It's raining here

Tuesday has been a cloudy, rainy day in Xian.

We went to the Shaanxi History Museum. It was pretty interesting. We have to keep in mind Chinese culture goes back thousands of years, so we got just a taste of it. Jake did pretty well through most of it, but it wasn't exactly the thing for a 2-year-old.

Then, we went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a Buddhist temple. However, it was raining pretty hard then and Jake was pretty cranky (it was close to nap time) so we cut the visit short.

We found out Monday they will not let us go to the orphanage. The officials at civil affairs said the only orphanage in Shaanxi Province they will allow foreigners to visit is the one in Xian. That was a disappointment, but what can you do?

Well, enough about that. Here are some more pics.


This is one at civil affairs Monday. Obviously, you see Jacob, Violet and me. On the left is the orphanage director, Zhang Yonghui. Next to him is the nanny who came with them when they brought Jacob to us. They wanted to get a picture of all of us, so we had Kelly, our guide, take one, too.


He sometime has to have things just so. Here, he has a couple of bottles, his Cheerios holder and his horse flashlight just how he wants them. It took a couple of tries before he had them organized to his satisfaction.

Now here are just some random pictures from Monday.

A smile to melt your heart

Wow, the difference really is like night and day.

Last night, we had a cranky, scared and confused "I don't want to be with you people" little boy, and today we had our first smiles and even a few laughs.

Once he finally went to sleep last night he slept until about 5 a.m., which is early for him (the orphanage says he sleeps to 6:30 a.m.). Of course, it didn't much matter Violet and I both were up. So we changed his diaper and played with him some.

Violet bought him this cute little flashlight. It's a horse and when you push the horse's tail his mouth opens and the light comes on. He also whinnies. Jacob loves it. He got such a kick out of playing with it. That's when we got our first smile.

At breakfast, this kid ate like a pig. He ate some of his Cheerios, some sausage, some eggs, some noodles, some congee, some bacon, some fried potatoes — you get the idea. Silly us forgot the orphanage had said he can feed himself with a spoon, so we were busy shoveling the food in. Then, he reached out and grabbed the spoon and started feeding himself his congee. It was so good just to sit there and watch him eat.

After breakfast, we had to go to Shaanxi Province civil affairs to do the paperwork we need to take care of here and pay all of our fees. We also had to get photos taken too, our first family portrait and Jacob's passport photo. He handled all of that like a champ. He just sat and ate Cheerios at first. This kid likes to know where all his Cheerios are at all times! If he drops one, he has to find it before he can continue on. It's so cute.

Violet pretty much got stuck with all the official duties with the various officials while I babysat. We got our first laughs from Jacob while Violet was answering questions from some official. Jake kept flipping his snack holder and laughed a few times. I may have egged him on a little. LOL

He got a little cranky near the end because he needed a diaper change and he was getting tired.

Thank goodness the orphanage brought him to us with a pretty decent pair of shoes (and they are NOT pink!!!! LOL) because all the shoes we brought with us are WAYYYYY to big. The foot sizes they gave us obviously were not accurate. So, after we make one more official stop at the passport office this afternoon, we are going shopping.

OK, enough words. Now take a look at this photo. Isn't that the most beautiful smile ever!



We call this one "You people are amateurs. This is how I eat."

Gotcha!

Oh my, we finally have our son. He's asleep in his crib right now. We started out on the bed because he didn't want to be in his crib, but once he fell asleep we moved him to the crib. That woke him up and we had more tears, but Violet managed to get him asleep by singing to him, that and he was just worn out.

This was quite a Gotcha Day. First, they moved our appointment from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Then, they decided we wouldn't go to the Xian civil affairs office. Instead, they brought him to our room at the hotel.

Let me tell you, he didn't want to be here at all. They were walking up to the door when we opened it, and Jake took one look at us and started to back away, and the tears started. The nanny that came with him was pretty good, helping calm him. Plus, Violet held him in spite of his best efforts and with the help of Cheerios — thank God for Cheerios — got him to calm down.

It was a hectic time, with both of us throwing all our stuff into suitcases (after just arranging them) and trying to make room for the directors and the nanny and Jake. When we finally got him settled and all the paperwork was done and he was intense with his Cheerios play the directors and nanny left. We played and waited until it dawned on him that everyone was gone but us, and when he finally did, he went into a crying fit. Finally we got him calmed and redressed and fed (he hadn't ate since noon - it was so cute to watch him watch Kevin make the bottle. Jake never took his eyes off him. He was a hungry boy!) to take him to his photos (because they couldn't get it to us quick enough if we did it tomorrow) but of course it was 6:20 p.m. and they closed at 7 p.m.

By the time we got him calmed and dressed we decided to take a taxi to make it on time, but there was not a taxi to be had, so they called us and decided to do the pictures tomorrow after all.

