We took Ella on her first "camping" trip last weekend. I use the term camping loosely...I'm sure some of you wouldn't call staying in a 27 foot camper that sleeps 7, has a fridge, microwave, stove, toilet, shower and tub camping! But it was a change from the cottage, and we were in a campground, so I'm calling it camping. This is the second Labor Day weekend camping trip we've taken with the same group. We borrowed the camper from some good friends...the sister of Ella's godfather.
The group we went with included 14 adults, 11 kids and 3 dogs. The kids ranged in age from 21 months (Ella) to 14 years old. Most of them fell in the 5 to 8 year old range. The campground was totally geared towards children, with plenty of activities. There was a bouncy-pillow, playground, plenty of strange-looking bikes of all sorts, mini-golf, swimming pool and swimming/fishing pond with inflatable obstacles. The kids participated in t-shirt decorating, a glow party and parade, magician's show and play-dough making. One of the dad's in the group organized a great scavenger hunt one evening that was a total hit.
Ella did awesome - better than I was expecting. She was laid-back and easy-going. She had a ton of fun (especially in the pool). She was a hit with all in the group, but I must say, the dogs won the popularity contest with all the little girls! The 8 girls were constantly walking the 3 dogs around the campground...to the point of exhaustion for our 12 & 14 year-old Springer Spaniels.
It was a great weekend, the weather was absolutely perfect for the first time this summer. The friends we went with were tons of fun, and all the kids got along wonderfully. We've already agreed to doing it again next Labor Day!
We spent last weekend with Jason, Jen and Addison - our extended "China Family". Little Addison was Ella's orphanage "sister", and our families really enjoyed each others' company during our trip to China. We each had a free weekend, and decided to drive across our respective states and meet at a hotel. The setting was quite beautiful, along the Mississippi River, with cliffs and rolling hills everywhere. Unfortunately it rained the entire time we were there! So we didn't get to take advantage of the beautiful outdoors as much as we would have liked. Yup, being stuck in a hotel was definately reminiscent of our 2 weeks in China!
The girls were wonderful. Ella greeted Addison as she does other babies: a hug and either a kiss or on her way to a bite (I don't wait long enough to find out!). I don't think the girls remembered each other in case you are wondering. It was amazing to see how much each of them has grown in the 5 months we've been home: Addison has grown 4 inches, but not a lot of weight; Ella has grown 3 inches and 3 lbs.
Considering both girls had almost the same background for their first months of life, I would have thought they'd have very similar traits. But they are truly their own persons, and couldn't be further from opposite in many ways: one girl loves to look at books, the other only to eat them; one girl is wary of strangers, the other is a social butterfly; one is loud with random noises, the other is quiet but can definately communicate her wants; one girl is always on the move to destinations unknown, while the other contemplates her route with quiet determination.
There were some similarities between the two though: the girls are awesome eaters, both in quantity and variety; both have very laid-back personalities and are able to go along with any situation as long as Mom & Dad are there with them; and both are as cute as two girls can be!!!
It was wonderful being able to visit with our dear friends and see how the girls are progressing. We have plans to get together in the fall and then again for Chinese New Year. I can't wait...I wish we lived closer to each other!
We brought Ella home 5 months ago today. It feels like she's been part of our family for years. We've been quite busy this summer, thus the lapse in posts here on our blog for 2 months! Ian has been busy with tee-ball, golf lessons, and now has started soccer. He is growing like a weed this summer and I'm betting that none of his jeans will fit him when school starts again!
Ella is also growing. As of last week's pediatrician appointment, she was 24 lbs 10 oz, and 31.25 inches tall. She just turned 20 months old. She is almost running when she's in a hurry to get someplace (the dog food and water dish are always favorites). Ella loves to swing. Any given day, you will probably find us out on our home swingset.
Every weekend, we head to the family cottage. Ella took a few weekends to get used to the idea of spending time at another place, but now she is so comfortable that she is just at ease at the cottage as she is at home. She is starting to understand that wherever we go, we always come back home. That has taken about 4 months for her to understand. She still gets excited when we pull into our driveway at home...jumping up and down in her car seat and giggling.
As you can see by this picture, Ella is just at home at the cottage swing. So much so that Bill and my brother rigged a pully system so we don't have to stand there and push her - we just sit on the big swing and and pull the rope and like magic, Ella is swinging too!!! Yes, it is the lazy way out, but it frees up a hand for the necessary weekend beverage, and hey, all are happy and that's all that matters!
