Savannah in front of Lucy's--a bit of a staple for homesick westerners

Tonight (Tuesday night) is our last night in China. Today we took our oath in mass (there were maybe 30 families taking it at the same time) to say the information we provided the US Consulate was true to the best of our knowledge. Tomorrow, our guide will pick up our visa and at 9:00 pm we will fly out of Guangzhou to L.A. We are ready to be home and can’t wait to see our family and friends. We’ve had a great time, but it’s time to go and we are ready.

I’ve posted some pictures for you to see, of our second-to-last day here in Guangzhou. We hope you enjoy them. We may get a chance to post tomorrow since we are leaving in the PM, but I’m not sure if we will or not. We still have to pack tomorrow, which should take a bit of time (lots of planning surrounding that–what to put in the carry on, what to check). For those of you that would like to, we could use some prayer that our medications for Jade will go through okay. We are putting smaller portions into smaller bottles to take with us. Hopefully we will have no problem with them. ;o)

One last cool thing to tell is that tonight Mark was a bit exhausted after a dinner where Jade couldn’t be contained very well, and so he couldn’t eat very easily (since I can’t hold Jade without her crying, it’s frustrating for him because he’s always on to hold her where ever we go) I was playing with Jade in our room to try to get her doing something and out of Mark’s hair for a while. She ended up falling asleep on me. We continue to see small signs like this (it’s always two steps forward and one step back, but the progression overall is forward) that give us encouragement. I still cannot just pick up Jade and hold her for an extended period of time, but at least I can be a taxi for her for short holds and at least if she can’t have her favorite person (Mark), she’ll settle for me when she feels she is in need. I am so glad for this, and continue to work toward having her trust and rely on me more and more. Each day is a new day and many more chances to show her that I love her and can be trusted–knowing something like this takes time, patience and persistence–which is something I can do. ;o)

To everyone, all the friends and family, who has followed our journey, we appreciate all of your wonderful feedback and we love all of you. Zai Jian.

Melissa, Mark, Savannah and Jade

Savannah at the thai restaurant we ate at tonight.

Today our paperwork was reviewed by the American Consulate (through our guide, we didn’t have to go ourselves) and our guide said there were no problems with it. Yay!!! Tomorrow at 2:15 we will be going to the Consulate to take our oath with Jade. Quite honestly I can’t remember what the oath is about, but it’s a formality we do to finalize our adoption. It is the last step in the process here in China (when we get into the US we will have one last hurdle and that is going through US Customs and Immigration). Then Wednesday we will get our visa for Jade and Wednesday night we’ll be in the air!

We are actually going to begin packing tomorrow, it is really starting to feel like our time here in China is officially winding down. We are ready to be at home, and can’t wait to get there. There are many oceans between us and home, but as I said to Mark on our last journey home “It’s inevitable, we will eventually get home.” Thanks be to God!

Melissa, Mark, Savannah and Jade

Stopping to smell the flowers

Well, last night we flew to Guangzhou, China (after a short delay of our flight–maybe 1 hour or so), and so far the only negative weather we have experienced from the typhoon that has made land fall here is just rain. We have had rain today, but it hasn’t put any kind of a crimp in our schedule. This morning we met our guide and made our first stop at the photography store where all of us GWCA (Great Wall China Adoption) families got our visa photos for our babies/children (one child is 13 who is being adopted the rest are 4 for younger). After that it was off to the medical office where our children got their “medical exam” (I put this in quotations because it’s a pretty cursory thing–basically making sure we are not bringing any communicable diseases into the US). So, medical exam–check.

By this time it was around lunch time and we were done with most of our official business for the time being, so Mark, Savannah, Jade and I went to get some lunch. We had a good surprise, in that we found out that Jade will eat congee (a rice poridge that many Chinese babies like). Since it’s been like pulling teeth to get her to eat anything else but Cherrios we were very happy to find this out. Yay!

After this, some more business. I (Melissa) had to go do paperwork with our guide, Helen. It all went very well (Helen is very efficient and detail oriented…thank goodness someone in this world is…if that were my job I’d be forgetting things left and right!). After this it was almost dinner time, for which we went out as a group. I’ve posted a picture of some of our dinner…cute, but unfortunately for those birds they are just too delicious to remain alive long (at least in China anyway).

