Hives

We took Ella to the medical clinic today because she has been scratching the rash on her arms, legs and head a lot lately. I have been putting cortizone cream, and that helps, but we finally decided to get her checked out in case we should be doing anything else. The doctor said she has hives, and using the cream is good to do. We also bought some Chinese medicine that should help with the itching.

So now we know what that itchy rash is ... we were told a few months ago that she had eczema, but we are very familiar with eczema because of Jasper, and we were sure that diagnosis was wrong. So glad to know it isn't something contagious, like chicken pox or scabies.

Dad asked about captions for the photos .... we wish we knew how to do that! Unfortunately the place in the blog where you post and grab photos and manage the blog is all in Chinese! So we have managed to figure out how to post, and how to put photos on the blog, all just by luckily clicking on the right Chinese characters. Tim, do you have any suggestions?

Some photos you may be wondering about ... the boy with Cyrus is just a 6 year old boy we ran into on the street. Robert asked his age, then asked if we could take his picture. The photo of Ella, myself and the Chinese woman is at the conclusion of our second interview yesterday. The woman is the woman who asked for our phone number for when she visits the US.

In the next group of photos, the first one is the moment I first held Ella, which you probably figured out. Then Cyrus is holding Ella for the first time. Below that is a group photo that includes the assistant director of Ella's orphanage, who answered all our questions about Ella and seemed to know quite a lot about her. She also visited Ella every day while she was in the hospital. She called her "Feng Feng" which is a common nickname for Chinese children (that is, they typically double the second name. Xiao Feng becomes Feng Feng). The next photo is of Cyrus walking Ella for the first time. The final photo of that group is Maya, telling the camera that now there are two girls!

Finally, the final group of photos ... sorry about all the scrolling up and down! The top photo is of Jasper, Maya and the man who met us at the airport, Jason. Then one of Cyrus pushing a luggage cart that was extremely heavy, but he did great. He really had to push a cart since we loaded up five with all our suitcases and there just weren't enough adults! THen a photo of Maya, myself, Connie and Kellie. And the rest should be self-explanatory.

Whew. I think in the future we will explain photos as we go.

OK - I just have to list everything that Ella has learned in the last 48 hours. It is pretty impressive. She has learned to wave hi, point, hold up her arms to be held, babble, share (we shared a sucker), smile and laugh with us, pick up Cheerios and put them in her mouth, recognize her name, and finally, she learned to crawl. She was walking before but when i tried to get her to crawl she just laid on her stomach. I told Cyrus that we wanted her to learn how to crawl (it is good for overall development) and next thing I know, Cyrus is holding out a Cheerio to her and moving back ... and she started crawling towards him! Clumsily at first, but she is fairly proficient now (only about 4 hours later).

I feel confident in saying that she did not do any of these things before we got her.

Her favorite toy is this awful McDonalds toy that if you press the button, it plays this romantic-sounding Chinese music that Robert can't stand. But he doesn't have the heart to take it away from her.

We're off to dinner with the Jaspers (hee hee). Going out for American food. Not sure why I feel guilty about eating American food in China.

Stephanie

Adoption Musings

Well I just have to share a few of my thoughts for those of you who are interested.

We are still very much rock stars when we walk around the city here. Everyone is interested in my kids and the fact that we have adopted kids from China make us life savers in the eyes of people here. You would think that there might be something strange about coming to a foreign country and taking their kids back to a foreign land - but in fact the Chinese people are moved by our act.

Even though their economy is rising the general mass of people are still very poor. We ate in a McDonalds yesterday and I purchased a happy meal for less than $2 and I could tell that this was a lot of money.

One of the most amazing things was when we received Ella at the govenernment office there were multiple families there. A group from Spain - 13 families, two other American families and a group of about 10 families from Canada. What was so amazing was that everyone was taking photos of other families receiving their children. The atmosphere was just so full of love, anticipation, fulfillment, hope and future. People were crying, shouting, hugging - it was one of the most intense and beautiful things that I have ever experienced.

An admission ticket to something like this would be priceless.

I want to send out a word of encouragement for anyone out there who has even thought of adoption as a way to add to their family to keep considering it or if you are planning on having children in the future I would encourage you to think about this as an option. I don't have any agenda nor do I expect anyone to be like me (especially not remembering your wedding anniversary when you have to confirm your personal information - Not Good!) but I have seen the beauty of my relationship grow with my soon to be four year old daughter - Maya and I can see the future with my next daughter Ella as being one full of exciting times and great adventures. My mentor and father in life - Big O - adopted five children and he shared with me once during one of those conversational moments that you never forget that his kids love him passionately and that there isn't any difference between your bioliogical kids and your adopted kids. He has both and as I do now and have learned that yes this is the truth. So wherever you are at in life - I encourage you to consider it, encourage others and to give hope to those kids that are in desperate need of a life with parents.

So besides my daughters being Made in China - much of the worlds electronics and products are made here. So as one of my students loves to say, "I love Free" - Well I love deals! I might be able to get a really great iPod for $25.

