Day 7 Guiyang, day 2 with Scarlett (Wednesday, 8/10)

Last night was rough. Scarlett initially fell asleep in the crib but woke up like the night before and we brought her into bed with us. She moves around a lot when not in the crib and we all had a hard time sleeping. When we went down to breakfast, she wouldn’t eat and didn’t seem to feel good. When we got her on Monday, she did have a slightly runny nose. We asked Kasumi if we could delay our original meet time by an hour so she could rest. She did fall asleep (so did Nathan), and we ended up meeting at 10:30 to do the sightseeing that was planned for us. Kasumi was very understanding that we needed to do what was best for our daughter. But when we woke her up, she was so happy and ready to go. Phew! I was worried that she was getting super sick. The first place that we went to was the monkey park and Buddhist temple at the top of this small mountain. The van ride up was neat with wonderful views. We stopped by a pretty lake where people were on little boats and took pics. When we got to the top, there were monkeys everywhere! They were so domesticated that they would come up to you and steal your water bottle or snacks, so everything needed to stay in the backpack. We also held onto Scarlett, just in case they got too close. The Buddhist temple was very pretty. It’s a sacred place so we couldn’t take pics inside. We got lots of monkey pics, though! It was getting hot and Scarlett was getting hungry since she didn’t eat breakfast. 

 We headed back down the mountain to head to lunch. When we got to the bottom there was a huge traffic jam. This is very typical in China. Traffic doesn’t flow like in the US. Drivers just cram in and squeeze their way through. It’s quite entertaining to watch. We’ve come so close to other cars on this trip, yet you don’t see many wrecks. Luckily, there are always people selling all kinds of foods on the side of the roads. Kasumi got out and bought us sliced watermelon. We watched the guys slice it up from the window. Scarlett ate so much watermelon. She’s very addicted to it! It’s the cutest thing. So, this helped fill our bellies a bit and pass the time while we waited. Scarlett was so happy and played mimicking games with us, as she likes to do!

For lunch we went to a delicious place where everyone gets their own big bowl of hot broth. You order what you want to put in it (Kasumi took care of this part for us), and we dumped it in. And then you just eat it. Scarlett loved the noodles, meats and veggies. This is stuff that the other kids would never eat! It’s fun to see the variety of foods she eats and how good she is at it. She slurps up those noodles no problem! Kasumi, Constantine, and our driver joined us. They mostly spoke in Chinese the whole time, so have no idea what the conversation was. The driver has a grandson, so he got a kick out of Scarlett. I loved to hear them speak Chinese to her, and her little face would light up because she could understand them. It’s a helpless feeling knowing that your kid can’t understand you and you can’t understand them! The lunch was only $3! Things are so cheap here. We can see why it would make more sense to eat meals out than to cook, and it’s mostly healthy. I love love love the food here. And my stomach feels so much better than it did from eating in the states!

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel. Kasumi had sent a list of questions to the orphanage representative since we didn’t get all of our questions answered by the foster grandma. We found out that foster grandma’s name is Yin Gui Fen. We also found out who some of the people are in the pics that were sent in the thumb drive for Scarlett. I’m glad to be able to tell her who those people are. She also said that to comfort Scarlett, she’s hum or sing songs to her. Very good to know! She said that she’d give Scarlett a bottle of formula right before bed and then lay her down and she’d fall asleep on her own and sleep through the night. I’m sure once we’re home and she’s used to her crib we’ll get there, too! The orphanage rep gave Kasumi her email so that she could pass along pics to the Yin Gui Fen as Scarlett grows up. She asked that we let her know when we are safe in the USA. I think it’s so sweet that she cares for her so much. It makes me feel terrible breaking those 2 apart. I know Scarlett misses her and wonders when the babysitters will be taking her home…

We thought Scarlett would be ready for a nap after lunch, but she perks up after a meal, so we decided to head over to Starbucks and the City Mall. This area is about a 15 minute walk from the hotel, but it’s pretty busy sidewalks. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that the sidewalks here are uneven in places, there are weird things sticking up here and there, and random steps in places you wouldn’t expect there to be steps, so you have to watch where you’re going. Also, some of the sidewalks get slick in the rain and it rains here a lot! I put Scarlett in the baby wearer and strapped her to the front of me. Baby wearing is great for bonding and also to take pressure off of your back and arms. But, we sweat in it. Especially outside on a hot day. Lots of sweat. She fell asleep almost instantly in the carrier. She slept through our time at Starbucks, and through most of the time at the mall. The mall is huge- many levels of mostly western things and stores (we browsed through H&M, for example). We found this awesome kid’s area called Neverland Kids. They had a big room for kids to go down slides, play with big blocks, and play in a ball bit, and much more. We finally got Scarlett to wake up. It was hard to understand how much to pay and what we needed to do, but the people are very patient with us. It’s frustrating to be in a place where you don’t know the language and can’t communicate with people! We like the restaurants that have pictures so we can point if we need to! We played at Neverland kids for about 45 minutes. It was a great place to bond with Scarlett through play.

