sick babies

The babies from the Ji An orphanage are all sick including Sadie. They have a nasty chest cold and can't lay down without hacking viciously. Last night and this afternoon when Sadie went to bed or napped she hacked the whole time. It's heart breaking to hear her suffer like that. When she's sitting up and playing she's fine. We had one of the agency people come check out Sadie this afternoon when she was napping and of course when the agency person was there Sadie slept like a rock and didn't cough once. Tonight we're going to give her some expectorant before bed that should help her cough and sleep.
Its really frustrating to just be hanging out in the hotel in Nanchang doing nothing while we wait for Sadie's passport - especially when Sadie is sick and should be home seeing her pediatrician in NYC. I don't get the timing of this process, I'm sure we could have gone to Guangzhou yesterday and started the US immigration work instead of hanging around here until Friday! That's still two days from now. I think the process can be streamlined for everyone's sake. I hate to complain after everything the agency has done for us but a lot of people in the group are confused and frustrated, especially the ones with the sick babies.

This computer isn't letting me upload pictures right now so that will have to wait until tomorrow. By the way, everything is in Chinese on the computer and browser so it's kind of challenging to edit photos and work on the blog - especially when the computer sucks to begin with. And, I can't see the postings because I guess blogs are not allowed here. One thing I learned on this trip for next time is bring plenty of medicine and your own computer.

more pictures

the computer in the business center is painfully slow. Sadies in the harness thing around my neck and freaking out so this will be quick - sort of.

Sadie pictures

First Cheerios today, she was happy.

We've had her for 24 hours now and have hit all the milestones, sleep, eat, pee, poop, nap, melt-down, play. I'm wiped out, Jackie is doing a lot better. Today we went to the official notary and finished our paperwork here in Nanchang but we have to wait for the gov't to deliver Sadie's passport which may take a few days.

The picture above is Sadie and Jackie meeting for the first time.

Sadie and dad meet for the first time.

This was the hardest part; the first hour Sadie was terrrified and confused. Her mood brightened after a fresh diaper and some food.

The adoption ceremony today at the official notary office.

Sadie's with us now

Its actually kind of hard to put this down but Sadie is with us and she's incredible. Such a sweetheart. Full of life, funny, rowdy, incredibly cute and so sweet. The hand off was harsh, it was in a conference room in the hotel. We were the last family to get our baby. Sadie went to Jackie right away but warily. It was hard to watch the expression on her face - sheer terror - as we took her out of the room and away from her caregivers who were all calling her name "Yan Yan". In the lobby and up in the elevator she was terrified and wet. In the room she didn't cry just looked terrified. We took her to the window, gave her a block with a bell in it. We had to feed her because we were told she was hungry. I made the mix of rice and formula and she sat in Jackie's lap and started to suck on the bottle. She ate a bit then pushed it away and started to cry. We figured she was uncomfortable so we changed her. That was a hysterical. It took the both of us to wrestle her out of her long johns and get her shoes and socks off then wipe her down and smear on the cream. I approached cream part like I was icing a cake which I realized was probably way too much but Sadie didn't seem to mind. We got the diaper on, another first and then put her into a short sleeved one piecer and a pair of plaid pants and she was ready to go. We went back to the chair and tried the bottle but she wasn't having it. I opened a jar of mixed fruit baby food and tried gave her some and she loved it. It took her a few spoonfuls to get the hang of it but she was definitely digging the new taste sensation. She chowed about a quarter of a jar then wanted to play. She came right to life after getting some of the jarred food. She played which her block and her little knit doll we gave her. We showed her the window and all the traffic down below - she loved it. I held her and she grabbed my neck. She didn't cry.
We put her on the bed and kept playing with her block and feeding her the jarred food. Her mood kept getting better and better. It was an amazing transformation. She finally started to laugh and squeal when we ticked her feet or scratched the bed in front of her. You could see her start to get attached - or maybe just fixed - on Jackie right during that first 45 minutes. She kept getting happier and happier. It was incredible. We then had to go down to the conference room to fill out paper work. We took Sadie down in her bare feet and short sleeved shirt and plaid pants and she was totally happy. Once in the room her mood stayed fine and she smiled and laughed at the other people. All the other babies were there and some were eating or crying or spacing out. It was great. Our case worker was a bit blown away I think by Sadie's mood and goofball antics. It was amazing.
After the paper work we took Sadie back upstairs for the next challenge - putting her to bed. We tried to give the bottle again but she didn't want it. We put her in the crib and she fussed around and tried to get. We laid her back down, stroked her cheeks and she mellowed right out. She got up again and I laid her down one more time, stroked her cheeks for a while and she calmed down. We had the lights out and she went to sleep. I can't believe how lucky we are Sadie is such a good baby.
She's got a cold and respiratory thing and is blowing snot and drooling and wheezing but she's alright. She's feisty as hell.
I can't wait for tomorrow but we have no idea what to do once she wakes up. I know we'll have to try the bottle again. Tonight she ate a whole jar of food.
Anyway, so far so good.

