Ellie - The Hof Finale

Saturday was the medical exam.  Ellie was in all kinds of an attitude at breakfast and we knew we were in for a fun day! J The first station at the medical is the visa picture – just the picture.  Ellie went completely hysterical, crying and having a fit.  We will try to post her visa picture later – but we thought if the picture was bad, just wait till we have to deal with needles!

Ellie clung to Dana for her life during all the exam stations. At the ENT station, the doctor said that he didn't even have to use the tongue depressor since she was screaming so loud, he could just look down her throat. I think we won the award for the loudest child at the medical exam. It was exhausting for everyone.

We went back to the hotel for naptime (for Dana too! :) After nap, we decided to venture out to check out the local scene and see if we can pick up some additional clothes.  There is a children's market just down the street.  We saw a store selling shoes and as we looked in the window at the shoes, the store worker got up and turned off the lights. Apparently, he was now closed at 4:13pm.   We were not optimistic we were going to be successful. On the next floor, we found some willing shopkeepers and managed to pick up a few things.   The clothes are definitely more expensive than we were thinking they would be. We bought a pair of sandals, 1 pants, 1 shorts, and 2 shirts for $103 CNY which is about $16 USD. The shirts are very thin (actually 1 is a PJ shirt that we are going to use as a normal shirt). $16 doesn't seem a lot of money for what we bought, but the quality is also not very high.  We are struggling to find "simple" clothes.  Everything is blinged out with added bows, lace, glitter and such.

Later we went to the executive lounge for dinner. Whatever fight we have had with our agency about hotels – not having to pay for breakfast or dinner and having access to snacks all day is a blessing for sure. Ellie had been looking at our family picture book before dinner, so we let her take it to dinner. That was all fine until she started to tear the binding apart – like down to the staple level.  Dana took it away from her and she got upset and wanted it back. Well anyone can see where this is going….. When Dana wouldn't give it back to her, the tantrum began.  Dana and Ellie left and went back to the room for the all out screaming fit.  Dana sat on the couch while Ellie stood in the room and screamed while looking in a mirror. After about a minute, Dana calmly said "if you are done having a fit, you can have some banana".  As if a light switch went off, she took a big sigh, came over and had a bit of banana.  Dana then asked her if she was ready to go back and see daddy… another big sigh and then she pointed to the door and said "daddy".  So back to the lounge we went where finished out the night without event.

Earlier in the day we had met an adoptive family from NC that had just arrived in Guangzhou. We let them borrow our stroller that we had rented for 24 hours from the concierge.  Post dinner, we were giving Ellie a bath and the family stopped by to return the stroller.  Dana talked to the family for a bit and Ellie let Rob finish bath time, including letting him hold her all wrapped up in a towel.   Priceless night for Rob.

Bedtime is almost unreal.   We start the routine with yogurt and PJ's.  After she goes to the bathroom, she just goes and crawls in the pack-n-play without issue.   We are sure this won't last forever, but boy is it nice not to have that fight everyday.

Sunday we are off to Shamian Island to do some shopping.

Made it to Guangzhou..

It was a long day – we checked out of the hotel at 11 – went to the orphanage.  This has to be the nicest orphanage we have seen.   It is a like a small city – complete with a running track!  Pictures to follow later.   There is only 1 orphanage per city, which was surprising to us.   They had a music room, separate buildings – really it was remarkable.  Almost makes the required "donation" seem like it is going to the places it should for once.

As for Ellie – she did great with the whole trip – waived to some workers we knew, but held on to Dana for most of the time. At the end, her special nanny came to say goodbye…. Something we had requested NOT happen.  This involved a bunch of tears on Ellie's part and made for a sad exit….  Her fit wasn't long, and there was candy involved, but it was upsetting for us nonetheless.

Off to the airport (note no naptime or lunch in these events).   Security was a bit of heartache as Dana's passport number was on Rob's ticket.  We didn't book these tickets, our agency did.  They got a supervisor involved and all seemed OK.  Nothing like being held up with a passport issue in China to make your heart skip a beat J  The rest of security was fine, although they of course made Ellie take that precious backpack off, which proved to be a near on the floor tantrum – but backpack back on and 2 smarties later all is well.

We are all getting pretty hungry at this point – Ellie had just about exhausted our supply of cherrios we brought.  Rob went scouting for some food, but none of the airport restaurants had take out – all sit down.   We wanted to sit near the gate, so we ended up with pop, a candy bar, and a box of shortbread type cookies.  There was nothing to be found in the pretzel type category.  Most of the packages in the store were totally in Chinese and seemed to be meat or soup related.

