Boys are boys in any language...

This video is pretty self-explanatory, but so far we have lots of smiles today.  Clearly some things don't require a translator!  The boys are teaching Colin to play UNO now...

He is learning his colors nicely and even some game rules very quickly.  We haven't been able to get him to actually say, "Uno" when he is down to one card, but he says the number one in Chinese, so he clearly understands when to say it now.

Taking each moment as it comes, but very thankful for all the prayer that went into making this day a sweet one so far.

Angie

Shenyang SWI Visit

Today we met our guide and headed out to the Shenyang Orphanage where Colin has spent the last few years.  We had several "to dos" for the day.  First and foremost, we wanted to see where Colin has lived and meet his caregivers.  We also wanted to deliver a special gift to a little girl who's new parents are waiting for her in the states.  Last, but certainly not least, we wanted to see if we could get any updated information on two boys who are on the shared list from this orphanage.  I am pleased to say that we accomplished all of this and much more!

We were there at the SWI for about 3-4 hours today.  We received such an amazing welcome.  Ms. Tan, the assistant Director was so accommodating and warm.  We arrived at lunchtime so we went to the "cantine" first and enjoyed some large dumplings with beef and carrot, steamed eggplant & garlic, and corn porridge.  My critique? (For what that could possibly be worth?)  The dumplings were delicious.  I especially like the soy sauce/garlic combo they use as a dip.  The porridge was pretty tasteless.  The eggplant was served cold, so I did not care for it, but Tom loved it.  Colin was right at home and had 5-- count them--5 dumplings (these were big people!  I ate one).  For a thin boy, he has a massive appetite!  It was great to see him eating so well.

Just as we were getting ready to return our dirty trays, George, our guide told us to stay put.  He indicated that the Chef was preparing something special that he wanted to share with us. Huh?  We just ate!  So, we sat there for a bit and then the chef and his assistant emerged and set up a special table with about 8-10 chairs. 

So, apparently, as the details emerged, there were two distinct reasons for this "celebration".  The sous chef that I mentioned before was a student that had finished high school but had not been adopted in time.  He wants to be a great chef.  So, the orphanage staff was working with him to teach him to cook.  There were two TV cameras there (I think they had been there for 7 days and this was their last day).  This special dinner was a fun way to conclude their time. They were hosting a contest of sorts.  The two prepared 4 dishes.  The Directors of the Orphanage and our family were to be judges and taste each dish.  We were told to guess which chef, teacher or student, had prepared each dish and which we liked the best.  Before we began, the chef gave a moving speech about Colin and how happy they were that he was going to have this opportunity of a better life.  George translated each portion for us.  The staff were so warm and obviously loved him and were happy for him. Here is a short video clip of this exchange...

The gentleman speaking English is George, our guide for this week in Shenyang.  I believe the older "chef" may be a TV anchor. George referred to him as "the anchor".


After this time in the dining hall, we were escorted to Colin's dorm and met the lady who was in charge of all the "older children" in that dorm.  She has worked there for 25 years she told us, although Tom teased her that she must have started at age 5 because she was so young.  We got to see his old room, meet his roommate, and tour the classroom and lounge areas.  We saw the trees, swing and piano that we had seen in update pictures received earlier. 



Colin in his dorm room



Colin's bunk



Colin with his roommate

Most special was the album of older photos and written updates that the dorm director gave us.  It was a treasure to my Mother's heart to see his growth and to see such a happy boy.  All his friends made posters for him with good-bye messages and hand prints.  They will be great to decorate his very plain (at the moment) room at home.



On the right, the woman who was in charge of the dorm.  She was very nice!



Here he is with several of his friends...

His caregivers were obviously fond of him.

After we left the dorm, my video camera died. UGH!  So, I had to think fast. I may never have the opportunity to come here again and I promised updated photos to a mom who was waiting for a little girl from Colin's orphanage.  So, we went to Ms. Tan's office and Colin charged the camera on her computer while we talked about these other shared list kids.

I was able to get enough "juice" for the camera to get these pics.  Here I am delivering some special items for a sweet little one.  She was too precious!  Ya'll, when I opened her envelope for her, there was a beautiful card with photos of her family.  When we opened the card, she said, "Mama, Papa, and whatever passes for "sisters" in Chinese! LOL  George was able to get her to do it again so that we could get video of this sweetheart for her parents to be.



Delivering a very special package to this sweetie from her waiting parents

 Lastly, we sought out two special boys who have been waiting for families.  One has Microtia (deformed ears and potential hearing loss).  He was born in 2005.  Ms. Tan allowed us to meet him and take photos so that we might find him a family.  I have to say this little boy was so adorable.  The teachers said he wanted to be a chef!  He was playing chef for us when we visited and he and Tommy played in the pretend restaurant. 

