Faith Enough To Fly 8/28/2009

Today was supposed to be Todd's Happy 40th, but I'm not sure how happy it turned out. The good news is we made it to Guangzhou and are now at the White Swan Hotel after an early dinner at Lucy's. In the adoption world of China most every story includes this hotel and restaurant (hamburgers and fries that taste like home) so we are happily adding it to our story as well. I (Nikki) woke up this morning with the worst vertigo I've ever experienced. This hits me a couple of times a year and this one had me so I could barely walk. I tried showering and when I went to wrap my hair in a towel I can't believe I didn't fall over. It made me so sick I started throwing up, which I've never done before. I know I wasn't sick from food or anything else, it was just the worst feeling non-alcohol related hang-over ever. We were supposed to be flying in a few hours and never thought we'd make it. I took some medication, prayed like never before, and received strength enough to get through this day. Todd helped pack up everything and we headed to the airport. Our guide Hannah sat behind me in our van and rubbed on pressure points she's learned to do to help her own neck problems. She is a fantastic guide, but I'm wondering if she shouldn't be a masseuse instead. I learned that angels come in many forms, and mine today, was Hannah.

FuJiao was so excited to be going on an airplane and was so good, knowing I didn't feel well and couldn't carry her, which she likes me to do. She loved the flight, getting crackers and did pretty good considering she's prone to motion sickness as well. Lucky Todd,sitting between 2 potential pukers! In China they have this motion sickness patch you put over your belly button, which we both used. She was all smiles, although she didn't love staying buckled. We've heard stories of children not understanding seat belts, so we had Hannah explain before we left.
We met our new guide Sarah at the airport and it took about 40 minutes to get to our hotel. We all dozed a bit in the van. I think we have all over done it some and were extra tired. You can tell the city is huge, and we were amazed at how there were so many buildings the entire way here. Our view is beautiful from our hotel window--even though it is city, it's along the river. We got checked in, ate lunch and came back so I (Nikki) could try to rest, which I did for a couple of hours. FuJiao was dad's buddy while I slept. He entertained her in our room with cartoons, coloring, the computer, and throwing fishy crackers in the air and catching them in his mouth.

Sarah, our guide, surprised Todd with a birthday cake for us to share--sad to say that was the extent of his birthday celebration. FuJiao did tell him Happy Birthday in mandarin and english--and she said it happily and would stand by him for pictures (I guess that was his gift!)

So that brings us to this evening. I'm still a bit dizzy, FuJiao seems happy, Todd is 40 and we are heading to the medical exam in the morning. Hopefully we will be up for a little exploring tomorrow in our new area!

Chicken Feet for Dinner 8/27/2009

Well the day started out slow. We were hoping to join another family on a morning excursion but there was a miscommunication and we didn't get to go. We painted toenails, played cards, read and ate lunch. We met our guide Hannah and ask her if we could go to Guangxi Mountain and she was willing to take us there. The rest of the day turned out terrific--a great ending to our time in Nanning. The mountain area is beautiful with a Buddist temple area, monks, buildings by rivers with just a few (as in a few million) fish, and a tall tower you can climb up the stairs and look in all directions. This area is what you see when you look at pictures of China. Temples, chinese arcitecture, sugar cane fields, long boats in the river, coy fish, bamboo trees...so many beautiful sights. FuJiao had a great time eating fruit (a local grown variety that tasted like a pear/apple mix) and pomegranate ice cream, and just being outside running around a bit. She is definitely an outside girl who is 90% monkey. The only improvement we could have made was lowering the humidity and temperature levels.

