First free day w/Sam

So, we had nothing adoption related on the schedule, so we could have slept in, but of course we can't. So it was an early breakfast again and then back to the room to chill a while. Lina picked us up at 10 this morning to tour to go tour the Yue Garden and surrounding market. It was very cool. All of the old historic architecture. The garden was huge and built by a very wealthy business man for his parents. Grace took a lot of pictures and we got to feed the fish. By the time we were thru the garden, it was about lunch time and Sam apparently has a very strict eating schedule. So, the only thing to do is get some Dairy Queen to hold us over...and mom is not here to stop us! Grace got a couple of souvenir items from the market. Then we headed back to our hotel and then down the street to eat. We kept a tight leash on Sam this time when we ordered and we still ended up with way too much food. Looks like left overs for lunch tomorrow. I let Grace get a nap yesterday and so she returned the favor and let me get one today. Sam even fell asleep and got in a little cat nap before we had to leave. We then left the room about 5 to walk a couple of blocks to the subway to get over to the Chinese acrobat show called "Era - Intersection of Time". I didn't think Grace was going to survive the subway ride as she tends to be a little claustrophobic. There was just enough room for the 3 of us to get in and then they shoved some more people in. At the next stop as some people exited and more got on, Grace was kind of shifted to the middle and away from us. I knew my girl, and knew she would be freaking out. There was know way that she could just come over to us. So, I assured her that it would be fine and that I wouldn't leave without her. After a couple more stops, she was able to shift over close to us. Lina met us at the subway station and took us to a local hot-pot restaurant for dinner. Think a Chinese version of the Melting pot and you would be pretty close. It was really good! I wasn't sure what Grace was thinking about it, but she ate some and said it was good and that she was full. Lina did a good job ordering for us and we had a great variety of food. She then got us to the hall for the show and was even able to get our tickets and get us all the way into our seats before she left. Our seats were incredible! Front row! We all three loved it and had an amazing time. Then Grace got her first experience at hailing and riding in a Chinese taxi. It wasn't too bad for her. This was the latest that we have kept Sam up, however he did tell Lina that he had taken a nap so he could stay up late. But the boy is now bathed and in bed and finally sleeping. I may have to make several posts, because we got some good pictures today.

 

 

One additional update for Tuesday

Yes, it's 2:30 in the morning here which is about what time Grace and I have been waking up. Initially, we had been Skyping back home but now we have Sam and he is sleeping. Anyway, had a couple of other things to share. We were trying to teach Sam how to play Uno before bed and I think he enjoyed it. He has obviously played cards before. He is definitely getting more affectionate with us. I looked into the back seat of the van today where he and Grace were being silly and playing while we were going from one place to another. Then he kind of hugged her arm and laid his head in her lap. It was pretty precious. So, thanks to all of his extra ordering at meals, we had left overs in the fridge and did dinner in tonight (the fact that it has been raining all day plays into this as well). Then he played with the laptop and tablet some more. I found him a bunch of new puzzles for the puzzle app. The boy is a puzzle whiz! Although I would have chosen to go to bed at 5 or maybe even 3, I held out and waited till later. Got his bath and new jammies and before bed, we brush his teeth. Our vanity is really high so I sit him on the counter to brush. Tonight when he was finished, instead of just getting him down, I picked him up to hold him and he snuggled in on me. Man did that feel good. Then we walked out and I pointed at my bed and his bed and he chose my bed. So to be sure, I pointed at myself and then at the 2 beds and he again pointed at my bed. So....I acquired myself a little sleeping partner in my ever so small double bed and I'll take it. I guess he was able to deal with my uber loud snoring (according to my family anyway...I've never heard it). Maybe tomorrow night I'll see if he wants to snuggle. One of my favorite things in the whole world is snuggling with my children...um...when they are little of course. Well...time to see if I can back to sleep for a little bit.

Day 2

Well...day 2 with Sam is about a wrap. It started early with breakfast as we had some official adoption business to do today. He slept great for us last night and hoping for the same tonight. We headed out after breakfast and went to finalize the adoption. We met a lady from the orphanage there and she was super nice. Sam really seemed to like her which made me feel good about his time there. She is the one who made his photo album that the orphanage gifted us. She also said the she recognized us from the pictures that we had sent Sam and that she read our letter to him to explain that Grace and I were coming and that Leslie had to stay home with Claire. She took some group pictures of all of us to send back to his foster family. I was also able to provide our address and e-mail for her to share with the foster family in hopes that we could stay in touch some how. The women taking his photos for the adoption document, 3 older women, told us that Sam was a beautiful child and was considered a very handsome boy in China. Which I contributes to the extra stares. Since this is the third trip, I fully expected the stares, but I think they are worse this time. To start, I'm taking a beautiful boy which is unusual, and second, I think they are all trying to figure out if I am some horrible cradle robber in regards to Grace. Oh well. It doesn't bother me. Our guide Lina had several conversations with Sam today. Right out of the gate, he told her that he was a happy boy...a huge answer to prayer. I also had her ask about the phone calls to the foster family. He told her that his foster grandma, whom he is very fond of, told him not to call every day and that he should call when he gets back to U.S. so they know he made it ok. So, he hasn't even hinted at calling them today. He also seems to be showing a little more affection towards us. He has quite the personality and he and Grace giggled and played in the back of the van the whole time we were out running around today. So, as I mentioned, the first stop finalize the adoption. They gave us the adoption paper and then took some pics of us. The next stop was at the notary where they asked me a couple of questions and got us a passport. The woman, who only spoke Chinese, asked thru our guide "if I was willing to treat Sam like a biological child and care for him and not beat or abuse him". Of course I replied yes, but he chimed in with his little Chinese accent, "oh thank you"...it was pretty funny!

