Things We've Seen In China

1. One man cutting another man's hair on a street corner in Beijing... where it was about 20 degrees, without the windchill.

2. Laundry and meat hanging from the balconies of apartment buildings.

3. A rush hour of bicycle riders in Chengdu. They actually have a fairly wide bicycle lane on both sides of the street. It makes pedestrian crossing tricky!

4. Bamboo crates of live ducklings (the fuzzy yellow ones!) being unloaded from the baggage area of our plane after we landed in Guangzhou.

5. People balancing two large baskets filled with all variety of things hanging from a long stick they carried across their shoulders down the city streets of Chengdu.

6. All kinds of food being cooked on little stands on the sidewalk.

7. Men pulling huge loads (like roof trusses on wheels) down the street with ropes over their shoulders and their bicycles strapped to the top.


8. Shoppers sorting through raw, unwrapped meat at the grocery store. When I asked our guide about this, she said they like to feel it to see if it's good.

9. Women escorting each other, arm in arm, down the street.

10. Buses of school children smiling and waving at us through the window.

11. People carrying all manner of things on the backs of their bicycles, including several other people! See these brooms?

The Red Couch

One of our activities for today was taking The Red Couch Picture. This is sort of a rite of passage among Chinese adoptive families... a picture on one of the red couches in the lobby of the White Swan Hotel. People tend to dress their children in traditional Chinese outfits for this. We had a group of ten for our picture today, the four families from the Sichuan province and then a couple of other smaller groups that joined ours. Very tricky to get everyone happy and looking at once! After the red couch photo shoot we gathered in front of the waterfall for picture of the whole group. Gwen's friend Kate from Yibin and her mommy, Jennifer.
Carrie and Emma with Gwen and I... can you tell Gwen has been crying?!
Group picture... Gwen screaming!
Waiting for more pictures... with the camera case over my shoulder... see the strap?
Red Couch picture... see Kate? She has fallen over from crying so hard!
Gwen with Alia, her friend from Yibin, and Peter, from Inner Mongolia. Peter is missing a hand. He is five years old and just about the happiest little boy you've ever met. He is the 3rd child his parents have adopted. His older sister Rebecca came on this trip with her parents to get him.

Gwen's personality is coming out more and more. She cannot get enough of Scott flipping her up over his shoulders and then back down. She clambers for more every time! She says "Da!" over and over again very loudly when she gets excited. Tonight after her bath she was so wound up... she was kind of playing a peek-a-boo game with Scott where he was trying to get her... she was laughing and squealing so hard! Then she got into pushing the port-a-crib around. Part of the room has a tile floor and if she put her weight into it she could make it move pretty well. She pushed that thing with a mission! It looked so funny because she's so tiny, Scott and I couldn't stop laughing. Scott thought it was like him pushing a garage around. We've also seen some temper from her in the last day or two that hadn't shown up before. She'll sit on the floor and kick her legs in a very frustrated way when she feels like her plans have been thwarted, and sometimes it turns into falling backwards and screaming, too. Spicy girl... got to nip this in the bud!

Other activities today included a church service at a little yellow church just a block away from the hotel. The singing was all in Chinese, with the words on a screen to follow along. The words were in both Chinese characters and pinion, so we were able to follow a little, but even though the pinion spells out the words in the English alphabet, the pronunciations are so different that we couldn't sing very well. We did join in at the end of worship when the whole congregation sang "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" in English! The sermon was translated to English a line at a time, and that coupled with Gwen's squirrely antics made it hard to follow so we left part way through. We heard later from a friend that stayed for the whole service that after the sermon there was an opportunity for testimonies and a Chinese man got up and gave his in pretty good English for about 30 minutes! Wish we had heard that.

Gwen got her visa photo taken this afternoon. We are coming to the end of the official business. After the photo, all the visa paperwork that we filled out a couple of days ago was turned it. Now the only thing left is her medical exam tomorrow afternoon, and taking the oath at the American Consulate.