After touring this area we went and picked up all our paperwork except FuJiao's passport, which the other family will bring us. Then we went to dinner with Hannah (our guide) and another family who just arrived yesterday with their daughter who was adopted 7 years ago. They are back to visit her orphanage and foster family. It was a very nice restaurant, and with Hannah there to order, everything was delicious. Congee, long beans, taro, sizzling beef in eggplant, pork, fried noodles. I (Nikki) almost passed on the long beans (green bean cut into 1/8 inch pieces and cooked with about 30 different ingredients) but was so glad I didn't since I went back for more....twice!! I would be a bean lover if they always tasted like this. My system is going to be in shock from what I eat here and then again when we get back home. Then Hannah ordered FuJiao a chicken foot--yes, it's really a treat over here and she snarfed it right up, along with a second one! I about had to move seats but she was as happy as could be! They say it makes your skin healthy. I'm thinking I'll stick with trying to stay out of the sun and wearing moisturizer. Hannah took pictures and will send them so we have proof when we've Americanized her and she doesn't believe us that she actually ate them.

So now I need to get packing for our flight tomorrow. There have been sad moments, long moments, and some of the greatest moments of our lives in this city. We are looking forward to Guangzhou and the next half of our adventure. I keep asking Todd what gift he wants from China for his birthday tomorrow. He tells me he wants a little something...with black hair and about 3 feet tall!

Patience 8/26/2009

The wait for paperwork continues with not much for us to do. We try to avoid going stir crazy in the hotel, but the heat outside limits our venturing out time, and our abilities to get too far are limited. We enjoy visiting with family at home using Skype and spent a good part of the morning doing that. It's fun talking with the other families at breakfast to compare notes on how everyone is doing. For the most part, I'd say everyone is hanging in there.

Once we got the morning routine taken care of we headed to the park around the corner and ventured into new area (it's huge), only for FuJiao to decide she was hungry. Back to the hotel for lunch at our usual spot and then a little down time in our room to escape the heat. We met our guide Hannah for an outing to a technology museum that's for children. There were some areas FuJiao really enjoyed that were for her age, and some that were for older children but she still had a good time pushing all the buttons. It had robots, water stations, ways to learn about the area, electricity, and more.

We tried McDonalds for dinner and FuJiao likes fries, and was willing to try my hamburger. They do side dishes of corn, and she loved that. Last night she didn't know what to think about an ice cream cone, but tonight she took mine quickly and ate most of it.

We were able to have Hannah talk with FuJiao and ask her some questions for us. We can't get her to try swimming at the pool. She won't even get on a swimming suit, and we were just curious why. I don't think she's ever been swimming and if that's the case, a pool would seem a bit scary. I think many things will come with time and seeing brothers and sisters doing things and realizing they can be fun. Also, we had her ask about getting some more shoes. She has this cute pair of sandals she wore on the day we met her (think Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz type sandal). As cute as they are, they just don't look all that comfortable to walk any distance in. We tried yesterday to show her some shoes at the store and she wouldn't try any on. Our best guess is that her favorite nanny got these for her and she just loves them because of it. Hannah explained she will grow and it will get cold at our house, so she will need more shoes. She said "alright" but we've yet to shop again. Our final question was about Todd. We were told before we came that many children bond with one parent more than the other and often it's the dad. In our case it would very much be the mom. She's quit holding Todd's hand, hugging him, and prefers not to acknowledge him. He says if this rate keeps up he will be sleeping in the hall before we get home! When Hannah tried talking to her, she told her that mom has beautiful hair. Hannah pointed out that FuJiao has short hair like her dad so they are similar, and her response was that she was hungry (way to avoid the subject on that one!) She hasn't answered Todd's chinese questions for a couple of days and we thought she just couldn't understand him as well. Now we think she's just being a stinker!

The good news is how quickly she's adding English words. She's already saying a handful of words, and seems to understand things we say often. I was counting as we walked up the stairs...1.2.3..and she added 4, and has also gotten many numbers up to 10. They must have worked with her at the orphanage. She is also a little parrot most of the time, my favorite being when she copied me saying "okie dokie"!

They've changed our flight to leave here from Friday evening to Friday morning, so really only one more day in Nanning.

