Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Beihai Visit
So the post right before this one I actually wrote last night, but the internet went down and I could not post..so I copied it and am posting now....
Florie slept until 11 pm and i was able to move her to her crib...she was just exhausted and emotionally spent. She only took one ounce of her bottle at 11 pm, then slept till 5 am again when she woke crying. She still wanted us to hold her close. The boys had been up since 330 or 4...jet lag is hard on them. So we all started playing, and she giggled like crazy with them while William and I got dressed. breakfast went well, and then it was time to head to Beihai..it took about 3 hours by our van to get there. She did GREAT on the trip there....and took a nap with William holding her. Our first stop was the orphanage.....we wanted to get pictures of the outside, and of her finding place outside of the orphanage gates. BUT, we were lucky enough for the two nannies who had brought her to us in Nanning were out, and they came to talk to us...then 3 other nannies showed up, including Florie's "ayita" as she calls her. Florie lit up and was smiling from ear to ear. t We stayed about 20 minutes, and were able to find out a few more details....like the fact that she likes WHITE rice over fried....and apples :) we could so easily see how much all of the nannies LOVED Florie. They knew her, they loved seeing that she has 3 big brothers to love and protect her. They had been so sad since she had left, and said they felt better now. They did bring out a little girl who is Flories' buddy who is getting adopted next week to somewhere in the US...she was pretty excited to see Florie, but Florie was more interested in the nannies. THEN, it was time for us to go. That was really really hard on Florie (as we expected)....big sobs, big screams, big tears. I felt so badly for her. She hung on to me the entire time, but pointing out the window.When we went to eat at the restaurant (about 5 minutes later), she warmed back up....and ate well (white rice, of course!).
we took a walk around the center square of Beihai, and saw the big shell statue with a pearl and sea gods around it. There was an awesome 130 year old banyan tree in the square, and many beautiful golden raintrees like the ones in Tennessee. William is already planning on getting one for our yard when we get home. I bet we had our picture taken 20 times while we walked around the square. The blonde boys AND Florie were quite a sight, I think.
we then went to Silver Beach, another important part of Beihai. There is a big port there where people take boats to Vietnam. The beach was busy, and we walked out to the water. There were MILLIONS of hermit crabs (literally!) on the sand. Ben had a ball trying to catch them! Florie loved the sand....but boy it was hot and humid out. I was sweating like crazy!
On the way home, Florie played peek a boo with Jack for the first hour. She fed him cheerios, and laughed and laughed. She then got tired and cried for a bit before falling asleep in my arms. She slept the rest of the way home. The boys did well on the trip too..it was a long day but i am SO glad we went. Now we can answer questions about her city, and we have pictures and videos of her nanny....probably will not show her soon, but we do have it for when she is ready.
we ate in tonight...leftover pizza, and noodles from the lounge. Florie ate a ton again :) She had a nice warm bath and fell asleep a few minutes ago on Baba....we successfully kept Alex and Ben up until 8:20, so they should not be up as early in the am. jack, on the other hand, fell asleep on the bus about 5:30 and he is still sleeping. we have tried to wake him, unsuccessfully.
Tomorrow, we are going to the provincial museum, and then Friday to the People's Park. Our guide Mary is going with me to a few restaurants in the morning to "clarify" what Alex can eat. we will do that the FIRST day in Guangzhou. Heidi, which restaurant in the hotel did you eat in for lunch or dinner?
good....lots of American choices too.
I hope everyone is well at home..I miss the pups and hope they are doing well.
We are doing well overall. Last night was really hard, but, expected at some point. She is one cute girl who LOVES to play! She is starting love her brothers a lot, and really really loves her Baba!
off to bed soon...it is wednesday night here!
