This is our first day in GZ. I got a call about 9am from a staff person from WACAP she wanted to come up and meet us. When she got here, I realized it was the president of our agency and a case manager! We visited with them for several minutes. It was kind of cool. They were here for a Journey of Hope group. They got to meet 34 other older kids (or kids with high levels of special needs), visit with them, video them, etc. so they can focus on finding families for as many of these kids as possible. Then we met the other families from our agency and they are very sweet. There is another family from the Denver area who adopted an older child (I believe she's 10). The other 2 families are adopting younger girls. All are absolutely adorable. Rachel is doing great. We met with the group today to go get our medical exams done. The guide, Elise, asked Rachel what her American name was and she said she forgot. So Elise laughed and asked me what it was. In Beijing, I had the guide ask her what name she wanted to use Chinese or American. She said Chinese. So I've been calling her YangLan. It didn't surprise me today that she couldn't remember (we hadn't talked about it since Wednesday), and it didn't bother me at all that she wanted to go by YangLan. Not even an hour after the interchange with Elise, I needed to get her attention and I said "YangLan!" she turns and comes back to me and says "NO YangLan. <insert waving her hands 'no'> Rachel!" Well, then! It was very cute. A little while after that, I said "Rachel YangLan" and she again said "No YangLan! Rachel." Okay, okay, I get it! She's making it very clear what she wants. :-) Then tonight I explained to her that her name IS YangLan...and she just "No YangLan. Rachel."
We went to a Carrefour store today. It's like Walmart, only cheaper (I didn't think that was even possible!). She got some sandals, several shirts, a pair of shorts, a couple cup of noodles and water and it was less than $45. Crazy. She is very particular on her shirts. They cannot be v-neck or scoop neck. She does not like her scar showing at all. And honestly, it is not really that obvious at all, but she is clearly aware of it. Two of the shirts I brought were "rejected"...as the necklines went too low. Hopefully the shirts we got are all high enough or she'll be nixing them, too! :-) Consequently, she's had 3 different outfits on today...yes, its starting already!
We had to do paperwork later this afternoon, so I worked on grading while she watched a movie with Rodney Dangerfield in it. It was one I had not seen before, but it was all in English with Chinese subtitles. That is one thing I've noticed here...everything has Chinese subtitles, even if they are speaking Chinese. I think it has to do with dialects (think American deep south vs north easterners). When the language is so tonal (each vowel has 4 tones that mean entirely different things depending on where the emphasis is...makes a non-native Chinese speaker have a very difficult time!), words can sound differently when the tone is so important and meaning can be misconstrued very easily.
I am tired...its been a long, busy day. And it is so warm & humid here, I literally thought I was going to melt walking to the medical and back. I was sweating like a pig, and I hate that feeling. That is one part I HATE about GZ...the humid is ridiculous. Think Hawaii. On steroids. Yuck. And Rachel wore a sweatshirt on top of her shirt when we walked to the medical. I tried to get her to take it off and she kept saying "no", but the guide convinced her. Eventually. It took a lot of persistence on both of our parts!
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Saturday Pics
Friday Pictures
Thursday--Summer Palace & Hutongs
We met George at 10am...and yet we STILL couldn't get down there on time! I guess that's what happens when we're 13 hrs ahead of our "life" back home. We were on skype nearly all morning, which put us late getting downstairs. Since he was just waiting for us, I set my "must be on time" mentality aside and let us be late. Anyways, we hit the road with going to the Summer Palace being the first stop. It was warm and sunny (as you can tell from the pics I posted earlier). If you don't know Asian culture, the women want to be as "white" as possible. So all of the skin care products have bleach in them and all women wear big hats to protect themselves from the sun. So, when we first got there, there was a vendor selling hats and Rachel wanted one. That's why you see her in the hat. Funny thing, though, is that she did not even wear it the entire time! I do wonder how she will handle in America everyone wants to be tan, while here that sends the message that you are poor or not beautiful or have a manual labor job outside. Honestly, I don't think she will care, but we'll see. I got sunglasses I really like at walmart (I forgot mine), but the screws holding the lenses to the frame fell out, so I'll have to fix them when I get home. Consequently, I could not wear them at the Summer Palace and could have really used them!
