Category: Elspeth

tl;dr: A quieter day of sight seeing and shopping, we give Mama a bit of love early on then have a few issues and want Baba even more.

We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow as we are heading to Shangrao to visit Elspeth’s orphanage by van (4 hour drive each way) so I don’t know how long this update will be. As well I will probably not post too much information on our visit tomorrow as it is pretty personal and the person it most involves is only 21 months old and can’t yet tell us what she is willing to share with friends and family.

Now today started with a visit to the Pavillion of Prince Teng which is right beside our hotel (I mean you could probably punt a football from our hotel to the grounds) but for some reason this required a 20 minute drive through rush hour traffic. The humidity was crazy even at 10am but we forged on. This morning both girls were vying for my attention, so I got to climb the 89 stairs with a girl in one arm and one holding my hand. Luckily it was Elspeth the lightweight in my arm or I would not have made it up. We then rode in an elevator (7th century China was really advanced) to the top to catch the show. Katrine was fascinated, but it didn’t really hold Elspeth’s interest for too long, so you have to ask Heather and Katrine if it was any good. After the show we headed down a level for some retail therapy and Katrine got to spend most of her pocket money for the day. Down another level and Elspeth was getting a bit too adventurous for my liking so I picked her up (all 16 squirming pounds) and refused to put her down. Well that meant it was time to see if Mama was any better. And for a while, including a snackage and drink break, all was well and then it was time for Baba again.

We got back to the Hotel before noon, so we decided to do a bit of functional shopping to replace the SD card reader that decided not to work once we got to China. In the meantime Heather had a lie down having eaten something that didn’t agree with her the day before. Walking up to the local pedestrian shopping district we walked right past the stores at the beginning of the street we were supposed to go to, ate lunch at KFC (when in China eat American fast food) and finally found a Sony store to full fill our technological needs. We headed back to the Hotel with Katrine downing her second ice lolly of the morning (at only 16cents Canadian I don’t mind indulging her). By the time we got back to the Hotel, Elspeth was 1 hour past her naptime so we put her down an sleep was gained within minutes. At this point Heather wanted to continue her convalescence and Katrine was desperate for some Baba time so we decided to go for a swim. The only real problem being that Elspeth woke up, found that Baba was not around and had a mini breakdown. For the rest of the day she wanted me real close by. This does not bode well for tomorrow, but given the rate of change in China if we don’t go now we may never get another chance.

tl;dr: We’re a family of four for good like it or lump it. Elspeth (Xiang Xiang as we’re calling her a lot for now) is a Daddy’s Girl but is starting to open up.

Well the day started with a bit more crying. Hearing Elspeth playing with a ball in her crib I made the mistake of turning on the light. Realizing that the previous day was not a bad dream the tears started right away. We got her up and calmed her down a bit then tried a bottle. No go. I’m not totally sure if it was the wrong temperature or the wrong time. Since breakfast is not served till 7am, we fed her bits of a very salty rice cracker, and the leftover melon from the night before. After that she sat and started to play with Katrine and thus the journey out of her defensive shell began. As we were leaving for breakfast, Heather grabbed the, now slightly cooler, bottle. Well Elspeth’s eyes lit up. Heather, being a smart and experienced mom, shoved the bottle in the little mouth and in a flash it was drained. Breakfast was a bit of a bust because of a full tummy so we plan on giving her the bottle about 1/2 hour before breakfast tomorrow (and make it a bit cooler to start with).

A quick trip back to our room to prepare for the long day of paperwork and Elspeth latched on to me and wouldn’t let go. Well, nothing to worry about at least she chose one of us. Off we went on a 40 minute drive to sit in a un-airconditioned office, with people smoking naturally, to get various bits of paper work, photos done, and fees paid. Unfortunately, Elspeth’s choice in parent threw off the plans and Heather had to do much of the running around from place to place at the office. We did get to meet the director of Elspeth’s orphanage who was quite surprised that we had a friend in common. That, plus the gifts we brought for the other kids at the orphanage, broke the ice and we were invited to travel to Shangrao for a visit. We also found out from the director that Elspeth was close to her foster father and her choice of parent became clear. By 11:30am we were done and officially a family for good. And of course the kids were done as well. Elspeth was asleep before we made the hotel.

Nap time was followed with chips, apple, and other snacks for a light lunch that Heather picked up at the local super market while Elspeth napped. Then we were back in the bus to go the the police headquarters where they process the paperwork for the passports. While waiting on some benches we got to see a real breakthrough. Elspeth started by playing “tug” with me and some link rings. This was followed by the few baby/toddler action rhymes that I remember and genuine smiles and laughs were to be had along with a bunch of funny faces. She also showed that her little legs are working just fine as she climbed all over me and then grabbed Katrine’s hand and went for a walk around the waiting area. Finally we got through and the 5 minutes of paperwork and 2 minutes to take a photo were done and we left for the hotel 2 hours later.

