I thought I'd better balance some of what I've said about the Chinese locals just staring at us without saying anything by also telling you the good side of the people here. Not everyone stares without saying anything. About 1/4 of the people that we see actually come up and say something about Gracie and smile. They usually either touch her arm, wave at her, or touch her under the chin. Since I don't understand Chinese, I can only guess that they are saying how cute she is. And of course they are right in saying so!
There are some younger people that come up and speak to us in English. The other night when we were out with Grace in the stroller, DH was inside a small shop looking for some bargain Nike shorts. So I was standing outside the shop kind of rolling the stroller back and forth while Gracie slept. A young man, oh about 17 or 18, walked by, looked at me, and then looked in the stroller at a sleeping Gracie. He stopped and did a double take. I was fully expecting him to walk on without a word, but instead he got a quizzical look on his face and asked if she was an adopted Chinese baby. I told him yes, and he smiled and asked how old she was. I told him 10 months, and he said "Wow, she's big. Are you sure she's only 10 months?" I reassured him that she was only 10 months, and he just said again that she was big for her age. I told him that in America, she would be considered small at that age. He kind of laughed, and said what a lucky baby she was. Then he walked on. So like I said, not all Chinese people are rude and just stare.
We also have been stopped by younger school aged children who say "hi!", and then just giggle. It's very cute. I'm sure they are practicing their English. Our guide, Michael, told us that all the school children learn English, but more for reading and recognizing the alphabet. They don't really get to speak it much. So I'm sure these kids are totally excited when they get to try out what they've learned in school.
One last story about a very nice Chinese man. We had gone to lunch at the Best Western Hotel one day this past week, and DH had taken a restless Gracie out to the lobby to walk around. He was standing by the doorway, when a very nice young Chinese man, who was in his 30's, stopped and asked if he could practice his English with DH. DH said sure, and they had a very nice conversation. I guess the man had learned English at university, and didn't get much chance to practice with people that actually spoke English as their first language. He told DH a little bit about himself, and said that he was very happy that we were in China. DH thanked him and told him his English was very good.
So, just so you don't get the wrong impression. Not everyone is so rude. There are some people that have been very friendly and nice.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Da-Dot-Dot-Dot-Da - I'm Lovin' It!
We were a bit tired of Chinese food, even though we do like it, and decided to venture out with Gracie on Thursday evening and try one of the Chongqing McDonald's restaurants by our hotel. We packed Gracie up in the stroller that the hotel provides for adoptive families and headed out.
The first thing we noticed about this McDonald's is that you have to go downstairs to get to it. Apparently China has no "handicap accessible" laws, so we schlepped the stroller with Grace in it down the stairs to order. The best way to order food here is to point to what you want on a card that has both Chinese and English along with pictures of the food. The sandwiches and meal deals are called the same thing as in the US, but you have to be careful about thinking that what you order here is the exact same thing as what you'd get if you ordered it in the US.
A couple of days before our MacciD's adventure, DH had ordered us burgers and fries from our hotel roomservice, and I did NOT like the cheeseburger he brought back to our room at all. First off, because I don't like cheeseburgers (I've been married to DH almost 20 years, and he claims he didn't know I dislike cheeseburgers!), and secondly because the meat was very fatty and undercooked (again, DH ordered mine cooked medium, when he knows that at home I don't eat any meat that's even remotely pink inside! What was he thinking?!) So I decided to stick with something I thought would be relatively safe, a hamburger Happy Meal. Wow! I was very pleasantly surprised when it tasted just like home!!
DH had a quarter pounder with cheese, and Dad also had a quarter pounder (am not sure whether he had cheese on it or not.) Apparently, there's some kind of spicy sauce that this MacciD's puts on their quarter pounders in China that they don't in the US, but both DH and Dad said they tasted good. So it's 2 big thumbs up for the Chongqing McDonalds!
