Visit to Annalisa's SWI...postdated!

At the hotel getting ready to visit the orphanage!

Annalisa's Foster Mom!

Foster Mom and Forever Mom!

Back in her crib...she didn't like it!

Her jolly nanny!

Here is an excerpt from my diary about the visit to Annalisa's SWI and meeting her foster mom:

Today was a very emotional day. Annalisa and I endured a long bus ride to the Yihuang Social Welfare Institute to meet her foster mom and her nanny. We left the hotel around 8:00. John stayed behind, he wasn't feeling well. We were told that the ride would be 2 - 2 1/2 hours each way.

As we were leaving Nanchang we got stuck in the middle of a protest. A family whose father was killed in a hit and run on that road had created a human chain and laid down in the middle of the road to stop the traffic and draw attention on the problem. It was very emotional. Everybody was yelling, crying, horns were blasting, cars trying to get through any way possible and the family members laying down in front of the cars. The bus driver and our guide went out and finally convinced one of the family members to let us through. As we drove by I saw family members crying in the street, lighting up fireworks and pieces of paper. The burned paper was to represent money to wish the dead family member a prosperous afterlife.

If that was not enough of a commotion, we got lost. We ended up on this dirt, muddy, flooded road. The road had so many pot holes that the bus driver barely got us through. When we finally hit paved road we all cheered and laughed.

We finally made it to the orphanage. The foster moms were waiting for us. They came in one at a time. Annalisa recognized her foster mom right away and reached for her. They had a happy reunion while mom was trying to hold back the tears. Annalisa was happy to see her and viceversa. I tried to give them a few minutes to catch up. Annalisa was hugging her and touching her face and the foster mom started to cry. I lost it too at that point and we all had a good cry (well Annalisa was fine). I gave her a present and asked our guide to thank her and then we visited the nursery.

They showed me Annalisa's crib and I met her nanny. I put Annalisa in her crib to take a picture of her and she started to whale. I think she might have been thinking that I was going to leave her there and she didn't like it. I managed to take one picture and scooped her back in my arms. We went outside where the other children were playing and visited for a while. I put Annalisa in a walker and she took off right away. A little girl kept following her and playing with her, she was about Isabella's age (my niece) and the two of them seemed to be friends judging from the big smiles they were giving each other.

The trip back was not as eventful as the trip there but we still managed to nearly kill two dogs, a chicken and an old lady.

We are back at the hotel now and Annalisa doesn't seem to have any problems. She is back at being her happy self, eating cheerios and giving mommy and daddy lovey doveys. She is sure glad to be out of that bus and able to crawl around the room.

At the end I am glad I made the trip. It truly gave me, Annalisa and (hopefully) the foster mom some closure and a chance to meet each other and say thank you. I am drained, hungry and tired but happy to put this day behind me.

In retrospect, I am really glad we went to meet her foster mom. I could have done without visiting the SWI, it all seemed very staged plus Annalisa didn't care at all for her nanny. It was interesting to see the surrounding areas around the SWI and the town where it is located but as much as I was dreading meeting her foster mom it was an incredible experience.

The foster mom was not at all what I had imagined. I thought she would be younger. She seemed about 60ish to me and her face reflected a hard life. If I had just met her without bringing Annalisa I don't think I would have been able to see her human side. She spoke a local dialect. Our guide didn't understand her. We had to communicate through two different translator so whatever we said to each other really got "lost in translation" but seeing how much she longed and cared for Annalisa and how much Annalisa liked her truly told me how much she loved her. The official visit was only about 30 minutes and she pretty much held Annalisa on and off most of the time. We said goodbye to her and visited the orphanage. Annalisa showed absolutely no interest in her nanny. It didn't even seem like she recognized her. When we went outside to play I put Annalisa in the walker and as I was taking pictures I noticed that her foster mom was outside the gate staring at her and calling her: "Guo Hua, Guo Hua!". Of course Annalisa went straight to her again and they touched each other through the gate. As we were leaving the foster mom was outside hoping for one last hug. I let her hold one more time, I thanked again and got on the bus. I don't think I could have bared taking Annalisa from her arms one more time.

I am now Annalisa's mom but in reality her foster mom did all the hard work for me and I am now reaping the rewards of her labor. Annalisa is doing so well because she was taken care of so well in her first few months and obviously loved very much. She won't sleep in her crib. I can put her down in it but she'll wake up after about 1/2 hour, screaming. She wants to be in bed with me. Last night I had a revelation! Sleeping in the crib reminds her of the orphanage; sleeping in the bed with us reminds her of her foster parents (her foster mom told us that she slept with them).

