Lazy Friday in Guangzhou

She doesn't like her bath much so she's only had two in the week we've had her!  Really!  The babies were very clean when we got them.



I like it when Daddy brushes my hair.



Friday was a laid-back day as we didn't have any appointments or outings scheduled.  Our guides were busy picking up the 3 families who adopted from other provinces and taking them to their medical appointments.  Most adoption trips to China have three parts:  Beijing for a few days, the baby's province for 5 days, and Guangzhou for five days.  All American families have to travel to Guangzhou because the American Consulate is here.  Because Ariana is from  Guangdong Province we are here for nearly the entire time.  Our trip is also extra long because of the 3 day Tomb Sweeping holiday. 

Steve wasn't feeling well Friday so Ariana and I ventured out on our own for a couple hours to let him sleep.  The area where we are staying is quite accustomed to tourists and English speakers and it's pretty easy to communicate your needs.

We dropped our laundry off as many of the shops also do laundry for a fee and borrow out strollers.  We haven't tried a stroller yet, but our Ergo carrier has been great for bonding and really comfortable.  Ariana often falls asleep while we are "wearing" her.

I picked out some matching Mommy and me jade bracelets that are just adorable.  Shopping here is a unique experience as the shopowners are very aggressive and hard-working.  They will not allow you to leave without making a sale!  They will bargain prices and it has actually been fun and we've bought a lot of keepsakes for Ariana for very little.

After two great days of eating she seems to be on a bit of a hunger strike again Friday.  I am actually writing this Saturday afternoon (have to blog when I can) and she has eaten pretty well today so we won't stress about it.

Zoo Day and First Smiles for Mommy and Daddy

 Thursday's outing was the Guangzhou Zoo and Children's place department store. I have read that many of the zoos in China aren't really up to American standards but the Guangzhou Zoo is outstanding.  The animals were all very healthy looking and full of personality. The grounds are beautiful and well-kept. As you can see there were no crowds!  What a surprise that was.  They did have among the clientele two dogs, but they were in more of an entertainment area.

 Of course they highlight of the trip were the two Pandas.  Ariana slept through most of our walk through. It was nice to be outside with plenty of shady areas.

 Ready to go down to the breakfast buffet.  I am the cutest one there although I did hurl a plate across the dining room and smash it today.  Oops!

 Late in the afternoon Thursday we had a real breakthrough.  Ariana decided to get very playful and we saw some smiles and lots of babbling.  She even let Daddy hold her while she did a little "walking".  I think it will be a while before she is walking on her own. This is the first time she has had any interest in being down on the floor. 

The area of Guangzhou where we are staying is called Shamian Island.  It is very  beautiful and has roots with English and French, something about the Opium Wars.  I need to look it up to know exactly what. You can see the architecture has a very European feel and there are plenty of trees.

I love my stacking cups but haven't figured out how to stack them yet.  I so want to put one inside the other but can't figure out how to keep my fingers out of the way.  My fine motor skills are way behind but I am making great progress every day. 

Everyday there are lots of photoshoots all over the island.  Mommy keeps finding pictures of the beautiful models on the memory cards.  I am sure daddy wants to document everything for Ariana.  Hmm

The smile that is melting Mommy and Daddy.  Never mind the food we are both wearing.  I see a lot of Photoshopping in my future.

Wednesday in Guangzhou

Wednesday was a bit of a turnaround for Ariana as she ate 3 times and seemed to enjoy it.  Since she won't take formula, Monday we started to put a couple spoons of it in with her diluted juice (pear or apple) or her Pedialyte which we are almost out of.  She will also drink some water with sugar in it.  That's what they give them in the orphanage so we'll deal with the sugar issue later, we're just happy she's drinking.  She's also eating rice cereal mixed with apple/banana baby food (and of course sugar.) 

We are seeing more little bits of her personality each day.  Evenings from about 6:30p.m. on are pretty rough and she whimpers, cries, or screams for hours until we can get her down.  Bedtime has varied greatly.  She is alright if we carry her around so that she can rest her head on our shoulders.  Mommy and Daddy both have very sore backs but of course that is nothing compared to what she has been through.

She is making the cutest little clucking sound.  She seems to do it when she is most relaxed.  We think she is communicating with us, but most likely it's just something she developed in the orphanage to entertain herself.

Wednesday afternoon was the medical checkup for the babies.  We were expecting it to be pretty chaotic and upsetting for them, but it was actually pretty quick.  The Kentucky families said the last time they were here it was very crowded and they had to wait much longer. 

Waiting our turn for the medical exam.

That's right...Mommy didn't bring any hair products, curling iron, or blow dryer.  It wouldn't matter anyway it's so humid here.  Ariana really seemed to like this nurse, all the babies did.  They probably liked hearing her speak Chinese.

Our next stop was the Security Bureau of Guangdong Province where we applied for the babies' Chinese passports.  They will travel to the United States on Chinese passports with American visas.  They didn't allow pictures inside the building but Daddy got this one in.  Shh.

 Lobby of the medical exam building.  Sorry, having trouble moving the pictures around.

 Playing with my "sisters" in the hallway at the White Swan Hotel. 

 Ariana is the least social of the group and doesn't interact much with the other babies.

 This is Savanah on the left in the pink, Tracie and Tony's baby. I found Tracie on a Yahoo group about 2 years ago and that's how we got to "know" the Kentucky families we are traveling with.  They all adopted girls six years ago and know the ropes and are a huge help to us.

 Outside the Security Building.

Later we all had a pizza party in the hallway.  Oh my did that Papa Johns taste wonderful. They don't shampoo carpets in China and I can't believe we all sat and ate there-even me!  You really have to get past the germaphobe stuff here to make it.

