Good Morning, America!

We've got pictures up on our dropshots site - www.dropshots.com/lbullington. The password is Augusta, and the photos are organized by date. Go check them out! A lot of our Gotcha photos are blurry because someone else was using our awkward camera. It tells the story anyway, so I'm sharing them regardless. I'll be going back to caption them to describe what they are during all my free time.

Today went really well. We took the kids to a huge park with a "human-made" lake where the kids fed the fish. Then we sat in crazy Changsha traffic for a while on our way to a 100-year-old restaurant called the Red Dragon for lunch - very tasty chicken. Davis loved it. We joked that he liked it because of his own hot and spicy heritage. Faith got rather harassed at this restaurant by the waitstaff going after pictures. Unfortunately, a few of the more agressive folks have put her off the idea of making nice entirely and she is done. Don't worry, we are looking after her and ready to jump in and claim "too shy" whenever we need to. After lunch - Walmart. Just like home. Except for the dried intestines(?)

I just looked back to see Pearl playing on the bed and she gave me the biggest, widest smile. When I commented on it, Faith said, "I know why she smiles so big, Mama. It's because she has those spaces. We can't smile as big because we don't have them. I think it's pretty."

My goodness. Faith is right. Pearl's smile really is about the most beautiful I've ever seen. We get more and more smiles everyday, and they are pure delight.

We are all thanking God for our sweet baby girl!

Nice to Meet You, Pearl

Yesterday we had a 3:30 appointment with OUR NEW BABY. The kids had a good rest in the early afternoon while David and I got together the things we needed to bring to this meeting. We had to wake the kids up from naps, which is never a good scene, but we managed it and had everyone in the lobby to meet our guide at 3.
We were in the office for all of three minutes when this group of folks came in and rushed at us. One of them dropped a baby in my arms and then all of them (it seemed) began taking picture after picture while this little one screamed and tried to get away from me as best she could - leaning way back away and stiff as a board. She had a lot of hair. That was all I could see at first. And her mouth, with all of its troubles, was so red and angry looking that it seemed like a major wound. She would not be consoled. If she stopped crying a little she looked at us again and cried fresh tears. Oh, she was so sad.
We had to do very important paperwork RIGHT AWAY. While we were meeting our little angry one. Our guides had warned us that we would not know our own names at this point, and boy, were they right. We were told to look at our passports to compare to a form that showed just basic stuff like our birthdates, etc. and I really needed to!
The kids were so very, very sweet. Faith wanted to hold her immediately. Even though she was screaming. And Davis kept banging his stroller against my legs and saying, "Pearl, stroller?!" because he wanted to roll her out immediately and take her with us. Then they went running around the office already taking full advantage of our divided attention. David held Pearl for a few minutes as well. I didn't think she was quite as upset with him as she was at me.
Finally we were able to leave. Pearl kept crying, and I was feeling very helpless until I got ahold of myself and just did what I always did when the other two were little and beyond themselves with emotion and fatigue. I held her tightly and bounced her gently and Shhhhhhd her until she went to sleep. Pretty quickly. And then she slept for a while. I held her in the car while David and our guide went to pizza hut and a small grocery for diapers for both(!) kids.
Pearl was fine until she woke up and saw it was still us. She fussed and cried a lot yesterday afternoon and evening. She screamed whenever the kids got close to her, which was hard for Faith who still asked to hold her at every opportunity even though Pearl would act horrified when Faith came within an armslength.
She had moments of calm, though, and we were able to give her a bottle, though it was a slow, messy process.
And there was one beautiful moment when I passed in front of the mirror and she saw herself and gave an enormous smile that lit up her whole face - so sweet!
There were some hard moments, too. She is so thin. It was hard to see how thin until I was changing her out of the many layers that she was dressed in. Man, she is tiny. I am working on not worrying about it.
She went to bed around 7 very easily (as reported - sensible and obedient) and slept all night. It was a great rest for all of us, as we were all asleep soon after her. Good thing, because we were up early this morning and had plenty of time to leisurely get ready for our 9 am appointment to sign our official yes papers to adopt our girl.
Things started to improve this morning. Pearl was still disappointed to see us when she woke, but she was less constantly upset about it as before. She did well at the appointments, and since we were done with them and given official approval for our adoption by 10, we had a lot of time to hang out here as a family today. I had a chance to experiment with a couple of different feeding methods we had on hand, and several of them proved more successful today. (Thanks, Beth, for providing these!!!) And Pearl got more and more comfortable with us. She is less stiff now and we got a few smiles out of her - these came easier and easier as the day went on. And there was a really precious time when Faith and Davis were able to stand close to Pearl and she put out her hands to them and started holding their hands. I can't tell you how adorable it looks when her tiny, dainty little hand is placed in Davis's. Davis turned it into one of his favorite games, as he started shaking her hand and saying, "Nice to meet you, Pearl." That seemed to be a breakthrough moment, as afterwards Pearl was much more comfortable with them though she still has her limits.
There is so much more to say, but again the energy is gone. Thanks so much for your prayers and support, everyone. I could not have imagined yesterday that Pearl would come so far so fast in relating to us. I'm trying to add photos, but it is not working. (Or I just added four copies of the same one.) I'll try again tomorrow.

