Chicken Pox?

dinner at Lucy's patio

Imitating art

The hams

rocking rollercoaster

Sisters

Daddy's girl

Ready to fly

We said good-bye to Nanchang as we prepared to fly to Guangzhou.  Jing Yi was in a happy mood as we arrived at the airport and she had her own monkey backpack on wheels to maneuver through the airport.  It was only after we reached our gate and were sitting waiting for our flight that she caught sight of the planes just outside the window.  She pointed and started asking questions.  The first problem we encountered is that she did not want to wear her seat belt.  I’m sure she has never had to wear one and she decided she wanted no part of it.  She is kind of determined to do things her way.  The second problem we noticed is that when she sat down, her feet just hit the back of the seat in front of her.  I remember taking a similar flight with the kids at this size and how much they love to kick the seat in front of them, much to the dismay of the occupant.  It was a very short flight, only 1.25 hours, thank goodness.  We arrived in Guangzhou to tropical weather; it was 70 degrees and felt great.  There was a driver waiting for us and we were on our way to the Victory Hotel.  The White Swan has been closed for over a year now for major renovation but we love the Shamian Island area so much that we chose another hotel close by.  We met Judy, our AAC agency liaison when we reached the hotel.  Judy made all our in country travel plans for us and it was great to finally meet her.  We were all starving as we arrived at our hotel at 4pm and it had been a long time since our breakfast at 6:30am.  Judy walked with us to Lucy’s restaurant.  Lucy’s is a refuge for those of us missing French fries and grilled cheese sandwiches.  In years past they have catered to many adoptive families.  They have outdoor dining under umbrellas and the American pop music is blasting away.  I believe I commented in our blog of 2008 that Debbie Boone was  belting out "you light up my life," and Deja-Vu, here it was again. Lily was delighted to have a plate of spaghetti and French fries and I had fish and chips.  John and Luke ordered food with a local flair and Jing Yi ate a bit of everything.

We walked back to the hotel.  I had read on-line that the rooms were small but clean, and they were not kidding.  There was just enough floor space to carve an area for Lily’s air mattress.  Good thing we all like each other!  There is a playroom in the hotel and the kids have already been there twice.  We all slept pretty well.

This morning we met Judy at 9am to take Jing Yi to her physical, required to obtain the visa.  The first doctor seemed to take quite an interest in some small red dots on Jing Yi’s body and soon we had a parade of doctors in the room each giving their opinion.  They think it may be chicken pox.  Jing Yi has not had a fever or acted like she felt bad but I did double check her shot record and she has not had the vaccine.  Hummmm.  This could create a problem as they won’t give us her visa until they feel like she is safe to travel.  Personally, the dots were so small and there are only 5 or 6 of them that I would not really have noticed.  She has to go back to the clinic on Monday to have her TB skin test read, so they will know then if indeed it is chicken pox.  It might turn out to be a good thing that Luke, Jing Yi and I are not scheduled to fly out until 1/8/13.

Judy took us to a local park that again had amusement rides and walking paths.  Many groups of people doing Tia Chi, kids practicing martial arts and karaoke singers.  The kids went on a couple of rides and would have liked to do more.  We went to the Dim Sum restaurant at the hotel, dim sum=finger foods.  We had wonderful dumplings and spring rolls.  Jing Yi ate one dumpling after another, she was still eating when the rest of us had finished.

We took a walk around the island and the kids went shopping.  Even though there are not nearly as many adoptive families staying in this part of Guangzhou there are still many shops with all the trinkets the kids love.  Stores are willing (and expected) to bargain on the prices and even Lily got caught up in the fun.

Jing Yi continues to have a period of grieving every day right around 6pm.  Tonight is was 5:30 and we had just returned from shopping.  She did not want to take off her shoes or coat and had big tears rolling down her cheeks.  I don’t try to bribe her out of her mood, I figure she has the right to grieve-but I hold her and rock her and tonight I drew her pictures on her white board of sad faces and other emotions.  About 15 minutes later she is fine and acts like nothing happened.  So hard for her to take all this in.  How can she understand how her life is going to change and she will soon be living on the other side of the world.

It has been fun to watch the three kids play together.  Jing Yi insists on holding Lily’s hand when we are out and about and Jing Yi jumps right into the middle of rough and tumble play with Luke and Lily.  I think she will be able to hold her own.

We are experiencing technical difficulties with our VPN while in China so I am getting behind on posting.  Hopefully it will continue to work.

Jing Yi and foster parents

Two families joined by one little girl

At the gate of the orphanage

Front of Orphanage

It was a cold and rainy today as we traveled to the orphanage.  Traffic was a snarly mess and our guide said due to the weather there were many accidents, not good news when you are jammed 5 in the back seat of a taxi without seat belts.  Our guide has been to the orphanage many times and was able to lead us directly to the foster family home.  The minute Jing Yi saw we were passing through the gates to the orphanage, the tears started falling.  She stopped crying at the foster home and held the foster mom’s hand.  We toured the home; it was very clean and tidy.  All 6 foster kids shared a small bedroom.  Jing Yi slept in a bunk bed with her 6 year old foster brother.  Two more kids shared the top bunk.  We sat and talked to the foster parents for some time, it was great to get a glimpse of Jing Yi’s life up to this point.  We walked to Jing Yi’s classroom.  Her foster brother was so excited to see her, he grabbed her by the hand.  Foster mom said he has not eaten well since she left.  There were about 20 kids-all 3-5 years old, the majority boys and all special needs.  They were very curious, some reached up to be held, and some tried to get stuff from our gift bags.  The teachers were all happy to see Jing Yi and she must have felt somewhat like a celebrity by all the attention received.  Although there was some heat on (unlike the foster home) the kids all wore heavy coats inside.  Hard to leave all those small faces behind, I hope they too all find forever homes.

