DAY 7 WITH OUR LITTLE EMPEROR

DAY 7 OF OUR JOURNEY TO KAI!

APRIL 4, 2006

We love Kai so much! Our little Emperor is PERFECT!

Hello, My Friends!!

I am sooooo sorry I have not posted earlier. Today is the 6th here and I will go back and recap the past couple of days. I ate something that ended up REALLY not agreeing with me. I've had been throwing up (out of both ends...yes, I know...GROSS!) for 2 days.

Getting back to life with Kai...here goes.

The night we brought him back he was a true angel. Bonding appeared to be going well. He eats like a horse!! His palate is wide open from back to front and his upper teeth are growing in, but not centered. Oh my, he is cute as can be!!! He is a serious little man, but once you win his heart he is smiles and all giggles. I had mentioned before about getting back and stripping him down. We then gave him a warm bath and I gave him some Dimetapp for a nasty cough. He chugged it down, no problem. He really is an easy baby, thus far! (Thank you Lord!!) After we had done all the paperwork, we came back to the hotel for an hour of down time and to grab a bite to eat.....I AM REALLY GETTING TIRED OF CHINESE FOOD! UGH!!!! We later went with the Mansfield guys to the grocery store (which I was not impressed with. I bought some Chinese "Pampers", which are pretty good, and some Heinz baby food. We picked up some Oreos! :) Then we headed back to the hotel. We were waaaaay too tired to go out to eat, so we went up to the "Western Buffet" for $16US pp. It was horrible and very over priced for their selection. But, I was starving so it was at least something. We headed back to the room. He slept between us and slept all night. We went to sleep at around 7:30 that night....still can't get over this exhaustion, but feeling well. He seems to go with all of us (hesitantly) but definitely prefers Mama over anyone else. :) Feels good! :)

We are to meet our guide in the lobby the next morning at 8:30 a.m. for our adoption ceremony. This day is the day where Kai is officially ours! April 4, 2006, Adrian Wen Kai Bombardier, was "born" into our family! We awaken early and head out to the Civil Affairs office. It was a much shorter time there. I had been told that it wasn't too "official"...but it really was. There was silence when the ceremony began and we were the first family called up. The official held our adoption certificate up and read it to us, then asked us if we were in agreement to love him forever. Ummm....HEC YEAH!! He is perfect and we're head over heels in love with him. After the ceremony we went back to the hotel for some down time. It had been discussed that some of the babies came back from the orphanage with scabies. I had sent pictures of what seemed like ezcema to me to our doctor via email. She confirmed that she did not believe it was scabies, and told me to continue to put the cetaphil cream on him. It's definitely clearing up. We were at the hotel for maybe 2 hours then met at the lobby for our afternoon of touring. Once we arrived there, the other family stated that they wanted to take their baby to the hospital for a diagnosis of the scabies. We opted to wait in the van. The heat and humidity is almost unbearable. We decided to go for a walk and bought some Pampers and drinks. About 45 minutes later, we notice the Mansfields are back in the van, they had received some medication and we were off. We dropped them off at hotel and headed to our first tour site. The Mei DragonWell Tea Farms.

As we drove thru the mountains about 20 minutes from Hangzhou, the views got even more beautiful. There were tea plants everywhere and we could see the farmers picking the leaves from afar. We finally arrive at the village. The view was breathtaking. Definitely a must see for those coming to Hangzhou! We then took the tour and had a tasting session!! It was wonderful. Kai was a little angel during the entire tour. We were to go to a cruise of the WestLake afterwards, but opted to stay longer at the tea farm and move the cruise to another day. After the tea village, we boarded the van again and headed to a traditional Hangzhou meal. There are very special dishes known only to the Hangzhou region, these includes Beggar's Chicken and Westlake fish. Our guide told us the restaurant we were going to Lou Wai Lu, the best restaurant in Hangzhou visited by important figures in history over the past 150 years, including President Nixon back in the 1970's. We invited Sara and Joshua Mansfield to dinner and it was DELICIOUS....until we got back to the hotel!

OMG! I thought I was going to die. The stomach cramps began, soon followed by waves of nausea that I thought would never end. Well, they ended but not how I wanted. At 2:00 am, I rushed to the bathroom with horrible cramping and nausea. At 5:30 am, looking like death warmed over, it began to subside. I didn't even want to lift my head from the pillow, and honestly did not want to hear or see anyone. This was the morning that we were taking the 3 hour drive to the orphanage, and I had to go! This was soooo important to me! So, I asked Scott and Mom to make sure the baby ate while they went to breakfast, and I laid here for a few extra minutes thinking about where I would gather the strength to get up...all this while sucking my warm Gatorade through a straw. They arrived what seemed to only be a few minutes later and I had no choice but to get up and get dressed.

(Here are some pics....I will post more later. :)