Day 4

A quick visit to the police station to sign more papers and then a trip to Carrefour (grocery store) to pick up supplies. All easy and great except for being stuck in massive traffic jams with Louisa crying her eyes out. Apparently the car doesn't have to be moving for her to hate it. I vow to never get in a car with her again.

At Carrefour we bought Chinese formula and rice cereal. I had brought stuff from home, but wasn't sure if it would last the entire 2 weeks. Plus, we had been told to gradually transition the babies from Chinese to US food as long as we could find good quality Chinese options.

I decided to try out a bottle that was 50% brought from home ingredients and 50% Chinese all put in a Chinese XL bottle with no modifications to the nipple. Jack pot! The bottle was downed without a drop spilled. Clearly the girl knows what she likes! Meanwhile, she is continuing to open up and try new things. Her favorite thing so far is riding in the baby carrier. She likes the front, but she goes wild for being on my back -- kicking and squealing. It is super fun and so much easier than carrying her. 

--
Amanda Myerson
cell: 206.949.7301
amandamyerson@gmail.com

Day 3

Day 3

So, Lulu hates being in the car. She screams, I sweat and feel carsick. Meanwhile, her little orphanage friend Ansley just looks on with wide eyes. We were back to the Chinese Cultural Affairs building to be interviewed. It is not until the interview process is over that Lulu is considered ours. There is a 24 hour window after which, "no give-backs". We were interviewed by two different women. The first asked us a serious of questions including, "Do you promise to keep this girl and not abuse her?" I almost started crying -- how could she ask such a question of my little Louisa? After that we answered a serious of other questions about taking care of her and providing a good education. We signed several pieces of paper and we were done!

We returned to the hotel room and prepared for our move to a new room. At this point Lulu has decided that she trusts me, and no one else. I am not allowed to put her down for a second or big tears and wails come flying. While I find this really sweet, it means that Neal has to completely pack up the room by himself. And, my left arm is going numb from carrying around a 20 pound package of joy.  Moving is a drag, but our old room has every window covered with burlap due to construction. I can handle jack hammers, I can't handle not seeing daylight. The move is made worse by the fact that we are moving back to the original building -- 2 blocks away. I would be embarassed, but they already think were are nuts so I just go with it. Plus, the new hotel room is really nic

Day 2

Day 2

Perrin and i were up long before dawn. 2am and then at 4am we gave up and had breakfast of the Cheerios we had brought for the baby.  Neal had stayed up later the night before by going out for a foot massage. He is so happy to back in the world of 8$ foot massages!

At 2pm we meet up with Richard, Lana (the adoptive mom) and her mom Carol in the hotel lobby. After a 15 minute car ride we arrived at a street filled with small store front businesses selling pipes and other metal objects. There was even sodering. But, around the corner was the Chinese Cultural Affairs building where adoptive families meet up with their new children. When we arrived there were a few other couples with new kids. But, much more exciting was the news that OUR girls had arrived and were waiting for us! After reviewing both our passports, a woman walked out carrying a baby girl. I just stared -- she was not immediately recognizable as the baby from the photos and i wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. And then Richard gave me a push and said, "Go get your baby!".

It was a sureal experience to hold a new baby surrounded by Neal and Perrin and know that this was going to be part of our new family. Lulu came into my arms pretty easily, but as soon as her nanny walked away she started to cry. She was quickly distracted by a plastic keys (circa 1970) that we had brought with. She looked to be in good condition and her clothes were obviously new. She even smelled nice! We were prepared for the worst, but the girls looked well taken care of and the nannies seemed to truly care about them.

We had made a long list of questions we wanted to ask, but were so overwhelmed looking at our new daughter we would have forgotten if Richard hadn't cued us. The Orphanage director took the lead in giving us information.

He told us that both our girls were healthy and happy and easy going. And, then he paused and pointed at Lulu and said, "but she has a good strong temper, ha ha". Um, say what? Lulu just gave me a blank look. And then he continued, "don't give her anything hard to hold in case she throws it, ha ha". I have to admit I was a little put off. But, our thoughts had always been that no matter what were given, she was ours and we would handle any issues that might come up. Bride of Chucky? We could handle it. <Just a quick disclosure -- 3 days in and we know what he means by temper, but it is more that she stands up for herself and has strong opinions>

We were given a print-out of the girls schedules and then the nannies told us that both girls (Lulu and Lana's daughter Ansley) were great friends and would crawl in to each others cribs.  We feel so lucky to know another family with a girl who was friend's with Lulu from the start. Lana lives in Alabama, but we will stay in touch.

Lulu cried on the car ride home, but overall the rest of the day was uneventful. She ate a little from her bottle (formula and cereral we had brought from home along with a bottle that had a hole cut in to the nipple -- I had done my research on what to start out with for these babies!) and fussed a little. At 6pm I went with Richard to look at other hotel rooms (we ended up switching 3 times). When I got back to the room 30 minutes later, Lulu was asleep on Neal's lap still wearing her orphanage outfit. We moved her in to her crib and that is the last we heard from her for the night.  