Katrine decided that she wanted to go for a swim so we all went down with a swim diaper on hand just in case. At first Elspeth was quite nervous and just watched with, her now customary, death grip on Daddy’s shirt. Soon though she was feeling comfortable enough to walk around the pool, but once the other little boy came down and went in the pool she was sold and the swim diaper was on. We had a grand old time splashing. playing, and cooling off and she would have stayed for quite a bit longer, but dinner was calling. We went out to a local restaurant, recommended by our guide Tina, and had a wonderful dinner with great service and quite a few more smiles from Elspeth. Back for bed but baths and toothbrushing are low on our list of likes but I’ve now got two sleeping girls and a third who is ready for bed so I’ll sigh off for the night. Tomorrow we go sight seeing, Wednesday we visit the orphanage in Shangrao, and Thursday is our free day. Stay tuned for more updates!

tl;dr: Elspeth is here with a death grip on a hard boiled egg and lots of tears…

… and now the long version. As you probably guessed it’s be an emotional trip even before we met Elspeth today. As for today, it started with a 5:15am alarm in Nanning which didn’t sit well with Katrine at all. We made it to the airport and after a slight mix-up with out tickets said good bye to our guide Mary and got on a short flight to Nanchang. We basically went from a really hot city to the 4th hottest city in China… yeah. After settling in we got ready to do a bit of shopping before the kids showed up. This is when things got a bit much for Katrine and a few tears were seen (too be expected really) but a little bit retail therapy later and we were all good. After dropping the stuff back at the room we went downstairs to wait.

Waiting was required because the babies (toddlers really) were delayed due to traffic. In the meantime one of the other families received their little girl (from a different orphanage). At this point we were all beyond excited. Soon after that a van pulled into the hotel parking lot with what looked like a bunch of babies in it. We were ready to go. Our first view of Elspeth was a small girl standing next to a van in a onesie, knee-highs, and sandles – quite the fashion statement. She was brought in with several other babies and when we came close she began to cry, a great start but reassuring none the less. She also had the remains of a snack in each hand, cookies bits in the left, and a hard boiled egg (thankfully still in the shell) in the right. They did not leave her hands till she fell asleep. We tried giving a few snacks to her in the lobby, but they were all emphatically refused. And after a short time we returned to our room for a rest.

Once in our room, and with snacks refused once more, Katrine took over. Being a great big sister she first found a musical toy that helped sooth the savage beast and then proceeded to demonstrate the proper usage of may of the toys that we brought. A quick baby sign lesson followed along with colours and all sorts of other important information that much be passed from big sister to little. We managed to get a few mouthfulls of water down but all food was still refused. We sent out for room service but Elspeth was still refusing to eat, well that was solved by Katrine giving a small piece of melon, mouth opened, teeth chewed, the food was swallowed. After that we managed to get about 6 pieces of melon, a few small pieces of beef and a 2cm long piece of noodle down before Elspeth decided she was done.

After our dinner, such as it was, we strapped Elspeth into the baby carrier (to give Heather’s arms a break) and walked the hallway for 20-30 minutes till some droopy eyes were seen. So we headed back for our bedtime routine. Well to no surprise really, the bottle was refused but we did manage to get 3-4 more mouthfulls of water down. We changed her diaper (kidneys are functioning) and put on the PJ bottoms, but left the onsie as a top. Toothbrushing was right out and we didn’t even try for a bath so story time. She was quite enthralled by the pokemon story Heather read to Katrine but was obviously fading fast having probably missed her afternoon nap. We popped her into the crib and within 10 minutes she was fast asleep and finally releasing her death grip on the egg and cookies.

Tomorrow we do the big paperwork and everything will be official. We are also hoping a bit more food and drink go down. Updates as they happen, pictures as we get them.

Okay, we made it to Nanchang. The flight was great and the service at the Gloria Hotel has been wonderful. We have a cot for Katrine, a crib and potty for Elspeth. The bags are unpacked and things are about as ready as they can be. Now we are trying to fill the time. We have enjoyed the buffet lunch in the lobby. Checked out the kids play room and the swimming pool. And now we are watching TV. Time is passing so slowly. Aaaaaaaaahhh! It is only 1:30 and the babies are not scheduled to be here until 4:00. Time hasn’t passed this slowly since we were waiting for Katrine.

We just found out today that it is Valentine’s day over here. Downtown Nanning is full of bridal photo stalls and people selling flowers. Couples are walking around in matching t-shirts. At Haagen Dazz there was a beautiful ice cream feast for two.

Also, the moon cakes are already on sale. Apparently, you are suppose to start eating them and giving them as gifts the whole month before the moon festival. Who knew? I don’t know if they would be that impressed with my round cake iced in yellow. I think that it tastes a lot better than traditional moon cakes. Katrine would disagree. She has been having at least half a moon cake each morning for breakfast. Oddly enough, Haggen Dazz also had a beautiful display of ice cream moon cakes.

Oh, in case you are wondering. My toe is much better and the bruise is already starting to fade.
The last photo is all of the stuff that Katrine bought today.

