Shamian Island

If I were to live in China, I would want to live here, on Shamian Island. The landscaping is amazing! Sculptures everywhere! The architecture is beautiful. It is a favorite place of mine for sure.

Guangzhou

Guangzhou is such cool city. It is beautiful, and it has this park in it. I love this park so much. It's massive, immaculate, and the landscaping is just amazing.

 We have done some touring, and seen really impressive things.

 The babies make everything a step more difficult. They both love to run everywhere, so we each take a baby and we chase! It's so fun.

 My boys!

 Contained!!

 Love! Maybe slightly one sided.

 On monday, Tate turned 2! From the day that we were matched, I wanted to have him by his birthday. So, yay that we were together, but it was also the day of the most traumatic event of adoption, the medical exam. Tate was no fan of the medical exam. It is just a routine screening but whoa betty, he was unimpressed. Because he is two, he had to have a TB blood draw screening. Bummer. He cried soooooo hard!! It was very sad. He totally let me comfort him though which was awesome, and he came home and slept for nearly three hours!

 When he woke up, we opened presents, which he loved, the hotel sent this awesome mango cake up to our room for him. Darling. I don't have photos of it on this camera though.

 Then it was tubs all around, and bed. Tate had his best night sleep ever tonight!!! He climbed into bed around 8:30, was out by 9 and slept until 4! I was elated! It is seriously the longest stretch of sleep that I've had since we arrived in China. Most orphans sleep amazingly well. My kids do not.

This is what I get 99% of the time that I try and photograph these two monkeys together. Chaos! We love them to death.

A few people have asked about Tate, so I will answer those questions.  He calls me half of the time mama, and half of the time aiya (auntie or nanny). He calls Gary baba (daddy) all of the time. He speaks Chinese all of the time. He talks a ton and sings lots of songs. It's adorable. When he talks to me and I repeat back to him what he just said in Chinese, he totally cracks up.  He uses more and more english every day. He routinely says "all done", "more", "Emily! No! No! No!" and "uh-oh!" although that one is probably universal.  He is napping right now, a great sign in trust and bonding, he loves to hold hands. He loves doing things for Gary. When Gary comes in from running, Tate will grab his flip flops for him and get him a diet coke out of the fridge. It's darling. He smiles like it's his job, all the time. He thinks everything naughty is awesome and hilarious. He is the sweetest most wonderful guy that there is. We are in love with him!!

Shao Lin Temple

We took a field trip today to one of my favorite things that I have seen so far in China. We went to the Shao Lin Temple. It is the original home of Kung-Fu. The compound is massive. Originally built in 452AD. It goes up a mountain side and has building after building going all the way up. It was a monastery and the monks developed and taught Kung-Fu. Now, there is a school there where boys can be sent to live and learn. We got to watch the students practicing in the yard and whoa! We also got to see a show where very young boys were breaking boards and metal bars. One guy poked a pin through a sheet of glass and popped a ballon on the other side and only poked a tiny hole in the glass.

 It was a long drive to get there. The babies got much needed naps as they do not sleep at night. The parents did not get much needed naps.

 The entrance.

 Original from 452 AD. Just amazing!

 Tate in front of the second son of the Dragon. Not the first son, the second son.

 My favorite thing here was the pagoda forest. It's a cemetery for famous monks. It was a whole forest of these beautiful pagodas. It's hard to describe the feeling there, and just how cool it was. 

 A very ornate one that had carvings of Kung-Fu all the way around it. I cannot even begin to wrap my head around the discipline of the Kung-Fu masters and monks that are buried here.

It was an awesome outing. 

Over all, the babies are doing well. They like each other, and interact. Tate is happy with us. He is responding to his American name that we now use about half the time. He calls Gary baba, Chinese for daddy. He mostly calls me aiya, Chinese for auntie or nanny. He sometimes calls me mama. He likes to keep Em in line. If she does anything that he deems out of line we get a "Mama!! Emily! No! No! No!" If I don't react fast enough, he'll take matters into his own hands, and take away what she has, shove her over and sit on her. It's so funny. Em doesn't seem to mind most of the time. Neither of the babies sleep at night. We each take one, and either try to keep them calm in the room or wander the halls. It's getting old. They also don't nap. We are tired. We absolutely LOVE this kid. We are so happy to finally have him and we can't wait to get home and love on our girls with him!

He is so happy and so smily and funny and so cute you could eat him!! One week from tomorrow!!