Love,
Eve
Florie slept until 11 pm and i was able to move her to her crib...she was just exhausted and emotionally spent. She only took one ounce of her bottle at 11 pm, then slept till 5 am again when she woke crying. She still wanted us to hold her close. The boys had been up since 330 or 4...jet lag is hard on them. So we all started playing, and she giggled like crazy with them while William and I got dressed. breakfast went well, and then it was time to head to Beihai..it took about 3 hours by our van to get there. She did GREAT on the trip there....and took a nap with William holding her. Our first stop was the orphanage.....we wanted to get pictures of the outside, and of her finding place outside of the orphanage gates. BUT, we were lucky enough for the two nannies who had brought her to us in Nanning were out, and they came to talk to us...then 3 other nannies showed up, including Florie's "ayita" as she calls her. Florie lit up and was smiling from ear to ear. t We stayed about 20 minutes, and were able to find out a few more details....like the fact that she likes WHITE rice over fried....and apples :) we could so easily see how much all of the nannies LOVED Florie. They knew her, they loved seeing that she has 3 big brothers to love and protect her. They had been so sad since she had left, and said they felt better now. They did bring out a little girl who is Flories' buddy who is getting adopted next week to somewhere in the US...she was pretty excited to see Florie, but Florie was more interested in the nannies. THEN, it was time for us to go. That was really really hard on Florie (as we expected)....big sobs, big screams, big tears. I felt so badly for her. She hung on to me the entire time, but pointing out the window.When we went to eat at the restaurant (about 5 minutes later), she warmed back up....and ate well (white rice, of course!).
we took a walk around the center square of Beihai, and saw the big shell statue with a pearl and sea gods around it. There was an awesome 130 year old banyan tree in the square, and many beautiful golden raintrees like the ones in Tennessee. William is already planning on getting one for our yard when we get home. I bet we had our picture taken 20 times while we walked around the square. The blonde boys AND Florie were quite a sight, I think.
we then went to Silver Beach, another important part of Beihai. There is a big port there where people take boats to Vietnam. The beach was busy, and we walked out to the water. There were MILLIONS of hermit crabs (literally!) on the sand. Ben had a ball trying to catch them! Florie loved the sand....but boy it was hot and humid out. I was sweating like crazy!
On the way home, Florie played peek a boo with Jack for the first hour. She fed him cheerios, and laughed and laughed. She then got tired and cried for a bit before falling asleep in my arms. She slept the rest of the way home. The boys did well on the trip too..it was a long day but i am SO glad we went. Now we can answer questions about her city, and we have pictures and videos of her nanny....probably will not show her soon, but we do have it for when she is ready.
we ate in tonight...leftover pizza, and noodles from the lounge. Florie ate a ton again :) She had a nice warm bath and fell asleep a few minutes ago on Baba....we successfully kept Alex and Ben up until 8:20, so they should not be up as early in the am. jack, on the other hand, fell asleep on the bus about 5:30 and he is still sleeping. we have tried to wake him, unsuccessfully.
Tomorrow, we are going to the provincial museum, and then Friday to the People's Park. Our guide Mary is going with me to a few restaurants in the morning to "clarify" what Alex can eat. we will do that the FIRST day in Guangzhou. Heidi, which restaurant in the hotel did you eat in for lunch or dinner?
good....lots of American choices too.
I hope everyone is well at home..I miss the pups and hope they are doing well.
We are doing well overall. Last night was really hard, but, expected at some point. She is one cute girl who LOVES to play! She is starting love her brothers a lot, and really really loves her Baba!
off to bed soon...it is wednesday night here!
Love,
Eve
Rest of day 2
We had a busy day...car rides to two different meeting places, lunch at KFC with new foods for Florie, an afternoon nap, and then down to the swimming pool to watch Baba and her big brothers swim. That is a LOT for a child, a toddler at that, who has been in a pretty rigid schedule with consistent foods and surroundings for almost 2 years. When Florie, Alex and I came back to the room after their swimming, she just lost it as soon as we walked in the room. Full on, awful sobbing....she clung to me with all her might. I know she was hungry,so I fed her bananas and warmed up noodles...bananas good, noodles, not the right ones. She was so upset! William and the boys came in and the two of us tried a variety of foods....even her favorites from yesterday were okay. I passed her to william since she likes to fall asleep on him, and ran out to get pizza for the boys so we could just eat in the room. The executive lounge had noodles last night that she liked, so we planned to try those again tonight. She did fall asleep, and he passed her back to me, and know she is sleeping in our bed. She is so beautiful. I am hoping she will sleep through till her 11 pm bottle....
It breaks our hearts to see her so sad. She is clinging to us for comfort, and I am very thankful that she feels she can do that. Tomorrow is when we go to Beihai, which will be a hard day. Good in the LONG run, very hard in the short.
we will keep using our united front with her....comforting as much as possible, trying to figure out WHICH foods she likes. I am sure she has eaten pretty much the same thing everyday for awhile, always cooked the same way, served the same way at the same time......and we are not privy to that information. Even if we were, how could we reproduce that? It is challenging enough to make formula bottles in a hotel room where the water is not safe to drink (Lindsay....think about how you can do this..I have a big bowl with some dish soap i bought here, then I use the hot pot water to rinse everything.....). It is so hard on her...new EVERYTHING. Not one single thing outside of her shoes is the same for her. NOTHING. we know this, and it gives us the strength and patience we so very need.