Day 1

We arrived in GuangZhou on Sunday morning. Our trip included a 14 hour flight from Seattle to Taiwan during which Perrin and I sat in the very last row of the plane. The downside was that the seats didn't recline. The upside was that it was so loud at the back of the plane that it drowned out any other noise. Oh, and we were close to the bathrooms which Perrin took as a big positive...Neal was a dozen rows ahead of us, I think..he was so busy reading and sleeping that we didn't see much of him until hour 12 when he came back to visit and showed us how to get our seats to recline. Oy!

We were met at the airport by our guide for the week, Richard, who is part of the adoption agency that we worked with. Richard was a bright spot in a cold and rainy day -- a lovely Chinese man with very good English and, after 10 years in the business,  a lot of knowledge on the adoption process.  He helped us get checked in to our hotel and a few hours later came back to review the schedule for the next 2 weeks and to introduce us to the other family adopting. The schedule is heavily weighted in the first 4 days, and then there is a bunch of free time waiting for paperwork to finalize, etc. Most importantly, Richard let us know that we would be meeting our girls the following day at 2pm.  Yeah! 

--
Amanda Myerson
cell: 206.949.7301
amandamyerson@gmail.com

Thanks to Aunt Amy we are now able to blog!

More to come soon, but in the meantime here is a photo approx. 10 minutes after Louisa was handed to us. That is the orphanage director we are standing with. This is the last time for 3 days that Lulu would let Neal anywhere near her without instant tears!

Louisa (Lulu) Qing Myerson-- we think...

Picking a name has been extremely difficult. With Perrin, we were given focus for the name by knowing we wanted to use the letter "P" in memory of Neal's father. Now, we had a Chinese name, a few small photos, and not much else to guide us. Naturally, I had to research what the experts had to say.

With adopted children, it is important that the child feel connected to their heritage, but it is also important that the feel connected to their family.

We knew we wanted to use part of the Chinese name she had been given, Jia Qing Dong. But, we also knew that all babies from her orphanage share the last name Dong. We also knew that several babies found near the same time had a first name of Jia. So we decided to use Qing, the most unique part of her name.

At the same time, we knew that we wanted her first name to relate to a relative, just like Perrin's name. Jewish tradition is to name a child after a relative that is no longer living. We chose my grandmother, Louise. The first time Neal met Louise she told him, "Greenbergs make good babies" -- which I found mortifying since we had only been dating for a month, but Neal found endearing. Louise also means, "Warrior" which seemed fitting for both my grandmother and any child that could survive being abandoned. In keeping with Chinese tradition of never reusing a name (except in orphanages?), we switched Louise to Louisa (since my preferred name of, "Lulabelle" has already been used by several family goats).

We chose to keep the name quiet until after we met the baby on the off chance that she clearly was not a Louisa. But, Perrin has already take to publicly talking about "my sister, Lulu" so I guess it is out. I hope we satisfied family, Jewish, and Chinese traditions.

Packing, Packing, Packing...

This is how our last few days have gone:

I pile everything we could possibly want to take to China in to the baby room. Then I sort through everything and make up packing plans -- suitcase 1 is food and bathing supplies, suitcase 2 is baby and Perrin, and suitcase 3 is for Neal and I. Next I start to group like things in gallon size Ziploc bags and suck the extra air out with a straw. I have no idea what is up with me and the Ziploc bags, but I probably have about 45 strewn around the room. They make sense when packing wet items, but I am not sure that each shirt needs its own bag. Vacuum sealed socks -- fresh from the suitcase.

Perrin wanders around the house shrieking, "I'M BORED!!!" while managing to mess up any room that we have already cleaned.

Neal comes up with mysterious errands that he needs to leave the house to accomplish. Refill printer ink at Office Max was one trip. Fix watch band was another. Head in to work to file expense report. Each trip is separate and usually preceded by Perrin shrieking and my stomping. I can't say that I blame him.

We had a wonderful break this evening by going for Xmas Eve Thai food with family. But, we leave tomorrow night and I get a pit in my stomach just thinking about it. I think I need to go find my straws and suck some more air.

We have tickets!

It is starting to feel very real. After 4 days of intense scrutiny and research, we now have our tickets booked to go to China. We will spend the whole time in the city of GuangZhou, which is near Hong Kong. So, buying tickets should be easy, right? Straightforward round-trip. But, nothing is ever easy when it comes to China.

First, the holiday season made for extremely expensive tickets and lots of sold-out flights. Second, we learned that it is not wise to try and take our child, who will be traveling on a Chinese passport, through Taiwan. This eliminated one of our easiest routes.

After making a large grid of options, we determined that it would be best to buy two one way tickets for all of us. This allowed us to use cheap EVA air flights to get to China, and slightly more expensive Hainan flights through Beijing on another airline to get home. Chinese airlines all the way!

