Day 10 "Full" of personality

Last night, our guide took us on a dinner cruise along the Pearl River. It turned out to be a fun night with the other two families in our group. Going into the evening, Steve and I realized being on a boat with a 3 year old who doesn't understand a lick of English could present a problem. Thankfully, we did not see her stubborn side and no one was lost overboard. We enjoyed the sights along the river, dinner and some fun entertainment. Simon, our guide, was sweet enough to share his phone that had 'Subway Surfer' loaded with Liam while we waited for dinner.

Today we headed out to a fun park to learn some more about Guangzhou history. We are quite the spectacle with 3 families and 4 strollers. I wonder what people are thinking as we tote the strollers up and down countless flights of stairs. Jenna was pulled into her first picture with another family in our group. No worries that they weren't part of the same family~just a sweet family with a beautiful adopted daughter and a super tall blonde girl ! I wonder whether Jenna will end up on someone's refrigerator door?! Liam and Steve took their try with the hacky sack master while at the park. Needless to say, the master kept his title.

The sweet picture of the littles holding hands wasn't completely unprompted. We have had to strike a balance of how much Jenna can interact with Kinley. At the start of the week, Kinley really only wanted to go to me. Now, she is much more open to going to Steve or me which is what we had desired. However, as she has continued to become more comfortable with us, she has found out how much fun Jenna is as well. The routine has been I have been meeting most of her needs with Steve bringing up the rear. Jenna has primarily been a playmate to Kinley (as well as a HUGE HUGE help behind the scenes). Kinley has enjoyed her jie jie and has asked her to carry her some of the times. While we have allowed it a few times for some necessary moments and a few sweet pictures, it isn't a great idea because Kinley still has to learn who mama is. I still feel strongly to her it is just a word for now. She may look at me or my picture and say mama but in my heart I don't think she knows all that it means. So in any case, at the park, she asked to hold Jenna's hand and we instead encouraged her to hold Liam's hand (Steve and I were pushing the strollers). She sweetly reached over to his stroller and they strode side by side.

After the park, we went shopping with our guide for a few souvenirs. None of the families had much of a shopping list so it made it nice that we shared the same agenda. The one picture shows Liam and Kinley's interest as they waited outside one shop. We stopped for a box lunch on the way back to the hotel which our guide helped us with. Stating some place is a "hole in the wall" has an entirely new meaning but I am thankful Simon was with us as lunch was great. The live roosters in the front of the next shop over just added to the atmosphere.

I guess our outing wore out the kiddos as they both took over a 2 hour nap. We had to wake them for dinner where we joined the 2 other families. We walked to a pizza place and enjoyed some good conversation and a good meal. Upon returning to the hotel, we saw a sign that was changing pictures. Kinley, unprompted, said "pizza" as a slice of pizza popped up on the screen. Her first unsolicited English word!

Today we also learned that most Mandarin words have 4 inflections which each have 4 different meanings. Yun can mean either cloud, melody or transportation (I forget the fourth). We decided today was a good day to start calling her Kinley.

Today we also got a glimpse of the 'stubborn' side we had heard in her report. Up til now, the two kids have worked out who gets to push the outside elevator button and who gets to push the inside elevator button. Okay, Liam basically tells her how it's going to be and she agrees. However, opening the door has been reserved for big brother. Well today it was just Steve, Kinley and me so she was more than excited at her chance. I have come to adore this little skip she does down the hallway. Once we are off the elevator, she scurries out of my arms and makes her way to our door every time. Today she worked and worked to get the door open but had the key backwards. Oooh if you could see the sas I got from this little one as I tried to help her fix the key. Steve just stood half a step back to see how I handled the situation. Let's just say we finally got in the room.

We finished the evening with a walk for ice cream. Jenna has been craving it big time so we enjoyed our stroll (minus the rain) to get Kinley's first ice cream. To say she loved it would be an understatement.

Thank you for the prayers and the advice for Steve's eye. To answer a few, he did go to the Can-Am clinic but they don't have an eye doctor on staff. Our guide arranged for him to see the eye doctor when we had Kinley's medical check up. That is where the current eye medicine has come from. There is one other lead someone sent us that we are following up on to possibly obtain the necessary eye meds. Otherwise, our wonderful daughter at home is making Steve an eye appointment for Monday morning. In the mean time, he is being a huge trooper and not allowing this to impact our adventure.

