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Happy Boy!



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Check out these Squeaky shoes....hey how'd did it make that noise?? Not sure about these!



Hungry?



My fist Oreo! Look mom taught me this!! And it's YUMMY!

This morning, we went to breakfast and then to Beihai Park. Beihai Park is a park in Beijing that the elderly and retired people seem to gather at to engage in activities and shared interests. In China, women retire at age 50-55 and men at age 55-60. Longevity is considered the key to happiness, so they do these things to try to stay young. While we were there, we saw retired people doing Tai Chi, aerobics, line dancing, ribbon dancing, playing flutes, singing Chinese opera, and playing hacky sack (a lady who appeared to be at least in her 70s was very proficient, working multiple sacks at a time). Some of these activities are not necessarily things these people knew how to do previously. Many of these people are using this as an opportunity to learn a new hobby and socialize. It was interesting observing all of this and it was a pretty and peaceful location.
After returning to the hotel, we ate lunch and Glen and Lynda departed for Xi'an. This afternoon, we camped out in the hotel room and did some early packing and consolidating for our upcoming travel to Guangzhou. We also played an Elmo video on Matt's Netbook and Elmo seems to have captured Zachary's imagination for the time being. His heat rash is completely gone, but he does have some rough, dry skin so we moisturized him after bathtime. He is now playing with his burgeoning bottlecap collection and we are kind of planning to chill out for the remainder of the evening.

Today we traveled to Tienanmen Square and The Forbidden City. Tienanmen Square is absolutely enormous and was made famous by the protest and subsequent government crackdown in 1989. It is an open plaza with a large picture of Mao on the opposite road. The Forbidden City is a long (seemingly endless sometimes) series of plazas surrounded by various palaces and work areas of Chinese royalty. All of the plazas, to a great extent, resemble one another. At times you feel like you are walking through a series of those Russian nesting dolls. When you walk from Tienanmen Square through the full length of the Forbidden City, you have walked a total of over 3 miles. Zach got excited when his stroller was rolled over the bumpy areas of the older bricks, some of which were over 600 years old. Also, during a strong breeze, Glen's Citadel hat was blown off his head, landing in a moat. Our guide, Michael, remarked that the Emperor must have liked and wanted the hat. Maybe we can find him a Communist Party hat to replace it. ;-)

We came back from the trip, ate lunch, and are relaxing in our hotel room. Matt took his afternoon walkabout in the neighborhood around the hotel, going back down to the Wu Mart to get these sweet tea drinks we have grown fond of. Not sure what dinner and this evening will bring yet.

Zach continues to dazzle us. He is very unsure about the Squeaky Shoes we bought him yesterday. He is not interested in wearing them on a regular basis. We had a lot of fun at bathtime last night. He continues to have great sleeping habits (he has slept through the night every night we have had him) and his vocabulary continues to expand rapidly. We are both really looking forward to returning to the United States so we can settle into normal life with our son. That will come soon enough, though, we guess. Tomorrow we go to Behai Park in the morning and then say "Sayonara!" (yes, we know it is Japanese) to Glen and Lynda as they go on a side trip to Xi'an. They will meet up with us in Guangzhou for the final leg of our journey.

Yesterday, we got up, had breakfast, and went to the Lama Temple. The Lama Temple is a Buddhist shrine located pretty close to our hotel, the Poly Plaza. We arrived at the Temple and found numerous Chinese filing in carrying bundles of incense. There were several distinct modules to the temple containing different Buddhas that apparently have different super powers. Some people stopped and bowed and lit incense at the feet of different buddhas, sending up prayers for different needs or wishes. The final module of the Lama Temple contained the world's largest Buddha, which was carved from a single tree.
 
After the Lama Temple, we went to a tea house where we got to see an authentic Chinese tea ceremony performed. It was very elegant and artistically done and we all learned a lot in the process.
 
Today we ate breakfast and went to the Hongtiao Market where we did some shopping for pearls, "squeaky shoes" for Zachary, and a couple of toys (a toy phone and a toy fire truck). As this is being written, we are having a "family picnic" of leftover Subway sandwiches and chips. This afternoon, Matt is going to make another run to the Wu Mart and probably Starbucks.
 
Yesterday afternoon, Zach had his first good bath experience. We hope he is getting over his insecurity about the bathtub. His heat rash is nearly gone at this point as well. This morning, as we were changing his diaper, Zach grabbed Matt's arm and moved his legs in such a way that, unbeknownst to him, he was approximating a jiu-jitsu armbar. He'll be a blackbelt in no time!

