Bobo's Poo Day

Monday, March 31st
It was still chilly today, though it warmed up a bit this afternoon. We’ll label the day Bobo’s Poo Day!!

We got up this morning and took a boat tour of the West Lake (which is actually located just across the street from our hotel). We actually had a boat with inside seats, but some rude old people sat in there, and even though we had babies, they didn’t offer up seats. We ended sitting outside wrapped in blankets.

We walked through some beautiful gardens, and saw an albino peacock. It was very pretty.
We stopped for tea at a tea garden – it was cool, you saw all of the tea fields and the ladies picking the tea. It was quite interesting. The best part was when liquid started dropping off Bobo (who happened to be carrying K.T. at the time). Yea, you guessed it – K.T. had initiated Bobo and poo’d all over him. It was quite disgusting, and I wasn’t the one that had to smell like that.

We stopped at a local restaurant for lunch and had lotus chicken, taro root, some pork something, and fried rice (I think I’m turning into rice!).

After a brief episode of Benadryl – it is (I’ve had a bit of a runny nose and some sneezing going on). We went out again to the Steak King. Tonight my specialty was the cornless corn chowder. It was good, though it kind of tasted like watered down rice (I’m dying here without salt!).

Tomorrow we’re going to an older part of Hangzhou in the morning, and an “entertainment show” in the evening, we leave here on Thursday morning.

Leisure Day in Hangzhou

Sunday, March 30th
It was a nasty weather day here. Just drizzly all day and extremely cold. While we were at the park yesterday, we met a little elderly man who invited us to a Tai Chi session early this morning, so we got dressed, and went over before we ate breakfast. There wasn’t anyone there! Bobo said, “He’s probably hiding in the bushes saying – Those silly Americans!”

We came back to the hotel for breakfast, then went out to the local supermarket for some fresh bread and cookies. Then it was back to the hotel to pick up our laundry ($45 worth!). At least we had warm clothes to wear – I’d sent all the girls long pants to the laundry, thinking we’d get them back the same day – not two days later!

This afternoon we met in the lobby with another couple and our local CCAI representative. We went to church with her. We couldn’t get out of her what type of church it was, but she kept saying a Baptism church (whatever that is!). It was actually very nice (for the 30 minutes I got to enjoy it before we had to K.T. out). They sang some of the old songs, in Chinese – actually the whole sermon was in Chinese. We asked Rebecca (our guide) what the sermon was about and she said it was about raising your children up to show love – for their parents, their grandparents, their family, and God. (What are the chances?)

The church itself was huge and beautiful. The minister was a lady, and they had a choir. They did not, however, have heat – or a cry room. When K.T. decided to act up, I got to stand outside with him (remember I said it was cold?). The service lasted about 2 hours – so that was one cold time.

Bobo took Alyssa to “exercise” around the hotel (otherwise known as doing cartwheels up and down the hallway).

We ate at the restaurant hotel today where items on their menu included snake head in red sauce and pigeon blood soup. Needless to say, we stuck with fried rice, cabbage, and sweet and sour pork (oh, how I hope that was pork!)

The last picture is a squat potty -- the girls are ahead of me on this one. I've never used one, but the girls had to go at the department store yesterday, so they both did (though I helped a bit).

Saturday in Hangzhou

Saturday, March 29th
There was no official business today, since it was Saturday. The area that we are in is a very large tourist area. Wow! You can say that again. The traffic and number of people in and around our hotel was awful today. Think of Colorado Springs traffic multiplied by one MILLION!

We started the day with the buffet we get each morning in the hotel that we’re staying in. K.T. eats anything in sight, and today had two huge bowls of fried rice and another couple bowls of congee. Alyssa is in high heaven with noodles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Mikaela isn’t digging the munchin too much. She asks for chicken nuggets for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The problem is most of the nuggets here are spicy!!! Even though we’ve found McDonalds, the food (at least to me) just doesn’t seem quite the same.

We went on a tour of another silk factory (this one run by the government). The prices here are extremely hefty. We found a nice shirt for Rich, and it was about $70 US dollars. (Needless to say, we took a picture of it for him – he can imagine what he would have looked like.)

After we got back to the hotel, we took another walk by the lake with the other members of our group. We found some wonderful strawberries with a sugar glaze on them (think candy apple glaze over strawberries). They we fabulous! I saved the last one for Bobo, and it wasn’t a strawberry – it was a crab apple. I think we’ll be having more of them.

