Day 1 - June 15, 2005: In Our Arms At Last
At about 4:30 pm, 
The rest of our travel group arrived at the hotel at 2:00pm. Ali and I were waiting in the lobby for them, so hailed their arrival.
We had flown separately from the group so we could visit our dear friends in
We walked into a room where all the babies were sitting with the nannies but we were told to walk past them and go to the next room to wait for our names to be called.
Ali spotted Jasmine right away and snuck a photo of her with her nanny. We were wearing our “Roadie Passes” with her laminated photos around our necks and when her caretaker noticed them she burst into tears and waved Jasmine's hand to Ali.
That was when I started crying and looking around the room, pretty well
everyone else was too.
We were the third couple to have our name called so up we went. Poor thing was hanging on to her caretaker but she came to me eventually. Ali and I went to a quiet part of the room and introduced ourselves to our daughter.
She is of course, very beautiful. She was so pale and seamed so fragile!!! We waited in this room for about half an hour as all the other couples were united with their daughters. Everyone was walking around and taking pictures of everyone else, it was really wonderful. I did sneak a peek at Jasmine's caretaker and saw that she continued to be quite emotional about the handover. Tomorrow Ali and I will see her again and will give her one of the laminated neck passes we have of Jasmine. You will see them in the photos once I upload a few tonight.
We returned to the hotel and immediately went to our room so that we could change her clothes and see if she was hungry. She has a cold and some lung congestion, just like most of the kids. But other than that she is fine. We changed her clothes and tried to give her a bottle but she was not interested so we gave her some Cheerio’s, which she loves.
There was a paperwork meeting at 7:00 pm and that took 1½ hours in a very hot room so half of the couples were in the hallway with the kids and the other half was trying to fill in an endless pile of forms. Jasmine was very active and stands with help and was laughing at the other children as they played. She did fall asleep in my arms towards the end of the paper chasing and we carried her to the room and put her to bed.
What a great day, we are just exhausted.
I will upload a few photos and try to do more tomorrow. We are having trouble accessing our email so it may take some time to reply to everyone.
Thank you all so much for all your love and support for our journey and our new family.
Take care and will type more tomorrow.
Love
Ali, Sue and Jasmine
Day 2 – June 16, 2005: Forever Family Day
We had an early start; Jasmine woke at about 6:00 am.
I awoke to Ali leaping out of bed, grabbing the baby formula, the rice cereal, bottle, formula bag, bag of nipples and racing into the bathroom as he flicked the switch on the kettle to boil some water. Jasmine was just quietly lying in the crib and playing with the mesh sides. I reached in and she played with my fingers, very content.
She took a small portion of the formula, which has to be scorching hot for her to even consider taking it. We were beginning to worry since she had not eaten anything yesterday nor had she drank much formula but we decided not to freak since it was a pretty big day for her yesterday and she probably just needed to settle a little.
We went to the hotel buffet for breakfast, convinced she was going to devour the whole thing but we tried everything. Rice Congee, boiled egg, soy cereal, fruit, yogurt....all were met with a swift turn of the head. No way man!! It seemed that all the other babies were eating demons. An odour wafted my way that told me her diaper was loaded so we gave up and went upstairs where she took some of the formula but not a lot.
We had to muster in the lobby at 9:30 am for the trip back to the Adoption Centre to take care of the official adoption paper work so we just had time for a quick nap and then a nice dress for the official photos. We gathered all the documents and our passports and went downstairs. We got on the bus and went back into the center. After waiting a while, our names were called and we went into the small office to take care of the final paperwork. The next step after this was to wait for her Chinese passport.
I grabbed the backpack, Ali was holding Jasmine and in we went. They asked for the papers, I opened the backpack and all that was there was diaper changing paraphernalia, not a single sheet of paper anywhere. Ali had thought that I had grabbed the papers and I, of course, had thought that he had. A dear friend (one of the dads) was taking photos for us and he captured this very moment when we came to this horrible realization.
The official was not fazed and told our translator to drop the papers by later and the ceremony proceeded. We had to swear that we are really going to take her home and that we will never abandon her. Then we had to put red ink on our thumbs and press our print over our signatures and then Jasmine's right foot was dabbed on the pad and that was it, she is officially our daughter. There are some great shots of this moment.
After that there was more paperwork, some photos, the "donation" and then more waiting in the heat. In all of this I found a nice quiet chair under a cool vent and gave Jasmine another bottle. We returned to the hotel around noon and put her down for a nap that lasted until 3 pm. Ali and I ordered room service for lunch and sat there in the dark, whispering until we decided we had better wake her up three hours later.
