A Beautiful Morning

> Click here for a video of Willow hamming it up

> Click here for a video of Willow in motion

> Click here for a video of Waylon spazzing out in the snow

We woke up to a spectacular morning here in Santa Fe. It started to snow moments after Bonnie had her snow tires mounted on her car yesterday afternoon and snowed continually through the evening and night. This morning the sun is brilliant and the snow is clustered on leaves and trees branches like so many pralines, in thick marshmallow puffs over our patio furniture, dripping over the mountains in rivers of sugar. We feel so lucky to awaken to so much beauty.

Bonnie went out with a friend last night, leaving Gong and Willow to figure out the evening for themselves. After another relatively nap-free day, Willow was exhausted by the end of it and fell asleep for the night at 5:45, allowing Gong to relax and read for the evening. So we all had a nice, restful evening and night, Bonnie in the company of her good friend Nena, Gong in the company of some interesting thoughts and ideas, Willow in the company of her favorite blankie, a warm, comfy fleece that matches the ones that warm our dogs in the night (Waylon’s is red, Annie’s is light blue, Willow’s is navy, so they all know whose is whose).

Gong is out walking through the snow in one of our favorite little canyons nearby with the dogs (a treat for all three) while Willow is trying to decide what she wants to do for the day and, while considering, is voicing an objection to being stuck in her play yard. Sometimes the loudest one wins, and Willow is now out of the play yard and climbing up Bonnie’s leg while Bonnie attempts to continue typing.

While Willow still seems to want Bonnie for comfort more than she does Gong, especially when she’s tired, the attachment between Gong and Willow is growing and they shared this week a fun bath together full of the  stimulating bath toys sent to Willow by Gong’s parents (these have turned the bath from a torture chamber into a water park). Gong’s mother thinks this photo of Gong and Willow in the bath together is obscene. Isn’t that funny?

Life goes on. Thanks to all of the friends and family who have offered and continue to offer their love and support during this transition. We notice that every one we meet has parenting advice, whether or not they have been good parents or even parents at all. We find that funny, too, though from time to time (depending on the advice) it’s hard to laugh about it. To those of you who have offered us loving and useful advice (you know who you are) we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Home Sweet Home…Oy.

We are now back in our home in Santa Fe. It’s been two weeks since we left China, and boy, it’s been intense. Everything we read and heard about the first few weeks back with an adopted child being intense was, well, an understatement.

Willow is doing fine, although adjusting to her new environment has proven to be a challenge for her. We’re doing everything we can to keep her comfortable and stimulated, and over time, she seems to be getting more used to her new situation. But the hard truth is that none of this is easy, for Willow or for us. It has taken at least two weeks for all of us to get back on a quasi-reasonable sleep schedule. Reverse jet-lag really takes its toll. But we’re active and showing Willow lots of new things that Santa Fe has to offer. We’ve also been to see our family therapist twice during this period, and our therapist feels that we’re on track, although things are pretty challenging right now. Preliminary medical checkups are good, with more exams and tests in the coming week.

Willow is still much more bonded with Bonnie than Gong, but Gong has had several evenings and afternoons with Willow one-on-one which has helped her become more used to him. Willow likes to nap in the car (and we acknowledge that we are adding more to global warming than we’d like to admit driving her around so she will take her naps). And Willow loves all the toys and books that friends and family have been lavishing on her. She and Bonnie play well together, playing music and dancing being among their favorite activities.

We’re so in love with her, and even though this period is extremely difficult, seeing her smile and silly amidst all her crying (sometimes angry, inconsolable grief) makes it all worth it. We’re going to always do our best for you, our beautiful Willow Lin.

> Click here for a video of our train ride from Guangzhou back to Kowloon

> Click here for a video of Willow meeting our doggies and showing us how much she likes reggae music

> Click here for a video of Willow showing Gong how to use his computer

Guangzhou, Kowloon, L.A.

> Click here for more pictures
> Click here for a movie of qing ping market
> Click here for a movie of guangzhou zoo

Our days in Guangzhou, spent at the White Swan Hotel on Shamian Island, were wonderful. We met up with several families from CCAI’s Travel Group 1274 whom we had met at the top of the trip in Hong Kong, plus met some new families. The White Swan, for those who don’t know, is pretty much Adoption Central for American families adopting from China. The rooms come equipped with cribs as a matter of course, the breakfast room is baby friendly, and there’s even a Mattel-endowed playroom on the first floor, which Willow loved. It was great to meet the new Chongqing-born children of the couples we had met in Hong Kong. All seemed content and adjusting well, and, of course, all are absolutely adorable. There were several very fat and happy-looking boys in the group in addition to the girls, who are (and will be) total lookers.

