Starting of a brand new day!

So after a 2 hour meltdown last night, Maire finally fell asleep.  She slept for 12 hours!  Today she woke up with nothing but smiles and laughs for Mommy & Daddy.  Even after the medical exam torture session, she still seems to be happy with our company.  I even have proof!  Check out these wonderful shots---Melissa, if you are reading this, get a tissue!!

Holy fit batman!

Today was my "what was I thinking" day!! All was good till about 6:30pm. We moved today from Changsha to Guangzhou. We took the train which was GREAT, but it was all too much for Maire. She got worked up about 6:30pm (I had to fish a french fry out of her mouth) and that ticked her off! It took us 2 hours to get her settled down. She is finally calm enough I think she'll fall asleep.

To explain myself, I shall tell you why I fished the french fry out. Maire has a habit of storing food in her mouth for hours...yes hours. The first day, she had a veggie cracker in her mouth for 2 hours. TWO HOURS she sucked on it. We finally got it out of her mouth, but then later that night we notice she still had watercress from dinner in her mouth, along with one of her vitamins! It had been over an hour since we gave her the vitamin! So now we make sure when we are done eating that she doesn't have any food in her mouth. We not only worry about her choking, but it is terrible for her teeth and gums (and breath-yikes!). So after 30 minutes of letting her suck and a very soggy fry, I make her spit it out--and then everything went wrong!

I am so blessed that my hubby has the patience of Job. He took over tonight (at about the midway screaming tantrum yelling in chinese fit that Maire was having-she even stomped her foot). They say girls from Hunan province are spicy---I think they mean stubborn!!

Half way!

Well, today marks the 1/2 way mark for our China visit. We left Changsha around noon and are now in Guangzhou. And Guangzhou is GREAT! The weather is so nice and we have a subway (the sandwich shop) right next door! I've already sent Andy after a Turkey Club, chips and a diet coke!

We took the bullet train and it was one of the greatest experiences! We saw such great landscape and rural areas of China, and it was really comfy, too.

Maire still struggles with sadness, but she continues to impress us with her abilities. We introduced her to McDonalds fries today---they were a big hit! Andy is currently holding her hand as she fights to fall asleep. That is really the only time she is truly unhappy---when she is tired and scared to fall asleep. We know that time will help her adjust. Enjoy the pics.

ang

Journey to Maire, part I

First of all, we need to apologize to everyone who’ve been trying to follow our journey to unite with our daughter. Many of you have been waiting for an invitation, and many who are already members have been waiting to read some new posts. Unfortunately, the Internet connection we have in our Changsha hotel room doesn’t allow us to gain access to many sites, including facebook and any site with “blogspot” in the address. We’ve finally gained touchy connection to everything using a tunneling device, something I knew nothing about until a day ago.

Beyond our Internet problems, everything has gone swimmingly with our adoption so far. As some of you may be aware, we prefaced our trip to China with our annual Hicks family vacation. I was wary about attending the family vaca this year because of it’s close time proximity to our trip to China. However, nothing could have been better for Angie and I than to go to a tropical paradise just before embarking on one of the greatest life changes we’ll experience. We were packed and ready for China a week ahead of time, and instead of spending the week before China stressing about every little detail, we actually were able to relax a little. With a lot of help from a resort kids program and free mixed drinks.

So we return home from our Dominican vacation ten hours before we must again depart for our transit to China. Ang repacks what we already packed and I run around gathering last minute changes. We spend the time with our dog Hoagie. Lucy doesn’t deal well with change, so she was booked into the doggie hotel for the duration. Hoagie spends most of our time together asleep on the second step of our staircase. We drop our boys off at school that Friday and we’re off to the airport yet again.

I don’t know who our travel agent is, but she booked us on some pretty tight transfers. Something about us being her cheapest clients or some such thing. At Minneapolis we learn just how out of shape we are as we have to sprint through half of the airport to make our plane to Seattle. Just as we finally reach our concourse, they make a last call for all people boarding that flight. Suddenly, the concourse grows by about a mile and a half, because, of course, our gate is the furthest one out. I hear the flight attendant saying something about the Wells party just as I reach the gates. “That’s us” *pant, pant* “We’re the Wells’!” *gasp!* We sit down on the plane and we hear, “We’re going to be holding for about eight minutes to allow some passengers to make their transfer!” Damn you!!! But hey, at least they had time to get our luggage on.

So then we have to make our international flight in Seattle. We’ve got Internet capability on the Minneapolis to Seattle flight, but I want to save my computer’s battery, a decision I will later regret since the 11-hour flight to Beijing does not have Internet capability. The flight attendants assure us that our Seattle connection will be nothing like the Minneapolis one, since the gates will be in the same terminal. They tell us the gates will likely be only a few gates apart. They are correct, but it doesn’t matter anyway since the flight to Beijing is delayed because some of the flight crew is coming in from a delayed flight from Detroit.

That’s good. We have time to sit and relax for the first time in two days. We eat our last hot dogs and cheese fries for the next two weeks and wander around the terminal. We find a neck pillow to replace the one we lost at some point during the frantic dash in Minneapolis. We change some money to Chinese Yuan. Believe it or not, it’s raining in Seattle.

