Lulu's Gotcha Story
I started this blog months after Lulu's arrival, but I've had several people ask about how her transition was and what our time in China was like. So here, mostly cut and pasted from my yahoo group, is the story of my Gotcha trip to Lulu (often referred to here as Miranda, which is her legal name, but her middle name is Lu, and she's been Lulu all her life, so for now, Lulu she certainly is!) For those that were members of the yahoo group, I finally do have some more pics and video here that I wasn't able to upload from China.
The long, long, really long journey...
Monday, 10/24/05
All is good now, but I have had a quite the time getting here..
I started off on Friday morning at the local airport. There was
fog and my flight to San Francisco was delayed, but there was a
decent layover and it shouldn't have been a problem. But time
creeped on and what was a fifteen minute delay turned into one that
made getting the connecting flight to Beijing from SF impossible.
The United guy tried for a long while to find something to get me to
China for a Monday gotcha day. Virtually everything was booked due to the trade fairs in China. We tried other airlines, flying to Chicago or the east coast and then back, but the best that could be done was a flight Saturday afternoon which would get me to China late Sunday night. So I went back home...
I called Sue Sorrells who had booked the flights for me to see if she
could do any better. She was even checking flights through
Frankfurt, Germany to see if I could go around the world the other
way. She said the flight I had was probably the best I could get.
Then I started looking at the tickets I had received at the local
airport. The actually had me arriving Monday evening (after the time
I was supposed to get Miranda!) Okay, panic time. I called Sue back
and she went back to work again. (Anyone out there who will be
traveling in the future, USE SUE SORRELLS. She's a miracle worker.)
She called me back asking if I could get myself to San Francisco
which is about a 2.5 hour drive from home. I needed to leave within 10
minutes. I was able to get an airport shuttle to take me to SFO. We
got there, checked the bags, and boarded a flight to LA, to then
switch to China Air to Beijing and then China Southern to Nanning.
When we got to LA we went to China Air with our confirmed
reservations, and they said we had to go to united for a paper
ticket. We rode the shuttle back over. United couldn't figure out
what we wanted. Finally, they gave us something. Then we went back
to China Air. They said the tix were no good. They had no seats.
Back to United (did I mention each time we do this it's at least a 20
minute wait for the shuttle?). Now, it's past midnight and the
United ticket counter is dark and empty. We ask a security guard and
said maybe if we waited, someone would come out on their way home.
We did, and after what seemed like forever, we got a nice guy to
help. They couldn't figure out why China Air didn't have a record
of us, because they see from their end that we should be fine. They
call China Air and finally tell us to go back there. It's now
inching ever so close to takeoff of the China Air flight at 1:40 am.
Back at China Air, we find about 15 other really bummed out people in
the same exact situation. China Air has no idea who they are and
really can't help. We waited to see if anyone didn't check in or if
there was any stand by, but no. So back again to the United area,
but now everyone is gone and it's 2 am. I found a pay phone and
called United in Chicago and the woman says they can probably pay for
a room for the night, but I have to do it through a United ticket
agent. There's no one back until 5 am...
I was pretty bleary eyed and at this point, there's no one even
outside the airport. I looked for a taxi, but couldn't find one. I
went back in the terminal and found the board of hotels with shuttle
services. I started calling and finally found a Days Inn that was
willing to send a shuttle even though they stopped service at
midnight. So, this wasn't the nicest place, smack dab between an
adult bookstore and a bail bonds place, but hoo ha it had two beds
that never looked so good. I set the alarm for very early so I could
call Sue and then Stefani (the angel from my adoption agency who had thankfully given me her number while on vacation). I got about 2 hours sleep, but they were total dead to the world hours. I left a voicemail message for Sue and then got in the shower. While I was rinsing soap from my hair, my traveling companion says I have a call. So I ran out, drippy and soapy to answer the phone. It's Sue, she just asks, are your bags packed? Pretty much, I say. She says I have to get to the airport
right now. I have a 9:38 am flight back to San Francisco. I look at
the clock and it is 8:55 am. So I put on my clothes (later I
discovered my underwear were on backwards, so you can get an idea of how quickly I got dressed). I pulled my soapy hair back into a pony tail and high tailed it out of the Days Inn. A shuttle appeared miraculously
after just a minute and we raced to the United terminal. We went to
check in and because we had only carry on at this point were able to
make the flight back to SF.
We get to SF with just enough time to eat something, neither my
friend Deborah or I can remember when we ate last and think it must
have been close to 24 hours.
We get to Beijing and wonder if the bags that we checked the day
before may have made it there. I spent a long time in a room with a
sweet guy who spoke fairly good english and then I went and looked at
a lot of bags, none of which were mine. He told me to check when I
got to Nanning.
So we board and we're in row 59 or something where the seats are
squished so tight you pretty much can't move, but I'd never been so
thankful to be so uncomfortable. And not a single empty seat on the
plane.
So we arrive in Nanning at 11:30 at night and there is no guide
waiting. Of course this makes a lot of sense, because I had called
Stefani at least three times to change my arrival time, some of which
were voicemail messages and I have no idea if the final arrival time
was ever provided.
So, I was going to try to call someone, but I couldn't figure out how
to use the chinese pay phones and at midnight, there's not much going
on at the Nanning airport. I finally got a woman who tried dialing
the numbers, but none of those worked. I finally called the Majestic
and of course because BOIT books groups of rooms, they didn't have my
actual name. They did say if I had a credit card that I could come
on over. So I got a taxi and made my way to the Majestic.
Soon after, my poor guide Cindy called. The latest info she had was
that I was to arrive at 4 pm, and she waited for 3 hours for me and
was very worried. Once I checked in, they hotel contacted her, so we
are all cool now.
