Friends at last

Just a quick post before going to bed. On the last full day of the trip Alice mellowed quite a bit and seemed more comfortable with our family. While waiting in the hotel lobby for the other families to assemble to go out to dinner, Alice ran around and played with Gracie and the other girls instead of clinging for dear life to one of the Chinese guides. She happily sat with me throughout dinner and sat on my lap after dinner while the adults talked. When we got back to the hotel she snuck into Grampa Glenn room and stole a bag of banana chips (although I think Glenn let her take it, he's been "Grampa treats" for all the kids in the group). We sat up in bed together watching Mandarin soap operas, listening to Gracie snoring and feeding eat other banana chips (I really didn't need all the banana chips but didn't want to spoil the moment). She gave me a kiss and went to sleep. All very nice but now it's late and I have to get up early in the morning to pack and she'll probably go back to hating me when she wakes up.

One more thing - Alice is now officially a Canadian citizen -sort of. We got a letter from the embassy stating that Alice Qiu Loten is now a Canadian citizen and has been issued a facilitation visa to allow her to enter Canada on her Chinese passport. After several congratulatory paragraphs the letter ending on a high note by stating that this letter should not be considered official confirmation of citizenship, is not a travel document, and does not guarantee that citizenship will ever actually be granted - God Save The Queen!

See you all Thursday

An old friend

Ma Rui, our guide when we adopted Gracie, dropped by today to say Hi and to deliver the new scrolls for the kids. In order to make sure that all the kids have the same `look` to their scrolls, we ordered a new set to include Alice. I also asked that the scrolls include the characters identify is child within the family. In Manderin, there are different terms for 'oldest sister', 'second oldest sister', 'youngest sister' etc, so now everyone is properly identified within the family. She remembered me and asked after Sarah and several other members of our first travel group (amazing when you consider the number of groups she has assisted). Gracie refers to our guides as our "guardians" and was asking if they were coming with us to Canada. Take a good look at the clothes Alice with wearing because right now I can't find any of them. We are getting along much better now, but as soon as we get to our room she immediately strips down naked. Since I've been forcing her to get dressed she has taken to hiding her clothes. I have no idea where they are right now, so she is up on points. On to the next round.


Message for Sarah: Please buy a bunch of instant noodles (the ones that come in their own bowl - Chef Woo would do). This is Alice's comfort food and we have a routine where we all sit on the floor in a circle and share a bowl of noodles (except Evan who hates the stuff). However bad things might be, or angry she might be, she will always sit with you and share a bowl of noddles. I think we will need lots of this stuff when we get home. BTW I showed her your picture today and right away she said "Ma Ma" so I think the orphanage must have prepared her. Keep in mind that "Ba Ba" means Darth Vader, but she seems happier with women. Also, I went a little nuts buying kites at the Friendship store, but I got some really cool ones, like a big silk and bamboo cobra kite and a big sparkly butterfly for Gracie and a Peking Opera kite and a really big birds kite with a huge tail (about 5ft). I sort of bought some really neat kite reels as well (high quality with ball bearing in the reels). They also gave me a few extra small ones free because I bought so many..... Anyway not a problem because your dad picked up an extra suitcase for the kites this afternoon so no worries. Good thing we are leaving tomorrow.
One more night in China so see you all soon!!!!!!

The sparkly dress are here!!!!!!!!!

Last night the sparkly dresses arrived and practically flew out the door of our room the get her's. I've never actually seen anyone float before, but when she put her on, she literally rose about a foot off the ground and floated out of the room. She did about 10 laps around the hotel and never touched the ground. Unfortunately the Ottman girls both melted down (Gracie has had her share of meltdowns too) but as you can see from the pictures, she has her runway poses down pat.

Tractor blockage to the Canadian Embassy - Back off government!

