Ellie's Orphanage

We visited Ellie’s orphanage today, and it was truly amazing!! I mean really really something! I need to say that this orphanage is absolutely not typical of the orphanages in China.

 

We met all of her teachers - the ratio in her class is better than 1/3 teacher/student.

 

When we got to the orphanage, we were greeted by Son Li (sp?), the same nanny who brought Ellie to us on gotcha day. We soon met the orphanage director and another nanny, and they were super sweet and so excited to see Ellie again!

 

We were first taken to Ellie’s play room, which was on the second floor. It was filled with colors, mats, toys, letters, pictures, blocks, and playhouses. All of the children were playing with the various nannies and they allowed us into the room to play with the children as well. Music was constantly playing and it was a very loving and happy atmosphere. We all sat on the floor and all of the nannies call Ellie by her full Chinese name, Xin Yishan. In Chinese, it sounds like zhin-ee-shan (where shan rhymes with pan), said very quickly.

 

As we left the room, one of Ellie’s nannies fell in love with Allison’s baby carrier and wanted to try it on! Then, of course we had to put Ellie in it with her and they both loved it! J From Ellie’s classroom, we took a tour of the rest of the orphanage. The orphanage has insane technology.....a sensory room that I don't think America has ever seen before, cutting edge equipment, and tons of personnel who all seem deeply in love with the kids.

 

In one particular room, the children can press circles on the floor for certain colors to light up and certain sounds to play. In the next room, a teacher was working with two students to paint pictures, ceramic dolls, and do crafts. Then, on the next level, we were taken to a large circular room where the children are taught how to walk using walkers with rollers. Then, we were shown the brand new, hi-tech water treatment tub that is used to help the children increase their strength and help them be more coordinated so that they can learn to walk. The next room was an acupuncture room where an outside acupuncturist comes in during the week to perform this on the kids.  Then we went by the massage room, where professional masseuses massage the kids!! Then we were shown some of the classrooms for older children where they were working on crafts and artwork of various kinds. Then, we were able to meet some of the older children in the orphanage whose needs were more severe, but they were so cute and precious! One particular girl was working on a painting of butterflies, while another was painting flowers and fairies. They were so excited to show their work to us! Then we were shown the sewing room, and the teacher in this room used to be an orphan in Ellie’s orphanage. Now she teaches the children how to sew so that they may have a trade. Also, everything that the children sew can be used by the orphanage for clothes, etc. We’re talking NICE things here….angora sweaters, knit dresses, etc.  Then we were shown the music room where the children can pay drums or learn to pay the keyboard. They told us that some of the older children who learned to play now have a band and they have paying gigs!  Then, we were shown the adventure room, full of climbing nets and soft towers to climb on. This room is for the older children to come and play and pretend they are on a great adventure, hence the name “adventure room.”

 

Next, we were taken to an amazing room where about 12 children were working on beautiful Chinese cross-stitches. Once again, the children were so precious and were so proud of their work. In fact, their work was displayed on one wall and we were informed that it was all for sale! So we bought one! A portion of the money that is raised from the sale of the children’s work goes back to the orphanage and a portion goes into the children’s special savings fund. The stitching that we bought basically means that “you have to give something up to earn something,” or “no pain no gain” as our guide said. Also, the work was all framed, and we were worried that we would not be able to get the frame on the plane or in our luggage, so they sold us a stitching that did not have a frame. And, the cool thing about this stitching is that it was not quite finished. So, one of the little girls finished it for us while we were there! Our hearts melted! We also met a little girl named Deborah in this room, and she even spoke a little English. It was so lovely to say “hello, Deborah. How are you? Your work is so beautiful!” She understood us and had the biggest smile on her face! Too precious!

