Orphanage Visit

Hey everyone it's Missy. I know you are all used to Dave's entries, but for a couple reasons I wanted to write today's entry. First, Dave is in the bathtub soaking away some pretty intense cold symptoms. He hasn't been feeling well all day. Please say a little prayer! Secondly, there were so many questions about Luke in the comments I wanted to add my two cents.

I can't even tell you how we look forward to the comments. It is the first thing we do in the morning. Usually Piper and I go straight to the computer. Thank you for your encouragement and support. Even knowing this is where we are suppose to be and what we are suppose to do there can be alot of insecurities. With that said, back to the questions! As far as his little life goes, he is wearing the 12 month outfits, except for the shorts. I'm so glad I brought two pairs of 6-9 shorts. (Thanks Janet and Katie) He does feed himself off the tray of the high chair, but he also allows us to spoon feed him anything. He is eating great. As far as the cleft lip and palate go, his lip has been repaired since the pictures that we have at home. That was interesting to us. We thought it looked pretty good, but it is better now. The palate inside is interesting, everyone of us has had our chance to look at it, and it is hard to explain. He manages it so well I forget it is there. It is basically just open...not sure how else to explain it. We all have concluded it is not as bad as we thought it would be. He is babbling a lot. Not sure what language it is! We have heard Bye Bye and Ma. But, mostly rarararara and yayayayaya. He has alot of teeth. And he is also JUST learning how to walk. He stands in between the kids and takes about 10 steps. Precious.
Lastly, he has sooo much personality. In other words he is wild. Seriously he can turn on a dime. One minute cute smiling laughing the next wham he's mad as a hornet. But, really just alot of personality. Waves at everyone and is very loud. Hopefully that helps answer some of the questions. Can't wait to be with everyone again.

Piper says Hi from the other room!!!!

Well, this is now Dave and I am out of the tub. Please try to remove the visual from your mind--it makes me uncomfortable. We did tour the orphanage today. It really was a well-kept and well-run place. Very clean, very organized, and very efficient. We met with one of the adminstrative staff and she answered some basic questions. The orphanage that we visited was started in 1987 and was really a spin-off of a social institute that handled infants and adults. There is a staff of about 200 nannies/aunties that are the caregivers and a staff of about 75 that handles administration and medical clinic. Right now, they have about 600 children in their care, although only 100 are actually at the clinic, with the other 500 in foster care situations. We walked through one room that was a physical therapy area for older kids--there were three kids working in there--it made you glad to see they were receiving help. We then saw the room where newer babies, about six months or less, were being cared for. There were maybe ten in the room, all just finished with lunch, and being bathed and put down for a nap. There were cribs everywhere, but interestingly, they were napping them kind of side-by-side on one large mattress--Luke moved through this room probably a year ago. We were also saw the room for returning foster babies--again, Luke just flowed through this room. We did not get to see the third floor, which is where there are a lot more children, because the weather has been changing and I think they correlated that to disease risk. There were several older children that were moving relatively freely throughout the orphanage--one of whom was about an 8 year old girl with a deformed arm. She followed us for awhile and thought it was tremendously funny that most all of us had on sandals. If you look closely at one of the photos, it shows a police car at the building entrance. They had just brought in a child that had been abandoned. So, it was very interesting to see the cycle from the police drop-off to someone like the Nicholsons taking a child home.

HI EVERYONE this is Shelby!!! I just wanted to say hi and that I miss you all!!! LOVE YA'LL!!!!

helloooooo!!! it's cole... just wanted to say "hi". and thanks too all who commented, the first thing we do in the morning have dad work his magic on the computer, cuz we are uncapable, so we can read your comments. and Grace, your hilarious!!!.... thanx so much. and Trish, sorry, no luck with the sweaky shoes in kunming, maybe Guangzhou!!! ttyl, BYE!! :)

