Make mine a...

Grande, soy, machiatto with a double shot and whip cream, please

Momma Pat's Spaghetti Dinner, Delivered

Sarah's mom was kind enough to bring dinner over today and happily the majority of Eleanor's dinner actually ended up in her belly! Thanks for dinner Mama Pat!

 

We've settled in quite nicely, Tyler is having a blast with his little sister and I'm typing this now because Ella is still a bit feisty after her 12:45 ayem bottle.

 

Today, I cleaned fixed the forward-facing infant car seat that we haven't used for a few years, repaired the parking brake on the Bugaboo stroller and generally made myself useful. Ella is still a velcro baby to Sarah, but I've been taking her on progressively longer strolls around the house and she's mostly cool with it all.

 

Ella met a few of her neighbors and we received the most wonderful gift from the neighborhood - a scrapbook of sorts, with notes from people up and down the blocks surrounding us, letting Ella know about her new community. Thanks to everyone who participated and a special thanks to Michelle for the wondeful concept and execution!

DEPARTING TOMORROW

We are in Hong Kong tonight after more buses, coaches, trains, temperature and ear checks and crying babies than I will ever care to recall. Marc is out dining with half the group in downtown Hong Kong and I, suffering from a touch of tourista and a looooong day of travel with not enough food (which, given the tourista, was not a bad thing), stayed at the hotel with Yan Lin and the other half of the group.

 

For me, China has been alternately inspiring, terrifying, welcoming and astounding. If this country ever pulls itself completely togehter in political / socio economic terms, our collective goose is cooked! This country is so vast in scale and scope. The large cities are on steroids -- the billboards and towers/skyscrapers are huge, the apartment buildings endless and soaring (and most often squalid), and the numbers of people and sprawl of the cities is just unbelievable.

 

And, of course, China has given us one of their daughters and for that, we are eternally grateful.  Yan Lin is the Chinese gerber baby / kewpie doll incarnate and we look forward to introducing you to her (and by then I hope I am feeling better.) I hope the flight is not as miserable as I am anticipating. Off to bed now - thanks for checking our blog during the trip!

 

Sarah, Marc (eating some feast somewhere) and Yan Lin (sleeping)

Red Couch Redux

Okay, so I kind of forgot that the Red Couch is a rite of passage -  we've completed an obstacle course of paperwork, medical exams and bureaurcracy to get to this point. The reward is obvious, but the red couch is a symbol of completion of a task. With all the girls together in China for the last time, it's a potent slug of reality.

Happy Girl

 

Bath Time!

Sarah reminds me  to remind y'all to scroll down to the red couch photo below...

Guangzhou at Night

Be sure to scroll down to the Red Couch photo; Eleanor Yan Lin is third from the left.

 

Guangzhou is positively neon at night. Whole buildings are wired (tubed?) with neon and flashing lights, while boats make their way up and down the Pearl River ferrying dinner guests and sightseers.

 

This is the first and only city Sarah and I have visited that has exhausted her shopping mojo; she actually said "I am shopped out." This declaration came only after she bought twenty orr thirty dresses and/or outfits for Eleanor, naturally, but it was impressive to see her subcontract shopping to a friend's 18 year old daughter so that she could rest. Because our plane was late arriving in Hong Kong, I fear she may have some backup special mojo in reserve for shopping in the new city...

 

Two more pictures of happy parents

 

The Imperial Order of the Red Couch

A rite of passage for adoptive families in China is the "Red Couch" picture at the White Swan Hotel. Here is Miss Elenanor along with her classmates posing for posterity...

Chen's Ancestral Home

Also known as The Guangdong Folk Arts Museum, Chen's Ancestral Lineage Hall and The Chen Clan's Academy. It was built in 1890, during the Ching Dynasty and was financed by 72 Chen families. It has six courtyards, nine main halls and nineteen buildings on 15,000 m^2. Its original purpose was to pay tribute to the family's ancestors, but was later used as an academy where descendants lodged and studied for Imperial examinations. During the 1960's and 70's it was known as The Peoples Industrial College...

