We're HOME!!

Well we made it home finally, no thanks for United airlines. We were smooth sailing until we go to Chicago on our last leg home to St. Louis. Drew did wonderful on all the flights home and between layovers--quite an amazing feat, I might add!. So our flight home was delayed then cancelled, and we waited for another flight on stand-by status. Finally after much proddding, and begging we got our seat confirmation for the 9:30 pm. flight to STL. Ok remember folks, we arrived in Chicago that afternoon around 2 p.m. and our original flight was for 4:53 p.m. , however due to the cancellations, etc we finally left Chicago at 10 pm. Thursday night! We drove home, arriving around 3:30-4 a.m.! We looked like death warmed over... even Drew had baggage and dark circles under his eyes. So we began our journey home from Guangzhou that morning at 9:00a.m. China time, and it was still 4/10/08 when we got home U.S. time! Talk about time traveling.... Oh yes, 2 of our checked lugagge didn't make it to STL so they had to bring it down yesterday to us! And the kicker is, that United called my parents yesterday asking if they needed tickets to go home! WEll duh... they answered their home phone!!

So when we got home, there was balloons and a welcome home sign on our door for Drew. He got excited and actually knocked on the door to go in- not realizing that this was his new home. The first thing he asked for was to see the kitties, then he asked where the "woof woof' was! We also found signs on Riley and Drew's bedroom doors and a basket of candy and balloons for both on their beds. This was from our great friends Felisa, Jeremy, Chloe, and Sadie. Of course Drew wanted to open the candy then, but instead settled for opening up some of his new toys he found in his room! We finally got to bed after 4:30! We all passed out quickly.
As soon as Scott woke us up at 12:30, we had a continuous flow of visitors to Drew. Later that day, he finally got to meet his big brother Riley. They've gotten along so far famously! Yay!!!
Riley has really stepped up to the plate in helping and playing with Drew and sharing everything with him. He is a very sweet kid. He even slept in Drew's extra bed last night. For dinner last night, guess where we ate? I hate to admit it, but we went to the Chinese restaurant! (Like we hadn't had enough of this for the past 2 weeks-hahaha). So our Chinese friend Fawn was anxious to meet Drew and they talked alot in Mandarin of course. He counted to 38 in Chinese to her, then got bored. He told her he preferred to be called his new name Drew. We were very happy to hear this. She said she'd help in any way she could, which is quite comforting to know!

New things

So we've learned quite a bit from our trip to China as we've traveled to Beijing, Urumqi, and Guangzghou- 3 major cities. First, never drink the water here, not even in the hotel. We brush our teeth with bottled water. They don't serve you ice in drinks, you get cold or warm drinks/sodas. Coke is the major distributor here. The traffic here is beyond your imagination. They honk their horns constantly, bicyclers, buses, taxis, cars all just maneuver their way around each other within inches, with little concern for the others, including pedestrians. They park and drive on the sidewalks in some of the cities due to not enough parking or hardly any parking lots. You see these pedalers going down the street in busy traffic hauling tons of products or boxes on top of a bicycle! They must have good balance.... Squatty potties--first time to have to use these! They're just like going camping out in the woods and just using it in the bushes, except dirtier and stinkier. Everyone here thinks I (Kim) can speak Chinese. Most of the waitresses and vendors try to speak to me and ask questions. They find out quickly that i don't, some smile back, some snicker/laugh. Actually I'm beginning to wonder if Drew thinks I can speak a little Chinese too. He seems to say things to me in a lower voice and whispers in my ear alot. I just act like I understand-haha. They all ask where Drew is from and immediately ask how old he is, while commenting how tall/big he is.
The poverty here is also beyond your imagination. Even walking down the streets here, you can see people's laundry hanging out on the lines between the buildings. We had our laundry do the other day, so it could've been ours hanging out to dry!! No joke-haha. Scott says there's a lot of hoochie mamas walking around in China. They wear their tight jeans/pants and high heels and are busy talking and walking. It's pretty funny. At least here in Guangzghou, most of the people speak English, so that helps quite a bit. They really cater to visitors here in hotel too, which is nice.

Last day here in Guangzhou!

So today is our last day here in this hot, sweaty, humid place. Don't get me wrong, we've enjoyed some time here but we're all so ready to go home!! We decided not to go to the pearl market after all. Instead, we just went out walking and shopping again for last minute things. Comparing U.S. money to Yuan RMB, when you exchange $100 in US dollars, you get $694 in Yuan. So keeping that in mind, you can blow all that money pretty quickly even though things are really cheap here. The other night, the 5 of us ate for $40 equivalent to US $. When we went to the grocery store, my two bags cost $60 in Yuan, which is about $9 in US money! Sounds good, huh? Too bad groceries aren't that cheap at home... So anyway, we bought a small Chinese tea set, a t-shirt and scorpion necklace for Riley, some small pouch/purses, bracelets, chops for Riley and Drew which are basically stamps, the top is their Chinese zodiac sign, and the stamp below has a picture of a dragon, their American name, and it written in Chinese characters also. Everywhere you walk, the Chinese vendors want to offer you a "good deal", or a "good price for you only today." Scott is good at jewing them down on prices, he says I'm a sucker. Oh the best thing we found for Drew is a pharmacy. This local owner told us of a pharmacy down one of the streets around here. Yahoo!!! I should've asked earlier, I just didn't think to--duh. So anyway we found gauze and tape, and the store owner had small 2x2 sponges. I had tons of neosporin, but they took it from my luggage at the airport I guess. I still have a little bit though and plan on changing Drew's dressing later again this evening and tomorrow on the plane home. We had to go to the clinic here at the hotel again this morning for a dressing change (before we found thepharmacy). Drew was being tortured here everyday , esp for the last 2 days-- he just screamed and cried b/c the dressings they use are quite primitive. They look like from the 70s, and don't use any non-stick pads or Telfa!! So everything they put on it, dries and sticks to his raw skin- then they have to peel it all away again!! I feel soooo sorry and helpless to see him have to change the dressings there, it's like being tortured again and again. Soo our advice is to never give your child anything hot to drink... which you probably already knew this. I wasn't thinking and it was my first catastrophe as a new mom!! I could kick myself.... Also, never have to use Chinese medicine or seek medical treatment here!!!!!! I can't stress this enough!!