While we enjoyed our food at one of the tiny tables in the restaurant, there was a Chinese woman with what I assume was her husband and son eating at the table next to us. This woman stared at me holding Gracie on my lap while I was enjoying my burger and fries, the entire time we were sitting there. Like before, there was no smile and nothing said to us, just a dead stare. It was a bit uncomfortable for me, but I guess it didn't bother her because she just kept on staring whether I was looking back at her or not!
After we finished our meals, we headed back up the stairs. I noticed that at the top of the stairs was a fast food window where the locals were ordering ice cream. Later we thought we should've tried it, but we didn't. That will have to be next trip!
Here are some photos. Oh, and by the way, the title of this entry is supposed to be the words to the McDonald's theme song. Just in case you didn't catch it!
The first thing we noticed about this McDonald's is that you have to go downstairs to get to it. Apparently China has no "handicap accessible" laws, so we schlepped the stroller with Grace in it down the stairs to order. The best way to order food here is to point to what you want on a card that has both Chinese and English along with pictures of the food. The sandwiches and meal deals are called the same thing as in the US, but you have to be careful about thinking that what you order here is the exact same thing as what you'd get if you ordered it in the US.
A couple of days before our MacciD's adventure, DH had ordered us burgers and fries from our hotel roomservice, and I did NOT like the cheeseburger he brought back to our room at all. First off, because I don't like cheeseburgers (I've been married to DH almost 20 years, and he claims he didn't know I dislike cheeseburgers!), and secondly because the meat was very fatty and undercooked (again, DH ordered mine cooked medium, when he knows that at home I don't eat any meat that's even remotely pink inside! What was he thinking?!) So I decided to stick with something I thought would be relatively safe, a hamburger Happy Meal. Wow! I was very pleasantly surprised when it tasted just like home!!
DH had a quarter pounder with cheese, and Dad also had a quarter pounder (am not sure whether he had cheese on it or not.) Apparently, there's some kind of spicy sauce that this MacciD's puts on their quarter pounders in China that they don't in the US, but both DH and Dad said they tasted good. So it's 2 big thumbs up for the Chongqing McDonalds!
While we enjoyed our food at one of the tiny tables in the restaurant, there was a Chinese woman with what I assume was her husband and son eating at the table next to us. This woman stared at me holding Gracie on my lap while I was enjoying my burger and fries, the entire time we were sitting there. Like before, there was no smile and nothing said to us, just a dead stare. It was a bit uncomfortable for me, but I guess it didn't bother her because she just kept on staring whether I was looking back at her or not!
After we finished our meals, we headed back up the stairs. I noticed that at the top of the stairs was a fast food window where the locals were ordering ice cream. Later we thought we should've tried it, but we didn't. That will have to be next trip!
Here are some photos. Oh, and by the way, the title of this entry is supposed to be the words to the McDonald's theme song. Just in case you didn't catch it!
Friday, August 3, 2007
Gracie becomes a member of our family forever!
I know I'm working somewhat backwards, but I wanted to make sure that I posted a little bit about the day that the adoption was final. That was on Tuesday, July 31. We went back to the Civil Affairs office, that is the office where we picked Gracie up the day before, at around 1:30 in the afternoon. On this day, things were alot quieter. We were the only group in the office waiting to finalize our adoptions. When we were on the bus traveling there, Alison asked all of us if we all wanted to keep our babies, and we all answered a resounding yes. What a blessing for all of the families in our group. Please thank God as you think of how 8 families were either created or extended on that day!
Once we were at the office, it was a matter of adding our fingerprints to the paperwork we had filled out the day before back at the hotel. DH went first, then me, then Gracie. As you can see from the pictures Dad took, getting Gracie to give her fingerprint was a bit challenging. The first time she actually got the ink on her dad rather than on the paperwork. But in the end, she did great.
I can't tell you the feeling of finalizing the adoption of our precious Grace. It's pretty amazing. Reflecting on the long journey we've taken to get to the point of adding this God selected child to our family, I know now that the wait was well worth it! Gracie is an amazing little girl, and to think of how much she's gone through already at just 10 months old, is overwhelming. She's a fighter for sure, and I feel truly blessed to be able to call her my daughter! I'm so anxious to have her meet her sisters back home.