Our flight was delayed – due to weather.  We couldn't figure that one out, nice day here and there.  On the board they just put "Delayed" – with no time.  They had a hand written sign on the desk that said under new time "not fixed yet".   Hungry, tired with no end date of departure – makes happy travelers.   Ellie and Dana road the poor man roller coaster while Rob hung out by the gate.  About 20seconds after we committed to going to a restaurant for food, they announced our flight – YEAH!

Bus to tarmac to plane uneventful, although very hot.   Shortly after wheels were up, Ellie fell asleep and slept until we started our decent.   We saved her food and had her munch on some as we were coming down.

A bit of a scuffle with our agency about hotels – classic example of REALLY bad communication, but we are in the Marriott that we had made a reservation for. 

Saturday morning is medical – always a painful part for the parents in the adoption process.   We are not looking forward to the TB test.  US Consulate things on Tuesday – we are back to doing a bit of paperwork, which is always more exciting than waiting around, as bad as that sounds.

Pictures and more tomorrow sometime.

Thursday was another tourist day.  We took a boat ride on the West Lake – which is what makes Hangzhou one of the biggest tourist towns in China.  We say "town" in jest however – there are over 7mil people who live here.

Ellie got hungry or tired or just decided she was 2 and comfortable today.  She was a little "atti-TWO-dy" while walking around.  Our guide asked her if she wanted to stay and play around outside for a bit longer and she stomped her foot with a "NO!".   It's been awhile since we have had a 2 year old, we are trying not to laugh out loud at her behavior.

After tourist stuff – we were able to find her finding spot (The place where Ellie was found after being abandoned).  Our guide was excited it was still there as sometimes buildings are torn down and new ones put up. She was left in a busy, but residential area, so she would have been found very soon we think.

For lunch Rob went with our guide to a nearby noodle place.  They were not at all happy about the westerner being in the store and were VERY slow in preparing the order – serving plenty others before ours.   We are convinced had we not had the guide, we would not have been allowed to order at all. The noodles however were fantastic, and we wanted some for dinner – so we asked one of the bell boys to go get us a bowl of noodles, which happened for him in lightening fast speed.  Even with a huge tip to him, our total was only $3 for a bowl at dinner.

Uneventful evening around the hotel – Ellie was a bit more fussy then she has been – we don't know if she is just becoming more comfortable and therefore more 2ish, but when it became close to bedtime – she actually started to whine and pointed to the bed.  As if to say "why are you keeping me up so late?".  It was funny and as a big bonus, she let Rob put her to bed, so that was a happy ending to the day.

Friday will be a big day for Ellie. We will start the day by going to the orphanage. We are quite nervous about this because of how withdrawn she became the other day when we were back in the room where we first met her. She will not have an official naptime due to the schedule (hoping she'll sleep on the flight), we are switching hotels (could be stressful for her), and finally it will be her first airplane ride. Please keep us in your prayers. I think that we'll make it through fine today, but it might be quite a rough day.

More pictures will be posted later/tomorrow.

Tourist time

Tuesday was a down day with nothing adoption related except for the adoption ceremony in the morning. We were going to take the bullet train to Shanghai on Wednesday, but decided against it.  The guide book we had and the concierge differed on which train station the train comes in to and whether or not it connects to the metro. We also were never able to find an umbrella stroller for under $38 USD, so without a stroller, a big day in the city was just not feasible. We have heard from other families that you can rent or even borrow strollers in Guangzhou, so we will wait until then.

On Tuesday night we went to McDonalds with some new friends from Utah.  They are on their 2^nd China adoption – have been to both Shanghai and Beijing and said Beijing is really where you want to go. We still don't have a clear picture of what our itinerary is going to be for the rest of our time in China.  This is disappointing because it makes it difficult to plan and to possibly see more of China than the two cities that we'll be visiting. Spending extra downtime in Hangzhou has been fine since this is Ellie's place of birth, so we have been exploring some and taking lots of pictures.

We went shopping in a local market on Tuesday afternoon and were not well received.  We'd be lying if we said that we have gotten used to the stares and didn't mind people stopping and staring as we pass by, but it just gets old. Many people talk with Ellie without telling us what they are saying. Ellie doesn't seem upset by their words, so we just smile and walk on. We also were snubbed while trying to buy some clothes for Ellie. The lady asked if the clothes were for her and then said they don't sell clothes her size, even though we could clearly see that they did. We also stopped in some other stores and were ignored by the workers.  Our shopping was a bust yesterday – Ellie will be packed light like us.  The couple from Utah tells us when we get to Guangzhou we will be a lot more welcome (shop keepers will offer to do your laundry and let you borrow strollers), so we will just do more shopping there. We also found out that Hangzhou is the fashion center of China and one of the wealthiest provinces, so a lot of people come here to shop, so that might explain the high prices that we are seeing.