So right now, we've been packing and packing for tomorrow. We may need to buy another suitcase to fit everything in. Most people here do this, in order to make it home with all their new things. You can buy suitcases here for like $10-15. We have to go to the American Consulate in an hour and doing our swearing in testimony. Tonight, we will have a farewell dinner together with everyone in our adoption travel group of around 24 or so families I believe. Some of them I don't even know or have not met yet either.

The dinner at the Cantonese restaurant was excellent! Even better, Drew insisted on sitting on my lap the entire time (which made it harder for me to eat-haha). It was really great to see all the families with their newly adopted children. Everyone looked sooo happy and glad to be going home. We just met everyone in our group down in the playroom to say good-bye. With all the kids running around, at least it wasn't sad. They didn't realize that that was really good bye this time! Look out America, Drew is coming home!!! As soon as we land on U.S. soil in Chicago, Drew will be a U.S. citizen-yay!!!!!! Oh BTW, Drew can say " I love You" in English!!!!!

Cruising down the river

Earlier this evening we had dinner and a cruise down the Pearl River. Drew really liked it. At dinner, he ate 4 small ears of corn-which is great to know, as we will have tons this summer at home. The buffet consisted of all different mystery meat and vegetable dishes. Most of it was not edible in my opinion. I had a fish meatball on my plate, and it smelled gross so of course I didn't eat it. The cookies and ice cream were the best food there. Actually the ice cream here in China is delicious! It is very creamy and rich. So back to the cruise, it was breezy and nice. The view was great on all sides, that part of the city is all lit up, including all the buildings, and the other boats, and the railing, etc. They really believe in using a lot of electricity for lights over here-haha. Well it is bedtime on Tuesday here and tomorrow is our last day here. We leave China Thursday morning (Wed. evening US time)!!! So tomorrow (Wed here) we are going to a pearl market shopping and later to the American Consulate to take an oath and get Drew's visa. We'll be busy all day long... whew. Well Drew keeps asking when we're leaving to go home, which is great and also about the kitties at our home. He wants to know why the big kitty has to take care of the little kitty. He then asked who is taking care of them now? He is soooo full of questions... it isn't funny!

Zoo outing

Monday, yesterday we went to the zoo. Boy was it hot!! Those poor animals...I was expecting worse conditions for them, but it wasn't as bad as I thought for some. Drew wanted to see the tigers first. He kept asking where were the tigers? We have a local guide who also contracts out/ works with our adoption agency CHI, her name is Rebecca. She speaks Cantonese, which is spoken here in Guangzhou and Hong Kong mostly, and also speaks Mandarin. She is one no-fuss lady. She puts Drew in his place quick! (Scott really appreciates this no-nonsense type of personality). She told Drew to stop asking her stupid questions, (basically to hear himself talk or to get attention with silly questions). He said he understood this-so he quit. He asked about the lions we saw, she told him that the male lion has more hair around his head and the female doesn't. He then asked , why on humans do females have more hair than males do on their heads-(just the opposite)? She said this was a very good question and smart question esp for his age. She said he is very smart and his mind is always processing information, she said he will be a very good smart student in school. (We sure hope so)! So, at the zoo, we saw lions, tigers, leopards, monkeys, bears, deer, sheep, kangaroos, giraffes and a few other small animals. This place wasn't that big so it didnt' take that long to walk through it all. Thank goodness, because we were all ready to get on the bus with air conditioning!! They ordered Papa John's pizza for us to be delivered to our hotel room when we got back for lunch. We were so tired after getting back, we took a long nap the rest of the afternoon. We finally got back out of our room, that evening and went shopping. The clothes here are pretty cheap, esp if you can bargain with the locals too. You can buy men's polo shirts for like $14 US dollars which is close to $100 RMB/Yuan. These shops have all kinds of Chinese souvenirs-of course targeted at American tourists.

