Ginny Day two

She woke this morning crying but quieted down after a few sips of water. She started crying again when we went down for breakfast but maybe she was hungry because she stopped when we got her food. She did start whimpering when we both stood up at one point, but I was getting up to get food and Brian was moving to sit next to her, so she stopped right away.

This morning we had to go back to the Civil Service Office to get our picture taken for our adoption, and have two interviews. They all went very well. The officials were nice with good senses of humor. It was also lucky fast, which was lucky because Ginny left me her first present in her pants! When we got back on the bus our liaison informed us that our visa appointment got moved from tomorrow afternoon to this afternoon! Well, there went our afternoon, but it will leave our whole day tomorrow free!

We got back at around noon and went back to the room to try to take a nap. Let's talk about Ginny and food for a second. She will eat whatever we put to her mouth. If we hand something to her, she will take a bite and hold on to it until we tell her to take another bite. The few things that she has continued to eat without reminders, she will take the smallest nibbles and not put the rest in her mouth until she has the tiniest crumb left in her hand. She has done that at every meal today!

On to the visa appointment! We got there around 3pm and then waited around for over an hour, the lobby getting more and more crowded by the minute! Kids were running around everywhere and Ginny was watching them all. Finally the officials came down and we got rushed up, got our picture taken again and were handed out adoption certificate and we were done!! All that waiting for about 30 seconds in front of the officials! Oh well, we're free tomorrow!

We came back around 4:30 and decided to meet the other two families back in the lobby for dinner in an hour. We went back up to the room and I decided to give Ginny a few things and ignore her. She has this plush toy thing that my friend Cindy got (anyone reading this from tkd, please tell her this!) that she hasn't let go of since I gave it to her. I also gave her a coloring book and crayons and a Winnie-the-Pooh board book. I showed her how to color, she took the crayon, swiped it across the page a few times and looked at me like "are you happy?" Then I read her the board book and then let her keep in in her hand. She was the cutest thing looking through that book, opening it, closing it, flipping through. You can see her looking through the book in a pic at the bottom.

Dinner was delicious! We went to an Arabic restaurant right next to our hotel. We had hummus and shish kebabs. The other two little girls are pretty amazing as well. Anna, who is going home to four siblings, one of whom is three weeks younger, it string willed and super funny. Joanna, whose parents are first-timers, is very sweet and easygoing. Ginny is definitely the conundrum of the group.

We are gently trying to crack through Ginny's shell without traumatizing her any more than she already is. When we got back to the room, I gave Ginny a bath, sat down with her on the bed, put her head on my chest and she was out! Tomorrow we're going to Shamian Island so check back for all the fun!

PS~ enjoy the pics below and try not to OD on cuteness!!!

We got her!!!

Today was Gotcha Day and we just picked up Ginny from the Civil Service Center!!! It was a very emotional experience. There were about 30 families there receiving their children. We walked in and it seemed complete chaos. Kids running around, kids crying, people walking every which way, all in about a 30 square foot room!

We had some papers to fill out and sign and then our liaison disappeared for a few minutes. When she returned we followed her to where the children were. The other two families received their daughters first, both of which are a year younger than Ginny. Then Brian started calling my name and nudging me. I looked around the other family and there she was.

Our liaison called us forward and I kneeled down in front of her and she came right into my arms... And then started crying... Luckily, that only lasted about a minute! Brian got the doll out and she immediately stopped and stared. We took her over to where we had been sitting and "bonded". Mainly, we talked to her and she stared at us, our mouths and everything going on around.

After a little while, our liaison came back with the people from Ginny's orphanage. We got to ask some questions and take some pictures. All in all we were there for just around an hour and we got to bring this amazing little girl home with us!

Right now, the two words I would use to describe Ginny's personality are compliant and inquisitive. I'll start with the second word first. Her eyes are always saucers looking around and soaking it all up. Her hands are usually busy playing with something or just feeling it. She is the most compliant three year old I've ever met. You dress her and her limbs move to help you, you put food up to her mouth and she opens it, chews and swallows. You put your arms out to pick her up and she lifts her arms so you can grab her. That isn't to say she reaches for you, she just lifts her arms. She hasn't asked for anything yet, in fact has not even made a sound except to cry when we laid her in her crib! I was so relieved I immediately picked her up to comfort her. I let her fall asleep on my chest and now she's sleeping peacefully beside me. Brian thinks I'm starting "bad habits" but I wasn't going to let her cry herself to sleep only a few hours after finally getting her! Hopefully this will help with attachment and she'll start to come out of her shell for us soon!

Enough for now, I'm exhausted and we have a fairly early day tomorrow! We have to go back to the Civil Service office for our interview. Wish us luck!

WE GOT GINNY TODAY!!!!!!!!!

Finding comfort...

Starbucks is not a place I frequent very often at home, but there is something comforting about being able to order a mocha frappaccino and it tasting EXACTLY like it does back home!

Also there's a 7/11 next to the hotel that is almost identical to the 7/11s I used to frequent when I lived in Korea! Many of the same products and everything!!!

Just a small note- I've been able to post on here from my blogger phone app, but haven't been able to get to the site! This means I've been getting your messages in my email, but haven't been able to respond. I appreciate everyone's support and thank you all for following along! I'm sure my next post will be very emotional!