I have to give credit to my sister-in-law for most of the pictures. She has camera in hand as much as I have Ella in my arms. It's been quite an adjustment for us having to watch someone so closely again. The other day I heard Ella babbling away and after looking all over the house...finally found her at the top of the stairs! She was so proud of herself, and I didn't even know she could climb one stair as she'd shown no interest in the stairs up until then. Needless to say, the baby gate is always closed now!
I hope you enjoy the great pictures below. And stay tuned...this weekend we are meeting with one of Ella's "China sisters" in La Crosse for a couple of days. It will be wonderful to see our friends again and have our families together! I'll make sure to post pictures soon...
Ella has done pretty good at adapting to our busy life. Ian has swim lessons, flag football, and now tee-ball. Ella is on the sidelines cheering him on (ok, she's actually trying to eat the grass!) at every event. Now that summer is on its way, we've started spending weekends at the family cottage. This was our second weekend overnight and she's definately becoming more comfortable with the surroundings. Although the water is still quite cold, she enjoys dangling her feet in off the dock, and swinging on the porch swing with Bill. But I think she likes the company of all her cousins most of all.
Below are some pictures taken over the last few weeks. She was baptized at the end of April. We went swimming at an indoor water park in April.
Sorry for not posting sooner....the jet lag is kicking our butts!
Here we are on Day 13 already. We leave at 5:45am tomorrow. Today we had the famous "Red Couch" picture. For all adoptive families that stay at the White Swan, it has become a tradition to take a picture on the red couches that are in the lobby. All the girls wore traditional Chinese silk dresses. (I'm bringing a whole suitcase of them home - they are only about $5 each!!!)
After the picture, we all loaded onto a bus and headed over to the American Consulate. It was a welcoming sign to see the U.S. flag. We were handed our daughter's passport with a visa stamp inside. This visa indicates that the moment she steps foot on American soil, she will be a citizen of the U.S. The administrator at the Consulate told us that they have processed over 70,000 adoption visas for U.S. families that have adopted from China, making that Consulate the busiest in the world for adoption visas. All the families had to raise their right hands and take an oath stating that all information that has been provided to the government is correct and that we intend on being the new parents of our daughter. Unfortunately they did not allow cameras so there are no pictures.
Tomorrow will be a bittersweet day. On one hand, our daughter will become a U.S. citizen. On the other, Ella is leaving her home country, its heritage, and the only 'sisters' she's ever known. Tomorrow also marks the one year anniversary of the death of my grandfather. He would have wanted so much to see another great-grandchild of his. I'm sure he would have been tickled to meet Ella and see her personality.
Didn't do too much today. Packed up the suitcases to head to Guangzhou this evening. I haven't bought many souveniers so far, but my suitcases sure aren't packing as nicely as they did before!
Then it was back to the building where we originally received the babies for a round of similar questions, fingerprints and a million signatures. The orphanage director and nannies were there. We could really tell from their reactions to seeing the girls that they truly did care deeply for each of the babies. That was very comforting to me. The director asked us to email her pictures of the girls' new lives in America, which was more of a personal request than a requirement. It was fun watching how the nannies could get each of the girls giggling, whereas us parents have yet to figure those tricks out. A couple of the babies reacted strongly to the presence of the nannies, and cried terribly for them once they left the room. Ella did not seem to be affected by that - at least outwardly.
Back at the hotel later that afternoon, we finally heard Ella cry...and cry, and cry, and cry! She was chewing hard on her fingers, and feeling her gums we could tell that she has molars about to pop through (she already has 8 teeth). Ok, so I'm a bit behind on my blogging...give me a break - I'm a new mom!!!
Monday morning started extremely early. We had to leave the hotel at 5:30am, which meant up at 4:30am. Unfortunately both Bill and I were up at 3:00am...plenty of time to meet for our ride to the airport, but it meant just that many less hours of sleep before we received Ella.
The flight to Nanning seemed so long. Everyone commented on how it seemed longer than the 14 hour flight we all took from Chicago last Wednesday. Anticipation was playing into it for sure.
Nanning is like paradise. Bill and I are amazed at how similar to Mexico it seems. If you just change the language on the street signs you'd think you were in Playa del Carmen - minus the huge resorts. Coral colored hibiscus, hot pink bouganvilla, pink petunias, banana trees, sugar cane - they are all over here, growing wild along highways and professionally landscaped for hotels. There is farmland everywhere, and from the plane we could see that every inch of rural land is either plowed or terraced for growing fruits and vegetables. In fact, it is known as the "Green City" here in China due to its lush tropical foliage. Nanning is considered a small city in China - only 2 million people. And everyone rides a scooter here. Much fewer cars than Beijing and thousands of people on scooters and bicycles. Nanning is a direct contrast to Beijing this time of year - warm, muggy and colorful vs. cold, windy and drab. Technically Ella is from a town about 3 hours east of Nanning, but we are here because it is the capital of Guangxi Province and where we need to do all of the official paperwork.