Yesterday we performed what will hopefully be the final official requirements needed to bring Alice home. All we had left was the medical check required by the Canadian government and a fee payment of $75 CDN to be made at the Canadian embassy and we'd be done.
The folks in our group who were applying under the old system, where the children will be entering the country as immigrants went off in the morning while those of us whose children are, according to Mr. Harper's new rules, fully Canadian citizens went in the afternoon. The medical check at the international clinic was great and we had the same doctor who checked out Gracie two years ago! She's a Chinese Canadian from Montreal who as been at the clinic for 10 years and has adopted two of her own children. She gave Alice the once over and everything is fine. Alice is a bit small by North American standards (6% on the charts) but only slightly small by Asian standards and her weight is exactly right for her size - perhaps a bit plump. We had a bit of a delay at the clinic as they were quite busy and then walked over the embassy (a five minute walk at the most) to pay the fee. This is where things fell apart.
First of all they were a bit fussy about letting us in. The embassy closes up at 3:00pm (even the Scotiabank in Perth stays open until 4) and since we arrived at 2:45 they seemed to think it would be better if we came back tomorrow (wouldn't want to get caught up in Beijing traffic after all). Eventually they decided that one person per family group would be let in (this was with all of us standing outside the gate waving our Canadian passports in the air). Of course we weren't allowed in the front door (after all, we're only a bunch of taxpayers) and instead were led around to a back entrance and down a dingy set of stairs to a clerk's window where you make your payments. The fee was $75 CND and I had on me about $80 CND in cash, $100 US in cash, $1000 RMB in cash, travellers checks, VISA, and interact - and NONE of this was acceptable. As of March 1st you can make payments at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing only with a CitiBank of China card. You have to pre-deposit your payment amount and then bring the card to the embassy to pay. Of course Children's Bridge had checked with the embassy before hand about the new system and fees, but somehow no one had passed on the info about the "special" payment methods. Chia, a Children's Bridge person who has accompanied us on this trip to assist with the new Citizenship process, began trying to negotiate with the clerks while the rest of us stood around looking contrite. But as I pondered the fact that Canadian currency wasn't acceptable in a Canadian Embassy, a tiny little Lanark Landowner, sort of like a little Yosemity Sam character, started pushing his way into the front of my brain. I started hearing a little voice saying that if Canadian currency was good enough to build the embassy, it damn well ought to be good enough inside the embassy. I start to feel like Bill Bixby right before he hulks out, only in my case I'm afraid of morphing into Randy Hiller, complete with red suspenders. The words "Back off government! Back of government!" started ringing in my ears and I could only keep things together by thinking happy thoughts about Tommy Douglas and other left-wind icons. I had resolved to wait another 5 minutes before demanding to see a consular official when they decided that we could (just this once) pay by VISA, which they would convert to RMB. We would lose on the exchange rate and there would be an extra service charge, but all we wanted to do was get our new kids (now full citizens) into their country of citizenship. We paid our fees, gritted out teeth, smiled and left, but it was the single most frustrating experience we had in this whole adoption process. We arrived pointing to the embassy and saying to the kids "look, look, Canada, Canada!" and left mumbling to the kids "Canada %$&*@ Canada" and somehow resisted the urge to heave the maple syrup bottles we bought as gifts at the flag.

Home stretch now ..... hurray!!!

A few shots from the hotel room

Here are a few shots from our hotel room after a typical day. We have Evan comforting his sister after a "Darth Vader" moment (fewer now). Gracie doing her middle child act and "mei mei" (little sister) and "jei jei" (big sister) sharing a bowl of noddles. The girls sit across from each other and pass the noodle bowl back and forth. If Gracie isn't paying attention, Alice passes the bowl over and gives her a whack as it to say "get on with it, your turn".

Up the Great Wall with Evan the rock star and our new middle child Gracie-lu

Here are some shots of us during our assault on the Great Wall of China. I have lots more pictures but am having connection problems so I'll only post at few. There's us at the top, a shot of part of the wall, and a few interesting others. In one you can see our new middle child Gracie-lu who was such a little @#%$*&^ that Grampa Glenn had to carry her up the wall on his back (since Alice decided that maybe Darth Vader wasn't quite so bad I was carrying her). The other shot is one of Evan's many adoring fans. No fewer than 5 very attractive young ladies asked to pose with the rock star and since Mr Evan doesn't want disappoint his fans, he was more than happy to oblige. They all gave him kisses when they were done. I don't know what this kid has, but it's a problem I never had to deal with.

