Pagodas and Parks

Today we had the opportunity to visit one of the three most famous pagodas in all of China.  It was a really beautiful traditional Chinese building originally built by a man who was both the son and brother of Chinese emperors.  He built it to show his great wealth and as a place to entertain guests.

Unfortunately he was a better painter than he was a leader.  He especially enjoyed painting butterflies. He eventually lost all his wealth.

But a very famous poet visited the pagoda and wrote a very famous poem there; a poem which praised the beauty of the building.  This made the pagoda famous.  The saying is that the poem made the pagoda famous and the pagoda makes the poem eternal.

Also unfortunately, as a very famous spot, it has been a target during wars.  The pagoda we visited today is actually the 29th incarnation.  It was last destroyed--burned to the ground--in 1929 and rebuilt in 1985.

It was beautiful anyway.  We climbed all seven stories, and each level had different things to see.  There were several copies of the poem engraved in different materials, and several paintings and statues of the poet.  There was a mural of all the famous people who come from this province.  There were old brass bells and tea tables.

On the top story there was a small stage and we arrived just in time to hear and see a traditional performance.  I'm pretty sure the songs praised the beauty of the building and talked about the poet.

After the pagoda we went to People's park, a large area in the middle of the city.  No cars=heaven!  There were lots of kindergartens out in the park and all the little ones were in costumes.  It took us a few minutes to remember that today was Halloween.

The girls went on the swings and we took them on the carousel in the middle of the park.  We also fed the koi in the lake.  It was really fun and relaxing.

We went back to the dumpling restaurant for lunch, because dumplings are Maia's favorite food and everyone else could get something they liked there too.  I had kung pao chicken with rice.  Nothing like what you might find in the US.  I love real Chinese food.

Then we came back to the room as Darryl has not been feeling his very best and we all needed a rest.  Most of us slept for a couple of hours and the rest watched movies and played games.  Maia layed down with me and snuggled up for a nap.  She had been up very early this morning crying so she was exhausted.  All things considered she seems to be doing really well, and she is really bonding with me.

We had dinner in our room and went down to the pool, which we have done every night.  We are amazed at how brave Maia is in the water.  Our guide says she has never been in a pool before but she jumps right in.  The big problem is that she has zero body fat and it doesn't take long before she gets really cold.  Her little fingers and toes turn blue.  Just to give you an idea, Alaina weighs 54 pounds. Maia is about three inches taller and weighs just 45.

We are having a good adjustment I think.  We do have a long road ahead but we were expecting that.  It will help when she can at least understand English.  It won't take long I think; she seems to be really smart.

We are having a good adjustment I think.  We do have a long road ahead but we were expecting that.  It will help when she can at least understand English.  It won't take long I think; she seems to be really smart.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Famous Pagoda

Mom and kids

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Ethan imitating the famous poet

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Painting of Pagoda

Watching the show

Singer

Orchestra

The carousel

Aids & Adjustments

The hearing aid is going to be the death of me.  Seriously.

Such a tiny little thing, so expensive and SO important.  And it has become the thing I have had to worry about the most since I've been here.

The first day here, of course, it got knocked off while we were crossing a busy street, and run over by a taxi.  I can't believe it still worked after that.

Then the next day, she lost it in the van.  It took us several minutes to find it.

So we asked for a sewing kit downstairs and I tethered it with some thread and a safety pin.  I figured at least if it got knocked off it wouldn't fall to the ground.

Then last night we ventured out to find McDonald's.  Alaina was riding on Ethan's shoulders and he went under some low-hanging branches.  One of them scraped her, cut the tether, and knocked the hearing aid off.  We searched for several minutes in the dark under the feet of the thousands of people walking the street before we found it.  It had lost both its cover and its battery.  Miraculously, we found the cover a moment later.  It is looking even worse than it did when it had its run-in with the taxi.

I'm getting really paranoid about it.  I need to find a better way to hook it to her.  She needs it, but I'm reluctant to let her wear it when we are out and about.

Please pray for me and for proteciton for the hearing aid!

Meanwhile, Maia is starting to understand what it means to be in our family.  We have had some moments of defiance from her where she stomps her little feet and crosses her arms and refuses to do what we say.

She is very attached to me and won't go anywhere without holding my hand.  She wants to sit right next to me and do whatever I am doing.  She has not been so enchanted with Darryl, however.  She is frightened of him.  When he gets near she runs away.  It's hard for him but we understand.  She will come to understand that he can be trusted.  He is thinking about shaving his beard as he thinks maybe it is frightening to her.  I'm hoping he doesn't have to, but I am willing if it will help.

