Lazy Day

Eli is still battling a cough and some wheeziness, so we hung out at the hotel most of the day. He woke up last night in the night crying out and again at nap today. I think I figured out that it is because if he can't see us, he gets upset and scared. I think this is a good thing. We are praying that he soon knows that we are "his people" and can trust us.

We ate breakfast with one of the other moms today who is originally from China, but has lived in Chicago for quite some time. She has 2 boys at home and just adopted a little girl. She told us that many people do not understand why she would adopt and she said that she and her husband have felt led by God to do this ... to be an example for other Chinese people that adoption is an option. I was really inspired by her story. In China if you have a child, you are not allowed to adopt. But if you are Chinese in the U.S., no law is there to stop someone from adopting.

We ventured to the playroom today. Eli was a lot more active there (as long as daddy wasn't watching). He walked all around the ball pit holding on with one hand, sat down, crawled and stood up with little effort. This is the first time we have gotten to see him do a lot of these things. He has his moments when he lets loose and shows us what he can do.

I asked the nannies the other day if he usually feeds himself and holds his bottle because he acted like he didn't know how. The nannies said that he does hold his own bottle and laughed that he wasn't doing it for us. Well, he now is holding his bottle. I think that he was just being a little stinker.

Michael did go out with some of the other dads to grab dinner. He took some pictures along the way that I thought we'd share. Tomorrow we are supposed to go to the Shaolin Temple where it is believed to be the birthplace of KungFu. Will see if we are able to go because Eli's cough is still bad.

Tomorrow will be our last full day in Zhengzhou. We are ready to go to Guangzhou and to be on the last leg of our trip. We are also ready for the warmer temps!!

 

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Peeling an onion

A friend said that our experience so far with Eli is like peeling an onion and I think that is exactly how we feel right now. We have ups and downs; steps being taken forward and then back again. We have to keep reminding ourselves that he really has only been with us for 2 days and to not expect an overnight transformation. It's hard though ... we have loved him so long, but he has no idea why these strange looking, strange talking people are now with him in a strange place.

We had a free day today and we actually had some blue skies for the first time. The smog level is still considered hazardous according to the news, but oh how nice it was to see the sky! We took Eli out for a walk and bought him some shoes. Before we got to the right department I got "yelled" at by a Chinese woman because he did not have enough on his feet (he had 2 pairs of socks on, but here that is not enough). I told her (although she couldn't understand me) that we were buying him shoes.

We walked through a pretty park on the way back to the hotel. There was a little lake and rides for the kids. We got lots of stares. I think it is good that I can't understand what they are saying about us ... it is very evident that they are talking about us. One lady tried to ask me about his lip. I just smiled and kissed him.

I was able to get both smiles and tears today. He tries SO HARD not to smile and we play a game where if I look at him, he looks away and vice versa. He is playing hard to get with us. He seems to be doing a little better with me than Michael. Michael left the room at one point this morning and I was able to get him to give me a few smiles. He loves his back to be tickled!!

Michael ran to Wal-mart this afternoon and I put Eli down for a nap. I walked into the bathroom and he started crying. He had big alligator tears. I picked him up and held him tight and he immediately fell asleep with his arms wrapped around me. I hoped that this meant we had turned a corner, but when he woke up we were back to the somber face.

We pulled out a plastic tablecloth and laid it on the floor (no child should play on these floors - pretty nasty!). We spread out the toys and "ignored" Eli to see what he would do. He started playing and throwing his toys. He was crawling around and acting like he was having fun. When he'd see one of us, he'd stop. (That is getting better now though.)

Eli has been fever free until tonight. He also has a bad cough, but seems to be better since he ate his dinner (he is loving eggs!). Smiles returned tonight after his bath. Michael was able to get some pictures if he hid around the corner and took them through the mirror. Eli won't smile for Michael, but has no problem eating his food :-)

So tomorrow we will try and peel another layer or two from our little onion.

 

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A ladies man

We have gone nonstop today and we are exhausted! Eli woke up with a slight fever and still had diarrhea. His fever quickly went away and he has eaten like a champ today ... Pretty low key stuff like congi and yogurt, but an improvement from yesterday. We think he is on the mend and pray he is over the worst of it.

We went back to the registration office today to finalize the adoption here in China. So as of today, we are officially Eli's parents. We then went to the notary's office for more paperwork and signatures. We came back to the hotel for a quick lunch and then left to go back to Eli's home city, Luoyang. The drive was about 2 1/2 hours each way. We had a driver and our guide, Rita, take us. We went to apply for Eli's passport in Luoyang. It was a very easy process. When we got there, we saw 4 kiddos from Eli's orphanage whose parents are coming next week. They were there to get their visa pictures taken. Michael took pics of all of them to share with their parents at home. One thing we know all too well is that you crave updates and any information you can get about your child.

Eli is officially ours!

