Thursday, February 26, 2009

A Whole New Trip





























Bo and I arrived safely in Guangzhou Thursday afternoon. Our flight arrangements were somehow messed up and we ended up being put in first class for the 2.5 hr flight so that was nice. It was too hazy to really see anything on the take-off but Bo loved the landing in Guangzhou with clear blue skies and beautiful mountains surrounding the city. Our hotelis The White Swan, basically the epicenter of China adoptions as it's riht down the street from the US consulate. All of the shops in town are geared towards souvenirs and children's clothing. It kind of feels like the Epcot version of China, a stark change to Hebei Province. Yesterday was the physical for the visa application and Bo checked out OK. He weighs 18.5 kg and is 108 cm tall. He fits best in size 4 pants but I use 5T tops and PJs. Yesterday we borrowed a stroller and he loves it. He makes me push him around everywhere and only gets out to eat or to shop. We hit the outdoor pool in the afternoon. It's an unseasonably warm 80-85 degrees F and very humid rright now. The water was cold but felt good due to the outdoor temp. There is an indoor kiddie pool which we will probably hNg toit today. Here are some photos, I realize it's been a few days since I last posted any. Sightseeing today so I should have more later.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Off to Guangzhou

We are all packed up and ready for check-out. I was actually impressed by how little luggage we have, since Ryan already brought a few things home for me to lighten the load. It's about a two hour flight and then palm trees and warmer weather, here we come! Bo is bugging me to play transformers so I better go. Internet is not free at the White Swan so I probably won't blog until we've been there a day or two. Until then, Alison and Bobo

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

My Crazy Traveling Experience

This is Ryan with my update on my crazy travel day yesterday.  I am home now.  After little sleep over concern of Bo's low blood sugar, the day started innocently enough with Alison and I going over the fact that I would not need money for my travels to the Beijing Capital Airport (per our guide's instruction), but we both decided that I should have a bit of Yuan to take care of tips for the guide and driver, so I took $40 yuan (approx. $5.75 American) and had $35 American on me.  I also had a cell phone that had a dead battery as it was accidently turned on while in my bag at the beginning of the trip and was completely drained of batteries.  Once at the train station, which I knew was rather bustling based upon our train ride to Shijiazhuang, I followed each of my fellow passengers onto the platform and made my way to the expected waiting area.  No sign of my new guide in the area where people are holding up signs to meet with others, so I decided that they might be a bit late and waited in that area for about a 1/2 hour.  I then did a once over at a few of the passenger pick-up and drop-off points outside the station, and decided I should choose a particular spot and wait there for another 20 minutes, etc.  After I tried this at a few locations I attempted to communicate with the Information Desk to attempt to have my guide paged, and this failed miserably.  While at the desk I did find a very helpful man who was able to tell me that a taxi ride to the airport would run me approximately $300 Yuan/RMB (about $45 American), and I decided that my efforts to meet the guide were helpless at the 1 hr 45 min point.
I decided to make my way over to the ATMs to withdrawal enough money to catch a cab to the airport, only the ATMs were not accepting either of my two cards.
I tried the payphones outside the train station, but they would not accept credit cards and I did not want to spend 10 of my Yuan to buy a phone card from the vendor (besides, I did not have either my previous or new guide's cell phone numbers on me).
The ladies at the Information Desk pointed to the dozens of buses outside the train station when I mentioned the airport to them, so I made my way to the buses and tried to speak to the drivers and discern who was going to the airport.  I was unsuccessful with this.
Frustration began to gather more and more as I decided to wheel my luggage over the walkway to the hotels across the street and hope that I could find an English-speaking employee or an ATM that would work.  As I was wheeling my way just outside the hotel a cab driver came up to me and in broken-English asked if I needed a ride.  I pulled out the money that I had, 40 yuan and $35 American (in total about $41 bucks - a bit more than 275 Yuan/RMB) and explained to him that I would be willing to give that money to whoever could get me to the Capital Airport to catch my flight back to MeiGua (America).  The man shuffled me over to one of his buddies and we loaded my luggage into the trunk while 4 or 5 cab drivers stared at the American money with doubts of its' authenticity and its value in comparison to the RMB.  I grabbed a piece of paper and tried to illustrate for him that $1 dollar = $6.75 RMB, and I did the math for him to show him that the American money was worth approx.  $235 RMB.  After a bit of reluctance, the driver and I loaded into the cab and we headed to the airport.  
During this drive we made stops at every bus stop while the driver tried to find someone who could translate English and was familiar with American currency.  At the second or third bus stop we tracked down a twenties looking woman who jumped into the back of the cab and began to explain his doubts about my money that I gave him.  I suggested that he take me to a hotel where I could exchange the currency (but looking back I don't know how well that would have turned out for me).  What really threw him off was the fact that the one $10 bill that I had was in the newer format, while the other $10 bill was in the old style, so I had to point out that the years were different and that the money design changed.  He seemed OK with this explanation and the fact that looking at the currency in light shows the transparency of the money, and he offered me a cigarette as we moved along once again.  Looking at his fare meter, I believe it ran about $170 RMB, so the driver eventually made off with a sizable tip (if he could figure out how to unload the American money).
Every other part of the trip seemed to go swimmingly, as I was finally able to find a phone that would allow me to dial out to Alison and Josh in order to get word out that I made my way to the airport.
I arrived in NOLA a bit before 10pm, was picked up promptly and was home by just after 11pm to see the dogs.  Everyone/thing is one piece still and Boo even looks as if she gained a bit of weight during our trip.  I need to start taking bets on the amount of weight that Boo gains during Bo's first month in the states.

