We're Home

We got home yesterday. We were 40 minutes early into the Redmond airport, so very few people actually greeted us, but then people kept trickling in, so that worked out well and might have been less overwhelming for Ella.

There are some photos of her homecoming below.

We have so appreciated all the encouraging, positive emails and blog comments, also yesterday all the people who came to the airport to welcome Ella and who let us know they have been keeping up with us on this adventure by reading our blog. It is amazing to me how many of you care so much about our family and especially about our new daughter.

This will be our last post. Now that we are home, we are shockingly busy. The last 24 hours have been chock-full of unpacking, holding Ella, and cleaning (had to redo all the laundry due to residual mosquito repellent stink, and unfortunately while paying someone to do your laundry is affordable in China it is very expensive here. I actually considered looking into it ....). We have also been sleeping a little bit too much during the day and not quite enough at night. Getting these pictures off the camera and onto the laptop was quite a feat for our jet-lagged minds and bodies.

This photo was taken just off the plane. It was a good thing we landed early because those little planes are not good for my stomach and I was very sick. Every time the plane bounced I made a humming/growling noise in the back of my throat ... I think I was scaring the man across the aisle.

We were greeted with flowers and a balloon by my friend Barb.

With my brother Tim and Ella's cousin Amy.

Ella discovered the Lego table in the airport and played with kids from our church. Until that point at the airport she was very quiet and withdrawn ... I think she was scared and just not sure what was happening.

With several people from Robert's work.

With our friends Jim and Heather Knox and their four kids.

With my good friends Tara McSween and Maria Roberts

With Matt and Amanda Fisher and their daughter Emily, who is the same age as Ella (and thus Amanda has been a great resource for me as I prepared for Ella)

With Grandma Karin

American Citizen!

Ella became an official US citizen today when her feet hit US soil (actually, the waiting area near the baggage claim at LAX).

We had a hard flight with a lot of turbulence, two vomiting incidents and weird airplane food that was supposed to be "Western" (as opposed to Eastern) that we couldn't figure out, let alone eat.

Now we are in our Embassy Suites hotel room, after having eaten a double pepperoni pizza that wasn't great, but tasted like home.

We love America! even though Jasper says he misses China and loves it more because he loves the babies.

Stephanie

Red Couch Photos

We are getting ready for bed for our last night here. We spent much of today indoors in our hotel room, away from the incredible heat and humidity, and surrounded by the kids' favorite tv shows, toys and food (peanut butter and honey sandwiches .... for the 8th time this week). Just before dinner we met with Molly and Joe and agency rep Jocelyn for photos on the red couch at the White Swan hotel .... something all the adoptive families do. Then, trying to decide what to eat for dinner, we (with Kellie and Connie) tried a few different restaurants but they were all too expensive and had weird food (see below), like really really different. We really wanted to celebrate for our last meal in China, but Ella was starving, and then Jasper fell and scraped his knee, and Cyrus was sad about not wearing his new shoes, and there was no highchair available and the service was unbearable slow .... and everything got very bad very fast and we ended up going back to the hotel, leaving Maya with Kellie and Connie (where they waited a very long time for her peanut butter and jelly sandwich and french fries, of which she only ate the fries anyway) and Robert got us food from the Thai restaurant and I made the boys peanut butter and honey sandwiches. It wasn't the way we wanted to spend the evening, but I guess this is life with 4 kids. In China. Who love being here but also really want to go home.

Tomorrow morning we pack, and we check out in the early afternoon, go to our consulate appointment, then go to the airport. I am not sure we will have time to post again.

See you on Saturday, or soon after!

Group photo of our entourage on the famous red couch at the White Swan hotel. You can see Jasper is holding Ella's hand down and her other hand is just a blur. This is because every time the photographer Jocelyn said, "Ready, one, two, three" Ella smiled and waved vigorously. It was so funny it was hard for the rest of us to keep a straight face.

Family photo, Tadjiki style.

Ella and Molly and Joe's daughter Hope. Hope is a natural ham who smiles at every camera, while Ella is wondering why this little girl keeps trying to put an arm around her.

Jasper and Cyrus watching the ships on the river from the White Swan Hotel.

Jocelyn is making Ella smile by doing a Chinese nursery rhyme.

