Goodbye China

Where do you start the beginning of the end? Or is this the end of the beginning?

Today we had a late start to the day after another hard night of not wanting to go to bed. Other than not wanting to go to bed or sleep, Paul William is a very happy little boy. He loves to laugh and play. Especially with his new big brother. After finally waking up and having a little breakfast we left the hotel and explored Shamian island where the hotel is located. To our friends who told us while we were in Wuhan to hang on that things are better once you get to Guangzhou, thanks, you were right. Things here have been much better and the adjustment has become smoother.

This afternoon we made the trip to the US Consulate Guangzhou. After having our identities checked we were given a brief talk and then took a short oath. We then picked up James Paul William's US immigration documents and his Chinese passport with US Visa. This marked the end of the "paperchase". All that is left is flying home tomorrow.

When we returned to the hotel we met up with our friends from Athens, the Carters. Above is the customary "Red Couch" photo of two sets of proud parents with their new children Lily Mei and James Paul William. It's been great to have friends here to share this experience with.

The "Red Thread" is now unraveled. We followed it through a maze of paperwork, waiting, and then half way around the world to an amazing place called China. We have seen and done things we never dreamed of. We have walked in Tian A Mein Square, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. We have walked on the Great Wall. We cruised through the 3 Gorges, and locked through the new 3 gorges dam project. We rode in "Pea Pod" boats, visited the "Ghost City" and strolled through the Chinese Herbal Medicine market. We have met and encountered an amazing nation of people. The Chinese are hard working, resilient, kind and open. We had a Chinese woman, a total stranger, that we shared an elevator with, say "Sweet boy, you do nice thing", then pat "Baba" on the shoulder. They know the children that are adopted will have a much better future than they would otherwise. They seem to appreciate what the adoptive families are doing and don't seem judgemental. For that we are thankful. But more than anything else we've done here, we have met a wonderful little guy named Wu JinFeng. What a personality! Strong willed, smart, and a great sense of humor.

Today in a little gift shop one of the sales girls began talking to him. After he said something to her she asked him to repeat it. She then looked at Baba with a suprised expression on her face and said, "He told me he wants to talk like his Baba." We can't wait for that to happen.

Greg

When we first came to China, I was so overwhelmed at how big it all was-the country, the culture, what we were doing. I started to have doubts about taking a child away from his culture, his heritage. I had thought about it before but being here really drove home how ancient this land is, the culture, the uniqueness of the people. It was all so different. The longer I traveled in the country, the more I found that we had much in common. Also, the more I learned about the life that my child would lead here, the more I realized God really did send him to us. We are more than ready to bring home this wonderful little boy and have everyone meet him. Be prepared for a little whirlwind!

Mary Louise

Both our babies are napping right now. Greg(son) deserves a nap-he has truly been wonderful since James Paul William joined our family. He has walked him up and down China, played with him, tried to comfort him when he has been unhappy, and done it all with a smile. We have been very proud of him and of his attitude throughout it all. We would not have made it through yesterday and the night before without him, when our little one was so unhappy. After staying up all night and then all day yesterday, JPW finally went to sleep last night about 11:00-with his shoes on, of course. He has only slept one night without them on and that was the first night. It is ok with us if that makes him feel better right now. Today he woke up happy and has eaten like they told us he would-like a little tiger. He has eaten like crazy since he found chopsticks last night that came with our take out. Duh!! We had not had any until then and at every meal he has insisted on feeding himself with the biggest fork or spoon available. (It was not working really well.) BTW, Greg bought a set on our shopping trip this morning. It is all but impossible to have a regular schedule but we are trying. It is hot but I am ok with it. The shopping is fun here and it is easier to do with the less traffic. Lifeng took us to the "shopping street" where all the Chinese were and it was unbelievable the amount of shops and people. The street is closed to vehicles and completely covered from side to side with people. Greg thought that there were more people on the street than live in Decatur! China has been so different than Europe, it is great that he has gotten to experience it with us. We do go tomorrow to the US Consulate, about an hour away, and take our oath and get his visa. We can then leave Wednesday morning and be in Decatur Wednesday afternoon!:O Please pray for us(and everyone on our flight) because did we tell you? he travels worse than I do!! We will fly from Guangzhou to Tokyo, Tokyo to Detroit and then to Huntsville.
Our friends from Athens, Monica and Steve Carter, arrived last night from Chongqing with their new daughter Lily Mei and her two older brothers. We think they will be on our flight home(they may regret that decision). :) They are right down the hall from us in our hotel. We "know" several families here who were with us in Wuhan. It is like a small support group, we are all encouraging each other and have empathy for each other when we tell our stories of how it is going. It is actually rather amazing.
Mary Louise