Here are photos from finalizing the adoption. The little girl in the purple shirt is Kaylee. She is the daughter of one of the other adopting families in our group. Boy, is she a cutie!
Once we were at the office, it was a matter of adding our fingerprints to the paperwork we had filled out the day before back at the hotel. DH went first, then me, then Gracie. As you can see from the pictures Dad took, getting Gracie to give her fingerprint was a bit challenging. The first time she actually got the ink on her dad rather than on the paperwork. But in the end, she did great.
I can't tell you the feeling of finalizing the adoption of our precious Grace. It's pretty amazing. Reflecting on the long journey we've taken to get to the point of adding this God selected child to our family, I know now that the wait was well worth it! Gracie is an amazing little girl, and to think of how much she's gone through already at just 10 months old, is overwhelming. She's a fighter for sure, and I feel truly blessed to be able to call her my daughter! I'm so anxious to have her meet her sisters back home.
Here are photos from finalizing the adoption. The little girl in the purple shirt is Kaylee. She is the daughter of one of the other adopting families in our group. Boy, is she a cutie!
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Walmart, Chinese style!
It seems like every Chinese adoption blog has at least one post about Walmart. Here's mine. We went to one of 3 Walmarts in Chongqing Wednesday morning. It was an experience. As you would expect, there are many similarities between our US Walmarts and the Chinese Walmarts. There are also many differences.
The biggest difference is in the meat section of the Super Walmart we went to. As you can see from the photos, you can buy squid, duck, and many other delicacies we didn't partake in. They also had something called a flying pancake. It's a dough-like thing that a person behind the counter stretches into a square sort of like pizza dough, but very very thin pizza dough. Once it's stretched to about a 12 to 16 inch square, filling is put on top. There are different types of fillings that are used, we saw a vegetable filling in one and a pineapple filling in another. Then the flying pancake is closed and fried. I didn't see if it was deep fried or pan fried, but it is definitely fried. One of our families bought a pineapple one and gave all of us a taste. I didn't try it, as I don't like pineapple, but DH and Dad did. They both thought it was tasty. I think if we have an opportunity to try it again with some other filling, I definitely will! Here are a few photos of Walmart. I should mention that we were told later by our guide, Alison, that Walmart doesn't like photos taken in their store. Apparently they are afraid of competition seeing them. Dad was never told he couldn't take them, although he was given a dirty look by one guy. It didn't stop Dad though. You should also know they didn't take our Mastercard, so we paid with yuan.
The biggest difference is in the meat section of the Super Walmart we went to. As you can see from the photos, you can buy squid, duck, and many other delicacies we didn't partake in. They also had something called a flying pancake. It's a dough-like thing that a person behind the counter stretches into a square sort of like pizza dough, but very very thin pizza dough. Once it's stretched to about a 12 to 16 inch square, filling is put on top. There are different types of fillings that are used, we saw a vegetable filling in one and a pineapple filling in another. Then the flying pancake is closed and fried. I didn't see if it was deep fried or pan fried, but it is definitely fried. One of our families bought a pineapple one and gave all of us a taste. I didn't try it, as I don't like pineapple, but DH and Dad did. They both thought it was tasty. I think if we have an opportunity to try it again with some other filling, I definitely will! Here are a few photos of Walmart. I should mention that we were told later by our guide, Alison, that Walmart doesn't like photos taken in their store. Apparently they are afraid of competition seeing them. Dad was never told he couldn't take them, although he was given a dirty look by one guy. It didn't stop Dad though. You should also know they didn't take our Mastercard, so we paid with yuan.