A Cultural Day

Well, just another day in China. Since it is all about Luke, I will tell you he slept from 9:00pm until 8:00am. Did not wake up once during the night. Now, remembering back to newborns, I will say that this 18 month old, already sleeping through the night thing, is a pretty nice deal. We had a slow morning, including another leisurely breakfast downstairs. If I could get Melissa to have a buffet ready for me every morning, well, I would be a happy man. I am really taking a liking to stir fried rice and kale. Of course, I still like dry cereal and toast, but steamed kale just gets me over the hump. We are meeting lots of neat folks as part of this process. There are two other families, also from the U.S., who are also adopting who are staying at the hotel this week. Visited with one of them quite a bit this morning—they are believers from the St. Louis area and just adopted a beautiful little girl to couple with their biological son. It is nice to meet people from a familiar territory when you are far from home. Melissa also talked at great length with a Chinese gal who now lives in Canada with her husband and son. She was so intrigued with Luke and our 7 person contingent that she kept pegging Melissa with “how do you adopt?” questions. After lunch, we loaded up the troops and headed to a nearby park called Green Lake. If you had to guess the color of Green Lake, what color would you guess it to be? That is right, it is green-quite green. I think it is algae, but I am an engineer and not a biologist. We had a great time strolling the park—we stuck out like a sore thumb. Piper was stopped once by a gal so that they could get their picture together. I told Piper that girl may never see another American in her life and she (Piper) was quite the good sport about it. And besides, Piper’s image is probably out on the internet by now on some Chinese girl’s blog. Enjoyed some senior citizens doing what I called a “Chinese line dance” and we all tried to drop coins into a tiny square at the bottom of a very large vase. Bill, Cole, Linda, and Shelby (I think) all hit the square and apparently are now blessed with good fortune. We then spent awhile in a mini-amusement park and gave Luke his first train ride with the Nicholsons. We were getting him prepped for the Pumpkin Festival! We then returned to the hotel and everyone just did their own thing—which for Luke included lunch and a 3 hour nap. We let him nap more because we had big plans for the evening. We did have some adventure as we prepared for our night in that somehow a fair amount of water was leaking through a ceiling light fixture. Thankfully, three very nice Chinese men took care of that situation while two female staff were in and out taking care of other housekeeping items. I mention the two gals because Melissa failed to tell me she had let one of them in. I found out she was in the suite when the gal strolled through while I was changing clothes. That made for a great moment! Embarrassment pretty much transcends all language. We then headed down to load into a taxi van to take us to the Yunnan Dance. Think Tommy Bartlett’s Water Show meets Chief Cloud meets River Dance and you have the right mental picture. Prior to leaving, Luke was throwing an absolute fit—so much so that Linda suggested that she and Melissa stay back with him. We all thought it would be fine. Well, let me tell you that Linda was right. He and I were barely in the theater for 10 minutes before we shuffled to the back to claim the most remote seats available. He then proceeded to cheer and chatter and wave and squirm. You know how I love attention and being hot and being sticky. Well, let us just say that we bonded for 1.5 hours. Actually, he and I really enjoyed the show, which featured singing, dancing, and drumming by local minority groups. As a cultural lesson for the day, I will tell you that apparently there are more than 50 ethnic groups in China—they are all Chinese but are also distinct enough as to somehow be classified by ethnicity. I think the Han are about 70% of the total population and the other 50 or so groups compose the rest of the population. In Luke’s Yunnan Province, there about 25 ethnic minority groups. Several people have told us that Luke’s appearance almost assuredly means he is from one of the minority groups. Judging by his bouncing and waving and joy at the Yunnan Dance, I would tend to think they are right! So, we are almost all in bed. Although, I think Bill is probably on the 21st floor of our hotel enjoying a memory. Did I mention the 21st floor of our hotel actually rotates a full 360 degrees every five hours? We are planning a dinner there for fun, although I do not want to wait five hours to see if it fully rotates. Tomorrow we are going to visit the orphanage. It is apparently a very beautiful, very well supported orphanage, although I expect I will crack when I see so many children just waiting.

