Tallula

Back home!

2006-09-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

PC crashed in Hong Kong on Wednesday, there is some writing to catch up with....

We are home! Everybody here, especially Yeizmy, was happy to see us and we were welcomed by Mark & Serena and Sean & Shelley and the children in San Mateo after we arrived at SFO earlier on Thursday. Tallula is adjusting well. A huge relief, especially after a 3 hour nightterror she had in Hong Kong. 3 hours long of uncontrollable, full panic screaming. After 10 minutes of it, the only thing you want to do is to cry along with her. Those 11 months without her sometimes seem negligible, sometimes they seem to have been about a decade.

We breezed through the final days in Guangzhou. More playing with the little girl, more sweetness from Tristan and Mia, a very rainy park, a visit to the US Consulate, more excellent food, a swim in the Pearl River (so dirty you can not even see your own arm when swimming), more shopping, and some packing. We left China behind by train, but are already thingking about coming back (in 2010, 2015, and 2020).

Hong Kong was as pleasant as the first time. We stayed at the same hotel where Tallula had her first night in a 'soft' bed. We met with Flora's family and they were with us throughout Thursday. Michelle and I spent a fortune on a lunch (with bird's nest soup - sesnational!), and the family dim sum Thursday morning filled us up for a long time.

The flight home was uneventful. Grammy and Tallula were together a lot of the time, the children got their sleep in, and we are now very very happy to be home and get Tallula used to our domestic life.

As promised - some words on Grammy and Grampy. 1.5 weeks into the trip we joked that without them we might still be stuck in Hong Kong. And we might have. Grammy and Grampy were relentless in helping us out, never hesitating to take one or a couple of children of our hands so things would go smoother. Tallula loves being with them, and on the official paperwork visits Tristan and Mia were always happy to be left behind to paly with them. No words (or gifts) large enough to tell or show them how much this meant to us and how glad we are they were with us. This was a challenging trip, and without them, it would have been less pleasant than it was. We had a blast, thanks to them!

And that is about it. We will take Tallula to a doctor soon, and I am looking forward to her waking up for the first time in her new home. It is time for her childhood to be jumpstarted.

All's well

2006-08-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

A quick note. Tallula is enjoying life more and more. She bops up and down when she sees herself in the mirror, has a big grin when playing with us, falls very happily asleep on her mommie's tummy or next to Grammy, and enjoys Grammy's shakers and rattles. She is simply living the life of a little baby. As well she should be.
Mia loves playing with Tallula in the bed, Tristan doesn't mind a little slobber in his ear; life is good.
Be good - we'll try the same.

2 Weeks in Guangzhou

2006-08-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

We have been in Guangzhou for two weeks. The hotel almost feels like home, short of a number of chickens, ducks, bunnies, fish, frogs, a cat, and a dog. Not that those can't be found around here, but most of them are not looking as comfortable as our pets.
Tallula is doing much better. Still congested, but she is now always looking around, ready to take on the world. Crawling, playing, chillin'. She is a very active, happy baby. Her smile is simply beautiful, her eyes as deep as the Great Barrier Reef. (I would have said Pearl River, but it's hard to tell how deep that one is with all the pollution in it.)
The last days were easy enough. Taking pictures with a chimpanzee and Tristan and Mia in the Guangzhou Zoo, strolling around the island, nice little boatride, all while Grammy and Grampy were in Shanghai, visiting close friends.
We will complete our final official pieces of paperwork today and tomorrow. Most families will leave for the US right after the oath is taken at the US Consulate on Tuesday. We made a little change of plans and will travel to Hong Kong on Wednesday, stay overnight, and then hop on the plane. We reserved extra luggage space, as we plan to buy the island and ship it home.

Zhanjiang

2006-08-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

This is by far the hardest entry to write. While Michelle and Grammy stayed in Guangzhou with the children (the doctor confirmed today that Tallula has various illnesses) Norm and I visited Zhanjiang, the place where Tallula was found and lived for 11 months.

