Wednesday, May 9, 2012
MENTALLY BREAKING DOWN
Today I am calling our little man – Quinn JoeJoe. Hopefully, he
will pick up “Quinn” quickly. So, from this day forward he is
Quinn. Yesterday I was calling him JoeJoe Quinn and I don’t
think he “got” Quinn at all.
Today was a free day for us. Our guide went to check on Quinn’s
passport paperwork to make sure all was well as they are
converting over to a new system. I knew we were not going to sit
in our room all day, but I really didn’t know how far I felt
like venturing out alone again. I had myself prepared for a
loooong boring day.
May I just say our guide ROCKS! Echo came to visit us early this
morning to see if we were OK and what I planned to do for the
day. I had a list of questions waiting for her. I needed to get
Quinn some t-shirts as I did not pack enough to match his pants.
I have more than enough to match his shorts. We are wearing
pants this week in Gansu. It is definitely HOT enough to wear
shorts, but I did not see ONE person with shorts on. Echo
quickly said she would take us back into the city to a
children’s store. I guess she didn’t trust me to go out alone
again!
Guess what? China does SELL baby wipes! We went back to the baby
store and they were even on sale! Buy 2 get 1 FREE! Everyone
loves a sale. They were $2.66 for a pack of 80 wipes. Not bad. I
now have a nice supply of wipies to get us through the rest of
our trip.
We were then off to the children’s store to look for t-shirts.
Mom you would love this – a clearance rack in China! I got Quinn
a golf shirt for $0.16!!!! That is just insane. LOL He acted
just like Savannah did the 1st time she was in a store. He was
grabbing everything off the shelves, trying things on and pretty
much acting crazy. I am sure Krystal will never forget our
sneaker experience with Savannah! Anyhow, I also found Quinn a
pair of sandals. All the shoes I packed for him are too small.
He has BIG feet for being so tiny. I am pretty sure he wears the
same size shoe as Savannah – size 9. Hard to really tell as the
sizes here are in a Chinese scale, but his 8’s from home
definitely do not fit.
We decided to grab a Chinese lunch “to go” on our way back to
the hotel. Well, hmmmm……..lunch…….I ordered us Cajun chicken,
white rice and broccoli. I thought something very similar to
home. Once we got back to our room Quinn pushed our guide out
the door and told her good-bye. Too funny – she laughed. So
sweet as he “knows” his Mama now. What a difference from a
couple of days ago. We then sat down to eat. I opened up our
chicken to find that it was NOT boneless like home. It was in
the shape of balls, but there were pieces of bones sticking out.
Ahhh – no thanks! So, we ate rice and broccoli which was very
good.
This afternoon I took Quinn back outside for a walk. I wanted to
get across the street so I could take a picture of our hotel.
This required some skill as I wasn’t going underground again so
I had to play “chicken” in the traffic. One can literally touch
cars when crossing the street. They do not stop for people. I
just got really close to the people that knew what they were
doing! Quinn seemed a little anxious today so we did not stay
outside long.
Today has been a real mental challenge for me. I am worried
about the kids at home as things are not going smooth and there
is not a thing I can do about it. Meanwhile, I am ½ way around
the world alone with our new son. He has decided today to either
test some boundaries or he is just frustrated with my inability
to speak Chinese. Our guide told him to be patient with his Mama
while she is learning his language. He said OK. Children are so
forgiving – thank goodness. He has been full of smiles inside
our room today and we overall had a very good day. I am just
mentally exhausted. I have to shower at night when Quinn is
asleep. There is no way I can take a shower while he is awake.
He freaks if I even turn my back. I have 11 more nights to go. I
just want to go home. It is hard to enjoy this trip and take in
everything being alone. It is doable, but not ideal. I so
enjoyed my 1st trip to China and so looked forward to this trip.
I feel terrible to wish it away as this is my last trip for a
very, very long time. It will be years before the kids are old
enough to appreciate a heritage trip back to China. I pray
things will turn around at home and that Quinn and I will
continue to form a loving mother and son bond.
|
Breakfast
Buddies
Loves to Brush his Teeth
(Wearing Mama's Shoes)
Shoe Shopping
(Love the Pink Shoes?!)
New Sandals
(NOTE: Pen from Quinn)
Chinese Wipies |