Ryan
   

Banshu Day




Today I found a local toy store and BoBo picked out a toy from his favorite action figure, you guessed it, Ultraman! He already had one but this set has 8 figures, all the planes, and some weird flying object as well. Once we got back to the room he just played and played, no DVDs! He also does this funny thing where he takes them out of the packaging, plays with them, then puts them each back in their original spot and closes up the box. Little does he know the box isn't going to fit in our suitcase so he will have to leave that part behind. Hopefully all of his action figures will make the pain of that scenario go away. Here are some photos of the happy little guy.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Baba Leaves :(

Today started with a trip to the train station to drop off Baba. Our guide, Michael, translated for me that Baba was flying home to our house today and that Bo and I were going to one more hotel before we fly home to see him at his new house (fahng-zuh means house). He seemed OK with this and the only bad behavior we saw was that he didn't want to hold Ryan's hand at the train station. I guess he isn't really big on good-byes. After the train station we took a taxi to the local hospital. Bo had another very low blood sugar Sunday evening/ Monday morning and I was determined to get another glucagon kit. The hospital experience was interesting to say the least. First of all, Bo knew exactly what it was and he tensed up and made me carry him the whole time we were there. He was actually found in a hospital so who knows if he remembers the feeling of being alone and scared or if he's just been to the hospital on etime too many due to his illness. We made our way past two different triage desks (young women in nurses uniforms basically directing you where to go) and then we were in the internal medicine hallway. Next stop was the endocrinologist, a nice middle aged woman in a white coat who presumably has some sort of training, albeit maybe not an MD. She was with another older woman and since there is no privacy in China we just stood there and listened to their conversation while waiting our turn. Three other older ladies showed up while we were waiting and each pushed their way to the front and deposited a registration book on the desk, somehow signaling that they were eligible for treatment. They were all sort of pushing infron tof us until they realized that Bo was the patient. Then they asked Michael a million questions about him and about me and they smiled approvingly that I was taking him to the US for better medical care. They let us go next and the doctor studied the used glucagon kit I had for a few minutes, asked a few questions, then said they don't have this. She said they just give sugar water. When I asked what do do if the patient refused or was unconsious she said they put them on an IV. I politely told her they should investigate getting some of these and then we left. So no glucagon kit for the rest of the trip. After Michael dropped us off at the hotel I took Bo to KFC for lunch (dragon wraps, very yummy: a flour tortilla with a chicken tender, cucumber sticks, and some sort of sweet brown asian sauce). We of course ate a few french fries and ketchup too, he loves ketchup! Then we went to the grocery store and I stocked up on sweet beverages that I know he will drink in the case of low blood sugar. Now I get to fight him off and say no about a jillion times until that occasion happens, fun for me. He was generally much better at the store and I made a few compromises (bought him some gum) but he gave up easier when he wanted something and I said no so I would call that progress in the mother-child dynamic. Late in the afternoon we went back to the park and the children's rides were open again. I bought us more bubbles and he got to go on the airplane ride. He has this airplane toy that he takes on walks now that has bells on it and stuff. He pointed to it a few times and mimicked that it was Baba flying the plane so I guess he understands the whole plane thing. We had dinner in our room and a nice quiet evening, in bed by 8! He wouldn't let me sleep in the other bed, I had to sleep with him. We'll see if after a few more nights that is possible. It is Tuesday AM now and we are due to visit the Hebei Museum today, our last scheduled outing in Shijiazhuang. Thursday morning we leave for Guangzhou and it couldn't come sooner. I'm missing my palm trees and humid weather, plus the air quality is better there and there are more Great Wall families to meet.

Oh, I almost forgot hte biggest story of the day. Ryan will have to fill you all in on this in more detail but I guess the guide who was supposed to meet him at the train station in Beijing and take him to the airport never showed. He ended up taking a taxi, with a driver who didn't speak English, and only $35 US to pay (he didn't want to take a lot of yuan home with him). Needless to say it is quite a story and our agency has some explaining to do but at least he did make it to the airport as he called me after checking in while he was still waiting for his flight. To ther GW families, this is screw-up #2 for us. #1 was not haviing our brown envelopes in province! Our guide here has been a little less than desirable at times and it is frustrating to read the other families stories who all love their guides. He has helped a bit with Bo but he doesn't always tell us what is going on or ask us if we need anything. It's kind of like pulling teeth to get him to do anything for us. Hopefully Kelley in Guangzhou will be abit more accomodating.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Bumper Car Video