Zhanjiang is a 6 hour busride South-West of Guangzhou. 5 families brought their babies, and another 4 families were represented by a parent only. After checking into the hotel, we needed help from one of the many local motorcabs to get to the orphanage located close to the center of the 7 million people city.
The orphanage entry is a huge iron gate, leading into a courtyard with palm trees, basketball field, and some very old playstructures on a small playground. Soon, we where welcomed by various constituents of the surrounding buildings. It appears the orphanage is part of a larger community. There are 5 or 6 different buildings (all but 1 about 10 stories high), of which 1 seems for the caregivers, and the other ones are for a variety of people that need special attention: elderly, mentally disabled, physically disabled, and the orphans. There did not seem to be an exit from the courtyard other than the big iron gate.
Various caregivers came out and reached for the babies, but the babies clearly indicated they would rather stay in the safe arms of their parents. We took the elevator up to the 7th floor, the floor where Tallula used to live. This is where it gets difficult to describe my feelings. Some facts first: the room we were led into was about 18 by 15 feet. There were little beds all along the side (probably about 12). Next to this playroom, was a bedroom, with beds all around the sides and another 8 or so beds in the middle. The beds where made of steel, had steel bars, and only an inch thick piece of wood in them to lie down on. Some children where in the cribs. On the floor in the playroom, about 10 babies were sitting, crawling, or sleeping on the 10 by 10 feet piece of plastic on the ground. They all appeared to be between 6 months and 2 years old. They wore similar clothes, all had an old towel in their vicinity. Some were playing, others just stared. Some parents tried to engage the children, few responded. 1 little girl just had her stitches removed after a cleft lip operation and sobbed continuously. Many others had similar headwounds to Tallula.
One of the caregivers pointed out Tallula's old crib, as all cribs, nothing but a number of steel bars and a piece of wood. No mattress, no bedding, no pillow. No wonder most babies had misshaped heads.
It was a place where you want to stay forever and at the same time a place you wished you had never seen. Anybody would have happily taken home another 2 or 3 babies just to get those rooms empty.
We continued up to the 8th floor, where other adopted babies used to be housed. It was the same picture (talking about pictures: no photographing was allowed, which did not keep any parent from taking several and James, one of the fathers, from taping about 10 minutes worth of impressions). This time, there seemed to be about 20 children on the floor.
After some time on the 8th floor I walked back down to Tallula's floor, where they had already taken the babies back to their cribs.....

After about 30 minutes with the children, we were invited for a conversation with the orphanage director. Experienced in avoiding direct answers, we were left in the dark on the number of abandoned children that come into the Zhanjiang orphanage, the percentage of them that finds a home, etc. etc. But it seems the director has a tough job: she gets an annual budget to run the orphanage, and that budget does not depend on the number of children in the orphanage. The adoption fee is a donation to the orphanage, but the costs for living, caregivers, rent (?), as well as for hardware (washing machines, airconditioners, etc. etc.), perhaps make the director's job more that of an accountant than that of a childcare specialist.

After the visit and the next morning we visited various sites where the babies in our group had been abandoned. After 2 hospitals, various park locations (Zhanjiang has a very pretty central park), and a train station, we arrived about 20 minutes away from downtown in the suburb where Tallula was found. It was by far the most remote location, a place where very few people walk by, nearby a gas station for mostly trucks and buses, and opposite a factory. There was one row of houses next to the exit of the gas station. A very somber place.
We had prepared a paper with Tallula's picture and abandonment announcement and asked Maggie, our guide, to write a message in Cantonese which said that we have adopted this baby, love her very much, and will take good care of her. Norm and I taped the paper to a nearby electricity pole.

It was a huge relief to come back to Guangzhou, look at the gorgeous sleeping Tallula, hand the whistle shells to Tristan and Mia, and make an effort to come to peace with what we saw.

