Last Night in Guangzhou

This has been a wonderful trip, but all good things must come to an end...and we're ready. Keilani was able to see Beijing and the Great Wall, we came to Guangzhou and received our son, and have been able to spend many great days here. We have made friends with the people we traveled with, our guides, and the local merchants. Matt gave one of his Texas Rangers tshirts to a store owner because he was wearing a Chicago Cubs tshirt, and in return he gave us a nice Chinese scroll for good fortune. We also got to see our friend Ike, this was truly a great surprise. Ike stopped by very quickly today and brought us Mak's journal of his two years in the orphanage translated. This is priceless. We were able to read through it and at the very end, a note from his nanny to him. She told him of the day she found out we were adopting him and she was so happy for him. She asked him to study and grow up strong. We knew when we met her that she loved him very much and it was very difficult for her. We thank her for loving him and taking such good care of him. He was in my lap when I was reading the translations and he pointed to pictures of himself and then his nanny and then he would close the pages. Not sure what that meant. I am sure he loves her so very much.

Today we went to the US Consulate and were sworn in for the adoption. We go back tomorrow to pick up Mak's passport and visa and then we go straight to the train station. We hear the train ride to Hong Kong is beautiful. We are getting are things packed and ready to leave.

It's been a wonderful trip and thanks to everyone who has followed along on this amazing journey to our son and back to China for Keilani. We will try to post from Hong Kong, not sure if we will be able to or not.

Thanks again for all your support and encouraging words, they have meant more than you will know!

Love,

Matt, Tami, Keilani, and Makaio

Link to pictures

Here is a link to all 8/8 pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/webUpload?uname=112534544232201234221

What a GREAT Day!

We started the day out by going to the 7 Banyan Buddhist Temple. What a beautiful place! Our guide Kelly walked us around and explained what all the different budda statues meant. Kelly then asked if anyone wanted their babies to blessed. We were the only ones who chose to do it. Matt, Keilani, Mak, Kelly, and I went in. We knelt down and the priest did a chant, threw some water on us, did more chanting and then it was done. It was pretty neat!

We then went to the Chen Family Temple. All the Chen families paid to have this temple done and it is very beautiful to walk around and see. We actually got some rain while we there. I think it rained on us the last time we were there too. Matt was a big celebrity there, people kept wanting to have their pictures taken with him.

We came back to the hotel and had some lunch. We are starting to go stir crazy. One small room for all four of us is beginning to drive us all a little nuts. Mak finally let Keilani finally pick him up today and she was swinging him around. Fun for them, scary for us! All I could imagine was her dropping him. Luckily that never happened and they both just laughed and laughed.

While every was napping, I heard a rumble of thunder. I looked out the window to see a large storm coming our way with lightning. I quickly ran downstairs and got the cool breeze. That was so nice because it's been so hot and so humid. I caught some pictures from our room. After the rain the humidity is insane.

After everyone woke up, we went for a walk, first stop Starbucks. While inside we saw some strange cartoon like advertisement. I took a picture of it and got busted and was told to not take pictures inside. Seemed strange but I complied. They also have liquid sugar here. Kinda weird, but good.

We met up with our friend Ike, who was our previous guide with Kei's adoption. It was so great to see him. He talked about how tall Kei is and that she is too skinny! LOL! Matt said it's because she's Chinese and he said she still needs to gain weight. He also asked if anyone had mentioned Mak's "big" ears to us and we said yes. He said he has big budda ears and that means fortunate. We had a great Chinese dinner and caught up on everything since the past six years since we last saw him. We told him about our five year reunion with the other Hengyang families in Orlando and how the other girls are doing. Keilani insisted that she sat next to him at dinner. She asked him to show her how to use chopsticks. After several attempts, Ike got her a fork =) We had our first Chinese beer at dinner, it was good.

After dinner Ike came back to our hotel and we showed him pictures of all the girls at the reunion. He was very happy to see that they're all doing well. Since Mak is from a Half the Sky orphanage, we received a journal of his progress since he was an infant. It is written in Chinese and I showed it to Ike to see if he could tell us anything. He offered to take it with him and translate it for us. This is great for two reasons, we will know what it says and we will get to see him again.

Pearl Market and Papa John's Pizza =)

Today we went to the Pearl Market. I had imagined it would be outdoors and hot. It was actually an indoor mall, still hot, but indoors. When we walked in, there were some women doing their exercises, maybe Chinese Zumba? See picture.

For dinner we ordered Papa John's pizza! FINALLY something that actually tasted like home! Everyone enjoyed it, even Mak.