On Wednesday, we went to the National Tea Museum in lieu of Shanghai.  It was actually better than we thought.  It was very beautiful and peaceful and was a nice break from the busyness of the city.  We discovered that tea grows in a hedge type plant. It was our "learn something new" for today!  We started to wander around through the suggested tour and were quickly escorted to the tasting room (and the connecting gift shop).  We were able to taste four different teas while they explained about the teas, what health benefits the different teas brought and how to best brew them. It was actually very interesting. Ellie was also game to try the teas and drank them all. Made us wonder if they drank tea in the orphanage or while she was with her Foster family. This place did have a stroller for us to borrow, although they had stairs all over the place, but we weren't carrying her the whole time.

We didn't get back to the hotel until after naptime – rookie parent mistake.   She didn't take a nap, but she did play in her crib by herself for a bit, while we had a short rest. It was actually quite cute. She was just talking the whole time and playing with her bunny and dog. At one point, the bunny must have been in trouble because it got a scolding, a spank on it's back side, and was placed in the corner. We recorded some of her naptime babble (just audio). We were encouraged by her self play. It shows that she has a good imagination and has normal brain development for her age. 

After our downtime, we ventured off to the pool. Apparently in China, it is a requirement to wear swimming caps – this should make our other kids less jealous of us having a pool in the hotel.  We found these stylish caps for $4 at a Walgreens type store, and our guide said Ellie could get away with a shower cap. The hotel pool was beautiful. They had a lifeguard and everyone who was swimming was serious lap swimmers, almost the whole pool full of them! Ellie was not too thrilled about the idea of the pool, but eventually warmed up to it.  I am sure she will be jumping off the sides before her next birthday!

Finally, we had our first bath tonight. There were a few tears at the start (probably due to the lack of a nap). Once she was in the water and playing with her stacking cups, she settled down and was fine. There is a window between the bath and the room, so Brit Nicole (a.k.a Bunny) and Dad were able to watch and take pictures. Finally, it was time for bed (about an hour early) and she was quickly asleep without any fuss J

Tomorrow (Thursday) is another down day (we are waiting for her passport), so we will be doing more tourist stuff…

Pictures will be posted later.

It's official!  She is a Hofmeister!

Today was the official ceremony where we got the adoption decree and all things are final.  We had a great morning with her, but when we went back to the same room where we initially met her, she gradually became more and more nervous.  She kept waiting at the door looking out as if expecting to see the orphanage workers come and take her away. She was very sad and withdrawn from us. Our facilitator tried to get her to come to Dana and she refused. Luckily she needed to go to the bathroom and Dana was her ticket out of there. When they came back, Dana was holding her and held her throughout the rest of the ceremony. Once we left the building, she bubbled up and began to smile again. She must have been thinking that she was going back to the orphanage. We are supposed to visit the orphanage on Friday, which is good and bad. Good to be able to take pictures of the people who have cared for her and to see her bed and playmates. Bad, because of what feelings that will generate. She was one of the nanny's favorites, so we are not looking forward to the fallout from that visit.

We went shopping to get her a few clothes and possibly an umbrella stroller. Coolest thing at the supermarket (sort of a Walmart has everything store) – the carts were all like a quad rolling suitcase, you can roll in any direction.   That is something we should definitely import from China!  It is so easy to pull your cart out of someone's way if you can go sideways! Interesting observation at the store – there was a line that wrapped around the store – almost like a Black Friday event.  We asked what they were waiting for, and apparently there was a special on eggs.   Everyone in line was a senior citizen and our guide told us they have the time to wait for such great deals.

We were going to buy a stroller – but it was $30 for an umbrella stroller.   We just thought that was a bit much, so we will attempt to find one elsewhere.  Failing that, Dana will have a really strong left arm by the time we get home.

Back to the hotel and she took off her shoes and backpack without issue.  She put her shoes next to ours and put her backpack by her Build A Bear's clothes and then clapped her hands to congratulate herself.   It became naptime and once we tucked the bunny in, and she could see what was coming there was no issue with naptime – YEAH!! She slept for over 2 hours and we finally had to wake her up.

She is loving pushing the elevator buttons (we only let her push the doors closing button).   We will have to break the bad news that she will have to share this privilege with 3 other kids when we get home. J

Orphanage director presenting our official adoption decree.

Ellie feeding her bunny. She has developed this cheesy smile for the camera now.