It has been rainy here all day, so we didn't do much besides the business stuff. We walked down the street for lunch and despite my best efforts, he managed to over order for us again. That just added to the growing amount of leftovers in our fridge and allowed us to stay in and eat leftovers tonight. We then walked down to the Nike and Adidas store, but everything was very expensive. So, we headed back to the room and stopped at a little bakery on the way. I busted out a new toy for the boy to play with today since we were stuck inside. We also started to teach him how to play Uno. We have eaten, he has had his shower and once again, I am whooped. Hoping to crash soon.

P.S...Gracie ran into a friend at the Adidas store...(see pic)

 

Giggles gotcha day

 

Gotcha Day

Well the day is finally here. Over a  years worth of blood sweat and tears culminating in this day. The day we get to not only meet Sam, but we get to make him ours. We got a surprise yesterday when our guide told us that we can actually go to the orphanage. We left the hotel at about 8:30 a.m. and had about a 45 minute drive to the orphanage. Plenty of time to go over your plans again...Who is taking pics, who is running the video camera, be ready because you never know when they will bring him to you, etc...Then you run through the mental game plant. My first reaction would be to scoop him up and love on him, but he is almost 8 and from a different culture. Will that creep him out (we all know that you don't come back from creepy. So do we need to take it slow. Seemingly 1,000 different scenarios play out in your head. We were the first family to the orphanage and soon found out that there would be 7 families in all there. They started us on our paperwork. Once it was finished, they took me upstairs to an accounting office to pay the orphanage fees. While there, I get word that same is in the conference room and crying. Awesome! (that is sarcasm). My first chance to meet my son and I'm stuck up here playing with money. I was really discouraged about the way it played out. I finally got back down there, and with some coaxing from another mom, Grace had it pretty well under control with new toys and M&M's. He did cry several more times. Talk about rip your heart out and stomp it on the ground. They said he was very attached to his foster grandmother. But we finished our paperwork and headed back for the hotel. We took advantage of the long car ride to communicate with Sam and find out some of his likes and dislikes. He was very quiet and cried some. We got back to the room and showed him some snacks we had bought for him and another new toy. We Skyped home to mom and the family. He was pretty impressed with the tablet that we had brought along and was very excited to play with the Play-dough with Grace. Then we busted out the football and started tossing it around and he really started to come out of his shell. I would fake running into the wall and Grace would tickle him and he got to absolutely belly-laughing. Did the heart good to hear that. He kept trying to type a phone number into Grace's cell phone and then mine, so I let him have at in on the phone in the room. I believe he called his foster grandmother. He talked about us and his siblings and at first had big crocodile tears. The call seemed to bring healing though. Then he dug into secret stashes of phone numbers and tried calling other foster family members. Then he was ready for lunch. At lunch, we were trying to order and he kept pointing to things and the waitress kept writing them down. We had to call her back to remove 2/3 of the items he had ordered. Then it was back to the room for more play time as it was raining here. He loves electronics...cell phones, cameras, laptops. He also loves puzzles. As the day went on, we really got to see more of his personality. He is fun and silly, loves to laugh. He is very ticklish and very OCD organized. What a brave little guy! Well I am whipped and need to get him into bed. So, so long for now.

early day 2 post

We had to go out this morning to exchange our US dollars for RMB. The bank that was open was located next to the Bund which is a tourist sight along the Huangpu River. It's was a previously colonized area which has a lot of old English (Western) architecture. Very cool area! Yes...there was a Starbuck's. Notice who signed their signature board. It's still early here...not even lunch time yet, so I may get another post in tonight. We will see how it goes.

 

PS..I think Grace is going thru withdrawals. No Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Messenger, Netflix...How is a girl supposed to communicate and keep up with her social life from half way around the world without her precious Apps?

Travel Day/Shanghai day 1

Wow! That is a long day! We were delayed leaving Chicago due to maintenance issues with our plane and had to wait for a different plane to be cleaned. Then 14 1/2 hours in that sucker! We each had a couple of cat naps and got the best sleep towards the end of the trip. All in all, it went really smooth and no major issues. We got in to Shanghai a little after 4 pm their time which was 3am Central time. Shanghai is the largest city in the world and we had an hour drive from the airport to the hotel. The hotel is beautiful! Our guide picked us up at the airport and got us checked into our hotel and then we were on our own. So we freshened up a bit and then walked down the street for a little dinner. Grace's first authentic Chinese meal (not going to count the airplane food) and she really enjoyed it! We were wiped by that point so we just came back to the room for showers and bed. It's now 8:40 Shanghai time and as soon as I submit this post, I am hitting the hay. We did find out that we get to go get Sam from the orphanage which is exciting and we'll find out Monday if we can meet with his foster family.

Here are a few pics from day 1