Leaving Beijing

We're getting ready to leave Beijing and fly to Nanchang. We were up at 5:30 this morning and ready to go by 6. Its bright and sunny out. Today is the day! By 5 PM we'll be parents. Incredible. I doubt I'll be posting in the next day or two but hopefully when I do I'll be able to post some pictures of our family.

more pictures

It's a bit after 7AM and our group is going to do some site seeing today. It's pouring rain outside and about 60 degrees so I'm not sure how the site seeing will go but its hard to pass up a chance to see the Great Wall. Here are a few more pictures from our trip so far. The site seeing is great I guess but again, all I really care about is getting Sadie and getting home. Its hard for us to sleep, we're both really excited and anxious to get her. Tomorrow at about 5PM we'll finally get Sadie in Nanchang. Its hard to really appreciate anything else that's going on. Maybe on our next trip we'll be more tuned into the tourist aspect of the trip.

street kids outside our hotel

This is a street in one of the Hu Tongs. Hu Tongs are old neighborhoods that haven't changed in hundreds of years. Definitely the best part of the trip so far was wondering around this Hu Tong.

These gentlemen are playing a board game with huge wooden pieces. There was so much life in the Hu Tong. People everywhere doing everything from cooking to playing games out in the open in small court yards and sidewalks.

At the Heavenly Temple.

More later...

first pictures

Here are some random shots from the plane ride and our first day and a half.

"only 13 hours to go!"













outside the hotel










there are people waiting for this computer so I'll put the other pictures up later...

Arrived in Beijing

we arrived yesterday to our hotel about 4 pm. the flight was not horrible but not easy either. just a quick note about the flight: the row we sat in had no window and the guy who sat in the window position of our row smelled so bad that he left a dense, toxic cloud of B.O. It was intense.

anyway, the hotel is great. the room has two single beds that are hard as rock and an interesting view of the highway and back of the hotel. we went to the "famous roast duck house" across the road f0r dinner last night and it wasn't bad at all although I don't recall ever having beef with such a weird textured. I was out cold by 8PM.

today we had a big american breakfast in the hotel restaurant with a bunch of other adopting couples from our group. everyone went off in their own directions after that. We went to a part of Beijing called the Hu Tong. It's a very old neighborhood with tiny, narrow streets and shanty town like houses. it was amazing. I got a lot of good video of that area. After that we went to the Heavenly Temple which was really beautiful as well as the grounds around the temple. Its really cold and foggy today and all I have are short sleeve shirts and no jacket because the weather forecast I checked online said 85. It was 90 here a couple of days ago. Tomorrow we go on an organized tour of the great wall and other sites with the group. It should be fun but to be honest I'm more interested in just getting to Nanchang and getting Sadie.

The air pollution is incredible. As someone in our group put it, the air is oppressive. We're going up to the room now to chill out for a while before meeting some people for dinner later. I think we're going to try going to go to the Friendship Store too later.
I'll post some pictures later.

leaving

Didn't make it to the gym. The car will be here in a few minutes. Its time to start moving our hundreds of pounds of luggage to the lobby. Maybe time for a quick picture. Done.

Okay, the car has arrived. Time to shut down and go.

packed and ready - more or less

I think we're finished packing. We have 3 large pieces of luggage, two backpacks and a small carry-on. We're not taking the stroller our friends lent us. Its too heavy and we're weighed down enough as is. We'll get a stroller in Nanchang, I think there is a Walmart there. Our itinerary shows a shopping trip so I'm assuming that's where we'll go. I feel like we're already traveling with a drug store complete with toy department and I bet we still find out we're missing something crucial once we get there.

The car is coming at 8:30 tomorrow morning for the half hour trip to Newark. Our flight leaves at 12:10 PM and we arrive in Beijing at 1 PM the following day. For the trip I filled my mp3 player and Jackie's iPod with a bunch of music. I also "rented" a CD-MP3 book "Manhunt: the 12 day chase for Lincoln's killer" and put that on my mp3 player. I've been told audio books are good for long plane rides.

