Guangzhou China

Hello from Guangzhou China!

We are on the last leg of our 15 day trip. We arrived here yesterday around 2:00 pm after 1.5 hour flight from Anhui Province. Leaving Amelia's province was sad especially saying goodbye to our wonderful guide Amy. She was amazing and took very good care of us. Her words to me at the airport were, "I will miss you". I know that this is their job but this time was different. She really bonded with both families that she assisted while in Anhui. I am thankful that we received her e-mail which allows us to stay in touch with her.

Once we were checked into the hotel, (we stayed here in 2005) we ran next door for lunch at McDonald's. The hotel had been renovated since the last time we were here. The rooms are gorgeous.

We decided to be adventurous with 2 other families and took the subway. They were jammed packed. What we went through to eat at Pizza Hut was both fun and tiring. Especially with Amelia. She had not had a nap all day besides the fact that she screamed for 30 minutes on her first airplane ride because she did not want to be put back in the seat belt. PLEASE begin praying now for the 14 hour flight home I'm going to need it LOL. She was in rare form. I don't know where she got all the energy she had. All the bright lights and people everywhere seemed to over stimulate her. We could not believe how active and defiant she had become. Today was a better day!

We have been spending alot of time with the Marrone family. We have been with them in every city and it has been a blessing.

This morning was breakfast, a trip to a museum and the "paperwork party". This is where one member of each family comes together in our guides room to process paperwork for the American consulate so that we are able to obtain Amelia's visa which allows her to enter into the United States. It was grueling but well worth it. This was to be a time for Frank and baby girl to bond but guess what she slept for 3 hours. I could not believe it. Perhaps the rest of the week I can get out for a little alone time while they bond.

Dominic ventured out with Jordon and walked to a local park and sat out by the pool. Dominic had pizza for lunch, leftovers from last night that he decided to heat up with the hair dryer...

The weather is great, close to 80 degrees. Frank mentioned in an earlier post that we visited Amelia's orphanage well, we were able to get a few pictures of a friend's daughter who is in the same orphanage as Amelia was. She will meet her forever family on February 2. I am so happy that we were able to take photos of her and give them to her family (see photos).

Well, getting tired so I will catch you all later. Thanks for your prayers for our family.

Orphanage Visit - Zoo visit

Hello all, Yesterday we went to visit the Hefei orphanage and the Wild animal zoo. It was very sad to see so many children without a home. I must say that the orphanage was much better than I expected. I really didn't know what to think but it was great to see that the nannys really cared for the children. One of the families we are traveling with, their daughter was from this orphanage and they got to see the facility as well as meet the foster Mom who had been taking care of their daughter. They got to ask her questions and see where she has lived and meet their daughter's foster brother. It was so sweet to see her foster brother hug her and take care of her. He got her a seat and sat with her and just held her for at least 10 minutes. They said he was deaf and could not speak, but you would have never known and I must say he was very protective of his little sis.

After the emotional visit we went to the zoo where we saw several wild animals that you could actually touch and feed. Not like our zoos back home. Dominic my brave son got on a camel, a real hairy hump back camel, he also let the peacock feed from his hand. We saw lions, tigers wolves, bears, a giant panda and a multitude of other animals. You could walk up to deer and ostrich could reach you if you weren't careful.

On a previous post we mentioned we probably would not go to Amelia's orphange, over the last few days she has bonded with Mommy especially and since we visited the Hefei orphanage we thought we did not want to miss this opportunity while being so close.

So, today we traveled to see the orphanage in Anqing city where Amelia is from. It took about two hours to get there and we got to see the country side on the way. I really like the area where she is from. There were many mountains we passed to enter the city. Reminded me of West Virginia where my Mom is from. Lots of trees!

The orphanage was much different from the one in Hefei. It was much smaller and also housed elderly folks in part of it. There was no foster care on the premises but they used foster care in the way we would back in the US. We got to see Amelia's nanny and other caretakers. They really love her and had so much fun seeing her. She understands alot more Chinese than I ever will. They told us that Amelia (Huanqing) was the oldest and took great care of the other children. if they fell she would pick them up, she shared everything with the others and is very generous, we have experienced this with her already. She shares everything and is very helpful. She is also very attached to Mommy at this point. Although Amelia was very happy to see her friends and nanny, she was very happy to leave with her Mommy! We got to see another child whose parents will be traveling to China later this month to bring her home. We took lots of pictures.

