Well, our much awaited reunion took place last night at 9:45pm at the airport. Qiyao was overwhelmed at seeing us all. He backed away from us, and would not hold Will's hand. We told the kids to give him some room. As soon as Will left to grab a baggage cart, Qiyao was looking everywhere trying to find him. When Will got back into Qiyao's site, he immediately seemed to relax.

Fanhua was streatching on tiptoes to see over a plywood barrier. There is some contruction going on at the Lexington airport. Qiyao wanted to see as well so I asked him (basically motioned) if he wanted me to lift him to see. He shook his head yes, and I lifted him up. At first he did not look at the contruction area, instead I could feel that he was staring at my face. He did this for several seconds, then took his hand and rubbed my cheek and smiled. I think he must have been thinking about the pictures he had seen of me and now he was looking at my face in person for the first time. Many times since last night, he's come close to my face to look at me. He's very curious, and he smiles and touches my face. I've started to look back at him and he will hold my gaze and stare right into my face. I think it must be his way of engaging me. He's also gotten close to me and I can tell he wants me to hug and kiss him, and when I've done this he seems very pleased. Will has said that he is not very affectionate but possibly he was only shown affection by his foster mom and not his foster dad so he could be less open to affection from men.

Basically, we are all just trying to get use to each other. Last night on the way home from the airport, Sydney said "yes, I think I like him." And Sia said "me too." Fanhua is on cloud 9. He LOVES having a brother. Qiyao woke up crying at 3am and Will got up with him and fed him some cereal. Fanhua was great about it, not grumpy or anything. And this morning when Qiyao got back up at 6am and started playing, Fanhua got up and played. Fanhua's usually a late riser but not with a new brother in the house.

So far, 18 hours into the first meeting, the honeymoon period rules! I am crossing my fingers that it will last until bedtime.

I don't know how to get the nice borders around the pictures, and Will is sleeping, so they don't look pretty but here they are!

We’re finishing up our last day in Guangzhou.  We leave for the airport tomorrow morning at 7AM.  It has been a hard trip, but we’re coming to the end.  At this point I would pay an obscene amount of money to be anesthetized and wake up in Lexington, but that isn’t going to happen.  We should have plenty of time to make it through immigration, but you never know.  So please pray that everything goes smoothly with travel and customs and most of all with Qiyao.

Our guide went to the US Consulate on our behalf today to hand over the paperwork for Qiyao’s visa application.  We passed inspection.  Tomorrow we go to the Consulate ourselves and swear an oath that all the information on the submitted forms was accurate.  An extra day was built into our schedule by our travel coordinator in case something went wrong.  We have ended up not needing it, and I wish we could leave on Friday instead of Saturday.  Still, better to have and not need than need and not have I suppose.

This statue created in 1959 of “The Five Rams” is in the large park across the street.  It is regarded as the city emblem.  A 2000 year old legend says that Guangzhou was a barren area until five celestial beings descended from heaven on rams, each carrying six bundles of “spikes” (which I think means shoots or small plants) in their mouths.  They shared the plants among the people to bring abundant harvests from then on. 

It is a massive sculpture at over 10 meters tall.  The head of the large ram at the top weighs over two tons.

Today we when to the Guangzhou Zoo.  They had a large collection of animals and the enclosures seemed clean and well maintained.

After the zoo we went to the Liuhua Tea House.  It is in a different location than last time, but the teapot fountain is the same.  Kristi and I came here with our travel group when we came to get Sydney.  Next we had lunch on Shamian Island at a restaurant down from Lucy’s that is in front of the tennis courts.  I don’t remember the name, but Kristi and I ate there when we came to get Sia.  It was good then and today too.  After that we had Qiyao’s TB test read.  It was negative so we celebrated with a frappucino and ice cream.

