Gentle Years

Eva's TB test results required just one quick glance-she hardly even has a mark left.  Then it was off the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees.  I love those trees; here on the island when the wind whistles over the cobblestones and brick and ruffles the leaves, carrying humidity with it...ahhh.  The temple was nice, but not that different from the one on the mountain in Guiyang, except that pictures were allowed inside the temple here, the monks were  moving about, and there was a statue of a famous Chinese poet which Little Baby got a kick out of.  We returned, had lunch at Subway, and then took Eva to the pool-now that her TB test has been read, she can go swimming.  The orphanage ladies told me that she had never been, but boy did she love it!  Now she knows why I wouldn't let her wear that ruffly pink thing she kept pulling out of the suitcase before now, too!

This next picture is not a pose.  The girl was jumping up and down and screeching with laughter, she was so happy!

We arrived early.  The pool is closed until 2:00 and it is on the rooftop of the East Wing (which is another building) and we are staying in the West Wing.  So here is a kaleidoscope of pictures of Eva while waiting.

We spent the day at Chimelong Safari Park today.  We took the "train", then walked the safari park.  Eva loved some of the animals, loved the souvenir shops, and especially enjoyed the merry-go-round, but we came to the rides late in our time there and she wanted to try out the planes, too.  A family from Illinois is staying in our hotel, uses the same adoption agency, and have adopted a six year old boy, so we went together.  Here are a few shots of our time at the park. 

(for those of you who don't know Chimelong, they have more than one park-last time in Guangzhou I asked if we could go to the water park, but we didn't, so maybe on our heritage tour we will get there)

When we got back to the hotel, Eva used up all of her bubbles that we bought within the first hour.  Here she is out on the balcony enjoying herself.

Eva's medical exam was today.  At every station she asked if she was getting a shot and each time the answer was no, so then she was a happy little camper.  Until the TB test, of course.  Then she yanked on her arm and slouched her body and did everything any other seven year old does when faced with a shot they don't want.  As soon as it was over, she was fine.

She passed the vision test with no problem.  Her hip scars were evaluated and determined to likely be the result of diapers that were too tight-they are awful and look like the result of incisions.  Her feet were operated on a couple of years ago so she has scars from that, but they don't look half as bad as the ones on her hips.

Our driver in Guiyang wanted to have a special ceremony for us so we stopped on the way to the airport and let five pigeons go free and fly away home.  Eva got a kick out of it but didn't hold a bird.  I grew up with animals and have done my fair share of catching chickens, but Little Baby was not too sure how to keep both wings in check when she was first given a bird to hold.  The pigeons did me the favor of circling overhead several times so that I could get a shot of them in action.

This is the four of us with our driver.  Eva called him Brother and talked the man's ear off every time she saw him.  He adored her, as did Richard.  My husband will have his hands full!

Here is a collection of shots from our bird-freeing event:

Here are the pigeons, obliging us with several sweeps overhead so I could get a shot of them in-flight.

We will be flying out this evening for Guangzhou.  Thanks to everyone for your comments here and on my Shutterfly account.  Tomorrow I hope to upload some gorgeous photos from the Tian He Scenic Pool, the monastery and temple at the monkey park and, of course, our new little cutie.

Still trying to get the photos to download, but here is the scoop so far:
Eva is happy, healthy, everything that you would expect of a seven year old.  She has a funny, friendly personality and she will try to manipulate with a big smile but it never works and the funny thing is that I can tell it never has, since she redirects immediately after you call her on it.  Just testing, I guess.  She is generous to a fault, sharing everything that she has with us.  She has not cried.  Hoping that eventually we'll see something, but I think that the orphanage prepared her well for our coming and I know that she asked them when we were going to get there.  She did go to the telephone three times after coming to the hotel, expecting to call Wu Yi right there and then.

Jolene, the director and nanny gave me a pair of embroidered cloth pajamas for Wu Yi-I'll send them to you when we get back.  They teared up when told that she has learned a lot of English and is doing well.  They teared up more when they heard that her first surgery had been done.  Then they got even more happy/sad when they learned that Eva's feet could still be fixed.  Apparently surgery was attempted at one point and not successful.  I asked some details yesterday about it so that I could share what I know with our surgeon, but they were definitely under the impression that she was too old for it to be successful now, so they were thrilled to hear that wasn't the case.

We really like Guiyang, at least as much as anyone can like hotel-living in a foreign land.  We are at the Trade Point which is in the center of town.  There are sky walks to get to just about anything and on the first day our guide, Richard, walked us to the supermarket and showed us all the restaurants along the way so that we could venture out on our own without worrying about where to go.  He was unexpectedly put with another family from GB so his time has had to be divided between us (his agency had been told they weren't coming, then they came, and their guide is working in another city).  This afternoon we will go to Qian Lang Park a/k/a The Monkey Park.

Okay, thanks to the Business Center worker I now have photos downloaded but it has taken forever, so I'm going to have to leave you with a link to my shutterfly account and will just update these posts with pictures later/add detail to the shutterfly account later.  Sorry it's such a pain!  Hope all of you are well.

http://chinadreams.shutterfly.com

I would love to give you an update with pictures but very little of our technology is cooperating with our other technology, so for now here is the scoop:

We are here.  We are safe.  We have Eva and she is a delightful mixture of curiosity and intelligence.  Today we will return to the Civil Affairs Office to finalize the adoption.

By Thursday I should be adjusted to the time change and flight-have slept about 12 hours total since leaving at 3:30 on Friday morning.  That means just in time to leave for Guangzhou.  We all like Guiyang, find it very easy to get around but wish our hotel had a pool.  It is hot and steamy, except in the morning, so we're not loving that

Aidan has asked a few times when I'll be leaving.  I put the date of our leaving on the calendar and the date of our return and suggested that he cross off the dates.  He said he would not do this, but maybe I could call him and send him some pictures because he's seen on tv where people do that when they are apart.

Today when he got home from school he asked if he could bring Eva into class for Show and Tell.  He then asked again if I would call him sometimes while I am away.

We are going to set up an email account for him and he and Daddy will check it each night to see if he has any new messages.

It is going to be really hard to be away from my baby.

I am leaving on Friday at dawn.  For those of you who have adopted, you know that this is the stage at which you start to feel like the White Rabbit.  You even start talking like him, "Don't just do something, stand there... Uh... no no! Go go! Go get my gloves! I'm late".

If you understand that, you've been there :)

Fortunately for me, Grange Fair is tomorrow so I can relax-I spent the last few nights calling people for food donations for the ham & bean supper, went to Aidan's open house, had a church officers meeting  and a meeting of the social studies council executive board.  Have also been busy getting things ready for my sub, who is more than competent to take over for me, so that is a big relief.  He also just happens to have adopted from China using the same agency that we are using for Eva.  Amazingly small world, especially because he was living in Wisconsin at the time.  What were the chances of him then moving to New Hampshire just when I needed someone like him to come along?

So I'm sort of ready-you know how that goes.

I'll leave you now with some photos of those that I will leave behind:

Aidan complained that I always have the camera and he never gets to use it, so this is his idea of a self-portrait (remember that he doesn't like having his photo taken, so of course he was being a goofball even for himself as the photographer).

Aidan came home with his first "Friday Folder" from second grade.  I got to sign next to the smiley faces that said he was well behaved and never needed re-directing (he really is a good, happy boy, only stubborn at home :)  In the folder was a pamphlet on second graders and I found this particularly interesting.  Even though we've raised three children to adulthood, you forget some things.  Here is the description of seven:

Social:  May be moody, shy, sulky, touchy; sometimes depressed
Prefer playing and working alone or with one friend
May change friendships quickly and feel "nobody likes me"
Rely on adults for help and reassurance
Need the security of rules, routines, and physical boundaries

Physical:  Often keep their eyes focused on a small, close area
Copying from board is very hard
With head on arm or desk, grasp pencil point tightly and write very small
Can do quiet work for longer periods
Can get sick from worrying about tests, assignments, etc.

Cognitive:  Better at understanding ideas such as time, space, and quantity
Learn new words and meanings quickly; enjoy writing stories
Open to learning math
Good at classifying, such as sorting buttons, pictures, leaves, and shapes
Listen well and speak precisely
Enjoy hands-on exploration of how things work
Bothered by mistakes and try hard to make their work perfect
Like to work slowly and finish what they start
Enjoy repeating tasks and reviewing learning

What was really interesting was that this pamphlet was about 6 and 8 year olds as well, and the differences between the three years was really pretty substantial.

Looking forward to having two seven year and a half year olds in the house and watching them turn eight-social, cooperative, humorous, full of energy, developed eyesight-near and far, short attention span, full of ideas, quit easily, take on too much/more than they can handle, listen well but don't always remember what they heard, good at handwriting, crafts, computers, and drawing.