I've been busy

Wow! Life in Orlando is very interesting. Everyday I get to experience new things. Yesterday I went to church for the first time and had a lot of fun in the nursery. I thought it was odd that so many big people kept coming into the nursery when most of the people in the room were babies like me. Mommy and Daddy told me that they came in to visit me because they have all been praying for me to join the family and have a good adjustment period with my family.

Mommy was so eager to get to church that she forgot her camera! I know I am as shocked as you are that she forgot to bring it because I think she's a professional photographer, she always has a camera aimed at me! She was so sad because she missed my first church experience and then my play time with my friend Ethan. I had so much fun playing at Ethan's house because he's a big boy and he shared his toys with me. Ethan also taught me how to clean up after I make a mess.

Today Mommy and Daddy took me to the pumpkin patch with Aunt Wendy and the kids that I will be playing with when Mommy goes back to work. The people at the pumpkin patch even knew who I was because Mommy won the Family Name Game on Z88.3 this morning. They asked Mommy if I was the Isaac that they talked about on the radio. Mommy was so excited about it, I think she was about to cry when they asked her if she had a son named Isaac. Mommy told the people lots of really nice things about me and how I came to join my family.

After the pumpkin patch we stopped by the church so that the people Daddy used to work with could meet me. It was so much fun, because I got lots of big people to come down on the floor to play with me. I didn't know that so many people have been praying for me and hoping that things would go well when I moved to Orlando.

After my nap and dinner Grandma and Grandpa came by to visit. I'm starting to warm up to Grandpa. I wasn't too sure about him because of his mustache and because I've never really known a lot of men before I met Daddy. Tonight Grandpa and I played with my toys and my doggie.

After Grandpa left I splashed around in the bath-tub and watched Baby Einstein. That is a very cool video and I really like Mozart. I was so tired from my busy day that I feel asleep around 9:00 and Mommy hopes that I still sleep until around 6:00.

I have a pet doggie

After more than 24 hours in airports and in the air we are now home in Orlando! Isaac had a great trip home and slept for most of the 12 hour flight from Guangzhou to Los Angeles. On International flights the bulkhead row has a bassinet where babies can sleep. Thank you to everyone who joined us in prayer as we prayed that we could get this seat. When we checked in the airline told us that the seat was not available, but when we found our seats on the plane we discovered that we were in the row with the bassinet, but we had to change seats with the gentlemen from Mexico who were assigned the seat where the bassinet could be fastened to the wall. I'm sure part of the reason he slept so well was because he could be in the bassinet, and the other reason is because we left at his normal bedtime.

Our arrival in LA was less eventful than I anticipated. I really wanted to take pictures as we went through immigration, but we weren't allowed to. We went through the first line where they checked our passports and then we had to go into another line for immigrants. Luckily they took

families with adopted children ahead of the other people waiting in line. We were through immigration before our luggage came off of the plane, poor Lynne was waiting & waiting for our bags and I finally joined her to help pull them off of the belt. After we had our bags we had to go through customs and they could have searched our bags, but we were lucky. However in Guangzhou the airline said that our final destination was Charlotte (it was only a layover before we got to Orlando) so instead of putting our bags into a special area for families who are continuing to fly, we had to take all of our luggage from the end of the 4th terminal all the way to the 1st terminal to check in for our domestic flights and recheck our bags through to Orlando. If I hadn't caught this error our bags would probably still be waiting for us in Charlotte!

Our flight from LA to Charlotte was the most eventful because Isaac thought it was daytime, but everyone else on the flight thought it was a red-eye through and wanted to sleep. He was great for the first 3 1/2 hours, but the final hour or so was an event when he felt it was necessary to cry and fuss so that everyone knew how unhappy he was with these arrangements. Luckily whenever we were waiting at the airport he was a ham and made the people around us fall in love with him so they didn't try to throw us out at 37,000 feet! Our final flight was great because he was awake and so were most of the passengers. He made friends with the people around us and finally slept for most of the hour long flight. Finally at 9:05 we landed in Orlando! We were surprised when Grandma joined Aunt Wendy in meeting us at the airport!

After leaving the airport we went to Uncle Henry's for breakfast and Isaac had grits. He really likes grits so is a real southern boy! Mommy, Daddy, and Aunt Lynne were so out of it that they could hardly eat their food, but Isaac ate every last bite!