I made an amazing discovery today at breakfast. I am actually raising a murder of ravens. Ravens eat lots of things but supposedly love chicken and chicken eggs – or so says the Internet which means it MUST be true. We’ve had chicken the past three nights for dinner, and get this, for breakfast this morning, our 3 children ate 12 eggs. 12. In case the number 12 is not registering with you let me write it out this way: twelve, a dozen, the atomic number of magnesium, a dodecagon. I cooked 6 eggs this morning thinking that the kids would not eat all of them. I would just save the leftovers for tomorrow’s breakfast. But they finished them ravenously, and asked for more. Note the “raven” in ravenously. I cooked the rest of the carton again thinking that I would have leftovers. Surprisingly, along with 5 pieces of toast later, they licked their plates clean. And I didn’t even make them go hungry yesterday. Hmmmm.... With adding one more corvus corax to the family, I am just beginning to realize the impact it may have on our grocery bill. Will – is it too late to back out now?

Okay so I am doing a little research on ravens in Wikipedia; THE wiki doesn’t lie. I am now more convinced than ever...get this... “..ravens are often quarrelsome, highly opportunistic (see story below about Sia), and take advantage of a plentiful food supply and have seen a surge in their numbers.” Yikes! How naïve I am. I thought it was Will and I who had decided on adding another child to our family. It was actually our bird-kids.

Well, on to other things. This morning Sia was up to no good again (as usual) and started drawing on our new table cloth with a pen. I was angry. I don’t know how many times she has done things like this. This time I told her that she would have to use her money to replace it. Whatever she had in her spend cup was now mine plus future money she may squirrel away. We were going to the grocery store which meant that she would be the only one who would not have a quarter for the candy machine. For anyone who does not know, a quarter still buys: 6 chicklets, 6 dog bonz candy, two stickers, or one giant bubblegum ball. The kids look forward to buying something at the machines with their allowance. Sia was going with pockets empty today. So she combed over the house and found a penny somewhere on the floor. She asked me if she could take it to the grocery. I told her sure, but that a penny wouldn’t buy anything but a ride on the mechanical horse. So first she tried to trade Fanhua her penny for his quarter. He would not fall for it. So she said “well, how many pennies do I have to give you for that quarter… how bout 2?” Fanhua said “no way, you have to give me 25 pennies.” Knowing she would not find 25 pennies laying around the house on another comb over, she gave up on that angle. So on the way to Meijer she said (knowing Sydney loves horses), “Sydney, I’ll let you take a horse ride with me if you share your dog bonz candy with me.” Sydney complied and they both seemed pretty happy.

Yesterday was a loooooong but good day. We had to be at the soccer games at 8am for pictures. We got our individual shots done and then waited around for the team pictures. Not fun. Sydney and Fanhua both played at 9am so Sia and I watched half of Fanhua’s game and half of Sydney’s game. Then at 10am we had to wait with Sia’s team to take her team picture. Not fun. At 11am, Sia played her game. She did a good job and really went after the ball. We were all tired and ready for lunch when the games were over, so we went home and had leftover chicken for lunch. Then we were off to visit Nonnie and Granddad. We had a grand time there visiting with family, throwing rocks in the pond, kicking dried cowpiles, listening to bumble bees rumble in an old storage building and enjoying leisurely conversations with my Uncle Glen. He told funny stories of sleep deprivation, Ambian memory stealers, catnaps, and getting from here to there w/o knowing how. We ate chicken casserole for dinner (thanks mom – it was delicious), and flew home (not really but I had to stick with the bird analogy). All in all a good day.

Today we went to church on Shamian Island.  The church offers a mixed Chinese English service, but the bulk of it is in Chinese.  We stayed for a hymn and then ducked out because Qiyao was getting restless.  There were no other items on the agenda besides the service and an obligatory picture on one of the red couches at the White Swan. 

This is the couch that we’ve traditionally used, although I think most of the families use the ones on the second floor near the main entry to the hotel.  I’m almost certain that Kristi and I have used this one every time.  It is on the first floor at the tour group registration desk.  The only kid’s picture I’m not certain of is Sia’s, but I think we’ve got hers in both locations.  I still remember Fanhua and me sitting on this exact couch, him on the left in that picture with a blue balloon in his mouth. 

The rest of the morning was spent walking around in the heat, sort of shopping, killing time while the other families shopped in earnest.  The falling dollar (6.7 versus 8.5 the last time) has really made a difference in the price of souvenirs.

This morning after a lovely breakfast at the hotel cafe’s breakfast bar we and the other families in the travel group went to get the children’s medical exams on Shamian Island.  It’s always a circus and this time was no different.  What was different was that Qiyao (and the other children too) had to get vaccinations and a TB skin test.  Qiyao didn’t flinch for the administration of the skin test or either of his vaccinations.  We’ll go back on Monday to have the skin test read.

