She hates the elevator. I mean HATES it. Screams and cries for the entire ride. Doors open, you step out, and she stops.
She loves her shoes that we brought from Texas. LOVES her shoes. She wore them over her footie jammies today and didn’t want to take them off for her nap.
They have these “milk boxes” here that she sucks down in no time flat. Zoom and the box is empty.
She likes all food so far except congee and carrots. Every other thing from veggies to cookies she has loved.
She opens her mouth so wide to take a bite. It’s really, really cute.
Her little voice is adorable. We are hearing it more and more as she gets comfortable with us.
We saw more of her personality today. She showed us a little mischievous side and a stubborn side. Plus an actual tantrum.
This was about 24 hours after meeting Dani.
This was taken on 3.06.2014
Pretending to give Daddy food.
The day was very mellow for us because it was cold and rainy outside. In the morning we basically watched Dani play 🙂 She is so meticulous and curious about the toys we brought. Mike put a coloring book in front of her and gave her a twistable crayon and showed her how to color. She didn’t like that and instead set up a couple stacking cups and grabbed an empty soda bottle and some of the crayons. Then she proceeded to pretend to pour some of the bottle into the cups. After that she used the crayons to stir and then pretended to paint on the coloring book. She looked exactly like an adult artist. It was so cute! A little while later she had the bag from the crayons and she would unzip it, empty the bag, zip it, fill the bag, zip it and repeat the entire thing. This went on for over an hour with her trying all kinds of combinations of crayons.
I knew that Nadia was in serious need of some “Mommy time” so after getting the big girls a bath I took her with me on a walk. We bundled up and borrowed an umbrella from the hotel and headed out. She talked to me every single second that we were gone. We needed to cross the street at one point and I asked to stop talking and hold on tight. We ran across the street, stopped in the middle and then ran the rest of the way. She screamed at the top of her lungs the entire way because of all the horns honking. Once we crossed the street she said, “We’re not Chinese Mom! We should have just taken a cab back!” We picked up more diapers and lunch and went back to the room. I didn’t take any photos of our adventures because it was raining and we were dodging so many people on the sidewalks.
Trying so hard to get her shoes on.
The girls had a nap and Dani didn’t cry at all when Mike laid her down. We gave her a bath when she woke up and she screamed like crazy, but she really needed to get clean. The rest of the evening all the girls played and we just watched. We ordered room service for dinner and I started packing up our stuff since we were going to leave in the morning. Dani was a lot more relaxed with us all day and let me feed her and hold her a little bit too.
*PS for those who have been praying for Amelie. She is getting a little better each day with the jealousy. We just keep hugging her and telling her how much we love her.
The day started with the girls waking up at 5:20 and playing until it was time for breakfast. Dani had decided that Mike was totally awesome and wanted to be held by him exclusively. It was pretty cute! We headed down to breakfast and then back to the room to grab our bags for the day out and about. I was feeling emotional about our day while waiting on the guide. We were not allowed to see the finding place for Nadia or Amelie and so this was going to be our first opportunity for that. It’s a hard thing to think about – so many questions that we will never have the answer for. Our first stop was at the finding place for Sawyer, and seeing Jaime and Chris out there taking photos made me tear up. Our next stop was a wholesale baby supply market our guide had found for us to buy some things for the orphanage. That was really fun because the Chinese just get louder and louder the more they haggle. While Maggie was negotiating our price she also called the orphanage director one more time to ask if there was anything else they needed. She asked for some large diapers so we bought some and so did Jaime and Chris.
I took this from the doorway of the wholesale baby supply shop.
Maggie told us that Dani was left at the front gate of the orphanage so that is where we were going to stop and take photos. Then when Maggie was talking to the orphanage director she said that we could go onto the grounds of the orphanage, but not inside the buildings to drop off the donations. We had not arranged for an official visit so this was a surprise.
Children live on the grounds here and so do the elderly.
The main orphanage building. Pretty cool.
The building where the foster families live and take the kids in the foster program to sleep at night.
