A day at the Zoo

This morning we visited the Guangzhou Zoo, which is the second largest zoo in China next to Beijing! The day started off a little rough because we've been trying to figure out what to do w/Nate @bedtime. There is only one king size bed in our room, plus the crib that I guess the hotel figures every adopted child is going to sleep in. Not the case w/this little man! The first night, we made do w/the chaise lounge and some pillows. Mama felt bad about that so, you guessed it, last night he sleeps w/us. Seems as though Nathaniel also has a future in soccer once he gets older. Denise was restless most of the night and woke up tired. Needless to say, the show must go on. So, down to breakfast, mostly milk today and some egg, rice, noodles. That seemed to be the staple of his mornings while in the orphanage so I wonder if he is tired of it. Denise gets worried he doesn't eat "a lot". But he makes up for it w/milk, Graduates cereal, and other trappings from our plates! After breakfast comes bath time. The bathroom is setup quite uniquely. There is a glass window that looks into our room from it and the bathroom itself is laid out thus:

First area: sink and toilet. Through a glass door you enter the stand-up shower and the tub which is situated lengthwise along that glass window. Long story short, he is able to take his bath and make a huge mess because it only goes one way, towards the shower drain. That will have to change when we get state side! After bath it usually is the Smith tag team show to get him dressed. Once mass hysteria has subsided from the dressing, it's back to the lobby and off to the zoo. He seemed to do pretty well, most of the animals intrigued him, however a few still intimidate. Again, he was tied to his mother's hip. She's really getting to work on her biceps and triceps hauling this 30# package around!
After the zoo, it was time to head back to the hotel for nap and lunch for mom and dad. We had some laundry done through our guide and it turned out quite nice, packaged and everything. Tonight is a free night because 9 of the 11 families are going to the Consulate tomorrow for their appointments (we're not one of them, ours isn't until Wednesday). So, we also have a free morning. Tomorrow afternoon we are going back to the Clinic area to have Nate's TB results checked and do some shopping for souvenirs and the like.

Yes, I'd like to book a one way ticket out of here, please!

Hey Mom! It's one of Dad's ancestors!

Can't get enough of those Cheerios and Graduate puffs!

First day Guangzhou and the trip there (ugh)

Our last day in Harbin (Friday) was rather uneventful. Our flight was @1410 to Guangzhou and our guide picked us up @1130. Nathaniel is getting to be quite the handful @times as I'm sure Denise would agree. He is very stubborn and hard-headed. He's encountered SEVERAL time outs for throwing, talking back to Mama, and other disagreeable things. Through it all we (try) to remember what he has been through and even what he is going through now. Our flight was delayed out of Harbin by about 45 minutes, which actually turned out to be a blessing because one of our checked bags triggered security. So, there I was going through our assortment of dirty laundry, foods, toiletries, etc. w/the Chinese security guard wondering what he was looking for. Turned out we had several liquids that were scanned and needed accounted for. The Off mosquito spray Denise had stowed away threw us for a loop! Anyhoo, we made it to our gate and waited around for take-off. Nate did well w/taking off and even settled down for a nap. He was NOT about to wear his seat belt however! About 1 1/2 hours into the flight, we become that stereotypical American couple w/the Chinese child that is screaming at the top of his lungs and we are clueless! Only through the grace of God did Denise finally figure out that maybe his ears were bothering him. We gave him some Graduate hand foods to eat and all was (relatively) right w/the world.

Nate trying to make a getaway! Actually he and Denise were playing w/one of his cars on the moving sidewalk to pass the time.

We arrived in Guangzhou about 20:00 and were promptly met by our AWAA contact, Amy. We loaded up the bus w/other returning families which was another blessing. To be able to connect for that brief time w/others going through this journey was soothing.

Today was check-up day for all the children. We are staying @a 5 star Marriott and, brother, you know it! We actually ordered room service last night for a burger, fries, and Diet Pepsi. Amazing! You surely miss the simple things as you go down this path. Moving along, the breakfast is very good, Nate is not as big an eater in the morning as he was, but still manages to kill off about a half a cow's worth of milk! I don't have any picts. of the visit to the clinic for their check ups. That experience could only be done justice w/video. So I have three short sections of video saved showing the madness that is encountered during these checkups. Nate passed w/flying colors but, since he is over 2 he had to have a TB test which will be checked Monday. Mama was there through the whole thing trying to reassure him that we were there for him and this was to make sure he was healthy! I did manage to snap one of these doozies though!