 

We were then shown the orphanage super market, where the children are allowed to use the money they earn from selling their work to purchase special things for themselves. The supermarket had candy, toys, and other fun items that the children could save up their money to buy. We were then taken to the apartment section of the orphanage where some foster moms and dads live with 4-6 children per room. The apartments are small and quaint but they give the children a sense of home. Then leaving one particular apartment, some children came by and wanted us to try some special bread that they had baked themselves. Well, of course we tried it and it was delicious! After that, we made our way to the cafeteria and then to the bakery where were offered more homemade goodies. This time, it was a cupcake type bread (with no icing) with walnuts on top. Once again, delicious!  This is where the kids learn to bake things and they are sold as well.  We were told that when the teachers and nannies want a baked good, they have to purchase it…..then they packed up a huge bag of cupcakes for us to take!

 

The last few rooms we visited were for 3-6 year olds. These rooms contained a number of activities that the children had been working on that would help the children learn their numbers, colors, letter, and shapes. In one particular room, all of the crafts were made from recycled materials, such as the bottoms of plastic bottles and straw paper. All of it was very hi-tech, well-organized, and focused on actively engaging the children.

 

After all of that amazement, sadly it was time to leave. We took lots of pictures with the nannies and the orphanage director, and we were even given some gifts. Allison and I both received a traditional female and male hat worn by the local citizens of Urumqi. It was a truly an experience that we all will treasure forever! J

 

As a side note, we were able to talk to the orphanage director about Ellie’s foster family. They are so excited for Ellie to be getting a family, but very sad to see her go. She has been in a home with a foster grandma and grandpa and she was their only baby. When they found out she was being adopted and going to America, they took her to do special things and had a big family portrait made. I know that lady is broken-hearted. We didn't get to meet her.

 

As another side note, the lady who runs the bakery at the orphanage used to be a chef at the 5 star hotel where we are staying!  We took lots of video. :-) When one of her nanny's was holding her today, Allison walked by her and Ellie reached for her.....that's a very good sign! :-)

 

Tomorrow, we are off to the local bazaar to find some traditional Urumqi gifts for Ellie.

 

(as another side note, the internet here is terribly slow and it takes forever to upload pics)

 

 

 

More Gotcha Day Pics

That's my Ellie!

So here we are again at 6 AM China time, apparently I have turned into an early morning blogger, lol!  I know you really just want to see the pictures, but I want to document all of this for Ellie, so please feel free to skip to the pictures if you’d like.  Yesterday morning we met our guide, Jacky, in the lobby at 9:30.  He had told us he didn’t know what time we would be meeting Ellie, but that the lady from the orphanage would meet us at one of the places we had to be that day.  We waited in the lobby for our driver…..and waited, and waited.  Finally he called and said he was in a traffic jam but should be there shortly.  Just after that, Jacky got another call…..from the orphanage worker!!!  Apparently they were already there at the government building waiting for us!!  He told her we would be there soon and then  he told us he heard her crying in the background……so close…..   Finally, our driver came and we all hurried into the car and started toward the government building.  Well, wouldn’t you know…another traffic jam!!!  HA!  So hard to be patient in a situation like this where your heart is beating a million times a minute and you can’t sit still!  After what seemed like forever, we pulled up in front of the building and followed Jacky inside and up the elevator.  Then he led us down a hall.  He was glancing in each room as we walked by to see where they were, and then he walked in one.  As he turned into the room, I saw the little stuffed puppy we had sent her for her birthday sitting by a bag on the couch and ….my…..heart…..skipped…..a…..beat!!!!  I heard no cry, and as I walked in the room, my eyes the huge dark brown eyes of my beautiful daughter!!!!  And then of course, I cried, lol!!  Those of you who attended our wedding know precisely the ugly cry I am talking about here!  The orphanage worker walked right over to me and Ellie kept staring at me like I was the most funny-looking thing she had ever seen.  Then she wanted to touch my hair.  Then the worker handed her to me……and she felt amazing!!!  She was so light in my arms!  She is so curious and wants to touch everything.  After just a few minutes, she started fussing.  The worker told us that she had gotten up much earlier than normal and she was very tired and it was also time for her to eat.  So we gave her some cheerios and she really liked them.  We had some paperwork to do there, which is incredibly hard to focus on when you are holding your daughter for the first time.  Kris and I switched back and forth holding her and she was very interested in his glasses.  The orphanage didn’t bring a bottle, and she was getting very hungry and fussy, but our guide said we needed to go to another building right close and get our pix made for the official adoption paperwork.  I think the idea of  “right quick” and “just around the corner” etc must lose a little something in translation, because every time he says we’re just going to do something “real quick” it turns into a couple hours.  So, a long time later, we had finished our pictures and were waiting for them to be developed, and Ellie was getting pretty mad, we were able to get her some milk.  She drank it right through a straw!  She sucked down a whole serving size container and reached for another!  When she finished that off, she again became really interested in us, and really snuggly!!!  We were loving that of course!!  But then it was time to go back to the government office, so we hoped in the car again.  Just as a side note, there is apparently no such thing as a car seat in China, and the driving is really something.  There don’t seem to be any rules, but we have learned that pedestrians definitely do not have the right-of-way here!!

