Last Full Day in Taiyuan

Last Full Day in Taiyuan

The last two days have kind of run together. We’ve spent them walking the streets of Taiyuan, eating, and getting to know Molly Kate better. Sometimes it seems that we are either talking about what we are going to eat, getting ready to eat, or actually eating. I’ll be glad when we’re home and we can grab a quick sandwich or bowl of cereal without all the hoopla.

Today we went to a huge park that was ½ amusement park and ½ regular park. JD and Piper rode a few rides and Molly Kate and I watched from the sidelines. We saw people practicing Tai Chi and Kung Fu at the park and also saw people dancing (it looked like a flash mob), playing badminton and generally having a good time. Speaking of badminton, we saw a group of middle age people playing badminton (complete with the net) with their feet! Yes, it’s just another example of why Americans are fat and Chinese are not.

When we were at the park, we wandered to an area that had several journalist/photographers doing a piece on the 90^th anniversary of the communist party (that’s what we were told?) Anyway, the group of photographers took one look at me carrying Molly Kate and they immediately turned their cameras on us. Piper was standing next to me and got a shot of the mob photographing us. We definitely stand out in Taiyuan where there are very few Westerners!

Molly Kate continues to do amazingly well. She is so happy that it’s unbelievable. I think she’s a lot like Kai – the glass is always half full! Taking care of a 3 year old 24/7 without David is however, getting tiring. I wouldn’t recommend traveling without your husband unless you absolutely have to. JD and Piper are truly a huge help but there’s no substitute for 2 parents. Molly Kate especially wears me out at meal times. She only wants to sit down for a short amount of time and then she’s on to more interesting things. She wants to eat whatever anyone else has (yes, David we have another moocher on our hands.) It’s not even worth ordering her a meal of her own because whatever I order is much more appetizing. She’s a regular 3 year old in every way and it’s hard not being able to fully communicate (and also worrying that if I say no too sternly, she will have a total meltdown.) So far, she hasn’t has any meltdowns. She gets irritated when I tell her no and she stomps her little foot but when I get more serious, she gives up and does what I ask her. I guess I should be counting my blessings for that.

Tomorrow (Friday in China) we’ll fly to Guangzhou to complete the American side of Molly Kate’s adoption. We’ll also meet the rest of our travel group which includes 7 other families (several from in and around Birmingham.) It will be nice to be in Guangzhou (even though it will scorching hot) and see all the familiar faces.

Thanks so much for all the prayers and good wishes. We cherish them.

Journey to Datong

We’ve had two wonderful nights with our girl. Ning Ning (aka Molly Kate) just curls up next Piper and is out like a light. Yesterday was a long, long day but it was successful on many fronts and Molly Kate is now officially our daughter in the eyes of China. We left the hotel at 8am yesterday for an appointment at the Civil Affairs Office and then we headed to Datong. The drive to Datong took 4 solid hours and our driver drove like your grandma’s grandma. We couldn’t have gone over 45mph even on the interstates. I just had to sit back and try to relax. Molly Kate was very sweet on the drive, and with the exception of some typical 3 year behavior (i.e. I don’t want to sit down, I want candy, etc.) it went smoothly. After we signed some paperwork at the police station, it was time to visit the orphanage. Our guides did not want us to take Molly Kate back there. They kept saying, “She is a very smart girl and the orphanage will make her cry. Crying is not good for babies, especially babies with bad hearts.” I told them that we would compromise and if Molly Kate started crying that we would leave immediately. You know what? She didn’t shed a tear. She hung on to me for dear life but never cried. She seemed to enjoy waving and smiling at the nannies from safely on my hip. I was able to take many, many photos of children in the orphanage, so if you are matched with a Datong baby, please let me know and I will send you my photos. Better yet, when I get home I will upload all of my photos to the Datong SWI Yahoo Group.

It’s morning here in China and our day will mainly consist of finding things to do. Our guides are not into touring so we are pretty much on our own (which is more or less okay with us since it’s more adventurous that way anyway.) We just need to stave off boredom and sleepiness!

We love you all back home so much. Molly Kate is truly the answer to so many prayers. I couldn’t have imagined her sweetness and beauty if I had tried. Enjoy the photos of our amazing girl!

