6
Mar

Zhongshan visits

March 6, 2011

Ah, how to sum up today…

Maybe saying we went 3 for 3 as far as the homeland visits went would be best. 

Yueyang was amazing.

Yinchuan was surprising and yes, amazing.

Zhongshan, well, it definitely was otherworldly in so many ways!

We visited the orphanage for a few hours.  We toured the usual places everyone has been in as of lately, but this time with personal stories and lots of children accompanying us (older ones mostly – I’ll upload all of the photos including other children to my private photo blog once we are home for all of you who are waiting for your kids just in case you see them). 

We then went to a local restaurant with Grace’s closest adult friends and the director.  Wonderful Dim Sum.  Grace’s volunteer had had his wedding party there.  Beautiful!

Afterwards Grace, Faith and Garnet got to ride scooters with Grace’s adult friends over to first one volunteer’s home and then the other!  I haven’t ever seen them grin so much!  Through traffic, over a huge bridge, zipping here and there.  We have had an amazing guide and driver here.  Our guide is super spunky and our driver purposely drove down the middle of two lanes of traffic at times in order to provide a sort of “pilot car” for the scooters carrying our children!  Talk about personal service.  haha

Just a note about Zhongshan.  I knew it was beautiful and full of flowers and palm trees before.  But now that I have seen the old town and its side streets and also the modern urban centre with its riverwalk and koi ponds, I’m very taken with it.  It’s got so much character and beauty.  Blue skies and soft breezes. 

We found out so many personal details about our little girl.  We feel as though she is finally ours.  And Grace?  She’s now claimed us for sure!  We had the opportunity to receive blessings from a number of people who dearly loved her and she was able to finally see with all of us in the same room, that we all love her and that the relationships do not have to end.  I think we were all (Chinese and Canadian alike) holding our breathe, but it went incredibly well. 

She (we) are all exhausted tonight.  And she’s a bit strung out.  Pretty normal considering!  It was draining to say the least (a very emotion packed 7.5 hours) and we fully expect lots of ups and downs yet, but the new foudation has been laid. 

Mission Accomplished.

On to Hong Kong via ferry tomorrow.

8 Comments
6
Mar

Yinchuan Touring photos

March 6, 2011
1 Comment
5
Mar

Arrived in Zhongshan

March 5, 2011

Thanks for the prayers!  More than I can say. 

Faith is on the up swing, as is Grandma.  Grace had a high temp and threw up just as the bellboys came for the luggage before our flight to Guangzhou.  She’s amazing though and we carried on with a good dosing of Advil and Gravol.  Garnet is having a tougher time since we landed.  Even let Grandma snuggle him a bit (unheard of as he says he’s too old now).  We’ll beat these bugs yet!

Beautiful, new boutique style hotel here in Zhongshan.  Wonderful guide (Joanna).  We had teeny rooms at first and shuffled around enough to get enough beds and all are alseep now. 

We approached the city from a new angle (for Adrian & Roberta).  More factories than we had seen (we knew they were there, right?).  Loads of ads for LED factories.  Porsches and RAV4’s.  All shiny and new. 

Cantonese now.  Lots of smiles.

A crazy, speeding driver for our minibus tonight.  We made it here in record time!

Saw 2 parents each on a scooter.  Each carrying a small child in a Mai Tai wrap.  One on Mom’s back and one on Dad’s front – legs sticking out and around Dad.  Mom grinning as she raced after Dad’s scooter to beat the red light.  Hair blowing.  I will never forget, 

Our Grace is doing amazingly well.  She has crossed the line and now claimed us.   The may sound strange, but it has taken until this week. And yes, that’s a long 15 1/2 months since her adoption.  We still have a ways to go, but so many things have shown us a determination in her to claim us that we are actually starting to believe it may be real. 

Faith is struggling.  She’s tired.  She’s asking many questions of her own.  We are praying for her and trying to help her carry on until the end of our trip.  It will do her heart good when we are in one place for longer than a few nights again and can actively build our new normal.

Samuel is doing really well.  Loves his naps and yet will snooze in the carrier or our arms in we are on the go.  Loves water.  We hear “He shui!” all the time.  🙂  We are working on the please and thank you.  He knows so much English.

