The Ramblings of a Mississippi Girl in Guangzhou

Time to blog and Skype here are scarce, and it seems when we do have some time, we are usually exhausted or in a hurry b/c we are supposed to be somewhere in 5 minutes...

I thought I should take some time this morning though to describe Lily to you.

 

First of all, she is absolutely beautiful!  I mean it.  I know we are all like crows, and we all think our babies are the blackest, but our Lily is beautiful.  She's like a Chinese cherub.  I say that because she is tiny, (about the same height and size of Annie) but her cheeks are magnificently round.  When she smiles, her whole face smiles.  It's heart-warming.  I feel corny using these terms, but that's really how I feel when I look at her.  She is usually pretty easy to entertain, and she's been a real trooper on this trip.  There's a lot of moving about, long waits - especially for kids, etc.  She is beginning to repeat words like our names, one, two, three, baby, but her favorite English phrase that she repeats on her own and often is "uh-oh."  Whenever she would drop something accidently or trip, etc., I would say it, and she picked it up fast.  She's also had lots of opportunities to hear it, because it is not uncommon for her to drop something or trip.  Her hand coordination is spectacular.  When she drops things, it is only because she is 5 and we have been in some kind of moving transportation.  The tripping on the other hand is directly due to CP.  Tim and I are very confident that physical therapy will do her a tremendous amount of good.  And really, if she never had physical therapy, she would be fine.  She functions very well - walks, runs, does stairs, etc.  Personality wise, she is sweet, but she also has a mind of her own.  I wish I could show you how she tells us no.  She quickly closes her eyes and gives a short, quick nod no with a very serious face.  It's funny to see her do it.  (Unless she is saying "No, I won't obey you.")  Usually the no is in response to "Do you want some water?"  etc.   She loves playing.  All of you who know Tim know he really wants Lily to be another daddy's girl, so he's worked really hard to win her over.  It hasn't happened yet, but she's warming up.  We both agree that at this point, it's more of an "I really like to play with you, but I'm not sure about you being my Dad" kind of warming up.  But, there is progress.

 

Now I'll try to catch you up on us.  We took the train back to Hangzhou.  The train this time was just ok.  There were many more stops, we were on some of the older rails, and the kids were more hyper, which all adds up to a trip that took longer and certainly felt longer.  The train ride was again with Claire and Luca, Alessia (their 9-year old daughter who my girls really like), and their new son ToTo - who Lily really likes.  Then we returned to our hotels pretty late and crashed.  The next morning, we met Leo at 9:30 a.m. and went to WuZhen.  This town was about an hour and a half away, but it came highly recommended.  It turned out to be a really good day.  The town is like an old Chinese village caught in time.  Kind of like Williamsburg meets Venice meets China.  The architecture is fascinating and the people are too.  I should point out why I said Williamsburg and Venice.  It is like the old life here, but it's only half re-enacting.  My understanding is, the people who live here are paid a percentage of the profits (you have to purchase a ticket to go in), but they really do live in the homes, and live the old way (unlike the employees of Williamsburg), and the town is built on canals.  There are several museums in the town as well.  The hardest parts of this day were the heat and the getting around with Lily.  The place was definitely not wheelchair, or in our case, stroller accessible.  So we went from strolling to carrying, to her walking...Thankfully, she never complained.  (you can see this place online- just Google wuzhen).  We got to see how they made ale, calico fabrics that they had made, antique beds with incredible carvings, clothes from of old, and more.  Our day there ended with a boat ride back to the entrance, and it was a pleasant way to end our time there.

We got back to our hotel around 4 and did an early dinner.  We ate at a restaurant called "The Grandmas."  It's a chain here, and it was recommended by our guide.  In niceness and cleanliness, think P. F. Changs.  (However, it is way more Chinese here - you can order all sorts of animal insides or get the whole animal served on a plate - like fish.)  We ordered an eggplant dish, two bowls of noodles, a dish with asparagus and bamboo shoots, fried pork wontons, cauliflower with peppers and pork, and we each ordered a beverage.  (Over here it's served family style, so each dish fed several servings.)  Our meal was 83 RMB - about $11-12 U.S. dollars.  Not everything has been that inexpensive.  Our dinner in the hotel was quite pricey.  I guess it all balances out here.

 

I'm going to change the subject here and share our ailments.  On Monday, at the CAB, I had to take Lily to the restrooms - which I think I mentioned in my latest post:  mostly squatties, some real potties, take your own paper, soap is rarely available, and usually very dirty.  Lots and lots and lots of floors here, including sidewalks even, are tile or granite like materials.  As we walked out of the restroom, which was not clean, so my flip flops had wet bottoms, and I'm carrying Lily, I slipped on the floor, and I landed hard on my rear.  Maybe my tail bone is broken.  It's still hurting.  Lily thought the fall was funny.  Tim on the other hand began taking antibiotics yesterday.  The day before (our wuzhen trip) he took 2 Lomotil and 2 Imodium at one time.  You can figure out his ailment.  I know I'm sharing too much, but you all who know Tim know that he would be sharing it with you also in a very animated story with WAY too many details!  Lily and Tim can mess up a bathroom right now.  The odor from that child is not as sweet as her smile.  Thankfully, she smiles more than poops right now.