Its almost midnight and I'm hoping to get up at 6:30 to go to the gym before the car comes but I really doubt that is going to happen. I'm feeling totally wired at the moment. The last few days at the office I had a knot in my stomach as I plowed through as many of the tasks as I could before going on my leave and I feel the same way now.

Today we took $2700 in cash out of the bank. That's how much we'll be traveling with tomorrow. We were lucky because the $3000 orphanage fee we were allowed to pay by cashiers check to our agency instead of traveling to China with the $3K in cash which is how it is usually done. We're bringing $1500 for other administrative fees and another $1100 for ourselves. I know there are a lot of international adoption programs that require the adopting parents to travel with large sums of cash so I feel like we got off easy. We have a couple of money belts that we'll be using on the trip. I've never used a money belt and I don't know if we put that on before we get to the airport, in the air or what. There were no directions with the money belts.

For the last couple of years I've thought of this trip only in terms of getting Sadie and getting home. However in the last couple of weeks people have been asking me if we are going to do some shopping while we're there. Item such as; ribbon microphones, Prada suits, Cuban cigars and opium have come up in conversation. I have no idea where I would look for this stuff. I'm guessing the knock-off stuff merch will come looking for us so I'm not too worried about it. But I'm still not thinking of the trip as a vacation at all. It'll be nice to get away but to be honest; Beijing or Guangzhou would not be on my short list of vacation destinations.

Lost Daughters of China

The National Geographic DVD, Lost Daughters of China is a great documentary that follows a group of families to China to adopt their daughters. The documentary also goes into a bit of detail about the cultural and social reasons why the Chinese value boys over girls. We had the DVD for about a year and never watched it until last week. We were totally blown away because the documentary shows the families hitting the tourist sites in Beijing, traveling to South East China to get their daughters and then traveling to Guangzhou to complete the paperwork then flying home. I would definitely recommend getting the DVD to get a good idea of what the experience is like. If you are waiting to go to China or thinking about adopting from Chinal don't wait until the week before you go to China to see this documentary like we did.

An impromptu party at O'Hare

Yesterday I was in Chicago on my last business trip before China. At the airport bar I had a little celebration. I asked the surly, overweight bartender if she could make a good martini and she said "yeah but it'll be in a plastic cup." Perfect I told her. I said it was a celebratory drink and she asked me why and I said because the day after tomorrow I'm going to China to adopt a little girl. The bartender's eyes lit up and she said "isn't that the coolest thing" and poured what seemed to me to be an extra long pour into the shaker. The bar was really crowded, typical airport bar that sticks out into the gate area and everyone around heard our exchange.
She gave me the martini and it was really good. I was celebrating all the hard work we've put in over the last 5 years trying to start a family and finally reaching the finish line I told her. I was also celebrating being off work for nearly a month to concentrate solely on learning how to be a dad and have a family.
The bartender was asking me a bunch of questions while simultaneously taking drink orders and checking every one's ID. A guy 4 stools away said "I was adopted!" "Very cool" I said. I didn't know what else to say. He said he was visiting Chicago from So. Cal. to visit his daughter. I didn't really want to know anymore details that he seemed eager to share and thankfully the lady sitting next to me asked me where in China we were going. Her and I had a nice talk. She was about my age, maybe a few years older and said her and her husband decided to not have kids but devote themselves to their friends and family's kids. She said Sadie was lucky and we were doing a great thing. The bartender asked me if we had a name and I said Sadie. The bartender boomed "Sadie! Isn't that the coolest thing" the adopted guy said "Hey, Sadie's going to live in New York, that's awesome" and it sort of went on like that for a while.
The bartender bought me another drink and more people were asking questions. I passed Sadie's picture around. The bartender actually called to the dishwasher to come out from the back to see the picture. I was getting embarrassed but at the same time I was happy to be having an impromptu party for Sadie's adoption.

Pediatric planning

Tonight we are going to visit her pediatrician to talk about her physical when she returns. We want the doctor to see her original medical report and measurements. We had her original medical report reviewed by Dr. Jane Aronson because she comes so highly recommended but we are going to have her regular pediatrician do her physical upon her return.

Health update from China

Yesterday we received an update on Sadie's health. The report comes from her orphanage and is supposed to current as of the last couple of weeks. The update came out of the blue but was a welcome surprise. Here it is:

1. What’s the typical character of the baby?

She is active and alert. She is attached to the familiar people and asks them to hold her. She smiles a lot and is not shy.

