Thursday, May 22, 2014
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
West Lake
The beautiful West Lake, a popular place for tourists in China, is just a couple of blocks away from our hotel. It was so fun walking around today. Especially now that we have Lainey, we feel a little like celebrates. It's crazy how many people stare at us, as for our picture with them, and sneak photos of us. A LOT of people pointing at us, and point us out to our friends, but we couldn't understand what they were saying about us, so we're not quite sure what they think! :) We're wondering how much people are exposed to adoption here. We've had a couple of people stop and ask us, and when we say we are her "mama" and "baba" they get very confused, and we're pretty sure they are saying, "but she's Chinese!".
Hangzhou Botanical Gardens
Today we visited the beautiful Bamboo Garden park here in Hangzhou. Lainey's birth city is so beautiful, and the bamboo garden was by far the most beautiful park I have ever been to. It was amazing to walk through, and we only saw a small part.
The days are officially becoming a blur! It's crazy now to think that we have only had Lainey for 2 days. She is definitely her happiest and most comfortable when we are in our hotel room. She is getting so much more comfortable with us! She doesn't move around on her own yet (we know that she can, she just still wants to stay close), but she'll get out of my lap now and giggle, be silly, and be naughty (with a sly little grin)! :)
It's hard to explain the miracle of love that happens with adoption. It has been so amazingly quick that we have fallen completely in love with this baby girl. Biology means absolutely nothing as far as our hearts are concerned. She's ours, and we love her so so deeply. It may sound crazy if you haven't experienced it yourself, but this love is love is no different than what we feel for the boys. Just look at this face! :) Oh my goodness, we're so blessed!
It's hard to explain the miracle of love that happens with adoption. It has been so amazingly quick that we have fallen completely in love with this baby girl. Biology means absolutely nothing as far as our hearts are concerned. She's ours, and we love her so so deeply. It may sound crazy if you haven't experienced it yourself, but this love is love is no different than what we feel for the boys. Just look at this face! :) Oh my goodness, we're so blessed!
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
New Baby Bliss
Having Lainey now, it's crazy how much this feels like the newborn stages we had with the boys. Part of that is the vigilant attention we are giving her, part is the fatigue (from less sleep and still a little jet lag), but mainly it's the bliss. My heart is so full and so happy. And right now, as I write this, she's sleeping - and I can't wait for her to wake up. :) I want to hear her giggles again and hold her close as I feed her. :)
There are two little things I want to write down so I don't forget, thought they are random in this blog post.
First, whenever we feed her the glorious Cheerios (that make everything all better), she opens her little mouth a teeny tiny bit and waits for us to feed her. She feels in those moments like a little baby bird to us. She's so sweet. :)
Also yesterday, as we were waiting our turn to finalize our adoption, our guide Cathy (who is Chinese), said that the date, 5/20, in Chinese is like the words Woe Eye Nee (that's my phonetic spelling), or "I love you". She said that for that reason, 5/20 is a popular date in China to get married. I just thought that was so cool. What a special date to make it official that she's ours. :)
There are two little things I want to write down so I don't forget, thought they are random in this blog post.
First, whenever we feed her the glorious Cheerios (that make everything all better), she opens her little mouth a teeny tiny bit and waits for us to feed her. She feels in those moments like a little baby bird to us. She's so sweet. :)
Also yesterday, as we were waiting our turn to finalize our adoption, our guide Cathy (who is Chinese), said that the date, 5/20, in Chinese is like the words Woe Eye Nee (that's my phonetic spelling), or "I love you". She said that for that reason, 5/20 is a popular date in China to get married. I just thought that was so cool. What a special date to make it official that she's ours. :)
Finalization & First Giggles!
