Our Itinerary...
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Here is the preliminary schedule we received for for our trip:
Sep. 16th : Arrive Beijing at 11:00
Transfer to hotel. Hu Tong Tour. (Chang’an Grand Hotel)
Sep. 17th : Great wall. Lunch.
Sep. 18th : As they will do adoption at Shijiazhuang. Which take 3.5 hours by tour bus. I arrange local travel agency come to Beijing to pick them up instead of take flight.(more expensive). And BaoDing is on the way about half way there. They could stop there and see the city where their child from. I suppose they will like this.
Beijing-ShiJiazhuang by tour van. Leave around 11:00.
See BaoDing city on the half way. (but they couldn’t visit SWI because they do not allow visitors).
We will arrange a van with 8 seats. **(since it’s more expensive with van with more seats, like 25 seats). So they could think about how may luggage they will take. Hope it’s enough for them. Please tell us with this will be too small because of too much luggage (Century Hotel)
Sep. 19th : Meet child, sign agreement.
Sep. 20th : Adoption registration, notary and apply passport.
Sep. 21st : Half-day tour to ZhaoZhou Bridge.
Sep. 22nd : Half day free.
Sep. 23rd : Take passport in late afternoon. Should be 16:30.
So, I couldn’t arrange them go to Guangzhou this day. (there is only flight to Guangzhou everyday).
I will ask Connie arrange medical in Guangzhou in the good way to make sure it is done before appointment.
Sep. 24th : ShiJiazhuang-Guangzhou by CZ6229(13:00-15:40). (WS Hotel)
Sep. 25th : River Cruise.
Sep. 26th : Medical in the early morning. Visa appointment at 09:30.
Sep. 27th : Take visa in the afternoon.
Sep. 28th: Leave Guangzhou-Home by CZ327 at 21:00.
The Map Room Scene...
Saturday, September 03, 2005
So is your geographical knowledge of China better than mine was 9 months ago?
If not here's a visual aid...
We will be landing briefly in Guangzhou on our way to Beijing.
Touring in Beijing for two days, then driving to Shijiazhuang where we will get Kai.
After 6 nights in Shijiazhuang, we will fly from there back to Guangzhou.
We will spend 4 nights in Guangzhou before flying home.
I have marked these three cities with red dots. Note the distance key in the bottom right corner.
Gear
Saturday, September 10, 2005
I was put in charge of getting our electronics together. We want to document our trip as thoroughly as possible so we are carrying a fair bit of stuff.
Video Equipment:
First, Cameron will be videotaping. Both for us, and for his high school senior culminating project. So we are taking our somewhat dated and bulky Sony digital high-8 camcorder, four 90-minute blank tapes, extra camcorder battery, charger, "mono-pod", mini tri-pod, and lamp attachment.
Computer Equipment:
For emailing family and friends, updating our blog, unloading pix off the digital camera, watching DVD's, etc. we are taking along my computer. I have the Apple power adapter kit so we will be able to plug it in while we're there.
We are also taking an Apple iSight camera with us. I have equipped my mother and sister each with one of these. The plan is that we will try to videoconference with them while we are in China so they can see Kai while we're there. We'll see how this works out; Internet bandwidth and time zones may work against us on this one. If it doesn't work out we will have the system in place and be able to use it when we get home.
iPod Stuff:
We are also taking my iPod mini, it's computer adapter, ear buds, ear bud splitter (so two people can listen on the plane), and the fancy little tubular gizmo at the top is little battery operated speaker set so you can hear the iPod without earphones. The main purpose of the iPod is for helping us communicate with Kai. We have about 170 phrases in Mandarin for adoptive parents stored on it. These range from: "I love you." to "Do you need to pee?" We have mastered a few of them, but with the little speaker thingy we might be able to play them for him so he can hear someone pronouncing things correctly. Again, this may be less than practical in reality, but we're going to give it a try.
More Power:
This is the adapter kit I'm taking to plug in the camcorder charger and rechargeable batteries for the digital camera. All the equipment we're taking has AC adapters that are auto-ranging from 100-240 input. This means that we don't need a transformer, just the plug adapters to fit the outlets.
The Real Gear...
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Okay, we went over the electronics junk. Now here's the real packing...
To give you an idea of what's been going on around here, this is a look at what Tina has been working on...
Kai's Suitcase and what's inside:
Clothes:
His clothes and shoes are sorted into different Ziploc bags (here's a couple of them) to help them pack tighter and keep things organized while traveling. We are also bringing diapers/pull-ups and swimming diapers.
First Aid:
Medicine supplies include: body lotion, liquid Tylenol, PediaCare cough medicine, antihistamine,
A+D Ointment, Vicks, Saline spray, anti-gas medicine, prescription antibiotics and scabies medicine.
Toddler Chow!
We are taking some Gerber cereal bars and fruit snacks, as well as packets of formula and rice cereal. And of course we are taking along Cheerios!
Toys:
Stacking cups, board book, busy book, rings, colored silks, baby doll, Hot Wheels, beach ball, bubbles, etc
More Stuff:
The item on the left is a "Hip-Hammock" it's like a baby sling, but for older toddlers. We hope to use it instead of a stroller as much as possible. One nice thing about this is it will let us have him "on" us. Physical contact is important for bonding!
And lastly, the biggest suitcase we are taking is filled with blankets, clothes and toys we are donating to his orphanage.
On Our Way...
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
I couldn't get my computer to work on the Beijing hotel’s network. So I wasn't able to update the blog. The language barrier is preventing me from working through it with the business center staff. Guess how annoying this is for Scott!!!
We are now in ShiJiazhuang. Internet in the hotel here is working - pretty much. So now I am posting a long message I emailed friends and family...
Wednesday, Sept. 14 – Bellingham:
This is it then. We are headed to the airport. This has been an amazing process so far, and yet we really haven't begun yet.
Cam and Ben are very excited. They have some concerns about their schoolwork (Tina and I do too) but this is too big a change for our family to not have them there with us. In addition to getting Kai, and seeing China, we are also really looking forward to having this special time with Cam and Ben. A lot of why we are making this big change in our lives is because we love these two boys so much. I think they are going to be fantastic big brothers for Kai!
.....
Writing now from SeaTac. We had a nice drive down. The boys were really helpful and cooperative. Made good time. The TV's here in the airport are playing CNN's report on Bush's talks with China and the trade issues around intellectual property rights.
Tina's making us take Airborne supplements - they're these vitamin herbal things you dissolve in water. She's certain we have to take them on a very specific schedule. They don't taste bad so, "what the heck, I'll try it." She promises this will keep us healthy.
I made all of us sit in seats where I could steal electricity for the laptop. I'm conserving battery for the flight time. Tina says I can't buy Internet access because I don't need to check my email. She's probably right.
We are traveling with a crazy amount of luggage! At one point we were talking about doing just carry on. Then somehow we got concerned about carry on weight limits in China, so we nixed the idea. But then once we decided we were going to check bags it suddenly became "Anything Goes". We now look like Sherpas trying to set up a base camp. We are very prepared though. To give you an idea of just how prepared we are, we are taking tea to China with us. It's true! I'm a little worried about how we'll move this much gear when we add a toddler to the mix. Tina got a little backpack for Kai the other day though so maybe he'll lighten the load on the rest of us a bit. Ya think?
.....
Made it to LA. I'm typing this on battery power. The electrical outlets in LA are much harder to get to. I think I can find one now that we're in the international terminal. In the terminal where Alaska Air lands it's pretty desperate. The few available electrical outlets are in hard to get to places, the ones we saw were already claimed by desperate looking technophiles camped on the floor with their laptops and cell phone chargers. I told Tina that I have more dignity than that. Actually I was just afraid of being bitten if I tried getting closer to the outlets.
.....
Found a power outlet! It's nice and quiet and out of the way; even has real airport seating next to it. Cam's off somewhere now on his cell phone talking with Brittni. She told him that if you Google "ocheltree adoption blog" we're the first hit! Always like seeing our Google ratings going up! We saw a Caucasian couple at the ticket counter with a little Chinese daughter. We are wondering if they're going back to get her a sister.