Gotcha!

I really wish I had more energy to describe our day right now! We are all exhausted, but we wanted those of you checking in on us to know that we have Pearl, she is doing pretty well - very scared of everything and wary of everyone right now, but we feel that is a normal, healthy reaction to her situation. We were able to feed her tonight, which we feel is a victory since we were worried about how that would work out. We will tell more tomorrow - and share pictures! David figured out that our computer is capable after all - we are just too tired to do more right now. Thanks for your prayers!

China Day 2

Today was long - for poor Faith (and David) it started at 2 am as she was up and unable to go back to sleep. We loaded the bus at precisely 9:15 and went to church at the Beijing International Fellowship. The worship service itself was a lot like church at home, but we only lasted through a few songs and the first few prayers as both kids were too restless. We took them for a walk instead. After the service we went to a jade factory and then to lunch. After lunch - the Great Wall. Amazing to see. Amazing to walk on for approximately five minutes and then amazing perfect storm of meltdowns from both kids screaming at once. Wow. We did get some cute video of Davis counting stairs as he climbed them on his hands and knees. No video of the screaming so guess which part will get remembered! Yay happy memories!
They calmed down pretty soon and fell asleep immediately after we got on the bus to go to supper. They slept through supper and then all the way back to the hotel. We got here at six, woke up the poor babies and revitalized them with goldfish and trotted them back out to the bus to go to an acrobatics show.
Overall, things really have gone pretty well, and tomorrow we'll board a plane early in the morning for Hunan and Pearl! Sorry for the lack of detail here, but we are flat out tired. I do appreciate anyone who is checking in and I am hoping for an answer to our picture problem tomorrow so I can share photos of Gotcha!

China - Day 1

Well, last night(?) was interesting. Davis slept about 3 hours. Faith did a little better. No matter! We were all up before 6 (a few of us way before 6.) We had breakfast at the buffet downstairs and left with our group to tour Tiananmen Square.

Everything we saw today was immense. And crowded with people. I wish I could show you our pictures right now, but in a move that is kind of typical for us, we neglected to get a laptop which will read our SD card. Cripes. We will try to upload some at another computer sometime so we can post some later.

After we toured the square we saw the massive Forbidden City. And when I say "toured" I mean walked very briskly through with periodic stops for our guide to count heads and tell us a little information about what we were looking at. It was a challenge for us to get Davis through these crowds in his stroller. We also got a great deal of attention today for both the kids. I knew this would happen, but it is a very odd experience. People stop and point and stare at the kids - particularly Davis. They want to get pictures of their kids and themselves with him. One lady moved me out of the way today so she could see him better. It has made me a little nervous at times, but there is nothing but fascination in the attitudes of these folks. They are super friendly and just curious. Davis has done really well and even hammed it up at times. Faith has her limits. It was very odd at one point today when I was taking a picture of Faith and there was a man next to me with his camera taking pictures of her, too.

After the brisk walks we went to lunch, toured the beautiful summer palace garden, and shopped at government run pearl and silk factories, got pictures of the Bird's nest and swimming facilities of the Beijing Olympics and were on our way to a tea ceremony when Faith got sick on the bus so we got a taxi and came back to our room. Game over for today, but there are big plans for tomorrow, too, so hopefully some rest will help everyone get some energy back.