 We walked around for a few more minutes then headed to get dinner at Pizza Hut. We weren’t expecting this Pizza Hut to be a nice sit down restaurant that was so popular. We had to wait for a table. Oh my goodness. Their food was amazing! I had a pomegranate and raspberry juice and Nathan was in heaven with a Corona. They gave us water, too. Something about China- they believe that warm liquids are better for you and more healing, so it’s hard to get cold drinks here. We also got the Hawaiian pizza and some friend rice with Chicken. Both were so good. The cheese was different- much higher quality! I want to go back tomorrow night, except I’m not a fan of the walk back. The sidewalks are so crowded and people really stare at us everywhere we go! By the time we were heading back, it was later than we’d planned and Scarlett was ready for bed. She was fussy but I remembered what Yin Gui Fen said and I hummed and sang to her to calm her down. She stayed awake, but was content.

We got her up to the room, got the pajamas on and gave her her bottle. We laid her down in the crib and she went right to sleep. Ahhh we are so blessed. This could be such a hard time for her, but she’s doing much better than we dreamed of! I know she must be grieving inwardly and wondering what’s going on. I remind myself that when she gets super upset- she’s coming from a hard place. We need to be loving and patient with her, no matter what.

Gotcha Day! August 8, 2016

Before getting her: Oh my gosh it’s here. The day we’ve been thinking about and preparing for for 4 years, and yet I feel totally unprepared! After landing late last night, it took awhile to get settled in and settled down before we were able to lay down and attempt to sleep. I may have gotten 1 hour of sleep. I just was feeling too excited for today- kinda like when you’re having a baby the next day or getting married. You just lay awake thinking about the big day. Gotcha Day is like that. One of the biggest moments of our life, just like the birth of our 3 bio kids. But yet such a different experience than that!

I finally surrendered to sleep and put in my headphones to get some inspiration from Hillsong United. I’m digging the Empires album right now- of course I was at the concert just a few weeks ago, so I’m addicted! The words seep into my soul (sorry to be cheesy), and just makes me feel better and protected. After a few songs and time in prayer, I got up and worked on getting Scarlett’s stuff unpacked and set out for when we bring her back. This little activity got me excited and proud to bring her back as our daughter. 

Here are pics of our hotel room. Somehow we got a suite. The views from the 23rd floor are amazing!

Breakfast was again wonderful. The customer service at these hotels has been incredible. And thankfully we’ve run across many people working here who speak English. There’s a manager named David who told us to let him know how he can help. We asked for a crib in our room. Yep, it’s happening!

We saw these fish every morning when heading to breakfast.

After breakfast, we video chatted with the other kiddos back in Kansas. They were playing in the back yard and seemed totally content. Thank you, God. I’m seriously glad they aren’t missing me too much. We have the most amazing grandparents (and friends who’ve taken them in as well)! 

After that, we headed out to explore Guiyang City. It’s located in the Guizhou province- this is our daughter’s hometown. It’s so important that we take pics and get familiar with where she’s from, and we were excited to explore together.

                   

We didn't know what we were doing, so we accidentally ordered 2 potato dishes. They were so good though! 

A view of our hotel. The Novotel. Super nice. We had         

                                  a corner suite! 

Lunch before going to get Scarlett.

After (the day after- too crazy to write about on 8/8): The clock was tick tick ticking and I was watching every minute, feeling more nervous as the time got closer. My stomach was doing back flips and triple twists, but we decided to try a restaurant close by for lunch. It had been recommended by another family who recently adopted from Guizhou. I couldn’t tell you the name of it, but it was delicious. There were pictures to point to, but truly we had no clue what besides rice we were ordering. One of the waitresses spoke some English and she tried her best, but there was still a language barrier. I feel bad not knowing their language. So, we ended up with 2 potato dishes. They were so yummy, but we got a kick out of our ordering fail. After lunch, we headed back up to the room to get our things ready to meet Kasumi (our guide) in the lobby at 2:00. I sat on the bed and just stared into space for a bit- no idea how to feel or react in this moment. Nathan was so sweet- always hugging me and checking on me. We got into the elevator and talked about how it was similar to having our first baby- driving to the hospital for our scheduled c-section, no idea how to feel. Only this seemed scarier to me. 

