Tianjin Day 4

Today was supposed to be a free day, but the orphanage director changed our plans and scheduled us to apply for Claire's passport. We left the hotel in a taxi at 8:15. At least the taxi drivers know the way to these places! He took us straight there and we were early. When the office opened we went in with an official from the orphanage and had her passport picture taken, paid our fees and had some paperwork stamped. It took all of about 15 minutes and we headed back to the hotel...where Claire passed out because she did not sleep at all last night!

Hanging out at the passport office.

We let her rest for a couple of hours and then headed out to meet Robert for lunch. A quick trip on the subway and we were at the orphanage where we met up with Robert and also with Lisa Jordan and her crew. The Jordan's just adopted the cutest fella. He is about 10 years old and Claire was fascinated with him and her other son, Brent. We went to a local restaurant and Robert, who has lived here for something like 8 years, ordered lots of local dishes. They brought the dishes and put them on the big lazy Susan so we all could share. The food was great and I fed Claire with my chopsticks. I think I got more food on her lap than in her mouth and she kept putting her face down to the plate with her mouth open to indicate that she wanted more! Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of this experience because my battery died and the back up was back at the hotel. Oh well! We stayed at the restaurant for hours picking Robert's brain about life in Tianjin and Claire behaved so beautifully. She sat in my lap or Paul's and just played quietly! This afternoon we walked down to the "Walking Street" here in Tianjin. Like in Beijing, it is a long street of shops but it was not as nice as the one in Beijing. We did buy a children's book for Claire and some snacks.

Pizza Hut in China!

Sweet Girl!

Sweet Feet

Robert shared several things with us today based on his knowledge of the area and of the welfare system in Tianjin. First, Claire is almost certainly Han Chinese and not one of the 56 or so minorities in China. Of course, it does not make a bit of difference to us but is a little piece of information that may be of interest to Claire one day. Also, he was quite surprised that she still had club feet. He said the welfare system had been good about getting repair surgery for club feet and thought she most have slipped through the cracks. I think it may be possible that due to her low muscle tone and reflex, they felt she would never walk and there was no point in correcting her feet. I don't know that for sure but we are hoping they can be corrected non-surgically, so I for one, am fine with the fact she did not have surgery. I have read that the surgery done here could have made it worse or caused her to be in pain as she grows up. I also don't know that for sure but we are planning to have her evaluated by a Ponsetti Doctor when we get her home!

What a night!

First Bath

Brushing teeth with Daddy

After my last post we took Claire for a short walk, ate some dinner and gave her a much needed bath......which she hated every minute of! She was fine after that, right up until we tried to go to bed. The minute the lights went down she got upset. I gave her a flashlight and that calmed her. She finally fell asleep and stayed that way for all of about two hours. Then she spent the rest of the night in a sort of half sleep, whining and fidgeting around in the bed for hours. She eventually went back to sleep, just in time for us to get her up! Bad night. We left early this morning for our legal appointments with our CHI coordinator, Jessie. First we had to go back to the orphanage, but only to pick up a representative that accompanied us to the civil office. This was good because our driver didn't know the way! What's new! When we got there we got to see the other families that were picking up children yesterday. It was so cute to see all the children with their new families. They all seemed to be doing well! We did some paperwork, gave red fingerprints, got our pictures taken and then left to go to the notary office. We got lost, again! Once we found it, we were only there for a about 10 minutes while the notary asked us why we wanted to adopt Claire and if we promised to take care of her, educate her and never abandon her. We signed on the line and that was that! She is ours according to the Chinese government!

All dressed and ready for our official business day!

Daddy and his girl with that all important document that says she is ours!

Having her nap after our big day!

CLAIRE DAY!

Claire Hope Kangtong Gour

Today was rainy again, as we drove all over Tianjin trying to find the orphanage! Our driver did not know the way from where the hotel was, but he was not afraid to stop and ask for directions.....about 6 times. We finally made it but Claire was not there yet. She was still driving in with her foster family. We were put in an office to wait because there were 7 families picking up children today and the room they usually exchange in was too crowded. It was not a long wait before a staff member walked in the door with a child and just handed her to me before she knew what was happening. We were not allowed to see the foster family. Claire did not cry then, but just looked around at us. She would not have anything to do with Paul until he blew some bubbles for her. Then she would at least let him talk to her but not touch her. We brought her a backpack of toys and snacks and she was very curious about what was in the pack. She unzipped it herself to take something out and then would zip it back up. She is very smart! She loved the cell phone we gave her and loved to close it and hear it ring and then open it again.

Leaving the orphanage

She was calm on the car ride too. When we got to the room we set her on the bed and she played for a long time. She even smiled at Paul when he played peek-a-boo with her .

First smile is for Daddy (Baba)

She likes to color too. We got her a coloring book and crayons and she colored with Paul. She is so smart, she copies everything. If he holds the crayon one way she will hold it that way and if he holds it another way, she changes too! She also loves the stacking cups we brought. She figured those out right away.

