Gotcha Day Plus 2.....much better

May 23, 2012 - Wow what a difference one day makes. Although, I think being out of our hotel room from 8:00 a.m. until about 6:00 p.m helped a lot. We started the day traveling about 2 hours to Jiaozuo City where Lucy's orphanage is located and where she was found abandoned. We had to get Lucy's picture taken for her passport and that was quite the challenge. Remember how I said we are struggling a little bit with learning what makes Lucy happy during the day, well we had a hard time making Lucy happy while getting her picture taken. Let me tell you, they are very strict with these pictures too. She could not have any tears in her eyes. She could not have her mouth open even a little. She had to be wearing a dark colored shirt because the background was white. We didn't know this and she had a white shirt on and the extra shirt I had for her was yellow, which didn't work. So, they found a man's collared button down shirt, threw that on her and we tried for what seemed like an eternity (but really it was probably about 20 mins) to get the perfect face for this passport photo. Jason had to hold her out and let me remind you, so is a chunky baby. He was sweating bullets while we were trying to get this picture just right. Oh, I was just praying they could get one glimpse of her face good enough for this picture. I already see issues trying to get a family picture taken. : ) After we finally had a good enough picture we stood in line to sign some papers. We had to wait quite a while. During our wait several Chinese ladies were talking about us (The Chinese are not discreet about their staring or pointing. It is pretty funny.) So I asked Rita, our CCAI rep and translator, what they were saying and a lady came up to Lucy and put her arms out to hold Lucy. Of course Lucy wanted to go to her, but we had to say no. I am so glad Rita was there to explain to the ladies why we said no to holding her. Rita said it is quite a compliment in China if people want to hold your baby, but this lady understood and apologized over and over. We felt bad saying no, but Lucy is struggling enough with bonding to us, we cannot have her going to everyone she sees. Standing in line for the passport paperwork gave me a chance to ask Lucy's orphanage director a few questions. She said in Lucy's orphanage there are about 200 kids ages birth to 14 years old. Once they are 14 they are not "adoptable". I also asked how Lucy received her Chinese name. The doctor that does the admission exam for every child names the child. This doctor just picked Hu Lu Fei for our Lucy. Kind of interesting.

 After the passport paperwork was done we went to the Jiaozuo notary office to sign a lot of papers and receive a lot of papers. I just do what they tell me to do and check over what they tell me to check over and sign where they tell me to sign. : ) That visit went smooth as could be and we hopped back into the van for some more crazy driving. (Chinese people are crazy drivers. I cannot even watch out the window. No one ever seems to get in an accident or get hit in the middle of the road while they are walking across 6 lanes of traffic so it works for them, I guess). Sorry, I am getting sidetracked! We hopped back into the van and, per our request, we went to the site that Lucy was abandoned. As we walked up to the restaurant where she was found, tears started rolling down my face. I imagined a mom with a two day old baby with a deformed face in maybe a box or a carrier of some sort leaving her baby in the early hours of the morning or late at night in order for this baby to be found by someone. It was quite an emotional moment that I was not expecting. I had to hand the video camera over to Jason because I could not talk without getting choked up.

Rita took a picture of the three of us standing at the place Lucy was abandoned

 You might be able to view the video at this address: http://youtu.be/s39FdgCsecY
(I am having issues with uploading our videos, so I don't know if it will work.)

We were also able to visit the outside of the hospital where Lucy's lip and palate surgery was done. It is a charity hospital that specializes in cleft lip and palate surgeries. It was nice to see. Rita said this is also the old orphanage for Jiaozuo City. They moved to the current orphanage in 2009, so Lucy was never in this builiding.

O.k. well after we made all the important stops, we headed back to Zhengzhou. During this 2 hour trip in the van, we saw a new Lucy emerge from her shell. I made her giggle and smile. She was still sitting on Jason's lap, but I was having a lot of fun with her.

Hi Fei Fei

playing Kid's Doodle on the Kindle Fire

Hollywood!!!!

There's a smile!

 Oh it was so much fun to see a happy little girl with us! We soaked in every minute of it. Oh, funny story: Lucy was playing with her shoes. I would take them off, she would put them on. Then she would look up and point outside at random times. We didn't know what she was pointing to. It seemed like she was pointing to trees. Finally I asked Rita how to say tree in Chinese. She said, "shu" which sounds exactly like our English word shoe. Ha, ha! Everytime I said the word shoe, Lucy was pointing to a tree.

 When we came back to the hotel a few families were getting ready to head to a place called The Lotus Center. It is basically a big shopping mall plus grocery store. We dropped a few things off in our room and we were on our way with them. Again, Lucy loved being out and about with everyone. She sat in her stroller so happy and content. She would look up at me and smile. I even blew her a kiss, not expecting one in return, but I did get one. She knows how to blow kisses. It was great!

Lucy trying on some new shoes at the Lotus Center. She became quite the attraction as we were trying to find sandals that fit her chubby little feet. The shoes I brought are the wrong size.

It is quite fun being among the Asian people. They are so friendly and love trying to communicate with us. While looking for Lucy's formula, one lady said, "My English not very good" and then just laughed and laughed. It was great! I think we will have to make a trip back there again before we leave and yes, Lucy went home with not one, but two pairs of adorable shoes. I also had to find some barrett's to put in her hair. I was not expecting so much hair. The last pictures we received of her, they had shaved her hair again. It has grown a lot! So I picked up some cute barrett's to dress my little China doll. : )

We walked back to our hotel with two other couples from our travel group. We walked through a park and this sign just cracked me up. I must share:

The island to practice English?????? Huh!? We did not find the island, but we will have to go back and look for it later.

We came back to the hotel and played in our room. Lucy did not cry and she actually played with us. Yay! We are making headway. Well, we were making headway for a while. Then she noticed the door and kept begging to get out. We thought she had a long day with little cat naps, so she must be exhausted. We gave her a bath (which is still is not too fond of) and tried to calm her down for bed. Bed time is still hard for her. I think when she gets tired she is looking for her bed she is used to sleeping in. We have to just pace back and forth with her (Jason does the holding and I just pace and hum and sing to her) until her eyes get so heavy we know it is safe to put her in her crib. She is sleeping now. What a great day we had with our little Lucy. Tomorrow we are going to a zoo. Another fun day planned!

I am getting a little homesick. I am especially missing my kids and home cooked meals. This going out to eat is getting old and we still have a long ways to go.

Chinese word for the day: shu = tree : )