Tomorrow is the big day.  We leave our hotel at 6 am and arrive in Jiangxi by 9:30am.  Then we will have to get some money changed and have some time to get ourselves settled before we meet little miss Elspeth.  To say we are excited is to put it mildly.  After dinner tonight, we will pack up the suitcases and it will seem quite real.  The end of one long journey but the beginning of another more exciting one.

We spent this morning with a friend from Guangxi.  It was a most excellent visit.  Katrine took to her at once which I think was very helpful in making things run smoothly.  Our friend took us to the little town where Katrine was found.  She asked a lot of questions and took us on an adventure beyond our dreams.  Katrine held up really well and so did mom and dad (our clothes not so much, have I told you how hot it is here?).

I can’t share many details but I can tell you that Katrine got to eat watermelong grown in Wuxu that was picked fresh that morning and man was it juicy.  The ladies at the watermelon stall cut it open for us and we ate it there at the corner.  You were also super happy to spend money on little items through out the day.  I think that buying things with your own money in your home town was the highlight of your day.

Sorry no photos right now.  Glenn and Katrine are at the pool and I am on my way to join them.  Maybe some tonight before we pack up and head out.

Our visit to Katrine’s orphanage was a huge success. She was left feeling happy and secure in the knowledge that there are people in China who remember and care about her.

After dinner tonight we decided to do something relaxing and not emotionally charged so we headed across the road from our hotel to the riverbank. This river runs through Guangxi into Guangzhou and then to Hong Kong. It also runs right past Yongning Town and the restaurant where we had our lunch today. There is a lovely shaded walk-way. We must have walked for about a half hour. We saw house boats moored at the bank looking like something out of history book. People fishing off of the bank and then putting their catch into little nets just in the water to keep their catch alive. There were also tons of people swimming which is a great way to beat this heat (seriously, you go outside and in like 5 minutes the sweat is running off of you). In Canada, if you go swimming in a big lake you wear a life jacket. Here, if you go swimming in the Yong River you tie an empty plastic drum to you. That way if you get tired you have something to hold on to.

Okay, I will start this post off by explaining that I began our visit to Nanning with a typical Heather clutzy injury. We got to our hotel this morning at around 3 am. Exhausted but with the need to check out what appeared to be a really cool bathroom (It actually is. It has a seperate shower stall with wooden slat floor and a rain style shower head. Clean and cool). Anyways, I go to step in to the bathroom and end up kicking the tile step (You can see it in one of the photos below). Well, a lot of jumping and a couple of hours of sleep later and I woke up to a really nice bruise. Check it out! Just like Heather.

Okay, now for Nanning. There has been a lot of construction since we were here 6 years ago. We are staying at the second of the two hotels we used on Katrine’s adoption trip – The Youngjiang. It is clean and has air conditioning. It also has a nice pool that we spent a few hours in this afternoon in an effort to cool off from the heat and humidity. Katrine even made friends with a little girl. She pretended to be a motor and towed the girl around on a floaty making boat sounds. They also shared Katrine’s water wings. I don’t think that the girl had ever seen a pair before. She was really thrilled to be able to swim around without a floaty.

This morning after breakfast, we headed out to the Nanning People’s Park near the Mingyuan hotel (just as dingy as we remembered). The taxi dropped us off at a different gate than we used last time and we discovered that the park is a heck of a lot larger than we had originally thought. Katrine got to try out Chinese play equipment which made her happy and burned off some energy. While in the park we reached White Dragon Lake which is home to large carp. We got Katrine a bag of fish food and proceeded to feed the fish a handful at a time. It was pretty cool to watch the fish bump and forcibly push each other out of the way in an effort to get those food pellets.

Tomorrow morning we are up bright and early to head towards Yongning Social Welfare Institute. Katrine is pretty excited about returning and so are we. Our guide seems really nice and we are hoping that she will advocate for us to see Katrine’s file and get her some answers.

Oh, one more thing: 3 more days until Elspeth!!!!!!!!!

Okay, we have been up for over 26 hours with only a few short naps so forgive me if some of this does not make sense.  The flight to China was amazingly smooth.  There was one bout of true turbulence which hit right as Katrine was falling asleep on the floor of the plane.  Needless to say that was the end of her sleeping.

Now Glenn and I are just about done and Katrine has built a tent out of a blanket we brought for Elspeth and is playing with her stuffies in it. I wonder how we will all feel tomorrow.

Our flight to Nanning was suppose to be in the air as we speak.  However, it has been delayed by one and a half hours.  Yep.  We are now scheduled to begin the final leg of our journey to Nanning at 11:30 pm (we left Toronto at 1:00 yesterday).  That means we should land in Nanning at about 2 in the morning and it will likely be another hour until we are at the hotel and in our room.  Be glad that you are not going to be spending the day with us tomorrow!

On the plus side, Katrine is stoked to be here and the weather is suppose to be nice in Nanning tomorrow.  Plus, we found a McD’s so I got to eat dinner tonight (yum fries) as I simply did not have the energy to try and ask dozens of questions.

That’s about it.  Don’t forget, Sunday is the big day!!