Hot Pot in Chongqing
These photos are from the restaurant where we had hot pot. Hot pot is a local dish in Chongqing. There are two rings to the hot pot. Both are heated to boil the food before you eat it family style at a table of about 8 people. The inner ring is the hot spicy broth. I don't know what makes it spicy, but the liquid is red. The outer ring is chicken broth and is clear. It is not spicy at all. The wait staff came around and dumped a bunch of the food around the hot pot into the hot liquids and then wait for it to cook. The way this works is that when the broth boils again, the food is cooked. We were all a little leary of having the meat cook so short a time, so we gave it extra time after it started boiling. There were many different kinds of food to cook in the hot pot: beef, chicken, fish, sweet potato jelly (no one tried this at our table!), vegetables, and lots of different kinds of noodles. I stuck with eating the things that were cooked in the outer ring. They were very good, especially when you dipped the cooked food into the sauce that was provided. We also put garlic in the sauce, and they was quite tasty. DH said that the noodles didn't really absorb the spiciness from the inner ring very much, but that the meat and vegetables did. He said it was quite spicy, but delicious. He LOVED this place, and spent lots of time eating all kinds of things cooked in the spicy inner ring. Dad and I didn't eat as much. Me because Gracie was cranky, and I don't think Dad liked it very much. He said later that he doesn't like soup, but I didn't understand that statement, since it was really not "soup." Anyway, out of the 3 of us, DH liked it the most. When we got back to our room, I noticed that everything we had with us, our clothes, the diaper bag, ... all smelled like garlic. So that's what a hot pot is all about.
Spicy!
You may have heard, like we have, that Chongqing has spicy food. Well, we got to try some of that today at lunch in the form of a hot pot. I'd never heard of a hot pot, but DH asked Alison about it yesterday, and she and Michael took us to a local restaurant for lunch to experience it. And it is an experience. Before I tell you about the hot pot, let me fill you in on the rest of what's been happening.
Grace had a rough afternoon yesterday. She was a little bit constipated, and was spitting up quite a bit. We think that feeding her the steamed egg that the Chinese locals keep pushing on us to feed her caused the constipation. So we decided no more steamed egg, at least for now. As far as the spitting up, I'm not sure what caused that. I fed her a tiny bit of mashed banana for breakfast. That could've been it, but I don't really know. So again, no more banana for a little while.
Last night was a quiet one in our room. After Gracie woke up from her nap around 5, she was so fussy that I thought maybe a walk in the stroller around town might help her feel better. She loved the walk, but we were stared at alot. I wasn't really expecting what happened when we went walking, DH and me with Gracie in the stroller. It's not that I didn't expect stares. I did, but what I didn't expect was the lack of smiles or anything else. We got alot of dead stares. Noone talked to us, and noone said anything to Gracie. They would see us walking, and then look down into the stroller to see if there was a Chinese baby in it or not. Of course there was. I don't know if this is typical or not, but it made me feel uncomfortable. Anyway, after about a 20 minute walk we went back into the hotel. We had Pizza Hut pizza for dinner. I had the veggie lovers which was quite good. It had lots of different kinds of veggies you'd expect to be on a veggie lovers pizza, but no black olives (which was fine with me because I do not like olives!). It did have corn and pineapple on it. Sounds strange, but it tasted good! Anyway, after that it was an early night for all of us. We turned in around 9:30 or so.
Today started out well. Gracie woke up at about 3 and went back to sleep until 7:30. We went to the Flying Tiger Museum and had traditional Chinese scrolls for each of the girls done by an artist that was right there in the museum. They are quite beautiful! After the museum we headed to the restaurant for the hot pot.
I know I said that I'd tell you all aboutthe hot pot experience, but I'm going to stop here for this post, as it's getting quite long. I'll fill you all in on the hot pot and hopefully have more pictures next time.
Grace had a rough afternoon yesterday. She was a little bit constipated, and was spitting up quite a bit. We think that feeding her the steamed egg that the Chinese locals keep pushing on us to feed her caused the constipation. So we decided no more steamed egg, at least for now. As far as the spitting up, I'm not sure what caused that. I fed her a tiny bit of mashed banana for breakfast. That could've been it, but I don't really know. So again, no more banana for a little while.
