Disneyland Hong Kong

Just found this that I never posted:        We took two taxis to Disneyland because one of us didn't want to try the public transit system. (It wasn't me :-)  It had a lot of the familiar rides like Its a Small World and Space Mountain but a couple different ones like Mystic Manor.  Almost every ride had a 5-10 min wait at the most so we rode almost every ride that we wanted until the jet lag kicked in really strong about 3:00 or 4:00.  The kids were still going strong so we rode the last 2 rides, ate some ice cream and headed back for a taxi.
     The one still didn't want to try the train so we pooled our money and managed to scrape up enough to take a taxi up to the top of Victoria Peak to see a view of the city.  It was pretty hazy to start out but was really pretty by the time we looked around for a while.  I think we all nodded off on the way back to the hotel but we woke up enough to walk over to the airport for some food and fell asleep as soon as our head hit the pillow.  We slept pretty good and got up to have breakfast and go to the airport.  I'm really glad we did Disney because it was fun and it helped us get over our jet lag.

 

View from Victoria's Peak

Are we sleeping?

We have been home almost 7 weeks and I haven't written a thing on this blog.  Coming home with a new child a few days before Thanksgiving has got to be the busiest time.  Thanksgiving, kids coming home from college, Christmas, New Year's Eve and all the cooking, shopping, mailing decorating
and cleaning associated with those happy events has kept me away from the computer.  I really wish I could have found the time to record all the things that have happened with Aleah before I forget everything, but I didn't so I will do the best I can.

She did sleep for about an hour and a half

first meal on American soil

     We had a great flight home on Cathay Pacific and all three girls did well, but Aleah didn't sleep or eat much and so I didn't sleep much.  She wasn't able to watch any movies for more than 5 seconds due to her short attention span at that point in her life as well as the fact that none of the kid's movies were in Mandarin.  I tried to watch a couple movies, but she would unplug my earphones and laugh every 10 minutes or so.  I couldn't read either because she wanted my attention most of the time so it was a long 15 hour flight from Hong Kong to Chicago.  I won't go into details about how we couldn't keep up with the airline employee in Hong Kong trying to get us to the gate and then Aleah refused to walk and the entire plane was waiting for us then I got chosen for the random gate check search.   I had 3 people's carry-on bags with me and they all were searched.  Then I had to take the walk of shame to the back of the airplane.  Alyssa, Alaina and my mom did well on the airplane although mom had a bit of an altercation with a Chinese lady.   We had 3 hours to go through customs and change planes but we got a little confused in the Chicago
airport and barely made it to our flight.
    After 24 hours of travel we were home.  I really think I could have switched over to Central time just fine if I didn't have 3 children up until 3 a.m. every night.  After 3 nights I finally broke down and gave them all Benadryl and Melatonin and they started sleeping pretty well.  Aleah has slept with me since the day we got her until last week.  We slept at various places over the last few weeks (my room, Ryan's room, her room, the guest room)  The worst was she and I on the top bunk.  Never again.  Finally, we moved to their room with Alyssa and Alaina in the top bunk with me on an extra mattress next to her on the bottom bunk.  I did that a couple of nights and then a couple nights with me slipping away when they fell asleep and she has now slept a couple nights without me at all. She regressed and needed me there until she fell asleep the last few nights, but she assures me that the flashlight friend I bought her today will do the trick.

I know this was long and I have a lot more to say.  I need to update on her medical and dental situation and schooling, but I want to end today thanking God for the indescribably gift that Aleah is.  She has already become as precious to me as each of my children are and I am daily amazed at her intelligence, humor, love and perseverance.  I am so blessed to get to raise this child.  What an exciting journey.

Last pictures from China

We leave the hotel at 6:30 a.m. and arrive home at 7:45 or so p.m. on Friday.  I will blog from Chicago if I can.

The girls

Shamain Island statues

Stylin'

Happy girl-She has her ice cream, new shirt and shades and she's been shopping

This one really misses her daddy

I love this town. African ladies carrying their suitcases on their heads

Scene from the bridge on my walk to KFC

Home Stretch

Heading home in about 36 hours.  It's always a little bittersweet because you are so ready to get home, but kind of sad knowing your child won't see her birthland for a long time.  Plus, even though a lot of things are crazy here, I really enjoy being in China.  Aleah has been without fever for over 24 hours and her white count is normal so she got her last IV treatment today and we start oral antibiotics tomorrow.

  Greg left yesterday morning and when Aleah woke up she said "Baba already left" (In Chinese of course) and she wanted to call him. She got mad when I told her that he was on the plane so we couldn't call.  We had no planned activities for the day, but I had to take Aleah to the clinic and then in the evening  we went on the Pearl River Dinner Cruise.  It was a nice way to spend a few hours.  Most of the other families with our agency went on it too and it is wonderful to see how well the kids are doing.  Aleah didn't eat much and still won't drink hardly anything but she enjoyed the juggler/clown act.

