China Day Ten -- Gotcha Day! And Then There Were Nine

What a smile!

 What an absolutely amazing and perfect day! If I had to dream of what this day could have been I would have never dreamed that it could have turned out so perfectly. I am silently cursing our computer power cord and the slow response of Dell Computer's China division in getting us a new one, because it is preventing me from adding my pictures and videos to this blog to show just how wonderful it was. My words will have to suffice for now. Hopefully our cord will show up sometime in the next few days and I can add the pictures and videos that will tell the story even better.

We woke up early and prepared ourselves for our trip to meet Minsy this morning. We needed to meet our guide at 9:20 in the hotel lobby. We got ready in enough time that we had time to go and eat breakfast in the hotel dining room. They served a breakfast buffet that was interesting. There was some Western influence in the choice of foods, but there was a lot of Chinese influence as well. I would have never thought of some of the foods on the buffet as being breakfast items, but it was a nice buffet anyway. We have found that we are getting a little lax in our resolve to not eat the fruit served in China for fear of getting something that will distress our digestive tract. We are still trying to do our best, but we fail once in a while. So far we haven't had any problems though. Maybe that scorpion I downed in Beijing was able to get through me and prepare my system for whatever crazy bug China could throw my way. Who knows? Fingers crossed, but we haven't suffered anything at all while we have been here. What a blessing! I was just sooooo happy to actually get to eat real toast this morning. I have really missed American style bread more than anything (except maybe some good American chocolate). It was delicious!

Last time in the lobby as a family of eight

Preparing to board the Golden Dragon to meet Minsy

So, anyway, after eating a good breakfast we got ourselves together, said a big prayer for the events of the day to go smoothly, and then headed to the lobby. Shirley was running late because the Wuhan traffic was so bad this morning, but she arrived soon enough, and we were on our way. She asked for my paperwork as we were driving to make sure that everything was taken care of, and she quickly assured me that I had everything exactly as required. Phew! That was my biggest worry coming to China. I worried that I was going to show up for the adoption and find that I left some crucial document at home, preventing us from being able to take Minsy home with us. With this worry proven wrong I only needed to worry about whether or not we would be able to comfort Minsy enough today.

Outside the office where we met Minsy

We arrived at the office where we would be meeting Minsy, not exactly sure what to expect. We stopped so that we could take a quick picture by the sign outside the office, and then we headed inside. Minsy was right there. I really didn't recognize her at first, but as they pointed her out I couldn't help but say outloud "No way!" She was soooooo tiny -- I mean sooooo tiny. I knew she was a small little girl. I was thinking that she would be about the size of a three year old or so. But our little Minsy was smaller than that. She did not look like she was four. She did not look like she was three. I'm not even sure that she looked like she was two. She was maybe the size of an 18 month-old child. I couldn't believe just how small she was, but once I saw her face I knew she was ours.

The orphanage assistant director introduces Minsy!

We had this plan of how to handle our approach to Minsy this day since there were so many of us. I had heard that Minsy was a bit timid, and I didn't want to overwhelm her by crowding into her the first minute we saw her. So our plan was to have Herman video taping on the video camera, Laney taking pictures on the good family camera, Savannah taking pictures on her iPhone, and Spencer taking little video snippets on my iPhone that we could easily email out. Katie, Hyrum, and JoJo were meant to help Minsy to feel comfortable by playing with her.

Meeting Mama

Mama pointing out exactly who all of us are

Minsy loved her new pink purse!

Well, when we arrived and the orphanage assistant director introduced her to us I leaned down and picked her up. She was a bit hesitant at first, but only barely. She didn't pull away from me or scream or cry. She just looked around at all of us. Then I sat down with her and gave her the little purse we brought her. (What an awesome idea to give this to her today! Thank you Tara!) She loved her little purse. She put it on her arm right away. I opened it for her and pulled out the bubbles we brought. Her nanny told us later that Minsy had never seen bubbles before. I opened the lid and showed her how the bubbles came out when we blew in the wand. She immediate burst into giggles over and over and over. She couldn't stop laughing. It was the most adorable sound in the world. She laughed and smiled and talked to us the entire time we were there. She absolutely loved those bubbles, and by the end of the day "Bubbles" was her first English word she had learned. She would say "Bubbles" and then blow out her cheeks so that we knew to get them out so that she could play with them. I hope we don't run out before we have to leave China. I don't know where they sell any others around here.