We were going to meet one of the other couples for dinner so we walked around until 5:30 pm. I explained to one of the group moms that we had not been able to get Jasmine to eat anything and she very casually asked if we had tried feeding her with chopsticks. I was willing to try anything so I picked up some food from my plate and when the chopsticks were about 6 inches from her face, her head popped back and the mouth opened like a little baby bird!! Oh my, did she eat! She drank a whole bottle and then had a ton of duck, rice, steamed egg, ginger, mushrooms...we had to stop after we were afraid she was going to explode! Again I had a whiff and thought she may have loaded her diaper so Ali took her upstairs to change and he was laughing when he came down. He muttered stuff about toxic plumes, the smell, he was kind of shell shocked. He was just dazed by the whole affair. We all had a really good giggle.
Both Ali and Jas are asleep already and it is only 8:30 pm. Well tomorrow is Day 3 and we are off to a very large Wal-Mart to buy some things for both Jas and for the orphanage visit on Day 4.
Sleep well everyone and catch up with you tomorrow.
Sue
Day 3 – June 17, 2005: Shopping at Wal-Mart
Just a short one today as we really did not do very much. We got up and had breakfast, well Ali and I ate anyway. When they woke up, Ali gave Jasmine a bottle and we were laughing so hard. Until now Jasmine was quite tame with the bottle but this morning she was fierce. She dropped the bottle at one point and sucked her mouth desperately until Ali put the bottle back. She was barely breathing most of the time and took these huge gulps of air. After breakfast we went back to the room and she had a bit of a nap for less than an hour and then we had to pack her into the baby carrier so we could go to Wal-Mart of all places!!
When we were in
A bottle was demanded and then another nap was had by Ali and Jasmine. Eamon and I went off to a department store to scout out some artwork and other baby stuff.
It was his daughter Georgia's 1st birthday today so we stopped at a cake store on the way home. When we emerged from the store, the sky was black, sheets of water were coming down and lighting was flashing everywhere. Well, no choice, we got completely and thoroughly soaked through. It was not too bad since the water was warm but as soon as we walked into the hotel lobby and hit the air conditioning, we were freezing and trembling!! I quickly dried off and changed clothes and then we went to the birthday party for
So, she is asleep and I am going to pack it in and we shall see what tomorrow brings as it is Daddy's Birthday.
love to everyone.
sue
Day 4 – June 18, 2005 (Happy Birthday Daddy): Crying Tiger, Poopy Dragon
Sorry this is late but you will soon come to understand our tardiness.
This is the sad story of the Crying Tiger and the Poopy Dragon; grab a tissue now because those with a tender heart are going to need one. Rest assured though, Jasmine is fine. We had a bit of a scare but all is OK now and she is on the road to recovery!!
It all started when Jasmine was trying to figure out how to celebrate Dad's birthday. She must have thought about it and then at three in the morning yesterday she happened upon a solution. Let’s make Daddy's birthday really special.
She loaded her diaper with the foulest green dragon juice that she could muster and she did not stop making this juice for about 24 hours, but back to the beginning of the story.
Dad woke up to a murmuring Jasmine and was met with the strong smell of her gift. We thought that was it and settled back to sleep for a few more hours of precious shut eye, but an hour or so later, wham, another deposit. Ok this seems unusual, but who can say what is normal when we only met three days ago. This one required a major clean up so a bath was drawn and Father and daughter had some bonding moments in the tub. After two bouts of dragon juice, as we came to call it, Daddy was feeling a little low so Jasmine decided to perk him up with a very quiet but directed little “da da”. Oh his heart melted right there. Ok so it was followed by a stream of “da da da da da da da da” but we decided it was a second gift to Daddy.
Well at around 11:00 am, no end to the fountain of dragon juice and noth
ing much going into the other end, we decided to call in the troops. Ali went looking for one of the Moms who happens to be a Paediatric ICU nurse at a
We struggled with her all day and into the night trying to calm her and help her through this. If she was not squirting from one end she was spewing it from the other. The nurse had given us some guidelines on how to monitor her dehydration, tearing, moist mouth and some others. Other parents were coming and going and offering support and Pediatric Electolyte solutions.
But at 9:00 pm there were no more tears coming from our sweet Jasmine and her mouth was tacky and not very moist anymore. The nurse came back and check
ed her again and agreed that now it was getting a little more serious and that we might as well go to the hospital with her. If we waited until the morning it would be more difficult to get an IV into her. If we went tonight, they would have an easier time.