Gotcha Day...postdated!

Mommy's Gotcha moment!

Daddy's Gotcha Moment (she is being distracted by another baby)!

Back at the hotel playing with the stacking cups!

This is an excerpt from my diary on Gotcha Day. We were having a lot of problems connecting to just about anything from the Yin Fen Hotel in Nanchang. I couldn't even post to my blog using the back door. So here are my thoughts of Gotcha Day almost two weeks later.

Finally after over one year of paperwork and long waits we met Annalisa.

My day started around 4:30. I could not sleep so I got up and took a shower. In my attempt to dry my hair I fried my straightening iron and overheated the blow dryer. Two hours later I was able to finally dry my hair and look somewhat decent. For those of you who don't know me I have a lot of hair and it takes a very long time to dry them and get them under control :(

The pland ride was about 2 hours, everybody was kind of quiet. Our group of 40 plus families filled just about the whole plane.

We arrived in Nanchang around 3:30. We were late for our appointment. We had a bumpy bus ride to the Civil Affair Office. I had seen this office in videos before and I though it would look familiar but it didn't at all. All of a sudden we reached the end of a paved road and we all tried to figure out how we were going to drive the bus on an unpaved road but that was the end of our ride from the airport. We were at the Civil Affair Office. It is tucked in the end of a dead end road between many high rise buildings most under constructions. It is as it's almost hidden. We walked up one floor and through a long corridor. It was surreal!

As we walked by other rooms we saw another group of families getting their babies on the left, babies with nannies in another room, people were everywhere.

We were all led to a small room and I mean SMALL. The bigger room that you can see in the "Lost Girls of China" video was occupied by another group so we all crammed into a smaller room. There were probably about 35 people into this room. Everybody trying to get into a good position in order to take some good video and photos of the Gotcha moment. We decided that when they called Annalisa's name John would video the moment while another couple was gracious enough to take a few pictures.

We were told the order we would get our babies. We were supposed to be family number six. Steve and Sherry number four. So I told Sherry I would take some pictures for her. But of course that was not the case. The babies came in a totally different order. I think we ended up being the fourth in line. The babies were all lined up in the corridor outside the room and I tried to see if I could recognize Annalisa. Thinking I was family number 6 I counted down the line but I didn't recognize her. Of course, she was baby number 4 in line.

When they called Annalisa's Chinese name I went up front, gave somebody our passports and I stood in front of Annalisa for a few moments. I didn't want just grab her from her Nannie's arms. I slowly reached out for her and grabbed her. She didn't cry at all. I clutched her in my arms as I was crying uncontrollably just standing there while other families were being called. I finally got a hold of myself and remembered that John had barely seen her. I handed her over to him and again she went to him without any problems. John took Annalisa in a smaller room with a mirror and a window. It seemed like it was a cleaning supply room but nobody was in there and we wanted to get her away from the commotion. It worked. She didn't cry at all. Much to daddy's delight she loved his mustache and the Cheerios he offered her.

After a few minutes they called us again to take our adoption certificate family picture. We were again whisked away into another room. This room looked more like an World War Two interrogation room with a big bright light pointed in our face. Very bare room with a white wall, a bench to sit on and the big bright lamp. They took our mug shot and as we were leaving the orphanage director asked us if we were the ones that sent a stuffed animal. TIGGER!!!!!! They will give us Tigger back to us tomorrow, daddy's was very happy to hear that. John was going to be very disappointed if we didn't get him back.

We left the Civil Affair Office and checked in our rooms. John went to the supermarket with our guide to get some supplies and I hang out in the room. I decided not to change or bathe her. Her clothing seemed clean and I didn't want to put any more stress on her. She had only two layer of clothing. The first layer was a pajama with split pants but she had a diaper on. Kind of a funky diaper actually. It was more like a pad with no straps on the sides. It seemed to have an adesive part on the front and the back where they had stuck her shirt on to keep it up. The outer layer was heavy pants and top, socks and a pair of blue shoes.

Annalisa sucked down an 8 ounce bottle of formula (the orphanage director gave each family a bag of formula) and seemed like she was falling asleep but after a few moments she perked up. I just sat there on the bed with her, talking to her softly and playing with her. When Grazia called she started to talk. Zia Grazia had a chance to say hallo to her.

The rest of the evening was very peaceful. She seems to have a slight preference toward her daddy as she reserved her biggest smiles for him but is very content with both of us. I gave her another bottle around 8:00 and she conked out around 9:00.

