I Told You

If you've been following the Story of Ming Mei from the beginning then you know that Ming initially bonded with me before connecting with Linda. I said at the time that it was only a matter of time before she was 100% Mommy's Girl. Well, we're there folks! Yes, she still loves her Daddy, but Mommy's soft, nurturing, caring ways have total won over little Ming Mei. Tonight I was walking through the kitchen holding Ming in the vicinity of Mommy. Ming didn't hesitate to reach out her arms and grab for Mommy...she was the one Ming want to be held by. And why not...Mommy takes walks with her, always feeds her, hugs on her when she is fussy, give her baths (which she greatly enjoys), and generally puts the love on her like few of us are even really capable of. It is enjoyable to see my two special girls getting along so well together.

Taggie Blankets Are Fun

We have received so much love from our family and friends with an outpouring of encouragement, support, and baby gifts. Because it has been so long since we've had babies, I didn't realize how cool baby stuff is these days. As in, Ming's new stroller has speakers to accomodate and iPod. How cool is that? It practically makes you want to have a baby just to get a new stroller! One unique baby gift we recently received is a fleece Taggie Blanket. Cousin Sharon, who has also adopted from China, who has so faithfully followed our journey to China and back, and has supported us from the early days of waiting to be matched with a baby in our adoption process, was the giver of this lovely little blanket. Taggie Blankets were developed by an early childhood educator who also happens to be a mother of three. The blanket is a soft fleece and is designed with assorted ribbons sewn around the edges with different colors, sizes, and textures. Ming takes turn with them by putting them in her mouth, poking her fingers through the holes of the loop, and rubbing the edges of the ribbons. This snuggly little blanket is a real winner, and I suspect that Ming will drag it with her wherever she goes in the days ahead. Thanks Sharon!

The Big Purple Chair

OK, I'll give you three guesses to figure out where Princess Ming Mei is sitting...and the first two don't count.

Starbucks! One thing that Daddy and Ming enjoy doing is going to Starbucks so we can give Mommy a break. I get my iced coffee while Ming sits in the Big Purple Chair enjoying Cheerios, grapes, and whatever else Dad packs for her. You can just imagine the kind of attention she gets sitting there as if she doesn't have a care in the world.
Ming is smiling a whole lot more these days. She has this magic, disappearing act that she performs while smiling - when grinning and showing off those teeth of hers, her eyes disappear!
We're experimenting with names these days...Sometimes we call her Ming; sometimes Ming Mei; sometimes Mei Mei (which means 'little sister' in Chinese); Sometimes Baby Ming; the boys like calling her Ming-a-ling (thank you, Aunt Cindy, for that dubious designation). And we still occasionally call he Guo-Guo (gwah-gwah), which is how the nannies in the Orphanage addressed her. Whatever we call her, she is one special little girl.

Bizzy Week

Our little China Doll is getting a chance to drink in the My-New-Home-In-Spokane experience this week. Before sending Nate off to his second year at George Fox University on Thursday, the Szym bunch had a picnic at Manito Park. Heidi, Nate's girlfriend, is also in this photo of the gang. Nothing like a family picnic on a sunny day to make you feel right.


On Thursday, Levi, Linda and Ming went to Silverwood Theme Park in Athol, Idaho. Levi earned a free pass because of the extra reading he did this year, and it happend to be the same day that Titus went with his youth group from church. There were lots of familiar and friendly faces at Silverwood that day...including Garfield. Ming is doing her best sleepy eyes Garfield impression in this picture.
Tonight, Friday night, we had another picnic. This time it was with our special friends the Gibsons and the McNeills at Comstock park. Ming was stylin' as she wore her matching sun dress and girly-girl hat. She got to bed later than usual tonight, but she's on a roll so I suspect that she'll sleep soundly through the night just as she has most of this week.

Shhhh! I'm Talking To My Agent!

Skype me, baby, so I can have my peeps talk to your peeps!