A squatty potty in full effect! According to Denise this is actually a REALLY nice one! I have yet to encounter one for my own use.

After the clinic we travelled over to a multi-purpose store, is the best way to put it! Toys, groceries, perfume, they carried just about everything which is good because we were running dangerously low on pull-ups for Little Man. Currently we are back @the hotel, we had some lunch, and Denise was trying to put Nathan down for a nap. He was not happy about that @all! You have to pay for the internet in your room, however it is free in the lobby so that is where I am sending this post. Sounds as though we are going to have some pretty busy days ahead of us, but I will try and post when I can. Thanks again to all our friends and family that are praying us home through this. We appreciate it more than you will ever know! Unfortunately due to the slowness of the connection and the fact I have to haul the camera and assorted cables down to the lobby, I probably will not post nearly as many pictures as you would all like. Sorry :-(

"Yeah, you wouldn't believe what MY son did...."

Nathaniel a self-portrait

Last full day in Harbin!

It's scary the pattern we're getting into already w/this little man! Everybody's up around 6-6:30 (however, we use that term very loosely as I've been up several hours before as has Denise), play a little bit, Denise and I get cleaned up. No sense cleaning up Nate since he tends to be a little messy after breakfast.

After breakfast we come back to the room and kind of "wait" until he gets to go potty because, frankly, it is a real treasure hunt trying to find bathrooms around here!

Guess who's not allowed to dress the kid?

Once we get ready it's down to the hotel lobby to hook up w/Katherine and our driver for today's excursion to Siberian Tiger World, or something of that affect.

Somebody's getting tired of all this running around!

Not sure this was Nate's cup of tea. It's kind of like the Wildlife Safari in Sandusky where you travel in a van and drive through the tigers habitat. He was pretty scared when they were near by, but held his own!

"Look mama, I spy w/my little eye..."

So after our daily excursion, it's back to the hotel for lunch. Actually, Denise had packed lunch for us since we weren't sure how long we would be out to the tiger exhibit. After lunch comes nap time and this is where Denise and I are able to recharge a bit. She writes in the journal she is keeping on our travels and I update the blog. We let him sleep till about 4, play some, have dinner, maybe walk around (we've been doing laps on our floor of the hotel. Then it's time to unwind and head to bed around 8. Sometimes it feels like that span from 4-8 lasts for a day (isn't it bedtime, yet?). I'm not sure how much I'll be able to enter from tomorrow (Friday) as we are heading down to Guangzhou @11:30 (4-5 hour flight, ugh) for all our legal stuff! We cannot thank you all enough for your thoughts and prayers during our travel. It's been everything rolled into one: nervous, exciting, trying, tiring, exhilarating, frustrating, uneasy, unsure, enlightening. The change that has taken place in my wife is amazing. Almost overnight she has transformed into a mother. She is handling Nate so well w/patience, love, and understanding. We all know this, right?

It's not always sunshine and rainbows :-(

Adventures continue in Harbin

First and foremost, we are severely limited in our electronic communications. Denise is unable to send text messages (yet she can receive them, what's up w/that?) and we cannot SEND email, though we can receive it as well. So, basically, Sarah would you tell Mrs. Cairnes that we are alive and well and to check the blog for updates, please? Thanks!

Alright, Denise said I need to cut down on the chatter and up the ante on the pictures. So, here we go.

Breakfast this morning in the hotel (not so good, how do baked beans qualify for breakfast?). Picked up @10 by Katherine to go to a "church". Turns out this "church" is actually an old Russian Byzantine Orthodox church converted to a museum of sorts for the local history. Interesting, but not really the thing for a "crazy" three year old!