It's now about 3:00 am. John is snoring and I couldn't sleep. She is sleeping soundly in her crib and it all feels good. We are a family!

We are home!

We made it home. The return trip didn't go as bad as we thought. Annalisa did very well for the first 25 hours but as we begun the last descend toward Jacksonville's airport she decided that she had had enough and whaled, screamed, cryed and thrashed her body around for the last hour until we landed. I think her ears were really hurting by then.

We were welcomed home by a small army of family and FCC friends. It was good to see everyone.

We have been home now for a couple of days and are really jet legged. Annalisa was awake pretty much all night the first night but she's starting to get the idea of nights and days although she wakes up many times during the night and her sleep is very agitated and refuses to sleep in her crib.

We call her the "little bird" because she is constantly eating and her little mouth is always open when there's food around.

The first meeting with the pets went OK. When we first came in the house she was very curious about them. Bianca (my 100 pounds German Shepard) was very curious about her too but as soon as she put her snout next to Annalisa's face she let out a horrified scream. A few minutes later she had a close encounter with Mittens (my orange tabby) and her reaction was just as horrified. After a few hours at home though she let the dog sniff her and she has been fine with them ever since. Bianca and the Bird compete for food and stare each other down to make sure that they are getting the same amount of food from mommy. As a result mommy doesn't get much to eat.

Here are a few pictures of the first day home!

The empress is asleep in her crib!

Bonding with Zia Grazia on the first night home!

She loves her swing set!

The cats haven't warmed up to the "Bird" yet!

Our last day in China

Annalisa had her an entry visa added to her Chinese Passport in order to enter the United States. For the trip home she'll be a Chinese citizen but as soon as she lands in the US in Chicago she automatically becomes an American Citizen.



Today is our last day in China. As beautiful as this country is we are ready to come home and settle in. No more living out of our suitcases.

Today we went to the Chen Family Shrine and then got a blessing for all the children at a Buddist Temple.

In the afternoon we went to the American Embassy to get Annalisa's entry visa in the states and had a group swear in. Very emotional for everybody since this is the last piece of burocracy we had to go through to bring Annalisa home.

After the swearing in we took some group pictures in the garden of the hotel. Annalisa had a red, white and blue silk dress on (she looked amazing) and since we could not take any pictures inside of the embassy we took some afterwards.

This is a cascade in the Garden Hotel gardern.

Annalisa in her pretty dress!


At the Buddist Monastery to get our blessings!


Beautiful silk embroidery at the Chen Family Temple!
Doorway at the Chen Family Temple!

Leisure Day in Guangzhou!

Today was a day of leisure. No appointments or busses to catch. Just walking around Shamian Island, doing some shopping and chilling.

We crossed the river to the other side of Shamian Island and walked into a local market. There's a saying in China: "If you want to sightsee go to Beijing. If you want to eat go to Guangzhou!". Apparently people from this area eat everything and judging from what we saw from the street vendors we would have to agree!

Here are some pictures from today.

Here is our little darling working on what Isabella would call: "Poopy Piewy"!

Having lunch!

Street Perfomers!
Sleeping beauty!
Local vendor!

Some kind of a claw from a street vendor!

Snakes!

Gigantic mushrooms!

I am not sure what this was!

We are in Guagzhou!

We finally made it to Guangzhou, the last leg of our trip. Sorry we were not able to update our blog from Nanchang but the internet connection was at the best 'flakey' and we could barely access our Yahoo mail box.

We got here yesterday. Annalisa was great on her first flight. She only got a little upset when we landed and she saw all the people get up at the same time. I think she got a little claustrophobic. We checked in our beautiful hotel, the five star Garden Hotel downtown Guangzhou, and got right back on the bus to go take pictures for the babies visas and go to the medical examination required by the American Government for all foreign people that come in the states. The medical vist consisted of three parts: Ear, nose and throat (pretty much a doctor queezing a toy to make sure that the babies turned their heads), weight and length (she weighed in at 7.6 kilos) and finally a doctor that checked her heart beat and a few more things (I could not tell exactly what he was looking for).

After the medical visit we had a couple of hours to browse through the local stores for souvenirs and a quick dinner before we got back on the bus to get back at the hotel.