The White Swan hotel has a playroom just for adoptive families, sponsered by Mattel. We hung out there for a bit this morning before church. Gwen and Alia had fun emptying a little stand of toys and then Gwen climbed right into it. Gwen is much smaller than Alia, although they are the same age. Gwen is definitely the boss, though! When we returned to our room at one point today we found Gwen's "Going Home Barbie." It is a special Barbie doll holding an Asian baby, and on the back of the box it says, "This souvenier is presented by Mattel Ltd. to adopting parents of Chinese orphan children staying at the White Swan Hotel, Guangzhou, China." Hmmm... clever marketing, trying to endear parents to Barbie while the girls are young!

We also did some shopping today, and had dinner at a Thai restaurant with four other families. It is so amazing to share this experience with others... it provides such a wonderful base for relationships. We've met some wonderful people that we hope to keep in contact with as our girls grow up.

Sleeping Beauty

Sunday

I'm so happy to report that Gwen is coming to both Scott and I equally this morning. She can't seem to decide who she wants to be with and will go to one of us first and then the other. So glad for this progress.

The White Swan Hotel is absolutely crawling with adoptive families! The breakfast buffet this morning was much different than at the Sheraton in Chengdu, where the 4 families in our group were the whole show and spectacle. Here, we blend right in with all the other Americans with Chinese babies! The hotel is amazing, with a 4 story waterfall that has a large pond with huge fish in it at the bottom. Gwen was facinated by the fish and I think she would have gone in after them if we hadn't held her back!

Alright, got to go... we'll post pictures later.

The White Swan Hotel

We have arrived at the famous (or should I say "faymerse"... as our local guide pronounces it) White Swan Hotel. All who adopt from China end up here. It has become almost a part of adoption tradition. A nice hotel on Shaiman Island that is very near the US Consolate in Guangzhou. This is where we will get approval for Gwen's US citizenship on Wedensday afternoon. In the mean time, it provides a great place for further bonding for Mom and Dad and baby. When we arrived in Beijing 8 days ago, we were with nearly 40 families adopting through Children's Hope International (CHI). We all went our separate ways on the 2nd day, everyone in different sized groups to the province where their baby was waiting. Now we have all congregated back here at the White Swan. So, it is a reunion of sorts. We arrived this afternoon at 2:30 PM local time and immediately took to the streets of Shaiman, with merely a t-shirt and no jacket since it is 70 degrees here. Lots of local shopping, a nice park, some western style restaurants and seemingly everywhere you looked you saw families with newly adopted little girls. We also enjoyed a nice sunset over the Pearl River after dinner.

Now we have settled back in our room. Gwen is getting her nightly bath... and Lynne her corresponding nightly shower from the splashing. We had a quick stop at the health clinic here and have gotten some medicine for Gwen's congestion and for her slight rash. It should allow her to continue to heal even faster. She really is doing well. She is communicating more and more. In fact this evening at dinner she was talking quite loud to the waitress. We are not sure what she was saying, but it may have had something to do with how much she liked the mashed potatoes. She is very very happy, and she has an amazing smile that should probably win awards some day... not to mention a young man's heart. Lord knows, she has already taken mine.

Thank you to everyone that is taking the time to think of us and pray for us while we are here. We do not take it for granted. Our prayer is that this Christmas, you are each able to experience the kind of love that we are experiencing this week. It comes from giving without any condition... and when we do receive what appears to be a return, it inspires us to give more.

Caleb, Seth and Madelyn - We miss you guys dearly and so wish you were here. We will have to all return someday. You will love it here. Tonight we saw a group of people playing what appeared to be hacky-sack. However, it was with an oversized birdie, like you would use in a badminton game, except the bottom was a stack of metal rings, instead of a rubber stopper. Very strange and different. But it works. I will have to buy one and bring it home. Will be a fun game for our cul-de-sac.

Pictures from our day-

Leaving the airport in Chengdu - Goodbye to our local guide, Joan.


Gwen finds a new favorite spot in our new hotel room... after this hotel, home sweet home.


After dinner exercise with Mommy.


Sunset over the Pearl River with Daddy.


Playing with Daddy-


That winning smile with Mommy-

On our way to Guangzhou

Tomorrow we leave for Guangzhou for the second half of our trip. The time here in Chengdu has been spent finalizing the adoption. Now we will go through the process of gaining Gwen's U.S. citizenship.