6 Days with Tallula

2006-08-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

6 days with Tallula, a full week in Guangzhou, and things are settling down. Her little head is looking much better, and her scratching is decreasing. Tallula is sleeping and (luckily) eating more over the last days. She is getting really attached to Mommie and Grammy, while her brother and sister hold her hand, sweettalk her, and are very careful with her. Today she made her first appearance at the hotel pool, and did jolly well. It took about 2 minutes before she was splashing around and found out that water is, well, wet.
We are enjoying some easy days. We are waiting for Tallula's passport, and in the meantime there are some trips (local pearl market, temple, museum) organized. At the blessing in the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees, Tristan wished for his littlest sister to get better (it indeed does not get any sweeter).
The rest of the time is spent playing, in the swimming pool, strolling around Shamian Dao (Sand Surface Island, the colonial setting on which the hotel is located), and shopping. Our children remain very popular. Tristan was a big hit at the cd-store, where about 10 girls asked for his name, age, etc. etc. and waved him 'goodbye' for about 5 minutes. Would they have known he owns a polka dot car, they would likely have tried to crawl in his red backpack (the one in which his bunnies travel) to go home with him. At the restaurant, the waiting staff was all over Tallula and Mia. Luckily, I'm not the jealous type.

Anyway, you catch our drift, we are taking it easy and are cautiously optimistic about Tallula's health. She is so very fragile, but so very sweet. Did I mention how pretty she is? The latest official picture was taking with the little pear net on her head, yet she looked so beautiful.

Soon to come: a big fat 'thank-you-blog' to Grammy and Grampy.

Have a mooncake on us!

Day 4 with Tallula

2006-08-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe Tallula has only been with us for 4 days. It seems much much longer. We enjoy her so much, and she is fully at ease with all of us. Her health remains an issue. Today she had her medical, and she only weighs 16 lbs. This means she has not gained any weight for at least 2 months. She is eating well now, and we hope she'll be 'fattened up' a little before we take her home. Michelle already wants to make Krispy Kreme the first stop after landing at SFO. The sores on her head are looking much better, and the color in her face is multiple shades removed from the grayish look she had earlier. Did I mention she is awfully pretty?

Today, as usual, we had our breakfast between gigantic koi pond and Pearl River. We suspect the koi pond carries more fish than the river. Why? The local soccer team's name tells it all: Guangzhou Chemicals. After breakfast, another appointment. Over the next 1.5 week there are several things that need to be taken care of, most importantly the Chinese passport and US visa, and all paperwork related to those items takes a bit of effort. Around those fixtures, several trips are planned. There is one to the orphanage on Wednesday/Thursday, and the rest is more about local sightseeing and bargain hunting.

Today we also received the 'Public notice to look for the birth parents of the abandoned children'. It mentions Tallula was found nearby the Bao Man Gasoline Storage in Hai Tou Town, Xia Shan District, Zhanjiang City, on September 17, 2005. It is the oddest thing to see a picture of our daughter in a bleak newspaper copy, especially when it is associated with an unimaginable word when it relates to children - abandoned.

I know, I know, this is not the most sensational day, but a slow day for us is excellent for little Tallula. She got to hang with Mommie and Grammy while everybody else actually went to a soccer game of the Guangzhou Chemicals. The blue team (Guangzhou) crushed the yellow team (Shanxi Aosen Luhu - Grampy and Tristan chanted it was a team with dogbreath) 5-1, but when Shanxi scored the 3-1 after being down 3-0, Tristan got extremely anxious whether his team would win. A true fan!
Most popular person in the stadium? Mia! We had several people coming up to us, touching her curly hair and taking pictures. She had a whole section cheering for her, waved to the crowd and gave everybody her pretty princess smile.
Back in the hotel, the children again proved that the 3 of them are in perfect harmony.

Notes from the mommie

2006-08-18T07:12:00.000-07:00

Tallula is doing much better. Took her back to the doctor to check on her head wounds. Grammy also told the doctor that Tallula refused to eat today and hadn't gone poo since we got her. The doctor immediately had the nurse get a bucket and put on rubber gloves. They grabbed Tallula, squeezed 2 glycerin bubbles into her bottom, then held her over the bucket. She cried and struggled, then miraculously managed to push out about 5 lbs of poo that resembled clumps of rocks. She now weighs about the same as a newborn. The diapers we had bought were useless and we had to buy newborn size. I looked for preemies, but not available here. Her little body is so tiny and weak. We all try to carry her everywhere because she can't sit well, or stand. And I'm afraid that her body might break if I hold her too long in the Baby Bjorn.