 

Fu Girls Precision Stroller Team

Eleanor is not a fan of the stroller, as can be seen in this picture...

My normal view of China

Sometimes I get ahead of the ladies while we're out walking around, but mostly I like to slow down and take it all in, especially when Eleanor glances back to see if I've found some yummy street food.

Eleanor at the White Swan

Waiting for our table at the Provinces restauraunt on Sunday. This morning we had an excursion to Chen's Ancestral Home and Liu Rong Buddhist Temple. Pictures to follow...

We've made it to Guangzhou

We're in Guangzhou at the White Swan Hotel, center of the universe for adoptive parents and their children. Guangzhou is much more Western than Nanchang, but it is still China. The air is heavy with humidity, approaching 100%, especially after this afternoon's rain. We have a greta room looking over the city and the Yangtse River, the largest in China if I recall correctly. Guangzhou is the third-largest city in China, with about 10 million people; nearly everyone lives in an apartment. Land is still state property here.

 

More pictures of Eleanor are attached...

Zaijian, Nanchang!

Wow those five days just slipped past in a hurry. We've packed up all our things and we're off to the bus that will take us to the airport and then on to Guangzhou. While there we will finalize the American side of the adoption procedure. Eleanor Yan Lin has been issued a Chinese passport which she'll need to gain entry to the United States in San Francisco. When the wheels touch down, however she'll be a full-blooded 'Murrcan, although she can not become President. Knowing the grit and determination of this little girl, I wouldn't count her out. If there's anyone who could get an amendment passed permitting foreign-born naturalized citizens to take the highest office in our country, it'd be Eleanor...

The whole crew at Tengwang Pavillion

We're all the way on the left. We're standing next to Auntie Jane Turner from FRC and Tom Buoye,our translator and guide, whom we lovingly refer to as Ground Control and Major Tom.

 

Also, everyone please note how well I've accesorized - my shirt and shorts go so well with my gold and white diaper bag... 

Eleanor, waking

 

Catching up with World news on the bus

While we were out playing tourists today...

Lunchtime 22 July

So, while the girls have their afternoon nap, I go out walking around Nanchang in search of a good meal. Around the corner from the hotel and six blocks down I came across this wonderful place that serves food from three stations -  veg  / meat, soup and rice. The place was packed at 12:30 when I got there and it had a pleasant buzz going. Nobody batted an eye when I came in and grabbed a tray. I picked up some potatoes steamed with hot red chilis, soy, garlic and ginger, garlic shoots stir-fried with black beans and scrambled eggs, a big bowl of tofu simmered in master stock and a bamboo cup filled with steamed rice and a small, red slightly sour fruit. And a large Nanchang beer that our friends Lisa and Morgan would love - light and crisp.

 

All of this was had for 18 kwai = $2.62 including 15% service charge.

 

I also made a new friend named Bari. He's ten yearss old and his family owns the restaurant. He helped me with Mandarin and I helped him with English. He actually ran upstairs to get his textbook. I met the entire extended family - grandmother, uncles, aunts, mother - and we had a grand old time.

Lunchtime 22 July

So, while the girls have their afternoon nap, I go out walking around Nanchang in search of a good meal. Around the corner from the hotel and six blocks down I came across this wonderful place that serves food from three stations -  veg  / meat, soup and rice. The place was packed at 12:30 when I got there and it had a pleasant buzz going. Nobody batted an eye when I came in and grabbed a tray. I picked up some potatoes steamed with hot red chilis, soy, garlic and ginger, garlic shoots stir-fried with black beans and scrambled eggs, a big bowl of tofu simmered in master stock and a bamboo cup filled with steamed rice and a small, red slightly sour fruit. And a large Nanchang beer that our friends Lisa and Morgan would love - light and crisp.

 

All of this was had for 18 kwai = $2.62 including 15% service charge.

 

I also made a new friend Bari - "

SALON UPDATE

We just washed Lin Lin's hair and it's not black at all! It's really a rich dark brown. But it is in dire need of a shaping at Kid Snips. Just thought you'd like to know ... Ancient temple today was fun but I nearly gacked in the heat ... And how 'bout all the old ladies coming up to ooh and ahh? (See below post and pics.) There is a waitress downstairs that has fallen in love with Ella Lin and keeps bringing her treat after treat which bebe is only too happy to hoover down.
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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Why is that girl eating my Cheerios?