We Have Our Girl

Just a quick update because we’re exhausted and have to get up very early in the morning for a long drive to Datong. We did get permission to visit the orphanage so we’re excited about that. Molly Kate is an angel. I don’t know what bedtime will bring but right now she is laughing, smiling and playing with her new brother and sister. She has danced with Piper and rough-housed with JD. She even ran and gave me a short hug a few minutes ago (although most of the time she likes to be near me but not touching me.) I am so blessed to be her mother.

Gotcha!!!

Ning Ning (a.k.a.) Molly Kate is now at the hotel with Heather, JD, and Piper. We just had a Skype session with them and she is laughing and smiling and playing. She's beautiful!

- Dave

Next Stop Molly Kate

Hello America! JD, Piper and I are doing wonderfully and are ready to meet Molly Kate in 6 hours. We went exploring this morning and found some great little shops around the hotel (which is great since the shops in our hotel are Cartier, Rolex, and other uber-expensive outlets.) We were probably ¾ths of a mile away from the hotel when I asked the kids, “Did you guys just hear thunder?” They assured me that it was just a car backfiring and we kept going. Of course, within 2 minutes the sky opened up and we were drenched. We were laughed at and pointed at by hundreds of Chinese who were cozily under their umbrellas and raincoats.

JD and Piper spent the early morning watching Chinese pop videos. We have the Chinese equivalent of MTV on our tv and it’s been a hoot to watch. The singing is pretty good, but the dancing is pretty juvenile. I think a good singer/dancer could make some huge money here. Right now as I blog (and we dry out from our drenching), the kids are watching Alaska State Troopers on National Geographic. I’m telling ya, it really is a small world.

If it stops raining we’re heading to lunch at a little restaurant around the corner that we think serves noodles. Why do we think that? Because the sign out front has a huge picture of Po and Master ShiFu on it. Copyright infringement at its best.

Next post will have photos of Molly Kate, I promise. She may be wailing but she’ll be ours! Keep us in your prayers. The next 48 hours will not be pretty.

Hello Taiyuan

Not much to say today except that we made it successfully to Taiyuan (pronounced Tie-u-in.) Our hotel is a gorgeous mock-up of the World Trade Towers. I think we made a good decision in staying here. For all you soon-to-be Shanxi momma’s out there, I would highly recommend this hotel over the Shanxi Grand. It’s not too expensive but it’s super-nice and it’s in a great area of town.

Our guide, Helen, told us that Molly Kate will be brought to our hotel tomorrow evening around 6pm. Because we get her so late (and she will most likely be very upset,) I may not get to blog or upload photos of our sweet girl right away. We also have to leave Tuesday morning for a 3 ½ hour drive back to her hometown, Datong. We hope to visit the orphanage then, but we haven’t received official permission just yet.

JD’s knee/leg has been significantly better today but his left wrist is still pretty painful. Keep him and Molly Kate on your prayer list. The next time I write, we will have Molly Kate. God is good!

NOT AS PLANNED

Yesterday was a very interesting day. It started out great but ended with a pretty sad bang. We got up and stuffed ourselves at our hotel’s amazing breakfast buffet. Then we headed to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall with a local driver who spoke no English. Trying to communicate with him was funny – like a bad game of charades. He did get us there safety though, and that’s when the fun began. We took a gondola to the top of the wall (stairs are for sissies) and then came down the mountain on individual toboggans. We had a blast and no one was scared! We stopped at lunch at a very unique and traditional Chinese restaurant called… Subway. Yep, the same Subway chain that’s in every American city. JD saw it as we walked up to the Great Wall and there was no turning back. My Chinese-food loving kid was ready for some Subway so I caved in and we all enjoyed.

When we got back from the wall, we (as in Piper and me) were exhausted. We fell into bed and woke up for dinner a few hours later. Melanie picked us up for a special sushi dinner that was near our hotel. The restaurant was great and the kids had a good time exploring new foods (it helped a little that Audrey, Melanie’s 11 year old, kept telling Piper how wonderful each item was.) There’s nothing like peer pressure to get a kid to eat!

After dinner we took the kids ice skating. For those of you that personally know JD, you can guess the ending here can’t you? Well if you guessed that we’d spend most of the evening in a lovely Chinese emergency room – YOU’RE A WINNER! His wrist is swollen up like he’s got gout an he’s got an injured leg that he’s limping on (which he swore to the doctor was broken but he doc disagreed.) So now my pack horse is a gimpy little man. I’m in trouble friends and again (as always) covet your prayers for my travels through China with Piper (my emotional kiddo), JD (my physically broken kiddo), and Molly Kate (my kiddo who doesn’t want to be my kiddo just yet.) Let the fun begin!

