Yes, We are Home

Sorry, we don't have any pictures to post yet. This little guy has been keeping us a bit too busy to hunt down the camera to take a cute picture before he moves on to something else! I should have grabbed it yesterday when he was eating spaghetti with his chopsticks--so cute!!! I realized he's better with the chopsticks than the fork. He uses a fork, but not to stab food and pick it up. He puts his mouth to the edge of the plate and sort of shovels it in.

We're settling in well at home. Our flights were rather uneventful. We left Beijing right about his bedtime, so he slept most of the way. As excited as we were to return to the states, that was actually the worst part. US customs/immigration was a NIGHTMARE!!!! After waiting in a long line to go through the section for non-residents (in order to have Kai's paperwork stamped), they sent us to the room where they detain people. The room was full of Chinese people visiting America for one reason or another. Behind the counter were 9 custom's officers...NOT processing anyone's paperwork. We sat for about a half hour before the lady at the door asked us if we were there because of an adoption. We said yes and she said they would expedite us! Finally! I was surprised that the Customs officials in China were nicer to us than our own country's! We are Americans and we got treated like criminals in our own country! I felt sorry for all of those other people sitting in that office. Those officers weren't interested in getting anyone out of there!

Anyway, once we got out of there and got home, we showed Kai all around the house. He loved his room and picked up the panda bears in his room and gave them a big hug! He's been busy, busy, busy ever since! We have to keep one eye on him at all times to make sure he's playing nicely and not getting into anything that doesn't belong to him--especially in big sister's room! A shout out to all you stay at home mom's--I don't know how you do it!!! He enjoys his toys, especially Gary's old cell phone that has no battery. He has conversations in Chinese and then hands us the phone like, "It's for you." - Very funny. He's not interested in anything on tv or movies. He would rather be doing. Yesterday, we picked up Reydon from our friend who was watching him. He immediately wanted to make friends and has been petting him very nicely. Kai gets a little nervous when he jumps around (which isn't that often). Reydon is very curious about Kai and just kind of watches everything.

All in all, things are going surprisingly well. I keep wondering how I got blessed with this child who loves brushing his teeth, taking a bath, drinking milk and eating broccali.....Life is good!

Our last post from China

Well, here we are, on the eve of coming home. I can't believe 14 days went by so fast (I can say that now--I don't know if I would have said it 7 days ago)!!! It's been an amazing journey; 3 cities, 15 days, 6,242 miles, and one little boy. The blessings that have been bestowed upon us will never cease to amaze me.

Our last couple days in Guangzhou, we kind of just hung out and relaxed--hence nothing exciting to post. We got kind of toured out. We enjoyed the hotel pool, playroom and walking around the city finishing up our souvenir shopping. I think I'm bringing back half of China in our biggest suitcase. We packed an extra canvas duffle bag which came in handy and we also ended up buying a small rolling suitcase to carry on the plane. It only cost $70 yuan which is about $10 US. It's even a Polo name brand!! (yea, right). I bought a beautiful hand painted tea set here in Guangzhou and wanted to safely transport it without checking it in the big suitcase.

We've missed you all dearly and have grown quite homesick. I'm ready to get back to real life. 15 days worth of restaurants and chauffers--I hope I didn't forget how to cook or drive. It will be another adjustment for Kai, who enjoyed the company of our agency guides who, at least, spoke his language. He is beginning to repeat English phrases and is understanding some receptive language like: Let's go, brush your teeth, get your shoes, sit down, etc. We're still using Chinese phrases for things like: potty.

OK-gotta go finish packing and get the little guy ready for his bath. Love and miss you all. Can't wait to re-connect when we get home!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answered Prayers

Today we went to the clinic for the mandatory check-up; just another formality in finalizing paperwork before returning to the US. They gave him a "once-over" and measured his head circumference (that was one of the qualifiers in his being labeled as "special needs-developmental delay"). Everything looked normal. They couldn't figure out why he was labeled as developmental delay. They escorted us into the actual office of the doctors where there were 3 doctors reviewing all of the paperwork we received on his initial referral. They were talking amongst themselves in Chinese and began to ask me questions in English: Where did you get this information? When did you receive this information? They were talking to our guide in Chinese and she was telling us that they couldn't figure it out. They looked us and said there was nothing wrong with him and signed off on the paperwork!!! This is what we suspected when we requested his referral. All along this is what we have been hoping and praying for! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!