Cindy is the cutest, sweetest thing. I want to bring her home and
help me like this every day. We made a quick trip to Walmart for
some snacks, a stroller, potty seat and kiddo clothes. It is a trip
there. I could have wandered around in awe for hours. Some of it is
so Walmart, and some of it, well, definitely isn't.
So, now I'm just waiting for my little one. Just two more hours and
I'll be going to civil affairs to get her. The journey has been long
and hard, but it is all falling into place. China is wonderful. I
haven't seen much of it, but the taxi rides have been fun (nothing
like seeing a sea of cars, scooters and bikes coming at you head on
in the seatbeltless back seat!) I can't wait to see more of Nanning,
it looks like a place changing so fast, as is I guess, much of China.
I'll try to post again later if I can get back on the internet to let
you know how Miranda is. I can't believe I just wrote that. It's so
soon... Finally!
GOT HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Later on 10/24/05
Miranda Lulu is officially GOT! I am so in love, she's beautiful,
sweet and oh so smart! She on the other hand thinks quite a lot less
of me.
The poor sweet thing is very, very unhappy right now. Actually,
she's cried herself to sleep, so I've got a minute to post.
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When we went to the Welfare Lottery Hotel to pick up my wonderful
winnings. She was over with her Ayis by a couch. She was all smiles
and cute as can be. I got down and took out a small doll for her and
she said thank you, Mama. She rocked herself on a little rocking
horse and we played a bit and had her doll rock on her horse then
another. She would point at me and say Mama and smile.
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I took some pictures and she mostly held her doll out to be photographed. She's
quite the ham (before she realized she was about to be kidnapped!)
Soon the Ayis disappeared and when she looked around she was very
scared. She spoke to Cindy, my guide asking for her Ayis. Cindy
pointed to me and told her Mama and she just shook her head like she
was crazy and pointed to the door, then she begged, then she
screamed. Suddenly, Cindy who she hadn't really noticed before was
looking awfully good to her. She begged for her Mama-la. The crying
went on and on and on.
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We went out to the van and it was quite the ordeal to get her in as
she knew that her Ayis were the other way. Once in, she pressed her
nose up against the window and searched all the people on the street
and in the cars for someone to take her to her mama. She pointed to
the driver and begged "mama!"
When we got to the lobby, it was more of the same. Didn't want to go
up the elevator (who could blame her, the last elevator didn't lead
to much for her.) Then when we opened the door to the room, she made
a dash down the hall. Cindy talked to her for a while and Lulu just
kept shaking her head, no. That was about a half hour there of me
hanging with Cindy trying to be not too threatening and running back
to the room for more candy and toys. So far she likes the little
Sonya Lee doll I got for her. When we were in the hall she asked for
her little "mei-mei" doll. Finally, I just picked her up and tried
to comfort her. She was doing everything she could to escape my
arms. Just lets say she has a good left hook! Even with a cookie
clutched in her fist!
She begged and begged to go to her Ayi once inside. She sobbed some
more and sat on the edge of the bed and pulled up the straps of her
little back pack. Then we decided we should spend some time alone so
Cindy left and will be back in a few hours to check in.
Oh that made her even more unhappy. Her poor little world is just a
mess right now. Then she did the cutest thing among the sobs: She
pressed her hands together and leaned them up to the side of her face
and pointed to the bed. She wanted to sleep. So she crawled up on
the bed I tried to touch her but she pulled her hands away and tucked
them under her bottom. She let me be close and I just talked quietly
and said bie ku (don't cry) a lot. Finally, after about 10 minutes
she sobbed herself to sleep.
And that's where we are right now. She's snoring away, probably
hoping she'll wake up from the nightmare. We'll see what happens
when she wakes up.
I can't believe she's mine (neither can she - but it will all be good
in time.) I can so tell she has loved and been loved, she's just the
most precious thing ever.
Okay, I'm going back now to stare at her with googly eyes. I'm one
lucky, lucky mama!
No, it’s not a dream, little one...
Tuesday, 10/25/05
Well, not much more to post, but I got up to get some water so I
thought I'd update you on my little Miranda panda.
When she woke up she opened her eyes she closed them really fast when she realized that it wasn't all a just some horrible dream. Little tears started rolling out as she clenched her eyes shut. Sobbing again. Then Cindy returned with the photographers for the family photo - poor little thing. A man and woman tried talking to her to soothe her but she just continued sobbing. They stood her up on the bed and I sneaked behind and smiled while holding onto her and they waved and rattled toys and
snapped away. That's going to be a great pic for posterity, LOL.
Then I had to do paperwork and give thumbprints so we went into the
bathroom so Lulu couldn't see Cindy. It was hard signing my name
over and over and over and over again while I could hear by girl
sobbing in the next room with my friend Deborah. Then I heard Deb
start singing and the crying stopped. It was sooo sweet. I finished
the signing and got my orders from Cindy about how much $ to put in
each envelope for the fees tomorrow. Guilin families remind me to get
you that list later. It's almost all RMB beside the donation and one
other thing.
So, while the singing was still going on I Cindy left with an
additional $200 RMB I gave her to buy gifts (all my donations/gifts
were are in the still missing luggage).
I went back into the bedroom and deb was sitting on the floor still
singing and Miranda was just watching. I sat down and sang too. So
we sat there singing and her looking at us back and forth for a long
while. At one point she put her hand out and asked me to stop. Deb
and I could only communicate via song during this point, so to the
tune of Hush little baby, we were like, "do you think I should stop
singing, no not right now, oh it looks like she's getting tired,
maybe we should get her some juice, where is it? It was pretty funny.
So, she's of course in the bed I had been sleeping in and when she
fell back asleep, getting in it was no easy task. I was finally able
to scoop my arms under her and scoot her over a bit so I could
squeeze in. She's slept pretty peacefully till now. She's moving
around a bit now, but still out.
