Last Day on Shamian Island

In his continuing quest to sample all the viruses and bacteria available in China Mark woke up today with pink eye. Fortunately, we had brought eye drops in case Allie developed it, so he is using her medicine.

Today is our last day on Shamian Island—this is the location of the White Swan Hotel. In the late 19th century when the Chinese were fighting with the French and English they confined all foreigners to this little island. They even forbid them to learn Chinese, on punishment of death. So the Europeans created a little colony for themselves here. The island is still primarily French and English colonial buildings with a couple of new, large hotels. It feels like a resort community. There isn’t much traffic and the narrow streets are great for walks with a stroller. And since so many adoptive Americans come here the stores and restaurants cater to them (us). Many of the stores offer strollers for loan. It is a nice break for us after the intensity of Nanchang. Since China is experiencing a heat wave the temperatures here have been near 80. We are really enjoying walking around in t-shirts and drinking beer at an outdoor café. (Yes, we are rubbing it in for those freezing back home.)

We have ventured off the island to explore the shopping markets. Especially interesting have been the food markets with all manner of dried and fresh veggies, legumes, noodles, fish and meat displayed on the sidewalks. Mark forgot to put the battery back in the camera yesterday so we don’t have any shots of the many kinds of live and skinned animals we saw, but he has them on videotape for viewing at home.

Today we will pack and do some more shopping this morning and then have lunch with our group. We leave at 3:00 to go to the US consulate for our official swearing-in ceremony this afternoon and to receive Allie’s visa to go to the states. Then we head straight to the airport for a flight to Beijing. Tomorrow evening we head home.

Group Pictures

Yesterday we took group pictures in the hotel lobby. Guess who wants to play.

Buddhist Blessing

This afternoon we went to a Buddhist temple for a traditional baby blessing. All the parents held their babies and sat on the floor of the temple in front of three huge Buddha statues (no pictures allowed) while a Buddhist priest chanted and then sprinkled water on us all (parents, too). It was a moment of connection between all the parents, our children's heritage and the larger community--at least that is what I, Mark, felt. A note to Monica Willard: they have a peace pole on the Temple grounds.

White Swan Barbie

This is the special commemorative Barbie made by Mattel for all adoptive parents who stay at this hotel. No comment.

Good Medical Check

Allie passed her medical check with flying colors. She weighed 20 pounds is 28 inches long and has a 43 cm head circumference.

To Guangzhou

Sorry we haven’t time to post much on our blog. Mark’s illness returned on Sunday morning (only this time in his stomach—not nice) and that was travel day. We flew from Nanchang to Guangzhou. Ronnie had a big job to do with caring for baby and husband and packing everything. You can’t imagine what an operation it is to move nine families with new babies. Fortunately, our guides do a wonderful job with arrangements, and though it is long and hard, everything goes smoothly.

Our last day (Saturday) in Nanchang was spent with a visit to a Confucian/Taoist Pagoda and our continued quest for a tea house. We finally found a tea shop and after a convoluted discussion involving a translator on a cell phone we ended up buying a very expensive bag of green tea. We have no idea what it is, but it must be good. We also had to go back to Wal-Mart to buy another suitcase for all our purchases. A Saturday afternoon at Wal-Mart is no fun.

Allie did great on her first airplane flight. She was her usually squirmy self, but a bag of toys and a lot of Cheerios kept her busy. She does like to move. As Ronnie says, “She plays hard and she sleeps hard.”

We are now in Guangzhou, which is a major manufacturing area in China, only two hours from Hong Kong. Driving in from the airport it looks like a much more concentrated city than Beijing. Large apartment buildings packed tightly together. We are staying at the famous (in China adoption circles) White Swan hotel. It is a top-of-the-line 5-star hotel. It has everything and it is all best quality. Because all 6-7000 adopting US families have to go to the US Consulate that is in this city, and they virtually all stay in this hotel, they cater to families with adopting babies.

Right now we are lying in bed watching the Super Bowl. It began at 7:30 AM here and is on ESPN. The only bad part is that we don’t get the US commercials. All the commercials are about Asian soccer. We have to leave for Allie’s medical check-up (standard practice for all babies) at 10:00, so we will miss the fourth quarter—oh, the sacrifices we make for our children!

