We have a wonderful family friend who makes quilts. Cliff has made a quilt for Clara and Dana. Nora was blessed to receive her quilt the other day. Thank you Cliff for the hours and hours of time you have put into these special blankets.

Nora and I traveled to Brad’s work on April 11 to pick Brad up and then went to Pittsburgh to see a pediatrician. Dr. Springer sets Thursdays aside in her practice to work with children who are adopted. She also works closely with international adoptions. Dr. Springer had review Nora’s medical records when we first saw her profile. I was so glad that we took Nora there. The doctor had great information for us about children coming from orphanages. She said Nora is looking great. Nora is 23 pounds and is in the third percentile for height and weight. Dr. Springer said often children from orphanages are not even on the growth charts, so for Nora to be in the third percentile is great! The doctor said Nora will most likely have a big growth spurt in the next few months and then be the size she is genetically meant to be.

Nora is sleeping really well right now. The doctor said sometimes as kids start feeling really comfortable in your home, they start feeling afraid that they will be taken away or that the family will leave them. So, Dr. Springer said there is a possibility that Nora will start having trouble sleeping by herself or wake up with night terrors. This doesn’t always happen but it can.

We talked about eating because Nora is still on formula and eating everything in sight. We cut her off by using sign language giving her a warning that the food is almost all done and then telling her all done. We give her what seems like large amounts for a two year old. We feed her because she would stuff her mouth so full that she would choke if we just let her feed herself. The doctor said this will eventually slow down but for now we need to give her as much as she wants. Dr. Springer said in the orphanage she probably never felt full. So, Nora needs to understand what full feels like and she needs to understand that being over full doesn’t feel good. If she doesn’t learn this now she may have eating problems later or she may hoard food. So we are to just let her keep on eating. She may even throw up, but this will help her learn when she is too full.

Nora still eats a lot but she is starting to shake her head no at things like applesauce and berries. She also fed Tucker some bread yesterday, which I thought was a good thing since she must be understanding that there is more food and Tucker can have some too.

Dr. Springer was very pleased that Nora is looking for eye contact. Nora also kept looking back for us during the appointment, checking to see if we were still there. Dr. Spring said all of this is very positive and telling her that Nora is starting to attach to us. She said some children come from orphanages with downcast eyes and don’t seem interested in anything. They have been bored and not had any attention paid to them so they don’t seem to care about much. Nora is not this way and is very curious about many things.

Other advice that the doctor gave was to print pictures out of the Nanny that Nora was attached to in the orphanage and pictures of the orphanage. We are to show here these and let her carry them around. Dr. Springer said the pictures may make her seem sad or upset her but this is part of her grieving process and it is healthy for her to feel loss. We did print pictures out and she kisses and hugs the picture of her Nanny. She seems to recognize her but it doesn’t seem to make her sad.

We do need to make some more appointments with some specialists and we need to have blood drawn to check to see what immunizations she has. She also needs checked for parasites because it is very common for kiddos from orphanages to have some kind of parasite.

I was glad we made the trip to Pittsburgh to have this doctor see Nora, but Nora got very car sick on the way there and the way home. She hadn’t gotten car sick yet and I forgot to bring a change of clothes for her! Rookie Mistake!! I had diapers, wipes, snacks and toys but I forgot clothes!! (Kids from orphanages don’t ride in cars very often so they can become motion sick easily. Also, she may have been nervous with such a long ride. Plus, rush hour traffic in Pittsburgh can make anyone sick!)

After the appointment we stopped by a playground to meet Uncle Dave, Aunt Danie and Cousin Isla since they lived very close to the doctor. Isla is about 6 months younger than Nora, but she is bigger than Nora so they gave us a bag of 18 month clothes. Isla showed Nora how to go down the slide. 🙂

We have had some nice days getting into a routine at home. Nora loves it outside and doesn’t like to come inside very easily. She also loves one of the cats, so I am using that to my advantage. When we are outside, I have the kitty come in with us and then she wants to follow the cat in the house.

Dana came running in yesterday exclaiming that Nora saw her shadow! They were on the trampoline and Nora spotted her shadow and kept kicking her legs out to see her shadow move. How cute!

Dana also built Nora a fort. They had a great time chatting away under the blankets. Nora just follows the big girls around and is so happy to see them after school. We are having lots of fun exploring outside and playing and crafting inside.

Though our transition is going very well from a family of four to a family of five, I don’t want everyone to think that is is always rainbows and unicorns here. Nora is trying to adjust to our home and rules. It seems maybe she wasn’t told no very often or maybe she used tantrums to get what she wanted from other kiddos in her room in the orphanage because she can go into an all out, screaming, throw down fit if she is told something she doesn’t want to hear. I know she is two, but she is also is working through trauma, tiredness from time change and frustration with the language barriers.