Outside the church there were many families and children just enjoying the weather, still slightly chilly although beautifully sunny! If any of you know our dog Annie (who does NOT know she is a dog), it seems our son is following in her footsteps regarding making friends. Denise had to sit in on this picture in order to keep Nate from heading in the other direction

We walked along past the museum to a local mall and hooked Nate Dog up w/his first pair of Nikes! While at the mall, we also picked up some tasty treats at a bakery and some fresh produce to offset the PB&J and other carbs we've been eating. This is NOT the place to visit if you are on the Atkins Diet! Anyway, the weather turned a little grey and started to rain, so it was back to the hotel for lunch and some "down" time before Nathan took his nap.

Nate checking out the fishes in our hotel lobby!

Mama's boy? You bet!

Watch out Bill Gates and Steve Jobs! Nathaniel Ze Smith is cutting his teeth on the cutting edge!

Second day in Harbin

I had a pretty restless night, between a phone call from our Asian travel coordinator and an anonymous phone call around midnight that went something like this:
"Hello?"
"Uh, herro, um youa havea message?"
"I'm sorry. A message?"
"No, um...er...massage?"
"No thanks"
"Oh, so sorry", click

                                                         

Anyway, today was our return trip to the Adoption Center to finalize all of Nate's paperwork. This visit was accompanied by a trip to the "squatty potty" for him. Now mind you, that trip to the potty occured while the Director of the agency is getting signatures and seals (placing your thumb in a waxy red material and placing it over your signature). The time wasn't stressful enough, Nathaniel had to laba - poo poo. So Ma Ma and one of his teachers go off to the squatty potty and there I sit w/the Director and the head of the orphanage. Talk about uncomfortable silences. With his laba finished, we were able to complete all the crazy paperwork, have more pictures taken and he IS OURS! (Well we still have all that legal stuff, but who's keeping track?)

Back to the hotel (our home away from home away from home) and the sun was actually out so we could take him for a short walk around the local grounds. Our hotel is situated by some form of "lake" where folks fly kites and just sort of wander around. It was nice, but cold. We weren't able to stay out for too long. So, again, back to the hotel where we played w/the balloon for awhile,but he was getting tired and quite crazy! We were able to lay him down for a nap while Denise read her book and I worked on yesterdays blog. As it stands, I'm running about a day late getting these out. It is currently Wednesday @0900 and I'm finishing THIS blog. Oh well, all the days are running together. After nap we went back to Wal-Mart for some of those boil-some-noodles-in-a-bag type things and some bread for our peanut butter. Lunch was in the room, peanut butter sandwiches, water. The rest of our day was taken up w/cars, balloons and much laughter. Nate has really attached to Denise, which is fantastic. We worry that he has attached so quickly, but it seems like his orphanage may have been the exception to the rule. Quite clean, many friends, and just a good place to be in for that situation.
We did try to get Nate some "authenitc" Chinese noodles @the California Noodle King USA restaurant. Man, what a trip. Menus were complete Mandarin and NOONE spoke English or even Chinglish. Fortunately there was a patron sitting near by who had a plate of what we thought Nate might like. So we ordered it up w/some water and he did pretty good. He's adamant about feeding himself and the traditional Chinese way is to kind of shovel the food into one's mouth from the plate. Of course, we're trying to break him of that habit! Anyway, it was McDonalds for Denise and I and back to the hotel for bedtime!

Gotcha Day! - a day late :-(

Sorry for the belated post. The hotel we are staying in has internet, but it's not wifi nor is it prominently displayed. I actually only found out about it while going through some drawers looking for clothes.

Anyhoo, Gotcha Day has come and gone! We flew out of Beijing Airport around 7:30 and arrived in Harbin about 9:30. We were met by our local guide "Katherine" and our driver, Mr. Soon and off we went! Much to our surprise, we were being taken directly to the Adoption Center! Denise didn't have the gifts ready and we were totally unprepared for that opportunity! Our original plan was to fly into Harbin, check into the hotel, and in the afternoon go to the Adoption Center. It's nice to see consistency in the driving throughout China. Our driver was actually honking @the police to get out of his way! Harbin is a rather rough neck of the woods, quite a bit of trash on the streets, many people selling produce and foods on the streets from the back of their bikes. It's times like this we truly miss good old Elyria, OH.

