Day 7 – 10/14/09 – Another Day in Changsha

Interesting day today.  We had to take Jacinda to a Chinese hospital.  She is fine, but let's just say that's an experience we NEVER want to repeat.  It turns out that she has an infected ulcer in her throat.  The entire visit, including several medications only cost $21!!!!!!!!  And, the entire visit only took a half hour!  Some differences than American health care … there is NO privacy at all.  They took her temperature right in the lobby, which was more or less outside (the buildings here are SO different than the US).  When we went into the room with the doctor, there were other families there seeing her.  Of course, we couldn't understand anything, but everyone else could hear everything that was being said.

 

In the picture, the white thing on her forehead is something the Chinese use for fevers.  I have no idea what's in it!

 

Since she wasn't feeling well, we've just been hanging out in our hotel room.  Our fabulous guide talked to the hotel people and asked them to turn our A/C back on!  We LOVE her for that!!!!!!  (I suppose I should explain what the guide does …. Our adoption agency provides us with a local Chinese person to help us with all the paperwork and anything else we need.  She speaks GREAT English and has been a  great help to us.  We called her this morning to take us to the hospital and we are SO glad she was able to come with us and translate.)

 

Another thing I wanted to tell you all about is the beds in China.  We had heard about the hard beds in China …….. the bed in our hotel in Beijing wasn't too bad.  It was a little firm, but nothing out of the ordinary.  But our beds in Changsha …. Different story.  The first time I sat on the bed, it shocked me because it was so hard!  Seriously, they should have just skipped the bed and put the pillows on the floor.  It's that hard!!!!  I think my hips and ribs are going to have bruises from it!!!!!

 

Another interesting thing to tell you all about is that we have gotten lots of stares from the Chinese people here in Changsha.  We think it will be better when we get to Guangzhou, as there will be more adoptive families.  But here, there aren't too many of us, so I think that's why we're getting uncomfortable looks.  I don't think the people here are upset that Americans are adopting babies.  I just think they don't see too many of us here, so they're interested.  Also, this city is NOT a tourist destination at all, so the only white people they see are adoptive families.

 

We uploaded a couple of videos.  You can see them at http://gallery.me.com/scbusf.  Just scroll down to the Movies section.

 

If Jacinda is feeling better this afternoon, maybe I'll write more!

Day 6 (part 2) – 10/13/09 – Pictures

Here a few pictures from yesterday.

One is when she was getting her footprint taken at the Civil Affairs Office.  One is when she actually sat in Aaron's lap for the first time!!!!

Day 6 – 10/13/09 – She’s Officially Ours!

The first order of business today was to go to the Civil Affairs Office and do more paperwork.  After we finished, the government officials declared Jacinda to be officially our child!!!  So now she's stuck with us forever!

 

After that, we did a little shopping at the Whacko Market ….. that's really the name!  It's sort of like a Wal-Mart, a little of everything.

 

For the afternoon, we stayed around our room for a while and played and got to know each other a little.  Jacinda took a really long nap!

 

After the marathon nap, we decided to venture out to Wal-Mart.  That was an experience, to say the least.  Wal-Marts here are just as disgusting as in the States!!!!  But we got a few necessities, so it was worth it.

 

We're finding that going out makes Jacinda really overwhelmed.  She's probably never been to a store before yesterday.  She's probably only ever been to a hospital.  So our adventure to Wal-Mart was a little too much for her (and us!).

 

So tonight, we had Pizza Hut delivered to our room.  Her first taste of pizza!

 

I have to tell you all that I'm a big wimp.  Since it's fall here, the government dictates that the air conditioning be turned off in the hotels.  So our room right now is at 80 degrees.  It's been raining out all day and our window is open, so it's nice and humid in here, too.  I miss my A/C!!!!!!  It's close to 90 in the next place we're headed.  If we don't have A/C there, I'm not sure what I'll do.  Find somewhere to buy a really big fan, I guess!!!

 

Tomorrow, we have a tour of an embroidery factory planned.  That's about it.  There's a bowling alley in our hotel, so we might check that out.  We're basically hanging out here until Friday, which is when her Chinese passport will be ready.   We have no more paperwork to do until we get to the next place on Saturday.

Day 5 – 10/12/09 – We’ve got her!!!!

So we arrived in Changsha in the Hunan province around 11 am this morning.  The plan was to check in to our hotel, then leave at 3 for the Civil Affairs office to pick up Jacinda.  When we got into the car to head to the hotel, our guide tells us there has been a change of plans and that Jacinda will be brought to our hotel room around 1 pm!!!!!  So we get to the hotel and unpack a few things and then wait.  And wait some more.

 

Jacinda Kai-Li Wolfe arrived at our hotel around 2 pm this afternoon.  Kai-Li is a name we heard here and we just love it.  It means beautiful and victorious.  Pronunciation .... Kai rhymes with pie and Li is pronounced Lee.

 

So she got here and she was NOT a happy camper.  At all.  She was screaming.  Apparently, she'd been screaming most of the day.  She settled down fairly quickly, though.  She has taken to me (Sherry) more than Aaron, but that's very typical.  There's going to be an adjustment time as she grieves the loss of her foster family.