Dresses, dresses, sparkly dresses

The other night a tailor arrived at the hotel to take measurements of those who want Chinese suits and dresses made up. He also brought a lot of patterns, samples, etc and set up in the Ottman's room. Suffice to say that Gracie arrived early and never left. She spent the whole evening carefully examining all the samples, watching the fittings and offering her professional advice to everyone. I had decided to get each of the girls a traditional outfit and when it was our turn Gracie already had everything worked out. She has selected a long, sleeveless dress with a leg slit on one side in a light pink material with a soft floral design. She also had selected a similar pattern for Alice, but in white. On the spur of the moment I asked Even if he wanted a traditional Chinese suit and he said he really would, so we had him measured up too. He says he wants to wear it when he talks to his class about his China trip. I didn't know he was planning to do this, but it will be an interesting lecture!

Marco Polo - Gung foo Master!

Evan now has a favorite Chinese TV show. It comes on at 7:00 am every morning and while in Mandarin, is clearly about the adventures of Marco Polo (Te shi "Marco Polo"!). It's basically the Marco Polo story we all remember from school - you know - how the great Khan (who appears to be some sort of benevolent Chinese Santa Claus) commanded the Italian explorer Marco Polo (played by a blond-haired American with a Tom Selleck mustache and a sword as big as your leg) to travel through out China and use his amazing gung foo powers to right wrongs and thrash villains. He is accompanied by a merry band of follows - there's a big muscular guy with a beard who braids his hair from the back of his head around under his chin. He doesn't have any weapons but just picks up the bad guys and dashes them to the ground while going grrrrr - there's also a little guy who has all these really quick moves with two short curly swords. He grins manically while he chops everyone to pieces. These also a comic servant who get beat up a lot but also has some sort of power hand move. It seems you have to get really pissed off first before the power hand works. The servant always gets beat up at the beginning of the episode and then in the big fight scene at the end something happens to get him really pissed off - then he squats down like he's really constipated, sticks his right hand straight out and runs around blowing everything up. Needless to say Evan loves this and can't get enough.

This evening we got some even better news for Evan. Steve Ottman, Chia and I stopped for dumplings after having the visa pictures taken of our kids and Chia asked Lily what it big theater next to the hotel was showing. Lily said they do live gung foo shows every night! I've arrange for Evan to go either tomorrow or Tuesday, so lookout Marco Polo!

An explosion at the airport

Today we left Wuhan - for Alice perhaps her last day in her birthplace. We spent most of the day packing and getting ready, then after lunch we went down to the civil affairs building to collect the kids' passports. I thought that Fontana would just pick them up, but Jane Ottman and I were asked to go into the building where we met with a regional official - the same woman who conducted the interviews (and was worried I might be a peasant). We were asked to sit down at a large conference table and then she made a brief speech officially thanking us for adopting the kids and congratulating us on behalf of the People's Republic of China for the new additions to our families. We were presented with the adoption documents, Alice's passport and receipts for all the fees we'd paid - including the donation to the orphanage (now that we have a receipt, I wonder if we can deduct the cost of the donation?). We were asked to verify the authenticity and accuracy of each document, asked if we were satisfied everything, officially thanked once again and walked to the door. As we left, Fonata apologized saying that they were a little rushed at the Civil Affairs building and normally they would have had a proper ceremony! In Jiangxi with Gracie, they just dropped everything off in our hotel room - of course Jiangxi is the backwoods of China while Hubie and Wuhan in particular are uptown, civilized places where they go through the proper motions even for foreigners.

The `brief ceremony` tied us up a bit and we hit rush hour traffic on the way to the airport. We arrived in time, but were a little rushed. Alice started to get fussy and since everyone, including Fontana was occupied with getting all the bags, kids and carry-on schlepped to the various gates and check points, I carried a protesting Alice all the way (who wouldn`t protest if Darth Vader had to carry you through airport security). She kept saying one of her Chinese phases over and over again with greater intensity, but I thought she was just being extra fussy. When we finally got to the terminal gate I passed Alice over to Jennifer, who Alice usually likes playing with, but Alice turned around and motioned for me to pick her up, saying her little Mandarin phase again with greater intensity. Well, this is progress I thought until Fontana came running over shouting `she says she has to poo!!!` Alice then immediately proved Fontana`s translation correct by pooing all over the airport lounge. Alice then looked at me with her eyes more or less saying `you may now officially be my daddy, but you`re still a stupid foreigner`. Jennifer and Fontana got her cleaned up in the ladies room and we dressed her in a spare pair of Quinn`s pants because for the first time since picking up Alice, I didn`t have a change of clothes with me.