Dave

A Rainy Day

Well, we had a great first night with Luke. Luke went to bed around 9:00p.m. without a fuss. The rest of the family, except for me, turned in shortly thereafter. I stayed up till the wee hours tinkering with spreadsheets--which for me is a sick kind of therapy. Luke woke up once during the night, cried briefly until I was able to get him situated again with warmer covers, and then slept until 7:00a.m. So, again, a great first night. When he awoke, he was pretty reserved. I think he was just trying to get himself oriented to his new surroundings and new faces. He was pretty snuggly for most of the morning, especially when he had one of his two bottles for the day. The Nicholsons went down for breakfast while the Mortons slept in for a bit. Luke ate lots of food, probably because he did not eat much the first day with us. So, we were glad he had an appetite and shocked to see one of our kids eat vegetables and fruit with glee. We had no formal plans today. Because the weather was rainy and dreary, we just decided to stick close to the hotel and keep things simple. Our one excursion was a trip to the local department store. That is right, it was time to introduce him to our family tradition--SHOPPING! He handled the experience pretty well but never once said "I want this or will you buy me that?" So, unless he was saying it in Mandarin, he has a lot to learn about shopping as a Nicholson. There was lots of neat Olympic items, but we decided to wait awhile before purchasing. Cole did get a new jacket--think urban Chinese chic. That purchase was an experience because we were personally ushered through three different counters and six different staff, to an old mechanical "slide" credit card machine. So, in the end, the jacket will either be free because the purchase will never get recorded or it will cost about $600 USD because it got processed about 20 times. After shopping, we fed Luke lunch and put him down for an almost 3 hour nap. During that time, we all exercised and I watched Tiger win the US Open playoff. Again, because it was rainy out, we spent the afternoon playing cards and playing with Luke once he awoke from his nap. We did get to see more of his personality this afternoon. He can make his feelings known pretty clearly--when he is happy he is all smiles and laughter. Like most of us, he can turn-on-a-dime, cut his eyes, and let you know he is not happy. The best/worst moment of the day was when Melissa took his bottle to fill it with juice. He was deeply wounded by what was meant to be a kind act and promptly closed his eyes, opened up his lungs, and cried for about 10 minutes. So, quite a nice tantrum that was our best reminder of what it is like to have a toddler again. In all seriousness, it was a nice bonding moment for Luke and Melissa.

I do have to say that one of the great blessings and joys in the experience has been how well Cole, Shelby, and Piper are doing with Luke. They really do like Luke and are just doing wonderfully in their interactions with him. They play with him and work with him and hug him and talk to him and just love him more ways than I thought they would. There have even been fights over who would hold him, who would stroll him, who would carry his bag. If it lasts until we get home, I count myself a lucky man to have ever seen it at all. I will remind them of these moments when he is in their rooms destroying something, spilling something, interrupting something, etc.

And lastly, I can tell you we were able to finally get access to your comments from the last two days. For those interested, I will only discuss the problem one-on-one and with no cameras rolling. If you want to know what I know now and how I know it, then simply whisper "nitecruzr" the next time you see me. Otherwise, thank you all for your prayers and love and humor.

Dave

Gotcha Day!

Before I start, please know we cannot, for whatever reason, actually see your comments from the last day or so. We know you are responding, which is great, and we just want you to know we are not ignoring any of you--we just cannot figure out how to view our site or your comments--it just stopped working yesterday.

Well, this has been a great day. We were all awake pretty early just in anticipation of greeting Luke. After a quick breakfast, we went downstairs for a few “before” pictures to parallel some “after” pictures we planned to take at the end of the day. We met our agency rep at 8:30a.m., along with a registry official from the local government. We then drove about 20 minutes or so to get to the offices where we would meet Luke and complete paperwork. Once inside, things started moving pretty quickly. I could see Luke in another room, but had my head down signing a few papers when he was first brought into the room. He was in Melissa’s arms when I finally looked up and saw him. She was crying and he was very quiet but very attentive. I kept signing papers while Melissa visited with Luke and introduced him to all of the family members. Basically, we were to visit with him for about an hour so as to decide if we really intended to make him part of our family. Of course, that decision was made long ago. We were of course very excited to meet Luke. From my perspective, he was pretty neutral to our presence. He was not visibly upset but was instead very observant. Sometimes he would make eye contact and sometimes he would look away. Probably about what you would expect given the moment we were all sharing. As I write this, we are at the end of our day and the atmosphere is completely different. He has just had a light bath and he is playing behind me with all three kids--laughing and “talking” and very happy—it is like he has been with us forever. I am sure the transition and bonding process is not totally complete but it was what we and you all have prayed for.