I met with the director of the orphanage to ask her a few more questions. She seemed to me like a horribly callous woman and, when she approached us, Tallula went into a panic and tried to scoot away from her. An hour later when the director returned and tried to tickle Tallula's chin and talk to her, Tallula stared straight ahead as if the woman had been invisible.

After only 2 days, our little baby seems to trust us. I had asked the orphanage director how the children were put to sleep for bedtime, hoping that Tallula would make this part of my life easier than Tristan and Mia have. The director said the children are just put in their cribs, nothing more. I thought this odd because Tallula whimpers if I let go of her at night. She sleeps snuggled in my arm or on my tummy.

Tallula has started smiling and singing. She seemed to be doing both for the first time... her face appeared painfully unfamiliar with the movements. But she's only getting better. She also had never been given a bath before, nor had she ever been fed with a spoon. Apparently, the caretakers didn't take much time, feeding Tallula jook (rice porridge) from a bottle - only twice a day, formula another 2 times a day. Tallula's skin was initially a pale gray color, now starting to turn pink... Those 2am and 5 am feedings are doing her well. Have been spiking her formula with carrot cereal and Chinese yams.

Despite all this, she's the sweetest little child. Well, actually, all these little baby girls are so sweet. Funny, but so many seem to resemble their adoptive mothers.

Hotel is so comfortable and we have a beautiful suite overlooking the Pearl River. Devin would have nothing to complain about here. Tonight we sent Grammy and Grampy for an exotic oil massage. And Tristan looks forward to coming home and seeing his bed turned down, chocolates set out by his pillow, and a silk robe set on his bed each night. And he's gotten used to spending his mornings in the fluffy white terry robe and bath slippers. I have been squirreling away all the Neutrogena bath products (like a good Chinese girl) - have bagsful since our suite has 3 bathrooms and twice a day they clean our rooms and restock our bottled water, hot water, and ice. Still, the children miss their normal diet of flax seed noodles, brown rice, steamed vegetables, green juice, fish, and cottage cheese. And of course they miss all their animals at the van de Heetkamp farm...

Don't know what we would have done with out Grammy and Grampy (and lucky for them, they have a separate room on another floor). So many formalities to deal with - Tristan and Mia are so much happier playing with their grandparents than going from office to office. And Grammy and Grampy find us the best food - although I prefer take out, delivery, or even leftovers - so I don't have to sit in Grampy's choice of restaurants or see the people cooking our food... Actually, my stomach could use a rest... Can't believe we have another 2 weeks before we can bring our 3 children home.

With Tallula, Day 2

2006-08-17T07:56:00.000-07:00

This morning we went with Tallula to wrestle with more paperwork while Grammy and Grampy played with Tristan and Mia. Tallula is happiest when she is held, but did play a little in the hotelroom with her siblings. Mia and Tristan are extremely sweet to her, and eager to get her out of her shell.

The little girl's bad spots on her head grew worse, and tonight Michelle took her to the doctor who thought she is very pretty, described various antibiotics, and shook her head about Tallula's condition, as both her weight and headwounds are not necessarily signs of a baby that is too well taken care of.
She is easily the skinniest girl of the 15 that found new homes. Her legs and arms are very thin, and she has difficulties supporting herself when standing up against (for example) me. Many girls have come see the doctor (in the hotel) over the last days, and most have headwounds caused by heat, poor skin, and most likely dirty beds. Tallula now has a little net on her cute head (Michelle called her 'my little Asian pear'), as she kept scratching herself more and more during the day. We have 3 more days of medicine to go and hopefully that will be the end of that.

For the rest all is well. Tallula (I keep writing her name as it makes me so happy and because the name itself is so much fun to pronounce - especially when it is by Mia or Tristan) is a very quiet, but responsive and alert baby. Mia keeps everybody busy by asking us to draw fruits for her, and Tristan loves to trot around in the hotel bathrobe and slippers. You should all come and see us! We are the cute little family in the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, on the 24th floor, and will be here for another two weeks.

First pictures

2006-08-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

Here she is!

Tallula is with us!

2006-08-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

We have her! She is soft, sweet, beautiful, wonderful, and everything else a baby should be. Of all the things available to her now, she likes one thing most: to be held. We have not let her go between when she was brought to us at 3.20 PM this afternoon and when she fell asleep tonight. She thrives on all the attention she has been getting.