Mike and I were both afraid this was going to set her back if she saw people that were familiar so he walked back by the van while the rest of us walked into the courtyard area. While standing with Jaime and Chris a little boy saw Sawyer and started yelling, “Ya Lei! Ya Lei!” (which is Dani’s Chinese name). Maggie said something to him and he took off running towards the gate with a woman in tow. I realized that they were headed for Mike and so I grabbed Nadia and Amelie and took off after them. Once we caught up to them the lady was already holding on to Dani’s hands and the little boy was looking at her. At that point I figured that it was the foster mom and I was so stressed. On one hand I know it’s good that the foster mom could see that she was with a happy family and sisters, but on the other hand I knew that it was going to freak Dani out when we left.
Dani’s foster mother and brother.
I think the other woman in this photo is one of the day time nannies and she is also the one holding Dani in the video we have from April 2013.
Our guide Maggie came over and we asked her to tell the foster mom thank you for taking care of Dani. And Maggie told us that she said “thank you for coming here and giving her a family.” She also told us that Dani is very smart and eats everything. She said that she cries every time you try to put her to sleep (this was something we had suspected) and that we could say her name and give her a toy like the giraffe lovey we sent and she will hold in and go to sleep. She also told us that Dani was one of 6 kids that she took care of at night. Once it was time to go the Foster Mom grabbed the foster brother, said goodbye and the booked it away from us at lighting speed. It was clear she knew what was going to happen and knew they had to go and not look back. Dani started to scream – she was hysterical. It went on and on and on. It was the most heart-wrenching thing for Mike and I. She was inconsolable and it was so much worse than Gotcha Day.
This is the front gate of the orphanage and where Dani was found. Nadia and I talked about it and with wisdom beyond her years she said, “This was probably a good idea because they knew she would be found and that they could take care of her in there.” Crying, crying, crying from Mommy.
Nadia and Amelie were asking what was going on when we got back on the bus and I explained it to them and Nadia said that “it was so sad to see her so confused and scared.” Dani continued to cry and scream and cry some more and Mike said that there was no way she could handle going shopping like we had planned, so he needed to go to the hotel or get a cab back. The bus kept going and pulled up in front of the porcelain shop and Mike was like, “I need to go to the hotel.” Our guide said something like, “It’s just 10 minutes.” What?
So Mike went ahead and got out hoping that walking around would help. I was near tears again and told him that I didn’t feel like shopping because she was so upset, so I pulled out a milk box for her hoping that would calm her down. It was like magic – she sucked the entire thing down and then started playing with the box and straw with Mike. The first photo of this post shows her when she had finally calmed down. So Mike just played with her and I felt good enough to go into the shop. Inside I picked up a set of porcelain jewelry boxes for each of the girls and some for gifts. Nadia and Amelie had a blast running up and down the wide sidewalk in front of the shops. They have needed some room to run and get the wiggles out so that was really good after days of walking along tight streets and dodging cars and scooters. Amelie came in and used the squatty potty in the store and we cheered for her! She was so scared, but Mike had the brilliant idea to tell her to pretend she was peeing in the bathtub or the ocean. It worked, which just made me laugh. In the end I was also glad to get to shop since Jiangxi is known for its porcelain.
`This is in the Guinness Book of world records for the largest piece of eggshell porcelain. It was amazing and the photo doesn’t do it justice. They pulled down a smaller piece for us to see and when you tap the side it makes the sound of a temple bell. That is what makes it so special. Also the artist who created it is 90 years old now and when he dies it will be worth even more money than it is now.
After the shopping Maggie asked if we were hungry and we all said YES!!! As we were driving to the restaurant Nadia yelled out, “MOM!!! Did you see that candy shop???? They had so much candy!” I like the 7 year old eagle eyes for the candy shop when there are a million things we are flying past. Dani cried a bit when we got back in the bus, but when we got out again she perked up again. The restaurant was so nice and I love that in China you can go somewhere totally swank for an acceptable amount of money. The girls (especially Nadia) thought it was totally awesome that we had a private dining room with fancy chairs and our own bathrooms and sink to wash hands. They loved the lazy Susan spinning in the middle of the table and how the food just kept coming and coming. Maggie ordered us an amazing amount of food which was so fantastic. We had some local dishes (most were too spicy for me, but Mike loved them). Authentic Chinese food is fantastic and this was the largest meal I have eaten since leaving America. YUM!!!
