Home Almost Two Weeks!

What a difference two weeks can make in the life of a child!  Timothy has integrated himself into his new family in record time.  He still loves BaBa but I am now included in his circle of favorite people and am his go-to person for comfort, love, food, and clean pants.  He tells me "Wo ai ni."  (I love you.) He gives me kisses and snuggles.  He also has a wide circle of adoring Jie Jies.  I'm not sure if adding an s to the end of the word big sister is the correct way to make it plural but he has 3 and also includes any female under 15 as a big sister. This circle includes sisters, nieces, and friends of sisters and nieces. From any of these Jie Jies he expects and receives absolute servitude. At first he believed that any one in his fan club could trump a parent if a desire was not given immediately.  Hmmm, a few tantrums later and he is starting to get the idea that MaMa and BaBa are the supreme rulers of this clan.  Although, he knows he can count on Tobianna to give in when Mom's not looking.

The GeGes (brothers) are fun but must respect the cardinal rule of "all toys belong to Timothy."  Luke isn't so sure about this arrangement and Tate and Teegan have learned to keep prized possessions out of sight.  I've reassured them that as he learns more English, he will also learn more house rules.

Another biggie in the progress arena--he is no longer afraid of our dogs!  My aching back is glad for that progress, since I had to carry him any time the dogs were out of their kennels in the house.  Now we are working on appropriate behavior around dogs, such as no feeding them your lunch under the table and laughing hysterically about it. And, if you let them out of the kennels, you can't scream when they jump for joy.

He is a much happier and relaxed child than he was when we first arrived home.  Part of this is a result of antibiotics for an infection in his bladder and having a 7 hour visit in the ER.  Of course the ER visit wasn't the charm, it was the removal of the large blood clot blocking his catheter that gave him relief from the pain he had been experiencing since we first met him.  He did enjoy having his nieces pop in for an hour or so while we waited and though he tried to teach Faith to count in Mandarin, she just couldn't get it right.

Timothy and I will be headed up to Johns Hopkins this Mother's Day.  He will be meeting Dr. John Gearheart and undergoing a procedure to see how his bladder is functioning and to decide next steps.  I'm hoping we can also get rid of the catheter. We are blessed to be flying free on "angel flight" with Southwest Airlines and staying at the Ronald McDonald house.

All in all, it has been a busy and hectic first couple of weeks home.  We have already had 3 visits by DCF's contractors for our foster children.  We have gone to Teegan's kindergarten class' Mother's Day Party.  We have been to 2 award presentations for our excellent readers, Teegan and Tobianna.  We have visited schools and camps for summer and enrolled Luke and Tate for summer VPK.  We have wrangled with insurance companies and the State to get his benefits started immediately (as should be the norm but I'm over that bitterness now).  We have had 2 doctors appointments and 1 ER visit.  We have visited with Timothy's class that he will start when I return to work.  We have had a double header birthday party for Teegan and Dawn (Dinosaurs and Princesses).  Today we are meeting friends for lunch. Here are a few pictures of our wild ride.

Teegan turns 6

Dawn turns 9

Swinging is fun!

Going for a walk

Future Grizzly hangin with his adoring Jie Jie

 

Catching Up

Usually, this happens to me much earlier in the trip and I thought perhaps I might be spared this time.  But no, the nasty stomach illness got me and knocked me out of commission for a couple of days.  I'm sad to say that my children back home are experiencing similar symptoms.  Poor babies and poor, poor Tara who has been doing sick duty.  She has had Luke, Teegan, and now Tabitha defile her car and her house.  She may never speak to me again when we get home.

Meanwhile, I'm back to life now and ready to catch you up on current events here in the Far East.  We had the physical, which was excruciating for all.  I'm sure that Timothy does not trust the white coat bunch after having 3 surgeries in his short little life. The new clinic was quite nice, however.

 

 

The crying started long before the examination.



 

Now instead of the skin test for TB, the children must have a blood draw and parents are not allowed to accompany the children in the room.  That was hard but at least I got to comfort him after rather than be part of the bad guys.

 

He chose BaBa to accompany him to the ENT station.

BaBa relishes his role as favorite parent.





 Here's the traffic that we experience each time we venture out.  Notice the white lines just like in the US?  Except here, they are only a suggestion of where to drive.  Pretty much anywhere is okay from what I have seen.  We did find out that it is illegal to honk in Guangzhou, which makes for a little quieter sleep time than we had in Taiyuan where honking was encouraged whole heartedly.

 

It also helps with bus naps after a hard time at the clinic.