Meanwhile, Violet's arm is mush. We thought he was bonded more toward Violet than Kevin, so Kevin went downstairs to exchange some money, but Jake started crying really bad (the leaving people act definitely is getting old with him.)

Another thing he doesn't like is elevators – cries everytime he gets on one.

Well, we're going to wrap it up, Jake is awake and crying, so we're going to work on getting him back to sleep.

Thanks everyone.

Kevin and Violet

Oh yeah, he is small and short, and it's a good thing the shoes he came in were not pink, because they are the only ones we have that fit him. Bye for now.

Plenty of tears, here; can't wait for the smiles.





We did want to say that the black under his eye is not dirt. The orphanage director said he got a shiner playing last week on the slide at the playground. It still shows up now, so we can only imagine what it looked like then.

It's Sunday ... Guess what we were doing at 3 o'clock!

Well, actually, we were leaving the city wall of Xian, which isn't what you all were expecting, I know. (Hope you weren't up all night Tippi!)
No worries, though, they just changed the time we are to pick up Jake to 6 p.m. local time, which is about 2 hours away.

We got to Xian about 9:30 a.m. after getting up to get ready for the trip to the airport at 3:30 a.m. We got in and our guide told us the meeting was at 6. So we settled in and then decided to walk to KFC (where they still don't have diet soda - no one prepared me for this!) and we ate then went on about another 10-minute walk to the city wall.

The culture is wonderful, the traffic is nuts and we are enjoying ourselves. But today has been hard because we are nervous and just want to get the meeting over with and begin our new lives as a family. We are ready! I'm glad we decided to get out of the room (even though it may have been our last chance at a nap for a while), it helped keep our minds off tonight. We'll leave you with a picture of the city wall and try to post tonight after Jacob falls asleep (which hopefully will be before we do!) :)

Violet

P.S. We finally saw the sun in China today! We arrived in Beijing at 9:30 p.m. Friday so no sun, and it was cloudy and rainy most of Saturday, so still no sun.

It really is a GREAT Wall

The Great Wall of China truly is remarkable. It is one of the great wonders of the world, and now we can say we climbed it — or at least part of it. It's incredibly steep, and the steps are very uneven. One maybe be an inch or two high, and the next one is a foot or more high. That makes for some tough climbing.

We are amending this post to include the location we were at. We had to ask our guide for the name. We were at the Juyong Pass section of the Great Wall. Most tour groups go to Badaling.

Here are a few pictures from it. Click on the pic to see a larger version.


Here is where we started — and where we ended up. If you see the tower in the center at the top of the mountain, well we didn't go that far. But, look down from it to the next tower. That's where we ended up.


Here is our self-portrait. That's become a tradition when we go places.


Looking down at where we started from.


Huh? Something got lost in the translation.

We also visited Tian An Men Square and the Forbidden City, but we have to go to sleep. We have a 7:30 a.m. plane to catch. We get Jacob Sunday, so stay tuned.

We're here!

I'm posting this from the Poly Plaza hotel in Beijing. We just got in from the mammoth flights. Nearly 24 straight hours either on an airplane or in an airport.

We had a bit of a scare when we met our guide at the Beijing airport. He had grabbed another couple's itinerary, so he was looking for the wrong people. They won't be here until next week. But, he recovered quickly and got us all squared away.

Saturday, we are off to see the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Tian An Men Square. Then it's off Sunday for Xian and Jacob!

We are absolutely beat right now. Slept a little on the planes, but not much. The food on Northwest is pretty good. It seemed like every time we turned around they were feeding us something else! LOL

I think we will turn in now.

Kevin

Hours away

It's now less than 12 hours before we board the plane here in Wichita, Kan., for the first leg of our journey to Jacob.

We go to Detroit first, then Tokyo and finally Beijing. We get into Beijing at 9:35 p.m. China time FRIDAY night! That's 8:35 a.m. Friday at home. That means we will have either been on an airplane, or in an airport for nearly an entire day. What fun! LOL

Today was an exhilarating day for the most part, but there were tough times as well. First, we pulled an all-nighter — well until 6:30 a.m. — but everything got done! Then we went for a 90-minute nap ... and woke up three hours later! After that, we were running late all day. We finally made it though. We're in our hotel waiting for our 5:30 a.m. wake-up call now. Then we catch all of our flights.
While searching for family photos for Jake to peruse, Violet came across one of her dad at our wedding. Grandpa Freeze died Sept. 26, 2007. Violet's been thinking of him all day. It was hard to say goodbye to the family, and Violet even took pictures of our flat Oklahoma landscape, which she loves and will miss.
But it will all be worth it when our little boy walks into our lives.

That will be approximately 72 hours from now. In that time we will have flown half-way around the world, seen one of the seven wonders of the world and climbed it (at least a little) and arrived at a moment seven years in the making.

Wow.

We don't know what else to say. Except pray for us all and enjoy the trip with us.

zai jian,

Kevin and Violet