Robert

It's Official

Today we had the final "interviews" (How old are you? When did you get married? (Robert got that wrong. TO his credit, he has been great at taking care of me and the kids, and he hasn't been feeling 100 percent today. So I will forgive him. :-) Will you promise never to abandon her? Promise never to abuse her? Are you sure you want her? Sign here ....). We paid the final fees. Now, legally, Ella is ours.

This morning at breakfast she impressed us all by walking several steps, all by herself. She will walk only towards me (big smile of pride) and raises her arms to be picked up. Today she also raised her arms to Robert once, to be picked. He was thrilled.

OK - a funny story. When we got off the plane we saw a man holding a sign for "Jasper Family." Robert immediately went over to him and greeted him, assuming, as did I, that they meant Tadjiki Family and had the wrong name. Then we saw a man behind him with a sign for our agency, CCAI, and realized the first man really was there to meet a family called the Jaspers. Robert and I, in talking about it later, figured out the Jaspers were probably a couple sitting behind us on the plane.

The next day the Jaspers were at the government office where we got Ella. They showed up about a half hour after us to get their daughter. We saw them a couple times at the White Swan hotel, by the elevators. Today they were at the gov office again to pay the fees and make the adoption official. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of Americans in Guangzhou to get their children, but wherever we go, there are the Jaspers. We have made tentative plans to get together for dinner soon.

The three older kids are doing great. Right now Robert is at McDonalds with them. They are generally good natured and having fun. When Maya starts asking when we are going home, that means she is tired and needs to go to bed. Other than that she is great. Yesterday Robert took them to lunch while I napped. They went to a Chinese restaurant (really, Chinese restaurants are not common around here) where they got a ton of food for about $5, including cans of pop. There was a woman there who was enraptured with Maya and ended up feeding her bites of food until Connie intervened by asking Maya if she was full, Maya nodded, and that was the end of that. Maya has been getting a lot of attention, which she adores, and also she loves to eat, so it is hard for her to turn down food. Especially this food, which I guess was amazing.

Everywhere we go, Robert is making friends. One man came up to him on the street and asked if we had been here before ... he owns a shop here and remembered Robert from 3 years ago! They had spent a lot of time talking ... but still, that is amazing when you consider how many Americans this man must meet every week. Today when we were having our second interview, the woman was fascinated to hear about Robert's job and asked several questions about schools in the US and about Oregon. Then she asked if could have our phone number if she ever came to the US! It sounds creepy but it really wasn't -- she was just very friendly and nice.

Well, now that I have my daughter I am ready to come home. I love China, but I am longing to get her home and settled into our life together. I remember feeling this way after the boys were born and I just wanted to leave the hospital and get home .... and also when we adopted Maya.

Oh, one other thing ... yesterday, as though there was not enough drama what with meeting Ella, when we got back from that to our hotel room, a mosquito bite on Maya's neck (lots of mosquitos here, but no malaria if you were wondering) had swollen to the size of half a golf ball. It looked like a goiter and it was really itching her. We threw some Benedryl into her and Robert took her to a Western-medicine clinic at the White Swan hotel. The doctor there looked at her and affirmed the use of Benedryl and also gave us some antibiotic cream. (Total cost: $4.) We are relieved she is okay ... even if you are comfortable traveling, it is hard to take your small children and not worry about them getting sick so far from home.

Stephanie

Ella Bettina XiaoFeng Tadjiki

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has given me what I asked for." 1 Samuel 1:27

Today we welcomed Ella Bettina XiaoFeng Tadjiki into our family. As I sit in front of the computer, Ella is sitting on my lap, Maya is pushing Cheerios into Ella's mouth (which she clearly wants, even though she is receiving them passively), Cyrus is begging to walk with her (one of the first things Ella did was to take Cyrus by the hand and walk around the room with him while we watched, eyes wide and jaws on the floor) and Jasper is punching himself in hopes that he will make Ella laugh.

It will, once she warms up.

Let me start at the beginning. First we were late to the "gotcha" meeting because Robert found a shirt at a store that he really liked, but he needed me to see it before he bought it. It is white silk in traditional Chinese mandarin style and looks great on him. So he bought it, pulled it on and he and I, plus Cyrus and Kellie, raced to meet the rest of our travel group to go get our babies. The drive to the government office was about 15 minutes. When we got there we went upstairs to a room with several couples, some with children, waiting for their babies. We were told that our baby was in the building, but Molly and Joe's had not arrived yet, so we had to wait (!). So we sat and waited.

Just a few minutes later our agency rep, Jocelyn, told us it was time to receive our baby. We looked over at the door and saw a woman walking in, holding the hand of a baby girl who was toddling toward us. It was Ella. She was wearing new pink and white clothes and absurd pink plastic shoes. Tears came to my eyes when I saw her walking ... it wasn't how I had imagined it, yet it was amazing and wonderful.