Yummy water beetles ... you can get them stewed or stir fried!

Leaving on Schedule

Good news ... we are leaving on schedule on Friday. Everything worked out yesterday with getting a new adoption certificate. We are so grateful that God answered our prayers.

Here are some new photos. Enjoy! Today Jocelyn does a lot of running around for us, while we do whatever we want (that is one thing I will miss about being in China ... so much down time) and tomorrow we pack up and have our Consulate appointment, the final step in the adoption.

Ella and Daddy

Connie, Kellie and our rep Jocelyn

Ella enjoying some American French Fries

Stephanie and her four beautiful children (We are an amazing thing to behold in China - with their one child policy)

Gentleman asking for money

Cyrus in the middle of the shopping area

Cyrus in front of large aparment building near popular shopping area

Jasper chilling with his new sister

Ella sleeping like a baby

Maya with her swollen mosquito eye - She is looking like her normal beautiful self today

Funny Story ... and Prayer Request

The other day Maya was tired after doing some shopping. She leaned against me in a taxi as we were going back to our hotel and said, "Mom, there sure are a lot of Chinese people here!"

I said, wondering if the driver knew English (probably not), "Yes there are, Maya ... 1 billion!"

We are ready to come home. There is one small problem with our paperwork, unfortunately. When they did Ella's adoption certificate they forgot to put her American name. So our CCAI rep is trying to get it fixed right now. By the time you all wake up and read this, we will probably already know if we will be able to fly out on schedule Friday .... This typo affects when Ella can get her passport. So you can see how important this is.

One more story. At breakfast when I was feeding Ella I was trying to get her attention ... I stared into her eyes and slowly moved my head forward to gently butt against her forehead. To my surprise, she moved HER head forward and butted it against mine. Then she reared back and did this funny quiet chuckle she does when she is pleased with herself. I was congratulating myself on teaching her something new, when Jasper saw us and said, "That's what I do with Ella!" So I guess I know where she learned that.

OK, I can't resist. One more story. I posted a message online asking the new parents of Ella's little friend Chun Yun to contact me, saying just that I had a photo for them. It was such a long shot. It was entirely possible that they would not even see my message, and I did not know their names or how to contact them. I had no idea that his mother would respond right away! They are from Boise! Amazing that they live so close! They have four daughters already, and they sound so excited to be adopting Chun Yun.

OK, just one more story. Maya got attacked by another mosquito, this time just under her right eye. It is really swollen, about half shut. When we walk around together, people see her and actually recoil. I can just imagine they are thinking I am here to adopt her, an older Chinese girl with a terrible rare eye disease. The funny thing is, Maya has no idea. Her smile is so sweet.

We miss you all and can't wait to see you.

Barbara, thanks for the tip in bringing the kids' favorite snack food. We have plowed through most of it and it really helped. I just wish I had brought more Cheerios and applesauce .... I didn't think about Ella eating it, too!

Stephanie

Ella's Birthplace

Kids from Ella's village.

These folks had never seen an American before.

Two leaders of the village and they gave me their address and are looking forward to future correspondence


I purchased ice cream for a large group of kids

One of the older woman of the village

Four year old boy who was best friends with Ella and helped to take care of her while in the orphanage. His face lit up when I showed him the photo of Ella. He is to be adopted as well in the next few months.

Entrance to Ella's orphanage

Future of Scrolls From China

Even though Scrolls From China is really just in its infancy of growth - Kenny and I are planning on beginning a foundation within the next several months. The purpose of the foundation will be to give training and employment to older orphans as they have to leave their respective orphanages at the age of 16. Having a job is paramont to life. Ever been unemployed for a while during your life? I was - and it isn't a good feeling.

We will begin forming the name, 501(c)3 process and completing the necessary steps to establishing this foundation. All dontaions will be tax exempt. Scrolls From China will begin giving monies from the purchases of all art pieces to the creation of this foundation plus individual money given to each of the artists.

I implore you to see if there is any way that you can contribute to this new beginning. Please consider and be in prayer regarding how you might be able to help. When all of the details are in place I will send out an email with more specifics.