Ryan's Last Day in China





















Tomorrow morning we take Ryan to the train station and he is off to Beijing for his flight home. Part of me wishes I was on that plane too. It's great spending so much time getting to know Bo's home region but I miss my comfy bed and I am itching to get us to a more stable environment. Living in a hotel with a 4 yr old has its highs and lows. I think Bo thinks we live here all the time. I'm a bit worried about how well he takes Ryan's leaving tomorrow but hopefully our guide will be able to translate a conversation for us. Bo has gotten a lot more attached to Ryan over the past two days as I have tried to be a bit more of a disciplinarian. I am going to need him to listen to me when we are alone so hopefully I have made a little headway. In adopting older kids there is a concept called "family age" and we have seen a lot of it recently. Family age means that the child will sometimes act younger than their chronological age due to the shorter length of time that they have been a part of the family. Some of this we have seen in Bo is his constantly wanting to be carried, his tantrums where his whole body goes limp and he kicks and yells (more like 2 yr old) and today at the park he was more into the little kid games than the rides that were more his speed. He did warm up to the older kid stuff but he spent a lot of time on these silly scooters that were almost too small for him and he played on rocking toys that were definitely more 2 yr old appropriate.

We had a free day so we spent the morning in the room, then went to the children's park in the afternoon. Since it was a nice day (probably mid-50s and sunny) and it was the weekend they actually had the amusement park area open. Ryan and Bo rode bumper cars and then Bo rode a bunch of kids rides: cars, merry go round, and jungle gym area. For dinner we met up with the Smith family and went to the nice Chinese restaurant in our hotel. They had a very extensive menu and Bo especially liked the cucumbers I ordered, which were served with crushed ginger and soy sauce. He didn't eat much of his noodles though so I had to give him a sweet milk when we got back to the room. He was probably full from the pint of milk he drank before the food came. Ryan and I had hot chili chicken, stir fried rice noodles with beef, and I ordered a roast chicken in salt and it came out cold and fatty, not a good combo for chicken. You win some you lose some. Last night we had amazing wontons from a street cafe that Ryan brought back to the room so it was pretty hard to top that. Bo still needs a lot of work on table manners but the waitresses all love to come over and talk to him and he loves the attention. I wish we knew what they were saying. All I could gather tonight was that one of the waitresses was also from Baoding and she asked him some things about where in Baoding he lived. After dinner we played with a sticker game where you put numbered stickers on a grid and it forms a picture. Bo does very well matching up the numbers and placing the stickers close together. Not bad for a 4 yr old. Preschool, here we come!


Saturday, February 21, 2009

Alison's Birthday








Saturday was Alison's birthday, and we spent it in the metropolis of Shijiazhuang. We started the day off with everyone able to function and get out of bed, which is already better than we were on Friday. We have not run into any morning extreme blood sugar low's since that first morning with Bo, as we are now able to monitor his food intake and shots much more than we were able to on gotcha day.
Saturday was originally scheduled as a free-day, but was rotated with Sunday for one reason or other, and we got a trip to the mountains instead of a museum excursion (which the 3 children would have hated). These mountains held a portion of what was once the Great Wall (which Alison and I had previously done), and looked like a heckuva long climb (especially when carrying a 41-pound child) - so we opted to take the Gondola to the top. Safe isn't a word that I would use to describe the gondolas, as our return trip was filled to the brim with passengers and many of the drop-off points didn't have sufficient barricades. Other than that the views were outstanding and Bo was overall OK during this trip. Bo let us know when he was ready to go by explaining that he wanted to eat noodles. We hoped that he would actually walk a bit during this excursion, but he was primarily held (Michael even lent a hand during a particularly steep portion of the trail on our return trip).

We returned back to the room and Bo got his noodles while Alison was able to catch some much needed zzzz's. Bo and I stayed entertained during this by playing with Lego's and watching Pokemon (much less violent than Ultraman). After about an hour and a half, Bo decided that it was time to go outside and made it his mission to wake up Alison and hit the road, IMMEDIATELY. Inevitably, he threw a tantrum because neither Alison nor I were prepared to go outside when he was ready. We did end up going outside, but not before he stopped his crying, etc. We ended up going to a grocery store down the street that had a sign at the top of the building which says 'Aquarium' on it. After negotiating a bit with the girl at the bottom of the stairs, we were allowed to enter and we walked around looking at all of the fish that they had for sale. We did not find any clown fish (like Nemo), but did find a turtle and a few cool looking fish - so mission was accomplished. We did pick up a few knick knacks that have a local theme that can be placed in Bo's aquarium or fish tank should we go that route.

We scheduled with the Smith family for one of us to run errands and grab dinner to bring back for everyone, and that worked out well. We were unable to find a component for the Nintendo DS that both families need, and I was unsuccessful in finding a place to get film developed, but we came back in the nick of time as Bo was very worried about when he would be eating (the sun was setting, etc). I suppose I am lucky that Alison (who Bo has accepted as his caregiver) was here with him to deal with that rather than myself, as he threw a tantrum with me for about 45 minutes a few days prior when we had a similar circumstance.

Last night was relatively easy as I gave him his bath and Alison was able to get to sleep a bit earlier than us as Bo and I watched Nemo together than fell asleep.

Overall it was a good day of much-needed bonding for myself and Bo, and Alison had a few opportunities for some needed rest.

I fly back to the states tomorrow. I am not looking forward to leaving Alison alone with Bo, as I know that he can be trying and he has a habit of pulling on people (which is really bothering Alison with her hand problems).

