If You Like Eating at McDonald's and Getting Caught in the Rain...

No, this is not Rupert Holmes blogging from China but still us. We had a quiet, uneventful relaxing day today. We ate breakfast at the hotel buffet and then decided to walk to a park just down the street from our hotel. A nice park, nice walking paths, an open air roller skating rink, river with paddle boats, kids peeing on the path, you get the picture. It kind of felt like a time warp and that we were back in the 1970's. We were quite the main attraction...lots of stares and weird looks, especially since Rob was carrying Kendall. A bit uncomfortable to say the least. It was humid as heck so we decided to head back to our hotel and grab some lunch, that famous Chinese food...pizza. Yep, we flew halfway around the world to eat pizza in Zhengzhou. Kendall enjoyed it, eating 3 pieces herself. Heck this kid enjoys anything you put in her mouth. I hope it stays that way. I ordered ice cream for dessert...I guess it was good. I honestly couldn't tell you because she ate the entire 2 scoops by herself. I guess I should mention that the size of the scoops together was about the size of a golf ball. I think I now understand why Chinese people are thin. We put her down for a nap and I stayed with her while Rob and another father decided to walk to Walmart for some drinks. When they got back they called us and asked if we wanted to walk to the McDonalds down the street, maybe 1/2 a mile away. Sure we said, meet you in 15 minutes. Quite the interesting walk I must say. First unusual thing we encountered was a beggar...a child maybe 7 to 8 years old. We couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl, but the kid grabbed Sonya the other adoptive mother with us and would not let go. We tried saying Bu Yao, which means go away but they kept hanging on so I finally reached in my purse and pulled out the smallest denomination of Chinese currency there is. I think it amounts to at the most $.10. They finally left go after I shoved it in their cup. We were told to expect beggars, but it was realy sad to see a kid doing that. When we got to McDonalds they had picture menus so we ordered and sat down to eat. The sky began to darken and we decided we had better get back to the hotel. I grabbed Kendall's food and carried it along with me, expecting to feed her in our hotel room. About halfway back Lance (the other adoptive father) said "Was that a raindrop?" Yep, it was more than a raindrop. It was a deluge. Picture this..2 American families running down the heavily traveled street one carrying a toddler who is screaming because she does not like being wet (us) and the other carrying a baby boy in a front pack and two mothers running right along side of them. The absurdity of it all hit us as we walked into the Crown Plaza Hotel soaked to the bone, laughing our heads off, leaving a dripping trail across the beautiful lobby. I'm not an expert on Chinese by any means, but I'm sure the comment "Stupid Americans...don't you know what an umbrella is?" was in there somewhere by the staff. Miss Kendall stopped crying once we got her dried off and changed and she has been quite the little ham ever since. She's currently modeling both her and my sunglasses. Her paperwork nailed it when they said she was very charming. Boy they were dead on. She's enjoying her Dora puzzle from Grandma, her toy phone and bath ducks that we bought her at Walmart and she loves her doll and My Little Pony and is quite adept at using a brush to comb the pony's hair. Quite interesting considering she has basically almost a buzz cut and has probably never had very long hair in her life. She would like to say something to all of you out in blog land. Kendall says "vmmmmbl;gg/ hhfp9 cv'p96rdcc,m. m vvvvv jk./kjjl;lhhbhh" I'm not quite sure what it says, but I'm sure it is Chinese for "I can't wait to meet everyone! Until tomorrow.

And Then There Were Four

Today was the day that the DeVall family became a family of four. Dang Hong Xiang became Kendall Hongxiang DeVall. The adoption was finalized this morning and she is now stuck with us forever. Poor kid. Here's what we know about her so far:1. She loves to be tickled and she giggles and giggles when you are doing so.2. When she smiles its with her entire face, not just her mouth.3. She will eat anything and ususally lots of it.4. She is basiclly potty trained (thank god for that!). No accidents yet...5. She loves playing with toys that make noise and light up. Boy will she LOVE our house...6. She likes taking baths and playing with her plastic ducks we bought her.7. She has learned how to "give high five".8. She likes to drink juice out of her sippy cup. 9. She's sweet, smart, adorable, and we are totally in love with her (just like we are with her big brother). The actual adoption ceremony, if you can call it that, was nothing. We basically gave our money to the guides and they took it into the registration office. The woman in charge of the registration office came out and presented us with our adoption certificates, said a few words to us and that was that. All the families had their photos taken with her and we got on the bus and went to the notary office to apply for who knows what. Again, we filled out 4 sheets of paper, which our guide Yisha told us everything to say, and we again had our photos taken with the notary official in front of a Chinese flag. No interview, no face to face meeting with the officials. Oh well, who cares...she's ours!The rest of the day was free time, although many of us did go to the Lotus Center, which Rob would have described as a Walmart on Crack. Big food section like a grocery store, but the other parts were not nearly as big. We had pretty many supplies, but Kendall came to us with a cough, that seems to have gotten worse today, so Yisha our guide took me to a pharmacy and got her cough medicine. I paid a whopping $1.25 or so for a bottle of cough medicine. She took it willingly tonight (she will need to teach her brother how this is done...) even though it smelled horrible. I got her a blamket too for the plane ride home, since it was pretty cool on the way over and I couldn't find a jacket or sweather for her. We went to the resturaunt downstairs in the hotel, where she had spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner. She ate about 1/2 the bowl and I ate the rest. Rob had the buffet for the first and only time once I saw the bill. He tried to eat raw chicken on a stick until one of the waitresses came rushing over and told him it needed to be cooked. They probably laughed and thought "Dumb American". Tomorrow is a free day and I think we might try to walk to a park just down the road from us a bit, if it is not too stinkin' humid. The pool here at the hotel looks good too for tomorrow. Until then....

