We Are Home... Safe and Sound!

We are home. Pray that we recover from jet lag, our bodies are not sure what to do... sleep even though the sun is shining?
Thank you for following along in our amazing journey. It is hard to put into words a miracle taking place but I did my best to share the experience. It truly is unlike anything else... it cannot be compared or explained...
Praise the Lord who can do such miraculous things!!!!

09/17 Consulate Appointment

Today is our appointed time with the American Consulate to turn in our paperwork...but the good news is we don't have to go individually. Connie carries all of our packets to the Consulate and turns them in for us and then she waits there for the approval. In the meantime we all have to wait in our rooms and be available by phone in case there are any questions.
We started our day with breakfast as usual. After breakfast Baba took the girls to the swimming pool while Mama waited in the room. I took the opportunity to catch up on my blogging. Connie called around noon and said everything went well and "your daughter is almost an American citizen".
When the kids got back from the pool we went out shopping. Then we went to the White Swan to see the beautiful waterfall inside and their pools (Mama didn't get to see it when everyone else did...paperwork). For lunch we went back to Lucy's. They do have good food. After lunch we found a Starbuck's...we taught Esther to say "Starbuck's"(esential English in our part of the world). We did a little more shopping and looking around, Shaiman Island is a very beautiful area with a lot of British influence.
At 5:45 we all met at the White Swan for our Pearl River boat cruise. We went on a dinner boat cruise up and down the Pearl River. It was nice... all the buildings on either side of the River are lit up. Dinner was O.K., nothing great, but not bad.
On the way back from our cruise the kids like to take the microphone Connie uses and do Kareoke. They each take turns singing. Yesterday on the way home from the zoo they did it and big sister was the M.C. of course. She would introduce the next kid to sing and say things like, "Give it up for ______ !" Tonight she sang the song she wrote for Esther to the tune of "Take me out to the ball game".

09/16 Safari Zoo

After breakfast this morning we went shopping with G on "shopping street" to look once more for the "heelies" that big sister wants. We have looked and asked everywhere we have been with no luck. We thought we would try one more time... G wanted to purchase them for big sister because her birthday is soon. We went to several stores but found nothing. Then we went into a department store and up an escalator to the children's department... we found them!! I was so surprised, I had given up hope. They had her size... we bought one for Esther as well and the H girls had asked us to bring some back for them so we bought 4 pairs total. They were about $12.00 instead of $50 or $60. They were so excited.
At 1:00 we all met in the lobby with Connie and she took us to a Safari Zoo about 45 minutes away. Half the park you ride on a train to see the animals, the other half you walk through the park. It was beautiful!! There were so many more animals at this zoo than any park I have ever seen. Dozen and dozen of everything, even the more exotic animals. There were also Pandas! About 4 or 5 of them. We were very excited about that. The Koalas were extremely cute. We had a wonderful time but boy was it hot!
We got back to the Victory at dinner time. Half the families wanted to order in pizza from Papa John's believe it or not! The other half wanted to go with G to get Chinese food. We figured we can get pizza anytime... we had another wonderful experience with Chinese food. G ordered of course so we had no idea what was coming next... the favorite was bamboo leaves. Esther wanted more... Gabriel wanted more... everyone wanted more... so G ordered another plate.
We walked back to the Victory and G joined us in our room to watch a little TV until bedtime.