Our Beijing guide (“V”) has a strong ND connection.  Sponsored 3 kids there until their adoption.  Visited frequently.  We were delighted to hear of her heart and her spunk and excitement for ND!  She recognized Samuel from the photos online.  She told us that she initially found ND online herself after deciding to do something to make a difference (since her exposure to FOI adoption groups).  Huge and amazing thing.  We are thankful for her heart and will be praying she finds others to join her in carpooling out to ND as that is all that is preventing her from more visits!  WOW! If you ever read this V – you are amazing!

Gifts are packed.  Diaper bag packed.  Camera packed.

Time for some sleep for Mom.

4 Comments
4
Mar

Challenging Day

March 4, 2011

We ended up travelling with all 9 of us to and from Yinchuan.  Samuel works better with everyone at his disposal and it was great to have everyone there to support Garnet.  Unfortunately, this morning, both girls woke up with bad colds.  Grandma is still recovering from one she caught last week (all three were sharing a room this past week).  Samuel refused food and slept through breakfast.  After his impromtu nap, he rose to the challenge and downed 4 sausages though.  We rearranged some of our plans and had a slower morning, a Hot Pot luncheon including an interview with a local journalist (“Surprise!” our guide sprung on us as we drove into the restaurant parking lot with sick and tired and rumpled kiddos – Oh well!) and a tour of the Wetsern Xia Tomb site and museum in the afternoon. 

This evening, we arrived at the airport and attempted to check in only to find that some of our tickets had odd comments attached and so we almost missed out on our flight, but for the diligence of our facilitator and our guide.  Yay!  Then we cleared security (they let Samuel be carried through this time and thankfully didn’t confiscate our liquid cold medicine or “Grandma Soap”/hand sanitizer) only to find that our flight had been delayed two hours.  Many odd gift shop food iems later, Samuel took a long crawling tour of the departures area and we finally made it onto the plane intact.  Half the kids slept or dozed.  The other half caught a meal on the flight. 

After sending four of us in the first taxi at the Beijing airport and almost being charged highway robbery for a van-taxi, we found a regular cab driver who would take the remaining 5 of us in one cab (the cabs are only supposed to take 4 passengers).

Arriving at the hotel we found out that our gear was still in our rooms, but our key cards no longer worked.  The front desk quickly made new ones up and after picking up some gifts left for us at the Concierge desk courtesy of our dear facilitator and friend, we made our way upstairs.

Soft snoring is calling to me from the other side of the room. 

Off to Guangdong tomorrow afternoon. 

Good Night!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please pray for health and rest for our bunch.

We received some information that we hope to persue for Grace, just this evening.  Pray that God would move clearly one way or the other on her behalf.

Pray for Jia Yi who I referenced in the other posts (Yinchuan).  She is a very special little girl who very much deserves a forever family.

Pray for my brother and his family who are holding down many forts with us all gone.  They are all very ill with strep and eye infections.  Healing, rest and encouragement for all of them. Love you guys.  Thank you for everything.  It had meant so much to all of us. 

Love,

2 Comments
3
Mar

Yinchuan CWI photos

March 3, 2011
3 Comments
3
Mar

Yinchuan CWI Visit

March 3, 2011

Garnet was treated as the returning hero.

He glowed.

The end.

Well.  Not really.

He had a banner with his name on it (“Welcome Back Huyan Baoer!”, in characters).  A crowd of people who knew him “when”.  Children who remembered him. Speeches.  A professional movie camera trained on him.  Gifts.  Baby photos.  His special Ayi was delighted to see him and ran out after him once we left for a few extra moments with him.  The director called the finding person and they came and held him, pointed out the EXACT place and details of his finding story.  Garnet got tears in his eyes (total joy) more than once. 

My heart actually felt it would burst for him.

He’s played second fiddle to the other kids’ stories for so long just by nature of a lack of information.   No longer. 

We were so proud of him.

I think I glowed too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We have video and photos, current medical info and eyewitness stories for Murong Yilan, Mu Rong Jin Bo and Jia Li.  We gave the updates to the staff (they were delighted).  We toured the physical therapy rooms and many other class areas (no sleeping quarters) and have photos.

