Streaming Ellie Videos

As foreshadowed, here are a few selections of Ellie video.

Neither of us is (yet) a talented cinematographer. But the Star surmounts the ineptness of the crew and all technical difficulties to turn in diva performance. It's all in the character method, we suppose....

Gotcha Day" is what CCAI, and perhaps other adoption agencies, calls the day the babies are turned over by the orphanages. The "Gotcha Moment" was delayed for everybody by about a half hour as Ellie's arrival was awaited; when the other babies were given to their adoptive parents, Ellie was still ten minutes or so off. Having come a long distance from Nankang, caught in traffic, tired, carsick, hungry, and "afraid of strangers," Ellie stood things well -- stood her ground, too -- until actually taken in hand by the "strangers."

Sustained crying settled into sniffles and hiccups as Ellie was settled into pajamas. Ellie certainly had some sense of what was happening to her: from time to time her face would gather into a frown and she would burst into fresh crying. On this video, we have only the sniffles. She seemed once to be saying goodbye (with mourning) to her orphanage life. The next day, when the adoptions were registered, she met her orphanage director, her nannies, and one of her playmates, and didn't respond to any of them ... almost as if she didn't recognize them.

Ellie's first full day with us (followed by a second night, rather like Genesis 1: evening came and morning followed) was a please-the-civil-servants day, with a trip to adoption registration, visa application, notarization, and a trip to Walmart for baby supplies. Ellie's personality awoke gradually during the day. By evening, playful impishness appeared.

This video belies our claim that Ellie was "clingy" as regards Karen. That behavior came later, towards the end of our stay in Nanchang, and got much stronger in Guangzhou. In People's Park, Ellie wandered about freely for a few minutes -- only a few minutes. We tried her in the stroller, but she stayed in the stroller only if Karen walked alongside, holding her hand. Tom was struck by the playground equipment, which in China doubles as exercise equipment.

This last is a long video: a collection of Ellie in several different moods. She was by this time very much in "stay near Mommie" mode, unless she felt she was in a secure place. Shopping fascinated her. Going about looking at artistic artifacts didn't. Attempts at speech (demands, mostly, but questions from time to time) show up a couple of times, and at the end of this video, we see the new challenger for Family Pouting Champion. (The title of the video is Tori's contribution.)

Ellie's Orphanage

Before going to China for their babies, adopting families commonly send a care package ahead: clothes, toys, and so forth. The baby is handed over in the clothes provided by the adopting families.... Some families send a disposal camera, and with luck, get the camera and/or the pictures back. We were blessed with luck, and Karen fetched the pictures home from Walgreen's today. So here are shots of Ellie in her orphanage (Nankang Social Welfare Institute.)

It appears as if this particular SWI is being renovated or maybe expanded. A Social Welfare Institute, by the way, is not for abandoned girls only: it is also for the seriously handicapped, elderly folk with no families to keep them, waiting children (boys and girls) and other such cases. We see only baby girls in these photos, however. Karen and I suppose that Nankang SWI is being expanded to serve the other needs.

One of the little girls in these photos we recognize: Ellie's playmate (Kathy, I think, is her new name) that we met twice after Ellie was delivered to us. We also see the two nannies who brought Ellie and Kathy to our Nanchang hotel. What you will see of the facility in these pictures looks very spartan indeed, but the children seem strong and in good health -- as indeed Ellie is.

Today she was taken by Karen for her second ride in a car seat, and did pretty well: a de rigeur protest that didn't last too long. She has also had her first visit to McDonald's, for breakfast (pancakes and sausage.) I believe we will upgrade that to Bob Evan's by the end of the week ... this is called "Americanization," I suppose. She was actually put to bed by Ba-ba last night, slept soundly through the night, and woke up without fussing about the same time the other kids woke up for school.

We are spending a good deal of time teaching her words, because she is obviously eager to talk.

Home in Twinsburg

We are Home!