I Got You Babe

I Got You Babe... Yep, take a guess by the title what (or in our case) who we've got...Kendall! Or as she is still known by Hong Xiang. To say its been a tough day is an understatement. We left the hotel as a group around 9:40 and made our way to the civil affairs office a few miles from our hotel. Traffic was again a nightmare and to add icing to the cake it was raining pretty hard. I said to Rob, "I hope this isn't an omen..." Famous last words. Needless to say it was. Everyone else's kids were waiting at the office when we arrived. The only one missing was Kendall. We were told they were on their way and would arrive shortly. Yeah right. I stood outside waiting for the car to arrive and they did not come. We were told to be patient...the orphanage is 2 1/2 hours away and they must have hit traffic. That's a little hard to swollow and continue to be patient when you've been patient for over 3 years. Allt he other families were with their kids and enjoying them and we were all alone. Needless to say I lost it and began to cry. We were then told that everyone was going to the photo shop to get our photos taken for the adoption and we would meet her there. Great, I've waited 3 freakin' years for my daughter to meet her in a photo shop. When we got there they were waiting for us and everyone left us off the bus first. So there in the middle of a photo shop in Zhengzhou we met her for the first time. She was crying when we first got to her and then she stopped and left me hold her. She was saying mama and baba (daddy in chinese) and hello. All was good until it came time to leave and say good bye to the orphanage workers...all hell now breaks loose. We have to walk back to our hotel several blocks away in the extremely humid weather carrying a screaming child. I felt like I was kidnapping her. It was one of the most awful feelings I've ever had. She screamed for a while until I finally had our guide talk to her and she told us to get her some lunch. We went to the hotel next to us and she scarfed down noodles for lunch. Man this kid can pack away the noodles. She was good at lunch, looking around the place, but would not look at me. We got back to the room and I put her on the potty and she peed! She's almost potty trained but wears a diaper at night. She kept crying and we finally got her alseep just as I had to go and do paperwork. Rob got her back to sleep and she slept for a while until Rob and her had to come to finish the paperwork. And then it started again...the crying. She finally did stop once we put her feet in the sink with water and splashed them around. Hey, whatever works. Rob and another father walked to Walmart and Kendall and I hung out in the room. She didn't cry at all the whole time. She snacked on M&M's, Teddy Grahams, and buttered popcorn rice cakes. She got what I believe was her first taste of Sprite...and biy what a face. Unlike her brother I don't think soda is in her future. Right now she ios playing with a toy phone that Rob just bought at Walmart and some squeeking bath ducks. We splurged and are waiting on room service for dinner. I didn't feel like going out into the humidity again. I'll post more later giving you all the details about her as they emerge.

Climbing the Great Wall

Today we climbed the Great Wall. It is as awe inspiring in person as any photos you have ever seen. We went to the Badaling section, which was pretty crowded. It was build during the Ming Dynasty, and let me tell you that there was no standardized step size back then. One is extremely high and the next is really small. And steep...holy cow that wall is steep. Couple the steepness and uneven steps with the heat and humidity and you have a recipie for a heart attack. I was only able to make it to the second tower, but Rob went all the way up to the top...all the way until the wall stopped. There was no way I could make it...the second tower was pushing it but I was determined to do it. After the Great Wall, we went to a Chinese lunch...not as good as yesterdays though. We then went to see the Bird's Nest and Water Cube fromt he Olympics. Way cool. We then went to an acrobat show. Very cool, but the theater was not air conditioned so it was hot and the seats were realaly small and our knees were crashing into the seats in front of us. I hate to admit it but I dozed off near the end of the show and something startled my and I jumped like crazy at a particularry loud past. We were too tired to go out for something to eat so we came back to the room and snacked for supper. We also packed the suitcases as our flight to Henan leaves tomorrow at 10:30, so we have to be ready to go at 8:15 and that includes eating breakfast. Next time I post will be from Henan. Only 1 1/2 more days until Kendall day! Oh, one more thing...I know everyone is waiting for photos, but I am officially an idiot and brought the wrong camera cord alongso I don't know if I will be able to download any photos for right now. Hopefully someone has a cord that might fit my camera so I will check it out hopefully tomorrow.