Today is Julia's 40th birthday and she will never forget celebrating it in China with our new son. This morning we got up after another peaceful night to find Zach somewhat out of sorts. He was not his normal sunny disposition. This is not to say he was terribly difficult. He was just a little more like a normal toddler than he had been. The heat rash that we had mentioned in previous blog posts had gotten worse. Over the course of the day, we did some research on the internet and confirmed that what he has is definitely heat rash and not a food allergy or other similar malady. The condition can be caused by bundling a child up which prevents sweat from evaporating leading to blockage of sweat ducts, which leads to the rash, which apparently feels somewhat like a nasty sunburn. The Chinese put some importance on bundling small children up in multiple layers and heat rash is a common malady among Chinese children because of this. Julia and I came to a decision that we are going to stop worrying about what the people on the street think and begin dressing Zach in a more American fashion. Granted, we will keep him warm but we are dispensing with the bundling.


Today's activity was a trip to the Beijing Zoo. It was a nice trip which Zach seemed to enjoy but in many ways was kind of sad as well. The zoo here reminded us of the older zoos we saw in America as children. The animals are contained in mostly cement enclosures, unlike the modern American zoos, such as Zoo Atlanta that attempt to better approximate the animals' natural habitat. We saw Pandas, elephants, giraffes, monkeys, lions, tigers, bears (oh my!). Zach actually paid more attention to the other people around him than to the animals. Of all of the animals, the bears seemed to hold the most interest for him. The animals all were pacing and didn't appear to be happy in their situations.



After the zoo, we went back to the hotel and Zach took a snooze. After that, we got up and went down the block to a childrens' clothing store where we bought Zach a few short-sleeve shirts. On the way back, we stopped at McDonalds to get dinner. It was a 3 story McDonalds full of young people and was swelteringly hot. There also were no tables to be had, so we walked back to the hotel where the staff had a rose and a birthday cake waiting for Julia. We ate our food and had some cake while Zach played with some empty plastic bottles, stacking, tossing, and punting.

At one point, Zach found something unbearably funny and threw himself on the floor laughing hysterically and pounding the floor. We have yet to know what exactly tickled his funny bone, but it was a sight to see.

Tomorrow brings a trip to a temple, the name of which escapes us at the moment. More to come tomorrow.

Today has been another amazing day in Beijing. We woke up refreshed after another peaceful night with our Zachary. He has yet to have a bad night or even a truly bad moment, and trust us, he has had his share of opportunities. He truly seems to have an amazingly positive disposition and he continues to pick up English words at a rapid pace. The only issue that we have had is that he seems to have slightly sensitive skin and is prone to break out in heat rash. The Chinese do not seem to believe much in air conditioning, so we have been sweltering in our hotel room and pretty much everywhere we have gone. The air quality in Beijing is quite smoggy at best, so we have both found ourselves very thirsty on a constant basis.

We ate breakfast this morning and met our guide, Michael at 0900. We drove out to a section of the Great Wall that is just outside of Beijing. There was a lot of history and a lot of beautiful scenery in the area. As the wall was quite steep and the steps were very uneven, Julia, Zach, and I elected to stay on the very lowest portion (so at least we could say that we climbed on the Wall), which had some interesting little shops and some shady places to sit. Glen and Lynda climbed up to the first landing and came back down. Climbing up to that point, however, granted them the status of "Hero".








After the Great Wall, we went to a jade store and restaurant where we ate a traditional Chinese lunch in several courses. Since today was Lynda's birthday and tomorrow is Julia's, Michael surprised us with a birthday cake (complete with a lotus flower candle that, when lit, unfolded, revealing several more candles located inside) and a bottle of wine. After eating, we shopped in the jade store. Zach got loads of attention from the women working in the store, and we have come to the conclusion that the little guy is something of a ladies' man.





Our final stop of the day was at the Olympic Village. We walked the village area for a little over an hour, getting a closeup look at the Birds' Nest stadium, the Water Cube, and the cauldron tower that held the Olympic flame. After that, we came back to the hotel and are regrouping in our room. Matt ventured out briefly to a local store to buy a hat as he got very slightly sunburned today and we are going to the Beijing Zoo tomorrow.