On the upside, she has quite a set of lungs, and so we feel like there is NO DOUBT that she is a BOGER.
Tomorrow we will be gone all day. It takes 2 1/2 hours to get to Beihai....and if we get to see her nanny, I am sure we will all be emotionally spent by the time we get home...so I may post late or not at all, depending on that sweet lil' one resting in our bed. The boys all passed out by 7, so I am sure they will be up early again!
Praying for friends in Arkansas..I do not know details about the storms but it sounded terrible....
Thank you again for your comments...we LOVE them!
Love,
Eve
It breaks our hearts to see her so sad. She is clinging to us for comfort, and I am very thankful that she feels she can do that. Tomorrow is when we go to Beihai, which will be a hard day. Good in the LONG run, very hard in the short.
we will keep using our united front with her....comforting as much as possible, trying to figure out WHICH foods she likes. I am sure she has eaten pretty much the same thing everyday for awhile, always cooked the same way, served the same way at the same time......and we are not privy to that information. Even if we were, how could we reproduce that? It is challenging enough to make formula bottles in a hotel room where the water is not safe to drink (Lindsay....think about how you can do this..I have a big bowl with some dish soap i bought here, then I use the hot pot water to rinse everything.....). It is so hard on her...new EVERYTHING. Not one single thing outside of her shoes is the same for her. NOTHING. we know this, and it gives us the strength and patience we so very need.
On the upside, she has quite a set of lungs, and so we feel like there is NO DOUBT that she is a BOGER.
Tomorrow we will be gone all day. It takes 2 1/2 hours to get to Beihai....and if we get to see her nanny, I am sure we will all be emotionally spent by the time we get home...so I may post late or not at all, depending on that sweet lil' one resting in our bed. The boys all passed out by 7, so I am sure they will be up early again!
Praying for friends in Arkansas..I do not know details about the storms but it sounded terrible....
Thank you again for your comments...we LOVE them!
Love,
Eve
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Day two...so far!
We are halfway through day 2 :) Florie slept until 11:07 pm when she woke for her 2300 hour bottle. She drank it slowly and stared at me the whole time, then went back in her crib. I could not sleep at all, and neither could William. It just seemed so surreal that we actually HAD her with us! About 5 am, she woke up and was a bit disoriented. She had some big tears that brought the boys running. We held her and rubbed her back....she was so tired, and only wanted to sleep laying on William's chest. So she did. We all tried to go back to sleep, but never did. William gave her a bottle about 645 am, and then I dressed her while he took a shower. She was more reserved at first this morning, but then we got to breakfast, and went through her "favs" of rice congee, that was a NO, chicken congee, NO, donut, NO, then we found CORNFLAKES....ah, yes! She ate two bowls! She can feed herself with a spoon....decently enough. There were a lot of flakes on the ground. Florie took turns sitting in my lap and in Williams. They eventually brought a high chair out for her , but when I put her in it, she shook her head NO and raised her arms. She is also NOT a bib fan. Glad I only brought one~ we had her giggling at breakfast again...she has the best laugh!
Then, it was time to do the "official" to make the adoption final. I was wrong, we DID have to go back to that same hotel and room as yesterday. I hate that for the kids! her eyes glossed over when we walked in. The nannies from the orphanage came too. I showed them some pictures of Florie from our night together and they seemed pleased that she was doing so well. One of the nannies held out her arms for Florie but Florie told her NO...
We had to get Florie's footprint stamped on a document, and her foot is still red. When we got back to the hotel, William left to scout out some restaurants and Florie and I colored. I traced her hand, and she kept trying to put that on her foot that was not red to make it colored as well. I kept copying her coloring methods....she drew lines, I drew lines. She picked up the paper, I picked up the paper. She watched me very intently, and kept giving me little smiles. When William got home, hei laid on the bed and she kept standing up to peek at him...we Where's Baba for awhile, then tried to go eat lunch.