Drew was trying to teach Scott and me some Chinese this morning when he woke up. He would say something and Scott would try to repeat it, Drew would just laugh and laugh. I'm sure he thought we were retarded in trying to speak Chinese...LOL. Drew is picking up English really really easy. He basically repeats everything we ask him to say in English. It's sooo cute to hear him!! He asked Rebecca when we were walking back into the hotel yesterday, how long we were staying here and when were we leaving to go home? Isn't that great!!??? Yesterday we had to take him to get his dressing changed again and the nurse got onto me for taking the bandage off (it was sticking to his skin) before we got there. Drew wouldn't let it just air out, he wanted it covered again and his shorts back on. Scott thinks Drew keeps thinking someone will take his things away from him so he is careful to keep some of them to himself and/or hidden such as toys, etc. So anyway we have to keep giving him antibiotic, it's strawberry flavored and he doesn't like it. He will drink it down though with a little bribing of a piece of gum. He's gotten used to that pretty quickly. The hotel gives out these Barbie dolls with American barbies holding a Chinese baby, which was put in our room the other day. Drew wanted it and Scott told him no. Of course I didn't care either way as I'm sure Drew has no idea that there's a difference between some girls/boys toys,etc. He just sees them as new toys and he probably has never had much to call his own anyway. So he stashed it away in the suitcase for future reference I guess.

Oh BTW, Drew decided at the zoo that he wanted to crawl into Vivi's stroller, I guess he got a little lazy walking. So this is why you see him in a stroller that he can barely fit into in the picture above! haha

Well at 3:00 we're all meeting down in the lobby for pictures. These should be really good I hope. I'll share them with you soon I promise! We're all going on a dinner cruise later this evening too here on the Pear River. This should be fun and very scenic.

First full day in Guangzhou

So today was our first real day here. Good grief, it's HOT and HUMID here! The weather was dry and just warm in Urumqi so quite a difference. Everything is green and lush here, the trees, grass, flowers, and plants are just beautiful. It looks so tropical and pretty. We are sweating our tails off here. Elsie, our guide is from this city. She said that this city has a population of close to 12 million people!!! Can you imagine? We're staying at the White Swan Hotel ..... very nice and scenic. The back of it is just glass windows and it's view is breathtaking out on the Pearl River. The breakfast is served on the first floor and with the river view. Felisa, I had dumplings today for the first time here in China and they were sooo delicioius! There's soo many shops on the lower level too. This surrounding area and shopping is targeted to tourists, especially adoptive families moreso. Everywhere you look around inside and out, you see all these families with their Chinese babies or kids-- no joke. It's kinda crazy...
There's a waterfall and a large pond with koi fish inside the lower level too that's just beautiful too. Earlier today, we had to take our kids to get their medical exams done. This only consisted of their height, weight, ENT exam, and physical exam lasting only a few minutes. I got pics of it all. Drew weighed 20 kgs and was 111 cm tall. He's so much taller than most the kids around here we've seen! He's going to be big....
We did a little shopping today too. There's these shops everywhere with tons of Chinese things. Most of them have an American name title and do laundry too, which is lots cheaper than laundry at the hotels. We had lunch at Lucy's which serves all American food! Yum... first restaurant with normal real food and iced tea. (We've only had coke or water since we've been here). Last night and tonight we ate at this nice Thai restaurant that was to die for! Very good!
We had Elsie show us where to buy groceries. WEll this was quite a walk away and we saw the very poor locals selling their roots, spices, and LIVE animals in tubs, cages, etc. I took pics of dried seahorses, shrimp, deer hooves/legs, snake skins, among other things. The live animals consisted of turtles, chickens, rabbits, scorpions-lots of them, fish, eels, snakes, crawfish, and other things I can't remember. This was the first time I've seen cats anywhere in China... they were sitting around the shops, supposedly as pets... So at this grocery store, it was like walking into a sauna-- it was not air conditioned and just opened up out into the street. However, I did find deodorant, the old roll on kind. I got Drew some drinks, snacks, and flip flops. He loves these dried seaweed things--looks like beef jerky but only green and crunchy. They smell and taste gross. He likes the chips too , which aren't bad if you get the right kind. He ate the pear immediately after finding it in the bag too. He also thanked me for buying all the things he likes. He now says "thank you", "bye bye", "see you later", in English as well as counts. He understands most of what we say and tell him to do. He picks up so very fast. Elsie made fun of me for only buying 1... guess she was right. Drew definitely is used to eating weird things... he ate this gross very fishy whole fish dish last night and it reeked severely. He ate lamb kabobs one day and devoured them. He is finally getting an appetite here in the last few days--thank goodness. Well tomorrow we're supposed to be going to the zoo-- that should be an adventure. I hate to think of those poor animals... where's PETA when you need them???

