How is it possible that this little 3 year old has been with us only 3 1/2 weeks and she seems like she has been here always?
Friday, December 30, 2011
ski trip
How is it possible that this little 3 year old has been with us only 3 1/2 weeks and she seems like she has been here always?
Thursday, December 29, 2011
The best gifts...ever!
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Jingle Ma, Jingle Ma!
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Eject! Eject!
There is a reason why we have saved several of our children's most beloved toys. The 20+ year old Little Tikes red rocking airplane is one of Annie's favorites.
Friday, December 23, 2011
The Homecoming, games, laughter and then... the miracle
Home now for two weeks Annie seems very comfortable with us. Our latest concern was that she will be overwhelmed when her four siblings arrived home at various times over the next.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Progress for Tim
Annie has still not been able to allow me out of her sight. Saturday, Tim asked her if she wanted to go outside. Yep, as long as Mama was going too.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Tiffany's
We have been home a little more than a week. To say Annie is adjusting depends on the definition of adjustment. She clearly knows what she likes, doesn't like and she will express those opinions readily.
"Where the heck is my Tiffany necklace?"I quickly said: "I know where it is, come with me." She trotted along beside me to her bedroom where I showed her that I had safely put the coveted piece of jewelry on the shelf in her room along with the plastic panda bracelet we gave her that matched her sweater. Annie insisted on wearing the necklace. Uninterested in the panda bracelet she tossed it aside as she placed her tiny hand over the equally delicate heart around her neck, she then placed the handles of the Tiffany shopping bag over her wrist. Satisfied, off she went to find treasures to fill her bag.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Tomato Paste?
Monday, December 12, 2011
Dr Appt. today
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Day 3 We've been had!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Day 1 ... home
Thursday, December 8, 2011
We're HOME!
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Entering Black Out!
ANNIE KATE HITS 3,000!
Guangzhou, China
December 5th, 2011
A few months ago while his Mother was off at church paying way to much attention to her Grandson’s Baptism, Derek Jeter crushed his 3,000th hit deep into the left field bleachers at Yankee Stadium. Today In Guangzhou China a young girl named Annie Kate reached the 3,000 hit mark at the age of three! Annie got to 3,000 hits today on her blog some 34 years before Jeter who is now 37 got 3,000 hits in major league baseball. When asked to comment on the amazing feet Annie said, “Honestly I have no idea how it took that Jeter guy so long. All I do is wake up, put on sun glasses, act real cute, pose for pictures and boom I get three thousand hits!”
Shortly after our interview Annie began to color on the sheets of the hotel bed, played naked in the bathtub, and slurped noodles while giggling. Three things she probably also does better than Jeter.
Annie just signed a blockbuster deal that will land her in the US sometime this week where she will play for the famous Myers team. Assistant Manager Tim “Buck” Myers said of the Acquisition of Annie, “Sweet music, Hey, I’m Tim Myers, and She is so beautiful. Team Owner, General Manager, Manager, CEO, CFO, and Vestal School Board President, Kim A. Myers who gets paid nothing for all of the above jobs she holds said, “We are truly blessed to add another all-star caliber player to our team.”
Hundreds of fans wait outside Southwood drive to welcome home Annie Kate and this reporter can almost guarantee her presence will be nothing less than a homerun!
The Hero of our Trip !!
Today we just hung out at the hotel while we wait for our guide to bring Annie's passport and visa from the consulate, then we are in a van and going to Hong Kong for the night!! At this time tomorrow we will be in the air heading home !!
Today's blog we wanted to be about our true hero of this trip.......Miss Molly Myers.........Molly has been a real trooper for the past two weeks and Kim and I don't know what we would have done without her ! She has been a GREAT Big sister to Annie, GREAT photographer, GREAT Sherpa, GREAT Interpreter, GREAT Daughter and GREAT Late night coffee partner. We understand it was a stressful trip for her also, we all had a mini-breakdown at some point what with the lack of sleep and a ton of emotions. Molly's personality and patience are unbelievable and she is such a pleasure to be around, every moment of every day. We are so lucky that she came into our lives fourteen years ago and we are so proud that she is our daughter.......we love you so very much.........Mom and Dad
Countdown Clock: "One Day to JFK"
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
We Took the Oath Today !!