We ate Mexican food with the boys. They are starting to get more interactive with us already. I think they are pretty excited about what's about to happen. Tina and I listened to the iPod together on the way down. I have a mix of sentimental songs I put together that was fun to hear with her. She accused me of purposefully trying to make her cry. I am feeling very emotional even without listening to overly sentimental songs. I hope I'm not a total wreck next Monday!
So far the trip is feeling really good. Of course we still haven't left the North American continent. The real trip begins in a few hours from now. I think when we touch down in Guangzhou the reality of what we are doing is going to start to really sink in.
...The boys were hackey-sacking for a bit and met a young woman named Amina who teaches English in Guangzhou. She was telling them about a similar game played in China with a kind of shuttlecock. She wrote the name of the game on a piece of paper for them so they can try to find it while we're there. It's called jian zi or jian qiu.
I made Tina go with me to talk with the couple with the little Chinese daughter. They were really nice. They are on their way to get little sister! They are traveling to a different province, but will be at the White Swan the same time we are.
.....
We are now on the plane. The REAL plane. Next stop China!
The plane is nice. We're in the cheap seats, but they're nice. We each have little TV screens and headphones. Each seat comes with a fancy little zippered pouch with toiletries in it: toothbrush, toothpaste, lotion, lip balm, comb, blindfold, and earplugs. The boys were very impressed with this.
...
Well, I thought I would use the computer on the plane but there just wasn't enough room. We're in the Guangzhou airport now. It's very nice. We made the mistake of thinking that our large suitcases were checked all the way through from Seattle to Beijing, but when we got to the desk for international flights connecting to domestic they told us we had to claim our bags and take them through customs before rechecking them. This meant we had to go backwards through a documentation checkpoint we had already cleared, but it was no problem. Some people on an electric scooter car convinced us that our connecting gate was too far to walk so we paid to be driven. This was a treat because the airport was virtually empty and the driver was just flooring it! It was just like Mister Toad's Wild Ride! We bought some water, and the boys got a Red Bull (different can - short, fat and gold) and a can of Pringles. Two of the shops had beautiful displays of Moon Cakes.
So far we are holding up quite well. It was a long flight but we made it okay. Next time we do that leg we'll have a toddler with us. There were several little kids on the plane and they all seemed to survive it without too much fussing.
The service on the flight was very nice. We rode a 777. Between the meals, the stewardesses made tea and snacks at the back of the plane. If you wanted something you could just walk back and get it. They had tea, and cup-o-noodles, and rolls. People would just hang out back there and visit. I kept thinking there was a line for the lavatory, but I'd get back there and it was vacant, the people were just standing around. I can't imagine flight attendants in the US letting people help themselves to stuff and hang out at the back of the plane like that, it was kind of cool.
....
The airport in Guangzhou was very nice and modern. We were there at about 6:00 AM so it was not crowded at all.
Our last flight, from Guangzhou to Beijing went very smooth. The plane we rode was newer and the seats seamed more comfortable. They fed us again. China Southern Airlines is not stingy with the food, and it's not too bad for airline food. They also gave each of us a little box with two Moon Cakes in it before we got off the plane. The flight attendant said, "Happy Mid-Autumnal Festival!" to each of us as she gave the shiny boxes.
When we got off the plane we noticed that many of the Chinese passengers had large beautiful boxes of Moon Cakes they were taking with them.
Because of our mix up with our bags in Guangzhou they ended up being the last ones loaded on the plane. This made them the first ones off in Beijing. We were amazed at how quick we got our luggage. Actually the airports in both Guangzhou and Beijing were very easy for us to get through, and things moved very quickly.
When we cleared the last security checkpoint we saw our guide, Chen Chen, standing there holding a sign with our name on it. She had a driver with a large van for us. We went to the hotel where we dropped off our luggage and met another family who is here with our agency too. Their names are Jean and Matt Oppliger. It's amazing how much we have in common with them. They are traveling with their 10-year-old son, Adam.
Chen Chen then took all seven of us to Tian an Men Square and The Forbidden City. At this point Tina, Cam, Ben, and I had know idea how long we had been running or on how little sleep, but we were determined to push on. To help keep us energized, Chen took us to a Starbucks on the way. It seemed more than a little ironic that the first place went to in Beijing was the last place we stopped on the way out of Bellingham. Globalization.
Tian an Men Square and The Forbidden City were amazing! Chen was a fantastic guide and gave us a great walking history lesson. I expected it to be much more crowded than it was. There were a couple pushy vendors, but they weren't obnoxious. Some of the beggars were very sad to see, as a few had severe deformities. We expected to see this so it wasn't too overwhelming.
I have to write something about the driving in Beijing. All the blogs I've read by other people mention this. I was really expecting something more overwhelming than what we have experienced so far. It is dense, and there are many, many bicycles, but it wasn't all that crazy. If anything it was kind of beautiful. There was this surreal quality to the way the drivers could move around one another. It’s very different from how traffic moves in the U.S. It’s much more fluid.
Saturday we got up and had breakfast in the hotel. Chen Chen met us and the Oppligers again in the lobby at 8:30 A.M. She had a driver take us out to The Great Wall. She had vast amounts of history to share with us on the way. She also told us about how she grew up in one of the old courtyard communities in Beijing. These areas are rapidly disappearing. The few remaining streets like this near the center of the city are now being preserved as historical districts.
We stopped at a “Jade Factory” on the way. This is a government run store where they give you a touristy lesson in how jade is carved, and how to determine it’s quality. We also had an opportunity to buy some very expensive trinkets. We made it out without succumbing to the temptation, though we did buy a couple inexpensive items.
When we got to The Wall Chen Chen waited at the bottom, and gave us two hours to hike up and back. At this point we split from the Oppligers who went up the “West Wall”. We took the “East Wall” which was less crowded and a bit easier of a climb. We had a beautiful day. The day before at Tian an Men Square and The Forbidden City was very hazy and overcast. Today had a beautiful breeze and the sky was brilliantly clear. The visibility was amazing. We could not have asked for a more wonderful day for visiting “The Great Wall”. On the way back, Chen Chen took us to lunch at a restaurant inside a “Friendship Store”. These are stores the government originally created just for foreigners. Another opportunity to buy expensive trinkets!
So far we have been on a pretty sheltered tourist track. I think this is about to change as we head out tomorrow for Kai’s province.
NOW THE BIG NEWS…
Just as we got in the van this morning, Chen Chen turned to us and said that our plans for tomorrow had been changed. Originally, we were to drive to Shijaizhuang. We would stop in Bao Ding on the way to see the city where Kai lives, but we wouldn’t be able to visit the orphanage. They would bring him to us on Monday in Shijaizhuang.
Instead, she told us, we will now be going to the orphanage tomorrow, and we will receive Kai then!!!!!!
This means that we will get to have Kai with us on the Moon Festival!
Please hold our family in your prayers,
Love,
Scott, Tina, Cam & Ben (and soon Kai)
GOTCHA DAY
Monday, September 19, 2005
Today was unlike any other day I have ever experienced. First and most importantly, we received Kai into our family. Kai is our third son, and I don’t mean to diminish the significance or wonder of the day each of our other sons came to us. But this was something different.
We are halfway around the world and, as I predicted in my previous post, we did indeed leave the tourist route behind today.
Actually, our departure from the “Touristy China” was made in gradual steps. This morning we headed out of the hotel in Beijing on our own to buy some bottled water, and Moon Cakes. We were told a small grocery store was about two blocks away. So, all four of us headed out early to check it out.
Here’s the front, and the lobby of our hotel…
Here is one block away…
We found the contrast quite amazing!
At about 10:00 A.M. The guide who took us to Bao Ding and ShiJiazhuang met us at the hotel, and we departed by van. It was about a two-hour drive to Bao Ding. The countryside was beautiful, and the roads were very nice. Still, you could see that China is undergoing rapid change, and poverty is still a major issue.
When we got to Bao Ding we were a little overwhelmed by the conditions many people live in. The S.W.I. where Kai lived was a palace compared to its immediate surroundings. I'm not sure how to really explain the whole day.
