Jet Lag, Diapers & Formula...oh my!

We are so happy to be home and we are almost on Indiana time. Cooper is doing great and is being a really good big brother. Scott and I are still amazed that we left 2 weeks ago without a baby and now we are instant parents again. Sometimes it is still hard to wrap our minds around. Piper is doing great and is very happy. She has really warmed up to Scott and smiles and laughs when he comes in the house. She does have an ear infection and a non stop runny nose but that is not slowing her down. We think she is going to be an early walker. She is able to stand on her own and loves it when we walk her around. I think that is one of her favorite things to do. Of course she has all these great stimulating toys but her favorite thing to play with is our coasters. More to come.....

We are Home!!

Yeah! After 27 hours of buses, trains, planes and cars, we are finally home. It feels soooo good! Piper did great for most of the journey and I think I only had one melt down so overall not bad for all the travel.

Cooper, my parents and some friends greeted us at the airport and then our neighbors when we got home. It was a fun homecoming! Piper slept from 10:30pm-12:00am and then again from 1:30 to 5:30. I am going to try and keep her up until 10am for a nap. That is if I can make it that long.

Thank you to everyone for all you did for us while we were in China! I will post more later when I am not as foggy!(that might be a few days:)

Flight Info

Here is our flight information:

Flight Operated By: /UNITED EXPRESS/SHUTTLE AMERICA
Thurs Dec 4th
Depart:
Chicago O'Hare Int'l Arpt
05:59 PM

Arrive:
Indianapolis Int'l Arpt
07:59 PM

Indianapolis, IN USA
Thursday, December 04, 2008

Baby Blessing & Tuesday in China

The baby blessing took place at The Six Baynon Tree Temple. It was a working Buddhist Temple with a history that dates back 1500 years. It is much smaller than it used to be b/c of the city growth. The Buddhist Master did a prayer for all the families and babies. The ceremony took about 10 minutes and we knelt in front of 3 bronze Buddhas that weighted about 10 tons each. It was very cool.

Amy Update: She is feeling much better. They had to go to 3 doctors before they got the correct diagnosis and medicine. The parents and baby both look more rested!

Piper Update: She is now getting on the floor and playing with her toys. She still does not like it if I leave the room but we are making progress. She is sitting on Scott's lap and he also is holding her more.

Steve is back from Hong Kong and he had a great time! He said it was well worth the journey.

Today we did some shopping and we will have dinner with several of the families that are leaving tomorrow. Our region requires us to stay one more day so we will leave here on Thursday morning. We can't wait for everyone to meet Piper!

Monday in China

Hello! It is Monday in China and we have had Piper now one week. I think she is beginning to come around to this Rigney gig! We have had some big steps the past day. She is now sitting on Scott's lap and when we took her to the play room today she crawled on the floor and pulled herself up on the toys. She also tried to take her first step. She is a happy little girl and we are seeing more smiles and laughs.

Today we are going to the Buddhist Temple for the baby blessing. I am so excited and can't wait to experience it. All Chinese paper work is now completed. We meet with the US consulate tomorrow to arrange for Piper's passport and immigration documentation.

I am finally feeling rested and on China time, so I better enjoy the next 3 days. We are counting the days until we can come home. I will post more after our baby blessing.

