Day at the local park

We just had the best night of sleep ever - or since we've been a family of three. Timothy slept until 7:45 AM this morning. We were happy yesterday when he slept until 6:05, later than that seemed like a distant dream. It's only been one morning so we'll have to see how it goes, but he also only stirred a couple of times throughout the night.

These photos are from two days ago when the weather was warm enough to go to our local park. It's taken a few tries for him to adjust to the swings. He does best when seeing other children do the same thing, then he knows it's okay to do, not just what his crazy parents want him to do.

We are settling into our daily routine, which the pediatrician says is necessary for his sense of security. He's very active and loves to play but also to cuddle with mom and dad.

Merry Christmas!

note to self: assemble the night before

dad is this my toy or yours? it's more interesting if it's yours

traffic congestion ahead

ah, the open road and a fresh spoon to chew on

oh the little people of Stonehenge

no time for hugs. got work to do.

Ridin' the Reindeer

New Stuff

We've been trying to go slow go with giving Timmy new toys so we don't overwhelm him with too much stuff. But after playing with him for a few days - mommy needed to give him something else, if for no other reason but to save the rest of my coasters. We bought him two mega block trucks before we left for China because we couldn't decide between the two and presented one of them to him this morning. You would not believe the sweetest heart-melting smile we received in return. He's been walking with it around the house, often laughing because he's so happy. He's also been standing more by himself, a bit shaky but he can do it.

The time change campaign continues. We managed to keep Timmy up all day yesterday but without really trying. We saw the sun briefly yesterday and braved the outside to get him some vitamin D and to try and reset his clock a little bit.

He was awake from 4:30 AM until 3 PM (he would NOT take a nap any earlier). We woke him at 5 PM and he was NOT happy because he was so tired, poor guy. Went to bed again at 7:30 PM and awoke wide-eyed at 12 midnight. He actually awoke at 11 PM but managed to get him to a fitful sleep again. Went to bed again at 2 am. He rose for the day this morning at 5:30 AM.

My bright idea at Midnight was to keep him in his room, all dark but with just the night light. I laid down on the floor with blanket and pillows to provide a hint, to absolutely no avail. I gave him a bottle without leaving the room too as I had it prepared with thermos in the room and he drank and seemed tired enough to go to sleep but would not go down. Instead he stood in his crib, very pleasantly I might add and yelled things to me in his sweet voice and tried to dismantle his bedding.

Greg is now (1:30 PM) trying to get him to take a nap but he is supernaturally resisting. Poor guy we've torn his life apart, wreaked havoc on his schedule, changed his diet but he's still going with it for now and doing pretty well considering all we've asked him to do. He still rears his back occasionally and gets frustrated with us but mostly he just wants us to make him laugh. Daddy is able to do this for him better than anyone. Daddy is also an excellent walking partner and Timmy will often grab Greg's hand to let him know it's time for some exercise. It's pretty darn cute.

Half the Sky

On Gotcha Day, we received a little book of information about Timothy, along with a CD of pictures of his life in the orphanage and a necklace for all of the adoptive mothers. These pictures are so precious to me because it shows me some of his early development and life for him in the orphanage(it's in Chinese so I need to get it translated). It seems that his life was organized, happy and well-nurtured.

I credit a lot of this to the organization that works with his orphanage, a group called Half the Sky. They are the reason I have the pictures and life book. This organization is dedicated to helping China's orphans.

The pictures above are some of the ones we received in the picture CD. We know Timothy had a much better life and received more care and attention because of this group. For some information about his orphanage check out this link: http://www.halfthesky.org/work/sites/lianyungang.php

Consider making a donation. They are a great great organization!

Time change blues

We are trying to get Timothy adjusted to the time difference and he wants nothing to do with it! Also we are feeding Timothy regularly but still found the coaster to have a satisfying crunch in the mouth - blame Daddy for that one. We took Timothy out in the cold for a stroller ride to give him some fresh air and promptly put him to sleep despite the frigid weather. Isn't his hat the cutest? He loves to walk with assistance, mainly from Daddy.