One of the great discoveries during our trip to China was Skype (www.skype.com). We had originally purchased calling cards to use for calling back home while in the Land of the Rising Sun. Although it appeared that they could be used internationally when we bought them, we couldn't work the magic from China. We left one behind for Nate and Titus, and although they could get it to work from the US, it was only valid for 8 minutes when calling to China. After trying to buy a calling card in China, and also using the hotel phone line at a buck a minute, I resorted to Skype. A couple of friends had previously mentioned that I should check it out, so I did. Skype is a free program that you download to your computer. It allows for Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) calling from a computer where there is a broadband connection. If you phone computer-to-computer, it is absolutely free. If you phone from computer-to-phone it has a small cost. I had to load 10 Euros into my account by using a credit card, then I could call my boys, Mom, etc. on either their home or cell phone for about a penny and a half a minute. After a lot of calling I still have over 6 Euros left in my account. The voice quality was good to excellent. Sometimes there was a little delay, but nothing that doesn't occasionally happen when I call my pal Gary McCarty in Alaska on regular phones. If you have a microphone and speakers for your computer you will be set. I ended up going to Wal-Mart in Nanchang and purchasing the headset that Ming is wearing in the picture above for about $4.50 USD. Skype also allows for keystroke chatting like MSN Messenger, which I did with my buddy Jeff Gibson while I was in China and he was in Australia. If you have a webcam, then you can video message too. If this sounds like a commerical for Skype, it is. It was a very cool discovery for me which I will continue to use when connecting with people around the world. Don't you just love the technology age?

One Week Today

Our little girl has slept through the night for three nights in row now. Yahoo, we're on a roll now! It's hard to believe that Ming has only been home in Spokane with us for a week today. It certainly seems a lot longer than that. She's making a lot of progress. For starters...
-She lets Grandma S. put a red funnel on her head :-)
-She points at Joe the dog and says 'uhhh!' (her baby word for just about everything). Just a couple of days ago I was holding her by Joe on the floor and he came up and nosed her in the the nose...that creeped her out pretty good, but generally she's not nearly as frightened of Joe as she was on Day One.
-She'll sit on the floor and play without having to be held by Mommy or Daddy
-She tolerates all the passing around from brother to brother to brother.
-She has been quite good about being strapped in a car seat and going for a ride in the car.
Tonight I was honored to have dinner with a couple who are in the process of adopting from China and are also teaming with Kathy Storro from Small World Adoptions. It was fun to relive some of the Szym. Family China adventures for their benefit. Their paperwork was "logged in" last month so they are where we were for about a year as we waited to get our referral, then our travel approval, then our precious baby Ming. It seemed like forever at the time, and now that waiting period seems like nothing compared to the feeling of having this Special Little Gift in our lives. Thanks Tom and Katie (and Ralph and Rita) for letting me blabber on about our experience and joy. I am genuinely excited for your day in China.
There is nothing like a little girl giggle to make your day brighter!

Red Couch Photos

As I had mentioned in a previous posting, one of the traditions for adoption families before leaving the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou is to take a 'red couch photo.' I have posted some of the red couch photos that I took here: http://community.webshots.com/user/timszy In this photo we had lined up the three babies that were orphan buddies from the Yongfeng Orphanage - Tess, Ming, and Lily. Just as I was about to snap the photo, Ming leaned over to Tess and gave her a smooch. Lily wasn't having anything to do with that nonsense.

First Visit To Church

Sunday morning in Spokane with the little girl wearing white. Ming looked lovely on her first visit to church. She was excellent during worship...I think she enjoyed the music a lot because her Daddy was playing guitar. She probably would have done fine during the preaching, but she began to talk a little bit so I took her out and hung out in the 'parents with kids' room. Ming sat on my lap for awhile nibbling on her teething cookie, and she also like playing with one of the toys.

We are all settling into life in Spokane. Although it seems a lot longer than just a few days that we've been home, things are getting better each day. Ming was fairly agitated the first couple of days at home. She had a lot of unfamiliar people sticking their face in hers talking in a language that she didn't really understand. And she seems to be the one having the hardest time adjusting to the 15 hour time change. But when you think about it, she has lived her whole life (with a very routine schedule in the orphanage) with her days being our nights and our days being her nights. So needless to say, she's got things a little mixed up right now. Titus calls her, "Our little nocturanal baby." Last night was her best yet. She didn't really get to sleep until midnight, but she slept straight for about 7 hours. We're making progress.
When Ming woke up from her nap today she had a temperature of 102 degrees. The poor little girl was feeling pretty punky. She just layed on the bed all glassy eyed playing with her Children's Tylenol bottle. She has a couple of new teeth coming in, so we figure that her runny nose and fever is all part of the new teeth gig. It's been so long since we've had babies that we can hardly remember how all this works!

