All the News

Here's all the news from the past few days. First the pictures.



Here we are in all our glory! Amelia having her first chance to feed Graham. They both loved it! Walmart: hungry anyone? People were everywhere...seemed like Thousands! Amelia in front of the Olympic characters. These were at Yellow Crane Tower. They are everywhere!

Climbing the stairs at Yellow Crane Tower. Looking up at Mama!

Yellow Crane Tower..."Very Famous"!

View from our window at our Hotel. The square is huge - about 4 football lengths square. Fountain lights up at night. Will do all those pictures later.

Helping out at the East Lake. Graham loves to see what's going on. The seatbelt doesn't do much good!

At East Lake. Where Graham loves to be best - being held by his Baba!

In front of the Hubei Provincial Museum. Very beautiful buildings. Reminds us inside of The Getty in Southern CA. Well done. We enjoyed it.

Amelia having a Hot Dog. It tasted sweet if you can imagine. Go Bears!

Happy Baby Graham waiting for Pizza at Pizza Hut. Notice the pink Boa on the stairwell to the back of the picture. Mardigras at Pizza Hut!

Amelia and Tom enjoying a Father-Daughter moment over 7-up at Pizza Hut!

I'm so embarrased to say...his first french fries at McDonalds! He loves them! :) (Bad Mama!)

And here's the news...We have been busy bees here in Wuhan, China. As you can see from the pictures, over the past few days we have visited East Lake (a gorgeous scenic lake in the middle of the city), tried to see Chairman Mao's Villa on East Lake (it was closed to the public - they were having an official meeting there), toured the local Museum where we saw and heard some of the largest bronze bells in China (2,000 years old from a discovered tomb), toured up the "White Crane Tower" (favored home of Chinese poets for the past 1,000 years or so) and even fit in a visit to the local Super Walmart! Whew!...

The children are doing great. Amelia is settling in, and has decided that for the most part, brother is ok. Graham is so easy going! He just loves being out in public and seeing the people. He falls asleep in the van as we travel - or on Tom's shoulder - or in his stroller - just wherever, as long as he has his bottle with warm formula in it, he's happy. He has a good routine, which fits our family just fine. He's up around 6:30am, then naps around 10:00, then again at 1:00, and lights out around 8:30 or 9:00pm. This is a good routine, and we'll try to keep it at home as well. Especially since Amelia still naps from 1:00 - 3:00 daily, I'll do my best to keep them to it.

Tom is still the most favored one! When Graham is tired or fussy (he's teething hard), it's his "Baba" he wants. I'm just fine with it this time, since I know Mama will have the bulk of the child care once we're home. He really loves Tom! And Tom is in heaven. He keeps hugging me and telling me how amazed he is at our little family! It sure is different than his 30 plus years of bachelorhood - that's for sure!

Oh, when you see the orange "tag" on Amelia's dress, it's an information card she likes to wear. It's in Chinese and it says, "Hello, My name is Amelia. I am an American child. I speak English, not Chinese. Thank you." Our local kindergarten mandarin teacher wrote it for us, and she loves wearing it. It gets her lots of attention, and everyone who reads it loves it. They always laugh and smile at her. When people read it, they usually read it outloud, which is fun to hear.

Shopping here in Wuhan is OK. If you like women's shoes, and you have a wide foot, you will love it ---ooh, we just had a little earthquake! I'm feeling it moving as I write this. We're 18 floors up, so I hope this building has good steel holding it up! ha. It feels pretty long - a minute or so at least...Tom just came in, and he felt it as he walked from the elevator to the room door.

I looked out and the street level seems normal. I guess we Californian's brought it with us. Good thing we trust in the Lord! :)...but I'm putting my pants on and grabbing the passports just in case! :)

Anyway, back to shopping. The shoes are great. I'm having to restrain myself. There are lots of shoe stores, but it's pick and choose on the rest of the stuff, although there's a department store down the street that is as nice as any Nordstrom's - with comprable pricing too. I found Graham some cute outfits there on sale. I've been shopping while the kids sleep. The worst was waiting in line to check out for 50 minutes!! at the local supermarket. Unbelievable.