The infamous red couch!!!

It is a longstanding tradition that families take pictures on the red couch at the White Swan Hotel when they get to Guangzhou. We put on our Chinese clothes and took some pics. Then we did some paperwork for the American consulate for Kai's visa--Happy Mama, ready to be done with paperwork!!

Guangzhou

Leaving Chongqing--Kai and our rep, Anita--She was wonderful!!! But then again, All CCAI reps are wonderful!!



The fountain inside the White Swan Hotel



Playing around in the room




We went to a Buddhist temple




Playing in the playroom at the hotel

Old Town

I haven't posted in a couple days. We've just been hanging out in our room. Thursday, it rained all day and we didn't end up going to Old town like we were planning. Kai had a bit of a fever and a cough. He's better now. Anita was great. She came to check on him and was able to convince him, in Chinese, to take the medicine. Yesterday, we went to Old Town. It is one of the oldest parts of Chongqing. It could only be described as sort of like Los Angeles China town. Lots of small shops selling many different things. We bought lots of souvenirs and some really yummy homemade candy! We invited Anita to join us for dinner, and at the advice of another family who had traveled to Chongqing, she took us to the Hot Pot restaurant. It was kind of like a fondue place, but you boil all of the meat and veggies in a spicy soup and eat it. Very spicy, but very good! I'm so glad she went with us. All of the menu items were in Chinese--there was no way we could have eaten there by ourselves! Today we leave Chongqing for Guangzhou. We have completed all of the legal adoption paperwork and have received: adoption registration, abandonment declaration, birth certificate, Chinese passport. Now it's time to complete the American end of the adoption and receive his visa to travel to the US. I'm a little bit sad to be leaving Kai's birth place and province of origin. However, we're all ready to be moving into the next leg of our journey. Chongqing is amazing, but rather difficult if you don't speak the language. Even buying things in the market was difficult. I'm glad I had my translation book so I could ask for peanut butter. I saw that in the book and wondered, "Why would you need to ask for peanut butter in China?" After some of the wierd food we saw and the difficult time we had ordering in some restaurants, PB&J never looked so good!!

Pandas at the zoo & Finding place

Yesterday, we started out with a trip to the Chongqing zoo to see the pandas. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain. We tromped through with umbrellas, but it was a bit anti-climatic, since we were a bit miserable. We were supposed to see more of the zoo, but ended with the elephant, giraffe, and some sort of small horse.

Then we drove to see Kai's finding place. This is the place where he was found on March 1, 2004 at 6 weeks old. In his paperwork, I had been given the name of a street. What I didn't realize was that it was an actually address of a place. I thought we would be driving down some sort of avenue and be told, "It's around here somewhere." As our driver and guide drove deeper and deeper into this small, little pocket within the city, I realized we were going to an actualy place. At one point, the driver told us he could not drive any further into this narrow alleyway and we would have to walk from here. We got out of the van and proceeded to walk through what I could only describe as an alley, but on each side were businesses selling various items; like a farmer's market-some were selling produce, live chickens/ducks, clothing items, and other things I couldn't even identify. It was unlike anything I've ever seen before and the pictures don't even do it justice. Then we came to a stoop that had a number 58 on it. I though #58 was like the name of the highway. It turned out to be the address of the stoop where Kai was found; at the end of a busy market, where someone would be sure to find him and take him to the police station which was also very neary by. Not far away from us were some tall apartment-like buildings. Gary noticed many young women looking over their balconies at us as we stood in the alley and took pictures. I noticed that our guide, Anita, clearly knew where she was going. Back in the van, I asked her if this was the first time she had located a finding place in that area. She answered that she had been there many times before!

Back at the hotel, I was Christened into motherhood. Although I was not the target of the vomit, I think too much American junk food (including Cheetos) got to Kai's tummy. He got sick two times and ended up needing a bath. There's nothing like bathing a crying 4 year old to get vomit out of his hair! He felt better after Gary hunted down some saltine crackers and 7-up. Today we go to an "old town" type of place to do some shopping.













