Day 2: Matt wins Elliott over and April gets sick

This morning, after keeping me (April) up all night and thwarting all of Daddy's attempts to help, Elliott decides that Dad is OKay.  He can actually be a pretty funny guy!

At breakfast this morning, he ate quite well!  I, on the other hand, am having a hard time coming up with options.  It's a meat-fest.  He is in some serious need of some dental work and has some teeth that are totally rotted out, but is able to even eat corn on the cob.  He is one determined little man!  And I am in need of a dental appointment as soon as we get home!  (Pam, pencil me in ASAP~!)  :o)

Because he got us up at 4:45am, he was quite tired by the time the van came to pick us up at the hotel at 9:00 to take us to the Civil Affairs office.  He took a 15 minute nap.

At the office, he was with the newly adopted daughter of a Spanish couple.  She is 7 years old but had taken quite a liking to Elliott.  He, on the other hand, was not nearly as smitten.

Our appointment was rather unceremonious.  We signed a couple dozen pieces of paperwork and stamped our thumbs in red ink on each one.  We promised we will always take care of Elliott, never abandon him, and treat him as one of our other biological children.  And that was it.  He's ours!!!!

We have to stamp our right thumb in red ink over every one of our signatures.

 Gifts for the orphanage staff and the Chinese government notary.

Heilonjiang is the province we are in.  Think of it like a state back in the USA.  Harbin is the city, and also the capital, of Heilongjiang.  We are in their civil affairs (adoption) office.

The lead teacher was there again, and Elliott made a couple of attempts to squirm out of Daddy's arms to go to her when we first got there, but he was very good at getting him distracted with toys and the urge passed.  He was overall pretty well behaved, minus one overhand pitch of his stuffed little monkey at the orphanage manager (oops!  Sorry!).  Despite that little mishap, everyone was commenting on how happy Elliott was going to be with us, and how happy they are to see him with a loving family.  The teacher and the adoption manager were both commenting on how happy they were that I was learning Chinese and had made such big attempts to learn the culture and the language, and expressed their hopes that we maintain his heritage, to which I agreed. 

Both the teacher and the manager were going to try to get me copies of his medical record so that I can continue his care at home, and offered to even bring the records to our hotel for us if she can get them by Friday.

Unfortunately, we are not able to go visit the orphanage this week.  I do feel like it is a loss, but after we found out yesterday that he has been at a foster home for the past two years, and only visiting the orphanage during the day, I don't feel as bad that we are missing it.  I'd be more interested in meeting his foster parents.  Because the Ha'Er'Bin (Harbin) orphanage is moving this month, things are in a bit of disarray and they are not welcoming visitors.  They have more children needing a home at the orphanage than they have space, so they are moving to a new facility with financial support from the Blue Sky Foundation and the government.

Snack time after we got back to the hotel.  By this time, I went from feeling a little bit unwell to feeling downright sick.  The head cold that everyone got at home (Matt and both girls) finally caught up with me.  To put in into perspective, if I was at home I would have called in sick.  I hardly ever do that.  I am feeling pretty rotten and have a low-grade fever and am craving some of the comforts of home right now but I am coming up pretty empty-handed in that department.  And I am really missing my Madeline and Charlotte.  Rough day for Mommy, so Daddy took the lead and spent some really good playtime with his new son, including a crash course on the dualing harmonicas!  Elliott's favorite place to hang out at the hotel is in the window, watching the people down below at the Flood Control Memorial on the bank of the Songhua River that runs through the city.  We have a really good view.  Good for people-watching.

We are finally adjusting to the time switch here in China.  What really messes with us is that it starts to get light out at 5:00am and it's dark out by 5:00pm.  The long shadows of the day that usually occur around 7:00pm in Michigan are present at 3 in the afternoon.  (This photo was taken shortly after 5:30am.)

After April's failed attempt at a nap, and Elliott got sick of playing in the hotel room, we decided to go for a walk along the river again.  Elliott smuggled his toy cell phone and kept answering it with "wei" which sounds like "way".  It's the common phone greeting here in China.  He's so cute! 

Little businessman in the making!

"Hey Dad, keep it quiet, I'm on a conference call!"

Bill, this one is for you!  This guy was getting ready to ride through town on his dirt bike.  There is no dirt trail in this city, which left me quite confused.  It's a concrete jungle here!