09/15 Visa Processing

We woke up and Esther remembered she had put her tooth under her pillow. She looked right away to see if the money was there! (Yes, the tooth fairy did her job)
We had breakfast downstairs with the whole gang. Connie had directed us to meet in the lobby at 10:30 to walk a couple of blocks to get the children's passport photos taken and to get their physicals done. Both are required at the American Consulate for processing the Visa on Monday. The first place we went was to get the photos done...didn't take long at all... then we went a little bit further down the block to get their physicals done.
We waited a little while because other families were in front of us, but not long. There were three stations for the physical examination to be completed...for example one station weighed, measured height, took temperature, and blood pressure... one checked eye sight for color blindness etc.... one measured head, listened to heart, checked mobility... all three needed to be signed off on but it didn't matter which order, so we picked a station and began. Esther was not concerned at all, plus we were right after Gabriel, the Z family's son who is 8 years old. She watched what happened to Gabriel and then she knew what to expect. Everything went well and we were back to the Victory in about 2 hours total. Baba and big sister had stayed at the Hotel.
We all came back and changed into our bathing suits intending to go swimming but the pool is closed everyday between noon and 4:00 pm. That makes sense... the hottest part of the day... of course. So went went and played ping pong instead. I don't think Esther had ever played before.
At 2:00 we needed to all go to the White Swan Hotel... Connie had reserved a room for us all to do the paperwork together. Both parents needed to come but only one paper needed signing by both parents so the paper was signed and then that parent took the chidren to go do something else. Baba signed and then took the girls around the White Swan, it is a very beautiful hotel with fish ponds, water falls and the famous red couch where adoptive families traditionally take their children's photo on this couch. We will probably pose for this on Tuesday just before our swearing-in appointment at the Consulate.
It took us "paperwork parents" about 2 hours to fill out the papers. Then all the gang went to Lucy's for dinner. Lucy's serves real American food and is well known to the adoptive community. Esther had her first hamburger and fries! There was a little confusion on Mama's part though... Esther scarfed down every fry on her plate before she ate her burger, well she had only taken one bite, and then she wanted to start on my fries... I told her to eat her burger first. She then cut the burger in half and looked a little disinterested in the burger. I thought she was not really wanting to eat it so when she finished the half I switched plates with her and gave her my fries. I then said to Baba, do you want her half burger? I don't think she really likes it... he ate it while she ate my fries. When she finished my fries she looked for her burger and I said, I'm so sorry honey I thought you didn't want it! We were going to order another one but the H's little one had half a burger she hadn't finished, so we gave her that. Just an example of the language barrier and how it works some times....
After dinner we all went swimming. As we invaded the pool with our 11 children the other Chinese guests left one by one...I can't figure out why...
The pool is not as big as at the Dolton but it is on the top floor of the Hotel so you can swim and see the city at the same time...cool! We swam until the pool was closed at 9:00
We all changed and went out shopping. Esther brought her tooth fairy money. She found a Barbie cell phone she wanted. It plays Chinese music... VERY LOUDLY! Much to our dismay. We went back to the hotel about 10:00, the stores were closing.

09/14 Changsha to Guangzhou

Today was a travel day...
We started the morning off with Esther pulling a loose tooth!! Before she even got out of bed. We had Jacky explain the Tooth Fairy idea, so tonight we will have to remember to put it under her pillow when we arrive at the Victory Hotel.
We had breakfast and then we walked down to a corner shop to buy some tea. We went back to the hotel for a morning swim before our flight. Esther does better and better each time she is in the water. She floats in a ring and does not want us to hold her. She put her face in the water without holding her nose today and blew bubbles. After swimming we heard from Jacky that he had the passport and everything was prepared for us to leave Changsha.
We packed all our bags and went down to the lobby for the van... Jacky was getting the passport and catching a taxi to the hotel to join us. When he arrived we left for the airport. On the way he told us that there had been a worry but he didn't share it with us because it may have ruined our day yesterday... the police cheif in Yueyang had not been available to sign some papers needed to process her passport. So Jacky had been this morning all the way back to Yueyang to get his signature and then back to Civil Affairs with it... all's well that ends well, and we knew nothing of the trouble.
When we arrived at the airport Jacky got us checked in and then told us there was a flight delay... I think it was cancelled because not enough passengers. A flight leaves about evry two hours. We caught the next flight out. Interesting thing in the airport... instead of "meal vouchers" as is in the U.S. they bring food to the waiting area and hand it out to the passengers. It was one container of steamed rice and one of something... something that looked like octopus legs... and cabbage (which I did recognize). Esther was so cute... she began eating first. We were trying to figure out a way to eat on our laps... there were no tables available... juggling these two containers etc. was precarious... she says, "Mama", points and begins to turn around in her seat, get up on her knees and place her food containers and water on the wide window sill behind our seats! She used it as a table! We were impressed! Chinese way! Very ingenuitive! She began eating first and she motioned to me by waving her hand over her tongue that it was spicy and handed me her water to open...not because she needed it... it was for me... she was preparing me with the open water bottle because she knew we don't handle spicy very well and we would need a drink right away. This is the type of consideration for others that she displays all the time.
Esther was very excited about this flight, she has never been on a plane before. Finally it was time to go... although in China it is a bit different... you usually take a bus out to the plane and board from the tarmack. So we get on the bus and Esther is very confused... through sign language she says to her Baba.. this is a bus... I've been on a bus before... I thought we were taking a plane? Baba holds her up and shows her the planes out on the tarmack and then she understands. We took lots of pictures of her getting on the plane...she holds her arms out like flying for airplane. The flight went well, I just wish it had been the earlier flight so she could have looked out the window to see things get smaller and smaller.
We arrived at Guangzhou and met up with the H's and G again, the Z's and the R family. We had quite a reunion... we all got on the "party bus" ("stacked like cord wood" as Mrs. H said). There were two buses but no one wanted to leave...our guide Connie said, "I'll be on the other bus" we all laughed so hard! I think Esther was a little bit overwhelmed.
We checked into the Victory and got in bed at 11:30

09/13 Closing a chapter... opening a Whole New Book!

