Settling In

We have had so many people call and email wondering how we are doing since our arrival home with Anna. Thank you for all your messages of interest and concern.
To be honest we have been too busy and tired to think about updating the blog. If getting back to our jobs and all the demands with that was not enough, on top of that we have been busy with the team at Children's Hospital to prepare for Anna's surgery, helping Anna adjust to her new home, and helping Lily adjust to sharing her Mom and Dad and having a new classroom at school.

Anna is making great progress adjusting to a whole new world. Her nighttime routine (thanks to Pamela's dedication) has improved tremendously. It is still challenging getting her to sleep, but it is getting much better. She is eating well and enjoys her play time with Nana Barbara.

Lily is in a new classroom at school, having graduated from the toddler room into an early childhood class. The first couple of days she had trouble transitioning from Mom or Dad into the classroom, but the last few days she has bounced into the room, not even looking back to say a goodbye!

Lily has regressed a bit with her manners after the long trip to China. Sarah, our nanny, asked her one day last week what had happened to her manners. Lily explained, "I lost them in China."

Anna's surgery was originally scheduled for early February, which had us so excited. However, it has slipped into March due to one of the surgeons having a scheduling conflict. We are very disappointed, but have to remind ourselves how fortunate we are to have world-renowned surgeons working on Anna.

Barbara and Sarah have been a godsend, helping us with the girls every day. Barbara will be able to stay for another couple of months before moving into her own home, and Sarah will be here to help us through Anna's surgery and recuperation.

Now that things are settling down a bit, we will try and update the blog more often.

Making cookies with Nana Barbara

 

We Are Finally Home

Saying goodbye to China                                           

Becoming an American

First Bath at Home

We are finally home with Anna. It is 2:15 AM on Sunday morning and the girls are up and wired…and not the slightest bit interested in sleep. They are still on China time. Mom and Dad are hanging on by a thread. Sleep deprivation over the last three weeks is taking its toll.

It was a grueling trip home starting at 4:30 AM on Friday in China, and then traveling for over 20 hours. The flights were very easy for Lily as she slept most of the way. Anna, on the other hand, struggled with her inability to sleep the entire trip. John and Pamela have achieved a level of exhaustion that is hard to describe.

Along the way we fought with the airline to allow us to go home earlier than originally planned, due to Anna’s delicate condition, and with security to allow us to take Anna’s medicines on the planes. Pamela took the lead and fought for us so valiantly every step of the way …using her persuasive skills and the emotional tears flowing down her cheeks in desperate attempts to protect her darling daughters. Due to Pamela’s efforts we were treated like VIPS at some points during the trip, especially in Guangzhou where airline employees helped us through the ticketing process, got us through security and onto our plane…even putting us in First Class to Beijing. They seemed to understand and value the fact that we were helping these little girls.

But in Beijing we were totally stymied by airline and security employees who, in spite of our pleas for understanding, Pamela’s sobbing, and doctor’s reports on Anna’s condition, held firm that we would not take the liquid medicine aboard. They seeming cared less about this little Chinese girl who needed help as soon as possible.

In a final desperate act, John laid Anna on the floor and pulled down her diaper and showed the airline and security employees the seriousness of Anna’s condition…an exposed bladder surrounded with red and infected tissue. As Pamela sobbed uncontrollable, one of the security people let out a screamed gasp and nearly fainted. Almost immediately the others thrust the medicine into our hands and gestured for us to go through to the plane as soon as possible.

Upon our arrival in Seattle we took a taxi straight to Children's hospital where Anna was thoroughly checked out. She was seen by an internationally known surgeon who will reconstruct her bladder and her female organs, and the orthopedic surgeon who will reconstruct her pelvic bones. We were provided with a much better understanding of the difficult months ahead for Anna and for us. But we were also given a great deal of hope by these dedicated professionals who are committed to giving Anna as normal a life as possible.

Just as Lily’s life has been saved, Anna’s will be dramatically improved. Just as Lily has blossomed into an extraordinary person, so too does Anna have that same opportunity.

Today Anna suffered another setback as she became ill and dehydrated. It turned into another trip to Children’s Hospital and 3 hours of evaluation and treatment. She was successfully hydrated and we were able to get her back home tonight. She is feeling much better tonight…almost too good. It will be difficult getting our Chinese girls settled down tonight. They will probably end up in our bed, snoring and kicking and tossing to and fro. But they will be close to Momma and Baba, and feel safe and at home. Our loss of sleep is a small price to pay as we bond with our precious little daughters.

Here is a Link to Our Pictures

Please enjoy the photos of our journey to China to bring home Anna Lin:   http://ourjourneytoannalin.shutterfly.com/ Enjoy!

