Ewan Day!!

June 29th, 2015. A day to remember forever!! Ewan Tang day! We had a relaxed morning and took our time getting ready before heading to the Civil Affairs Office at 2:00 pm. We had our cameras in our bag, but as soon as we walked in, Ewan was there! He came running down the hall and gave his Jie Jie (big sister) a big hug before I could get my camera out. He quickly ran off and started throwing a big light-up bouncy ball he had. He immediately started playing with Jie Jie and Geh Geh (big brother) like he'd been doing it his whole life.

 They were having a great time, but Ewan started throwing the heavy bouncy ball the other way down the hall. It was hitting people and causing all kinds of problems with other kids having their own traumatic days. Already, five minutes into our meeting, I was nervous about the language barrier.

 I quickly sat down and opened the backpack of tricks we'd brought. I pulled out his cars, and he sat down and forgot about the bouncy ball of terror for a few minutes.

 He came over and gave me a hug. He is so dang sweet and more than happy to play with us all!

 The lady in the green is his orphanage director. She is amazing. She is the one that was doing the QQ calls with us and Ewan. I had no idea she was the director! She is doing revolutionary things as far as orphanages are concerned, and I have the upmost respect for this great lady!!!

 She came over to check on Ewan and made sure he knew she loved his new cars. I love her!

Here she is asking about Geh Geh. So cute! The girl to the other side of Ewan is our cute guide, Coco. She is the size of my right thigh. She's a teensy, pixie of a woman. So young and so nice! She's absolutely darling!

 We had to go into a different room, so we had to pull out the big guns to get him to follow: Cheez-Its. Serious business. He loved them. He also went around the entire room sharing them. It was hilarious. Awkward and uncomfortable and totally funny. There were a few other kids having a hard adjustment. They were sobbing and everyone was on edge. Ewan didn't mind, though. He walked right over to the crying kids and offered them a snack. Such a love! My own personality is very shy and reserved. Ewan is the complete opposite. He is beaming with joy and wants to share it with the world. He has a lot to teach us all!

Baba pulled out Ewan's big gift, his new iPad. We figure we've had 7 missed years of Christmas and Birthdays, so we owed it to him. To say he loves it would be an understatement.

 Here's Ewan sharing a Cheez-It directly into the mouth of an unsuspecting new grandma.

 Make your own Dim Sum app? Awesome!

He gives it a thumbs up!!

 He is Chinese, so I feel a selfie is completely appropriate.

It was time to leave after we'd filled out some paperwork. This was when the trouble started. I think Ewan didn't want to go with us. Completely understandable. We tried several times to get him to follow us on to the elevator, but it was not working. He wasn't interested in going on the elevator. He was interested in walking into every room down the hall he wasn't supposed to. Our guide wasn't being very assertive with him, so Quin finally just picked him up, screaming and all, and headed into the elevator. We got him calmed down and had to walk down the street to a photography studio for a picture of Quin and I with Ewan. He waved to every single person we passed, including people in cars, and yelled, "Ni Hao!!" His radiant spirit just spreads and makes everyone he comes in contact with happy. He got more smiles in the five minute walk than I've seen all five days I've been in China! Getting pictures was a challenge, but we did it. We had to wait while for them to be printed, and I pulled out a book from his backpack. We sat down on the dirty floor and read it. It has little flaps with animals hiding behind the flaps, so we had a great time making the animal noises. He thought that was funny. He's such a charmer! And so smart! He was mimicking the sounds after he'd only heard them once!

We got our pictures and it was finally time to head back to the hotel. More trouble. Apparently Ewan gets extreme motion sickness and got really sick on the four hour drive he'd had from the orphanage. He DID NOT want to get in the car. We carried him there and he sat by me. I had success diverting his attention for a few minutes, then he started wailing. His stomach hurt and he was clutching it in pain. He slithered onto the floor and sat there bawling. I got on the floor with him and rubbed his back. He eventually stopped crying and laid his head in my lap. I feel so bad he was sick!

We made it to the hotel, finally, and the real fun began! He got right into all the toys and played with his Magformers for a really long time. He's super creative and made some great creations!