More later.

Tuesday in Guangzhou

The view from our hotel room.  The air pollution here is horrendous and this is what it looks like every day.  When we got off the plane in Beijing we noticed you could actually see the air inside the airport, kind of like being in a really smokey room.  We've acclimated to it now and it doesn't bother me much but the first two days were awful.

Tuesday was a free day with no group activities planned.  We asked our guide about the Pearl Market and he offered to take us there.  We took a taxi and got to see some more of the city which is just facsinating.  The pearl factory is several stories of many jewelry shops organized by stones and styles.  We went up to the wholesale area on the top floor because Peter thought we could probably get the best prices there. 

Here are the young ladies actually stringing the pearls.

We bought Ariana an 18 inch string of pearls to give her when she's older, maybe for her college graduation or when she gets married.  It's just beautiful. Mommy also got a black pearl bracelet for herself and they through in a precious baby black bracelet for ten dollars.  Adorable!

She has probably never seen a book until a couple days ago and the girlfriend is already turning the pages by herself.  Mommy is really happy that she enjoys books like she does.

We bought these two little traditional outfits for her. She ripped the tag off the black one.  I guess she was afraid we would return it:)  They sell these types of things around the White Swan hotel.  They are very afordable (and you can bargain) so we are going to get some more in different sizes to wear to Chinese New Year celebrations.

Bye from China.

Yangjiang Visit

It is just after midnight Tuesday in Guangzhou.  Ariana just fell asleep and we are all exhausted.

Today we were able to visit Ariana's birthplace, the city of Yangjiang and her orphanage. Ariana is still having a very hard time and we weren't certain going was the right thing to do. We considered one of us staying back at the hotel with Ariana, but in the end we all went and she seems to have handled the trip as well as the other babies.

 Traffic here cannot be adequately described.  Insane is the only word I have.

 Here we are with Ms. Lin, assistant director of Ariana's orphanage.

 This is the gate to Ariana's orphanage.

 We weren't allowed into the rooms with the children, but when the nannies saw us they came over and opened the doors.  These two were crying when they saw us.

 The area alongside the orphanage which is on the right.

 The entrance to the orphanage.

We feel very fortunate to have seen where her roots are and learn something about how she spent the first year of her life.  I have many thoughts and feelings about what we saw, but they will have to wait until later as I'm too tired to write very coherently.  Our guide Peter summed it up best when he dropped us off tonight and said we had a very big day today, one we would remember for the rest of our lives.

Ariana is very shut down and incredibly sad.  We have had lots of tears especially in the evenings.  She is clearly grieving and it breaks our hearts.  She wants us to hold her so that is a good sign.  This is not uncommon for these babies and often they turn around after 3 or 4 days.   She isn't eating and the only thing she'll take is diluted apple juice and Pedialyte.  We were able to force a tiny bit of rice cereal in her yesterday and a little fruit baby food today.  She'll also take the little Gerber Puff things and our Kentucky travel buddies hooked us up with those.  Hopefully we can get some protein in her soon but at least she is drinking fluids which she wasn't at first. 

More later.  Goodnight from Guangzhou.

Recap of Ariana Day

What a day yesterday was!  Our group left the hotel at 2p.m. local time and drove into the heart of the older part of Guangzhou.  Guangzhou is a city of 13 million people and the sights on the way there were absolutely incredible.  I took a few pictures but wish we had taken video.

We arrived at the government office building which strangely smelled like an auto body shop so I suppose that particular aroma will have a good connotation for me from now on!  We got inside and went to the 8th floor and were taken to a large, modern reception-style room decorated in red, black, and white.  Somebody noticed the babies and nannies from the orphange were in an adjacent room.  We all started to look so they closed the door.  We were asked to check some papers for accuracy and sign them. We got our cameras and gifts for the orphange ready and they started calling the babies' Chinese names.  It all happened very quickly and without much fanfare but of course it was the most unbelievable moment of my life. They had all the babies dressed in matching white with red polka dot outfits with yellow turtlenecks underneath.  Just like that they handed me little Song Hao Jiang.  I honestly don't know if it was the director or one of the nannies that handed her to me...I will need to check the video.  She seems much smaller in person than in pictures.  She didn't cry but seemed pretty sad right away.

The babies had taken a 3 hour bus ride from Yangjiang and they were pretty warm.  Ariana just hung on to me and looked around.  We all needed to get diapers and formula so the whole group headed for Carrefour.  It is kind of like Walmart with several floors and shopping carts that clamp onto the escalators magnetically.  I'm sure it was horrifying for the babies with all the people, noise, bright colors and given what they had been through already in one day.

We got back to the motel and we had to go to the facilitator's room right away to fill out some paperwork for the next day and so we could foster the babies for 24 hours. We stopped in the room and did a quick diaper change.  Rookie that I am, I thought the vinyl changing pad would frighten her unecessarily so I skipped it and she peed the bed. Oops! I wonder how much the White Swan charges for one of those duvet covers.

By the time we got back to the room it was probably 6 o'clock and the rest of the evening was really hard for Ariana.  She was clearly terrified.  She did want us to hold her, but wouldn't take anything to drink and sucked those 2 fingers furiously.  My heart just broke for her.  At some point I realized she was burning up and decided to give her some infant's Advil.  We got her to look at the stacking cups but she wasn't having anything to do with playing. 

After the Advil she fell asleep but not for long.  She was content laying on the bed with me but I was afraid she would roll off or I would roll over her as they beds here are very small.  I finally got her in her crib about 1:30a.m. but she thrashed around much of the night.  A couple times she got up on her knees but I was able to keep her in the crib and rub her back and talk to her.

Pictures