 We had an early a.m. appt so it was a good night for her to not have a fever in the middle of the night.  This morning was the important appointment at the American consulate where we had our documents checked and applied for her visa to enter the U.S. and become a US citizen upon our arrival in Chicago.

All 8 families passed and headed to the zoo or Botanical Gardens afterwards.  We chose the zoo. Aleah decided to be difficult and would refuse to walk or run ahead at various times. 

When it was time to head to the exit we found another family from our group to follow and at that time Aleah decided to run away from me laughing. She would get a little bit away from me then stop and laugh and as I came near her, run away again.  Alyssa and Alaina were with that other family and by the time I caught up with her and carried her 42 lbs back, they were all gone and me and my mom were lost.  The map made no sense and for 15 mins we couldn't find anyone who spoke English or could point us to the exit.  Finally I thought to call my guide and she suggested I let her talk to the nearest Chinese person.  She explained our problem and this nice family helped us find our way out.  We ended up being 25 mins late to the bus and all the other families with hungry babies were waiting for us.  I was pretty stressed by this time and let Aleah sit with Nana for a few minutes while I took a few breaths.  When we got back we had just a little time before going to the clinic so we ate noodles in the room and Snicker's bars and Aleah and I headed to the clinic.  It was really a good experience for us as she seemed to be feeling very close to me and held my hand and looked to see if I noticed how brave she was for the IV.  She has been listening to Hillsong global project that I put on my phone.  It is a Mandarin Chinese praise and worship album.  She has gotten to know a few of the songs pretty quick and she was singing along so loud to Forever Reign that the nurses came in to ask her to quiet down.  Is that cool or what?   After we got home we headed to Tekila the Mexican restaurant.  She ordered soft chicken tacos and also enjoyed some Chips and Salsa.  Can't wait to get her some real Tex-Mex but this was pretty good.   

Doing much better

I don't have many pictures because I haven't been getting out much but just wanted to let everyone know that Aleah is doing much better.  Her white count was down to 11.5 which is just a little above the normal range and she is eating, drinking, peeing and pooping.  All of these were problems before.  She also took her Advil without complaining last night so a lot of answered prayers.  Yesterday we even went with the group to a huge wholesale shopping mall.

Aleah being silly at the clinic

Apparently Santa Claus is big here

 She got a little tired out and we had to rest, but did ok.  Afterwards, We got our next dose of IV antibiotics and she got some IV fluids since she hadn't been drinking and that really seemed to perk her up.  We were there about 2 hours and it takes about 20 mins each way to get there so by the time we got back it was time for dinner.  I had been waiting for her to get better so we could go to the Mexican restaurant and tonight was the night.  We all loved it including Aleah.  She ordered fajitas and ate the meat and a tortilla.  She also loved the chips and salsa. This is going to work out real well for me because I love Mexican food.  She also likes spaghetti with meat sauce which is one of my specialties so she won't starve in Tulsa.  She seems to like those kinds of foods better than Chinese food.  She also loves watermelon and chewing gum.

    Today we got to Skype with my dad which was really fun.  He and Aleah played together and laughed a lot.  Greg and his mom left this morning.  I told Aleah in my broken Chinese that Daddy and Grandma go America tomorrow.  Her face lit up until I told her that we can't go for 3 days.  She is really looking forward to America.  This morning when she woke up she said Baba is already gone and then later she got my phone and wanted to call Daddy.  She got kind of mad when I told her he didn't have a phone on the plane.  I'm so glad that she has bonded with us so strongly already.  I just want to give a shout-out to my awesome agency Lifeline.  They have taken such good care of us and Lily has gone beyond her duty for us.  She has taken us to the clinic twice, come to my room at 3:00 in the morning when Aleah was burning with fever and wouldn't take meds and she was screaming stuff in Chinese that I couldn't understand.  My SW and the coordinator back home check on me all the time and the other LL families are awesome. Tomorrow we go the the American consulate to take the oath and apply for her visa.  Hopefully I will get some pics before and after because we can't take any phones or cameras inside. Bye, bye for now.

Sick Baby

International clinic Sunday a.m.

Adoption clinic Saturday a.m.

