Wahe's World

Day 6: Afternoon Update

Michelle Here. Max and Stefan are napping, so you get me again. Sorry, no pics (Stefan has now posted Pics). Just an update on our cute little guy.

Actually this was at night. He is even cute when he sleeps.

First….the question was asked to me, how old is Max? Good question, and I realized I really haven’t stated that. He will be 2 years old in May. We are so happy that we’ll get to celebrate his birthday with him. Even happier, is Michael. He already put in a request for a train cake. With ice cream. And a cherry.

Max’s transition continues to be excellent. He is still transitioning to us, but he’s adjusting amazingly well.

So….some of Max’s favorite things to do, since I posted yesterday:

1. Run! I really don’t think he’s going to miss a step in following Alex and Michael around. His favorite so far is to run laps in the hotel hallway. He’ll run ahead of us, stop, look back, and giggle. Repeat this loop countless times. It’s cute to watch. It’s good exercise for us too.

2. Water! He took a bath yesterday, and had a great ‘ol time splashing around. He was a little apprehensive at first to get into the big bathtub of water. But once he figured out he could play with the water, there was no looking back. The bathroom floor, walls, and toilet got a good washing too. But that was good, because they needed it.

3. He didn’t like the stroller so much, because he was anxious about not being able to see us. So we put him in the Er go carrier, and he really liked hanging out on Stefan’s back. We weren’t sure if he would like it, because it was probably the first time he’s been worn like that. But he liked the closeness, and the security that he wasn’t going to get left behind anywhere.

4. He loves steamed buns. We have to find a source in Madison. Also noodles. And goldfish crackers.

Three Steamed Buns! Yum!!!

5. He is chattering up a storm. As in, all the time. He doesn’t do anything without being vocal about it. We think it’s still babbling, but who knows, maybe he’s speaking a combo of babble and Chinese to us. He’s caught on to a few English words. This morning, he was yelling at us in babble. Like he was barking out an order for us to come here. It was very cute.

6. He’s secure enough in his attachment, that he’s mischevious. I’m really not complaining, because that’s a really good sign. But he gets this twinkle in his eye, with the cutest smile when he’s doing something he knows he’s not supposed to, and then we re-direct him into something he can do.

7. He still prefers Stefan for comfort. I get to feed him, and be fun mommy. We’ve made a lot of progress in the last 24 hours.

Max loves his Fireman book that Alex and Michael picked out for him.

8. We love him to pieces! He has such a bright personality, that Stefan and I are in total love with him.

Day 5: Picture and Video Updates

Michelle wrote a great post earlier today.  Michelle and Max are sound asleep so I thought I would post a few pictures and write a few lines about what we did this evening.  After Max’s three hour nap we had lunch and ran to the grocery store. Max road in the Ergo on my back and had fun shyly waving at the clerks. Max had his fill of noodles and got his first bath with us.  And now a few pictures from our day (and a video from day one with Max).

This is what Max ran to get after Skyping with Alex and Michael.

Actually Max was being goofy when Dad was changing his diaper.

We are enjoying a lot of the fun signage here in China. We assume this is the Happy Crab Restaurant.

The swimming pool was closed so bath time was our second best option.

Day 5: Max Update, Tuesday Day #2 w/Max

Michelle here.     Just wanted to give you an update on how we are all doing.     Since Stefan is the photo guy, you don’t get any pics right now.    Just words.     But here goes:

We’ve been Max’s parents for about 27 hours, and it’s going remarkably well.

Last night, we stayed in our room, and played with Max.    He would show us some smiles every once in awhile.    He would also get waves of sadness, but we were able to distract him with a toy.     He was very sad at bedtime.    As with our other boys, sadness comes out at sleepy-time, and he was one sad little guy.     He fell asleep easily.    He slept the entire night!   He woke up one time, and went back to sleep.    So, he slept from about 8 pm to 6 am.    He woke up all smiles.     And today, his real personality is shining through.