Saturday Photos

I haven't yet received a blog post to post along with these pictures, but I wanted to get the pictures up there anyway.

- Dave

Peking Duck

We left for the airport at 6:30am Wednesday morning and landed in China at 1:00am Friday morning. That’s right, 2 entire days of traveling to get to our little girl. On the 14 hour flight from Atlanta to Tokyo I was squashed between a professor with a bladder of steel and a tiny Pilipino woman obsessed with hand sanitizer. The trip was completely miserable but so totally worth it.

Right now I am sitting quietly in my posh hotel room (yes, we were upgraded to a suite) while JD and Piper play at their new friend’s house. It’s a little other-worldly that my kids are playing in China with friends they have just met today. These children happen to be the children of a good friend of David’s from middle school in Alabama. You can’t convince me that’s it’s not a small world! David’s friend Melanie met a gorgeous Chinese man in Japan and they now live happily ever after in Beijing. Melanie was the one who made it her personal mission to find Molly Kate after her surgery in Beijing. It was a long and grueling search in a city of 22 million people with dozens of hospitals. But Melanie finally found our baby girl and was able to actually talk to the surgeon who performed her operation. I will never be able to repay Melanie for the piece of mind she gave me after finding out that Molly Kate was ok.

Melanie was our personal tour guide today and we had such a good time. Not a boring tour pointing out the obvious high points of Beijing, but a relaxed day of walking through “real” China neighborhoods and learning bizarre facts about the city and its people. JD and Piper went swimming (with Melanie’s kids) this afternoon and then we went to a famous Beijing duck restaurant. Now that I think about it, it may have been named “The Famous Beijing Duck Restaurant.” I’ll have to get Melanie to verify that for me. Although JD loves to try new and interesting (um, disgusting) foods, tonight he actually had to spit something out at dinner. It looked like a congealed square of chocolate pudding but it turned out to be some kind of red bean curd. We had to laugh watching the boy with the stomach of steel trying unsuccessfully to swallow his food!

Tomorrow we’re going to a section of the Great Wall that we haven’t been to before. It’s farther out of the city but there is a gondola that you can take to the top of the wall and (get this…) a luge-type slide that you can slide down to the bottom on. It’s so touristy and pathetic that I’m embarrassed to say that we’ve put this very high on our to-do list. If you get a minute, look up Great Wall slide or luge on YouTube. There are some awesome videos of the ride down. I really do think we’re going to have a ball.

3 days until we meet Molly Kate. Please keep her in your prayers as she has no idea the change her life is about to make.

Hugs to all of you back home.

China Itinerary

Wed. 6/22 - Fly to Beijing (very early)

Thurs. 6/23 - Arrive in Beijing (very late)

Sun. 6/26 - Fly to Taiyuan

Mon. 6/27 - Get Molly Kate!!!!

Tues. 6/28 - Drive 4 hours to Datong (each way) for adoption paperwork

Fri. 7/1 - Fly to Guangzhou

Sat. 7/2 - Molly Kate's Medical

Wed. 7/6 - Consulate Appointment

Thurs. 7/7 - Take Oath & Pick up Molly Kate's Visa

Fri. 7/8 - Fly out of Hong Kong and arrive in US!

We're Coming Baby Girl!!!!

Heart Attack

I'm working exceptionally hard at not having a heart attack right now. We should get our Visa's next Tuesday and are (probably) flying to China on Wednesday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh?

Breath in, breath out, repeat...

We're Coming Baby!

I have so much to say and my head is spinning - in a good way. We got the news today that our TA (travel approval) arrived. I can't tell you how surprised I was to get the call. Although we knew our TA was coming, it wasn't supposed to come so early! To put things in perspective, Kai's adoption took 2 1/2 years and Ash's took 13 months. From the time we started the first piece of paperwork for Molly Kate's adoption until the day we get to meet her will only be 8 months. Our agency, Lifeline, is amazing!

We think we'll be leaving for China in less than 2 weeks but we'll know for sure on Monday. JD, Piper and I will be traveling alone this go around. David is staying home with the little boys and my prayer is that they won't kill each other. David has used all of his yearly vacation twice now for adoption trips and we decided we that this time I'd go without him (which I hate but is necessary - especially since we just got back from a week-long cruise.)

I am one blessed mama and I can't wait to hold my little girl.