Our "Gotcha Day" experience was unlike any of the many ones we have read or heard about. We first met Kai at the S.W.I. Here's a picture taken when we first saw him...
He had just woken from a nap, and his nanny brought him into the room where we were meeting with the assistant director of the S.W.I.
I want to tell you all about what happened but it's too much right now for me to process, so I'm going to post a few more pictures for right now...
The front entrance to Kai's S.W.I.
The photography studio where we got Kai's passport photo taken
Cam and Ben playing hackeysack with a local guy from Bao Ding in front of the photo studio
In the van on the way to ShiJiazhuang, Tina finally has GOT HIM!!
At the hotel Scott gets to hold him...
After his bath we manage to get a hint of a smile from him...
Then Kai fell quickly to sleep with Tina on the bed...
We had the hotel bring us a crib for him to sleep in...
The day was even more overwhelming for Kai than it was for us. He basically just shut down. We're a little worried about him, but think he will be fine once he's rested and begins to adjust to changes in his world.
And finally, I want to wish everyone a very happy Mid-Autumnal Festival! I hope you saw the full moon and could be with your family. We are very happy that our WHOLE family was united on this very special day! Here is a picture of the Moon Cakes we bought...
And here are two poems about the moon...
The Mid-Autumn Moon
by Li Qiao
A full moon hangs high in the chilly sky,
All say it's the same everywhere, round and bright.
But how can one be sure thousands of li away
Wind and perhaps rain may not be marring the night?
The Yo-Mei Mountain Moon
by Li Bai
The autumn moon is half round above the Yo-mei Mountain;
The pale light falls in and flows with the water of the Ping-chiang River.
Tonight I leave Ching-chi of limpid stream for the three Canyons.
And glide down past Yu-chow, thinking of you whom I cannot see.
Tomorrow is going to be a long day,
and it is late.
Good Night.
News from ShiJiazhuang
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Okay, you should probably go to the bathroom and grab a snack before you start reading this, because I think it’s going to be pretty long I’m going to try and write out how the last couple days went. You might want some Kleenex too…
Today is our third day with Kai here in ShiJiazhuang.
Yesterday was a busy day! And a very productive one, we officially adopted Kai! And here’s the certificate to prove it!
Tina and I met our guide “Bob” in the lobby at 8:30 AM. We let Cam and Ben stay at the hotel, and Tina and I went from there to the civil affairs office.
Here we met the directors from the orphanage who also brought Kai’s nanny with them. It was sweet that she was able to come, but also difficult for us to see Kai have to separate from her again. She gave him a shirt and a toy, and beautiful little silver amulet, which she tied around his neck with a red cord. I couldn’t help crying when she did this.
After we completed the adoption certificate we went to a notary office and had a bunch of stuff sealed.
This took a couple hours and again Kai’s nanny kept him with her during this time. This was painful for Tina, as it seemed to be further delaying his attachment to us. Ultimately, I think it was a good thing for him to see that she was happy about him being with us, and made the transition more gradual. You could tell she truly cared for him, and I thought it was very meaningful that the orphanage directors made accommodations for her to travel with them for this.
After the notary office, our guide seemed concerned about the way the paperwork was preceding. The passport application needed to be filed at the police station in Bao Ding, the city where Kai’s orphanage is. But we are now in the provincial capital, ShiJiazhuang. The orphanage directors said they would file it and have it mailed to us. But our guide didn’t like this plan. He was worried we wouldn’t get it before Friday when we are scheduled to leave for Guangzhou. So he decided that he and I would drive back to Bao Ding again with the orphanage directors and file it ourselves. He suggested I take them to lunch as well to help things along. We went to another traditional Chinese restaurant. It was a very interesting place. It was a theme restaurant done in the style of the “Cultural Revolution” the waiters were dressed in red army uniforms and there were portraits of Mao, Stalin, Lenin and Marx on the walls. They were even playing Cultural Revolution songs. To me the really funny thing was that this was not a touristy type place. It was intended to be tongue in cheek, but was aimed at native Chinese. The menu was in Chinese only, no pictures so I couldn’t order. I still don’t know what some of the stuff was we were eating but it was very good. All the restaurants serve “family style” with big bowls in the middle and everybody just picks from them with their chopsticks. And smoking at the table is acceptable. No ashtray? No problem, just flick it on the floor.
After we ate, Bob, our guide, drove me back to Bao Ding. It’s about a two-hour drive. He is a REALLY nice guy about the same age as Tina and me. We visited on the drive and talked about many things.
When we got to Bao Ding we went to the police station. This is the police station where Kai was taken when he was first found, so I was really happy I got to visit it.
It was very small, and quite funky. It seemed more like a DMV. People were there to process various applications, like we were doing. As it turns out we were very fortunate that Bob had insisted we made this trip. The police dept. had to see my passport, and the photos we had gotten of Kai the day before weren’t right. His head was too big in them, and the shirt he was wearing was too light in color. So someone from the orphanage took the photos back to the photographer and had him resize them and color his shirt on a computer. I also had to sign for the passport.
If I hadn’t made this trip I don’t know what we would have done, there’s no way we would have gotten his passport in time. Bob still seemed somewhat concerned but I think it will be okay.
Another funny bit to this story was that while we were waiting for the photos to be fixed bob took me into the back of the police station where they had a little store. He wanted to look at personal protection weapons, and this is where they sell them. In the back was a room with three people playing cards and smoking behind a counter. In the counter was the most amazing display of tazers and stun guns you can imagine. Bob asked to look at one that resembled a police baton with silver metallic spirals down the shaft. The woman helping him turned it on and discharged it in the room. The shaft lit up like a lightning storm! The crackling electricity left the smell of ozone heavy in the room. Then Bob tried discharging it a couple times. I was quite impressed, as I’d never seen anything like this before! He decided to settle on a small retractable spring club instead.
As we were leaving, Bob told me that his 19-year-old son had just begun studying computers at the university here in Bao Ding, and asked me if I would like to meet him. I thought this sounded like a great idea to me, so we drove over to the University. Much of it is brand new, and very modern. Bob’s son was very nice, and seemed excited to meet me. His English was very good, which kind of surprised his father. We visited for a bit about computers, and then Bob and I headed back to ShiJiazhuang.
I had him take me to a grocery store on our way to the hotel, as we needed some baby food and a few other things. Bob took me to a brand new shopping center, which was amazing. It was like a cross between Wal-Mart and Haggen, only bigger and fancier. They had everything you can imagine there. Again it drove home the vast economic disparity in China. Parts are so modern and western, while vast poverty is still the reality for many, many people here.
I got back to the hotel about 8:00 PM. Tina and the boys had had a good day. Cam and Ben had discovered another shopping center across the street from the hotel. Cam bought a cheap guitar for $30 and Ben got a harmonica. They have been playing for Kai.
Tina found that Kai likes to eat egg drop soup. They had taken him to the hotel restaurant and tried him on several things. He settled in on the soup and had three big bowls of it!! She said she had to finally just quit feeding it to him as he showed now signs of stopping.
When we got back to the room the boys went to their room for a bit and Tina and I were alone with Kai. I laid down on the bed with my knees up and laid him back against my thighs. I then started playing with his feet in my face – peek-a-boo, and nibbling his toes, and he started to smile! This was so exciting because he has been pretty much just shut down since we got him. We think it’s a combination of stress and grief, but it’s scary to see this tiny little guy be so passive and quiet. But then when I was playing with him I suddenly got a giggle out of him!!!
It was so exciting and reassuring to hear! We called the boys into our room but he wouldn’t do it again for an audience. Still we knew now that it was in there, and we were certain we’d see it again!
When we woke up today, I said to Tina that I thought today would be the beginning of Kai’s transformation. It was day three, and we didn’t have any plans to leave the hotel so we would be able to just go slow.
Tina and I had woke up at 4:00 AM and lay there quietly till 5:00. We have Kai in a crib next to us. But I couldn’t leave him in there any longer so we brought him to bed between us. He is soooo tiny, and sweet. Even though he’s going on three, he is still very babyish. He takes a bottle and wants to be held a lot, which we think is great. We are dying to hold him, and being able to feed him a bottle is such a great way to bond.