Lisa, Garnet’s Ayi asked after Yang Yang too. I told her about both boys fishing trips.  🙂

E-mail me for a quick update to the parents of the children I named above and I’ll send photos and video once we are back in Canada (a couple weeks).  [email protected]

6 Comments
27
Feb

Yueyang County Photos (Part 2)

February 27, 2011

Click to enlarge photos.

Hover Cursor over photos to see short description.

6 Comments
26
Feb

State of the Nation

February 26, 2011

We are all doing really quite well for only having been a family of seven for eight days! 

That being said, here is what that really means:

  1. Samuel is becoming more needful of Steve and I to be in close proximity to him.  He becomes more concerned if one of us has to leave the room.
  2. Samuel is eating and sleeping marvelously.
  3. We are completely out of his element and he hears people speaking about his legs a lot.  We fill him with as much love and reassurance as we can about our pride in his abilities and appearance.
  4. He is baby and he is boy – all rolled into one.  Diapers and cooing.  Preschool songs and bossiness. Needful of snuggle time and wanting to test the limits of his strength and agility.
  5. He is most definitely a dominant lefty – Grandpa H. rejoices (it only took 2 kids and 8 grandchildren!)  😉
  6. Faith is having a great time in familiar territory and yet is needing Mom and Dad to be close.
  7. Faith has really shown more interest in this little person than I have ever seen her take interest in a child before.  She’s really enjoying being a part of caring for him and playing with him.  
  8. James is struggling with the fact that he has a fair bit of independence on this trip and yet still needs supervision.  Boy – Man.  It’s a tough place to be.
  9. James loves his new brother.  Samuel reaches for him and asks for him to carry him.  Steals his glasses and James grins. 
  10. Grace is doing really very well.  She’s remembering amazing details suddenly about our adoption trip (we stayed in this same hotel) – things she adamantly refused memory of before haev now been brought to the surface.  She’s rolling with it very well and we are seeing our daughter blossom into a new settled place at times.  Amazing.
  11. Grace is very patient with Samuel.  This surprised us as we thought there would be more jealousy.  Samuel loves to stroke her hair but often will add a playful tug to a handful and she scolds him gently.  Today she told in a very mature way that she doesn’t mind him playing with her hair, but that we just need to work on helping him not pull it.  Wow! 
  12. Garnet is having a tough time shifting up a rung on the family ladder.  He is super kind to Samuel and goes out of his way to share with him and be kind and play. However, he sidles up to me whenever given the chance for an extra snuggle or a game of chopsticks.  It’ll take time and reassurance.  I also believe the visit to Yinchuan next week may help him too.  He’s anxious about the unknowns.
  13. Garnet is a super sharer.  He lets Sam have the last bite of a snack.  He wants to play on the floor with him.  He teaches him silly faces and like to make him giggle by tickling him gently on his little legs.  Samuel calls him Gege and that goes a long way in Garnet’s books. 
  14. Steve had a new experience today.  Samuel was in the carrier at the Dirt Market and wet through his clothing, the carrier and Steve’s jacket and shirt.  We happened to be in our favourite shop and the proprietor had remembered our family.  We were chatting and then she offered for us to change Samuel’s clothing and diaper right on the framing table (it’s a photographic print shop).  She even offered her winter coat to change him on and hand carried the stinky diaper outside to the trash by hand.  She was very sweet! 
  15. Another vendor saw Samuel’s runny nose (it was cold – it snowed today in Beijing!) and offered some of her toilet paper for his nose.
  16. The taxi driver we took back to the hotel cooed at Samuel in Chinese.  He also narrowly missed rear-ending a car when said car slammed on its brakes in order to avoid a bus at 80 km/hr on 2nd Ring Road. He saved us 27 RMB over our family’s other taxi by speeding and dodging though.  hehe
  17. One of the other children in our group calls Garnet “Barnacle” much to the chagrin of her parents.  She’s terribly cute.
  18. The kids are missing their cats.
  19. Grace has asked after home a few times. Such nice things to hear from a little girl who wasn’t sure which place she wanted to call home a short time ago.
  20. Have I mentioned that Samuel is FAST!  Oh, and agile?
  21. At the Dirt Market: Grace spent $14 Cdn (5 items – pretty and mostly wearable), Faith spent $11 Cdn (4 items – dainty and decorative), Garnet spent $1.50 Cdn (1 item that frightens me to no end – can you guess what it was?), James spent $30 Cdn (a pair of somethings that may or may not be removed by customs from his checked bag – any guesses?)  
  22. Our trip to the countryside is cancelled tomorrow.  We are visiting a new butterfly gardens here instead. 
  23. Your prayers, comments and e-mails have meant so very much to us.  Keep them coming!  We’ve been praying over things you’ve shared with us too.