After dinner our phone in our room rang. We were surprised to hear the person on the other end of the line was our guide from 2005, Ike! Our guide is friends with him and let him know we were here. He asked how we were doing and how Mak was. He was absoloutely thrilled when I told him Keilani was here with us. He asked to have dinner with us tomorrow. So we are excited to get to see him again.

Here are some pictures from the 7th and the Pearl Market and our babies!

Pictures from 8/5

Here are a few pics we took on the 5th. We went to a tomb that was uncovered that belonged to a King. It was really neat, but we couldn't take pics in the tomb.

Chinese Valentine's Day

Yesterday was Valentine's Day here...China's version of it. There were sooooo many couples out and about last night. Our hotel is so crowded right now, guess it's cause of the weekend too. Our hotel sits right on the Pearl River and we were walking and watching the boats last night. In the distance you could see people swimming across the river which is crazy with all the boat traffic. We thought for sure these people would get hit, but they didn't. It's kinda like the traffic here, people will walk out in front of cars or ride their bikes in front of turning traffic. They do like to use their horns here, really like to use their horns. Last night with all the people, the cars were at a stand still and the horns were blowing!

Today was fun going to the Pearl Market, it's crazy! There are stores with tons and tons of bags of every kind and color of pearls. We bought Kei a jade pendant, it's really good quality and cost about $50. I bought one on the island and it was $8. I now know that mine is not as good of quality...sigh. After the Pearl Market we were able to look at children's clothes. We bought Mak some shorts that will fit him and some Spiderman pjs. After that we went back to Carefor, the Chinese Walmart. We bought some snacks, drinks, diapers and lunch. They cook it right there. We got noodles and fried rice for 12 yuan, about $2 US. Tonight we are going to order Papa John's pizza...nom nom nom! Hopefully it tastes the same, unlike most foods here.

It's nap time here for everyone, so I will post pics later.

Every Day A Little Better

Yesterday had to be our best day yet! Less crying and more laughing and smiling. Mak gave Keilani her first kiss last night. We just all layed around on the bed playing and laughing. It was a really good night.

When we were eating breakfast we were treated to great surprise. 300 Americans with their Chinese adopted children are on a heritage trip. We met so many families and got to hear of their great experiences. This is their last stop, after two weeks, before returning home. The children, mostly girls, range in age from 8 to 18 years old. They all spoke about how neat it was for them to visit their orphanages and finding locations. It made Keilani start asking questions about herself that she has never asked about before, like "where was I found?" When we told her on a bridge she thought we were joking. It is going to take her some time to take it all in, but she asking a lot more now that she is here.

Today we are going back to the clinic to have his TB test checked. He should be fine by how it looks. After that it's a free day for us to do whatever. All of us are anxiously counting down the days to return home, we're all home sick.

We will post pictures later today! Missing everyone!

Matt, Tami, Keilani, and Makaio

Link to pictures

Blogger isn't playing nice today. It won't let me go back in and add pictures. Here are some pictures of Mak's surgery scars and a link to our pictures from yesterday's sightseeing.

https://picasaweb.google.com/112534544232201234221/GuangzhouChinaAugust52011

What day is it?

It is getting harder to remember what day it is here and back home and then throw in the time difference. We are ready to come home. We pulled up the calendar this morning and were happy to see it is six more days until we leave for Hong Kong and seven before we are on our way home.

Yesterday was a hard day. Little Mak had gas really bad and was in so much pain. I remembered one time that Kei's pediatrician told me to use 7-up or Sprite if I didn't have any medicine, he said it did the same thing. Sure enough, and Matt walking him around like a football, it worked! Our room however stunk soooooooooooooo bad!

Keilani has started showing signs of not jealousy, but she wants to be treated the same as Mak. If one of us is rocking Mak, she wants to rocked. If we are holding him on our laps, she wants to sit on our laps. It's been a lot harder on her than what we expected. She wants to hold and love on Mak so badly, but he just won't really have anything to do with her unless they are playing together. She is doing really good though in her role as a big sister and is so helpful.

We went to some monument for the "Liberator of China" yesterday. It was very pretty, but it was sooooo hot and humid. That is probably why I can't remember his name. We then went to two parks and it was still so hot, pretty, but HOT!

We are off on our next tour today, will post pictures later.

Physical Examination Day

So before the babies go to their American Consulate appointment, they have to go and have a physical exam. It is actually quite amusing, especially since the hearing test consists of a dog's squeaky toy and toy piano. Squeaky toy on one side, he looks; hit a few keys on the toy piano on the other side, he looks...yay he passes!