Finding all the goodies inside the purse

Introduction to bubbles

The orphanage put together a sweet little photo album and info about Minsy for us and gave us the opportunity to ask questions of the lady who supervised Minsy and her foster family. While this was going on Iet the rest of the kids hold her and play with her. She went right with them and continued playing and laughing. She really seemed to bond well with Spencer. She loved hitting him with a stuffed animal and watching him fall over and groan. She couldn't get enough of that. He made her laugh again and again. Often throughout the day she asked for Spencer to hold her. That is really good for Spencer. He really is good with little children, but people often don't see it because he is so generally squirrelly in most situations.

We video taped our interview with the lady from the orphanage. Hopefully we got enough information to help Minsy to feel some comfort as she grows older and wants to know more about her past. I wish we could know more about her foster family, but it is good to know that they really loved her a lot while she was with them. They really gussied her up for our meeting today. They purchased some hair extensions for her so that she had these super cute curls pulled into pony tails on both sides of her head, and they had purchased a brand new outfit for her to wear.

Shirley helped us with interpretation of documents and
interviews

Minsy playing with Samuel, another boy adopted today

Playing while waiting for Mom and Dad to complete
paperwork

Once the paperwork was done Daddy finally got to
hold Minsy

Leaving the adoption office, now with seven children!

Our meeting at the adoption office did not take very long. I kept waiting for something to happen that would cause Minsy to dissolve into tears. I thought that that would happen when the orphanage workers left, but Minsy just smiled at them, said 'Bye, Bye", and waved at them as they walked out of the room. I thought that she might cry as we carried her out of the building and she realized that she was coming home with us. But no. Minsy continued laughing and smiling all through our trip in the big bus back to the hotel. She discovered a game that she absolutely LOVES. It is to find something that she likes and drop it on the ground. Then one of us have to lean over to grab it, and Minsy laughs and laughs. She will do this over and over and over until we finally get tired of it and refuse to return the item. Then she feels very badly done to, but she still smiles and laughs through her disappointment.

Hyrum and Minsy hanging out together at the hotel

I thought that Minsy might get a bit upset when we returned to the hotel, but she entered our room and made it hers right away. She loves to explore new things, and with all of us taking up two adjoining rooms, she has plenty of things to explore. She really loved her purse, and she refused to put it down all day. She would find things in our room that she liked, and she would add it to the collection of things in her purse. Finally we had to empty it a bit when she wasn't looking because it was getting to be almost as heavy as my purse. She shows a bit of a tendency to hoard things, but that was something that we expected as it is common in children with similar backgrounds as Minsy has. It is just interesting to see how it plays out with her personality.

JoJo and Minsy getting to know each other

Speaking of personality -- Minsy is NOTHING like we expected -- nothing at all. After reading the paragraph sent to us before we chose to be her forever family we thought that Minsy would be quiet, shy, and reserved. That document made it sound like Minsy preferred for things to be quiet and calm. We always thought it was going to be interesting to see how she dealt with our raucous family. Well, let me tell you, this girl is no shy, reserved little girl. She is constantly happy and giggling. She will forcefully express her opinion if she feels as if she is being wronged in any way. Today that usually involved her fear that someone was getting ready to grab her purse or some item that she wanted to add to it. When that would happen she could forcefully yell out, "Boo!" which is 'no' in Chinese. She never threw any tantrums or cried in any way. She would simply say no, make her opinion clear, and then continue on with whatever she had been doing.



Minsy fit in wonderfully with the rest of the kids. Today we told everyone that it was her day, and we were going to do anything we needed to in order to keep her happy. So everyone was pretty patient with letting Minsy get the first turn or keeping the toy or whatever was going on. In the future she'll have to get used to taking turns and getting delayed gratification at times. But for today she got to be Queen of the Castle, and I think she liked that role very well. She absolutely adores Spencer, but she got along wonderfully with all
of the other kids as well. We have found that she can be a bit fickle about who she wants to hold her. She'll raise her hands so that I hold her, but after a couple of minutes she'll ask for Laney, and then a few minutes later ask for someone else. This happened all day long. It is a good thing that there were so many of us available and excited to have our chance to hold her.