In the middle of this conversation there was a knock on the door. We thought it was another parent coming to offer us some support or give Ali a birthday card as one had been quietly slipped under the door earlier. No, it was the hotel staff with a birthday cake for Ali, at 9:30 at night. A manager and about four clerks walked into the paediatric ward of our hotel room and were all smiles and congratulations to Ali and coo choo coo to Jasmine. Some were trying to pick her up and tickle her stomach, not knowing the tense and emotional moment they had walked in on. I think they were about to break out into a chorus of the “Happy Birthday” song when Ali explained that the baby was sick and we needed them to leave as we were about to go to the hospital. They were horrified that they had intruded and quickly left
the room. I felt sorry for them, they were so enthusiastic. We think they got the date from Ali’s passport when we checked in and must have been so proud to have been able to get this cake for him.
One of the other moms, another Susan, met us in the hallway and asked if I wanted her to come to the hospital with us and I very gladly accepted. The translators met us in the lobby. It was so sad, Jasmine was pretty quiet and limp, looking so unfocussed and dazed, wrapped in a hotel towel. We got in a taxi and headed to the local Maternity and Infant hospital, about five minutes away. The doctor saw us right away and prescribed an IV to replenish her fluids. We had bought one of her juicy diapers with us which he was very interested in seeing. He decided her infection was viral; her fever had been very low-grade all day, so we just had to slow the flow of the juice but still let it get out.
Ali returned to the hotel to get some papers and things that we had forgotten in our panic to get the green monster to the hospital and Sue, Susan and the translator held Jasmine down while the IV needle was inserted. I thought my heart was being broken into millions of pieces. She screamed and found some fluids somewhere in her dry little body for a whole whack of tears. Ali said that when he got out of the taxi on his return to the hospital and was trying to find his way back to us, he heard her screaming the whole way. She quickly settled down again and eventually fell asleep. It took four hours for all the fluids to be dripped back into her tiny body. Susan stayed with us for a few of hours to make sure all was OK and then returned to the hotel at about 1:30. Ali and I stayed until the last drop was in Jasmine and then returned to the hotel with her at 3:30.
We have a photo of Ali with Jasmine at midnight as his Birthday passed into Father’s Day.
At four in the morning, Jasmine filled three diapers with the nasty dragon juice and then fell asleep. The doctor had said this would happen. We gave her a bottle which she threw up and pooped out so we put her in her crib to relax and fall asleep and Ali and I just lay there watching her and crying, feeling so helpless.
She is better today, and is only improving, retaining fluids and getting fussy again so we know she is on the mend.
I can’t wait to see what she has in store for Ali on his next birthday!!
Love to you all and Ali will update you later with today’s activities.
sue
Day 5 – June 19, 2005: Happy Father's Day and Now that’s better
Well it is the end of day five, otherwise known as Father’s Day and mom and daughter are blissfully asleep. After having watched Sue write Day Four’s su
mmary earlier today, it’s my pleasure to pick up where she left off (which was actually part of the way through Day Five) and bring some happy news.
All the help, medication and good advice that we received in the last day or so, together with the astounding resilience of our little fighter finally paid off (much to the relief of the far less resilient mom and dad). Once we managed to stop our little girl from squirting green funk at us, her recovery was as quick as our paediatric nurse had promised it would be! By the end of the day Jasmine came with us to the restaurant for Fathers Day dinner with the group and was actually playing, laughing and rolling around with her mom before bed time! Wow!
Well Jasmine sweetheart, all I can say is that after all the diaper changes in the last couple of days; you owe your dad a few diaper changes of his own when he gets old!!!!
Ok,…..ok,…. I will admit this, that I now understand why new parents are so interested in conversing about their baby’s bodily discharges! So, I will try to spare you any further discussions on this topic.
Jasmine has been keeping me energized by continuing to blurt out “da-da” throughout the day. It is becoming more and more frequent especially since she has noticed that every time she says those words, the bald hairy faced one (aka not mom) gets all excited! Man, she’s got my number already! For now though, mom is the one that she is bonding strongly with. I think it’s partly because dad was the one that was forcing yucky medicine into her during the last day. Sue keeps reassuring me that by the time she is 9 years old the table will turn and it will be “daddy” that will be the favourite. I am already practicing to be able to some day resist the “Daddy,…..will you buy me a pony?”. Well, if she asked today I would somehow get her a herd of them. So, I’ll have to keep practicing.