This is Timothy's preferred way of bus sleeping.  If BaBa were holding him, he might lean back and get comfy. You gotta keep your guard up around those MaMa types.

 

We also did some group shopping at the Pearl Market.  Jocelyn took us to the same store that we always visit.  So either they have the best pearls at the best prices or the owner is related to someone.  In any case, it is always fun to visit the market.  George was accosted by beggars, which to his annoyance always happens to him in the US also.  He is a beggar magnet.  We did some shopping at the embroidery store and the owners brought us little stools to sit on while we waited for the others.  I thought it might be because we were big spenders but I think it is because the Chinese are very respectful to elders.  And crazy elders who adopt children are given a lot of respect.

 

We did some fun things also.  We played at the hotel's little park.  I have pictures of Tate playing here also.

 

We had a group dinner (before I was struck down by the illness, hmmm, right before as a matter of fact), we did laundry, we watched a 100 movies on HBO, in English!, and we had our consulate appointment.  The consulate is in a brand new building that contains working elevators and air conditioning and western style toilets (complete with very complicated instructions on how to use each part of the facilities).  No cameras, watches, phones, liquids, pets or basically anything other than people and paperwork allowed, so no pictures.  We were in and out in an hour though!

A big bag of dirty laundry was rendered into clean cubes.  Wish it was always this easy.

 



Today after the consulate appointment, I persuaded George into going to Shamian Island for old times sakes.  The island used to be the center of adoption happenings and was where the consulate and the medical facility was located.  The White Swan Hotel was the hotel of choice for adoptive families.  Now the White Swan has closed for renovations and the consulate and clinic are elsewhere.  The stores that lined the streets with cheap souvenirs have dwindled in number but I still enjoyed going, in spite of the harrowing taxi ride to and from.  We ate at the famous Lucy's, which boasts "American" food and I had my first real meal in a couple of days.  We took pictures of Timothy with the bronze statues.  This is now a family tradition for all the little Ts.  I guess we could try to drag the grown Ts over for pictures but probably only Tara would come.

Timothy loved watching the school children march and marched around the Island saying, "Yi, Er, Yi (one, two, one)!

We also did the group photo thing and tortured the children on a brown couch in the hotel lobby. Hopefully, someone got better pictures than I did.

 

And just for fun....

 



I'm free and faster than MaMa!

We are in front of a restaurant.  Not sure if the pictures represent before and after.

Grandpa exercises in the park.

Recycling cycle.

 



Tomorrow afternoon we leave for Hong Kong. We fly out of Hong Kong early in the morning (or evening depending on your hemisphere) and head to Atlanta.

Hello Guangzhou

It is always so wonderful to make it to this point in the adoption trip.  Guangzhou is relaxing in comparison to each of the other provinces we have visited.  The child has gotten used to us (or resigned themselves to the fact that they are stuck with us).  The cuisine offers more selections that our palates are accustomed to and we aren't the only foreigners in town.  English is spoken here.  Taiyuan was interesting when we did venture out and I do give it the award for the most unusual dish I have encountered.  Actually, I didn't get past the picture in the menu and our guide's explanation of it so I can't comment on the taste.  It was very artfully presented with a base of something with spiky things protruding out and up like bare trees in the winter.  I asked what these twigs were, and let me tell you that I didn't even know that ducks had tongues and never would have guessed that people ate them.  Taiyuan also had the most unusual gifts in the hotel gift shop.  There were beautiful, ornate,  velvet lined boxes containing, you guessed it, dried frogs and lizards!  One contained deer sinew.  Some lucky people back home will be overjoyed to get these gifts but I won't spoil the surprise.


But back to Guangzhou and the Marriott China Hotel.  Tara and I stayed here last time and it is wonderful.  The room is very nice and has air conditioning that is turned on!  The breakfast buffet has American selections and real baked beans.  We have 2, count em, 2 rolls of toilet paper and the staff have been wonderful about supplying us with unusual requests, like washcloths for everyone.  Timothy loves the room.  He was very apprehensive on our plane ride.  He had told our guide that he wanted to stay right there but she convinced him that he would have to stay there without MaMa and BaBa so he relented.  After we got here and he saw our luxurious room he could not quit laughing and pointing and talking animatedly about, what I guess he must have thought about our room.  Poor guy is going to be so disappointed when we get home.  Especially when he finds out that we don't have servants to order about.  He has gotten pretty used to telling the waitresses to bring him a better selection of food from the buffet.

