Adoption is not for wimps...

Hello...I missed my nightly update because we were traveling to another province (Guangdong) to complete Faith's immigration into the USA. If they made every family who has biological children go through what we have had to do to adopt, our world would be much less populated.

Yesterday we got to spend a little time at the hotel packing and waiting for Faith's Chinese passport. It has been a very long 5 days in her province Hunan. Mostly because there is very little to do when the weather is cold. We are all a little stir crazy. Also...some of the toys are broken in the play room at the hotel and that just makes Faith so mad.

We did get out with the stroller for the first time and took a very long walk. We had the most interesting walk of our lives. We ended up walking past a public elementary school just as it was getting out for the day. It seems none of these children have every seen an American. About 3 girls around the age of 10 said "hello" and were so proud to try out their English on us. When we replied back, they ran and told everyone else, and we had about 50 small children swarm the stroller and us, ( with no respect to boundaries) they were all yelling "hello... Happy New Year!" We felt like celebrities for a few moments. We just kept walking, I was a little worried that Faith might panic, but she did ok. After about a mile of this they slowly stopped following us. We also ate dinner at KFC...horray American FOOD!!!! Faith likes chicken nuggets . Jeff and I both want Mexican food like crazy and that is the first thing we are doing when we get back. These were the only really interesting things we did until our flight which was at 8:30 pm. I will upload some pictures later.

Also Faith has been told she would take a plane to USA with her MaMa and BaBa...she told our guide in Chinese she was excited to go on the plane. She did so very well. We continue to be amazed by this little empress. In China the parents call their girls empress's instead of princess. We got a picture of her first plane ride from Changsha to Guangzhou. We are in a tropical climate now and it's perfect today. We don't even need jackets. Our hotel is on Shamian Island. It is called the White Swan and we love this hotel so much! It has an indoor waterfall, with coi fish, and a beautiful view of the lake.

This morning was rough for all the adoptive children. We met up with 10 other families that are here from our agency. It was nice to have some other people to speak English to other than our guide. All the children needed medical exams and a TB test and shots to immigrate to the US. We sat in a very small building with about 100 other people and many screaming children for over 2 hours. Faith needed 6 shots and her TB test was a long shot in the underside of her forearm. Just as these kids start to bond, we have to hold them down and hurt them. We were all very angry about this. They use to let parents waive these shots and agree to do it in the states, now they have made it a requirement. It was very traumatizing for everyone. Many moms were crying along with their children. Faith was a trooper. When they explained to her in Chinese what they were going to do...she told them she had had IV's before. Very smart ! It broke my heart that at age two she knows the word for IV Therapy.

They gave each of the 7 shots one at a time, and I had to pin her down and hold her head. She screamed and cried "ma ma...ma ma" they should have just ripped out my heart also. After we were all done they gave her a candy...it was coffee flavor..just gross. She spit it right out. Luckily we had some swedish fish and she calmed down very quickly. I would say she did better than most children...probably because of the iv therapy. When we got back to the hotel room the staff had left a Barbie for Faith. It was an adoption Barbie called "Going Home" She was beautiful and blonde holding a little Chinese girl. Faith loves it. She says "ma ma and Si Si" So cute. ( I am secretly thinking wow ...really a hottie barbie for a mom figure. Good luck meeting that expectation)

We are now at the hotel and she is napping. We are excited to go eat out at Lucy's restaurant here... Everyone loves it. Also we have reservations tonight to go with our group to an Italian restaurant. That should be interesting.

Also, Faith didn't have a fever, and no ear infections. Thank you T for helping us out! She is so much more healthy than when we meet 5 days ago.

Changsha Day 4

Today we had a wonderful visit with a representative from the nonprofit group that is working with special needs children in our daughter’s province.  International China Concern.  We also were able to deliver the clothing and knit hat donations to them directly…now we know for sure that the children in her orphanage will get them.  They are a wonderful couple from Australia that moved to China 9 years ago.  Justin and Lisa… we didn’t get pictures with them because we were so involved in conversation.  They took us to coffee, it was nice to get out of the hotel.  We have been cooped up here for several hours since the weather is so cold and we only have one two hour tour scheduled each day.   They have such big hearts they have devoted their lives to these Chinese children. 

 

Lisa and Justin had 3 failed pregnancies while living in Australia.  Lisa met a representative from ICC and her and Justin knew they wanted to help these children in China, and also thought it would be a good way to be around children.  They gave up everything in Australia came to China and studied Chinese for 2 years here.  Lisa got pregnant while in China…the doctors here in China were able to figure out why she kept having still born children and now they have three biological children of their own.  The children all go to public school here and speak Chinese better than they do.  The organization has purchases 3 homes and now some of the severely disabled children that have grown to adults live there for free while learning a vocation such as card making.   They just do amazing work.  These children would most likely die on the streets when they aged out of the orphanage or be homeless and unskilled.  This couple is one of the most Christ like people we have ever met.  Their life work is all about service.  They also take no salary.  They are supported completely by donations to the organization.  If you can please make a donation to ICC…I have seen firsthand where those funds go and we are so grateful to them. 