Today was such an awesome day I can hardly believe it! It exceeded my expectations beyond belief!
We left the hotel with Jacky this morning to head for Yueyang, Esther's hometown. We arrived around 11:00 am to her SWI (orphanage). There are two parts to her SWI... a new building and an older building... the older building is where she lived. There is a locked gate across the alley between the two buildings. Her home is the typical Chinese courtyard style housing, two stories high, courtyard in the middle (for those parents with children here perhaps the first picture you saw of your child was on or near a round stone planter with a tree in the middle... this is in the center of this courtyard [Charis, Jeremy]). The children live upstairs and the elderly residents live down stairs, like our assisted living situations. The SWI often house the elderly and children in the same facility. Across the alley is the new building. The offices of the Director, Assistant Director etc. are in this building. The babies are in this building on one of the floors. I believe as the children reach school age they move to the older building and go to public school. While babies, they attend preschool in the new building on the 5th floor. There were only 10 children in Esther's Orphanage on the older side of the SWI. I am not completely certain on this, but I think the children mostly get adopted as babies and never move across the alley way to the older section. Therefore only a few are there but many more babies in the new building.
We toured her entire facility, we were free to go anywhere, take pictures, film, ask any questions. I even asked to see the bathroom. While we were touring the 8 or 9 children came home from school for lunch (Esther says it's about a 10 minute walk). They eat downstairs in the dining room at the "bottom" of the "U" shaped facility. We followed to take more pictures of the two children we brought gifts for, Charis and Jeremy. Their parents in the US have been in contact with us and asked us to deliver these gifts to them.
Then we went back out to the courtyard to give the gifts to the Asst. Director, clothing and quilts for the children. Jacky explained for us that we had a quilt that a dear friend at home made for Esther along with a special fabric pen for all of them to sign a message to Esther. They were a little shy to do this in front of everyone (this is not the Chinese way) but one by one they signed her quilt and wrote something to her, we will have to get it translated.
We then asked for Charis and Jeremy to come and open their gifts from there families so we could get photos to send home. They did, but they wanted them to pose with the unopened gift, I asked ,please can we open it and let them see what is inside so their families can see their reaction. So we did. It just isn't the custom to open gifts in front of the giver like it is for Americans.
Months before we came to China we had sent a blanket to Esther, that we had cut in half. We brought the other half with us for her to give the closest person in her life so that she would know every time she held her blanket that that person held the other half. We gave it to her at this point and she took it directly to Jeremy! He is her closest friend, I thought you would like to know that Mary and family.
It was about 1:00 and Jacky suggested we go to lunch and then come back to see the Director, he was not available at the moment to join us. We went to a restaurant that was probably the fanciest local restaurant we have been to yet. I'm not sure what position in the SWI all the ladies hold but there were 4 of them, one being the Assistant Director, also Quang, the young man who wrote the poem in Chinese for Esther, Jacky, the driver, and us. They ordered everything and we even had mooncakes for dessert. (mooncakes are on sale EVERYWHERE this time of year, they are even going door to door in our hotel! If you can believe that!) The total bill was about $65.00.
During lunch we were able to ask any questions about Esther that we wanted to. We asked a few questions, but honestly she is so easy going we don't have any major questions. We asked if they had any questions for us. They wanted to know what time we would be putting her to bed and getting her up everyday and they wanted to know to who would take care of her if she didn't start school right away. I asked if it would be possible to get something from when she was a baby preferably a photo or even a copy of a photo or maybe a drawing she did as a toddler. Jacky said we will see.
Then some of the ladies departed and went back to the SWI by taxi, some stayed with us and Quang stayed to show us the way to the Elementary School Esther attended. When we arrived at her school the children were back from their lunch break (they all go home for lunch for about 2 1/2 hours) but class was not in session yet. We drove into the school yard and Esther took one of the ladies by the hand straight to her teacher's office, we followed filming her and taking pictures. Her teacher was not back from lunch yet so she took us to her classroom. All the while throngs of children are following us. We entered her room and she showed us her desk, by this time hundreds of children are in her room yelling and excited to see us, saying Hello!, Hello! We go back downstairs to head for the van. We are surrounded by children screaming and yelling Hi!, Hello! they are very excited to see us. But we could not move! Then as each one of us were surrounded, they started to push each other and the little ones were getting shoved around. It was pandemonium! We made our way to the van which was surrounded also. Jacky said school would start in about 20-25 minutes if we wanted to wait then they would all be in their classes and we could walk through to her room for a visit with her teacher. We said yes we would wait in the air conditioned van. We sat looking out at hundreds of little faces looking in at us through the windows. Soon her teacher arrived at the van. She and Jacky spoke and he said they are going to ring the bell early and get the children in their classes. Soon after the bell rang we could get out of the van and go to her room. (Now I have an idea how celebrities feel!)
This time in her class it was completely different... the children were seated at their desks with hands folded. Get this... there are 66 students in her class! One teacher! What do you think about that Mrs. Robertson?
We had teddy bears to give them but not enough! Jacky suggested having them ask questions, sing a song, recite a poem or dance or something for the bears. We did that for awhile and then we let Esther give them to whoever she wanted to. Jacky asked us to teach them some English so we sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the ABC song. Four children in her class are from her SWI, we made sure they each got a bear.