The flight was mainly uneventful, although again lots of turbulence, but when we landed, a cool thing happened. Quinn, who was sitting with his family about 4 rows behind us starts calling out: `Shi Zi Qiu! Shi Zi Qiu! Na faiti zi la!!` (Alice, Alice - look at all the planes!). Alice called back `yes yes, I see the planes (Fontana gave us a play-by-play) This went on for some time as we were now coasting up to the main Beijing terminal and Quinn wanted to make sure his little friend Shi Zi Qiu didn`t miss a single plane. As parents we thought this exchange was cuter than anything, but a number of grumpy Chinese business man sharing the flight with us failed to see the humour.

We`re in Beijing now, back at the hotel TinTin, but in much nicer rooms on the tenth floor. We have a week of sight-seeing with the kids, Alice`s citizenship and more kite flying coming up and then its one more plane flight until we`re all back in the Great White North.

Darth vader no more ... but only during meals

Alice is still making strange to me, but it's gradually getting better. However at meals things are entirely different. She pushes her way over to me - often almost pushing Gracie off her chair, and spends the meal very carefully feeding me. She actually spoon feeds me as though I were an invalid. I get lots of smiles and laughs - its messy as she particularly likes to spoon feed me her juice, so we end up with juice all over the place, but at least its progress. Once the meal is over I immediately revert back to evil baba. It's an odd way to bond, but whatever works.

Kites on the Yangtze

On the way to the tower the other day, Fontana had the bus driver stop at a place along the Yangtze where the kids could fly kites. The Yangtze flows right though town and there a several bridges that we cross each time we head out to different events. We walked down to a sort of boardwalk and bought some kites from a kite seller (there were several kites sellers with a sorts of kites hung out on bamboo poles all along the boardwalk). Evan bought a big black bat kite with large flaming red eyes and Gracie got a fairy kite made of bamboo and silk (it'll never survive the trip to Beijing, let alone the trip home). Unfortunately there wasn't much wind, however a few local young folks were already out running around trying to get their kites up, but with little luck. The real veteran kite flyers, the old men in rumpled Mao jackets and really cool silk kites were hunched down by the edge of the boardwalk drinking tea from see-though thermoses. Evan ran round and round trying to get his kite up and as long as he kept going it would fly, but whenever he stopped it would gradually drift down. Gracie and I worked at her kite, which I thought was the only one light enough to get up, but since she insisted on riding on my shoulders while I tried to run, juggle her, and fly her kite all at the same time, we didn't have much luck either. It was a lot of fun though and pretty cool to have flown kites over the Yangtze river. We're going to try some more kite flying at the park beside the Temple of Heaven - but I think it's going to make the kids a little jaded about kite flying back home. I mean once you've flown your kite over the Yangtze and the emperors private prayer grounds, Stewart park back in Perth is going to seem pretty tame.

Message for Sarah from Gracie Lu

Gracie wants to send the following message to Mom:

Mommy, I love you, I so much love you in the flowers and I love you like flowers in your hairs, I love you in the morning and all days. I wish you could come.

Dad: what do you think of your sister?

Gracie: I love sister and I gave my sister my kite and then I'm going to get a bigger kite. and Evan is stupid.

Bye for now

A few shots from our last full day in Wuhan

Here are a few shots from our last full day in Wuhan. Jennifer and Alice make the V for Victory sigh (everyone in China is doing this right now - must be something to do with the impending Olympics). Gracie-lu, Alice, Steve Ottman, Quinn and Hannah. Notice that Gracie is in the stroller. We bought strollers for the little kids, but Gracie is being a goof and won't get out and Alice is after of it and won't get in. In fact the only time Alice will get into the stroller is if Baba (dad) tries to pick her up. Steve and Quinn make an interesting pair. Steve carries Quinn on his shoulders and Quinn beats time on the bald spot on his head. The locals think this is hilarious and call all their friends over to see the big foreigner with the little kid whacking him on the head. The last shots are Evan and Hannah and Gracie and Sephanie playing in our hotel room in the afternoon.