We took the bus to the Civil Affairs office and within minutes after arrival the first babies were brought in. All but one of the babies came from the Zhanjiang orphanage, and made a six hour busride in the morning. Tired, out of sync, and confronted for the first time with big white people (who do have decent size noses you can squeeze, though), it was no surprise the first one cried within 20 seconds, but all girls acted very brave and quickly adjusted and settled in.

Tallula was the fifth baby, perhaps the quietest one, very curious, and she is still exactly like that. Michelle held her, Tristan and Mia were jumping for joy, and we soon moved from the room where we were to an adjacent room, with sofas and less noise. There we spent about an hour getting to know her and Michelle fed her some jook right away. She loved it. Mia continuously wanted to hold Tallula, and after that we had the opportunity to sit down with Tallula's caregivers to ask specific questions. The orphanage staff told us that she is very smart (like her Mommie, siblings, and Grammy (which she made me add)!), active, and loves to be held (which we noticed!). She only spent about half an hour per day outside.

Tallula does have some bruises and bad spots on the back of her head, and when she took her first bath (ever, most likely), the amount of dirt coming of her made even Grampy look like an amateur. After bathtime, she continued to be extremely happy while being closely held, and eventually she fell asleep with Mia and Mommie in the big bed.

Obviously, there are no words to describe the joy of completing the journey to Tallula. This little girl has a story she will never be able to fully tell, but her strength and beauty are so clear, her current adjustment already so amazing, her hunger for life so abundant, that there is no doubt she will be able to handle all of us here and much much more.

1 more night

2006-08-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

All is quiet here. We had dinner with the CCAI group (15 adoptive families), the children are sound asleep, Grammy got to do her photo and email things, Grammy and Grampy had a wonderful visit with the relatives, and all seems well here. The air is filled with anticipation. 3 of baby girls have the same birthday as Tallula, 2 little girls will celebrate their first birthday while still in Guangzhou.

The CCAI people have been extremely helpful and deserve all the credit in the world. Maggie and Grace are tireless and are helping us and everybody else out where and when they can. The hotel is surrounded by a secondary economy with laundrettes, gift shops, and children clothing stores (and preferably all combined into 1).

For those who have seen the pictures - you can tell we are roughing it! But a little luxury will not hurt when Tallula joins us tomorrow. We decorated the rooms with various mobiles and her new clothes are ready (we have a couple of pretty dresses in both Mia's and Tallula's size). We will go to the Provincial Civil Affairs Office tomorrow at 2.30 PM (= 11.30 PM in California and 8.30 AM in Europe) and with a little luck, she will be in our arms around 3.30.

In Guangzhou

2006-08-14T20:45:00.000-07:00

We arrived safely and happily in Guangzhou. The remainder of our stay in Hong Kong was fun-filled. There were beautiful sights: a 100 feet tall 'Big Buddha' hidden away on Lantau Island and (luckily for Grampy and me as we took Tristan and Mia) also plenty of 'baby Buddha's' in the shops at the bottom of the 230 steps that lead to Buddha; a fantastic skyline night view of Hong Kong; an aviary and fountain park in the middle of Hong Kong Island; the 45% tramride up to the Peak view; and the 'whatever you want to buy' - markets in Stanley and Mong Kok, where Tristan bought 2 little goldfish (which we had to surrender to Chinese customs).

We left Hong Kong Monday morning and took a beautiful trainride to Guangzhou. The 2 hour ride passed by an abundance of apartment buildings in various states of completion and depletion, shanty houses amidst agricultural fields, new railroads and new roads. After a little mix up at the trainstation in Guangzhou, we got on our hotelbus and arrived in a simply wonderful hotel. The White Swan is fabulous, our rooms are absolutely great. We have a 2-bedroom suite, and the children are already fully accustomed to playing in the middle living room area.

Breakfast this morning was as luxurious as our room(s), and we spent over an hour at the table. The fruits (dragonfruit!) and all other things were great. Afterwards, Grammy and Grampy went to visit relatives in Xianjian (2 hours drive), and we're playing with the kids.