After relaxing for awhile at the hotel (where Herman and I took a tiny nap) we decided to try an adventure with Minsy in tow. There is a McDonalds about a ten minute walk from our hotel, and we decided to walk there for a late lunch/early dinner. Minsy did great on our walk. She played her Drop the Object and See How Many Times the Blau Family Will Retrieve It game over and over and laughed all the way there. When we arrived at the McDonalds we took a minute to explore a department store that was connected to the restaurant. This was a really nice department store that was similar to a Dillards or Macys in the US. Yet it was very different as well. There were seven stories to this store. The store was organized more like a Chinese market with the larger store being divided into areas that were manned by employees who would help us with our needs. Each area showcased a particular brand or designer. It was neat to see some of the super cute items in the store, and I think they may have been a bit cheaper than the comparable US items, but it always freaks me out a bit to have a salesperson right on top of me as I'm browsing through items. I feel like I have to purchase an item, even if I don't care for it because I don't want to hurt the salesperson's feelings. I'm neurotic about shopping. I know. Anyway, we didn't get anything today. Maybe the girls and I will come back later in the week to see it more in depth. One cute Minsy thing that happened as we were exploring this store -- I was holding her as we were descending on the escalator, and there was some dance music playing in the background. Minsy put her hand in the air, started pumping it, and started swaying to the music. It turns out she is a big music fan. Super cute!

Heading down one of the many
escalators at the local shopping center,
Minsy was sad that she wasn't in Mama's
arms.

So after our stroll through this department store we headed to McDonalds. I had already ordered at a Chinese McDonalds in Beijing, so I thought that this would be a piece of cake for me. Well, not exactly. I went up to the front counter. Thank goodness it was not a peak time of business so I wasn't holding up the line. I asked the lady if she had a picture menu. She spoke absolutely no English, but she pulled a lady aside who knew a little, and she let this lady help me. Well, this lady's English was rudimentary at best. She showed me the picture menu they had, but it wasn't really what was displayed on their main board. On a side note -- it is interesting that at the McDonald's in China, the signature items that are prominently displayed are their chicken items. If you imagine the US menu with the number of hamburger versus chicken items flip-flopped, that is what their menu board looks like -- lots of chicken. Well, we had decided to get Happy Meals for the four youngest kids and just a few burgers off the dollar menu for the rest of us. First I tried to order the Happy Meals. They were not on the picture menu so I tried to order them by pointing to the big spot on the display board that showed the Happy Meals. I wanted three meals with chicken mcnuggets and one cheeseburger meal. It took me all of ten minutes just to get that across, and I wasn't sure at the end of it if that was what I really ordered. Then I decided to get some chicken sandwiches off the dollar menu (or the 7 RMB menu in this case). Unfortunately, these sandwiches were not listed on the picture menu they had given me. I tried to point to them on the board, but the lady could not understand me. Then I pointed to the chicken sandwich meal on the board and said that I wanted the sandwich like that, but the cheaper one without a meal. I tried and tried and tried to get my message across, but it just wasn't translating at all. Finally I just gave up and told her to just get me the meal. By the end of the transaction I had no idea what would end up on our trays. It turns out that we got a spicy chicken sandwich meal, and in Wuhan when they say spicy, they mean spicy. It was pretty hot. As another side note here, I have been noticing that the Chinese people do not seem to driink nearly as much as we Americans do. Last night at the restaurant the wait staff chuckled at us as we ordered refills of our small drink glasses two different times. Then today at McDonalds we only had small sodas provided to help us quiet the raging inferno in our mouths after eating our spicy sandwiches.

Minsy and Spencer figuring out the Happy Meal

Minsy did great during this meal. I wondered how she would fare as she ate with us since her diet has probably been significantly different than ours in the past. She really, really, really, loved the soda she was given. I'm not sure if she had ever had a soda before, but she sure loved the Sprite she had today. I almost thought that she would stick it inside her purse at one point because she loved it so much. She also loved the chicken nuggets she ate. She had a pretty hearty appetite for one so tiny.

After our McDonalds adventure we headed back to the hotel for a leisurely end to the day. The younger kids were pretty wound up about the events of the day. There was lots of jumping and laughing and talking loud all day long. I'm sure things will calm down a bit once we get used to having Minsy around all the time. I can tell that the kids all really enjoy having her here. She is a joy to all of them. Minsy loves to share her food with all of us. She is super kind to us, though, and she makes sure to test it first to make sure it is yummy enough, so all of us spent the day eating crackers with little bites taken out of them or, for poor Savannah, having the cracker licked enough so that the salt was removed from the top. Mmmmm!