Tonight Jade is not going to bed well, so I guess I’d better get off the computer (clickety clickety of the computer keys maybe keeping her up?) so she will settle down. Love to you all! We can’t wait to be home (notice I didn’t say COME home…I’m still not wanting to think about the flight home–13 hours for the 1st flight, not sure how long for the second from L.A. to Cincinnati, then maybe 1.5 from Cinci to Grand Rapids).

Blessings,

Melissa, Mark, Savannah and Jade

At the Wild Good Pagoda

Today’s outing was to a pagoda that, I guess, is very famous in China–called the Wild Goose Pagoda (not sure why it’s called that– I didn’t see any geese there). It’s famous for three reasons–two of which I forget, but the one I remember is that the pagoda tower leans due to an earthquake centuries ago. Okay, sure, sure…so like, the leaning tower of Wild Goose Pagoda, is how I can think of this.

Anyway, Mark has posted pictures of our outing. Some of them are pretty cool–although, maybe you’ve already seen them because now that I think of it, Trisha (my sister) commented on how nice Savannah’s new dress looks, and she only just wore that today. So, if you’ve seen them, cool, if not…well they are there if you want to.

On the Jade front, everyday has been a little bit better. Her personality is really starting to come out and we are seeing that she is a strong baby girl. She loves, loves, loves to play and her laugh is so infectious! We have loved watching Savannah and Jade play together. Savannah really loves to play with her and if she can’t (because it’s nap time or something) she’s really bummed. It’s been so fun seeing our family begin to feel more and more gelled together with our new little one. We thank God for this time where all we have to do is work on becoming a family together–it’s good.

Tomorrow night (8:00 am Friday EST, for those in the US) we will be flying south to Guangzhou. On a Skype call tonight my mom said there is some kind of tropical storm that may hit there–hopefully not. But Guangzhou (Shaiman Island) is a wonderful place to stay (although maybe not in a storm, since it’s right on the coast). Adoptive families always look forward to Guangzhou because the Shaiman Island is so laid back and beautiful (Mark and I both said the first time that it reminded us of Savannah, Georgia when we were there last). Because we will be flying late, we may not be able to post tomorrow night. But it is possible that we may post during the day tomorrow.

Okay, love you all!

Melissa, Mark, Savannah and Jade

Anyway, we went to see the warriors today and it was pretty cool. The pictures help to tell the story much better than words, however, I feel I must mention that in the photos today, there is one photo that is not Kosher and definitely not vegan! So, if you are squeamish about pelts of any sort (especially those of the “pet” variety) you may just want to have a buddy with you to tell you when to look away or something…I don’t know (okay, Jaime, this means you….seriously…get a buddy to help you.)

Later on this evening we went back to our room, after some more time in the Muslim District (didn’t get enough of it when we were there last time…) Savannah and Jade were having a ball playing around the room. This is a big deal because this is the first time Jade has walked around the room to play (usually she doesn’t want to walk, only stay in one place). But she is venturing out more and she and Savannah were having a ball. I was on the floor playing with them too and once when Jade came by laughing, I swiped her up and gave her a kiss. She didn’t cry (I think because she’s always in a good mood when she’s playing). I pretty quickly put her back down, but was glad to see this small step forward. Earlier in the day I tried to pick her up and she cried pretty hard and I had to give her to Mark, so I’m glad to see a little progress on the picking up front. For all of our sakes I am hoping that before we come home I will be able to hold her (because if not, she’s going to have a very miserable time–and so will I and Savannah–when Mark leaves for work that first day). But we thank God for the little steps forward.

With love to you all, and thank you all for all of the comments you have posted! I love seeing them all and reading them. I’m sorry I haven’t gotten to respond to each one, but it just seems like there are not enough hours in the day to get done all that we want to! How can that be? Huh. Anyway, we love you all and are so encouraged by your comments. ;o)

With Love,

Melissa, Mark, Savannah and Jade

Please pray for another good day of bonding with Jade.  We are also getting her on a regimen of expectorant which should help with the runny nose and cough.

Gotta run to breakfast now.

Hugs and kisses from Mark, Melissa, Savannah and Baby Jade in Xi’an

Break through day

Well, you may have noticed that we didn’t post on the 11th. It has been a pretty rough transition with Jade grieving for her caretakers, fighting a cold, teething, and bonding primarily to me (Mark).