Our group (minus one family)

 

After we left there, we went to Eli's orphanage. We are so thankful for this opportunity ... to see the only home he has known for almost 2 years. What we know about his orphanage is that it is the largest one in the Henan province. There are 500-600 children, many of which who are older and may never have the love of a mommy or daddy. There are 6 floors to the orphanage and it was very cold inside. The playroom and his sleeping room were fairly warm, however. We were taken to both of those rooms and it was heartbreaking. There were several little ones just laying on the floor, while others came running to us. There were only a couple of toys in the room. Michael gave the nannies some suckers for the kids and they seemed to love that.

Eli is still very withdrawn, no tears and no smiles. Our guide visits his orphanage a lot and said they see this a lot with the boys from this orphanage. I don't know why, but they said it can take a few days for the kiddos to come around. Our prayer now is that he opens up to us soon because it is so hard to see him just look at us with his big beautiful eyes, but look so sad. He has been reaching for me, so I know that is a good sign.

When we were in the playroom we saw his first smiles when he saw his cribmate. A precious little girl who LOVES Eli!! He just lit up and smiled, but as soon as he noticed us watching, he stopped smiling. I sure hope we get to see that smile again soon, because it melted our hearts.

Eli smiling after getting a kiss from his cribmate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdwmf1X5HoA

His sleeping room was fairly clean and the beds seemed nice. Two kids sleep in each bed and we saw where he and his cribmate slept.

His bed is this center one with the bunny (the Chinese don't reserve pink for girls and blue for boys ... anything goes!)

We took a couple of pictures of the outside of the orphanage and then came back to Zhengzhou.

As I write this, he is in his crib falling asleep. He is "talking" softly(some of the first words we've heard from him) and is very active with his legs. He seems to feel very comfortable in his crib, which is sad to me. We have only put him in there at night because I think he has been in a crib way too much. We have noticed that he rubs his ears to help sooth himself to sleep. Bella still rocks herself to sleep ... a learned behavior from her time in the orphanage. Still hard for me to watch.

We have a free day tomorrow and hope to just spend some quality time with our little man. Goodnight from Zhengzhou!

 

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One less

We want to introduce everyone to Elijah Hexi Garland!!

This is how our day went ... We went with the other eight families in our group to the Civil Affairs office here in Zhengzhou today at 9:30 a.m. Some of the kids were already waiting and it was so emotional to see the kids united with their forever families. There were lots of tears from the kids, parents and those of us standing by and waiting. Gradually many of the other kids came. Such an exciting and overwhelming time!

Our guide told us that the orphanage director at Eli's orphanage was having a hard time getting here because of snow. The roads were closed. (Ugh!) They decided to take the train instead so we would not get Eli until later in the day. Once everyone else received their children, we all came back to the hotel. There was also one other family whose child was coming later in the day as well. We came back to our room without Eli and it reminded me of leaving the hospital without Aidan when he was born because he was in the NICU. Not exactly what "we" had planned.

The other family's son came shortly after 1:00 in the afternoon. Our guide called to see where Eli was, but they still weren't close because the train was delayed by 50 minutes. We went back to our room and waited for "the call" again.

Shortly after 2:00 p.m. our guide called. We rushed down the hall and as soon as we got there, he came off the elevator all bundled up. I tried not to overwhelm him but the orphanage director handed him to me. I expected tears from him, but he has been tear free ... just taking it all in. He easily goes to either one of us.

He is so beautiful! His eyes are so full of expression. He had a high fever, runny nose and a rattling chest when he came to us, so we have started him on Tylenol and the antibiotic that we brought. The guides have been fantastic and willing to get us anything that we need.

We are so blessed to be called to be his parents. He is tiny (18 month pj's are big on him). He is very underweight and has very little muscle tone, but he LOVES puffs and picks several up at a time to get them in his mouth. He has easily fallen asleep on me twice and has enjoyed being cuddled. I know he doesn't feel well, so I do hope that this time of us caring for him helps him understand that we will always care for him and he will never be left alone again.

So today, there is one less orphan in the world, who we now call our son. We are so grateful that God has brought him to us and we are thankful for all the love and support that our friends and family have abundantly given us throughout this entire journey. Aidan, Keenan, and Bella; we miss you dearly and can't wait to introduce you to your new little brother.

Here are some pics from our "Gotcha Day" . . .

He had 4 layers of clothes on ...

Snuggling with daddy after bath time.

Drifting off in Mommy's arms.

 

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Amazing Race

We have always said that we could be contestants on the Amazing Race show and today we had our own little trial run. We opted out of the Beijing trip that some of the other families in our travel group with CCAI decided to do. We wanted to come to China a few days early like we did last time to get rested from the trip and to get used to the time difference before we got Eli, so we decided to do this little side trip to Xi'An on our own.

When we were in Hong Kong, we had no problem finding someone who spoke English. Many signs were also in English, so getting around was fairly easy. That is not the case here in Xi'An. Outside of our hotel, we have only come across a couple of people who speak English and there are no signs in English.

We knew coming here that we absolutely wanted to see the Terracotta warriors, so we set off this morning with some direction from the hotel staff and walked about 15 minutes to the bus station. The bus station was near the train station and the closer we got, the busier it was. We had a hard time finding the bus station. We were told what bus number to look for once we got there. Michael walked up to someone that looked official and held up his fingers while pointing to a parked bus. The man was very nice and walked us down the road a bit and pointed in the direction we needed to go. We found the bus station and the right bus number and hopped on. The bus drove about 45 minutes and we were brought to the Terracotta warriors. Our hotel staff told us that there are English speaking guides outside and that we could hire one of the guides to take us through the museums. A very nice lady named "Jennie" approached us immediately and guided us through the pits that house the warriors.