He is preferring Stefan over me.   Which is totally normal, for a child to prefer one parent over the other.    Stefan wins the prize this time 🙂    He loves to be held by Stefan, and hugged, and picked up.    He always has to have Stefan in his sight.    I am the treat girl and the playing with toy-girl.    He’s taken to me well also, but he prefers Daddy.     He’s showing awesome signs of attachment already to both of us.     He’s totally textbook in his attaching, and for that, we are very grateful.

This morning, we had more appointments at the Civil Affairs office.   Our guide, Georgianna, escorted us there, and walked us through signing all the necessary documents.       Max’s orphanage directors and staff were there as well, signing off their custody rights.     This orphanage is not New Hope (the Beijing foundation we visited).   This is his home orphanage which had custody of him.   This is the location he was admitted to when he was first ‘found’.    He was then transferred to Beijing, and under the care of Love Without Boundaries, for surgery.    Anyway……Max was transferred back to this orphanage to await our arrival about 2 weeks ago.      He director was very pleased to see Max’s great adjustment already.

So….a funny story:    Max is really feeling comfortable around us today.    So much so, that at the Civil Affairs office, he was literally running up and down the hallways, at full speed, laughing and giggling.     Stefan was chasing after him the whole time, while I got corralled through the various steps of paperwork.    There were about 5 other families there, and we were all laughing at how silly Max was acting.       The orphanage folks laughed when we told him that he is son #3, and that he will have a lot of fun chasing after his 2 brothers.     They nodded, and smiled widely.

Back at the hotel, we are seeing the real Max personality come through.    We have seen the mischeivious smile and twinkle in his eyes, that we only had seen in photos at New Hope before today.   He has this way of smiling up at you, with this look, that just melts our hearts.     He loves to see the cause and effect of his actions.    So…..we’re always chasing after him, picking up stuff in his path.     We joke that Alex trained us well in this, so these are familiar actions that we’re falling back on.

Another really cool thing happened today:    We skyped with the boys back home.   This was the first time they saw Max.    They said their hello’s and were overall silly.    Max was watching intently, and waved at them.    After we were finished, Max pulled out the pillow with our photo on it (FB friends may remember that we sent a care package a few months ago, and one of the items was a pillow with our family photo on it).    We had rec’d the pillow back from the orphanage.     Max pulled out he pillow and pointed to Alex and Michael.    I was awe-struck.

Max is still having typical adjustment/transition emotions.    One of his comfort items is his shoes.    He does not want his shoes taken off.   THese are the shoes he came from the orphanage, and I have to wonder if they were shoes originally from New Hope.    He even wanted to sleep in them.    We were able to take them off, and put them in his crib.    When he awoke last night, he felt his shoes, and I think that provided some comfort.     His second comfort item is a bottle.    We are giving him a bottle, because kiddos often regress in transitions.    He carries it around everywhere.   So…if that’s what makes him feel good, we’re good with that.

We are in Hefei until Friday.    There is a bunch of paperwork processing that’s happening behind the scenes, and we will have his passport on Friday.   Then we fly into Guangzhou, and start processing the US side of things.    We are in GZ for 8 days.    We met a family who received their new 5 year old son, and is on the same timeline as us.    So, it’s good to have some new BFF’s.    We’re even staying at the same hotel in GZ.

So…..Max is taking a nap now, and we’ll see what the rest of the day brings us.     In the meantime, we are absolutely in love.   Thanks everyone for your FB comments, and blog comments.    They mean the world to us, and we do feel your cheers of support coming to us.

Day 4: The Day We Met Max

No one should be shocked that Michelle and I didn’t sleep last night.  I guess it is our tradition.  We typically don’t sleep well on these trips. It was a mix of anticipation, excitement, jet leg, and of course the unknown. On the way to the appointment we didn’t notice the heat or the noise. Georgina explained the process to us and answers some questions. We were escorted to a room where two other families were also awaiting to meet their child for the first time. A nervous anticipation filled the air.  A few more documents to sign.  Each interrupted with a sound of a child in the hallway. We would stop and wait to see who walked through the door. And then then happened ….