Ming is adatpting well to her big brothers, Nate and Titus. She has no problem with either one of them holding her and hanging out with her. At first she seemed a bit leery of such big guys. In fact, when we returned home both Linda and I felt like Nate and Titus had grown significantly after spending two weeks in China with such short people. The boys are very gentle with Ming and enjoy kissing her.

Home, Suhweeeet Home!

Evidence of a long trip.

Anybody know the first thing you do when you get home from a trip to China? Dig for the souvenirs! When packing in China we spread things out just in case a bag got lost or delayed coming home.

My poor Sweetie...the first thing she is faced with tomorrow is this pile of messiness while I head off to work. Oh well...I'll have my own messes after being gone for two weeks.

So Baby Ming is home getting used to her brand new environment. New high chair, new bedroom, new relatives, new everything. Honestly, she appears to be a little stressed. She is very clingy right now, especially with me.

On the way home from the airport she fell asleep in the car. We placed her in her crib and she slept soundly for a nice stretch this afternoon. But when she awoke she was really wailing...new crib.

And she's really freaked out about Joe the dog. She just looks at him through the sliding glass door and rumples up her face and starts shedding tears.

Tonight our whole family had dinner at Grandma S's place along with Aunt Cindy. We shared some China gifts, watched our orphanage visit video, and enjoyed a great spaghetti dinner. Man, was the food good! Good home cooking never tasted so wonderful. Ming took some time getting warmed up to the crowd, but we're making progress. It will take a few days to get everything evened out.

Ming fell asleep in the new stroller Grandma bought after a brief stroll on the patio...she's had an exhausting couple of days.

Stay tuned for more posts and more pictures uploaded. I won't be posting every day in the future, but I'm going to keep our blog updated with activity and progress of our beautiful little Ming Mei.

Demons In The City of Angels

We were delayed on the runway in Guangzhou upon departure, so that set us back about 30 minutes when arriving into Los Angeles after a 15 hour flight. Like I mentioned in the previous post, we were very fortunate to be assigned bulkhead seats which allowed for the little wall mount bassinette. It was tiny, but Ming did sleep for at least 5-7 hours while on the long flight. She sat there at other times enjoying anything we would feed her to keep her distracted. Once in LA it was a total zoo going through immigration. Because we flew China Southern, most of the people on the plane were Chinese. Whereas on a Delta flight, or Northwest, or whoever (this is just my theory) I suspect that there are more American tourists and business people, therefore there is less of a bottleneck at immigration. The bottom line is, it took a really long time as we stood in line at the immigration desk. Finally Linda persuaded a worker to let us go to the front of the line for fear of missing our flight. When Ming got her paperwork stamped she finally was 'official,' but we were in trouble regarding our next flight from LA to Spokane. It took another 45 minutes, at least, to get our luggage. By that time we still had to wait in one more line to go through the final customs check. It was about 20 minutes before our departure of our Alaska Airlines flight from LA to Spokane when we finally broke free...and we were still 4 terminals away from the Alaska departures. LAX is really a miserable airport any time of the day or night. I won't bore you with all the gory details, but after almost 3 hours at LAX, we finally made it to our hotel in LA. At that point it had been over 24 hours from crawling out of a bed in Guangzhou. After a very late dinner at McDonalds we had a miserable few hours sleep and were wide awake by 3:30AM - including Ming. We were back at the airport by 5AM to ensure that we made it through the beefed up security checks for our 7AM flight to Portland.

Evern at 5AM LAX was heaving with people. Did I mention that it is a miserable place? After lines, lines and more lines (not to mention both despicable TSA people, and nice TSA people), the whole Szym family drew the lucky 'S' on our boarding passess that meant we were all selected for the security shake down. Full frisks and all. Levi received an exemption because he is under 12, but Linda and I (she was carrying Ming) got the full deal meal. We finally made it to our gate, but without much time to spare. Really a horrible place, that LAX...


