Trip to China
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Saturday, August 2, 2008 I wish I would have had the braised sea slug. We were all pretty tired last night by 8:00 and managed to get to sleep by about 8:30. Sleep lasted all of 3 hours before I watched my entire dinner come back up. I woke up doubled over knowing what was coming but not wanting to face it. Funny how that works when you get sick. You know you're going to barf but you try to hold it back as long as possible. Well, in my experience barf always wins - just as it did this time. That was pretty much that and the rest of the night I had a restful sleep. I got up feeling like a million bucks. Hopefully now Soren and I have developed the immunities we need to travel free of illness in China forever. We're taking bets on who's next. We had a few official things to do today. Starting at 9am we made a huge trek of about one half block to get our daughters' USA visa pictures taken at the Photo Shop. Not sure why but the aroma in the Photo Shop is always a little south of fragrant. There are all kinds of interesting smells here. The Photo Shop has it's own distinct one. Sometimes you'll just be walking along and it blindsides you... "whoa mama, what the heck was that?!?!?", you'll say as you quickly glance around with a wrinkled up face. You can tell who the foreigners are just by that reaction. That's aside from the ever-pervasive general smell of the outside air - a sort of low-grade fishy scent combined with pesticide. For someone whose senses are on overdrive, my sense of smell is not often pleasured in Guangzhou. Well anyway, I'm getting a little too graphic and this is my daughter's keepsake so I'll stow further comments on the aromatic nature of the area. The visa photos took all of 2 minutes and we were done. We shopped for a few gifts on the way back to the hotel. The next step was a group meeting at 10:30 in the Holt office in room 427 (I do believe that is overuse of prepositions Aunt Linda). One representative from each family had to go down and make sure we each had all our paperwork in order. I dislodged our files from the too tiny bedroom safe and went down. There was a checklist to follow and Catherine Han was keeping us on task. Catherine anticipated what every American tourist was going to need in order to sit through a stimulating discussion about government paperwork... Starbucks. Yep, iced coffees for everyone. That was a nice touch even if the coffee tasted like the coffee served aboard the bridge of a US Navy battleship. Catherine frequently had to snap us back to attention because the group has now developed a camaraderie similar to that of golf buddies - we've started talking smack to each other as if we're old friends. I guess that's what you get when you go through something like this together. You were loathe to ask any questions about how to fill something out or you'd get a razzing from everyone else. It was quite comical actually and all in good fun. Catherine kept threatening that we'd have to call our families to say we were going to be late for dinner if we didn't focus. Somehow we managed to accomplish putting together our packets for the US Consulate and then the rest of the day was free. We skipped lunch once again and put YaYa down for a nap. While YaYa slept I went down to the pool with the boys and Dad and Lori. Unfortunately the boys were at each other's throats, whining and griping over the smallest little things. My patience couldn't take it anymore so I ordered them out of the pool. Whining and pouting are unbecoming of 13 and 11 year old boys. I am convinced that American children, ours definitely included, are just too spoiled. One of the reasons we brought them here was for them to witness what life was like for people that really have to toil just to survive. The Chinese have my utmost respect for their work ethic and their ability to get up and do it day after day, literally seven days a week. It is what they do to subsist. Neither April nor I grew up with as many luxuries as our children have and we're trying to raise them to realize that life is not about instant gratification or material things, that life is not fair, and that you are entitled to nothing. This is by far the hardest challenge we face as parents. There are many glimmers of hope that our children will turn out just fine, but I assure you it weighs on our consciences each and every day, especially when they behave selfishly. The minute you feel like you can hack it you get hit with a streak of failure and have to start over. Our kids are our perpetual experiment. Anyway, I ordered our departure just as Mommy and Babe showed up. Bummer. YaYa had only had a 45 minute nap, which meant that we were in for a lively afternoon. So, being the intelligent people that we are, we left her with the grandparents and went out! We were wanting to check out the body massage back at the massage therapy place and Grandma and Grandpa agreed to play with YaYa to give us a break. While we walked over they took her to the Swan Room to play. If you plan to visit Shamian Island, you must trek to the massage therapy place on the north side. I've been there twice and still forget the name. Basically, you walk due north from the White Swan until you hit the false river, then you make a left. It's a block and a half or so down on the left side, with two entrances adorned with red lanterns. The entrance on the left is for foot massage and the entrance on the right is for body massage. April and I entered on the right this time. We did a 60 