Today is our last full day in Zhengzhou! We leave tomorrow for Guangzhou.
Yesterday we spent the day swimming, and playing in the play-room. Catherine and I went out to lunch at Mama Mias in the hotel . There is not a lot to do here because we are in such a busy area without a lot of options for traveling for children. Crossing the street itself is pretty tough with the traffic. That’s ok though for us. Our lives are so buys at home, that this is a welcome break in many ways.
Today, we are seeing a lot more happiness!
And a lot more eating!
I finally figured out she likes to drink off of a spoon. As it turns out, that is how she was fed her bottle at Angel’s Home. The bottle that was given to us was a bottle with a long spoon. I honestly, had no idea what it was and have not used it.
Sadly, our 15-month has been trying to tell us she likes her bottle with a spoon and we thought it was just "baby play" - jam-the-spoon-into-the-bottle. She has repeatedly jammed her baby spoon into the nipple of the bottle and her sippy cup and shown it to me. This morning, when I had her bottle ready, she pointed to the spoon. When I fed her the bottle with the spoon, she clapped. For me.
There is a park behind our hotel along a river. We went there today right after breakfast because it was only 90 degrees and 90% humidity at that time. Catherine had a good time jumping on the "jumpy thing."
And playing on the park equipment. There were a lot of children out today, and lots of grandparents watching young children and exercising on the equipment as well.
My hair had a good time growing to previously unknown proportions and making strange swirls on my forehead. Jason suggested I start a blog about my hair in China. After the park, we walked down the other side of the river on the way home. On the other side of the river, we saw Grace and her parents. I said to Teagan, "There is Yao Yao!" (Grace's Chinese name). Teagan whipped her head around and pointed at Grace!
After that, we did some more swimming and hung out with some other families at the pool. Catherine played cards with her friend Natalie which gave me a chance to talk to Emily and her new son Noah.
I figured out how to post the flip videos here, so I'll hopefully be posting more soon. Thanks for all your emails and posts. We love reading them!
It’s official! Teagan became legally our daughter today. We started off our day with more…..yes! you are correct! PAPERWORK! Part of that paperwork made our adoption official today.
Teagan slept through the night and woke up around 7 am. After a full bottle , she was ready to go! Here she is, above and below, before we left for our paperwork with the stacking cups.
In the lobby, we saw Grace and her family. Grace was one of the 3 babies from Angel Home that was adopted this week in our group. Teagan literally ran to Grace and put her hands on her leg and started babbling. Grace then reached into her snack mix container, and started feeding Teagan her snack mix! It was very touching to see the girls knowing each other and being happy to see each other. And Grace's kindness to feed Teagan!
We actually returned to the same government office to do some of our paperwork. Perhaps not the best plan to return the babies to the same spot today after an exhausting and emotional day for the babies (and adults), but maybe there are reasons that I don’t understand as to why it needs to be this way. They have a play area, and Catherine, Teagan and the other girls spent some time together there.
After that, it was back to the hotel for lunch and swimming for Catherine, and lunch and naptime for Teagan. She spent most of her time at lunch banging chopsticks on the table, trying to eat my sushi rolls and squishing them, and rubbing her eyes.
While she was napping, Jason and Catherine joined some other families for a trip to the Lotus Center for shopping for water, squeaky shoes, and other essentials. Catherine selected a very cool drum and Marengo set for Teagan.
When she woke up from her nap, she looked and me and gave me her foot. This made me laugh since last night I kissed her foot before I put her to bed as a game She is a lot more active today than yesterday and has more interest in exploring. She will let me rock her to sleep as she did today on the bus after our paperwork, and she likes to walk to Jason for hugs. She smiles anytime Catherine walks in the room. When she smiles, her whole face lights up.
The hotel set up a playroom for our families, so we visited the playroom when Catherine and Jason came back. Catherine and I practiced heading balls, and Teagan and Catherine played in the ball area.
After that it was dinner time and then off to bed. We ran into some of our group in our hallway, including the girls from Angel Home. Teagan clearly loves both these girls, and vocalizes more than normal when she is around them. Did I say yet how much I love our travel group?
Some other notes on Teagan today - she really likes different games – such as imitating us clapping and snapping our fingers or handing us things etc. I think this day wore her out and getting used to us too - Teagan was so tired she went to bed after only 1 ounce of bottle. She is having a hard time getting enough liquids in. I know with cleft it is hard, but it's harder than I thought it would be for her, even with special cups and bottles. It's so hot here, that she is sweating a lot, so I need to think about how to give more liquid.
These last photos are right before bedtime. She was shaking the toys Catherine got her and saying "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma." How great is that?! I am not sure she was actually saying words with meaning or just babbling. Babbling something clearly at this point is just fine ! I have a very sweet video of this, but am not sure how to post it.
Not to be a "crazy mother," but Teagan woke up for a brief time and was in much better spirits after some chicken and rice congee and apple juice. The four of us played a game of share the cups and drop the cups on the ground. She smiled and laughed A LOT and made some sounds imitating what we were saying. She has the cutest smile and laugh. The photos probably don't really capture it, but I thought I'd post them anyway.
