25 June 2006 -- Two Weeks with Maizie

Today marks two weeks with Maizie. She continues to amaze Carrie and me. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I think that the bonding is going fairly well as Maizie looks for both of us when we are out of the room and is very comfortable with both of us. We seem to spend a lot of time passing her back and forth as she wants both of us to hold her.

Maizie had a Dr.’s appointment on Friday. Her pediatrician confirmed that she looks great and is in good health. The four vaccinations, TB test and blood draw however put Maizie in a bad mood. It was very difficult to watch her go through this.

Yesterday, June 24, was Maizie’s Great Grandma King’s birthday and she came over to see Maizie. Here is a picture of Maizie with her Great Grandma.

We're Home

We arrived home on June 21 at about 1:00 pm. Maizie was very good on the flights and the altitude change did not seem to bother her ears. She slept 11 hours of the 13 hour flight from Guangzhou to LA. Unfortunately for Carrie, Maizie spent most of this time sleeping on Carrie so Carrie didn’t get to sleep much on the long flight. I think taking the flight that left Guangzhou at 9 pm local time was definitely worth it as Maizie slept so well. Despite LAX’s spotty reputation, we cleared customs quickly as they gave priority to processing the families with adopted children.

Carrie’s parents met us at the airport. Here is a picture of Maizie with her mom and Grandma Schrader.

We arrived home to a sign welcoming Maizie home.

Maizie’s Great Grandma King also came over to see her. We also arrived home to a clean house. Thanks to all those who helped cleaning our house and taking care of our pets.

On Wednesday night, my brothers and sister came over to meet the baby and to have some pizza. Here’s a picture of Maizie, me, Uncle Phil, Aunt Beth, and Uncle Rich.

My parents sent flowers and gifts from Illinois to welcome Maizie home.

Today, we didn’t do much. We took Maizie on a walk this morning and found that the people from Carrie’s work had been by to decorate the house. Maizie then received a few visitors throughout the day and evening. Daddy and Maizie took a five hour nap to help recover from the jet lag. Maizie is sleeping now and seems to be adjusting to the time change and her new surrondings. Meadow, or little, cross-eyed cat, is taking a liking to Maizie and lets Maizie pet her, which is very surprising as Meadow hates kids as a general rule and runs and hides whenever kids are around. Maizie laughs at Meadow. She also isn’t scared of the other animals, which have basically ignored Maizie so far.

Leaving China -- Tuesday, June 20

We leave for Maizie's swearing in ceremony in about 15 minutes and go dierectly to the airport from the ceremony to catch our long flight to LA. After our overnight layover in LA, we are scheduled to arrive home in Omaha shortly after noon on Wed. June 21. It's been a great journey so far and we had a great time in China, but are ready to get home. Carrie says she has lots of thoughts and impressions and hopes to post more later.

video clips

Don't know if it will work or not, but here are some links to two short video clips of Maizie. It will probably take several minutes to download the video clips.

http://www.streamload.com/schaffro/EL/YE6KHT1O8N/Fathers_Day_Video

http://www.streamload.com/schaffro/EL/YE6KHT1O8N/FathersDay2

Father's Day - June 18, 2006

Today was my first Father's Day with Maizie. She was in a good mood and very playful and loving, making a very special day even better. It also marks the first full week we have spent with Maizie.

We didn't do much today. After breakfast we did some shopping and bought some silk dresses and other souvenirs. We have more shopping to do tomorrow, which will be our last full day in Guangzhou. This afternoon, we took Maizie over to the White Swan to play in the play room over there and ran into the Perry's, the couple from California who adopted their daughter from the Jiang Cheng SWI at the same time we adopted Maizie, and ended up having dinner with the Perry's at one of the restaurants at the White Swan. Here are some photos from today.

More from June 17

After the medical exam, Maizie took a three hour nap. During this time, I went over to the Qingping market again. There's nothing in the market I would really like to buy, but it is interesting to see. Here are some photos of the market.































Tonight at dinner, Maizie ate her first bit of solid food. It was french fries. She took several bites in her mouth, but only actually ate two of them. She seems to be curious about solid food and we hope we can start transitioning her to solid food soon.

June 16/17 -- Almost a Full Week with Maizie

We haven’t been doing much of anything. Just kind of wandering around Shamian Island and the surrounding area and hanging out with Maizie in the hotel room. Maizie has been teething and was really clinging to Carrie yesterday, although she did allow me to play with her as long as Carrie was around and didn’t cry when I take for a walk around Shamian Island by myself, but didn’t really like it. Yesterday, Fri, June 16, I did get to give her a bottle in the White Swan lobby. Carrie is doing a great job of mothering Maizie and Maizie seems to be bonding to her.