Okay, for you been there done that people she’s obviously in the pretty
much shut down stage, but I'm a little worried that at this point she
hasn't eaten anything, had anything to drink or gone to the bathroom
yet. We got her at about 5 pm on Sunday and it's now 3 am. She's
got the cast iron bladder of her mama apparently. I'm hoping she'll
be hungry and thirsty enough when she gets up to take in something.
I'm sure no child has ever starved herself to death in this
situation. She likes eggs, so when she gets up I'll send Deb down
for a bowl of them. Keep your fingers crossed.
She's such a cutie pie. More later as I can...
Improvement!!!
Later in the morning, 10/25/05
Much better now! After I got back into bed from the last post,
miranda rolled over and said, mama. I said hi Lulu. She tapped her
hand to her lips. I wasn't sure if that was hungry or thirsty, but I
gave her apple juice which she chugged down. She tapped her lips
again. I had ordered soup last night which she didn't eat, but it
was in the fridge. So I showed it to her and she nodded her head.
Yum cold soup in the middle of the night. She still wanted something
else, which I finally figured out was water. She's had three big
glasses of it already. She's smiled a few times. Cutest thing, she
wanted the TV on. She's clearly familiar with it and the remote and
she quickly found a music video channel. She just grinned from ear
to ear and swayed to the music. Then there was a beautiful chinese
woman with long hair in the video and lulu just smiled and motioned
her hand over her own beautiful hair. She was so in the zone. It was
just precious.
She asked to go to the bathroom and stretched her arms to let me pick
her up and take her. Oh that felt so good. I pulled down her pants
and popped her onto the potty seat. She wandered back to the bed.
There was a sticky candy she'd gone to sleep holding on the bed and
she didn't want to lay there, so she found a new spot that was
clean. She's been playing with the stacking cups and quickly figured
out how to stack them appropriately. This little one is so very
smart. She's clearly got that I am of very low intelligence and
can't understand a word she says, so it's all pantomime now. She's
very tired and emotionally drained right now, but I think everything
is going to be fine.
Oh, the backpack she won't let go of, has a family photo of her
foster family. I opened it and showed it to her and she pointed to
her foster mama and sadly said mama-la. She didn't cry, but when I
put the picture on the table, I was clearly notified that it had to
go back in the backpack. She's such a love.
Oh, one last thing, I took a couple of pics with the digital camera
when she was smiling and then showed her in the viewfinder. She
pointed at the display and said mama. So I took one of myself. She
pointed at it and said mama. Then she pointed at it again and said
Mama-Lulu. So Deb took our photo together and she smiled again and
pointed at the display, said Mama-Lulu and bounced her head back and
forth.
She's just incredible and brave and I love her to pieces.
Legally my daughter (at least in China’s eyes)...
Tuesday afternoon 10/25/05
We went to the civil affairs office this morning to make the adoption
official. Miranda was doing well until we got into the room where
her world turned upside down yesterday. She played a little bit, but
then was like, hey, wait a minute, this is the room of EVIL!
WAAAAAA!!!! She sobbed and sobbed as we went into the next room
where I had to answer a series of question about if I wanted her and
if I promise to keep her and raise her and give her an education. It
was a bit hard to hear over the screams, but we got through it. She
was quite the image sitting there behind the Chinese flags on the
table, a mei-mei doll in one hand and a disney cell phone in the
other, screaming her lungs out.
Then her orphanage caretaker and an official from the Guilin
orphanage arrived. This made Miranda stop crying. The nanny asked
where she got her new toys and she said, from Mama as she showed them
off. The official from Guilin said she loved her foster mom VERY
much. They said she knew about me very much. She would come to show off her American clothes and toys from her American mama to all her little friends at the orphanage. They said she's a very independent
girl and has her own ideas about thing. Well, yeah! I'd pretty much
figured that out. She's a hoot. She can definitely get her point
across. When she's very unhappy and crying, you get this hand waving
gesture that is so "talk to the hand" it almost makes you laugh if it
wasn't so sad. She also likes to do stairs and getting in and out of
vehicles all on her own. She takes these huge steps that would be
equivalent to my hip level and just scampers up.
At the notary office there were about 30 families from Spain with
babies. Miranda just sat wide-eyed looking at all the crying and
goings on. Miranda was just about falling asleep so we've come back
to the hotel. Of course as soon as we got back, she started crying.
That went on for about 15 minutes until she cried herself to sleep
again. She decided she wanted to sleep in the crib. It's pretty
funny as her feet are hanging out the end, but it's awfully adorable.
Couple of notes on China. I haven't been able to see much yet and
Cindy our guide has been good about giving us time to rest. I think
we were supposed to do something this afternoon, but I'm glad to be
able to take it easy a bit. I've had a whopping 7 or so hours of
sleep over the last three nights, so I'm working on catching up now.
I was trying to figure out what day I got here, and I think it was
just yesterday if that's possible. I have mashed potatoes for brains
right now. But anyway, there are such strange and wonderful images
going on around here. Outside our hotel window I can see a man
working on the roof of a building slowly banging broken bricks into
cement with the back of a small shovel. All day long there's this
clank, clank, clank. Once it's all dust, he makes a sort of volcano-
shaped pile and pours in water. Then he waits. Then finally, he
mixes the cement and makes new bricks. On the same roof, there are
three other men hammering shelving together. It's sort of fun
guessing what types of furniture are going to be produced next.
The other image that is so foreign is the traffic flow. I don't know
how to explain it, but it's sort of like people, bicycles, motor-
scooters, cars and buses all have the right away. As you travel in
the taxi which of course has no seatbelts, you weave in and out of
traffic, but you might be going the wrong way in your lane or there
may be a series of vehicles coming at you head on in your lane. It's
odd, but it feels very safe. There's a wonderful rhythm and flow to
all the chaotic movement. As you go along, there are cars and people
and bicycles not more than two inches away from the car you are in.
Everyone zigs and zags around everyone else. I'm very glad I do not
have to drive here, but very glad that I get to experience this truly
Chinese experience.