So when we got to the building this morning, the US Consulate was on the fifth floor....... It was at this point we had our bags checked and had to pass through security. This is where they confiscated our cameras and IPads! We then joined a group of about 20 people and 8 other kids and waited to take the oath and be interviewed......the oath was actually administered by a woman who stood behind a glass enclosed counter with a scratchy microphone. Picture a drive-thru at the bank and you've got the picture.......unbelievable.....Dorothy got a better reception in OZ and the great wizard finally came out and greeted her in person......in Hefei City the Chinese officials actually let us sit next to them at a desk when they did our interview.......our folks stayed behind glass during our entire visit.........nice to meet'cha....
The picture above of Annie in front of the US Consulate sign was illegally taken by Kim. She got off two pictures and then I tried to take a third shot of Annie and Kim before the guards shut me down.........I really need a Jack Bauer camera pen.
Love to All,
Countdown Clock : "Two Days to JFK"
Monday, December 5, 2011
3 year old delight
After passing the TB test, shopping, lunch then naps we were looking at the same surroundings and schedule as each previous day. As you may know, Tim, Captain of the Safety Patrol, is not very adventurous while in a foreign country. Since our agency did not know there were two Westin Hotels we are in a very isolated area. So we eat at the same restaurant each night.
The good news is we have our very own 3 year old entertainment system called the "Annie 2011" It comes with no warning labels, no controllers, no volume buttons and no on/off switch.
In today's version, Annie discovered the hand held sprayer on the tub. As the water soaked her and shot across the room she laughed as if she had just discovered "gold in them there hills!"
So we stripped her wet clothes off, laid two towels on the floor, gave her three plastic cups of water and she played for an hour.
Our shopping trip yielded packages of barrettes for like .10 a pack. Annie needed to not only open them all but to also put them all in her hair at the same time...herself.
Who knew that a game of who, can grab the nail file off the bed first, with big sister Molly would be hysterical for a 3 year old and delightful entertainment for her parents. ( told you we're bored)
Dinner was and has been getting more and more interesting. Annie is... in- de- pend- ent, as Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer says!
She has discovered spreads and dips as in jelly, butter, egg yolk, ketchup. All must be done by herself with the plastic knife the wait staff brings her at each meal. Other wise she would be wheeling an adult size real utensil.
The problem is she wants the whole tab of butter, the whole mini jar of jelly and the entire bottle of ketchup. Tonight when we took the butter dish away she threw the piece of bread, then the knife and elbowed the plate to the floor . We pushed her high chair away from the table for survival and financial reasons.
She pouted then skooched her way back to the table as if she were sliding on ice. Who put what seems like ball bearings on a high chair? I swear she could have self propelled herself to Hong Kong in that thing!
We are working on manners! When we tell her: "say please" she will repeat: "say peas"
For years I have gotten a bad rap for teaching kids to blow the paper off straws but Tim wins in the teaching bad table manners category.
Annie's favorite food is noodles. Picture the Italian restaurant scene from Disney's Lady and the Tramp. Tim and Annie's mouths connected by a single long noodle...over and over again.
Is it Thursday yet?
Test Results are Good !!
> China Time : 4:05 PM Monday. USA Time: 3:05 AM Monday
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> Today it was out of the hotel at 9:00 am for a 45 min. car ride and a 1 minute check by a nurse to tell us Annie was good to go !!!
> We then stayed on Shamian Island for the morning and shopped a little. Kim is scoring a lot of kid's "Burberry" clothing......at fantastic prices. My guess is that they are fake.... if not then they fell off the back of a truck and Burberry needs to make some serious changes in their loss prevention department. "Coach" may need to look at their pipeline also, Molly got a great purse and the price was ridiculous. The sunglasses Annie has on in the picture costs $2.50 US. We went all out and bought her two pair since she loves glasses so much.
