Leaving soon.

sadly, it isn't to come home. we are flying to the south today to get her visa and citizenship paperwork going. walking through the airport and getting on a plane should be interesting. i guess this will be a trial run for the big flight.


playing with Ba ba.


guess i need to get use to this. she is already trying to get Daddy's money.

Stuff

just want to chat about a few things and post a few pictures. that OK with everybody?

we went to the Henan museum today. Henan (not pronounced like you think) is the province where Natalie is from. it was neat to read about the history of her hometown. something we can talk to her about later in life. the main thing that i wanted to say about our trip there was a conversation we had with some locals. they asked why we had a Chinese baby, of course. our guide explained that we were adopting her. as we started to walk away, one came back toward us and pointed at Natalie's brace (for her foot). apparently this lady asked why we would want a baby with this kind of problem. luckily i didn't know that is what she asked until we had walked away. our guide told her we wanted to help. the local lady responded that we were good people for helping her. had i had the opportunity or ability i would have forcefully said "becuase there is nothing wrong with her! just becuase she isn't valued by some here, doesn't mean we wont love her FOREVER!" maybe that would have caused a scene for them all to stare at.

i also wanted to let everyone know, as far as we know, Natalie's first two English words were "bye" and "apple."

just got done putting on the "special shoes" after a break from them. Natalie does not like to have her brace put on. once we tie them up, she is OK, but she HATES putting them on. big screams. big screams.

Out on the town

my brother, Jason, asked if we had taken her out much, so i will talk about that a little. we have taken her out, mostly with our guide/translator and once on our own. let me tell you, this is a unique experience. first of all, insanely HOT. had to be like 100 F out there today with a lot of humidity and traffic to heat things up more. second, with the Chinese people wanting to adopt so much of the western culture, i wish they would adopt the politeness of not straing at people. parents, please keep teaching your kids this becuase you don't want to see what happens when everyone stops doing it. chaos of discomfort.
i spoke a little before aobut them staring at Amy, but now it is 10 fold. everyone sees Natalie with two white people and with the brace on her feet and they can't stop staring. i am not talking about the once look. this is full on i am watching TV staring. i understand that they don't see anything wrong with it, but dang, they should. it makes Amy and I very uncomfortable.
when they are polite and wave and interact with her, we enjoy that. but the staring like we are zoo animals has got to stop. our guide gave us cards that say who we are and that we came to adopt Xue Er, but we have had little oportunity to show anyone. oh well.
we do like looking around at the sites and culture and it is good for Natalie to see people like her, so we endure occasionally. most everyone in the hotel is great. all very friendly and all wanting to speak a little English. believe me, i appreciate that becuase I know they don't have to cater to us. i will say that we are looking foward to our stay in Guangzho. there should be a lot of adoptive familes there and a bit more socialization.
also, i spoke a bit earlier about having to raise a child in a strange environment. an example of that is we can't wash and of her dishes or give her any water without boiling it or using bottled water. do you realize how big of a pain in the butt that is? spekaing of butt, and this is just gross, we aren't allowed to flush toilet paper here. pipes are too old and small in the city. it has to be just thrown away. enjoy the comforts of home folks.
finally, i took a cab ride to the Wal-mart, yes they have Wal-marts here, and it cost me $1. it was about a 10 minute cab ride. how much would that cost me in NYC, $15-20?

daddy feeding her cheerios.

i call this one "pretty face."

reading the newspaper.

i do have some videos i have taken, but don't have any video editing software on this computer. i may send them to me brother to see if he can do something with them.

Success

although we find it a bit bizarre, she did sleep through the night. the reason it is weird is that she fell asleep, after some effort, at exactly 9pm. she woke up at exactly 6:30am. this is precisely the time the orphanage told us she sleeps and she hit them both on the head. funny.

she seems a bit less grumpy this morning too. hopefully the full nights rest and a decrease in the fever (fingers crossed) is helping that.

btw, Amy keeps picking on me for my spelling mistakes or mistypes. in my defense, i am usually typing in limited light, i am using a netbook with a small screen, and the GoToMYPC screen that i have to use to get to blocked sites is also a bit smaller. that enough excuses?

Day 2 with Natalie

those papers in my hand means that we are official Natalie's Ma ma and Ba ba. Yes, it is surreal.

so, day 2 has not been as great as day one. she didn't sleep much last night. this is understandable given the changes she is experiencing, but it doesn't make it great either. she also had a bit of a fever today as well. so, not sleeping and having a fever make for a fussy baby. we have consulted both Chinese and American Drs. on the fever and are hoping it is nothing serious. She seemed to make some strides towards better behavior later tonight before she went down to bed. we are hoping for a bit more sleep tonight.

sadly, a sick Natalie wants Ma ma a lot more than Ba ba. actually, she wants very little to do with me right now. i am capable of realizing that she is used to female caretakers and will reasonably seek one out in time of distress, but that doesn't make it hurt any less when she pushes me away or turns away from me. i'll survive though as I know that better days will come. it wasn't like this all day, but i will say that Amy's arms are VERY tired.

thank you all for your well wishes and comments. we love reading every one of them.

Natalie

this is the smile we have been waiting to see.

we sent here this phone (and the outfit) in a care package about a month ago.

this was the first time Amy held her at the registartion office.