More later on the wonderful reception and CCAI people here!

Welcome to Hong Kong

2006-08-11T01:33:00.000-07:00

Tristan just crashed after only 4 hours of sleep - obviously not enough for a 5 year old boy during a 33hour timespan. Both he and Mia were the best company on the 12.5 hour plane ride. The flight itself was uneventful, luckily, as the events prior to the flight were true to Michelle's prediction that our trip appears a copy of the 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles' script.

Grammy forgot to bring the passports, which resulted in Uncle Don making the drive at 10:30p from Sacramento to San Francisco Airport (for a 1:20a flight). A wrong turn made for a close call. Thankfully, Mark was still awake and was able to talk Uncle Don through San Francisco's maze of freeways. In the meantime, Devin met us at the airport and we celebrated his 39th birthday a few days early.

More drama: Grammy and Grampy had to make a mad dash for the gate and Grammy fell on the escalator. She hurt her knee pretty badly and had to have first aid attention on the airplane. As it turned out, boarding was delayed as security had to go through everyone's bags, tossing out all liquids, creams, and lotions. (Was horrified as they confiscated the $80 tube of moisturizer that Michelle was safekeeping for Devin! along with the kiddies' bottles of green juice, sunscreens, medicines... We ended up checking another bag to save all our goods.) Reason was that someone had just thrown a bottle in front of our airplane, which actually exploded. Related delays were negligible as we had some unexpected tailwind, and we landed at 6.10 AM in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is exactly what most people predicted - a wonderful city with an abundance of excellent food. Within an hour after checking into our hotel, the men returned with takeout cartons of tendon and noodles. We are staying in the Marco Polo Hotel in Kowloon, already boated over to Hong Kong, and plan to do more sightseeing and culinary excursions tomorrow and Sunday - hopefully without the 50 minute march in 90 deg heat and 180% humidity that Normie organized, during which I was carrying a sleeping Tristan and Mia was piggybacking on Michelle's back. I think Normie figured we needed to pay our dues since we haven't taken part in the recent family hiking trips.

Meantime, all of us and especially the children are very excited about being here, and picking up their baby. Tallula is always on our mind. Only five more nights before we get to hold her!

Tallula here we come!

2006-08-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

We just got our travel notice on Thursday, Aug 3rd... Now, all of a sudden, we're scrambling to book last minute flights, hotels, trains, etc for departure to China next Wednesday night!

We will travel (Coach!! I still can't believe it!! And on a Chinese airlines where the plane was likely designed to seat men five feet tall...) from San Francisco to Hong Kong on Wed, August 9th (actually, 1:20am on Thursday morning), and will arrive in Hong Kong at 6:30am on Friday, Aug 11th. We'll be staying at the Marco Polo Hotel in Hong Kong until Monday - relaxing, sightseeing, shopping, etc. This is my sister-in-law Serena's favorite city and she has always said I'd love Hong Kong, so I can't wait to arrive.

On Monday, Aug 14th, we will travel 3 hrs by train to Guangzhou, then take a 2 hour shuttlebus to the White Swan Hotel. ("Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" at its finest!) Tallula will join us on Wednesday, Aug 16th ('Gotcha' Day). She will be exactly 11 months.

The next weeks will be spent on formalities, ie passport, visa, doctor appointments, interviews. Seems like a lot but, if you're a mommie, you could probably get everything done in one day. Nevertheless, we'll spend 18 days on these tasks. Luckily the hotel has 2 swimming pools, tennis courts, driving range, gym, spa, etc. I mention these amenities because we will likely be spending quite of bit of time at the hotel - the weather forcast for the entire month of August is "thunderstorms; high of 90; low of 77".

The trip home will be hard on the children... two hour taxi ride; 3 hour train ride; one hour taxi ride; 12 hour flight; dinner with the family; two hour car ride home...

Of course, it will all be worth it. Mia can't wait to get Tallula out of her tummy - it's her first baby, she tells me... It will be Tristan's second baby. Tristan is bursting with joy and anticipation - his smile, eyes, and cherry cheeks say it all... He can't wait to get this little sister that he asked us for over 2 years ago. Just as he pleaded for two baby bunnies (Marshmallow and Cotton Candy), Tristan pleaded for two baby sisters.