Good News!!!
Morning, Wednesday, 10/26/05
Luggage has been found! It is in Beijing and will be sent here
shortly. Wahoo!!
Good news #2, Miranda is bathed and wearing new clothes!!! I have
the wonderful, amazing, sweet as pie Xiao Xiao from Grace-Hope foster
program to thank for that. Miranda was oh so unhappy last evening
(that's when she really misses her foster mama) and she just drags
you to every door in the hotel pointing and begging to go in in hopes
of finding her. We were near the elevators looking outside and she
had stopped crying and was staring out onto the street action below.
The elevator opened and Xiao Xiao came out. She had brought David
Huang who doesn't speak English but may be the sweetest man I have
ever met. Miranda loves him and ran to him so willingly
calling "uncle, uncle." Xiao Xiao had with her a baby who was over
two years old, but had been in an orphanage where she had been left
in her crib alone. She was a beautiful baby, but so incredibly
delayed. She had come to Xiao Xiao the day before and was going to a
special foster mother her in Nanning the next day. She couldn't even
sit up. Hadn't figured how to use her hands yet, but Xiao Xiao said
in one day, they had been working on her leg strength and a few times
with support she straightened out her legs and supported a bit of her
body weight. I wanted to bring her with me, she was such a sweet babe.
Anyway, David and Xiao Xiao talked to Miranda a lot about a lot of
things and she was getting it all. I have these little flash cards a
friend gave me that I brought and Xiao Xiao went through them and
said, she's is very smart, she knows them all (of course, in
Chinese). They asked if she had a stroller, and I did buy one at
Walmart, but hadn't even made the attempt to get her in it as she was
pretty freaked out just at the sight of it. David had her in the
thing in about 30 seconds and she loves it so much. In fact, long
after they left we still were zooming back and forth in the room and
down the hall. It is very funny, it's really too small for her and
we have to flip the top shade part over or it just rests on her
head.
I told Xiao Xiao about the reluctance to get out of her clothes or
bathe and she rolled the stroller into the bathroom for a while and
they talked up a storm. The ran the bath water, and Miranda leaned
over and splashed with some of the little bottles and such. She
didn't get her in, but she definitely told her how fun it was. Once
David and Xiao Xiao left we went back to play some more. I asked her
if she wanted to get in and she started to climb in. Wait a minute I
said, we have to take off your back pack and shoes and clothes.
Well, poof, I couldn't strip her down fast enough. She had a grand
old time and held out the bar of soap and told me to wash her. I
didn't think I was going to be able to wash her hair and remove those
pig tails, but she was happy for me to do it.
Once out, she was very compliant and I got on a pair of Hello Kitty
panties and a little shorty jammie set my sister got her that
actually says Lulu on the front. She let me comb out her hair and
pigtail it up again (she has lots of thick hair), but definitely
didn't let me dry it with the hair dryer. I tried to soak up as much
water as possible with a towel, but it was still pretty wet. We went
for a few more rides in the hall, hoping to avoid the Chinese
clothing police with bare arms, legs and a damp head exposed and I
guess we were lucky we didn't run into anyone.
So, I'm back off to bed. I guess I've been so used to two or three
hours of sleep that going to bed at 10 and getting up at 4 seemed
waaay too much sleep. We're going to try to get up sort of early to
go see a few sights Xiao Xiao recommended that are very interesting
in the morning. I think now that Lulu has discovered her stroller,
it should be easy.
Take care all, and I'll try to post more later.
China Parks...
Later on Wednesday, 10/29/05
We went to two parks today. The first was at the suggestion of Xiao
Xiao. It's called The People's Park. For those of you coming to
Nanning, you have got to go. It's only a five minute walk there and
something like 2 yuan to get in. (Walk out the front door of the
Majestic and hang a right (don't cross the street) and walk along the
sidewalk a bit and you'll find the park on the right. Xiao Xiao had
suggested we come in the early am to see the "real China." Boy did
we, we were the only Westerners there. It's so wonderful, it is
gargantuan in size. We walked for easily half an hour and didn't get
close to making the entire loop. There were people doing Tai Chi,
women dancing with fans, people exercising, walking backwards,
playing amazingly good badminton. There's a lake and a children's
park with rides. Places to sit and relax and soak it all in. People
were just wonderful, smiling at Miranda and talking to her. We met a
man who spoke English well and once we said we were from California,
he said oh you had a big earthquake! We haven't seen any TV and for
a moment were were both wondering if California finally fell off the
side of the west coast.
About halfway through the park, Miranda decided she wanted to be
held. I don't know if it was sensory overload on her part or just
because it was early in the morning. But it was so nice having her
grip onto me and rest her head on mine.
We went back to the hotel and went to the breakfast buffet. She sat
down and promptly puked. All water. She'd guzzled quite a bit in
the morning. She was not happy that her lap was wet, but she
proceeded to eat a ton of cantaloupe. We offered her a bunch of other
stuff, but once she found the cantaloupe, she wasn't interested in
anything else.
We then met our guide Cindy and went to Green Mountain Park. We got
to see a beautiful temple and a pagoda. Then we went to this pond
where there are all these fish to feed. You buy a bag of food
pellets and toss away. The fish literally climb over each other on
top of the water. I've never seen anything like it. Lulu thought it
was great, but she was tired. One the way back we made another
quickie stop at walmart for some more pants.
When we got back, Cindy had had an artist do a lovely scroll of
Miranda's name for 200 yuan. It's gorgeous. I didn't get to do much
shopping here because of the delays, but I'm very glad to have gotten
that.
Hoo ha! We're off to Guilin in the morning. The time is going so
fast - it seems like we just got here and it's almost time to go.
Go, go, go in Guilin!
Friday, 10/28/05
Whoa, the last two days have been a roller coaster ride! We're
tired, tired, tired (there's sort of a theme here)but having a
really good time.