Jing Yi was not sad to leave and actually seemed a bit relieved and happy once we were traveling back to the hotel.  Perhaps she was worried about being returned to the orphanage-hard to tell what goes on in that mind of hers.

Tomorrow we leave for Ghongzhou after picking up Jing Yi’s passport.  The weather will be much warmer and the area very familiar after our last two adoption trips.  During this last leg of our journey we will get Jing Yi’s visa so we will all be ready to fly home.

I did take many photos of the kids and the orphanage but in order to protect their privacy, will only post photos of Jing Yi and not the other children.  The foster mom really encouraged us to send her updates on Jing Yi’s progress back in the states.  She showed us photos of other children they had cared for and said she still thinks of them and misses them and wonders how they are doing.

Wednesday

Christmas Tree in lobby

Fun at the park

Look Mama, we're flying

being silly

Peace

Children's Hospital

Wednesday

Yan Lin took us to the People’s park.  It is part traditional park and part children’s amusement park with rides.  Because the holiday was over and everyone was back at school and work, the rides were all sitting idle.  Each ride is privately owned and on days like this, you can bargain for a better price.  All three kids rode the carousal twice.  I noticed a small girl I would guess to be 2-3 riding all by herself.  The next ride was too fast for Jing Yi, although she wanted to go.  I noticed the owner left the gate to the ride open while it was running.  When asked about safety issues Yan Lin said the safety of the child is the sole responsibility of the parent.  Then I remembered, no lawyers=no law suits.  I think I am glad we have more restrictive safety measures in place for the times when my child may get outside my line of vision for a moment. 

It was cold, probably high 30’s with wind.  We went a dumpling restaurant for lunch.  Everyone in the family loves dumplings.  There was a spicy sauce with fresh garlic for dipping.  We went back to Wal-Mart and there were far fewer crowds this time.  Jing Yi got a new pair of shoes which appear to be at least 2 sizes larger than what she had.  She was delighted and wore them in the store, security tag and all.  The clerk had to cut the tag off at the checkout.

We did go by the Children’s Hospital where Jing Yi had 2 surgeries.  The first was to repair her lip when she was 9 months old and the second to repair her palate when she was 18 months old.  Both surgeries required an 18 day stay in the hospital.  The orphanage would have provided an Auntie with her 24 hours a day to provide personal care.  I told our guide that an 18 day stay in the hospital in America was very uncommon that even serious heart surgery patients are released in a week typically.

We swam again in the afternoon and relaxed in our room.  Tomorrow we will tour the orphanage and meet Jing Yi’s foster mom.

Christmas Morning

The swim team

Christmas morning ipad

Christmas Morning ipad

little swimmer

Christmas Morning

Christmas Day:

The kids and I woke up way too early, 2:30am too early.  Lily was the first one to start hunting for Christmas presents.  She found them on a chair by the door and squealed to her brother, “We both got ipads.”  Santa needed something easy to pack in carry-on luggage this year.  Jing Yi got a few items, backpack on wheels to store her stuff for the trip home, a white board and markers and colors and coloring book.  She immediately set off tracing the letters on the white board and moved on to coloring.  She loves to cut paper and generally can keep herself entertained drawing.  She puts away each crayon and picks up all the little pieces of paper from the floor, totally refreshing!

We were all really ready for breakfast at 6:30.  Afterwards we decided to venture to the pool.  There is a kiddie pool with warm water and the main pool is a constant 1.2 meters in depth.  Jing Yi headed straight for the big pool.  She knew how to put on goggles.  I steered her to the kiddie pool.  Both pools have dark blue painted bottoms and it is really hard to see a swimmer underwater.  Jing Yi loves the water.  Anytime she fell and went under she came up laughing.  She will lie on her back very relaxed with her head back.  This makes me think she has been in a pool before.

We ate Christmas dinner at the hotel buffet.  The food was good, but I missed a home cooked meal.  We decided to go for a walk after dinner.  Jing Yi really needs a new pair of shoes but the only stores we passed were construction material supply stores.  Each store is in a stall with open front and each specialized in some type of building material, one with faucets, another with toilets and on and on.  Kind of a Lowe’s divided into many little stores.

We hung out in the room for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  Luke is feeling better but is still under the weather.  He fell asleep around 6pm and there was no waking him.  Jing Yi watched her first movie, the Polar Express, and seemed to enjoy it.  She is also enjoying the ipads and big brother and sister have been very generous.  Jing Yi tends to be a mouth breather; I’m guessing that is due to her cleft lip and palate although repairs have been made.  Her little flat pug nose gets so dried out at times.  Unlike last night, she fell asleep in 5 minutes after kissing her new baby and carrying on a serious conversation with her.  We’ve rode through a couple of sad spells with her, but otherwise her personality is shining through.  She is very ticklish, independent, social and curious.  We have decided to take the deluxe tour of the orphanage, the one that we must pay for, but we will be given the opportunity to meet her foster mom and visit her house.  This may be the only chance to ever see where our daughter spent three years of her life.  This may be upsetting to Jing Yi; but many families say it has provided some closure for their little ones, seeing foster Mom give her blessing to adoptive parents can help straighten things out in their world of thinking.

Tomorrow we are going to some type of amusement park for kids.  Enjoy the photos!