After the exams we had lunch a Lucy’s Cafe.  Personally, if I’m in China, I’d rather eat nothing but local fare, but you go with the group and it was good to be with other adults who spoke English.  We stopped off at a Carrefour, the French equivalent of a Walmart.  We’re back at the hotel now.  Qiyao is taking a short nap.

Not sure if I mentioned this but Guangzhou is pretty warm and a little on the humid side.  It’s kind of like closing up your bathroom and turning the shower on full blast, hot water only, for a couple of days.  But more so.

On our Wednesday afternoon when Qiyao woke up from his nap, which we both needed, we went to Century Park.  It is a big place and we spent a couple of hours walking around the grounds and lake.

Around 5pm we headed back to the hotel and turned in.  The next day, Thursday, we went to the Shanghai History Museum.  They had large collections of jade, furniture, pottery, calligraphy, paintings, bronzes, coins, and others.  We only stayed for about an hour because little was of interest to Qiyao.  It’s understandable, but I could have easily spent a couple of days in there.

Mr. Lee, Mr. Sun, Qiyao and I all had lunch together.  Qiyao got bent out of shape because I wouldn’t let him have Sprite, but it was a good learning opportunity for him.

Friday morning was spent mostly in the hotel room waiting.  We were scheduled to go to the notarization office to pick up Qiyao’s passport at 2pm.  However, the orphanage director called our guide and said that they had a gift for Qiyao but not for the other families.  I’m not sure why only him, but she wanted our guide to come the documents and gift up so that the other families would not feel slighted by their lack of gift.  It turned out to be a nice coffee mug that had his picture and a photo of the orphanage exterior on it.  Mr. Lee showed up around 1:30 with gifts.  As I said in an earlier post he is a talented man, and kind too.  This is us with one of the two scrolls he gave us.  He also gave us a frameable painting of running horses, not on a scroll.

Once Mr. Sun showed up we all went to the airport.  The photo shows our plane through the window.  The flight ended up stopping in Nanchang to drop off and pickup.  That was unexpected and frustrating to say the least.  By the end of the flight I had resigned myself to the fact that I would live out the end of my days in a Chinese prison camp doing hard labor for strangling Qiyao.  Honestly, I was okay with it. 

Nevertheless, we made it through to the China Hotel.  Kristi and I stayed here when we came to get Sydney.  They have renovated within the last year or so, and presently it is better than the White Swan.  That’s saying a lot.  Supposedly, the White Swan will close at the beginning of the year for major renovations.

By the way, Guangzhou is ridiculously hot.

Last night I asked Sydney to say the prayer before our meal. She said, "Dear Heavenly Father, Please help daddy's plane not crash on his way home. Thank you for our food. Amen." Sydney is our cautious and worried child. Last night on our way home from riding bikes at the church parking lot, Fanhua and Sia flew on their bikes down the hill in front of our house laughing. Sydney was afraid of losing control on her bike so she rode her breaks all the way down the hill. Each one of our children has a different personality, and the variety makes life so much fun and very interesting. What blessings! What challenges and joys will Qiyao bring into our lives? We await a new adventure......

Today is one of the two days were we kill time waiting for Qiyao’s passport application is being processed.  Even though Kristi and I are now legally his parents (that is what the red book certifies) he’s still a Chinese citizen.  As such he needs a Chinese passport which we’ll get on Friday before flying to Guangzhou.  There at the US Consulate we’ll get his visa to to enter the US.  Once we hit the continental US he will be a US citizen. 

Mr. Lee (above) and Mr. Sun met us at the hotel at 9:30 and we went to an old antique district.  We toured a Buddhist temple and wandered around the street looking at the shops.  There were many friendly people eager to sell me a Rolex watch at a very good price.  Besides antique shops the streets in this area are lined with tea houses.  And where there are tea houses there’s dim sum.  Sorry Kristi, you may want to skip reading this part.  It may be too painful.  If I could have saved some for you I would have, but it was too good to not eat every single scrap.

Apparently this is the most famous in the area for dim sum and I saw, and tasted why.  We had mushroom, shrimp, vegetable, and crab filled pockets of luv. 

Today Qiyao has continued to test my authority.  He also plays hurt when he’s not, trying to gain sympathy.  That worked for approximately 2.8 seconds.  He’s definitely rough around the edges, and in the middle too.  Still, it’s all to be expected.  He seems to be adjusting well enough.  Our communication is not great because he speaks almost entirely in a dialect of Shanghai instead of standard Mandarin.  Kristi and I were told only a month or so before I traveled that he was being fostered.  We received no other details though.  On gotcha day I and the other parents were given a list of prepared questions and answers about the children’s schedules, food preferences, and other information.  Only then did we learn that Qiyao had been fostered for a little over three years.  That explains his language and I’m guessing a good bit of his personality as well.

Yesterday was a long day.  We went to the adoption registration office and then to the notarization office to finalize the adoption.  The end result is the red book.  The day was a little more hectic than it should have been because all of the fees were supposed to be paid in RMB when experience, and more importantly, our schedule said that all fees would be paid in USD.  In the end it all worked out.

When we arrived at the adoption registration office the other families from yesterday were there.  Qiyao saw them and immediately broke down.  I think he thought that another change was coming.  Via Mr. Sun our guide I reassured him that he and I were going to be together permanently.  Eventually he calmed down and played with the boy being adopted by the family from Colorado that is his age.  We didn’t get lunch until after 2:00 pm back at the hotel. 

Qiyao held up well through the whole thing considering the excitement, long time in the offices, and late lunch.  I think both his reaction to seeing the other families as well as his growing testing of my disciple are good indications that he’s starting to feel comfortable and bond already.  Don’t let this picture fool you.  He is proving himself to a bit of a rascal.

Tonight on the way back from the library, I told the kids that when we got home they needed to put on their pajamas, then brush their teeth to get ready to talk to Daddy and Qiyao. They immediately started arguing about who got to talk to them LAST. For some reason, last was the coveted position that everyone wanted. I, of course, gave the mom response... "If you can't work it out, no one will get to talk to Daddy and Qiyao." Then Sia said, "I'll go first!", then Fanhua said "I'll go.... Wait a minute, Sydney why don't you got next.?" There was a pause and Sydney said "Oh alright... I'll go second." Then Fanhua said "And I'll go last!" How interesting that it worked out that way for him Fanhua has been just beside himself with glee over getting to see Liam for the first time. He is so excited to have a little brother to share his room with him. It's very sweet to see how his face lights up when he talks about Liam. He is counting down the days until their return. Not much else to report from Lexington.

I met my driver, the talented Mr. Lee, at 8:30 and we drove to the Shanghai Social Welfare Institute.  From what I understand it is the main office for Shanghai.  It has a retirement home on site, but the children are at another facility in one of the suburbs.  I was one of five families adopting children.  One couple was from Holland, one from France, and two others from the US.  We spent about two hours filling out the necessary forms and then the children arrived.  Qiyao was the first through the door.  They ushered him around the table in the crowded room.  I said hello and offered the stuffed dog.  He studied me for a few second and decided he didn’t want to have anything to do with me.  His reaction was the polar opposite of Fanhua’s when we first met, but still it was not unexpected. 

After a good twenty minutes of consoling by several of the women from the SWI as well as Mr. Sun our local guide, the three of us were able to make our way to the van.  Qiyao glanced at me suspiciously a few time as we drove to a park, me sitting in the back seat to give him some space.  He continued to cry.  Through Mr. Sun I assured Qiyao that I understood that he was scared and upset and that it was okay for him to feel that way.  At the park we walked around and played for half an hour.  Qiyao gave Mr. Sun and me a piece of gum.  I was able to approach him more and hold his hand for balance on a tricky part of the playground equipment.  When we returned to the van we found Mr. Lee playing a traditional Chinese violin.  He is very good.  He also showed me some photos on his phone of traditional black and white ink paintings he had done of horses.  He is just as skilled with a paint brush as he is with his violin.

