Final Day in Jinan and Medical Exam

We're now in Guangzhou, and I've discovered my VPN won't work here. A BIG thanks to Torie for being willing to post the blog posts for me this week! I see a lot of Starbucks, as repayment, in my future!!

Friday was our last day in Jinan. We walked around a park, bought a few groceries, and ate at a Chinese fast food restaurant. Our experience in China, this time, has been much different than in the past. Our guides have only been available until around 1:00 p.m. It's a good thing I'm comfortable exploring on my own, or we would have spent a lot of time in our hotel room.

Walking in China alone means enduring lots of blatant stares. In Jinan we saw less than five non-Asian faces during the entire five day stay. You can imagine the curiosity that two Caucasian faces, one Asian, English-speaking child and an Asian baby cause! I realize that I'm at ease in the country now when the majority of the time I don't even notice the sometimes discreet, other times wide-mouth stares that are directed our way.

Of course I returned the favor today when I saw a group of high school age youth at the park. I think they enjoyed the attention and began waving at the camera. When entering high school, in China, uniforms are required. You can see an example of uniforms in this photo.

 

 

 

 

Jinan's city tree is the weeping willow, and it's flower is the tulip. Here was a non-functioning fountain featuring the tulip. I would love to see the fountain during the warm months. The parks and fountains are beautiful here.

 

The park also had an interesting array of statues commemorating ancient men and women who have contributed to China's history. Each statue included a plaque explaining the contribution the individual made.

 

 

After walking in the park, we made a trip to the grocery store to buy Savannah Faith some formula. Shopping in a Chinese grocery store is always an adventure. You only thought we had a plethora of choices! Notice the row of baby formulas on the shelf in the background. This was ONE of the shelves of formula. Another shelf equally as long was next to this one.

 

 

In addition to navigating the aisles, you also must navigate the crowds.


 

 

And if you find yourself with a sweet tooth, don't despair. Nestle's found its way to China.
 

 

Need make-up?? Just drop by the L'Oreal counter.
 

 

 

 

 

After grocery shopping we stopped for lunch at a Chinese fast food restaurant.

 

 

Trust me, this was better than any fast food restaurant in the States. I ate fresh stir-fried beef with red and green peppers and onions. Michaela chose sweet and sour chicken and fresh green beans, and AnnaGrace had a bowl of steamed rice with pork. The food was absolutely delicious!

If you think we weren't already getting enough stares, AnnaGrace posed with the fast food chicken for me. Yes, as if there was any doubt, we are crazy Americans.

Besides enduring lots of looks, the other adventure in exploring China alone is crossing the streets.

In China the pedestrians do NOT have the right of way. Every time you cross the streets you take your life in your hands. After 6 trips to China (4 for Michaela) we are used to the timing of dashing between cars, bicycles and scooters and living to tell about it. AnnaGrace, on the other hand, is finding the experience a little nerve-wracking. She firmly grasps one of our hands and proceeds to give us instructions on when she thinks it's safe to cross. It is providing great entertainment for Michaela and I!

 

 

 

 

 

One of the interesting things in Jinan was passing a Muslim area. We saw this in 2007 when we visited Xian as well. As Christians it's a reminder of how important it is for us to be sending the Gospel to every corner of the world!

 

 

 

 

Friday evening we flew to Guangzhou. It's always like coming home to get to the Island. We're staying at the Victory, which is certainly not the most popular place for adoptive families to stay anymore, but still our favorite.

This morning I took Savannah Faith to her medical appointment. She looked so little and indignant as she waited to see the Dr.

 

 

We spent the rest of the day walking around the Island and relaxing.

Savannah Faith continues her food boycott. She will play with her Cheerio container but will not allow one to pass her lips.
 

 

 

She is a good sport and is already learning what it means to have sisters and to be subjected to their antics. Including having stacking cups stacked on her head. The joys of family.

 

 

 

 

She is opening up to us more and more and beginning the signs of true attachment - eye contact, snuggling and reaching her hands for us. We're praising the Lord for His hand in all of this.

 

 

Walking at Heihu Spring Park & Daming Lake

Today we toured two parks, just five minutes apart, Heihu Spring Park and Daming Lake. 