The local vendors around the lake sell corn on the cob, the glazed fruit, and cotton candy. Even though the cotton candy is white, Alyssa loves it. She keeps making a beard like she Santa with it.

We stopped at a noodle place with one of the families for lunch. We had this great dessert – kind of like iced milk, but covered in fruit – YUM to say the least. We didn’t venture far from what we knew – jasmine rice and then some noodles.

We came back to the hotel for a while, then decided we needed to go get souvenirs at Hooters for Uncle Ronnie (Rich’s brother). We also had some good old fashioned popcorn chicken, onion rings, and chili cheese fries. One of the other families went with us. It was very rainy today, so needless to say, catching a cab with the rain, the huge crowd, and just China traffic in general was quite an experience.

We really had our sights set on going to Wal-Mart, but found out today that it is like a 45 to 50 minute cab ride. I guess if we get really bored one day.

Tomorrow we’re planning on getting attending a tai chi class at the lake, getting our laundry back (big thrill), and then attending a church service in the afternoon with our tour guide.

K.T. is getting better every day – though he really likes Bobo, he comes running to Mommy now with his arms in the air. He loves to play with his sisters, and keeps them on their toes. He is into everything. If you try to put him on the bed, he is off faster than you can move in some cases. He walks around, has the work “UP” down quite well, and has everyone he comes into contact with wrapped around his little finger within minutes.

Our family is quite the celebrity here. When we’re walking around the lake, we have people stop us and ask to take pictures with us. Today an older gentleman, followed us around the lake for at least 30 minutes, asking us questions about America, about the kids, and telling us a bit of the area’s history. The girls will have a hard time adjusting, since they think everyone follows them around because they are so beautiful.

There's No Going Back Now!

Friday, March 28th
Okay, today was the day of no returns (exchanges, or money back). At about 9 o’clock this morning, we took the final oath, saying we loved this obstinate little booger, and that he would be ours forever. As far as the country of China is concerned, we have a little Kenneth Tao Pecoraro.

I’m asking for your prayers. K.T. has had a bit of an adjustment problem. He seems to be very strong willed, and cried for almost the entire walk to the official ceremony this morning. Later, he had another episode for his nap, where he wailed and wailed for almost an hour before he’d give in to sleeping. This was actually very surprising for us, since he slept for almost 11 hours last night (once he decided to sleep, that is!).

Alyssa has been a great big sister. She actually calmed him on the way back from the ceremony in the stroller. Just patting his tummy while he had his bottle calmed him right down. Mikaela is getting a little more friendly with him, and is trying to protect him. She’ll take stuff away from him that she thinks will hurt him. Overall, I’d say Alyssa is relishing being a good sister, and Mikaela is quickly warming up.

Our guide took us for laundry – our family took a taxi of our own! The other families rode with the tour guide (actually one lady stayed at the hotel with her son – he’s been running a bit of a fever. Afterwards, we went to a local mall / department store. Our little guy can drool with the best of them, so we bought some bibs, a smaller bottle, and a big rag to wipe the spit.

Later (after the nap attitude), we walked with another of the guys across the street to the West Lake. It was beautiful. You can take boat rides, and there were people and stands galore. We found a small section with amusement rides, but didn’t make it quite that far, so tomorrow afternoon, we’ll be going there.

This evening we ventured out on our own as a family and went to a mall across the street (all of the malls here have at least 6 floors, but no air conditioning). The girls got a couple pair of new pants, since I sent theirs all to the laundry then got a call that it’s supposed to be chilly tomorrow (67 degrees), so I needed to dress the kids especially warm! (You should have seen the stares I got today when I dressed the girls in Capri pants – OOH, bad Chinese mom!)

I picked for dinner tonight, and we went into a Vietnamese restaurant, after we’d set down and ordered, Bobo pointed out the ducks in the window. (Yum, yum!) We ordered fried shrimp, and didn’t realize that they were whole shrimp – eyeballs and all. Poor Mikaela thought they were the breaded ones from Red Lobster, boy was she in for a shock!

K.T. continues to eat well, though you don’t come out of that experience cleanly – luckily he likes BoBo to feed him! Poor little guy puts it in his mouth, but then part of it comes out of his nose. I’d think half of what he tries to get in his mouth ends up there, the rest is on the floor. He tries, and I’d say he does very well – there aren’t many 26 pound babies out there at 16 months old!