We returned to the hotel and the four of us had lunch together.  I thought we were through the worst of Qiyao’s shock, but he broke down again when it came time for just he and me to go up to the room.  Our guide Mr. Sun was kind enough to come up with us.  We got settled in and put Qiyao down for a nap.  There were more tears when Mr. Sun left and they lasted for an hour or so while he dozed on an off.  I continued to kept my distance so he could comfortably study me, asking him occasionally if he was hungry or thirsty.  I offered him books and sat on a chair by the bed and read a couple.  That’s seemed to calm him for a while though half way through the second one he turned away and started crying again.

I’m not sure how much longer that lasted, maybe another 15 minutes.  Then he told me he needed to use the bathroom.  I stood in the door and waited close enough to see, but not crowding.  After that, he was a different kid.  We washed our hands and went back to the bed.  He climbed back under the covers and handed me a book.  I read it and a couple of others before moving to the coloring books and eventually sprawled out on the floor working on a large puzzle that I showed him was in his suitcase. 

For the rest of the evening I asked periodically if he was hungry or thirsty.  He always answered no and wasn’t interested in any of the food I offered in the room, although he did try a sesame cracker.  We had eaten a large lunch with everyone sharing food with him.  He eats well and so far isn’t picky.  We never did end up eating supper. 

A little after 7pm we were able to have a video chat with Kristi and Sia.  Qiyao sat on my lap and waved and chattered at Mama and meimei.  By 7:30 I was beat and figured Qiyao was too given the day’s stress and him not really sleeping during his nap.  (His schedule shows him having a two hour nap everyday.)  So we brushed our teeth and hit the sack. 

It’s 5:30 am local time Tuesday morning now.  He seemed to sleep well through the night.  I hope he wakes up as the same kid that went to sleep.  I’ll find out in about 30 minutes.

Tomorrow is the day.  I leave the hotel for the Social Welfare Institute at 8:30.  Before we traveled to get Fanhua we sent a care package that included, among other things, a stuffed dog and a Lexington Legends hat.  Sydney and Sia also have stuffed dogs, and the three of them play with them a lot.  We were not able to send Qi Yao a care package so I’ve brought the dog along with me.  I also have a Legends hat that I’ll take along with the dog to our first meeting.  And Juicy Fruit.

Yesterday was a long day. We all missed Will. Sia and I had a good time at Boyd's Orchard but she missed her nap and threw a big fit in the evening where she basically cried "I want my daddy!" for about twenty minutes. We watched Eloise's Halloween for movie night. Will usually makes the popcorn. I thought I'd try to do one better and make caramel corn. The homemade caramel was not the right consistency and Sydney and Sia wouldn't eat it. I ate a bowl and got a headache from the chewing. Fanhua got angry with me because I would not let him have the girl's leftovers. Everyone was afraid to go to bed when the movie was over. So I had to give Sydney something boring to think about (so her mind won't be full of scary things). I told her about when I lived with Nonnie and Granddad, we had to get up on Saturday mornings and pull tobacco plants for hours and then ride the tractor and set them in the ground. She had no troubles getting to sleep after that. Our next door neighbhor, Joe, was kind enough to give us tickets to a pancake breakfast sponsored by his daughter's soccer team. We had to be there by about 750am in order to eat and then get back to the soccer field at 850am. The kids loved the pancakes but threw fits when I tried to help them cut them up. There were all kinds of tears and histrionics. And of course the lecture on the way to the soccer game about how I would not treat them to breakfast like that again if they were going to throw fits when I helped them with their pancakes. We all agreed to start the soccer game with a better attitude. Soccer games went well. I went back and forth between Sydney's and Fanhua's games and got to catch some of both. We ran over to Panera for a quick treat and got back in plenty of time for Sia's game. However, when we unloaded there was only one lawn chair and Fanhua and Sydney started to groan and complain. I made the wrong decision but I decided to try to run home and get two more chairs. We ended up beind 2 minutes late for Sia's game and then could not find her field. Finally we found it but she had decided she did not want to play... it's the awkwardness of getting there late that got her I think. Anyway, I finally convinced her that it was time to go and be a part of her team so she played the second half. We're counting down the days until Will comes home.........

I’m making the final preparations to leave for China to get our new son.  We did not expect to travel until the first of November but received the travel authorization the first of last week.  Thankfully the requirement that I be in Shanghai a week early in a self-imposed quarantine to prove I’m not infected with H1N1 was lifted.