Holy Beijing Hotness Batman!Let me start with today was hot...we're talking about the sweat dripping from your face, shirt soaked with sweat, on the verge of you beginning to stink hot. Our day started off with a buffett breakfast in our hotel. Typical breakfast foods like aged eggs, salad, congee, fried rice, fried noodles...you get the picture. Actually there were a lot of western foods including bacon, sausage, eggs made to order, pastries, yogurt, and the best...cereal, including cocco crispies. After breakfast we met our guide and the rest of our CCAI group in the lobby. We traveled to Tienanaman Square and the Forbidden City, where I believe about 1 billion of the nations 1.3 billion people were speanding their day. We did get to see the famous Chairman Mao picture and the inside of the Forbidden City, but I have to say that while I was really looking forward to it, I couldn't enjoy it because of the heat. Stinkin' hot is a good description. We have several kids in our group and they looked like they were just melting as we pushed along. Couple that with the people trying to sell you junk at every turn and you have the makings of an interesting morning. We then went to a Chinese resturaunt for lunch, where they kept bringing food out onto a big lazy susan in the middle of the table. Veggies in some kind of sauce, rice, shrimp, shrimp cakes, chicken with bamboo, and the famous Chinese delicacy french fries. Yep, we had french fries for lunch. After lunch we went to a silk factory for a tour of how silk was made (and to try to get you to purchase government made silk...). While they had beautiful items, they were just too expensive for me. Our last tour was of the hutongs on a rickshaw. A rickshaw is a cart you sit in behind a bike. The guy who drove us was the skinniest driver of the bunch and he had the sorry task of pedalling a bike pulling my fat carcass around this old neighborhood on an almost 100 degree day. I did give him a tip, even though it amounted to about .33 American money, because it was the only small bills I had. The hutongs were okay, a bunch of houses and shops in like its own neighborhood. Interesting way of living. After that we were on our own for the rest of the evening so we came back to our room to take showers and then Rob and I went to Pizza Hut for supper. We did go to this big mall so I could buy a calculator (so I can figure out what the heck stuff really costs). Rob described it as the Green Dragon on Crack. For anyone who doesn't know, the Green Dragon is a large outdoor and indoor flea and farmers market near where we live. This mall is just one stand of pretty much junk after another. The good thing is that you can bargain with them, so I paid about $3.00 for my calculator, which is probably too much. We then went to a grocery store and had some good laughs there. Bottled water cost us $.15 each and a bottle of bear was about $1.00, which shampoo was about $6.00 a bottle. Funny enough we did find Snyders of Hanover Honey Mustard Pretzels so I had to buy them...what the heck are the chances that we would find something made about 1 hour from our house over half the worl away. Tomorrow is the Great Wall, the Olympic Village and a Chinese Acrobat show. I will post photos as soon as I can figure out how to get them from my camera to my computer. Keep the comments coming. I can read them in my e-mail but cannot not accept them to post them on blogger, as blogger is blocked here in China. Only 2 more days till we get Kendall!

Welcome to Beijing!After a 13+ hour marathon but uneventful flight we've made it safely to Beijing! We are staying at the Holiday Inn Downtown for 3 nights unatil we leave for Zhengzhou. To say it was sureal coming in to land is an understatement. Our flight path was north from Newark, over Quebec and the Hudson Bay and then across the polar ice cap. We started turning south over Russia and flew over that for a few hours. I remember looking out the plane window once I knew we were over China and thinking, "I'm looking at the land of my daughter's birth." Our landing was one of the smoothest I have ever had. Lots of buildings and homes around the airport, which is north of center city Beijing. It actually reminded me of the midwest strangely enough. The in seat entertainment systems on Contenintial were great! Lots of movies, tv shows and music to partake in. There was also a screen which would show where the plane was on a map. It also showed the miles we had traveled, miles to go and the current outside temp. I think the coldest we saw was -70 degrees F. We were cruising at 38000 feet for a while. Before we could de-palne, the ministry of health came on and took everyone's temp.on the forhead with a scanner. It only took a few minutes and we were able to leave. We had to fill out a health forn, immigration card, and show our passports numerous times. After all that we found our luggage pretty quickly and found our guide Sindy and our guide waiting for us. Sindy helped us check into the hotel and will meet us tomorrow at 9:00 to visit the Forbidden City and more. I'll post more after the tours.

WELCOME TO BEIJING!