Day 5: Gotcha Day!

The girls woke up very excited about the prospect of meeting Xiao Yu today.  The parents, on the other hand, had butterflies in their stomach.

Emily packed a goody bag for Xiao Yu.  It had yummy snacks, some toys, and other treats.  

 At 9:30am, we were on our way to meet our group in the hotel lobby.

 We took a bus to the Civil Affairs office where all the babies and children would be brought to their adoptive parents.

It is a rather nondescript building, especially given the importance of what goes on inside.

We entered a not-too-big room, where we all played the waiting game.  Sometimes the children are there when the parents arrive, and sometimes the parents have to wait, and wait...and wait...  Our group stood around and chatted nervously.  Although none of us knew each other before this trip, going through this together can be quite a bonding experience.  There were also families from other adoption agencies there.

Babies began to arrive, one by one.  Without warning, they would be escorted in by an orphanage employee and then the baby's name would be shouted out, and then the parents would come over.  There was a lot of crying and tears, both from the babies as well as parents overcome with emotion.  After about 1/2 an hour, our turn came and there he was standing in front of us.  We instantly recognized him...he looked just like his baby picture--the first one we saw of him when we got his file from the adoption agency.

We tried to take it slow and let him approach us.  But we were blocking the doorway and so Emily picked him up.  And the poor guy started crying.  He was scared.

And then we found out that the way to this boy's heart is through his stomach.  We offered his these little sweet snacks (which all kids love, the local guide told us) and that seemed to calm him down.

Eliana was at times quite overcome with emotions.  We think she had been anticipating this day almost as much as us and didn't know how to sort out all the feelings swirling inside of her.

Eliana wanted to hold him; the mother hen in her was starting to kick in.

Then Elvin started playing peek-a-boo with him, and that's when we saw his smile for the first time.  He has huge dimples!

The sweet snack things ran out (i.e. got spilled on the ground).  Also Gabriel ate up all the yogurt melts we bought for Xiao Yu (shades of things to come) so we were down to lollipops.  We don't believe he had ever had one, judging from how the thing sort of perplexed him.

But he eventually got the gist of it.  He is a quick study when it comes to food.  And he is definitely a biter and chewer, not a sucker.

We then had to sign more paperwork.  Not sure for what.

And we had to take a mandatory posed picture on a pair of hot pink leather chairs.

 And then we hung out some more...

FINALLY, it was time to head back to the hotel.  We had been there for 2 hours but it felt like 12.  So much happened in such a short span of time.  About 20 couples became parents, some for the first time.

After the bus started moving, Xiao Yu turned to look out the window.  Then he started yelling, "Yeh-yeh!" over and over.  This means "grandpa" in Chinese.  We found out that in his foster family, an older couple were his primary care takers.  He was calling out to his grandpa.  This reminded us of the sadness that must have been going on in his heart, as well as with his foster family, who have raised him since he was 9 months old--for more than one year.  They must have said their last goodbye to him this morning.  We have pictures of them but don't know who they are.  We hope to track them down and connect with them.

He fell asleep in Mommy's arms.  It was his nap time and also a tiring day for him.

Back at the hotel, we mixed up a bottle of formula for him.  He drank some but didn't seem to be a big fan.

Then we went to a restaurant for lunch.  While waiting for the food, Gabriel used his chopsticks as drumsticks and actually broke one.  Ooops!

When the food came, we found out that this boy can eat.  Emily was not feeding him his noodles quickly enough, so Xiao Yu took matters into his own hands.

Then it was Elvin's turn.  The boy drank rice porridge like there was no tomorrow.

Xiao Yu has a playful and cheerful personality.  He likes to have fun and does things to make you laugh.

Back at the hotel room, we chilled out for a bit.  We noticed that he seemed a little warm, so we took his temperature and it turned out that he had a fever.  After talking to our guide, we found out from the orphanage director that he had been sick 4 days ago, but that by yesterday, the fever was gone.  So it has come back and we hope that he gets better soon.  Fortunately for us, he thinks that infant tylenol is very tasty and does not mind sucking it down.

At 3pm, Emily had to go to a meeting to prepare more paperwork.  So Erica took the girls swimming.

And Elvin gave Xiao Yu took his first bath with us.  At first he didn't want to go in, but we decided that he had to because an informational sheet about him said that he took a bath only once every two weeks.  And so he was pretty stinky.  Once he got in, he ended up liking it.  We think maybe he doesn't like the idea of baths because they may only have been giving him cold baths at his foster home.

Elvin started peeling apples for the kids to eat and Xiao Yu started helping himself to them.  Once again...eating.  When sitting, he likes to cross his ankles.

Xiao Yu and Gabriel competed for apples.

At about 4:30pm, Elvin and Xiao Yu met up with Emily to finish the paperwork.  This document had a picture of Xiao Yu from when he was a baby.

 He put his hand print onto the document.

 And there it is!

Now it was dinner time and by then, we knew he liked rice and noodles.  He also ate steamed buns.  And pork.  And polished off some watermelon slices.  He ate for about one hour straight before he stopped.

Then it was pajama time!  Gabey showed Xiao Yu how to brush his teeth.

And as far as putting him to sleep--we didn't actually know how to do it!  Elvin tried rocking and bouncing him like we've done with our other kids, but that didn't make him sleepy at all.  He is probably not used to that.  Also, we noticed that he doesn't like to be put down on his back; we think maybe this is because that is how he is put to bed--laid on his crib and left to cry it out.  We didn't want to go that route, so Elvin lay with him on our bed and after rolling around for a while, he eventually settled down and drifted off to sleep without a peep.