Today we did some shopping, first at Walmart (I’m sorry Ruben, if Meijer had a store in Xi’an you know I’d be all over it) and then onto a department store for shoes for the kids (there is one other family with us from Great Wall). So at Walmart we got some essentials like diaper wipes, a new Barbie for Savannah (these are essentials, people) and some expectorant for Jade. We gave her the first dose around noon. At 3pm we toured the Muslim district which was fabulous. Guess who came out of her shell? Ok, that was pretty lame rhetorical question. Jade surprised us all with laughs and giggles. Of course, earlier in the day (when we were planning to take a nap–but Jade had other plans) Melissa was able to be with Jade for a bit without her crying. So then she took it a little further a little later by playing with her and her toys and doing zerberts on Jade’s feet (which she smiled about). So, I guess you could say the stage had already been set by the time it was time to go to the Muslim district (which was right after this play time with Melissa).

I resorted to carrying Jade in the sling as my right arm was about ready to fall off. So, as we shopped on Muslim street in Xi’an I began dipping her up and down, HUGE smiles and then some giggles. As the afternoon wore on more and more giggles, and not just from me interacting with her. Melissa and Savannah broke through and were giving her zerberts on the feet (no, that’s not gross, her feet have never touched the ground since we received her!) Anyway, I’m posting some pictures of our time shopping and playing with the stacking cups on the bed when we got back. Can you say 180?

Jade’s improvement has been remarkable to watch today. We are thanking God for his work through all of your prayers. Today was a good day and we feel so blessed!

Blessings,

Mark and family

Jade is getting more used to us, but today we had to go back to the registrars office and finalize the paperwork and the nannies were there too. She became sad and upset again after a while of being there and seeing them. So, we feel this set us back a day with Jade, but she is getting much more used to us. She still will cry sadly all of a sudden at times. We do not know if this is her grief of her loss, or her hurting teeth (she’s a drool baby right now and we know she much be teething). She only wants Mark to hold her and clings to him the whole day, but she does not cry when she looks at me anymore (like yesterday for a while), and sometimes she doesn’t mind if I touch her little hand. But if Mark puts her down (especially when she is tired) she will cry–not always, but very, often. If she is set down with Savannah on the floor and some toys to play with she likes that and Savannah loves to play with her this way. I myself am just biding my time, as I know that worst case scenario is that it takes until we get home for her to bond with me. When we get home Mark will be going back to work, so she will have no other choice but to begin the bonding process. I hope, and pray that she will begin before that. ;o)

Okay, this is all I can think of for right now (I’m sure there are a ton more things to say, but my mind can only do so much at 9:20 at night–not that this is late, but with all the emotional strain, it’s just all I can muster for now). We love all of you and can’t wait until we come home to see you all.

Oh, and for Faith–the weather today was nice…not too hot at all and even pleasant for walking! Thanks for your prayers! ;o)

Love you all so much…Oh, hope you are having a good anniversary, Mom and Dad, in Macinaw!

Melissa and family

At the Nixing Pottery Factory in Qinzhou

Qinzhou is known for their Nixing pottery, in fact 8 or so models are being featured at the Shanghai expo this year. So, we definately wanted to pick some up as a reminder of our visit to Qinzhou. Our guide CiCi scored bigtime and we visited the factory which translates to a personal tour and dramatically lower prices. We picked out two nice pieces. Check our gallery for pictures of some of the great art pieces that have been created over the years.

After the pottery warehouse we went to the Sanniang Bay which is a favorite summer spot for locals. Savannah had a ball and met a few friends. Of course, since I’m fluent in Mandarin I managed to introduce Savannah by saying “Wo jiao Savannah” which is really saying that my name is Savannah, the girls looked at me strangely. Anyway, we were all tired when we checked into our hotel in Nanning. I’m glad we were able to stay at the Majestic Hotel which was the same hotel we stayed at when we became a family with Savannah 6 years ago. I thought about requesting the same room number but then I remember that we spilled a lot of formula on the floor and that it might be stained. So, we’re on the 9th floor instead of the 5th, ha ha.

At Sanniang Bay on the South China Sea

The main disappointment today was that our lunch request with the SWI director was declined, apparently he was away on business. When our guide inquired about meeting the Nannies for lunch she was told they had to work. Not exactly the warm homecoming welcome that we had hoped for but we were able to visit some other important parts of Qinzhou and Savannah was able to experience Qinzhou and build some memories.

Well, it’s 9pm and we have to check out at 6am in order to make our 8am flight tomorrow. Our return to China has been wonderful thus far and has been great with just the 3 of us. Tomorrow we will become a family of 4 and are all excited to meet Jade for the first time. Please pray for Jade’s mourning of her caretakers, and also her adjustment to her new forever family.