Thanksgiving

Please pray for one of the babies in our group. Her name is Amy and she has been very sick from the time she was placed in her parents arms. She is making improvements but it is a little at a time.
It is Saturday (11/29) and we arrived back in Guangzhou last night around 7pm. We had a grueling 6-7 hour bus ride both to and from Maoming. The road conditions and the traffic and are just bad, but with that being said it was well worth it to see the city and orphanage where Piper was living.
Thanksgiving Day – We could not be more thankful today as we think about how blessed we are to have such great friends, family and two beautiful children. In the morning we went to the orphanage and when we got off the bus we were surrounded by school kids and they were fascinated to see us. They were all trying to practice their English, “hello”, “welcome”, and giving Scott high 5’s and shaking hands. The orphanage is located on the first 4 floors of an apartment building. We went to the 2nd floor and left our gifts for the orphanage and the nannies. Thank you to the families that have donated items to the Kidsfirst Foundation. We took a suitcase full of toothbrushes, toothpaste, teddy bears and clothing, it was well received. At that time the orphanage director handed out the clothing that our children were found in. It was very emotional moment and we are so thankful that they kept the clothing for us. Next we got to go see the playroom and crib rooms. Piper’s nanny was in the playroom and she came to the door to talk to her and Piper got the biggest smile on her face and was laughing. They call her Mei Mei and you could tell that they love her. Her nanny told us that she laughs and smiles all the time and is a happy baby. We got to see which crib was hers and were able to take a few photos. They are very strict as no photos are allowed of the other children in the orphanage. The orphanage is clean and seems to be well run. They said there are about 80 children living there and a lot of the ones that we saw were special needs. It is heart breaking to know that most of these children will never have a family. When we left the orphanage we were able to go to her “finding spot”. It was on the corner of busy street. It was very powerful moment to for our family to be at the spot where her journey to our family started.
Thanksgiving dinner consisted of more Chinese food. I don’t think we will ever complain again about not having a “good” Chinese restaurant near us. It seems that Pipers favorite time is when we sit down to the table to eat. She bangs on her toys and is happy. On the bus ride back to Guangzhou she was laughing and smiling as Scott and I played with her. She is letting Scott hold her a little bit more but still wanting me all the time. We are hoping within the next day or so she will let me put her down without crying and play on the floor. When I put her down she just sobs and crawls after me. Today we go for the medical check and then the rest of the day if free time…whohoo! More later. We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving feast!

Day 3 w/baby – All is well!

It is Wed morning about 5:30am and Piper slept through the night for the 2nd time. She has also had a couple of long naps. So far it looks like she is a good sleeper….yeah! She is very attached to me(Deb) but will let Scott hold her. She does not like me to leave the room and likes to be held all the time. We do know she can crawl but her feet have yet to hit the ground. When we went to dinner last night I was able to put her in the child’s seat between us and she played and banged her toys on the table. She is very shy and we have not seen her smile or laugh yet. Hopefully today will be the day! According to the orphanage director she likes to eat a lot, but we have not seen it. We are having problems with her taking a bottle so we are going to try and make the nipple opening huge like they do and see if that will help.
Yesterday we went to fill out the official adoption paperwork and now she is legally ours. They asked us “do you like this girl”, we said “yes”. We also had to agree not to abuse or abandon her. So as one of the kids from the other family put it “our free trial period is over”. Too cute!
Today we apply for her passport and then leave at 3:00 for a 5 hour bus ride to Maoming, her birth city. We will spend 2 nights there and tour the city and her orphanage.
We have tried to talk to Cooper every other day and it sounds like he is doing great. He gives us updates on his new tracks on playstation and does not seem too worried that we are gone. He wants us to bring Granddad home some snake juice and some for his class. We sure do miss him! According to my mom he has blocked off the entrance to his room with a big stuffed animal so that baby sister cannot get in. It is already starting and we are not even home yet.
It seems like we have been gone a long time. We forgot how much work it is to have a baby and how out of practice we are with young babies. But I am sure that won’t last long.
She is still in her crib right now and every once in a while she will peek her head up and see us and then put it back down and say “oh my, those giant white people are still here”. Then goes back to sleep. It is pretty funny. We probably won’t post again until Friday or Sat. We wish all of our friends and family a very Happy Thanksgiving. We appreciate all your love and support! See you in 8 days!