Greetings from Beijing!

We are here! Everything went really well on the flights. David and I were flying cheerleaders for the kids [i.e. "Look! There is another airplane! So awesome! Hey, we're moving now! Yippee!" The kids got right into that spirit and really seemed to enjoy themselves. We flew out of Columbia to Atlanta. When we got off the plane at Hartsfield Davis cried out "Yay, China!" He was a little disappointed to find we were not already there.

Our second flight - Atlanta to Seattle - left about 20 minutes late. With only an hour between our planned arrival and departure there for Beijing, we knew that a delay of any kind could be major for us. Fortunately the gates we were using were right next to each other. Unfortunately, it meant that we went virtually 17 hours straight on planes. Those of you who prayed for my kids' traveling dispositions, thank you and most of all thank God who granted those requests! They were both super sweet.

We have about 11 families traveling in a group with our agency at this point. We will all spend a very busy day together tomorrow and Sunday sightseeing and shopping before we split up to GO GET OUR BABIES on Monday.

And more from today in China:
The customs man said "Ni-Hao" to Davis. He responded back with an enthusiastic "Hee haw!" that got lots of laughs. A few ladies at the Beijing airport were fascinated by Faith's hair. One of them even ran her fingers through the length of it.

Also, we have some friends here! The Digsby family are here with another agency getting their baby girl. You can follow them here: http://digsbyland.blogspot.com/.

Travel!

Packing for China has been a challenge. We have to consider baggage weight limits, diverse climate conditions of the three cities we'll be visiting, the needs of a child we don't know yet, and the needs of the two children we do know.

Further travel considerations:
Faith finds it difficult to carry her backpack, which normally contains one folder and a lunchbox, down the short hallway of her school.

Davis nearly always wants to be held by mama. And he weighs 33lbs. How much luggage can be carried and/or dragged by two adults who are also juggling [by travel leg #3] three kids?

It is customary to purchase gifts to take to the orphanage workers and people who will help us with our adoption process. We've bought chocolate, but there is the challenge of finding a place to store it. Right now our diaper bag is lined with bars of Godiva.

Packing for China has been a joy -
So many tiny socks, diapers, dresses, onesies packed in happy anticipation of the one that is soon to be wearing them!

We are on our marks. And set. Tomorrow we GO!

Ten-Months-Old

Pearl is ten-months-old. To remind myself what ten-months-old looks like I found these babies:

Faith at ten months. One of my favorite photos -

Davis at ten months -

And another favorite of that time -

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Larry

We've been so careful not to mislead the child. But today, what I thought would be a cute instantly-understood-joke totally convinced Faith that leprechauns do exist. And this serves as evidence for fairies as well because, as I learned this morning, "leprechauns make fairies' shoes."

Oh, well.

Her Lucky Day. . .and other pictures

Look what Faith found after, I'd say, two minutes of looking around in our weedy backyard's one tiny clover patch. She was hunting for bait for her leprechaun trap.



Davis wanted his picture made with a "find" as well, so he showed me this.



The Cherry Blossom trees are growing in the GIRLS' room:

Stage One


Stage Two


And Pearl's getting quite the shoe collection.

Let the Countdown Begin

We have a plan. And a schedule. And tickets. And some sweet baby girl clothes in three different sizes.

And two excited kids this side of the ocean: a sweet big-sister-again Faith who is super-psyched about everything, and a big-brother Davis who has started identifying every map he sees as "China!" and every Asian baby as "Purrrl."

And we have some friends who are going already!

Ha.

While looking at an illustration that showed Mickey Mouse with two younger mice, Faith said, "I didn't know Mickey Mouse had kids! I thought Mickey Mouse WAS a kid!"

Accelerando

We have a TA! That is a Travel Approval for China. We were given an estimated wait of 2 - 4 weeks on this, and we waited only 1. That is kind of a trend this time around. We've also been given tentative travel dates that are coming up SOON, and in order to keep them we flew (in our car) to the ATL (can't resist that) yesterday to get fingerprinted.

Our fingerprints jetted on into the system and will hopefully get to China soon so that we can make a necessary appointment there and be able to go get our Pearl.

It is starting to seem a little real.