We are packing today (Monday) since we now have all the legal documentation we need to leave the city. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we fly to Guangzhou (formerly Canton) where the American Embassy is, and will finish all our documents Wednesday and Thursday, then Friday we pick up Graham's Visa, take the train to Hong Kong, and then Saturday we're home.

I'm not rushing this trip, it's just been pretty difficult this time. Our guide doesn't speak English very well, so every encounter with her is difficult. The hotel is not used to Americans, and they have few English speaking staff, and for some reason it's been difficult to get good food. Breakfast is OK, there's a buffet, and usually eggs and toast and cereal and fruit (along with so many strange things I can't even write them all down - we don't eat them anyway), lunch we've been getting room service for steamed rice and a pork noodle soup. But dinner has been hit and miss.

Last night we were at the Super Walmart and they have a cooked food section. We got a roasted chicken (the size of a game hen), steamed rice (not allowed to get alone, only with 2 sides...but we don't want 2 sides, only 1, so double on the side of cucumber stew), corn on the cob, and noodles. Sounds simple, and only cost $3.00U.S., but tasted disgusting. There was so much salt on the chicken I couldn't eat it, the corn was frozen and just barely warmed up soaked in oil, and gummy noodles and salty cucumbers...but the experience! :) At least Amelia ate the chicken and rice, Tom ate it all, I just drank water. This is just one story. This is why we are guilty of eating at McDonalds and Pizza Hut...I can't believe we did that, but we were so hungry for "normal tasting" food...I will no longer judge the "ugly americans" who go to these fast food joints! This is quite different than the last trip...then we never went to any fast food and feasted on delicious Chinese food the entire time. Also, Amelia never even had McDonalds french fries for at least 1 year after we came home. Graham loves them!

Oh, I have to tell a funny China story. Yesterday we were at the Yellow Crane Tower. There are about 10,000 steps at this place. Up and down, up and down...it was a workout! Well, last night when we were at Walmart, I really had to use the restroom. So I found out where it was (just past the checkout counters - all 66 of them), just like at home. The similarity ended there. As I walked down the hallway towards the bathrooms I noticed a nasty smell getting stronger. Oh no, I thought...PLEASE let there be normal toilets in here...at least one! But when I arrived, I waited in line, and as I looked in the stalls, all were the famous "squatty potties". Well, there was one normal one, but that stall was being used as a storage stall with mops, and papers etc., all piled up inside it. So, thankful I had brought my tissue with me (all stalls are stocked with only a trash can for paper waste - no toilet paper in sight), I proceeded to squat and go. Well, one thing I had forgotten is that I don't normally do 10,000 stairs a day in my exercise routine! And when I began to "unsquat", the brain was willing, but the legs were weak. I thought, stand up, and my thighs began to quiver - like "you've got to be kidding"...and the thought raced through my brain, please don't fall because this floor is the most stinky, disgusting thing you've ever walked on...and just in the nick of time, the legs responded and I stood, thankful for years of running that gave me at least a vestige of strength when I really needed it! The moral of this story is that the next time you're in Target or Safeway or the local gas station, and need to avail yourself of the facilities, no matter how gross and dirty they may be, just be thankful you can actually cover the seat and sit, and don't have to squat!

I'll write more later, but I think this is long enough as it is. Please know we are thinking of you all, and thankful for our friends and family. We can't wait to get home.

Love ya!

excerpts from an email from Tom

Here is an excerpt from Tom giving me instructions on how to post their drafts.

"Graham is a good little boy. He allows me to comfort him and falls asleep in my arms in an upright position fairly easily. The food is a bit different here. Not much rice, not many noodles, and lots of spice. We even had donkey meat the other night. I hate to say this but CCL talked me into McDonalds tonight."

I thought their menu would make for interesting reading on the blog:)

Audy

note from Christy's Mother!

I am still learning and the draft with pictures I just posted went in showing May 6 - the day that Christy composed it, so scroll down and you can see the pictures without any words from anybody! Well, a picture is worth a thousand words as the saying goes:)
Enjoy.
Audy

Hometown Visit

Picture of the DAY!!!

How on earth do I begin describing one of the most extraordinary days of our lives? I guess in a dramatic manner like that! Ha. Yesterday, Thursday, was the day we visited Graham's hometown, ChongYang. When we asked the guide what size was the city - she replied, "Oh, it's a small town...less than a million people". We laughed. Oh yeah, he's a small town boy!