About 7 or so he was waking up so we gave him a bottle, and then he went back to sleep. He just seemed stressed out, and he was dealing with it by sleeping. So we just held him and let him sleep. When he did finally get up I started playing with him again with the foot game. I would put his toes in my mouth make noises. Then I started tickling him and before long I had him laughing out loud!!! It was thrilling. And from there he began to just open up. He still had some sad quiet times through out the day, but we just took it slow, and lounged in the bed with him.
We did go down to the restaurant for lunch and dinner; both times he did the same bottomless bowl of soup thing. The hotel restaurant is buffet style and they have both “western” (sort of) and Chinese food. So we started adding fried rice and cooked pumpkin, which we mashed) into the egg drop soup. As long as it was mashed and in the soup he would eat it. And he started feeding himself as well. At dinner I questioned whether we should really give him a third bowl again, but he was scraping the bottom of the second bowl. So we gave him the third but didn’t help him eat it. He didn’t need any help. He’s like one of those competition eaters. We all just sit there watching him put it away, and wonder, “where is it going?”
He also started playing with the toys we brought. Yesterday he would hold things, but didn’t play at all, just looked sad. But today he was really coming out of it. He likes putting things inside other things so we got out the plastic linking rings, and the biggest stacking cups. He spent about an hour putting the rings in the cup than dumping them out.
We also got out the magna-doodle. I wasn’t sure if he’d figure this out, but he obviously has had experience coloring. He wanted the back of the pen to be an eraser, but once we showed him how to clear the drawing surface he just went to town with it.
We are feeling much better about how he’s doing now, and expect to see even more improvement as we go forward. He’s grieving, and has some delays, but he is the most beautiful thing we’ve ever seen (along with our other two sons) and know he will make rapid strides.
Tomorrow we are to visit some tourist attractions. I can’t remember if it’s the temple or the bridge. I am hoping it will stop raining. It poured all day today. Since we didn’t go anywhere it didn’t matter, but hopefully it will clear and let us see some of the countryside.
Bob, our guide, had said yesterday that the cloudy weather was, “Perhaps because the sky is moved.” He meant that they were tears of joy for our adoption of Kai, and I think this is true. Bob has been a great help to us, and is a very sincere and noble man. I feel so lucky to have traveled this far and be able to meet people like him.
Please hold our family in your prayers as we still have a long way to go before we are back in our home. Emails are always welcome and reassuring!
Ocheltree Family Vacation
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Day Four in ShiJiazhuang and suddenly we’re on a family vacation!
All five of us are settling into a calmer rhythm.
First, if I had a better Internet connection I would change the banner graphic at the top of every page from “The Story of Kai” to “Hui-Hui’s World!” For that is Kai’s “REAL” name. He IS Hui-Hui. You say it sort of like Hway Hway, rhymes with Way-Way. Most people in China are given two character names when they are born. So he was originally given the name Dang Hui. Dang is pronounced “Dong” and means “The Party” as in The Communist Party”, because he was to be raised in the Social Welfare Institute by “The Party”. It is a common practice in China to nickname children by calling them one of their name characters twice, so his nickname in the orphanage was Hui-Hui. Well, he is no longer being raised by The Party, so we have changed the first character of his name to Kai, which means Victory. We are keeping the second character of his name, Hui, which means Wisdom. So his nickname, Hui-Hui, means “Very Wise”. And when you meet him I think you will agree He IS Hui-Hui!
This morning began again with Tina and me waking up pretty early. Hui-Hui is a great sleeper, and waking up with him next to us in his crib is like waking up next to a Christmas tree and finding a brand new Red Ryder BB gun with a big red bow underneath it! We can’t leave him in there, so we bring him to our bed to lie between us. He continued to sleep with us for another hour, and then I mixed up a bottle for him and made tea for Tina and me. After his bottle he set to work on putting the plastic rings in the stacking cup and dumping them out again.
He’s been nothing but smiles all day today! I got the Big Brothers up at about 8:00 AM, and when they came to our room Hui-Hui was happy to see them.
We had breakfast at the hotel buffet again. Hui-Hui had the congee, which is like rice porridge. Tina mixed mashed up hard-boiled egg into it. We only let him have two bowls this morning. He is an eating machine! Mealtime is serious business.
After breakfast our guide, Bob, took us to the Longxing Si. “Si” means temple. So far this has been the highlight of the touring part of our trip. (Hui-Hui of course is THE highlight of the whole trip!) The oldest buildings at Longxing Si were originally built in 1052 A.D. We saw so many amazing sites there! The design of many of the buildings here was used at the Forbidden City, but this site is much older. Also, since this site is located away from the major tourist routes it has a much more dignified and sacred feel to it. We were the only westerners there, and we were quite an attraction ourselves.
There were children playing outside the temple, I think their parents were vendors there. They were very interested in us. Two girls were playing with little beanbags which they could juggle and kick like a hackey-sack. Ben had his hackey-sack with them so he showed them his moves, and I juggled a little for them.
Bob helped us buy incense to burn as offerings inside the Temple.
The grounds themselves were very beautiful and quiet. No tourists were there, and we had the whole place almost to ourselves. Outside one of the shrines was a group of monks with instruments. For 100 yuan they would play a song for you while you prayed before the shrine. While we were there a man came and gave them an offering and knelt to pray. It was very moving to hear the monks play. Bob knew much of the history of the temple that he shared with us. The artwork was truly awesome. I was so glad we were able to take Hui-Hui to this wonderful place. He seemed to really enjoy it too. He was very interested in the different statues of Pusa and Buddha.
He really looked at them attentively. In the last shrine we entered there is a beautiful bronze sculpture of 12 Buddhas seated on giant lotus blossom.
Bob told us that it is good luck and will bring happiness and longevity if you walk around the statue 3 times. We had Hui-Hui place our last bundle of incense before this statue and then Tina and I took his hands and walked with him three times around it.
I really can’t explain how moving it was to be there with our whole family.
The other amazing thing was the weather. It had been overcast and hazy (smog?) since we left Beijing, and yesterday it had poured hard all day. Then today it was absolutely gorgeous. Just like a nice day at home. Not too hot, and beautiful blue skies!
Afterwards, we went to lunch on our way back to the hotel. I suggested we go to the Cultural Revolution restaurant I had been to with him on Monday so Tina and the boys could see it. I learned the name today, “To Serve The People”.
We were the only ones there, and the manager recognized me from my previous visit. I decided to try a chicken’s foot as it was in the chicken mushroom soup.
Really good soup! Chicken’s feet are kind of tough to eat, but they do taste good. Hui-Hui loved the noodles and the chicken mushroom soup broth. When we were done he was completely trashed and so was the table.
We got back to hotel and dropped off Tina and the boys. Bob wanted me to go with him to the police station to check on the status of Hui-Hui’s passport, as he was worried about us getting it in time before we have to leave for Guangzhou. How could such a beautiful day be any more perfect? By finding Hui-Hui’s passport there waiting for us!!!
Buddha was truly smiling on us today!
When I got back to the hotel I found everybody resting, and Hui-Hui was down for the count.
After a late nap we took him to the hotel buffet again and let him gorge on soup. Tonight we tried him on the millet gruel, again we added mashed pumpkin too it for fiber and vitamins. The dude put away another three bowls. We won’t help him with the third one because it just doesn’t seem right. But that doesn’t stop him.
After he ate, we walked down the street and the rest of us ate at…
Yep, we caved on day 6. We were quite the sight in there. All of the staff was very curious about us and why we had Hui-Hui. A couple of them spoke enough English to visit with us. Hui-Hui wasn’t interested in what we were eating. He doesn’t like anything you can eat without a spoon. But we did buy him the Happy Meal toy.
Getting him to bed when we got back was a struggle. The late nap had left him wired and he was a crazy giggly monkey boy who wanted to show-off and laugh and play. Apparently while we weren’t looking someone must have stolen away the shy, sad, little orphan we found last Sunday and replaced him with a little clown!
Tomorrow is a quiet day at the hotel. Hopefully Cam and Ben will get some schoolwork done. Friday we may do some more touring and then we fly to Guangzhou on Saturday. Now that we have Hui-Hui’s passport our work here is done and we can relax.
