Life in Nanchang

OK, second time's a charm... I think we got through this without losing info this time.
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Baby is waking up and I just spent two hour blogging then lost the rest of this post because the autosave wasn't working properly... grrr... I'll finish this up later!

This is the first thing we see when we get up in the morning. She wakes up so happy!! We live for this and wanted to share this with you. I just took this picture. I'll finish blogging later. Gotta get back to my precious daughter!!

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Hi! It's been awhile since I've been able to blog. Mommy-hood is becoming more and more demanding of my time. (Jo and Heather - your FB comments are my inspiration for getting this post done this morning!! LOL) While we have had some down time, it has also been more difficult to blog because I'm finally starting to sleep through the night. HOORAY!!

We have had a couple of "down days" just to spend time bonding with the babies and it has been wonderful. It is so cold and rainy here in Nanchang. This place is so full of contradictions. We are in a 5-star hotel but do not necessarily feel safe going outside because of the communication barrier.

The people are still very kind and helpful here at the hotel, but the local culture is not as "westernized" as it was in Beijing. That, combined with the climate, has all of us going just a bit stir-crazy. At first glance, this hotel is awe-inspiring... lots of surface glitz and glamour. But, upon closer inspection, it is so dirty. I swear, these carpets throughout the entire hotel have never been shampooed. Needless to say, we do not play on the floor!

Yesterday morning at breakfast there was a very nice looking young Chinese business man (suit, red power tie) sitting at a table at the edge of the dining room. He horked up something and spit it into his cloth napkin, then he farmer sneezed onto the carpeted floor of the restaurant of this "swanky" hotel! For those of you who do not know what a farmer sneeze is, hold one nostril shut with your finger and then blow HARD! Congratulations, you have just completed a farmer sneeze!!

This morning, our table was near the elevators and another business man horked up something and spit it into the ashtray next to the elevator. People spit everywhere here. You have to watch were you walk. I thought that was just outside but now I'm finding out that it's OK to spit inside too.

The Chinese side of the adoption is now done and we are just waiting on the babies' passports, and then we will fly to Guangzhou tomorrow. Once there, each baby will have a medical exam and then we will wait while the babies' visas are prepared.

To help alleviate some of the homesickness and to get everyone out of their rooms, eight of the families had dinner together last night. We are getting to know some of the other families quite well and we are making life-long friendships. This top photo is Mike, Mary, and their daughter Gracie. During dinner last night, Maddie and Gracie sat across from each other and would not take their eyes off each other. It was very obvious that the two know each other. Gracie, Maddie, Kya, and Lucy were all from the same orphanage. The orphanage director told us that Maddie, Kya, and Gracie all had cribs near each other. My guess is that Maddie and Gracie were side-by-side.

Lucy's dad is a pediatrician. He has been wonderfully gracious in checking out the babies for each of us when and answering any questions and calming the fears of all of us rookies. Maddie keeps rubbing her ears so we were afraid she had an ear infection. Dr. John made a "room call" and assured us that it is just one of the things that she does to comfort herself. Many of the babies do this. It's interesting to see that many of them have the same traits. Maddie and Kya also both scratch their foreheads when they are very tired. Last night was the first night that we kept Maddie up later than usual and she was just scratching away while enjoying her last bottle.

Speaking of bottles, let me just say, Maddie is a little piglet when it comes to eating. We had to cut slits in the tips of the nipples on her bottles so that the formula would come faster. She throws a fit when she cannot get her formula as fast as she is used to. It usually takes her about 5 minutes to finish off an entire bottle! Once we get home, we will wean her onto nipples with smaller holes so that her sucking muscles can develop more fully. Otherwise, she may have some problems with her speech. However, she has been through enough changes lately, that is one that can wait a few weeks!

This is the potty that the hotel delivered along with the baby bathtub. We tried to place Maddie on it to see what she would do and she just shrieked and cried. Many orphanages bind the babies to the potty chairs - once or twice a day - to potty train them from birth. Maddie obviously has had some traumatic potty experiences.

On Tuesday evening, the Eliases came over for Pizza Hut pizza. It was nice to have a taste of home! Maddie and Kya played. Or, a better description of that would be that Maddie performed and Kya watched! Kya is feeling much better and her personality is slowly emerging. She has the prettiest smile and very long lashes. She's beautiful as well.

Maddie adores her daddy and her daddy adores her. Twice now, Doug has watched Maddie alone for several hours while Mom and I went to Wal-Mart and to the museum. Both times we came back to clean, well-rested, and well-fed baby. He does diapers and everything - although the first diaper he put on Maddie by himself ended up being on backward and she wet through her entire outfit! In the photo above, Doug was changing his first poopy diaper. He needed a little coaching but he managed to finish it up!