After our visit with Esther's class we headed back to the SWI to meet with the Director. We went to the third floor of the new building. We sat down and the 4 ladies we had lunch with came in with the Director. They brought a binder in, about 2 inches thick. Esther's photo at an earlier age was on the spine of the binder. The Assistant Director, Mrs. Chang began to speak, Jacky interpreted and handed me the binder. I couldn't believe they were going to let me look through all the reports, photos and drawings my little girl had done in her life... then Jacky said to me, "They are going to let you keep this, it is for you". I burst into tears! I could hardly control my emotions! (I am having a hard time not crying now as I write the account of what happened.) This is unheard of. We were not getting a copy... we were getting her file! The original! Jacky kept saying, "Easy, easy, it's alright". But I was overwhelmed! This was so much more than I had hoped for, how could I be hearing correctly? It is not the Chinese way to cry in front of others; I imagine I made them uncomfortable for awhile, but I am not Chinese... I got it together and properly thanked them and told them they have no idea what this means to us and how important it is to Esther's life. They said it was more important for her to have it then for them to keep it, it was her life.
They took the binder and made copies for them to keep and returned it to us. I wonder if it was not the original plan to let us keep it, because if it was the plan they would have already made copies before we got there. Who knows?? I asked Jacky later if he had ever heard of this happening before? He said no, in the five years that he has been doing this usually people get a copy of a photo or something like that, never the original and never the whole file. We are blessed. We found the Yueyang City SWI to be nothing but open and hospitable towards us. We were delighted with all we were able to learn about Esther's life before she was a Walker.
The Director then had an opportunity to say a few words to us and sign Esther's quilt. Then we visited the fifth floor where Esther attended preschool. There were about 10 children sitting down for snack time. We took a few photos and headed downstairs.
Mrs. Chang and one other lady joined us to go to the "finding place" for Esther. It was a very small dock on the second largest lake in China. I had pictured a much larger dock but it was very small and a ferry boat was there loading people. The people boarded the boat from a plank slanted from the boat to the dock. Out in the lake there are many large cargo ships; it must be a very large lake. The people on the ferry, according to Jacky, were heading for the Hubei Province, North of Hunan. We took many photos of Esther. I doubt she had any idea of the significance of the spot. The dock (which I would not refer to as a dock, I would call it a boat ramp) is in a very poor area. We only can guess, but we discussed with Jacky that it probably was a local person there in that area who left Esther, because he said seven years ago it was much different then now and they would not have easily been able to travel to this spot.
We drove back to the SWI to return Mrs. Chang and the other lady. The children were returning from school as we drove up so we were able to get more photos of them with their back packs, so cute! For mementos we picked up a few rocks from the grounds of the courtyard and Mrs. Chang came from her office with two copies of the local Yueyang newspaper, it is very thin, something like you may see in a high school in the U.S.
It was time for us to go... we had a WONDERFUL day!!!
But more wonderful things lay ahead...
I mentioned that Esther had been much more comfortable with Jacky in the last couple of days. Well, she sat on Jacky's lap on the way back to Changsha. And began to talk up a storm with him... she asked many significant questions and revealed many important things. I can't remember them all because she talked non-stop for almost 2 hours on the way back.
The most important was, she asked through Jacky why we had abandoned her and what took us so long to come back and get her? We explained that we are not her birth parents and we would never abandon her and we do not know who her parents are, but we would try to find them together. That was really a surprise to us that somehow she had believed that we were her birth parents. No wonder she so freely accepted us on Gotcha Day. She then relayed a story that she believes she remembers from the age of one, about being placed on a bus by a man and him paying her fare and telling her to stay on the bus. Then someone else taking her off the bus after a long ride...she did not want to go with this person because she had been told to stay on the bus. This is probably something she has made up in her mind or confused with something she has heard because we know she was abandoned and found on the same day she was born.
Then she said to us that she would try and study very hard to get all A's. We said , Oh good honey... but then she added... she and the other children in the orphanage (that knew they were going home soon to be with their "foreign" parents) talked together often about what their lives would be like. Someone, probably a child at school, told them that foreign parents beat their children on their hands if they do not get all A's...and put them outside the house until they do better. Our hearts just sank with this statement... we assured her that that would never happen and Baba said to her, "Baba would hurt anyone who tried to hurt his Esther". She looked at Baba and smiled. After reflecting on this I was so amazed that Esther's attitude with us has been so wonderful... for four days she has been with us believing that this was what was in store for her if she was not a good student! She willingly and happily went with a family that she believed may mistreat her! I was so grateful that she opened up with Jacky... we would have never known! She would have been carrying this load all on her own. It scares me to think what else may be in her thoughts that we have no idea about...
I asked if the photo album of her family I had sent was helpful to her... she said yes... I asked how often she looked at the photos... she said at least every other day... I felt so good about that... then she added "because there was a dog in the pictures"... oh... thanks... I teased her about loving the dog more than Mama?! We told her all about our dog Milly. Esther is very excited to meet Milly. I know that in general, orphans specifically are afraid of dogs or pets... they are not exposed to them really. So I assured her that Milly's favorite thing to do is lay on your lap, get petted and fall asleep. She also likes to play fetch. Esther was very excited about this... I don't think there will be a problem with fear of Milly when we get home.

