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.

Why We Are Here, Or, The Big Day

We’ve enjoyed our brief stay in Beijing and would love to visit again some day, though it will certainly look much different, even in a few years time. The people have been so nice to us and the hotel we stayed at was first rate. Now our minds have shifted to the most important reason we are here. Monday at 11:30 we fly to Nanchang and they have told us that we will go the local adoption office to be united with our daughters at 4:30. There are nine families who will be going together. You can notice the tone around dinner was much quieter—partly due to exhaustion, but mainly because our minds are shifting to why we are here. We’re really glad we are here with this group of people—we’re enjoying getting to know them and are glad we will be sharing this life-changing experience with them. For almost all of the families this is their first child and even for those with older children the thought of adopting a little girl to be part of their family is just overwhelming—I know it is for us. Lately we seem to speak quite matter of factly of the things we need to do to prepare for Allie to come into our lives. I think this is to distract ourselves from the emotional volcano that is just below the surface. It is hard to describe how exciting, and scary, and loving this all feels.

The social workers have talked with us to warn everyone that the children may be quite traumatized at first and it will be hard for a couple of day. Imagine if you were a little one-year-old and you’ve been taken away from all you’ve known and given to some tall stranger who doesn’t look anything like anyone you have ever known. I would be freaked out! Ronnie and I have talked about how this first day is all about Allie. We already feel for her grief in the separation and wish to be sensitive to her as we also begin the bonding of ourselves. Wow, what a day is ahead. Now I need to make sure the two cameras and camcorder are ready to go. By the way, I am typing this in the bathroom at 5:00 AM while Ronnie sleeps.

Forbidden No More

The Forbidden City, the home of the emperors is familiar to anyone who has seen the “Last Emperor” or other such movies. We weren’t prepared for the size of it. We only had 1 ½ hours and saw a quarter of it. Tianeman square borders it on the south so we also walked through there

Of Emperors

Sunday was spent visiting the homes of the former emperors. First we saw their summer palace and then the Forbidden City. We begin each day here with a very good breakfast buffet with all sorts of western and eastern food. We’re enjoying Chinese soup, fried noodles and dim sum for breakfast. Following breakfast we went with the group to the summer palace. Along the way the bus stopped at a Pearl market for shopping. We didn’t buy anything there, but the oyster opening demonstration and lecture were interesting. Yesterday it was a jade market.

The summer palace is spread out in a park like setting along a huge man-made lake. It is said that the emperess (the Dragon Lady) wanted to rebuild the buildings after they were destroyed in a war so she took money from the royal navy claiming that she needed a lake that size the float their ships. It is a beautiful and peaceful place.

Only 558 Days to Go

One of the first billboards one sees on leaving the Beijing airport counts down the days until the Summer Olympics in 2008. We drove by the site of the Olympic village and I have never seen such a large construction project. Several stadiums, many large apartment buildings, a communication center and much more is all being constructed simultaneously over several miles. A couple of stadiums and the water bubble-styled swim center seem to be complete. I hope they can get it all done in time!

A Greater City

Beijing is enormous. It doesn’t have the intensity, excitement, or concentration of buildings in any one part like Manhattan, but is instead a sprawl of apartment buildings and concrete. In one way it has felt like watching “Bladerunner.” One has to wonder if this is a scary view of the future. Twenty to thirty floor apartment buildings and offices as far as the eye can see. Actually much further, because the pollution is so bad one can’t really see very far. There are a few sections that still have two story traditional Chinese courtyard homes, but they are quickly being overrun by development. I have never seen so many construction cranes. They are everywhere. It seems that most of the construction has happened in the past 20 years. Our young guide, Candy, said that when she was a child her family moved to the very outskirts of the city—at that time if was the third ring road. There are a network of highways in concentric circles around the center of the city. They are like the beltway in Washington DC. Each is 2-3 miles from the next. There are now six ring roads around Beijing—and the entire area is urban.
Driving around the city feels a lot like Long Island. Huge highways, big cars, and congestion on most of the side streets. I had expected a lot of bicycles and motorbikes, but cars have obviously taken over. It is a cosmopolatin, sophisticated city. The city is quite clean, except for the air, and everyone has been very nice. Our tour guide is particularly good and helpful. So far we have stayed together as a group and had all of our meals at Chinese restraurants, though there are plenty of other options. There seems to be a KFC or McDonalds on every corner. I even spotted a Dunkin’ Donuts

A Great Wall

We are in Beijing for a couple of days of sightseeing before flying to Nanchang to meet our daughter. Day one included a trip to the Great Wall and a performance of a Chinese acrobatic company. The wall was a bit of let-down—I guess I was expecting too much. Its grandeur comes from its length, rather than the style of size of the wall itself. The section we climbed was very steep and the steps are of irregular height—from several inches to over a foot. It made for a significant work-out. We knew we should have been getting in shape for carrying around a child, but no one warned us about the exertion of travel. We enjoyed the acrobatic show. The strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination of the gymnasts is extraordinary.

A Long Time On an Airplane

The trip to Beijing was uneventful after the plane took off. We boarded in Chicago to find that there was a mechanical problem that was still being fixed. Four hours later we took off. A thirteen hour flight—17 hours on that plane—it is now our second home.

Technical Difficulties

Not exactly, more like packing difficulties. Upon arriving in China we took out our laptop and found that in the rush to pack I (Mark) had somehow brought only one-half of the cord to plug in the computer. Only once in two years has the cord come apart—why now? After trying all the cords of the rest of our group (who knew Dell had some many different adaptors) we finally went to a computer store in search of a new cord. The computer store was a four-story electronics mall with every conceivable electronic device on the planet in exhibition booth style. Finding the Dell store on the corner of the third floor we discovered it was the only store in the place that was closed. Inquiring of the guys in the non-descript store next door led the man to walk in the back room and come out with the perfect cord for our computer. A miracle in Beijing. And only 30 yuan (about $4). The cab ride to the store took about 20 minutes and it cost 13 yuan (about $1.50). Thanks to the 7.75-1 exchange most things here are quite inexpensive for tourists. Now we can try to be bloggers. Wish us luck.

China Itinerary

Thursday, January 25 Leave New York
10:00 AM Depart LaGuardia United #0675
11:29 AM Arrive Chicago
12:42 PM Depart Chicago United #0851

Friday, January 26 Beijing
4:05 PM Arrive Beijing, stay at the Wang Fu Jing Grand Hotel

Saturday, January 27-28 Beijing Tourists
The Great Wall and Acrobatic Show
Summer Palace and Tian’an Men Square

Monday, January 29 Be united with Allie
11:30 AM Depart Beijing CA #1511
2:00 PM Arrive Nanchang, stay at the Jiangxi Hotel

January 30-February 3 Paperwork, sightseeing and shopping in Nanchang

February 4 To Guangzhou
1:40 PM Depart Nanchang MU #5231
3:05 PM Arrive Guangzhou, stay at the White Swan Hotel

February 5 Visa photo and medical check

February 6 Visa Appointment

February 7 Back to Beijing
7:50 PM Depart Guangzhou CZ #3195
11:00 PM Arrive Beijing

Thursday, February 8 Return Home
5:25 PM Depart Beijing United #0850
4:05 PM Arrive Chicago
6:00 PM Depart Chicago United #836
9:12 PM Arrive LaGuardia

Note: China time is +13 hours from New York