Iris' family day.

IAs you know, we were up at 4 a.m. 

She was making noise in her crib and I told Shane. 

"I can't handle it! I want to go get her and snuggle her, should I?"

Shane didn't answer he got up and walked over to the crib. Her bright eyes were wide awake. 

"She's awake." He said and bent down and picked her up. 

She promptly started screaming. Lol 

 

I'm sure we scare her. 

He handed her to me in the bed and she was having none of it! Lol 

So we got up and bounced and calmed her Down. She is so gorgeous even in her screamy state. 

After she calmed down I layed beside her on the bed and just admired her and kept thinking what will we name this sweet girl. I kept throwing out names and thinking none of them are right. 

I kept coming back to Iris. I know you know all this so I'll move on. 

She loves her feet. She lays down and those feet come right up. 

It's so cute. 

I was so excited to take her to breakfast and see how she did with all the food. 

She loves food and it's so cute to watch her eat. She's like a little bunny. Her nose moves up and down in the cutest way. 

We then went back to the civil affairs office.  Our awesome guide got us there early and put our paperwork in.  

We went up the elevator and back down a few times doing different paper work. 

We were interviewed twice. One was a simple one asking basic info. 

The next interview we were asked about her personality. What her sn was. Do we find her suitable? You bet your booty we do. Lol  I didn't answer that way. I told the lady, "yes, she's lovely" 

Do we promise to never abandoned her or mistreat her? "Yes! Yes!" We will love you forever darling! 

And we signed off on her new name. Which I'm still surprised about and totally thrilled! 

It fits her so perfectly! And guess what?! 

Months ago, when we were skyping we had told Sandra that we were considering three names and we told Sandra what the names was. Iris was one of the three names. Well the next week when we skyped, Sandra said, "I've been calling her Iris" 

Well Shane and I laughed because we had picked a different name. 

Well we called her this other name for a whole month. We even told Sandra to call her this other name. Then one day it just seemed "wrong" So there we were back to the drawing board.  No decisions were made until family day. As you know, we picked Iris Mei.  

Then Friday we went to House of Grace.

I told Sandra, "Your going to think we're nuts, Sandra but we changed her name." 

"To what" she asked

"Iris"

Sandra slapped her knee and laughed. "I knew it! Months ago I prayed and I knew she was an Iris" 

So how neat is that? Her  Nai Nai (China grandma) knew all along she was an Iris. 

Safari Park

The Safari park was a lot like Disney World safari park but honestly better! 

If you lived in China you could drive a car through it. I think that would be so awesome but of course we didn't have that option. So we got to ride in this train that went through part of the park.

The animals were right there. We could see them really well and they seem to be very happy. In every group of animal there seem to be little baby animals too. 

You all, The Bears were wrestling! 

They were seriously cool! 

At one point the park opened up to a big open field with animals all around. I think I shed a tear it was so awesome! Who knew drafts could skip and jump and play? They would run across the road right in front of us. It was just really cool. 

After the train ride through the Safari part of the park we went through what's called Dragon Hill. It's a walk-through part of the park that has animated dinosaurs. 

This poor little girl in front of us was frozen in fear it scared her so bad. 

The rest of the park was similar to regular zoos and you just walked ran and got to see the animals. The difference was all of the animals were moving and just seemed happy. They all gave a good show. 

These little Lemures jumped from branch to branch. This little fellow settled right in front of us to which Violet explained, "look mom! It's a boy!" 🙊 The only person in the whole park that speaks English was standing behind us and he laughed at Violet and told his wife what she said.  Lol. 

They had incubators with baby tigers!  So stinking cute! 

The Panda bears were also super cute. They were wrestling and playing also. 

The girls got to get their picture taken with a Koala Bear. Yes, the one in the tree is real. 

"What is this thing they call Food in china" lol I'm sure that's what Violet's thinking... Lol 

We had Cantonese for dinner that night. 

Lilly is quite the show stopper over hear. People point at her blond hair all the time. 

At the safari park she started to take her hair out of the pony. People were snapping pictures right and left.  

I told her "work it lil, work it" 

She shook her hair and you should have heard the flashes. Ching Ching Ching. Hahaha... 

Oh and these girls are chop stick masters! 

They amaze me! 

It was a good day and one more sleep til we get our girl! 

I can do more. Orphanage visit.

 Yesterday... How do I put into words how yesterday went? 

You see, we went to see where Iris has lived for half of her life.  

I feel like I should give you a bit of back ground story, first. 