Jinan is known for its natural springs.  The people in this area gather at the springs to collect fresh water to take home.  Although there is a legal spot for collection, many choose the more convenient area, albeit precarious location, for their water gathering.

Right next to the contraband water carriers were three uniformed police officers who were casually observing and apparently discussing the weather.  I asked our guide about the seeming lack of enforcement of the law.  He just laughed and said, "This is China."  Okay??


Within eye shot, and across the spring, was the legal gathering location for H2O.  And  even the pampered pooch seemed to understand the proper, orderly way to wait for his turn.

 

The weather was beautiful and brisk, and we could see the sun!

Although Jinan boasts a population similar to Changsha at 7 million, it doesn't share the pollution of Changsha or Beijing.

The locals depend more on bicycles and scooters and less on cars which I am sure contributes to better air quality.

The combination of the beauty of the park, the weather and the fact that Michaela actually had her hands on my camera, gave us lots of photo ops.  (Normally I am VERY territorial over my camera, but Savannah was NOT interested in letting me take photos.  Michaela was very pleased that she was photographer for the day!)

 

 

 

 

Savannah was not sure she liked her carrier, but it sure saved my back.

 

 

 

 

After leaving Heihu Spring Park, we made the five minute drive to Daming Lake.  Jinan, according to our guide, is the only Chinese city that has a lake in the middle of  it. 

 

 

Here the girls pose with our guide, Jason.

 

 

 

Daming Lake is a natural lake, spring-fed by the Heihu Springs.  It is a popular location for the locals to come and spend afternoons and weekends.   They can even rent boats to take out onto the lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evidently it is also a place where they hope to find romance.  As legend holds, long ago an emperor traveled to the city of Jinan and found his true love while at the park.  They were married and lived happily from that day forward.

 

 

 

Ever since that time, in the lunar month of September, single men and women of all ages hoping to find their soul mates come to the park and pin up notes on long red threads.  I guess it's their modern day equivalent of eHarmony.com. 

 

 

Savannah, not regaled by all these tales, fell fast asleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While Savannah Faith slept, her big sisters tried to look wise standing next to one of China's great teacher's and his student.

 

 

 

 

 

The next few days well include a lot of waiting.  Waiting for the notary papers and Savannah Faith's passport.  Then Friday it will be off to Guangzhou.

 

 

(It's come to my attention that those of you who receive the blog via e-mail can't see the photos due to their size.  I will begin including the link to the blog at the end of each blog post, so you can click on it if you would like to see the photos.  www.thehortonhome.blogspot.com )



Just Hanging Out & A "New Normal"

Today we were scheduled to go to nearby Springs, but the weather was not ideal.  It was raining.  Since Savannah Faith has significant wheezing, I decided it was best to stay indoors and hang out at the hotel for the day.  We are rescheduling our outing for tomorrow, weather-permitting.

It has been a great day to get to know Savannah Faith a little better.  We've discovered she is a VERY suspicious eater.  She has yet to allow any food to cross her lips, despite the fact  I know she was eating some at the LWB Healing Home. 

She will drink her bottle, but ONLY from the one bottle that was delivered with her.  Every time I make her formula in one of the new bottles I brought from home, she looks at it with disdain and shoves it away with force.  I'm not worried about her eating.  She has thighs that would make any sumo wrestler jealous. Too funny!

She loves to play with her toys.  One of the bellboys at the hotel gave her a toy turtle yesterday.  That has now become one of her favorites.  She likes to blow raspberries against it.  Don't ask me???

We brought a singing phone from home.  She enjoys listening to it too!

She wants nothing to do with crawling or scooting to get her toys.  She enjoys sitting and reaching for toys but will make no attempt to get to them if they roll out of her reach.  I think our physical therapist, Nikki Degner, who has helped with all our girls upon their arrival in the States, will have her work cut out for her again.

I realized today that our family is accustomed to a "new normal."

We met another adoptive family in the lobby today. 

They, also, were adopting a little girl.  Almost three years old. 

Just a few months older than Savannah Faith.

The couple adopted through the regular route (their little girl has no special medical needs) and are over the moon at having their first child!

