Happy Birthday Lottie!

 

Happy 2nd Birthday Lottie!  We are thrilled to have been able to spend Lottie's birthday with her and had been praying that direction for months.  God is so good to bless us with that gift.  Lottie's birthday pretty much revolved around our preparation for and travel to Guangzhou.  We spent the morning packing up our bags and playing in the hotel room.  We ventured out for lunch and a quick walk before meeting our guide to check out of the hotel.  Before heading to the airport, we had to get Lottie's passport and final pieces of important paperwork to take with us.  Our guide, Ring, brought Lottie some birthday cookies to have a quick celebration before we left.  We are so thankful for our guides in Fuzhou who helped us through each step of the China side of our adoption!

 

 

We spent several hours at the airport waiting for our 7:30pm flight.  Poor Lottie was exhausted because she did not get a nap but sweet thing did not want to give it up.  She also was not a fan of sitting still.  Chad ended up walking her in the stroller up and down the airport concourse for a LONG time.  She fell asleep for just a few minutes before it was time to board.  We were pretty nervous about the plane ride, especially because Lottie was very fussy and upset right before boarding.  However, she calmed down and behaved very well on the plane.  She did not sleep any, but we were able to find enough things to keep her occupied for the couple of hours we were in the air.  Upon boarding the plane, we were surprised when a flight attendant brought a small cake to our seat in celebration of Lottie's birthday!  We were very impressed with the hospitality of Xiamen Airline.

 

We arrived in Guangzhou fairly late and by the time we got settled in at our BEAUTIFUL hotel, it was about 11:30pm.  Lottie was beyond exhausted but ended up sleeping very well.  Thank you all for praying for us as we traveled with her and thank you to everyone who helped to celebrate Lottie's birthday in the U.S. while we are away!  It was a successful day but we were more than grateful to see our bed at the end of a long day.

Thursday Tourism

Today we visited Panda World!  There are pandas living in an exhibit just five minutes from our hotel right in the middle of the city.  Our tour started with a red panda show where the workers had one red panda do a number of tricks.  It was hilarious and Lottie seemed to enjoy it!

 

 

We walked on to see the traditional pandas.  There were probably a total of 5 all in separate exhibits. Our guide told us they used to do shows with them too, but now they are just "fat and lazy."  It was still neat for us to see because neither of us had seen pandas before.
 

 

After nap time, we took Lottie for a walk around the lake outside of our hotel.  Apparently, we are quite the attraction here ourselves.  We get A LOT of stares and points our way. People think it is very interesting to see two white people with a Chinese baby.  Several try to snap pictures on the sly while others just stop us and take a picture, even trying to get their children to stand with us in the picture. Ha!  I wish I knew what they were saying!

We had another great day and look forward to celebrating Lottie's birthday on Friday by taking her on her first airplane ride!  We are headed to Guangzhou after we pick up her passport Friday evening.  Hopefully we will check in with the blog once we are settled there over the weekend.  This flight is only about an hour and half, but please pray that Lottie will be comfortable and happy.

Play Day Wedensday

Wednesday started with Lottie's first taxi ride (they don't use car seats here) and she seemed to enjoy all of the honking and swerving! We headed to a really cool part of town that had all kinds of shopping and enjoyed strolling in and out of stores for a couple of hours. It was very pleasant outside and Lottie loved being out of the hotel. Our guide took us to McDonald's where we introduced Lottie to her first Happy Meal. Looks like she will fit right in with Abigail and Luke! The afternoon was pretty rainy so it limited our activities. Fortunately, there is a bowling alley in the basement of our hotel! Chad schooled me in a round while Lottie watched all of the excitement. She got to try it herself on the last frame!

 

Typically on an adoption trip you spend one day visiting your child's orphanage and seeing their "finding spot" where they were abandoned (usually Thursday). Unfortunately, we found out when we got here that Lottie's orphanage and finding spot are about four hours away (one way). Our guide was willing to arrange that visit for us, but we decided it would be best not to make that journey. Lottie only spent her first 6 months in that orphanage and we were not going to be able to meet her foster parents (who live in a separate small village even further from the orphanage) while we were out there. That helped us make the decision to not go see it since it is so far away. As much as I would like to see where she was found and have that picture for her as she grows up as a key to her beginning, we think the trip itself would be asking a lot of her the day before we will be putting her on a plane to travel to Guangzhou.

Thank you for your continued prayers. We are having a blast getting to know our girl!

Sights from Tuesday

Since we are finished with our official appointments in Fuzhou and simply waiting for Lottie's passport, we have a lot of free time over the next few days. Our guide has planned one outing for us each morning and then we are pretty much on our own the rest of the day and night.

 

Today we visited the Xi Chansi Temple of Fuzhou City which is one of the major Buddhist temples in the whole Fujian province. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed being outside as we walked around. Some of the history was pretty interesting but the visit itself did not hold much meaning to us. Here are some of Chad's thoughts on the tour:

"We went to visit the largest Buddhist temple in Fuzhou. To be honest, it was heartbreaking. Our first sight was of a large pond filled with fish and turtles all given during the festivals to honor the Buddha. People come by to feed the fish and turtles hoping to receive good wishes and in order to please the Buddha. Our guide then pointed out a tower that was 15 stories tall. The legend is that Buddha died at this very sight- therefore this is a very famous temple. As we walked around and took pictures of the temple and the false gods our heart broke for these people. The stench of incense was all around us as we watched people light the sticks and walk throughout the different rooms waving the incense hoping to please these dead, immovable statues. Gloria and I found our minds filled with tunes that brought a healthy reminder to us. Gloria pointed out to me that she kept thinking of the lyrics to "Our God is Greater" while I kept thinking of "God of this city." You see, not only are these false gods dead, but our God is not. And even despite the thousands of people throughout this city that worship these false gods, it is best for us to remember that the one true God is God of this city and every other."