Our connections were good in Portland, and we were elated to touch down in Spokane just shortly after 11AM. It was great to receive such a wonderful welcome home from Grandma S., Aunt Cindy, Cousin Alex, Janice, Brandon, Bethany, & Elita Johnson, Kathy Storro, and Janell Lucas. As it turned out, Keith and Stacy Nelson, along with Kylie and Lily, caught up with us in Portland and the Nelson family was on the same flight into Spokane. It turned out to be a bigger adoption homecoming than we all realized it would be.

Close But No Cigar

What can I say? It's 4am in Los Angeles on Wednesday, 8/16, and we're all really tired. Where to start....

Let's start with Monday night, our last evening in Guangzhou. We took a dinner cruise on the Pearl River through the heart of Guangzhou. Although I've heard and read conflicting numbers on the actual size of G-Town, the latest numbers put it at over 10 million. It's a big honkin' town, as we say in America. This photo is a shot of the White Swan Hotel. Eventually I'll post a number of other nice photos on Webshots for you to enjoy.

Tuesday, our departure day, started with the customary 'red couch' photos at the White Swan. We took photos of each family, and of all the kids together. I have some great shots of everybody that I will be uploading to Webshots, so don't forget to check back on that. In the afternoon we had our appointment at the US Consulate in Guangzhou where about 40 families from the US raised their right hand and swore truth to the information that we provided regarding our adoptions. And then, Wham!, we were good to go. We received Ming's visa documentation for immigration into the US, then on the way to the airport we stopped at one of the Starbucks in Guangzhou with Rebecca and our driver to celebrate our success.

Rebecca got us all settled through the check-in process, and off we flew. The flight to LA was very L O N G. We all did very well considering the situation, especially Ming. But it was an exercise in patience, longsuffering, and gritting and bearing. We're talking about 15 hours here folks. In China Southern's 'smallest seats in the airline industry' comforts. Thank the Lord that is over. And one HUGE BLESSING was the fact that we ended up with a bulkhead seat where they have a mini crib that hangs on the bulkhead for babies. It was tiny, but it offered some reprieve for all of us as Ming was able to sleep a little bit, and hang out there to nibble on some crackers and whatever else we could keep her busy with.

I'll offer more on that, and our unfortunate night spent in LA later today, but for now we're heading to the airport to catch our flight home. More soon!

Everybody Say 'Cheese!'

This morning Daddy and Ming took a long stroll in the neighborhood around the hotel. Linda and Levi went shopping with some of the folks in our adoption group, but I stayed back with Ming. My plan was to do a little work while Ming napped, but she wasn't in the napping mood. Since she loves being strolled, we went out for about an hour. We enjoyed all the Chinese people stopping us and asking questions. One gal asked if my wife was Chinese. Another could not believe I had a 19 year old son - I couldn't convince her that I was a day over 35. And then there was one who thought Ming's face looked like mine. Go figure.

The picture here on the right had people laughing and taking videos of Ming. I guess there are times when a thumb just won't do the trick and a toe works better. Whatever keeps a baby from crying, that's my Daddy theory.


While Mommy was away Ming had a messy diaper. I've never really been ...uh... um...er... 'gifted' in this area, but I held my breath and faced it like a man. I was shocked when I looked at her little bum-bum and saw the little gold 'made in China' sticker on her tushy. (Just a joke.)


If I've left any doubts in your minds, let me say it as plainly as possible: This little girl is precious.

How Cool Is This?

Yeah Baby! Starbucks on ice for the China tourists!!

This afternoon while Mommy was resting (she's had a tough tummy day!) Daddy, Levi, and Ming caught a taxi and made our way to the closest Starbucks in Guangzhou -- there are actualy 7 Starbucks in the city. We enjoyed our drinks and a carrot cake muffin, and generally enjoyed the feeling of "being close to home." We are all really eager to get back to the U.S. and introduce Ming to you....Cheers!