Allie is going great. It is so amazing to see the changes in her in such a short time. She is a very active, happy child who eats everything. She also likes to have everything on her own time, we are learning to be more flexible. She still sleeps about twelve hours a night and takes an hour nap each afternoon.

Allie pics--as requested

Allie takes a bath, Dad gets a shower.

Starting to crawl

She loves noodles

Nanchang Photos

At the People's Park

Monument to the August 1 (1927) uprising of the Communist Party.

About the Food

Virtually all of our meals have been eaten with the group. At each meal we sit at round tables with very large lazy susans and various dishes are served from that. Most of the food would not be uncommon at a Chinese restaurant back home, though it is more lightly sauced (without all the corn starch) and it all is very well cooked and the ingredients quite fresh. We’ve enjoyed the food at every meal. The food in Beijing was mildly spiced, but Nanchang has a reputation for spicy food. It has been hotter, but nothing to knock your socks off.

One distinctive meal was a lunch as one of the new “hip” restaurant called “0791”—the zip code for the city. (It appears that restaurants with dreams of pretension have numerical names all over the world.) The food here was more regional with healthy amounts of red peppers and other hot seasonings. We particularly liked the mushrooms (shitake?) served with hard boiled pigeon eggs, the sliced large mushrooms served on a large hot stone so that they simmered the entire meal and the small, whole shrimp quickly fried with fresh tea leaves. We were instructed to peal the shrimp, but Mark thought this a chore and the head and shell added a nice crunchy element to the meal. The fried tea leaves were yummy. These would make a great snack for our super bowl party.

Last night we ventured out on our own in search of a “hot pot” restaurant. After a couple of wrong turns and a nice Chinese couple who stopped to give us directions twice we finally arrived quite exhausted and hungry. The most pressing problem, though, was that the menu was in Chinese and no one spoke any English. Ronnie solved this problem by taking the waitress to other people’s tables and pointing to the things that we wanted. The hot pot is a large bowl of water with seasonings placed over a propane burner that is built into the middle of the table. We were served raw greens, rice noodles, dried tofu and some interesting meat that looked like prosciutto. These are put in the broth to cook and then eaten communally with chopsticks. It was fun and good. And a mess. Especially when dad tried to feed Allie noodles with chopsticks. The waitress finally came over and wiped off Allie herself. (When will the new parents remember the bib?) It was interesting to eat with the entire wait staff watching our every move. Does Mark eat the meat here? Well, when in Rome…(or when at Julie and Danny’s house…) We wished Mari could have been here with us--the tofu was excellent. Allie loved it, but she eats anything that gets near her mouth--we didn't give her the mystery meat.

Beverages are less interesting. The best beer is Tsing Tao. The worst tastes like a blander version of Bud light, if you can imagine such a thing. We tried Dynasty, a “dry red wine,” that tasted vaguely of some odd grape juice. I wouldn’t recommend importing it.

The beverage of choice is green tea. We have seen over a dozen different types of green tea on a restaurant meal—and it can be one of the most expensive things on the menu. Unfortunately, the traditional teahouse seems to be disappearing. We haven’t seen any and when asked we were given an address that turned out to be where one had recently closed and the space was now a boutique-clothing store. We have a lead on one that we will search for this afternoon.

Reality Check

The town where Allie was born is Heng Feng. It is about a three hour drive from here so we will not be able to visit it. It is a predominately agricultural area that, like most of rural China, is very poor. To give us an idea of what it is like our guide took us to a village near Nanchang. It is a place of great poverty and was sad to visit, but we are glad to have this have a more complete picture of our journey and, perhaps, Allie's roots.

Temple Tour

I’m back—Mark here. After a day spent in bed (thanks to Anna and Rich for the DVDs) I was feeling better yesterday. It appears I had a bad cold. Now I’m awake at 5:00 AM so I can get caught up here.