> After shopping, we went to lunch at a favorite lunch spot for American's who are adopting called Lucy's. They offer American meals like grilled cheese sandwiches and cheeseburgers. It was good and Annie enjoyed it. After lunch it was back to the hotel for naps.......
> Oh by the way.....before shopping today our guide told us to be sure to barter. Kim proudly told me on the way back that the one shop keeper had an item she was willing to sell Kim for 120RMB. Kim offered her 100RMB and the woman would not budge. Kim said she would buy it somewhere else and finally the woman gave in. I told Kim I was so proud of her, she beat that little old lady out of ......$ 3 US........... :)
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> Tomorrow is the official oath taking ceremony at the US Consulate !!
> We just found out that cameras are NOT allowed during this ceremony, so all pictures will be out front, both before and after. This rule does make sense to me....... I am sure there are a lot of top secret documents sitting around and our government would surely not want to take the chance that someone would show up posing as American parents adopting a Chinese child and have all those documents photographed........ I am sure there is a hidden bunker somewhere in the building and Tim Myers may just stumble upon it and take a s**t load of pictures with his Sony 25mm Cyber-shot camera........I am sure that it is way too complicated to have a small room with an American Flag that cameras would be allowed in just for a single frigging picture, that would be a logistical nightmare.......yep, the rule makes a ton of sense to me.
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> Countdown Clock : "Three Days to JFK"
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
1 week anniversary
On Saturday when we went for the visa photo, which was strangely inside a retail shop, Annie wanted this little toy. Of course she got it
along with her Burberry red trench coat. (see photos from medical visit) The coat actually has a Burberry London label as well as the famous plaid lining and trim.
Since it cost $20.00 I am thinking fake but it served the purpose of keeping her warm since her parents misjudged the temperature for the day.
The toy is called a Bo Lanz Gu. Better known to most of us as the hand held little drum that Mr. Miyagi used in the original Karate Kid movies.
Annie held it in her one hand and flipped it back and forth to hear the little beads bang the drum.
Tim reached down to her saying: "let me show you how to work this." He put the toy between the palms of his two hands spinning it fast just as Mr Miyagi did in the movie's climatic final scene.
My heart sank. I immediately felt I needed to protect Annie by saying, Tim she can't do that she only has one hand. I had the rare good sense not to say a word.
Not five minutes later, toy in hand, Annie figured out how to exactly mimic the movement and sound Tim showed her. Annie demonstrated, in the words of Grandpa Dick,"there is no such word as can't."
What she can do is: open child proof bottles of medicine, tiny cosmetic jars of Clinque face cream, tooth paste, cut her own food using a real knife (until taken away by her parents) completely dress and undress herself including shoes and socks, rip up paper into tiny pieces, fold her napkin repeatedly when eating so no messy side is showing, skillfully pour water from her cup into a small jar...over and over using a towel to clean up any small spills, unzipping and zipping, washing her own hands as if she were about to perform surgery. Today, while sitting on my lap to the Safari Park, she took the hair tie out of her hair and made a pony tail on top of my head... unaided.
One week ago Special Needs is the label that brought her to us but she has repeatedly shown that she was clearly misdiagnosed.
Happy One week Anniversary Annie Kate!
Safari Park Today during our Day Off !
First of all, I jinxed us when I had said everyone was healthy. Last night ( Sat. Night ) Kim became ill. Not super bad sick, we didn't need "House" for a consult, but bad enough that she could not get out of bed to go to dinner. Felt awful for her. The dilemma we faced was that Annie really doesn't go far from Kim's sight and we needed dinner, then bath, then bed. Molly and I ventured off to the restaurant armed with all the tools of the trade, bib, sippy cup, baby utensils, toys and a ton of patience. Dinner was awesome as we had so much fun and Annie and I really started to make some connections.....Molly was such a big help as usual..... We got back to the room and got Annie a bath and Kim felt a little better and was able to get her to sleep.
