The Great Wall

It was very hazy at the Great Wall.
The steps are uneven and bumpy. A lady fell down a few steps. She was shaken up but fine. These steps are almost vertical. It is not so bad going up. Coming down is VERY tricky.

It is so huge!
And crowded!

Since I can only post 5 pictures per post, I had to create a new one for the Great Wall. It seems appropriate anyway since it is such an amazing man made wonder.

Sunday, June 1st

Sorry about the poor layout of the pictures. I was experimenting with settings and am not sure how to fix the pictures. The first picture is the Forbidden City seen from out hotel window. The second is the entrance to the Forbidden City (see Chairman Mao's picture). Next we have the famous olympic Bird's Nest. It is really huge and neat to see. Since it is still being worked on, we could not stop and take pictures.














Another photo of the Forbidden City. The detail on the buildings is hard to capture in photos. The second photo is where all the olympic athletes will be housed during the olympics. It is called the Olympic Village.



It has been an interesting couple of days with Meiting. She is becoming more comfortable testing the limits. Yesterday was particularly difficult. She has much to learn about boundaries and acceptable behavior. We are experiencing some regressive behaviors which have been difficult to deal with. It is hard to watch an almost 8 year old act like a 5 year old. We had to change our approach with her because she was becoming impossible to deal with. For some reason I am the authority. I have had to become a bit tougher on her because she doesn't recognise Jeff as an authority but is now beginning to. This made me a bad guy for a couple of days, but I think she getting it now. She is VERY immature but VERY smart. She is catching on very quickly. She also has an amazing advanced ability to manipulate a situation. I think we are getting it under control. When you are not in your comfort zone and many Chinese people are giving you a mean look it is hard to know what to do. We have spent the last 2 days focusing on this and we think we are on our way to getting it under control.
Yesterday was a full day of sightseeing. We began at the Tian'an Men Square and walked around a bit. It seemed like a lot of concrete to me, but it was interesting to see Chairman Mao's Mausoleum. It seems big on TV, but the true enormity of its size is hard to explain. Then we walked to the Forbidden City. We can actually see the Forbidden City from our hotel room which is really neat. We liked the Forbidden City except that is is VERY crowded and hot. The buildings have amazing detail and significance. They close off parts at a time so we only saw the middle part. Our guide explained that it has 9,999 and 1/2 rooms. If a newborn baby slept in a different room each night, he would be 27 years old before he managed to sleep in all the rooms. THAT is how BIG the Forbidden City is! Once we finished our tour of the Forbidden City we went to lunch to try Beijing Duck which is the best known dish in north China. The duck is dried and brushed with a sweet marinade. It is roasted over fragrant wood chips. It is carved by a chef and eaten wrapped in a pancake(more like a very thin, soft tortilla), with spring onions and cucumber. The meat is very tender. It was not my favorite dish but I was glad I tried it. Jeff enjoyed it more than me. Then we headed to the Great Wall of China. The word "great" is such an understatement! We drove 1 hour out of the city and the transformation was dramatic. We went from city and flat land to mountains. I won't even try to find the words describe it because I know I couldn't do it the justice it deserves. I was sad that we couldn't climb very far. Mei was giving us such a fit at this point, we only could see a little. At one point during the short climb the steps were almost vertical. The hard part is that each step is a different height. You have to step carefully. Going up is much easier than coming down! This is NOT for someone with weak knees or issues with heights. It was an awesome sight!
We came back to the hotel with shot nerves and weak knees. It will take a full day of rest to recover. We had barely enough energy left to cook noodles in the room. I will try to get back on my daily posts to the blog.

Our adoption is official!

At the adoption office.

Signing and fingerprinting our documents with Dennis our coordinator.

Meiting's turn!

When it was all done she gave Baba a big kiss! Actually she has been giving him lots of kisses.

It's official!