Today I would like to find a kite if possible and go out to the park with Bo (hopefully one small enough that we can travel with), or a nerf ball to toss around. Alison and I have also discussed possibly going to the hotel pool once again in an attempt to coax Bo in (maybe not yet, but another time on the trip possibly).

Ryan

Friday, February 20, 2009

Friday activities






















Today started off on the not so good side because Ryan is sick. We've both had sore throats the past few days, assuming the air quality has something to do with that. However, last night he got a fever and chills and it was no better this morning. He decided to stay in the room while Bo and I went witht the group on a little excursion. Today we went to the botanical gardens. I tried to get some more video clips but it was hard filiming and chasing after him all by myself. After lunch at the hotel I took him to the little park across the street to use the bubbles that our guide bought him at the gardens. There were a few other young children with their moms there so if that video loads you will see a bunch of little Chinese kids in split pants. They don't wear diapers here. The pants are just split down the back and everything hangs out. I assume that's how Bo was raised because I haven't seen a kid here yet who wasn't wearing them. Today he is just as energetic and food motivated so I assume whatever Ryan has isn't affecting him. Oh, and last night we ate at Pizza Hut and he devoured the pizza and a bowl of pasta with tomato sauce. We bought a Chinese/ English "Finding Nemo" yesterday and it plays on my computer so we watched that last night before bed. It's still cute even if I don't understand what they are saying. Off for now, got to finish up so I can put Nemo back on.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Photos from Wednesday and Thursday
























































More Shijiazhuang

It's been a little while since my last post because we bought BoBo an Ultraman VCD and he watches it on the computer constantly. We realize that this isn't the best parenting technique but we are slowly introducing more barriers each day and hoping that it doesn't add to the trauma too much. Last night at dinner we learned not to kick and bite daddy when you don't get your way. Our other big struggle lately has been over food. BoBo was on a very restrictive diet in the orphanage and he is loving the new opportunity to eat in restaurants and pick things out at the supermarket. Then we get back into the room he wants to eat everything. I made the mistake of buying a few high carb drinks and snacks, mostly so we know what he likes when he gets low blood sugar, but he loves them and asks for them constantly. I just point at my watch and his glucometer and make a motion of giving him a shot and say no, basically saying "it's not time yet" and he seems to get that. But, he is only 4 years old and it's a fine balance between him learning that we intend to meet his every need as parents and us being the boundary setters. In biological kids you get to set the we are the nurturers role way before they start wanting things like Ultraman DVDs and sweet milk pops so it's not such a crazy all-at-once battle. He's a really smart kid though so I think he gets it and hopefully things will progress quickly once we have a normal routine going. Our hotel-living routine is wake up, get dressed, go to breakfast, come back to room and play for 30 minutes, go on a 2 hour excursion, come back and eat noodles and play for a few hours, go out again in the afternoon for about and hour for some exercise, come back to room and relax, go get dinner, come back and get ready for bed, play until sleepy and then read books and fall asleep.

Here's a recap of our excursions the past few days. We have photos from some here.

Tuesday: free day, we walked around and found the cemetery and a grocery store

Wednesday: morning shopping with our guide at mall across the street, then afternoon we walked and found the children's park (it was sleeting all afternoon, you can tell in some of the pictures), dinner at Hot Pot restaurant in the mall with the Smith family, cost for 4 adults 3 kids 100 yuan (about $16).

Thursday: morning excursion to special children's play area, it snowed last night so we had a snowball fight (Bo's first crying incident when one hit him in the face). The park used to be the zoo but they built a new one. There was an island with a pagoda which we climbed up to, even though it was very slippery with the snow on the ground. They don't really have guard rails anywhere so it is very scary walking around the park with a 4 yr old who loves to explore. Ryan and I take turns chasing after him when he gets too far ahead. He has also started this thing where he wants us to carry him, all 41 lbs of him!

In general Shijiazhuang is very smoggy. We called the snow "smow" for smog snow. The air actually looked a bit cleaner this morning so maybe the snow did that but right now at 2 PM it is back to the same brown haze. The people are nice but most don't speak English. I get a lot of stares, mostly from older women who look disapproving of me walking along with Bo. If they only knew the challenge he is!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Wednesday in Schjiazhuang

Wednesday morning was a great improvement upon Tuesday, as Bo woke up feeling OK and he didn't turn down any foods at the breakfast buffet. Directly across the street from our hotel is a large supermarket on the two basement levels and a mall in the remaining 6 levels. This was the same building that the Pizza Hut that we went to resides in, but neither of us could really tell what else they had there based upon our initial visit. Shopping with Bo wasn't real bad, as we picked out a car for him, which he held in his one hand, and he picked out a Ultraman dvd which he held in his other hand. Alison still had to drag him everywhere and say 'no, no, no' as they made their way down each aisle. He acts as if he has eaten all these strange foods (lots of sugary jells, fruit drinks, etc), though he may have just seen them advertised and now has the opportunity to eat them, etc.

After this trip we returned to the hotel room to eat more noodles. Lunch went smoothly and we quickly found that he REALLY enjoyed the Ultraman dvds. We found that they really altered his behavior and really brought out his kicking, biting, scratching side (at least with me) during our dinner - and those dvds have been put up for the time being and we might aim for something a little softer - like Finding Nemo or Madagascar.