 

Yesterday we met Leo at 9:30 a.m. for our tour of West Lake.  It's beautiful.  This is also something you can Google and see.  We had a boat ride here, and thankfully it was overcast and sprinkling some, because this cut down on the heat a lot.  It was still hot and packed with people, but not miserably hot.  At our hotel, the view at breakfast of West Lake was great.  One day, we purposely planned to have 1 hour at breakfast just so we could relax, enjoy the food and the view.  I wish the weather had been less rainy the week we were there, because I think we might have spent a little more time at West Lake.  Two of the evenings/afternoons when we had a little free time, it was raining pretty hard.  After our West Lake tour/boat ride, we went back to the hotel, packed up, took a quick taxi to Papa John's and enjoyed REALLY good pizza.  Just like home.  We've had a good little mixture of Chinese and pseudo-American food.  Some mornings I'm even choosing the fried rice at breakfast, along with my American choices.

 

We left the hotel at 2 p.m., picked up Claire and Luca at their hotel at 3 p.m., picked up Lily and Toto's passports, and then straight to the airport - 3 hours early.  We boarded our very turbulent flight at around 7 and landed around 9 p.m.  Not a good flight, worst seats on the plane, we didn't get to all sit together, but Lily flew like a champion.  She wasn't as easily entertained at first, but I was armed with play-dough, pipe cleaners, crayons, stickers, ...  (Just a tidbit for you.  I very thoroughly checked TSA -travel security something- before our flights to make sure nothing would be confiscated/thrown out.  I learned that you can now travel with a tool as long as it is 7 inches or shorter - screwdriver, hammer, whatever  BUT on this past domestic flight, I forgot to take Lily's 5 inch SAFETY scissors out of her backpack, and I had to throw them away!  So, next time you fly - take your screwdrivers and hammers for your kids to hit the fold out table top.  They can't take those away.  We also didn't make it to China with my aerosol can of Lysol.  I didn't remember seeing anything about not being able to check aerosol cans, so maybe someone in customs just wanted my Lysol.  I sure do wish I had it though.)

 

We checked into the Victory Hotel last night and finally got to bed around 11:30.  Too late a night for us.  Our room was ok.  It felt kind of dirty to me, and the shower didn't work right.  It kept cycling perfect, scalding, cold, cool, warm, again and again.  And our bed felt like a piece of plywood with a sheet on top.  Thankfully, we were tired enough to sleep in spite of this, and this morning we met another adoptive family that said they had a great room.  They are also in a suite like us, but they chose a Japanese suite - we had a western one.  We changed rooms this afternoon, and now I am a MUCH happier camper!  The mattress might be on the floor in here, but it's soft!  I know you don't care about our room, but it's the little things that bring such joy here!!

 

Today was Lily's medical check up.  She had ear, nose and throat checked, eyes, mobility, and then had 3 vaccinations and her tb test.  The child didn't flinch.  I was the one turning my head!  While in the examination office, we met a family from Nashville.  She heard me say something (or maybe it was Lily's smocked outfit and oversized hair bow that gave us away!), and in exaggerated southern draw, she said, "you must be from the south."  I responded in exaggeration, and we both had a good laugh.  As we were leaving, she was lying down sweating b/c she had just about passed out watching her new daughter get her shots.  I so sympathized!  When I got my tb test for our dossier, I turned white as a ghost and the nurse and Tim had to carry me to a room where I could lie down b/c it made me so sick.  I'm really hoping to meet up with them some time this week.  She's an Ole Miss grad, but she said her dad is a bulldog, so I guess we'll accept her.  She goes by Jukie - Judy Kate.  AND I LOVE IT!  I've been missing some south!

 

If I'm not mistaken, all Chinese adoptions by westerners end in Guangzhou.  So, there are lots of Caucasian families with precious Chinese children here.  It's a lot of fun to find out other families' stories. 

 

This afternoon, we walked around a little, ate lunch at Lucy's - the Western restaurant here, and went into a few shops.  Now we're back in the room resting.  Good day.  A few of the shop owners are Christians, and we are looking forward to going back to their shops.  One shop owner had a Chinese Bible and an NIV sitting out on his counter.  Tim enjoyed visiting with him for a few minutes. 

 

Lily is definitely warming up to us all more and more each day.  I don't know that this means it's all going to be roses from here, but for now I'll take it and be happy.  She called me "mama" today for the first time on her own.  She's letting Tim carry her some on his shoulders and smiles the whole time.  She's getting on Carrie and Meg's nerves sometimes, so I guess it's just like it should be.  (grin)

 

Tim just tried to tell her some music was beautiful - a word that sounds like pee-ow-yay (or something like that), but mistakenly, he was saying show(rhymes w/cow)-pee-in.  She was shaking her head no and he couldn't figure out why.  I had to remind him that that phrase means (excuse my crude, but this is what we've been told it translates to) "I need to pee."  We all just had a good laugh. 

 

I'm really missing my little ones, and I'm really ready to be home, but we're over half-way now.  If you've endured this whole blog, I should say thanks.  Really my life isn't that interesting, but I think it's a little therapeutic for me to sit here and type this, it's kind of my journal, and some of you might like some of my ramblings.  Thanks for your prayers.  Our family appreciates them.  This might seem like a puny request in the big scheme of life, but I would appreciate you all praying that we all get to sit together on the flights home.  Keep praying for bonding and wisdom as issues arise.