Lottie had another pretty good day. She got pretty fussy and cried a good bit this afternoon when it was nap time. Some of it I think was just typical toddler behavior of fighting sleep. She also seems to really like being out and about so all the time we are spending at the hotel is not her favorite. She is talking a good bit but obviously we cannot understand what she is wanting or asking for. Continue to pray that we can meet her needs and help her through times when she might be confused or upset about something we can't understand.

 

Gotcha Day! (redo...this time with pictures and a video!)

After arriving to Fuzhou on Sunday morning, we were able to get to our hotel, shower, and rest for just a couple of hours before it was time to meet Miss Lottie!  Our guide called to tell us they would be bringing her to our hotel later that afternoon.  Chad and I got as "ready" as we possibly could and rode down the elevator to pick up our child!  Sounds crazy doesn't it?

As we walked in, her orphanage caregivers walked right over to us and said, "this is your baby," and handed her over.  It was pretty chaotic in the room as there was another family meeting their child at the same time and a couple of adoption officials as well.  Our guide was talking with the official and the orphanage directors as we were getting aquainted with Lottie.  She was a little hesitant about letting us hold her until her orphanage director gave us a snack they had brought with them.  As soon as we offered that to her, she sat in our laps and enjoyed her snack while we signed papers and tried to keep up with what was going on in the room.   Here are our first few pictures with her:

      

All together, that process took about 30 minutes and then we were on our way back up to our room with a new Hunsberger!  Our guide helped us to order a pizza and let us know when she would be back the next day. So, we were on our own.  We set Lottie down on the floor with us and pulled out some of the toys we brought for her.  The ball was an early favorite and got us our first laugh!

 

 

 

 She was also very interested in drawing with the pen and paper I had out.

While we were playing on the floor, we began to peel off some of the layers she was wearing so we could get a better look at her size.  The Chinese culture definitely believes in bundling up their little ones as we realized Lottie was wearing three thick layers of clothes!  We also took her braces off to see how well she could move around.  Sweet thing can get wherever she wants to go with her scooting technique and army crawl.  She was having a blast moving around the room and playing with the toys.

When the pizza arrived, she acted very interested in what we were eating.  Our guide told us she probably wouldn't eat any of the pizza and would just want her milk.  Well, Lottie proved her wrong as she ate two pieces of pizza!

After dinner, we decided it was time for a bath and started to peel back the other layers she was wearing.   Lottie is definitely a tiny little girl!  The weight got for her back in January must have included the weight of both of her braces, because I doubt she even weighs 20 pounds.  She sat quietely in the bath and played while we bathed her.

 

Once we got her out and dressed, we could tell she was getting pretty sleepy because she was very still and very quiet.  She played for just a little while longer, then it was time for bed.

We weren't sure what her normal bedtime routine was like so we decided just to give her some of her bottle and it seemed to really relax her.  She was so tired that I literally just lay her down in her bed, covered her up and watched her immediately close her eyes!  We were exhausted so immediately went to bed ourselves.  We all enjoyed a GREAT night of sleep and we ended up having to wake Lottie up the next morning after 12 hours of sleeping so we could get to our Monday appointment.  She never made a peep all night!

 That sums up our first day with Lottie, and we don't think it could have gone any better! Thank you all for praying for us and please, keep it up.

We will do our best to post more soon, but blogging has proved quite challenging so far with quirky internet coverage and computer issues.  We have some great videos too, but they are not loading.  We will do the best we can to keep you posted!  Love to you all!

Monday in China

Monday started off with us having to wake Lottie up after 12 hours of sleep so we could get her ready for our day. She did not like being woken up, but after her bottle and some play time, she seemed much happier. Lottie also got to talk to her sister and brother for the first time this morning and they were super excited. So glad to see how well they are doing back home!

 

 

After breakfast at the hotel (more on Lottie's eating later) we headed out to the Civil Affairs office to finalize our adoption, have our interview, and sign the official adoption agreement. Everything went very well at the Civil Affairs office and Lottie was able to say goodbye to her orphanage directors who have taken such good care of her. We headed to one more government office to apply for Lottie's passport. We will pick that up on Friday (thus the reason for staying in Fuzhou the rest of the week) before we head to Guangzhou for our second week.

 

 

 

After a quick trip to Walmart (yes, the supercenter is here too) to get a few things we needed for the week we stopped by Mos Burger to grab some lunch to take back to the hotel. Chad got a typical "beef" hamburger and Gloria got what she thought was a normal "beef" sandwich. When we opened it back at the hotel we were surprised to see that the bun was actually two patties of rice. It was interesting to say the least, but actually tasted pretty good.

 

Lottie has been a champ of an eater! There is not one thing we have offered her that she has refused and is very interested in anything we are eating. She surprised us by eating two pieces of pizza our first night here, and Monday was no different. She tried several things at breakfast including a whole bowl of congee (rice porridge), a hard boiled egg, fruit, and pastries. At lunch, she downed some yogurt, some of Chad's hamburger bun, and many french fries. We had the treat of eating dinner at the Chinese restaurant in our hotel with a good friend we know from Mississippi who lives here now and she ate as if she has a hollow leg or two. Rice cereal, cucumber, noodles, rice...she could not get enough of it and kept asking for more! We are so thankful for our good eater and that it has not been difficult at all to find foods that please her here.

Thank you again for all of your prayers. We can definitely feel them here as we have been blessed with another wonderful day with Lottie. She is such a joy and has been completely laid back about everything we are doing with her.