I feel like I ate this entire plate of shrimp on my own. SO GOOD. They also brought a bean soup for the toddlers and they both gobbled it up.
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Our private dining room doorsand glimpse into the bathroom.
Happy girls after lunch.
Once we left the restaurant we had to walk a block or so to the bus and we saw one of the awesome candy stores and stopped to load up. Maggie made recommendations and the girls think they are awesome. We got back to the hotel in the late afternoon and let them sleep 2 hours and then we got them up so they would sleep at bedtime.
After getting up from her nap, Dani was mellow and sad and she laid here on Mike for about an hour. She fell asleep for a while and then just laid there. By the end of the evening she was up and playing with toys again and even played with Amelie.
It was an incredibly emotional day all around and I was ready for a good nights sleep.
First off I will say that Amelie is dealing with a little jealousy (which is totally understandable) and we are trying to help her be calm and encourage her to do “big sister” things to help Dani. We are also letting her put on unlimited amounts of glitter lip gloss 🙂 I also don’t think she is getting her usual amount of sleep because of all the excitement and she is a kid that really needs her sleep.
Silly girls cracking themselves up.
The girls woke up at 5 am again and we brought them in the bedroom to color and craft while Dani slept. Dani got up at 5:30 because she pooped and she was all kinds of upset. Mike calmed her down and we just hung out in the room until we could go to breakfast. As soon as I got out her clothes and got her dressed she was so excited and climbed off the bed and took off to explore the hotel room. We hadn’t seen her do anything like that yet. She has been either sitting and playing or having us hold her. It was really cute to watch her, but then she kept going to the door and saying in Chinese what I assume was “Let’s go!” We went down to breakfast and she cried a little in the elevator both ways. She did really well at breakfast and ate a lot of food and she showed us the first thing she didn’t like to eat – congee. And the orphanage docs said she liked it, but they also said that about Amelie and she wouldn’t eat the stuff either. Once we got back from breakfast she was really upset and sad. She just sat on our laps or on the bed next to us. She didn’t want to play with any toys or be played with. She just wanted to hold her shoes in her hands and she seemed really sad. We let her see the girls get a bath and then put some water in the baby tub and gave her a quick sponge bath and she screamed and screamed. Whew. After that she just wanted to sit on Mike’s lap or be near him being mellow.
Can you see the little tear in her eye? And you can barely see the shoe in her hand.
We decided to head over to McDonald’s for lunch and when Mike got the carrier Dani perked right up!!! She reached for him and then turned herself around to back up towards him so he would strap her in. She was trying to help him buckle and remembered to lift her arms up so he could do the top. She was smiling and talking again right away. It was so super sweet! The rain had finally stopped and it wasn’t so cold and we enjoyed our walk. She loved the fries and nuggets which didn’t surprise me since they gave us a photo of her eating at KFC. After lunch we went over to the RT Mart to look for another pair of shoes for her, but they didn’t have any good choices. I picked up another package of wipes and more Oreo flavors we hadn’t tried yet. Once we got back to the hotel room, we put the girls down for a nap and they all slept for 3 hours!
Dani was in better spirits when she woke up and got really excited when I offered her a banana. She was grabbing at it and trying to help me peel it. After she finished that off I took her into the bedroom again and sat her on the bed with me. After a while she wanted to play with the stacking cups again. This went on for more than an hour. She was very intense trying all kinds of combinations and arrangements of the cups. Then Mike played with her for quite a while and I set the big girls up with some travel package Play-Doh we brought along.
She kept moving around until she had the pillows arranged “just so”
Looking for Daddy.
Look at that pooch. I love it!
The rest of the evening was nice, just being a family. We had dinner in the room again and after I changed Dani into her jammies she was sitting on my lap. Then Mike went into the other room and she scooted right off my lap and went looking for him. It was super cute! I got down on the floor so I could snap some photos of her walking around checking out the room. Then she wanted to be back with Mike and soon it was time for bed. It was a very good day for us.
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Now photos for fun:
Socks drying in the bathroom
Every checkout line in China has condoms, gum and snickers.