After a short wait, shorter than we were initially told, our plane is ready to board and we’re off to China. Our plane follows the Alaskan coastline. We’re able to see it out our window the whole time even though we’re chasing the night. The moon keeps the snow lit up. We see vast mountains and snow. Every once and a while there are a collection of lights, and we wonder, why would they live there? Somewhere halfway between Alaska and Russia we wonder if Sarah Palin can see our plane from her back yard.

We don’t want to sleep. We think it will help us adjust to the time change in Beijing. We’ve got to shift half a day. Course no sleep on an 11-hour overnight flight is a tall order, especially since we only got about four hours the night before. The choice of in-flight movies doesn’t help. Sure, it starts good with “The Social Network”, but then the offerings go downhill with “Going the Distance” and “Charlie St. Cloud”. I can’t make it through the Drew Barrymore debacle without a couple Zs, but I don’t miss enough of it. After the Zach Efron ghost thing we each catch maybe an hour’s worth of sleep, bringing our total for the past 48 hours to about five.

So, twelve hours after the sun set in Seattle we’re in Beijing at 9 p.m. We’re so tired at this point we don’t care if we ever see the sun again. A Chinese man holding a sign that says “Mr. Wells” meets us coming out of the airport to take us to our hotel. He doesn’t speak English very well, but after a little checking we confirm that he is indeed from the hotel we’re booked in and we wait for the shuttle to take us to our night’s lodging.

He leads us across a busy street to the parking garage, where our shuttle awaits. We think for a moment we might get hit as the cabs seem too willing to get close to the pedestrians, but it’s a busy airport. I mean Beijing is a big city, right? We don’t really take note of much, as we are so tired. The hotel lobby has little registration islands rather than a traditional counter, and we experience our first money miscue when the very understanding lady checking us in asks us for “200”. When we hand her 200 in U.S. she says, “Oh no. 100 is enough.” She only wanted 200 Yuan, which is less than $40.

Our next little foreign confusion comes when we open our room door. All the lights are on. Everything looks great until the door shuts and all the lights go out. We flip the switches and nothing. We open the door back up and the lights come on again. We flip the switches again and close the door and the lights go out. When we open the door a third time, I notice a little slot just inside the door about the same size as the door key card. I slide the key card in and when the door shuts, the lights miraculously stay on. In seconds, we hit our concrete-like mattress and are out. The next day will bring us another domestic flight to our first week’s destination of Changsha, Hunan, a meeting with adoption friends we’ve known for two years but never met, and hopefully the end of this eternal night.

Stay tuned for Part II.

We are connected!

We were finally able to get into blogger and facebook, but don't know how long the connection will last! So here is a brief update.

We have our beautiful in our arms!! Day one was ok, but she is very scared and confused. She doesn't leave our side (She loves her Daddy as much as her Mommy), but there are tears and whimpers as she tries to understand what is happening. She sleeps and eats very well for us, so that is good. We are in Changsha now, but head to Guangzhou by train tomorrow. It has snowed here for 3 days straight and it is very cold! Guangzhou will be a welcome with its mild temps. We are getting cabin fever!!

All in all, she is doing great considering the turmoil she must feel. Please pray that she continues to adjust well. Pray that Mommy and Daddy continue to practice patience during this journey!

Nervous tummy...!

So we are headed to the airport to fly home from Punta Cana shortly. Then the countdown begins. I have my list of "last minute" things to do prior to our departure tomorrow at noon! Our friends, the Huffmans are in Beijing! We can't wait to join them. We hope to have email access in China. If not, someone will blog for us! !!

ang

Sunblock and sand

Hi everyone!! Believe it or not, we are on vacation in the Dominican Republic! We planned this family vacation this summer, assuming we'd be back from China by now, but you know what they say about best laid plans!!!

We felt that a vacation with my entire family was exactly what we needed after months of adoption stress! This place is amazing and so beautiful! We are having a blast. The boys love the kids club and often choose it over hanging with mom and dad! The pina colada's are easy to come by and I don't even have to leave my lounge chair! My grandma (83 years young) is having a great time, too!!! She isn't taking advantage of the free booze though!!

We watched the chiefs get spanked while enjoying room service and the ocean breeze blow through our room. Which made the beating seem less awful. But we have stopped telling people where we are from. Jude enjoyed a photo shoot with a yellow boa constrictor yesterday, which freaked mommy out, but he loved that snake! GROSS! Jack had nothing to do with the creature.

We flew out on January 6 and will be back in the states on Thursday. We have about 12 hours to get the boys situated at Grandma's and Grandpa's, run a quick load of laundry, load up the van with the China bags (already packed and at the kitchen door) and head back to the airport for our flight to CHANGSHA!!! We will be meeting our friends the Huffman's on Sunday morning. We established a friendship about 2 years ago (long distance) and cannot believe that it worked out that our girls are from the same area AND that it worked out for us to travel together! We are so thankful for them and are really looking forward to 2 weeks of watching our girls together!

Pray for safe travels for us over the next few weeks. Also pray for our boys who are spending 2 weeks without mommy and daddy. And don't forget to pray for our sweet girl whose life is about to change. Pray for peace and understanding for her, and for guidance and patience for us!

We also would like everyone to pray for the country as we struggle to understand the recent tragedy in Arizona. As we enjoy our freedom in this country, we see others who abuse it or jeopardize it. Keep all lawmakers and their families in your prayers, and those who lost love ones. Pray for the family of the shooter as they, too, will struggle to find understanding.

Love,

ang