After receiving their daughter, a running, chattering, potty-trained, developmentally on-target almost three year old, the mom came over to me and with both pity and compassion in her eyes said,

"It's okay.  I'm sure she (meaning Savannah Faith) will be alright." 

Savannah, developmentally a 10 month old and the size of a 12-18 month old, happily sat in my lap, unaware of the drama playing around her.

I confess at first I didn't know what the mom was talking about.  Then it struck me.  She thought I was comparing our two girls and was worried about Savannah Faith. 

The thought NEVER entered my mind.  This is our "Normal."

After adopting three previous "heart" daughters, we understand the developmental delays that accompany their diagnosis.  In China, heart children are protected by their ayis.  They are typically kept sedentary out of a false sense of helping them.  Of course who wouldn't, instinctively, keep a child still who turns blue every time they become active!

Due to this inactively and the subsequent lack of stimulation, our heart children come to us with significant delays.  Some of our daughters have caught up quickly, others are still playing catch up.  All of them have needed some combination of physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy in addition to their open-heart surgeries.  That's our normal.

So Savannah's lack of willingness to try to crawl, let alone walk, although concerning, is not alarming.  It's just our normal.  And I celebrate for the mom of the developmentally on-target toddler/pre-schooler.  But stand amazed at my warrior who not only has survived abandonment and an open-heart surgery already in her two short years but is willing to accept me, without question, as her forever mom!

We love you Savannah Faith!  Welcome to the family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Savannah Faith is a Horton Girl!

We started the day by worshipping at Capital Community Fellowship in Beijing, China.  What a blessing to get to worship our living Savior with believers half way around the world.  The church is a registered church and is open to all foreign passport holders.  It is attended by about 500 people and is multi-national. 

The praise team was made up of five members from five countries. That's what it will be like in heaven! We heard a great message, and it was such an encouragement.

Following church we boarded a train for the two and half hour trip to Jinan, capitol city of Shangdong Province.  We arrived at the hotel at 5:45 p.m. on Sunday evening, and Savannah Faith Yuandian arrived at our hotel room at 7:00 p.m. 


The moment we all had been anticipating finally arrived.

Diandian (as the ayis called Savannah Faith) was a trooper and never shed a tear.  She even gave us a few giggles on her first evening with us. 

I was surprised though.  She's the first of my Chinese princesses to refuse my bribe of Cheerios's on Gotcha Day! 

This morning we introduced her to the stacking cups.  The stacking cups have made every trip to China since Sarah Mei's adoption trip in 2007.  We started with twelve cups, seven years ago, and are down to only seven cups, but they continue to be a favorite toy!

After a little playtime, we gave her a bath.  She enjoyed the water and clearly it wasn't a new experience for her.  She has a "zipper" (what we call the girls' open-heart surgery scars) to match Sarah Mei's, Isabelle's and Lily Rose's zippers.  Thankfully, Love Without Boundaries provided her first open-heart surgery, the BT shunt, which provided her body with the oxygen it needed to grow while waiting to get the States for further assessment and open-heart surgeries.

The rest of the day was spent running from office to office filling out the necessary provincial adoption paperwork to make her legally our daughter and to get her passport to allow her to travel outside the country. 


One of the pieces of paperwork required putting Savannah's footprint on it.  She wasn't that impressed with the process!






One of the joys of the day was to see her interact with her ayi (nanny) from Heze CWI. Although Savannah has been in the Love Without Boundaries Healing Home since October, she spent the first two years of her life in an orphanage where she clearly had a special bond with one nanny. The love between the two of them was obvious, and I was so blessed to get photos and even an e-mail address to give to Diandian one day.

We finished up the paperwork around 4:00 p.m. at which point we were all ready to be back at the hotel. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and getting to know Savannah Faith a little better.

She is full of funny expressions and the best giggle around! She loves to be kissed, and she's a bit on the laid-back side. Why stand, when there is perfectly comfortable carpet to sit on.

 

 

 

She has a great sense of humor, and she can be quite chatty in a toddler gibberish...ma, ma, da, da. You get the picture.