During the afternoon we went to the indoor pool and attempted to coax Bo into the water, but it did not work and he kept his racecar in his hand and his sweatshirt on.

Next we made our way to a children's park that is a few blocks away. The weather was very cold and we had sleet coming down for most of our visit to the park. The park itself was really neat, and was quite busy with adults everywhere (doing group exercises, tai chi, and a number of older gentlemen were playing a game where you have a whip attached to a stick which is used to spin a large top around). The children's portion of the playground wasn't real memorable other than the fact that it seemed very dangerous with rusty metal and un-rounded edges everywhere. The students at the local school were still in-session as we walked by on the way to the park, which helped leave the playground fairly wide-open.

For dinner, we joined the Smith family and went to a traditional Chinese restaurant that we had found during our earlier visit to the mall. Here they served everything hot-pot style, so we selected four different meats, a few vegetables, and noodles which were all cooked right in front of us. Towards the end of our meal, Bo decided that he needed to use the restroom once again (and yes, we have gotten better about making sure he goes before we go anywhere), so I began to lead him down a hallway. When we found that it was a dead-end, Bo just whips it out and suggests that he will just go at the end of the hallway in the mall. We have a definite habit to break before he comes to Louisiana. I ended up quickly pulling his pants back up and carried him to a restroom without further incident. When we returned to the table I found that our total bill was 100 yuen (or approximately $14 U.S.) which was split between the two families. When we left a tip on the table, the hostess tracked us down after we left the restaurant and gave us our money back. We knew that the tipping culture for food service was a bit different here, but didn't know it was non-existant in some cases.

After a rough dinner we returned to the room and after watching another episode of Ultraman, Bo was given a bath. He then watched one more episode then crawled into bed with me at around 8:15 and quickly crashed out.

I am typing this by the light of the computer screen, and don't want to wake Bo up by attempting to download photos from our camera, so we will make sure to post photos in a few hours after we wake up and catch breakfast (approx. 8pm Eastern).

Ryan

Tuesday, February 17, 2009




Day Two Recap

Hey everyone,

Just a quick update from me today.

After our drama yesterday morning, the rest of the day went well. Bo may have turned down every food we offered in the first three hours of our day, but he made up for that real quick by eating a ton of noodles, yogurts, fruit cups, juices, cheerios, chips and crackers. In between meals, we walked around quite a bit and managed to track down a memorial park. There they had no children's equipment, but plenty of gated room for Bo to run free. It was cold enough to snow a bit here last night (we have decided to call it a combination of smog and snow - smow).

After mulling over whether to try to the Spiced Donkey Meat from room service or eat more popcorn chicken from KFC, we went with KFC for dinner (especially since our English speaking friend was on-shift once again). Our hopes are that Michael, our guide, might possibly have a meal with us at some point today so that we can have his assistance in translating, etc.

We wanted to hit the pool yesterday, and we stopped by to investigate the facilities - and Bo was not real keen on the idea of going into that big tub of water. He may just require the coaxing of a very warm Louisiana summer day to get him into a pool of water.

I imagine that Bo was prepared by his caregivers very well for the day that he would leave the orphanage, and the first few days (first full day alone with us) he has done admirably well. He communicates with us using gestures and simplified speech, and he is learning his first English words (like 'No' each time that he puts a LEGO in his mouth or attempts to plug in the headphone adapter into the wall outlet).

Thankfully, we all went to bed no later than 8:30 last night - though that might mean an extra early day for Bo!

If you have audio on the video clip, you can probably hear me call Bo 'ru-ru' (as well as Boo-Boo - I must stop calling him Bo-Bo altogether as I will inevitably confuse Bo-Bo with Boo-Boo on occassion). From our understanding, Ru-Ru is the equivalent of 'chubby boy'. After reading Heidi and Jason's blog about their boy being 'nu-nu' and not 'ru-ru', and initially seeing Bo in his 3 layers of clothes and housing candy bar after candy bar, Alison and I joked that we adopted the ru-ru. We have since found out that he is a skinny little guy, but his eating patterns may still earn him that nickname.

Based upon Bo's pre-disposition to grab any thing he can get his hands on at the store, I am not looking forward to our shopping excursion that is planned for today.

It is now 3am so will try to get some more sleep before our very energetic boy awakens once again.

Reality Hits!