 

We then came back to the hotel and had a nap before our visit to the embroidery factory.  The Hunan province is world know for their work in silk .  Many US presidents have ordered portraits from this factory.  It takes the workers about 1 year working on a picture.  Some of the art had two sides that were completely different, like a tiger on one side and a panda on the other.  Just amazing!

 

SiSi has done so very well.  She had her first real cry last night,  just big tears and we couldn’t understand what she needed, and she was soooo frustrated

With us.  Luckily it only lasted about 5 minutes we then distracted her with coloring and singing.  She had to go wu baba…poop.  I think her tummy hurt and she didn’t know how to tell us.  We caught her going in her pull up and quickly put her on the potty…she was so happy to be on the potty.  I think she was potty training when she was at the orphanage.  We are glad she is not afraid of the toilet. 

 

Our Chinese is improving out of necessity and so is her understanding of English.  We are packing in the morning for our next flight to Guangzhou…this is where the US Consulate is.  We are expecting to meet up with 10 other adoptive families from our adoption agency.  It will be nice to speak English again. 

I have my own Chinese accent now, the other day I said “werry werry spicy”… instead of very very spicy.  Ha ha.   This is our last in country flight, we will be getting Sisi’s visa to enter the United States.  YEA!!!!

 

Dawn J

Changsha Day 3

Hello everyone!  Happy Birthday to my daughter Kylee who is 17 today ( in China anyway)!  Today is day 3 and little Faith has done so well.  She slept through the night both nights and is following very closely to the schedule we were given.  We are having very cold temperatures for Changsha so our guide decided instead of an outdoor university tour we were going to do an indoor tour.  We went to a museum where they house the oldest archeological discovery in Hunan.  Tombs were unearthed in the seventies and excavated.  Three bodies were found with hundreds of artifacts.  These bodies were a husband a wife and their son. They were very prominent and wealthy.  It is very similar to a Egyptian tomb.   They date back to 186 years before Christ.  SOOOO interesting.  Little Faith fell asleep in the car on the way… so she missed most of it.  We took several pictures I will hopefully get to upload tonight. 

 

Faith had a few meltdowns today…nothing major.  She threw every single thing at lunch at the waitresses and onto the floor.  She also started crying and threw herself on the ground when I told  her she could not have a tea packet.  Luckily she was very easy to pick up and comfort.  Even funnier is after some time had passed she got a stool and went back to the tea and got it herself…then took it to Jeff to open.  She is smart!   Also…we can tell she is getting frustrated with the lack of communication.  Our guide says she speaks very good mandarin for her age and when our guide arrives they have entire conversations. 

 

I had my own sort of meltdown today… huge guilt that I cannot speak her language.  She deserves so much.  I felt very inadequate today when the guide was talking to her and she had so much to say.  She doesn’t even try to communicate with us in speech because she understands we cannot reply.   Faith also sings to herself at night…we asked our guide about it, and together they sang the most darling nursery rhyme.  Faith calmed down immediately when she was able to communicate and enjoy that song with someone who understood.  She so badly wants us to speak her words and know what she wants.  I can see the frustration in her facial expressions. 

 

On a positive note, she knows we are trying and will just laugh out loud at our horrible Chinese words and attempts to sing.  We were able to find and download the nursery rhyme she loves in Chinese and have played it today to her from the computer.   We are still getting lots of loves and we tell her I love you often.  I can’t wait for the moments when she will know what we mean when we say these words.

 

She was also very sick when we received her three days ago.  She has been suffering from tonsillitis for over a year, and she had a terrible cough and green runny nose.  She would speak in a whisper,  we believe because it was so painful to talk.  We started her on antibiotics the first day, and she is so different.  She is happy and loud and singing.  The coughs are fewer and the nose is not running any longer.  It is nice to see her healthy.  She is also eating better… she likes hard boiled eggs and noodles like top ramen.    She also loves rice cakes.

 

Every day we are getting to know our daughter better and are so happy to be  parents to such a beautiful little person.  She is still just darling…even with the meltdowns.

 

One last note…more for my own journaling…I have been suffering with a nasty head cold.  I am hoping it doesn’t turn into something worse…and today Jeff seems to be having the symptoms.  What a bummer we are sick right now.  It makes this just a little bit harder…I must have sneezed 50 times on the tour today, and my nose is cherry red.

 

Also Faith fell asleep at 5 pm today and it’s now 7:30 pm and she is still sleeping.  We are going to have a late night.  She walked about 100 big steps today in the hotel it must have worn her out early.

 

Dawn