Finally we were home! Isaac loves his new room. He went straight for the toy area and started pulling down toys to play with. Here he is setting out to explore the rest of the house. He had a very eventful day. He got to meet several new people like Grandma & Aunt Wendy. Later on Grandpa and Uncle Sean came by to visit. He was a little afraid of them. I think it's because he's never seen facial hair before. Grandpa told Isaac that he has ice-cream at his house and that Grandpa knows that they'll be friends before long. With all of the excitement of the day Isaac didn't want to sleep much. He took a little nap for about 2 1/2 hours and then wanted to stay up.

Around 5:30 am Mommy couldn't take much more so she traded shifts with Daddy. Daddy played with Isaac for about an hour or two before he finally decided to go back to sleep! Mommy was so tired that she slept most of the day. She woke up and lost the camera so she needs to find it again and post more pictures.

Well I gotta run. Isaac is crying for attention! :o)

Going home!

Finally we get to leave for Orlando! Isaac is feeling much better and is a very busy baby. He is into everything! He loves to play with the stacking cups and bang them together. He also loves to play with his book that makes noise and had fun tearing up Mommy's "Parent's" magazine. He still has a little cough, but is doing much better.

This afternoon we'll go to the US Consulate for our swearing in ceremony and then we'll head straight to the airport to head home. We're happy that the plane leaves around the time Isaac normally goes to sleep and we hope that he'll sleep for most of the flight.

I wish that I could post pictures, but I'm using the hotel's business center and there is no way to post pictures. We miss you and wish that we had Dorothy's red shoes so that we could click our heals and be home already!

Update - sorry no pictures today

I'm sorry that I can't post pictures today. Our computer died on Friday and we haven't been able to get it to start up. The battery is dead and it won't even turn on with the electricity. Bummer!!!!!

Isaac is doing great! He is now walking along the edge of the bed going for different items of interest. When we first got him he couldn't do that, but he could walk if we were holding both of his hands. Last night he walked without assistance, just holding on to the bed. It was so exciting and we caught it on video. He keeps waking up at 2 am for a bottle, even though I try to get him nice and full before he goes to bed. Last night he only stayed up for about 30-45 minutes and went back to sleep until about 7:30 so that was nice. The night before he wanted to play from about 2 until almost 4, then he wanted to be up for the day at 6:30!

There were 7 families who asked if I could take a picture of their children when we went to Dongguan to visit the orphanage. I am thrilled to report that I was able to get some photos of all of your children!! The little boy who is with a foster family came with his ye-ye (grandpa) foster father. I was so happy that he was able to be there so that I could get pictures of him for you. Our facilitator/translator asked the director if we could have Isaac's baby blanket. All of the sudden she came up to me with his blanket and I started to cry. It is so wonderful to have this precious gift from his time at the orphanage.

Isaac has a little cold so when we arrived at the orphanage the director had a nanny wisk him off to see the doctor. The doctor gave him two injections and gave us some medication for him. He said that he had the beginnings of bronchitis so please pray that he continues to get well. We have to mix the powdered medicine in with his formula. He seems to be clearing up, but continues to have congestion in his lungs.

Over all Isaac is a happy little boy. He loves his mama and when we go out shopping often falls asleep in the arms of his baba. Yesterday we visited a Buddhist temple with over 500 Buddas inside. The name of the place we saw was the Ocean of Buddas. The smell of incense was so strong that it made my throat hurt, but I got some fantastic pictures of the temple, there were some beautiful paintings on the ceiling and everything was quite ornate. Xixi told us that when Chairman Mao came to power in 1949 that everything in the temple had been destroyed so that most of it has been restored.

We have a neighbor! There is a family from the Washington DC area that is in the room across the hall from ours. They have adopted a little boy who is 2 1/2 and he is quite adorable. It's really nice to have another family to visit with. Last night we joined them for dinner at Papa Johns. It was nice to have some American food. Their son, Dayton wasn't sure about the pizza, but he did seem to enjoy it. This morning we met them for breakfast and then we completed the paperwork that we need for the US Consulate on Tuesday. Xixi said that we might get to attend the swearing in ceremony Tuesday afternoon, if that happens we can leave a day early if there is still room on the Tuesday evening flight. If there is pray we can get the bulkhead, they have a baby-bed that they can attach to the wall. We'll be flying at night and it would be difficult to hold a sleeping baby for 12-15 hours depending upon headwind or tailwind.

We're going to shop with the Oglesby family in Shaiman (sp?) Island in a little while. We want to buy some more goodies. The sad thing is that since most of the children adopted from China are little girls so it is difficult to buy things that will be suitable for a little boy.