Today we spent our day (a total of 8 long hours) making our adoption official. It was a long and grueling day which took us to 3 different locations. We began at the adoption office where the "official" documents are drafted and where we register the adoption. We were asked questions regarding WHY we wanted to adopt Mei and we had to promise not to abuse her in any way. We had to sign many documents and give our fingerprints. The adoption papers are not finalized until Meiting gives her approval that she wants to be adopted. This is carefully explained to her. An older child must sign their name, but a younger child must provide a handprint. She did not hesitate for a moment. We have some pictures to show the long process (this took hours). When the adoption was registered we went to another location to get the documents notarized. This would seem like a quick process but it was not. Last, we went to the passport office to apply for Mei's passport. We managed to sneak in a wonderful lunch and ate some delicious Chinese food. I had my first dumpling. YUMMY! Mei is a good eater, but very messy. She will need to be taught to slow down and not put so much food in her mouth. At breakfast she eats fruit and yogurt, but will not drink juice. We tried to give her rice and noodles but she would not eat them for breakfast. She scolded Jeff for giving them to her and made him take them off her plate. She LOVES vegetables. We watched her eat almost a full plate of cucumbers and broccoli. She likes this fried corn dish and noodles (for dinner). She went crazy for the dumplings and wanted them all. She is not much of a meat eater and picks the meat out of her noodles. She told Dennis that he does not like chicken. She pushed Jeff's arm away when he tried to give her shrimp. She likes spicy food which really surprised me. Her favorite thing is sugar. She got mad at us when we would not let her eat the sugar cubes for our tea. She had her chopsticks at the ready and was trying to snatch a few as the lazy susan rotated around. I am doing pretty well with the chopsticks. I am guessing not good enough by Chinese standards because a waitress brought me a fork at lunch today. Mei is also a great sleeper and sleeps soundly through the night except for some tossing and turning. She is getting used to taking baths. The first night we could not get her to sit in the tub, she would only squat. Now she gets right in and sighs with satisfaction as we wash her. I wonder what she must think of all this attention. She is not getting one bit sick of it and gets more loving each day. We had a breakthrough last night with her bonding with Jeff. The first night she would barely go near him and push him away. They have spent several hours playing which has brought them closer. Yesterday she sat in his lap and held his hand but would not kiss him. She let him pick her up and he carried her across the street. She didn't like it at first and now she is hooked. She insists that he carry her and she just loves it. We will indulge her while in China while they continue to bond. She now showers him with kisses and wants him all of the time. He of course is eating this up and thrilled to death. They fell in love last night and today the bond grew stronger. I am thrilled because it gives me a bit of a break. The only issue is the bathroom. Now that she loves her Baba, she does not want to be away from him. Dennis had to explain to her that Baba cannot take her to the bathroom because it is for LADIES only. She was not happy with this. Since today was so long and grueling, we will take tomorrow to rest and play close to the hotel. Saturday we will visit The Great Wall of China and will visit one place each day until we leave Beijing. Many of the tours are set up as full day excursions (10-12 hours)with several stops. Mei cannot handle more then a few hours each day of touring. We decided to break it up a bit so we could enjoy it more(and so could she).
Keep those emails coming. We are missing home, family and friends very much. The hardest part of all is being away from Parker. We love you!

Wednesday, May 28th

Meiting likes to paint.

She wrote her name.

She tried to write Mama, Baba, family but wasn't sure how. I love that she tried!

The famous sneakers!

Posing at the hotel.