This next little one has fused fingers and some deformity of the feet.  He was born in 2007.  It appeared to my very untrained eyes, that all his knuckles and joints were in tact. So far as I know, he would need surgery to correct the feet and hands, but his special needs seemed very manageable and more than likely, completely correctible.  He was full of energy and seemed happy to play with his friends.  He was friendly and greeted us immediately when we entered the room.

These are both beautiful little boys who had smiles that lit up the room!  Please join me in praying for them and in advocating for them to find loving families who will cheer them on. 

I think has been my favorite day of the trip yet. (Aside from the actual adoption being completed).  It was so nice being able to see a bit of our son's history and to see so clearly that he was loved and cared for by the staff there.  He was one of the lucky ones.  I can't wait to see what God has in store for this very special young man. 

Tomorrow we will receive all of the final paperwork translated into English and then we set out to see more of this big city.  We hope to see the location where Colin was found as an infant, go to see the political statues and then the Imperial Palace in the afternoon.  More later friends!  God Bless,

Angie

Colin is officially a Rylands!

Well, to say we are worn out would be a bit of an understatement, but we are a very happy family. We started the day with the breakfast buffet at the hotel and saw what a healthy appetite our son has!  It made Tom smile.  Then, we headed out with our guide to the Civil Affairs office to finalize our adoption.  It was a very long process-- not because there were issues on our end, but because there were  three other families (spanish speaking) who were there to adopt small ones from Colin's orphanage.  Apparently they were having some issues and it caused all of us delays.


Dad signing paperwork

 

Mom signing paperwork



Fingerprint next to every signature- we left with RED thumbs!





                           But, in the end, we have a very nice offical certificate of adoption! 

After leaving there, we went straight to the Bureau of Public Safety--- you guessed it---the Police Station!  (When Colin heard that we were going there, his ears perked right up!  I don't blame him after all he's been through).  This is where the passport photos were taken and passports fees were paid.
Thanks to a very persistent Orphanage teacher, we were served right away and did not have to wait in the long lines there.


A picture of a picture taking!

Then, on to lunch...  I wish I had remembered to take a photo of the outside where the name was.  We had a great meal that the guide helped us order. Fried sweet & sour pork (crunchy), seasoned green beans (Spicy & SO good!), dumplings dipped in soy sauce w/ garlic and white rice.


Enjoying lunch- on right- our driver



We ate very well for lunch, so dinner was KFC in the room! LOL  The funniest thing about the lunch experience was all the Chain smokers in the restaurant.  Those who know me well know that I get really sick around cigarette smoke.  Just a whiff will give me a sharp headache. I have had this issue since I was a little girl. Ok, that's not the funny part because it was nasty.  But, what was funny was all the NO SMOKING signs all over the restaurant. LOL Every wall had one. I am not exaggerating when I say that there was a smoker at least every other table!

After lunch, we decided that getting a hand held pocket translator was of utmost importance, so the driver took us to the "electronics district".  AKA-- flea market for all things that are plugged in! 

It was quite a place. All new items, original packaging in the skeeziest looking building ever. lol  But, our guide negotiated a pretty good price for us, so we were happy!  Now, Colin will be able to answer us with more than a head nod.  Already he is learning to use it quite effectively to communicate with us.

Now, the most entertaining part of the day?  Definitely the driving experience.  I have never seen such a site!  In Shenyang, the bumper ahead of yours is the one with the right of way.  No light, sign, or arrow has any significance whatsoever.  People run in front of moving vehicles, cars go the wrong way, in the wrong lane...  and the horns. BOY do they LOVE their car horns!  It's like music in the background of the city.  We laughed so many times. Tom said he will NEVER EVER complain about meeting street traffic again! (A Charleston reference).  In the US, streets would be littered with bodies if people drove like that!



View from the van

While we were navigating this huge city, we found a picture and letter in Colin's things.  I asked the guide to translate it for us.  Boy, what a blessing it was.  It was a letter from Colin's "Uncle".  The guide explained that this was the brother of his former foster parent.  Apparently, he still had contact with them.  We learned earlier today at Civil Affairs that the family that "found him and raised him" turned him over to the orphanage after the Father died and the Mother became "very sick" and could no longer care for him.  I am unclear if she is still alive, but it would appear that he has kept some contact with the uncle. Anyway, the letter was a sweet one full of "fatherly advice" on how to be successful in America.  I will get a written translation of it later, but in essence and to the best of my memory, he advises him with the following:

• Do not fight
• Do not take drugs
• Do not eat greasy foods: uhoh!(lol)
• Do not hang with anyone who treats their parents badly
• Do not put on a lot of weight eating badly as it will give you disease.
• Since you (Colin) are softhearted and always want to help others, try not to trust that everyone will always have your best interest at heart.
• Do not look at "lustful" pictures.
• Do not spend too much time on the computer playing games.
• Study Hard and work to overcome the language barrier.
• Always ask why.  Make yourself understand.
• Basically, be a good boy and honor your parents and take good care of yourself!  There was an email address also, so perhaps at some point we can communicate with him.