Kasumi and a guy that she was training, Constantine, were waiting for us in the lobby. They were cool cucumbers- these young college age kids- I’m sure we looked freaked out. 

The drive to the adoption center was neat- we got to see more of Guiyang City and I have to say, it’s a very neat place. If I were going to live in China, this would be a great place. The weather is great too. Much cooler and less humid than in Beijing. Constantine and Kasumi spoke really good English and conversations with them made our day seem more normal, and was a great distraction. Constantine told us that he’s a recent new dad to a 4 month old baby girl. He said that he knows how we feel… I was like kinda, but man this is not the same! 

Before we knew it, we were at the adoption center and getting out of the van with all of our stuff. A backpack full of paperwork, water, snacks and gifts. A unicorn backpack for Scarlett, filled with toys, puffs, books, and bubbles. We took the elevator to the 24^th floor and the rest happened so fast. I passed my phone to Kasumi so she could video tape and the minute we walked into the room, there she was, sitting on a couch in a beautiful frilly white dress, looking just like her pictures only more gorgeous! My heart was pounding, I was in shock that this moment was actually happening and I was seeing her live. 

First pic

Getting to know mama

Our first selfie

Paperwork- Daddy's got it this time! 

Scarlett and her foster grandma, Yin Gui Fen

Our first family photo

A special photo with Yin Gui Fen, Foster Grandma

We worked on paperwork through this whole process, taking turns signing our names and putting a red thumb print on each signature. As I was doing my signatures, Nathan was interacting with Scarlett- I looked over and she was putting puffs in his mouth and laughing. This was the sweetest moment, and I could tell she was already trusting him. She did it to me, too, and we just laughed together. She’s so precious. Such a sweet personality, but with some spunk, too! 

The paperwork was double-checked, we gathered our stuff, and headed out of the adoption center. Nathan carried her out. The stares were much worse now that we also had an Asian baby in our posse! By this time, I’m learning to not take it personally and ignore it or just put my perma-grin on. As we were waiting for the driver, Scarlett started getting fussy and we could tell that she was exhausted. She has a bottle that is her comfort, so we gave that to her and she was happy. Once in the car, she fell asleep on Nathan almost immediately. How precious it was to see our baby girl letting us care for her.

We headed to Walmart to get a stroller and a few other items. Nathan stayed in the car while Kasumi and Constantine took me inside. How do I describe the Guiyang Walmart? It’s something to behold. It is completely underground and at least the size (I think actually bigger) than a Walmart in the states. Seriously. It’s crazy. And it was crowded- lots of people everywhere (but since it was a Monday afternoon, it wasn’t actually crowded…). We quickly got what we needed and got back to the van. Did I already say that kids don’t ride in car seats here? Oh no- they ride on your lap, which is just crazy because the driving is like nothing I’ve ever seen! I can’t believe that a.) we’ve only seen 1 accident, and 2.) we haven’t been in an accident ourselves! 

We made it back to the hotel with Scarlett still sleeping (she woke up when we had to get out of the van and only seemed mildly confused for a bit- no crying). After getting to the hotel room, we showed her some toys and tried to play. It was clear that she was still tired, so we laid her down with a bottle on the bed and she was asleep very quickly. At this time, the people came into our hotel room to do the money currency exchange for the orphanage donation and other fees. Since it’s so much money, it’s done in the hotel room which is a good thing. 

You go in the doors and down escalators. Their Walmart is probably bigger than ours and it's all underground! 

Walmart is under this. 

This is the parking garage entrance. We went there twice. A memorable experience for sure!

They don't let you take pics there. I'm such a rebel. 

Sleeping in the hotel room after the exhausting afternoon. 

The bottle is her comfort. 

I'm biased, but I just think this the most precious thing ever. She was made perfect. 