 

When we went back to the government building, we did the official adoption interview where they ask us if we like our baby (um, YES!!), ask us why we want to adopt her, and promise to love her and educate her. Then, on behalf of the People’s Republic of Ch*na, the lady thanked us for adopting the baby!!!  Um, how about thank YOU Ch*na, for giving us the adorable sweet snuggly baby!!  J 

 

The orphanage lady was super-nice, and although we haven’t visited the orphanage yet, we’ve heard very good things about it.  Well, it was at this point that the orphanage worker started pulling out priceless things out of her bag.  First, she gave Ellie a beautiful jade medallion which is very symbolic of this region from the orphanage.  Then she gave us her vaccination record…..the records have been kept very clearly and she appears to be up to date by China regs.  Then, she explained to us where Ellie was found (which was information that had not been provided to us until now) and actually gave us a copy of her finding ad!!  This is a huge deal, as in this area it is very hard to find these!  Then she gave us a letter from her foster grandmother explaining her milestones and what they had been working on, an update from her school from her nanny that has been working with her, the disposable camera we had sent to the orphanage asking them to take pix of her, and a thumb drive with more pix of her!!  I can’t explain how much all this means, but these are things that are part of Ellie’s past and we would have had no way to get them for her, and this sweet lady just handed us one thing after another!!  Unbelievable!! 

 

We had a huge list of questions that we wanted to ask the orphanage worker, and we also wanted to request to visit the orphanage.  Jacky asked the worker if she would go to lunch with us, and she agreed.  Again, this is absolutely unbelievable!  Usually you just have a few minutes to quickly ask a few questions, we had as much time as we needed.  Lunch was interesting, and I don’t think Kris or I actually ate very much….our minds were really on getting every last drop of information that was so incredibly available to us.  Also, it’s hard to hold a baby, feed her, ask question, and use chop sticks all at the same time, not to mention some of the dishes contained huge chicken bones (maybe the spine?) and we were not clear of how to eat them! 

 

So, we were able to find out a lot of information about Ellie’s schedule and daily life.  She has been living with a foster grandmother, and then she attends the orphanage daycare/school, and then she also gets extra help (maybe one-on-one?) each day through an awesome private program.  She is described as happy, laid-back, smart, and active.  Her facial features lead people to think that she is from a minority people group in this area.  And everywhere we go people are commenting on what group they think she’s from.  By the way, if we didn’t draw enough attention being the only 2 Caucasian people in a city of 3 million people, imagine us walking around with a Chinese baby, lol!!  Everyone wants to talk to us, and we haven’t a clue what they are saying!  We are apparently quite an attraction, lol!

 

After we got all the information we could possibly think of asking for from the worker, she got a call from the orphanage director inviting us to visit the orphanage on Tuesday, so that’s where well be headed in just a few hours now. 