So I have held my emotions together pretty well so far here in China, until this morning, when we finalized the adoption and the Chinese government official stated the decree that Alaina was now our daughter. Oh my! Tears! So so many tears! I just can't believe how blessed we are to get to keep her! :)
Before the finalization we had had a pretty tough morning. Lainey woke up scared, very understandably. We had a lot of tears and it was so tough to just hold her and let her grieve. Thankfully, by the time we reached the Civil Affairs office she was calm and quiet, and did so well playing quietly in my lap as all the paperwork was processed (for over an hour). She fell asleep in my arms again, and napped for about 20 minutes before it was our turn to be decreed as her parents.
Lainey has been SO timid with us for most of the time. For example, when BJ would blow her bubbles and bring a bubble to her (on the bubble wand, if that makes sense), she would lift just one little finger very slowly, not lifting her hand at all, to pop them. Aside from the few little smiles we saw from her yesterday, she has been either stoic or sad.
After coming back from the Civil Affairs office, we went back to the room to just rest and play. Sitting on the bed with her, I brought out the toy necklaces and stacking cups I had packed. After playing for little while, I could see her relaxing... and soon I saw a little smile, then more and more smiles. I'd give her big kisses and she's laugh, her FIRST giggles for us! It was such a sweet sweet moment, as we were really able to start to see her personality and have her come out of her shell. This process of bonding takes time and patience, and we are just so thrilled to see her really opening up to us on just the second day. :)
We just returned now from her finding place location, which was close enough to our hotel to walk there, and good to visit, but also so sad. We're not going into detail on this, since it's her story to tell in her own time. But we can read a lot into her finding place, and it's very clear that she was loved by her birth family. What a heartbreaking thing to have to let go of your precious child.
Before the finalization we had had a pretty tough morning. Lainey woke up scared, very understandably. We had a lot of tears and it was so tough to just hold her and let her grieve. Thankfully, by the time we reached the Civil Affairs office she was calm and quiet, and did so well playing quietly in my lap as all the paperwork was processed (for over an hour). She fell asleep in my arms again, and napped for about 20 minutes before it was our turn to be decreed as her parents.
Lainey has been SO timid with us for most of the time. For example, when BJ would blow her bubbles and bring a bubble to her (on the bubble wand, if that makes sense), she would lift just one little finger very slowly, not lifting her hand at all, to pop them. Aside from the few little smiles we saw from her yesterday, she has been either stoic or sad.
After coming back from the Civil Affairs office, we went back to the room to just rest and play. Sitting on the bed with her, I brought out the toy necklaces and stacking cups I had packed. After playing for little while, I could see her relaxing... and soon I saw a little smile, then more and more smiles. I'd give her big kisses and she's laugh, her FIRST giggles for us! It was such a sweet sweet moment, as we were really able to start to see her personality and have her come out of her shell. This process of bonding takes time and patience, and we are just so thrilled to see her really opening up to us on just the second day. :)
We just returned now from her finding place location, which was close enough to our hotel to walk there, and good to visit, but also so sad. We're not going into detail on this, since it's her story to tell in her own time. But we can read a lot into her finding place, and it's very clear that she was loved by her birth family. What a heartbreaking thing to have to let go of your precious child.
Monday, May 19, 2014
Gotcha!
I'm going to try and write down as much as I can remember about the amazing day we had yesterday while it's all fresh in my mind! :)
After getting ready and getting breakfast, BJ and I headed down to our hotel lobby to meet Cathy (our Holt guide) and drive to the Civil Affairs office. We were expecting a long drive, but just 5 minutes after leaving, we were surprised that we were already there. We all (our guide, Kevin, Julie (our new friends who are adopting an adorable little boy, and us) all got out and headed through the lobby, up some stairs, down a hallway and into the board room of the civil affairs. We were immediately had to start working on paperwork, which we were trying to do feverishly because we knew that the babies would be arriving any minute.
Sure enough, as I was signing another document, we looked up and there she was in the doorway, being carried by her nanny. It was just Lainey and our friends' son, so we both immediately recognized our children and went over the meet them. She was so timid in her nanny's arms. Her nanny handed her to me, and she just looked a little shell-shocked for a while.