The doctor gave us a clean bill of health - turns out his cough is just a cold and his lungs are supposedly clear. Also doesn't think there will be any long-term problem with his no-drinking-with-us-in-China stance.

We were trying to combat the time difference in Timothy's schedule with a divide and conquer approach. I was the night shift from midnight to 6:30 AM and Daddy was the day shift but no one was getting any good sleep. So this morning at 5:00 AM Greg got up with me when I could not get him down to sleep and we took Timothy to our favorite diner for breakfast. He liked the pancakes and eggs alright but loved the grits - as this is closest to what he's used to eating. We were worried he may melt down because he's so tired but he was great, especially after two cups of coffee. Just kiddin'. The parents drank the coffee.

It's good to be home again

Greg was the one taking all of the photos so sorry there aren't more of Greg! Here are some random shots of our time in China. The first photo is when Timothy was still drinking and we had made it through the second night. Greg holding Timothy at Gotcha day. Greg worked hard to feed Timothy - and without his palate a lot of food goes through the nose.

We are so happy to be home. Timothy is glad as well as he thinks that the stackable cups make a rather remarkable and satisfying sound when struck on the wooden floor.

He is doing great! Finally, finally he started drinking like gangbusters on the plane and hasn't stopped since, a big relief. We are taking him to the pediatrician tomorrow morning first thing to see about his terrible cough and to check his lab values. He's eating as well, and although he is eating them, squash is not his first choice in vegetable. He's quite funny as he does a little dance after he's been eating awhile. He's not so much for the car seat, as he never used one the entire time in China, and does not understand all the fuss, or that it puts him immediately to sleep.

Our time in China was stressful, as we are new parents with a little man that wasn't drinking so much and we were very very worried and not sure how to proceed - hospital or not. But we did enjoy our time there. Timothy and I first bonded on daily walks through the streets of Nanjing and he grew to love love love the bugaboo. In fact, he insisted on being in it or being held by mom at all times. We loved our family walks in the public parks of Guangzhou to watch the senior citizens dancing or playing cards or to watch couples taking glamorous wedding photos.

But it's nice to have more than one room to work with and a washing machine and dishwasher. Also Timothy has more room to play - rather than just the top of the bed. Timothy loves to have his dad take his hands for walks around the house. He will get his shoes so daddy understands that's what he wants to do. With mom his preference is still that she hold him but will occasionally allow me to just sit close and help him play. He likes to laugh and has the sweetest little voice that coos when he's happy. He's hilarious. We feel very lucky!

We Are Home

Finally, finally, 28 hours after leaving the hotel in Guangzhou this morning and crossing the international date line -- the longest day of our lives is over! We are safely at home -- thanks Lori for picking us up at the airport. Timothy did really well on our plane trips all things considered. Not sure how to get any of us oriented to the new time zone but i guess it will happen eventually.

Last Day in Guangzhou

Finally, our last day in Guangzhou. Our U.S. paperwork is finalized and this afternoon we go to the consulate to pick up Timothy's travel visa and take our oath of adoption. Tomorrow morning we fly back up to Beijing then after a 5 hour layover we fly back home. About 24 hours of travel time but at least we'll be back home.

New Day in Guangzhou

Had a fun day in Guangzhou. Got some pedialyte-like powder from a very nice family we met at breakfast (no one has normal pedialyte because you can't get it past US TSA -- thank you shoebomber -- and they don't sell it in China). Timothy's diarrhea has improved and we're getting him more adequately hydrated. Still can't figure out how to make him drink more than a few sips of formula. We've heard some people have tried sweetening with table sugar so that may be the next desperate step. But Timothy seems to love Chinese noodles and eggs so hopefully that will carry us through the last few days here.



Anyway, all were feeling better and in good spirits and we spent most of the day out and about in the neighborhood around our hotel. Having a lot of trouble uploading pics on our very slow hotel internet connection but here are a couple:

Tough couple of days

Sorry haven't posted for awhile, it's been a tough few days since we got our little guy. He is, as the pictures are to be believed, unbelievably adorable. He has the most amazing little hands, which he uses almost all the time. Some item must be in his hands at any one time, like our link a doo's or more likely his fingers which he chews on as a coping mechanism. He uses this a lot as we try to navigate new parenthood, as he tries to cope with our new parenthood.

