Group photo before leaving Nanchang. No cooperation from Dani 🙂Â
Nadia and Dani when they first woke up.
Play-Doh was a big hit for the big girls when we were trapped in the room due to rain.
The girls and our guide Maggie in Nanchang.
The girls got up at about 6:30 and we went down and had breakfast. Then we returned to the room to make sure everything was packed up for the airport and trip to Guangzhou. We got checked out and took some photos in the lobby and then loaded up into the van to go and get the babies’ passports. Then Maggie took us to the airport and helped us buy a lap ticket for Dani and it was time to go through security. They were super strict because of the train attack in Kumming last week and wouldn’t let us take the stroller to the gate or let Jaime take a milk box for Sawyer through security.
On the flight we got split from Amelie and Nadia. They were on the same row, but with other adults in between; Mike and I had the aisle (with Dani in Mike’s lap) and the girls had the window seats. There was an incredibly nice man sitting next to Amelie and he helped her open her water and even peeled her orange at meal time. On a side note, it’s just amazing that the Chinese airlines will give a drink and meal on an hour and ten minute flight. And as we have found on every flight in China, the Chinese eat really fast and they zoom through the cabin to collect the trash before I feel like I have even started.
Dani did well on the flight. We were totally expecting her to flip out because she doesn’t seem to like any sort of change at all. But she seemed okay while we were waiting to take off. When it was time to take off and she started to get fussy I pulled out some snack sticks and handed them to her one at a time. That distracted her enough to keep her from getting upset. By the time we landed, however, she had missed her nap and you could tell she was very sleepy.
They all fell asleep in the van on the way to the hotel.
Our guide, Lily, was waiting for us at the airport with a van and helped us all get checked in at the Garden Hotel in Guangzhou. After we had taken our stuff to the room, Lily took us on a whirlwind tour of the neighborhood stores and restaurants. After that we were beat and so Mike and the girls stayed in the room and I ran over to Pizza Hut for take out. I love the Pizza Huts in China because they set them up like an Italian restaurant at home with a full menu of items. I also ran by 7-Eleven for some milk and cokes.
Playtime in the hotel room before bed.
After dinner we got our bags unpacked and the girls settled in for bed. We were all beat but so happy to be in Guangzhou for the final stretch!!
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.
 