His cute foster mom sent the stuff we'd mailed him in the package back with him, and this is him pointing to Baba in the picture and Baba in real life! So fun!

 Balloon time! We'd yell 1, 2, 3! and throw the balloon up. He learned quickly and would yell, "THREE" and throw it up in the air. So cute! He was partial to the red balloon and wanted nothing to do with the others.

He had taken his shoes off and was in his socks. Unfortunately the floor is slippery and he took a spill. Poor guy! Luckily he let me comfort him and was back to playing in no time!

 I had to convince him to take his socks off. It makes for much better balloon chasing on a slippery floor!

 Baba built a tower, and Ewan was super impressed. He came over and clapped! So funny!

I had to include this picture, because it shows so much of Ewan's personality. He has his Geh Geh's shoes on, clutching his red balloon, and turning a lamp on and off. He's full of mischief and fun!

 Joining Baba for a little rest.

 It wasn't long before the tickle monster made an appearance!

 Time for some iPad and cuddling. It only took about 30 seconds to realize how bad Ewan's eyesight it. He has to hold the iPad right up to his face and squints so hard it looks like his eyes are closed. I'd bet money that this boy will soon be sporting some awesome eyewear!

We didn't want to go far for dinner since we didn't know if he'd even follow us, but room service was absolutely ridiculously expensive. We decided to revisit the executive lounge from the night before. The one we left because they had no western food. We knew they had food Ewan would like, though, and that's what mattered. Luckily they had some noodles, which we all ate. He was such a character during dinner! He took FOREVER to eat, and thoroughly, slurpingly, enjoyed every bite.

 A few minutes more iPad time before bed.

Bed time was a disaster. He got all ready and even knew how to brush his teeth. He had zero interest in sleeping in his own bed, so he climbed in with Quin and I. Then he insisted the red balloon come, too. Pretty soon we heard, "THREE!" and he'd throw his balloon. I was laughing at first, but he couldn't see a darn thing. The balloon got lost every time and he'd have to climb off the bed, turn the light on, find the balloon, then get back into bed. It was disastrous. It took about three hours for him to finally fall asleep. He slept in every direction imaginable. I don't know if he has sleep apnea or what's going on, but there's no way he's getting quality sleep with the amount he was moving around. Looks like a sleep study is in our near future.

We had a great first day with Ewan. There were a few times he was scared and got teary, but he mostly took to us right away! He is amazing. Quin and I are a bit overwhelmed with all of it. He's very strong willed and wants his way every minute of the day. It's SO hard to deal with when he can't understand what we're saying! We're taking it moment by moment, though. I just keep reminding myself that it will get better soon, and I know it will. He is the most darling, charming little soul and most of our moments with him are fun and happy. We love him to pieces already and can't wait to get to know him better!!

Journey to Tiayuan

Most people I know who are adopting from China try to pack light. Some of them even fit 16 days worth of their stuff in a carryon. I am not one of those people. I can't even imagine being one of those people. I need my stuff. I need clothes and snacks and toiletries that are familiar. Last year when we came to get Milo, I tried to pack light thinking I'd wash clothes in the bathtub and hang to dry. I Googled how to wash them and even bought a travel clothes line. I hated it. I hated taking the time away from Milo to hand wash clothes which NEVER dried! It is way too humid in China, especially in Guangzhou, which is where you generally are by the time you need clean clothes. Well, this time I knew I didn't want to deal with that, especially with three kids in tow! So I packed eight outfits per person. That means we have to wear each outfit only twice. Totally doable, especially since I also packed Febreze! The thing is, by the time we packed all the gifts for the Chinese officials, our clothes, and lots and lots of snacks, we ended up with four big bags, two carry-ons, and a backpack for each person. This is a pain in the patootie to haul around China. By the time it was all packed, though, I just couldn't bring myself to unpacking and scaling down. We decided to go for it. Let me give you an example of something really, really dumb we packed:

Gifts for the officials, nannies, guide, etc. It's a grundle of saltwater taffy (because, you know, Salt Lake City) and lotions/soaps from Bath and Body Works. What I didn't consider when purchasing these items was the WEIGHT! Plus it's not easy to make sure 18 bath gels don't explode all over your luggage! This will greatly reduce the weight in our luggage once we get rid of all this! SO DUMB OF ME!!