This is Alison now. It's the middle of the afternoon here and Bo and Ryan are busily coloring with crayons and playing with Star Wars legos. Bo's first picture he drew was of a house with a big sun in the sky, which he promptly gave to me. Today wasn't all so happy and comfortable though. It started off with the crazy high blood sugar Bo had last night, probably from all the food his nannies kept letting him shove in his mouth when we met him. I knew he shouldn't eat that much but it was relaxing him through the very stressful event of meeting us for the first time so we just sat back and let it happen. His blood sugar was 490 pre-dinner, probably why we had to stop the van so he could pee (on the side of the road) twice on the way to and from Baoding. I gave him his regular insulin dose at dinner and then two hours later I tested him and he was still 410. I decided that was too high (and he ate a ton of fruit at dinner) so I decided to give him 2 units of Novolog, a fast acting insulin. At bed time he was already down to 250 and since Novolog acts fast I assumed it was done working. Well, when he woke up this morning he started whining and crying a little. It was sort of normal morning grumpiness and with the big day we had yesterday and waking up in a new place I decided it could just be that but I also decided to test him anyway. He is such a trooper about blood tests. He just sticks out a finger and lets me do it. So even with him tired and whimpering he gave me a finger and I checked his blood, and it was 55! Yikes, definitely low and so I asked Ryan to bring a coke and some cookies for him. He wouldn't have anything we gave him. I even put a straw in the coke (he loves straws) and he took one baby sip and then stopped and covered his mouth with his hands. This was not good. So I gave up and let him lay back down for 15 minutes and then test him again. 15 minutes later I went in with the glucometer and again he promptly stuck out a finger. This time he was 50! Now the war was getting worse. I pleaded with him and showed him everything we had in the room and he said no. We stripped his PJs off of him to wake him up and then about 10 minutes went by and he still just wanted to sleep. He kept pointing at his belly too. Next I decided we had to go to breakfast in the hotel, there must be something there he would eat. SO we dressed him in a track suit and I headed for the elevator, carrying him still half asleep all the way. When I got to the first floor and got off our guide, Michael, was there waiting to pick up the other family traveling with us to take them to do paperwork. I frantically told him the situation and asked him to tell Bo that he had to eat some sugar, NOW! They had a brief conversation where Bo kept saying Bao-xuling or something along those lines which is Chinese for "no way". Then he started to choke and I knew what was coming. I put him down and ke threw up on the floor. When he was finished I picked him back up and I told Michael to tell him one glass of juice and then he can go back to bed and he nodded yes to that so I went running for the breakfast area straight to the juice machines. Now we are staying at a very nice hotel for this region and the breakfast is packed with Chinese businessmen. I plopped Bo down at a table that wasn't even cleared off from the last guest yet and Ryan got two different glasses of juice. Still it was "bao xuling". So I went to the food and made a plate of fruit, steam roll, and a bowl of congee. Still "bao" and grabbing the belly. At this point I gave up and we went upstairs to the room. I tested him again and he was 45, time for business. Out came the glucagon pen and I mixed it up and injected him. Then Ryan got in bed and layed down with him for about half an hour. Then voila, he opened up his eyes and smiled, giggling at us as we both stared at him in dismay. We were 5 minutes away from grabbing the phrase cards and going to the front desk to ask for a hospital. Ever since he woke up he has been perfectly fine. We went for a walk to a grocery down the street and he grabbed a bunch of ramen noodles and a juice box. I heated up the noodles back in the room and he was 150 at lunch. He ate the entire bowl of noodles, I should say inhaled the noodles, and he was so happy afterwards. After lunch he put his ski hat back on and pointed at the door so we went for a walk and found a nice public park, or atleast we assumed it was public as the signs were all in Chinese and no one told us to leave :) Here are some photos from the better half of our day.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Ryan's Recollections from Bo - Day 1

Yes, yesterday was absolutely insane here. I was absolutely exhausted with everything that went on. Plenty of stories to tell. No tears were shed by Bo or us, which was nice.

Our guide told us that Bo would not meet us until we arrived at the next location that we were going to this morning, so we were surprised to see him walk through the door - but it all went pretty well. He came with these 3 pairs of clothing that he had on, the bag that we sent him which included the disposable cameras (that look like they were used), two books that have traditional mandarin and pinyon (which is the phonetic pronounciation of each word in English characters), a Power Ranger-style toy that was evidently his favorite toy and the one he decided to take with him when they allowed him to take only one, and some workbooks that show evidence of him learning to write English letters, etc.

After a short amount of confusion as to whether or not we could follow him into the adjacent room and meet him, Alison brought him a stuffed tiger (the lsu mascot) which he didn't have much response to. He was very pleased to have a large bag of 'treats' that he was travelling with (about a dozen boiled eggs, hot dog/spam sticks, salty crackers, and sugar-free candy bars). We were definitely concerned about his diabetes and the fact that under the watchful eye of his caretakers from the orphanage must have had like 6 of the sugar-free candy bars (not small bars by any standards). I must have fought with him over those things at least 3-4 times before we finally made that bag disappear (though I was disappointed to find that we still have the bag in our hotel room when I returned - thankfully he doesn't know that).

We finally got his attention with the second toy that we selected, a matchbox car (Air Products tanker truck), and he was fine with rolling that back and forth with us or Aaron Smith (first-grader who is travelling with his family to meet his new sister, Chen). Funny story with these two is that Aaron had a very nice matchbox racing style car that he pulled out and tried to introduce to Bo. When the car was passed Bo's way he immediately pockets Aaron's car, and gave us difficulty in retrieving it.

From these instances with the food and the matchbox car, I quickly realized that I may have felt prepared by writing down various phrases that I might need to know, etc...but I never once thought to write down a phrase like - "Stop hitting me!" or "Do not bite!". Thankfully no blood was lost - but his attempts were fairly clear within the first few hours.
Other than the car, he really gravitated towards our camera. Thankfully we have these small 'affordable' digital cameras that we didn't feel too bad in letting him handle without giving him directions - and he must have taken two hundred photos between the waits at the notary and our long car trip to Baoding.