Off to bed after some quick laundry in the tub at our 5 star hotel.  Motherhood…

6 Comments
26
Feb

Yueyang County Photos (part 1)

February 26, 2011

As usual, click on each image to see an enlarged version. 

Hover cursor over thumbnails to see short description.

Valerie, “Superman Sleeps” is for you.  🙂

1 Comment
24
Feb

Yueyang County

February 24, 2011

The visit went so well! 

The countryside was amazing.  Red earth.  Water Buffalo.  Rice Paddies.  Hillside Family Tombs. 

We went straight to the orphanage which is now only used as offices.  The foster Grandmother met us in the parking lot.  She so badly just wanted to touch him.  Her eyes were aboslutely saoking in every inch of him. He curled into me and his little legs clung to my trunk under the carrier I had him in. 

The two staff ladies ushered us upstairs to the director’s office for tea and a short visit.  We began sharing information back and forth through our guide. 

She had given us 3 photos of him as an 8 and 12 month old.  Bathing, feeding, holding him.  Treasures!  He was so delighted to see them.  He kept kissing them and saying, “Beibei Xiao Ba!”. 

We gave her a sheet of photos (our family, his referral photo – which we hear he was betweenb 5 and 6 months old in, and an update we received).  We also gave the grandfather a gift.

Then we were invited to their home which was a short distance away.  We were served snacks, tea and allowed to take photos around their home.

The child they described was absolutely our Samuel.  LOVES peanuts, splashing in the bath tub, motor vehicles, very affectionate.  The grandfather rides a motorcycle and Samuel always knew when he was on his way home and Samuel could tell it was him!  They chuckled at how he splash es gets us soaked during bathtime.  They shed some discreet tears.  It was absolutely beautiful.

Then we were taken a short ways by foot to see some friends and they were delighted to see his growth and strength!  We enjoyed our time threre.  Samuel began warming up a bit, but Stephen held him out of the carrier. 

 ggngngnngggg  (Samuel’s blogging help)
We then took everyone out for lunch (15 people fr $50 and a tonne left over).  Samuel gets car sick and after 2.5 hr drive, snacks, stress, heat as we had him bundled Chinese style out of courtesy, and then a bit of spicy food that required lots of rice and water to douse, he promptly threw up what seemed to be 1/2 a litre.  Poor baby.  He was so ashamed.  You could see it.  We snuggled him and reassured him.  We took him to the wash basin and cleaned him up.  He began to feel better and really started to perk up.
 
We then said our thanks, again and he stayed in my arms, but gave hugs and kisses to his foster grandparents.  We were able to share some of the care and possible prosthetics we hope to get him in Canada. We were worried about making it seem as though we thought their care was not good enough, but they seemed happy to hear about it all. 
 
We then all got back on the bus and stopped at the finding spot.  Photos and then I set Samuel down on the ground.  I wanted him to show them how he could move, but I wasn’t sure what he would do.  He bolted for the bus.  Much shouts of joy and laughter.  I was so glad.  He was giggling a bit.  I was a good moment to end on. 
 
Many kisses were blown and they gathered around the bus door as we drove away. 
 
What an incredible day.  We all slept well last night!  And the best part?  Samuel clung to us, came to us, we could comfort him when he was sick, we took tonnes of photos and we saw and shared so much of what he was and still is. 
 
God is good. 
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