Last night was a quiet one in our room. After Gracie woke up from her nap around 5, she was so fussy that I thought maybe a walk in the stroller around town might help her feel better. She loved the walk, but we were stared at alot. I wasn't really expecting what happened when we went walking, DH and me with Gracie in the stroller. It's not that I didn't expect stares. I did, but what I didn't expect was the lack of smiles or anything else. We got alot of dead stares. Noone talked to us, and noone said anything to Gracie. They would see us walking, and then look down into the stroller to see if there was a Chinese baby in it or not. Of course there was. I don't know if this is typical or not, but it made me feel uncomfortable. Anyway, after about a 20 minute walk we went back into the hotel. We had Pizza Hut pizza for dinner. I had the veggie lovers which was quite good. It had lots of different kinds of veggies you'd expect to be on a veggie lovers pizza, but no black olives (which was fine with me because I do not like olives!). It did have corn and pineapple on it. Sounds strange, but it tasted good! Anyway, after that it was an early night for all of us. We turned in around 9:30 or so.
Today started out well. Gracie woke up at about 3 and went back to sleep until 7:30. We went to the Flying Tiger Museum and had traditional Chinese scrolls for each of the girls done by an artist that was right there in the museum. They are quite beautiful! After the museum we headed to the restaurant for the hot pot.
I know I said that I'd tell you all aboutthe hot pot experience, but I'm going to stop here for this post, as it's getting quite long. I'll fill you all in on the hot pot and hopefully have more pictures next time.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
More about Gotcha Day
I wanted to write more about what happened on the day that we received Grace. On Monday, July 30 we went downstairs in the hotel dining room to fill out the paperwork before we were to go to the civil affairs office that afternoon. We each had to sign papers in that were written in both Chinese and English. All of them required our passport numbers too. After we finished some of husbands and a couple of the wives went with Michael, our Chongqing guide, to the bank to exchange the US dollars into RMB, and then wire the money to the orphanage. Later DH told me that he felt funny about how things were handled at the bank. When I asked him why, he said that there was a woman from civil affairs that walked in to the bank by herself with a big bag of Chinese yuan. She proceeded to take bricks of RMB out of her bag and count it. Once the proper amount of money was counted out, the money was turned over to the bank and wired to the orphanage. Only after that did Michael collect the US dollars from each of the families. He said we would get our receipt and change later. DH said that the women took the money, over $30,000 USD, put it in her purse and walked out again. That was it, no guards, no Brinks truck, just a woman with her purse! I can't imagine feeling safe with all that cash in my purse!
So once the money was paid we met in the lobby of the hotel and rode over to the civil affairs office, which was about a 20 minute ride. We took the elevator up to the proper floor, walked about 30 feet before entering the civil affairs office area. It was white with some red decorating the walls, and was very friendly looking. We were told that the babies weren't there yet, and it would be about 10 more minutes before they got to the office.
After about that amount of time, 4 women and a man came walking in through the same entrance we walked in from, each woman holding 2 babies in their arms. We were not allowed to touch the babies, but everyone was totally excited. We were all taking pictures and trying to determine which baby was which. Grace was in the arms of her nanny and another baby. I can't remember which baby was with her, but DH and I figured out pretty quickly who Grace was. She looked so tiny! She was dressed in a black and white polkadot two piece baby outfit, and pink sandals. She looked so cute! Shortly after the nannies were done reporting in, they called all of us adoptive parents and family members into a big conference room to receive the babies. Alison, our guide, had told us the order that the babies would be handed over. We were number 2. So the first baby was being handed over, when I decided to ask one of the other adoptive moms to take still photos, while my dad took video. I was trying to show her how to use my dad's digital camera when they called our name. DH walked up and took Grace in her arms without me! I was and still am disappointed that we didn't go up together, and that I wasn't the one to take her from her nanny's arms! At any rate, she didn't cry or fuss at all. She just looked at us trying to figure out what was going on. She was so cute and sweet!
