Marley slept like an angel, all through the night until we finally woke her up at 7:30 to get ready for the day. I wish Dave & I could say the same. He is doing a little better than I am, and is used to functioning on about 6 hours of sleep/night. But, I am really struggling with sleeplessness at night and have not been able to force myself to skip an afternoon nap in hopes of sleeping better at night. There is a 13 hour time difference, and our bodies are still functioning on home time right now. Poor Dave will probably finally adjust right before he heads back on Friday. This morning we took Marley back to the Civil Affairs office to do the official adoption paperwork. It is sometimes called the "red ink day" in adoption lingo because her hand, as well as our thumbprints, are now stamped in red ink on the adoption decree and registration forms. The two people from the orphanage were there and we were able to snap a photo of all of us together. The woman in the photo was the Assistant Deputy Director, I believe, and the man was the person who was in charge of foreign adoptions for the orphanage. Our guide, Xie Jin (aka "Jean") said that Marley's orphanage has only been open to international adoption for 3-4 years now and it is a very small orphanage. We returned the clothes that Marley was wearing when we met her yesterday, except for the Goldilocks hat and the red silk coat. We figured the orphanage could use the other 3 layers for the other children, but the hat and coat will be kept as mementos. The coat is way too big for her, so I think we will take a picture of her wearing it every year on the anniversary of our 'family day' until she outgrows it. I handed her to the woman from the orphanage for a minute to take a picture of them together and she started to cry right away. The worker said that she thought Marley just wanted to go outside because she could see people outside the window working on the street, but then when I reached out to take her back into my arms, she got a big grin and giggled! I think she was worried we were sending her back. Not a chance! After the Civil Affairs office, we went to the grocery store. What an experience that was! We went to an underground parking garage in the middle of the city and then rode up on these crazy escalators that are flat but inclined (no steps) so you can bring a cart up on it. The first floor was more like a mall with private shops and stores, but people push their shopping carts around as if they are in Target. Except a little more recklessly than we're used to, and with lots of staring at our peculiar-looking little family unit. The second floor of the store was the actual grocery store and it was huge. We were able to stock up on a ton of supplies including food, snacks, wipes, diaper rash cream (can't believe I didn't think to pack that), water, juice, etc. for a total of about $50. The check-out was interesting to say the least. We had to move to a different lane because the one we were in wouldn't take a credit card and we didn't want to spend all of the Chinese money we had already exchanged. So we got in the other line and it turned out they wouldn't take the card either. We didn't know we needed to take our own bags (and don't have any grocery bags with us here, anyway!) so we tried to stuff as much as we could into our already-full backpack and a produce bag. We ended up paying for a grocery bag, which we were happy to do. If only we had known it was an option all along! One interesting tidbit--we couldn't find dental floss anywhere, and our impression is that our guide, as well as the store employees, weren't that familiar with the product. There was a lot of pantomiming and a thorough search of the dental care section, but no floss to be found anywhere in the store. Marley has a runny nose and a little bit of a cough, so our guide thought we should take her to the 'clinic' here in the hotel. We got there and after searching for the 'doctor' forever, a hotel employee brought up a woman who works in the 'pharmacy.' I'm using 'quotes' for all of the vocabulary that I am using loosely. The 'doctor' checked Marley's throat with a gigantic yellow flashlight, listened to her breathing for awhile, and then stuck a digital thermometer in her armpit. By this point, Marley was screaming her head off and looking at us like, "What are you letting her do to me?" Her temperature was slightly elevated, although that would seem reasonable considering we have to dress her in so many layers of clothing to avoid being chastised by people in the streets, and also considering the fact that she was screaming. The 'doctor' told our guide that Marley "might be developing a very mild case of bronchitis" and suggested we take her to the children's hospital here. We had driven by the hospital in the morning on the way to the Civil Affairs office, and it was swarming with a huge crowd of people outside. Jean told us that the hospital sees 2,000 children/day. Dave and I decided that we would feel better relying on our own parenting experience and we felt that she didn't really need to go to a hospital full of hundreds of sick kids. It is not possible to make any kind of appointment for her there, so we would have had to go and wait. It was 11:00 and Jean said if we got there and registered right away, we would probably be seen after the lunch break, which would have meant waiting until 2pm at the earliest. No way! We brought her back here, fed her a good lunch, and she took a nice 2 1/2 hour nap. She still doesn't have a fever, and she only coughs a few times/hour, so we're not too worried. If she takes a turn for the worse, we can reconsider, but for right now, I think we're fine with our arsenal of Children's motrin and cold medicine if we need it. One final note--the drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians here are all bold and reckless, putting it mildly. There don't seem to be any traffic laws at all and I think we had about 20 near misses this morning alone, and that was just driving 10 minutes away. Mom--you would be white-knuckling every trip here. It is truly something you have to see to believe. We're off to find some dinner and then come back to call the boys in a bit. Keller & Casey--we miss you so much! You wouldn't believe some of the things we have seen here. We can't wait to come back as a family in a few years when Marley is older and you can all see what China is like. I hope you're being good boys and enjoying your visit in PA. Don't wear out Grammy and Aunt Heather!