When we got there, there was police officers and a large area blocked off. A few minutes later, an important person (George thought might be the former president of France) drove up with his security. He and several others got out and were ushered inside. I don't know if he was on vacation or what, but Rachel got a really good pic of one of the security guards. We walked around for a little while seeing different aspects, being told some history, etc. then we took the dragon boat across the lake to another part of the park area. There was a vendor who was selling what looked like a princess crown, but had feathers hanging down and she wanted one. And like an idiot, I did not get one for Megan. I honestly do not know WHAT I was thinking. It was less than $2, I should have gotten 2. Oh well. Hopefully I can find something here in GZ that will be similar.
Then we went to the Hutongs, which is "old Beijing". It was really neat. We got to ride on the rickshaw and stop at a house where the man said the past 5 generations had lived in that house. He was clearly well-to-do as he had a computer on the table and a very large flat screen tv on the wall. He is also the 5th generation artist in his family/in-laws. Rachel requested to have lunch at KFC (much better than McDs!). She asked at the hotel if we were going to get to see the man from the orphanage. I said, no, we won't see him anymore. When we got in the car on Friday to go to the airport, she asked George if she could call him. She talked to him for a few minutes and I made sure that we got his phone number so she can call him via skype whenever she wants. She clearly was connected to him and I want her to maintain that relationship as much as possible.
That's about all I can think of about Thursday...and I have no other notes that I wrote down, so I guess that pretty much sums it up!
When we got there, there was police officers and a large area blocked off. A few minutes later, an important person (George thought might be the former president of France) drove up with his security. He and several others got out and were ushered inside. I don't know if he was on vacation or what, but Rachel got a really good pic of one of the security guards. We walked around for a little while seeing different aspects, being told some history, etc. then we took the dragon boat across the lake to another part of the park area. There was a vendor who was selling what looked like a princess crown, but had feathers hanging down and she wanted one. And like an idiot, I did not get one for Megan. I honestly do not know WHAT I was thinking. It was less than $2, I should have gotten 2. Oh well. Hopefully I can find something here in GZ that will be similar.
Then we went to the Hutongs, which is "old Beijing". It was really neat. We got to ride on the rickshaw and stop at a house where the man said the past 5 generations had lived in that house. He was clearly well-to-do as he had a computer on the table and a very large flat screen tv on the wall. He is also the 5th generation artist in his family/in-laws. Rachel requested to have lunch at KFC (much better than McDs!). She asked at the hotel if we were going to get to see the man from the orphanage. I said, no, we won't see him anymore. When we got in the car on Friday to go to the airport, she asked George if she could call him. She talked to him for a few minutes and I made sure that we got his phone number so she can call him via skype whenever she wants. She clearly was connected to him and I want her to maintain that relationship as much as possible.
That's about all I can think of about Thursday...and I have no other notes that I wrote down, so I guess that pretty much sums it up!
Friday, April 29, 2011
Fridays Travels
I still need to blog about the Summer Palace and the Hutongs that we did on Thursday. Maybe tomorrow I can get that done. My students have a major paper due on Friday, so I'm not sure when I'm going to get all 17 papers graded within the next week as well. But, today we traveled from Beijing to Guanghzou. I wrote some while waiting for our flight...
It's getting late. I need to get ready for bed. Rachel is watching Prince William & Kate's wedding live: a bonus of being on the same (or similar) time zone as England! LOL.
I'm sitting in the airport getting ready to get on our first flight on the journey for Rachel. She is very excited about the flight, but I'm not sure she really understands what it is going to be like. I'm nervous for her. I hope she does fine. I did not bring dramine for her, so I only hope she does not get sick!!! She is working on the word search book that I brought to work on. I'm listening to familiar music for the first time since I got her. Its very nice to relax a little with it.