After an early breakfast, we met our guide, Vivian, in the lobby at 8:15. It was really cool (65 degrees) outside and raining. I ran back up to the room and grabbed our jackets. We finally left around 8:20 and entered the fray of Wuhan city and Chinese traffic. As I have mentioned before, the traffic here in China deserves its own post along with pictures...so maybe over the weekend I'll take time to describe. In the meantime, suffice it to say I've never seen anything like it in the world. Imagine exhaust spewing cars and trucks (honking madly at every opportunity), bikes, 3-wheeled scooters, mopeds, people walking and the occasional animal all using the same roadway. There are no stoplights or crosswalks to speak of, and as Tom described it...it seems the only objective is to never stop...it's the survival of the fittest...for 3 hours as we drove south to the very southernmost tip of Hubei Province. Oh, did I mention no car seats or seatbelts either?! Amelia laid down and slept, and I held Graham sleeping in my arms almost the whole way there.
The pictues of the countryside are on the way to ChongYang. About an hour south of the center of Wuhan it turns into rural countryside with waterbuffalo and farmers working their rice paddies. Forests of bamboo and miscellaneous trees interspersed with hundreds and hundreds of rice paddies up and down the hills. All available land seems to be used for agriculture. Almost all are tended by hand with very little evidence of anything mechanized to help.

We arrived in Chongyang around 11:15am, and were met at the outskirts of the city by people from the orphanage. They guided us to the building. We got there, and the officials were waiting with umbrellas out - and escorting us into the building. The area around the building is very rural and green. It was raining fairly hard, and we all got wet, but as you can see from the pictures, everyone was game for the experience.

When we got there, we were given a tour of the children's building. There are no kids living there since the Chongyang facility has only 30 children, and they all live at homes with the workers...which, as well as I can understand, the workers must be "workers" because they take care of the children at their homes. The children are brought into the facility about 4 times a year to get medical checkups, and vaccinations etc., to make sure all is well with them. We learned Graham was in a home with 2 parents in their early 40's, as well as a big sister, about 4 years old! Amazing. We did not meet the family.

After the tour, they took us upstairs and into a conference room with a table laden with fruit, water, and the giving of presents. They had prepared a speech for us, which our interpreter read to us. It was very moving...(I think it's the same speech for any family who comes to the facility, I'll tell you why later). Anyway, after that, we took pictures. We went outside and got the picture in front of the orphanage. The picture shows the place Graham was found - at the front gate in front of the sign that says "Senior Care Facility" in Chinese. (This facility is both an orphanage and retirement home for seniors.) Their official photographer was there photographing everything. They got quite a chuckle from Amelia too.

After the pictures, we all headed to a fancy restaurant. It was quite a large contingent together for lunch - and we both felt like we were characters in a Peter Hessler book. (He is one of our favorite authors - he wrote River Town, a story of when he lived for 2 years as a teacher in Fuling, the city where Amelia was born.) The officials included were the Senior Director in charge of all the children's facilities in the county, the Director of the Orphanage, the 2 vice-directors, 2 care-givers, and another man we couldn't figure out what he did, plus our driver, "Mr. Wong" and Vivian our interpreter.

We all sat down around the round table in the private room at the restaurant, and they immediately asked if we wanted "wine" with our lunch. We said sure (silly us). As they began pouring the "wine" I noticed it was in a bottle much like our liquors, and it was pouring out suspiciously slowly for wine. I motioned for a small amount only, but the Senior Director indicated "fillerup"...., then did the same for Tom's glass, and then the rest of them. As I lifted the glass to my mouth for the first toast, the fumes made my eyes water and I knew this wasn't wine - it had to be the strongest tasting liquor I had ever experienced in my life! At my tearful response to the toast, everyone laughed and they poured me some Sprite. Toasting continued intermittently (every 2 minutes or so) for the first 20 minutes of the lunch. The officials were enjoying this lunch immensely! And we were too. It was just overwhelming experiencing this event in Graham's hometown, with people who had really loved him.