Drew's airplane adventure

Yesterday, we flew here to Guangzhou, which took close to 4 hours. Drew had a very unfortunate accident. After he woke up from a nap, he got a cup of hot tea. Well this tea was scalding hot and he was holding it and blowing on it. He spilled this on his lap and started screaming of course. Scott was sitting next to him and pulled his pants down to see his leg. I scrambled for my first aid baggie I brought, which of course ended up not being near enough of what we needed. I took Drew to the bathroom and was shocked to see that his left thigh had 2nd degree burn which covered the entire width of his leg and down into his inner thigh. The skin was all gone and that which was left was blistering up! It was a ghastly sight to see. He was just standing there in the bathroom crying and I was getting papertowels wet to cover it. I opened the door and started yelling for Elsie our guide to help. She was excellent and told the attendants that we needed first aid supplies. Well there were none to be found as far as first aid. They tried to give us some kind of oily looking salve to put on him, which looked like yellow gel. Of course I didn't trust this. I asked for ice and it took a few minutes for them to understand why we wanted ice... duh!! I was really afraid that they wouldn't give us any. So we sat holding an ice bag to his leg and trying to soothe him as best as we could. We still had 50 min. left to fly!
This was no fun! I started crying just b/c he was so upset and I knew he was in pain. He kept telling Elsie that it hurt and asking when it would go away. Scott asked me why I was crying. I couldn't help it though. None of us had any children's pain reliever with us, it was all in our checked luggage so we had to wait until we got those to get him some Motrin or anything. Thank goodness he had stopped crying by the time we landed. He asked for his friend (Tonito) Zhu Zhu
and of course his parents brought him to us and he stood in the seat infront of us and held Drew's hand through the opening. It was soooooo heartbreaking and cute at the same time to see his friend comfort him. The night before Drew helped Tonito climb up a slide several times and now it was his turn to return the favor. So the good thing is that there was an inhouse doctor and first aid clinic here at the hotel we're staying in. He saw them here and got it debrided and cleaned/dressed. He cried a little at first but quit quickly. He told Elsie that he was a good boy and didn't cry. We told him that he was sooo tough! They gave us vitamins and antibiotics for him too. We had to go back today for a drsg change, it actually had seeped through it and the drsg was falling off by then. Drew was such a trooper, he didn't flinch or cry today. Last night, Drew started acting like he had a hard time walking with it, but he was only playing and milking it for all it was worth! haha He just laughed and laughed. Tonight when we put his pjs on, his drsg was already seeping through. He's glad he doesn't have to take a bath at least since this happened. He will have quite a scar from this I'm sure though.

Day 4 & 5

We got a little behind on posting here. We've been soooo busy! So here's to catching everyone up. Thursday, we went to the International Grand Bazaar here in Urumqi. It really is bazaar, some of the things they sell-haha. It's this huge place to shop, most of it is outside and involves a lot of walking. They had everything from knives, scarves, Uiygher hats, jewelry, local food, clothes, antiques, alot of junk, etc. This is how the locals make a living doing this. There were so many duplicate "stalls" of the same items. Urumqi has TONS of fruits and nuts, there were carts and carts of this stuff everywhere. Actually we didn't get to see a whole lot of this place b/c Drew had a crying fit so we had to go back to the bus and sit. We sat there for like 45 minutes, so we missed out on a lot of bargain shopping.
Later that afternoon we walked over to one of the department stores here around the corner to the grocery store in the basement. There is a dept store on just about every corner here, and they have a huge grocery store in them. These stores are about 4-5 levels high and sell really high priced makeup, clothing and everything in between. They are about equivalent to a large dept store at home, with more levels and lots more stuff to buy, higher prices too. Anyways, Drew got to pick out some snacks at the grocery store. He got some potato chips that were a little different but not bad and he ate them all. He got some candy (which tasted awful) too.
This place had alot of weird stuff, like raw squid, whole cooked ducks, tons of fresh seafood/fish, all kinds of meats. If I knew how to cook good Chinese food, this place had all kinds of seasonings,rice,sauces,noodles--too bad huh?
Another thing, Drew asked our local Chinese guide named Wendy, which he calls "auntie" in Chinese), if we had a car. She told him yes and he asked if it was black. (We were on a bus, and he was looking at the cars going by). We told him that Baba and Mama, Nai Nai all have a car. He was happy to know this. I later asked Wendy if Drew's foster family had a car or if Drew had ever ridden in one before? She said they did not, as most people don't unless they are rich enough to buy one. We found out today that Wendy is only 24, and I asked her if she had a car or drives. She looked at me and said,"I'm only 24." "I don't have a car." Therefore, we concluded that most people here can't afford one. Drew told her later that he wants to go on a plane. I said that he'd get his wish soon enough! BTW, Drew drives Wendy and Elsie (our adoption agency Chinese guide) nuts everyday with all the questions he asks them. He always yells out for them and constantly wants to talk to them. He has to be the center of attention. He is very very verbal.
Oh yes, one of the families and I took a taxi to find their little boy's and Drew's finding place.
To make a long story short, it took well over 1 1/2 hr to do this, mine took the longest. I was looking for a shop next to a hospital. Well we finally got introduced to a Chinese woman who helped us at the clinic there. She called her daugher, who spoke English and translated for me! That was sooo nice of her to go out of her way for me. Anyway, come to find out, the original flower shop in which he was found, was no longer there-but another one was it's neighboring shop or took it's place due to construction of the roads. So, I took pics and video of this. BTW,never get sick or go to the hospital while in China. You wouldn't believe the ancient, primitive buildings,offices, equipment, everything they use! Just ask me about this later,.. I could go on and on.
So today, Friday, we went on an extra day trip to see Heavenly Lake up in the mountains. It was really beautiful up there. I was glad it didn't take any longer than it did to get up there, as I was starting to get a little woozy. It took us > 2 hrs to get there. Drew loved walking around and climbing on the rocks. In the parking lot of the place, we saw this money walking around. It musthave been somone's pet we thought, although it didn't look very friendly. It kinda looked like a baboon. My camera wasn't working properly, so all the pictures that I took up there are not on my SD card for some reason. I'm so bummed. There was a lot of snow on the tops of the mountains of course too. We ate lunch there at this Muslim restaurant. It was very good. Drew ate 2 skewers of lamb and some shredded potatoes in this sauce stuff. It was kinda like Chinese food in a way. That was the most he's ever eaten all week at one sitting. Most of the time, all he eats for breakfast and dinner at the hotel is watermelon. He loves it! Well the other night, we ate at this Uigyher restaurant next to the hotel and all he ate out of the food was the onions. He'd pick them up with his chopsticks (which he can use proficiently) and put them in a bowl of water to rinse them off and eat them. It was pretty gross. He has terrible table manners, he makes such a mess and gets it all over him. He is really good about letting me wipe his hands and mouth off though. We'll have to work on the table manners when we get home... haha.
Well this is our last night here in Urumqi, Drew's hometown. It's kinda sad to think he may never return to his homeland. Well I hope he does, or wants to maybe later in life. Earlier, this evening we went to park across the street to let him play. They had all kinds of play equip set up today. There were tons of people over there... you would not believe. Anyway, as we were walking on the sidewalk, a lady kept saying Xin Suo (his Chinese name), so we stopped. She could speak a little English but not enough to have a conversation. She told us that she was Drew's teacher!!!! (at the orphanage) What are the chances of running into someone that he knew from the orphanage, while out on the street with us? Oh my.. I was so excited. So after she and her son walked on, I realized I must take a picture of her, so I ran after her for one. So, now I have a picture of Drew's teacher!!! Too bad the other 3 families weren't with us, they could've asked if she was their childrens' teacher too (which most likely was, or at least knew them for sure)!
Drew had a very good day today and evening. He was pretty darn good, never ran off, and no crying, bathtime was fun too-which makes our day a lot easier! haha Well we are headed off in the morning to fly to Guangzhou (pronounced Gwan-joe), the last city to visit!