All of us are sick. I had some GI distress, mild, but debilitating in that it was impossible to stand so Greg had to take over everything for some stressful hours, poor guy. Greg has a bad cold, which I have a slighter version of as well. Our little man came to us with a bad cough, which is not getting any better and now with a bad case of diarrhea.

We are having a terrible time getting him to eat and mainly to drink. He used our bottles at first, the same bottles he was used to using at the orphanage. We had cut little holes in the top but they weren't large enough at first causing it to take too long for him to eat his food, causing his poor little body to sweat like crazy when eating. By the time we figured it out he was over it. We've been trying every technique we can think of to get him to drink - even giving him straight juice which we think may have caused the diarrhea. Basically it's come to this, we are offering him the bottle to drink from the edge like a cup but haven't been able to get him to use the sippy cup yet. We are finally starting to realize that we need to feed him table food but Chinese table food. He's been throwing fits every day when we feed him finally in desperation feed him ramen noodles and he loved them.

We went to the White Swan Hotel clinic and I love the Chinese doctor that is very very good with children, amazing actually. He gave us benedryl, robitussen and some other medicine for his cough - but you aren't supposed to use this with little ones correct? The Robitussen anyway but his cough is so bad we may go ahead anyway.

I need your help with this next point. He has had a diarrhea for the past three days. Mainly nonformed stool but has now turned runny and explosive. I almost took him to the hospital tonight but have decided to wait until morning to evaluate him then. I'm also going to canvass all the American families here to see if they have any Pedialite, which he may like better. I finally broke down and gave him some of the Chinese medicine, which he seemed to like so maybe that will help. If I were home I'd know what to do but I'm unsure what to do here. Any ideas from folks out there would be greatly appreciated, I could use ideas for how to give him fluids.

Keep in mind, as a cleft palate baby he lacks a sucking mechanism. Although he was great at using a bottle we haven't been able to get him to use a sippy or regular cup. Being sick hasn't helped his attention span and he's been increasingly irritable - as would anyone that isn't been feed properly.

Appreciate any feedback or suggestions. Nothing is too far-fetched. Not trying to worry anyone, he's a happy and fun little guy that likes to play and people watch, loves to people watch. His favorite activity is to ride in the baby bjorn and go for walks, especially when mama rocks him back and forth. He must have a little stacking cup in his hand or a link a doo available for shaking when necessary. We've taken to calling Timothy - Bug - short for cuddle bug. Just a warning, when this little guy looks up at you with his sad little eyes - I guarantee you'll do anything he asks. Just wait.

Greg is an amazing father and always makes Timmy laugh. His daily mission is getting Bug to eat and drink. Bug is a bit mommy focused these days but is fine when mom isn't there. Sometimes that means he can have more fun with Greg. I'm more there to be a warm comforting body to hug against when he's stressed.

We'll get through this and each day brings new learning opportunities. Each day we get better at a schedule and at understanding what makes him laugh.

Hope you are all doing well. I'm writing this late, so sorry for any mistakes in context, spelling, etc.

Nanjing Zoo

On Thursday, our last full day in Nanjing, we visited the zoo. Our guide was very very excited that we got to see the pandas -- a rare endangered species. We just nodded politely since we used to live just up the hill from the pandas on loan from China to the National Zoo, a walk of just a couple of minutes from our apartment. So we got the chance to take a few pictures of Timothy watching his shoes as we went to see the pandas.

Friday was our first plane trip with Timothy, down to Guangzhou. Let's just say we're really not looking forward to our 24 hour return trip back home! He did manage to fall asleep at the end of the flight and kept sleeping even through landing -- we're not sure how, since his parents are still trying to clear their ears from the horrible cabin pressure changes.