What was Graham doing during lunch? He was whisked away by the restaurant workers who took him out and played with him while we ate...they fed him and played with him, and he was game for it all. About 1:00pm, we finished up, and Vivian whipped out a paper she had to go over with us. It listed all the things that were supposed to happen when a family came to visit. 1-5 we had covered all on the list...
1. Meet at gate and show the facility
2. Read letter from staff, and allow us to ask questions
3. Take pictures
4. Show family finding spot
5. Take to lunch
And then there was a place for me to write down our comments on our experience. I filled that little box up with accolades for the officials and their facility. I don't care if they were just "doing their duty", it was a red-letter day for our family. And our Graham is a happy, well-adjusted, loving little boy who has been given an amazing first year of life. How could we ever say thank you enough to them and to China for giving us this child in such stellar condition!

Around 1:30 we piled back in our little van and headed home. The children fell asleep - Amelia loved stretching out fully on the backseat, and Tom and I re-lived every minute of the extraordinary adventure as we raced our way back through the countryside to Wuhan.

We have Graham!

Christy's second email! I shall attempt to post photos. I see them so hope the rest of you do too!! Rest easy! That is just a scab on his sweet little nose from a fall on the carpet the day they got him!!
For those of you who are unaware, I went to China with Christy and Tom to get Amelia and she would not allow Christy nor me to hold her for several days - which seemed like an eternity! Subsequently, needless to say, she has made up for lost time:)
Audy

We have GRAHAM!!

He's the sweetest, most easy-going, sweet tempered, fun, happy baby ever! I'm tearing up as I write this because it's been the most wonderful day!! He came to us with no tears, just curiosity, and within the hour was laughing. Amelia has been wonderful...she makes him laugh and you can tell he is really loving having her here. And she has really had fun playing with him...even to the point of dropping him on his head (I'm not kidding) as she tried to carry him from bed to bed...and thankfully Tom got it all on tape - she cried like a nutcase, and he didn't even whimper...he's a BOY! It's fun already. Graham is a lot like Tom!!!

The most amazing news is that his cleft is very minor!!. He eats and drinks from all "normal" things. Bottle, sippy cup etc...You don't really even know he has it...I'll be curious to hear what Dr. Hu says about it. You can hardly see it when you turn him upside down and tickle him and look in his mouth with a flashlight...it's very narrow. Thanks be to God!!!!!!!!!

We met the director of his orphanage along with the 2 senior workers. They brought pictures of Graham from this past year, and we were able to ask them lots of questions. They were very nice and very loving. Apparently, he was in the orphanage in the day, and then every night, he went home with one of the workers. We are going to Chongyang, to see his orphanage on Thursday, so hopefully we'll get to meet the person who fostered him all these months. Another answer to prayers! They also brought food for him, his favorite things, and his bottle and formula...and the finding ad they ran. Also, a gift for him from them. It was wonderful to meet them!

I'm enjoying it all. I've forgotten how to do this, and all I could think is that I want my Mother here to help me! She always knows what to do!!! I miss you Mother and wish you were here more than anything to experience this with us...he's the opposite of Amelia in the way he came to us...it's night and day, and I just thank God He's giving me this experience too. I wish you were here getting this happy experience with us.

I'll work on the blog tomorrow when I have time, but I wanted to get this news and pictures out to you right away...on the blog...I can write it, and save it, but I can't publish it or see it. So, Mother or Dad, whichever of you are willing to go to the site, and I'll tell you how, you will just need to click on publish the blog, and then everyone will see it...let me know if one of you will do this for me.

Tomorrow morning we go back to the Civil Affairs office to sign all the paperwork, and then he's ours!! It's exciting!

I love you all, and can't wait for you to meet our new darling...this is like a dream come true!
Christy :)

details from Wuhan

This was received from Christy via email on Monday May 5. She is unable to blog from Wuhan. I have not edited it. Hoping it posts,
Audy AKA Christy's Mother:)

This is LONG for those of you who want ALL the details. If you don't, just delete it! :)

Good morning! (It's morning-time here in China) Here's the skinny on the trip so far...I won't post this to the blog - too detailed, but thought you all would like to hear it all...

Today is the day!! We get Graham at 3:30pm this afternoon, which is 12:30 midnight your time. Apparently there is one other family who is getting their child at the same time, that's why we had to get him so late in the day.