Today (Wednesday) is our day off. We have no appointments, no busses to catch, no paperwork to fill (we are done with all of it). We got up this morning at our own leasure (acturally at Annalisa's leisure) went to breakfast then took a long walk around the hotel. This afternoon, after Annalisa's nap we'll take a cab ride to Shemien Island to go visit the White Swan hotel (where we were supposed to stay) maybe take a picture of Annalisa on their famous red couch and do some more shopping.

Everything is going very, very well. Annalisa is bonding to both John and I and she is a jewel of a baby. She has her fussy moments (generally at 5:00 am and at 5:00 pm) but otherwise she is wonderful. We are still keeing her on pedialyte and a little bit of rice cerial, her diarreah is getting a little better but I really think that she has some kind of intestinal parassite. We have an appointment with our pediatrician on Monday to run some tests and make sure everything is ok.

I'll try to post more about the past few days when we come back this afternoon.

Ciao for now!

With my pretty dress on!


Having dinner at Lucy's on Shemien Island!

Medical examination!


School kids exercising on our way to the medical examination!
My first McDonald visit!


On the plane to Guangzhou!

Last day in Beijing!

We started the day by visiting Tiananmen Square. Quite a site. It was huge. Almost as big as St. Peter Square in Rome. Very Spartan looking. Just a large square surrounded by government buildings, the tomb of Chairman Mao and a monument to the fallen soldiers in the middle of the square. Chariman Mao's tomb was closed to the public on Monday so we could not visit it but apparently he was buried in a glass coffin and people can see his body. There are only three people that were buried in glass coffiins in the world. Lenin, Stalin and Mao. Interesting tid bit of information.

We did see increased security and guards, some of them armed. There were several standing guard at each corner of the square and they didn't like their picture to be taken. Most of the guards looked very, very young. It seemed like some of them were still going through puberty. There were several street vendors here but they were not as persistent or aggressive as they were yesterday. Maybe because of the guards presence, it was a nice break. I did buy a military hat from one of the vendors for about $2.50. My dad is really going to get a kick out of it. John wore it in one of the pictures, I didn't want my hairdo to get messed up ;)

Next, we walked inside the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is in front of it. It was very beautiful although not very well preserved which is something we noticed. It seems that many ancient monuments and buildings have been rebuilt throughout the years. Nonethless, it was quite a site. The best way I can describe it is to think of a Russian Doll. You take out the first piece and there's many other pieces inside. The Forbidden City had an outer layer and buildings, as we walked from one gate to the next there was another smaller set of buildings inside and it kept going on for many miles. As soon as we thought we were done, there was another inner court yard and residences.

We left the Forbidden City for an hour drive to the Great Wall after a small stop to a local restaurant.

The Great Wall was quite a sight. The beauty and the views from The Wall were breath taking and rivaled any we have seen. The section we went to was about an hour and a half from our hotel and was about 400 yards in lenght with a mid section at about 200 yards. Most visitors, like us climbed to the midsection which was a work out in itself. The incline had to be close to 65 degrees and the steps ranged from 2 inches high to 24 inches. It took about 20 minutes and

several breaks (our thighs were BURNING) but in the end we made it.

On the way back to the hotel Veronica, our guide for the entire trip gave us the official Travel Permission document with Annalisa's picture on it. I started to feel very, very emotional and started to cry. As she was explaining the events of the next day I could barely hold my tears back. This is it! We are done with the sightseeing and tourist phase and entered the Adoption Phase.

Tomorrow morning we'll leave the hotel at 10:20. Our flight from Beijing to Nanchang leaves at 11:40. We'll arrive in Nanchang around 2:00pm going straight to the Civil Affair Office. Our appointment to receive our babies is at 3:00. Our group has 12 families in it. Great Walls has 42 families that are travelling to Nanchang today to get their babies. They divided us into 4 groups. Each group's appointment is spread out about 1/2 hour.

I would have rather had a chance to check in the Hotel first and get a chance to settle our bags but we'll do our best and rely on the help of our guide and other Great Walls employees that are travelling with us taking care of everything. Our guides have been amazing so far. They are taking care of everything. When we got to airport on Friday, Veronica was there waiting for us, she took care of our luggage and got us to the hotel. She had already checked us in. We just picked up the keys at the front desk and the bell boys brought all our luggage upstairs. Hopefully they are getting paid well for all the work that they do.

Well, signing off for now! Next time I post we'll have Annalisa with us. I am a little (a lot) scared right now. I know that my whole world is about to change and I don't know what to expect. My only hope is that Annalisa is healthy, we can deal with everything else.

Love,

Rina & John!

The Great Wall!

The Forbidden City!

Tiananmen Square!