How ironic (or maybe it's not ironic; maybe it's inevitable) that our first day in Twinsburg was a cold, grey day with a touch of snow, after two weeks of excellent weather in three different parts of China. Just perhaps, if you'll permit me the heresy, a Communist system is more capable at arranging The People's Weather than a constitutional republic?

Of course it's always possible that we were merely made to think that the weather in China was excellent....

As a matter of fact, it was excellent only by the standards of Cleveland; our fellow travellers from Denver and San Diego were less impressed.

Followers will notice greater length to this post, because I am no longer paying so much per minute for Internet use, and I am using my own computer!!! to write it. I have just added two more sets of pictures to the April 10 post, along with a bit of editing, and a third set below -- in all, slightly more than sixty new pictures. I do hope that Tori is not going to be jealous, later, that Ellie's site has many times more pictures than Tori's site. There are three reasons, Torianna: better digital cameras, better website services, and faster computers in Ellie's day than in Tori's.

Ellie has now completed four airplane flights, two taxi rides, an uncounted number of bus rides, and one trip home in the car -- all of which she enjoyed; she's a good traveller. She enjoyed the taxi rides because in China car seats for children are not required, and we avoided calamity during the trip home from the airport by -- but perhaps I'd better not make that public.

During the short flight from Guangzhou to Hongkong she fiddled with this and that but mostly played quietly. During the short flight from Chicago to Cleveland she slept. During the long flight -- fourteen hours from Hongkong to Chicago -- she was what Karen calls "a whirling dervish" or, if you prefer, what Tom calls "a little Ellion." She flipped and flopped, twisted and tangled, pulled things, poked things, threw things, butted things (like Karen's face, a couple of times) and laughed, because she thought Karen was playing, whenever Karen tried imposing a little force to make her sit still. She fussed when Tom tried to take over management. Karen had to pick Ellie up and walk around the plane a few times just to get her to stop thrashing around in the seat. It was, in short, a long trip. On top of that, due to electrical problems in our section of the airliner, the seat controls didn't work, which meant that seat lights could not be turned off, the sound system channels could not be used, and the cabin attendants could not be summoned. To be fair to the cabin attendants, they were more attentive with to because of this: we received excellent service, although the food was very poor. ...And to be fair to the little Ellion, she did fall asleep for about an hour in the middle of the trip, and for two or three hours towards the end.

Things were mildly interesting between flights, too. For no reason clear to us, Karen, Ellie and I were in the second group to leave the hotel for the Guangzhou airport (the other families boarding the plane with us left the hotel an hour earlier) and although we arrived in what was theoretically plenty of time, we ended up in a slow line with a slow service rep. Check-in took so long that our CCAI rep had to leave us. We got to our designated gate about twenty minutes before boarding began, and then, about three minutes after boarding began, someone came from another gate to tell us that the gate for our flight had changed and if we wanted to get to Hongkong we had better hustle four gates down that-a-way. (This information had been on display on the marquee at our gate, but none of us waiting had seen it; and probably there had been an announcement, too, that none of us were able to understand.)

Upon landing in Hongkong and collecting our bags we had to get in a l-o-o-n-g line to check in for Chicago and Cleveland; this took about an hour and a half, and after security, transit, elevators and this-and-that we again made it to our gate for Chicago with only a little time to spare.

In Chicago we went through baggage claim, Immigrations, and Customs, after which we had to recheck already-checked baggage and pass again through security, transit, elevators and this-and-that to find our gate for Cleveland. Going through Customs made Ellie an American citizen. When I congratulated her on that while awaiting the transit train, a gentleman on the platform overhead and he congratulated her, too.

Fairly typical airport experience, all of it. In fact I have to say that except for a couple of check-in clerks who were very slow, the service at the airports and on the planes was first quality. Security is security, but the guards and immigration officers were polite, efficient, diligent and reasonable, in the U.S. and in China. I did get held up by customs officers when entering Guangzhou, over something someone didn't like on my passport -- I never did find out what it was -- but even that small delay was handled with courtesy. Karen had to open her backpack to be searched at one point. It was full of Ellie's toys, which probably weren't recognizable on the scanner.