A Few Of Our China Friends

Lily and Rebecca, our guides and facilitators with the business at the American Consulate. Both have great English skills, and are fun to be with. Here they are sitting waiting for the shopaholic Americans to complete their shopping at a department store in Guangzhou. It is tempting to buy-buy-buy here in China. Some items are very, very inexpensive. For example, today I bought a handful of DVDs for 1.60 USD each. Not in some back alley, but at a video shop in a mall. I was assured that they are legitimate, and they will be in English! There is a Grandma with us, and she is having fun buying inexpensive clothes for her new grandbaby.

Mark Warren, husband to Marlene and father of Anna Lee & new baby Tess. You can check Mark out at www.markstephenwarren.com He's a musician, so we have had a lot of fun talking about music and other stuff. Levi enjoys hangin' with Mark, and Mark has been very good to him.

Lily Mei Nelson, new baby daughter of Keith and Stacy Nelson. Lily is a cutie...she's the most physically developed of the three babies. She is not walking yet, but will probably get there quickly.

On the far left is Yan, next to her is Xiaoping, then Zhu...OK, just kidding. This is a shot of a local shopping area where we spent some time today. The guy in the middle with the orange shirt is Levi.

Chinese Year Of The Monkey Girl ??

Can your friends do this?

I didn't think so.

Last night our group dined at a Thai restaurant near the hotel. We've added a 4th Mommy and child to our group. Wen Xi who is pictured with Ming in the previous post, along with Wen's Mom, Beth, joined us. Beth is also working through Small World Adoptions, so she has become part of our bigger group family here in Guangzhou. Our guides are Rebecca and Lily. Lily is the main liason of Small World Adoptions in China. I'm not sure how many years she has been working in tandem with Kathy Storro, but they've been together for quite some time. Both Kathy and Lily are known for "getting it done." I'll post picture of both Rebecca and Lily soon. After dinner we browsed a little in the local shops. We are working hard on resisting the tempation to buy cheap Chinese stuff. On one hand it is so cheap, but on the other hand it is...well, so cheap.

Say a prayer for Linda when you read this...she woke up this AM with a tender tummy. :-(

Hangin' Out in G-Town

One of the encouraging things about being in Guangzhou with all the other American adoptive parents is to witness how many older Chinese children are being adopted. Being older generally equates to 'special needs.' Wen, here with Ming in the playroom at the hotel, is two and a half years old and has been adopted by a family from Buffalo. From the picture here you can see that he has a slight deformity with his left ear. He is a very cute little boy who will find a wonderful home with 2 other siblings who have previously been adopted from China.

Jabei is three years old. She has been adopted by Kathy from Soldotna, Alaska. Kathy also has two other children adopted from China. Jabei also happens to have a deformed ear that prevents her from hearing on that side.

Today while standing in one of the several lines I stood in I met a man--76 years old, no less--from Jacksonville, Florida. He told me that his wife is "in her forties" and it was important for her to have a child so they adopted a 5 year old girl. The beautiful little girl has had open heart surgery, but the prognosis is good for her future. We've met numerous others with similar stories, and we've seen dozens more.

The little girl on the right here also has a special need...She has the need to drive with her foot while doing 'war whoops' with her hand!

Examination Day

Mommy's face says it all in this photo...As required prior to departure from the country, Ming had to go through a thorough examination at a local clinic here in Guangzhou. She was weighed, measured, pushed, pulled, poked, prodded, and finally given a clean bill of health.

There were dozens (and dozens) of Mommies and Daddies with their newly adopted babies and children at the clinic. While waiting in the lines it was fun to meet new parents and hear about their travel stories and the tales of their new children. We've met people from New Jersey, Kansas, Utah, Florida, Alaska, Georgia, and the list goes on...

The White Swan Hotel is a pretty swanky place. We've had a chance to look around this morning and are happy to be in such nice accomodations. I've stayed in some very nice resorts and hotels around the world, and this is on par with most of them. There are beautiful shops in the hotel, along with two swimming pools, a game room for kids, a very nice gym, and just about any other luxury you would want to enjoy. The hotel sits right on the Pearl River which hosts buildings and boats that light up like Las Vegas at night. We've read that several high ranking dignitaries have stayed at the White Swan, including George Bush Sr.