Timothy - Day Two

Day Two we were back to the Civil Affairs office at 9 AM to meet with our orphanage caregivers one last time and complete all of our paperwork with Jiangsu Province to make things official. Several other American families were there besides our group of 3, and much waiting around with lots of people in a very small space. Finally finished we gave our last goodbyes and thankyous to the caregivers who were off for the long drive back to Lianyungang.





Then it was a shuttle to the store, where we had a chance to stock up on a few supplies to add to those we’ve brought with us: bottled water, baby food, rice cereal. By the time shopping was over it was mid-afternoon and all 3 kids were pretty much spent. And who could blame them. Not only had they missed their nap but the stress and fatigue of all the changes in routine and environment were finally catching up.

The rest of the day was all about managing meltdown for our very over-tired little boy back in our hotel room. So we’ve been very busy. Welcome to parenthood!

A little bit more about adoption day

Monday we met Timothy for the first time, at the Nanjing Civil Affairs office.

We were supposed to be at the government building at 2:00 PM to meet our son at 2:30 PM. But guess what! When we got there, the babies were already there. I followed Jin, our facilitator like a hawk and went into the room where our little babies were sitting with their caregivers. The room was soooo hot and our little ones were bundled up as tradition -- cute little baked potatoes.

Our little man was a tired little guy but he was a brave trooper all day. Feeding was our greatest worry, and we’ve had to try several different bottles to figure out what would work. With his cleft palate he isn’t able to suck like most babies can. Still a work in progress but we’re learning.

He’s eating table food too. Egg, rice porridge, watermelon and of course cheerios. He seems to like pretty much everything and isn’t picky at all.

Timothy is a big ball of mucus. He’s had a bit of a cold and cough since we got him poor little guy. Our agency guide, Jin, took us to see the Hotel doctor who gave him a clean bill of health (and us some herb & snake cough syrup to give him – haven’t tried that yet!).

Here He Is!!

More pics and details later.

Timothy has been wonderful and all are doing great!

Paperwork Resolved

Dear Jill and Gregory,

Thanks for your e-mail. Here is to confirm that we have received your updated visas 37 with valid CIS approval and fingerprint record.

Have a nice day!

Adopted Children's Immigrant Visa Unit
U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou
Phone: (86)(20)85187653

Phase Two – From Beijing to Nanjing

So we successfully bowed out of the trip to the Imperial Summer Palace much to the dismay of our logistics director Jack but gave ourselves plenty of time to be organized and ready for our next phase – on to Nanjing and to our son.

But first – we were joined by other families! Carol from Md (her daughter Emily is at home with her grandmother) and the Dickersons (Stephanie, Chris and their daughter Morgan) from Connecticut. We got to meet each other and catch up over breakfast – so nice to get to meet after hearing about each other from our agency.

We did have a bit of drama at the airport – after parking and hauling all of our stuff in two different vehicles to the airport – it turns out that only one of the families was actually flying Air China in Terminal 3 and two of us were on Hainan Airlines in Terminal 1. So we had to haul all of our stuff to Terminal 1 which turned out to be several kilometers away. No taxi would take us – so we had to take a shuttle and we were cutting it a bit close running back and forth throughout the airport with cartfulls of baggage. Once we got our stuff to the right terminal and the right check in line one of our checked bags kept setting off the alarm. So the staff had to examine the bag and all the contents – send it through and the alarm would set off again. We think it might have been either the zipper or the handle. But Jack and Greg and the airlines staff were all trying to figure it out -- they actually had them come behind the counter and translate an explanation of all the contents (baby food, baby medicine etc etc). Never did figure out what was setting off the alarm but finally they let it through anyway after much lobbying by Jack. When we finally finally finally got to the gate they were boarding the last passengers. So it all worked out fine just like we all knew it would – but my body would not believe my mind – my heart was racing and I was tense. Jack, poor man, felt so bad and was sweating like crazy. Christina, our tour guide of all things, was very calm and helped Jack tremendously, she was a champ. All of us, meaning Carol, Greg and I were all in middle seats in separate rows but so what – we were on the plane to Nanjing! And it helped us bond with Carol, she’s great.

posing with Jack in Beijing:


We love love love Nanjing! Of course that means what we saw of the city on the drive from the airport to the city center which took about an hour. Nanjing seems to be a mixture of DC, LA, San Francisco, Miami and New York all in one place. Aggressive angry drivers – many lights were flashed and horns were blared. And this was Sunday night!