Our first glimpse of Max

Introductions are in order.

Back at the hotel happy with a red ballon.

Mom being funny.

Max!!!

Of course there were not constant smiles. But those pictures are not as fun to show. After playing and warming up a bit, Max decided it was nap time.  He crawled into my lap, rested his head on my shoulder and slept for the next three hours. Michelle and Max are now playing on the floor. The power of stacking-cups is amazing.

Tomorrow we have some more paperwork to do and then we have the afternoon to ourselves.  More pictures to come.

Day Three (PM): Honking Hefei

Bye Beijing, we hardly knew you.This morning it was cool in Beijing at 7:00 AM. I sported my red Wisconsin Badger fleece.  But I had an alterative motive besides staying warm. I sometimes sport my Badger apparel to see what comments I get from strangers who have some connection with the University or the state.  I have made many friends over the years doing this.  Such places represented were Gulf Shores, FL; Seattle, WA; and Washington D.C. Not too surprising.  But I wanted to test my theory that I could meet a fellow Badger

This morning it was cool in Beijing at 7:00 AM. I sported my red Wisconsin Badger fleece.  But I had an alterative motive besides staying warm. I sometimes sport my Badger apparel to see what comments I get from strangers who have some connection with the University or the state.  I have made many friends over the years doing this.  Such places represented were Gulf Shores, FL; Seattle, WA; and Washington D.C. Not too surprising.  But I wanted to test my theory that I could meet a fellow Badger anywhere in the world. And yes Hefei falls into that category.  While waiting for our baggage a blond women with a thick German accent approached Michelle and I to confirm my theory that I can meet a Badger fan anywhere.  She attended UW-Madison as an exchange student in the mid-90s.

I had my doubts at first, but I must admit the guides that Great Wall provides are great.  I am sure Michelle and I could have navigated our way through airports and hotels but life is so much easier with someone who knows the process and of course someone who can speak Chinese.  Grace got us to the airport in plenty of time and helped us get checked though.  Georgiana met us at baggage claim standing with a sign that read “Welcome Michelle and Stefan”.

On the way from the Hefei airport I noticed how much more our driver honked his horn. Then I noticed other drivers beeping away. And then another driver, right behind us, was beeping away presumably because we were not going fast enough. It wasn’t until Gerogiana was walking us to an appointment that we got the scoop. Drivers in Hefei love to honk their horns. Honking Hefei.  If Hefei had a baseball team, their mascot would be a goose.

Georgiana is very nice, friendly and sincere. Her English was spot on for someone who studied English at the University but has not been outside of China. She was patient with us. She even quizzed us on what we need to bring for our appointments over the next two days.  Her organization gave us great comfort for what we will experience over the next several days.

Only 14 hours until Max will be with us forever.

Not sure how Stefan is going to hold three boys …

Day Three (AM): Good Morning Beijing

This is the last few hours we will be in Beijing.  We are off to Hefei. This is the capital in the providence where Pearl S. Buck’s novel The Good Earth is based. All we know is it will forever be known for the place of Max’s birth.  We are looking forward to meeting him in about 24 hours!

Day Two (Evening): A Visit to Hope Healing Home

Today we got to do something truly amazing.  We got to spend the day volunteering at Hope Heeling Home in Bu Wei (jut outside of Beijing).  We had the opportunity to meet with the founder of the New Hope Foundation, Joyce and Robin.  New Hope is where Max spent the past two years before transitioning back to his birth providence earlier this month. Joyce, Robin, the nurses and the caretakers really demonstrate how much they care for the children. You can tell by the stories they tell.  They cite names, dates, what care they needed, described their little personalities like I used to be able to cite baseball statistics. Joyce, Robin and their staff are blessed in what they do.

During out time we were able to see where Max slept, ate, and played. We toured the adjoined Heartbrdige Healing Home were Max was originally admitted and where he recovered from his surgery. We heard about how great the doctor was who took care of Max’s recovery.  There was a little pre-school where the kids learned their ABCs, read books and did projects. The facility was bright and warm in spirit.  There was an giant playground. Alex and Michael will be jealous to see the jungle gym equipment that Max got to play.