And so ended our very first day with Xiao Yu.  In the end, many of our fears about Xiao Yu being hysterical did not materialize.  We thank all of our friends and family that have been praying for us throughout this process.  Although we are sure that there is a lot of confusion in his heart, overall, our little boy is adjusting well to us, our family, and all these changes.  We are now, officially, a family of six!

Day 4: Travel to Zhengzhou

Zhengzhou is the capital city of the Henan province and where Xiao Yu lives.  It is about 400 miles southwest of Beijing.

We ate breakfast quickly and left the hotel for the train station at 7am.  The taxi drove by Tiananmen Square.  So we got to see that really quickly...

At the train station, we put our bags through security.  We're not sure what they are checking for because our bags have knives such as a Swiss Army Knife.  We also went through metal detectors but Elvin had his phone and camera on him...and they let him through.

The train is one of the main modes of transportation in China and the train station is huge and chock full of people.  Here is the "gate" area before boarding, to use an airport term.

The bullet train was really nice, with plenty of leg room.

Traveling at 180 mph, we got to our destination in 2.5 hours.  It was a great ride.  Eliana was apprehensive about getting motion sickness again, but realized that although the seats looked like airplane seats, the ride was very smooth and totally different.

At the hotel, we checked in...here is the hotel lobby.

And here is the outside of the hotel.  We are off to grab lunch!

After lunch, we met up with our group to make a trip to Walmart.  The girls stayed behind.  Cousin Erica took them swimming in the indoor pool.  It is very fancy.

At the Walmart, our local guide who works for the adoption agency told us which floor we could buy diapers (2nd floor) and which floor had formula (3rd floor.)  Our guide gave us an info sheet on Xiao Yu...it said he still drinks formula along with porridge.  This is very common with the kids in orphanages--to still drink formula at age two or three.  He also eats steamed buns and rice.  It also said that he is semi potty trained but still wears diapers at night.  We'll see how this will work out for us.

Our guide texted the orphanage director to find out which brand of formula Xiao Yu likes...

This is the kind he likes, apparently.

By the time we returned from Walmart, the girls were bathed and ready for dinner.  We ate a small dinner of steamed buns and french fries from Burger King.  Now it was story time!  Notice that Gabriel has now warmed up to Erica and willing to sit on her lap...

And we had lights out by 7:30 pm...

Tomorrow is the day we meet and get Xiao Yu...this is called "Gotcha Day" in the vernacular of the adoption community.  They will be picking him up from his foster home in the morning to take him to the Civil Affairs office where all the parents in our group will be waiting.  People say that the kids will react in one of three ways: They will either run to the parents' arms, or kick and scream and cry, or totally shut down.  We will see how Xiao Yu reacts... 

We have been working towards this day for over a year and traveled over 5,000 miles to get here.  Now that it's finally here, it's a little surreal.  Everyone is pretty excited to meet him.  Karina woke up this morning, and announced, "It's Xiao Yu day!!"  Emily is pretty worried about how Xiao Yu will react, though...we'll let you know!

Day 3: The Great Wall

This was our third day in China and after breakfast, we came down to meet our group in the lobby of the hotel room.  Since we have the most kids, we were afraid we would be the last ones to arrive and hold up the whole group.  Instead, we were the first ones!

Gettting up early was not a challenge as we are still a little (or a lot) jet lagged.

After waiting for about 5 minutes, the rest of the group trickled in.  There are 8 families in our cohort, all adopting one or more kids on this trip.  They are from various parts of the U.S. and there is another family from Portland, OR.

During the 1 hour bus ride to the Great Wall, George, our guide who is an employee of our adoption agency, told up about the history of the Wall.  If the discontiguous pieces are all put together, the Wall is about 5,000 miles long and took hundreds of years to build.

When we got up there, the girls spotted a lion and rubbed its paws, of course.

And so we started the climb. Erica and Eliana went up ahead.  Karina was slower, because some of the steps were as high as her thigh.  But she wanted to keep going until she reached a high guard tower.  She also got stopped a lot by Chinese tourist who wanted to take her picture, or preferably, wanted to take a picture with her!

Almost there!  Elvin brought up the rear carrying Gabey.  He wanted to follow Mommy and not wait at the foot of the Great Wall.

We finally reached the Great Wall after about a 45 minute climb.  It gave us a new perspective on how steep it was!

The descent was just as hard, but for different reasons.  It was a big workout for your thigh muscles going down those big steps!

Here is a family pose...we climbed all the way up to that tower on top of the hill behind us.

After getting back on the bus, we visited a jade factory.  They had some impressive carvings, such as the one below where the man is carving a sphere which rolls around loosely embedded within a larger sphere within yet another sphere made out of jade.

 This ginormous boat made out of jade had a price tag of over $1,000,000.

 On the bus, we also passed by the Olympic Park, with the Birds Nest and the Water Cube venues.

 And the last thing for the afternoon was to watch a Chinese acrobatic show.

Amongst other things, we saw these ladies pile themselves onto this bicycle running circles on the stage.  It was pretty impressive and we wondered how much weight was on the shoulders of the lady pedaling the bike.

When we got back to the hotel we ate dinner at our "regular" restaurant and headed back to the hotel to pack our bags.  Tomorrow we bid farewell to George, leave Beijing, and head off to Zhengzhou via bullet train; this is the city where Xiao Yu lives.

Overall, our trip has gone well.  We are starting to adjust to the time change.  Also the kids have done very well with the new food and different environment.  At home, Karina eats EVERYTHING with ranch dressing.  And although we bought and brought single serve packets of Kraft Ranch dressing with us, she has not asked for it once and is happy to eat the rice and noodles here sans Ranch.  Everyone is mostly staying healthy.  Gabriel has been a little bit under the weather recently, so we appreciate your prayers with that.  We're looking forward to the next leg of the trip; the sight seeing is done and we're moving on to the real reason for why we are here...