So, when we got to the airport, all went fine. We went through security fine. We found our gate, but were looking for a bathroom when I realized I had forgotten our rolling carryon at security! Talk about immediate panic! I'm sure my eyes got very big when I turned to her and said "bag!" while miming the rolling carryon. I was so focused on making sure that she stayed by me, she got her back pack, I got the laptop back into my back pack, we had our passports & boarding passes. I don't know HOW I forgot that. What made me think of it was when we were looking for a bathroom, I was thinking about some of the things we could do on the plane and I was thinking about the "hungry hippos" game I had in the rolling carryon. I thought "I guess it didn't flag security that I had that in there." Then I thought, "I'm not pulling the bag. Rachel is. Wait, she's not either! CRAP!" So we made a MAD dash back to security and it was sitting there waiting to be picked up. Talk about a sigh of relief. All of our adoption paperwork is in there. That could have been catastrophic! But, we've both had backpacks all week, I wasn't even thinking about the rolling carry on. But, all is well and safe. We both really hot running back to security.
The flight was full of "surprises". First the bag issue. This was Rachel's first airplane flight. When we first got onto the plane, Rachel sat down in the first seat she saw. I completely took for granted that she would know to look for the numbers. So, we found our seat toward the back and sate down. I made sure to have George explain how her ears will pop and the need to chew gum so she would be as prepared as possible. About 2 hrs into the flight, Rachel told me (after many attempts!) that she was going to throw up. Seriously, she wrote the Chinese word a number of times. She looked in the dictionary and tried to help me understand. She even tried to draw a picture. I was completely oblivious to what she was trying to tell me. Finally, though, I got it about 20 minutes before landing. There was a LOT of turbulence on the flight. I was even a bit queasy, myself from the turbulence. I flagged down a staff person because there was no bags in the seat pocket. When I finally got them to understand, they frantically dug around for bags. Then brought her some warm water (yuck!) and tissues. She was able to keep it together, though. We did have to get another cup of hot water, though, before she was able to calm her stomach. Poor thing. I felt so bad for her. When we got to Guangzhou, it was raining. Yuck. I sure hope that it doesn't rain the entire time we are here!!! We ordered some (very expensive) fried rice as room service and found homes for our stuff so we can find everything. Tomorrow we have the first stage of paperwork here in GZ. I think we start that at 10am tomorrow.
It's getting late. I need to get ready for bed. Rachel is watching Prince William & Kate's wedding live: a bonus of being on the same (or similar) time zone as England! LOL.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Thurs--Hutongs Pictures
Thursday --Summer Palace
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Catching Up--Tuesday & Wed
Rachel is taking a much needed nap. She told George (the guide) today that she was very tired. She said she was so excited and happy about last night's visit with Kirsty & LiLi (pronounced Lee-Lee) that she had a hard time sleeping. Funny thing, when I finally went to bed at nearly 11pm, she was sound asleep. I'm not sure what she means she had a hard time sleeping! But it was late when we went to bed. She just kept saying over and over how happy she was. In fact, she told George how she has such a good time last night. I never realized she would have so much fun, I am so glad that I made sure to go see them while in Beijing. God has an amazing way of making things so clear!
Some of the things that she will probably always remember about visiting with Kirsty is her "crazy neighbor boy". Louie is about 9 yrs old and (from what Kirsty described) a very strange bird. He is very smart, but very clumsy and odd. Rachel got such a kick out of watching him...one moment he had put some rocks in an empty doritos bag and was swinging it over his head like a slingshot. Then he put the empty doritos bag on his cat's head. Then he was following/chasing his cat up a short wall and onto air conditioning vents. Rachel was so enamored about Louie's silly behavior. In fact, today (Wed) we had to sit FOREVER in the notary's office as we were waiting for the final documents (it was nearly 2 hrs, I believe). The man from the orphanage was there (I thought he was the director, but today I learned that he helps the director and interacts with the kids quite I bit). She even had to tell HIM the story. It was TOO cute! Kirsty has a pug. Rachel LOVED that dog. She told Kirsty she was very excited about her 2 dogs, but she couldn't remember their names so I had to tell her again. And she told Mr. Wong (I think that's his name) all about the dog and the cat story, too.