A few more from the Yellow Crane tower

A few more views from the tower, plus performance of the Wuhan bells. Unfortunately the picture of the performance didn't turn out but I only took the one picture at the time.

Still more from the Yellow Crane tower

Alice and Quinn in a "calm moment" (Quinn is a real whirlwind). Gracie, Alice, Hannah and Evan at the base of the tower. The view looking out over the Yangtze river.

More yellow crane tower shots

More shots from the yellow crane tower - Fontana with Gracie, Alice and Hannah. Fontana is happy to help watch the girls and I think it's great for them to have such an accessible Chinese contact. Evan showing due respect for ancient history. Hannah and Alice. Gracie refers to the Ottman girls as her cousins, as in "can I play with my cousins when we get back to the hotel".

Yellow crane tower

• The next series of shots are from the "Yellow Crane Tower" one of the iconic towers in China. It appears in poems and stories from the Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. The first shows everyone gazing out at "Goose Lake". From the state of the water, no Goose has survive here since the Qin Dynasty. There's a shot of the tower and one of the many tablets that famous poets have carved into the walls. I think this is Tang Dynasty but not sure (it might also just say "Don't drink the water").
  

Message for Sarah

Since email is still out and I can't get a phone card that works (we've been having problems with phone cards) I'll have to use this blog to send a few messages to Sarah. So if all the rest of you can kindly turn your heads the other way, here goes.....

1. I miss you. In a country of 1.3 billion it hard to feel alone, but without you here it's an awfully empty place.
2. Dress size 3x seems to fit Alice OK
3. Instead of buying lots of trinkets, I'm trying to pick a few good quality souvenirs of the trip. Today we went to the big Wuhan museum and I bought a really nice bronze working replica of the famous Wuhan bells. They fit in a case that looks like a soprano sax case. They should look really good on the living room fireplace mantle (I checked with Jane Ottman first who said yeah, they would look amazing on someones mantel. They were a bit pricey, but I think well worth it. I also bought a wall hanging (painted scroll) a little smaller that the kids scrolls. It's a hand painted picture of "Winter Blossoms in East Lake" with the calligraphy of a poem about the lake written by a famous Song Dynasty poet. Please let me know if this is the wrong strategy.
   
4. We're been able to contact Ma Rae and she will look into a scroll for Alice. It might not be exactly the same as the others, but I was thinking that if it was different we could hang it in the middle with the other scrolls on either side - please advice though your dad's email what you think.
5. I haven't got the girls dresses yet and will probably wait until her are back in Beijing. Does it matter if the dresses come from Hubie?
6. Anything else you want me get?
   
7. Did I mention that I miss you - I do ....
   

RE: Alice

I forgot to mention it earlier, but she has all the stuff we sent months ago through Children's Bridge. She has the backpack, book, unicorn etc. And this stuff really means something to her. When she is feeling stressed about being here she retreats to the corner and flips though the Curious George book. It's a little weird that something we sent from Canada is what she chooses to reminder her of the orphanage.

Last of the East Lake shots

Alice and big brother - Three ladies at a garden party! (Stephanie, Hannah and Gracie-Lu). When people ask me Gracie name (Ta jioa shema menzie?) I say "Ta jioa LuLu" (she is called LuLu) - and they all smile and say Nihoa LuLu!
If I try to pronounce Gracie full Chinese name, they all look blank and slowly walk away - I wonder what I actually saying?

Still more East Lake shots

A few more East Lake shots - Alice with her and Gracie's pinwheels, Gracie and Hannah "building a fire" in the East lake park (how do you spot the Canadian girls? They're the ones setting up a camp site.) Evan doing his gung fu pose on a giant mushroom (that's a toy sword in his hands, much better that a pinwheel). Evan has been watching a lot of gung fu movies in grampa Glenn's room.