We left Nanning early Thursday morning for a five hour train ride to
Guilin. It's amazing country. It is very rural and the countryside
is very beautiful. The train was very crowded so we had some of our
bags tucked under us and it was difficult to get in and out. My
cameral was up above and Miranda was not a real happy camper, so
much of the ride was keeping her entertained. A Chinese woman
across the way had a baby girl about 18 months old and she kept
giving Miranda unidentifiable foods, which she liked much better
than the snacks I had packed. There was a boy of about 7 who was
jumping from head rest to head rest throughout the ride which made
it interesting. He spoke a fair amount of English, so he had fun
talking to the crazy foreigners with all the suitcases.
Our arrival at Guilin was a bit traumatic at the time, but now it
comes off as rather funny. We pulled up into the station and 5
chinese men come running up and waving at us and run onto the
train. They pick up the bags and Deborah and I are trying to gather
our personal belongings to catch up with them. They are running way
ahead of us and all I can think is oh my god, my paperwork is in
that bag! Deborah's got Miranda, because she was really irritated
with me (probably for making her endure a 5 hour train ride!) and
Deborah has on the wobbly sandals and is trying to walk fast without
falling. So Deborah's waaay behind, I'm in the middle with one guy
carrying two bags and the other guys are nowhere to be seen. We
walk down a huge flight of steps and I look up and Deborah is only
starting to descend. I call to the one guy closest to me and beg
him to wait for my friend. He does, quite patiently, yet I have no
idea where the rest of guys/bags are. Deborah finally makes it to
me and realizes she doesn't have her purse! AAAAAAAAAAH! I grab
Miranda and she runs back up the stairs to find it. Of course at
this point we don't know if the train is in the station anymore of
if it is, what car we were on. In the interim, Annie, our guide
arrives. Whew! The men belong to her and the bags should be safe.
Deborah found a man who we had spoken to on the train and he had got
her bag for her. (Note, the Chinese people have been wonderful on
this trip, if I haven't said it before, there you go.)
So, it's about 1:50 and Annie says we are going to the hotel and
have to be ready to leave to visit the SWI (orphanage) at 2:30.
Aaah! We get to the hotel to check in and the room isn't ready...
Since the bags were lost and they only arrived in the am of the day
we left Nanning, I hadn't had a chance to prepare the
donations/gifts, etc. We ask if we can go into the room even if it
is not ready yet and they allow it. I was dumping things out and
frantically trying to get things together in the whole 10 minutes we
had. Did I mention we were tired and hot and sweaty and ready for a
nap?
So we take the ride to the SWI and it's like an off road
experience. We get there and met the Director (Mr. Xu, I believe) and the woman who had
brought Miranda to Nanning (I think, Ms Liang), . We have the big tub of donations and they seem pleased, but don't open it. Note to future traveling Guilin families: bring enough candy that can be shared by many,
many children. This seemed to be the ticket. While I wasn't
allowed to take photos of specific children, I was able to shoot any
child (except the very young babies) that we came across. I had a
package of 300 Dum Dums, and we got to hand them out to a lot of
kids.
There were about 6 or 7 little ones outside with their
nannies and we sat and played with them and let them eat candy for
at least 15 minutes. One kept running up into our arms and playing
with sunglasses. I asked if I could have another and they laughed.
Then it was time to go inside. Deborah got a split pant baby
butt crud print on her skirt, which was both cute and gross at the
same time.
We climbed the stairs and stopped at the "disabled” children's area.
The children all scurried to the windows for the candy. This is
where I might have seen some of the waiting CHI kiddos. I can't be sure
because it was very hard to pat little heads, hand out candy, talk
to the director, listen to the guide Annie translating and take photos at
the same time. None of the children here were much older than two.
Anyway, we went across a bridge like thing and up to the tiny baby
room We were not allowed to photograph them, but Miranda's
caregiver for the two years she was in the orphanage was there.
She was in tears and ran out to get her lulu. Miranda was very
scared and started running back for the stairs. The nanny caught
her and talked to her for a looong long while. In fact, she took
the rest of the tour with us. (We were going sort of slowly because
they had trouble calling the foster family and they wouldn't arrive
for about 20 or 30 minutes.)
We saw some more children in two rooms up on a higher floor and
distributed most of the rest of the candy there. Then we headed
back down.
We sat with the nanny for a while and she told many things about
Miranda. Her best friend was Shen Rong Hui and she was just recently
adopted a month or so ago. She said Miranda was a very easy child
to take care of(barring 5 hour train rides)and was a lovely girl.
We played some more with the first children we had seen, now all
with colorful, sticky mouths, then they said it was time to go and
as we stood, I could see the foster father waiting. He was in
tears. Miranda went straight toward him and he was just so very
sad. The foster mother came out with her other foster baby strapped
on and told Miranda that I was the mommy. There was much talking
going on in Chinese and Miranda was listening attentively. We had
about 15 minutes together for talking and soothing and photo
taking. When it came time to leave the foster family walked us to
the van, the foster father put her in and she went happily, but then
she wanted him to join us. She pulled and begged (this is one
determined little girl) and he finally got in. Annie suggested they ride for a while with us. So we all got in and started going. As soon as we were out of the gates, we were able to exchange phone numbers and addresses, which will be very cool for Miranda. That family loved her so deeply and the feeling was so mutual. We stopped at one point and they had to go and of course Miranda was inconsolable.
So we came back to the hotel still stinky and exhausted and now
emotionally drained. Then Miranda wanted to go for a stroll in the
stroller. She definitely dictates who will be the stroller driver,
which shoes they should wear to push and which snack should be
served on the ride. Deb and I basically got to take turns doing the
stroller loop down the hall, through the lobby, outside for a loop,
back in and up the elevator for about 2 hours. She was laughing and
giggling and playing and a very happy girl considering the events
earlier in the day.