Yesterday was a difficult day. We left Hong Kong (after a breakfast at McDonalds*) at 8:15, then caught the train to Guangzhou at 9:30ish. Funny story about Amelia...she is an American girl! As we were walking to the McDonalds, the streets were loaded with "smells", you know that foreign city, hot humid air, lots of trash, slightly washed streets, food just cooked, smell. I looked down at AAE and she was holding her nose as we were walking. I said, "what are you doing?", and she replied that "it stinks!" Even after we walked into the McDonalds, she still was holding her nose...too strange smelling! I just laughed! Oh, and why McDonalds Mother is asking!! Horrors!!! Well, our first morning (Sunday) before we headed to Disneyland, we went to the hotel cafe to have breakfast. We ordered pancakes (2 small, flat ones = a stack), 1 small omlette, oatmeal, coffee, tea and milk...guess how much?? $50.00 USD!! So after that, we decided to find another option for Monday morning. McDonalds had yummy eggs and sausage and english muffins, OJ, ...way more food, and it was $10.00USD....

Back to the train...It was an interesting ride, although I fell asleep for an hour. Amelia kept Tom busy. She had waked me up at 3:00am, so I'm actually stil feeling pretty rough today, and yesterday was hard. We then were met at the train station by our Guangzhou guide and driver and she drove us to the airport. It felt like it was about 100degrees when we got off the train. We arrived at 11:30, left the station with them about 12:15, and then it was about an hour to the airport. (Another interesting AAE story: when we got to GZ, Amelia and I both had to go to the bathroom - so we went into the bathroom and guess what...yes, a "squatty potty" (porcelain hole in the ground sprinkled generously around with other people's urine). I went and showed Amelia how to do it - and then it was Amelia's turn...NO WAY! The little thing couldn't let herself go...and so she held it for an hour until we arrived at the airport because she just couldn't go...it's no wonder she has an upset stomach!)

When we got to the airport in Guangzhou, they had changed all the baggage restrictions, so it was a bit of panic trying to get all the stuff in the appropriate bags etc., so they could get checked. We paid our China Women's Travel representative,(travel guides while in China) so that was a burden off Tom to give the money over. Then we went through security, and waited until our flight at 3:00pm. Still no nap...and finally on the plane (a regional jet seating 50ish...EMB540?) she was out in two minutes. The area near Wuhan looks like it is in a natural delta. Miles and miles of rice paddies on all sides. The city is at the junction of the Yangtze and Han Rivers, so it's this huge, wide valley you see as you fly in. The air is very "heavy" with moisture and most likely pollution. Wuhan has 3 centers of business. One the cultural (political), one the business and one the industrial. At one point, most of the cars made in China were made here...so you can imagine the air. It seems a lot like Chongqing in the air quality.

The flight was about 90 minutes. Once we were on the ground the local travel guide met us and we were off to the hotel. About an hour later -- the 4-lane road from the airport turned to city streets pretty quick, hence stop and go traffic -- we arrived at the hotel. Traffic like crazy people. Cars everywhere with people walking and mopeds tooting and racing, loaded bicycles weaving in and out all on the same street and of course white lane lines mean NOTHING! It's completely nuts. Tom saw a pickup with 3 horses standing in the back with nothing but a high gate on the back to keep in them in...and HOT!! The van had a/c, but the driver kept putting it off and on.

So, we finally got to the hotel at 7:30 pm. The lobby is really pretty - just very smoky - it kind of makes you gag when you walk into the marble and crystal space, we needed the white masks to put on to keep the smoke out of our lungs. Then we needed to get something to eat. We opted to go to the local supermarket, Carrefour, to get water and see if they had take out food. Well they did. Not only did they have food, but everything else. Most likely we'll go back there tonight to get diapers etc. The WalMart is about 20 minutes from the hotel, so I'm not sure if we're going to go there or not during this week. The problem was, the store was about to close and everyone had to check out at the same time. So after waiting about 45 minutes!!!!, (one checker, no bagger and each item was individually either scanned or punched into the computer)...with people buying food, bed sheets, raw fish, toaster ovens, coke, shoes, underwear and frying pans all in the same line with carts loaded...we made it back to the hotel, a 6-minute walk, to eat our pork fried rice, rolls, watermelon, and cookies about 9:30pm...of course we couldn't eat until almost 10 because we had to get scissors to open our plastic zip-ties off the luggage. By this point, Amelia was crawled into her own bed and begging to go to sleep! The beds are like ROCKS - I have NEVER felt such a hard bed, but surprisingly, we all slept WELL!! Thank the Lord! Amelia even slept until 5am, and then went to the bathroom, and I told her to get back in bed and go back asleep - and she did until 6:00, so we're making progress!