Day 9 Medical Clearance

I left off Friday afternoon after Yayun's first McDonald's experience. Needless to say she took a great nap afterward. That evening we ventured out the other side of the hotel to Paddy Fields which is an Irish Pub. I may frequently argue with Steve and Ryan about having Sport's Center on at home but seeing American baseball highlights on the tv was a welcome comfort of home. We have ventured out with strollers and are appreciative when we can readily get where we are going. I have a recommendation that stroller pushing in the streets of Guangzhou could be a new sport. Crossing the street is best described as playing the video game 'Frogger'. Throw in a stroller and the degree of difficulty increases exponentially.

The kids are all sleeping well. Jenna is on a roll away in the family room side of the suite. We have a crib with the side folded down next to my side of the bed. We have encouraged Yayun to climb into bed with us. She will sweetly receive our cuddles and play in the bed but when it is time for sleep she is insistent on being in her own space. Liam is sleeping between Steve and me in the bed. At bedtime, she likes to be in her crib when we read bedtime stories. Clearly this is all so new. She likes to get her baby (from us) and her monkey (her favorite they said from the SWI) all situated as she climbs into bed. She has been so lovingly and tenderly caring for them with her baby bottle and the blanket my dear friend Cherie made for her.

Saturday we got to meet the two other Lifeline families and their newest additions. They are both beautiful families and their girls are precious beyond words. Both little girls seem ready to receive the love their mama and baba have to offer. Many prayers being answered. We headed off for the necessary medical check. We asked our guide to explain to Yayun where we were going. She got quiet after she learned our destination. Once inside, she was a trooper while getting her visa picture taken and while having her ENT check, her general medical check and while getting her height/weight/temp check. Then came the dreaded TB test. When we adopted Liam he had the test under the skin in his forearm where we came back 2 days later. Now they do a blood test. We asked our guide to explain to the workers that Kinley is used to getting/giving blood so could they please explain what was happening. The hardest part is that they take your child from you into a room then lock the door behind them. The curtain is pulled and all you can hear is screams and cries as you wait helplessly on the other side. She emerged with tear stained cheeks but ready to receive mama's comfort. We found it ironic that there is a vending machine on the way out of the building selling bottles of alcohol. Not sure if it is for the parents or the poor nurses that have to endure those cries all day long.

Our guide took us to see some of the newest parts of downtown Guangzhou. While we enjoyed learning some history it was clear our little guys were more interested in the water below. We will be headed back to take a cruise along the Pearl River Sunday night so they will get another chance to see it all lit up. Yayun tells us she has to go potty by grabbing her side the SWI had told us. Well, I forgot to take her potty before we left her medical appt. She was getting fidgety during our tour so I remembered what they had said. Up to this point, we have been taking her reguarly enough before we go anywhere that we haven't had to figure it out. Thankfully I figured it out so we headed for the nearest squatty. Poor Liam has 100% completely boycotted any hole in the ground. We asked where his sense of adventure has gone. It makes me remember back in 2010 when we described him as a camel who could hold it all day long. This boy is Western through and through.

Lunch was low key in our room followed by naptime (daddy too :) I was delegated to attending the paperwork meeting which was less painful than I had expected. Now here is hoping everything was done right. One benefit of traveling during the Trade Fair is that there are only 3 families. Week 1 we had our guide to ourselves. This week we are still such a small group we are all getting great personal attention. Our guide this week with Lifeline is ironically the same guide we had week 2 when we adopted Liam in 2010 through Children's Hope International.