After everyone received their babies, we were brought a bag a formula and rice cereal along with one bottle already mixed and ready to give her. Grace started fussing, and we determined later that this is what she does when she needs to poop. She finished her duty, and we got her bottom cleaned up before we signed the trial adoption papers. We also were given the chance to ask Grace's nanny any questions and have them translated by Alison. Here's what we asked and her nanny's response:
Did our baby have any cribmates?
All the babies slept alone in their own crib.
Did her nanny have a nickname for our baby?
ShanShan
Was there anything that the nanny would like to tell us about our baby?
She asked us to be good parents to her, and to love her (At this point the nanny got teary eyed, so we know that Grace was well loved!)
I was also able to have both Grace's nanny and the orphanage director sign the "When You Were Born in China" book! (I asked DH to get Alison and Michael, our guides, to sign it too, but we ran out of time right then and didn't have them do it yet. I will take care of that later this week.)
Each family had a photo taken with their baby's nanny and the orphanage director, and handed over the gifts each had brought from the US. We had brought 6 Tshirts: 3 of the Indianapolis 500, and 3 of the Colts Superbowl Champions, as our gifts.
We then all piled back in the bus and drove back to the hotel. We were to get to know our baby and decide if she was the baby that was meant to be ours before we headed back to the civil affairs office on Tuesday afternoon to sign the paperwork.
Here are some photos of our Gotcha Day.
So once the money was paid we met in the lobby of the hotel and rode over to the civil affairs office, which was about a 20 minute ride. We took the elevator up to the proper floor, walked about 30 feet before entering the civil affairs office area. It was white with some red decorating the walls, and was very friendly looking. We were told that the babies weren't there yet, and it would be about 10 more minutes before they got to the office.
After about that amount of time, 4 women and a man came walking in through the same entrance we walked in from, each woman holding 2 babies in their arms. We were not allowed to touch the babies, but everyone was totally excited. We were all taking pictures and trying to determine which baby was which. Grace was in the arms of her nanny and another baby. I can't remember which baby was with her, but DH and I figured out pretty quickly who Grace was. She looked so tiny! She was dressed in a black and white polkadot two piece baby outfit, and pink sandals. She looked so cute! Shortly after the nannies were done reporting in, they called all of us adoptive parents and family members into a big conference room to receive the babies. Alison, our guide, had told us the order that the babies would be handed over. We were number 2. So the first baby was being handed over, when I decided to ask one of the other adoptive moms to take still photos, while my dad took video. I was trying to show her how to use my dad's digital camera when they called our name. DH walked up and took Grace in her arms without me! I was and still am disappointed that we didn't go up together, and that I wasn't the one to take her from her nanny's arms! At any rate, she didn't cry or fuss at all. She just looked at us trying to figure out what was going on. She was so cute and sweet!
After everyone received their babies, we were brought a bag a formula and rice cereal along with one bottle already mixed and ready to give her. Grace started fussing, and we determined later that this is what she does when she needs to poop. She finished her duty, and we got her bottom cleaned up before we signed the trial adoption papers. We also were given the chance to ask Grace's nanny any questions and have them translated by Alison. Here's what we asked and her nanny's response:
Did our baby have any cribmates?
All the babies slept alone in their own crib.
Did her nanny have a nickname for our baby?
ShanShan
Was there anything that the nanny would like to tell us about our baby?
She asked us to be good parents to her, and to love her (At this point the nanny got teary eyed, so we know that Grace was well loved!)
I was also able to have both Grace's nanny and the orphanage director sign the "When You Were Born in China" book! (I asked DH to get Alison and Michael, our guides, to sign it too, but we ran out of time right then and didn't have them do it yet. I will take care of that later this week.)
Each family had a photo taken with their baby's nanny and the orphanage director, and handed over the gifts each had brought from the US. We had brought 6 Tshirts: 3 of the Indianapolis 500, and 3 of the Colts Superbowl Champions, as our gifts.
We then all piled back in the bus and drove back to the hotel. We were to get to know our baby and decide if she was the baby that was meant to be ours before we headed back to the civil affairs office on Tuesday afternoon to sign the paperwork.
Here are some photos of our Gotcha Day.
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