 

At lunch, precious Ellie was yawning and rubbing her eyes like crazy. We went to a notary next, and then Jacky said we needed to wait about an hour for the paperwork.  Ellie was asleep by this time, and so we went back to the hotel for about an hour and laid her down.  She was still sleeping, and so was Kris, and I was just watching them both sleep – beautiful!! – when Jacky called back and said we needed to go again.  So, we went to the notary, the police station, and then finally to the supermarket to get her diapers, formula, and some gifts for the orphanage.  When we got back to the hotel, we were all about to drop, and all starving, so we trekked out on our own to find some kind of food.  There are 2 non-Chinese restaurants here, and after a lot of walking we finally happened upon a pizza hut!  So, we had an interesting time ordering, but got a BBQ chicken (think Chinese BBQ, very spicy and not sweet) pizza to go.  We got back to the hotel, skyped with my mom and Kate.  Kate LOVED Ellie and was so excited!!!  It was really fun to watch her!  She kept saying, “That’s my Ellie!!!”  Ellie thought a little squealing blond girl was the cat’s meow too!!  Then we came upstairs, fed Ellie some steamed egg leftover from lunch, and attempted to put her down.  We have a little cradle here in the room that the hotel provided, but she seemed so interested in everything that she just didn’t want to go to sleep!  Well, the king and queen of “we will not have children in our bed!!” slept very soundly last night with a precious slurping, thumb-sucking baby girl smack in the middle of the bed!!  She is an awesome sleeper and is still sleeping next to me now as I write this!  Love it!

 

We are so in love with our sweet girl!!  We can tell that the institutionalization has taken a toll on her, and she has some delays, the severity of which time will tell.  She is not verbal yet and is not standing on her own. And she can sit for a brief time by herself.  She was clearly in need of a family, and she’s got one now!  J  She is officially part of the Maguire clan and we could not be happier with this gift!!!

 

 

Welcome to Urumqi!!

So it’s 6 AM on Monday morning here (that’s 6 PM on Sunday night in GA) and clearly sleep will not come, so I thought I’d take a minute to update.  We had a wonderful time in Beijing, but were so ready to get on the plane yesterday and move closer to Ellie.  Beijing and Urumqi are about 3000 miles apart and the flight yesterday was just over 4 hours. Navigating the Beijing airport with no guide and no English-speaking person was a little tricky, but we made it on the right plane. J This flight was the best one of the trip so far.  A little strange to be the only two non-Chinese people on the plane, but smiles are the international language and everyone seemed very nice.  About halfway through the flight, we could see nothing but desert land - miles and miles of beautiful desert.  Then about an hour out, we saw beautiful mountains – still desert, but beautiful snowy mountains.  About 2 minutes before we landed, out of nowhere a huge city appeared!  We both teared up as we approached Urumqi……so close to her now!!  Our guide, a very nice man who is from Urumqi named Jacky, met us at the airport with a driver.  We got a quick tour and background of Urumqi on the 30 minute drive to our hotel.  Urumqi boasts the 2^nd highest mountain range in the world, 2^nd to Mount Everest.  is very rich in Muslim culture.  The population is about 3 million.  It really is a beautiful and extremely clean city, especially clean when compared with Beijing, where the smog was so thick we could barely see across the street.  We arrived at the hotel, a 5 star hotel which is VERY nice according to Chinese or American standards.  I teared up again as I asked Jacky to ask the concierge to please send a crib to our room.  Jacky went over some paperwork with us (actually a lot of paperwork and it’s all in Chinese), and then we all went out to have dinner.  We told Jacky we wanted to an authentic Urumqi meal.  He told us about a flat noodle that is the staple here, prepared in modern Muslim fashion.  So we had a very spicy dish of noodles and beef.  It was delicious!!  Then, I guess Jacky figured that was going well so we were ready for the next step and he ordered us shish kabob.  Well, let’s just say that was a little TOO spicy for our GA palates, lol!!  We didn’t want to be rude, as Jacky was sharing his culture with us, so we had a few more bites, but we were laughing at each other on the inside as it felt like the meat was burning holes through our tongues!  We came back to the hotel and unpacked, did paperwork, and prepared our room for Ellie, packed her diaper bag, etc. 

