Wednesday, November 30, 2005

So far this morning...

I wanted to post more pictures...Just for Auntie Cheryl. Here are a few from our morning so far. We had breakfast with the Brooks family before heading to the Civil Affairs building to do more paperwork. Julia became upset when seeing the assistant director, Mrs. Wong leave. We think that Julia knew her very well.

After paperwork at CA, we went to a notary office. We plan on doing some small shopping this afternoon. We need to get a stroller.

Well, there is not a whole lot more to write about. Julia did sleep from 8:30 last night till after 8:00 this morning. She never wet the bed and seems to let us know when she needs to use the toilet. Once awake, she pottied and a small while later, let me know that she had use the toilet again. This time, it was a giant poop. Sorry about that for all you that are reading this over breakfast. I was totally surprised that she seems to be trained! WOW!

Ok...have a good night/day and I will post more later! Love you all!

This is the notary office where we needed to do some paperwork. Posted by Picasa

Julia and Mommy at the Civil Affairs office this morning. Aunt Samantha, do you like our stripes? Posted by Picasa

The girl in the green sweater is our guide Rosslyn. She is very good! The woman in the black is the assisant director, Mrs. Wong. We think Julia was close to her.  Posted by Picasa

Just a few tears Posted by Picasa

Here is Julia giving her footprint on our adoption papers (notice the red shoes!) Posted by Picasa

Julia flashing either the peace (for Auntie Pam) or that she is 2 years old or V for Victory (She's a Nixon fan?) Posted by Picasa

This is Liz and Isaac. They are getting some great smiles from him!! Posted by Picasa

Watermelon anyone??? I think she's Grammy Denise's little girl already. Watermelon was all that she wanted to eat this morning for breakfast! Posted by Picasa

Julia and Isaac enjoying breakfast Posted by Picasa

More Daddy and Julia Posted by Picasa

Julia showing Daddy how to use the laptop. Posted by Picasa

They are building a gingerbread house in our hotel lobby. Posted by Picasa

This is us with Brion and Liz at the hotel in Beijing before we left to head to Wuhan. Posted by Picasa

This is a quilt that we had made by Ming's Auntie Fang. It has Julia's Chinese name (YinGui) and her birthdate. It also has stars where she was born (Xianning). The rings of the quilt are red, white and blue backgrounds for the US flag. Posted by Picasa

Our Forever Family Day (aka Gotcha Day)

How do you start a post about the most amazing day of your life? Well, I need to say that is this amazing day #4 in my life. First one being the day that Wayne and I got married. Second one being the day that Cameron Thomas was born. Third day being the day that Anna Elizabeth came into our lives. Now, here we are thousands miles away from everything we know and we have found the perfect match to our family again.

We met our guide Rosslyn at the airport and she then she took us to our hotel. It was about a 45 minute drive from the airport to our hotel. We are staying at the Mayflower Best Western in Wuhan. She informed us that she had made 4:00pm appointment for us to get the babies. OH MY GOODNESS!! It’s really happening!! I, of course went into panic mode. Do we have diapers? Do we have sippy cups and water? What about snacks? We managed to get all of paperwork together and meet Rosslyn in the lobby of the hotel.

It was about a 15 minute drive to the civil affairs building which in under construction, so there is bamboo scaffolding all over the front of the building. As we pulled up we saw 2 little ones dressed in matching outfits. We knew right away it was Julia and Isaac. Julia was in a red coat and Isaac in a matching blue one. Liz and I both started to cry. I can’t even tell you the words to describe the feeling. We jumped out of the van and followed the kids inside. They had been brought by 2 orphanage workers. Here in Hubei we are not allowed to meet the foster moms. What a huge disappointment. However, I do understand why that law is in place. It would make it much harder for Julia to see her foster mom again.

We had time to ask questions of the workers. What was Julia called? How did they calm her? What does she like to eat? I was overwhelmed and really didn’t ask many questions. We do know that she was raised with an older sister who is 10. I’m sure she is going to love Cameron and Anna. Julia knew right away from the pictures that Cameron was Ge Ge (older brother) and Anna was Jie Jie (older sister).

We received a photo album of Julia from the orphanage. There are some pictures that we had never seen before. There are even some of her recent 2nd birthday! She looks so well cared for in the foster mother’s home. We also received a bag of goodies from the orphanage that contained snacks, formula, and juice. We know that Director Lu loves his babies.

