Teresa is sleeping peacefully since about 8:00pm last night, interestingly enough she didn’t like sleeping in the bed with or without anyone and slept in the stroller. She sleeps soundly and, unlike Tumbleweed, through the night
So, let me tell you some more about yesterday. Apparently Teresa was placed in foster care in April of this year and was brought back to the orphanage recently and she knew and was attached with the director and the two Nanny’s who brought her to Changsha. Overall her day was probably very traumatic and although I believe Teresa had been shown our pictures it was still frightening to be held by me and see the director and Nanny’s not responding to her cries. Once I left the room and headed down stairs she immediately relaxed and looked at me, said “Ma Ma” a couple of times and when Andy came down responded in a similar manner to him, looking at him intently and saying “Ba”. Her hardest times were when she saw the people who brought her, I can only imagine that she felt that she was being left or given away, no wonder she had the response she did. As soon as we got onto the bus she settled right down again and snuggled her head onto me and slept, for about two hours She woke while we were at the restaurant very quietly looking around. Didn’t eat anything at first, only sipped from a water bottle, as soon as we managed to put some corn in her mouth, she started eating, slowly watching everything and everyone around her, almost like a caged animal wondering what or who was going to attack. She hesitantly came around as we were walking back to the hotel, Andy made her smile by playing hide and seek behind a tree (a small tree so you can imagine how much of him was really hidden :) but it worked Since then she has been coming more and more out of her shyness and laughing, playing, taking our hands to lead us somewhere and by supper time she was eating herself and trying to feed Andy It was great to see that 7 hours could make such a huge difference in her.
Today, however we have our second appointment at the civil affairs office and have been told that the director will be there. I’m concerned that Teresa will think we’re giving her back or that she’ll want to go back and the director will obviously not want her, it will be another trauma in such a short little life its hard to imagine the heartache she may feel. I do believe that she will remember and grieve for what she has left behind in the coming months/years and hopefully some day will be able to express herself more clearly.
Teresa likes to sing and will pick up on tunes that are playing either on the TV or by us singing to her. She likes the stuffed animal that Taylor gave her but will freely share with Taylor, she likes the doll too and is a little less willing to share that, which is good as they will both have something they’ll be more attached too, but still willing to share knowing they’ll be getting it back soon.
Taylor has been absolutely wonderful I am afraid that she’s getting sick though Not that you can help it with the air quality here. I know there is a lot of culture visits and tours set up this week while we wait for the baby’s passports and stuff, but I’m wondering if we’re not better off staying in the hotel and checking out the pool and trying to stay where the air is a little cleaner. I’ll have to look at the agenda and talk to Winnie our guide and see if the locations we’re going are in or out of the city and then try to make some decisions.
We’re going to go shopping today to something like a Wal-mart to pick up clothes (I only have 1 pair of pants that fit Teresa’s size 12 month butt ) Did I mention she’s potty trained Probably did but its SO NICE We’ve been showing her the sign for potty whenever any of us go and she tried it, pointed and took my finger into the bathroom to go YIPEE
I’m sorry that these updates will not be hitting the blog as I’m writing them but the hotel’s server is down and being re-booted and re-loaded and they estimate it will take until 9:00 pm tonight so I’ll keep writing my notes in word and copy them down as soon as we’re able.
Sorry Mom, I haven’t been able to get you any pictures but I know Dad’s heart will be lifted when he sees the smile light up Teresa’s face
Love and miss you all (and miss our food, and the air quality). I’m already ready to come home and we still have over a week to go.
Tuesday, 10/23 2:29pm
This morning is over and its official that Teresa is ours. She did so much better than I thought she would with the director and one of the Nannies there. I don’t know that she actually saw them or just didn’t want to acknowledge them, but she played with Taylor and Uncle Doug or colored her coloring book and when we had to leave the room to get our documents notarized she happily stayed with Doug but came looking for us a time or three to be reassured that we were still there and she would be “safe” I guess is one word. She happily holds either of our hands and her and Taylor are starting to walk hand and hand down the hall ways or into buildings. We’re all taking a nap now, but you can tell the travel is wearing on Taylor and she’s starting to ask for home, she doesn’t understand the long wait time now that we have Teresa. I think she was thinking it was like a trip to Wal-Mart “we’re going to China to get Teresa” now that we have her why can’t we go home yet?
Unfortunately the internet is still down although I may be able to access my e-mail from the hotel lobby, which I’ll try once everyone it up and headed off to the pool for the afternoon. Hopefully everyone will wake up in a happy mood.