Kenny has a gregarious personality and his parents and both siblings are all doctors and know many business leaders in China. They are helping him kick start the foundation with money from their personal savings accounts. Kenny is a Christian and does his work due to a desire to help orphans. When he was younger his parents had him in orphanages as they traveled around the country serving communist China - for doctors were needed to travel around the country where they were directed by the government during this time. Kenny laughs that he is the shortest person in his family because he ate food from orphanages as he was growing. He is now 34.

I would also encourage you to pray for Kenny. He is an amazing man. He also desires to find a wife but it is difficult in his line of work. A woman would have to be very sacrificial to be with him. He dated a woman for many years but she broke it off five years ago because she couldn't stay in China and he didn't want to move to France.

Kenny I know that you are reading this - we give you our prayers and our hearts.

Scrolls From China

Part of this journey has been the long awaited meeting with the artists and a reunion with Kenny. It was truly an incredibly special time. There were many hugs, tears and conversations of hope for the future.

First off I want to personally thank Dominic for all of his web design help. You are incredibly talented Dominic. Thank you for sharing your talent with Scrolls From China. Sarah - has been the backbone to the website and is incredibly talented and wonderfully professional. I encourage anyone to check out the resource page for their contact info if you are ever in need of hiring someone to do marketing and web design for you. Dominic and Sarah - I wanted you guys to know that I gave a blessing to the artists and it was from you guys as well.

Most importantly for this trip was to give the artists and several orphanages laptop computers. I was able to get many laptops but they didn't work due to a variety of reasons. My brother in law is extrememly talented in this field and was able to take all of these computers which didn't work and create 20 functioning, Dell wireless - Pentium III processor computers! Most things in China are relatively cheap because they are made directly here. This is not the case with electronics. Computers, digital cameras and other items of this nature are extremely expensive because of the tariffs that are placed upon them from the Chinese government. So a typical computer would cost almost 2 to 3 times more than for us in the States. The first computer that I gave to the artists two years ago - I purchased and then shipped it to a family in California who personally delivered it to Kenny. (This way, instead of mailing, is the best way to save money.) So to give 20 computers to those with practically nothing was quite an event. Stephanie and I gave each of the artists some clothes with Bend Oregon on them, plus some candies and a blessing and then of course the computers. There is nothing that I can say that will ever convey my love to Tim for his self-less help in making this happen. You see, computers are like lifeblood to these kids. There are educational websites that allow them to improve their academic skills, English comprehension and a host full of other educational skills that can be learned via free web sites that are established for anyone across China. But for these orphans - education is never really stressed on the whole. In addition, they don't have parents who are motivating them to learn and all in all the spiral of destruction continues to go downward for them. But here face to face with them and to be able to give them 20 laptops for them to learn with - what a gift. What an act of hope that will bring them to a place where they will strive harder because they now have the opportunity. Thank you Tim. Thank you for sharing your talents. Thank you for your love.

The White Swan

Robert is gone all day today visiting Dianbai orphanage. For an easy outing, the kids and I just walked to the 5-star White Swan hotel, down the street, where we stayed when we got Maya and where most adopting Americans stay. When you check in, there is a Mattel Barbie that has a Chinese baby in a front pack waiting for you in your room ... it is a collectors edition, and much coveted by Barbie fans. Anyway. It is always fun to walk around a luxury hotel, but this one has enormous Taiji fish swimming in a pool with a very tall waterfall and a lot of open halls to walk through. Also a view of the river with big ships (we saw 11, according to Cyrus). And a cage of birds. And the most wonderful bathroom in China. Clean, huge, two rows of toilets, not a squatty potty anywhere to be found. And clean! With TP and soap and paper towels .... as you can see, I was crazy about this bathroom. Jasper had his daily 20 minute poo while we were there, and let me tell you, I have experienced a lot worse with him.

Kellie and I agreed we are both feeling a little bit down having said goodbye to the artists. The two older girls were crying as they left .... it was heart-wrenching to see them, spoil them and love on them, and then see them go back to the orphanage and know that really, we didn't make much of a difference. It is a very different experience bringing Ella home. There is only joy there. This has always been a trip that is about two things .... Ella and seeing the artist. One is so wonderfully positive. The other was bittersweet.

