Pics from the Day

Big Little Man

Today we met Quinn LuoHao! He seems like a pretty cool dude so far.

Emotions were running pretty high at the Civil Affairs Office today, almost more so for Calliope than for Quinn, really. She swung back and forth between being excited about being a big sister, to being entirely freaked out by the fact that he was crying so hard. Now that has all passed, she is doing much better and is being really helpful.

We found out that his nickname is 'Little Mouse' (pronounced like 'Hao-zer), and that his Chinese name means 'Luo = the name of the police station where he was found' and 'Hao = great or big man'.

They told us he is a good eater and a good sleeper, and we have found both things to be true already. He fell asleep on me while I was signing paperwork, and I carried him almost comatose to the van after we were through with the appointment. And then at the hotel, he ate three bowls of congee and rice. He's a substantial boy! Not a bit like Miss Calliope, who has never eaten or weighed more than a bird.

After a period of grieving and tears, he is now in a state of shell shock. He quietly watches us all . . . and especially watches everything that Calliope does. He did, however, warm up enough to play with the stacking cups while we took turns holding them for him, which is a vast improvement over how non-responsive he was when we first came back to the hotel. He is very, very, strong! The nanny told us that as well, and we noticed it right away. He is also completely healthy, and they said he has never had any surgeries or hospitalizations at all.

The shoes we brought for him are way too small . . . I'm betting much of the clothes are, too. We have not seen him smile yet, but we finally have proof that he can. The nannies gave us a small album of pictures, and he is smiling in two of them! Super cute.

Not entirely certain how we are going to work out the sleeping arrangements . . . I noticed when he was sleeping in my arms that, just like his baba and jie jie, he's yet another snorer. *sigh* I knew I should have brought ear plugs . . .

Thanks for all of the prayers and encouragement, folks! We really appreciate it. Tomorrow, we return to the Civil Affairs office to finalize the adoption. :)

-starla

While we are waiting

Since we have nothing better to do while we wait for our Civil Affairs appointment, let's take a look at the suite we are staying in at The Garden Hotel. If you can't tell, I'm a little obsessed with it. I think I am going to have our whole house renovated to match it as soon as we get home. :) -starla

Gaoming SWI visit

As Aaron has said, the visit went surprisingly well. We had gorgeous weather and sunshine, and Calliope was very brave throughout the visit. I think she was confused . . . but was enjoying the attention so much that she would forget to be anxious. Just a few pics here . . . for those in our Gaoming family, I'm uploading several more to the Yahoo Gaoming group.

We have a free day today - so I'm going to get a massage at the hotel spa. It's a tough life. :)

Our last day as a family of three!

-starla

Gaoming

We saw a different part of Gaoming this trip. It is a major little city. It reminded Starla of Paris with its large sidewalks and small streets. The free-for-all traffic was also reminiscent of Paris. To me it seemed like Brooklyn. People everywhere doing all sorts of commerce and socialising on the sidewalk because no one wants to be inside their small apartments. The GuangZhou area seems to be in a perpetual state of construction. New roads and buildings going up all over the place without any particular rhyme or reason.

Back from Gaoming

We had a nice trip to Gaoming. Calliope appeared to have a good time. Everyone at the SWI recognised her and remembered her smile. Calliope was comfortable and hugged everyone. She, also, got a picture with everyone. She liked seeing the other babies. She spent a fair amount of time in Mom and DAd's arms but was pretty confident. We saw her finding place and that was a bit of a somber moment for all of us. Calliope seemed a bit confused that babies would be found outside and I thought she was a little troubled by that. She didn't want to get out of my arms there. She watched Backyardigans all the way home in the van and sang and danced in her own world for an hour.

Trip to Gaoming.

In a few minutes we will take off to visit Gaoming. Calliope is pretty trepedatious but putting her best game face on. You can just hear how she is used to trusting Mom and Dad but thinks this decision might be a bridge too far. Send some prayers.