Because he is two years old, he had to be tested for TB. Poor guy!!! They also took his weight, 22 pounds, and his height, 36 inches. 22 pounds at two years old =( and he came from a great orphanage. He did however spend the past two months in the hospital, so that may have something to do with it. His nanny told us he used to be the happiest baby, but after he spent two months in the hospital that went away. Luckily for us, the smiles and laughter returned today. His temper tantrums are diminishing in length, and not as many. They mostly revolve around food. He would eat til his stomach exploded if we let him. If you attempt to take away food in front of him it's FULL melt down. But tonight he actually handed me his bowl with a few cheerios left in it.

Keilani has been a GREAT big sister and is enjoying playing with Mak. At breakfast today he fed her cheerios! She has been sitting on the floor helping him with his building blocks and just being a good big sis. Each day is better and better, can't wait to see what new side of Mak we get to see!

Institutionalized Children

It's been almost six years since we adopted Keilani and she was 9.5 months old when we got her. There were things looking back that she didn't/couldn't do due to being delayed. They say for every three months a child is in an orphanage, they are one month developmentally delayed. Keilani could not crawl or feed herself. After love and attention, she caught up quickly. Some orphanages have as many as 20 or more kids per nanny, that doesn't leave much time, love, or attention per child.

Mak is two years old. His fine motor skills need some work, but he is doing very well. Mak is from a Half the Sky (www.halfthesky.org) orphanage, which means the great people of Half the Sky have gone into his orphanage and helped train their nannies and make the living conditions better.

The one thing that absoloutely breaks our hearts is when he goes to sleep and/or cries, he rocks himself. Most institutionalized children do this to comfort themselves since there is nobody to do it for them. HEARTBREAKING as a parent to watch. We pray that he knows quickly that we are here to soothe him.

On a positive note, today has brought lots of smiles, laughs, touching, and mimicing. He will look at you and wave and say "hiiiiii"! This is the first thing that he has said that we understand =) We think he's babbling, but he's probably speaking Chinese...LOL!

We will post about today's experiences in a bit, there is a playroom sponsored by Mattel toys that is calling Keilani and she is bored so we need to go.

Makaio is "officially" ours

We went to the Civil Affairs office today to make Makaio's adoption official. You have 24 hrs to spend with the child and determine if you want to move forward and adopt or terminate the adoption.

We signed our all papers in about two minutes and answered the following questions:

1. Do you want to adopt this baby? Yep!
2. Do you promise to never abandon him and give him a good education? Yep!
3. You can go now. Wow!

This was followed up by going to the notary and them asking the same questions, and us providing the same answers. After the notary they put red ink on his foot and stamped it on our paperwork.

It was quick and very simple. When we were done we went shopping at a store called Carrefor. It's basically a Chinese Walmart. We bought some stuff for us like coffee (only instant over here, but not bad!), water, coke, and sprite.

We went back to the hotel, quick bite to eat and everyone layed down for a nap. We all slept for 4 hours, we are exhausted and the time change is killer. We were up for a walk, picked up our laundry, got some fried rice and dumplings, and gave Mak his first bath. This went very well! He actually didn't want to get out.

Mak is sick right now. You can hear and feel the congestion in his chest. Our guide brought us two different types of Chinese medicine, one syrup and one that goes on his belly button. We gave him the syrup and put patch on his belly button last night. He hasn't coughed once and you can't hear him wheezing. Chinese know their meds!!!

Today is medical exam day, they will test his hearing by banging on a drum, test his vision by running back and forth to see if his eyes follow and get a TB test.

My plan today is to get many pics of Guangzhou. I have told many of you before that it reminds me of New Orleans and it still does.

Love,
Matt, Tami, Kei, and Mak

Leaving a comment

Thank you to Melissa for letting me know that I didn't have this setup where anyone could post! Feel free to leave comments on here now! On the drop down menu just select Comment as: Anonymous. Thanks again Melissa!

Finally, Makaio Is Ours!!!!

That's right, Makaio made the Korenek Family a family of four! He is just awesome, and what a surprise we got from his nanny! As I posted earlier, we were told that he had a cast on, which we thought they had started his casting. Come to find out, he has been in the hospital for the past two months due to the surgery they performed to correct his clubbed feet. Poor baby, they just took his casts off and it is heartbreaking to look at his scars.

Keilani, in addition to her parents, absoloutely adores her brother! She wants to hold him all the time and gets her feelings hurt when he pushes her away. But a while ago she asked to climb in his crib with him and he crawled over and climbed up on her and gave her hug. Sooooooo sweet!

His nanny told us he has quite the temper and fights going to sleep every night. He has proven to show us he will let you know what he does not like (stuffed animals for sure) and he will not give up the ghost and go to sleep.

We are so exhausted so we will be going to sleep now! Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Love,

Matt, Tami, Keilani, and Makaio