Carol, Mark and Tori came to meet us at Hopkins. They weren't permitted a gate pass; they had to wait for us at baggage claim. Ellie took to the kids almost immediately. We had an uneventful if slightly daring ride home, and after helping us get into the house, Mark and Tori went back to Nana and Doh's place so that Ellie could sleep her first night home with just Ma-ma and Ba-ba. Ellie and Ma-ma went to bed almost as soon as we got home. Ba-ba went to the grocery store to pick up some basics for next morning, our fridge being empty; but couldn't buy wine for Karen (yes, that is one of the basics) because it was Sunday morning, just after midnight, when he got to Giant Eagle.

We began the day, Saturday the 12th, at 5:00 AM in China, and ended it around 12:00 AM on Sunday the 13th--which sounds like 19 hours except for China being twelve hours ahead, so it was actually 31.

By mid-morning next day Ellie and Tori were playing as if they had been friends together all their lives. Probably in a day or so they'll be playing as if they've been sisters all their lives (any experienced parent will understand the difference immediately.)

Mark didn't get that much chance to play with Ellie because he was scheduled to take a certification test for his hunting license, which turned out to be a three-hour course as well as a test. He passed, with a 99%, being the second person to finish the test; and was immediately equipped by Doh with his own hunting license. Tom, having gone along, decided to take the certification test, too, and also passed (with only a 96%, but there it is.) After getting home from that, Mark did play with Ellie for a short while, and also tried a couple of games of chess, Chinese version, with Tom; and then Tom decided that Ellie had better have a nap. Ellie was lulled to sleep with more recorder music.

The little whirling dervish Ellion is already very comfortable in her new "orphanage." She stayed home all day and went outdoors for a few moments only, to admire the deck. She is getting along just fine with the kids, Nana and Doh -- but she can't stand poor Arpeggio, so the cat is banished for the time being to the basement. She needs the barest minimum of help to get up and down the stairs. She loves the windows. She loved trying to fiddle with the presents her older siblings were brought from China (the older siblings put most of them away with commendable and prudent expedition.) She seems comfortable in her new bedroom, although of course she is not sleeping alone in it, yet--both Tori and Karen are with her at the moment. All in all, the whole family is adjusting very well.

Thanks once more to everybody for following this blog, for helping Carol and Roger look out for Mark and Tori, for covering for Karen and myself in our absence, for prayers, hopeful thoughts, good wishes, and all other kindnesses. Tomorrow I will work a bit on getting some video posted here, so stay tuned....

Still here ... still waiting ...

[Original entry edited and expanded on April 13] I hope I haven't unduly worried anyone by not posting lately.... Things are still going very well. We have been marking time here, waiting for the mills of the gods, which as the saying goes, grind slowly, but grind exceedingly fine. (I have never found that very reassuring: to be ground "exceedingly fine" by the mills of the gods sounds bad by itself, and to have them do it slowly....)

As you might all expect, scrapbookers especially, there are a couple hundred more photos than those posted on this blog in our possession: of Ellie, the parts of China we have seen, local flora, local art and architecture, and other persons (with adoptees) travelling with us; but because it is actually sort of expensive to create and post the slideshows, I've decided not to add any more until after we are back in the States ... day after tomorrow, I think it is, or probably it's two days after tomorrow due to a whole day being lost in travel, except we get it back because we cross over the international date line ... all very confusing, like Daylight Savings Time. I'll know what day it is when we get back by checking a calendar. I could work out the math, of course, but it's too tiring, right now....

Anyway, there will be more pictures of Ellie coming, and if I can manage it, some video, soon after we land in the States.

Some of you will be seeing Ellie in person before then!

[Note, added 04/13: The SD card on Karen's camera is presently holding 781 pictures, and Tom's PDA is holding about another 30 -- of far inferior quality. As of Monday morning the 14th, this blog displays just over 210, which I think does little Ellie rather proud. Just added to this entry are a few shots of Ellie and her new ma-ma and ba-ba hanging around in Guangzhou. --End note.]