Bye for now,

Mark, Melissa and Savannah

KFC in Qinzhou

So they went to this place across the street that Mark thought looked good (not sure what the name is) and Mark said he knew the word for dumplings. But noodles was another story. Apparently he was trying to describe them (I can just imagine the flailing and gesturing that was going on to try to describe these noodles, since he told me before he went that he would pantomime if need be!). Then he had to let them know that he wanted them to go–which became another round go Charades. But in the end they got him what he needed and he said they were so nice and it was FAR less than we would have paid for food in the hotel, and it was awesome. I love my husband!

After we ate, Savannah said she was going to just “rest” after which she put her head between two pillows (which was a little strange because it looked like a Savannah head sandwich) and promptly fell asleep. So we all got to bed around 7:30–not really a problem since I’m sure our bodies could use a little extra sleep fending of the inevitable onslaught it faced while flying for so many hours. We’re up now at 5:00 a.m. and ready to go. Not really that bad for jet lag considering I usually wake up at that time everyday anyway (I promptly go back to bed, but I do wake up at that time nevertheless! LOL!)

Well, that’s all for now, but I’m sure we will have many stories to tell after our day today. We will be traveling back to stay at a hotel in Nanning (the Majestic–for those of you who would want to know) so that when we get up tomorrow morning we will be close to the airport and our early flight, which leaves at 8:10–not that early, but we have to get there a couple of hours early).

I think that Mark is going to post some photos to the photo section too. He has a great one of some of the city of Qinzhou and an early morning one showing a little of the mild lightning clouds we saw this morning. Also some videos maybe (I know he took some, not sure which ones he’ll post though).

Love you all,
Tomorrow we get Jade!
Melissa and family

We’re adjusting to the time difference okay, maybe it was the slow progression westward, and I do mean slow. Although, I’m looking at the clock and it’s 5:22 pm and what I really want to do is just collapse into bed for the night. Okay, so maybe we have a little jetlag. Anyway, here’s a few notes for you all…

First off for all you Facebookers, we are out of commission for the duration of our stay so please check the blog for our updates. Secondly, there may be a delay in posts, most likely toward the end of our days. The reason being is that, at least for our hotel in Qinzhou, they don’t have Wi-Fi and instead have a hard wired connection.

Tomorrow we will do some shopping for some Qinzhou Nixing Pottery–which Qinzhou is supposed to be known for. We will also be maybe eating lunch with the caretakers from Savannah’s SWI (maybe–not sure yet), as well as seeing the Bay (on the South China Sea) and other random things, all before driving back to Nanning to stay the night before we fly out the next morning to Guiyang and then Xi’an.

We love you all and hope to write again very soon!

Love you, Melissa and family (soon to be family of four!)

In the Guangzhou airport they have these golf carts that will ferry people around, for a fee of course.  They must work on commission because they kept asking if we needed a ride.  So I asked him how much and he said 5 yuan(that’s like .75) so Savannah and I hopped on board and before long we were dodging in an out, narrowly missing common pedestrians trying to make their flight.  The golf cart guy must have misunderstood because he brought me to a counter to buy a plane ticket (hilarious) I’m like exchange USD for RMB and finally the lights went on.  We finally arrived at the final destination only to find the place still closed.  Of course, the man wants to get paid and now he says 50 yuan.  We argued back and forth and he finally pointed the the sign on the outside of the vehicle that clearly stated 50 yuan (about 7.50) and I paid the man.  Shortly after the money exchange counter opened and we had cash in hand to buy some breakfast.

On our way back to Melissa we stopped by the Swatch store (you know that 80′s iconic watch)  Anyway, I’m explaining to Savannah how old I am and how these were really cool at one time.  Up comes a man that say “iPhone” and opens up a newspaper with an iPhone in it.  Being friendly like I am, I think I’ve found a fellow Apple comrade and I whip our my shiny new iPhone 4.  He keeps saying “iPhone, you want” and I’m like “I already have the iPhone 4.  Finally, the Swatch shop owner told they guy to take a hike in Mandarin of course and he disappeared quickly.

Mark

Still have a lot of details to wrap up before we leave.

Please pray that we will all have enough energy in these last couple weeks before travel. The good news is we’ve all been vaccinated for H1n1 the bad news is we’re all suffering from cold symptoms now.

Mark

We decided to get our Congressman’s office involved on 6/9 and after a lot of back and forth we discovered that USCIS had no record of our paperwork, despite the fact we had a Fed Ex tracking document with signature.