Lastly, I do get voxer, so if anyones wants to talk to me in China, go for it!!! (I think it takes awhile to go through, though...)

Concierge

So, Brian told me I have to write about the concierge here. There are two western men, very young, who work here. They were walking around breakfast this morning chatting & helping out. The one, Connor, is American. The other, David, is Austrian.

We chatted with both for awhile and when we told David we were from Buffalo, he said he visited there last year. Apparently, he and a German friend were staying in Florida and they flew up to Buffalo just to go to a Sabres game!!!! He's a big fan of Vanek & his friend a fan of Hecht. How funny is that?!

In Guangzhou

Today is Gotcha Day! This morning we have a meeting with our adoption agency staff and then this afternoon we will go down to the Civil Services office to get our Ginny!!

It's 5am now and I've been up far at least an hour. I think jet lag has a lot to do with it, but definitely also nerves. We've seen quite a few families here with their new children and many of the children seem fairly easy going. However, last night at dinner we saw this one little girl who was out and out rejecting her mother... Wouldn't even let her push her in the stroller! The parents seemed to be taking it well, but it was kind of hard to watch knowing that we could very well be there tomorrow!

Needless to say I hit the gym last night before bed! Our hotel is GORGEOUS! It figures thought, because I definitely over packed on some things that I thought I would need (towels, which everyone I read online said to bring), but didn't pack things that I definitely want (a swimming suit! There's a beautiful pool and the weather is warm and muggy). I also failed to bring the token gifts for the caregivers and government officials! What I read said it would be cheaper and easier to buy here and our luggage was already stuffed! But there is not much around our hotel and the other two families brought stuff from their home towns and I feel like a dope! I'm just grateful that no one has called me one yet! Rather, both families have been very nice and the one couple even wrote down all the gifts that they bought and the husband came out with me looking.

All and all, I'm a ball of emotions right now and I can't sleep! I should have stayed up and watched Robin Hood with Brian last night (even though it was a complete butchery of the myth!). I'm going to go try to catch another hour or two of sleep before breakfast!

So tired!!!

Ok, so the breakfast here ROCKS!!! I had French crepes, fresh fruit, a protein shot, coffee & cappuccino. They also had an Asian breakfast, western breakfast, & pretty much anything anyone might ever conceive of as breakfast food...

We also had orientation this morning & it went well! There are a bunch of families in our group, three of which are with us the whole time. What a group of people we are, too. There are a few families with BROODS of children. One of the families is adopting their 10th child! They will have 4 ten year olds at home!!! Another family is adopting their 8th. There were also first time parents-to-be, parents adopting their second Chinese child & a whole mish-mash of others.

After orientation we had this MASSIVE Chinese lunch. They kept bringing in more & more dishes about every 5 minutes & we didn't finish half of it!

Then we went on out tour. Let me start by saying that everything I said last night about driving was negated today. Our bus driver almost ran 3 cars off the road, the intersections are huge and don't go straight & people walk out wherever they think they'll get a break in traffic.

Unfortunately, Tianenman Square was closed because some big meeting was about to happen. We got to walk on the other side of the road & take pictures. It was huge!

We walked past Tianenman Square, right into the Forbidden City. Our tour guide warned us that it would take you 27 days to see everything in the Forbidden City. I thought she was exaggerating, but I was wrong. That place was massive! It took us over half an hour just to walk through all the outer gates to get into the city. I'll post all the pics in Facebook when my VPN starts working again. (I turned the wireless on and am blogging from my phone. Good thing I downloaded the app!) All together, walking past Tianenman square and through the Forbidden City took us 3 hours.

Our last stop was a silk "museum". Sure, we learned how silk is made & saw cool stuff. BUT then we were followed around for an hour by sales people trying to sell us stuff! There were 31 in our party & I would say there were at least half that many sales people! It was so annoying! Needless to say we didn't buy anything there!

Oh well, tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou, which is where we will get our child on Monday! As we were coming in from our tour we saw one woman from our group who didn't come with us on the tour because she was getting her daughter - a 21 month old absolute beauty!!! I can't wait for Monday!!!

Can't sleep!

So, we landed around midnight (Beijing time, 1pm Buffalo time) and got to our hotel at 2am. The flight was pretty uneventful except the fact that the televisions didn't work properly on our whole side of the plane! We could only watch the same two movies and half a dozen tv shows over and over and over. The rest of the plane had a huge variety, but we brought our laptops and got one out and started watching Castle. Unfortunately, the space is so small that I had to put the computer against the wall of the plane and then sit sideways to be able to see. It was a bit uncomfortable , but better than nothing!

I was amazed by the ride to the hotel! It was the middle of the night and everyone was driving so slowly and really obeying the traffic laws! Also, there are counters on all the stop lights telling you how long you had to get through the green light or wait. It was pretty cool.

So, being that it's like 4:30 in the afternoon back home, we can't sleep!!! It's 5:30 am here and we can go down to breakfast in half an hour. We have orientation at 9:30am, then a half day tour of Tianenman Square and the Forbidden City. Should be an exciting day... Hopefully we can stay awake! We may have to find a Starbucks! (Didn't I hear there's one in the Forbidden City, anyways? Or was that just McDonald's?)

Last but not least, YAY my VPN works and I can blog AND get on Facebook over here! Here's hoping it lasts!