Her learning curve here is also very high. She is exploring a house and is finding out all the ouches and what not to do… all in a few days. Don’t turn the knobs on the stove. Don’t eat dog food. Don’t slam dresser drawers or your fingers will get pinched. etc. etc. We also have two rules we are trying to enforce right now. No hitting and no throwing things (out of anger) (knocking down blocks is ok and high fives and fist bumps are ok). Anytime she hears no or boo (Mandarin for don’t) in a stern voice, it can set her into a full out tantrum.

We are all just trying to take one day at a time and figure this all out. Tomorrow we are going to Pittsburgh to a pediatrician who specializes in adoptions and has worked very closely with children from international adoptions. We need to find out how they want to test her for her immunizations. I guess China doesn’t always store their shots correctly and even though her shot record is filled out, not all of the immunizations may have worked properly. She will probably have to have blood drawn to see what shots she needs. Then, next week we have an appointment with a counselor to discuss play therapy for kiddos dealing with trauma. So hopefully we can get some good advice on how to move forward in the best ways for Nora.

Also, yesterday there was a purple crayon chewed up on the floor that I noticed. It was either Nora or Tucker. I picked it up and Tucker slunk under the kitchen table to hide. A chewed up crayon yesterday and this morning… he ate a block. I think he may be regressing!

But, in the meantime we had ice cream at Palmer’s Store and visited the neighbors to get some helpful sign language to help us with communication until Nora is able to speak more English. And it just so happens the sign language neighbors have beef cows! Nora didn’t want to get close to the animals, but we have been hearing Ma Ma eio eio (which translates into… mom sing Old MacDonald). Cows are now always added into our song.

As a request from so many, I am going to try to continue to post a few updates and pictures of life at home. We are all still very tired. It is amazing how 12 hours difference can just throw you off. But Auntie Em had a good point and said, well you know how one hour of time change takes days to get use to, so 12 hours is going to take longer. 🙂 We are trying to be out in the sunshine as much as possible to trick ourselves in to this time zone.

Nora met her grandparents this weekend. That was exciting for everyone. Dana is the youngest grandchild on the Coulson side of the family so it is fun to have a little one again. We also went out for breakfast with Ben, Emily and the boys so they got to meet her too. We can’t wait to meet the rest of the family.

Nora is absolutely loving outside. I had heard and read that sometimes kiddos from the orphanage don’t like it outside because it is an overload on their senses. The sunlight is too bright, the wind is too much and the grass is a touch they have never known so all of this can really be hard for them, but Nora just loves outdoors. She loves the trampoline and mimics the girls exactly how they are sitting. If they lay down she lays down. If they have their legs straight out she sits just like them.

She felt a few rain drops today and was surprised by them. I am not sure that she knows what rain is. She met the chickens and will pet the cats. She is still not a huge fan of the dog. He is ok if he stays a far distance away from her. But this morning she turned to us and stuck out her tongue and then pointed to the dog. He was panting and she was mimicking him.

Dana showed Nora magnetic letters on the fridge. Nora was so amazed at how they stuck to the fridge. She looks around with such surprise. Wow magnets! What a great thing!

It is so awesome to see things through the eyes of a child. It has been such a wonderful experience watching her see so many things for the first time. She is full of wonder and amazement at this big world. She doesn’t want to miss a minute.

When we were at the orphanage I was looking at the other kiddos in her room and many of them were not even crawling or sitting up yet and they were 2 and 3 years old. We had Nora only for a few days at that point but she was running around and exploring and I thought she didn’t fit in there. She was not made for that life. But by the evening I was rethinking that thought. No one fits in there. No one should have to go without a family and a home of their own. Everyone deserves to be held and rocked and talked to. I was wrong in my thinking. Nora didn’t fit that life. She is blooming in such a short time. But all of those children deserve the chance to thrive.

There are an estimated 153 million children in the world who are orphans. If orphans were a country of their own they would rank the 9th largest country in the world, just ahead of the population in Russia. We thank God for the chance to watch Nora grow and have a family to call her own.

We made it home! The plane rides went very smooth. Nora only fussed for about five minutes at 2:30 am on the first flight. She did really wonderful. Brad said he cried more than Nora. 🙂

We had a plane party when we flew over Alaska. We felt so close to home! Our plane party consisted of playing with playdough for an hour. We are all exhausted but it feels like 10 am to us so we are not sure whether to eat breakfast or dinner.