Jenny, from Verne Ehler’s office had been advocating on our behalf. She worked with the Special Liason to USCIS and they requested we send a new copy. So Melissa brought a copy to the office and it was Fed Ex’d with a note from Verne Ehlers to the Special Liason. Later that day, we received some good news. USCIS had found the original paperwork and our paperwork had been approved.

Lots of drama but we are thankful to have this behind us. Now we can move forward with setting the appointment with the US Consulate in China and back into our travel dates. We are tentatively set to leave for China on July 8th and expect to be united with Jade on the 12th.

Before the packages could be mailed out Melissa had to pick up Savannah from school, go to Walgreens to get a passport picture for Savannah, then pickup our updated homestudy in Rockford. This is a run-on sentence isn’t it. So at 4:59 I’m about ready to leave work and notice a missed call from Melissa’s cell phone and I’m thinking, she should be home by now, why didn’t she call from our Skype number?

So I left work and called her cell from the road and confirmed she was still on the road. We ended up eating out at our favorite buffet Ming Ten. Mmmm sushi and Chinese food. Gotta feed the stress.

We are getting closer, travel details are starting to come together. Prayers that we can pull this all together soon would be appreciated.

Mark

We look forward to posting again in the very near future.

Blessings,

The Elenbaas Family

Savannah will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall of 2008, which would make it a really dicey time to travel (as transition times are always hard for her). Another thing that is weighing on our minds is that we really would like to move to a certain area locally that has a high Asian percentage of children so Savannah would attend school with other children that she can feels at least look like her. (This is so important to us, as she already is saying things like “I don’t like my black hair.” at the age of four.) However, since our adoption funding is tied to the equity of our home we cannot move until we have completed our adoption.

We know that this is all in Gods hands and we trust him with it all. If you think of praying for us though, we’d certainly welcome your prayers. Thanks so much.

One ray of hope is that some feel the new restrictions that start on May 1st of this year will greatly decrease the number of people applying for adoption to China. Also, I think a natural self-weeding out is taking place too, as not many people want to join a program that takes 18 months to get your child after the 3 to 6 months that you’ve already taken to get your paperwork ready.  On top of that, many who choose to adopt internationally have already dealt with infertility problems for years and it is hard to wait this much more time when there are other international programs that move much faster. So, all that to say, maybe the process will speed up?

We were pretty bummed when we heard this latest lengthening report, but after talking it through and thinking about it we realize that it is probably for the best. We know at this time we have an enormous tax bill coming up this next April. We will be doing some heavy finagling and selling of things, so we can pay that. We also know that I will need to take on jobs to get some of the money we need to take care of this bill and others we need to take care of before the adoption. So, long story longer, we are just trusting in Gods timing and leaving it in his hands. We know it’s in good hands.

Okay, that was a joke, but we are moving through the process.  You might recall that our paperwork began with a LID or “log in date”, then moved to “translation” and now the “pending review” phase.

Still to come…the “review”, followed by “pending referral”, followed by “referral”.

That sort of sounds close, but really it isn’t.  One step closer anyway.

The LID date can be used to forecast the referral date (still at least a year away at this time).

So, the paperwork made it to China and we are now one small step closer to getting our daughter.

We are still waiting for official word back from China that our documents have been logged in with CCAA, but hope to get that very soon.

That is all. ;o)

Then the wait begins. But I’d rather be waiting than paper chasing, so I don’t mind.

The following Monday (of this week now) we went to The Office of the Great Seal in Lansing (you know, it sounds very austere, but actually it’s a pretty humble little office) and all of our documents certified. Then we came home gathered everything, checked and double checked to make sure we had everything we needed and all detail requirements were fulfilled. We then went to the FedEx office and mailed out all of our documents to a service in Chicago that will take your documents to the Chinese Consulate to Authenticate. They will be picked up by the service next Wednesday and returned back to us on Thursday (July 6th). Then we will send it to our agency and they in turn will send it on to China. I’m not sure how this agency does it but with our last agency we got a group number at that point. This agency might be different. We’ll see.

We are so happy to be at this stage so quickly. I was going to be happy if we got to this stage before I left for China on the 14th, but this is just an awesome answer to prayer. Thank you God!

So, once we get these done (which of course we will be doing the first available day—what else would you expect?) I think they say 8 to 12 weeks until we would get our i171H approval to adopt a foreign orphan and bring into the US as our daughter. We couldn’t be happier. Thank you God for your mercies…they are everywhere.