Of course then as the night came, she got very tired and when that
happens, she misses her foster mama like crazy. She cried herself
to sleep at about 7 pm. So, I picked her up out of the stroller and
put her in the crib. (Note that this was about 7 and the last time
this girl went the bathroom was in our 10 minute hotel stop and now
she's out cold. I went to bed myself about 11 and wondered if she
would wake up to go to the bathroom. A little call for "mama" at
about 5 am, let me know she had to go. By my count, that was about
15 hours for her 34 month old bladder. I've never seen a kid SO
potty trained at that age. In fact, I went ahead and donated the pullups I brought for her to the orphanage yesterday. I'm going to have to go out and buy some more panties to fit that tiny tushie.)
Today we took a cruise on the Li river. If you've seen pictures of
China, you've undoubtedly seen pics of Guilin. It's a very famous
landscape of karst formations. It was an interesting adventure (yes
AGAIN) because they haven't had much rain, so the boats couldn't
pick up passengers where they normally do. So we drove further
downstream and had to hike for about 40 minutes to get to the boat.
This was dusty, crumbly, sticky ground so we couldn't use Miranda's
stroller so she had to walk or we had to carry her the whole way.
She was very good natured about the whole thing.
We finally got to the boat and set out for another 5 hour journey.
Miranda was very good, but she kept wanting to go up to the top
floor of the boat which is sort of dangerous and not particularly
childproof, so we had to keep brining her downstairs. I think we
were about an hour into the cruise before I actually looked outside
and thought, hey, there are some big rocks out there! We were so
focused on keeping Miranda happy and safe, we didn't get much of a
chance to enjoy the scenery. But it was really lovely to see.
Again because the water was low, we couldn't travel all the way to
Yangshou (sp?) and stopped at a smaller village with crumbling brick
buildings and many rural minorities. Again, another long walk for
the little ones legs. But we were so lucky to see this village that
is never seen by tourists. There were school children getting out
to school, water buffalo wandering by, farmers farming, people
making bricks, and wandering chickens (oh joy, I thought I wasn't
supposed to encounter any livestock on this trip!)
Then we stopped at an art gallery where a professor gave a
demonstration of rice paper and ink writing. We then had a chop
made for Miranda with her Chinese name and American name. Deborah
fell in love with this painting, but knew it was way out of her
price range. The gallery person went out and found the artist and
he offered to allow her to purchase it for $250 US, which was really
only a tiny fraction of it's price because he could see that she
truly appreciated the art, and those who truly appreciate should
have it.. (Have I said the Chinese are wonderful?)
We finally got the van and made our way home. We had about 90
minutes to get ready for the acrobatic show this evening. We went
over and it was really wonderful. There were virtually no children
there, so I was a bit worried how Miranda was going to handle this.
It was wonderful. It's a bit intense with lots of lighting and
scenery changes and loud music, but she just rolled with the punches
and enjoyed every minute of it until she conked out.
So we are back at the hotel now, very tired. Fortunately, we don't
start until 10 tomorrow, so we don't have another 5 am wake up call.
(Oh, I just remembered this, there is a series of buttons that
control lights and AC on the bedside table. I want to have this
particular button installed at home. It says, "clean up room." Oh,
yeah, definitely need that!)
So, I've probably just spent $20 on these emails, so I should be
going. Take care everyone and I'll post again when I can.
Still going in Guilin...
Saturday, 10/27/05
We had a good day today. It was the first day we didn't have to get up
at or near the crack of dawn. We were to meet Annie at 10 am, so I let
Lulu sleep in a bit. That was good for her. She still woke up with
that "oh dear god, it's not just a bad dream" look on her face, but
soon after she was happily bouncing about. We went down to breakfast
and had some to eat. You've got to gobble with this kid because she
will only tolerate being at the breakfast buffet for about 10 minutes.
She is an absolute banana freak. She can't get enough of them. I
think she had 3 yesterday. So far, it hasn't had any ill effects on
her system. She didn't want the melon today, which she usually eats.
We got back to the room to get ready to go, and Annie called and since
it was raining (it was actually quite cold today - comfortable for me,
deep-freeze for the chinese!) we should go to the park later in the
afternoon. 1 o'clock. So here we were all dressed up with no place to
go. Miranda does NOT like being in the hotel room. We can be gone for
hours and stroll her in and in 10 seconds she is begging to leave. I
didn't have any idea how we were going to entertain her for 3 more
hours without being able to go outside. Finally, I remembered how much
she loved the bath (most nights are still very hard and it goes from
crying, to screaming, to sleeping with no time for bathing in there at
all). So we filled the tub. She was happy in there for close to an
hour. Afterwards, she was just a joy. She picked a new outfit to wear
and we played with her hair and tickled and laughed and the time just
flew.
We went out to Elephant Trunk hill and took some photos. She kept
complaining of being cold so deborah tied her sweater around her.
Annie called her a little dahli lama. She didn't like to have to walk
and much prefers the stroller, but Annie kept warning her there were
fun things to do today, but she would have to walk. So she walked when
she had to. Annie says she's a very lazy little one. We called her
Lazy Lulu and she's been repeating it all day long. Lazy Lulu, Lazy
Lulu, Lazy Lulu.
We then went to Seven Star Park and took a little golf cart around
since it was raining. It's really beautiful and we stopped often,
propped Miranda up in front of one site or another and took a lot of
photos. She is such a total ham about photos. She cracked Annie up
constantly because she's always asking for bread. Of course she won't
touch the huge array of western and non-western bread in the buffets,
but as soon as we get in the van, she wants bread, bread, bread. We
stopped once at a bakery and went in and the bread she got was a huge
slice of cake with a hand sized whipped cream pig on top of it. She
ate the whole thing. As far as food goes, she does not like to eat out
in a restraint. We can only be there for a few minutes if she will
stay at all. She doesn't like to eat in either, so she pretty much
just snacks all day long. Fortunately she likes cheerios and nuts and
totes little zip lock bags with her all day long. She's reported to
like noodles and rice, but all I get is a big pouty lip and scrunched
up nose any time I put them in front of her.
After the park, we went to a famous cave here. I'm too brain dead to
remember the name right now, but it's actually very cool. Miranda was
a trouper and walked up and down steps in the dark for an hour. She
had to be the holder of the flashlight which made it hard for Annie to
point out the various formations.
After the cave, we went to a pearl museum where they give you a
demonstration and then try to sell you pearls. It doesn't matter how
hard the sell is, you're not going to get me to buy pearls. I am so
not interested. I'll probably eventually pick up a bracelet or earrings
for Miranda in the future, but that'll be about it.
We then went to some local alley to buy some children's clothes. It is
not as easy as I had thought to find clothes here. In Nanning there
was more of a selection, but mostly for much younger babes. Here in
Guilin, even the local stalls for children had very little in her
size. I found some mismatched stuff I'll try to match with clothes I
brought. She's 30 very solid pounds and boy do my arms feel it. She's
not at all fat, but everyone who meets her says she is tall. I haven't
measured but I'd say she's probably 36 inches tall. Most pants that
fit around the waist are too short. Today, she wore a US 4/5 top,
though she's mostly been wearing 3Ts.
So, that was the day. When we got back to the hotel and had to say
goodbye to Annie. That is never a good thing. She is fine without
Annie and when Annie is around, she is fine with both Deborah and I,
holding our hands, asking us to do things for her, but when we part at
the end of the day, the meltdowns begin. It's close to 9 pm here and
she cried for at least an hour. She would sit in the stroller,
refusing to get out, begging to be strolled out of the room. She's a
stubborn little thing, but she's got a stubborn mama too. I can wait
out the sobbing. Early on, I would try to calm her, but when she is
crying like that, no amount of talking, bringing out toys, food or
anything seems to do the trick. She just tires herself out until she's
exhausted and falls asleep. (If anyone out there needs a self-defense
lesson, she's got this extremely effective Lulu technique to ward off
attackers or well-intentioned mamas- grab the jugular with one hand,
pierce nails into skin, twist and pull... All I can say is OUCH!) So, I
just sit by the stroller and wait it out. Once she goes down, I put
her into the bed and she's usually out for the night. This is why we
haven't had a dinner out yet. I've been eating a lot of protein bars
that I brought, thankfully!
So, just a little about my sweet Lulu. She's so very bright. She can
speak both mandarin and the local dialect. Annie told us today that
she can count up to twenty. She knows many animals and the sounds they make. She remembers everything she sees. We once were trying to open the wrong hotel door with our key and she freaked out because she knew we were at the wrong door. She knows the floor we are on and likes to push the buttons. She loves to boss the van driver around. Hurry up,
she tells him, move the bus (when we are in traffic). She loves to
change her clothes. Even this evening, while she was having the
meltdown she asked to change her clothes twice. She does a lot of
singing and dancing. She's persistent when she wants something. She
talks to anyone she sees. Everyone is just charmed by her. She loves
to shop! She wheeled and dealed for some trinkets in the gift shop and
they actually knocked the price down for her. She's learned several
english words (thank you, good bye, duckie, kitty, doggy, horsey, and
she loves "quack, quack." She's ticklish. She does not like messy
things. She dropped her can of pringles on the ground and she used her
little comb to sweep them all up. That was a 30 minute project.
Deborah and I considered sprinkling more on the ground to give us a bit
of a break, LOL. She has incredible patience for some things. She
worked for 10 minutes on right-side-outing an inside-out shirt so that
the ducks would be on the outside and on her chest. She's a comedienne
too. When putting the shirt on the right way got to be too frustrating,
she pushed her feet through the arm holes and just giggled forever.
She is just the most perfect child. Life is going to be FUN!
I’m one very tired, but happy mama
Goodbye Guilin, hello Guangzhou...
Sunday, 10/28/05
I want to get some of this down before my poor frazzled brain
disintegrates.
Our last morning in Guilin was interesting. Our flight wasn't until
early afternoon, but we were to meet at 10 or so for another
government sponsored factory tour. This time it was a silk factory.
I'm not much into silk myself, but we didn't have much of a choice.
It turned out to be pretty interesting. We got to see the silk
cocoons and how they soak them in a bathtub like contraption and a
woman pops them open and stretches them onto an inverted U-like frame.
I wished I'd had the camera, cause it was pretty cool. They would do
about 10 silk cocoons on a small U and then that would make one piece.
Then that one piece would be stretched onto a bigger U frame, that
needed 8 of the small ones. Once done, those 800 silk cocoons would
make one layer of a many hundred layer quilt. They had four tiny
woman on each side of a mattress like contraption pulling the small
pieces toward themselves and stretching it over the mattress. They
let Deb and I try and it was really hard work. It turns out it takes
something like 80,000 cocoons to make one quilt. During all of this,
Annie has taken Lulu off to parts unknown. I still have no intention
of buying anything.
We go into another room where they showed us the prices of the quilts.
I think they were about Y450 for a double bed (about $50). Not so
bad. The woman doing the sell has a nice presentation, but Deb and
I both had to try hard not to laugh when in the midst of the very
proper schpeal, she says now if the child "takes a piss" on the bed,
how easy it is to clean up. I'm sure she had no idea that it sounded
so out of sync with everything else in the presentation.
Then they brought out these duvet covers that were just beautiful.
There is a whole room of them and they pulled them out left and right
according to which ones we seemed to be charmed by. So I bought one.