We have middle seats not together on the flights, but hopefully that can get worked out. Most importantly, we have tickets, we have Visas, we have cute sun hats. We are ready for a baby!

We got an update!

We heard through the grapevine that if we sent a care package to our baby we would get updated information in return. There is a website where you can pick out a package to send, write a note to be translated for your child and enter in the name and orphanage where it should be sent. It was somewhat expensive (especially not truly knowing if anything would be sent), but we decided to give it a chance. And, how happy we are that we did! Updated measurements show her to be approximately in the 50% percentile for US baby girls -- which is pretty large for a Chinese girl, and very large for a Chinese girl in an orphanage. She will fit right in our family! But, the best part was the updated photo. We were kind of surprised to see her standing..I have been envisioning a little baby lump and not a big smiley mobile girl. But, either way, we are very excited to soon have her in our arms. A new little sister was #2 on Perrin's Hanukkah list (right behind Star Wars Lego The Battle of Ender set), and really all any of us have wanted for the longest time!

Measurements:

head ：42CM，
chest :52CM，
weight:9.5KG，
height :73CM，
feet ：9CM，
teeth :2

The eternal wait!

We are still waiting to hear when we will be able to travel to pick up our daughter. The wait has been made much harder now that there is an actual girl waiting for us in China! We are hoping it will be over the holiday break and are incredulous it has taken this long.

While waiting we have continued to prepare and have bought way more stuff than is needed. But, look how cute her room is! Neal helped put up the stickers so she has fun stuff to look at.

Oops..

Since we received the happy news, I have been busy preparing for the baby. Aside from setting up the closet in the baby room, I have also focused on buying a few essentials -- cute hats, socks and a pretty diaper bag.

The mail brought us "Step 5 -- Preparing for travel to China". Imagine my surprise when there was no mention of flowered sun hats, but long lists of 'essentials' I hadn't even thought of..bottles, thermometers, binkys. Not to mention diapers and formula! I guess it has been awhile since I have spent time with a baby!

The call!

We knew our time was getting close. Nonetheless, when I answered the phone and was notified, "You have a referral!" I was rocked. When I first saw the information about OUR baby, I started crying. The crying didn't stop for a few days. Neal was out of town on a work retreat, but I immediately sent him copies of the photo and read him all of the information I was given. When I picked Perrin up from school, I told him "I got a very exciting phone call this afternoon" and he immediately said, "A baby!". He had lots of questions about how old she would be, what she would eat, what she would play with, and what we would name her. Next we informed our parents, and then our immediate family. We had decided to hold off telling others until we had a better understanding of when we would get our baby. But, Perrin decided to tell his class the next day and we knew we needed to go public. The following is the email we sent:

Subject: Fawn Hopping Mouse or Demindoff Bushbaby?

Those are Perrin's name picks for the baby referral we received
earlier this week!!!! (the exclamations for the referral, not the name picks).

She was born 1/19/09 in the Southern part of China. We will need to
wait 7 -8 weeks before we can go get her, and then at least 10 days in
country (this is pretty standard). We hope to be home by New Years at
the latest. We don't have the translated information for her yet (later this week), but she looks to be female and healthy and we are very excited. Very.

We have not picked a name for her and hopefully we will get Perrin away from

the Encyclopedia of Animals book before the naming goes any further.

I apologize for the group email but our plan to slowly and personally
spread the news was shot down when Perrin decided he wanted to tell his 1st grade
class immediately (tomorrow). We are happy he is excited to share the good news even if it isn't on our time frame! We want to keep things low key, but are so happy to share our long awaited
addition to the family.


A

The beginning...

In 2005 we decided to adopt a baby. After much discussion we choose China. China has a centralized program with very specific guidelines and well documented procedures. This very stable adoption process and the clear need for safe homes for baby girls solidified our decision. Plus, we had always loved anything Asian (especially dumplings!).

After a bunch of research and thought, we decided to work with a local agency. You can read about the agency and the process of adoption at this link: http://orphans.com

Once we picked an adoption agency to work with we started our "paper chase", This included multiple legal documents, referrals from friends and family, proof of an income to support an additional child and a full report from our personal physicians testifying that we were healthy. Most nerve racking was the home visit from a social worker to ensure our home was appropriate for a child to join. Most annoying was the long lines we had to wait in to get fingerprinted by United States Immigration Services (I think anyone that survives a day in that building should immediately be allowed in to the country.

We completed our paperwork and sent it China where it was reviewed and logged in on March 28th, 2006. This became the critical date we would watch. Everyone in the world with an adoption request logged in on 3/28/06 would receive the referral of a baby at the same time. There is no line jumping, no preferences and no way to to speed up the process.

We have been waiting (im)patiently ever since. We have had to renew our paperwork several times -- this was not only costly, but frustrating (more visits to the USCIS buildings). But, all of that is forgotten now that we have a baby!