Our hotel is fantastic! Very posh and sanitized water available sink side for brushing of teeth! We have a little crib in the room! Tomorrow we are to head to the government offices at 2:00 PM to meet and receive our little son at 2:30 PM. We cannot wait! As you can tell by the number of exclamation points I have used in this post just how excited we are – but our little man is going to have a rough travel day of five or six hours traveling by car or bus to meet his mama and daddy – right at feeding time!

Great Wall and Ming Tomb

As Scarlett O’Hara once said, “With God as my witness I’ll never be cold in Beijing again!” Following this as my creed I wore three layers rather than typical two layers – long undies and jeans and sweater with two long sleeve cotton tees just wasn’t cutting it. So today I wore two pairs of socks – one of them wool, long underwear, my flannel pajama bottoms and jeans (please remember this when viewing all photos, thanks) along with a camisole, two layers of long underwear (one of them Greg’s) and a sweater, scarf and my cute but lamely unwarm hat. And so the weather was less windy, so all was good. I even unzipped my jacket for a brief moment.

Today we are heroes for climbing the Great Wall of China says Chairman Mao. Of course, you can get this official certificate at the very first stop on the Wall, which seems overly democratic of him, because you can go much further to five towers beyond and more. Climbing the Wall is much like climbing Mt. Everest in that there are long lines with crowded sections (hereto referred to as the Hilary Step) of folks just sitting down in the middle of climbing to the flat sections. I advise looking down at your feet at all times so that you a) don’t fall to a brutal and painful death and b) so you don’t see how much further excruciating pain awaits you and awaits you. We were given a choice to go to the more popular Great Wall site with a lovely tram to the top or to the less populated site that is much steeper but less busy. My sister warned me about the first choice, that it was akin to Gatlinburg i.e. very touristy, crowded and cheesy, so we went with the second site. Of course, on this particular day most folks went to the same place: the “less populated” site with a steep climb. My lungs expanded to new capacity filled with smoggy Beijing air congestion to last me the next two years.

Many tourists from all over the world were there – Russians, Americans, Indians, Australians and well as many Chinese. The easiest to tell apart – all Russian men smoked on the way up and down the world’s steepest steps and the women wear fur coats, big sunglasses and high heels. Boots of course, but with heels and darned if they didn’t go almost to the top in those things. If that were me, my funeral ceremony would already have happened. We got up to about the fourth or fifth tower but like David Brashears always says about Everest you don’t just need to be able to go up to the top, you have to get back down to the bottom. Greg could have gone all day, seriously.

By the way, Chinese are very similar to Americans in that the opportunity is always available to make a buck. So on the way to the Wall, we stopped at a jade factory that happens to sell lots of jade items that are very pretty, high quality and important for you to buy. We were followed around and around quite oppressively. Finally I could not take it anymore and made for the “factory” exit with our guide and driver trailing behind. Never mind as we had more opportunity to spend throughout the day. The “how to make” part lasts about 5 minutes and the opportunity to shop part is open ended until you buy something and they’ve got all day. By the way, now you know that your Christmas present will likely be nothing of jade.

We also went to the Ming tomb where the guy who is buried there isn’t really buried anymore ‘cause the Communists liberated his body from the coffin and gave the loot surrounding him to the People, or so we are told. Mainly what we saw was a reproduction.

I’m trying to be funny of course but we really did have a great day, if not overly long. They seem to like to keep us as occupied as possible, hopefully spending money, until we beg and plead for rest. We’ve tried to beg out of a tour tomorrow morning of the Emperor’s summer palace before our noon flight to Nanjing – and got a room call at night from the front desk asking why and offering to work with us to fit in an abbreviated tour. We haven’t had a chance to be nervous about the baby as we literally have had no down time. But tomorrow we leave for Nanjing and we cannot wait! Just one more day before we get to have our little emperor.

