Possibly the Final Post from China

This may be my last post from China.  We have had an amazing trip but we are anxious to get home to sleep in our own beds and do some laundry.  We are also feeling the need to get back into some kind of routine; it will help everyone.

On Monday we went shopping at the big seven story mall.  There is a whole floor of pearl wholesalers and we bought Maia a string to give to her on her wedding day.  Darryl also bought me a new piece of jade, which I love.  What a great husband.

On Tuesday we went to the consulate and took our oath of adoption and filed the final paperwork for Maia's visa to the US.  It was quick but meaningful.

Then we went out to Shamian Island to do some more shopping.  The island really caters to adoptive families, with lots of little shops full of Chinese souvenirs.  We bought quite a few things for very little money.  Ethan got something really cool, but I'll wait until we are home to tell you about it.

Today was the trip to the Guangzhou zoo.  It's very different from US zoos; we were able to get very close to the animals.  There are two pandas there and we got lots of great pictures.  We also went to a "Sea World" style show with dolphins and a seal. It was really fun.

Unfortunately on my way out of the water show my ankle turned and I fell flat on my face.  Now I have a very bruised and skinned knee as well as a swollen ankle. Good thing we are going home in less than 48 hours, as walking is difficult. I plan to take a tylenol pm to get to sleep tonight but don't know how I will feel in the morning.

We all really liked the zoo in spite of my little episode, and Maia was really excited the whole day.  She is having so many new experiences, it is really fun watch.

This seems like a good day to post some of the funny things we have seen on our trip.  We have had fun taking pictures of signs where the meaning is lost in translation.

Okay, this one was over the urinal in a public bathroom.  We think it means, "hey guys, be civilized!  Step closer!"

This one was on the door of the WC on the train.  You couldn't use it while the train was stopped because the toilets were basically just a hole that opened onto the track.....you get the picture.

Um. Yeah.

Over the treadmills at RT Mart.

Really, I have no idea.

Clear enough.

We think this one means no parkour.  Not sure.

Okay, this one is my favorite.  Darryl bought a traditional Chinese flute and this was the description.  I especially like the parts about moldy and mange.

Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days.  The next time I write it will probably be from home.

With our friends the Wessels, who we met in Nanchang.

Our guide in Nanchang, Mary.

In the lobby at the Garden.

Ethan.  I think he might be striding.  That's against the sign.

Girls in their new qi paos.

Yes, they are strange.  This was when I left them on their own for a little while.  You see how much they need me.

The Canton Tower.  We saw this on the river cruise on Monday night.  Our guide says it is the tallest tower in the world.  I'm not sure she is right, but it is really, really tall.  The only thing I have to compare it to is the Space Needle, and the Canton Tower is three times taller than the Space Needle.  You just can't imagine or tell from the picture how big it is.  And the thing that was most amazing to me was that it didn't exist when we were here six years ago.

These girls were all in our group and got to be good friends over the week.  They are going to miss each other.

Ethan tried on this jacket.  He looks Mahvelous.

Panda!

At the water show, right before my little accident.

White tiger at the zoo.

Lights! Camera! ...Quiet On the Set?

Well, we are finally in Guangzhou.  It's funny; in some ways it seems like our time in Nanchang just flew by, and in other ways it seems we were there forever.  A lot happened in six days.  We are all a little emotionally exhausted from all the changes in the last week in our family.  Things have gotten a little out of control a couple of times, with crying and huge swinging emotions.  All to be expected but tiring.

Guangzhou, in many ways, is not like being in China at all.  It is a very cosmopolitan city.  We see lots of people from all over the world here, and no one stares much because they are used to foreigners.  We are staying at the most incredible hotel, The Garden.  You just can't imagine how lavish this place is....kind of out of our league.  We are really enjoying it though!  Probably the last time we will ever stay in so fancy a place, so we are making the most of it.

The weather here is really wonderful.  Today it was in the mid-80s and it should be in the 70s for the rest of the week.  Humid, though.  It will be hard to go back to what must be winter weather by now.

Our last couple days in Nanchang were quiet.  On Thursday we spent some time just exploring the shops.  We went to the RT Mart--kind of like a Wal-Mart--and bought the girls some small toys and Ethan a remote control helicopter.  Unfortunately when we got it back to our hotel room it didn't work, so we trudged all the way back and used our rudimentary Chinese to get it exchanged for a new one.  Actually we were pretty proud of ourselves for that accomplishment!

Thursday evening our guide Mary took us to the "new city" to see a really beautiful fountain and light show.  Everyone really enjoyed it, and we discovered that more than anything Maia wants to have a pair of roller skates.  There were people everywhere on roller blades.  It's about all she has talked about since then!  I have promised her I will get her some when we get home.

Friday we stayed in our room most of the day packing and catching up on homework, and checked out and headed to the airport at 3:00.

We were nervous about how Maia would like the airplane, but we shouldn't have been.  She loved it!  She had a couple of sad moments when she realized we weren't headed home yet, but got over it quickly.

We arrived here around 8 pm on Friday night.  Today was spent mostly at the medical clinic.  All adopted children have to undergo an exam before receiving their visas to go to the US.  Unfortunately Maia's was a little more involved because of her age.  She had to have both a TB test and a female exam.  She was pretty shut down during the whole thing.  She talks so much when she is with us, but when she comes to something that makes her nervous she gets this blank look on her face and acts like she can't hear anything anyone is saying to her, and she doesn't respond at all when asked any questions.  I think the doctors thought she is very cognitively delayed, which obviously to us isn't true at all.  Poor thing, it's a coping mechanism, but it isn't helping her at all.  When we get home we have two days of doctor appointments at Children's in Seattle, and I told them to have an interpreter for us, but if she shuts down we won't get anything accomplished at all.  Please pray that we will be able to make her understand that she needs to cooperate.

This afternoon I spent two hours with our guides and six other families doing the paperwork needed for the consulate.  Our guides are amazingly organized and made it easy for us.

This evening we went out on our own for the first time in this city and found a restaurant full of locals that was very good, and bought ice cream bars at 7-11.  Now we are just hanging out and relaxing.  We are excited that tomorrow morning we get to go to the International Fellowship with the other families in our group.  Then tomorrow is pretty free, and we are going shopping on Monday after Maia's TB test is read at the clinic.

We can't believe she has been our daughter for a week already!  The adjustment is going to be long but we can't imagine life without her!

Technical difficulties

Ethan and the girls

...uh-huh

At the fountain show

At The Garden

Ready for take-off!

Purple girls

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!