So I'm running about a day behind on blogging since early in the morning while everyone is asleep is the best time to get things done.

Visit to the Orphanage

We visited the orphanage yesterday (Tuesday). It was about an hour away from our hotel. I didn't realize it was that far. It was an interesting drive. Quite a different way of life from even the city we are staying in. Although I had seen many pictures from other families who had visited the same orphanage and was prepared for that, I was not prepared to see the extreme poverty of the surrounding area. Above are just a couple pictures of what we saw on our drive. I spared you the picture of people digging through a very large pile of trash. Above are some pics of the building itself and Kai with the orphanage director. She was very kind and sent him off with a stuffed bear and small bag of treats. I never would have taken Kai with us, except for the fact he has not been there since November of 2006 when he entered foster care. It didn't really mean anything to him, since he didn't remember being there. It was nice to see the nannies who remembered him wish him well with his new family. They commented on how much he had grown. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside the building, but they showed us the room and crib where he slept and some of the rooms were nannies were taking care of lots of babies. There are about 200 children at that orphange from birth to age 18. After the age of 12, they are not able to be adopted, according to China law. There are 14 orphanages in Chongqing province alone (one in every city). Do the math on how many orphans are in all of China!!!! It was amazing to see so many babies in one place knowing how many families are waiting in the US. Clearly, many of them had a special need of one kind or another. However, the shear numbers never cease to amaze me.

One of the first pictures of Kai we saw was of him standing on a bridge. Driving past the entrance, I noticed the bridge and we took a picture on our way out.

We ate dinner at the "western" buffet at the hotel. It was late and we were all looking forward to getting some dinner and ending our day. As we approached the buffet, I opened the first tray of food and inside was french fries, yay! The other trays included: ox tendon, ostrich toungue, and many other horrifying delicacies that I can't even remember--I think I blocked them out!! (Robin--they even had shark's fin soup--haha!!) There was one try of some dried out, chewy pieces of pizza, and let me tell you, pizza never tasted so good! We found some noodles and cut up pumpkin, and other random items that were not so bad-at least we were able to fill our stomaches. I think we might try pizza hut tonight.

It's official!!!!

Today we went to the registration office to make the adoption official in China. In the morning, we exchanged our money at the bank to pay the registration fee. Then, we filled out all of the necessary paperwork in our room with our guide. We walked to the registration office, which is conveniently located right next door to our hotel. We took a family photo, gave our fingerprints, and made a promise never to abandon or mistreat our son. They declared us his official parents and gave us the official certificate. There was another family in the office doing the same thing. They were from Spain. They were very nice and we wished each other congratulations. At 2:30 this afternooon, while we were in the registration office, China declared a 3 minute silence in honor of the earthquake victims. It was on a tv in the office and sirens outside were going off. Everyone stood and gave respect. There are no words to describe the sadness; especially being so close to Sichuan. Our guide was crying because her boyfriend lost 3 cousins.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing in our room. We played with toys and a blow up beach ball. Our guide contacted a local laundry service for us and they picked up our laundry. Then we met Anita for dinner to celebrate our new day. We had peppered beef, kung pao chicken, broccoli, rice, and eggs with tomato. She has shown us some good places to eat that are nearby and less costly than eating in the hotel. She's taking good care of us!

Tomorrow we go to visit the orphanage. It's about an hour away. We requested a visit with the foster mom, but were informed that it was not possible. We will also take a drive by the area which was his finding place. It should be an interesting day.

ARGHHHH--Trying to upload pics and blogger is not cooperating. I'll add them on later....