On Friday June 16, we took Maizie over to the White Swan hotel to play in the White Swan’s play room with the Perry’s daughter Kendall. Maizie really enjoys playing with other children and had a good time in the play room. On our way over to the White Swan, we ran into some of Maizie’s Chinese fans. It’s amazing the number of Chinese people who come up to us on the street to tell us how beautiful Maizie is.

After a nap, we took Maizie off Shamian Island and over to the Qingping market and surrounding shopping area. The Qingping market is a traditional Chinese market and features all kind of interesting herbs, vegetables, live stock and pets. The surrounding shopping area is a large pedestrian mall that is really a vivid example of the rising Chinese consumerism that is often in the news. There are at least two McDonalds and two KFC’s in this pedestrian shopping mall. On a muggy Friday afternoon, the area was absolutely packed. We didn’t get any digital pictures as we intentionally left the digital camera in the hotel room.

Maizie only got up once last night at about 2:00 am and went back to sleep when Carrie gave her a bottle, but ended up sleeping the rest of the night on Carrie’s chest.

Maizie woke up in a better mood this morning and let me give her her first bottle of the day and was very playful. She must be feeling better.

This morning, Maizie had her U.S. passport photo taken and her medical exam. She is 70 cm long (27.6 inches) and weighs 8.5 kilograms (18.6 pounds). On the Chinese growth charts, her height is at about the 33% and weight at about the 50% for a 10 month old baby girl. After the medical exam, we came back to the room to complete the paperwork for Maizie’s US visa. Luckily (for me), Maizie took a nap in her crib and Carrie got stuck filling out the lengthy I-604 immigration form.

We basically have nothing to do between now and 3:00 pm on Tuesday, when we leave for Maizie’s swearing in ceremony and the airport. We will invest the next couple of days in bonding with and getting to know Maizie better and will do some more shopping, which Carrie hates because of the haggling.

Friday

This will be a quick entry. We took a turn for the worse in the sleeping last night. Jeff spotted a tooth coming in on top, so definitely the source of the fussiness. Maizie woke up 2-3 times in the middle of the night. Probably does not sound like a lot to you, but to us it was a long night. Also Jeff and I had never decided what our position was on cosleeping, but it seems Maizie may have made that decision for us. She falls asleep by the end of every bottle. No matter how soundly asleep she is, the second her head touches the crib she is up. We have tried to continue feeding her while she is in the crib but it is not effective. Her favorite place to sleep right now seems to be right on top of me. It is of course wonderful, but it also very sweaty and uncomfortable. Also it leads to her waking up a couple of times a night.

On the paperwork front, today we received Maizie's passport. Tomorrow we have her medical exam, which is more of a look over than an actual exam.

Maizie has taken a preference to me. She is still very interested in Jeff. Also when we are out walking she lets both Jeff and I hold her, but for bottles/sleep/play time in the hotel, I am the parent du jour. We think this is a good sign that she is attaching to us, but it does make it more exhausting for me, which is why photos only yesterday and text only tonight. Jeff is becoming very good at preparing bottles, washing bottles, fetching diapers and providing food for me.

A few more days and we will be home. I am looking forward to bringing Maizie home, but I know it means more changes for her. She is a very happy baby and I know she will adjust, but hopefully we will do a good job of not overwhelming her.

Teething

Maizie now has a fifth tooth. She has been cranky and fussy and woke up a couple of times last night because of her teething.

Photos from Thursday

Thursday

Yesterday we had very little on our schedule. This turned out to be a good thing because Maizie was fussy. We think she is teething. She also had a fever, but otherwise seemed fine. We gave her some infant Tylenol and that helped.

We did go to the store again yesterday for more formula and bottles. She likes her formula thick and so we are really going through it. We also picked up some more bottles. She does not like the Playtex ones we brought. (Erin, I picked up a bottle for you in case you want to take one when you go to meet Hope. Let me know if you want me to show you how Maizie likes her. It is a little different than all the bottles I have made for my nieces and nephews.) I hope we have enough supplies so that we do no have to go there again. It is just too crazy.

We also walked around the island and went and checked out The White Swan Hotel. The White Swan is traditionally the hotel that most parents stay at when them come to Guangzhou. We chose to stay at The Victory because we heard the beds were more comfortable and it is a better price. The White Swan has a beautiful lobby, but I am glad we chose to stay at The Victory.

Otherwise we spent most of our time in the room playing quietly with Maizie. She took a lot of little naps yesterday. So far this morning she seems to be feeling better. She and Jeff are playing on the floor with the stacking cups.

We also made the decision yesterday to not go to Yangjiang. Yangjiang is Maizie's hometown. We were hoping to go see the outside of the orphanage and her finding spot. It is about 2.5 hrs away. We just could not envision having her in a car for that long without a car seat. Jeff asked at the hotel front desk and the tour guides and it is just impossible to find a car seat around her. I know of one couple that managed to find a car seat a few years ago but it took some dedicated looking. There is also some reports of flooding in the area. Instead we made her a promise that we will bring her back when she is older and she can see for herself. We are extremely disappointed because we feel it is important to give Maizie as much information as possible about her first ten months.

