The Last Leg

Hello from Guangzhou. We are now at the White Swan hotel. It is very nice and also very expensive. Yesterday, Monday, was a long day. We really didn’t do much at the Nanning hotel because we just had to wait for all the children’s passports. We left the hotel at 5pm and headed to the airport. We said our good byes to our rep, Jane. It was an emotional time for all of us. She was a great help to Paul and I. She sang us a song from Sound of Music- Edelweiss. We had to wait at the airport for about 2 hours. During that time they changed our boarding gate 3 different times. We had to board a bus that took us to the plane. It was only a few steps away but that is how they do it in China. The flight was uneventful. Mikenna slept thru the whole thing. We can only hope the flight home will go so well. We checked into the hotel at 11 pm. It was a long day. Today, Paul and I woke up not feeling very well. We ate a dinner at the airport last night and I think that may have not set well with us. I have not felt well today and I’m hoping to go to bed early and get a good nights rest. Last night Mikenna did not wake up. I think she was so exhausted from being up so late. I told Paul that I know it will be a good day when Mikenna does not ask for her foster mom. The last 2 days it has only been at night. Today we took the children to their check up. Mikenna did very well. She cried when the Dr. tried to look down her throat. Other than that, she was a champ. We are still making baby steps every day. She engages other children in play and will smile and laugh when she is playing. Today we took her to a park by the examination building and she had a ball going down the slide. She will look at Paul on her terms and even sat by him for dinner. She fed him and he fed her. They played sword fighting with the silverware. That is a big step for her but yet will not let him hold her. My whole body hurts from constantly holding her (the hard box spring mattress’ do not help either). I brought a backpack carrier for her and she loves it IF I am the one carrying her. We tried to have Paul carry her but she screams so loud that I just give in to her. It was a little cooler here than Nanning and that helps when I need to have her strapped to me. We are anxious to come home.

Another day with smiles

This is our last night in Nanning. We are anxious to be leaving and heading to Guangzhou for the final round of paperwork and exams. Nanning is a tropical area and the last couple of days has been hot. Yesterday it was about 85 and very humid. Not ideal weather to have a 25 lb little one strapped to me. We went to a National Museum today. It was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. Our Holt rep has been so wonderful. She has really tried to schedule activities for the families for us to really experience the Chinese culture. All of us are ready to leave this hotel and go to the White Swan hotel. It is just a hotel for adoptive families. We have been going to a park every day that is near this hotel. Mikenna loves being outside. This afternoon the park was very busy because it is Sunday and families were all out enjoying the day. The unusual thing is that even though it is very warm here much of the year, they dress in a lot of layers, especially the children. Mikenna always wants a jacket on even though she is sweating. The Chinese think if they dress the children warmly, they wont get colds. They also have these unique pants called: slit pants. The babies and toddlers don't always wear diapers and so the slit pants allows them to squat and pee anywhere and anytime. Somehow I don't think this would go over well in the US. At this same park, they have amusement rides. They have this one ride that would never be allowed in the US because all the lawyers in the US would have a field day with the possible injuries from the way the ride could hurt someone. It was pretty funny to watch but very unsafe. The other thing that wouldn't go over is how the children ride on scooters her in Nanning. There are no helmets or even seats for these little ones. They squat on a tiny space at the bottom of the scooter. The cars and scooters here are in great shape. We haven't seen an accident. It is organized chaos the way they drive and get around. They understand the flow of traffic. Pedestrians do not have the right of way. Tomorrow our flight leaves at 8:15pm and lands in Guangzhou an hour later. Then we have another hour drive to the hotel so I will not be able to post a blog. I will update on Tuesday(china time). Mikenna had a fairly good day. We definitely can get her to smile and today she actually engaged other children in play. That encouraged us. She did have a 2 hour crying session of asking for her foster mom. She wanted me to take her 'home'. Talk about breaking our hearts. Our rep said that it should get better once we get home because she wont be around Chinese people and she'll have only Paul and I to depend on. Please continue to pray for our little one. She is grieving and I can't really do anything but hold her and kiss her. Most of the time she responds ok to my kisses and telling her in Chinese that I love her. Good bye from Nanning, China.

Look at this SMILE !!!

Well, we have made some progress today. Mikenna not only smiled, she did it with giggles. We were at a village about an hour away from Nanning and we were sitting in a woman's house and I was playing with one little girl. I was showing her how I put my sunglasses up on my head when I am inside a house. Well, Mariah tried to put her glasses on Mikenna and she smiled. Then we made a game out of it and sure enough the smiles kept coming. After we got back from the village, we were up in the room and I really got her smiling and laughing. We made a BIG step today. Mikenna still wont go to Paul but she did look at him at different times for a long period of time. I am so encouraged by this step. We still need to get her to understand us and vise versa. She ate really well today. Yesterday, she just kind of grazed. So we definitely are happy. I hope you enjoy the pictures and video clip.