September 12, 2007 Our Third Day with Esther...

Again this morning we started our day with cuddling for about an hour before we got up. She is such a sweet girl. Our sleeping arrangements are one, great big bed... all the beds pushed together.
Jacky asked us to meet him in the lobby at 9:30 this morning for sight seeing... he took us to an embroidery museum first. There were many beautiful peices. We learned a little more about the history of embroidery and the importance of it in Chinese culture. Hunan Province is known for the best quality of embroidery in China. The most fasinating to me are always the two sided works of art... on one side is an image and on the other is a completely different picture... impressive!
Next Jacky took us to the "crazy market", as he called it... many vendors under one roof, several stories high. The bottom floor was completely shoes, I'd say 50 small seperate stalls with only shoes for sale. We bargained and found three pairs of shoes for Esther, two leather and one sneakers. For all three it was about $20.00 Shoes were really the only thing she was in need of since all our kind friends and relatives had given shower gifts for her. This was probably the first time Esther had ever been taken shopping for something for her and her alone. It is hard to pick things out for her because she likes everything you show her. She was very proud of the purchases and wanted to carry the bags herself.
For lunch Jacky took us to another restaurant near our hotel. We had another excellent meal. I wish I could bring home a menu... the most unusual things are offered (see picture of one of the pages of the menu). We had a dish that we had before when we were here in 2006... fried shrimp. You eat the entire shrimp, unpeeled, with head, legs, eyes, tail, everything... I love them... guess who else loves them? That's right Esther! (see pictures)
Esther seemed to warm up more to Jacky today... I think she has been unsure of who he is and what role he plays in this whole thing... maybe she thought he would try to return her to the orphanage, I'm not sure. But she has been hesitant to talk with him when he asks her questions. I think by now she has figured out he isn't a threat and she's not going back.
After lunch Baba and I wanted to take a nap... the girls wanted to swim... so Jacky offered to take them to the pool while we took a quick rest. About an hour or so later we joined them at the pool and I couldn't believe it! Esther was in a floaty ring kicking all over the pool by herself! She puts her face in the water while plugging her nose. She WOULD NOT let us take her and hold her in the water anymore. Yesterday she would not leave the stairs without us and she clung to us nervously. She has made tremendous progress in just one day! We swam for four hours today. I can't wait to see what she tries tomorrow!
We met Wendy and Kent at the pool and told them about the great restaurant we had had lunch at and they wanted to go for dinner. So after swimming we all met in the lobby and we took them out to dinner. They liked the shrimp also!
We came back to the room and the girls got ready for bed and then colored... I got picture after picture from my girls... they colored until they fell asleep.