Finally... Some more pics!!

Well we finally had time to upload some pictures last night so I'm going to try to put some on here before we leave to go to the Grand Bazaar. There's just a mix of things we've done over the past 3 days, and maybe a few from when we were in Beijing.

Day 3

It is Wed morning just after 8:00. It just now gets light outside here in Urumqi. They keep the same time as Beijing but they actually don't start their day until like 2 hours later, it's really confusing. Right now, it looks like a ghost town outside our hotel window as everything is quiet and closed. We have a really good view of the city buildings and the park across the street from us. So Drew and the rest of the kids are used to going to bed at 10:30 p.m. and not going to his preschool til after 9:00 a.m, a late start for the rest of us. They're used to taking a 2-3 hour nap in the early afternoon according to the reports. However, he's not been able to take a nap like that since he's been with us. So he wears himself out playing all day and by night time, he's exhausted. He is still sleeping right now actually. He loved his spiderman pjs he has on, (thanks to the Duffers to them)! His friend Tonito (Xin Zhu) and his sister Vivi came by last night right before bed time, and they played good. Drew shared his toys and gave him some stickers too. He had to include his mama and baba in this, as he placed a sticker on each of our foreheads too! He fell asleep pretty fast last night, on his own and slept even better than the previous night. It seems he's a good sleeper, so far. Well our schedule is to go to a museum today at 11. So I'll post more later folks. Well we had to go to the museum later in the day instead of the morning so we were free til then. It was really windy so Scott bought Drew a kite and was trying to fly it, though Drew wanted to run the other way and so the kite kept falling to the ground. He wouldn't listen to Scott, and tried to run off away from him. Scott had to grab him and get onto him. He kinda threw a fit, so we had to go back to the hotel to calm down. Earlier in the morning before breakfast, Drew tried to throw a can of coke out our window. We're on the 23rd floor here. Of course he got in trouble. Then, he tried to tear up some Yuan money, and yet got in trouble again- then he tried running out of our hotel room, which really got him in deep. So... needless to say, our day hadn't started out real good. It seemed that he was trying to test us most of the day. However, each time he would calm down and get over it. Before we left, Drew got in his bed and said, "I'm laying down", according to Scott. He did lay down and wanted to take a nap but we had to leave for the museum. He actually fell asleep while there, his Nai Nai (mamaw) held him while he slept. We later went to a real Pizza Hut for dinner. It was delicious, just like home. Really this was the first real "American" home style food we've had since here. Drew told Elsie our guide that he didn't like pizza but he did eat one piece. He had Scott get him a bowl full of veggies and fruit from the salad bar and he ate most of it. This was the best he'd eaten all week for us. Maybe he's close to a vegetarian? haha

Also a first for him, (not to be gross), he had a bowel movement while at Pizza Hut! I realize this is not something normally to get excited about... however with his earlier colon problems and diagnoses, I was worried as he hadn't gone all week! And... also....Drew had his FIRST bath tonight with NO CRYING or SCREAMING!!!! ( The first night, he only put his feet in the tub, last night, he stood screaming and crying as we tried to wash him off). We had Elsie remind him several times today that he had to have a bath tonight. He said ok, but we'd heard that before.... Let me tell you he was truly dirty and very very stinky!! He had a BIG time in the tub, squirting Baba and Mama with the water from the rubber duckies. He laughed sooooooo hard and soooo much. We just loved it!! He got us really really wet, but we didn't care. He is really in a great mood tonight.