No new news on the paperwork in Guangzhou. Hope that we have internet in our room in Nanjing (we don’t here in Beijing), as we hope to provide many more pics of little Timmie.

Beijing in Color

It’s 11:30 PM on Friday, December 05, 2008 and we don’t have an internet connection in our hotel room. We did go to an internet hole (I mean bar, but with no drinks but plenty of smokers) located in the basement of a building. The cashier is a young girl that broke into song with the radio while giving us access to their network. Quite strange. I tried I really did to get access to our Google account to post a blog entry, without success as all the directions were in Chinese and I can only go thru Google to get to my account. Anyway it turns out we are still having trouble with our paperwork and so had to dedicate our time to sending another email to officials at the National Visa Center in New Hampshire and to writing our Congressperson Jim Moran to ask for assistance regarding our paperwork and asking for his intervention on our behalf.





Today we went to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Drum Tower and a local haitong (or neighborhood and I’m spelling it incorrectly) for lunch after a tour via to a Silk Factory (consider it an opportunity to buy something after a 10 minute explanation of the silk making process with salesperson following you throughout the store) Temple of Heaven and then a hot-pot dinner at a packed Friday night place clearly very popular with Beijingers. You may think you’ve had a hot-pot dinner but was it a traditional hot-pot meal versus the less superior electric hot-pot meal.



First thing that it is important to know – it is FUH REEEEEEZING here. Emphasis on the FUH! So we were walking around the Forbidden City and our guide Christina would be explaining an important fact about the Forbidden City such as the difference between the two large lions outside one of the main gateways and I would be thinking, “Oh, so the male lion has his paw on the world, while the female has her paw on the baby….Oh God I am sooooooo cold, I’m so very cold! I wish I was in the sun. Wow this is really colorful. So yellow is the color of the imperial court and this is where the concubines slept. Wow, it is very cold. I am so very cold” Etc. Multiply this times my entire day.



We have a whole team dedicated to helping us maneuver Beijing. Our driver’s name is Kou, the logistics director is Jack (he is NOT familiar with the nursery rhyme) and our tour guide Christina. The driver drops us off, Jack goes with us to get the tickets and Christina is our information resource, except for in the haitong when our guide was a young fellow by the name of Golf. She is very young and energetic and completely dedicated to giving us a wealth of information about each site we visit in Beijing. We understand most of what she is saying but are still lost some of the time this being dependent on the amount of recent coffee consumption. So since we only drank coffee this AM we were able to follow less and less as the day wore on. And we’re still very much adjusting to the 360 degree time change. There’s only so many times you can say, “what did you say, I don’t understand” before you adopt a frozen smile and nod and just go with the gist of it.


The Beijing of the post Olympics so far just seems as a very large modern city with the exception being the toilet situation. I’m not a squeamish person but for some reason I am unable to use the public toilets (or holes in the floor – very smelly and very wet). It has not gotten to crisis levels yet and have only held it for the most today at two hours until returning to our Western style hotel bathroom.

Quick impressions of all we have seen – Chairman Mao’s portrait is very very large and repainted each year. Forbidden City is quite crowded given the chilly weather. Although we are generally the only Americans no one gives us a second glance even at the local non-tourist haunts. There seem to be many Russians. Everyone in Beijing is freezing, not just us, as the weather just turned frigid. The Temple of Heaven is beautiful as well as surrounded by a community park where the local retirees play cards, majong and dance. That was pretty cool as in amazing as well as very cold. Did I mention it is FUH reezing here.
Must go to sleep. Take care all. Much love to you from the east coast of China.



We have many pictures which we hoped to include but are having some trouble getting them up -- sooo sorry but we'll have them up soon. Were in a bit of a culture shock and getting used to how to do things. Not quite up to speed.

Also - today the Great Wall and perhaps the Ming tomb if we feel up to it.