I feel like the average American would wig out if they had to walk up and pick their chicken out of an open refrigerator like this
This is what was in the bag from the orphanage. It’s so much food that it just made me laugh.
The girls woke up at 5 am and wanted Dani to be awake so bad!!!! But we made them come in the bedroom with us and play quietly until she woke up. Starting at about 6:30 Nadia was reading the clock and giving reports. “6:36, 6:39. 6:45, when is she going to wake up? 7:02, 7:04, 7:06, when is she going to wake up?” It was adorable. By the time Dani woke up we were all dressed and ready to go to breakfast. We got her ready in a hurry and headed down to breakfast because our guide was going to pick us up at 8:30 to do all the paperwork required for Jiangxi province.
Sweet girl at breakfast.
Looking out the window with her big sisters.
After breakfast we grabbed everything we needed for a morning of paperwork and met our guide and the Butler family downstairs. We walked across the street to the Civil Affairs building and we all crammed into the elevator and Dani started to cry. She is not fond of elevators in the first place, but she really didn’t like it jammed full of people. The first thing we did was wait in line to have our family photo taken for the “Red Book” (basically the proof that she is ours) and they took an individual shot of Dani for her Chinese passport. Then we went into the big room to wait around for more paperwork to be done. All the Jiangxi families that read this will recognize this room. Our experience in this room couldn’t be more different than when we came for Nadia. This time it was really cold with no heat and about four families. Last time it was over 105* outside and jammed with families and screaming kids and no A/C.
I love this photo so much!!!! Dani had a great time walking all around the room with Mike. I filled out our paperwork while Dani and the girls sat with Mike. We promised to love her and never abandon her and to give her an education once we return home. We had to fill out another form telling China why we wanted to adopt her and confirm that the records we received about her were correct. They gave us a porcelain pen holder with some cool artwork on it and we gave the gifts we brought from America. Our guide Maggie returned with our paperwork and our Red Book and we left the building.
Once downstairs and waiting on the van we saw the orphanage director again and Maggie told us that we could ask her any questions. We thanked her for taking such good care of Dani and she thanked us for coming to China to adopt her and give her a good home. She also told us that Dani was very smart and popular and given a lot of love. We asked if Dani was in the orphanage or with a foster family and she said that Dani spent her days at the orphanage and then went home at night with foster parents and five other children to spend the evening and sleep. We were told that the foster families live on the orphanage grounds. I had never heard of anything like that before in all our time in the adoption community and I found that pretty cool. She also told us that there was an email address in our paperwork and asked if would we please email them updates of Dani in the future. Then in typical Louanne fashion (because I was so overwhelmed with gratefulness for our precious girl), I hugged the orphanage director! (This is not common in Chinese culture) She seemed surprised, but hugged me back and laughed.
Our next stop was the notary and they asked us a series of questions to confirm the answers we had given on Gotcha Day. That went really quickly and we all loaded up in the van one more time. Our last stop was the passport office and just one parent and the new child got out and the rest of us waited in the van.
Nadia was cold and sleepy in the van and this was her solution. Once we returned to the hotel we had lunch in one of the restaurants there and found that Dani even likes broccoli. This made Nadia happy because Amelie has never liked it 🙂
The girls played for a little while before having a nap. After their nap time we decided to go to Walmart to get some diapers and more Coke Zero, so we headed out and quickly found it was way too rainy and cold, and that we would need a taxi. Mike put Dani in the carrier and she got so excited!! She was smiling and laughing, and while we were outside for a bit the rain was on her face and she just giggled and laughed like it was the most amazing thing ever. She started to talk and babble and make lots of happy noises. Her little voice is so cute!
Look at that adorable smile!
Mike was playing a little game with her while we waited on the taxi and she just laughed and laughed and laughed. After taking a taxi to Walmart and back we had dinner in the room and got the girls to bed. Dani cried again when we put her in the crib, but Mike sang and I rubbed her belly and she calmed down very quickly.
All day Mike and I were telling each other we couldn’t believe how well she was doing and what a delight it was to see her smiles and laughs. On the taxi ride back to the hotel Nadia said, “This is the best day of my life. I don’t know which one is the worst, but this one is the best!”
 
