Thursday, May 13, 2010
A fussy start this morning; we just went down to breakfast. (There was a little deaf girl at the table next to us who had just been adopted.)
We stopped to look at the goldfish in the hotel, one of the staff came by and offered NiShi a half piece of bread to feed to the fist. She loved it, tossing little bits of bread into the water.
Also took pictures of all the babies on the couch – they weren’t too happy about it as you can see from the picture. We went up to the playroom on the 11th floor of the hotel, and Ni Shi pulled a million toys out of the cabinets played for awhile. She’s had a couple of screaming fits today. When she’s in a good mood, she’s funny and cute; when in a bad mood, it’s pretty bad. She’s very stubborn, and doesn’t let go of her anger very easily. She had a bad afternoon today, very angry. She finally slept for a little bit.
During the afternoon Cheryl and Nadine went upstairs where there was someone who does calligraphy and makes chops. She was making scrolls with babies’ names, date of birth, place of birth. The names the orphanage had for the girls were “not very good” according to Nadine, because they don’t have any meaning. Shirley delivered the adoption papers we’ve been waiting for late this afternoon.
This (Thursday) evening the group went to dinner in a Chinese restaurant, which was pretty good. We had a private room on the third floor, and Ching has become the person who orders food for us. We invited Shirley, our Nanchang local facilitator, to join us for dinner so we could thank her for her help.
“Brrrr” – Ni Shi, Popo and Cher were all making that noise that’s like rolling an “r” but is done with the lips. It was pretty silly.
You might be able to see from some of the photos that Ni Shi has what used to be called “lazy eye”, bilateral strabismus according to Dr. Jerry. Cher will need to get it checked out when she gets back home. It’s not a serious thing, doesn’t seem to affect her vision, and is pretty easily treatable. She does hold things up very close to examine them.
When we got back to the room, NiShi was in a good mood but still very tired. Popo and Ni Shi both played chyumbei with an inflatable beachball. They played hard and had a good time. NiShi was very good in her bath after that. Once she was in pajamas, we started to sing to her. Popo really enjoys singing hyms … it was a very sweet moment, and our girl is asleep.
We have to hang around Nanchang all day tomorrow; leaving for Guangzhou in the evening – our flight leaves at 7:30 pm. We don’t have to check out of the hotel until just before we leave, so that’s a help. Everyone wishes we could just go home!
Love to everyone!
Excellent records of each day. Like I said in my last post, I can relate to your highly emotional experience (especially the part of wanting to go home NOW). On both of my trips, when en route to Guangzhou, many travel mates expressed that they wished they were on the flight home, rather than on their way to the last stop in China.
ReplyDeleteFor all of the families (on both of my trips), Guangzhou was a break. Kids seemed to have mellowed out a bit, and the change of scenery did everyone good. I hope the same is true for you.
I talked to my friend Ellen last night (her daughter is a Fuzhou baby). Coincidentally, Dr. Jerry was the doctor on her trip 6 1/2 years ago.
Have a great time at the White Swan. Make sure you take a swim or two at their beautiful pool. The playroom (the Swan Room), is another fun place to visit.
Nini