China Day 8: Medical Appointment & Heather's Birthday

Today (Saturday) was medical appointment day -- as well as Heather's birthday!  All adopting families must bring their children to one specific clinic here in Guangzhou that's certified by the US CDC for a final wellness checkup.  All kiddos get checked out thoroughly, and any over two years old must get a TB test via blood draw.  Lucille did a great job, and of course the poke for her TB test brought lots of tears.  Ella had a Dum-Dum waiting for her and that brought peace pretty quickly.

Upon returning to the hotel Steve and one parent from each other family in our travel group had to compile the final paperwork for our upcoming visit to the US Consulate.  We had a quick lunch in our hotel room, followed by some more pool time.  Lucille loved the water again!  We were having a fun conversation with another adopting family when the sky started getting dark.  It was obvious that a storm was brewing so we hurried out of the pool.  Before we got to the hotel entrance the wind was so strong that it almost blew us back into the water!  A big thunderstorm lasted for a few hours, but it brought some VERY welcome cooler weather the rest of the evening.

Three other adopting families joined us for Heather's birthday dinner at an Irish pub nearby.  The food was amazing.  We had potato skins, fish & chips, a monster cheeseburger, and chicken fajitas; a welcome break from traditional Chinese cuisine.  We then walked to get ice cream to keep celebrating Heather's birthday.  One of the other families from North Carolina came with us, and they have a four year old daughter that just loves Ella.  They get along so well!  We told Ella she needs to treat Myles and Helen like this when we get home.  :-)  We need to brag on Ella here.  She has been an incredible big sister and it's great to see her bless the other families that have arrived in our province over the past day.  Today's storm really made for a great evening and a nice walk back to the hotel (we finally added a picture of our hotel to this post).  The hotel staff brought a nice dessert to our room for Heather's birthday, so we're ending the day on a sweet note.  The entire box you see in the picture was edible, with a delicious cake inside!

The next two days here in China are free days so we'll do some sightseeing and shopping.There's not much official paperwork left!  Lucille's Chinese passport will be coming to us soon, and then we have to wait until Tuesday to visit the US Consulate, take our oath, and finalize the US visa application.    We'll get the passport & visa delivered to us on Wednesday afternoon, and then first thing Thursday we head back home!!!  The time here really has gone pretty quickly.  We have only five more sleeps until we fly back to the US!  We miss Myles and Helen terribly and can't wait to get all six members of our family under the same roof.

China Day 7: Free Day

Today was our first free day, meaning we had no official appointments. It started off on the right foot by everyone waking up after having slept through the night for the first time (thanks, Lucille!!) She was in a timid mood, however, which meant we were all working very hard all morning to get her to open up. We Skyped with the kiddos and Grandma at home, had a fabulous breakfast (these breakfast buffets in China are something else! It will be hard to return home and not have this luxurious spread before us every morning). Ella and Heather ventured outside during breakfast to watch the fish and try to give Daddy and Lucille some bonding time.

We took a trip to the Guangdong Provincial Museum, which has exhibits including Guangdong History and Culture, Chaozhou Gilded Woodcarvings, Natural Resources, Ceramics, and Duan Inkstones. The museum includes items such as calligraphy, paintings, ceramics, woodcarvings, and gemstones. Right in the middle of the museum tour Lucille decided to start being giggly and silly and.......wait for it.........talkative!!!  She was letting Daddy tickle her and repeating words for us!! She said "Mama, Baba (Daddy), Ella, no, and good girl!" At one point Ella and Heather were looking for Steve and saying, "where's Baba?" Suddenly Lucille pointed the other direction and said, "DA BABA! (there's Baba)" all on her own. She was a silly, giggly, and chatty girl on the entire bus ride back to the hotel.

She still is not a fan of anyone else holding her besides Heather, and she refuses to ride in the stroller. This means Heather has to carry her everywhere, and it is incredibly hot and humid here. We're trying to find creative ways to allow her to open up to Steve more and more, hence leaving them alone at breakfast. Whenever she needs help opening something we make her bring it to Baba to help her, and he offers her food at every meal. She actually let him hold her today because she was screaming in the stroller and he offered to pick her up. We'll count that as progress!

We ate lunch in our room and decided to take a taxi to a wholesale toy mall we remembered visiting last year. The concierge desk has cards with several common destinations written out in Chinese and English that we can show to the drivers to communicate where we want to go. We grabbed one, showed a taxi driver and off we went. 15 minutes later we arrived at a mall, went in, walked around for 10 or so minutes, and realized this was not the right place. We had wanted to go to One Link Plaza, but we ended up at One Link Center! We went back out into the stifling humidity and managed to grab another taxi.  We showed him the card and off we went again. 20 minutes later he pulled up to a place we did not recognize. We shook our heads and told him "no!" We showed him the card again and discovered he had read the line below where we were pointing and took us to the wrong place. So, after taking 4x as long and costing 4x as much as we thought it would, we finally ended up at the toy mall :) In the taxi Heather told Ella that in China everything is an adventure, and she pinky-promised that the mall would be worth it. And it was.

In her silliness, Lucille has been testing some boundaries so we have been having to teach her what is appropriate and what isn't. She sometimes hits us (trying to be funny, not in anger) and tries to touch things she shouldn't. She now knows and repeats the word "nice" while gently touching our arm or face. At one point today the girls were being goofy and Ella was totally encouraging Lucille's craziness. Heather remarked, "Lucille and Ella are acting like sisters!" It was so extremely fun to see.