Yesterday afternoon, we went to Wu Mart, which is something similar to a Kroger or Publix back home. This was our first experience leaving Zach with a babysitter (Glen and Lynda) and was somewhat heartbreaking to do, but he adapted well. Wu Mart is just a couple of blocks from the hotel so we went on foot. Along the way, we stopped at Starbucks for a few minutes, as we were craving a "taste of home". There was a bit of a language barrier in Starbucks but they understood our orders and our drinks tasted just like they do in the states.






Wu Mart was an experience. People were just darting and weaving through the aisles, making navigating difficult. Also, all of the product labels were at least mostly in Chinese, making determining exactly what you are looking at with any degree of certainty difficult. We muddled through and were able to get what we needed however. We did have a comical moment trying to find diapers, involving Julia pantomiming patting herself on the butt. We never were able to have a meeting of the minds in that instant but found diapers on our own.






We went to the Summer Palace yesterday, where some of the emperors and empresses would stay during the warm months. There was one Empress in particular that they refer to as the Dragon Lady, who would make very good use of the palace. The grounds of the Summer Palace are something to see. There is much beauty and a lot of history there. We were approached and stared at by many of the locals, some having us pose with them for pictures. One of the activities at the Summer Palace is a number of the elderly who have artistic talents come to the park to practice their crafts. One man was doing calligraphy on the ground using a wet sponge on a stick. He wrote several messages in English for us, including "Safe Trip" and "My Son Lives in USA" which was very meaningful for us, obviously. We ran into a woman with her granddaughter in a stroller that we talked to briefly. She gave her granddaughter and Zach these strips of pressed seaweed that were similar in consistency to a fruit rollup. Zach liked them, so we may have to see if we can find them stateside. Our trip to the Summer Palace concluded with a ride on the Dragon Boats on Kungming Lake. It was a very nice day.








Zachary has been a dream so far. He has been sleeping like a log and eating anything that is put before him. He will basically eat until you stop the food from coming. What few meltdowns he has had have been pretty brief and easy to manage. Today, we returned to the Civil Affairs office and signed some additional paperwork. After doing so, on the Chinese side of things, he officially became our son. After that, we had to journey on to the Office of the Notary to do some additional paperwork. This involved a lot of waiting in a very hot conference room which Zach did not enjoy as it was quite boring. The key to keeping him from melting down was keeping him moving. We took turns walking with him, orbiting the conference room. There was another couple in the room from Holland who were adopting a 3 year old boy so we spent some time talking with them. Once we were done there, our final stop of the day was at the local Homeland Security outpost where Zach was photographed for his passport. This concluded the paperwork that has to be completed for the Beijing portion of our journey.

Zach has some tendencies that are reminiscent of a Border Collie. He seems to like having a "job" of some sort and if one is not given to him he will assign himself something. His latest kick is putting things inside other things and taking them back out. So right now, small empty boxes and small items like plastic bottle caps are among his favorite toys along with his ever-present little yellow car. I am just amazed at how quickly he is picking up English words. We are not sure if he yet really knows his name, but he is parroting words and sounds. Also, at some point, someone has taught him to do "high fives" because he has that down to an art. Matt discovered that by accident by raising his hand up and receiving a high five. We have now also taught him to fist bump.

We are both exhilarated but somewhat tired. The time change has not been terrible, but by the time the evening rolls around here, we are all ready for bed. Zach is very mobile, so keeping him in check and out of trouble is quite an undertaking. Matt mentioned that he knows how it is now to be a sheepdog, trying to keep the one under your watch in a safe place, away from dangerous situations and be willing to throw down in their defense if called upon to do so. Matt is writing this post while Zach and Julia are snoozing.

Here are some of the pictures from Summer Palace.





All of this for one special boy!

Hello from Georgia! This is Camille writing...and I know I am not very entertaining...Julia got all the creativity! Anyway, wanted to share that I talked to her via Skype this evening, and had a great conversation. Zachary showed off a little too! He is so smart! He started the conversation with "HI".

Julia said he is very independent, he wants to do everything for himself. She said he is very pleasant and easy going, but is all BOY (I think thats a good thing!). He seems uninterested in the stuffed bear that they had sent him a couple months ago in a care package...unlike his mama on that note, but is more like our cousin Peter and probably his Daddy as well, because he loves cars and things that move! He played peek-a-boo with Daddy while the girls and I watched. Matt even weighed him in at approximately 22 pounds while we were talking. Zachary is intrigued with the telephone, so they were going to start the day shopping for a toy phone. One thing is for sure, if they keep buying toys, he is going to love shopping!!!