While in Guangzhou, our tiny group of three Hubei families, the Weber-Lees, the Wongs, and ourselves, became closer. When I met Linda Lee at the breakfast buffet on the first morning after our arrival at the White Swan she admitted to feeling overwhelmed by all of the families and babies surrounding us and wondered whether or not she would ever see us again. Our three families ended up dining all together for dinner twice (eating like Chinese royals, thanks to the expert ordering of Eva and SK) and seeing each other at breakfast several mornings. We feel so fortunate to have met and been helped and supported by the wonderful kindnesses of Eva, SK, Linda and Phil as we were in the earliest stages of coming to know Willow and understanding how to be a new and different kind of family. We loved seeing Phil and Linda’s new baby Samantha and SK and Eva’s new toddler Arlina evolve day by day as they became happier and more secure in their families. And we so enjoyed meeting and hanging out with Phil and Linda’s son James, a highly imaginative creature with a winning smile and generous heart. While none of us live particularly close to one another, we hope that we will have the opportunity again (and more than once!) to spend some family time in the company of these wonderful people and their beautiful children.

While in Guangzhou we had several official things to take care of, including having Willow’s photo taken for her American visa, taking her for a medical exam, completing a bunch of official paperwork, and, finally, going to the American Consulate to receive Willow’s visa and take an oath (this last we did as a large group with many other families who were there for the same reason; it was incredibly fun and exciting and we all cheered heartily following the swearing in, which Willow loved). We also found time to do some walking around, shopping, and even took Willow to the zoo one morning, which she also loved. We’re so pleased that Willow is as fascinated by animals and the natural world as are we.

Grace and Kathy, our agency reps in Guangzhou, are lovely, caring people and they made our stay there and the things we did there proceed seamlessly. Shamian Island is a cool place with a weird history. During the colonial era it was occupied by French and British companies that built beautiful, colorful villas in European style. There is a boulevard that runs through the center of the island that is planted with formal gardens, and the place generally feels a little like a resort, perhaps due to its island nature. I kept thinking of it as the Bermuda of China, perhaps due to its mix of palm trees, tourist shops and colonial architecture. Gong and I and Willow enjoyed it and felt quite comfortable there. We dug the playground (here we found another venue for communal adult exercise, which we found fascinating and cool), developed a morning Starbucks ritual, and ventured over the bridge to the Qing Ping Market. Among other items, the Qing Ping Market sells barrels and barrels of Chinese medicinal herbs to Chinese pharmacists all over the country. The overflowing, enormous containers we saw of dried, mostly unidentifiable organic matter was amazing to our Western eyes. As with so much we witnessed on this trip, it is hard to attach words to the experience.

Saying goodbye to the families with whom we traveled was hard, but we all were ready to move on to our “real” lives in the U.S. Gong and I and Willow spent one more night at the Regal in Kowloon before embarking on our voyage back to the States. We took Willow out to dinner at a hip place across the street and walked her around a bit to see the lights and feel the buzz of Hong Kong/Kowloon, which she really seemed to like. The next morning we were off to the airport to embark on our flight to LA, which was long but mostly uneventful. Willow did fairly well through it, better than she did on the flight from Wuhan. She wailed through the takeoff but slept through the landing and, as we were, was happy to finally get out of the stuffy plane.

When we arrived at our hotel in Santa Monica, where we are now, Willow appeared absolutely gleeful. We’re in a nice room at the Georgian Hotel on Ocean Avenue and she seems to really like it here. She giggled and danced and bobbed for quite a while in her crib as we were settling in, and seemed generally delighted. Tonight we took her to the Broadway Deli for her first bowl of matzo ball soup, which, I am happy to report, she thinks is totally rad.

She’s sleeping now but Gong and I are not, as our bodies are totally upsidedown with jet lag. It’s 3:30 am; Gong’s taking a bath and I’m catching up on blogging. We did learn a good trick tonight with Willow’s retro metal hotel crib: wheeling her back and forth on the carpet after putting her in the crib considerably accelerates sleep mode. Who knew?