It is now time for us to leave the civil affairs. Isaac begins to cry and Julia seems to be a bit confused but doesn’t cry. We need to stop and buy formula and bottles. Isaac continues to cry as Brion heads out of the van with Wayne and Rosalyn. After a few moments, Julia begins to cry and they are now at full strength. This goes on until we reach the hotel. Both start and stop crying as we reach the elevators. Brion and Liz head to their room and we come to ours.
Julia finds many more toys and snacks in the room and loves it. She did very good!! Laughing, drinking a bottle, she seemed fine. All of the sudden she starts the potty dance and we need to get the toilet. I didn’t get her layers and layers of clothes off in time, so we had an accident. I decided that she needed a bath anyways, so we started a tubby. She loved the bath!!!! She was in the tub till she was a little prune. Wayne took pictures and video of her having a good time!
After the tub, she got out and just played with us like she had known us forever. It was a very magical moment. Until...she realized that it was time for bed and she wasn’t headed back to her foster mom. She cried and cried, asking for the same person over and over again. It was heartbreaking. She did not let me comfort her, she wanted Wayne (YES!!!). This is wonderful! After nearly an hour of crying and fussing she finally settled and went to sleep. And as of a matter of fact, she is STILL sleeping at this moment. YAY!! We only hope that today goes smoothly as well.

We have to meet with the officials again today. We hope to meet Director Lu. We have heard some great things about him, so we look forward to meeting him. I need to get ready for breakfast, so take care all and I will try to get more pictures up later today!!

First sight

Hey All,

I'm not going to post much about our Gotcha Day as we are in the middle of a breakdown and I don't want to be too far from Julia. She is clinging to Wayne and I want to be close.

The pictures say it all for now. I promise to post more about our first hours together tomorrow.

Cameron and Anna, Baby Sister is here! She looked at your pictures and know that you are Ge Ge and Jie Jie (Big Brother and Big Sister!!)

Love you all!
Melissa, Wayne and Julia

First Cheerios together Posted by Picasa

One happy Momma with a new baby girl...first bottle together Posted by Picasa

Checking out Momma Posted by Picasa

Bathtime! Posted by Picasa

Our silly girl! Posted by Picasa

Daddy gets a kiss Posted by Picasa

Julia and her Daddy sharing a laugh Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Our last day in Beijing

Where do I start? Each new day brings a huge adventure. We left the hotel around 8:30am. We met with our guide, Tracy. She’s a wealth of information. She attended university in Xi’An. That is where the terra cotta warriors are. Another place that I would love to go to, but seeing how we only have 2 weeks in China and are adopting a daughter, I guess I will have to wait to get to that! :-)

After a rather long drive to the mountains...we found ourselves at the foot of the Great Wall. The elevation is 3,000 feet. Liz and I walked until we personally felt as though we had seen enough of the Great Wall to say that we climbed it without killing ourselves. Brion and Wayne the true men...continued much higher up the wall. It was rather cold, but not unbearable. I brought along our latest copy of the Oceana Herald Journal and thought I would read a bit at the Great Wall! :-)

Following the Great Wall trek, we headed to a jade factory for some shopping and lunch. Sorry ladies...no jade for us. After the pearls I bought yesterday, I needed let our Mastercard stop smoking!

The Summer Palace was beautiful. It was one of the other places on my list that I really wanted to see. There is an incredible marble boat. Oh, the Summer Palace is where the emperor went to "hang out" and enjoy the huge man made lake.

After all this we had the chance to have an hour long shoulder/foot massage. Tracy took us to a little massage place that she had visited and we were given the best massages. First we were treated to a nice foot soak and shoulder massage. After the soak was complete, we laid back and then they went to work on our feet. I’m sure my feet were thanking us! The people that worked at the massage places were blind. Tracy said that blind people give better massages than sighted ones. We paid about 50 yuan (about $6 a person). Imagine that!

Dinner tonight was at a "minority" restaurant. The people that were running it are from a southern province in China. Food was delicious. Gluttonous rice in a pineapple was just like glorified rice. Grams, you need to learn how to make this!!

Beijing has been a wonderful place. Wayne and I have enjoyed our time here immensely. It is a city rich with history and tradition, although you see many American and other foreign influences.

Today we are headed to Wuhan. We are not sure if this is the day that we will get Julia. I’m so scared and excited at the same time. Wayne and I both feel for what Julia’s foster mother is about to experience. Julia has never been with any other family. I ask that you pray for Julia’s foster family and for us we approach this more trying time.

Enjoy the pictures from our last day in Beijing. Cameron and Anna, I love you and miss you lots. I hope that you are having a good time with Aunt Pammy. Tell her that there is cookie dough in the fridge if she wants to make cookies!!! I will write as soon as we have Julia!!

Wrong!! It's filled with rice and litle bits of cut pineapple! Posted by Picasa

Looks like a normal pineapple, right?? Posted by Picasa

Another Gate Posted by Picasa

Dragon Boats Posted by Picasa