Nanning, China

It has been 2 days since I wrote. Last night I was just too worn out, so I went to bed as soon as Mikenna did. We are making tiny baby steps. She is still grieving the lost of her foster mom. Mikenna lived on a dairy farm about 1 hour outside of Nanning. The population in Nanning is about 2 million people. 98% of the people are from the ethnic group called the Gzaung(pronounced John) the other 2% are from the ethnic group called the Han people. Our rep thinks Mikenna is from the Han group. Yesterday we went to Walmart and Pizza Hut and Mikenna decided that that would be a good time to throw her first tantrum for us. I felt like every Chinese person around was judging me as the worst parent. Mikenna tried a little of the crust at Pizza Hut but didn't taste much more. We know she like french fries. Today started off calm for her. She loves to be outside. We went to a place called the Green Mt. It is very warm and muggy here. It is suppose to be in the 80's tomorrow. It wouldn't be so terrible except that Mikenna is stuck like glue to me and will not let Paul hold her. She seems to have bonded completely to me. This is what we were hoping for but now it would be great for her to start to even look at Paul. We also know why all the pictures we had of her she was never smiling. She hates the camera. If she even hears it turn on, she'll look the other way. Please continue to pray for Mikenna's grieving. She is so little and does not understand what has been going on the last couple of days. We saw a small smile yesterday and a couple times today. That is progress! We've had a lot of interesting food but have found one restaurant that tries to serve somewhat American food. We don't think we'll be eating Chinese any time soon back home. Sorry I went on, I just wanted to update you about what we've been doing in Nanning. We miss you all and appreciate your emails and notes on the blog.

It's Official

We are officially the Kruit family of 7. This morning we boarded a bus to go back to the Civil Affairs office to be interviewed and then we received her certificate of adoption. We then had to go to another building and be notarized and interviewed with a few questions. Mikenna has taken to me all day today. She didn't mind Paul holding her for a short period but since this afternoon, it has been all me. We went to a park this afternoon that is absolutely beautiful. She enjoyed being outside but really didn't want to do much. She still has her guard up. She has been asking for her foster mom which breaks my heart. I think today has been a lot more emotional for me than yesterday(and Paul would quickly agree). After we got her certificate of adoption it just really sunk in how much her birth mother has given up and she will never know what happened to her daughter. We found out that Mikenna's foster mother is about 58 years old and lives with her husband on a cow farm. The foster mother has a son and a daughter that live in the city. So Mikenna was being raised by a 'grandmother and grandfather' that gave her a lot of attention. We think she may have ruled the roost there! Continue to pray as Mikenna goes thru the grieving process. I know she is asking for her foster mom because mommy is said mama in Chinese so it is the same as English. She is finally asleep and hopefully for the entire evening. She slept pretty good except that we were up at 4:45am. Our escort told us that it could take 3-4 days before she sorts things out and realizes that we are her family. I'm really tired this evening so I'm going to sign off and try to sleep since we don't know how long Mikenna is down for.

Sending pictures of Mikenna

March 24th, 2009 Gottcha Day!

What a long day filled with a ton of different emotions! We left the hotel in Beijing at 5:30 this morning and headed to the airport. Our first situation that we encountered wastthat our luggage was over the limit of 44lbs. per person. We had to pay extra money and then we couldn't check all of the bags we had. When we got to the x-ray machine the people saw medicine in the suitcase and they decided to take some of it out and left some as well. I kept telling them that it was for the orphanage but that didn't seem to matter. Then when we were about to board the plane, they took that one piece of luggage and ended up putting it in the bottom of the plane because the plane was filled. We got to Nanning about 11:30am and we met our new escort. We got situated in our rooms, well everyone except us because the room was a smoking room and totally filthy. They moved us into another room that smelled better but it was not made up at that point. We decided to let our escort handle it while 3 families all went to get some lunch. In Nanning we do not have as many choices of food- it is Chinese. We got back from lunch and we ended up in a 3rd room that is a little bit bigger. We then headed to another hotel where all the children were waiting for us. We could hear crying from the time we got off the elevator. Guess who it was? Yep, Mikenna. We took a sneak into the hall and there was a caregiver walking the hall with her. Well, that started me crying. There are 5 families here in Nanning adopting. All our children came from foster care. 4 little girls and 1 boy. All the girls came in crying and little Emmett did really good until he realized his caregiver left the room. Mikenna was not happy at all. We needed to hold her so that she wouldn't run off to the nanny. It was a hard moment for all the parents in the room. Finally after 20 minutes, Mikenna fell asleep on Paul's shoulder. After 30 minutes we all boarded a bus again and headed back to our hotel. Mikenna slept the whole time until we got up to our room. She initially would only let Paul hold her for about the first 2 hours and then she warmed up to me. She has been pretty mellow the rest of the afternoon and evening. When I tried to change her, she really didn't like that. She has been trying to put her shoes on over her p.j.'s and she is very frustrated. We are exhausted and so is Mikenna. She hasn't gone to the bathroom this whole time and she only has takes about 3 oz of a bottle. Pray that she will have a good nights rest and tomorrow will be a better day for all. I can hear all the children on this floor and they are having a hard time because we parents don't know their routine.