Things to remember about Nanning:Riding in cabs that make it feel like the worlds largest game of chicken!Sound of bikes, cabs, and cars beeping.White bed, comforter, and pillow with FuJiao's black hair sticking out (she pulls the covers right up).Our favorite breakfast buffet and restaurant across the street for lunch.Our guide Hannah and the families we've met.Trying steamed bunsStreet sweepers, buggy cabs, address cards from the hotel to show cab drivers for directions.A million, billion scooters!The People's Park around the corner from our hotel.The swimming pool we never swam in.

According to China... 8/25/2009

Something to laugh about: As we were walking along the sidewalk yesterday there was a whole where it looked like someone was going to fix a pipe or something. I said to Todd, "I've heard of digging to China" and his reply was "Looks like somebody made it!"

We started the day Skyping with the kids at home. FuJiao was just waking up and was a little shy. We headed to breakfast, and she wasn't very excited to eat with the other families. I think she remembered yesterdays crying and got to feeling a little sad. We ate and she wanted to go right back to the room. Once we got there the tears started. She finally hit a point of being overwhelmed, and we can't speak enough to ask her what is making her sad the most, although we have a pretty good idea. A hug seemed so inadequate for what she was feeling at the moment.

Not long after that, it was time to meet the orphanage workers (not the greatest of timing). This just brought tears all around. Her nanny hugged her while they cried and were able to share a few more moments. This lady has become her Chinese mom, taking FuJiao home with her on the weekends. You could tell how much she loves FuJiao, and we will always, always be grateful for her loving our daughter the past 5 years. It gave me such a greater appreciation for the women of China who feel they must leave their children to the care of (hopefully) a loving stranger as her nanny left with tears rolling down her cheeks, after encouraging FuJiao to be with her mom and dad, telling her to be happy because now she has a family. The word sacrafice can carry much more meaning than many of us will ever know.

We met with the Civil Affairs director and finalized our papers, finishing by signing our name and then putting our thumb print on top of each signature in red ink. Very symbolic, very final, and very exciting. Then we traveled to the notary office to finish the paperwork. Our adoption is official according to China!

When we got back we skyped with Grandma and Grandpa Reeder. FuJiao was enjoying waving, blowing kisses and sharing her cute smile. It was lunch time--we order 3 or 4 dishes which costs $15-20 and usually end up liking all of them. Todd said he never would have imagined this day when we were dating...here sits Nikki with an adopted child, in China, eating Chinese food willingly with chopsticks! FuJiao wanted a chicken foot and I just couldn't bring myself to order one! The thought of that on the table was more of an adventure than I was up for! She loves all the vegetables, eats most everything and has a pretty good appetite inspite of her tiny frame. The food is really quite good here. We were most excited to try steamed buns since they are one of FuJiao's favorites, and were happy to find out how good they are. FuJiao is obviously our girl as she likes ALL the treats we've offered her.

When we got back to our room the happy version of our girl returned and we've had fun just playing toys (thank you Sara for sharing), coloring, listening to her sing songs in Chinese, and copying whatever we say in English. At the rate she copies us, she'll be speaking English in no time.

Another day almost done and so far we know FuJiao is kind, sharing, loves hugs, happy, likes to sing, is looking cute in Sara's clothes (which thankfully we brought since she came with the clothes she was wearing), is a monkey that likes jumping from bed to bed and around the furniture, is mastering how to use a western style toilet quite well, loves tickling her dad's feet, likes to trace pictures, likes to copy whatever her moms says,and is a very, very brave little girl!

Happy Gotcha Day! 8/24/2009

She's tiny...she's darling....and she's ours! To say today went better than expected is the understatement of the year! FuJiao greeted us by running into our arms and giving us both kisses (she was coached a little by her nanny of course) but talk about melting your heart!
There are 2 other families from Texas here at our hotel that are adopting. They brought in their children first. A nine year old girl who is deaf and she seemed pretty happy about it all. Then a 3 year old boy who is missing one leg from the knee down. He cried and cried starting when they entered the room, the poor little guy. Then in comes our girl all smiles, hugs and sweet as a bug. I think the other families were envious of our easy transition. We were amazed! Her favorite nanny came with and she (the nanny) was a little emotional knowing what is happening. It's great to know someone has loved FuJiao that much. We get to meet again tomorrow and talk with the orphanage director, finance director from the orphanage and the nanny. They brought the things we sent in the package and also a cd with pictures of FuJiao over the years. The room we were all in had to be the hottest room in all of China, but we weren't there long. We came back to our hotel and signed some papers and visited a little with our guide Hannah.