 

This evening has been good.  No screaming, but a few sad tears.  We took a walk around the hotel and then came back to the room and had room service for dinner.  We played with Jacinda, and we got our first smiles and even laughs!  She took a bath and then went to sleep.  Tomorrow, we go to the Civil Affairs office to do paperwork.  Then, we'll get to go to a large market to get her some clothes, bottles, and other stuff.  Of course all the clothes we brought are too big.  She's 21 months old and barely 20 pounds.  The 12 month clothes we brought are too big!  She's a tiny little thing.  We don't know what to do with a small child!  Luke was 20 pounds when he was 6 months old!!!!!

 

A weird thing …… our hotel is in the middle of downtown Changsha.  Every so often, fireworks are set off right outside our hotel!  It's happened 4 or 5 times since it's gotten dark!

 

(Thanks to everyone who has posted comments on Facebook.  We're able to see them in our emails.  We can't get to Facebook, though, to respond.  But we are reading them and we really appreciate them!!!)

Day 4 – 10/11/09 – Last Day in Beijing

Busy day today.  This morning, we had our adoption agency's Orientation meeting.  The best thing about the meeting is that we got some updated information about Jacinda.  The picture above was in our package!  It's not the greatest picture, but it will have to hold you over until tomorrow!

 

Then we had lunch with all the families from our agency.  Then we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  Today was the last day of a big celebration here, so there were hundreds of thousands people there and it was raining.  So it was a little crazy!!!!

 

We're SO glad we took a few days to spend in Beijing.  It's an incredible city and we have seen so many things that we wouldn't have been able to if we had not arrived early.  But now we are ready to get on with the adoption stuff and meet our girl!

 

Tonight, we need to pack our suitcases because we leave at 5:50 am tomorrow morning for the Beijing Airport to head to Changsha, which is where we'll get Jacinda!!!  Our next post will have pictures of us with Jacinda, so stay tuned!  Oh, and I think we've finally decided on a middle name, but you'll have to wait to hear it ……. We're about 99% decided, so we're leaving ourselves a little room to change our minds.  Again.

Day 3 – 10/10/09 – Beijing

Today was pretty uneventful.  This morning, we went to a place called the Summer Palace, which was a summer resort for an empress.  The place is huge and we walked several miles.  It was beautiful, though.  There were gardens and galleries and gorgeous buildings.

 

After that, we came back to a shopping mall near our hotel and had Pizza Hut for lunch.  I (Sherry) have been hit pretty hard with jet lag, so I took a nap this afternoon.  I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.

 

This evening, we're taking it easy and just hanging out at our hotel.

 

Tomorrow, we have a pretty full day.  We have our adoption agency's Orientation meeting after breakfast.  Then we have lunch with other families from the agency and then a tour of The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.  Then we have to pack because we leave very early Monday morning for Jacinda's province.

Day 2 – 10/9/09 – Beijing

We had a verrrrrrry interesting day.

 

First, we have to tell you about the traffic here.  Lane markings are merely suggestions, as are traffic lights.  There are cars, bikes, scooters, mopeds, etc.  It's a complete free-for-all.  Crossing the street is an adventure.  When we need to cross the street, we get behind people who look like they know what they're doing and we just follow and hope for the best!

 

Second, Starbucks are everywhere!  Even at the Great Wall!!!!!

 

Third, China is MUCH different than I expected.  Well, we've never been to a Communist country, so I'm not sure we had any idea what to expect.  Beijing is a very modern city … lots of people are everywhere.  From what we hear, 99% of China is not like Beijing.

 

Fourth, you can't drink the water here.  We have to brush our teeth with bottled water, which is kind of a pain.  Apparently the water is clean enough that you can shower in it, though.  I think that's weird.

 

My dad has a business contact in Hong Kong, Mark.  He arranged for his friend in Beijing, Sun (pronounced Soon) to take us around Beijing.  So he shows up at our hotel this morning with a driver.  They took us to the Great Wall.  It is truly amazing.  We climbed part of it.  Then we went to the Olympic Park.  We got to go inside the Bird's Nest.  We walked through the plaza and saw the Cube and the Indoor Stadium.  I'm really glad we went there!

 

This is where it gets interesting.  Sun took us to a Chinese restaurant.  Now, I'm sure you've all heard that Chinese food in China is much different than Chinese food in America.  That's definitely true.  On the menu, there were seriously hundreds of choices.  Sun ended up ordering for us.  Besides some shrimp that we ate, we don't have a clue what the rest of it was.  Honestly, no idea.  Plus, the restaurant didn't have air conditioning, so I was hot and hungry, and didn't know what I was eating.  It might be better that we didn't know, actually!

 

Then we were scheduled to meet Mark for dinner.  He comes to our hotel and tells us he's taking us to a Peking Duck restaurant (uh-oh).  Being the good guests we were, we smiled and said that would be great.  We told him we'd never tried duck, but we were willing to.  There ended up being 7 of us and we had a private room.  This was a good thing because in the main dining room, there was a very loud show going on.  Again, one of the other people ordered for all of us.  You see where this is going, right? When the food came out, it was put on a lazy susan in the middle of the table so we could all share. I have never seen so much food in my life.  Besides the duck, again, no clue what we were eating.  The duck wasn't bad.  They showed us how to put it in a little tortilla-like pancake and fold it up and eat it.  I'm not sure I'd order duck again, but it was pretty good.

 

Needless to say, I think we'll be finding some American food tomorrow!!!!!!  Our plan for tomorrow is to eat a leisurely breakfast at our hotel – fabulous buffet, by the way.  Then we might do some shopping, or sightseeing.  We want to take it easy because the next day is when all the fun starts!!!!