More from China

Ni hao (hello) from Zhengzhou, China!

There are three adoptive families staying in our hotel.  We all received the children on the same day in the same room, so it's fun to check on each family's progress at breakfast each morning.  The first family is from Sweden, and they adopted a baby boy who appears to be less than one year old.  He is the sweetest thing!  The dad is so precious - very doting.  The mom is all business!  He is eating and sleeping and doing just beautifully!  The second family is from Colorado.  They are first-time parents who adopted a cutie-patootie 3 year old girl.  She has the chubbiest cheeks!  The mother has hand-made all these cute little outfits with matching bows and jewelry for each day.  She is also doing very well  - no real issues, eating and sleeping and bonding well.  What a joy to see a child who is labeled "orphan" become a treasured son or daughter in the blink of an eye!

Isn't that what the Father longs to do?  Adopt each one of us as His own, in the blink of an eye, from wayward, lost, unclaimed to found, treasured and adopted forever!  Amen and amen.

In unrelated news, we are missing the US Olympics coverage.  The Olympics coverage is rather, umm....selective.  We only get to see the events in which the Chinese medal.  They also don't seem to show just the final match.  Instead, we see all the rounds of competition.  Yesterday, it was synchronized diving. Today, it was badmitton.  No offense to my office-friend, Steve, who assures me that badmitton is a bona-fide sport.  But really.  Badmitton?!  Now, some kind of shooting event is on CCTV (women's 25m pistol).

I will try to post some "around China" photos tomorrow. 

She's officially a Burch!

The 24-hour "harmonious" period has expired, all the papers have been stamped and notarized, and Am Xiao Chun is now Anna Joy XiaoChun Burch.  The past 48 hours have been full.  We made a car trip to Anna's birth city, Anyang, which also happens to be where Amelia's pre-K teacher (and our dear friend was born and grew up.  We did not know that when we were matched with Anna - it was one of those fun little surprises that we learned when our friend was reading the referral information with us.  We had to go to Anyang to apply for Anna's passport, but we had the added blessing of being able to have lunch with our friend's mother and brother-in-law, who is a government official in Anyang.  They took us to a delicious hot pot restaurant, and we had a delightful time together.  We enjoyed the trip as we got to see the countryside between Zhengzhou and Anyang.

We also had a full day today.  We had scheduled a trip to the Zhengzhou zoo to pass the time while we are waiting on paperwork to be processed.  It was raining, but that did not deter us.  We visited the zoo in the rain. 


Anna is full of joy. She loves to be loved. She loves for us to hug and kiss her. She has clearly spent most of her time with adults -- she pretends to use the chopsticks like cigarettes for smoking and when we get our drinks at meal time, she initiates the clinking of the glasses for "cheers".
It is also clear to us that Anna is experiencing many "firsts".  Today was Anna's first visit to a zoo.  We are also pretty sure that Anna saw and held a crayon for the first time today and ate in a restaurant for the first time today. 

We are finding that we need to treat Anna like a much younger child.  For example, yesterday, when we ate hot pot, we put Anna in a high chair.  Since the pots are boiling hot, we can't have a little child running all around, or she could be seriously burned. We ended up putting her in Lucy's stroller while we were out walking the streets, just to keep her safe.  Still, we have seen vast improvements in Anna's behavior and communication in even these past 48 hours.  We definitely have a long way to go, but we are so early in the process.  Once Anna feels secure in our family and once she has the medical and educational and behavioral interventions that she needs, there will be no stopping Anna.

For now, we enjoy what we are affectionately calling "the many faces of Xiao Chun" -- the funny faces she makes when she sees the camera, the happy face she makes when we give her something she likes to eat, and even her "angry" face when she bares her black little teeth and makes her jaw go up and down (think chihuahua).