Then she got a little scared by a pillow that I moved closer to her and she began to cry. Paul got out a tissue to wipe her nose and she took it away from him to wipe it herself! She would only give him the old tissue if he gave her a new one. Then she had a good time playing in the mirror for a while but when she got tired, around nap time, she cried again. This time she cried off and on for a while but she would not take a nap. She calmed down and Daddy ordered her some room service. She is not afraid to eat! She packed away a whole plate of fried rice with vegetables

First cry

sleepy girl

She finally let Paul hold her and rocked her to sleep in his arms and laid her on the bed at 2:45, about one and a half hours after her nap time was supposed to start. I hope she goes to sleep tonight!

Well, I know everyone wants to know about her health. She uses her upper body in a completely normal way. She has great fine motor skills! She could hold a crayon better than some five year olds I've seen. She has not done much talking but she can hear and understand very well. Of course, she doesn't understand us, but she could understand our guide when she spoke to her!

She can move her legs and she can slowly crawl somewhat but she does not walk. She can stand with my help but her feet are so turned that when she stands she is standing on the top of one of her feet. One foot turns out and the other in and under. Maybe when we get her club feet corrected she will walk. I can not be sure. Her legs are not strong so she may need braces or maybe just some therapy. Dr. Johnson will be happy to hear that her teeth are so white! But one tooth is chipped. Over all, she seems to be in good health. No lice, no scabies and no runny nose!

Hopefully, she will wake up and play some more soon. I am excited to see her personality! So far she is a little shy but very curious about everything.

On to Tianjin!

Today we left Beijing around 10:00 to head toward Tianjin. Ten minutes into the ride, I realized I had left my camera back at the hotel so we had to turn around! Oh well! Once my camera was retrieved we hit the road again and made it to Tianjin an hour and a half later. Tianjin is another big city, like Beijing. I don't have any pictures coming into Tianjin because it was raining and we couldn't see much. Then we got lost because the driver had never taken a family to the hotel we requested to stay at. Normally the CHI families would stay at one of a few hotels in one part of town. We were going to be the only family staying in Tianjin this trip so we requested to stay at the Marriott because Paul gets special privileges there, like free Internet. But, unlike an American man, this guy stopped to ask for directions! In the end, he paid a cab driver to show us the way! We got to see lots of downtown Tianjin in the mean time.

After getting checked in we went to lunch at a local restaurant with our CHI coordinator. We had spicey Chicken Kung Pow, but that is not what the Chinese people call it! We are getting much better at using chop sticks!

As we came into the city we saw our first Super Walmart! I thought that was funny but I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of it. We will probably take a cab over there one day to see if it is anything like our Super Walmart!

Since I did not have any pictures from today I am posting some others from our time in Beijing.

These are called mystery animals. They are on the four corners of the roofs of buildings in the Forbidden City and other Chinese buildings.

Another picture of the Great Wall

Women playing a traditional Chinese instrument. It had a flute like sound.

Tomorrow is Claire Day! We will meet our CHI coordinator, Jessie, downstairs at 9:00AM and we are supposed to be at the orphanage to get Claire by 10:00AM. Jessie wants us to get there a little early so we can take some pictures of the facility. She says the government will not let us take a tour and we can not stay long once we get the baby. So, my next post will be with our new family member! I can't wait to see her!

Beijing-Day 2

According to our guide, the three most important things to do in Beijing are to see the Forbidden City, go to the Great Wall and eat Beijing roasted duck. We did all three of those today! We started out with our group around 8:30 this morning. The day was beautiful with enough breeze to blow the air pollution away for the sun to get through. The group is bigger now, as four new families joined us today. First we went to Tian An Men Square and walked north down the axis of Beijing into the Forbidden City from the southern gate to the northern gate. The Forbidden City is being refurbished right now. Some buildings on the northern side were done and these buildings are gorgeous with deep bright paint jobs and golden roofs but the buildings toward the southern end have not been refurbished yet. You could see a huge difference! Chloe, shared lots of interesting stories with us and I just hope I remember it all!

The famous Tian'an Men (The Gate of Heavenly peace) is the main entrance of the imperial city in both the Ming and Qing dynasties.

This is inside the Forbidden City.

When we left the Forbidden City we went to a local restaurant for our Beijing roast duck lunch. The restaurant would have been considered just a step up from a dive in the US and was tucked away in downtown. We never would have thought to go in on our own but it turned out to have a nice clean private dinning room where we were served delicious local food, including our roasted duck! There was a huge lazy Susan in the middle of the table and they just kept putting new dishes on it. We tried almost all of them with few exceptions.

After our meal we hit the road out of Beijing to the Great Wall. On our way, we went past the new Olympic stadium, which they call the Bird's Nest. It really does look like a bird's nest! We also saw the Water Cube, where they will hold all the water sports and the new soccer stadium. Because the traffic was very bad it took much longer than it should have to get to the Great Wall and our time at the Great Wall was cut short, but we had time to go a ways up and get lots of good pictures. It was really beautiful!

This is a very steep part of the climb. Actually, it was all very steep!

There we are on the Wall!