(Oh, in the store - ALL the people were staring at us and then at Amelia - they couldn't quite figure it out...and we had neglected to bring the explanatory chinese informational card with us. (Mr. Wu, the chinese teacher, wrote out a card for Amelia that says.."Hi, my name is Amelia. I am an American child. I speak English, I don't speak Chinese. Thank you." Funny. Later today we pinned it to her shirt (at her request), and everyone who looked at her read it and chuckled...very cute. I think we'll keep it handy from now on. Also, the store was about 90degrees and humid..so we were all standing in line stinking and sweating and them staring...very interesting.)

Here we are at 1:00pm Tuesday, (10:00pm Monday your time). Amelia's down for a nap, and our guide will be here at 2:30 to go over papers before we go get Graham for a 3:30 appointment.

Oh, this morning, when we went down to breakfast there were about 9 other adopting families in the DR. One grandmother was trying to keep her newly adopted 4-year-old girl from running away from the table. (The Mother was having difficulty because the little girl was rejecting them all - and was nowhere to be seen--and Dad had left to try and comfort Mom) The little girl was so upset - we felt so badly for them. The grandmother looked at me and Amelia and said -- "oh, she's doing so well!" It took a minute for me to realize she thought Amelia was newly adopted, and I blurted out "oh, she's mine!"...and then was at a loss...how do you describe it...yes, she was adopted, but we've been home 3 plus years...seems strange to think of her as not always mine...a strange feeling. I think I forget she's Chinese or something..."she's mine" is how I feel, and never a second thought.

Also, other families were there -- I think ALL of them were special needs adoptions. I was relieved to see the other cleft babies were all eating well. (I'm sort of anxious that I'll know how to take care of Graham)...Most of the children were very small. We saw one 18 month baby who was smaller than Amelia when we got her! Amelia just took it all in. Got very, very quiet and didn't quite know what to say. Most of the Mothers said their kids were eating and eating and eating...which is very typical of orphanage children...imagine from never having enough to a buffet of yummy food!

On a logistical note...our guide doesn't do many adoptions. She's very young...and she said there are not that many babies available anymore - so this is not as routine for her as it was for the guides when we got Amelia - so thankfully, we've met the guide for the American World Adoption group (the group who is here), and we're going to send our laundry with their special laundry person etc.,...it's always easier to plug into an established system, and the hotel laundry is rather expensive. But our guide is planning on taking us on some 1/2 day excursions of the area, so we should be able to see some of the city.

I think that's about it. Oh, we can't get into our blog here - so I'm going to send the Joyful Journey update to Dad or Carrie or Mother, and have them enter it into the blog for us. That way we can keep it updated! Which of you want to help with this? I sure appreciate it! We can get to Yahoo just fine.

We love and miss you all and wish you were with us. This is a different trip than the one to get Amelia and that's a good thing...it's not as luxurious or easy (so far), but I know it will be just as rewarding. The temperature is fairly hot, so that makes everything harder (one wearing on the clothes only thank you)...but as Aunt Eleanor always says - "we haven't melted yet"!

Love you very much,
christy for all (and with the approval of Tom reading over my shoulder as I write this).

Some Pictures From Wuhan

This is the building where the provincial adoption office is located, about 10 minutes from our hotel. Christy is taking the picture and Tom, guide Vivian, and Amelia are going in to meet Graham for the first time.
Tom and Amelia boarding the first class car of the train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. The car was full of travelers for the 2.5 hour trip.

Tom, Graham, and Amelia meet the Dean of the orphanage in Chongyang City -- the orphanage where Graham visited with his foster family for checkups and paperwork.

Tom and Amelia check out the room at our hotel in Wuhan. There is a baby crib for Graham -- in which, it turns out, he slept like a "baby."

Amelia and her bitty baby dress up for the big event of meeting Graham for the first time.