So Denise hastily puts the gift bags together for the Director and nannies, in the back of the van. We hustle into the Adoption Center to find out what's going on. I have to be honest, from this point on the whole thing is kind of a blur. It's like signing paperwork for buying a car, and a house, and, I don't know, refinancing your house all @the same time! We were in a confernece type room w/our guide and the Director of the the Adoption Center comes in, a lady by the name of "Susan". She speaks some English, but uses our guide for the sticky parts. A lot of  "don't worry, no problem" throughout the process. They actually had us shut our camera down because they would be putting together an album for us to pick up later in the week. Just a lot of stuff going on and this "crazy boy" shows up!

This picture is actually from our hotel room later on in the day. Again, it is impossible to put into words what transpired @that point in time. He came in w/his nannies, turned out to actually be his teachers, and it's just a whirlwind! Questions in Mandarin, roughly translated, the teachers going over his likes and dislikes. We sign some paperwork, take some pictures, and we're off! Kind of a trial run, I guess. "Here take him out for a test drive, see how he handles, and let us know tomorrow if you are interested!" From the adoption center we headed back to the hotel, our guide left her phone number if we had any issues and that was it! Now we have this small person staying w/us, entrusting his well being to us completely and we don't even speak ihis language.

Well, it's too cold out (about 40 degrees) to take any kind of lengthy walk. Fortunately there is the staple of American fast food down the street from our hotel. Here is little man getting his first taste of McDonalds:

Yes, we are happy to announce that Denise was able to train Nate in the fine art of fry dunking in ketchup! Also, he is not a huge fan of their hamburgers (which is actually a good thing, since their diets don't consist of a lot of meet, evidently).

And across from the McDonalds what do we have? You know it, none other than Sam Walton's contribution to the reduction of small business, Wal-Mart! A vertical one @that!

This isn't the picture for it, this one was taking out of the window of a high speed van, but you get the gist. We're actually @Wal-Mart looking for a hoodie or fleece for me because I had failed to pack one for the trip and things have been a might bit chilly for a North Face jacket and short sleeves. However, Nate had other plans! He's able to let Denise know that he has to go potty, but it's almost instantaneous. Know mind you, the standard here for children is layers, regardless of outside temparature. When we picked up Nate he had on, in order from inside to out, pajamas, a pair of quilted-type overalls, lightweight snow pants, a sweater, and a winter jacket! The "accident" (#1) nailed the pajamas, overalls, and snow pants. So it was a quick stop @ Wal-Mart and back to the hotel to change and get cleaned up and off to bed w/a book a Ma-Ma

One more day!

Denise was feeling better today, just tired from not getting much sleep and eating less. We had breakfast in our hotel for the last time and hooked up w/our families @0915 to take the bus to church. This was the Beijing International Christian Fellowship, a non-denominational gathering of English only speaking individuals. Due to government restrictions they are only able to gather w/people who are foreigners. It was incredible to be thousands of miles away from home and yet here were this people singing praises and offering prayers to our God! What a mixture of cultures and ethnicities!

After church we went to a jade factory where they gave us a (brief)history of jade and its role in the Chinese culture. We purchased a jade amulet which I am to wear (close to my heart) until we feel Nate is old enough to "carry on". We were looking @pig amulets because that coincided w/the year he was born. But none of the amulets were appealing, many were childlike which would be good for now, but not when he is older.

After the jade factory was a lunch that really wasn't too bad. They serve family style w/the lazy susan in the middle and then a bunch of dishes that they offer for you to try. The plates are quite small, however, about the size of a saucer. This helps to keep you from pigging out. We both gave the chopsticks a dance, pretty tricky, but I could see where, w/practice, you could get the hang of them.

Starting to feel like a cruise now! After this we did that, and then ate, and did some of this, and eat some more. Following lunch was our trek to the Great Wall. Denise decided to pop off a couple of pics along the way. I think she's fascinated by the people on bikes.

I'll keep it short and sweet tonight, we have to be in the lobby @0600 tomorrow to catch our flight to Harbin where we will finally get to meet this charming young man!