After the notary visit, we were instructed that we would leave for Baoding for his passport photo at 1:15 - but we quickly found out that this gave us about 20 minutes time to return to the hotel room, quickly test Bo's blood sugar (after the numerous carb loaded candies), and grab a needed lunch. We got into our hotel room, and Bo initially was a bit concerned over the appearance of the Glucometer, but he accepted it and did not fight his mother in her attempts to test his blood sugar (he was about 146 at the time - which was not bad at all considering the amount and types of food that he ate). One moment that I enjoyed was his interest in a Red Sox cap of mine that he found on a table. He quickly began reaching for it and once he got it he put it on and became attached to it for the remainder of the afternoon. No coaxing necessary!

We made our way into the KFC (I am not a fan personally, but knew it was either that or nothing as it was directly connected to our hotel building). As we walked in we diverted the first street vendor of toys that we found, but I had a feeling that this was not the last time that we would encounter him. As we walked to the counter to order, the cashier burst out laughing as we began to attempt to converse with her, but one of our heroes for the day stepped right-in and was able to speak a bit of English with us. The order may not have been everything we wanted, but it was effective in getting us food. Alison ordered milk for her and Bo, and we found that they only serve warm milk - which Bo thankfully enjoyed (as well as ketchup and french fries).

We wrapped everything up after a few minutes of eating at our table and took the remainder to-go as we were sure to be running late. Once outside, Bo made sure to pull his way over to the toy vendor, and after determining that the prices for his toys for 5 yuen (approximately $.80 cents American), I handed over money for Bo to pick one toy out. The street vendor then quickly confused the boy into enjoying a number of the toys by winding them up and what-not. Bo was eventually whittled down to 4 toys, and the vendor was paid (4 toys for less than 4 American dollars could have been much worse than it was). Once again Alison and I determined that our communication barrier with Bo and the vendor led us down a path we didn't want to go today, but it could have been worse I suppose! Besides, we didn't have much in the way of entertainment prepared for the long car trip we were about to take.

We loaded up into the car with our new toys, and Bo was relatively pleasant on the way up. After drinking both milks and water, Bo had to pee about 1 1/2 hours into our car trip, and we quickly pulled over while Michael in the front row of the van was able to make his way outside with Bo (this also happened on our return trip and is something that Alison and I must learn to be prepared for).

One funny story that we have from this trip to Baoding is that Michael, our guide, asks Alison and I to prepare the money that will change hands, and Bo catches his mom counting money and reaches his hand out for some. I decided to responded to his request by giving him a crisp $.10 cent valued bill. He thought this was the greatest thing in the world and made sure to make his way around the room and wave it at everyone that he could find at the passport location in Baoding. I had no idea what I was to do with this ten-cent bill, and I found a great way to get rid of them (thankfully I have a few more as well as some 50-cent bills). On the return drive (approximately 2 hours) we succumbed and allowed him to play the Nintendo DS, which he seemed to take a liking to.

We returned to our hotel after a very long day at about 7pm, and after checking Bo's blood sugar (high 400's) and giving him an insulin injection, we made a decision to go to a Korean restaurant in our hotel for dinner. If I would have been thinking at the time of this decision, I would have selected room service in a heartbeat, but the ladies at the restaurant were wonderful in all aspects of Bo (including some much needed translation - like I don't want rice, I want noodles. Good to know for next time I suppose!). I talked Alison down from going to the grocery store last night, and I think we are going to let him freely wander the breakfast buffet to tell us what foods he likes, wants, etc. He attempts to eat EVERYTHING with his chop sticks, and hopefully we are able to teach him more effective ways to eat things like soup! He also particularly enjoyed playing the drums with his chopsticks, so I have no doubt that he will be playing the drums while ba-ba is on the guitar playing Rock Band.

After dinner, we returned to our room and immediately began removing his layers of clothes and dropped him into the bath. He was OK with this and was pleased with his new toothbrush and pajama set. He eventually crashed out on the bed alongside me, but when Alison hopped up to get a blog published before bed (for all of you who wanted something to read in the A.M.), Bo jumped up to help her out and I crashed out on the bed.

As Alison mentioned, the scrap book really did help, as his care takers looked at it with him and went over each picture to help jog his memory and help bring across the point that we were the same people. I was surprised to see that Bo's reaction each time the care takers left was of understanding, I think that they prepared him pretty well for this day. Communication will be frustrating at times, but it can only get better (one would hope).

Today we have nothing on our itinerary, so I hope that we have a relatively peaceful day lounging around the hotel's indoor pool, etc. Wednesday is a shopping day, which may not be a real good idea, based upon our communication troubles with Bo and the street vendor! We will have to work on the phrase 'One toy' (yi banshu)!

It is now 2:30 am here, so it is time to head back to sleep. Will make sure to post more photos during our free day today.

