THURSDAY, JULY 23rd

 

Hello to all!  I want to first start by wishing my parents a very Happy Anniversary!  Today is their 43rd wedding anniversary!!! WOW!  That is a long time you know.

 

Today was a pretty good day overall.  We pretty much had "down" time today with no real activities planned that we had to do.  That is not to say we didn't do anything, just nothing on a schedule.  Elizabeth started her day around 5:20 am with her morning bottle and then play time with Mom and Dad on the floor.  We do this most mornings to help her wake up.  So far it seems she is just like her mother and does not "do" mornings well at all.  She tends to fuss and whimper alot for the first 30-45 minutes after waking up.  Now, who knows today was only 72 hours since we got her so I am sure things will change some. 

 

After play time we all got dressed and went down for a leisurely breakfast and met up with several of our travelmates.  It is so nice to be able to get together and rehash how everyone is doing and how the babies are.  It is comforting to know that the issues we are dealing with are also very common and that other families are having their own issues and challenges as well.  After breakfast we came back up to the room and Elizabeth had a 30-40 minute nap.  Then at 11 am we had to go sign some paperwork to get her birth certificate and passport. 

 

After the signing of the paperwork we decided to walk around a little and kill some time.  Well, today the temp was only 99 degrees farenheit so we got a good 50 feet down the sidewalk today before we were drenched in sweat.  This is an improvement however, since most days once the doors of the lobby open up to let you outside we are already drenched!  We had to cross the street to get over to the side where we wanted to shop.  I have read on other people's blogs about traffic and trying to cross the street is very similar to the game Frogger.  I now say I believe them.  Thank goodness there was a crossing guard on duty for this particular intersection to help us make the "right" decision about when to start to try to cross.  Now the traffic lanes we were crossing were about 6 lanes across, but remember what I have said in other post.  Rules here are just suggestions, so just because the light is red does not mean that you have to stop your car, it is just a suggestion.  Well long story short, we did make it across the intersection without getting killed or tapped by a bus or car. 

 

Once we made it across the street we went to a local optical shop and I got myself some new glasses.  We had heard that glasses were extremely cheap in China so we both brought prescriptions from home to see if we could get new glasses.  Well I lucked out-I got a nice new set of frames and lenses for a big total of $42 american dollars!  Patrick and the other hand is going to have to wait to we get to Guangzhou as his prescription is very complicated and we need to be able to converse with someone in English about the specifics.  In fact, buying my glasses was a chore.  I am using hand signals and a calculator, the optical shop people have a pre-printed list of questions in English and then I point to the response that is then translated into Chinese.   Very high tech I must say! Well none the less, we figured things out and I got a new set of glasses for about 1/3 the cost of my last pair that I bought at Walmart.

 

Then we just walked up and down a few store fronts and came back to the hotel.  Elizabeth was not really in the mood to eat today and she was making alot of funny noises with her tongue and clicking on her gums.  We think she had a slight temp this AM and gave her Motrin and she was quite sweaty about 2 hours later so I think she did have a temp and when she was sweaty it was because her fever had broken.  I did borrow some teething tabs from one of the other moms and this made her very happy for a little while but within a couple of hours the clicking and tongue motions had returned.  I finally just broke down and gave her my finger to chew on and she did just that.  She was pretty gentle and did not use her 1 tooth to bite me thank goodness!  We went to the playroom here in the hotel for a little while and our tiny little peanut is definitely a fighter when it comes to toys and Cheerios.  There were 2 other little girls in the playroom and Elizabeth just crawls right over and takes whatever they are playing with and goes on her merry way with playing with it.  Then one of the other little girls, her mom had some Cheerios that she would set on the mat for her daughter and a few for Elizabeth as well.  Well, Elizabeth had her Cheerios and the other little girls Cheerios in both of her hands and was shoving them in her mouth like it was her last meal.  I promise we do feed her, just not when it counts apparently!!

 

Then we were off to our group dinner at 6 pm and it was good as usual.  I really wish I could get over my fear of getting sick and just really tear into these dinners because everything looks and smells good.  I do sample very small amounts and have pretty much liked everything I have tried.  But the fear of travelers diarrhea really prevents me from digging in like I normally would.  After dinner we came right back to the room and Elizabeth and I got in the bathtub together to help with bonding.  She does not like the bath when the water is running out of the faucet, but once the water was off she settled down and enjoyed herself.  She did have to get her hairwashed again as she had formula, Motrin and other assorted items stuck in there tonite.  I was a little more careful and tried to avoid letting water run down her face and she tolerated this hair washing alot better than last nite. 

 

We then played on the floor again.  She is a roller.  Her medical information sheet we got with her referral said she spun alot on her belly.  We now think maybe they meant that she was a roller.  She starts at one end of the living area and just rolls and rolls until she hits something. Sometimes it is one of us, sometimes a chair, sometimes the diaper bag, just basically whatever gets in her way will stop her and then she starts rolling back the other way from which she came.  It is pretty cute.  She is climbing on me and puts her head and face right up against mine and laughs and claps her hands.  This is all a good sign of bonding and trust.  We already know she does not like us to leave the room and now these other things she is doing each day helps with the bonding as well.  After about 45 minutes of playing, she drank a bottle and I rocked her to sleep in about 2 1/2 minutes.  Let's hope she sleeps most of the nite like she did the last 2 nites.

 

Tomorrow we are off on the bus at 9 am to try and drive outside the city limits and get an idea of what the countryside of Hunan province looks like.  Just the downtown area alone of where we are staying now has 2 million people.  We wanted to be able to see what the majority of Hunan province looks like, not just this metropolitan area.  Then on Saturday we are flying to Guangzhou for the last 5-6 days of our trip.  Looking forward to going there, dreading the flight-it is only 1 hour but with 7 babies and 15 additional family members for these babies, it could get noisy and stressful! 

 

A couple of things people need to know that are traveling here for adoption:

Changsha is the "real" China-this is what we have been told over and over.  One important fact to know about Changsha.  None of the shops or restaurants take foreign credit cards so you pay Chinese yuan for everything.  You can exchange money in the hotel lobby and there is a foreign ATM machine that will accept most debit cards from the US, but I was shocked to find that absolutely NO foreign credit card can be used here in Changsha.  No Visa, No American Express, No Mastercard.

 

If you come in the summer it is just HOT!  Plan on 2 changes of clothes daily.  Laundry is available and a lady comes here each afternoon around 5 pm to deliver and pick up laundry.  I guess it is reasonably priced.  Our bill yesterday was around $25 and we both had about 3 complete outfits (shirts, shorts, underwear, socks, etc) and some of Elizabeth's clothes as well. 

 

Another aside-I did not mention this in the blog on the day we received Elizabeth.  However, when we were at the Civil Affair office they gave us a clear plastic sleeve as we boarded the bus.  Once we got on the bus we realized it was the clothes that she was found in almost one year ago to the day.  They are the tiniest little pink and white pajamas with bunny rabbits and a little hat and socks.  It is very special and it really tears me and Patrick up to think how she was just left on the side of the road, literally, and that this tiny little outfit is all she had to her name.  In some of the paperwork we signed today her abandonment information is in there and even though we know she was left at an intersection, it is very hard to read that information and be reminded of it again.  A policeman found her that morning and took her to the Chenzhou City orphanage where she lived her entire life until Monday.  What a difference a few days can make in someones life huh?

 

Well we are all off to bed, hopefully there will be some more pictures for you guys to enjoy later today.

 Until next time................................