Gwen is doing great. She even enjoyed a day at the Sanxingdui Museum today. An interesting archaeological find in the Sichuan province here. Was just discovered in the past century, and some of the artifacts date back to the dawn of civilization. Our big discovery today was that Gwen's and my attention span for museums are about the same length... quite short. She is starting to eat more things, and is communicating with us more and more. Not words, but sounds and expressions. We are amazed at how quick she has been to understand us when we speak to her in english... a very smart little girl.

Sorry for the short blog- we need to pack for our travel day tomorrow. Here are a few pictures from our day.


Lynne and Gwen posing on the grand staircase at the Sheraton Chengdu Gran Lido Hotel


Gwen touching a very large jade rock at the museum


Gwen and Alia playing pass the bottle at dinner. Funny enough, the bottle was competely empty, but they both wanted it. We decided they probably shared bottles at the orphanage, so how bad could it be for them to share now?! We decided to have "western" style food tonight and went to a place that was highly recommended called Grandma's Kitchen... in Chengdu.

Trip to the Orphanage

We were fortunate to have an opportunity to visit the actual orphanage where Gwen lived. It was a sobering trip. However, I am happy to have seen it. I was able to take video of it and one day we will be able to share it with her. The nice part about the trip was that I was able to speak in greater length with the director (through our interpreter of course) and tell him how much we appreciate his good work at the orphanage and that we think what he and the nannies are doing is a good thing. And most of all that we are thankful for the love that Gwen did receive there. He has worked there for 20 years. The tough part of the trip was seeing how many more kids there are available to be adopted. And the toughest part was seeing those with special needs that need attention and care and love. They need funding for things like cleft palete repair. Something that would be accomodated so easily in the states, is not so easy here. Another giving opportunity...

We traveled approximately 300 kilometers in a mini-van today, each way. I got to experience highway travel in China, and I am happy to say I made it home alive. I should hope to never have to make a trip like that again in my life... and will be happy to settle back into the driving norms in the U.S. Suffice it to say- it was an extremely dangerous trip, we are thankful we had such a skilled driver.

Some pictures from y-day-

The Director Cho, and his head Nanny Chen.


A group of the nannies in the crib room.


Bath time.


Gwen now helps with the blogging...

Trying Daddy's shoes

The girls of Yibin

...and their families! This picture was taken yesterday inside the Panda Preserve.

Pictures from the Silk Brocade Shop

We stopped here yesterday on the way home from the seeing the pandas. It was amazing to see how these huge looms were operated by two people... one one top and one below. The two working together can produce only 7 centimeters of an intricate pattern in an entire day! The Sichuan province is known for this beautiful fabric.

Thursday with my girl

Today Scott has gone to visit Gwen's orphanage with some of the other people and one of the guides from our group. It is a three hour drive, so we thought it best that Gwen and I not go. Who knows how she would have felt returning there. We are thankful for the opportunity for Scott to see it... it isn't always possible, and the director of Gwen's orphanage had to get special permission for our group... from whom, I'm not sure! A group of us walked to a large Walmart type store in the late afternoon yesterday to buy some diapers, baby clothes, socks and shoes to take to the orphanage as a gift today. Scott took both the video camera and the digital with him, I am so anxious to see what he is seeing right now, and so glad we will have some kind of record for Gwen of where she lived.

I'm glad for the quiet day in the hotel... if we stay in, I don't have to carry her so much, and she has given me an amazing work out carrying her tiny little body around! She weighs barely 20 pounds, but it's enough to give me a sore upper body! I love that she wants me to hold her, though... how could I complain about that?! Right now she is napping... I wish you could see how beautiful she is! She has such a perfect little mouth. I think she is definitely The Sweetest Thing! After she wakes us we will go our guides' room. The one who stayed back with us today (Joan... that is the English name she chose b/c it was similar to part of her Chinese name) is giving those of us who are here today some Chinese lessons! We had one already this morning, such as it was with the busy little girls playing around us... hiding behind the curtains and laughing, sharing and not sharing toys with each other, sharing bottles (which I'm sure they did in the orphange and probalby the reason they all have the same cold and chest congestion) and getting into everything. We are at least trying to make the correct sounds and have made little cheat sheets for how to pronounce vowels. Joan also had us practicing the 4 tones of the Chinese launguage that add to it's complexity... it's fun to learn these bits and pieces., but I cannot imagine ever mastering the language. Perhaps one day our family can learn more together.