We exchanged out our roll away bed for a crib hoping that Teresa would sleep in that, but she’s back in the stroller for now. She didn’t seem afraid of the crib but since Taylor was over tired she responded to Taylor’s emotions and getting them down for a nap was an emotional time.
We haven’t really seen much of the city or the area because of the appointments, but tomorrow we’re scheduled to go to an embroidery museum. There doesn’t seem to be as much shopping around here as in Beijing or in Guangzhou. There doesn’t seem to be a large mall or even store, the “Wal-Mart” type store we were at today was more like 1500 square feet on two levels totally focused on babies, not what I had in mind but atleast we have some pants and new shoes for Teresa’s little body, though the way she eats it won’t be that way for long once we get her home. She’ll try anything we put on her plate but will let us know what she doesn’t like and what she does like.
We’ve been told that there are not a lot of tourists in the area so we do get a lot of people staring at us. We just smile and keep going like its totally normal for us. We were also told that there are three categories of people when they see us, the Older who see us and know we’ll take care of our children and love them and give them a good home. The Young (or younger than 30) who are more interested in the fact that they’ve seen a foreigner and will wave or want to take our picture and the Middle Age (guess I’m middle age - those people between 30 and 50 who look at us and ask either themselves or our guides many many questions about us and about the children and where we will take them and how we will educate them. I’m sure there are other categories too but those are the ones that our guide has described to us.
Don’t ask me why but there is something somewhere outside that is playing “Happy Birthday to You” and its rather annoying since its been playing the same song for over an hour I’ll have to remember to ask the guides later today. Now lets see if I can wake everyone up and get up to the pool before they sleep the day away
Dinner tonight is back to the restaurant that we ate at yesterday for lunch and dinner, which is a short walk down across the street and down a ways, its getting old since it’s the third time we will have eaten there in two days. The breakfast here at the hotel is nice, not as big a buffet as the White Swan in Guangzhou, but definitely more choices and is the biggest meal both Taylor and I eat during the day.
Tuesday (about 5:30 PM local time)
Andy here... The girls took a really long nap... almost 3 hours. Either they are really tired of each other (yeah, right.. as I watch them snuggle together in bed) or, as we suspect, it’s the whole situation weighing down on them (and us). We took them down to the pool and had a really bad scare, but everyone is fine Taylor and I were in the pool, moving down the wall and suddenly she screamed out in pain, Her whole foot got sucked into the intake valve It took everything I had to pull it out She was terrified and hurt. I went back to check the valve once Sharon had Taylor in her arms and was comforting her and the pressure sucked my hand in and I really struggled to get it out. No wonder she was so scared They came with medical assistance immediately and after about 10 minutes Taylor was able to stand on it without too much trouble. The manager was very apologetic and I explained that in the States they have covers for those things and they would do well to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. This hotel (Sheraton) is brand new and we are the first adoptive group here so they want to do everything possible to make it a positive experience.
They are snuggled together in bed watching a Disney Princess video (thanks, Eric :) and we will have to tear them away to go eat dinner. Food here is very good and the guides are trying to keep the variety .
Tuesday 8:00pm
Yeah, right, the food is great for Andy, Doug and Teresa, they’re loving it, its amazing that Teresa is only 10.5kilos because she just LOVES to eat Taylor and I on the other hand are not as satisfied as the rest of them. Teresa is singing herself to sleep (yet again in the stroller, but tonight we’ll transfer her to the crib after she falls asleep) and Taylor is watching a Chinese program on teaching the children English. We’ve been told that Andy will get to go to the orphanage on Thursday, it’s about a 2 - 3 hour ride we think and it’ll be interesting to see how I do with the two girls alone for the day, they can both be very demanding but hopefully they’ll take turns.
I'll post some more of the earlier photos coming up now that the connection has been restored. To eveyrone that wrote I'll be getting back to you as everyone sleeps (everyone except me that is :)
Taylor and Teresa at the mall play area having a blast! I was probably the only person that washed their feet and hands with purell' after they finished playing and it was obvious that we were probably one of the very few Americans to "hang out" at the mall.
Someone performing or exercising along the waterpark in the morning. It was beautiful and serene and hard to imagine 6 lanes of traffic off to the left of the picture with a cargo shipping river off to the right - and what is that smell???
We tried to get Teresa to talk on the phone to Nana and Pa but her voice is so quiet (except when she yells) that no one can hear her. She had a rough afternoon.
This is Changsha. Yes, its really like this, alhtough it did clear up a little on Monday afternoon and Tuesday you could actaully see the taller buildings, but there is still alot of smoke/haze around every day. Hopefully the wind that picked up on Tuesday will move some more of this out of the city proper!
Good Morning! 