We really appreciate all the email people have sent us; it’s nice to know people are thinking of us. If you would like to send Hui-Hui a personal email message you can, because he now has his own email address. It’s:
hui_hui@mac.com
If you send him a message we will read it to him, and print it to put in his “Life Book”. I’m sure he would love to hear from you!
Here are a few more pictures from our day...
The view from our hotel room window
The street outside the hotel at night
Hui-Hui and Bob at lunch
Bob, Ben, & Cam
Roast Duck...
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Today was another “quiet” day in Shijiazhuang. We didn’t have Bob, our guide, come to meet us for anything. Now that we have Hui-Hui’s passport all we have to do is wait until Saturday, when it’s time to go to Guangzhou. So we decided to just hang out around the hotel.
Hui-Hui started his day with the stacking cups again. These are good for long periods of time. He focuses quite intensely on this work.
He had oatmeal for breakfast. Hui-Hui likes to share and wants to make sure everybody gets enough to eat.
Tina and I decided to take him for a walk and practice crossing the street. I think we’re starting to get the hang of it. The best strategy for us right now is to find a Chinese person trying to cross the same street and follow them closely. Some will cross busy streets like they’re playing “Frogger”. One lane at a time stopping on the lines as cars and bikes come at them from every direction. It’s the taxi’s you really have to watch for.
Drivers have a whole different system for communicating. Horn honking isn’t rude. In fact it can be polite. Bob showed me how to honk “thank you”, it’s a quick “beep beep”. I’ve also noticed you should always honk as you enter an intersection to let people know you are there. It would be rude not to honk in this situation. Bikers ring their bells as they approach intersections. It’s a noisy place!
Shijiazhuang doesn’t have a lot of touristy stuff to do. Which makes it kind of fun for us in a way. We are a real curiosity here. Tina had a maid in the hotel sweep a tight circle around her in the lobby with a push broom while staring at her. We are glad we brought little cards with us that explain in Chinese what it is we’re doing here, and why we have Hui-Hui.
We took all three boys to the shopping mall again today. Cam got an er-hu, a type of Chinese violin.
Hui-Hui loves hanging with his brothers...
For dinner we decided to try a rather famous restaurant called Quanjude, known for its Peking duck. Our Frommer’s travel guide says this “provincial branch” provides better service, price and atmosphere than it’s main outlet in Beijing. Since this was one of the few things listed in the Frommer’s China book for Shijiazhuang, we decided to try it out. I took the book down to the concierge desk and showed the entry to the attendant. No one here in the hotel really “speaks” English. I said “restaurant” a couple times to him, and finally he lit up and said, “Yes, restaurant, umm, chicken, no… DUCK!” and smiled real big! I took this as a good sign then he said, ‘Not far, take taxi, maybe… 5 yuan.”
We decided we could do this. We wrote the name and address for the restaurant on a slip of paper, and we have cards from the hotel that have their name and address on them in Chinese. We got a cab outside the hotel and rode a little ways across the downtown area.
So we get to the place and it looks great! We’re thinking we are so cool. This will be no problem. It’s a beautiful restaurant with a big happy duck outside.
We get in and the place is gorgeous.
We see the fire where they roast the duck,
And the ducks,
And all the seafood tanks that restaurants here like to use to display their fresh, live seafood.
A hostess shows us to our table and seats us. Then they begin speaking to us in Mandarin. I thought for sure that someone here would speak a little English, so I indicated I didn’t understand, she quickly went to get someone. This person didn’t speak English either though, and before long we had a crowd of well-uniformed staff around us all speaking in Mandarin. A few of them gesture that I should follow them over to another part of the restaurant. They lead me to a display of hanging ducks. I try to ask how much I should order for 4 people. They look at me like I’m speaking a foreign language.
I smile a lot and keep trying to indicate that I’m trying to feed dinner to 4 people. We gesture and make confused faces at one another for a while then they lead me to a vast display of dishes.
None of which are anything I recognize. More staff gathers around me. Then this guy
Starts indicating that I should point to what I want. I make a couple choices; he seems to want me to continue. I point some more. I try to indicate that there are 4 people I’m trying to feed.
Confused looks and encouragement to select more.
Finally one of the waitresses in our entourage seems to think I may have ordered enough and they allow me return to the table. Tina and the boys are looking at me like “Where have you been?”
I’m not sure what to say, because I’m not really sure what had just happened.
I think we are going to get some duck,
And some other things.
Then about 5 waiters and waitresses tried to take our drink order. We think this shouldn’t be too hard, and try to order a couple Cokes and a couple beers. More confusion ensues, a wine list is produced. I think it was a wine list, but it was written in Chinese. I’m not quite sure why they thought I might be able to read Mandarin if I can’t speak or understand it, but they insisted several times that I should look at this list. The printing in it was very nice.
Finally we did actually get two Cokes and two beers. We also got two very odd, cloudy fruit beverages that we had also apparently ordered in the confusion.
We also managed to convey that we wanted soup for Hui-Hui. Tina had learned that the word for soup is something like “tong”.
So we all kept saying, “tong” and pantomimed eating soup from the small bowls on the table. This they understood and quickly produced what looked like the “millet gruel” Hui-Hui likes in our hotels buffet.
They really made a fuss over him. When I tried handing Tina a disposable bib, a waitress took it, put it on him and proceeded to feed him for us.
Then the dishes I ordered start to arrive.
When I say these were generous platters, it doesn’t quite convey the amount of food I had apparently ordered. We might as well have been catering a small wedding.
Tina, Cam, and Ben, all start getting alarmed. “How much food did you order?”
I really have no idea what to tell them. I don’t even know what it is that I’ve ordered, let alone how much.
“What about the duck?” they keep asking.
I think I ordered duck.
In fact I think I might have ordered a couple. But there is no way we can fit any more food on the table.
We had also indicated that Hui-Hui would need more soup, so they brought him a whole tureen.
Then someone brings me this extremely fancy envelope with raised, golden Chinese calligraphy printed on the front.
I open it and find a certificate with the number of the duck they are about to serve us.
The bird is carved tableside and they have all of us taste a bite before it is served.
The head is split and served on a separate plate.
We begin to speculate what this dinner might be about to cost us. This place is pretty fancy, and we have ordered enough food to feed The Red Army. Ben always worries about our finances, and I can see him begin to panic.
The duck is excellent though, and we decide not to worry about it. We’ll just let this be our big splurge for the trip.
Finally the bill comes…
360 Yuan
That’s a whopping $45!!
So my advice is, if you find yourself in Shijiazhuang, and have time to drop by the Quanjude restaurant, try the duck. It’s excellent!
Getting To Know Hui-Hui
Friday, September 23, 2005
I have pretty much forgotten what a normal sleep pattern feels like. Living 15 hours ahead of your body clock does weird things to your state of consciousness. Then throw in the most extreme emotional experiences of your life, and intense culture shock. My brain is pretty much mush at this point. That’s one reason I am trying to write these blog entries everyday. I am so afraid of forgetting any of this experience.
I carry the digital camera with me all day long, partly just to help me remember things. Tina told me to leave it behind at one point but I refused. We’re coming up on nearly 700 pictures of the trip so far, and that’s after discarding the out-of-focus junk shots. I can’t imagine what it would cost to use real film on a trip like this.
Hui-Hui is beginning to find a routine with us. He is such a sweet little boy. Before we departed from Bellingham, I consciously refused to let myself think too much about what he might be like. It’s impossible not to fantasize, but I was so afraid of setting myself up for disappointment. I didn’t want to be disappointed, or overwhelmed, or I don’t know what. I just didn’t want to have some idyllic model in my head before we got here.
But now that we’re here and we really have Kai-Hui with us, I couldn’t possibly be happier, or more in love with him! I only wish you could see in the pictures what an amazingly beautiful little boy he is! It is truly miraculous!
Not that we don’t have concerns about him; he is very tiny, and weak too. His muscle tone is not good and he’s so scrawny. All the clothes we bought months ago that we started worrying would be too small when we got him are all way too big. And his walk has that drunken sailor quality to it of a much younger child. When we got him out of the bath the other night and he was naked in the room Ben commented that he had a “little old man butt”. He’s just so scrawny!