I wanted everyone to know that Gwen's itching has almost completely cleared up. I am so thankful, because it was really bad at first. She is still quite congested in her chest, and her nose is perpetually goopy. Please pray for clear lungs for her. We had a taste of the Children's Hospital the other day, and would prefer that she not need to be treated here in China. We know The Healer, though, and so I rejoice that He knows her body inside and out and is caring for her! Please also pray for Angela, the friend and travel companion of the single mom in our group. She is 3 months pregnant and is bleeding today. Thank you for your prayers.

This is an amazing journey... wish you all could experience it in some way. Thank you for sharing it with us

A National Treasure

One of the national treasures of China is the panda bear. We are extremely fortunate to be adopting from the Sichuan Province which houses the National Panda Preservation. Today was a field trip of sorts. Four couples with their new daughters venturing out to one of the prize tourist attractions in all of China. It was very fun, and I must say that Gwen loved it. She pointed and smiled and exclaimed about the panda bear (chung mao). We were all taken by the beauty of this animal and enjoyed watching them as they methodically sat and ate bamboo leaves galore.

In the past, China has "gifted" panda bears to the United States. However, recently they have been "renting" them. In October, Tai Shan was brought to the Washington DC Zoo. He will be there for 3 years (for the bargain price of $10M). If you are in the area, I would hightly recommend that you stop by for a visit. They are quite unique. We will hope take our new treasure there to get re-acquainted with a national treasure of her birthplace sometime in the next few years. In the mean time... stuffed animals will have to do.

Perfect Pick

I just have to say that now I understand what Steve and Jo-Ann and everyone else we've spoken to who has adopted has told us. Gwen is so perfect for our family. God definitely chose her from before her birth to be a Liptak. She has completely stolen my heart! It is amazing to love her so much after such a short time of knowing her... but I felt as if I knew her as soon as we met. The real miracle is how God put us in her heart also. She comes to us for comfort, laughs with us, wants us to hold her, gives me wet kisses, and backs up into my lap if I'm sitting on the floor. We have never been strangers to her. It is certainly His doing and nothing of us.

Thank you, thank you all for your prayers. Thank you Jesus, for Gwen.

Gwendolyn Yu Sarah Liptak

Waiting in the hotel lobby for everyone so we can go to the Civil Affairs Office to finalize things! Here Gwen is playing with Alia, who is exactly her age. They recognize each other and are always happy to see each other! You can see that Gwen is dressed plenty warmly for a 45-50 degree day (Mom, the coat is perfect for her... thank you so much!), but not according to Chinese standards. We were scolded several times by the orphanage director and others for not dressing the girls warmly enough!





There is much left to do here in China. We spend another few days in Chengdu where we finalized the adoption yesterday. We understand that Gwen is legally ours now. Complete with an adoption certificate (which has a photo of the 3 of us), and a Chinese Passport (which has a picture of her from a few months ago... wearing red of course). We will be off for Guangzhou on Friday where we will perform medical examinations and time at the American Consulate. It is there that she will become an American citizen and get her Visa to travel back to the USA. In any event, she sure feels like ours now... and we absolutely cannot wait to get home to see Caleb, Seth and Madelyn, and everyone else.

Of the four children here, Gwen is by far the most active. She is a very VERY busy little girl. She mostly likes to exchange toys with people as she plays. She constantly walks back and forth giving you a toy, asking for one in return, and then walking to someone else to perform the same interaction. She is very happy, and seems to have come to grips with her nearly 2 year old "will power". Our local adoption guide here in Chengdu calls it "spicey"... we think that about captures it. I think she will fit in just fine with two older brothers and an older sister.

She has slept fairly well, however, since she is not feeling 100% she has woken a few times in the night and needed to be comforted for a short while. We have to tell you about her unique interaction with her bottle at night. It appears that she was most probably put to bed in her crib with her bottle. She first drains it... then sucks on it for about another 20-30 minutes while sound asleep. All you can hear is ths sucking of air, until she finally loses the grip on it and it lays down beside her. It sounds quite cute, and looks it too- however, It is kind of loud. Most definitely a source of comfort for her, just as a thumb of pacifier would be.

The details...

Ok- finally, some of the wonderful details from our last 24 hours. I do believe this has been the longest 24 hours of my life. Time is funny like that.