A Quiet Day on Shamiam Island

Families that endure the long process of adopting children from China end their adoption journey in a place called Shamian Island.  It's a small island in Guangzhou, a city of around 11 million.  It is the location of numerous consulates in beautiful old historic buildings.  The island feels like a blend of Washington, DC and Charlotte, NC.  The stone pedestrian streets are tree-lined and contain many sculptures.  After experiencing Beijing, Nanjing, and similar cities it is an oasis in which to bond with your child before finally receiving a travel visa and heading home. Okay…it's January 2010.  Shamian Island is being prepared by the Chinese government for the upcoming Guangzhou Asian Games later this year.  The oasis has been turned into a construction and noise nightmare.  Buildings (including our hotel) are covered with scaffolding and tarps, and sealed in by rusty metal barriers.  Our windows are covered with tarps that block any view and almost all sunlight.  The streets are being dug up to bury pipes; walking areas are clogged with piles of debris; water is cascading down from the sides of buildings from power sprays removing dirt from the stone edifices.  Jack hammers pound into the evening as our babies try to fall to sleep.  As we pass by, shop vendors work extra hard to lure us into their shops to spend a few yuans; seemingly being starved as their shops are hidden from view by the construction activity and debris. Pamela has been looking forward to enjoying dinner at a Thai restaurant that we frequented the last time we were here in Guangzhou.  Last night I found what I thought was that same restaurant and went in to order take-out.  The girls were already asleep in the room, having enjoyed a dinner of Subway tuna sandwiches.  It turns out I was in the same location, but the restaurant had changed hands and names.  But Pamela was looking forward to Thai and so I was determined to provide a good Thai dinner. As I scanned the menu, I realized that this would be more challenging than I had supposed.  The menu was many pages long and contained many strange offerings… six different pigeon dishes, three ways to enjoy ostrich kidneys, seven dishes centered on a fish head; fins; a variety of organs.  What was I to do?  Pamela was back in the room, salivating for a tasty meal after working so hard to get the girls fed and asleep. As the two young Chinese restaurant hostesses (all dressed up in Thai costumes) stared at me, wondering what the hell was taking me so long, I went through the menu again and again..backwards and forwards.  Finally I identified 3-4 items.  As I went back and forth I stuck a finger into the page.  Sometimes when I went back, I wasn't sure what I had selected.  Did I really think Pamela would like that? I returned to the room with great trepidation.  But I did good!  My selections turned out to be very tasty, and Pam was happy with her dinner.  And after enjoying our meal together, we tucked the blankets a bit tighter around our two little daughters and drifted off to sleep.  One night closer to getting home. We've uploaded pictures to Shutterfly.  Check them out at http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/view.sfly?fid=c48fa2440d0130626d9889752d9a603cGood night!

Sunday in Guangzhou

It's Sunday evening here in China; it's warm on Shamian Island and a bit humid.  Today we visited The Six Banyan Buddhist Temple, offered incense, and prayed for the health of our children.  After our tour, we opted to strike out on our own and crossed the river from Shamian Island to the streets across the Pearl River lined with shops. This was an immersion into the "real" China on a Sunday afternoon crowded with shoppers.  The first street was lined with shop after shop of dried herbs, animals, fungi, roots, and many things that we didn't recognize.  The locals stared at us with curiosity, wondering why we would be there with two Chinese children in tow.  The next street offered displays of snakes, frogs, eels, turtles, scorpions, and all other sorts of other treats waiting for a favorite recipe.  Next we entered an area filled with pet supplies and pets of all sorts, including kittens, puppies, birds, and hundreds of different fish.  That was actually hard to see, as the animals were not seemingly well. Finally we entered an area reserved for live and dried animals, from chickens and pigeons to muscles, turtles, skins, organs, bones and feet. At the end of the last street we suddenly encountered a pedestrian street crammed with shoppers and an endless line of retail shops.  Overwhelmed with this mass of people, we retreated into a Holiday Inn (of all places) and had lunch.  We then made our way back to the island winding through streets clogged with families enjoying the Sunday afternoon free time; cards games, repairing "ancient" bicycles, and snacking from white Styrofoam containers. Tonight Anna joined Mommy and Lily in reading books for the first time.  She even amazed us by joining Lily in counting to ten in English.  And what was really wonderful is that Anna went to sleep without crying for the first time.  We were offered so much wonderful advice after last night's blog post, and tonight some of that advice worked like a charm!  Both girls are snug and asleep and Mommy and Daddy have some time to ourselves. John and Lily are both feeling better and we owe it to the Chinese medicines from the White Swan clinic and the wonderful Wong family from the bay area who shared their US meds with John. How can we thank you?! Tomorrow we go back to the medical clinic to read Anna's TB test. We are hoping for good news. Thanks to all of you for keeping us in your thoughts. Eric, we love you and miss you very much.

We are in Guangzhou

As we approach the 9th day of our China journey to bring Anna home, some of the sobering realities have set in.  The dreary rain here in Guangzhou symbolizes our mood tonight as we try and ease Anna into sleep just as we have each night.  She is seemingly very relaxed and happy all day, but as bedtime arrives the nightly agony begins.  It is as if a river of pent up emotion is suddenly released, and for 60 to 90 minutes the screaming, crying, and angry behaviors emerge.  As hard as we have tried, we've not figured a way to sooth her.  It's not until she reaches an extreme level of absolute exhaustion does she finally succumb to sleep. We will never know what is going on inside that little head; what fears and demons haunt her from past experiences.  We've been told so little about what she has been through, and don't really know how much of that is even accurate.  So we imagine the worst, and feel so ill-prepared to help this little soul through this scary and confusing time.  We are doing our best and are trying to allow some self-forgiveness.  In the darkest moments when we feel so helpless we remind each other that, after all, we stepped forward to save this little girl when no one else did.  We know in our hearts that as overwhelmed as we feel at this moment will get through this as a family.  And we will do all we can to release Anna from her fears, her demons, and the horrors that have been imposed upon her. On to our progress through Anna's adoption….today Anna went through her Hague medical exam, and was required to have seven shots.  That was a lot for anyone much less a child!  But in spite of that she handled it very well.  She was proud to show Baba her seven butterfly bandages when she returned.  After that, Lily and Daddy visited the White Swan medical clinic to get medicine for Lily's bronchitis and Daddy's sinus infection.  They hope this will help them feel better soon. Our Chinese friend Ann delivered diapers and snacks today… thank you, Trena! This was so helpful as we have not had the energy for a trip to the local Wal-Mart. We're once again regulars at Lucy's Restaurant… but miss the gang from our 2008 trip.  Tomorrow it's off for some sightseeing and more bonding time as a family. Sue,  Elvin is our guide and he is wonderful. He says "Hi"!  Thanks to all of you for keeping us in your thoughts.