We are settling in as a family. Mei is learning to communicate with us using sign language and the use of a few words. Other than that she continues to speak to us in Chinese. She can say Mama, Baba, hello, thank you, your welcome, bubbles, water, eyes, nose, mouth, hair and a few more. She has learned these words in the last 2 days. She is very affectionate and will hug and kiss me all day. She is hugging Jeff more and will give him the occasional kiss. I don't believe she had much contact with men. She is trying to figure him out. She likes to keep the room neat and will constantly keep cleaning and fixing it (it is very small so it gets messy quickly). She has the backpack I brought her with some art supplies, Leapster, and small baby doll. She informed Dennis that she does not like baby dolls. Barbie dolls are fine, just not BABY dolls. She doesn't know what to do with it. She loves the Leapster and is learning the names of shapes. She spent some time today painting ans writing. She drew us a picture and wrote some Chinese symbols. Dennis told us she was trying to write something about Mama, Baba, and family but did not know the correct character to use. I attached the picture so you can see her Chinese writing and the picture she draws over and over. She is very small and seems a bit behind developmentally. She acts very much like a 5 or 6 year old. She has moments where she is testing the limits, but for the most part she is very manageable. She is very active and barely sits still for a moment. She also loves Coke which she will get in moderation since it only makes her more hyper. Note to Granny "hide the Coke". Today we went shopping for a while and after about 2 hours she was shutting down. She gets very overstimulated with crowds and activity. We are trying to help her regulate this by only keeping her in overstimulating environments for a short time followed by a longer periods of quiet activity. It will need to be this way until she can learn to self regulate. We have had Dennis speak to her about her manners, not yelling, using inside voices and my personal favorite, sticking out her tongue. She has responded well to this and is trying to learn what is appropriate. The is often the case of children who are brought up in an orphanage. The strong survive and the weak do not. She is very protective of her THINGS and does not like us to touch them without her help. She still isn't sure we won't take them away so she guards them with her life. This will pass in time. She enjoys playing with Jeff and he can get her to laugh so hard. Tonight she discovered she liked Baba to carry her around when yesterday she would not even let him pick her up. She is a loving, grateful, and a thoughtful little girl. She is constantly picking up Jeff's backpack and fixing it for him(she also scolds him in Chinese for leaving it laying around). It is very cute to hear her scold Jeff and Dennis. We realized today that the only thing better than light up sneakers is a pair of light up sandals. She even got excited about the socks we bought her. It is very humbling to witness a child experience so many "firsts" with such appreciation when we take these same things for granted daily. It makes me want to cry when she gets so excited over socks because it really puts things in perspective. She has really touched our lives in such a special way.
Note: Thank you to all who have sent us a personal email. We LOVE to get them. We have found that we cannot respond due to technical difficulties. Please keep the emails coming because it makes us feel closer to home.
2nd Note: Dennis took us to an AWESOME chinese restaurant. The food was incredible! Luckily we did not judge the restaurant on its appearance.

Meeting Meiting

Beijing Children's Welfare Institute

Signing all the paperwork.

Just moments after we met, Meiting enjoyed looking at all of her stuff.

Our first family photo.