Okay, one of the things I learned is that Rachel's orphanage only has kids that are in middle school. Once they hit middle school age, they are moved from #1 to #2. As I understand it, any children who age out stay at #2. Both the guide and Mr. Wong said they help these kids graduate from high school and go to university or learn skills to get a job or employ them at the orphanage taking care of other kids. Rachel has a picture of a girl who "graduated from the program" is how it was described to me. So, I guess that means she aged out. She's absolutely adorable as well. I did ask how we can help these kids. I asked if we could send things to them, etc. and the director said yes, and if we could help with the cost of sending to university, that would be very helpful for the kids as well as their futures. He said they have between 30-40 kids who have aged out at Rachel's orphanage. Helping these kids is something I plan on praying about and looking into how we can do that. I think it would be helpful for Rachel--as many are her friends--as well as to those who lost their chance to have a family.
Another thing that I found out through Kirsty's translation is that the orphanage ensures to provide the kids opportunities to experience different things. Rachel said she knew how to use a knife and fork. She learned because the orphanage had taken them to eat at Western restaurants. She said she wasn't very good, but she did know how to use them. She practiced the skill this morning at breakfast and she is pretty darn good! They also send the kids to foster families for short periods of time so they "know" about a mom & dad. I'm not sure how effective it is--or how positive--but it is an experience for them none-the-less. I think it clearly shows just how much they care about these kids. Rachel also told Kirsty, she does not like cats. In fact, she said she liked caterpillars more than cats! She truly is our daughter as neither Keith or I are fond cats. Megan, however, is incredibly intrigued by them and probably love to have one if given the opportunity.
As far as culture things, one thing I noticed both yesterday as well as today at lunch is that there is no such thing as a "non-smoking" restaurant. Seriously. Both yesterday were really bad and so was today at lunch. In each case, we were surrounded by people in their 20s who were literally chain smokers. Last night at supper, the lady next to us in about 20-30 minutes had 3 cigarettes. It was really bad and just aggravates my allergies so much. Its so cute b/c Rachel will make a sour looking face and wave her hand in front of her face as though saying "yuck. That really stinks." Too cute.
Rachel is absolutely adorable. Every one falls in love within minutes of meeting her. Today we had a "trainee" guide (if you will) come with us to the Civil Affairs office as well as the notary's office. He commented how her smile is just so infectious and she is just so lovely (his English seems MUCH better than our guide). I realize that not everyone who adopts an older child has as glorious of an experience as us, but I hope sharing our experience can help others see that adopting an older child can work out well. Just like with birthing a child or adopting a baby, you never know what you are going to get. But she is so worth taking the risk of the unknown. The benefits far outweigh the risks, at least in my opinion. And it is true that we may still be in a honeymoon period, but quite honestly, I think she is putting herself right out there. I know we will have bumps along the road (after all, she IS a teenager!), but overall, I think we're going to be just fine. God is so good. To think that I have prayed for Rachel nearly her entire life. I would never have guessed that she would have had the opportunity to know Christ before we even met her. I stand amazed at the awesomeness of God. I can't imagine how lacking our life would be without her in it--and to think we would not even know what we were missing! Amazing.
Well, I think I need to wake up Miss Sleepy Head. She's been asleep for more than 90 minutes. I think I might work on some of the pre-packing in prep for Friday. I think we'll be gone a good portion of Thursday seeing the Summer Palace. And Friday we'll have to leave fairly early to get her passport before heading to the airport for our noon flight. Please continue to pray our communication continue to improve. We do fairly well, she says she understands more than she can respond. I need help knowing how to help her learn English TO respond. And I need help knowing more Chinese! :-)
Some of the things that she will probably always remember about visiting with Kirsty is her "crazy neighbor boy". Louie is about 9 yrs old and (from what Kirsty described) a very strange bird. He is very smart, but very clumsy and odd. Rachel got such a kick out of watching him...one moment he had put some rocks in an empty doritos bag and was swinging it over his head like a slingshot. Then he put the empty doritos bag on his cat's head. Then he was following/chasing his cat up a short wall and onto air conditioning vents. Rachel was so enamored about Louie's silly behavior. In fact, today (Wed) we had to sit FOREVER in the notary's office as we were waiting for the final documents (it was nearly 2 hrs, I believe). The man from the orphanage was there (I thought he was the director, but today I learned that he helps the director and interacts with the kids quite I bit). She even had to tell HIM the story. It was TOO cute! Kirsty has a pug. Rachel LOVED that dog. She told Kirsty she was very excited about her 2 dogs, but she couldn't remember their names so I had to tell her again. And she told Mr. Wong (I think that's his name) all about the dog and the cat story, too.