It must be so hard to be eight years old and have to leave everything you have ever known.  The ayi who brought her to us said that she understood what it meant to be adopted and that she had agreed to it, but how much can you really understand something like that when you are so young?

Please pray for her.  She has a lot to learn and it is obvious we will have a lot of medical issues to deal with when we get home.  She is in for a long road.

I don't have any pictures to share today as all we did was shop at Wal-Mart and hang out in the room.  Tomorrow we are going to a famous pagoda and we will likely have lots of pictures then.  I'm not sure whether or not Alaina will be wearing her hearing aid.

Our Newest Member!

It's official!
Maia Yu Le Wall is officially our daughter.  Yesterday we went to the adoption affairs office and signed the papers to complete here adoption.  It was a little anti-climactic, really.  Just a signature, a stamp of our thumbprints, a quick little interview (why did you come to China to adopt?) and it was done.
We still need to have some papers signed by the notary of the city where she is from, but the officials will come here to us later in the week to accomplish that.  We have elected not to visit the orphanage for various reasons that we will share when we are home.  A clean break is probably the very best thing for her, and we will be able to get a memory book from Half the Sky to fill in the gaps.
So now we have a couple of days free to explore.  It sure takes us back to our time in Dalian.  For lunch yesterday we went out and found a street vendor and picked a few things and brought them back to our room to eat for lunch.  We are probably a lot more adventurous than most families, going out without a guide and trying lots of new things.  But it works for us.  Darryl does really well figuring out how to get what we need in Mandarin.  I'm starting to really remember my Chinese too.
After all the official stuff yesterday we did a few American-style things.  First we went to Wal-Mart and then ordered Papa John's pizza for dinner.  I think Ethan especially was happy to have a taste of home.
The mall that contains Wally world has a lot of little shops too and Ethan spyed a Nike store, so at 1:00 today we are going to go out and do some shopping.  Darryl says we will have KFC for dinner but I'm hoping for noodles.  :)
Maia had a really sad moment this morning and couldn't really tell us what we were feeling.  We are anticipating a lot more of that in the coming days.  We would really appreciate your prayers.
By the way, Darryl has his lost bag.  It was at the Nanjing train station waiting for us.
Alaina would like her class to know that she has written five pages in her journal about our trip so far.  She has also decided what she would like to bring back for everyone in her class, but I can't tell because it is a surprise.
If you would like to communicate with us the best way is to comment here on the blog, as I get your comments via gmail.  We can't access facebook at all and Mitch is actually updating our blog for us from the US because it is blocked too.  Thanks Mitch!  So even though this is linked to fb I won't be able to see if you comment there.
Here are some recent pictures.  Can't wait to hear from some of you! 

Heading out for official paperwork

Officially part of the family!

The girls of the family

Big sister did my hair for me

We are all exhausted at the end of every day

Breakfast!

Gotcha Day!

Well, yesterday was a big day for our family.  Around 1:30 pm we received a phone call in our hotel room that Maia had arrived and was waiting for us downstairs.  We quickly pulled ourselves together and went down the 14 floors to meet our daughter fot the first time.  What an unreal feeling, meeting this little person who already has a definite personality and who knows nothing about us. 

We had really prayed that the Lord would have prepared her for us and He really answered our prayers.  She can hear quite a bit, much more than we wcpected, and she talks A LOT.  She was very scared, though, when she first met us.  She was dressed really warmly and carrying a big stuffed bunny and a water bottle. 

My first thought was, she's not holding the toys we sent! And sure enough, we found outquickly that she had never received any of our packages.  So she had never seen our pictures or known who we were. 

They took  us to a back room where we got acquainted a little.  She wouldn't look us in the eyes or let us touch her.  We tried to move really slow even though this was the moment we had waited 19 months for!  She started to warm upp a little, and the lady from the orphanage who had brought her to us gave her a little pep talk, and we took her up to our room.

She warmed up quickly after that, especially to me.  That was when we descovered she could, and did, talk.  Within the first hour she had discovered her suitcase full of clothes and she and Alaina changed into matching dresses.  We also gave her her backpack and her new baby doll.  She hasn't let it out of her sight since then.

We decided she had had enough trauma for one day so Darryl went out and found a store where he bought us some noodle bowls that we ate in our hotel room.  The girls had a bath togethere--so much splashing!--and got into their jammies and laid in bed playing games on their innotabs (best. purchase. ever.)  and dropped off to sleep around 9:00.