There were some tears, but very few. Thank the Lord for Cheerios! Every time she started to cry we'd give her a Cheerio and she'd be okay again. :) The worst part for her was when she had to have her footprint done for the documentation, she cried hard then!
She wasn't too happy to be handed off to BJ at first, but after only about a half hour she was willing to go to him, and he was even able to get her to smile for the first time!
We spent about 2 1/2 hours at the civil affairs office completing the paperwork. As we were there, three other families came to meet their children who were arriving from different orphanages. One of the children, a little girl who looked to be about 5 years old, just grinned and grinned, it was so precious seeing her so happy to have a family.
After the civil affairs, we went to have our family photo done for the consulate paperwork, and then crossed a very large, very busy street with our children to shop for supplies at Walmart. The kids did so awesome, and were both especially pumped when we found the box of little cookies that they had been given at the orphanage. They both instantly recognized the box and wanted to hold it. :)
She's got such sweet beautiful eyes, and she's constantly looking around and taking everything in. She's very likely not been outside the orphanage (except for a couple of doctors visits) just about her entire life, so this big city and all the people are a lot to take in!
Back in the car, I could feel Lainey's body grow heavy as she started falling asleep in my arms. It was already past her regular naptime, and she had had a very long day already.
After getting ready and getting breakfast, BJ and I headed down to our hotel lobby to meet Cathy (our Holt guide) and drive to the Civil Affairs office. We were expecting a long drive, but just 5 minutes after leaving, we were surprised that we were already there. We all (our guide, Kevin, Julie (our new friends who are adopting an adorable little boy, and us) all got out and headed through the lobby, up some stairs, down a hallway and into the board room of the civil affairs. We were immediately had to start working on paperwork, which we were trying to do feverishly because we knew that the babies would be arriving any minute.
Sure enough, as I was signing another document, we looked up and there she was in the doorway, being carried by her nanny. It was just Lainey and our friends' son, so we both immediately recognized our children and went over the meet them. She was so timid in her nanny's arms. Her nanny handed her to me, and she just looked a little shell-shocked for a while.
There were some tears, but very few. Thank the Lord for Cheerios! Every time she started to cry we'd give her a Cheerio and she'd be okay again. :) The worst part for her was when she had to have her footprint done for the documentation, she cried hard then!
She wasn't too happy to be handed off to BJ at first, but after only about a half hour she was willing to go to him, and he was even able to get her to smile for the first time!
We spent about 2 1/2 hours at the civil affairs office completing the paperwork. As we were there, three other families came to meet their children who were arriving from different orphanages. One of the children, a little girl who looked to be about 5 years old, just grinned and grinned, it was so precious seeing her so happy to have a family.
After the civil affairs, we went to have our family photo done for the consulate paperwork, and then crossed a very large, very busy street with our children to shop for supplies at Walmart. The kids did so awesome, and were both especially pumped when we found the box of little cookies that they had been given at the orphanage. They both instantly recognized the box and wanted to hold it. :)
She's got such sweet beautiful eyes, and she's constantly looking around and taking everything in. She's very likely not been outside the orphanage (except for a couple of doctors visits) just about her entire life, so this big city and all the people are a lot to take in!
Back in the car, I could feel Lainey's body grow heavy as she started falling asleep in my arms. It was already past her regular naptime, and she had had a very long day already.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Tiananmen Square
Today we visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, before having lunch with a member of the Holt staff and visiting a silk factory. Both Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City were insanely HUGE and PACKED! Our guide LowFung said that this is a pretty average day as far as the crowd went. Think Walmart on Black Friday... but Forbidden City in particular was amazing. It kept going and going, through city gate after city gate, and then palace wall after palace wall. It was very cool to see.
The marks are from Japanese soldiers who scraped the gold from these large bowls (not sure what else to call them).
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