When he is ready, we will ask him more about this family that raised him and cared for him for so long.

So now, while most of America is sound asleep, we are relaxing in the hotel room.  The boys watched the cartoon movie Tarzan (voices in Chinese) and Tom rested a bit. 

Tomorrow's plans?  A visit to the orphanage. We are told that it will probably take about an hour to get there because the roads are all under construction and "not good".  But, we are so happy to be able to go see where our son has been living these last few years.  They are going to invite us to stay for lunch so that we can see "a real day in the life" of these children.  We were warned by the guide that it would probably not be "to our taste", but it was what the children experience everyday.  I expect that he is right, but if Colin can live it each day, we can endure it, whatever it might be, for one meal.

We will deliver the donations of clothing and diapers that were given for the children from our Charleston friends and we will take in as much as we can of his environment while we are there. 

More to come....

The Rylands Four

Starting Day Two

Today is a big day for the Rylands Family!  Today we will meet our guide and head back to Civil Affairs to finalize our adoption.  The boys have been so good together.  We have communicated the best we can with Google Translator on the computer, but it became very clear that poor Colin needs to be able to communicate back to us with more than yes or no answers. So, we are hoping to get the guide to take us to an electronics store today to get a hand held electronic tralslator that will translate both ways. 

We made it through our first night together. Colin slept well it seems although the whole family was up by 5 AM. I'm sure we will eventually settle into the new time zone just in time to travel home.  He has never been on a plane before so we will need to prepare him for that experience since we will fly to Guangzhou on Friday. 

I took the sweetest video of the two boys rough housing and laughing last night, but I cannot get it to upload to Youtube for some reason.  In the meantime, here is a sweet photo we took of them this morning. 



Tuesday morning- Adoption Day!



So today we had our "Gotcha Day" and met our new son for the first time in person.  I was overwhelmed at how handsome he was when I saw him today.  You could tell he was nervous-- who wouldn't be?  But, he let us give him a hug.  (Can you imagine Tom Rylands NOT hugging someone he loves?)

I'm sure I will have so much more to say once I digest all of this. I am still nervous around him, but I am trying hard.  Below is a shot of us in front of the building of Civil Affairs just before we went up to the 17th floor to meet him. 

This is the first picture that we took together.

 The whole family together for the first time. 

Colin Signing the adoption paperwork

Tom signing the adoption paperwork

This younger boy was there to meet his parents and he wanted to play with Colin.  He was great with him and helped make him more comfortable with his new family.

Colin playing with the younger boy.  He even snuck out when it was time for us to leave so that the little boy would not be sad to see him go.

Tom and Colin are on a Wal-Mart run right now buying snacks and candy gifts for his friends from the orphanage.  We plan to visit there perhaps on Wednesday according to the guide. 

When we came back to the room, the guide asked Colin to try on his clothes and we were thrilled that they all fit.  Well, the boys are back now from shopping.  Time to get busy..... More later.

Travels to China

Here we are with our good friend Kim arriving at the Charleston International Airport!  August 18,2011.  We are so excited that this day has finally arrived.  Looking forward to getting our first of four flights on the way!  Thanks to Kim and her unapologetic passion for special needs orphans, we began this crazy "ride" back in April and here we are just 4 excruciatingly long short months later getting ready to fly half way around the world to bring home our new son.

Our first flight to Nashville was pretty uneventful except for the spunky flight attendents that we enjoyed on Southwest!  Then, it was a four hour layover and on to LAX!  This was my first international flight, so I was amazed at how large HUGE this plane was. 

Only to be less impressed with how SMALL the seats were. We traveled over the Pacific for 12.5 hours before landing in Shanghai.  We were in the middle section of seats and luckily, Tommy had a very nice young woman next to him who could speak English well.  He finally concked out about 2 hours before we landed and she even let him kick her a few times as he stretched beyond his 12 inches of seat...lol  Here is the sharp tack now---

So, as you might imagine, the day was filled with LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of waiting. (Something, by the way, that I happen to do exceptionally well!!! NOT!)  But, did this phase our yougest traveler?  Not at all!  You might expect that a six year old boy woud find this a difficult journey.  Well, as you can see, Tommy found a way to make lemons into lemonade and happened upon some pretty cute girls in the process!

This sweet young thing was his playmate in Los Angeles....

And this one.... in Shanghai-

She was especially tickled with Tommy and her English was good enough for them to get by.  Her Mother and all her friends loved to giggle at Tommy's shyness.  Kim was right- Tommy was quite a celebrity! They don't see a lot of blue eyed, blond headed little boys. (Who, yes, are also strikingly handsome!)  Who could blame them for staring?

Since we had such healthy layover breaks, all the delays of the day were easily absorbed into our overall schedule.  But, by the time we saw this sign,

we were more than ready to see a real bed! After getting through Customs in China (which was relatively painless) we endured enjoyed another 4 hour layover.  About an hour from flight time, we found out that they had changed our gate. From Gate 202 (in the basement of the airport) to gate #5 (You guessed it, a LONG way away.!)  Not that we didn't have plenty of time, but we had to go up two flights of stairs (escalator was shut off) with 4 heavy carry on bags and 3 VERY TIRED puppies!  We were oh so grateful for moving walkways....

The Lord further blessed us ME with AN EMPTY ROW of seats behind us on this 2 hour flight, so yours truly jumped back to the exit row and crashed-HARD!  I woke up when we got the announcment to prepare for landing.

Once we arrived in Shenyang and retrieved our luggage, we were met by a driver from the hotel with a sign "Thomas Frank Rylands".  Good thing too, since he spoke no English! lol  He was a great driver and we got a nice, traffic-free tour of downtown Shenyang, the 4th largest city in China.  Then, we saw that beautiful thing-- OUR BEDS!

Check and Double Check.....
So when we checked in, barely able to remember our own names, we were met with the reality that our credit DEBIT card was rejected.  Why?  Well, one might assume that I had neglected to think about the daily limits that banks place on debit cards. (A SOAPBOX FOR ANOTHER DAY.....) but NO!  NO! I say again.  I DID take the time to go personally to my bank and make sure that the daily limits placed on this card were raised for the time period we would be in China.  And STILL, our card was rejected.  Of course, when they asked us to produce another one, we said, "That's all we have."  Lovely.  So, instead of going into that beautiful, aformentioned BED that was calling my name, I got to stay up, hook up the computer, look up customer service for our bank and call them (AT INTERNATIONAL RATES..LOL) and "discuss" the matter.  Thankfully, it was a pretty easy fix and they cleared our account for China expenses.  Just another minor hiccup pleasantly behind us.

And that brings us to...SUNDAY! (Saturday afternoon/evening in the USA).  The BIG news of the day?

We are CLEAN! LOL

After over 24 hours of continuous travel, we have not been so grateful to get a SHOWER! Just as we were getting ready for whatever the day held, we received a call from our assigned guide/translator.  Guess what? Hiccup number TWO!  His train from Beijing was delayed and he couldn't make it to town until about 4 PM today. Seriously?  So, here we are in a HUGE city where few people speak our language. So, what does one do in that situation?  GO SHOPPING! 

Our first outing? WAL-MART of course!  Drinkable bottled water, here we come!

So, this is where things get ridiculous.  You'd think that living in a Tourist town like Charleston, you'd be immune to gawking around a Chinese Wal-Mart. You'd be SO WRONG! LOL.  What a fun place- ok, very strange, but fun!  So, we begin with the first HUH? moment of our trip. Since I lived in VA most of my life, I was surprised to learn that people in the South BOIL their perfectly good, crunchy, salty, roasted PEANUTS!  Who knew, they sacrifice their peanuts in China too!  So uncivilized! (Sorry Charlie!)

The other things that was a little unusual was the open bins of meats. OPENED!  People could sneeze all over them... ick.  But, people were swarming all around to get this stuff.  Here is a case (covered) of meat on a stick!  We saw people all over the downtown streets enjoying this delicacy!



Tommy was impressed at all the different flavors of OREOS that we saw.

That, and the SANDBOX in the middle of the toy section upstairs.

So, what did we get?  You guessed it, BOTTLED DRINKING WATER.  :-)

Lunch was even more exotic--- McDonalds!  Of course, I ended up eating a very SPICY chicken sandwich because when Tom went to order, he could only point to pictures.  I asked for Chicken and I got Chicken!  (But, it was HOT!).  So now it is 3PM on Sunday afternoon and I am happily enjoying the modern convenience of airconditioning from our comfy room listening to Tom snore through an afternoon nap while we wait for our guide who may or may not actually arrive today!

Happy Lord's Day everyone.

Angie