The last photo is just for one -- spicy fish soup flavored chips, anyone?  Or do you prefer lobster cheese flavor?  Sometime soon, I need to do a post of the random things you see in China.  Tonight, there was a lady selling turtles from her bucket on the street.  Today in the supermarket, we saw live bullfrogs waiting to be someone's dinner.  The supermarkets have all live fish and seafood, and the people come in and pick out their fish, crab, frog, or whatever, and they butcher it right there on  the spot.  The Chinese definitely live without the preservatives we put on our food, and there is no table salt anywhere.  We also think it's funny that they don't have soy sauce on the tables, and they never know what we are asking for if we request it.  Baby bottoms abound - you can't walk the street without seeing bare hineys.  They can also fit more people and more stuff on a motor scooter or bicycle than most soccer moms can stuff in a minivan!  China fascinates me every time I come, and yet, this time, I know it will probably be a very long time before I come back, which makes me treasure it a little more.  So much has changed in the almost six years since I was last here, and I know that if and when I return, there will be even fewer traces of the "old" China as it moves as warped-speed toward Westernized modernity. 

If our Internet connection holds, I will try to post more photos.

A little bit from Xi'An

We have enjoyed Xi'An very much!  I will try to post more photos from Xi'An later -- it's taking quite awhile to get the photos up, so here is just one for your viewing pleasure.  This is Kyndal, Amelia, and Lucy in Tang Dynasty apparel at the Drum Tower in Xi'An.  The girls really enjoyed dressing up, and as you can imagine, we drew an audience!  I only wish Anna and Candice could have been there for the photo op.

More from China

It has been SOOO hot everywhere we have been so far.  The heat has been the oppressive, sticky kind of heat that soaks you with sweat and makes you not even care if you climb the wall, see the pandas, or ever eat again!  Here are a few photos from Chengdu.

Tiananmen Square & The Forbidden City

I'm so sorry for the lack of updates -- our Internet service has been spotty, and it seems that every time I finish a post, I get kicked off the Internet just before the post goes through.  

Highlights from Tiananmen....We did not know that we picked the Chinese school break (two weeks off the last two weeks of July) to make our grand tour of China.  It was elbow-to-elbow at all the tourist destinations in Beijing.  Of course, our group attracted quite the crowd - David and Chase are both so tall that they were a marvel to the Chinese.  Kyndal and Candice, with their red hair, were also a novelty.  Add one blonde mama pushing a stroller with an English-speaking Asian 2-year old, and yes....we were a bigger exhibit than the Beijing Zoo.  We spent quite a lot of time having our photos taken by the Chinese tourists.  We smiled and laughed and agreed to be photographed. 

Funny signs...we enjoy the English translations of Chinese signs.  Our favorites have been "mind your infant and your senior" (a reminder to take care to hold on to your toddler or your elderly person) and "no naked flames" - a fire hazard warning. 

We Did Not Topple the Wall

We spent Monday at The Great Wall, and I'm sure you will all breathe a sigh of relief to know it's still standing.  The older members of our travel party found the trek just to get onto the wall somewhat grueling.  There are many steep steps up to the cable cars, and many more stairs after taking the cable cars to the base.  After that work-out, they didn't think they were up to climbing the wall.  For those who have never been to the Great Wall, you might be surprised to know that it is quite the athletic endeavor to walk/climb the Wall.  We went fairly early in the day to beat the heat, but we still ended up sweaty with racing heartbeats. 

After walking the Wall, we headed to a traditional Chinese lunch and a tour of a cloisonne workshop.  We then headed to the Ming Tombs.  None of us was too impressed with the tomb; in fact, the kids kept asking if we could leave so they could get back to the hotel in time to swim.  We do have our priorities!

The Burches are in China!!!

We made it to China! We were unable to get everyone onto one flight, so we ended up splitting into two groups, with half of us leaving Dallas at 5:57 a.m. and the other half leaving at 6:00 a.m. The first group went to Chicago and on to Beijing, while the other half went to San Francisco and then on. We were scheduled to arrive in Beijing within 45 minutes of one another, but the second group was delayed as a result of mechanical difficulties. We eventually all met up and made it to our hotel. We spent yesterday just wandering around our hotel, trying to get the lay of the land. There were some old-Beijing syle hutongs (old style alley neigborhoods), which we enjoyed seeing. Everyone is a little jet-lagged, but that's expected during the first couple of days. It's 4 a.m. here now, and my girls are wide AWAKE! Enjoy a few photos! Today we are going to the Great Wall at Mutianyu and then to the Ming Tombs. Should be an adventure. Actually, trying to do anything in China with my family of 13 is an adventure!