We all enjoyed the awesome breakfast buffet this morning. It was a beautiful spread. Think of the Mother's Day brunch at a nice restaurant, then multiply that times two. That's how nice this layout was. And Linda says that this was the best coffee she's had yet.

Speaking of coffee, while Ming has been napping Linda and I sauntered (a date without the baby!) to a local coffee joint called BLENZ COFFEE. It is about as close as we've come to a Starbucks kind of coffee house. We were assured that their ice is made from good water, so we both enjoyed iced drinks. The milk is a little on the weird side here, so it wasn't a 10 on the coffee scale, but we give them high marks in the Effort category.

The area around the hotel is quite 'westernized.' Because this is the jumping off point for all adopting Americans who leave China, we tend to see just as many Americans on the streets as Chinese. And with Americans come all the souvenir shops with sidewalk tables where they work very hard to get you in their stores. You should watch Linda negotiate the merchants down from 20 yuan to 15 yuan. You go girl! Honey, I'm proud of you for knocking and extra 60 cents of that 100% silk, handmade, hand embroidered coin purse...$1.51 USD is a killer deal!

A final note here...I have not been able to access my blog until arriving in Guangzhou. I was able to post, but I could not see the end product. I had heard that this was sometimes the case in China as the government controls internet content. I got a chance to look at my blog this morning and realized that I had some duplicate posts and photos. I've cleaned it up a bit.

A Plane Ride, New Digs, And A Chinese Gymnast

First, the part about gymnast...wowsers, is that girl flexible, or what?! Ming loves laying on the bed and pulling her feet up to her forehead. It is humorous to watch.
We're now in Guangzhou, Guangdong PR China. Our home for the next few days is the White Swan Hotel. This place is pretty nice. They clearn caterly to internationals and wealthy Chinese, and it is the main hangout for Americans who adopt babies and have to finalize their paperwork at the American Consulate here in China. In fact, the Embassy is just a short walk from the hotel. Our room is very comfortable. Not big by any means, but luxurious in many ways.

Tonight we walked down the street to Lucy's Bar and Restaurant. Lucy's serves western food, so we enjoyed quesadillas, fries, and cheese sandwiches. It was a pleasant change from all the Chinese food we've been eating.
Ming's first plane ride went very smoothly. She munched on some Cheerios, hung out on Mommy's lap, and studied the airplane safety card for a long time. No crying, nor apparent ear problems.

She's now had a shower with Mommy and she's in her crib trying to fall asleep. She's got a little bit of that fake cry thing going on right now, but she's had a big day so I suspect she is more wound up than usual. I'm sure she will nod off soon. G'night from Guangzhou...

My Very Own Passport

Here's an odd thought - A Szymanowski with a Chinese passport! But it's true...this morning Ming received her passport from China. The good new is, she's working her way toward being an official US citizen in the next few days.

Rise And Shine, It's Travel Day!

Today we pack up and leave Nanchang. Our destination is Guangzhou, Guangdong. Guangzhou is the location of the American Consulate in China where we will finalize all our paperwork for departing China. Ming will travel on a Chinese passport and a Chinese visa, but she will be given the right papers to immigrate into the US as a citizen of America. Our temporary home in Guangzhou is the White Swan Hotel where we are likely to meet numerous other families who have adopted from China and are waiting to depart for home in the United States. We're all ready for a change of venue. Hopefully a room that is a little bigger for the 4 of us. :-)
Ming is always such a cutie when she awakes from a nap or a night's sleep. Because she is so used to waking up and entertaining herself in her orphanage crib, she's not (yet, I suppose) one of those babies that starts fussing the minute she wakes up. Ming is fun to spy on when she wakes up...she rubs her eyes, scratches her ears, and tugs on her hair. Yesterday when she awoke from her nap (left picture) she was biting on the bed sheet and playing with her quilt.

Levi is a regular old pro. He's the one who can really get Ming smiling. That's one of the great things about Levi - he can put a smile an anybody's face.

It's been a real blessing to receive the many different comments on our blog from our friends and family who are looking in each day. It is an encouragement to see and feel the support from so many of you. Thanks for all your love and concern!!