I should say that if Robert were here reading this he would say that we are helping and making a difference by buying their artwork, sending money regularly, and in this way helping them hone their skills for future employment. Not to mention bringing the laptops, which will help in an indirect way. And he is right. I guess you could say that, along with Kenny, we are teaching them to fish instead of giving them a fish.

Ella news: She has said her first word! She now says "hi." I may have told you this before. She also gives high fives.

Gotta go. Photos tomorrow, hopefully.

Stephanie

Reunion Photos

Robert with Kenny and the kids.

The guys enjoyed hanging out together despite the age difference.

Kellie really took to Yue Feng (which means Little Moon) and got to hold her for this photo.

We all ate breakfast together at our hotel twice. These kids had never seen a buffet before, nor had they tried so many different kinds of Western food. I was surprised that they didn't go for the Chinese breakfast food, instead I saw french toast, sausage and cinnamon rolls on their plates.

Yue Feng in her new dress. The morning they left she was very sad and did not want her picture taken.

Shopping

I have finally figured out what book I will write someday. It will be called The China Diet. I will tell people that if you want to lose 10 lbs in two weeks, go to China and adopt a baby. You will be so busy, plus the food is strange, plus there is the whole traveling-jet lag-yucky feeling involved that the pounds will just melt off! Hm, looks like I just wrote the book ... so much for royalties.

Yesterday Robert, Kellie and Connie took the kids shopping after lunch. Well, first they had lunch at McDonalds. This was like a trip to Disneyland for these kids. Seriously. They had heard of McDonalds, of course, since they have them in China and there are commercials, but had never been to one. Robert said they all ordered coffee because that is so cool and American ... but no matter how much sugar they poured in they could not drink it! Then Robert and Kellie really wanted to buy them things. They took them to a posh shopping center and bought them clothes.

One of the artists is a little girl, 4 years old, about the same age as Maya. Her hair is cut very short, like all the girls in her orphanage, because no one has time to take care of long hair. (Seeing her and Maya together, this difference is the most obvious ... one has a mom to brush and fix her hair. One does not.) Kellie bought her a beautiful pink dress and matching hat. When I saw later she was beaming, laughing, twirling her dress. She was beautiful.

While Robert was spending time with them I was in charge of all four kids for the first time (happy mothers day to me!) and it went well. Whew, I think I can do this. I took the kids out to dinner to the American restuarant, Lucys, where you can sit outdoors and there is place for the kids to run (and they did). They ordered spaghetti and pizza. I had a cheeseburger that was very good. The only hitch was when all three of the older kids said they had to go potty ... all at different times. The potty is in a building that anyone can access, and all the potty are squatties (hole in the ground, and you're lucky if there are handrails and TP). I had to draw on all my mommy skills to make sure everyone was safe. When we got back to the hotel I gave the girls baths together ... first time. The formerly quiet meek little Ella has really come out of her shell. She kept trying to climb up the side of the tub, and she loved splashing. Within 60 seconds she was wet from head to toe. Maya was very patient with her and careful of her.

It is early Monday morning. After breakfast Kenny and the kids get back on their bus (these kids have never been on a long distance bus before this trip, also have never spent time in a city before! A lot of firsts for them on this trip. Even the hotel .... the tv with all the channels ... the computer that comes with the room! The boys loved playing on that). And Robert is taking the arduous trip to Dianbai orphanage. We debated a long time about whether he should go. The trip is 4.5 hours one way, and it costs a lot of money to hire a car and driver. The final factor in deciding it was realizing how precious it would be to have a photo of the little 4 year old boy that Ella was close to there. So ... Robert will go to the orphanage, take photos and video, but mostly he is going just to meet this boy.

I will have to post photos later unfortunately .... I hope I am still able to blog at that point!

Stephanie

Whoops - Here are photos

OK - I accidentally clicked on the link to post the last post instead of clicking on the link to grab another photo. Remember, it is all in Chinese so I am not actually as stupid as you might think.

Here are the photos I meant to put in the last post .... the boys went to an amusement park the other day, and had a great time with Dad while the girls and I shopped for shoes.

Also, I love the photo of Ella in the cream flowered dress. She is holding a toy that sings Chinese music and flashes lights, and she is twisting her body, dancing in response.