Announcing Piper Mei Rigney

Well 3 years of waiting was worth it! We are now the proud parents of Piper Mei Rigney. It was a long and emotional day for both baby and parents. We left the hotel at 2pm and traveled about 30 minutes to CBA Government office. When we arrived there was a group of parents from Spain receiving their babies and the place was crazy with crying children. Their group of children were a little older so I think the separation was hard for the little ones. It was truly chaotic and heart wrenching. After about 20 minutes they left and it was our turn. The babies were taken into a waiting room and then they called each family's name one by one and we got our babies. Piper Mei seemed a little shocked and concerned by the whole ordeal, but did not really cry. She also did not smile. She clung to us and it was very sweet. On the bus ride back to the hotel she fell asleep. There were a few tears but not too many. Scott had to go fill out paperwork and Steve and I hung out with her in the hotel room. She finally started to feel good about 4 hours after we got her. She would not take a bottle but Scott was able to feed her applesauce and rice cereal. Once she was fed she started chatting.."dadadada". She went right to bed with not tears. Please pray for a restful sleep for us all tonight. It is still amazing that we started the day without a baby and now we are proud parents for the second time. I will post more tomorrow! WOW!

Gotta Day - Nov 24th

We are finally in Guangzhou! In about 3 hours we will go get our little Piper Mei! We seem to have a real sense of calmness today and it feels pretty surreal. We checked into our hotel last night and went to the room and there was a crib waiting for us. Today after housekeeping came they left us an American Barbie holding an Asian baby. It is so cute. The funny thing is that Steve also got a crib in his room and a Barbie. I forgot to tell him he was also coming home with a baby…haha! Guangzhou is a really neat city and located on an island. The temperature is in the 70’s (my kind of weather) and it reminds me a little of Naples, Florida. Next post…..Piper Mei!!

Great Wall

The Great Wall was about 1.5 hours from our hotel. Seems like there is more traffic on Sat as our guide said everyone with a car goes out of the city for the day. The Great Wall is unbelievable. It took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes to hike up the wall and 30 minutes to walk down. It was a hard hike. The funny part is there were women in high heel shoes trying to go up and then every 10 minutes several people were stopping to smoke. Gotta love China! We also stopped at a Jade factory and went to a Chinese Tea ceremony. Then to a Chinese Acrobatic show. This trip has been non stop so far. Tonight we went to a market and it is crazy how they try to get you to come into there booth. "Hey American Lady I got deal for you". It is now about 8pm and we are exhausted! Tomorrow we leave at 8am for our flight to Guangzhou. So far it has been a great trip and only to get better in 2 more days! Hope everyone at home is doing well!

Day 2

Day 2 – Beijing, Olympic Park, Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square
Wow! What a great day. Yesterday when I said that Beijing felt like a lot of other big cities was totally wrong, it is absolutely amazing and huge. The density of the apartments and buildings is hard to wrap your mind around. We drove the Olympic Park and got to tour the Water Cube or as the kid on the bus said the “ice cube”. They did a great job with the venue and Chinese people are very proud of it. We were ready to see some ancient history so from there we went to the Forbidden City. It was completed in the early 1400’s and we got to see how the Chinese ruling class lived and it was amazing. The power that was displayed and the opulence was staggering. The city went on for miles and the detail of the architecture was spectacular.
The Chinese people have been very friendly and very interested in us. One of the ladies in the group looks a little like Izzy from Grays Anatomy. She had an entire group of people line up to take pictures of her and they kept saying ..”ahh greys anatomy”. When we went to TSquare we got to see a demonstrator throw flyers and how quickly he was hauled away. We were also drew a lot of interest as people wanted to take pictures of us.
When we got back to the hotel we had a 90 minute foot massage. It was somewhere between ecstasy and torture. I thought I would go back today, but I am on the line. Scott’s big buy yesterday was 3 Mao dictator watches. His arm moves up and down in dictatorship style. Too funny! Today the Great Wall! 2 more days until Piper!

We are in Beijing!!