Never mind that I have a really nice down comforter, but they were so
pretty and I was just taken in by the whole thing. They offered to
ship for Y200 which was a good deal, but only found out much later
that it goes by boat and will take 2 months to arrive! LOL... I also
ended up buying some Chinese silk dresses for Miranda as well as a
little jacket someone had put on her that really was adorable. I
still don't know how much it cost, but the silk factory put me back
Y2500 which was probably a little over 300 US dollars. Deb was
suckered too, so they did well by us. I will look forward to seeing
the quilt & duvet when it gets here.
So we then went to the airport and Annie had our bags checked for us.
We bought Miranda an apple to keep her happy and since she had pretty
much refused to eat anything for breakfast in the morning.
Annie was really good about leaving and did it when Miranda wasn't
looking so that she would cry. Boy is maneuvering through an airport
with a squirmy toddler and luggage and a stroller a challenge! We
managed to find our gate, but we were pretty early. Miranda has this
game about telling me she has to "ooh la la" which means she needs to
pee. It's really niao niao, but that's how she says it. Maybe she's
been taking lessons in French on the side. So we go into the bathroom
(for those that don't know, there are not regular western toilets in
China, only what are termed as squatty potties, which are basically
holes in the ground. I'm a total camel, so I never had to use one,
but Miranda loves to take journeys to the potty, even if she doesn't
have to go. With the squatty potty, you pull the kiddo's pants down,
face yourself and your child toward the hole, put your hands behind
her knees, lift her legs up and aim her bottom toward the hole. It's
pretty easy and I used this a few times with some western toilets we
encountered that lacked seat covers and or TP)...
We met a couple from Spain that couldn't believe I'd only had Miranda
for a handful of days. She was giggly and cute running around. We
boarded the plane and she wanted to sit with her Ayi Deb. She was
fine until we placed the seatbelt around her. As far as she was
concerned, it was equivalent to strapping her into the electric chair
while it was doing its thing. She wailed and wailed and screamed and
threw her shoes and banged things. There was a Chinese woman one seat
behind who kept leaning up and over to see what the heck was being
done to the child. It really did sound like she was being tortured.
She cried herself into exhaustion and then sleep. I was never so glad
for a 45 minute flight to be over.
We got to Guangzhou and was met by our driver and another adoptive mom from my agency, Sue, and her sister and Sue's new boy, Timmy or YouYou. He's a cleft palate boy too and apparently quite the dickens as well.
We took the half hour or so drive to the White Swan on Shamian Island.
It's a big mucky-muck sort of place. There are photos of royalty and
presidents and the like staying here. The place is big and very
showy. Huge carvings for sale, marble and inlaid wood everywhere,
staff of seemingly millions (one woman seemingly does nothing but wipe
off the reception counter. Another guy brushes off crumbs from under
the breakfast buffet's toaster. Each floor has an attendant who will
push the up or down button for the elevator. Then when one of the six
elevator's lights goes on to indicate one is coming, the attendant
will walk to the opening doors and extend her arm out to guide you to
the door. I found that so annoying at first, but got used to it. Our
floor had a couple of very sweet girls.) So overall, I find five star
hotels sort of meh... I just don't like to be catered to like that.
Oh well, our driver tells us we have to meet the other families at
6:30 pm in the lobby. We're tired, Miranda's irritable from the
flight and the day in general and when we get to the room there's this
big king bed. We had had so far in Nanning and Guilin what they call
two doubles, which are in reality two singles. So I called reception
and they told us they would get us another room. I was so tired, I
considered briefly sharing a bed with Deb, but she's like a tornado in
her sleep and I didn't think either one of us would get any of the
precious sleep we needed if we shared. So we waited... And waited...
And it was getting closer and closer to 6:30. Finally, we got a call
that they had found us a room on the 9th floor. All the other CHI
families were on the 16th floor, but I was just glad to get our room
finally.
We rushed to the new room and scrambled to get downstairs in time.
It was 6:30 and Miranda had had an apple and Deb and I had had a few
crackers on the plane and that was it. We met the other families in
the lobby and they were all so cute. There were two boys, Timmy (You
You) who was 3 and his mom Sue and his aunt; Mike and Katie and
their five year old Seth (Xiao Xiao), James and Micheline and their
2.5 year old daughter Bella, Lajuana and her 22 month old (think)
daughter Lilly, and Jordan and Rebecca and their 11 month old twins
Mei Mei and Li Li. All were special needs kids except the twins. So,
it turns out the meeting was rather brief. Just met our guide Connie
and she gave us our instructions. We were to get two copies made of
our child's passport and something else I can't remember right now.
We were then to meet in a room in the morning to get the kiddos's
medicals done.
Deb and I were so tired we were just stupid and couldn't even figure
out what to do. I made the copies and did the other task and then we
just ordered up dinner. The room service is damned quick. You call
and before it seems humanly possible, the food is rolled into the
room. Deb had ordered a vegetable lasagna with artichoke and mushroom in a cream sauce and Miranda ate most of it. Did I mention this child will eat nearly anything? I don't know too many toddlers who will try almost anything. Almost every kid I've ever met would balk at sauce covered anything and I have to admit, it didn't even look appealing to me, but she' gobbled the stuff.
We did the bath thing and that seemed to make going to bed easier.
THANKFULLY!
Well, the time in GZ flew by. We took a cruise on the river (nice sites, horrible, horrible food) at a Lucy’s a lot (sort of american food) for convenience, shopped a bit, did medicals (Lulu was a trouper!) and visa pics. Took a bus to the American Consulate which used to be next to the White Swan, but is now a half hour away. Totally anticlimactic. Lots of security and waiting, and then, poof, you’re done. The flight home was SO easy, I couldn’t believe it myself. Lulu loved all the food and snacks that were provided and she slept well.
When we finally landed in our home airport my parents were waiting, holding a little doll and a stuffed lamb. Lulu jumped into their arms like she’d known them forever. It was an amazing trip that started with a scared little girl and ended not two weeks later with a little girl, ready to begin a new life. She is an amazing little girl!
posted by Darlene in CA @ 5:54 AM
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