Thank you for all of the prayers and comments posted. We appreciated everything and had an amazing trip! We feel very blessed to have so many people care about us. ❤

So we are settled into Hong Kong for our last night overseas! Since we are only here for one night, we are all sharing a room. One big happy family of 5! Can’t make any promises how happy everyone will be in the morning.

As we close out this chapter of the process and look forward to being back home in the US, it is clear how blessed we have been. We thank you all for your support and prayers. It is obvious that all of the good graces that we have received are more than just the result of having good luck.

It has been great to observe how everyone has interacted and adapted to having Nora join our family.
Dana has such a huge heart for animals, people, just everything. She can’t understand why we should just let Nora cry when she is throwing a fit. I explained to her that we can be around her and we need to allow her to be upset sometimes too. As long as she knows we are around and she is safe, everything is OK. “But it sure doesn’t sound like everything is OK.” She cares deeply, genuinely, and is a great playmate. She has also become an excellent stroller driver even on crowded side streets of China.
Clara is a teenager and always enjoys an opportunity for independence and responsibility. She has a special activity of looking out windows with Nora to see what they can find each morning. Clara has just assumed the responsibility of preparing a bottle and putting Nora to bed. She has been asking questions about what to do at times, but it is clear that she a maternal instinct.
Linda is just simply a natural through and through. It has been great to see how quickly and easily she takes to children. This is just her environment and easily what she does best. It is obvious why she makes such a great teacher. Nora attached to her right away and hasn’t looked back.

Looking forward to being home and starting the next phase!

In two hours we are leaving for Hong Kong. We have a three hour van ride and then we are spending the night at a hotel connected to the airport. Our flight leaves Friday morning at 10:20 am (Hong Kong/China time). We fly to Newark, NJ and have a three hour layover which will just give us enough time to go through immigration and catch our connecting flight to Pittsburgh. We are to arrive in Pittsburgh around 6:30 pm Friday evening (PA time) though it will feel like 6:30 am Saturday morning to us. Hopefully, we will be home by 10 pm Friday night. We may not be able to post any more blogs so don’t worry if you don’t hear anything from us. Please pray for our safe, smooth and speedy travels. Also, I am not feeling 100 percent. I have been catching a cold for the last few days and today I have no energy, sore throat and cough today. So prayers for feeling better and patience during our travels would be appreciated. Thanks! Everyone else is feeling fine and getting packed to go. Zaijian – Good Bye… for now!

PS Nora wanted in the bathtub today! Dana lifted her in and she sat there so proud of herself. (She had her clothes on so we didn’t let her turn the water on.) This is huge progress since she screamed and screamed the first time she had a bath with us. YEAH!!

We had a great day at the zoo. It was about 80 degrees but there were trees everywhere so it didn’t feel as hot. We went on the train safari ride and saw lots of animals roaming around. We saw a band dressed in tiger outfits. Nora loved the band and danced and clapped to the music. I have been super unemotional this whole trip. I feel like I am walking through a dream and we are just putting one foot in front of the other and taking one day at a time but I had tears in my eyes watching Nora clap to the band. It was so adorable to watch her see a parade for the first time. Her Nanny said she loves music and dancing so this was a perfect moment.

Nora also loved the butterflies flying around the flowers. We came the whole way to the zoo and she just wanted to chase the butterflies. So sweet, but so sad at the same time. She has never been able to chase a butterfly.

The zoo had many large animal habitats. There were at least 10 white Bengal tigers. They had many panda bears. A few years ago one of the panda’s had triplets. No panda had ever had triplets in captivity before. There were two boys and a girl. The panda display was elaborate.

We rode the cable cars over the zoo and saw monkeys, birds and fish from the sky. The big girls got to feed the giraffes tree branches. We had a busy day and everyone is tired. The van ride home went better than the ride to the zoo. Our guide, Cathy, didn’t go with us today so she wasn’t there to explain to Nora what we were doing. Nora was not happy to get into the van today. She is about done with doctor appointment and long waiting lines. There was a long time of screaming during the hour drive to the zoo. I am sure it was because of the language barrier between us. Nora was pretty tired by the time we arrived, but she was a trouper and stayed awake for the entire zoo, not wanting to miss a minute. Nora took a short nap on the way home and we are back ready for dinner and an early bedtime. Dana and Nora got a basket at the zoo with three baby pandas, some carrots, apples and bamboo in it. Nora was not impressed with the stuffed animals but she loved the fake food. She spent the evening feeding everyone.