She's back asleep now. She is a bit of wild sleeper, legs sticking out thought the crib, arms sticking out. I had her on the bed, but she kept rolling off. She seems peaceful for the moment. She likes to be rocked to sleep. I wonder if they did that at Angel's Home, because when I put her in a rocking position and started singing, she instantly put her fingers in her mouth and closed her eyes and went off to sleep. OR, perhaps it is my singing that is trying to escape from. LOL!
One thing I did not mention in my prior post is watching the the nannies leave from the various SWIs. I could see the first two sets of nannies (before Teagan) out the window in their car/van crying as they left the children. I am happy they care for the children so much, and yet, it's so sad for them at the same time to have to always say good bye. We had a gift to give to Angel's House, and we had to give it instead to the SWI official from Pingdingshan to give to her because the Angels Home founder had had to leave our building because she was crying to say good bye, the babies were crying every time they saw her. I think you can see in Teagan, already, that care she received coming through for her.
Here we are before we left the hotel this morning to get Dou Dou (translation – Little Peas). Like we did on the day we got Catherine, we took a photo of the crib before and after! Except this time, Catherine is in Teagan's crib! She is holding the information sheet we have about Teagan.
For those of you who don't know, June 28th is also the anniversary of the day we got Catherine! A doubly special day for the Duffy Shaws! Let me just say before moving on, Catherine is a SUPER big sister. We are so proud of her.
After we left the hotel room, we joined the other waiting families in the lobby, for what seemed a very long time. We took pictures of our families before the babies arrived and plan to do the after shot when things calm down a bit. I love this photo of all the big sisters (jie jies).
We took a short bus trip to a government office to wait for our children. The experience was quite different from our trip to Dianjiang when we adopted Catherine. This time, there were many different SWIs represented this time and so the babies arrived at different times, in no previously determined order. The babies from Angel Home and Pingdingshan arrived maybe 30-45 minutes after we arrived and after some of the other families met their children. The good thing about that was being able to take photos of the new babies and families meeting for the first time.
Ok - now for what you probably have been waiting for - Teagan arrives! I saw the car arrive with Teagan, and spotted her in there. It's hard to describe the emotion - it's overwhelming really.
I believe I started jumping up and down and pointing to her
and yelling "It's our baby!"
This first two photos are Teagan, coming in the door, in the arms of one of the Pingdingshan official’s arms. She is beautifu! But clearly a little stunned. It was VERY hot and loud in the room – read babies crying- and I cannot imagine what this transition was like for her. She has lived at Angel's Home for the past year, and in their note to us (See Below), Angel's home noted they consider her their child too. We have loved her since February 5th, but we are strangers to her.
I am going to be honest with you, I basically grabbed Teagan out of the SWI official's arms (see below). In fact, when I did not think they were giving her to us fast enough, I demanded she be handed to me after announcing in Chinese that I was her mother. I did wait to do this after I saw one of the other babies go to their parents, so it is not as bad as it could be.
She is wearing a dress we sent her in the care package! (Side note- it is a 6-12 month size....she is smaller than I thought she would be!). Most of the photos of us getting her are on other peoples' cameras. So, I will post more later as well.
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This is Catherine talking to Teagan. Teagan really likes her, and Catherine is the only family member who has managed to get a smile out of her.
I love these photos of both girls are Jason’s lap!
In a change, one of the Angel Home founders was there with the Pingdingshan SWI officials. This usually does not happen, but there were special circumstances this time. So we were able to meet one of the founding ladies from Angels Home. She is the woman below in the yellow striped shirt. We are grateful we were able to speak with her briefly, thank her for what they have done, and we even have some photos. Angel's Home gave us a very large bag filled with clothes, a photo album with personal notes written to her, mostly in Chinese, so I will need to have those translated, her formula, bottle, some clothes, diapers, wipes, bowl, spoon and so on. How great is that?! I could also tell she received the 4 care packages we sent her! We also got back the cameras we sent to them. Can't wait to get those developed.
Here is the Angel Home founder, with us in a group photo and hugging Catherine.
After that, we stayed there for another two hours or so, waiting for other babies, and doing some paperwork. She fell asleep on the bus, and stayed asleep all the way to the hotel room. She napped for about an hour. We have spent the rest of the day napping, feeding and playing. She really likes stacking blocks and cups! Catherine, Teagan, and I spent some time banging the cups together, and putting them in stacks (Jason was doing more paperwork - it's hard to believe there is more paperwork, but there is). Catherine has read her 3 books, and showed her different toys as well as the location of the hotel bathroom. Teagan also likes my sunglasses case. She can walk, but seems to really just want to sit in our laps. She walked to Jason and hugged him. Then, sat down in his lap!
Catherine has been to the pool twice today with her friends - there are 6 of them now the same age or within one year!
I brought with us, 3 different kinds of cleft bottles, and I am glad I did. She did not like the first one, but was able to use the second one. It takes a lot of time for a baby with an un-repaired cleft to finish a bottle, and I can see how she ended up so small at 3 months old. I spent about 40 minutes on the first bottle of 5 ounces with her. She also really likes the nubby sippy cups for juice. I think all things considered, she is doing pretty well. She has a very sweet personality.
Unfortunately, she fell back into a deep sleep at 5 pm here, which means we are looking at an early wake up tomorrow! You can't tell here, but she often sleeps in her signature hand position.
Jason and I want to thank you for all the support and love you have given our family during this process. It means a lot to all 4 of us!
