One Year Ago . . . January 16th

This morning still in our Jinan hotel - Kellin is standing with Grandpa!

This is what Kellin ate - his can of formula is on the right, and the package on the left is the biscuits that I would crush up and add to his bottle of formula and water.

Today was the day we would pick up our papers from the notary in Jinan and fly to Guangzhou! Our guide was to meet us in the first floor lobby of the hotel at 9:00, with a flight at 12:00. So we checked out (in the seventh floor lobby) and headed downstairs. As we were waiting, I realized that Kellin had a very dirty diaper. There was no bathroom on the first floor, so we took the elevator back up to the seventh floor lobby. There was a bathroom here, but as was typical, there was no changing table or handicap stall. So we went into a teeny tiny stall (barely room for the door to open and close with the toilet there) and I laid Kellin on the floor. Oh, my goodness - nightmare! Kellin was wearing a slippery winter coat and he was restless and crying, so he was sliding all around the floor (like practically behind the toilet!) as I tried to clean him up, and he kept trying to put his hands into his diaper. I was sweaty and FRUSTRATED by the time I finally got him cleaned up and headed back downstairs. Kellin cried the entire time.

Once our guide arrived, he informed us that our flight had been changed from 12:00 to 2:30 because the air quality was "hazardous," and once we got outside, we could see that the air was hazy, like dirty fog, and you couldn't see very far. It was frustrating to learn about the flight change though, since we had already checked out of the hotel and had no place to wait.

We headed to the notary, and it turned out to be a good thing to have extra time, because there was a mistake in the papers and we had to wait quite a while for them to be redone. I felt bad because I had gone into the building with our guide, leaving Dad and Kellin to wait in the car. It was supposed to be a quick trip in and out of the building, and instead, they were stuck in the car waiting for a long time.

Once we finally received the papers, we headed to the airport and made it through security by about noon. We settled in to wait for our flight. It was a small airport, but there were a few food places, so we bought sandwiches marked "hamburger." After opening them, we realized that there were NOT hamburgers, at least not what we would consider hamburgers. We couldn't figure out what the meat (or meat substitute) on them actually was. Yuck.

Waiting at the airport

We boarded the plane around 2:00 - Kellin's first plane ride! Kellin did great on the flight. He slept some of the time and sat on my lap for a while.

On the plane!

As we neared our landing in Guangzhou, I realized that Kellin had soaked through his diaper and both pairs of pants he was wearing and onto me (he did this often). The line for the airplane bathroom was all the way down the aisle, so I chose to wait to take care of it until we exited the plane in the Guangzhou airport. Lucky to find a bathroom there with a handicap stall, so at least there was room to change Kellin on the floor.

We retrieved our baggage and went out to meet our guide. The weather here was warm - 60's or 70's - and it felt overly warm to us in our heavy coats. We drove the hotel, which was a large, very fancy-looking place. It turned out that it is really THE place for most adopting families to stay in Guangzhou (and all adopting families must go through this city), so the lobby was full of American parents with newly-adopted Chinese children. I must admit, it was refreshing to hear American English. At the hotel in Jinan, I can't recall even seeing any other children, let alone any other adopting families. We were very isolated. During our week in Guangzhou, we would meet many other adopting families, and the one thing that always struck me is that I never saw another child who appeared to be as neglected and developmentally delayed as Kellin. Most of the children appeared fairly typical, with minor or less noticeable needs. I did not encounter anyone else who reported the eating issues that Kellin had; many children were great eaters and healthy-looking. Don't get me wrong - there were children with repaired cleft lip, spina bifida, albinism, medical issues, hearing impairments, etc. It's just that they were all still acting like kids - playing, eating, talking. This was in stark contrast to Kellin, who was limp or fussy most of the time and did not take initiative to do anything on his own.

We checked into the hotel and discovered that since we had requested two rooms, we were booked into an apartment rather than regular rooms. This turned out to be a great set-up for us. Our apartment had two bedrooms, each with an attached bathroom, a living/dining room area, and a small kitchen. And a WASHING MACHINE!

Here there was a crib for Kellin, rather than just a bed, and he seemed comfortable in it. I couldn't imagine sleeping in it though, because it was just a hard board with a blanket over it, but I suppose Kellin was used to something similar. We settled in, changed Kellin into pajamas, and enjoyed a quiet evening.