While Ella was walking in, Robert was frantically showing Joe how to use our camcorder, which lucky for me left the way clear for me to pick her up and hold her.

Ella has not made a sound yet. Initially, at the government office, she seemed calm and interested in everything around her. She loved a sucker I brought her and slobbered it all over her hands and clothes. She even shared it with me. She was holding it out, and impulsively I leaned in and licked it, to see what she would do. She stared at me at first, then she thrust the sucker towards me for another lick. We played that game for a long time. When Cyrus reached a hand, as I said before, she reached back and they walked around together. We found out from the orphanage official that Ella had a special bond with one of the other children at the orphanage, a 4 year old boy who played with her and cared for her. Clearly, Ella was meant to have older brothers.

We were able to talk for a long time to the orphanage official (through our agency rep who interpreted). She said Ella is quiet and easy going, but quite active. She said once Ella managed to climb up onto a chair and sit on it.

Ella has a cold which they said she just got today. Her nose is runny and her breathing is noisy, but otherwise she seems quite healthy. Her cleft lip has a notch that I imagine will need to be surgically fixed at some point. She is wearing clothes labeled 3-6 months in size, but they are a little tight around the legs.

She fell asleep in the van on the way back to the hotel, and had a good nap while Jasper and Maya ooed and ahhhed and had to be forcibly kept away from the crib. When she woke up, she woke without a sound, but Cyrus was right there to report to me that she was awake.

The boys are having a hard time with her name. They keep saying Emma. Maya hasn't had that problem.

We chose her name when we decided we needed to name her after Elizabeth in the Bible. But Elizabeth was too long. We decided on Ella as a shortened version, but then we also loved Bettina, the Spanish version of Elizabeth. We decided to combine them and go ahead and give her two middle names, Bettina and her Chinese name, XiaoFeng.

Robert and I are exhausted but thrilled. Ella is also tired and a little sick, but she continues to be very interested in everything around her. We also discovered that she LOVES Cheerios, one at a time, put in her mouth for her (already a little princess!).

There is more, I'm sure, but it is time to end this and take care of my little girl.

Love to you all,
Stephanie

We Made It!

We are in China! Here are some photos of our journey.

Robert insisted that I include the photo of the scary cat picture that is on the wall in the Redmond airport. He thinks you all should petition that the picture be replaced with something a little nicer ... maybe a scroll or something.

Thanks to those of you who have been praying for us, especially for Jasper's and my health. Jasper had two pretty bad stomach aches in the two days before we left ... fortunately a kind nurse at COPA got us some meds for him just a few hours before we got on the plane, and actually he has been fine since we left. I was also having some stomach trouble before we left, but I did okay on the trip .... was able to help with the kids and also get plenty of sleep, and managed to eat some.

We got to LA 40 minutes ahead of schedule .... it is always nice not to be in the air as long as you had planned to! We met up with Kellie and Connie, zero problems there, and we have really been enjoying catching up with them and getting to know Connie as a young woman now instead of the nine year old she was the last time we saw her. Both Kellie and Connie have been wonderful travel companions .... so great with the kids, and very easy going and fun.

We arrived in Guangzhou this morning at 6 am. Absolutely zero problems with luggage and customs, yay! Got to our hotel, and those of you who know Robert well will be surprised to hear (big sarcasm here) that he got us a GREAT deal on our hotel rooms. The Tadjikis are staying in a very large suite with a separate bedroom and also a special section for the crib. The room even comes with a nice computer. Also the bed is soft, which is a much bigger deal than you might think. The Chinese like to sleep on boards.

We just had lunch with the one other family in our small "travel group." Funny enough, we ate Thai food. They are a couple named Molly and Joe, from Kansas, adopting their first daughter. Their two boys are with family in New York State. They are super nice and also useful, since Molly once lived in China for three years and has some Mandarin! :-)

Tomorrow at 2 pm our time we go get our daughter. Molly and Joe are also getting a little girl with a repaired cleft lip, about the same age as Xiao Feng. Please pray that everything goes smoothly for both families.

Much love to all of you, and much thankfulness to our Lord for his smoothing the way for us!

Stephanie

Laptops Are Packed!

As many of you know, we are taking 20 laptops to China to donate to orphans there ... we will hand them over to the artists we work with on May 12, and we are really looking forward to a great reunion with them. The laptops are for older orphans to learn computer skills, so that when they must leave the orphanage they have a better chance of getting a job. More later on our time with the artists ... and on the laptops.

Here is a photo of Cyrus and Maya with just some of our suitcases!

Ready To Go!

With two days left until we go, Robert and I are both exhausted and ready to get on that plane, if only to get away from the craziness of getting everything in order before we go. My head is constantly busy thinking of things to do, things to pack, things to buy ... then I think something innocuous like "Gotta get her car seat in the van" and I start crying like a baby (while driving down the expressway, I know, not good) just thinking about when we put her in that car seat, she will be home. She will be ours.

Enough tears .... here are some recent photos of our other three children. They are so precious. Mostly. You know how it is.