We are having a hard time finding food for Alex that is egg free. They put egg in EVERYTHING. I am going to have our guide go with me tomorrow to a few restaurants to try and find a few dishes he can eat. we went to KFC for lunch, but his throat started tingling after some grilled chicken...ugh! So now we are all back in the room, and Florie is napping while the boys rest and play their itouches....please pray for our food situation....tomorrow we go to Beihai, Florie's hometown, and will see the orphanage ( probably will not be allowed inside, but I hope we can see Florie's nanny. Florie cried for her before nap today.....when she gets tired, that is when she is most sad. We just hold her, and rub her, and sing to her....she calms pretty quickly. One good thing about going to beihai is that we will have our guide the whole day, making eating easier!
When we came back to our hotel today after the official meetings, Florie grinned when she saw the lobby. I think she knew! She was so much more relaxed here. The boys were excited too...there were three Ferrari's in front of our hotel yesterday....they about flipped~!
Later today the boys are going swimming, and we may go walk in the park across the street. On Friday, we are going to People's Park which is supposed to be really fun. Saturday we head to Guangzhou for the American side of things.
Overall, we are good. A little hungry, but good. Florie is just precious. She will hold the boys hands and walk with them for a bit. She is MISCHIEVIOUS, she is LOVING, she is CURIOUS, she is so BRAVE, and boy is she SMART! We are smitten already....all of us! The boys fight over who gets to sit next to her....Jack is completely back to normal, but now Alex and Ben have the coughs and congestion. Go figure. it is pretty hard to fight off the viral crud when you are jet lagged!
Please pray that we can find good food for the boys...and that Florie continues to feel more comfortable each day. Again, please forgive the typos...I see several misspellings, but this computer and I are not the best of friends, so I am moving on...gonna' read my Jesus Calling while it is quiet!
Thank you for your comments and emails...we love reading them! Michelle, Alex is SO happy he is missing the talk this week! :)
Lots of XOXOX,
Eve
Then, it was time to do the "official" to make the adoption final. I was wrong, we DID have to go back to that same hotel and room as yesterday. I hate that for the kids! her eyes glossed over when we walked in. The nannies from the orphanage came too. I showed them some pictures of Florie from our night together and they seemed pleased that she was doing so well. One of the nannies held out her arms for Florie but Florie told her NO...
We had to get Florie's footprint stamped on a document, and her foot is still red. When we got back to the hotel, William left to scout out some restaurants and Florie and I colored. I traced her hand, and she kept trying to put that on her foot that was not red to make it colored as well. I kept copying her coloring methods....she drew lines, I drew lines. She picked up the paper, I picked up the paper. She watched me very intently, and kept giving me little smiles. When William got home, hei laid on the bed and she kept standing up to peek at him...we Where's Baba for awhile, then tried to go eat lunch.
We are having a hard time finding food for Alex that is egg free. They put egg in EVERYTHING. I am going to have our guide go with me tomorrow to a few restaurants to try and find a few dishes he can eat. we went to KFC for lunch, but his throat started tingling after some grilled chicken...ugh! So now we are all back in the room, and Florie is napping while the boys rest and play their itouches....please pray for our food situation....tomorrow we go to Beihai, Florie's hometown, and will see the orphanage ( probably will not be allowed inside, but I hope we can see Florie's nanny. Florie cried for her before nap today.....when she gets tired, that is when she is most sad. We just hold her, and rub her, and sing to her....she calms pretty quickly. One good thing about going to beihai is that we will have our guide the whole day, making eating easier!
When we came back to our hotel today after the official meetings, Florie grinned when she saw the lobby. I think she knew! She was so much more relaxed here. The boys were excited too...there were three Ferrari's in front of our hotel yesterday....they about flipped~!
Later today the boys are going swimming, and we may go walk in the park across the street. On Friday, we are going to People's Park which is supposed to be really fun. Saturday we head to Guangzhou for the American side of things.
Overall, we are good. A little hungry, but good. Florie is just precious. She will hold the boys hands and walk with them for a bit. She is MISCHIEVIOUS, she is LOVING, she is CURIOUS, she is so BRAVE, and boy is she SMART! We are smitten already....all of us! The boys fight over who gets to sit next to her....Jack is completely back to normal, but now Alex and Ben have the coughs and congestion. Go figure. it is pretty hard to fight off the viral crud when you are jet lagged!
Please pray that we can find good food for the boys...and that Florie continues to feel more comfortable each day. Again, please forgive the typos...I see several misspellings, but this computer and I are not the best of friends, so I am moving on...gonna' read my Jesus Calling while it is quiet!
Thank you for your comments and emails...we love reading them! Michelle, Alex is SO happy he is missing the talk this week! :)
Lots of XOXOX,
Eve
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