Introducing: Ethan Kai Cesena

I never thought this day would come. The closer it came, the more nervous we got. We got from Beijing to Chongqing quite eventfully--an interesting story for another time. Our Chongqing guide, Anita met us at the airport and brought us to the hotel. We checked in and began to get settled. We walked to Mcdonald's for a quick lunch, the Gary met Anita in the lobby at 2:00 for a quick trip to the market to pick up a few things (ie: bottled water). She had told us in the morning that we would be getting Kai around 5:30 or 6:00. When they returned from the market, she said it would be sooner--around 3:00! At 3:00, they brought him right up to our hotel room and we became parents! It still blows my mind that I flew 6,000 miles to China and someone just handed me a beautiful little boy! He came out of his shell right away and played around with some toys, ate some candy and fish crackers. We had some take-out dinner in the room (another interesting story for another time) and we went for a walk outside. When we came back, we gave him a bath and put on pj's, I was almost finished reading "Goodnight Moon" when he realized he was staying with us and foster mother was nowhere to be found. He cried for quite awhile but he's finally asleep. Tomorrow we go to begin all of the paperwork to make it final!

**Sorry for the lack of photos, our internet connection in Chongqing is giving us some problems. I think we need a different connection cable or something--I'll get pics on as soon as possible!!!!!!

All the Tea in China....

is now in my suitcase! Our last stop of the afternoon was at a Chinese tea house for a tea ceremony/tea tasting. It was really nice and I bought WAY too much tea. It was pricey, but then again, when will I be back to China to buy authentic Chinese tea????

Anyway, let me start at the beginning.

We started out today at the jade carving factory. We saw some workmen carving jade and we walked around an enormous shopping place with all different kinds of jade items. We bought a jade "family ball". It's a carved ball within a ball within a ball. It is carved with a beautiful design and it has twelve holes in each ball to represent the 12 months of the year which the family will have good fortune. The 3 balls represent 3 generations of family and the fact that the balls cannot be separated represents that the family cannot be separated.

Then on to the great wall. There are no words to describe how majestic and awe inspiring the great wall of China is. We climbed as far as we could go, which was farther than I thought we would go! What made it most difficult is the varied height in steps. Some were large steps, some were small. I thought going up would be the most difficult....until I had to turn around to walk back down--steep steps--afraid of heights!!!

We had lunch and did a little more shopping. The restaurant was upstairs from a shopping place and inside, there was an ice cream stand. I looked closer and the sign read "Italian Gelato". It just struck me as funny to come all the way to China snd have Italian Gelato. HAHA!!!

We were on our way to the tea house, when Jack (the little boy with the family we are traveling with) had to go to the bathroom. Our tour guide asked the driver if there was anywhere to stop. There was not, so the driver pulled over and walked Jack to some nearby bushes! In China, it is ok for children to go pee on the side of the road!!!! We all got a good laugh!!!

We really enjoyed the tea ceremony and tasting some teas that we had never heard of. I bought some ginsing Oolong, Jasmine, and Lychee/rose bud tea.

We are planning on walking to pizza hut with the Hemingways tonight and we will be up bright and early tomorrow to fly to Chongqing. Our flight leaves Beijing at 8:20 am and gets in at 10:50. Sometime in the late afternoon/early evening we will receive Kai!!!! WOW-I can't believe we will actually hold him in our arms tomorrow!!

Above are our favorite pictures from today. They are pretty much self-explanatory, but I'll narrate them for you:

1st picture: Gary standing next to a large jade carving
2nd picture: A view of the great wall
3rd picture: Another view of the great wall
4th picture: Nina Climbing the great wall--getting very tired!!
5th picutre: Jess and Mandy called it quits and met us at the bottom!
6th picture: All three of us at the bottom of the wall
7th picture: Italian Gelato in China
8th picture: Chinese tea tasting ceremony
9th pictire: The lunch buffet had french fries along with all of the Chinese selections. French fries with chopsticks!!

I'm getting many inquiries regarding the earthqake in Sichuan. It is obviously all over the papers and news here. Beijing is relatively unaffected (emotionally affected; not physically). The area in Chongqing that we are traveling to should not be affected; although our tour guide will be checking our flight in the morning to make sure it is not delayed on account of the fact that the Chongqing airport is being used to transport all of the relief supplies. Please pray for our travel to Chongqing as well as all of the people affected by the earthquake. If anyone is interested in assisting financially in the relief effort, our adoption agency, CCAI is starting a relief fund. You can learn more at: www.chinesechildren.org

The next message we post will most likely be pictures of Kai !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love and miss you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!