Having seen the conditions at the S.W.I. he was in, and knowing it’s far from the worst of them, I feel so sad that so many children have such little hope in front of them. He is such a sweet, sweet soul. And I can’t believe how lucky our family is to have him be with us. And there are so many more miracles out there waiting for families to find them.
This time away from everything normal in our lives has been a good way to make this transition. All of our focus has been on Hui-Hui. We still aren’t really parenting yet. I was saying to Tina, that I feel he is like this fine crystal goblet we are trying not to break. There is so little we truly understand about him yet. He is this deep, deep puzzle we are slowly beginning to solve.
Here’s some of what we’ve learned so far…
He will only eat food with a spoon. No hard foods. Many families talk about how Cheerios were THE thing that got them through their initial "Gotcha Day". We brought them along and tried them first thing. He likes to see how many he can hold in his hand but still refuses to eat any.
He won’t eat cookies, or sweets. Any sweets. We tried frozen yogurt at McD’s today (with a spoon) he tasted it but wouldn’t go for it.
He has intense concentration. I think he’s working on a doctoral thesis on the properties of stacking cups. He spends hours testing various theories regarding how they work.
Putting objects in containers is very good too.
Crinkly wrappers are good.
Feeding people is very good.
When he eats he is careful to get the food off his face into his mouth. He actually scoops up the dribbles off his chin and pokes them into his mouth. (I try not to think about the kind of hunger that teaches a child this young to conserve food in this way)
He loves to laugh so much!
He’s ticklish.
He throws things to be naughty and laughs when you tell him “bu” (Mandarin for “no”).
He makes faces at his brothers and mimics them.
If you say “humph!” he’ll cross his arms and tucks his chin.
He waves “zai jain” (Mandarin for Bye Bye) will wave for bye bye too.
Will put his pointer finger to his lip and go shhhh!
Knows that I’m “Babba” and Tina is “Mamma”
Is frighteningly cooperative when you are dressing him.
Is extremely affectionate.
Loves to be held.
Can entertain himself for long spells.
Can go to sleep by himself in his crib. (It took us until last night to discover this, when we finally realized that we were keeping him up by carrying him around singing lullabies to him. He just kept fighting it. After 30 minutes or so, we finally admitted to ourselves that it wouldn’t be a crime to put a former orphan down in his bed. He fell right to sleep once we quit messing with him. Still feels wrong though.)
Tina says I need to sleep more, so I’m going to stop for now.
We fly to Guangzhou tomorrow.
Here are some pictures of our day today…
First things first: Stacking Cups!
Breakfast at the buffet: hard boiled eggs mixed in oatmeal: 2 bowls,
after one bowl of congee with pork and "preserved eggs"
Trying to pick out pants that will fit...
Hey, his brother Ben wears 'em like this!
To give you an idea of his size, this is a portable crib, not full size.
He's 33 months old.
Trying to get him to eat frozen yogurt. Didn’t happen
With his brothers at the park.
Walking with Momma and Brother Ben
The shopping mall across the street. We've spent way too much time here, but have some funny stories...
Cam and Ben meet some of the local people...
Our hotel from the park.
Hui-Hui, I don’t think we’re in China anymore…
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Yesterday we flew from Shijhizhuang to Guangzhou. We were so worried as to how Hui=Hui would do on the flight.
We checked out of our hotel at about 10:00 AM and took a van ride out to the local airport.
Much smaller than the airport in Beijing or Guangzhou.
Our guide made sure we had no problems checking our luggage or getting our boarding passes, and this all went very smoothly. I wish I had taken a picture of the plane we flew on because it was quite the sight! The safety card on board said it was a McDonald Douglas 82/90. From the window at the airport we got a pretty good look at it. Maybe too good a look! It was very grimy, and the paint was peeling off in places. Cam looked at me and smiled then said, “Hey, there’s nothing we can do about it now, so don’t think about it.”
I agreed with him and said that I felt safe because we had Kai with us. I figure he didn’t make it this far just to go down in a crappy little plane! We got on board and it didn’t seem too bad. We took up a whole row across the isle. Tina told the boys that she had heard of much worse planes on intra-China flights, with things like seats that don’t stay upright. “Like that one back there?” Cam asked pointing back behind us a few rows.
Hey, I’m typing this right, so everything was fine!
Anyway, we are all on the plane wondering how Hui-Hui will do. We’ve missed lunchtime and don’t really have anything for him but a bottle. Tina and I belt him into his own seat between us. First time with a seat belt. So far we’ve been driving around China with him standing up in the seat with us. (You know, the way our parents did when we were little) The flight attendant gives us a pillow for him and he’s hanging out being cool. The plane taxi’s to the runway and begins to take off. Just as the nose of the plane starts to tip up, His eyes roll back and he falls fast asleep!
He did wake up about halfway through with some painful (and quite stinky) gas, but after that passed (mercifully without anything else). Tina comforted him and he went right back to sleep.
(Can you tell from the picture if she likes doing this or not?)
He woke again before landing in good spirits. He read the in-flight magazines,
Reviewed the safety instructions,
Played peek-a-boo with his big brothers,
And thought the fairly hard landing was pretty funny! It was truly surreal. This little guy is taking it so easy on us that we are simply amazed!
We made it through the Guangzhou airport without too much trouble. We did make the mistake of falling into our habit of following all the Chinese people around. This is a coping strategy that has served us well for the last week, but none of them had checked any bags today, so we cleared the security checkpoint without our luggage. We realized instantly what we had done, and turned right around to get our bags but we had gone about 10 feet too far. A guard stops us, and starts talking rapidly. I don’t know if he was speaking Mandarin, or Cantonese (the local dialect) but I knew what he was saying. So I showed him my luggage claim tags a few times, and finally after thoroughly wand-scanning my entire body he let me walk through the metal detector and get our bags.
Our new guide, “Connie”, was they’re waiting for us with a driver, and she took us to the White Swan Hotel on Shamian Island.
We have been promising Cam and Ben for over a week that this would be a very nice hotel, and that our last few days in China would be much easier on us. I am very happy to report that it appears we were telling them the truth!
I have stayed in some very nice 4 star hotels. This is a very nice 5 star hotel. What a difference a star makes! All 5 of us are extremely comfortable and happy to be here! I promise to give you a full report on the accommodations in my next post.
Hui-Hui continues to amaze us! He doesn’t really talk that we can tell, but he is vocalizing more. And now he has started “singing”! It began to rain here as we were checking into our room, so Tina started singing, “It’s raining, It’s pouring…” to him, and he starts making singing noises along with her! He kept that up all evening. He understands a lot! I can tell him to give something to Mamma, and he will hand it to Tina. Same goes for Baba (Mandarin for father). Tina says he was saying “Mamma” I have to concede that it does sound like it, though I’m not convinced he isn’t just babbling, and I am working very hard on getting “Babba” out of him. The boys have fun teaching him to mimic silly gestures. They caught him making a prayer like gesture with his hands pressed together in front of his face. They quickly developed this to include repeated head bowing and can get him to do it by simply telling him to, “pray to Buddha”. They are hoping he will do this when we visit the 6 Banyan Temple.
Okay, that’s all for now. Please keep those emails coming! We love hearing from you!
Settling Down On Shamian Island
Sunday, September 25, 2005
I keep wondering what's going on in Hui-Hui's head. What can he possibly make of all this? We've taken him from the Bao Ding S.W.I. to a 5 star resort hotel.
This is the lobby...
These koi are bigger than our cat...
I also wonder what's going on back at the Bao Ding S.W.I. All I can guess is that it must be much quieter, and a bit lonelier.
Hui-Hui's day actually started by being woken up by his noisy Aunt Kris. We got the video camera gear to work with my Sister and my Mother. At one point today Hui-Hui met his cousin Devon through the computer and they played with cars together.
As he continues to come out of his shell Hui-Hui just gets louder and louder. He sang all day and continued to become bolder and bolder with us. He no longer will tolerate having us feed him, and if we make any moves that look like we might be interrupting his mealtime he becomes quiet agitated and doesn't hesitate to reprimand us.