That's it for now...off to Guangzhou where its almost 80 degrees, although we are happy to be closer to coming home and seeing our wonderful children Hunter, Gabrielle and Hope, it is sad to leave where she is from, hard to explain.

It's OFFICIAL!!!

Yesterday, January 13, 2009, we visited the civil affairs office. This is the same office where we met Amelia yesterday. I was a little worried about her remembering leaving her nanny and her being upset but, she did just fine. After 24 hours of being her "foster parents" she is now our daughter.

Once there, we filled out some paperwork, took a family photo (see below) and were interviewed by a notary. We were able to meet a young man from the orphanage who spent time with Amelia. He was very nice. He and his wife our expecting a baby (sex unknown). We have decided that it is not a good idea to visit the orphanage because Gotcha Day was so traumatic for Amelia. But we will visit the Hefei Orphanage with Mike and Sandy where Grace is from.

After that, we will visit the Hefei Wild Animal Zoo. Look for photos tomorrow. Our day would not have been complete without walking around the city. We went to Parkson's (very expensive). Dodging the traffic was a fun part of the day. They do not stop for anyone even babies in strollers.

The weather was not so bad and the girls did fine. We had dinner at McDonald's, saw a monkey on a chain (the monkey was on the chain as opposed to "off the chain" - Franks comment) the lots of locals from Hefei City.

Frank: I was stuck in an elevator for 15 minutes today,,,it seemed like hours. All lights went out I managed to pry the doors of the elevator open but could not get the doors to floor 12 open. Then all of a sudden it was over...... if you have ever been stuck in a dark elevator, you know what I mean.

Dominic and I went to the gym yesterday and worked out with weights and treadmill and bike. I am glad he is here. He is very helpful and funny. He pushed every button on the elevator yesterday, made some folks kind of unhappy, 28 floors....He is a great kid who I am extremely proud to be his father. God has great plans for him.

UPDATE and So AMAZING

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that Amelia had a great night last night. She played for a while after we finally got her out of her 3 layers of clothes plus a coat. She bonded with Frank at first. We changed her diaper, changed her clothes and she played for hours.

Finally at 9:45 pm I put her in her crib. For the first time after 4 children she didn't cry. She looked around a lot and then sat up drifting asleep. I layed her down and she slept until 7:00 am. She is not very happy when she wakes up but warms up after a while. Breakfast went well and she ate a lot of congee. Like Hope, she didn't like the highchair at all but we made her sit in it. She cried for a few minutes and then calmed down.

Here is the amazing part of our journey listed below from a previous post on our adoption website.

Adoption Agency Website Post - So Amazing

Well, if you have taken a look at our blog, you will notice something different about Amelia. Our referral stated that she had a unrepaired cleft lip and cleft palate.

Melissa Blauvelt our FC told us that there was a chance that she would be repaired. Well, you guessed it. Amelia's lip was repaired April 2008 almost one year ago. Our referral was from Oct. 2007. We had prayed for God's healing and did not even consider it coming about this way. So, now all we need to do is have her receive palate surgery.

Another amazing thing about this story is that Amelia was in the same orphanage with Tonya Torkelson's little girl Matti. Unfortunately, we did not get to travel together but what we discovered was that Amelia was present in a few of Matti's birthday party pictures at the orphange and we didn't even know it until just yesterday.

Amelia is standing right beside Matti. I am so happy about this because I wanted a picture of them together but would not have gotten one with Matti and her family because our families would travel at different times to China.

God allowed for them to be pictured together and I am overjoyed. Thank you God and thank you Tonya for sharing those pictures with me. Especially since the orphanage did not receive my package with a camera in it so I did not get pictures of her in the orphanage.
Thanks for listening and sharing our journey with us. Love you guys!
Djuna in China (from MD)