We got to play with some of the children.  We spent about two hours in a playroom with seven kids ranging in age from 18 months to three years old.  There were five caretakers in the room attending to them.  However, when Michelle and I walked in and sat on the floor the kid’s attention turned to us.  They didn’t miss a beat.  They had a new audience.  They also gave me practice about being attentive to more than two kids at one.  They sat on our laps. I tried to read to them. They sang with us to such hits as wheels and the bus, head-shoulders-knees & toes, and twinkle-twinkle. We could tell they must sing such songs in pre-school and with their caretakers.  The kids went into dancing and doing the hand motions for each song.

What really warmed our hearts was when one of the caretakers recognized us as Max’s parents.   She recognized us from the picture-pillow we sent this past winter.  The fact we didn’t speak the same language didn’t slow us down a bit.  She showed us some pictures, showed us where he played, introduced us to the other caretakers.  She was very proud to have met us and very proud of Max.  We feel blessed to have met her.  I did show her some video and picture of Alex and Michael. She recognized them as Max’s brothers. She gave Michelle big hugs and wished us well.

Robin took us out to a great little restaurant.  He ordered a few different dishes for us while realizing we were not being too adventurous.  The food was very flavorful.  There was a great little desert of deep fried apple slices, rolled in sugar.  When delivered we dunked the pieces in water which gave the dessert an sweet crunch.

The best part of the day was to hear from Joyce, Robin and the nurse on how sweet and special Max is to everyone.  They said it was sad to see him leave.  I hope we demonstrated the love and care we will give him as well as out appreciation for everything they do to care for these children who need a little help to get started on their journey.

Michelle and Stefan after lunch in Bu Wei

Tomorrow we are off to Hefie. Less then 36 hours until Max is in our arms.

Day Two (morning): Hope Healing Home

This morning we are off to visit the Hope Healing Home and the Love Without Boundaries Heartbridge Unit.  Theses two organizations, sharing a common facility, play an instrumental part in Max’s life journey.  And Max is just one of hundreds of children who Hope and Love Without Boundaries have shared a signifiant amount of love and care to them give them a chance at life.  These children may not have had a chance without caring organizations like these. We are excited but honored to be able to visit the people who have cared for Max and meet some of the other children who are also being given this chance.  We know some parts of today may be heart-wrenching,  but, it will be a joy to share with them our thanks and appreciation   We will be posting later today about our experience.

BTW – Only 48 hours left before Max is in our arms forever.

Day 1: We made it to Beijing

Waking up at 4:00 a.m. is easy to do when you have the right motivation. The alarm clock went off and I was out of bed before the radio announce could finish the line, “good morning its 4:00 am on …”  We got dressed, zipped up the suitcases and woke-up Alex and Michael just enough to say good-bye.

The journey to Beijing went smoothly.  There was a delay here or there, but that can be expected. The cool thing while waiting is that we met another family making the journey to China to bring home their little girl. There must be a look that adoptive parents have that allows us to recognize each other.  We hope to connect with them in Guangzhou .

We didn’t arrive at our hotel until 6:00 PM Beijing time. So we got settled, grabbed a bite to eat and are off to bed.  Tomorrow we are off to visit the priviate care facility where Max was for most of the past two years. He his not there now.  We will take custody of him  on Monday in Hefei.     Send all your positive thoughts, prayers, and  energies his way on Sunday, at 8 pm Central Std. Time (USA time).   That is when he meets us, and will be our’s forever.

Here is a picture of Michelle.  The third such picture of her leaving for the airport.  That was some 24 odd hours ago.  Neither of us look that good at this point.  Off to fetch some zzzzzzs.

Twas the night before

Twas the night before we left for China with care

To greet little Max, sending our blessings over the air

The bags are all packed and the clock set to strike four

One more check on the boys to hear their little sonres

The grandparents are all settled

The pets are all feed

It is now time for me to go off to bed

I will dream of Max with this thought in my head