Now back to packing. Am trying to keep Anne from bringing 3 suitcases of toys and books for the children... MvdH

New photos

2006-07-13T18:35:00.000-07:00

No news as far as travel is concerned, but we did receive more pictures! On June 28, Tallula weighed 7.3 kg (about 16 lbs.) and was 70 centimeters (28 inches).

Match Day

2006-06-27T20:36:00.000-07:00

Today we received the first information about our new daughter! Our baby girl's Chinese name is Ming Meng Zhan (Ming Meng means bright dream and Zhan relates to the city she lives in, Zhanjiang) - as you know, we will call her Tallula. Tallula ('Lola') was born on September 16, 2005. She was brought to the orphanage in Zhanjiang on September 17.

Besides being absolutely beautiful, she was 25.6 inches tall and weighed 13.9 lbs back in early April. She does not have teeth yet, is a bright and alert baby and loves to be held by adults and play with any toy.

Tristan kissed her picture when he first saw her, and Mia wanted to share her food with Tallula and tells us over and over 'I hold her!'. They, as we, can not wait to travel to China.

Tallula is currently still in the orphanage in Zhanjiang. Zhanjiang is a 6 million plus city in the South Western part of Guangdong province. It is the home province of Tallula's Grammy, and luckily Grammy and Grampy will accompany us on our trip. We will likely travel around mid-August, and fly into Hong Kong, from where we will travel to Zhanjiang (only 250 miles away), and we'll return back through Guangzhou (also in Guangdong province) where all the US paperwork will be completed.

Needless to say, we are blessed and overwhelmed with the news and are counting the days before we can hold her in our arms.

CCAA announces new matches

2006-06-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

Today the CCAA posted that they matched families with LID's through June 28! This means we should hear shortly where our baby is!

Typically, after the CCAA posts that new matches were made, the documents are sent by courier service to the Adoption Agency in the USA (Chinese Children for us). This takes a couple of days, and then the Adoption Agency will start informing the parents. The baby's whereabouts, and hopefully a picture will be made available.

We are extremely relieved this chapter has come to a close. We are now anxiously awaiting the call and information about where the little girl has been hiding!

The waiting continues

2006-05-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

The CCAA just posted that matches were made through 6/14 LID. This means in all likelihood, we'll be in the next group of matches. Given the recent pace, we expect a match around June 25. Travel will then likely be in August. Nice and hot! At least we do not have to worry about winterclothes or frostbite. Instead we will be accompanied by multiple gallons of sunblock.
It is still an odd idea that somewhere in that big beautiful country there is a little baby girl waiting for us. Tristan and Mia have been excited for so long!

More waiting

2006-04-25T07:17:00.000-07:00

Today the next group of matches was posted by the CCAA. Families with LID before June 6 (2005, that is) were matched. Only 1 week worth of families. It appears many, many more babies will not even get the chance to be adopted. At the going rate, we may not be matched until June and not travel before July or August.

Anxiously Waiting

2006-04-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

The good news? If you read this, you know what our new daughter's name will be. We decided on Tallula long time ago. Mostly because the Tallula is a beautiful name and the Tallula character in the Maisy show is the happiest girl. Mia says Tula, but we will call her Lola for short. Tallula also means 'running water', which is a connection we love because many of our fondest memories relate to rivers, oceans, and bays.

The bad news? We are still anxiously waiting for news from China. The waiting period between LID (Log-in-Date, the date our file was registered in China) and referral date (the day we receive word who and where our baby is) increased from 6 months when we completed our paperwork to 10-14 months currently. With a 6/20/05 LID, we are getting really close (to date, families with a LID through 5/30/05 have been matched).

To follow progress at the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs, go to http://www.china-ccaa.org/frames/index_unlogin_en.jsp, on the right bottom progress on matching is posted. Our own adoption agency, Chinese Children Adoption International, can be found at http://www.chinesechildren.org/.

If you want to know more about China adoption, 'Lost Daughters of China' by Karin Evans, 'The Waiting Child' by Cindy Champnella, and on (National Geographic) DVD 'China's Lost Girls' will give you that opportunity.