Yesterday our CCAI guide, Jocelyn, cleared our I-600 and I-784 and DS-3whatnot, and two or three other papers I seem to remember signing, at the U. S. Consulate; and we need only take the oath, whatever that is, [as it turned out: the oath was merely a declaration that all information provided to the U. S. Government was true to the best of our knowledge, an affirmation that had probably already been attested by signature on at least one of the documents -- end note] to clear our Ellie for entry into the U.S. Once she's in the country, she becomes a citizen, thank Congress, and we need only obtain her social security card, already applied for, and a registered county record of her birth certificate, and certification from our Ohio agency that she's doing well in her new home, and probably, by that time, there will be some law somewhere that she has to be fingerprinted.... (sigh)

She is doing fine, hernia and all. She had a bit of a cold but got over it (save for the occasional cough) yesterday. She still wakes up hard every morning: fussy, and a little uncertain of where she is. She continues to be nervous around everyone except Karen and myself, and still will not tolerate me holding her for more than a few minutes, unless we are in our hotel room -- and not even there, if she's already upset. Some pictures show Ellie holding her forearm in front of her mouth: we call this "smelling her arm" and it's a sign of anxiety. She does this often. She will not consider going in her stroller; she's taken to refusing to walk, even with Karen holding her hand; and she's learned to run ahead of Karen and block Karen's passage by grabbing her legs, so that Karen has had to carry her everywhere we go. Most of this, we think, is from overstimulation and general insecurity, although certainly some of it comes from never having been spoiled before.

There is no doubt she's bonded to Karen. Despite refusing to let me comfort her or carry her she's becoming attached to me, also. She's even becoming more comfortable with other people, although not to be handled, or approached. She seems interested in other children when she sees them, but remains wary of them.

[Some of the above began to change during the last couple of days in Guangzhou: Ellie played with Tom in a park, while Karen was drinking coffee; let Tom carry her outside the hotel room a couple of times, although not out of the hotel; and allowed Tom to lull her to sleep with recorder music. But she still had to be carried by Karen anywhere we went, and when she met another little girl at the consulate who had been her playmate in the orphanage, she seemed as if she didn't want to recognize her. This slideshow is a "day with Ellie" series from the next-to-last day in Guangzhou -- end note]

We leave for home early tomorrow morning. A short flight from here to Hong Kong, then the long one from Hong Kong to Chicago, then Chicago to Cleveland. Perhaps I will be able to check in from Chicago. Thanks again to everyone who followed along via the blog. I appreciate all the comments, and the emails, too. I will of course be preserving this site for Ellie to see when she is older (Tori has looked at her site a few times) and I hope to preserve the comments, too.

Signing off for now....

Crib and the Red Couch

Poor Ellie had to have another doctor's visit today. We took her to the Western Clinic in Guangzhou because Karen found a suspicious-looking lump in her lower abdomen, one that kept going away and coming back. Karen and Jocelyn guessed "hernia" and the American-trained doctor at the clinic agreed. We're told it's not a serious condition. Ellie will have to have outpatient surgery to correct it, which we'll arrange after we get back Stateside. It doesn't give her any trouble. She is still running a low fever from her infection, but it doesn't damp her spirits at all. In fact she was especially playful today just before bedtime.

Karen suggests that Ellie is just trying to one-up Tori (who had to have surgery soon after coming home to remove her epidemial inclusion cyst ... "hernia" is easier to say.)

One of Shamian Island's traditions among adoptive families is Lucy's, an American-menu restaurant with outdoor seating about a block from the White Swan. We have now been to Lucy's twice, not so much for the American menu but because it is convenient; and we have met fellow-travellers each time. Another White Swan tradition is the "Red Couch Photo," taken on one of a set of red couches near the bird cages on the hotel's second floor. Ellie does not approve of the Red Couch Photo. (She is not alone in that.)