And every Cheerio in the hotel belongs to me! When we got Eleanor on Sunday, we also received an update to her progress report. She's doing wonderfully, as you can see from all the pictures. There was an interesting notation in her file:

 

        "Gets upset when she sees someone else eating or drinking."

 

Way back in the Cenozoic Era when Sarah and I went on our first dates, I was by far the "better orderer" at restaurants. She's since matched my ability to find the best items on nearly any menu, extreme ethnic and overseas excepted.

 

When we went on our first dates, Sarah ordered conservatively and was, I think, generally disappointed in her choices. Assessing the situation cooly, Sarah often looked at what I was eating, noted that I was very happy in my choice, took a deep breath and with one motion and a quick mis-direction feint would say: "Are you gonna eat all of that?" and would promptly spear the other half of my entree onto her fork, plop it on her side plate and promptly devour it with gusto. I had finally met the right person to spend the rest of my life with...

 

And so it is with Eleanor. We were in a bus on our way to a government office when she spied a child outside munching on something. Out came Eleanor's snack bowl [Hat tip to the Planek's for the bowl; thank you so much!]. One of the other girls gets a handful of rice puffs, out comes the the snack bowl.

 

It is my solemn and sworn duty from this moment forward to keep our supplies topped up lest there be an epic battle between my two gourmands... And with that, it's nearly time for dinner.

 

Marc (typing), Sarah, Ella and Tyler (sleeping, albeit not all in the same place)

A rare moment with me in front of the camera

Eleanor is a velcro baby attached to Sarah nearly all the time. We've been slowly passing her back and forth and she's becoming more and more accepting of me. She's not afraid of me, nor does she yell when I hold her; Sarah got her from the adoption official first, so she bonded -think epoxy- to Sarah first.

When I walk out of the room, she looks around and calls after me and she mimics my motions - clapping, waving, shaking my head - and I can get her to laugh anytime at all. It's all perfectly normal. We also think that her caregivers were all women and she's come to associate them with comfort and safety.

 

I do the food, just like at home, so when she sees me with a baby bottle, her Pavlovian response kicks in just fine, thanks very much.

China's Grandmothers on duty

Here we are just inside Tengwang and a lovely lady came up to compliment Sarah on her lovely daughter. In the fall and winter some of these ladies scold new mothers about not having the baby properly dressed for the cold weather. That isn't a problem here today given that it's abot 37 Celsius in the shade. For those of you who no habla Celsius - I've been working hard on my Mandarin, can y'all tell? -, it's really easy to remember: 37 C = 98.6 F. Body temperature water for a shower or bath is teriffic; body temperature outside air is decidedly not...

Eleanor getting ready for Nanchang sightseeing

So this morning we were off to the Tengwang Pavillion a Song Dynasty comples about seven kilometers from home base. It was originally built in 654 and has been rebuilt or added to twenty-nine times in the past. The whole plaza is constructed from... zzz I know, who cares about the building, blah blah, blah. So, instead, I attach three more pictures of Eleanor Yan Lin. Both girls are enjoying their afternoon nap...

Lunch in Nanchang

We had a wonderful lunch in a restaurant across the street from the hotel yesterday. Eleanor dug into the garlic chives with black beans, ginger and hot chilis like a pro. We had a Jiangxi hotpot with river fish, mushrooms, ginger, garlic and greens. Eleanor devoured a copious amount of rice. We had two mains, rice and two large lagers for the princely sum of 49 kwai. Seven bucks.

Sunrise in Nanchang

Our hotel faces east, so this is what I've been seeing every morning. We're off for a culture day, visiting a 14th century temple and the porcelain district. Nanchang is where  Ming and Ching Dynasty porcelain was made...

Getting ready for lunch

Countdown to lunch has commenced

Nanchang, waking up

As most of you know, I like to get up early and despite being 8 or so time zones away from home, I still get up early. 