Hot Monday in Guangzhou

Not much going on today. Lifeng took our paperwork to the US Consulate. Everything was almost in order. Our Homestudy was not sent to the Consulate so Lifeng is having Cradle of Hope send a copy from the States. We should take the oath and pick up James Paul William Ogle's US visa tomorrow as scheduled.

It's hot here in Guangzhou so we are just hanging out at the hotel during the middle of the day. We did a little shopping this morning while it was just hot. Before it turned very hot.

Here are some more photos from Guangzhou. It's very hot here.

Actually this first photo was taken in Wuhan. It was taken in front of the gate at the hospital. This is the spot where Wu Jinfeng was left on July 8, 2004 four days after his birth.

Sunday we visited the Chinese Herbal Medicine Market in Guangzhou. It is the largest market of it's type in China. What you can find here is truly amazing. Roots, barks, mushrooms, fungi, dried sea creatures. The list goes on and on. It was very hot walking through the market.

Below are bags full of some of the offerings in the very hot market.

Below is a shot looking up the very hot street in the market.

We assume this man was promoting some business or product. Or maybe he just likes to dress up like a chicken on Sunday afternoon when it's very hot. He didn't actually play music on his horn. He just blew it very loudly at random.

Oh yeah. Did I mention that it's VERY hot here?

Hello from Guangzhou

This is the view from our hotel room window.

This picture is a little out of focus but I couldn't resist a shot of our "little" boy asleep on our "big" boy.

Chinese Dragon Boats

Well, we made it. The wait at the airport in Wuhan was no fun. Special thanks go to Lifeng for helping out on our first plane trip. Once the plane was in the air things calmed down and we had a pretty uneventful flight.

Feng Feng fell asleep in the van on the way from the airport to the hotel. We were able to get him to the room and in bed without waking. Then "baba" got real "smart" and tried to remove his shoes. BIG mistake. He was back up for hours. We (I) won't make that mistake again. As we say at home; "let a sleeping dog lie."

This morning we had a nice walk around Shamian Island where the hotel is located. It's a very nice area. We agreed that there were similarities with parts of New Orleans, one of our favorite cities. We stopped and had his picture made for his US visa. We then had his medical exam. He did pretty well. The nurses and doctors were great with him.

We explored inside the hotel. There is an indoor waterfall. (Pictures later.) And the pool at the bottom is full of big goldfish. He loved it.

We have spent most of the afternoon in the hotel. The temperature outside is hovering right at 100 and it's humid.

We had a final appointment this afternoon with Lifeng to complete the LAST of our paperwork. The adoption was finalized with the Chinese government yesterday and the only thing left was US Immigration paperwork. WOW, there really is an end to the "paperchase". (We think.)

This afternoon we started hearing booming drum beats and went outside to investigate. Our hotel is right on the Pearl River. Today was the Chinese Dragon Boat races. Above is a picture for our friends back home who are celebrating the Dragon Boat races with their Chinese children today. The picture is of 2 boats being towed back. The race was actually this morning. It sure was neat to see the real thing but at this point I think we would all have chosen to be at home with all of you.

We are all tired and ready to wrap this trip up and come home. Wednesday can't come soon enough.

More later . . .