Marley slept like an angel, all through the night until we finally woke her up at 7:30 to get ready for the day. I wish Dave & I could say the same. He is doing a little better than I am, and is used to functioning on about 6 hours of sleep/night. But, I am really struggling with sleeplessness at night and have not been able to force myself to skip an afternoon nap in hopes of sleeping better at night. There is a 13 hour time difference, and our bodies are still functioning on home time right now. Poor Dave will probably finally adjust right before he heads back on Friday. This morning we took Marley back to the Civil Affairs office to do the official adoption paperwork. It is sometimes called the "red ink day" in adoption lingo because her hand, as well as our thumbprints, are now stamped in red ink on the adoption decree and registration forms. The two people from the orphanage were there and we were able to snap a photo of all of us together. The woman in the photo was the Assistant Deputy Director, I believe, and the man was the person who was in charge of foreign adoptions for the orphanage. Our guide, Xie Jin (aka "Jean") said that Marley's orphanage has only been open to international adoption for 3-4 years now and it is a very small orphanage. We returned the clothes that Marley was wearing when we met her yesterday, except for the Goldilocks hat and the red silk coat. We figured the orphanage could use the other 3 layers for the other children, but the hat and coat will be kept as mementos. The coat is way too big for her, so I think we will take a picture of her wearing it every year on the anniversary of our 'family day' until she outgrows it. I handed her to the woman from the orphanage for a minute to take a picture of them together and she started to cry right away. The worker said that she thought Marley just wanted to go outside because she could see people outside the window working on the street, but then when I reached out to take her back into my arms, she got a big grin and giggled! I think she was worried we were sending her back. Not a chance! After the Civil Affairs office, we went to the grocery store. What an experience that was! We went to an underground parking garage in the middle of the city and then rode up on these crazy escalators that are flat but inclined (no steps) so you can bring a cart up on it. The first floor was more like a mall with private shops and stores, but people push their shopping carts around as if they are in Target. Except a little more recklessly than we're used to, and with lots of staring at our peculiar-looking little family unit. The second floor of the store was the actual grocery store and it was huge. We were able to stock up on a ton of supplies including food, snacks, wipes, diaper rash cream (can't believe I didn't think to pack that), water, juice, etc. for a total of about $50. The check-out was interesting to say the least. We had to move to a different lane because the one we were in wouldn't take a credit card and we didn't want to spend all of the Chinese money we had already exchanged. So we got in the other line and it turned out they wouldn't take the card either. We didn't know we needed to take our own bags (and don't have any grocery bags with us here, anyway!) so we tried to stuff as much as we could into our already-full backpack and a produce bag. We ended up paying for a grocery bag, which we were happy to do. If only we had known it was an option all along! One interesting tidbit--we couldn't find dental floss anywhere, and our impression is that our guide, as well as the store employees, weren't that familiar with the product. There was a lot of pantomiming and a thorough search of the dental care section, but no floss to be found anywhere in the store. Marley has a runny nose and a little bit of a cough, so our guide thought we should take her to the 'clinic' here in the hotel. We got there and after searching for the 'doctor' forever, a hotel employee brought up a woman who works in the 'pharmacy.' I'm using 'quotes' for all of the vocabulary that I am using loosely. The 'doctor' checked Marley's throat with a gigantic yellow flashlight, listened to her breathing for awhile, and then stuck a digital thermometer in her armpit. By this point, Marley was screaming her head off and looking at us like, "What are you letting her do to me?" Her temperature was slightly elevated, although that would seem reasonable considering we have to dress her in so many layers of clothing to avoid being chastised by people in the streets, and also considering the fact that she was screaming. The 'doctor' told our guide that Marley "might be developing a very mild case of bronchitis" and suggested we take her to the children's hospital here. We had driven by the hospital in the morning on the way to the Civil Affairs office, and it was swarming with a huge crowd of people outside. Jean told us that the hospital sees 2,000 children/day. Dave and I decided that we would feel better relying on our own parenting experience and we felt that she didn't really need to go to a hospital full of hundreds of sick kids. It is not possible to make any kind of appointment for her there, so we would have had to go and wait. It was 11:00 and Jean said if we got there and registered right away, we would probably be seen after the lunch break, which would have meant waiting until 2pm at the earliest. No way! We brought her back here, fed her a good lunch, and she took a nice 2 1/2 hour nap. She still doesn't have a fever, and she only coughs a few times/hour, so we're not too worried. If she takes a turn for the worse, we can reconsider, but for right now, I think we're fine with our arsenal of Children's motrin and cold medicine if we need it. One final note--the drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians here are all bold and reckless, putting it mildly. There don't seem to be any traffic laws at all and I think we had about 20 near misses this morning alone, and that was just driving 10 minutes away. Mom--you would be white-knuckling every trip here. It is truly something you have to see to believe. We're off to find some dinner and then come back to call the boys in a bit. Keller & Casey--we miss you so much! You wouldn't believe some of the things we have seen here. We can't wait to come back as a family in a few years when Marley is older and you can all see what China is like. I hope you're being good boys and enjoying your visit in PA. Don't wear out Grammy and Aunt Heather!
3 comments:
What a cutie! Enjoy your stay in China.
We had a blast when we were in China in October.
Holly, she looks absolutely precious!! Sounds like things are going well!
Can't wait to meet you on Monday!
Holly--This is Susan in Texas, who you have e-chatted with re: Zhang Wei-- just want to tell you how cute you all look; I cannot get over how much she looks like a beautiful Chinese version of your husband and sons!!! So happy for you all! Blessings
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