Ryan

Day One with Bo






We are now a family of three. Today was amazing, exhausting, frustrating but all in all exactly what I had hoped for. We met Bo in a very unconventional way at the civil affairs office. He walked in the door with the assistant director of his agency and one of his nannies. We hardly recognized him except for his smile, which is the only thing that hasn't grown a ton since we last saw pictures of him. He was a little shy at first but warmed up when we got out the scrapbook we had sent him and showed him that we really were those people and not just some crazy people off the street. He instantly started calling us "mama" and "baba" and talking a mile a minute in Chinese. We spent about 2 hours at the civil affairs office, then an hour at the notary office, then went back to the hotel and hit KFC for lunch, then boarded a van and went 2 hours up to Baoding to get his passport photo taken and to meet with his doctor and learn his care routine. We got back around 6:30 PM and went to eat dinner at the Korean restaurant in our hotel. After dinner we had the first bath and are now watching a Chinese variety show and attempting to wind down. I have so many stories to tell but my head is pounding and it's getting late so I will just post a few photos and then follow up with more detail tomorrow. We have no official visits tomorrow so looking forward to a good day of rest and trying to establish some sort of normalcy in our routine. Just one funny thing that you need to know to truly enjoy the pictures. Bo looked like he had gained 10 lbs when we met him and I was freaking out that nothing we bought would fit. Then when we go him undressed for his bath we found out he was wearing three layers on top and bottom: pajamas inside, quilted pants and then cargo pants on the bottom and a PJs shirt, a fleece jacket, and a snow jacket on top. No wonder he was sweating all day and drinking a ton of water. He fit just fine into the 5T pajamas I got him so he hasn't really gone all chub-a-lub on us. He just looks that way with a ton of clothes on. Good night, I will be much wittier in the morning so stay tuned :)

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Another Travel Day



Today we started the day with a quiet breakfast by ourselves at our hotel in Beijing. The other three adoption families were traveling to their provinces, so we were left to ourselves to prepare to move on to Shijizhuang in Hebei Province.

Alison and I had a nice day of exploring the area surrounding our hotel in Beijing and made a stop at the local mall and a sushi restaurant before meeting up with the Smith Family (with their new addition, Chen), and we were then on our way with our new guide, Michael.

We had a very entertaining train experience, as they open up the flood gates approximately 20 minutes before the train departs, and everyone is constantly shuffling and weaving. There is zero personal space as you enter the train station and pass through security until you board the train, it is a crazy ordeal.

We were able to get a glimpse of Baoding (Bo's current city of residence) from the train about an hour into our two hour trip. There were some very new industrial skyscrapers in the city, but China has not explored the concept of urban sprawl - so you go from people everywhere to nothing but farm land rather abruptly.

We arrived at our hotel at around 7:30, and we quickly found out that we are definitely no longer in Beijing. There are some beautiful hotels (like ours that we are staying for the next two weeks), yet this city is relatively small by China's standards and we may have trouble communicating. We wanted a quick bite to eat this evening, and we discovered a Pizza Hut right across from our hotel. We were fascinated by the menu variation (Alison had a curry dish) while I chose the old personal pan pizza stand-by (tasted just like home).

10 hours from now we will be meeting Bo, so we will cut this short for the evening, but hope to have photos to share with everyone tomorrow. For now, enjoy a picture of Alison enjoying a refreshing Coke Light!

Ryan

Saturday, February 14, 2009

What is wrong with this picture?


One tourist had a very bad day when they backed their car off the ledge, almost falling into a ditch about 10 feet deep. There were 3 or 4 people in the car when it happened and we watched as a bunch of Chinese people ran to them and the back-seat passenger got helped out. This happened when we first got to the great wall and the car was still lodged there with no one even attempting to get it off the ledge when we left an hour and a half later. And for the guys in the office... yes, it was a female driver :)

sightseeing, part 3






So after the Forbidden City we visited a silk museum and then made our way to lunch and then to the Great Wall. We visited the wall at a famous pass where there are a series of very steep steps to climb up to various watch towers. The steps are old and uneven so you have to climb very deliberately. In some places it was so steep that you had to pull yourself up by the hand rail. There were many people who gave up and just quit, sitting on the steps before even reaching the first watch tower. If you make it past the first tower there is a sign that says "hero cards" but the building where they give them out was closed so we just took our picture next to the sign. We walked up to the second watch tower and then waited for a little while but the wind was gusting pretty strong so we decided to come back down. Everyone in our group made it past the first tower and a few went all the way up past where we stopped. Ryan probably could have made it much further than me but my legs were like jello on the way back down. I'm glad we have tomorrow free to take it easy. We leave for the train station at 3 PM so we can just rest all morning, in case my legs are too sore from all the stairs. After the Great Wall we drove back into town, passing the olympic stadium. The photo of the odd shaped building with many identical buildings beside it is of a 7 star hotel that overlooks the olympic stadium and the water cube. Our bus driver said that he picked up Kobe Bryant at that hotel during the olympics. This is just adding to our new celebrity complex, we have the same bus driver as Kobe! My diabetes success for the day was that after walking about 3 hours through the Tainnemen/ Forbidden City area and then hiking up the Great Wall for an hour I still had a pre-dinner BG of 145! That after abruptly changing the time on my pump yesterday (go me!), no small feat. We went to dinner with the group and the coolest thing was I actually got to use some of my Chinese when I asked the waitress to split some of the bill onto our credit card. I said yi, bao, and then made a 0 with my hand for 180 yuan. The rest of the group was impressed. A year and a half of CDs and stuff is finally paying off. Off to rest, there are a ton of photos here and we have many more but it takes a while to upload them. I'll try to upload video footage of us climbing the Great Wall tomorrow AM. Zuo Tian (goodnight)!