We were going to wait a day, but Hannah ask FuJiao if we could give her another name. Her response was "why?" Hannah told her it was because we spoke English and another name would be easier for us to say. She say "Alright." So as easy as that, we have a Sadie Jiao. We still call her FuJiao and hope to transition with her name slowly.

We went and ate and needless to say FuJiao is a little better than her parents with chopsticks. We walked to the park and and now are back playing in our room. Her nanny told us that FuJiao has been asking for over a year for parents and has been nothing but excited when she found out she was going to have a family. Her 2 good friends were adopted--one a year ago and one just last month. She talks to us some (I swear she knows some sign language as well), but the words she has said a million times today is Mama and Baba (mom and dad). There is no way everything will go as smoothly as it did today, but we are grateful for an amazing day we will always remember.

The Long Flight To China 8/23/2009

Here we sit in Nanning, Guangxi getting ready for our first night of greatly needed sleep in China. I don't even know how many hours we've been wearing these clothes, and would prefer not to think about how they must smell. Instead we'll tell you all the good experiences thus far. We flew to LA and had a long layover, then headed to Beijing at 1:40 am. We slept pretty good considering the upright position and the guy with sinus problems behind us. The strangest part was leaving LA in the dark, flying for 12 hours and having it still be dark when we landed. It was very llllloooooonnnnngggg, and we started right into the Chinese food, eating at about 4 in the morning and then again before we landed. Everyone teases Nikki about loosing weight but this mixed-up schedule has us eating at crazy times and we'll probably come home chubby! The Beijing airport was big, new, clean and quiet at a graveyard seeing as how we arrived at 5 in the morning on a Sunday. We found our connecting gate and made a quick call home to leave a message for the kids telling them we'd made it to China. Beijing was cloudy and smoggy to the point we didn't see a thing flying in or out--guess we will have to "see" it on our way home.

Flying into Nanning was incredible. The farmlands and the karst mountains were beautiful from up in the air. The area has tons of sugar cane fields, beautiful flowers and lots of greenery. The heat and humidity are both high, and it was quickly obvious why everyone carries around an umbrella to hide from the sun. The Nanning airport was small and we easily got our baggage and found our guide Hannah, who seems very nice and helpful and competent. She had many good ideas to share with us about tomorrows "Gotcha Day" as they refer to it in the adoption world. Hannah had the driver take us to our hotel (about 20 minutes) which is very nice and got us checked in and told us what we needed to have ready for tomorrow.

We took a cab to McDonald's and walked around the shopping area, including Walmart (yes, 8000 miles to buy water at Walmart). The kids would have really loved the octopus in the meat department they made a heart out of! We had a great time soaking in the sights on the trip to the hotel and shopping. Old apartment buildings as close as they can be with laundry hanging from the windows, tall hotels, street sweepers with their homemade brooms, a man pulling his oxen down the highway with a load, insane drivers, cabs with 2 person buggys. Nikki had to take the buggy cab back to the hotel and Todd said he felt like he was in a James Bond movie. We must have been so tired our reflexes were poor enough that we weren't scared for our life on the ride, but it was great fun!

We finished the night with a walk around a huge park a couple minutes from our hotel--beautiful, peaceful, picturesque China. Tomorrow we meet Hannah our guide at 3:15 to head to the Civil Affairs office to meet FuJiao. As we left home I kept thinking in my head "The journey of 1000 miles begins with one step." Many more than 1000 miles are behind us and we can only hope tomorrow will be a continuation of an amazing adventure.

Journey To FuJiao

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to
meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance.
The thread may stretch or tangle,
but will never break.
-Ancient Chinese Belief

Thanks for joining us on our journey to complete our family.