Big Greg

Yet Another Trip to the Civil Affairs Office

For the third time this week we went back to the Civil Affairs Office. The first day to pick him up. By the way, the orphanage director brought him there that day. ( He is also on our video.)The second day to do all the paperwork and again, today, to pick up his Chinese passport. We can finally leave Wuhan! Our plane is this evening about 5:30. Before we go to the airport we are going to the spot where he was abandoned. I think it is a gate by a hospital. The Baofeng Police then took him to the orphanage after he left the hospital. He stayed at the orphanage until he was 10 days old and then went to his foster family where he stayed until only 2 days before we met him on Monday. (Our previous information was incorrect.)
He slept all night again last night and woke up pretty happy and hungry! Our helpful Chinese waitress met us at the breakfast table with not one, but two, lollipops. I think that is what everyone needs to start their day, don't you? BTW, by the time we left the table he had 3 of them!! We are anxious to go on to Guangzhou and finish the final paperwork and head back home. He is very active and we want to get to our toys and yard!
Mary Louise

Day 4

We did make it to the zoo today. After the last two days of rain and being cooped up in the hotel, I thought it would be a great outing. He has been grieving pretty hard and hates being in the room. Our hotel has a little playground outside, probably because of all the adoptive families who stay here, but we haven't really been able to use it because of the weather. So off to the zoo and hopefully to see a Panda. As we got closer to our destination, he became very agitated and finally through our guide we realized we were near his foster family's house. He must have frequently gone to the zoo. There was one spot in particular he became upset and kept looking for his foster family. It didn't turn out quite as I expected,however, he calmed on the way home and we had a good afternoon and evening. We are all looking forward to leaving tomorrow to go to Guanzhou.
When he is happy, he is very, very happy. He loves to play with the inflatable ball we brought. His first day he played with our deck of cards, and I told him they were Grandma's cards so he started saying "Grandma" when we get them out. He is sitting in GeGe's lap going to sleep right now and I guess it is poetic justice but he sucks his thumb. He is still Baba's boy and he likes to tell me to "go on", I just tell him to go on back and laugh at him. He has terrible table manners and Greg keeps saying he eats like a pig. He hated the bubbles I brought-at first. Now, we have to hide them. He truly hates water so we will really have to work to get him over it because we all love it so much.
I didn't know how ready I would be to come home after we picked him up on Monday but I am very ready!! Believe it or not, I even found myself saying "we can do that next time we come."
Mary Louise

A few more photos

Day 3 with James Paul William

All in all the transition is going pretty well. We do have our moments however. Some we are sure are related to the separation from his former life and some from being a 3 year old.

Today at lunch the hotel wait staff "helped" us. He was being fussy and they began talking to him in Chinese. Very shortly one of the waitresses carried him to the buffet to let him show her what he wanted. Watermelon. After returning to the table with his watermelon he asked for something else in chinese. The waitress was happy to oblige. She returned shortly with a pack of SUGAR which she helped him cover his watermelon with!! This boy has a sweet tooth and then some! We were trying to hold off on the sweets until the end of the meal and put some "real" food in him first. Oh well, as they say "When in China . . .".

This morning we were allowed to visit the Wuhan Social Welfare Institute (SWI). Also referred to as an orphanage. We met one of the assistant directors and presented them with a gift of a rice cooker. We were then given a tour. We visited the 5th floor which is dedicated to Special Needs children. There we saw children from only a few days old to close to 5 or 6. There were a good number of caregivers/workers present. Some were simply spending time with the children and interacting with them. We also saw some that were providing physical therapy to others. We also visited the nursery. There appeared to be around 20 infants there. All had some type of special need. We saw several little girls, (almost newborn age) with heart defects. There were other children with various physical and/or mental special needs. It was one of the most moving things you can ever imagine experiencing. Some of these children would be in neo-natal ICU if they were in the U.S. Some of the problems would be pretty simple to solve in the U.S. These children just need someone to come and get them and give them that chance.