As most of you know, Sarah loves to lounge in bed. Eleanor is her mother's child, happily snoozing away perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of her bed, flat on her back, arms raised over her head, legs akimbo. 

Our hotel room faces east, so when the summer sun breaks through the drapes, I'm up. I carefully and quietly readjust the drapes to block the light, but it hardly matters since it's roughly 5:30 in the ayem [©  Ted Schmidt, Sr.] and the only thing that might get these two up is the promise of the breakfast dim sum buffet on the 2nd floor, but that doesn't open for another hour.

I cannot turn on the light to read, turn on the tellyvizzion machine or fire up this computer, so I go out for a walk. 

It's ever so slightly cooler in the morning - think upper eighties in temp and humidity - and it's fairly easy to navigate. 

We're right in the middle of Nanchang's downtown, but even a cursory examination of the surrounding area shows me that the concept of zoning has not been given a chance to blossom here in Jianxi Province. Electric motor shop, noodle shop, a gynormous long-distance bus terminal, a recirculating pump repair shop, a four story sixty-flat residential building, a teeny grocery, a gas station, and finally a five-star hotel complex. 

N.B. If you've ever lost a remote control for any sort of stereo or audio equipment, I know where it is; yesterday, Hank and I took a walk and found an alleyway 6-8 blocks long filled with stalls that sold mostly old remote controls. Thousands and thousands and thousands of them...

So, Nanchang in the early morning is quiet, although the streets are still busy. The majority of the traffic is mopeds and bicycles, with the occasional packed to capacity bus. As the day progresses, cars and trucks begin to dominate street traffic, sending bicycles, motorcycles and mopeds to the relative safety of the sidewalks, endangering the pedestrian population.

The way in which traffic functions here is quite different from home. At home when we approach an intersection, we slow down and check the traffic. Here, a moped driver keeps her head down and simply drives headlong into the flow, scarcely recognizing the danger. 

I have a theory about it; I believe it is the precursor to a tenet of Christian Science. In Christian Science, to name the disease is to have the disease. In Nanchang driving, recognizing how terrifying the traffic actually is would keep you in your apartment curled up in a ball.

Yesterday, we were standing outside a government office waiting for our bus when two mopeds collided. There was a loud thump, a fair bit of cracked plastic and no one was hurt in the least, but the way the accident was resolved was telling. A middle-aged lady wagged her index finger at the young man who had t-boned her moped, they both looked around, picked up a few stray bits of their mopeds off the pavement and then were back on their way. The accident occured directly opposite a police station. An officer was backing his car out of a space and was looking directly at the incident. No messy reports to fill out.

Our group might have had a role in the incident - 17 laowei with Chinese babies in the middle of Nanchang. I'm pretty sure the young man was looking at us and not where he was heading...

Sarah and Eleanor are about to have their mid-morning siesta so I'll wrap it up for now... 

More pictures!

EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT ELLA LIN AND ARE DYING TO FIND OUT!

In no particular order ... she is a PISTOL. Full of energy, very active, reaching for everything. She has a deep belly laugh when she is amused. She went to foster care 3 or 4 days after birth and has been with the same foster parents until Sunday. This explains her astounding social and attachment skills. She has huge eyes. She has the kind of hair I always wanted -- silky, shiny and straight (and it's black, just like Mama Pat's - family joke). Though in the sunlight it also has rich golden brown tones. She has already called me Mama and knows who her Baba (dada) is!! She lights up when Marc comes in a room with other adults. I cannot put her down for one nanosecond - and I mean that - without substantial distress on her part. So, she has definitely recognized a life raft and is clinging to it like glued on velcro. Soon, we hope she realizes that we are not going anywhere. She has major thighs and appears willing to eat everything in sight, including the snacks of her fellow adoptees! One rarely sees such impressive eating skills. She loves Chinese phrases like "don't cry" and "I love you, baby sister!" which have come in handy. She responds to her name. She arrived at the hotel an hour before our bus did on Sunday, which meant no time to organize and unpack. We are only now emerging from that chaos! 

Lots of Chinese bureaucratic offices today, but she is now officially adopted! More pictures tomorrow ....