Photo of part of the sidewalk along the Songhua River.  There are lots of interesting people out there, but I'd have to say that we are probably the biggest attraction.  We have seen only half a dozen caucasian people in Harbin since we have arrived; we stick out quite a bit.  Factor in that we are carrying around a little Chinese baby, and are speaking a foreign language.  Lots of people stare and point, and some even stop walking to watch us walk by.  It feels really odd, but in no way do I feel like we are in danger.  We feel quite safe here.  People are just curious.

There are a few pets here, too.  I have to comment on this because 90% of them are apricot poodles.  They are all the rage up here.  My mother, my brother, Bill, and his wife, Lyndsey, would fit right in here with Q.T. and Pogo and Sprocket!

Interesting way to market your goods: just run your car up on the sidewalk and use a picnic blanket on top.  On the opposite corner, and actually in the street itself, there was a woman selling live fish and eels.  The cars just went around her.  It just amazes me.  Wish I had my camera ready.

Elliott absolutely LOVES big buses.  He smiles and points to every one that goes by while we are walking.  "Da chir!  Da chir!"  (big car!  big car!)

Lots of people ride bicycles and scooters in China, but they don't seem to follow any traffic rules.  Roads here are chaotic, and I am just amazed that there hardly seem to be any traffic accidents.  Cars change lanes every few feet to jockey for a better position and the dotted lines are only mere suggestions to form lanes.  Not many people use turn signals, and cars rush by one another within centimeters of one another at all different speeds.  Everyboday lays on the horn.  All the time.  (Mom, I think of you at least 50 times a day!)  Bikes are ridden in the opposite direction through traffic much of the time, and cut in front of cars (like the guy in the photo above) and one out of a hundred wears a helmet.  It's a wild world out there on the road.

This is one of the entrances to the underground shopping area outside of our hotel on China Street in the Daolin shopping district.  The stores below mainly consist of fashion and beauty stores.  They are very small booths; some are only about 10 feet by 15 feet, and others are about twice that size.  Lots of the young adults hang out down there, and it's a nice way to cross the busy streets without having to dodge traffic.

One of the bridges crossing the Songhua River.

Lin says there are about 5 million people living in Harbin, but I think that is a low estimate.  Thsi place is the size of Los Angeles, and it's not even one of the biggest cities in China.

Here are some websites with information about (and photos of) Harbin:
China Travel Guide
Trip Advisor
Official Chinese govt' site (in English)

Cable cars crossing the Songhua.   Not going in one.  That's waaaaay too high up for me!

This is a photo from the cafeteria/restaraunt where we eat breakfast daily. Many of the apartment buildings in China are shaped exactly this way.  Many residents build these 'shelves' outside of their windows for extra space.  This family is  using their shelf to dry leeks, which are being harvested right now and sold in markets.

As opposed to the..... ???

I love this little boy!!!

After a rest in the hotel room, I summoned up enough strength to go out to dinner.  Our stash of food and snacks from home is quickly running out, and I am just not up for another crazy trip to the Chinese WalMart.  I could do a whole separate blog about that place.  Our guide, Lin, recommended this dumpling house.  It's about three blocks from our hotel, down China Street.  I took this photo at 5:30pm.  It's completely dark out by then.  So weird.

Elliott loves play-dough.  It's our "ace in the hole".  We are getting better at packing up to 'go out' now.  No more rookie mistakes like I made in Beijing: walking out without travel packs of tissues (restrooms don't always have toilet paper, especially squatty pottys), hand sanitizer (a MUST!), Elliott's bib (will only make that mistake once!), toys, or my book of handmade notes from my Chinese language classes.  The only downside of that is the size of my purse.  It's full and it's heavy.

Elliott is already better at chopsticks than Baba! (Sorry Baba!)

Sick-O.

I was pretty proud of myself for being able to function in a restaraunt where nobody speaks any english at all, and the menu is in mandarin.  It was a small victory for me.  :o)

On our way home from the restaraunt, we passed an elderly gentleman practicing this artwork on the sidewalk.  I have seen it once before in Beijing.  This is water on dry pavement to create words.  I'm not sure what this said, but it was interesting to watch him do it.  He was quite fast.  He uses a pointed sponge on the end of a long stick, like a broom handle.

And there you have it: day number six from China!

Like it or love it, this is China!  :o)

As I write this, and try to finish this post, Elliott is up again and only wants Mama.  Pray for me, as I am really not feeling well and not getting much of a break.  I'm wearing thin.  Tomorrow is another day, and I hope I am able to shake this nasty cold really soon.

~April