A Free Day

Today we were planning to visit Shaolin Temple, but it was an all-day trip (2 hours each way), and since most of the babies in the group are sick, everyone decided to just take a day to rest.  It was much needed, so we did a whole lot of nothing.  Maggie took a really long nap, and she woke up kinda out of it for a while.  She perked up later, though, and she and Mary Helen had their first real taste of chasing and screaming together while playing in the room.  They still have their times of friction, but Maggie is tolerating much more of Mary Helen in her face...even looking for it!  And Mary Helen is starting to figure out how she can help calm Maggie down when she's upset.  Touring tomorrow, then off to Guangzhou on Friday!

A little R&R in the room

Brief excursion to the garden behind our hotel

Our dishwashing liquid...scented with lettuce, tomato, yellow peppers, etc.  Of course, lettuce and tomatoes are so aromatic!

Checking out one of the books her big sister picked out for her

Mary Helen tickling Maggie...successfully!



Adoption Registration...and a Better Day

Today we returned to the civil affairs office for the adoption registration.  That means it's official as far as China is concerned!  Just as we met our group to board the bus this morning, we got our first real, true smile and giggle out of Maggie!  It felt so good to see happiness.  She's been a little off and on today, but we've seen her much more happy, playful, and alert.  She's talking (although we understand none of it!) quite a bit today, and we see in her interaction with Mary Helen that she can be not just a fighter, but pretty much a pest.  Several times today, she just plain pestered Mary Helen and thought it was hilarious.  At one point, Mary Helen tried to play with her, and Maggie pushed her.  Then as soon as Mary Helen turned her back, Maggie kept poking her and laughing.  When Mary Helen left the room with me today, Kenny said Maggie kept walking to the door to look for her.

We also realized that Maggie is sick.  She didn't have one wet diaper from the time we got her until after 1:00 this afternoon...over 24 hours.  She was most likely very dehydrated yesterday.  She also appears to have bronchitis or a sinus infection, so we started her antibiotics today.  After lots of food (big eater!) and several bottles of juice, we finally got a couple of wet diapers, and she seemed to feel better already.  It's still gonna be a day-by-day process, but today we saw so much more of Maggie's personality and ability. 

Oh, and while the girls napped today, Ken, Susie, and I went with our group to the Lotus Center to shop for diapers, water, etc.  The shopping was pretty interesting, but nothing could compare to our amazement to see how they actually use "split pants" for the babies...or sometimes no bottom covering at all.  Wow! 

One of her real smiles today

Walking back to our room...we're officially sisters now!  Let the fighting and pestering commence.

The innocent "oops did I just pop a balloon in the registration office?" look

Playing together nicely tonight...and yes, in their undies (classy, I know)

Giggling...at how funny she finds herself in this case!

Susie showing off her "look, no hands" maneuver on the shopping cart escalator



Maggie!

It's taken all day to get a chance to sit down and post.  And I'm not going to fluff it up too much...today has been a hard day.  On the positive side, Maggie is beautiful, and she uses her hand incredibly well.  The experience of meeting Maggie, though, was very different from Mary Helen's "Gotcha Day."  Maggie didn't cry at first...in fact, she was completely emotionless.  She kept herself pretty limp at the Civil Affairs Office and had a very vacant look.  We were very scared not knowing if that was developmental or grief.  When we got on board the bus back to the hotel, she started to cry.  She finally fell asleep on Kenny and took a short nap.  Once she woke up, a bath was absolutely necessary, including a scalp treatment (you can read between the lines!).  That didn't go well at all, and she pitched a fit.  Honestly, we were glad to see the emotion and the fight in her.

The hardest part, though, was watching how it unfolded today for her and Mary Helen.  Mary Helen, as usual, was eager and very much in her face.  Maggie reacted first by literally pushing her away and having nothing to do with her.  In fact, she is most drawn to Kenny at this point.  This was very hard for Mary Helen, and she reacted by getting mad and very jealous.  After a long nap for both girls, things improved some.  Maggie played quite a bit with the toys we brought, especially the stacking cups.  She started handing toys out and offering them to Mary Helen.  She let both me and Mary Helen feed her rice tonight at dinner. 

