Category: Travel

First photo as a family of 5!  

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!”

Last photo as a family of four.

The girls woke up at 5 am and we told them to play quietly until we went down to the breakfast buffet at 7. Amelie loved the buffet and said, “You can get as much food as you want!!!” I filled my plate with fried rice because breakfast in China isn’t complete for me without getting that off the buffet. They also had some fantastic spring rolls that all 4 of us enjoyed. Nadia declared them the best spring rolls ever! Once coming back to the room, we let the girls watch SpongeBob and various other cartoons in Chinese while I blogged and got the gifts packed up for the nannies and orphanage staff.

At lunchtime we took a walk and ate lunch at McDonald’s (this photo was staged by Nadia, she thought it would be funny). We were quite the entertainment for the people walking past the window. Then we went to the RT Mart (which is like a Chinese version of Walmart) and it was much nicer than the Walmart we had been to the night before, and it was closer to the hotel. Once we got back to the hotel we put the girls down for a nap and I tried to sleep, but my mind started going crazy. I had been doing really well up until then, just praying and asking God to calm her heart and make her not so terrified like Amelie was. I was feeling optimistic and we knew that 100s of people were praying for us and thinking of us and really praying for Dani. But I was ready for it to be here! Once we were all dressed we headed down to the lobby to have someone take a final photo of us and then WE SAW THE KIDS!!!! First I saw Jaime and Chris’ son Sawyer and across the lobby I saw Dani. I started to cry and wanted to just go get her, but I was worried about making a bad impression or violating the rules. So I asked Mike to zoom in and snap a photo 🙂

I know this photo is blurry, but it was super cute to see them laughing and waiting on their new sissy.

We went upstairs and double-checked that the room was ready and that the camera was set up. Then they knocked on the door and the orphanage director brought her in with our guide Maggie. She was fine until they handed her off and then she started to cry. It was a mad rush of noise and talking and the guide trying to translate for us. They returned the presents we had sent to her and also gave us a bag filled with snacks and these little milk boxes they said she loved. Finally our guide said that she would be back to do the paperwork and that we could ask the director questions tomorrow. I gave her to Mike and he walked around with her and showed her the mirror. She calmed down, but looked very scared.

Amelie trying to give Dani the Taggie Lion they picked out for her before we left Texas.

After a little while Mike gave her to me and she cried a little and then calmed down and sat on my lap. She started to wiggle off in tiny stages until she was finally sitting on the floor holding my finger with a death grip. We had told Nadia and Amelie to just do their thing and so she just sat their watching them play, talk and giggle with each other.

The guide came to our room to do our paperwork and at that point she had laid down on my foot and stayed there for about 45 minutes. My foot was asleep, but I wasn’t going to move.

My view.

While the questions were being answered Mike got on the floor by the table and got Nadia to start playing with the toys we brought for Dani, and she was watching very closely.

Mike rolled a little “Joker car” over to her and over time she grabbed it.

She had finally been calm for a while and so we knew she needed a diaper change and we braced ourselves for crying. She ended up doing okay and as soon as her jammies were on, she pointed to her clippy and bent her head down for me to put it back on.

After watching her sisters play with the stacking cups, she wanted to try. She was very intense trying all sorts of combinations. As it was getting late, since Dani wasn’t brought to our room until after 4PM, I ordered fried rice and dumplings from room service and we made some noodles in the room. She liked everything, especially the milk boxes they had brought. We let them stay up a little later than normal and then put all three girls to bed in the living room. Dani screamed when we put her in the crib, but Mike started singing and I rubbed her belly. The girls were telling her that they were right there and that they would be sleeping with her. Mike kept singing and she calmed down. We left the door open and the light on over our bed so she could see us until she fell asleep.

The sweetest thing for me was how many times Nadia came up and whispered in my ear, “Mom! I love her already! She is so cute! I love her already!”

After the girls went to bed we talked about how well the day really went and how totally cute she is. It hurts my heart to think of how disorienting it must be to not know the people you have been handed off to and not understand anything they are saying. I went to bed with a happy heart knowing that it was going to be okay. Thank you to all who prayed for us and have sent us messages of hope and encouragement and love for our family. We are blessed.

Just before we left DFW.