Last night we ventured "across the street" for dinner to Banana Leaf which serves Thai food. On day 1 our guide pointed to the building "just across the street" and told us the restaurant was on the 6th floor. Ha Ha !! There are 2 options to get "just across the street" . . . over or under. Over involved stairs which is what we opted for. We are becoming a well oiled machine with Jenna's help. The building we were going into has no clear front entrance. We were just certain there would be a "main" entrance that was accessible. I am sure if we could read Mandarin there was. However, we don't. We ended up around the back of the building and found an elevator. LOL that it turned out to be the service elevator. No wonder we were getting weird looks as we traveled with other employees and came out into the back of the kitchen. Oops, wrong way. We ventured back around and ultimately found our way to a great dinner with a fun singing/dancing show for entertainment. Jenna was cracking up as they sang and danced their way through a Rihanna song. You will be happy to know that we found a more user friendly exit out of the building which was not too terribly far from the service elevators where we had started.

The evening ended well with the discovery of a great outdoor playground on the 4th floor of our hotel. The kids burned off some of their remaining energy before heading back for bed.

During our medical check the doctor asked if we were pleased with our new daughter and were okay because her papers had said she had delays in speech. Our guide even laughed at that one as he has heard heard talking the last several days. We are trying our best to learn what she is telling us but crack ourselves up as we go through about 4 wrong words before we get to the right one. She has this funny way of looking at us clearly thinking "what are you trying to say". In preparation for Liam's adoption I had looked into ways to help transition to English. With his speech apraxia that didn't end up being necessary. Although saying that, I have to say that he can say a fair amount more in Mandarin than I ever would have guessed! In any case, I am a little at a loss for how best to work with the transition from Mandarin to English for Kinley (although we are still calling her Yayun). I don't even know when we should start using Kinley?? Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. At this point, I am starting to feel a LOT of guilt about taking her away from all Mandarin. Any St. Louis peeps know of a Chinese school??

Thank you for all your comments and emails. Your encouraging words help make this journey that much better. We would also appreciate some prayers for Steve. He has developed a serious eye condition and we have been unable to get the medication necessary to treat it. He was seen by the doctor and we explained (through our guide) what we knew and needed but didn't receive the medication he needs. We explained the problem again to our guide who told us to "trust the Chinese doctor". We will be making an eye appointment for Steve the Monday morning we are back but prayers for pain relief and better yet a miraculous healing are greatly appreciated.



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Day 8

As I mentioned before, yesterday we returned to Zhuhai to visit and say goodbye to the staff and children at Kinley's SWI. While we will be forever thankful we did so, it was an emotionally taxing day.

Today we woke up all a little better rested. Liam woke me up around 4 am to go potty. I thought he wanted to get up so I put his favorite movie Cars on with headphones. Within a few minutes he layed his head down. When I asked if he wanted to go back to bed he quickly and groggily replied yes. We both got a few more hours of sleep to start our day closer to 7:00.

After enjoying another morning of the breakfast buffet, I opted to run across the street for a cup of coffee. I call what the hotel serves a little more like mudd. I realized on my way over that I had no i.d. on me making me wonder if something happened how would Steve ever find me?! Starbucks is just across the street; only 4 lanes. We time our crossings to be with a group figuring when in China, do as the Chinese do. Has worked so far. Going over I had no problem. However, coming back we got half way and then I got caught as a van turned right in the middle of our group. The first half veered around another car and made it across. That left me in the middle of the road with traffic going both ways around me. Thankful to say that I made it.

Shortly thereafter, we met our guide and toured the Chen Ancestral Hall. The kids were as good as could be expected. Notice the picture where they look really happy...playing with the Pez dispensers their Jie Jie had packed !! It was a perfect amount of Chinese history without pushing our luck with two little ones in tow.

Some funny and sweet things about Kinley.
1) She appears to be as sharp as a tack. When touring today she pointed out the embroidery of a peacock. I don't know many 3 year olds that could name a peacock!
2) When she eats, the food has to be even. As her little mouth bites away at something, she won't turn the food to eat off a corner but instead makes her mouth open wider so the food goes in evenly. Pretty funny.
3) She is a girly girl. She loves her new shoes and points out how pretty they are to everyone. She loved getting her toe nails painted and loves her hair bows and head bands. When the flower kept getting in her eye today, I took it off much to her dismay.
4) She has a squeaky and raspy little voice but can turn the volume up when wanted. I can't remember who was who in the movie 'Lilo and Stitch' but I told Steve she reminds me of the little one who repeats everything. It is pretty hilarious to hear her going (and going) in Mandarin but then to rattle off an English word she just heard one of us say.