The breakfast buffet here is fantastic and the bowls are finally big enough for Hui-Hui.
It's funny though, because when we are around other people he is shy and quiet. We try to tell people about all the funny things he does, but he will show no signs of what we call "Crazy Monkey Boy" in front of strangers. Here's a picture of him meeting the Oppliger's new daughter Amy. They live very near my sister's family outside of Marysville, and are the family we toured Beijing with. Amy is a little younger than Hui-Hui, and very pretty.
The White Swan Hotel is very, very nice. And it's crawling (literally) with baby Chinese girls. We thought we would stand out less here, but having a little boy is pretty unique, especially when accompanied by two large teenage boys as well.
We ventured out of the hotel to do a little trinket shopping, and got pinned by a passing rainstorm into the first little shop we came to. They all have pretty much the same stuff, so we decided to just complete our shopping all at once. I don't really know if we got a good deal or not, the stuff seemed pretty cheap, but we're not very good at the bargaining thing. We're happy with what we got though so we're not going to worry about. The shopkeeper, "Susan", loaned us a stroller and arranged to have our laundry done as well. Cam and Ben went back to pick up the laundry later this evening and were gone for quite awhile. When they returned they told us they had gotten into a pretty interesting discussion with Susan and some other guy from Austria. The topics ranged from politics and religion to what types of food are acceptable in different cultures.
We went for a walk in the afternoon past a pretty little park that cuts through the center of Shamian Island, then crossed over a bridge into the edge of Guangzhou proper. There are way more cars here where we are, than when we were in Shijiazhuang, and the cars drive much faster. But it's an amazing city.
For dinner we returned to the Thai Restaurant. All of us love Thai food. Hui-Hui is really branching out in the diet. He demanded to have some of everything. And he was picking up on the fact that we were all serving ourselves from the different dishes in the middle of the table. So now, not only can we not feed him, we can't dish up for him anymore either. We are to pass him the dishes, and let him serve himself. Once we had all finished he spent quite a while moving food from one bowl to another. It was much like his ongoing studies of the stacking cups.
Another interesting thing that happened today was that the main lobby entrance here was overtaken by media and security as "Hong Kong’s chief executive led all but one member of the city’s legislature across the border to mainland China today, starting a two-day trip that marks the first time Beijing authorities have let in prominent Hong Kong advocates of democracy since the Tiananmen Square killings on July 4, 1989" (excerpt from THIS NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE) Here are some pictures we took of this...
We decided to finish our day by taking Hui-Hui to the pools and seeing if he liked the water. We've had no trouble getting him in the bath, but we weren't sure what he would make of a cold swimming pool, outside at night.
Tina made sure that we went slowly and didn't overwhelm him...
Turns out the "Monkey-Boy" is actually a "SEA-Monkey!!
He loved the water, and refused to be left behind with Tina in the "baby" pool while Baba and the brothers swam in the big pool! He wanted over where we were swimming under the waterfall!
After swimming we dried off.
and went back to the room to try on the traditional Chinese costume we bought him earlier...
Cam and Ben each got a similar jacket to match.
Here are a few more pictures of the hotel and the surrounding area...
The Pearl River outside our window at night...
A couple of the many bronze statues depicting traditional and modern Chinese culture...
The park in the center of the island...
Many couples have wedding pictures taken in the park...
A Busy Day With Hui-Hui
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Our life has taken on a dream-like quality. This might be partially because it all takes place when we should be sleeping, but really it's more than that. Tina and I talked today about the timeless quality there is to this trip. I feel sort of like the children in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe at the end of the story when they can hardly remember their real lives back home. We have no idea what day it is, or how long we've been here. There is hardly any connection to our lives back home except through email messages. And even these are time zone shifted by 15 hours, so suddenly email communication feels like traditional mail.
Now that we have video-conferencing stuff working we have broken out of this mode a couple times and actually had a few phone call type experiences. Today when Hui-Hui was having lunch we managed to hook up with my sister's family (just before they went to bed the night before). This was fun because they actually got to see a bit of what we call his "Monkey-Boy" behavior. We were feeding him hot cereal in the hotel room and he was pretty focused on the task at hand, but as he got towards the end of his third bowl he began to get pretty playful. I don't know what he thinks of them on the computer screen exactly but they did get him to play one of his games with them. It's sort of a "call and answer" thing that basically consists of yelling "Aye-Ah!!" back and forth. The object is to yell it louder and with more gusto then your companions! He went back and forth with them for some time until they were all laughing in hysterics! It was very funny!
We finally had to call it off, as he had apparently gotten full, and mealtime had morphed into a sort of impromptu science experiment involving instant baby cereal, lots of water, and some expensive looking hotel room furniture.
The rest of our day was quite busy. We began by getting up a little earlier and all having breakfast together here at the hotel.
Then we walked across Shamian Island along the canal
To the Physical Examination Clinic.
This is where Hui-Hui had his medical examination, which is required for him to get his U.S. visa.
After the exam was over we had to return to the hotel and wait in our room until we head back from our guide, Connie. She was taking all our paperwork to the consulate to apply for the visa. She has been wonderful to us, and makes sure we do everything we need to complete the adoption successfully.
So while we were waiting I thought I'd show you some of the stuff they provide for us here in the hotel room.
Here's some photo's of the mini-bar
That tiny little bottle of Hennessy XO in the top center is $30 USD. We're not touching that!
They restock the tea supply every day with 6 types of tea.
And give us little chocolates at bedtime every night
The complimentary toiletries are nicer than I've ever seen. They even give you toothbrushes, shaving kits, and these fancy little wooden combs.
I don't usually take stuff like this from hotel rooms, but these are really nice! The only problem is that there's so much of it I knew I would need an accomplice, er… I mean "assistant".
I got out some of the hotels complimentary "Loot Bags" and asked Hui-Hui if he'd mind giving me a hand...
We started in the bathroom...
Then we went next door and cleaned out the Big Brothers' room...
After we finished I let Hui-Hui glean through the take anything he wanted...
We still had time to work with the stacking cups...
And we spent some time coloring too...
Hui-Hui likes looking out the hotel room window...
At the boats on the Pearl River
After Connie finished our paperwork at the consulate, she took our family to "The Temple of The Six Banyan Trees" in the center of Guangzhou. We took two taxis: with Connie, Tina, Hui-Hui and me in one, and Cam & Ben in the other. When we got the temple it was very hectic getting out of the cabs, as I had to pay both drivers and we were approached by a number of beggars, many with physical defects. I am a pretty easy mark for beggars with hand problems on this trip, and so I started putting a few yuan into their bowls. When we finally made it inside the temple Tina suddenly turned to me and said, "Where's the backpack and stroller?"
They were left in the trunk of the taxi.
Tina, Connie and I all started to get a bit worried. The stroller is borrowed, so we'll have to pay for that, but the backpack. What was in the backpack? We've had to have the airline tickets out for confirmation, and our passports for the medical exam! No, Tina had thought to put all that back in the safe in our room. The only document in the backpack was our adoption certificate. Connie explained that this was no longer needed for anything else in the process, and we do have 3 notarized copies of it in the hotel room. We're bumming because it's a beautiful keepsake, but we decided that if it's gone, it's gone and we can't do anything about it now. Connie called the hotel and cab company so we might get it back. But we'll be okay without it, and we decided to relax and enjoy our temple visit.
This is the "Laughing Buddha", known in China as Maitreya, who you see at the entrance or first hall of many Buddhist temples. His big belly can hold all of your troubles, so I gave him an offering and asked if he'd look after our certificate.
These are the 3 main Buddha statues of the temple. They represent the past, the present, and the future. These bronze images were made in 1633 during the Qing dynasty. Each of the images is six meters high and weighs ten tons.
We gave an offering here and had the monks bless Kai-Hui. It was a very moving experience, especially since our family was all alone there at the temple. Cameron was able to videotape this for us as well.
The major structure of the temple is the Flowery Pagoda. Built in 1097, and named for its colorful exterior, this 57 meter high pagoda is in the center of the temple, with a bronze column with 1,000 Buddhist sculptures on top. Stored here are the Buddhist bones brought from Kampuchea More than 1460 years ago in the Liang dynasty.