Anyhow, when you're flying, the amount of luggage isn't TOO big of a deal. You pack it in the car, then get a cart to wheel it all on once at the airport, then check it in at the gate. Done! We, however, traveled by train from Beijing to Tiayuan. So make a mental picture of Quin and I with our backpacks stuffed full each carting around two huge 50 pound bags and our kids with their own big backpacks rolling the carryons behind them all through the Beijing train station. As if we weren't spectacles enough! Plus the train stations are VERY Chinese. I think most tourists fly. I didn't see anyone other than Chinese people there. And do you think the Chinese have ever heard of an elevator? Certainly not in the train stations! At least there was an escalator, but have you ever tried hauling two big, heavy rolling suitcases at a time down a narrow escalator by yourself? No? Well, I don't recommend it. It's a challenge to say the least! And then when you finally make it on the train, you have to fight for a spot for the luggage. We weren't the first on the train, and all the spots were taken. It was a nightmare! The train workers had to ask people to move their luggage and find a spot for all our beastly suitcases! We're a practical circus freak show by this point! I have to say, though, that I know my prayers have been answered time and time again today. I was a nervous wreck about getting all this luggage from the hotel to the train station (we had two taxis, and the luggage was practically hanging out the window still) to the train and back to a hotel. Every step of the way worked out. I know we were being watched over today!

The train ride was great. The landscape changed from busy city to flat farmland to gorgeous mountains. Such fun to watch the world change as we near our son! The only damper on our great train ride was that right before we left Beijing, we realized there was a problem with our hotel reservation for Tiayuan. It's been a challenge to book hotel rooms for this trip because we are required to have TWO hotel rooms in every city. They don't have rooms like in the states that are two queen beds. It's a law that only two people (three at the most) can occupy a hotel room. So we, of course, want adjoining rooms. This is difficult to explain in English to native Chinese speakers over the phone. We spent many nights leading up to our trip doing just that, and we thought we were good. We realized literally minutes before we needed to leave our hotel room in Beijing that there was a problem with the room we booked in Tiayuan, and there was only one bed in the suite. Quin quickly called the hotel, and the price doubled with the dinky room they added on! It was going to be over $600 a night! We were so stressed out the whole train ride about what we were going to do! I was praying over and over and over that a solution would be found and that we would get a hotel room that would work for our family at a price that wouldn't cause us problems. As a sidenote, all spending in China has to be in cash. They don't accept credit cards here. So the cash we have is all we have to spend.

We arrived in Tiayuan and I knew our guide! She comes highly recommended from the Shanxi adoption Facebook group I'm in! I was so relieved. We quickly told her our hotel problem, and she was on the phone in seconds. She told us it was taken care of and we'd be staying at a different hotel than planned. We piled into a van and drove to the Kempinski Hotel. Our guide had to talk to several different people and had to get her boss on the phone with the Kempinski manager. I was still a nervous wreck! It took quite a while, but Quin finally gave me the thumbs up sign. We were taken care of! The adjoining rooms we needed were found and available! I'm SO relieved! I once again felt like our prayers were answered in a big way. We have an enormous suite and a huge adjoining room! And we are only paying $300 total a night, which is a major bargain for a nice, huge hotel room in China!

Here are some pictures of our massive room! This is the sectional couch in the living room of the executive suite!

 This is the TV in the living room.

The powder room. Yeah, there's a powder room in our hotel room! We have a total of three toilets!

 The kids' room. Seriously. Gorgeous and HUGE!

 The kids' bathroom.

The bathtub in the kids' bathroom.

 And the shower in their bathroom.

 Another view from the living room.

The master suite!

 Master bath. And there are two huge walk-in closets with and an additional smaller closet. I'm telling you, this place has more space than our house! It's AMAZING!!