Liam appears to LOVE being a big brother. Each morning he loves to give Kinley a kiss. He makes sure she has what she needs and they both are sharing nicely with each other. He has been such a great traveler being so easy going and flexible. He has really enjoyed the food which is making us all think we need to eat healthier. The two are sharing mom and dad's attention pretty nicely as well.

Enjoy the pictures. A few are from the Chen tour today. The couple of funny pictures are of what they used to use for pillows (porcelain boxes to store their valuables while they slept) and also the pots they used to use for potties. We think the pots would be better than the squatty potties they use today !! Kinley got her first taste of McDonald's and french fries today. We have been slow to intro foods other than what she is used to because she does have allergies. Nothing like throwing her into carbohydrate overload! The last picture is her showing even her ketchup was good to the last drop!

Day 6 Getting to Know You

During the wait for any adoption, you cherish the updates you can receive. Many people get little to nothing so we knew how blessed we were to receive so many pictures and even a few videos while we waited. The description of her personality, however, comes from the orphanage and presumably the people that know her the best. We received a lot of feedback that she was shy, oh so shy. Ummm, can we say something got lost in the translation. This girl is FULL of personality that is bubbling over. We haven't given her the chance to interact with others outside our family too much so perhaps there is another side we haven't seen yet. Perhaps our ongoing prayers for her to receive the love we have to offer have been answered. And the reality is that perhaps she feels she is on show and must prove her cuteness so we will desire her. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

She is oh so capable. We have been meeting her needs but last night I gave her the chance to put on her pajama top. Liam cracked us up when he watched her get her shirt on alone...he went yelling for Jenna to tell her Kinley put it on all by herself. She is meticulous when feeding herself. She uses her fork to push the food onto her spoon and then eats without spilling a drop. We are gradually giving her new things as she does have some food allergies. Oh poor Steve, she is allergic to seafood and they say she doesn't like fish. He has struck out finding someone to share a seafood or fish dinner with in our home. Her vocabulary is amazing as are her fine motor skills. She can belt out a tune like a star. She can run and skip and has this little gallop thing she does when she and Liam are racing for the hotel door. Too cute. My guess is that she hasn't played on the floor much. If you notice the picture where she and Liam broke into the Silly Bandz (meant for the kids in the SWI)you can see she is sitting just like Liam. A sign of core weakness. Although she can climb up the slide she couldn't keep herself upright coming down. Typical orphanage delays that we had known to expect. She was in preschool (the Sunshine Academy) around 5 hours a day so imagine they sat in chairs more than on the floor. In any case, playtime for her will be the best therapy!

We had to wake the princess up around 8:30 in the morning. Liam couldn't stand that she was still sleeping and kept begging to wake her up. I think these two may like each other! After breakfast, we walked about half an hour to get to this great park. We wandered around for a while until we found the kids area with a great playground and also some rides. We had limited time so stuck with the playground promising the kids we would be back to go on the rides. We stopped on the way back to try to get carryout for Kinley and Liam. We gave Liam the choice of Subway or fried rice and he picked fried rice. I think he might be appreciating the food here more than we realized?? Poor Steve and Jenna couldn't convey what they wanted to order in this restaurant where NO one spoke English while I waited outside with the kids. Our guide has written it out for us for next time :) and we ordered lunch from the hotel restaurant. Steve, Jenna and I are just eating from our rations from home for our lunches.

Liam took a short nap while Kinlely layed in her bed talking to herself for about 45 minutes. Lauren, you may have met your match <3 We only had one official appointment today and that was to get Kinley's mug shot. Pretty uneventful. Afterwards, we ventured out for a great Mexican dinner. I am proud of how we are venturing out of the hotel much more than our last trip. The looks we receive are priceless. It is this look from whoever is pushing the strollers to the child in the stroller and back to the person pushing the stroller. The rest of our time in the hotel room was spent letting the kids play. It is sweet as the parallel play we saw early on has been replaced with playing together. Priceless. Tomorrow we are going to visit Kinley's orphanage. I am not thinking I will do a blog post about that day but am looking very forward to getting some pictures and hopefully videos for some other families who are waiting. Enjoy the pics!!