Today, as the pictures above show you, we were off to the Safari Park as it was our one day off in Guangzhou. It was a game time decision on Kim making the starting line-up, but as our franchise player, she was at the line of scrimmage at game time.....still not feeling great, but ready for the park........ After going to this park, Annie is going to be REAL disappointed with the Ross Park Zoo. We seriously did not know what to expect and it was amazing. Every major species of animal was represented in a big way. Of course they had the largest collection of pandas in the world. Annie was really excited throughout the day as she was experiencing animal sights and sounds in person for the first time. It was 70 degrees and sunny and it was great to get out of the hotel for a day of fun. Eating at the park was interesting.....we all stuck with fried rice and washed it down with coke zero. Kim stole some bread and jelly at breakfast and brought that along for herself. Everything else in the food pavilion was shouting "warning Will Robinson", " warning Will Robinson". (bet my kids won't understand that joke).
We had an early dinner tonight and everyone is in bed. Tomorrow morning we go back to the hospital and get the TB results. I'm sure that it is fine, but a positive result could cause some logistical problems with our schedule. Here's hoping for the best......
Can't wait for everyone to meet Annie. She's pretty cool.....pretty tough......a survivor.
Countdown Clock: "Four Days to JFK"
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Medical Tests Today!
As Kim's sleep deprived blog stated last night, the trip to Guangzhou took a lot out of all of us. We all got to sleep about Midnight, but had to have a wake-up call for 6:45 am to get breakfast and meet our driver at 8:00 am. We were running on fumes. We had a 45 minute drive to the medical hospital, about 2 1/2 hours there and then 45 minutes back. After a much needed lunch, the girls went down for a nap and are still asleep.
Below are pictures of the testing we had done today !
The picture above starts out with Kim and Annie when we got to the Medical Hospital! The diet coke has kicked in for this picture! Scroll down for more.... Love from Guangzhou !
Countdown Clock : "Five days to JFK"
Friday, December 2, 2011
Goodbye Hefei City
Today we got Annie's Passport !! On to Guangzhou !!
Today was a relaxing day at the hotel. We had to wait around For our guide to pick up all of our Chinese paperwork and Annie's Chinese passport so we can move on to Guangzhou. Our flight is at 7:25 PM China Time. It is a two hour flight south to Guangzhou. We will be moving to warmer temperatures. It is about 55 degrees in Hefei today and should be in the mid 70's when we get to Guangzhou. We will miss our guide TingTing as she was a Godsend. Very organized and very kind. Tomorrow we will start our paperwork for the US side of things. Crazy as it sounds, fourteen years ago with Molly, this was a little more difficult than the Chinese side. Hopefully we will get a little warmer reception at the US Consulate than we did back then. Over the next few days we will get Annie's Visa and medical tests so we can bring her home. We will also have the oath taking ceremony done in Guangzhou. We are all reaching a point where we want to be on that big jet back to JFK.
Kim is doing an amazing job with Annie. She is still doing well, but testing us on many levels. This will be her first plane ride ever, so it should be interesting.
Knock on wood, everyone's health is holding up. There is another couple at our hotel who adopted a four year old. The mother got violently ill and had to go to the hospital. Have not heard how she is doing yet.
I attached some additional photos from the orphanage and tomorrow should have some shots from Guangzhou. Love to all !
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Visit to Annie's Orphanage Today !!
We had an agonizing decision this morning. Should Annie accompany us back to the orphanage for this visit, or should just one of us make the pilgrimage. Ultimately we decided to all go as a family. Posted below are our individual observations of the visit.
Orphanage Visit! What a morning!
Enter a few well know and maybe not so well know psychologist and social workers who convinced me that, yes she should go back for closure and to get the message that her care givers were on board with this plan.
When we told our guide in China of our plans to bring Annie to the SWI she said she was shocked and did not advise it.
