We're Official

On our first day together, if I’m totally honest, Eden still felt somewhat like a stranger to me. After all, I had only just met her. Trying to soothe her to sleep on the first night together began the bonding experience for me. I only hope she’s feeling a connection to us.

She couldn’t be a more cheery and delightful toddler, though. It’s everything from the Frankenstein walk, to the way she rests her forehead on mine, to the way she follows Malia everywhere (much to her big sister’s dislike), to her picky eating habits (as evidence, I’ve included a video clip of her discovering that I had tried to slip in some fruit into her yoghurt).

On Day 2, we officially became Eden Qinying’s parents. It was both formal and comical. We were instructed to stand in certain spots, pose for certain pictures, recite a vow not to abandon and abuse… and then the Civil Affairs office tried to awkwardly sell us a photo album of the highlights of Chongqing along with pictures of the ceremony for the low, low price of 300 RMB (about $45).

Last night was another tough night for Eden. Sleep time seems to be especially hard for her for some reason. I tried to recreate the conditions that worked last night, and of course, they failed miserably. I only succeeded in getting Eden to unprecedented levels of agitation. Finally, I walked up and down the stairs of our high-rise hotel, and the monotonous, rhythmic sound of the steps eventually did the trick… although I ended up doing more floors than I was in shape for… suffice to say, I slept well last night.

We’re off to the zoo today for an outing. Eliza is eager to do the next blog (and not let me, Paul, do all the representing).

First Encounter

Sorry we’re a little late with this update. Yesterday was an draining day, and Mom and Dad were pretty wiped out by the time we put the kids to sleep… “kids”… it’s kinda nice to say that for the first time.

Eden has quite the personality. What we’ve observed so far is she’s rambunctious, a prankster, already loves to get a rise out of Malia (could become a lifelong pattern), has a constant motor, smiles and laughs a lot, can’t sit still, is feisty and pretty willful. All positive traits to Mom and Dad! We were afraid she’d be a little listless and withdrawn, and that isn’t the case at all. When she wants something, she grabs Daddy’s hand and brings me over to whatever it is to make me get it for her.

Malia is definitely going through an adjustment. She’s very clingy with Mom, and is not quite sure yet how to feel about this new addition to the family. When she saw the Social Welfare worker who accompanied Eden, Malia proclaimed with some relief, “She already has a Mommy!” We had to break it to Malia that the woman was not Eden’s mommy but her “auntie.”

We had dinner together at a local restaurant, and she seemed to be able to eat reasonably well. She definitely likes rice and does NOT like greens… pretty typical kid. Every time I tried to sneak in a little vegetable under the spoonful of rice, she’d be wise to me and turn her head away. Like I said, willful. J

The bedtime ritual was the first sign of Eden going through a tough transition. She refused to lie down in her crib or in our bed, so I (Paul) had to take her on a walk to try to soothe her a little. We were having a grand old time for awhile, and then all of a sudden, she started looking around for something (or someone), tearing up, and crying out for “Ba.” “Baba” means daddy in Chinese, so I wonder if she might have been looking for her foster dad. We know almost nothing about her foster care situation other than that she was only there for 4-5 months. We figured she probably didn’t develop much of a bond with them, but we could be wrong. In any event, I eventually took her out onto a busy street and rocked her in my arms. The noise and lights and general hustle and bustle seemed to calm her down, and she fell asleep pretty quickly. She’s been fast asleep ever since… Malia’s wondering if she’ll ever wake up so we could all go get some breakfast!

Well, I’ll end our update here with some pics. Eliza will write more soon.

The Big Day Has Arrived

Nearly two years of waiting is about to end. We meet Eden in a few short hours. It seems the only one not nervous is Malia. She seems to have the attitude, “Let’s get on with it already, rather than just talk about this theoretical person!” Mom and Dad are thinking about the many unknowns… How quickly will she take to us? Was it hard for her to go back to the orphanage? What will she eat? Is she really not potty trained?... which when you think about it, make no sense to worry about. We just won’t know until we meet her.

Our update tonight will include a photo of our much-awaited daughter. Thanks, everyone, for reading this and lifting us up in prayer. It means a lot.

I (Paul) have attached a few pics of Chongqing that I took on my jog this morning.

Beijing

We spent today in Beijing to start off the trip with an orientation given by our agency, Holt. It was with a group of 12 or so other families who are all going to different provinces. The fun part was receiving a red binder with 2 new pictures of Eden and some more information on her. Malia was very possessive of the new photos and wanted to carry them around with her. One interesting thing we found out was that Eden only just joined her foster family in Dec 2009, which means she really hasn't been there for very long. And she was moved back to the orphanage a week ago to prepare her for us coming. What they've explained about that is this allows the children to start the grieving process of leaving their foster family before we get there.

Malia has been such a trooper so far, very cheery and sweet even though she is exhausted. She hasn't been napping on this trip, but totally konking out early in the evening. This morning she woke up at 4:45am, was going strong all day long, and then fell asleep riding piggy-back on Paul while we were walking through a crowded market down the street from our hotel.
















This video clip is from that market, and is not for the faint of heart. You can thank Paul for making sure it made it to the blog!

We leave for Chongqing tomorrow and will go meet Eden on Monday...

First Leg Complete

Snoring has never sounded so sweet.

Many of you know what a finicky sleeper Malia is, and thus why we were dreading the long international flight. We did everything to stack the odds in our favor - made sure she was generally on her regular sleep schedule on the last day, boarded a midnight flight so that Malia would feel naturally tired and primed to sleep, even brought some children's Benadryl as a last-resort option (don't want to create outrage among you paragons of child safety with that last admission). Well true to form, Malia did not like the sleep conditions on the flight - this despite the fact that she was able to lay almost completely flat and stretched out thanks to some body contortions by Mom and Dad to create extra space in our 3 contiguous seats. She finally did manage to get about 5 or so choppy and disrupted hours of sleep on the flight. We take that as a victory. Thanks for your prayers.

We're now at a transit hotel in the Seoul airport where we have a 14 hour layover (I know, it was the cheapest ticket we could find). Thanks to the wonderful generosity of friends and family, we had a some extra money to splurge on the private room where we could catch some extra shut-eye. And Malia is now sound asleep. We are grateful.

For those of you who have asked to know how to be praying day-to-day, I would ask that you remember Eliza's health. She's still a bit under the weather, and the plane ride didn't help. Hopefully, this nap at the airport will be restorative.

We included a little photo of our little insomniac on the plane.

Off We Go!

In a few hours we head out to LAX to go get our girl. Malia and I are both nursing colds and hoping it won't progress into anything nasty while we're there. We've received an outpouring of love and support as we've been preparing to leave and we feel like the most blessed people in the world.

We'll see you on the other side...

Update!

As I was just bemoaning the lack of communication yesterday, we got an email from Holt today confirming that Eden and her foster family are okay after the storm and that they appreciate us asking about them :)

We also got another picture of Eden at the SWI and some updated measurements! At 19 months she is 29 in and 22 lbs, which puts her at the 5% for height and 15% for weight. Malia's always been higher in percentile for weight too :) Going through Malia's old clothes today and I was surprised at how few things I could bring for Eden. Either the seasons didn't match up or it was so stained I couldn't believe I'd saved it! And some things I remember Malia having and for the life of me couldn't find. Well, I guess I have to go shopping! :)