Our final appointment is completed! We traveled to the US Consulate today and we were there about 2 hours. We turned in Nora’s medical information, her passport, visa photo and adoption papers. These things will be processed by Thursday for her visa. We will get her passport back with her visa and an important sealed envelope that we need to turn into immigration customs in New Jersey when we land for our connecting flight to Pittsburgh. She will become a US citizen in Newark, NJ. We saw Nora’s friend Benjamin who was in her class at the orphanage. He is being adopted by a family in upstate New York. Nora and Ben held hands, played a bit in the consulate by pushing buttons on a vending machine, and then pushed each other. 🙂 This was just her little friend. Her “boyfriend” is still in the orphanage in X’ian. These girls are going to keep Brad on his toes!

We celebrated by eating at McDonald’s and buying diapers! McDonald’s menu was surprisingly very close to USA’s. Then we walked back to Adoption Island and took some more pictures with the statues on the island. It was not nearly as busy today so Nora got to run around and be a little independent, which she liked. We walked back past pet street again. Nora still points to the animals and has a surprised look on her face. Just wait until she meets Tucker the dog, the cats, fish and chickens!

Dana and Clara are not ready to come home. They started voicing this today. Dana does not want to ride the plane back with a screaming nazgul (her little sister/Lord of the Rings reference). Both Clara and Dana said they would come back to China for sure. I told them if we stay longer I would have to put them in school. Here older kids go to school from 8 am to 6 pm. They have a two hour break for lunch/recess. Most of the kids go home during this 2 hour break. High school kids go to school 6 days a week. All of the kids have lots of homework each night. Younger kids just go to school from 8 am to 12:30, five days a week. I don’t what age they start going later into the evening.

Tomorrow we are going to a Safari park. It is the largest zoo and safari park in Asia. There are cable cars that go above the animals and a train that goes around part of the park. Panda Bears here we come!

Today we had to wait for Nora’s TB test to come back. Our guide, Cathy, texted us after breakfast and said that Nora’s TB test came back positive. So, we needed to go get an X- Ray of her chest. (Brad and the big girls stayed back to explore the city for a laundry service. Everyone here hangs their clothes out of their windows or on roof tops to dry. We tried to hand wash some things but they were not drying hanging inside the hotel. It is much more humid here.) Nora and I set off for the doctor again. After a 45 minute drive with city traffic we got in and out of the office very quickly. Her X-Rays came back negative for TB so we were good to go. If she was tested positive it would have delayed our travel back to the States, so this was very good news.

Later in the day we ventured out into the shopping district. There is a wide street that is just for pedestrians that is on the street below our hotel. We always watch out the window at all of the people walking on the street. Workers stand outside the shops and do different things to try and get shoppers inside. They wave signs and these clapper noise makers. We saw someone dressed as a chicken. At a jewelry store ladies dressed in fancy dresses sing into a microphone and lined up and danced. There is a McDonald’s on this street but we haven’t checked out the menu. I’m pretty sure it won’t be like the McDonald’s menu that we are used to. We have noticed that there are lots of Starbucks in China.

Yesterday, Brad and the girls tried a huge fried cheese stick on a stick. They opted out of the cheese stick with squid tentacles hanging out of the bottom. But once they started eating it, there was some kind of meat that they weren’t sure what it was. They are so brave! We also tried spiral potatoes on a stick and ice cream in a waffle cone but the waffle cone was more like a soft breakfast waffle. Nora tried ice cream. She is not used to hot or cold things so she made lots of crazy faces with the cold ice cream. We figured we need to introduce her to ice cream since Palmer’s Store ice cream will be opening soon.

We bought Nora a bunny outfit with pockets at the market. She wanted to try it on when we got back to the hotel. She loved the pockets and ran around with her hands in them.

She is also understanding more and more already. She tired to get into the garbage can today and I said “No” really fast. I didn’t know if it was my tone or the word no (she hears it quite often in the hotel that is not really made for little two year olds.) but she stopped in her tracks, sat down on the floor and threw a fit. Then, a little later she put a book into a cupboard in the hotel and her and Brad were opening things looking for it. He opened the door beside the book and said, “No, it is not in here”. (In a completely different tone than the tone I used earlier.) Nora got a big pouty (How do you spell this?) face on and looked really upset. We realized she had heard the word no and thought she was in trouble again. She seems to be picking up language so fast. It is really amazing.

She took a third bath with us tonight. The girls were ready for a huge scream fest. But this time she did much better. We put her in the tub before the water was in it. She was crying, but we added some silly little worm toys the girls brought. Dana sat with her feet in the tub and splashed the toys around. We kicked Nora’s feet and hands in the water to get her to splash. Finally, her crying turned into laughing and she was splashing everywhere. Dana got quite wet but we were all excited that she wasn’t screaming in the tub. We are making progress!