Snowing at home, 75 degrees in Guangzhou

Guangzhou is beautiful and a refreshing change from Taiyuan. The architecture is British with lots of marble and granite. There are brick pathways and gardens, palm trees and flowers. The weather has been beautiful and Aaron and Ava went swimming on the roof of the hotel today.

And I hear there is quite a snowstorm at home...

We've been busy since we got here late Friday night. The flight went pretty well. Ava did cry briefly at one point but I think it was her ears adjusting. She also did a little "testing" with me by slamming her head into the back of her chair. I kept telling her no and as soon as I turned my head away she would do it again and laugh. Hmm....I suppose it is a good sign that she is getting comfortable with us. She definitely has a mind of her own and a stubborn streak.

On Saturday morning we had the medical exam where they do her height and weight and briefly go through her medical history. They also do a TB test that we have to check the results on tomorrow. She was fine through all of that. Even when she got the needle for the TB test.

We've been doing a lot of walking around the hotel and by the river. We see lots of things, like people swimming in the river, fishing, singing, old people playing hacky sack, lots of people doing Tai Chi (I think), doing karate, and practicing sword fighting. It is always interesting when we venture out.

Tomorrow we have to do the results of the TB test and then we have a little shopping planned.

Last day in Taiyuan

I can't believe how quickly time is going. I am ready to go home. But one more stop to go- Guangzhou to the US Consulate to finalize and get Ava's visa so we can leave China. We leave today at 4 pm for our flight to Guangzhou which will take about 3 hours. I'm looking forward to Guangzhou. We went for a walk today to the park. It took us about a half an hour to get there and I was seriously disappointed when I saw it. No grass, dirty- it made me really appreciate my backyard and where we live. We always gets lots of stares when we go out. Nobody really smiles. They just stare. They look at Ava and they look back at us. A couple of people have come up to us and pointed at her and said something in chinese. It sounds like they are being nice, they smile and point. We just nod and smile back. We did find a nice place for dinner that was very reasonably priced and delicious. We are going there again for lunch before we leave. Gotta pack but here are a few pics from are outing yesterday.

Random thoughts I don't want to forget...

Ava sucks her finger to sleep.

She came with chipped nail polish on her fingers. I took off the rest and polished her nails again. When I finished with one hand I put the brush back in the bottle to blow her nails dry and she was very persistent that I do the other hand too!

She loves to get dressed up. She is quite the diva.

When we ordered lobster last night (which we accidentally paid wayyy to much for because of a translation issue) she was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. Jumping up and down in her chair and clapping her hands. This was after eating enough courses to fill a teenage boy. We've determined that she might have expensive taste in food. Just like her mama!

Everyday she gets massaged with lotion because her skin is so dry. She will lay there and lift each leg and arm as I need it.

She loves to skype with her brothers and grandparents. She is learning how to blow kisses, clap, wave and give five. Hey boys, we'll leave the "a power" for you to teach her!

More pics because I just can't get enough!

Not so sure about this pool thing, if I hide behind these chairs maybe they won't  see me, or at least they'll trip trying to get to me.

Alright, I'll throw the ball to you, just don't take a step towards me.

This daddy guy is kind of fun. But this is a safe distance between us, thank you.

Mommy got closer so I'm going to back up because I can tell they are going to want to get me in that pool...

Yep, I knew it. Hey this isn't too bad, just keep a tight hold on me mama.

Such cuteness! Although she kind of looks like she's telling me  enough with the camera already!

Daddy's are good for playing with!

OK, this is looking dangerous....

One tired little girl.

Our second day together.

Some random thoughts of Ava first before I forget them...

She likes to follow me around and copy me. I take my shoes off, she has to take hers off.

She sleeps very soundly. She does move around a lot though, which I know because I am NOT sleeping.

She is ok with the elevator now and likes to look at herself in the mirror in the ceiling.

She doesn't mind getting her hair done. Her barrette fell out and she was insistent that I knew and put it back in.

She likes to be clean. If she gets something on her fingers while eating she will not continue until she can wipe them off.

She is very quiet and observant, wary of any new experience. She does not smile at just anyone. An introvert just like her referral said. I'm actually quite surprised at how accurate her referral was.

She does not speak in sentences. She only knows a few words and tries to repeat words we say but it doesn't sound anything like what we said. She cannot say g or b sounds at all. Which is strange because I thought she would be able to make sounds that wouldn't require the roof of her mouth. Sometimes if you let her be she forgets we are here and she sings.

Her 18 month clothes I brought fit perfectly and she is only 24 lbs like they said. She is tiny but proportionate with a little chunk belly. She can seem heavy after carrying her awhile. 

She seems healthy. I haven't seen any sign that her needs affect her daily life. She eats very well, anything we give her in fact. 

She is going to the potty- pee at least. Nothing else, and I'm worried we might have some issues with #2 - this is the 3rd day... (this resolved itself while writing this post).

As of last night she started acting scared of Aaron and crying when he gets near her. Strange considering the first day she was fine with him. She definitely wants to be with me and gets upset if he tries to make her stay with him. I don't know quite how to handle that. 

She tried to climb into the bath last night. Guess the first time wasn't so bad! We asked the orphanage director if she had baths and she said most of the time they are washed with washcloths but when they do bathe it is in big pots.

She will sit and play with her toys or look at her book for as long as you let her. She is very calm and content.

She does not actively seek me out for hugs or to pick her up. We aren't there yet. Yet, she can be very charming with a nice big smile, especially if there is food involved ;-)

She came to us with very thick clothes, 2 layers, including split pants.

She also had her blanket I sent, her doll, her photo album and the disposable camera I sent to the orphanage back in May!! I was so happy about this. Not sure if she had seen the blanket before but she seemed to recognize the doll and the photo album.