I will just give you a few more guy-type facts and then will let Melissa share her thoughts. Luke had returned to the orphanage on Friday, so his time there was short, and probably helpful in his overall transition to us. We did get to meet the two nannies from his orphanage that cared for him—one of whom visited him at his foster home each week. He does take a nap each day, still enjoys two bottles per day, is a “smart baby” per the nannies, and warms slowly to people. He has been living about 1.5 hours from the orphanage with a family that had two children of their own (a 5 year old and a 3 year old, one a girl, the other a boy), as well as two (maybe 3) other foster children. So, he was in a great environment. I think it is typical, but they gave us a copy of the ad that was placed in the local paper as part of the process for declaring him abandoned. We also have a better understanding of his name in that the family name Yi was part of the county name where he was found and Duan Lu is a reference to the road where he was abandoned. The ad also includes his infant picture. For those who were betting, he is about 22.5 lbs (heavier than I expected) and has not been circumcised (that will be a rude welcome to America).

Melissa can now give you some girl-type feelings. I share all the same feelings as Dave and honestly he just puts them into words better. I was sooo nervous on the way to the registrars office, really almost sick to my stomach, but with anticipation. I was excited to see him. They cut his hair and he looked older, but it was easy to identify him. There were two other baby boys in the other room being adopted by two families from New Zealand but I could totally tell who he was. He was very cautious of us, you can tell from the pictures. But, as the day has progressed we have seen a huge improvement to the point that he is laughing!!! I’m so grateful he ate a banana and jar of carrot baby food for supper, plus some cookie for dessert. I can’t imagine doing this without Cole, Shelby and Piper they are playing and enjoying him so much. I hope the night goes well, thanks to everyone for your prayers and support.

P.S. His little fingers and toes are darling!!!!! Everything looks great. Love you all.
Missy

Almost Time

Well, this could start to sound like a bit from the movie "Groundhog Day". We all awoke pretty early, some at 3:00, others at 5:00, some later yet and then we all proceeded downstairs for breakfast. For fun, we did watch a bit of the Brewers' game "live" on the web as we prepped for our day--funny what you can remain connected to from half-way-round-the-world. Some of us are growing addicted to table-tennis on the television, although soccer and women's volleyball are also fun because you at least know what is happening even if you cannot understand the play-by-play commentary. Our day moved pretty quickly from breakfast to loading onto the bus for our ride to the airport. The sky was a little lighter and clearer than Friday evening and yesterday, so it was nice to see more of the island and the bay and Hong Kong life. We moved pretty efficiently through the airport, passport checks, immigration, etc. and boarded our plane to Kunming. The flight was uneventful, lasting only about one and one half hours. We were met at the airport by another CCAI representative named Michael. He is actually not from Kunming, but flew in yesterday from another province just to help our seven person "group". Really fun person and very knowledgable about the area. As an aside, I always pronounced it "Coon ming" but it "Kwun ming" sounds more correct. Anyways, our fist question was "When?" and the answer was/is "9:00 a.m." We meet Michael and the registration official at 8:30am, drive to the registry office, and get to meet Luke at 9:00a.m. We think he has been at the orphanage for the last four or five days, with nannies, but no longer with foster parents. He apparently still takes a couple bottles of formula per day, but is otherwise on solid food. Michael also was kind enough to put together a care package of the formula Luke is used to, as well as a few snacks he likes. I was quite pleased to see that one of the snacks looks almost exactly like a Moon Pie. Get that young man an RC and we will Southernify him in nothing flat. No word on whether or not he is walking. Once we have him, we will complete all formal paperwork by noon on Monday. Apparently, this is faster/different than other areas, and means our schedule for remainder of the week is completely open as compared to what other groups may experience. Please pray for a great first meeting and time of transition and bonding.

The picture above is at a very nice Japanese restaurant in our very nice Chinese hotel. Most of the humor of the day was generated by the collision of two factors. Fewer people in Kunming speak English and we were trying to use Chinese words. I am still not certain we have gotten "thank you" down pat. I have heard us say "see see" and "she she" and "si si" and "shay shay"and "say say" and variants I cannot capture. But, everyone is trying, having fun, and trying to connect. In the local dialect, which Luke will apparently know a bit of, "Love you" is "Eye knee". Some suggest that he may key off our emotions when we meet. So, I will probably just run the video camera so he is not confused by the blubbering fool with short hair. Yes, this child will know me as "the rock". We are obviously very excited, although once again, I am awake and everyone else is in bed. Lots of pictures tomorrow, so be ready.

We "eye knee",

The Nicholsons

P.S. I was supposed to tell some of you the Petunia bag has been a big hit.