We are here! – Beijing
Our travels to China have been smooth so far. The nice man at Indy upgraded us to Economy Plus, which means 5inces extra of leg room…whooohooo! The flight to China was not too bad Scott and I both slept some watched a couple of movies and read a book. My brother Steve arrived about 3o minutes before us and we found our guide immediately. Several of the families in our group also had a layover in Chicago so we got to meet them and hear their stories. One family is from Nora(15 minutes from Carmel). She works at Lily and is traveling with her parents and her 8 year old adopted daughter from China. Other families are from Milwaukee, Chicago, Knoxville and Seattle. We arrived at our hotel around 7pm and got checked in and then went to the local market to buy water and some food. Our guide asked if we wanted Pizza Hut, McDonalds or KFC, we opted for Chinese and it was very good! I stuck with my tofu and Scott had pork. When I ordered a beer our guide was worried that it would be too big for me to drink, so I told her I would split it with Steve and Scott, 3 shared beers later she was worried about us oversleeping. Too funny! Our hotel is very nice and I got to check it all out at 3:00am. Scott and I both slept from 9:30pm to about 1:30am. So in my sleepless state I tried to workout (fitness room opens at 6am), go to the Starbucks(opens at 6am) so now I am updating my blog!

When we left Indy we were so sad to say goodbye to Cooper and in his always joyous state he smiled and waved and yelled “see you soon”. No tears from him.
Beijing is 13 hours ahead of Indy. So we are waiting until 5am to call home and talk to Cooper.

Today in Beijing we are leaving the hotel at 8:30 to go sightseeing. Last night walking around it was hard to believe we were in Beijing. It has the feel just like all big cities but the amount of bikes is overwhelming. I can’t wait too see what the day holds. 3 more days until we get to hold our precious Piper. Below are pictures of us in the airport and our guide. More soon!

It Takes A Village

I can't believe we are leaving tomorrow. I am so happy to finally be going and so sad to be leaving my little man for 2 weeks. I would like to thank all of our friends and my parents for their help. It would not be possible without you! Next post will be from China!!!

Travel Itinerary

Only 7 more days until we leave, but who's counting...haha!
Here is what our trip is going to look like:
Nov 19 - leave Indy
Nov 20 -arrive in Beijing at 4:30pm
Nov 21 -Tour of TianAnMen Square, Forbidden City and Olympic Green Park
Nov 22- Tour Great Wall
Nov 23 - Fly to Guangzhou
Nov 24 - GOTCHA DAY - we will get little Piper Mei in the afternoon
Nov 25 - Bottles, diapers and naps oh my
Nov 26-Nov 28- Drive 5 hours to Maoming (Piper's birth city) tour orphanage and see city
Nov 29-Dec 3- Hang out in Guangzhou - Passport, visas and medical appointments
Dec 4th - The labor begins;
Guangzhou to Beijing 3 hours
Beijing to Chicago - 14 hours
Chicago to Indy - Arrive home at 8:00pm YEAH!!! (Dec 4th)

Travel Dates

YEAH! We just booked the international portion of our trip! We leave on Nov 19 and come home with Piper on Dec 4th. We will be in Beijing for about 3 days and then head to Guangzhou. We are waiting to hear the details as to when we will get to Guangzhou and when we get to finally hold our precious little one. My brother Steve is also going with us and we are so excited he gets to share our journey with us. I will post the details when I get them!

Travel Approval

We just got word that we have travel approval from China. So now we are waiting to hear when we have our appt. with the Consulate. Our trip is tentatively scheduled for Nov 19- ?? we think we will be home around 4th or 5th of Dec. Yeah! The countdown begins!!

More Information about Piper

We received more information about our daughter.
Yun means to allow or consent
Mei means beauty or pretty
Nan means south
They said she is happy, has a ready smile and likes to say yiyi and yaya. She likes toys that make sound and has a close relations with her caregiver.We are now waiting for travel approval which can take up to 3 more weeks. We are estimating that we will travel around Nov 19th and be home the first week of Dec. Words can not describe how happy we are.

We Are Next!

The CCAA has matched families with babies through Feb 9, 2006. We are Feb 10th....so we are officially next! We should see a picture of our baby in October. Stay tuned!!!