Mom and I took a cab to Wal-Mart. Note the uncleanliness of the sides of this cab. That is how a lot of things are here... we're just chalking it up to soaking up more of the culture. Mom says she has had just about enough of Chinese culture. LOL

Wal-Mart is on the second and third floors of a building. Here we are taking our shopping carts from the third floor down to the second floor. We took the trip to Wal-Mart to get Diet Coke (for Doug) and suppositories for Maddie as she was very constipated on Tuesday. Now picture this... you're in a country where you don't speak the language and have no idea how to read any labels. So, you go into a Wal-Mart pharmacy for suppositories. How would you communicate what you need? I'll leave our choice of words and hand gestures up to your imagination. After 10 minutes we gave up and left without suppositories. After that, there was no way in the world I was going to ask for help finding tampons!!! As for Maddie - she's OK now... we got some apple juice from the hotel restaurant and things are moving a little too well now!

Coming back from Wal-Mart was quite a trip! At the hotel before we left, they gave us a note in Chinese to hand to a cab driver to bring us back. Their instructions were, "Just go outside Wal-Mart and you can catch a cab right there!" What we didn't know is that you cannot catch a cab during rush hour. Also, we were turned down by 3 different drivers because they did not want to go in the direction of our hotel! Finally, after 45 minutes in the cold rain, and on the verge of freaking out (because it was the first time I had left Doug alone with the baby), we found a very nice young man who spoke English. He took us through an underground walkway to the other side of the street and hailed a cab for us. We got back to find a happy, dry baby, relaxed dad, and pizza waiting for us... no freaking out needed.

Yesterday afternoon we went down to the dessert bar just off our hotel lobby. Kris discovered that Kya LOVES ice cream. She better enjoy this... we later discovered that this little cup of ice cream cost $10!! I guess that's the last time we'll be having ice cream at this hotel.

During our little ice cream adventure, we also discovered that Maddie is ticklish. She has the cutest laugh.

Yesterday we visited a museum that specializes in local culture and tradition. The photos below are from that excursion. Because of the cold and rain, Doug opted to stay behind and watch the baby. It was very interesting to learn more about the customs and living conditions of the people in surrounding villages. With Maddie's orphanage being located in such a rural area, my guess is that her birth parents are from living conditions similar to those pictured below.

This is a wedding rickshaw. The wedding party carries the newlyweds in this.

This is the wedding bed. The bride and her mother spend all day crying on her wedding day. Weddings are generally steeped in lots of celebration that surrounds the groom.

This is a triditional kitchen of a Chinese family. The big white thing is their stove/oven. I will never again complain about my kitchen!!

This is a typical crib used for the babies.

These items are commonly used for babies. On the left is a baby "stander". A baby is placed in there to hang onto the sides and learn to stand. On the right is a high chair. Front and center is a baby walker.

This is a very common sight. Bicycles, both motorized and non-motorized, of all shapes and sizes are seen everywhere.

This is the 2009 model of a flat-bed pickup truck.

The little yellow sign says "no parking". You can see how well people obey traffic signs here. Stop signs get the same regard as this little yellow sign.

Anna and Kaycee, big sisters to Lucy and Kya, during our museum tour. I think they were tired of the cold, wet, dark tour. We have learned first-hand why babies are bundled up here. Nothing is heated, not the orphanages, not our tourbus, not the museum, not the stores (and most have no front door either), not the hallways in our hotel, etc, etc. However, the locals all congregate on the street corners and in front of shops and help each other out. It is very evident that people here bend over backward to help out each other and we could learn a lot from them!

Sweet Kya during the museum tour.

After the museum tour, we went porcelaine shopping. Jiangxi Province (where we are) is known for its procelaine craftsmanship. The shops had amazing stuff and it was hard to pick out what we wanted. Later today, I'm going back to buy a tea set for Maddie.

Jane - you would LOVE these shops. The tea sets here are simply amazing! I'm going to refrain from gloating here because we still have to get our tea set home in one piece. LOL

In closing, here are a few things that we have learned in the past few days:

• Yesterday morning in the shower it hit me just how much my mom loves me. I now know because of the love I feel for my own daughter. I just stood there and cried.
  
• Doug has learned that this is a lot more exhausting than he ever imagined. But (in his words), it is a fun exhausting and he wouldn't have it any other way.
  
• I now understand what Pastor Brenda means when she says she is thankful for hot water and for running water.
  
• I never realized until now how much I rely on those trusty handrails that have been mandated by the ADA in all public buildings in the US. Thank you President Bush (the first one).

Thanks for your continued prayers, emails, and FB messages. They brighten each day! Much love, Beth, Doug, Maddie, and Grandma Joanna