Zhengzhou

Zhengzhou is the capital of Tate's province. We have to spend the week here while we wait for his passport to be expedited. There is a lovely park where we spent a lot of time during Emily's adoption. We were thrilled to return there.  Tate liked the stroller, but was nervous about getting out. He really hasn't spent any time out of doors.

 Emily is a fantastic gatherer of leaves. She loves the leaves all around and gathers up her favorites.

 We are pretty certain that Tate was given his hearts desire at the orphanage. He is so cute and charming and his smile just melts you. This cute lady was jump roping and Tate asked her something in Chinese, and she stopped and gave him her jump rope. I love LOVE LOVE!!!!! This about the Chinese people that we have come into contact with. They are quiet, kind, have amazing manners, and are so peaceful and sweet. She talked to Tate for a while. She tried to help him jump rope. She sang him a little song and practiced her English on him. It was precious. I love China so much.

 I can't end this post without showing my favorite Walmart finds. Heinz baby food, in three delicious varieties. Pork Liver and Vegetable Cereal.

 Fish and Vegetables Cereal. Yummmmmm

Cod Fish and Apple Cereal. Taaaaaaasty. We bought rice. BORING!

Maria's

We were able to visit the charity where Tate has lived his entire life. We were able to meet his nannies, the doctor and nurse that cared for him, his friends that he shared a room with, and some of the staff. They are absolutely amazing people. I have so much admiration and respect for their selfless service all for the love of orphans. I was asked not to post pictures of the children, so I will only show these.

 

 Maria's Big House of Hope

 When we got to his floor, we got off the elevator and his nanny yelled his name from down the hall. He dove out of my arms and ran to her. It was soooo sweet. He was so loved and cared for. He immediately started bossing her around in Chinese, and she complied. He knew his way around the room obviously, and took charge right away. We were told that he lived in that room all day every day, year round, and probably only left on very rare occasions. That would explain his business. He is just now experiencing life. He is afraid of grass, and doesn't like to walk on anything but pavement. He is a tidier, and keeps things in their place. Lots of answers.

Here is his bed. His sweet little bed where he spent his first two years. We are forever thankful to everyone at Maria's for their love and affection of Tate until we could get him. The nannies were very sweet when it was time to go to explain that I was mama, and it was time to go with me. He struggled and went right back to his nanny, she told him again that I was mama and he needed to go with me, and he did. happily. We love Tate so much and are so blessed that he was able to spend his first years in such an amazing, loving place.

Tate Harrison

On Sunday morning we flew from Beijing to Zhengzhou. We had a few hours to shop for the babies that we would get tomorrow. We met our travel group for the first time. There are a lot of great families here. Most are getting toddlers and several are getting older kids. Tate is the second youngest in the group.

They call this day gotcha day. It's a dumb name. It's an amazing day, but it's hard. The emotion is so thick, it's tangible, and it's exciting, and scary as all get out, and the happiest ever, and on and on. It's a hard day. We had to wait a while for Tate to get there. He came in the last group. He looked exactly like his pictures. He was reluctant to come to us at first, but came and was happy. He is ONE BUSY GUY! We thought we had a busy baby, but whoa!

He feels just exactly right. We are so in love with him.

We came home and had tubs. Tate was not a fan at all!!

twinsies.

New clothes and so happy!! He smiles and laughs a ton! He talks non stop. He sings, cleans up, and repeats everything I say. he tattles on Em and does his best to keep her in line.  He hugs her often and with force.  It's so funny but she is not a fan.

Bedtime was rough.  It was  actually non existent  We wandered the halls all night long.

The next morning we finalized, Tate is our baby and we're so thrilled.  He's awesome! 

 We love him so much!

We had the best treat on gotcha day. Emily's orphanage officers came and found us.  They were so sweet and so excited to see Em and how far far far she has come. They cried and held her and gave her a bag of chips.  It was so cool!

Beijing

Our flight from home was awesome! We were on a new plane with tv's and docking stations at each seat. Much better than last year. We had one day in Beijing before we flew to baby's province. We chose to go to the Temple of Heaven.

 It's a bit chilly, not too bad. Warmer than home by a ways. Chinese people bundle up their children significantly. We were scolded several times because Emily was only in 1 layer, and had skin showing. Cute little ladies. They mean well. I love this society for that reason. They look out for each other and respect the experience of their elders.

 Temple of heaven was beautiful. There were lots of performers, great music, architecture, gardens, and history. It was a lovely place.

Emily was exhausted but ran non stop. Another plane tomorrow.