To big brother Riley

Just wanted to let you know that Drew is ready to meet you and ready to wrestle a lot with you and dad. He likes to run, play fight, and loves to play with balls, is good at catching and kicking them too. Maybe you can show him how to play soccer and he can be as good as you are someday. Drew can show you how to eat really good with chopsticks, he's an expert!! Hugs and kisses to you, we LOVE YOU Ri--Man!!!!!!!!! By the way, Riley, we know that Drew is truly your brother because he has a problem with warts on his fingers too, and he is SO Hard - headed--- JUST LIKE YOU ARE!! hahaha

Day 2

Good morning to all! Drew slept through the night in his rollaway bed. He got a little restless in the wee morning hours, probably b/c he was hot. I got up and took off 2 layers of pants he had on from yesterday. Yes, he had 3 layers of clothing on from top to bottom! They really bundle these kiddos up over here. Drew finally woke up around 7:20 this morning. The first thing he reached for on the nightstand was the disposable camera he had yesterday. He loves to take pictures! He got the picture album out and started looking at it again. Scott pointed to our pictures and asking who we were. He pointed to me and Drew would reply Mama, he pointed to Riley and he replied "guh guh" (which means big brother in Chinese). He recognized Nai Nai and Yeh Yeah(grandma and grandpa). The whole bathing issue was a tug of war you could say in which he won. He did not want to take a bath at all last night or this morning. Finally, Scott got him to sit on the side of the tub and put his feet in. So they splashed around and made bubble bath beards. Scott was getting our laundry together to send off, and put Drew's clothes in it from yesterday. He pulled out the sweatshirt/jacket from the pile, I'm sure he thought his baba was maybe trying to throw away his clothes? Before we ate breakfast, Drew wanted to go down the hall to see our Chinese CHI guide Elsie. He told her he wanted to go outside to the park again to play. We told him ok, but after we ate. So needless to say, baba took him outside just now, while I am blogging for a minute. Well gotta go see them play and going shopping too.

Let's say shopping in China is a little different and difficult. Mom, Drew and I went to this department store, which was at least 5 levels. The bottom was a grocery store and other things. Basically this place was an equivalent to a major mall in the U.S. and just expensive if not more. So when you wanted to purchase an item, the clerk had to write it down on a slip of paper and you had to take it to a cashier at a different spot, then after you paid, you had to go back to pick up your things. This is quite a change from shopping at home. We found Drew a pair of shoes, which light up. Yes I know their not the greatest, but he liked them. He also picked out mickey mouse socks. The ones we brought are too big, as are the rest of his clothes. We later found the toy department and he of course picked out some toys. Lastly, he picked out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltles DVD movies, a music CD, and a comic book--these are all in Chinese! Interesting, eh? So coming back to the hotel, he fell asleep in the taxi so we thought he'd take a nap in the room. We put in this movie of the turtles and he never fell asleep. We've been lying in bed eating and playing. He and Scott have been playing hide and seek in the closet, and wrestling. Drew is a very active, assertive little boy. He knows what he wants and he lets you know it. He sings songs in Chinese sometimes and it sounds sooo cute. I just love to hear him speak in his little voice in Chinese. Most of the time, the only word I recognize in all of what he's saying is either Mama or Baba. But hey, I guess that's the most important words anyway!!! Alot of the time we just say ok to him, unless he's getting into some trouble and we tell him "Boo" which means No in Chinese. We know just the very very basic words to communicate and at times we have trouble with that. That doesn't seem to affect how he interprets us though, I think we have a good thing going here. Oh yeah two more things, Drew LOVES gum and loves to pass it around to everyone. When he chews, his dimples just shine!! And we think he is very very smart indeed as he can already count to 5 in English. Scott has been working with him on this and it's only the 2nd day we've had him!!!

Our first meeting!!

Well we've had quite an exciting, nerve racking, long day today. Well actually my nerves were working overtime and Scott was A-ok as usual. Just got back to the hotel, it is 6:00 p.m. now Monday evening. We left here this morning before 10 a.m. to meet our Drew. We went to the Civil Affairs office and when we got there, the kids were already there in the room. However, Drew was no where to be seen. Of course I panicked and wondered if they forgot to bring him!

Thank goodness not, he was there, just in the bathroom. He was very quiet and shy at first, he stood over to the side trying to hide from us. He stood there and got tears in his eyes for a few minutes as there was a lot of noise going on in the room with the 3 other kids meeting their families too. The room was quite small of course. First Scott gave him some bite sized chocolate chip cookies which he ate a few of. We showed him his backpack and he perked up immediately. He continued to unpack EVERYTHING in his backpack, every little nook and cranny pocket was emptied out. He had a ball with everything he could find to drag out of there. Then the other kids came over to check out all his neat stuff, we all had a good time sitting there in the floor as the kids went through all the toys. Let me tell you that he LOVES his BABA-- (his daddy), he wants to be beside him at all times and only wanted to sit on the bus beside him. We did switch seats coming home and he asked to sit by his dad, but then he settled for me I guess. He only wants his baba to hold and carry him too. Scott says he weighs a ton! hahaha

We were walking down the street waiting at this office, and Drew wanted a balloon. Well he not only got a balloon, he got 2 more toys and juice to drink. He was very happy with that. We realize he doesn't truly understand what is going on, as he asked the Chinese tour guide who was taking him back to the orphanage. She told him he was staying with his mama and baba. He said ok. Just to tell u as I'm writing this, Drew found his MP3 player and wanted me to get it started for him. He is into EVERYTHING! He is a Very inquisitive little boy to say the least. He opens everything he can get his hands on or into. When we first just now walked into the room, he walked straight to this laptop and turned it on!! I'd say he knows how to use a computer....

