Orphanage Tour and Finding Spot

I have some catching up to do! This week didn't go exactly as planned because
Vivienne has had a mild cold and a 101 fever for the last two days. We feel bad
that she has to get used to us while she is sick. The orphanage had me go back
twice on Tuesday for shots of penicillin. They also have us giving her another
antibiotic. It is a bit of overkill and I have taken a few too many taxi rides
going back and forth. Today, thankfully, she got her last shot because her lungs
were clear. God was so good though, because the only other adoptive family we
have met from the US has a little girl who was a crib mate of Vivi's, brought
along another couple to China. The husband happens to be a pediatrician and the
wife a nurse. It has been such a blessing to have him "double check" Vivienne
and tell us exactly what the meds are and what they were doing with the IV in
the head! The other couple adopting also has a little girl with the cold and
has had to do the IV's every day. Vivi didn't have as much congestion, so she
did the IV once and shots the other days. All that to say, that this little
girl's fever seems to have broken tonight and started to show more of her
playful side tonight! She definitely seemed a little serious since we have had
her, but given the situation with the sickness on top of us being total
strangers in a new place, we totally understand. Tonight we started to see her
giggle and open up a little and it was pure sweetness!

Today was very special because they took us on a tour of the orphanage. We got
to see where she lived for most of her 10 months. It sounds like she was in
foster care for the last couple of months. It was an amazingly clean and
beautiful facility. There are only 100-200 children at the orphanage because
they have a great foster care system set up in a foster village about an hour
away. The best part of the tour was seeing the room that she stayed in! It was
so nice and clean and the cribs had beautiful blankets and toys in each crib.
They showed us the crib where she slept, which we had already seen thanks to
another adoptive Mom. There were rows of cribs with beautiful babies in them.
When they saw Shan Yu (we're still using her Chinese name to lessen the
confusion for her), all the nannies called out her name and they all passed her
around. We were so glad to see such loving, caring women. One of our prayers
for her all these months was that she was getting loved. It was obvious that
our prayers were answered. The other neat thing was that a few minutes after the
caretakers had held her, she reached out for me and let out a little cry! Yay,
she likes me!

After the orphanage tour, we asked our guide to take us to her finding spot.
This is the place where she was found. All we knew was that she was left in
flowerbed at a tea building. It turned out to be a beautiful complex of
buildings with little shops where they sell tea and everything that goes with
it. There is a special tea made from tea leaves that are only grown in the
Yunnan province. It is called Pu'er tea and it is very popular in China. It
was so meaningful to see this place that is a piece of history for our girl. We
were captivated by the beauty of the pagoda style buildings. As any great Dad
would do, John proceeded to take pictures of the few flower beds that were
there. Meanwhile, our guide asked the store owners in several stores if they
remembered anything about a baby being left there last May. No one seemed to
remember, but that was fine with us. We were happy to bring her back as part of
our family. Even though the orphanage was a nice one and she was cared for,
seeing these places really confirmed our decision to adopt. We always knew we
wanted to do this, but today's experience brought everything full circle.

After a little rest time in the afternoon, our guide took us out to dinner for
another amazing meal in China. We LOVE the food here and it is such a great
cultural experience. For one thing, it costs about half money to eat out here
than it does in the US. The other fun part is watching someone order for us in
Chinese. It is quite a long, involved process and they order about 8-10 dishes
and everyone shares. There is a big lazy susan in the middle of the table and
they bring out the food as it is cooked. There are usually 2 vegetables dishes,
2 soups, and the rest main dishes. The food is much spicier here, but we love
it. Tonight we got daring and we all tried tongue of a duck or goose! We never
got it straight exactly what it was the tongue of, but it tasted like any other
meat. The kids have been amazingly flexible on this trip. They have taken in
and learned SO much. They are also very good at using chopsticks and love all
of the food.

On the way home from dinner, we walked through Green Lake Park. Jennifer, if
you're reading, I'm so glad you told me about this hotel! It actually has a
huge lake and park right beside it. Today was the first day I got to go because
the baby has been sick, but it is an amazing cultural experience. There are
different groups of people dancing in the park. There is usually a leader and
it is kind of like line dancing and everyone is doing the same moves. There are
also boats you can rent on the lake and several vendors selling food and
cultural items. There are 4.2 million people living in this city and the parks
serve as an oasis from the business and traffic everywhere.

Some other things about our girl that I forgot to mention is that she seems to
be very tall for a 10 month old. She only fits in two of the pj's I brought and
about 3 of the 6-12 month outfits! We haven't found reasonable baby clothes
here, so we are waiting to get to Guangzhou to buy some! Luckily, the people
here are really into layering the babies clothing and we got her with three
layers on the bottom and four on top! She also seems to be very verbal and will
repeat a lot of the sounds that we say. She is starting to crawl and can take
steps if we hold her hands. She came to us with a pretty good tan on her hands
and face. We have heard that these children spend a lot of their day outside
while they are in foster care.

Tomorrow our plan is to go to the zoo in the morning and we have the rest of the
day free. We fly out for Guangzhou to complete her adoption. Thanks again for
all of your comments and prayers!