We unpacked all of our bags since we've been living out of a suitcase for over a week now. It is so nice to have it all laid out and see what we brought and to be able to access everything. And even though hauling the luggage was a massive pain, I couldn't help but feel really grateful for the decision to bring it all! It's such a relief to still have so many clean clothes!! I would bring just as much again in a heartbeat!

We got all unpacked and settled, then noticed our son was more excited to spread out than any of us. He invented a game called "creeping". He was hiding in crazy spots and just waited for people to find him. It was so funny! And he'd do a weird pose in each spot. I had to take pictures :)

He's posing in this picture ^ like the boy Kung Fu monk from the Kung Fu show. Haha!

It gave us quite the giggle this afternoon!

The only downside to this hotel room is that it smells faintly of smoke. At first I didn't think that would be an issue, and it was such a hassle and ordeal to get the room in the first place that I didn't say anything. After being here a while, though, it's starting to give me quite a headache. I don't even know if non-smoking rooms exist here, though. Everywhere we've gone in Tiayuan has spelled of smoke. Even the lobby of the hotel. Yuck! There is no smell in the world I hate worse. It's starting to stick in the back of my throat and I can taste it. I need to just get over it, though, because there's nothing to be done about it at this point. I know we got a really good deal on the room through our guide, too, so I just need to suck it up and be thankful. Soon it will be just another funny memory of our experience in China!

Here is Ewan's stuff all ready to go!! I can't wait!!

We started to get hungry this evening and decided to go check out the executive lounge since we can eat there for free. All the lounges we've tried in the past in China have had a mix of Western and Chinese food. We got up there, though, and realized there was absolutely nothing we could eat. It was super awkward because we were the only ones there and the ladies working there were trying everything to make it great for us. They were so darling, and we felt awful not eating anything!! We got a few scoops of fried rice and hoped they wouldn't notice. Well, they did. We had to make up a lie about how we already ate and just wanted a snack. Even the kids kept saying they wish they could eat something so the nice ladies wouldn't feel bad! We left the lounge and realized we needed to change some money. Quin went to the lobby to do that, and by now it was getting pretty late. To be honest, we were all in the mood for American food. We just needed it. Quin looked up McDonald's online. It said there was one within 9 minutes walking distance. We left our hotel and my heart started racing. The traffic here is out of control and we had to cross a huge, busy street right off the bat. It was SO, SO scary!!! After heading in the direction we thought was right, we realized we were wrong. It was starting to get dark and late and we just needed some food. We went into a shopping center, and I again began praying that we would find something we could eat. We wandered around on several levels and it wasn't looking promising. I had a panic feeling in my gut. We brought snacks for such an occasion, but we hadn't had lunch either because we were on the train ride. We really needed a good meal. Just as my panic was really growing, I noticed a restaurant out of the corner of my eye. The only pictures it had on the outside were of Chinese food, so I was hesitant. I thought I heard the lady out front saying "pizza" in her thick Chinese accent, though. We asked to see a menu, and it was an Italian restaurant!!!! I can't even explain the relief! We were seated amidst many, many staring eyes. This is not a tourist area. It's just a random Chinese city, and they must not be used to seeing people from anywhere other than China. It felt like we were on show! The thing is, I didn't even care. My daughter ordered spaghetti, my son ordered lasagna, and Quin and I ordered a Hawaiian pizza (after we asked them to leave off the bananas that were in the picture). It was DELICIOUS!!! There was American music playing in the background, and it felt like home. It was such a nice getaway for a few minutes! Sometimes you just need something familiar, and this really hit the spot! I asked for bottled water, but they came back with boiling hot water like they drink here. Everyone else ordered a soda, but I haven't had soda in 8 months and I really don't want to start again now. I decided to just have no drink. We will for sure be going back to this restaurant, and now I'll know to bring along my own water bottle.

I wrote the rest of this post last night, and now it's Monday morning. Our guide is picking us at 2:00 pm to go meet Ewan. I am a bundle of nerves and excitement! I couldn't sleep past 5:00 am. I'm just too anxious! The next post will be our gotcha post!! EEEEKKKK!!!