The White Swan hotel is heavily occupied by Chinese babies with American parents. In fact there are a few parents of other nationalities, but Americans form a large and conspicous majority -- or seem to do so, anyway. We wander all over Shamian Island, carrying babies or pushing strollers -- the former, in Ellie's case. The island happens to be a "tourist" spot even for the local Chinese, who are also seen carrying cameras and shooting photos of everything. It is a favorite site for wedding pictures, due to the elegant European architecture, the very many beautiful old trees, the life-size and very life-like bronze statues that show Eastern and Western inhabitants through the centuries, the park along the Pearl River and the park in the island's central boulevard. We have run into a few families that we met in Hong Kong, who went to Nanning for their adoptions, and we have made friends with a few other families that we bump into at the hotel, then meet again elsewhere on the island.

One of the pictures in this set shows Tom holding another Eleanor. This older Ellie (four) was adopted from Jiangxi two years ago, and came back with her family for their second adoption, of a three-year-old little sister, Mae, also from Jiangxi. "Big" Ellie shows up in many of the other picture sets, if you care to go through them and hunt for her...

Doctors, Papers, Shopping, and Ma-Ma

Today we had our little one's medical exam. She LOVED it (not!) We had a minor fuss over her infection but got through it with Jocelyn's help, interpreting.

Tom spent most of the afternoon completing final paperwork, while Mommie and Ellie went shopping. They did more browsing than actual shopping, but the week is still young...

We had dinner at Lucy's, including the first glass of white wine we've seen this trip. But the real highlight of dinner was Ellie looking at Karen and saying: "Ma-Ma!"

We don't know whether she was speaking English or Chinese. Doesn't matter! She meant it, either way!

Toddler Convalescense

Ellie was much better today. Her fever is down and she is as active as she was before getting sick. To the matter of antibiotics, vitamins, and suchlike, she decided to put her foot down -- but she discovered that when Ellie puts her foot down, Mommie does, too. Once she got past the shock of that she did pretty well.

This was a "non-business" day. We slept in pretty late and were barely in time for breakfast, but we made it OK. Ellie had a little more appetite. After breakfast we visited one of the most popular Buddhist temples in South China, and because today was the first day of the lunar month, it was crowded and very noisy -- quite a contrast to the other temple we visited. People were lighting incense and praying in all directions, unbothered by everyone else moving back and forth. I tossed a coin at an incenses burner for luck (successfully) and Karen took Jocelyn's invitation to light some incense. All the babies were blessed by a Buddhist monk at a short but fairly elaborate ceremony, which we got on video. After the temple, we visited an ancestral art preserve of the Chen family. Ellie blew up a bit there, mostly from fatigue, and Karen had to carry her out; but she calmed down before we got quite outside. We waited in the courtyard for everyone else, playing with leaves and blossoms under a tree, and taking a few more minutes of video. Because our guide, Jocelyn, thought we had gone back to the bus, the whole group walked right past us while we were watching the wrong gate! But we were easy to find when Jocelyn came back for us.

Guangzhou is about six times the population of Nanchang -- fifth largest city in the world, so Jocelyn says; thirteen million people -- but it does not feel nearly as crowded, and is not as bustling, as Nanchang. People saunter here, not rush. Our hotel is in a particularly quiet and pleasant quarter, on a man-made island, Shamian Island, in the Pearl River. The weather is mild and warm, and it's a fine thing to wander the streets by day or night. At a park by the river Karen and I were approached by some schoolchidren, out with their teachers, assigned to find Americans (I suppose) and practice their English. They collected signatures to show how many people they had greeted.

We had a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant followed by ice cream at a little deli, then sat outside talking until the babies' bedtime. Ellie didn't think much of the ice cream.

Tomorrow (ironically) is Ellie's official medical exam. Karen does not expect any problems. Apart from her usual depression upon awakening from sleep or a nap (Ellie, not Karen) and occasional wariness, our little girl is in good spirit.