One of the highlights of our trip has been a trip to a Buddhist Temple. It provided an oasis of quiet and solitude in the middle of this crazy, noisy, over-stimulating city. We’re not sure if it is a commentary on religion in China, but the place was virtually deserted. The temple was quite large, with four large buildings in line, separated by courtyards. Each of the first buildings held increasingly larger Buddha statues (the largest over 30 feet tall). The outer gate was guarded over by some fierce looking statues. I’m not sure how much this would help membership growth—perhaps we could use some at the Congregational Church of Huntington. The temple dates to 504 AD, but it was ransacked during the cultural revolution in the 1960s and 70s. What is there now has been restored since then.

In the third building, the one with a “strictly no photos” sign, there was a prayer service in session with 15 monks (men in saffron robes and women in brown) chanting prayers accompanied by a large drum and bell. We felt privileged to be there at this time. Their chanting was mesmerizing and we stood for quite some time. One monk offered for us to join them as they processed around the large central statue, but we declined as we felt more as spectators than participants at that time.

The backside of the largest Buddha was the most impressive of the statues. It was a montage of hundreds of figures (bodhisattvas, perhaps?) that appeared to be ascending to the clouds (sorry, no photo). It was amazing.

The Girls Head Out On Their Own

Well – since Mark was down for the count yesterday (Thursday), Mom -yes, that would be me - and Allie ventured out with the other families on our own. Baby and diaper bag firmly affixed, we headed to the Tengwang Pavilion, which overlooks the Gan river and the city and then lunch with the gang. I have to admit that I was a bit preoccupied with Allie to take in all of the historic facts – but according to our guide there have been 26 multi-storied towers built on this site since the first was raised over 1,000 years ago in honor of a Tang price. I did notice and enjoy watching the barges and boats on the river and the small indoor theater where performers were demonstrating traditional dance and music.

The families that we are traveling with and the people that we have the opportunity to meet in China have been wonderful – from fellow travelers lending a hand when I was trying to figure out the damn baby sling or eat with a fidgety person in my arms to strangers holding Allie upright on the sink counter in a public restroom while I try to change negotiate a diaper change.

Allie’s personality is really starting to materialize – she is quite social and loves being with a gang of folks laughing it up. We’ve also gotten past (somewhat) the trauma of simple events such as changing cloths, diapers, bedtime, etc. Getting the chance to play quietly for a couple of hours in the hotel room really helped and the progress is quite remarkable, she is like different kid – trying to crawl, rolling over, chatting to herself and such. And, yes, I can actually watch this for hours.

I know that Mark wants to write about our family adventure on Wednesday at the Buddhist temple and Chinese version of an American coffee house – so stay tuned for this as well as the reports on today’s outing.

Sick Day

Sorry no new info. Mark has come down with a bad cold and is staying in bed while Ronnie and Allie go with the group on the morning's outing to a historic pagoda. Watch for more later on the trip to a Buddhist Temple yesterday.

More on Allie

It seems that our commentors only wish to know more about the new baby—as they should. Allie seems to be quite healthy. She does appear to be a little behind our expectations for development of a one-year-old. She doesn’t know how to crawl, and seems weak in her legs, though strong in her arms. This is common for adopted children as they spend much of their time in walkers. She loves Cheerios, but only when mom or dad put them in her mouth. She can pick one up, with a little difficulty, but hasn’t figured out the connection with putting it in her mouth. We've found that the 12 month size clothes seem to fit her perfectly. She seems to have a clear schedule (that was given to us) with going to bed at 9:00 and an early afternoon nap. She is quite a sleeper—12 hours each night. We are feeding her noodles, rice and steamed egg (it is like scrambled eggs, but in a pie plate and custard-like). She also drinks three bottles of formula a day. Allie loves to be held by mom and will allow dad to hold her if he is feeding her. Not surprisingly we think she is adorable. We gave her a bath last night and initially she seemed to like it, for one minute, and then it was “get me out of here!"

A Wal-Mart Circus

We’re beginning to adjust to hotel living with child. Though at this stage, with a new child, nothing would feel better than our own home. It is Wednesday morning here, about 9:00, and Allie is still sleeping (since 9:30 PM). She really perked up yesterday. She began to smile and laugh occasionally and this also brought more crying. Overall she is doing great. She is definitely more attached to Ronnie at this time. If she is upset there is little comfort with dad. Her favorite thing is to look at herself in the mirror—this guarantees a big smile and laugh. We weighed here last night and she is about 9 kilograms. You do the math.