Okay, one of the things I learned is that Rachel's orphanage only has kids that are in middle school. Once they hit middle school age, they are moved from #1 to #2. As I understand it, any children who age out stay at #2. Both the guide and Mr. Wong said they help these kids graduate from high school and go to university or learn skills to get a job or employ them at the orphanage taking care of other kids. Rachel has a picture of a girl who "graduated from the program" is how it was described to me. So, I guess that means she aged out. She's absolutely adorable as well. I did ask how we can help these kids. I asked if we could send things to them, etc. and the director said yes, and if we could help with the cost of sending to university, that would be very helpful for the kids as well as their futures. He said they have between 30-40 kids who have aged out at Rachel's orphanage. Helping these kids is something I plan on praying about and looking into how we can do that. I think it would be helpful for Rachel--as many are her friends--as well as to those who lost their chance to have a family.
Another thing that I found out through Kirsty's translation is that the orphanage ensures to provide the kids opportunities to experience different things. Rachel said she knew how to use a knife and fork. She learned because the orphanage had taken them to eat at Western restaurants. She said she wasn't very good, but she did know how to use them. She practiced the skill this morning at breakfast and she is pretty darn good! They also send the kids to foster families for short periods of time so they "know" about a mom & dad. I'm not sure how effective it is--or how positive--but it is an experience for them none-the-less. I think it clearly shows just how much they care about these kids. Rachel also told Kirsty, she does not like cats. In fact, she said she liked caterpillars more than cats! She truly is our daughter as neither Keith or I are fond cats. Megan, however, is incredibly intrigued by them and probably love to have one if given the opportunity.
As far as culture things, one thing I noticed both yesterday as well as today at lunch is that there is no such thing as a "non-smoking" restaurant. Seriously. Both yesterday were really bad and so was today at lunch. In each case, we were surrounded by people in their 20s who were literally chain smokers. Last night at supper, the lady next to us in about 20-30 minutes had 3 cigarettes. It was really bad and just aggravates my allergies so much. Its so cute b/c Rachel will make a sour looking face and wave her hand in front of her face as though saying "yuck. That really stinks." Too cute.
Rachel is absolutely adorable. Every one falls in love within minutes of meeting her. Today we had a "trainee" guide (if you will) come with us to the Civil Affairs office as well as the notary's office. He commented how her smile is just so infectious and she is just so lovely (his English seems MUCH better than our guide). I realize that not everyone who adopts an older child has as glorious of an experience as us, but I hope sharing our experience can help others see that adopting an older child can work out well. Just like with birthing a child or adopting a baby, you never know what you are going to get. But she is so worth taking the risk of the unknown. The benefits far outweigh the risks, at least in my opinion. And it is true that we may still be in a honeymoon period, but quite honestly, I think she is putting herself right out there. I know we will have bumps along the road (after all, she IS a teenager!), but overall, I think we're going to be just fine. God is so good. To think that I have prayed for Rachel nearly her entire life. I would never have guessed that she would have had the opportunity to know Christ before we even met her. I stand amazed at the awesomeness of God. I can't imagine how lacking our life would be without her in it--and to think we would not even know what we were missing! Amazing.
Well, I think I need to wake up Miss Sleepy Head. She's been asleep for more than 90 minutes. I think I might work on some of the pre-packing in prep for Friday. I think we'll be gone a good portion of Thursday seeing the Summer Palace. And Friday we'll have to leave fairly early to get her passport before heading to the airport for our noon flight. Please continue to pray our communication continue to improve. We do fairly well, she says she understands more than she can respond. I need help knowing how to help her learn English TO respond. And I need help knowing more Chinese! :-)
Olympic Park & new friends
The Great Wall--Pictures
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