So on to the good stuff...
After settling into the hotel for an hour, we were off to the civil building where the babies were brought by the nannies. The anticipation of our group was unbelievable. Some of us had tears in our eyes, everyone was smiling, some were shaking. We've all waited 3 years for this day to come. After what seemed like forever, one worker called each of our family names individually, checked our document and passports, and then the director of the orphanage brought our baby in and handed her to us. It was an amazing experience.
As you can see from the pictures, Ella was asleep when the director handed her to me. She slept for probably another 15-20 minutes amongst all the commotion of the other families and babies! When she did wake up, she just looked at us with her beautiful eyes and crazy hair. I'm sure we're the strangest looking people she's ever seen...we look and smell very different from what she is used to . But she didn't cry, and 24 hours later as I'm writing this she still hasn't cried at all. She seems to be very content and not fussy (so far!). She has been snuggling up to us and reaching for us. We've gotten 2 smiles out of her this morning. I think she's still in shock and just trying to soak it all in. She is a non-stop eating machine when we give her a bottle or some table food. And last night she went to bed at 8pm and we had to wake her at 7am this morning - not a peep out of her all night! (But unfortunately the beds here are just as hard as in Beijing and neither Bill nor I slept again last night!)
Ella sucks her left index finger upside down, just as I remember my youngest brother doing. She even has the same callous on it from sucking. We did hand her a pacifier last night and she took it right away and kept it in throughout the night...kind of strange considering she's almost 15 months old and has never used a pacifier, but if it makes her happy I'm all for it.
We're having a great time with the other families. You do develop a certain special bond considering we've all just gone through 'labor and delivery' together! It's fun seeing the differences in babies and their similarities due to being from the same orphanage. It seems like most were good sleepers last night, which could mean they developed that way from the orphanage schedule or maybe they were just wiped out from the long and terrifying day they had.
I'm going to try to get a nap in while Bill and Ella are napping. Ian, if Gramma is reading this to you, we miss you soooo much and can't wait to see you!
If you'd like to view more pictures of this unforgettable day, click on the More Pictures link on the top right of this page. Then click in the Day 5 - Monday folder.
Bill & I rested a bit back at the hotel and then caught a taxi to the Wang Jing Fu night market. It was kind of like the Times Square of Beijing, with lots of neon, fast food, stores and restaurants. But off to the left of the main drag, there was the Snack Street, with outdoor food vendors selling everything from glazed fruit on a stick to pigs intestines, starfish and crickets. All grilled before your eyes. The smell was unique to say the least, to the point of overwhelming at times. And I need to tell you that our guide, Joy, forbid Bill from eating any street food as he wanted to. We had asked her for directions on how to get there and she said "no street food - too important for you not to be sick"! Just a disclaimer stating that Bill didn't chicken out on the food...the wrath of Joy if he had become sick was too much to chance it! Next time we're in China.....Unfortunately our bodies didn't realize that they were in a different time zone than back home. We didn't sleep much last night, even after getting to bed around 1am. At 5am we were both up and ready to go! I'm sure the fact that the beds are so hard you could literally dribble a basketball on the mattress - no kidding! The beds feel like plywood covered in a sheet!
After a nice hotel breakfast, we had an orientation meeting with our Bethany Christian Services guide. She lives in China but has studied law (if I remember correctly) in the States. She's been doing adoption guidance sine 1992 for Bethany, so she knows what she's talking about! She talked about everything from emotional state of the babies the first few days to safety in China.
Then the group walked over to a local grocery store for water and snacks for the room. It was quite comical, seeing fresh fish leap out of tanks and on to the floor as workers scrambled to wrestle them back into the tanks! Imagine that happening at Pick-N-Save! The store was very bright and colorful - the Chinese use quite a bit of 'loud' packaging to make their product stand out from the others.
After dropping off the groceries, Bill & I headed to an authentic Chinese restaurant with Jen & Jason from Minnesota. Thankfully the restaurant had picture menus, and we just pointed to what looked good. The food was awesome and we had a lot of fun with Jen & Jason.
Later in the afternoon, the group went to a Chinese Acrobat show. The show was very entertaining with lots of strength and flexibility feats.
We were pooped out after the day with very little sleep. China has a very distinct odor and feel to it. The people seem quiet and always seem to be moving with a purpose. It is very fun getting to experience Ella's birth country. Even though we've only seen a few square blocks of the area around our hotel, it has left a lasting impression on us that we will never forget.
Oh, and only 2 more days until we get our sweet Ella!