One of the earliest photos we recieved of Paul William was taken of him standing in front of a low iron fence in front of the SWI. The fence is heart shaped. Today we were able to take a family photo in front of the same fence. The small figure in the background to the left is a monkey. Paul William was born in the Chinese year of the monkey.


Early on during the adoption our agency sent us a DVD with Paul William and some other children playing together. One of the scenes in the video was of the children playing in a ball pit. Below is a picture of "Baba" and Paul William at the ball pit.

The man with us below is LiFeng, our facilitator and guide with Cradle of Hope Adoption Center. Lifeng has made our trip very enjoyable and easy. He knows and understands the process and takes care of all the paperwork and details for us.

Below is photo of the Wuhan SWI.

Greg Jr. came down with the sinus infection that Dad just finished getting over. We started him on a z-pack today. He is sleeping this afternoon as is his little brother.

Tomorrow it's a trip to the zoo. Mary Louise will finally get to see the Pandas she's been wanting to see for so long. Lifeng asked us yesterday if we wanted to go to the zoo. We asked him if they had pandas and when he said yes, we told him the zoo is a MUST DO stop.

Thanks for checking in on us. We enjoy your comments. Keep them coming.

More later . . .

Slow day in China

Hello everyone,

Thanks to all who have emailed and left comments on our blog. We have really enjoyed reading them.

Not much to report today. We made a short trip to the Civil Affairs office this morning to complete the adoption paperwork. It only took about an hour. Other than that we've just been hanging out in our hotel room getting to know one another. We took Paul William down to the hotel restraunt for breakfast and lunch today. It went very well. All in all the transition continues to be pretty smooth. Generally he's a happy boy. Every now and then something we do will set him off for a few minutes but he usually gets over it pretty quickly.

We are going to the store to buy a few supplies later and then dinner here at the hotel and that's pretty much it for the day. Tomorrow we visit the orphanage.

Thank you,

the Ogle family

We Meet Wu JinFeng

After some early morning jitters, we made it to the breakfast buffet where several other adoptive families had also arrived. We left a little early for our 9:30 appointment ( about 8:45.) We were the first family at the Civil Affairs Office but there were several little girls already there. They were calmly walking around in their squeaky shoes. ( This was the calm before the storm). By the time Wu JinFeng arrived, some of the babies had figured out what was going on so there was some noise and commotion already in progress. He walked in smiling and confident to this room full of people. He looked just like his pictures ( I had had this fear that he would have changed beyond recognition and I would not know him, silly I know.) We were at the far end of the room and had to wind our way through other families to get to him. Of course, we didn't take our eyes off him as we did this. As soon as he spotted us, there was a look of ( Greg (son)wants me to say pure terror at this point) however, it was recognition, he definitely knew our faces. His face fell, he started to cry and actually tried to leave the room. They had definitely been showing our pictures to him and telling him what was to happen. I just don't believe he thought it would be today. We didn't spend too much more time there and Greg had to carry him out to our car. It really was pitiful but we knew it would probably be like that. Our ride back to the hotel had him in high volume but when we got out he calmed a bit. I carried him to the elevator and into the room. I took him as far from the door as I could (having read other families blogs about what their children did) however, he was able to find his way back to it so he could kick the door and scream occasionally. Blessedly, this did not last very long. I put out a few small toys in different parts of the room so he could find them as he walked around. We were soon playing with him and the toys. We started to get a few smiles, then some interaction from him with all three of us, then laughter. He played very hard all day, refused to eat real food, is scared of the potty, and is sleeping right now. We expect him to wake up with a vengeance. I'm sure he will not be happy that he is still here and not back where he wants to be. However, we have made a good start, I think. He did fall asleep in my arms, while he played he would "read" his books and he was saying all kinds of Chinese but interspersed we could hear him say "mama, baba(daddy) and ge ge(big brother). He would also get his little photo album we had sent him and point to our pictures and say the same things. More later.
Mary Louise

More pictures

Introducing . . . James Paul William Ogle

At 9:30 AM June 18, 2007 James Paul William Ogle joined our family.