2. What are her likes and dislikes?

She likes being held. She likes listening to music and playing with toys she has never seen before.

3. What’s her schedule, such as getting up, having meals, napping and sleeping during the night, as well as her daily activities?

She gets up at 6:30, naps from 12:00 to 14:30, and goes to sleep around 20:00 after her bottle. She usually sleeps on her side. She wants adults to accompany her when she goes to bed. She has 3 meals a day. She has 150ml of formula mixed with rice cereal at 9:00, 14:30 each, and 200ml at 20:00. She likes to have steamed bread, noodles, rice mixed with gravy. She plays outdoors once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

4. How about her pee and poop?

She poops once per day (usually after her meal or after getting up in the morning) and pees several times. She uses the potty to poop and the adult hold her to pee during the day time. She uses diaper during the night time.

5. Does the baby sleep in the crib or in a common bed? Does she sleep alone or with adults?

She sleeps in her own crib

6. Can she use a cup to drink water?

No, she drinks from the bottle.

7. What’s her favorite activity?

She likes to move around in the walker.

8. What’s her favorite food?

She likes to eat congee, noodles, rice mixed with gravy and also likes apple and cookies.

9. When did she begin to walk?

She is not able to walk on her own now.

10. Where was she found? Was there any note on her when she was found? If there was, can we get a copy?

She was found at the gate of the institute and there was a birth note with her. You can take picture of it when you receive her.

11. Do you still keep the clothes she was wearing when she was found? If any, can we have that?

We don’t have that any more.

12. Has she been in the care of the same nurse, foster family or institute since she was found?

Yes, she has been fostered in the institute.

13. Did something special happen on the day she was found, such as heavy rain, or a holiday?

No, nothing special happened.

14. Is she allergic to anything? If any, what kind of medicine is she allergic to?

So far she hasn’t been found to be allergic to anything.

15. What’s the special feature of the city to let the baby be proud of?

There are many places of interests in Ji An City. It is the hometown of Wen, Tian Xiang ()1236-1283AD), a famous official during the Song Dynasty. It is also the ancestral home of Mao, Ze Dong, the first Chairman of P.R.C. and his portrait is hanging on the Tian An Men gate. The famous revolutionary base Jing Gang Shan is close to this city. The local products, such as the ham, pickled turnip, mushroom, and the black-bone chicken are famous all over China. As the economy develops, the traffic becomes convenient. The railway from Beijing to Kowloon runs through this city and an airport is 40km aways from it.

Packing

This morning we packed Sadie's suitcase with all the baby stuff we are told we'll need for our 7 days with her in Nanchang and Guangzhou. We filled a very large suitcase with:

• disposable diapers (pack of 70 pampers)
• 4 Avent bottles 260ML
• 10 nipples
• 1 box of enfamil formula
• 12 packets of rice cereal
• hundreds of baby wipes
• 5 jars of baby food - different flavors (we have no idea what we are doing when it comes to the food thing)
• two boxes of biter bisquits
• small box of cheereos
• package of another cracker type finger food for babies
• baby tylenol drops
• orajel
• underarm thermometer
• bacitracin cream
• cortizone cream
• kaolectrolyte packets
• nail clippers
• box of kiddie bandaids
• 3 or 4 teething toys
• a little fabric doll
• a couple cloth books
• a small music box (september song)
• stacking cups
• 3 or 4 card board books
• vaseline
• two boxes of disposable diaper bags
• nose aspirator
• ear bulb thing
• small baby blanket
• 6 small bottles of juice
• camilia for teething pain
• two bibs

I'm wondering if we'll need to pack all of this stuff on every trip we take with her.

Two weeks from today...

... we fly out of Newark on a direct flight to Beijing, the first leg of our trip to China to meet, greet and bring Sadie home. It has been an extremely long journey already. A lot of time has passed and many hurdles have been cleared to get where we are now. Last night we had our "travel meeting" at the agency, Spence-Chapin in NYC, where we learned our itinerary, filled out our visa applications and received our plane tickets. It was the meeting we've been hearing about for over two years and never thought we'd ever get to attend. But we did. And now it's just a matter of squaring things up at our jobs and doing the final packing.

I started this blog a couple of times already over the last two years but it was hard to keep up because there was really nothing much happening once all the paperwork was finished. There wasn't enough activity to keep up an interesting blog. However now that we are two weeks out I think it's time to start recording the experience. I'll try to include as much of the overall experience as well. Like our first visit to Spence to learn about their programs and how excited we were after that meeting. It was a long time ago but I can remember it so well it seems like it happened last week.