Continuing the blind posting ....

Here are some photos. Ella had her official medical examination so that she could be released to leave China. Some children who are being adopted go to this exam and everyone discovers for the first time that the child has a special need that was previously unknown, like deafness. Then sometimes the Chinese govt will not want you to adopt the child or maybe they will give you the option of taking another child (I know, it sounds awful if you aren't familiar with all of this). We happened to get there a bit late, Friday at 430 when they are trying to close and go home for the weekend, so her exam was a bit rushed. We did not mind at all.

The photo of myself, Ella and the doctor is funny for Robert and I because this was the same doctor who examined Maya three years ago. Robert got really upset with him because it was very hot in the clinic, and Maya was tired and crying a lot, and there were people everywhere waiting in line, and when the doctor tried to listen to her chest he couldn't because she was screaming. Finally he told me I needed to make her be quiet right now ... I was outraged because I hardly knew this child and had no idea how to make her be quiet! Robert got all protective and angry, and it was all he could do to keep it together and not antagonize this guy. With Ella's exam, he was perfectly nice, by the way.

Writing blind

Sorry we haven't posted in awhile, but we have tried! For some reason we aren't able to view our blog at all anymore. I understand you all in the US are able to .... must be one of those China things.

I am very surprised to be able to get to this page, where you can post, and I am not sure if this will work or not. And also since i can't see our blog, I won't be able to see for myself. So if someone could email me directly and let me know that they saw this post, I would appreciate it.

Our friend Kenny and 5 kids showed up yesterday afternoon after a 10 hour bus ride. Robert and I just had a Scrolls From China meeting with Kenny at Starbucks (!) which was great. We got to talk about a lot of things that are hard to discuss via email and phone. And last night we went out for Chinese food at this place that only the locals and Robert (because he talks to everyone) know about. (Our guide Jocelyn was very very surprised to hear that we had eaten there because she thought it was a secret). No white people there, and it is on the fifth floor, no elevator (it might be good for my calves, but it doesn't feel good), no high chairs for babies, no baby food, no bottled water for foreigners who can't handle the local water. BUT - excellent excellent food, really amazing, and soooo cheap you would not believe it.

I could talk about food forever. Instead, let me say that this reunion with Kenny has been wonderful. We are teaching Maya and Ella to call Kenny "shu shu" which means Uncle. He is so great with our kids, as in fact the artists are, too.

Ella is doing super. It turns out she is very active and curious and into EVERYTHING, just like any other 13 month old. She has been smiling a lot and even laughing. She keeps learning so much ... today we have been working on giving high fives and giving kisses, and also she is starting to make the sign for "more" when she wants more food.

I better try and post this before it disappears.

Stephanie

New Photos

Today we took our first family photo at the White Swan Hotel, in front of a waterfall. This photo is not actually the first ... the one just before this one had Cyrus doing something strange with his hands.

We went swimming today at our hotel pool, which is uniformly too deep for our kids to play in, as well as being in direct sunlight at every hour of the day (it's on the roof). Also the railing around the rooftop is short and the rails are really far apart ... we stayed for about 15 minutes, just enough time to take some photos.

The photo of the kids posing with a statue is just one example of many we have taken. There are several of these statues all around our hotel, some on the way to breakfast every morning, and the kids love to pose with them. As Robert said, we could have a second blog devoted to statue photos. Don't worry, we're not going to do that.

You might be wondering about Jasper and the parasol. Robert got one for Maya, and Jasper started begging for one, too. Turns out he wanted to use it to play Gun. So I guess it is a gun.

A quick story .. we just ate with Jeff and Kenna Jasper, during which Robert discovered that Jeff is also a Bears fan ...! He got so excited. You can imagine. The two of them started talking about football. Robert was also feeding Ella congee (watery rice with minced chicken) as they talked. I'm sure you can guess what happened next. The next thing we know, Ella has a spoonful of rice gruel on top of her head. Robert was trying to put the spoon in her mouth without actually having to turn and look at her. Lucky she didn't seem to notice.

It's 8 pm, time for the struggle to stay awake until 9 and then to stay asleep past 5 am. So far the staying awake is okay, but Robert and I are both still waking up far too early. At least the kids are adjusted.

Stephanie