In China, you must pay for your medical care first, so families  without the means to pay for their child's medical needs do the only thing they know to do. They leave them.  My heart breaks for these families. 

Our sweet Iris was born a premie. We have guestimated that she was born at 29 weeks. She was only 2 pounds and hours old when she was brought to the orphanage.  

How does a premie survive in orphanage conditions? 

She survived but only barely. She was only hanging on a bare thread of life when she was transferred from the orphanage to a foster facility called House of Grace. I'm sure her cleft palate was a big part of the reason she was so tiny. She was 14 months old and 7 pounds when she arrived at House of Grace. 

House of Grace is what we visited Yesterday. 

We left at 7:30 to drive the 3.5 hours (that's in good traffic) to get there.  

Have I mentioned there usually isn't seat belts in China, let alone, car seats? We pray a lot! Lol

The drive to House of Grace is really interesting.  

It's lush and green with tall skinny tropical trees, bamboo, ferns, and big elephant ear type plants. 

The Meridian in the highways had flowers, mostly hibiscus, the whole way. 

Every once in a while the lush tropics would open up to farm land. 

Mostly rice patties but there were small patches of other crops. 

-The cool thing was that the farmers were out on the land. They had their conical hats on (which are the cone shaped sun hats) Their water Buffalo were in the fields too! I wish we could have gotten a close up picture.  But still, it was very cool to see. 

As we arrived in her town I was both excited a nervous. Iris is so newly ours and doesn't totally like us that I wasn't sure she would want to leave with us. 

We were let in through the orphanage gates and then again into House of Grace's gates. 

We were welcomed with smiles and hugs from the foster home owner, Sandra.

The foster home is part of the regular orphanage. I think there's 20 children in their care. 

The preschools children were sitting on a couch listening to music when we got there. Their beautiful brown eyes stared at us in curiosity.  We touched their hands and rubbed their arms but they were too scared for us to hold.  Oh my goodness! Such preciousness all in one little couch. 

One little girl really liked the girls. She kept shaking their hands and the girls giggles at her cuteness. 

The smaller children were eating lunch and the babies were playing on the floor.

 

We toured the facilities and saw our baby girls metal crib.  I couldn't help but cry. I know she's had awesome care at house of grace but friends it's just not a family. 

These kids lives are on pause. They need families. 

There was a brand new baby in the home. It was two days old. It was heart wrenching! 

We then brought the kids with families into the office and we were able to give them the gifts that their families had sent. 

We told them each that they were loved and that their families were coming. 

I can't wait to see how these babies will change in their families! 

Leaving the orphanage was hard to do. 

I already wish I could go back. 

There's rooms on site where vollenteers can come stay and help. Someday, I'm coming back to do just that. 

If anyone else would like to let me know and I can give you details. Sandra says they'd gladly take help from adults or older teens. 

We thanked Iris' nanny for taking care of her and asked for a picture with her. It wasn't my plan but Iris was scooped out of my arms by the nanny for the picture. 

I'm pretty sure I was holding my breath the whole time the nanny had her. But Iris reached for me! I was so glad. 

As we left House of Grace I noticed this on the wall. 

It was made by one of the vollenteers and it says, 

"Beautiful flowers grow in this garden. They are all unique and special. They are all growing and blooming a bit more each day." How fitting for my Iris. 

After we left, Iris was really fussy and she pretty much stayed that way. 

We were then taken to lunch by the regular orphanage directors' assistant. 

It was a nice lunch and I was happy to see they brought food back to the orphanage for the kids. 

We shopped for a suvenier from her home town. Yang Chun has a lot of mining. There's quite a bit of agate and Malachite found there. If I understand right Peacock rock is only found in YangChun. 

We drove a long time into very rural part of China. It had Monolith type hills sticking up across the land. At one point our guide got out to ask directions. 

I asked her, "Our we lost?"

She giggled and said "Yes" 

Haha... But she didn't seem worried and we drove on. 

We ended up in a tiny little village. 

We found the spot where Iris birth family left her and this is where I become vague. This is only for her! It's such a sacred spot and it just doesn't need to be shared. I would never want Chu or Iris to go to school and have another child say that they heard they were left by ect... Ect... Can you imagine what hurt that would cause? 

After we left there we headed for home. 

Poor Iris squirmed, cried, and moaned, most of the way back. At one point I looked at Shane and said she needs a blessing. A blessing is a special prayer given by a priesthood holder. 

Shane gave her a sweet blessing and within ten minutes she calmed down and was able to relax. 

 

It was the first time she has slept in my arms.  Don't mind the scary momma. 