Our flight out of DFW was at 10:30 am on Feb 27th. We got to the airport early to see about getting our seats together, and the staff at Korean Air said they had already noticed that we were a family and had blocked out seats for us. We ended up getting 2 rows of 3 seats for our group. It.was.AWESOME!!!! Mike and Amelie sat in one row while Nadia and I were in the other. Flying for 14.5 hours sucks, but having all that space so the girls could actually curl up and go to sleep was fantastic. The four of us watched a lot of movies because we each had in seat entertainment. Both girls were so happy that it had “The Little Mermaid” but they also watched Despicable Me 2, UP and Planes. Mike and I both watched a bunch of movies we had never seen.

So much space. Praise the Lord!

Nadia kicked back in flight.

Korean Air gave them gifts again, which was really sweet. This time they didn’t serve different food for the kids like on our past flights, but the girls still tasted everything and were able to eat enough. They both did really well, but at 14 hours Amelie was done! She just started crying and Mike held her until they had to buckle up to land. Once in Korea we made it through security one more time so we could move to the terminal with our flight to China. There was a Quiznos near the gate and I got the girls a turkey and bacon sub to split and they were so happy. They kept telling me it was delicious. Once we got on the flight to Beijing Mike noticed that they had Frozen on the in flight entertainment and the girls were so excited. Mike and the girls watched movies while I tried to sleep because I was becoming exhausted.

This is Amelie while we waited in the line for immigration in Beijing. We had left home 23 hours earlier and she was totally and completely done! After getting through immigration we went right out and found the shuttle to our hotel, The Langham. It was so close to the airport and swank!!! We were just happy to find a Chinese hotel that would take us with both kids and not make us get a second room. We got to the room and immediately put on jammies, brushed teeth and went to sleep.

This super cool sculpture was in the lobby of the hotel. The girls woke up at about 5:15 am, which was as good as we could have hoped for because of the jet lag. So, after eating some breakfast bars in the room I took them down to get the wiggles out and check out the hotel. It has a lot of neat art work and ultra modern furniture that the girls wanted to try out.

The girls thought these were their favorite thing and called them the “Z” couches and promptly wanted me to take a photo of them pretending to be asleep.

There was a glass wall with mini blinds between the bathroom and bedroom and the girls thought it was hilarious in this tub. After we all got cleaned up we headed over to the Beijing airport to wait on our flight to Nanchang. We met up with Jamie and Chris at our gate and it was nice to meet them in person after all the communication via Facebook leading up to the trip. We are with the same agency and will be together the entire time. They are getting their first child and I am really excited for them because I remember our first time in Nanchang when we met Nadia. So sweet.

Nadia wanted one last shot in the stroller before it became Dani’s. This cracked us up because her legs are so long. The flight to Nanchang was quick and easy and our guide picked up the six of us and we headed for the hotel. The guide saw Nadia and said, “Is she from our orphanage?” We said no, but she was from Jiangxi and we told her which one. She acted like she could tell right away that Nadia was a Jiangxi girl. She immediately grabbed on to Nadia and started talking to her on the way to the van. On the drive the girls snuggled up to me and went right to sleep, and I looked out the windows and was happy that we finally made it.

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We got the the Galactic Peace International Hotel and our guide was able to negotiate a better rate than I had found online for a suite – The Galactic Suite! So it was nice of her to do that and save us some money. We have learned that it’s best to get the bigger room for the girls to spread out, and having a separate sleeping area helps them actually sleep rather than try to chat with us. We headed out to try and find a store to get some extra bottled water, cokes and snacks. It was pretty cold and rainy, but we just borrowed umbrellas from the hotel and headed out. Our family is always up for adventure and as we walked I took in the sights and smells that I associate with China. Things like roasted sweet potatoes and tofu for sale from street vendors, smoke, pollution, horns honking, neon lights and people everywhere! We ended up at Walmart and learned that they don’t do price checks at that store if your item won’t scan correctly. They just tell you that you can’t have it and scan the rest of your stuff. HA! We took a cab back to the hotel, had dinner in the room and got ready for bed. We found that the crib had been delivered while we were gone. It has Winnie the Pooh on it and Hello Kitty sheets.

Here are a few photos of our room. We also have one extra bathroom with just a toilet and sink in the living area. It’s exciting to think that we are finally here and that Dani won’t be spending any more time in an orphanage, but instead have a family that loves her.

Dani will be here in about six hours! We will probably do some quick updates to Facebook when she comes, but for all the lurkers out there, don’t expect another blog post for about a day.