We found that we needed to make a few purchases for Minsy tonight. We thought she might need a pullup to wear during the night, and we also needed to get an extra outfit for her since I grossly overestimated her size. Herman decided to send Laney, Savannah, Spencer, and me on an adventure of our own. He stayed at the hotel with the younger kids while the rest of us took a taxi to the local Walmart. I was curious to see how Walmart looked in China, so it was an adventure I was willing to take.

The first part of this adventure was terrifying. I thought I had seen bad traffic in Beijing, but Wuhan has it beat by a long shot. Our cabbie was absolutely, totally out of his wits. We got in the cab at the hotel, and he whipped us into traffic, almost taking out a couple crossing the path in front of the hotel entrance. Then he got onto the main road. We were on the far right hand lane of a six lane road when he blared his horn and proceeded to (NO KIDDING!) make a u-turn crossing all of the other five lanes of traffic which were full of fast moving cars. I would have screamed if I wasn't so shocked that it was really happening right in front of my eyes. He continued on to weave in and out of traffic, creating his own lanes when it suited him. I just looked at the floor the entire time and prayed that this would not be the way that my life would end. What a maniac! He was actually quite a nice man -- just a super sucky driver. But we survived and lived to tell another adventure tale.

Looks like Walmart -- sort of!

The produce section with interesting choices

We got to the Walmart. On the outside it looked like any other Walmart you would find. But on the inside it was definitely catering to a different clientele. It was arranged in that same Chinese market sort of way, with various sections set apart from one another sort of like stalls. There were Great Value items on the shelves, but they were things that I had never heard of before. The meat section was amazing. There were whole chickens (head, feet, and all) just laying out on a display without refrigeration. There were several meats displayed like that. There were a lot of workers working in the meat section to carve custom meats for customers. The health and beauty section looked more like something you would see in a department store with workers manning booths to help you try on the makeup before you bought it. There was really no electronic or toy section at all. The bakery was tiny, but the food section was a normal size. The foods offerred were unusual and, of course, catered to the Chinese diet. I found it fascinating. There were fifty checkout lanes, and they were all open (hard to believe, but it is true). They did not have conveyor belts to take the food to the checker. It was just a tiny spot where I could place my items. They obviously don't have to deal with people like me coming in and purchasing huge, overflowing cartfulls of items to feed my large family. She only had one little bag spot to bag our things, and for a second I thought that we were only going to be allowed one bag and then have to carry everything else. But after another translation debacle I was able to finally see what she was trying to tell me, and I moved our bags to our cart so that she had room to maneuver, and all was well. It was a good experience to see how Walmart would work in a place like China. It was super busy, but people really weren't buying a lot of things. We took our purchases out to the parking lot and were easily able to find a cab to take us back to the hotel. This driver was competent, and we arrived alive without wanting to scream one time.

No refrigeration -- just some very dead ducks

When I returned to the room I found that Katie, Hyrum, and JoJo were all asleep, but Minsy was restless. She wasn't crying or worried. She was just wound up and wanting to walk around. I took her from Herman and turned on my classical music on the iPhone. She calmed down immediately and laid her head on my shoulder as I sat with her and rocked her to sleep. She fell asleep in a few minutes and I held her for a long while, amazed that she was actually here with me, amazed that her transition (today at least) had gone so smoothly, and amazed that I was holding such a beautiful, sweet, and funny little girl. I kind of thought that it would take me awhile to bond with my new little girl, but, amazing me again, I have found that I already love her to pieces She is such a little sweetheart, and she seems to fit into our family so well already. She makes me smile.

What an amazing, perfect day. We have been so blessed to have such a smooth transition. I couldn't have asked for anything better. I hope that tomorrow finds things to be just as smooth. She seems to be open to us as much as we are to her. I don't know how many people are reading this other than my mom and dad. I still don't have access to facebook or blogger to see any information, so all I have is any emails I receive or notifications from blogger sent when a comment is made. It could be that this is a record that only my family will read. If so, that's okay. But if you are reading it, I hope that you have been able to see just how profound our experiences have been this past week and half. I hope that I remember this experience for the rest of my life. It has been the experience of a lifetime. I am so grateful that our family has been led in this direction. It will shape our lives forever!