We had a day off today with no paperwork or appointments! We decided to take a walk to a nearby park. It is so surprising how clean the city of X’ian is, which is the third largest city in China. You don’t see any trash at all. Another surprising thing is the traffic and how smooth everything seems to flow. Cars, buses, bikes, scooters, motorcycles all just seem to flow and weave in and out of each other. People don’t seem to drive angry but they all just merge in and out of each other. They do use horns but more of a little beep to warn someone they are coming up behind them. People move the same way when walking. Everyone just merges and weaves in and out of each other. They move quickly but never seem to stop to let someone go in front of them. For example when two people are just about ready to run into each other one weaves right the other left and it is this smooth flow of people always moving quickly. Throw in four Americans and a toddler and let me tell you there isn’t as much of a flow! My instinct is to stop when someone is coming right at me. Or I will stop and pull Dana back because she is pushing the stroller and I think we are all going to collide. Well this stopping throws the other person off and we usually almost collide or there is this awkward almost tripping over each other and lots of apologizing in English and Mandarin. We are trying to get better at navigating the city streets but I am sure we are a sight to see. Also just to add to it… Dana usually is wearing her USA sunglasses and a vog mask (People in X’ian wear these during the winter months because the pollution from the coal smoke that people burn is so bad. We see a few people wearing masks now but the pollution is much better with the spring winds blowing.) We were advised to buy masks but we don’t really seem to need them but Dana likes wearing hers. 🙂 Add this to a Chinese two year old who waves at everyone and you have a sight to see.

We signed the official adoption papers today! Nora got her photograph taken for her passport. She was not happy about that! Then we celebrated by eating lunch at a Noodle House. Nora loves noodles, rice and fruit.

Nora has learned many new things already! Brad taught her how to give high fives. She mimics the girls facial expressions in the funniest way. And she calls me ma ma and Brad ba ba. (mom and dad in Chinese) She learned how to give hugs. She rode in a stroller for the first time and she can ride the elevator like a pro. She said ding dong for the bell in the elevator and she is learning how to hum twinkle, twinkle little star. She also discovered books! Our guide said she probably didn’t have any books in the orphanage. She loves flipping through the pages looking at pictures.

Here are some cute pics. A kiddo in my class gave me the bunny hat. Her mom made it for Nora. It fits perfectly!

We got Nora today! We met a Nanny at the Civil Service Office this afternoon. She brought Nora and another little boy who was being adopted by a family from NY. Nora was crying and crying and did not want to leave the Nanny. But with a lollipop, some crackers and a bit of time she started coming around to the idea of being with us. The car ride went much better than I expected. We stopped to get her some food for dinner, formula, a bottle and a spoon. Nora seemed to like being outside and looking around at all the people. She says bye, ba ba (dad), and ma ma (mom). We had sent her a picture book with our photos in it to the orphanage. The nanny gave it back to us and when we showed it to Nora, she pointed at each of the pictures and was pointing at us. The hotel gave her a little pink bear and she was feeding it with her spoon. She has been looking at books and playing a game with the girls. They put a piece of paper on their head, shake it off and then crinkle it up. She thinks this is funny and then does it herself. She hasn’t cried since the Civil Service office. Bed time is quickly approaching so we will see how she does with that. We have 24 hours custody and then we go back to the Civil Service office tomorrow to finish the custody paperwork and passport paperwork. I am going to wait and post pictures of her until all the paperwork is finished.

For Dana’s birthday we went to a Dinner Theater. There were dumplings for all! We ate a dozen different kinds of dumplings. Some of them were in shapes of different animals. We ate duck, pork, lotus, cabbage, shrimp, chicken, sausage, fish, tomato, boiled pork and leek, mini, and rice and veggies. Dana liked shrimp the best. I liked the shrimp and the lotus. Brad liked duck and Clara liked the sausage the best. We watched the show that told some of the Chinese history. There were dancers and musicians playing instruments we had never seen before. It was a fun night!

We flew into X’ian late last night and didn’t get to the hotel until close to midnight. As we were getting ready for bed Dana said, “It’s my birthday!” We sang to her in the middle of the night. 🙂

This morning we explored X’ian. Our guide Sherry had drawn us a map of some places to shop, parks and the bell tower, all within walking distance. So we visited a few shops. We went to a grocery store and let the girls get all kinds of little Chinese treats to try. There were just bins of individually wrapped candy and snacks you could pick. It was funny trying to find the register to check out. Apparently,there was a third floor to the grocery store. No one seemed to know English, but when Brad held up money and pointed to our things they started saying oh oh and pointing to the ceiling. We got the hint that there was another floor to the store.

After snacking on our finds for lunch, Brad and the girls went swimming. The pool was chilly for me but they were brave. Tonight we are going to a dinner theater that shows the history of the Terracotta Soldiers. They serve all kinds of dumplings for the dinner. X’ian is known for its dumplings so they should be yummy. Happy Birthday Dana!!

Friday, March 22 – We were all up very early. Dana and Linda were up around 2:30 am. Clara and Brad were much better sleepers and got up around 5 am. The 12 hour time difference is a bit difficult to get used to. We had a yummy breakfast at the hotel and tried many new foods. Brad tried meat floss bread and Linda tried rice congee (which we have heard that is something Nora likes to eat). Though no one was brave enough to try the chicken claws, which were literally roasted chicken feet. Dana said it gives chicken fingers a whole new meaning! Then Grace our wonderful guide came at 9 am to take us to the Great Wall. As we drove, we passed miles and miles of tree farms. The area near the Great Wall is a growing area for fruit and nut trees. We took a cable car ride to the wall. It was about 50 degrees. The peach blossoms were just starting to bud on the mountain side. It was windy and chilly on the wall but super sunny and we had great visibility. The wall was so impressive. It runs through 7 provinces. Pictures don’t do it justice. We hiked to a few towers on the wall and then we were back in the cable car to ride down the mountain. Grace took us to the Garden House restaurant for lunch. It looked like a greenhouse that was converted into a restaurant. There were plants growing out of the floor that made walls in between the tables. We tried lots of yummy Chinese food. The vegetables in our meal were fresh from this province. We tried agar plum and lots of other veggies we couldn’t name. Then off to the airport to catch a short 2 hour flight to X’ian. Grace was so kind and answered our many questions. She gave Dana an early birthday present and just kept saying how wonderful the girls were. She gave Nora a little China flag and Clara a little bracelet with a tiny carved gourd on it. The gourd means good luck.

Hello from Beijing! We had smooth flights to China. We left Clarion at 6:45 am Wednesday morning and arrived in Beijing around 3:30 am (PA time), 3:30 pm (China time). We flew from Pittsburgh to Dulles and then from Dulles to Beijing. We didn’t even stop for fuel! We flew over Canada, Greenland, The Arctic, Russia and then headed south over the Gobi desert and into Beijing. The girls were warned that during the plane ride they couldn’t say they were bored or ask how much longer the flight was. They were both such troopers. They worked on homework, watched movie after movie and tried to sleep. Clara said I’m tired of sitting and I’m tired of standing. I’m just tired but I can’t seem to sleep. Yep, that pretty much sums up flying across the ocean. I forgot a book, so I read The Diary of Anne Frank that Clara brought for homework. I hadn’t read that in years. It was a great choice to read on a long flight because I didn’t feel like I had the right to complain about being tired after reading about what Anne and her family went through in WWII.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton