It's about 9:00 pm Sunday Dec.2 for us and we're thinking about many of you off to church. Missing worship with our family! Next Sunday we will be there!!
Everything is going well on this side of the world. Our hotel in GZ is fabulously beautiful, the breakfast buffet is awesome and the food our guide Elvin has taken us to has been muy delicioso (oops..wrong language...not sure how to say that in Chinese). Elvis is very professional, knowledgeable, a great host, very paternal (which helps with the kids), kind and funny. We cannot say enough about how great he has been to us!
Guongzhou is much different from Beijing and Wuhan. More "western", different traffic laws (not so much honking), more English speaking staff around the hotel and restaurants, etc..There are MANY adoptive families staying here, so we have support all around. We've borrowed meds from other families, shared stories, and just enjoyed some English conversation with those from our side of the world.
The Ch*inese people stare at Hannah constantly. It's getting annoying, but I suppose we should get used to it. They just don't see special needs around because often they are not accepted in this culture I guess. If only they could get a glimpse into the personality of the little girl we know and love. Hannah-Guoyi is so incredible!!
Today I was pushing her in a stroller while mom and I were shopping at a department store around the corner. At one point I got down in front of her to talk to her since she had not actually "seen" me while I was pushing. She smiled, put her hands on my cheeks, babbling, and feeling around on my face. It was a very special moment for this Mama. She did not seem to know how to be held (didn't wrap her legs around and hold on like Colson does). Well now when we pick her up she wraps around and sometimes will put her head on my shoulder and actually hug! If I'm out of the room she is asking where I am within minutes. She laughs with us, sings, misbehaves, eats like a PIG, whines for "M bou" (bread..cake like snacks her foster mother sent with her). We are beginning to tell her "no more", but it is a balance...we want her to trust us to provide for her, so we don't tell her no a lot.
We honestly do NOT know where her food is going. She looks anorexic she is so tall and thin, but she eats SO MUCH FOOD! She eats more than I do at some meals. She definitely out eats Colson!
She is still hesitant to take off her clothes to get a bath or shower. We've sponged bathed her, but only actually got her in the tub once! We just don't want to push the issue right now.
When we arrived in this city we had had a long day and she had her first plane ride as well. Coming to a new environment late at night when she was sick and tired was really hard! She had gotten familiar with where everything was in Wuhan hotel room and then we changed her surroundings again! She cried and coughed so much she was gagging that night. Cried herself to sleep after we sat in a hot, steamy shower room to settle her cough. The next morning she was fine. I'm sure the long flight home and then another new environment is going to be difficult. We will be SO happy to be home and she will be SO overwhelmed yet again. We are glad to have had this time with her here in Ch*na where we could ask our guide and servers what she is saying. There are several things she wants specifically, so it's great to have time to learn her words!
Here are some things Hannah likes: bananas, steamed eggs, noodles, noodles, and more noodles, her "bread" (packaged cakes), squirting the medicine in her mouth herself, "coke", warm water to drink (cultural), her backpack and coat, being pushed in the stroller (which we JUST got today), taking food that she does not want off of her plate, grabbing food from my plate, singing, tickling, stomping her new tennis shoes to watch the lights flash (what an amazing moment to see her excited about those!), clothes (new clothes), plane turbulence, steep slopes in the stroller, escalators....the list goes on.
She does NOT like: to take a bath/shower (at least not right now), keeping barrettes in her hair, and being told no more "bread". That's all I can think of right now. She is really easy going and happy most of the time (except when she is asking for something specifically and we are not understanding her).
Everyone else is doing well, but ALL are ready to come HOME! My dad's foot is really bothering him, and he did something to his shoulder moving luggage the other day, so that is aching too. He was ready to come home after a week:-) He and my mom are putting up with each other:-)
Colson is NOT liking his new little sister right now. Please pray for him. He wants it to be just "us" again. He is constantly saying ugly things about her for us to hear. It's hard not to react. It seems pretty immature to us, but we knew some of it was to be expected. He has ALWAYS been the jealous, controlling type. We need wisdom for how to handle him and help him through this. Hannah was "so cute" for about 24-48 hours and then it was downhill from there, but there are still times when she does something that cracks us all up..even little man:-) He cannot deny she is cute and funny. He is tired of hearing her ramble in her language. I will be sad when it is gone.
It appears that no one has taken photos off of their cameras for a few days, so I have no new ones to post tonight, but will try tomorrow.
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