We miss you all. Hopefully we can get our computer to work again and I can post some pictures later.

Safari Time?

It’s a lot harder to write than I thought that it would be. I’m so used to being surrounded by computers all the time that are connected to the internet that I have come to take it for granted. In order to post anything, I must first take the computer out of the safe, find the adaptor so that I don’t short circuit the computer, plug it in, and try to be very quiet since everyone else in the room is still sleeping. It’s 6:14 am here in Guanzhou, but in Orlando it’s 6:14 pm on Thursday. I hope that you all have been having a great week.

Yesterday we went on a Safari. It takes a lot longer to get anywhere here because the roads are all one way. There is usually a huge barrier between the two lanes so you frequently have to drive past where you want to go, do a U-turn and drive back. It’s frustrating, especially on the way back when Isaac was hungry and didn’t want a cold bottle. He likes his food hot! He finally got so frustrated that he decided to take a cold bottle.

Back to the Safari, the best way to describe it is like Disney’s Animal Kingdom only better. I cost 150 Yuan, which for the people here is similar to a Disney ticket for us, but is only about $22 US dollars. They have lots of shows about the animals, but we just walked around and took a tram-like thing through the safari. There were so many animals and we got so close! I got some wonderful pictures of lions, hippos, pandas, bears (brown & black), tigers (white and gold), giraffes, wilder beasts, camels, and a lot of animals that I don’t remember the names of.

After the safari ride we were able to walk through lots of exhibits. Isaac and I got our picture taken with a white tiger cub. I got to feed the cub a bottle and we got several pictures. It was 30 Yuan (about $5). When we walked through the panda exhibit we were only about 6 feet away from these beautiful creatures! (I hope that I can figure out the web Picasso picture sharing thing so that you can see my pictures. I think you can search them by my name Gretchen Stopyra, but I’m not sure. I tried to get the Picasso album to post the other day and it didn’t work on this blog. So maybe you can search it apart from the blog because I have some awesome pictures of the animals from the safari.)

Today we will travel to Dongguan City to visit Isaac’s orphanage. There are over 8 million people in the city where he is from. The guides all have told his that his orphanage is the #3 orphanage in China and that it is very wealthy and that they even have a hospital where they are able to perform surgeries on the children. I also learned that China’s lottery system goes to support the orphanages. I am going to try to get a picture of how they do the lottery when I’m in the market. It’s really quite remarkable and I don’t know how anyone would ever know if they won anything.

Well the alarm is awake! Everyone’s day has begun. I hope that I can post more later on today after we visit Dongguan.

Tuesday in China

Yesterday we went back to the Civil Affairs office to complete our adoption on the Chinese side. It was very fast, but Xixi said that is because fewer families are here because of the Trade Fair. There was only one other family there to complete their adoption yesterday, the little girl was from the same orphanage as Isaac.

After our trip to Civil Affairs we went shopping with Xixi and another family from our agency. At the start of our trip we went to a department store to purchase some clothes for our little man. The department stores are very confusing. When you find something you want to purchase you show it to the sales woman, then she writes up a receipt that you take to the cashier so that you can pay for your item, finally you bring your stamped receipt back to the original sales lady and she gives you the items that you purchased.

After we left the department store we went to another mall/market. This place was probably 5 stories tall with a ton of stores. Most of the stores made a Claire’s boutique in our malls seem large! We went to a pearl market where they make the jewelry for you as you wait. Isaac and Ba-Ba had fun hanging out while the girls picked out some pretty things at the pearl market. I picked out some pearls and the lady strung them onto a necklace for me right there! It was pretty amazing.

Isaac loves the snuggly which is wonderful because he LOVES to be held. If we aren’t holding him, he isn’t happy. Which of course for now is wonderful and really helps with bonding, I am a little nervous about how to deal with that when we get home because Aunt Wendy will be too busy to hold him every second of the day once Ma-Ma returns to work.

I’m going out in a little while to take pictures of the regular street markets. You wouldn’t believe the way the streets are lined with lots of markets, actually it’s just like the movies.

Today Isaac had his first bath and he loved the water! Ma-Ma and Isaac played in the tub for a while and he didn’t seem to mind the experience.