Cam and Ben both climbed to the top of the pagoda. It appears to have 9 "stories" on the outside, but actually has 17 stories inside when you climb its steep stairs. Here's a picture of the view from the top...
This is a statue of the goddess Guan Yin Pusa. Many people we met while traveling would refer to her simply as "Pusa" which means Bodhisattva. She is considered to be like a Goddess of Mercy. I have felt a very strong connection to her on this trip and really liked this statue...
When we returned to the hotel we finished our busy day by taking a Pearl River dinner cruise with a bunch of other adoptive families from the hotel...
Coming To The End...
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
But really just another beginning!
We have one day left in Guangzhou. We have had a wonderful adventure in China! Kai-Hui is more wonderful than we could have ever hoped for and this experience has not only increased the size of our family, I think it has strengthened the bond between "The First Four" of us.
The most important part of today took place where I could not use my camera: The U.S. Consulate In Guangzhou. Kai-Hui, along with about 60 other babies, was "sworn in" as a U.S. Citizen. This part of the process is just a technicality, but it is the culmination of much work that went on before. Connie, our guide here in Guangzhou, did a ton of work behind the scenes for us to ensure that all our paperwork was properly completed and submitted. For us, we basically needed to just do as we were told. This is a good thing, as we are pretty much useless, what with time zone shifts, sleep dep, diet changes, and oh yeah, trying to figure out how to parent a toddler again!
It was really meaningful however, and again, I am very grateful that our older boys have been able to be a part of this. We can get pretty cynical about the United States' politics, and foreign policy, but being here in China and seeing this part of the world has given all four of us a different perspective on the meaning of our citizenship, and feel thankful that we are able to share this wonderful gift with Kai-Hui.
After the process was finished we rode back to The White Swan hotel and took pictures with the other two families traveling from our agency. This was really a great group! There were the Oppligers, the Matkins, and us. The Matkins live in Bellingham, right by the Waldorf School, and the Oppligers live near my sister in Marysville. We really have a lot in common. Besides being from the same area, we all have other children traveling with us, and we are all adopting "special needs" children.
A tradition here at The White Swan is to take pictures of the "New Babies" on The Red Couch. So we made our pilgrimage to this little shrine too. The Matkins new daughter, Elena, was done at this point and didn't want to play, but we caught her in the picture too.
We are all ready to be back home, and for dinner tonight we voted "American" and ate at Lucy's next door.
We sat outside and enjoyed our last warm evening in Guangzhou. It's very humid and tropical here, and while the hot, sticky feel is very different for us, the locals are complaining that it's a bit too cool for them at night. We all find this so amusing; as for us this has been a beautiful (if wet) extension to our summer!
A Few More Pictures...
To feed Hui-Hui in the hotel room we have taken to stripping him down and seating him on a towel, then staying out of his way. The nickname has changed from "Monkey-Boy" to "Monkey-King"!
The Trip to the consulate came at naptime.
These are pictures of Guangzhou that I took on our bus ride from Shamian Island to the consulate's new location...
The last two are out opposite sides of the bus at the same time.
The picture above was taken from in front of the consulate and is of the CITIC Plaza, the tallest building in Guangzhou, it has 80 floors and is 1283 feet high.
This is "Susan's Place" on Shamian Island. Very friendly vendor close to the hotel who took most of my money. She is very good at what she does, and our whole family enjoyed visiting her store.
Actually she did leave me with a few of these little bills - fractions of yuan.
Hui-Hui's the only son I have who will take these from me...
We will soon be on our way home. Thank you for following our adventures, and for all your kind email messages!
Zaijan!
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
We are packing up and checking out! No photos now but I couldn't help but post one last blog entry from China. Our flight home is MUCH easier than our flight here. It's still 12 hours on a plane, but we are all feeling up for it.
I will continue to post when we get home to keep you all updated as to Kai-Hui's progress so please stay tuned!
Much Love From The Ocheltrees:
Scott, Tina, Cam, Ben & Hui-Hui
Back Home At Last!!!
Thursday, September 29, 2005
We are HOME!!!
I wanted to share with everyone how our China adventure came to a close...
Our last "day" began at The White Swan. Cameron and I got up early and went out to the park together before breakfast. We wanted to take pictures and video of people exercising.
This is how many people in China begin their day, and it's fascinating to see so many people out in public together.
It was a beautiful morning on the Pearl River
And there were people fishing...
And even swimming in it!
After breakfast the 2 big boys and I adventured into downtown Guangzhou via taxi to find a music store outside of the tourist district to shop for cymbals. The music store we went to had both western and traditional Chinese instruments...
You see people on bicycles in Guangzhou
But there are way more motorcycles here...
Then we napped and packed, and spent the last of our pocket money on a few more trinkets from the merchants on Shamian Island, before heading to the airport. We flew out of Guangzhou at 9:00 PM Wednesday night, and arrived in Los Angeles at 6:15: PM Wednesday night after a 12-hour flight.
Based on our first flight with him last week, we thought Hui-Hui would do better than he did. But he wasn't happy about being belted down for take-off this time, and we just couldn't find his rhythm. There were a number of things working against us. The seats we were in had armrests that would not fold up, and Hui-Hui doesn't like to be held while he sleeps. Ultimately Tina and I took him in shifts and let one another try to sleep while the other of us held him. He did get some long sleep spells in, and was better for the second half of the flight. On landing he was asleep.
If you look out the window you can see the ground approaching. The moment the wheels touched down, Andrew Kai-Hui Ocheltree became an official U.S. citizen!
We landed in L.A. a little bit early and got through all the customs and immigration stuff. We rechecked our bags and got our boarding passes. Our flight in had made good time, and they told us we could actually get an earlier connecting flight to Seattle. This meant we had no wait at LAX. We checked our bags and immediately got on the plane and flew to Seattle. An amusing bit here was that as we were clearing the last security checkpoint the guard looked at our boarding passes and held one out, "Who's this?" he asked. I looked at the boarding pass and saw that it said "Danghui" on it. "That's this guy here," I said holding up Hui-Hui for him to look at. He looked back at the boarding pass with a puzzled expression. "Why would they do that?" he asked. "What," I asked anxiously. "He's been selected for a random search," the guard told us. We all started laughing at this. Welcome to America Hui-Hui! He pointed to where we needed to go, but they didn't actually put him through the process, in fact it was a pretty easy security check for all of us.
Tina let me sleep the whole flight since I would be driving when we landed.
This flight went easier for Hui-Hui, and we were all so happy to be back in Washington State! Amazingly I was able to find where I had put my car keys in my carry on bag, and we remembered what hotel we had left the car at. You may think I'm joking about this, but I'm not.
We finally got in the front door of our home at about 2:00 AM. Which was (and felt like) 5:00 PM China time. We unpacked, and checked out the house.
Tina, Cam, and Ben and I were all pretty funny. We were trying our best not to overwhelm Hui-Hui with all the cool stuff we wanted to show him in the house. Tina gave him a bath then we showed him his room. Right now his crib is next to Tina's and my bed in our room, and will be for a while. So his room is just a playroom right now. He was very interested in checking out all the things we had prepared for him...
The last time Ben played at this table he was the little brother!
Our cat was at the back door meowing for attention. When Hui-Hui saw this he confirmed what the people at his S.W.I told us. He is extremely frightened of dogs and cats. This is not good news. The cat is an outdoor pet so she's not a problem, but our dog, Daisy, will be home from the kennel on Friday. Hopefully we will be able to make a smooth adjustment with her for him. He wasn't happy with the stuffed animals we had in his room and in his crib either, but for some reason the stuffed Winnie-The-Pooh seemed to be a good thing, and was put to use as a "lovey".
Cam went to bed "early" at 4:00 AM because he wanted to head to school for the afternoon and catch up with friends. The rest of us didn't go down till nearly 5:00 AM. We woke up at about 10:00 AM and began to understand what "jet lag" is. We got Hui-Hui up about noon and we are hoping he'll go down okay tonight.
Our new life together is really just beginning now. I'll try to keep you posted as to how it goes.