A farmer found the first pit in 1974. This is pit #1 where many warriors have been unearthed. There is still work going on to unearth the rest of the warriors here and put the broken pieces back together. A neat fact is that no two warriors are identical. Here are just a few of the many pics that we took.

 

It is believed that the warriors were made 2200 years ago to protect the emperor in his 2nd life. The workers who created the warriors were buried alive to keep the secret. The estimate is that thousands of men lost their lives.

Pits 2 and 3 are not as large. The warriors in Pit 2 are mostly still under the earth. This picture shows one section that has been unearthed and the warriors in their broken pieces.

Pit 3 is deeper and is where the generals were found. Here is a picture ...

When the warriors were found, they were in color. As soon as they were exposed to oxygen, the color disappeared. There are 5 more pits, but those have not been unearthed at all. Jennie did a great job telling us the history. We also met the farmer at the end of the tour who found the warriors. We are so glad we were able to see the warriors this time of year, even though it was cold. In the busy season, the warriors are seen by 80,000 people per day.

Jennie told us about a different bus that would get us back to the city quicker and one that supposedly did not make stops. She pointed us in the direction of the bus stop. We found the bus easily, but the bus ended up making several stops, one of which was at a gas station so the driver could use the restroom. We picked up so many passengers that it was standing room only. We got back safely, although I swore we were going to be in many accidents along the way - crazy driving!!

There aren't many tourists here in Xi'An this time of year and we really stick out. We get lots of looks and stares, but everyone is friendly.

Tomorrow we take the bullet train to Zhengzhou. This is the capital city of the Henan province. Eli will be brought to us in Zhengzhou on Monday morning! We're almost there and can't wait to get him in our arms.

 

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Xi'An

We made it to Xi'An this afternoon and were amazed by a couple of things. First off ... The smog is so bad that we are surprised anyone can breathe. The smog in Beijing was bad when we there a few years ago in August, but I contributed some of that to the heat. Our driver from the airport said the smog is always this bad. I can't even imagine. People walk around wearing face masks all of the time. They have become part of a fashion statement. Some say Nike. Others look like an animal and others are all lace.

The second thing that we noticed was the extreme poverty as we drove into the city. We saw some of that in Beijing, but nothing compared to what we saw today. Heartbreaking.

We got to experience true China driving today at its best. We actually saw two accidents today, which is the first time we have seen an accident here. We were told everyone drives crazy, but by some miracle there aren't many accidents. I have no idea how anyone's car remains unscathed.

Our hotel is amazing. We were upgraded to a suite and did not even know it. Our first apartment could fit in to this place. Downtown Xi'An is surrounded by the only city wall that remains in its entirety. It is very neat to see and drive through ... You almost feel as if you are entering into the palace gates.

We went out walking this afternoon and found our way to Muslim Street. It is a street full of street vendors. Lots of interesting smells and foods to purchase. There weren't too many things that you can find in the U.S. We also saw the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower. Both are under construction, so we didn't get to see their full beauty but they were still magnificent.

Xi'An City Wall

View from our hotel room

Michael in front of the Bell Tower

Pig feet anyone?

We ate at a Brazilian restaurant tonight. Yep, that's right ... We traveled all the way to China to eat Brazilian BBQ. It was very good and the waiter, Fernando, took an interest in us. He wanted to know where we were from, why we were here and what we thought about Xi'An. We continued to have an interesting and eye opening conversation with him. I want to write more about this conversation, but it will take me awhile to put it together. Stay tuned to hear more about Fernando.

We are going to try and sleep more than 4 hours tonight. Goodnight from Xi'An. Tomorrow - Terracotta warriors!

 

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Hong Kong

We made it to Hong Kong last night after traveling all day. Needless to say, we are tired and are trying to figure out what day of the week and what time it is both here and at home. :-) We flew to Chicago from Cincinnati, had a 4 hour layover, and then took our flight on Cathay Pacific for over 15 hours to Hong Kong. Our flight was good and flying on Cathay was very nice. The meals were good and we had a huge selection of movies and tv shows to choose from.

We wish we could see more of Hong Kong because it looks like a very fun city. We are about to fly to Xi'an in a couple of hours. We have met two adoptive families already who were both on our flight from Chicago. One of the families is from Indy and she and I are on a Facebook group together, so it was nice to meet her in person. The other family is from Wisconsin. We are all excited and so thankful to finally be here.

We were able to Skype this morning with the kids and they are having lots of fun with their grandparents. Here are a few photos to share for now. We should have a lot more once we get settled in Xi'an and we start touring ... We are really excited to see the terra cotta warriors. And ... we only have a couple more days until we get to hold Eli in our arms for the first time!

 

Our last photo as a family of 5!

Going through immigration in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Marriott Lobby

Hong Kong Bay through the fog (correction smog)

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