Drew had a big time passing the beach balls around in this office we were in today, we were in there for hours!! He got it out and wanted it blown up. He was laughing out loud while throwing and catching that around. He also kept asking for ice cream, preferably chocolate according to our tour guide Wendy. So finally later, his baba took him to buy a chocolate ice cream bar which he ate all of. He seems to be very independent. He likes to play with the other kids at times, and other times, he just wanted to sit down and look around,or draw pictures at the table by himself. He can definitely entertain himself pretty good. Ok I'm going to post some pics for now, and will do more later. It appears since we've been in the room, that he can speak a few words in English it sounds like. We shall see.... Oh yeah, his dimples are sooooo darn cute!!!!

Ok here's the rest of the day events. After we got back to the hotel, Drew (Xin Suo-his Chinese name) wanted to go outside so we walked out to this (concrete) play area/park across the street from the hotel. He wanted baba to hold him, actually stopped in front of him and held his arms out for Scott to put him on his shoulders! He got to ride these little animals car-like things. He didn't want to get off of it after it was over. He locked his legs around it, but did not throw a fit at all-thank goodness. He then saw this kiddie train-which of course he wanted to ride. Once this was over, he jumped out of it and got into another cab of the train to ride again. So we're walking around here and there's this man selling balloons, he spots him and immediately gets excited. So you know he ends up with yet another balloon! After this, we walked back to the hotel to eat. Just to let you know, you would have thought he had eaten out with us a thousand times before. He did so wonderful. We found out he likes watermelon, tomatoes, broccoli, meat, not a very picky eater-yippee!!

On the road again...

Well folks, we are now in Urumqi, Drew's hometown. Just got into our hotel, would you believe this place says you can't drink the water still? I brushed my teeth with the water at the last hotel we were in.. b/c I forgot! Hopefully I won't kill over anytime soon. We had a 4 hour flight here from Beijing. I slept the majority of the way, thank goodness. We haven't been sleeping well since being in China--it seems all of us want to wake up in the middle of the night. Basically we run on a lot of adrenaline I guess. We're meeting with our guide Elsie in an hour to alot of paperwork. We were told that we will be leaving in the morning at 9:40 going to the some Civil Affairs Office to meet our children at 10:00 a.m. We're still going to ask if we can visit their orphange, but it doesnt look good at this point. They already said we can't meet the foster parents.... what a bummer. So it is Sunday afternoon 3:00 here , which makes it late Sat. night 1:00 a.m. there? I will be a basketcase by tomorrow morning. Scott reminded me that today/tonight is our last night of freedom with kids. I hope that I can sleep at least a little bit still. haha Elsie is going to help translate to our kids tomorrow when we meet them which will be wonderful in explaining to them what in the world is going on. I hope he likes his new name too.
All of the families with us here are soooo excited too for tomorrow, the big day. I just pray that it goes as smooth as possible for the kids' sake. So, be thinking of our family, Sunday evening, because it will be our Monday morning here!!!

The Great Wall and beyond....

Today we went to Tianamen Square first. Everywhere was crowded, so many tour groups were there, including Chinese. There wasn't a whole lot to see there, we just stood around the concrete pad and looked around to the various buildings. Our guide told us that 100,000 people could fit standing inside the square. Of course we got a pic of the famous portrait hanging of the emperor Mao too. From there we walked to The Forbidden City. This place was humongous, with sooooo many different buildings to see. A funny thing about being there was that the Chinese people kept crowding around and taking pictures of the daughter and son of a couple in our group who were blond headed. They would place their Chinese children in with them for several pics. You would've thought these kids were celebrities, no kidding. It got to the point where it was quite tiring. When we were walking to this place, there was an older Chinese man walking toward us, he stopped at a trash can and blew his nose right into it with kleenex! We were so surprised... and repulsed. Just had to share this gross tidbit...
Ok so from there, our guides took us to this restaurant to have roasted duck and other Chinese food. The food there was probably some of the best we've ever had. Talk about delicious!!
From there we walked to our adoption agency's office here in Beijing for a short film. After this, we were bound for The Great Wall. We had to ride over an hour to get there too. However, they did take us by the Olympic park, so we got to see where the opening ceremony will take place.
Today was pretty dreary and foggy while touring the wall. There was snow and ice on the ground and some covered the steps to/from the wal which made climbing that more difficult. These steps were very uneven and some were probably 12" high and others were maybe 4" high, they all varied in size. This made it quite harder for my short legs to hike up those steep , deep stairs. Do you feel sorry for me yet? haha Well Scott climbed up to the 2nd highest point which was forever long. Before you even got to that point, the visibility was very very poor due to the fog. I took several long breaks in getting myself up there, I huffed and puffed, thought my heart would pound out of my chest too. However, I told myself that if these older people could do this, that I would too. My legs were already sore starting out, and now they're much worse!
I'm so out of shape... Anyway, it was so weird to think that we actually got to go see this place, let alone get to climb a part of it. This was quite an experience, which we will never forget! I will post pics later, because we were late getting back to the hotel so I'm getting a later start here. We're so tired, we're about to drop! (It is Sunday night 7:30 p.m. here). Ok we were so tired and just ordered room service. Let me tell you, I ordered a cheeseburger/fries, Scott got a club sandwich/fries. I took one bite of it and I'm here to tell you it was not beef. The menu said it was 100% beef, I think it lied. It had a wang to it, tasted weird and foreign. Scott tasted and said he thought it tasted like ground up duck. His sandwich had cucumber on it, ever heard of that on a club? BTW, we leave in the morning at 6:30 to head to the airport to fly to Urumqi!!! YAY!!!!The time is almost here to meet our Drew!!!