Orphanage Tour on Friday

For those of you waiting to see if I can get a picture of your baby, I want to give you an update. We get to tour the orphanage on Friday. Our guide Xixi gave the director a list of the babies we are hopeing to see. I don't know if we'll get to see them all, but she spent a lot of time looking over the list that we gave her. I included your names and pictures of your babies. I hope that I can get pictures for everyone!

The picture is of the room where your baby will wait to meet you. In the background the director is looking at the list I gave her.

It's a BOY!

It’s finally here! We had lunch at a Chinese fast food restaurant that is downstairs from the hotel, and went back up to our room to prepare to meet Isaac. Craig and I were so nervous we could hardly eat, we should have shared our meal!

The ride to the Civil Affairs office was crazy, but I figured that God didn’t bring us all the way to China to adopt a little boy to have us die in an accident on the way there! The roads are narrow because we are staying in a city that has been a commercial center for Guangzhou for over 500 years. Cars are competing with pedestrians, bicycles, and carts. Even though it is very congested and appears disorderly there are no horns honking to alert people to get out of the way. I thought, “Surely if we don’t get into an accident, we will hit somebody!” At a couple of points Craig & I both had to cover our eyes. Lynne laughed, but I don’t know if she covered her eyes as well.

As we neared the Civil Affairs office the driver told Xixi that he saw the orphanages car. Xixi said, “Look! Over there! There is your son!” I looked and saw a beige car with blue writing on it and two women were getting out of the car with babies. There was Isaac only a few feet away from us!! The driver pulled into the street in front of the office and we got out as quickly as we could. The first time we came face to face with Isaac was in front of the Civil Affairs office with one of his favorite nannies holding him. It was so amazing.

We made it up to the 8th floor of the Civil Affairs office and had to wait quite a long time to actually meet our son. The director had to wait for the officials before we were allowed to hold him. We were able to see him in a special room for the children as he played with his nanny and we saw that he is trying hard to learn how to walk. He enjoys picking himself up and walking along the edge of various objects. While we waited an official came out into the waiting room and had us fill out a paper. We had to list our passport information and address.

Then Xixi had me begin to fill out paperwork that we will need tomorrow when we go back to the Civil Affairs office to complete our adoption. (Today we were allowed to take him to make sure that we want to keep him. What!??!! Of course we want to keep him!!!!) As I stared to fill out the paperwork they decided that we were able to meet our son, I the paperwork in mid-sentence and rushed to meet him. We had to dig out our passports so that the director could assure that we were the new parents. As I reached for Isaac the first thing he did was grab our passports!

It was so cute! It was almost as if he was saying, “All right! I’m ready! Let’s go home!” He never cried, but seemed to really enjoy us. After a few minutes I let the new ba-ba hold his son. It was so amazing to see Craig with Isaac. The nanny and director told us that he does not respond to his name, but that he does respond to what sounds like Er Zuh (Chinese for son). It’s dark in here and I don’t know where the paper where I wrote the actual words down are.

In the van on the way home Isaac enjoyed playing with his ba-ba. They don’t use car seats here and it was nice to take turns holding him. He seems to like us both, which is really good! When we got back to the room Xixi took Craig and Lynne out to search for formula and some other treats for the baby. Isaac and I stayed in the room and got to know each other better. He discovered the mirror and enjoyed playing with the other baby. He seems to be pretty with it and tried to look behind the mirror to find his playmate. As he played with the mirror he laughed and smiled a lot.

Xixi took the others to the same restaurant downstairs where we had eaten lunch to buy some steamed egg for Isaac to eat for dinner. So after 14 months Isaac had his first taste of fast food Chinese style. (It’s a restaurant named after Bruce Lee.) He loved the steamed egg and Xixi fed him most of his dinner. He is a very messy eater!

After the excitement of his day and with a full belly he fell asleep as Craig was holding him. It was so beautiful to see my handsome husband holding his son as he slept. It was so good to see this little boy so content. He feel asleep around 5:15 and Lynne & Xixi went out to dinner with another family from our agency. Craig and I stayed behind with Isaac to be together, then like good parents everywhere we went to bed around 6:00. We have heard to sleep when the baby sleeps because you never know when you will get to sleep. I couldn’t get back to sleep after I woke up at 11:00 so I decided to write this down and try to get this posted so our friends and family could see that we are now a family of three!

Isaac has been sleeping almost seven hours now. I’m not sure how much longer he’ll sleep so I’m going to post this so that I am ready once he wakes up. Thank you all for your prayers, keep them coming!!

Love,
Gretchen, Craig, & Isaac