If you'd like to view more pictures of our day, click on the link at the top right corner of this page entitled More Pictures. Then choose Day 2 - Friday.
Kind of a lazy morning today. Our flight was supposed to leave at 12:33pm this afternoon, and they've already delayed it to 4:30pm due to aircraft maintenance. So we're going to take our time getting to the airport this morning and just hang around the hotel room for a while.
The ride down was comical. Bill got a new GPS that he was trying out. I think we got lost 4 times! He's the only guy I know that second-guesses a GPS! After 13 years of marriage, I think we've learned that we function much better with good ol' MapQuest instructions.
Today we received our itinerary for the entire trip. Here's a breakdown of what we'll be doing each day:
Feb 18 - Leave O'Hare at 12:33 pm
Feb 19 - Arrive Beijing at 4:25pm. Met at airport by guide and taken to the Days Hotel & Suites.
Feb 20 - Orientation meeting at 10am. Chinese Acrobat show in the afternoon. We hope to visit "Snack Street" (aka Beijing Night Market on Wangfujing Street) that evening for some culinary oddities!
Feb 21 - Visit the Great Wall and Cloisonne Factory
Feb 22 - Visit Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. Take a Hutong tour in a rickshaw.
Feb 23 - Flight to Nanning. Stay at the Majestic Hotel (aka Mingyuan Xindu Hotel). Receive Ella in the afternoon!
Feb 24 - Adoption registration and notarization.
Feb 25 - Free day to spend with Ella (good - looks like we'll need a relaxing day after all the touring!)
Feb 26 - Visit Green Hill Park
Feb 27 - Receive all adoption documents. Fly to Guangzhou and stay at the White Swan Hotel.
Feb 28 - American visa pictures and medical exam.
Mar 1 - Meeting to prepare for visa appointment
Mar 2 - Visa appointment
Mar 3 - Take oath at the American Consulate and pick up visa
Mar 4 - Flight to Shanghai at 9:30am. Arrive O'Hare at 4:30pm
Ian is so excited to finally have a little sister! He wanted to get something special to meet her at the airport for the first time. So yesterday we went to Build-A-Bear Workshop and Ian picked out a bunny for Ella. He made sure that it wasn't stuffed too much, so it would be nice and squishy and cuddly for his baby sister. Then he took great care in picking out the softest clothes he could find. And finally, Ian named the bunny "Bella Bunny". What a sweet gesture - I know he's going to be a great big brother!
Today we received more updated measurements, this time from our adoption agency. Here's the latest:
If you noticed, these measurements are a bit different than the ones we received on 1/12/09. Ella is 1" shorter and 2 lbs heavier! It just goes to show how difficult it can be to get accurate data when you have a squirming 14-month old and different attendants doing the measuring. In the end, it is what it is, and all the measurements in the world don't come close to the feeling of pure relief and contentment when I can hold her in my arms!
We leave 2 weeks from yesterday. I'm pretty much all packed for Ella's stuff, and Bill's and my clothes will have to be packed the day prior to departure. I've got all our paperwork organized, and lists of 'Important Stuff' for Bill's mom to have on hand while she's here with Ian. Time is ticking by very slowly waiting for February 18 to roll around.
Although I'm a bit disappointed about the length of time we have to wait before we can travel, I'm relieved to finally have definate dates!
Wednesday, 2/18 - fly from Chicago to Beijing
Monday, 2/23 - fly from Beijing to Nanning (we'll receive Ella that afternoon!!!)
Friday, 2/27 (estimate) - fly from Nanning to Guangzhou
Wednesday, 3/4 - fly from Guangzhou to Shanghai to Chicago
I'm so excited...this is finally going to come true! And as a bonus, I'm going to be able to see my great friend, Cathy. Her family moved to Shanghai last fall. She's going to fly into Guangzhou and stay with us to see our sweet Ella! I'm so looking forward to spending time with her and taking advantage of her international bargaining skills! I can envision an afternoon of shopping in the markets and then a late-day Chinese massage :)
Today Ann from Red Thread China (the wonderful lady who is arranging my care package delivery to the orphanage) emailed me with new measurements of Ella which she obtained from talking to the orphanage director.
At almost 14 months old, Ella is now 28.75 inches tall and weighs 20.9 lbs! She is definately growing since the last measurements which were taken on 9/2/08. She falls at about the 25th percentile on the American growth charts, which isn't too bad. Just for a comparison, Ian was 31" tall and weighed 23 lbs at the same age. I'm very pleased to see that she is growing at a somewhat predictable rate and seems to be thriving.
Now if only we would receive our Travel Approvals so that we can make travel arrangements...