minute massage for RMB68. That is a 60 minute, killer massage for only ten US dollars! April got a guy, number 11, and I got a gal, number 98. They have numbers on their name tags in order for tourists to remember their favorites. April and I will be going back to 11 and 98. Unlike massages in most places, you are fully clothed. I don't think it detracted from it though, they still did an excellent job. April got a deep tissue massage and I got more of a relaxing massage this time. I was still in pain after the deep tissue foot massage and didn't want that again. The therapist still managed to twist me up like a pretzel and took care of a rib that was out of place with a resounding crack. Must've been Kung Fu or something. Anyway, this is a must for adoptive parents. Back at the hotel we learned that YaYa pretty much ran from one end of the Swan Room to the other, the entire time. So much for heart conditions! Even still she was full of energy. We believe that the dramatic change in her routine has afforded her certain liberties that she is learning to take advantage of. She's probably never had this much freedom and doesn't quite know what to do with it. We rounded out the evening with dinner at the Station One restaurant, next door to La Dolce Vita. Dinner was pretty reasonably priced and they had a good mix of choices. They even had milkshakes and Dad and the boys all had some. I can't quite bring myself to drink any more milk in Guangzhou. The milk here has a slightly sour aftertaste to it. I don't know if it's just that way or if it's actually reconstituted milk or something. The cheese is very similar in flavor - just generally kind of funky. I guess when you set the bar with Tillamook cheese though, everything else pales in comparison. The walk back along the Pearl River waterfront was invigorating. Tons of locals were out. Some were fishing with nets at the end of 10 foot poles. There were quite a few guys swimming in the river. It was a surreal scene to see guys strip down to their fruit-of-the-looms and cannonball off the seawall, then get out and play Chinese chess while drip-drying. The trees all along the way glow green from the lights they've positioned and there are noisy restaurants all along the way. Across the river you see brilliantly lit buildings and bridges with a laser light show set to music. The show runs from about 8pm to 9pm. The river is full of lighted tour boats and the dark shapes of cargo ships make their way along the far side. These are the times I have really come to enjoy. Well, we will get to find out exactly what YaYa's daily routine was because today we got permission to visit the orphanage! This is not a simple undertaking as her orphanage is in Maoming City, 4 hours to the southwest. It is costing us about RMB2700, about $376 US to make the round trip by van with Shelly, our Cantonese-speaking translator. Another one of our goals for this China trip was to be able to make this visit but we weren't sure if it was going to be feasible. As it turns out, this particular orphanage does not mind the visit, given Holt's excellent relationship with them. They are also supported by the Half the Sky Foundation and Love Without Boundaries - both of which have been very instrumental in the care and well-being of our daughter and many others. Unlike some Chinese orphanages they have an open-door policy. We are very much looking forward to this side trip. We will get about 2 hours at the orphanage and will use our time to learn about the children's daily routine, including education, hygiene, heath care, play, sleep, feeding, etc.

We also plan to make a trip to Ava's finding place to take as many photos as we can. In the absence of her birth parents, we feel it's the least we can do to piece her early life together as much as possible. We have some co-conspirators in our little plot too. Theresa and Dave, another adoptive couple here at the White Swan, also received a referral from Maonan Social Welfare Institute. Since they can't come themselves they are helping with some of the funding for the trip in exchange for as much information and pictures as we can muster. We will attempt to find their daughter's finding place too. As it turns out, Dave is a doctor and is helping to assist with yet another adoptive couple that are currently here at the White Swan (it seems there are at least dozens, if not over a hundred). This couple adopted twins who are now fighting for their lives in a local hospital, stricken with a very serious pneumonia. They were supposed to leave on the 30th but are still here. Please keep the family in your prayers as they go through this terrible crisis. Pray that these little girls get a chance at life and that the parents can continue to fund their care. Neither travel insurance nor stateside health insurance pay for this kind of thing in China so they are paying it all upfront, in cash. YaYa had way too much dinner and had a tough time going to sleep to the bottle tonight. She was a little wound up. Therefore, I got the distinct pleasure of putting her to sleep while cuddling her in my arms. She has definitely taken to the men in the family, maybe as a rebellion to the only people she really knew, which were all women. She's definitely bonding with April but I think she finds it more comforting to bond with men for some reason. We've heard of that happening a lot. She would look up every minutes I think just to make sure I was still there and eventually she gave up the ghost. Sweet dreams Baby.

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