Yesterday morning was dedicated to paperwork and paying our adoption fees. First a trip back to the adoption agency to pay the bill and then to a notary for the official paperwork for her Chinese passport. We also had a few minutes to question the orphanage director for some more information about her. They didn’t have much more to say except that she is smart and that she lived in a foster home with another baby that is in our group. So we are trying to have the two kids spend some time together. They do seem to like to hang out.

The afternoon trip provided the real excitement of the day. We went to Wal-Mart. It is a very large, two-story department and grocery store. The top floor had all the usual clothing and household items. We bought Allie some more clothes. The lower level is where the groceries are. This is where it differs from a US store. Large tanks with all kinds of live fish, and turtles, dried products of all kinds, and many other types of Chinese food that are not in your Wal-Mart at home. The main attraction, though, was us. A group of Americans pushing shopping carts with Chinese babies through the local Wal-Mart is not your usual Tuesday afternoon. We found (and were told) that it is much more socially acceptable in China to stare. Everyone stopped to look at us, and the place was packed with people. I thought I was the prime exhibit at the zoo. Certainly no one meant any harm, but it was quite disconcerting.

Today we we’re going to the park that commemorates the first military victory for the Chinese Communist party—it all happened here in Nanchang on August 1, 1927.

PS We would to hear your comments, either in the comments section or on our emal. Thanks.

The Short Version

The past 24 hours would take days to explain. Let me give you the very short version. After the flight to Nanchang our group of ten families went on a bus to our hotel that had been promised as first-rate and wonderful. This description may have fit 20 or 30 years ago. Seedy was the word most used by our group. There was complaining, but we accepted it as done and unpacked in one hour to prepare to receive our daughters. The group then got back on the bus and went to the provincial adoption agency office. This is a fairly new place on the 26th floor of a large building in downtown Nanchang. I (Mark) received my first indication that this was going to be even more surreal than I had anticipated when as we exited from the elevator there were several families from a European country getting on the elevator, all carrying stunned little Chinese daughters, waiting to go back down. We entered a reception area already half filled with about a dozen French families who had just received their daughters. Then it occurred to me, this happens all day (three days a week I was told). It is a constant stream of people around the world coming to adopt Chinese girls. We had about 20 minutes to adjust to all of this before a group came in with the daughters for us. They had traveled several hours from the orphanage in a rural area. All the girls were dressed in identical new snow suits (they looked like they were ready to go to the moon). It is a Chinese custom to dress children very warmly. They each had on 4-5 layers. Then one at a time they called our name and handed us a child. We were first. It has been two years that we had dreamt of this moment. Nothing in our dreams could match the emotions that poured over our bodies. So happy, and shocked, and scared and thrilled and confused and….

After all our families were united with their daughters we each had a family picture taken and were interviewed by agency officials. They asked if we wanted her, what are plans were for her, and if we would guarantee that we would never abandon her. It was an easy test to take, but quite nerve racking to do.

Then we all went back to our bus to find that our guides had booked us in another hotel. So, back to the first hotel to repack, back on the bus to the new hotel, check into new hotel and finally get to our rooms. By the time we all met for dinner about 8:00 it was hard to tell who was more frazzled, hungry and tired, the parents or the children. The new place is very nice and we are happy. During all of this about half the babies were crying uncontrollably and half were silently stunned (like Allie).

There are many questions to ponder—big ones about societal problems, wealth and poverty, the place of children, cultural differences—but all that matters to us right now is that we are so very happy that this little girl has come into our lives and, yes, we will do everything in our power to help her have an amazing life.

Here She Is!

At about 5:00 last night we were united with Alexandra (Allie) Li Todaro Bigelow. She is a healthy, beautiful, not so little girl. We are so happy. The events of last night are so over the top crazy it will be hard to describe and we were too hectic and tired to post her pictures then. It is about 7:30 AM on Tuesday and she is still sleeping (since 10:00), though her parents hardly slept at all.