Updates of travel

Ni Hao everyone! That means hello if you didn't know this. Well it is Mar. 28 here just affter 3 pm. Just got back from doing tours today. We went on Hutong tours riding in rickshaws, The Temple of Heaven, the drum tower, a kindergarten school with lots of beautiful children who were outside on their conceret yard and playing duck duck goose,and we ate authentic Chinese food too. We're meeting at 4:15 to go to a Chinese acrobat show. Good thing it's inside, b/c it's awfully chilly here and it's been raining most of the afternoon. We're doing great! We met a few more couples who are here adopting their children too, however not from the same province as Drew. We have a Chinese guide named Elsie who works for our adoption agency out of their Beijing office. She is very sweet and helpful. You should see all the people here and the traffic is hectic at most times , there's lots of buses, taxis, and many bike riders who ride in the middle of traffic, very brave people and I guess they're just so used to doing this. Oh yeah, I had a couple of Chinese people come up to me today and start talking, of course I couldn't say anything, I just smiled and shook my head acting like a dummy. It was pretty funny as we all laughed about it, Elsie our guide had to laugh and help me out. We saw many McDonald's , KFC restaurants,Starbucks,Pizza Huts around here too. We are being well taken care of, and everyone is friendly. However, when you're out walking around, there's all these vendors putting their products in your face wanting you to buy it. You just have to keep walking... Oh yeah today was my first day of experiencing a squatty potty (bathroom), believe me, we are very fortunate to have regular toilets in U.S. These aren't everywhere but in public there's quite a few of them used I guess- our hotels have regualar toilets of course. We saw ducks hanging in a window today that were skinned and raw, such a lovely though eh? Well I'm goinging to try to upload photos later if I have time. BTW, our blog is censored over here so it's a little bit more work in getting around it to our blog. I think I got it figured out ... I have to go to the blogger website and it was in Chinese, so I had to pick English to read it! How funny is that?? Well just now, someone knocked on our room door, and the person gave me this cake! I suppose it's a b'day cake, my b'day cake! yay!!! Well I' m adding to this post as we just got back to the hotel from eating dinner.it is 9:45 pm. . We really enjoyed the acrobat show especially b/c it was all kids,no adults. Well we better got off here, we need our beauty sleep.

We're here finally!!

Hello everyone back home, just thought I'd let you know that we made here to Beijing all in one safe piece. We arrived right after 2:00 -China time, so it would've been about 1:00 a.m. there. We didn't get to the hotel til after 5 though. Yes I am dog tired too! We did take naps on the plane but geezzzzz. We just went and ate at this restaurant in our hotel. It was Chinese food and they didn't give us forks to use, but only chopsticks and a soup spoon. I had shrimp fried dumplins which I loved,and congee just to see what all that was about. I knew that Drew eats it quite a lot on a daily basis. It's basically just rice that been cooked a lot of water for a long time. I had it plain but sometimes they put meat, veggies, or fish in it. I wasnt that brave just yet. The menu had things listed as intestines, shark fins, fish and seafood dishes but it all sounded like it wouldve been gross when you looked it, then I wouldn't be able to eat it. My dad asked the Chinese waitress to sit down and show him out to use those chopsticks. She declined to sit, but did try to teach him with using them. We all laughed out loud on that one! Oh yeah, our flight to Beijing was packed and alot of them were Chinese coming home or to visit. We sure saw a lot of adorable kids--too bad I couldn't just bring them with us too. Well going to bed to hopefully catch up on some sleep and jet lag.

CHINA Bound!!!!

Whew... the countdown is on! We leave here at 4:00 in the morning to drive to St. Louie. We're all packed too, that's an amazing feat. The butterflies are already buzzing in my belly.... JUST REMEMBER on March 31 in China time, we will get Drew!!--that is called Gotcha Day in the adoption world! So, since China is 13 hours ahead of us, it will be late evening on March 30 U.S. time--get it, got it? Please be thinking of us and praying as we make this amazing journey of a lifetime to our son! I will try to keep everyone posted as much as possible here.

Updated itinerary and flight arrangements

FYI~our itinerary was updated (scroll down to Our Itinerary to see the changes) and we changed our flight arrangements coming home (see Flying our lives away post) so that we fly into St Louis 5 hours earlier! Yippeee!!

Packing woes...

Well the packing has commenced finally, as of today (for all my family and friends who were worried we'd have to go naked). I'm not a very good packer as I had to borrow a bigger suitcase for all our junk. Therefore, we each have a very large one that's packed to the brim. Well here's a pic of the toys we're taking for Drew and his new backpack. I know I'll surely forget something, maybe I have too much already? I hear there's a lot of good shopping/bargains to be had though and chances are that we'll have to buy another suitcase to bring all of our new items and souvenirs home. I think my brain is in overload right now thinking of anything and eveything, what ifs, don't forget this or that, etc. Scott assures me that everything will be just fine. I just need to breathe now....