We are currently calling her Ava Dongyue but will switch to just Ava when we feel she recognizes it.

Day 2:

We had to meet Helen in the lobby at 8:30 so she could take us to the Civil Affairs Office. I tried my best to do Ava's hair but realized that it is harder than it looks and perhaps I should have practiced. The mother of boys, I really am out of the loop. So I did the best I could, dressed her and off to breakfast we went.

We went to the Civil Affairs Office and finalized some paperwork. We are now waiting for her passport so we can fly to Guangzhou on Friday.

Our picture with the director of her orphanage.

Funny thing happened with the director- she was not happy that I only had one pair of jeans on Ava. I had heard about this happening and debated about putting a pair of leggings on underneath. But seriously people, it was 55 degrees out and we were in buildings or the van for all but 3 minutes of our outing. She kept pulling her jeans up to show Ava's leg and putting two fingers up. She told our guide she was worried Ava was going to get sick. Apparently I failed my first mommy test. Ah well, she let me take her home anyways!

When we got back we took a trip to the grocery store. It's hard to believe it can be so different than home. I was craving plain Lays potato chips. Not easy to find, but they did have fried prawn lays, blueberry lays or cucumber lays and about 30 other choices of flavored potato chips I've never seen. They had individually wrapped hotdogs inside the packages. And they don't have free bags to put your stuff in. You must buy them and even then she wouldn't let us have more than one. But this was a really heavy duty bag, we held what would require three bags at home. We got bananas, oranges, pumpkin seeds (very salty), water, orange juice, some cookies (we think), and dried cherries. Oh, and the wrigley's gum comes in a plastic bottle and looks like big chiclets.

When we got back to the hotel we snacked. Then she practically climbed her way into the tub for a bath, which she loves and we settled in for a nap. She sleeps for about an hour and a half every day. When we got up we played with her toys and read the book I made her. She is very interested in the cake pictures and actually pointed and squealed at her brothers!

Then we rolled the ball back and forth and because it lights up I put it down my shirt so the colors would shine through, so of course she had to do it too!

She's pretty proud of herself that she can put the ball in her shirt like Mama!

After this she had a bit of a meltdown. Not sure if she gets tired or she remembers the orphanage but she just breaks down into tears. I just hug her and keep telling her in chinese I love her and I am her mama. She settles down after a couple of minutes. But it is hard to watch. 

We skyped the boys today and they looked happy to see her. They kept talking about how beautiful she is. Aidan says "he already loves her and she's not even home yet!"  They are such good boys and I'm so grateful that they are being so brave at home helping Grammy and Meme.

Today we are going swimming in the pool and were supposed to be taking a walk to the park but looks pretty overcast today so it might be raining. We don't have anything adoption-wise scheduled so we're just going to relax and continue to get to know Ava.

She is AMAZING!

First let me tell you that our little Ava had us wrapped around her little finger in 2 seconds flat. Now let me tell you the story of our Gotcha Day.
We started the day by meeting Helen in the lobby and headed 10 minutes away to the Civil Affairs Office. Once we walked in there were already two families with their children. One, a little girl and the other, a boy. When we first walked in I was searching the room for her and was disappointed to see that she was not there yet. So we waited, and waited. In the meantime a little boy 2 years old, but looked to be about 9 mos came to visit his family who was not yet there so we made eye contact with him and smiled and tried to keep our mind off the fact that whenever someone came through the door our hearts went into our throats. We waited for about an hour.
Then she came in! And she was already not happy. She was terrified of the elevator. The director tried to place her in my arms right away but I did not take her because I did not want to scare her anymore than she already was. So I waited and talked to her and said things like "Wa shur nee de mama" (I am your mama) and "Wo ai ni" (I love you). I showed her the little book I made of her with her pictures of the cake party. This seemed to register to her that we shared something. The director also said some things to her and then she came to me sort of willingly. She clung to me and didn't let go. But she would not look directly at me, only when I looked away would she sneak a peek at me. And she continued to cry but the wailing stopped. Unless someone else came near us. Somehow daddy managed to get her away from me because I had to sign something and then she sat with him in the taxi holding his hand the whole way. She was very quiet, very observant and focused on anything but us!

When we got back to the hotel we had to take the elevator up 32 floors. She was wailing again, and I have never seen so many tears come from one baby! When we got to the room we took her layers of clothes off because her cheeks were bright red from the heat.  We noticed her skin was really dry too. When we got settled in we gave her a banana and we became just about the best people in the world in her eyes. Mama and her took a nap together and when we got up it was playtime! And boy did she like that! She started dancing around, acting silly, stacking blocks, throwing a ball around and keeping daddy busy! We noticed she was pretty aware of her senses. Apparently she hadn't been on carpet before with barefeet because her little toes kept opening and closing and she kept shuffling her feet back and forth. She was also pretty aware of the pullup because she kept grabbing at it and pulling it.

Then it was time to wind down for bed. She got a bath, which she wasn't too sure of. She does speak. When I ask her to pee she repeats "neeow, neeow" back at me. But alas no pee in the potty yet. She just sits there saying the words. So we finished up the night with the bath, night clothes and dinner and boy can this girl eat. Watch out Adrian because I'm pretty sure she'll be eating seconds before you can!

 She slept soundly through the night. Then, this morning bright and early- here she is bright eyed and bushy tailed raring to go!

 She has had a couple of crying fits. Just out of the blue with no rhyme or reason she starts wailing and the waterworks start. I'm sure she is still confused and scared but I also think she is understanding at some level that she is safe with us and that we bring her comfort. Today we go back to the Civil Affairs Office to finalize the adoption. We are absolutely smitten with her, she is very sweet and happy. So thankful that things have turned out even better than I could have dared dream.