I went to bed with the strangest feeling in my heart. It's like it's shouting at me! The world is not alright!  Sweet friends, these babies need families. They need vollenteers. They need donations. House of Grace is one of the better places for an orphan to live. Sandra king loves these babies and they will know Christ's love. It was so much better then Chu's orphanage. But still... It's just not a family! And this is just one place! 

There are 1,000's of orphanages in China. Millions of orphans! 

They need us spoiled rotten Americans to forget about our expensive cars and expensive clothes. Do you know how stupid we are when we think each of our children need their own rooms? 

I think about how hard I thought it was to switch kids around and I think, gosh lacy! Your so stinking spoiled!  

I can do more can you?  

Beauty from Ashes, gotcha baby girl.

We woke up really early Monday Morning, maybe 4 am and that was it. There was no way we were going back to sleep. The excitement of getting our girl combined with jet lag was just too much. 

We were ready early and had breakfast done and over with. 

We had to kill many many hours! Many many hours until we could meet her at 2:00 pm. After breakfast, We hung out in the beautiful Garden the hotel has. 

It really is a cool thing. 

Then we walked around the garden doing some window shopping. 

I'm having a hard time remembering what all we did because it just seemed so obsolete for what happened later that day. 

We walked with our guide Judy to Aeon's. It's a two level grocery store.  We  got diapers, baby milk and snacks, and other supplies. 

The driver picked us up there and we were on our way to go get our girl! 

Can I tell you? That drive was so stinking long! Traffic was bad and gosh it just seemed like for-ev-er! 

It's such a surreal feeling - knowing your meeting you child that day. Just like I had worried with Chu, I worried I wouldn't feel enough when we finally met her. 

We Finally got there and they took us up an elevator. 

We were late and the room was full of families. The feelings in that room are like walking into a brick wall. So overwhelming. There were already families with babies that were crying. It's so breathtaking beautiful to watch an orphan become a beloved son or daughter. At the same time, it's heartbreaking to see how really scared each child is. The adoption community has a saying "beauty from ashes" 

Isn't that the truth. There's so much loss for her. First she lost lost her birth mom (I promise you her soal was very aware of that loss even at a minutes old) and now she's experience loss again. 

Just minutes after we were there we saw a beautiful reunion. It was a little girl that had been hosted in the states. Her host family had adopted her. That "gotcha" was all happy tears and I lost it right then! 

We watched a few more families unite with tiny ones and still know baby girl. 

The girls waiting for their sister. 

Then suddenly, she past through the room. 

It was so fast we didn't get a picture. 

Again it seemed like forever before they brought her back out. 

When they finally did she was already upset and crying. She did look right at us as we walked towards her. 

I'm sure we looked familiar but super scary. 

She was handed to Shane first. She screamed poor girl and poor Shane.  She probably had only seen one other man her whole life. 

This picture breaks my heart. Can you imagine? Your whole world changing in an instant. All that you have is the clothes that your wearing? 

Poor sweet angel. 

It wasn't long until I took her and then she quieted down but didn't stop fussing. She wouldn't look at me. Anywhere but at me. It was hours before she made eye contact. 

She was hot and sweaty. She had a bad heat rash on most of her body. The skin around her neck was open and oozing. 

We asked our guide if we were done and could go. We needed out of the hot room with crying babies. 

 

She fussed all the way back. She throws herself back when she's mad and she is quite strong. I worry I'll drop her when she does that. 

We went up to our room. She wanted me to hold her but didn't want me too. She would cry if I put her down and she'd reach back up for me. Then cry if I held her.  At one point she decided I could hold her but only if she held my face, specifically my nose, right where she wanted it. 😂

 

She wanted and still wants to stand, the thing is, she has no balance. She's very wobbly. She can't even stand holding one handed. We have to hold  both her arms and honestly we just can't always do that so it makes her mad.  

I'm sure that she went straight from the crib to a walker every day and that's why she wants to be straight. 

She can sit and roll but she cannot crawl.  We will be working on that. Crawling is so important. 

I finally stripped her sweaty dress off and bathed her. She hated it. 

But after I rubbed coconut oil on all her sores and dressed her she started to settle a bit. 

She had that sucker for hours just like Chu had his. 

That's when we found a few curls. We will see how curly it really is as it grows. 

But this hair wants to curl backwards. Lol 

We've heard Asian cupey doll and Asian Gerber baby a few times because of that curl. 

Later, I layed beside her as she went to sleep and that's how we closed the day. 

Precious girl, I promise to try my hardest to make up for so much loss. Together we will find the beauty. 

We love you.