We woke Scarlett up at 5:00 and got ready for dinner. We went down to the restaurant in our hotel and it was surreal to have Scarlett at the table with us. We had no idea what to order for her or how she was fed (was her food cut up into pieces? Did foster grandma feed her or did she eat with her hands?). We ordered a few things and found out that this child loves to eat! We tried to give her a shrimp dumpling, but it turns out that she wanted the green veggies. Maybe she’ll teach the other kids how to eat healthy. She also loved the noodles. She insisted on feeding herself and us- she loved putting noodles in mom and dad’s mouths, too. We had a blast with her at dinner. She came alive and we just fell more in love with her spunky personality. She laughed and smiled a lot. She said “Ahhh” and opened her mouth so we’d mimic her and let her feed us. She danced. She sang. She was a happy happy girl with food in her belly! We were so glad to have some feeding questions answered. We’re starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together. 

We did a quick change before dinner- didn't want to get food all over her white frilly dress!

This smile. It's the best. It lights up the room!

She loves to make faces and be silly

She likes to feed us, too. Sometimes it comes out of her mouth and she wants to put it in ours!

After dinner, we played in the little kid’s playroom that’s in the restaurant. There’s not a lot to do in there, but Scarlett liked walking around and interacting with me. We did lots of kissing- she loves to play games and mimic what you do. She makes faces and laughs at herself a lot. She kept throwing her hands in the air and laughing. She was wearing a shirt that says, “Best Day Ever.” This sums it up. It really was the best day. My faith was strengthened as I saw God keep the promises He’d made to us years ago. This gift that He gave us today is truly a miracle and something that we’ll treasure forever. We laid Scarlett down for bed at 8:00 in the crib and she fell asleep on her own (with the bottle, of course). Fingers crossed for a great night of sleeping for everyone. Tomorrow is our first full day together!

Best Day Ever! What a day!!

Day 4 Beijing sightseeing #2 and heading to Guiyang

After a video chat with Grandma and Grandpa Gronberg, Riley, and Addison (it was 7am in the States and Chase buddy was still asleep), we went to bed around 9:30pm. I fell asleep fast, but then woke up at 3:00am and was wide awake. And then the thoughts came. So many thoughts starting with, “tomorrow is Gotcha Day. TOMORROW. THE DAY.” And then I started freaking out. Like my heart was doing a little pound and my tummy had butterlies. Honestly, it’s been so nice just Nathan and I, unplugged mostly, and enjoying exploring China together. But, we’re here because there’s a little girl waiting for us. Well, not really waiting for us- she doesn’t know that she’s waiting, but you know what I mean.

At 3:30am, Nathan was also wide awake. We knew we had a full day of exploring to do and that the night before Gotcha Day would also be restless, so we tried to go back to sleep… at 5am, we finally got up and turned on the Olympics. We worked on packing our suitcases and rearranging to get each checked bag to be 44 pounds.

At 6am, we headed to another delicious breakfast. Seriously, we are loving the food here. The hotel really tries to cater to Westerners. They do it good.

At 7am, we headed to Starbucks. Because Starbucks in Beijing. That’s where I got this mug (thanks for reminding me, Marie Riley). It was a rainy morning, and we sat outside enjoying our 2^nd coffee for the day (Nathan reading a book, and me writing in my journal). I was in yoga pants and a jacket. It was glorious. It was like this rain came in and just wiped away all of the crap in the air.

At 8:30 we met our guide, Gia in the lobby (the other ladies had flown out earlier in the morning to Judah’s province- their Gotcha day was today). Gia took us to Tien’nman square. It was still sprinkling and she was like in shock that we didn’t have an umbrella (I’d heard that we didn’t need to pack one because the hotels had them- maybe they did, we didn’t ask- sprinkles aren’t going to hurt). It was neat to see a different part of Beijing, and the rain had literally washed out the smog so we could see the buildings. As we got closer to the square, we could see masses of people visiting. Gia tells us that Beijing locals don’t really come to these places, so all of the people are foreigners- from different Provinces of China. It became really obvious when they were all staring at us. I mean blatantly staring- so rude. We are wonders to behold, I guess. Haha. The people of China also don’t know about personal space- there isn’t shoving or pushing or anything, but everyone is just okay to be really close or touching when in a crowd.

