and we're a little concerned about her getting dehydrated. No doubt we're just not brewing up the formula the way the orphanage did, so we're trying different things. The most we can get her to take is about 5 oz. We let her drink water or juice out of a cup too to try and supplement it. I'm sure we'll get it right sooner or later. She also came with a bit of a cold but after April's attentive nursing with homeopathic remedies, she seems to be snapping out of that. She'd had a couple boils on the back of her head and a few mosquito bites. The boils are gone, but it left some missing hair. We're hoping it will grow back soon. At least there were only a few mosquito bites. Some of the kids came with them all over their legs and arms. Her scar from her heart surgery is pretty severe and it's the length of her chest. Frankly, we're lucky to have her. Apparently her nanny was really concerned for her life during her recovery. All this stuff is really normal as we've come to understand. She took almost a 3 hour nap and then we went for a swim. I don't think she's ever seen a pool. Like everything else though, she was just fearless and seemed to enjoy it. She wasn't crazy about the waterfall but she loved hangin' out with us guys. It helps that the pool temp is like bath water. For dinner we went to the Cow and Bridge Thai restaurant on Shamian Island. "Only this one. There is not branch definitely.", so it says on the menu. Oh yes, we are having a grand time getting pictures of signs with attempted translations in to English. The menu was like Cheesecake Factory, in length that is. The choices were decidedly not like Cheesecake Factory. I settled on a mussaman curry (which they spelled "marsman" curry), Preston got squid, Ava got eggs, and everyone else got Chicken Satay and fried rice. It was a tough choice between the curry, the fried goose hands, or the sliced pig ears, but in the end the curry won. The chicken in the rest of the entrees was great. In mine however, I think they just chopped the whole chicken and threw it in there indiscriminately because there were definitely bones and gristle. Everything else was fantastic and Tsing Tao is always a welcome beverage.

We got outta there for about RMB300, which was like a US $52 dinner. (RMB and the "Y" symbol for Yuan are used interchangeably) The night before we'd eaten in the restaurant at the White Swan for about $113 US and it was nothing to write home about. Breakfast at White Swan good, dinner at White Swan not so good. We are DEFINITELY getting a lazy susan when we get home though. This family style eating is where it's at. YaYa was actually very mellow and placid all day. You can tell by the way she plays with her stacking cups and other objects that she's a pretty smart cookie. She's very observant, always looking around at her surroundings. After swimming and dinner, we stopped in to check out the play room in the hotel. Mattel has donated a bunch of toys and constructed a wonderful playroom on the 1st floor of the White Swan. The carpet is so plush that I laid down on it and was snoring in about a minute. Preston and YaYa played with some blocks and Soren was doing his best to be stuntman with a big rubber ball and a pile of huge stuffed animals. When we first walked in there was another gal there with her new daughter. Turns out she's from Colorado Springs too, living down near Garden of the Gods. Made a hometown connection in the middle of China! After the playroom we went back to our rooms. We dressed her for bed and got the room all cozy and quiet. April laid her down in her crib with her bottle and she managed to drink a little. I stood by and stroked her hair just a little bit and before 5 minutes passed, she was fast asleep. April brought along a white noise machine that she uses for herself at home. She also has to have some soft muzak in order to get to sleep. YaYa takes to that perfectly. It was said in her baby book they gave us that she goes to sleep to all kinds of white noise. As you can imagine in an orphanage, there is always noise in the background. We've been able to successfully replicate that. That ends today's report. As soon as I can get all my other pictures posted I'll add a link. My Dad and I have each shot about 2000 frames of our experiences and have taken several videos.

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