Enough of my notes and on to Picture time! Enjoy!!

Hello and greetings from Zachary's nap time hour(s)! We have already had an eventful day! The "Zach-attack" never occured last night! OMG, No way?! Yes, Way! We anticipated a night of comforting a confused, sad, angry (insert adjective) Little Zachary. But, to our surprise, he never got out of bed once he zonked out around 6PM. He never ate a dinner so at the very least we expected him to wake up hungry. Matt and I woke up at 4:30AM with a little sleepy eyed Zachary quietly laying on his back looking around in his crib. Matt and I began singing to him as he quietly watched our performance. 
 
For Zachary's early breakfast meal he drank one bottle of a mixture of formula and rice cereal & 1/2 a banana. He loves to eat and would continue to eat as long as food is in front of him. Take away the food and he becomes satisfied. Now we know! His first meal with us we just kept feeding and feeding him expecting him to push away or close his mouth! Lynda pointed out possibly his food had been some what rationed so he maybe used to eating until the food ends.
 
Zachary feel asleep against Matt while Julia was doing her hair. What a site to see- my two Miller men cuddled up together - a perfect combination~ like peanut butter & jelly, Bread & butter, chicken & waffles :) It's a "God thing" because he fits perfectly with us!
 
OUR SON HAD A BM!!! We failed to take a picture of his diaper. But, we would like to share with you the gory details. Matt smelled it first. And, if you know that my husband has little olfactory senses then you will know how serious this is! When Julia picked Zachary up out of his crib he had a look on his face that we suspected was a "OMG, I pooped my pants" kinda look! Somehow our brilliant son managed to poop a good cup size of goo and managed NOT to get a single drop on his little hiney! Yes, it is true! We only used the sanitary wipe for good measure not because of well... I'm sure you get the idea.
 
For Zachary's second breakfast our family of 5 went down stairs to the hotel buffett. All the staff & guests watched us with curiosity. One waiter took our table as his "special project" because he was never far from Zachary. Our son loved his scrambled eggs, noodles, watermelon & apple juice! At one point we were concerned he would have a melt down when his Daddy (out of need) took away the large metal spoon from Zachary's tight grip. Zach was pounding the table, tossing food off the spoon and making a mess~ He is like his Mommy, he likes to play with his food! Back to the story, When Matt was taking back the spoon Zachary had a facial expression that appeared to be a the beginnings of a wail to put a fire engine's sirens to shame boiling up from the very depths of his soul... But, our brilliant son swallowed the meltdown back down thanks to quick hiding of the spoon combined with distraction with food and other matters at hand. Not a peep came out of his mouth.
 
This morning, we went to the Beijing Civil Affairs office to be interviewed as part of the adoption. When we walked in, workers were gathered in the lobby for an exercise session that appeared to me a strange blend between Tai Chi and Riverdance. The interview was conducted in Mandarin, but our trusty guide Michael was there to translate for us. We were asked about household income, how long we had been married, if we had other children, and if we like Zachary (to which we answered, "We LOVE him! He is our pride and joy!"). We answered all of the questions and apparently we passed muster. So, yet another piece to completing the adoption puzzle has fallen into place.
 
We just got him up from a nap. This afternoon, we plan to have Glen and Lynda watch him for awhile and we are going to go check out the Wu Mart and surrounding stores to see what we can see. We appreciate everyone's comments. We can't express how much it means to us to have so many friends and family following our journey. We feel your love on the other side of the world!

First night with Zach was pretty good. Zach slept heavily and pretty much the whole night. We were waiting for a "Zach Attack" that never occurred. We woke up this morning around 3 am and found him laying quietly in his crib. We sang songs for awhile, ranging from nursery rhymes (including the Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Row Row Row your boat (which we did in round) to Journey ("Lights" and "Don't Stop Believin'") to Metallica ("Enter Sandman"). Julia took a shower and Matt kept an eye on Z. It is 4 am now and we just changed and are feeding him right now because we are all up. We were very surprised to find that his diaper was very wet but he had not cried or anything to let us know. He is a chow hound. We just fed him some banana and dragon fruit (something local to China, similar to kiwi fruit). He is now coming close to emptying a bottle. And that basically sums up our morning so far. Later this morning we will be going to pay the orphanage fee. After that, we are going to see if Lynda will watch Zach for awhile while we go to Wu Mart (which is kind of like a super Kroger). Stay tuned for more...