House . . . er . . Hotel Arrest

Calliope has us all under house arrest today, which is not exactly how I had planned to spend one of our only two free days in GZ before meeting Quinn. She's only agreed to leave the room three times, and only because she was super hungry and wanted food. She and Aaron are out now looking for pizza, but she made him promise a couple of times that they would come RIGHT back. It's nice that she feels comfortable in the room, but I was hoping we'd do a bit more sightseeing and getting acclimated with the city around our hotel. But it was to be expected that she'd be more emotionally fragile than usual today, I guess. Big Change is coming soon, and she can't help but be apprehensive. A couple of times she has asked us where Quinn is, and once she said "We can't find him? We can't find Quinn in China?" And she's also had a few moments where she has asserted that *she* is the baby, and Quinn is the big sister. Ahem. Doesn't work like that, kiddo.

I took a whole bunch of pics today (of the hotel room, since that's all I have seen), but can't post them yet. We realized this morning that we forgot to pack the camera charger- d'oh! One of the cameras is charged up, but the other is running on empty. Uploading drains battery, so . . . worse case scenario, Aaron can run out to buy a new Sony camera, or find a charger somewhere. Maybe our butler can find one for us. Apparently, our suite comes with complimentary butler service. I've been calling him Stefan, but just because he appears to be German and I can't remember his name.

So I guess there could be worse places to be under house arrest than the 5 star Garden Hotel. :)

-starla

Pretty happy to be in China

Greetings from Guangzhou! We love our hotel, we love our suite, we love Guangzhou, and we especially love not having to get on a plane today.

Calliope is struggling with some mood swings right now, which is totally expected. Poor kid is going through a lot, and she has a vague sense that her whole world is going to change in a couple of days. Right now our schedule has us with a free day today, a visit to Calliope's former SWI in Gaoming tomorrow, another free day, and then we meet Quinn on Monday at the Civil Affairs office. We are supposed to be there by 2:30PM . . . which means we need some happy thoughts from y'all at 2:30 AM EST. Well, happy dreams, anyway. I don't actually expect anyone to stay up that late. ;)

-starla

One last pic in Seoul

I guess there aren't going to be very many more photos of us as a family of three . . . this was taken in the Seoul Air Transit Hotel right before we left for our flight to Guangzhou.

More play area.

More play area.

Korean Airport

Wow. What a nice airport. Calliope loved the play area. She had plenty of wiggles left over even after playing, though.

An early Christmas post.

We opened presents a bit early due to our travel plans. Calliope thought it was time for Christmas anyway. She hasn't embraced advent yet.

Up.

Yes, Calliope and I are up. Starla has her eyes closed. So I can hope she's asleep. 2AM here and thank goodness for quiet computer entertainment. Calliope is doing iPod games and I'm downloading some of her favorite TV shows for the rest of the trip. Korean Air had wonderful little USB ports on every seat to charge up devices. Alas, no plug for the laptop, though. So I'm starting now to make sure she has plenty of videos. Ditto for Quinn.
Calliope did enjoy some of the offerings on Korean Air's inflight programming. But not enough for 15 hours. Just to give you a taste of her state of mind - twice I observed her watching cartoons for extended periods of time without headphones or sound of any kind. And if you think Max & Ruby are boring with sound.

More than half way there.

Yes we made it to Korea. Starla finally got some rest. Ditto for Calliope. Korean Air was comfortable but Calliope did not know what to do with herself and didn't sleep until the final hour or so. She mostly played iPod and videos in the floor on our row.

Cutey two shoes

Calliope and her grand mothers

Some pictures of Calliope

TA came in today.

Starla went from the depths of despair to cat-like readiness in an instant.

Waiting for the call

Any day we should find out when we can travel to China. Then Starla springs into trip booking action. It is really a sight to behold.

Successful Trunk or Treat

Calliope was literally dragging kids to our van to give them candy.

Renewing a blogging lease.

Since I will soon be in China adopting my second child I know it is time to get back in the blogging habit. Let's hope this is the first of many posts.