A few tears were expected. (And recieved.)
But things turned around pretty quickly.
Then we started getting real laughs and smiles and pretty soon there was a full blown soccer game in the room with big brother.

Tomorrow is the day!!

Tomorrow is the day!! Mom has already said she probably won't sleep tonight and I am starting to actually get a little nervous myself. I think it will be a very exciting day tomorrow but maybe a little difficult to get adjusted to, but I am sure we can handle it all quite well. As long as my mom doesn't cry everytime the baby does it won't be so bad, but if she does it's going to be a LONG day. Haha. I think she will do fine though and we are all looking forward to it!!!!

Greg Jr.

T-Minus 14 Hours and counting

We waited 14 months for tomorrow to finally arrive. These last 14 hours may be the longest of the entire wait.

We've done all we can do now. We will finally do what we set out to do last year tomorrow morning at 9:30. Are we anxious? Sure. Are we nervous? Definitely. Are we excited? Absolutely. Are we prepared? Who knows?

We can't help but wonder what he's doing tonight. Packing? Probably not. We don't think he has anything to pack. They tell us we get him with the clothes on his back and maybe the few personal items we sent him. Not much packing required. Saying goodbye to everyone he's ever known? We doubt it. We don't think he can comprehend the fact that he will most likely never see the people and children he knows again.

What We do know is that tomorrow morning around 9:30 am he will be handed to 3 strange looking people he's never seen before. Will he be frightened? Definitely. Will he be sad? Absolutely. Will he cry for his friends and everything he knows in his life? We're sure he will. Will he get over it and become a member of our family? With time, yes. Will we have the patience to give him time to grieve? Yes. Will we be there for him when he's sad? Yes.

In your excitement for our family please remember that there's a 3 year old that's about to have his life turned upside down. It's time for us to change gears from the excitement of finally bringing James Paul William into our family and get down to the business of caring for a 3 year old that needs a lot of love and understanding. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers for the next few hours, days, weeks, and months. He has a tough road ahead. We think we're ready to show him the way.

The Ogle family

Sunday in Wuhan

We visited a local park( it is huge, we are not talking about Delano) with a magnificent view of the city from the very top. At the top was some sort of Chu temple, and at the top of the temple you could see a "bird's wing":) view of the area. (Quote from our guide who really does speak excellent English just got this expression a little mixed up.) I did climb the stairs up to the temple top but could not go out on the walkway to view. However, I could see through the windows. We were above the tree tops, for real. I looked out and saw the tops of the trees! We also attended a concert there with traditional (Chu) music and instruments. They had the bells, flutes, pan, drums with a long flat stringed instrument that our guide does not know the name of. We have seen it several times already but he says he is not very musical. This afternoon we will go to a store across the street just to see what they have that we might need after we get James Paul William tomorrow. We have been told he will just have the clothes and shoes he has on. I brought some things with me but, of course, just guessed at the sizes. LiFeng says he has been back at the orphanage for the last 7-9 months. We did not know that he had not been with his foster family. All these months we have been waiting for him, I used the thought that at least he was with his "family" so it was sad to think that he had not been. We are just hours away from getting to finally meet him!! Even if our beds were not made of concrete, I do not believe I will get much sleep tonight. I have had several restless/sleepless nights since we have been here anyway but tonight definitely expect one. I may not post again until we finally have him with us. Does he have any idea what is about to happen to him, I wonder?
Mary Louise

Saturday in Wuhan

When we disembarked from the boat, they had rolled out a red carpet for all the passengers and different crew members were dressed in uniforms (band). The 12 or so band members played while all the passengers disembarked. They had drums,flute, trumpet, saxophones. LiFeng met us at the dock and we rode to our hotel. I am still amazed to have only seen one accident since we have been in China and it was a little fender bender. Lines on the road mean absolutely nothing, even double yellow lines with traffic coming at you from the other direction! We are at the White Rose Hotel and we have a real bathroom with tub and western toilet. (For anyone who has wondered-yes, we have become quite familiar with the "squatty potty".) Our whole floor is decorated with Disney like decorations and Greg posted a picture of our room. Walking into our room was rather like being in a movie. It just didn't seem real. The mattresses on the beds are made of concrete, we think.
Mary Louise