We got back quite late so Steve ran down the street to grab us some Pizza Hut! He thought a medium might be sufficient for the four of us, but turns out a medium here in China is completely different from a medium in the US. It's more like a personal-pan size! So we ate our pizza "appetizer" plus some other stuff we had around the room. 

That about wraps things up for today!  Lucille is sound asleep and the rest of us are going to get ready for bed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

China Day 6: Orphanage Visit

We hit the road at 7:00am for the long drive to Yangjiang City in southern Guangdong Province.  This is the city of the orphanage, or Social Welfare Institute (SWI), where both Lucille and Helen lived before coming into our family.  You'll recall that we tried to visit during our 2012 trip but a typhoon kept us away.  We're not going to share many details of today's visit because this is both Helen's and Lucille's life story; they get to choose to share as much they see fit when they grow up.  Suffice it to say that it was tough.

It was great to see Lucille open up to her nannies and friends during our time in Yangjiang.  It feels like she got closure by seeing everybody one more time and then leaving with us.  We got to spend dedicated time with two other little ladies that are being adopted from this SWI later this year (by adopting families we've made deep connections with online).  It was so much fun to give them gifts from their forever families and watch their reactions. 

After we got back to Guangzhou, Steve and Ella went out on an afternoon date for ice cream.  Heather and Lucille stayed back in the hotel room, and our little lady opened up and got crazy silly.  If Heather hadn't caught it all on video, Steve and Ella would not have believed it.  Lucille decided to crawl back into her shell for the rest of the day after that.

Because the SWI visit took up most of the day, we don't have much else to report.  We ate dinner at an amazing noodle restaurant near our hotel and that about wraps things up.  You'll notice in today's pictures that Lucille was hiding a very cute dimple that comes out when she's happy!

 

China Day 5: Breakthrough

Our day started with a stoic little girl in our midst.  After we ate breakfast we took a walk around the hotel's gardens, which are beautiful.  They have a large koi pond and the fish were quite interesting to Lucille.  We then decided to check out the hotel pool and go for a swim.  This turned out to be a point of breaking through to the real Lucille!  While playing a game of catch with a floatie tube, smiles started to break through, followed by huge belly laughs.  We don't know what it was about that pool toy that got to her, but we saw abundant happiness pouring out of her little body.  It was a blessed glimpse into the real personality that's waiting to come out!

After the swim we hung out in our hotel room for several hours.  Heather and Lucille got in some much needed naps.  Our only official appointment today was a late afternoon visit to the local authorities to apply for Lucille's Chinese passport.  Easy peasey, in and out.  This was followed by a visit to "Trust-Mart" (one of Walmart's branded stores here) to stock up on groceries.  Lucille decided to test the limits a little bit by walking away from us and touching stuff on the shelves.  She has a little mischievous look on her face when she knows she's doing something wrong.  It's really cute --- for now.

The evening ended with a huge party thrown by the hotel staff for adopting families that are staying here.  This was quite unexpected and extravagant.  They had all kinds of food and drinks, and we're not talking about simple stuff; they served fish tacos, hamburger sliders, sushi, and a whole lot more. They had a live band playing everything from B-I-N-G-O to Adele covers.  :-)  Ella had a great time dancing with some new friends; Lucille spent most of the time munching on food and bopping to the beat when she thought nobody was looking.

Lucille remained in a silly mood when we returned to our hotel room around 7:30pm.  We got some more great belly laughs and smiles out of her.  Lucille's happiness did turn back to crying as she was put to bed.  She tried telling us something over and over in Chinese.  We feel so bad and helpless that we can't tell what she's asking of us.  Please pray that with God's help we can comfort her and pour love into her that transcends any language barrier. 

Enjoy the photos below; you can see the progression of a little girl coming out of her shell!

China Day 4: Official Adoption Day!

It's official!  After our one-day "harmonious period" with Lucille as the Chinese government calls it, we had our appointments back at the Civil Affairs office this morning to finalize the adoption.  Two interviews and several signatures later, Lucille is now officially an Adolphs kiddo!  The day was pretty low key after that.  We had a light lunch at our hotel room, did some minor grocery shopping, and Lucille took a nice nap.  She also had her first bath and her first taste of an ice cream bar (we'll let you guess which one she loved and which one was not appreciated).

One thing that's different from this trip from when we got Helen is that we really don't know any other families here.  We had several families that hung out and did things together pretty much every day from the start during our 2012 trip, and this time we've been feeling pretty alone.  And then, God met our desire for community today.  Heather posted on an adoption Facebook group to look for someone here with something specific we needed.  One mom happened to respond that is staying in our hotel!  Off we went to the 12th floor and we came across a family that was equally thirsty for a conversation with some westerners.  They invited us in and we spent about an hour just talking together as if we had known each other for a long time (Ella even ended up playing Legos and taking selfies with one of their daughters).  That's a big praise for today.

May 31 is a special day for another reason -- it's also our anniversary!  Today marks 13 years since our wedding day.  We went out to eat at Cow and Bridge, a favorite Thai/Chinese restaurant from our last visit here.  They completely changed the menu and fancied up the decor, but the four of still us ate a huge meal for about $15 USD. The past 13 years have been amazing, and we are unbelievably blessed to have welcomed four amazing children into our family.

We're seeing Lucille open up a *little* bit, but no major breakthroughs yet.  We got an almost-smile this morning, but it's like she realized what she was doing and immediately thought "not for you!" :-)  So while today's photos share a common theme and a common face, and though we've yet to see a big smile or hear her utter a single word, we're letting her warm up in her own time.  As we wrap up today's update, Lucille is coloring with mommy. Precious times with a precious little girl.