Oh I can’t skip over my 2^nd experience with the squatty potty. You guys. THIS. I know I have to, but it’s my LEAST favorite thing right now. The Great Wall was a nice clean squatty. But let’s be honest. If one isn’t used to the squatty, one doesn’t do it right. Pee splattering everywhere. Sorry to be gross, but others coming behind me need to know. The squatty potties are stupid, and I’m sure you’ll hate them too. There needs to be handles at least to hold onto and get the proper stance, but alas there is not, so you’re holding onto the wall. If you’re wearing shorts or pants, you have to slip your foot that has walked in other’s pee through the hole in one leg, and then your underwear. The best scenario would be to wear a dress and no underwear really, but who does that?! This is why they are stupid in my opinion. So, you have to hold your underwear and pants in one hand because you don’t want those slipping down and landing on the floor in other’s splatter… Then when you’re done, you have to put your foot back through underwear and shorts. I was wearing sandals today, so I literally took my shoe off. Am I doint this wrong? If someone has instructions please let me know ASAP before my next experience! So the squatty potty at Tien’nman square smelled like Emporia, KS. Like cow poo. But after all of the coffee and water I’d drank that morning, there was no getting around it. I had to go in. Oh and most places don’t have TP, so you have to bring it or shake it off. I’m not going to tell you about it. I don’t want to relive it. Just know that my second experience was NASTY. Tonight I’ll be up with nightmares. And I’ll bet this isn’t the grossest squatty I’ll experience either. Hmmm maybe by the time we leave, I’ll be an expert. Changing Scarlett’s diapers ought to be something, too.

 

So, Tien’nman square. It was neat to see the Chinese buildings and memorials that are so important to them. We took lots of pictures to show the kids and Scarlett someday. The Summer Palace Museum is across the street from the square, so we went there next. There were gobs of people there. Like take walking into the Royal’s stadium during a world series game and times that by 3, maybe even more. And the fact that we were there on a weekend made it worse. AND Gia said that it actually wasn’t that busy because of the rain! And almost everyone had umbrellas or ponchos- even though it was just sprinkling. We guessed that it was to keep the polluted rain off. The Chinese are super health conscious. We’ve maybe seen 2 overweight people, and I’m telling you, we’ve seen a lot of people. Now that I write about it and look back, man those were huge crowds! And everyone was staring at us- I never felt unsafe, but maybe uncomfortable a few times when they held their stare for so long.

At least it wasn’t too hot or humid (thank you, God for that rain). We shuffled through each gate and were more and more and more and more and more amazed as the palace museum just kept going and going. Those emperors lived quite the life of luxury! This place was gorgeous. Built in the 1400’s. I can’t do it any justice by trying to describe it here. And it wasn’t really a museum like you’d think of a museum. The imperial garden at the end was just breathtaking. This was my favorite place that we visited with The Great Wall coming in for a close 2^nd.

Our check out time was at 2:00, so we headed back to the hotel to get our things. Then we headed to eat a late lunch. Gia took us to a hot pot restaurant. THIS. Oh my. We died and went to heaven. This was the most amazing food. Gia told us that she can go to that sort of place with a small group, so there’s a pro to being the only ones in the group! We paid a little extra (lunch was included in our travel package for Beijing) to experience this place. So there’s a big pot of boiling broth water in the middle of the table. You can pick mild or spicy or both (we got both- the white looking one is mild). And then you order veggies and meats to put in the broth. And you pick your sauce. I put some kid of sesame mix sauce as the base for mine and added garlic, cucumber bits, crushed peanuts, and a few other things. So, you dump the stuff in the water and once it’s cooked, you use your chopsticks and just start grabbing it out- and you dip it in your sauce. Someone needs to open one of these in KC!! They would make a fortune. We could’ve sat there all day picking stuff out of that broth. And it was so healthy- we ate like 3 different types of mushrooms, green veggies I’ve never heard of before, beef, lamb, and shrimp. If you go to China, try a hot pot restaurant. You’ll be glad you did!

After lunch, we headed to the Bird’s Nest- where the 2008 Olympics was held. By this time, the sun was out and we saw blue sky. I’m so glad we got to see Beijing in this light- yesterday was kind of depressing with all of the pollution in the air. We saw some really cool places and buildings in Beijing today- we’re amazed at how many residential buildings there are. Some super old and some super fancy. There seems to be either poor or rich here, not as much in between, as far as I can see. The bird’s nest was neat. There was some sort of festival going on so there was a live band and lots of action. We also saw the tower and the water cube.

We are now at the airport, waiting on our flight to Guiyang where Scarlett is. We’ll get to explore her province and get to know her before flying to Guangzhou on Friday afternoon. We won’t get to the hotel until probably 11pm at the earliest. I’m excited to unpack our suitcases and get her stuff ready. We’ll bring her backpack and some things we got for her when we go to meet her tomorrow. I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M SAYING THAT. TOMORROW. The next time you see a blog post from me, it will be about Gotcha Day. I know you can’t wait. I sure can’t!!