At last, Wuhan

We have finally arrived in Wuhan. You know on the boat you are in your own world. No TV, radio, newspaper or anything. Plus the countryside and the gorges are like being on another planet. On our first day, when we did stop-Fengdu-The Ghost City-also known as the capital of Hades(no joke, for over a 1000 years they have called it the capital of Hades), we truly were in another world. You have to climb over 400 steps or go up in a chair lift(guess which I did). The walk up was really wonderful, beautiful plants and trees and you could smell the earth-it smelled like red clay! The views were incredible, terraced land where the gorge people grow their corn, potatoes, peanuts and a view of the new Fengdu city. It was built to accommodate the re-location of some of the gorge people. We saw some of the rock carvings on the cliffs, they were re-creations of the originals. The original carvings were cut out of the clifts and put in museums because the flooding was going to cover them up. They have tried very hard to preserve their history but much has been covered up by the flooding for the dam.

On the second day we traveled through the gorges. I have never seen such views. In the river between the gorges one seems very small. We traveled by ferry boat to a tributary of the Yangtze, Shennong Stream. We rode in "pea pod boats" up the tributary and a local guide told us of many of the Tujia customs ( the Tujia are a minority people who live there). The "trackers" who paddled our boat also pulled us over some very shallow shoals with beautiful rocks in the stream. The trackers are famous here and in ages past (and really just a few years ago) they pulled many boats upstream in the Shennong and on the big river. Otherwise the boats could not have gone upstream. The Tujia men were very wiry and strong but not very big. They speak their own dialect and cannot speak English or Mandarin. The water was very clear and they gave us some of the colorful rocks. This boat trip was the neatest thing I think I have ever done. Oh yes, we passed the boundary, it is actually a tributary, that begins Hubei province. I made Greg take a picture of it. He thinks his mom is nuts anyway but I thought we needed to have a picture of it since it was our first "step" into Hubei province.

On Friday we actually toured the Three Gorges Dam. It is big and it will produce massive amounts of hydroelectric power but compared to some of the sights we had already seen it did seem to pale in comparison. We have seen and learned so much, I have tried to write it all down. I want to be able to talk someday with James Paul William about the country of his birth.

Mary Louise

Anyone ever seen a hotel room that looks like this?

In addition to the decor, the room is set up with almost everything you would need to care for an infant or small child. The entire 12th floor of our hotel is dedicated to adoptive families. There is a play area with toys where you exit the elevator to the 12th floor. Greg Jr. has a room adjoining ours. I will post a picture of Greg Jr's. room later. (Same effect, just all PINK!!) Thank goodness he's a good sport about it all. ;)

Photos

The new "Bird's Nest" Olympic Stadium in Beijing. This picture was taken in the middle of the day. There were no clouds in the sky. We were less than a mile from the stadium.
Life in the 3 Gorges
Greg and Mom at the Ghost City at Fengdhu
River life
Entering the double 5 step ship locks at the 3 Gorges Dam. The lock on the right is for downstream traffic and the lock on the left is for upstream traffic. Each side is actually 5 separate locks in stair step formation. Traffic goes directly from one lock into the next until passing through all 5. The total vertical distance will be over 300 feet when the river reaches final pool level in 2009. We had dinner while passing thru the 3rd lock on the downstream side.

Photos

The night lights of Chongqing Entering Wu Gorge
Pagoda at the "Ghost City" of Fengdhu
One of the 3 "Little" Gorges at Shonneng Stream
"Trackers" who pull the "Pea Pod" boats through the rapids of Shonneng Stream