What an emotional day! We managed to get some sleep and eat some breakfast. It was a very surreal morning. We got a late start to the orphanage because we had to exchange our money. We were supposed to be there at 9:30 and got there at more like 10:30. We had to sign some forms, give our fingerprints and pay our money. At a little after 11:00 Meiting arrived in the room. She walked up to me and wrapped her arms around me and said something in Chinese. The only thing I understood was "Mama". We talked for about 10 minutes and out the door we went. Meiting did well in the car until Dennis(our coordinator) mentioned something about school. She cried and said she didn't want to go. Uh Oh! This might not be the best time to mention that her new Mama is a teacher. She also cried a little about three of her aunties. Otherwise she has pretty much talked NON STOP! Even though she knows we don't understand, she doesn't seem to care. She wasn't too crazy about Jeff at first. When we got in the van she told Dennis that she wanted to sit in the front with Mamma and Babba could sit in the back. She would not let him touch her or even come near her. That lasted only a few hours and she now holds his hand and he helped give her a bath. She loves to be touched and has kissed me several times. We went shopping at the Carrefore(like Walmart only bigger and more crowded) to buy her new shoes. She came wearing metallic silver and gold sandals that were too big and too ugly! She told Dennis she wanted shoes that light up. Luckily we found her a nice pair of white and pink "light up" sneakers. She was attracting attention because she was squealing with delight and kept saying "Thank you Mama and Babba" which then led to US attracting attention. She must have checked that shoe box 100 times by the time to reached the checkout. She wanted to be SURE they were still in the box and the lights still worked. Jeff was amazing and indulged her EVERY time even if we were holding up the aisle. She then wanted to purchase a toy. After she began to throw stuff in the cart, Dennis had to explain that she must choose ONE thing. She stomped her feet but them got over it. She settled on a Barbie(I was so happy) with wings. Jeff has had fun reattaching those wings a dozen or so times. She kept thanking us and would not let anyone touch her sneakers or her doll. When we left the store we had to wait outside for the rest of group. She was jumping up and down "lighting" her sneakers and squealing with delight. This drew alot of attention on us as well as a crowd. Most of the people were smiling with kind faces like they understood. I'm glad they did because we sure didn't. We also got to see how children use split pants. One little girl just squatted and went #2 right in the middle of the sidewalk. It was very interesting that no one seemed to care or notice. We were hungry and asked Mei what she wanted to eat. I was thinking rice or noodles. WRONG! Try KFC! We didn't want to but when she said her Foster Family brought her there for her birthday, we couldn't say no. Chinese KFC is NOT like US KFC. There is vegetables mixed in with the chicken patty. Different but not bad. She ordered a fish sandwich, tossed the fish and ate the bread. She is a VERY messy eater so we will definitely need to work on her manners. We later discovered that the REAL reason she wanted KFC(she told Jeff she hates chicken) was for the ice cream cone she got at the end. We came back to the hotel and she has taken a bath and is drawing with Jeff. She is happy and very energetic. She is not letting the language barrier stop her. She is letting Jeff hold her hand and he is growing on her like I knew he would. Life is good!
I will end here with a few of my personal notes about China. China is BIG and VERY crowded. I knew it would be but I guess seeing is believing. People are willing to risk their lives on a bike and we witnessed several near misses. China smells different and the food is hard to get used to. I have not YET come face to face with a "squatty potty" and I am glad. Night, Night!!

We made it!!

This is the picture of the North Pole. We think Santa has it covered so his secrets.

The North Pole

Our hotel lobby
Hutongs out our room window.

We have been awake for almost 28 hours straight. We are exhausted! Our flights were good but the 13 hour flight was so long I felt like I was crawling out of my skin. We flew over the north pole and Jeff took a picture. It was really weird to experience 24 hours of daylight. Beijing Airport is HUGE but pretty easy to navigate through. It is very hazy and warm outside. Our hotel is OK. We can see some rooftops of the Forbidden City from our room. We also have a nice view of some Hutongs. Jeff wanted to get some dinner and I tried. I am so tired I can barely think and my appetite is gone. The smells are weird. Hopefully I can get adjusted to it or I may actually lose some weight on this trip. Maybe a hot shower and a good night sleep will help. I will post some pictures later or tomorrow. They are from Jeff's camera and I can't figure how to load them. I am WAY too tired to try and figure it out. He went to find us something to eat since he was disappointed I wouldn't eat out. We leave at 8:30 am tomorrow for the orphanage. We should have Anna by 10:00am at the latest. I will post again after we have her.

A Little Girl's Room

I have put a whole lot of time and thought into Anna's bedroom. It is very different decorating a little girl's room compared to a nursery. I hope she enjoys it as much as I do. I decided to make it very girlie. Based on her personality profile and her photos she SEEMS to be a girlie girl. In both sets of photos we received she is wearing pink. I am hoping this is NOT a coincidence. If she ends up being more like her brother, we will let HER decorate her room the way she wants it. I will be sad to see the pink and yellow disappear, but I will get over it (someday).

Our Daughter

This is Anna Meiting. She is currently waiting for us at the Beijing Children's Welfare Institute. She will not have to wait much longer. We will be meeting her on May 27th. We can hardly wait!