Today we went on the city tour, which we have done 3 times now, but it was much better than spending the day hanging out in our hotel room.  George and I aren't used to having to look at each other for such long stretches of time and we were getting a bit snappy by the end of our stay in Taiyuan.  We are now smiling at each other again.  Our camera battery decided to die on the tour so I don't have any good pictures.  Some of our fellow travel mates promised to email me their pictures though.  We knew all the answers to Jocelyn's questions and had to refrain from answering and showing off.  That must be how it feels to be the smartest kid in class, huh.  Speaking of Jocelyn, she remembered me from past adoptions and could rattle off our kids names!  I can't even do that sometimes.  I just love Jocelyn, she is a wonderful person and guide.

We saw a 1500 year old Buddhist temple, visited the 120 year old Chen House (the most well known, wealthiest family from Guangzhou) and shopped at the Jade/Pearl Market.  Before anyone gets their hopes up about our shopping, Timothy decided to melt down at that point having missed his usual lunch and nap time.  I spent the time in the store letting him careen about with the stroller around expensive delicate carvings and porcelain.  Needless to say, it took all my concentration to prevent catastrophes and keep him from crying.  You guys will just have to be satisfied with dried frogs and lizards.

Timothy already has the patented blank Hendon look that comes with TV watching.

Deer sinew gift box.

Frogs and lizards!

Goodbye Taiyuan

Are you sure this plane is safe?
 

Let's go over this safety guide.
 

We love this room!

Buddhas

1500 year old temples lean a little.  I'm not near that old and I have trouble staying on my feet.

Goodbye Taiyuan

Tomorrow morning we leave Taiyuan for the final leg of our journey in Guangzhou. We will, of course, have fond memories of the place where we met our son for the first time, the place where he officially became our son.  I suppose you can hear the "but" in my sentence so I will go ahead and say it.  We are glad to be heading out!  Our room as slowly gotten smaller and messier and we have run out of things to entertain ourselves with.  The room attendants have been very good about cleaning for us, refreshing our bottled water, and our half roll of toilet tissue.  What is it with China and toilet paper? We haven't ventured out much because we don't want to cause Timothy pain, which happens if he is too active.  We've been to a cool park, the city square (seen from our window), McDonalds, and a very fancy Pizza Hut. We've shopped at the local supermarket, Spar, and a nearby WalMart.  We've stared out the window through the ever present smog at the incessant traffic of buses, cars, bikes, walkers, and motorcycles in the crazy "roundabout" that circles the center of town.  Still not sure why there haven't been any casualties.  We've been photographed and filmed by random strangers and even posed in family pictures (with random families). Not much left to do but pack.

Timothy has learned to order the waitresses around and was almost whisked out his chair by one to choose better food than I had set before him
.  I stopped her with the word for pain, pointing at his bag.  He would probably been okay, but I wasn't okay with her carrying him off.  It is bad enough that he loves BaBa more than me, I don't need strangers giving him better food than me.  Yes, it is clear now that BaBa finally has a child that loves him the most.  I have had to do all the painful things that must be done, like diaper changes, which truly are painful for him and bathing him and BaBa has been the fun go-to guy.  Not fair, but I guess after all these children, he deserves to have one that dotes on him.

Entranced by cartoons

Pizza Hut-Spaghetti and warm water.

The flat granddaughters visit the fountain in the park.

Happy boy.

We didn't eat here but thought the name was catchy.

The view from our room on a sunny day.

 

 

Timothy

Yesterday was our official adoption day.  Timothy QianKun is our son now. With each passing moment he relaxes more around us and we get to see his sweet personality.  He has absolutely no developmental delays.  He can count to 10, name colors, and seems to have a large vocabulary for such a little guy.  I say "seems" only because I don't understand his language.  He sings little songs for us and is just so adorable.  He tells me when he wants to empty his bag and, if his fingers were strong enough, could do it himself.  He is attached to both MaMa and BaBa equally and worries if BaBa wanders away from us, calling out to him until he returns.  He likes to keep us together.

His catheter site causes him a lot of pain and he bears it stoically.  "Pain" is a word he says often.  This breaks my heart and I know that he will need surgery soon after we get home.  When he isn't in pain, he makes the most of each minute playing and laughing.  When he tires, he sits quietly and colors.  Last night he brought me his pjs and put himself to bed.  Sometimes it seems there is a wise old man hiding in that tiny body.

Today we went walked around a park and afterwards ate at McDonalds. 

Back at the registration office.

The official handprint.

Hangin with BaBa

Celebrating with a trip to Wal-Mart..

Breakfast

Walk in the park

Ready for bed.