Journey to Lia

Thursday, June 3, 2010

the good and not so good

Adoption has been a wonderful way to build our family, very challenging and we are very proud of our two girls. With Lia, is has been more of a leap of faith with her part of China's Waiting Child program. We are trying to give her the best care we can with the little info we have and some of it has been contradicted since we have arrived. We spent 3 hours last night at the Childrens Hospital dealing with some medical issues which have arisen and needed to be looked at before they got worse. Our guide helped us tremendously and we got there and back pretty quick!! Lia has been a trooper through it all and still is a smiley happy girl. She is doing better but unfortunately we had to cancel our trip to her orphanage today as we needed to stay close to the hotel to manage her care. We are really really ready to come home.
 
Onto better things. We had a great day yesterday prior to our tour of the hospital. We went to West Lake and had a great boat tour. We did get swarmed (the first time that is) about halfway through when a bunch of people discovered we were on the top deck and more and more people came to take pictures of the white people with Chinese children. There were about 30 people (more during the second event) who asked us all sorts of questions about our girls. We have met quite a few people who have wanted to talk to us and have enjoyed our broken conversations but this was a bit much as there was no where for us to go when we had enough and the crowd was a bit too much for my comfort.
 
Our second swarming was at the hospital in the evening when I was trying to get instructions for Lia's care and over 40 people came out of all sorts of places to see us. It really made me feel like a freak show as it was the second time for the day.
 
Again, onto the better stuff. We went to a tea museum and had a fantastic time. We had a tea ceremony and both the girls had tea. Lia had all 4 kinds of tea, they must have been giving to her at the orphanage. That was a highlight of our trip which of course meant getting out the Visa card at the gift shop. We have some really nice items for Lia when she is older. Lia has started giving us hugs and kisses!!
 
We had a very quiet day today and are off to Beijing tomorrow. Both Brian and I have said we feel more comfortable in Beijing in all the places we have been in China.
 
Tonights thanks go to Sheri and Janice who are helping take care of our cats while we are away!!
 
 


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9 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about the trip to hospital. I can understand your desire to get home. Hopefully the time will pass quickly for you. On a brighter note, Lia looks so happy and adorable! Ami appears to be enjoying her homeland trip immensely! Lookly forward and getting together when you return and after you've have time to settle in and recover from your trip.

    All the best,
    Laurie

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  2. Awww, that is great that Lia is such a trooper...and giving hugs and kisses to boot!

    I can understand you wanting to come home...looks like Ami is having fun (how did she do when she was swarmed?)

    Brenda
    now waiting for a referral....

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  3. Hi there: Kitties are doing just fine! Sherri is doing a lot of the kitty care but I'm on call and heading over on Friday. I love brushing the grey cat (sorry name escapes me at the moment) as it is rewarding to get lots of cat hair combed out. I was really hoping that the orange cat would prove you wrong and be nice to me BUT...you were right - we have a good relationship as long as I leave him alone!
    Love the pictures - fabulous. Will be saying a prayer for all of you Janice

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  4. I hope you can all head home soon. Your two daughters are beautiful.

    Karen

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  5. Hugs to you. I hope tomorrow will prove calmer for you. Lovely photos though!
    CathyC.

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  6. I do hope Lia recovers quickly. She looks so happy to have found her family! Holding hands with Jie Jie, too! Too cute for words.

    It's too bad about the swarming. Our Hangzhou travel group of 3 families were objects of lots of curious stares. One of the kids in our group, a sweet 5 yrd old caucasian girl with long, curly strawberry blonde hair (and my 6 yr old daughter's best pal on the trip!) was the one that always got swarmed by photographers, especially on the cruise boat. They touched her hair, often picked her up, took their snaps and moved on. She was very good about it, and we never saw her complain. Thankfully, they either ignored the rest of us, or just asked a few polite questions.

    I hope the rest of your trip goes better than the first part, and that you are all home safely soon.

    Cheers, Mark

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  7. I have to say Trish and Brian AGAIN Lia and Ami are just so blessed to have the best Mom and Dad ever! Home will be so good! XO Mom.

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  8. what a cutie! lia took so quickly to you three because she knows she's with her family. i hope everything's ok and there are no more trips to the hospital. have a good flight back,
    erin

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  9. How cute are they holding hands on the plane. Looks like everyone is having a great time.

    Hugs..The Tonkins

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