I woke at 4:00 to the sound of crying, and she let me get in bed with her and comfort her.  Poor thing, so many changes and so hard. She is really a trooper.

I didn't tell you the thing that happened in the morning yesterday before Maia arrived.  We went out to have breakfast and had to cross several busy streets to get there and back (imagine playing frogger-and you are the frog.)  As we were running through traffic Alaina started yelling and pulling me back.   I realized she was saying "my hearing aid!)  I realized it had gotten knowcked off her head and looked back just in time to see a taxi run right over it.  Not thinking, I ran back and swiped it up off the street and ran back.  I had a terrible sinking feeling in my stomach, but miraculously it still works!!  It looks a little rougher than it did but I know God was protecting it.  that was a bad moment.

Today we went theo the adoption office and signed the official paperwork.  This afternoon we will go out to apply for the passport.

We really love the hotel we are staying at and have met some wonderful new friends, the Wessels, who also got their beautiful baby Kate yestereday.  We are so glad to be on this journey with them. 

Tonight we are going to venture out and find Wal Mart.  We need some water bottles and Darryl has been craving peanut butter. 

 Our first time seeing Maia, and her first time seeing us.

 Still scared, going up to the room.

 New pretty clothes help.

 Girls, dresses, and bay dolls.

 Papa.

 Feeling much happier.

 Noodle bowls for dinner.

 Love Mama already.

 Clean jammie girls.

Beditme.

Long Days, Good Travels, and a Few Adventures

 Hello everyone!  We are safe and sound in China and we have had a few adventures along the way.  As you may know, Darryl left Ephrata before we did in  order to get a few days of work in before meeting us in Shanghai.  Ethan, Alaina and I left Seattle a 1:30 on Thursday and flew ten hours to Tokyo, changed planes, and headed to Shanghai.  Unbeknownst to us, Darryl had gotten on his flight in Dalian, which flew to Beijing, circled around for a while, and then flew back to Dalian!  Everyone had to get off the plane, and then they boarded again and headed back again.  He did finally make it to Beijing just in time to make his flight to Shanghai and was there to meet us as planned.  The only problem was that in the confusion his bag never made it to Shanghai.  We figured if that was the worst thing that happened we were in pretty good shape.  Sherry, our exchange student from last year, and her family were there to meet us with a van and driver.  We drove through a nasty lightnig and rain storm and finally arrived in Sherry's hometown, Nanjing, around 1:30 a.m.  We were tired and collapsed into the hotel beds.  We were able to spend the day with Sherry and her family exploring Nanjing.  What a beautiful city!  First we went up to a small mountain and visited the masoleum of Sun-Yat Sen, the founder of the Republic of China.  To get there we climbed 398 steps, one for each of the original residents of Nanjing.  I only had to stop and rest once. :)  Then we went to see the old city wall which surrounds the city.  It is 600 years old, and many of the bricks it is made of are signed by the original makers.  We were told that if their work  wasn't good they were killed!  We  had a wonderful lunch with Sherry's family, who gave us gifts and insisted on paying for everything.  They are really wonderful people.  We explored the park outside the wall and bought a few souveniers.  Then  they took us to the traditional market and we spent a long time wandering and just enjoying the city.  We had a really interesting dinner consisting of 24 courses of small amounts of traditional foods.  There were a lot of dishes on our table when we were done!  Then they took us to the train station where we had booked a sleeper.  We had a really relaxing, restful overnight ride, and at 6:45 this morning we arrived in Nanchang.  Now we are freshening up and trying to get ourselves organized.  Our guide, Mary, says Maia will be brought to the hotel around 2:00.  We are so excited!  I will attach some pictures of our day yesterday.  Next time we write it will be as a family of 8!!!!!

Up the stairs we go!

Sherry and her family

Sun-Yat Sen

Ethan Tebowing at the top

Old city wall

These girls asked to have their picture taken with Ethan. :)

I am Chinese!

Alaina and Sherry

Me and my honey

A big dinner!

Asleep in the train station

 Finally in Nanchang!!

Just three more days to prepare and then we are off to China!  In just six days our 18-month journey will all be worth it and we will have our girl in our arms. I have a million details to take care of before flying out but wanted to take a minute to say thank you so much to everyone who has helped and supported us in so many ways.  The family of God has really come together to bring this girl home and we feel so, so blessed.

We will try to blog every day while we are in China!  Leave us comments too, we love to hear from you while we are there!

Mindy.