Sunday, April 10th, "Gotcha Day!"

As I type this post our son is fast asleep rolled over on his side with his pacifier in one hand and toy car in the other. What a beautiful little boy, we are all so blessed!

Our day started somewhere around 4:30am when we couldn't pretend to sleep any longer. Officially our day started at 9 am this morning when we met Michael, our guide, in our hotel lobby for "Gotcha" Day. We were headed North to our sons orphanage! We expected the car ride to take one hour of drive time. However, before we knew it our van was pulling up to the orphanage gate. The orphanage was very nice. And, it was tucked away in a neighborhood area with a lot of locals milling about doing their weekend shopping & socializing. We enjoyed watching the sites from our van window.


This is Michael, our guide.

Surprising to us, we were the ONLY family there to pick up its child! We were ushered into a large waiting room/ conference room. We had various paperwork to sign & one document required our finger print, in red ink, over our signatures. Not much longer Yu Jian Dong and his Nanny arrived. She was carrying him facing outwards towards us. And, she immediately knelt on her knees holding Jian between her legs. Julia followed their movements and knelt on her knees facing Jian & his Nanny. Jian & Julia both had tears in their eyes but neither said a word initially to each other. We just stared at each other. The Nanny pointed at Julia and said, "Mommy" and repeated it several times. He was hesitant but not fearful. And, the Nanny said something like "1,2,3 Jump to Mommy" and she picked him up and landed him in front of Julia. Julia held him in her arms, on her knees and stroked his back in a comforting way. Jian began to cry, Julia stood up & rocked him while speaking softly. Matt came over and the two of us comforted, talked to & rocked Jian. At some point the Nanny left the room & we did not see her again. However, there was a representative who answered questions regarding his eating, sleeping, playtime habits. We were back in our van approximately 45 minutes later headed back to our hotel.

First Sight and Nannie



Mommy!



Daddy!

Forever Family





Isn't He Beautiful!

During the van ride Zachary had tears in his eyes, but never truly cried. Eventually he feel asleep in Julia's arms. Back in our hotel room, we undressed Zachary (who was burning up in his 2 layers of long johns & sweats.)and began just quietly talking to him. He pushed out his bottom lip in the form or a pout and THEN it happened- the most heart wrenching cry - a cry of deep confusion & sadness that came from the depths of his soul...before long all three of us were crying. But we did our best to reassure him- rock him, rub his back, sing songs...eventually we gave him a bottle, which started his lunch and his attitude quickly changed to happiness & his personality came out! He ate and ate and ate! His first meal with us was steamed white rice, looong Japanese noodles, fruit, vegetables& yogurt! He seemed to have a bottomless stomach and everything he ate he loved!



After lunch we giggled and played. He has the most beautiful smile and a laugh that warms our hearts. He absolutely loves the little toy truck and the book with all the pictures of our family in it! He has already mimicked his new American Name several times and has said Momma, Daddy & Bop-bop. He is brilliant!! We can't wait to see more of his personality shine through.

We had an appointment to make with our guide Michael at 2PM so the fun had to end. But, we dressed Zachary back into half of the clothes the orphanage gave us, strapped him into the umbrella stroller and headed for a short 5 minute walk to have our family picture taken and passport photos taken. We hope to get a copy of our fist "official" family portrait. We will find that out tomorrow.





Tonight we are eating Papa John's Pizza! Yes!! It tastes just like home!
Tomorrow we are told we will be meeting at 9:30am to have our visa paperwork completed. We will be seeing his Nanny again. We think the meeting should take 3 hours. Then we will be back to our hotel for another nap no doubt. Currently it appears Zachary is already down for the count. He finally fell asleep around 5ish and he is giving no indications of waking up- but, come around 3am that story might change. Mom (Lynda) has already given us instructions on how to prepare the bottle and what to do when and if he wakes up. Mom & Dad (Glen & Lynda) have been so helpful during this trip. We have relied on them for basic help (Like taking lead on solving solutions) to confusing issues (boiling water for sanitizing the baby items, making bottles, lifting dirty bottom out of diapers- you know, the really difficult tasks that we are learning under fire :) We could not have done this trip as easily with out them!!

Time to get some sleep before our possible 3AM Zach-attack wake up call!