What to do? Who to listen to? More e-mails and consulting was needed to over ride my last minute doubting. Thank you Marilyn, Barbara in N.J. and others who spoke to me via e-mail all night long.
I went with my gut, we needed to take her back. We could not deprive her of this one time chance for a goodbye.
The morning was filled with tension and I am sure Annie could sense it. She mopped the floor with her body a few times, jerk and ran away in the lobby and had several "limp/dead weight" moments.
As we pulled up to the SWI I braced for impact. The building looked like any other building in China to me. Upon entering it was also the same...no heat and everyone moving around dressed for outdoor weather. We were told it housed 140 children all with "disabilities."
As I carried Annie in her demeanor was flat, very serious, detached. She did not wiggle to get down, in fact she did not move much at all.
Some staff greeted us down stairs calling her by name. You would have thought Annie had never seen them before. One reached out to her and she would not go to her.
We were taken up two flights of stairs to where she has lived for 3.5 years. The various rooms formed an open square center court yard. As we passed by a few rooms the nannies and child opened the windows to yell greetings and reach out to Annie.
She did not react and stayed in my arms.
At the end of the hall three nannies came to meet us. They genuinely seemed thrilled to see her, the feeling did not seem mutual. The one nanny ( name to be inserted later) was her main care giver since birth. She was very emotional. She took Annie from my arms as I bristled trying to access very quickly if this was a good idea. As I observed this women hugging and kissing our child I just as quickly thought how can this be bad. Annie seemed a bit indifferent. Her nanny asked to make sure we would take good care of her. We assured her we would. Our translator asked the nanny to tell Annie that she was going home with us and she was happy for Annie.
Annie looked at her like she was speaking Chinese... of course she was.
In our paper work we were told she was living in a foster family setting in within the SWI. That was not the case.
We saw the tiny bed lined room where she had slept. Annie, her nanny and went I went to what was her bed...still no reaction from her. The nanny explained how her bed had so sides on it because she is such a smart girl she never fell out.
We were then instructed to give our gifts to the nannies. Annie saw this, took the gifts and handed them to each. She then blew us all away by then waving and saying Goodbye! She was ready to leave.
Annie was asked if she wanted to go see her classmates in her preschool ( one flight down) Now Annie was excited! As a nanny tried to take her hand she refused turned to me and said: "Mama".
We walked hand in hand until we had almost reach her preschool door. She then bolted to her classroom.
Inside the dozen or so children mobbed her yelling her name. She was unfazed by the children pushing and jockeying for position near her. Annie had a bag of candy which she immediately handed the first two pieces to, who we were told, were her best friends. They received their candy first. She then went to each eager child, remembering as they skirted around, who she had given a piece to and who she had not until all were given out.
One child was heard saying: "Did XinTian find her foreign mother? Is that her?" They really had been educated as to what adoption was about. We also learned her two best friends had families coming for them soon.
The teachers patiently answer my list of questions about her life and experiences as best they could. "XinTian is so smart but she can have a mind of her own. Sometimes when she does not do the right thing we have to tell her she is wrong but sometimes she does not think what she did is wrong so she needs to sit and think about it."
When it was time to leave preschool Annie was crying hard but that was because she had just hit the corner of her eye on the sink and was bleeding a bit. Her teacher had her in her arms but when I reached for her she came to me and calmed down fascinated by the tiny drops of blood on the tissue she held to her eye.
When we were back in the lobby she came alive again. "Mowee" had her laughing, running and hiding.
The assistant director presented Annie with a gift, a jade Buddha necklace from the orphanage. She asked that we would help her to be proud of her country and maybe one day return to visit her homeland. We promised.
We were then presented with the most valuable gift. Annie's memory book from Half the Sky Foundation. It contains her life from the day she was found (1 day old) until we were able to come for her. It is complete with milestone photos and description of her life, experiences and developmental progress. She will not have blank pages in her baby book. What a gift!