 

We will meet Jacky this morning at 9 AM, that’s about 2 hours from now.  Then he will take us to the government building for official paperwork.  When we asked him what time we would see Ellie, he said that it would either be morning or afternoon, apparently the orphanage director will just know where we are today and bring her at some point.  Jacky said today would be filled with running all over town between the government building to the notary to the consulate, back to the government building, etc.  We know today will be a very hard day for Ellie…..while we have been preparing for her in our hearts for years, and in our home for 14 months, she probably just woke up this morning in her same bed in the only life she has ever known.  She will be taken from the people she loves today and left with two funny-looking, way too pale people with big noses.  We expect a very sad and scared little girl today, and we hope that she will allow herself to be comforted by us at some point soon, and to realize that we love her.  

 

The rest of the week is still loose at this point.  Jacky mentioned that he would like to take us to a museum on Tuesday to learn more about the history and culture of Urumqi, which we would love.  Then on Thursday we are hoping that the orphanage will allow us to visit.  While this may seem cruel, it is very much recommended to visit the orphanage with your child even during their grieving so that she can have some closure to that part of her life.  Also, we will be her only link with her life up until this point, and we want to know all we can so that we can give her the answers her little heart will someday crave.  Then Friday, we will leave Urumqi and fly about 3000 miles to Guangzhou.  All of the adoption paperwork is completed and finalized here in Urumqi, but then we will spend a week in GZ getting her passport and visa and everything that is required to get her into the US.  While I believe we may be the only adopting family currently in Urumqi, when we get to GZ we will join many other families from the US who are also working to get passports and visas for their children.  Once Ellie sets foot in Atlanta, she will officially be an American citizen!!  J 

 

Note that Kris is still asleep, and he's clearly the technology expert in this relationship, so getting pictures on here will have to wait until he is up!  :-)

 

Thank you so much for all the sweet wishes and for keeping us in your hearts during this time!  Today is a huge day for our family, and is already bursting at the seams with tears and emotions too big to describe!  We will try to update and post pictures soon!!  J

Beijing! Part 3

Heading to the local restaurant!

The local menu!

Our actual dinner! Chinese fondu!

Squatty potty . . . Not much to say there . . .

Beijing! Part 2

(Please note: Google's blogger is not being very cooperative today. Allison is currently asleep and I am too tires to try and get everything to line up exactly as it should. That is why there are three posts instead of just one and why the sentence nelow is repeated.   :-D)

Great Wall shops. We were rock stars here. Everyone kept saying "Hey lady! Just for you I have the cheaper price! Come back! I remember you! (we had never seen any of the individuals before) I love you! (um, what!?)"

Outside our hotel!

Inside the local market!

A sandwich we had from a vendor on the street. We don't know what it was!

Beijing! Part 1

Our seats on the plane to Beijing, China!

On the way to China!

This is a dramatic re-enactment of our taxi ride from the Beijing Airport to The Citic Hotel. Apparently, all road signs and lanes are simply suggestions, leaving everyone to honk freely at each other and drive all over the road. Please note, this taxi ride took place at midnight . . .)

How was the Great Wall, you ask? Well, for lack of a better term, it was great!

No way! The Great Wall has subway and Coke Zero!? Delicious!

Riding the tram to the top of the Great Wall!

Here we are, actually on the tram on the way to the top of the Great Wall!

Great Wall shops. We were rockstars here. Everyone kept saying "Hey lady! Just for you I have the cheaper price! Come back! I remember you! I love you!