So far, Maggie says only a couple of words or noises, and she hasn't truly smiled or laughed at us.  But, she is eating, sleeping, and interacting with all three of us now.  We all feel a little beat up, but more hopeful after tonight. 

Trying to get Maggie to walk to me...the hairdo was really quite something!

Mary Helen is a little more into this pose than Maggie is at this point!

Hmmm...I think this is where she's deciding that she'll like Kenny best.

Playing together (finally) after bath...and more crazy hair for both!





On to Zhengzhou

We flew a little over an hour today to Zhengzhou and settled into a new hotel.  This is the city where we'll meet Maggie tomorrow!  We all thought we had kicked jetlag's bootie, but tonight we're feeling tired again.  Our hotel room is awesome, though!  We actually got unpacked and settled in, then started smelling a really, really strong varnish smell in our room.  Our guide helped us get the hotel staff up there.  Turned out they were refinishing furniture in the room right under us, and they had to move us to new rooms (same type of room, different floor).  We also found out tonight that they will actually bring Maggie to the Civil Affairs office tomorrow to meet us.  They had planned to bring her to the hotel because it's such a long drive for them, but we will meet her there instead with the rest of our travel group and their little ones.  We also got a little questionnaire today that they answered about her...says she's quiet and likes to play alone...oh boy, can we say polar opposite of Mary Helen?  This is gonna be interesting!  We'll post later tomorrow after we've had a chance to get Maggie settled in!

Waiting for our flight to Zhengzhou

Our hotel room in Zhengzhou...spacious!

They brought the crib, and Mary Helen thought Maggie might like to borrow her giraffe...sweet!

Mary Helen has had enough for one day!

Some Beijing Sights

Today we met our guide, George, and spent the day seeing some of Beijing.  We also met the rest of our travel group, so it was fun to get to know them a little.  We packed a lot into one day!  We started out after breakfast with a visit to the jade factory, then we went to the Great Wall for a hot, steep climb!  We had lunch together before heading to see some of the venues from the 2008 Olympics and ending the day with an acrobatics show.  We are told that the show was awesome, but we spent the better portion of it in the lobby after the "stacking chairs" acrobat and loud drumbeat freaked Mary Helen out!  Oh well, at least I got a diet Coke in the lobby!  We head to Zhengzhou tomorrow, but here are a few pictures from today.

The Great Wall

Daddy and Mary Helen on the Great Wall

Very steep...and my fear of heights got the best of me right about here!

Heading back down

Looking up a portion of the Wall

In front of the "Bird's Nest" Olympic venue

The acrobatic act that pushed Mary Helen over the edge

Opening of the Acrobatics Show

Saw her in the lobby as the others left the show...beautiful!



We Made it to Beijing!

It's very late, so this will be a short post.  But, we made it to Beijing safe and sound and had wonderful flights!  Great weather, nice clean planes with plenty of space, all flights on time, and Mary Helen slept about 7-8 hours of the long flight.  Early tours for us tomorrow, so that's all for now.  I'll post after we've seen some of Beijing later today!

Detroit to Beijing

Mary Helen texting on her pink Dollar Tree calculator!

We're Finally Going!

It's official! We are finally leaving to bring Maggie home on July 14th! My head is spinning trying to plan what to pack. There's just so much we don't know about her!

For those of you who haven't "met" Maggie, she was born on October 15, 2009. So she'll be just over 21 months when we finally hold her. She is currently in foster care in Henan province, which will make this a very different trip than our trip for Mary Helen. We saw Maggie last October on our agency's Waiting Child photolisting. She had not been matched to another family, so we asked to review her file...and here we are! Mary Helen is so excited to be a big sister! We are almost ready to board that plane and take a giant leap of faith!!

The first picture we saw of Maggie

Our most recent picture...obviously after a tumble and in need of TLC!