We are pretty much off this weekend – tomorrow I think we’re going to the silk factory – that’s the local Hangzhou specialty, then probably back to the park and lake in the afternoon.

Sunday there are no big plans except meeting to get our laundry at 11 o’clock a.m. I’d like to try to go to Wal-Mart and Hooters. I don’t know what our tour guide has in for Wal-Mart, but she keeps saying that it is a far way away. Go figure!

GOTCHA Day!

Thursday, March 27th
Today’s the day we’ve been waiting for since November 9th!!! We finally met Mr. Kenneth Tao, and I must say HE IS ONE HANDSOME LITTLE GUY!!!

We walked to the Civil Affairs office with the other two families at 8:45 a.m. When we got to the office, we walked into the meeting room; and the babies were already there. One look (since there were just three to chose from), and we knew which one he was!

We walked over to meet him, and he came to us, and just sat and watched his sisters. It was awesome! He got down and walked, and ATE and ATE and ATE some more. He weighs in at 11.8 kilograms – Mikaela weighs 12.0!!!

We got to talk to the orphanage director, meet his nanny – who was the sweetest thing, and we filled out the vast majority of our paperwork.

We went to McDonalds for lunch (to celebrate), and he wasn’t all that impressed. He does love shrimp crackers though – just like his sisters. We walked around a little bit, and then came back for a short rest.

We met at the Kodak shop outside the hotel for our “family photos”, and then walked to the grocery store for snacks and drinks!!!

We’re in our room now, resting up for dinner. The girls have played with KT with balloons and a ball, and I think he loves it!

Yeah . . . And in Alyssa’s famous words today (right after we got K.T.), “Can we just get on the airplane and go home now?” I guess not, we’ve still got 15 nights here in China.

One More Day!

Wednesday, March 26th
Today was pretty much non – exciting.

After an early breakfast with another family in our group. Heather and her husband (Sorry, I forget his name – the girls refer to him as the Princess guy”), we met our guide in the lobby. She took us to the airport, and we got ready to board the plane.

The plane was delayed for about 30 minutes, and then once it arrived, we had to wait another 30 or so minutes because they were waiting for two people. (Imagine that!).

We got to our room around 3 p.m., filled out some paperwork, then rested. Afterwards, we met up with the other guys and had dinner at Pizza Hut. We all had a good time, ate Black Angels (a Pepsi float with chocolate ice cream!). Some of us ordered water without ice (since you can’t drink the faucet water here). We got 8 ounce glasses of steaming hot water!!! We tried to find a grocery store, but no one understood enough English to know what we were talking about.

It was back to the hotel for an early night, since we meet in the lobby to get our babies (all boys, all cleft affected) at 8:45 tomorrow morning.

Next time I write, we will be a family of 5!!!

Stair Day!!!

Tuesday, March 25th
This was our “stair day”.

After we met our other two families in the lobby, our guide Helen took us to a jade factory. They had the coolest pictures that were made from jade dust and glue. Nothing like I’d ever seen before. Had to get a couple of those.

After the factory, we went to the Great Wall. I forgot how hard it was to climb. Some steps are a couple of inches, and some are more like a foot. Alyssa and Mikaela were troopers. Though we didn’t make it to the top, I’d say they climbed about ½ the way up. We celebrated with ice-cream and a call to dad from the base. (We teased our tour guide, because the last time we were here, they took us to the top by gondola, and we just had to climb down – much easier!!)

We stopped at the same restaurant we ate at when we picked up Alyssa for lunch. They served the same “headed” fish, and it was funny watching one of the couples just sit and look at it, then never put another bite in their mouths. The food was yummy, but the restaurant was on the 3rd floor, so we had to climb even more stairs.

This evening we went to the acrobatic show. The girls were very impressed, and they had a group of 15 people on one bike. (One girl was driving it!). At the end though, the bike broke – as my boss would say, “what did you learn from that?” (maybe that bicycles are made for one person – not 15!.

Mikaela is still having issues with the whole sleep thing. This morning she woke up at 3 a.m., and didn’t go back to bed until 5 a.m. Of course, I didn’t get any sleep during that time either.

We leave tomorrow on another jet plane. We’re headed to KT’s province capital. Hangzhou!!! We will fly in just after noon, do some paperwork in the afternoon, then rest up, because he’ll be in our arms the very next day!!!

Hope life is treating you well. Keep us in your prayers, and especially pray for KT’s (and Mikaela’s) adjustment into our family. – Mikaela has been very much a mommy’s girl on this trip.