Wow, this is hard.  Having a very sick child that you have known for only 5 days who doesn't speak the same language as you and being in a foreign country with different standards of medical care.  It started with a fever Friday night after we got to Guangzhou.  She had been fine at the airport, in fact, she ran away from us laughing.  Caused a bit of a scene as we chased her through the Guangzhou airport.   The fever went down with Advil and we went to breakfast in the hotel the next morning where she only ate some watermelon and the temp started going up again.  We had the required medical exam for adopted children to get a visa.  She had 38.6 there, but they only examine them for the form.  No treatment etc.  She was so brave for the exam and required blood draw.  Never cried and did whatever they asked.  We came home and she took a nap.  When she woke up she was burning up and I got some Advil down her before taking her temp.  It was 104 under her arm and she was lethargic.  Greg had gone to a paperwork meeting, so I picked her up and carried her down to the hotel mgr. who went with me to the medical clinic upstairs.  She was burning up and limp and the nurse said the doctor wasn't there.  She was starting to stare off into space and I was so scared.  I called our guide and she headed that way and they told me of an International clinic we could go to.  We got in a taxi and I was praying all the way.  She started being more aware as her temp came down and she started to vomit.  She held it in her mouth, bless her heart, until I got the window down.  At the clinic I told them I suspected a UTI and we got a urine sample and blood drawn.  Her wbc were 15.5 and her UA revealed an infection so with all that the doctor dx'd pyelonephritis (kidney infection)  They started an IV and gave her some abx through it.  She was better and kept down some water so they left in the IV catheter and let us go home.   She slept from 5 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. and woke up ready to play.  Back to sleep from 2:30-5:30 a.m. and had fever again.  Went back to the clinic at 10:00 and got more abx. Her wbc had gone up to 19.5.   BTW, Eric's (our former exchange student) dear mother flew in from Chongqing to see us and ended up helping us so much at the clinic.  Anyway,  She went without fever for 11 hours but then had 103 again a little while ago and required Advil and Tylenol to finally get it down so we aren't done with this yet.  We will likely have to get the IV abx every day.
Prayer requests: 1.  The infection responds to the antibiotic and she stops having fever
                          2.  That she willingly takes the oral meds.  She has been fighting me about taking the Tylenol and Advil
                          3.  That she will eat and drink.  It is hard to get her to drink anything.
                          4.  That we can communicate with her as needed.
                          5.  Calm my fears.
Praises:  We communicate pretty well considering the circumstances.
  2.  This has really shown her how much we love and care for her and I think has strengthened our bond.
3.  My love for her is so strong and that was one of my prayers.
4.  The international clinic is very good.
Thanks for all your concern and prayers.  I know she will be okay in my heart, but when her fever goes up she seems so sick that I get a little panicky.  Oh, another praise.  In the clinic she wanted to listen to music so everyone got to hear all kinds of praise songs from my phone for one hour while she got her IV.  They may not have understood the words but His name was raised up.

Adoption ceremony

Adoption ceremony

This morning we had to meet the guide at 8:00 to head back to Civil Affairs for the adoption ceremony and receipt of our adoption certificate.  We will need that to take to the American consulate to allow her to come to the US.  There were 4 families and they called us up and gave us the certificate and we took a picture.  It wasn't very involved but nice. 

Civil Affairs Building

After that we were taken to Martyr's Park.  I think we all enjoyed it, but wish it had been more than 50 degrees.  There were many groups of ladies dancing kind of a Chinese line dance at many different locations and some small groups doing Tai Chi and men playing cards.  

Koi pond at Martyr's Park

We were feeding the koi when Aleah grabbed my hand and pulled me away to show me an amusement park area.  She was very insistent that we let her play there so we payed the money and the girls had a great time.  Occasionally should we get alone and get very pensive.  I wish I knew what she was thinking and that I could speak fluent Mandarin.  Then we rode the bumper cars and the workers just kept letting us ride it over and over again until we realized the rest of our group left us. 

. 

    The other 2 families have 3 1/2 yo boys so they rode the carousel while we were on the cars.  We were dropped off at the hotel where we had our (hopefully) last meal at Food Street in the hotel.  There are only a few things we like so it is getting old.  Aleah requested the goose feet again and over Greg's disapproval I ordered it.  Her face lit up when they put that in front of her.  She gnawed on it for a while and gave it to me.  Yummy! 

After some paperwork we decided to try to get to Pizza Hut again.  We were going to walk, but were able to get a taxi.  It was difficult to let them know what we wanted but the pizza was great.  Aleah and Alaina shared a big plate of spaghetti with meat sauce.  I think Aleah likes Italian better than Chinese.  That works for me.  After dinner we had to cross over a big bridge to get to the other side of the street rather than risk our lives crossing the street.  We walked a while and I really enjoyed being a part of the Chinese culture.  So many people walking, eating, street singers, beggars, buses.  I really do enjoy being in China.  We weren't even halfway and were starting to get tired when Greg noticed a taxi sign. Hallelujah! A taxi was letting someone off and the 7 of us piled into the compact car.  It was a great day and Aleah got in bed to watch TV for a while with Daddy after another little swim.