 

 

Mom got kicked off at this point, so I will finish up this post. Dad, the three little girls and I got to skype with Mom, Michaela, Annie and Savannah this morning. It was great to get to see them all and listen to little Savannah blow raspberries. Hopefully Mom will send me another blog post soon with more pictures!

The Forbidden City & Hutong Tour

Today we visited The Forbidden City. Tiannamen Square was on our itinerary, but due to the recent "elections" of a new leader in China, the Square was closed. Evidently the officials are conducting meetings from March 3rd through the end of the month in one of the buildings that flank the Square. Understandably, security measures are heightened in that area.
 

 

 

At the entrance of the Forbidden City is the famous painting of Chairman Mao, the first Communist premiere of the country. To say he is revered in the country would be a vast understatement.
 

 

Our orthodontist, responsible for putting braces on my teeth, Torie's, Michaela's and scheduled to put braces on AnnaGrace this summer, has a fun contest each year. Where did you take your t-shirt on vacation this year? AnnaGrace brought her t-shirt to China and wore in front of The Forbidden City! I bet Dr. Hamilton's tee's haven't often traveled that far!
 

 

We had a bit of fun before we entered the gate. Although it's generally unacceptable to take photos of the soldiers in uniform, after seeing another girl pose with a soldier in front of the Forbidden City, we sent AnnaGrace to try her hand at posing and I snapped off a quick shot.

 

 

 

Since today was Saturday, the tourist spot was quite busy!
 

 

It gave me an opportunity to snap a shot of one of my favorite sights in China - split pants. If you are unfamiliar with this convenient option to a standard diaper, they are widely used in China. They allow a child to go to the bathroom whenever the urge strikes them. Yes, even on the street.
 

 

The Forbidden City, sole home of the Emperor and Empress, along with the Emperors concubines until the early 1900's, included 999 1/2 rooms. It is a beautiful combination of architectural detail and brilliant colors. Although we toured the City in 2001, I learned a few new facts today. The most interesting is the double meaning of "Forbidden City". I knew that no one was allowed to enter the Forbidden City, during the rule of the Emperor, unless expressly invited by him. What I did not know was that the Emperor was not allowed to leave the City except for a few select special occasions...thus the double meaning of "Forbidden" City.
 

 

While in visiting, I noticed a place where we could rent Qing minority costumes. Of course after having SO much fun earlier this week, I couldn't pass up the opportunity and coerced the girls to dress-up one more time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The best part was when a Chinese national, who was dressing up in a warrior costume, asked the girls to pose with him! Priceless!
 

 

After we left The Forbidden City, we went on a Hutong Tour. Although I've heard of other families taking these tours, this is the first time we have taken one. Only three Hutong portions of town are still preserved in Beijing. These are the areas with the traditional homes that open into courtyards. Many families prefer not to stay in the Hutong areas because you must be willing to have your home open at all times for tourists to visit as a requirement for living in these districts.

We rode a rickshaw to get into the heart of the Hutong area.
 

 

I was shocked by how small the rooms surrounding the courtyards were. Vanessa, our guide, told us she and her family lived in a Hutong until she was 22. You can see in the following photo two rooms side by side on one side of the courtyard.
 

 

 

Each of those rooms measured at most 12 x 10. Vanessa, her brother and her parents lived in ONE of these rooms for the 1st 22 years of her life. Twelve families lived in her courtyard. By my count, only 10 rooms surrounded the courtyard and one of those rooms was a communal kitchen. She told us that they spent much of their time outside in the common courtyard. They had to walk to the shared bathroom which was quite a distance away (think campground bathroom.)

Below is a photo of Vanessa, our guide, and AnnaGrace sitting on a traditional bed in a room off the courtyard. The bed took all except about 4 x 10 of the floor space in the room.
 

 

Vanessa has fond memories of growing up in the Hutong community and her grandparents were devastated when the homes were torn down, and they were forced to move to apartments.

This is a photo of the courtyard in the middle of the rooms which all the families shared.
 

 

It was a fascinating day of remembering, that not so long ago, all of life in Beijing was not as modern as it is today with its skyscrapers, overabundance of cars, Starbucks and cell phones.