We have tried to do a little shopping but it is not going well. I hate negotiating the price. You would think with all the negotiating I do with my job, I would be a pro here. Jeff can do it better than I can but has not found anything he wants enough to really purchase it. Jeff just negotiates it down, decides it is still too high and walks away. (Mary I will try and pick up those items you want but maybe you should email me with what is an appropriate price to pay for it, otherwise I do not know if we will be able to get it done.)

Maizie is a constant joy for us. We feel so blessed to get to be with her. We are not really sure how she feels about us. Every morning when she wakes up she spends a long time staring at us and thinking before she will give us her smiles. Once she start sticking out her tongue and blowing raspberries we know she has decided we are ok for another day. She loves to stand and stare at herself in the mirror. She has incredibly long eyelashes. She has a belly button that sticks out and sticks out even more when she is full. She will crawl to Mommy, which makes my heart just melt. When we cuddle to have her bottle she sticks her fingers in my mouth and takes my glasses off. She is already learning things so fast. When we first played with the books, she did not really get the idea and now she is turning the pages. She laughs when Mommy and Daddy throw the beach ball back and forth. She is just perfect.

Day Three with Maizie -- June 13, 2006

Today was rather uneventful. We met our guides in the morning and went to the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees. This is a Buddhist temple with a large pagoda in the center. There are also lots of bonsai trees and flowers in the temple. Maizie was blessed by a Buddhist monk.

This afternoon, while Carrie was watching Maizie during one of her naps, I wandered off Shamian Island to get KFC. Although tourists are generally encouraged to stay on the island, my adventure was really was an easy trip and I never felt lost or in danger. Judging from the asking price I saw in the many stores between our hotel and the KFC, I think that much better bargains on souvenirs and clothes can be had off the island and I will try to leave the island to do some shopping in the next couple of days.

Maizie continues to do well. She is eating and sleeping well. She is a happy baby and blows raspberries with her tongue. She laughs a lot and easily. Although she hasn't cried our fussed much, her laughter makes me want to cry; it is the sweetest sound I have ever heard.

Mommy's Little Maizie

Day 2 With Maizie;The Adoption is Official -- June 12, 2006

Today we finalized the adoption of Maizie under Chinese law. She is officially ours forever. The adoption took place at the same office that we met Maizie at. It took about two and half hours to complete the paperwork and the “interview” process. We had to promise to never abuse or abandon Maizie and to give her a good education. The actual paperwork and interview process only took about a half hour. Most of the time was spent waiting around in a play room with other adoptive families. Maizie was the most active of the newly adopted babies. She really enjoyed cruising around in the walkers. She would ram her walker into the other babies’ walkers and laugh. Here’s a picture of Maizie in a walker (the two girls behind her are a set of twins that a couple from Minnesota adopted).

Here’s a photo of the chaos in the play room while the families were waiting to finalize their paperwork.

Here’s a photo of us during the interview process.

On our way out the office building, we ran into the director and several nannies from the Jiang Cheng Social Welfare Institute where Maizie was adopted from. They were bringing 5 or 6 more girls in from the Jiang Cheng SWI to meet their new families.

After finalizing the adoption, we went to have Maizie’s passport photo taken. She fell asleep in Carrie’s arms in the cab ride to the office were the passport photo was taken (they don’t use car seats in China). She both plays and sleeps very hard.

We then came back to the hotel and finally got Maizie to finish off a bottle of formula (in fact she drank almost two bottles). She went down for a nap at about 1. We woke her up at about 3:30 as her normal schedule is to nap from noon to two and we didn’t want to deviate from that too much and also didn’t want her sleeping all afternoon and being up all night. I’m sure that waking a sound asleep baby from a nap breaks a cardinal rule of parenting, but we did it any way and she wasn’t too cranky about it.

Right now, we are just wandering around Shamian Island some and hanging out in the room to get to know Maizie better. Maizie enjoys looking out the window. We stand her up in the window sill and she is able to support herself and stand on her own by putting her hands on the window (we of course stay right there in case losses her balance). She also likes balls. She was fascinated by the Christmas ornament style balls hanging from the ceiling in the playroom and really likes the small beach ball we brought for her. She is taking bottles of formula and juice, but hasn’t eaten much of the rice cereal or fruit that we have been trying to feed her with a spoon. She still hasn’t fussed very much; we are keeping our fingers crossed that this continues. Finally, her rash and dry skin seemed to improve quite a bit after we rubbed her down with tea tree oil after last night's bath and we are hopeful that this will clear up shortly.

Maizie and Daddy