Yesterday we arrived at the Civil Affairs Office of Chengdu at approximately 1:45 pm. As you know by now, we are here with 3 other couples. We saw the bus pull up outside our window, and we had the pleasure of watching each of the four nannies step off the bus with the babies. First Kate... then Alia... and then our Gwen... escorted by her nanny (we assume she was her nanny), a very tall and beautiful young Chinese woman. She walked in with her, holding her hand and talking to her. Gwen had on the famous "squeaker shoes" that we have heard so much about. Gwen and her nanny did a little dance, and hopped around a little, squeaking away. Lynne and I both knelt down low to be right at eye level with Gwen. We simply looked at her for a few minutes as she played with her nanny. Then her nanny looked at us as if to say, she is yours now, and she stood back out of the way. Lynne picked her up and held her. Gwen looked at us and studied us. She did not cry, but was very intent as she looked at us amidst all the commotion with the other babies and their nannies and new parents. Gwen's nanny then stepped outside and watched us through the window. I could see her smiling, yet she seemed a bit sad. Lynne cuddled Gwen and we talked to her.

Now it's Lynne~

We got out the Winnie the Pooh puppet that we brought... you probably saw it in the pictures we sent. She really reponded to it, having us hide it behind our backs and then pop out again. She liked to bop in on the head. :-) She also had fun with a little noisemaking toy. We had time to play with her as each family got a turn to speak with the orphange representative, who turned out to be like a manager of the nannies who care for the girls. She spoke only Chinese, of course, so our Children's Hope guide translated. We didn't find out much new information, but that she has not been potty trained at all, is a good sleeper, and is comforted by food! Oh, and also that she has a bath and a bottle before bed, and a bottle in the morning. Scott videoed much of this conversation. It was so amazing as we waited for the other famililes how she warmed up to us. She held her arms out to me to be hugged, smiled and laughed. It was such a gift, the way she was able to respond. The other little girl her age cried a long time. We left the office after about an hour, glad to be taking her back to our own room.

When we got back we peeled off a few of her layers... one top was the heavy quilted corderoy pink jacket and pants you saw her wearing in the picture. Next was a knitted orange and white sweater, also pretty heavy. She had green knitted split pants on, too. The bottom layer was a long sleeve cotton shirt and pants. She started to cry hard when we took off the sweater layer, and we offered her a bottle with watered down juice. She holds it with one hand on the bottom of the bottle. She fell asleep in my arms then after drinking only about a quarter of it, and slept until we woke her for dinner about an hour and a half later.

Scott again -
We woke her and played with her a bit and then decided it was bath time. She and Lynne got into the bathtub together and she enjoyed playing with several of her new favorite toys in the tub. We washed her and it appears that she definitely enjoys her bathtime. There is something intimate about a kids bath and new clothes and the wonderful fragrance of hair after a good shampoo. I guess this was the first of hopefully many new feelings of "she is ours"...

After the bath it was off to the restaurant for dinner. Just the three of us... but boy could we have used Caleb and Seth and Madelyn to help at dinner. Lets just say Gwen is an active little girl. Sitting in a restaurant was a challenge as she was really wanting to play with her toys. In any event, she wore us out pretty good. But we are sure with C, S and M's help, it will be easy to keep her occupied. She ate conji (watery rice) and some noodles for dinner. Seemed to like them.

Back in the room later, she had a bottle and was not real excited to go to her crib awake. So Lynne rocked her until she was asleep and then she went down pretty easily. However, she did cough herself awake once in the night and needed some comfort to get back to sleep.

On Tuesday morning, she needed to be woken up around 8 AM since we were headed to the Civil Affairs Office again for some paperwork. We hustled down to breakfast and she had a boiled egg and some bread, and some more conji. She is a bit of a picky eater, but seems to get enough.

Will write more later. We seem to be challenged for time. Forgot how much work a 20 month old can be.

More Pictures from our First Day

Here are some additional pictures from our first day together. We will post a detailed description of everything later this morning. We have an appointment at the Civil Affairs Office at 8:30 am today to begin the legal work for the adoption. Please pray for Gwen as she has a pretty good cold with lots of congestion, and seems to have a rash and is constantly itching her arms. (Yes... we have hydrocortizone creme, for all you mothers out there...)