This evening we went to a,…..well, …Chinese restaurant (of course) for a group Father’s Day dinner. I’ll see if I can fit a photo of all the gleeful fathers in the
Day five folder. The dinner was wonderful and just what we needed after the ordeal earlier.
After dinner, Jasmine had a little playtime with mom and got not-mom jumping up and down by yelling out “da-da” a few times!
Tomorrow is a big day. We will finally get to go to the orphanage (or children’s welfare institute as it is called). We will finally get to see where our precious has spent the first 11 moths of her life. Hopefully, we’ll get to talk to her “nai-nai” (Chinese for grandma) and find out a lot more about our daughter.
So till then, the grateful father of a healthier Jasmine
Ali
Day 6 – June 20, 2005: Trip to the Orphanage
Day 6 – June 20, 2005: Trip to the Orphanage
What an emotional day this was. We had breakfast and then zo
omed onto the bus for the two hour drive to visit the orphanage where Jasmine spent the 1st year of her life. It, of course, was a very hot and humid day. The drive was not very eventful but we passed through some agricultural areas on our way and most of the topo was pretty flat.
We pulled into the gates of the orphanage and the mood of the group changed immediately, it was very quiet and there were a few muffled sobs. The building looked like any of the office towers you find in
When we emerged from the bus we could see the nannies looking out from the windows on all the floors of the orphanage. Jasmine and I joined another mom with her daughter in front of them and we noticed one nanny who was waving and yelling and crying. We could not figure out who she was waving to. We thought it was Jasmine and we kept pointing to both of our daughters but could not decipher her response. Then she saw another little girl and she got even more excited so we had to wait until later to find out who she was looking for.
We were led into a conference room where the Director of the orphanage met us and gave a welcoming speech. We were told that there were 120 children at the orphanage and 20 care takers with 8 other employees that worked at the orphanage, one caretaker for every six children.
If our daughters were found at the gate of the orphanage, as Jasmine was, then we were introduced to the person who had found them. We were able to take a photo with the woman who found Jasmine on July 17th, 2004 when she was about two weeks old.
We were walked around the orphanage and were shown the play rooms that the Half the Sky Foundation had just finished putting together. They were nice big rooms with mats and toys to help the children develop the basic skills that our daughter’s appear not to have. At 1 year of age, Jasmine cannot crawl or walk. She can barely stand with help. She cannot pick up small items like cheerio’s and has poorly developed fine motor skills. She has just learned to roll around on the floor in the last week. When we first put her on her stomach, she arched her back and screamed a lot. I had brought a blue whale toy that you fill with water and it is a flat mat with flat toys inside that move around when you touch the whale. We put this on the floor and her on top of it and now she is pretty good at playing on her stomach and has figured out how to roll onto her back and vice versa. If she is lying down, she still does not have the strength to sit up on her own but her arm strength is enough to pull herself up if she has something to hold onto. So these playrooms and toys are going to be so important
to these kids. Ali and I had organized a fundraiser in
We moved on and went to the nursery floors were there were four nurseries per level and each room had about six babies. We were shown the rooms that our daughters were kept in. Two of the girls were from the first floor and one was from the second floor. Five of the girls were from the third floor and were all from the same room. Jasmine was one of these girls. We were wondering if any of them were from the same room and had spent any time together. We each took our daughters into the room and the caretaker took Jasmine into her arms with a lot of enthusiasm and told us which crib had been hers so we could take a photo. She was not the same woman who had handed Jasmine to us two days ago and was crying the whole time we saw her there. We had wanted to talk to her but she was nowhere to be seen. The room was dark, monotone grey with cribs all on one side of the wall and the box potties on the other side. There was a big bed where a nanny slept and a back room in each nursery room.
Jasmine was fine with the visit. I sat on the stairs and gave Jasmine a bottle of formula. Some of the nannies gathered around and chatted away and just watched Jasmine and I. I have no idea what they were saying but they appeared to be checking out everything I was doing. I was kissing her as she drank her milk and playing with her hands. The director was trying to push us along so I put Jasmine’s bottle down as I stood up and one of the caretakers rushed over and picked it up and shoved it back in her mouth. When I was on my feet I took it from her and she hesitated for a second as she checked the temperature of the bottle. She said something to the ladies gathered around and they all smiled and nodded. I guess it was a good temperature.
We gathered at the gate of the orphanage and the woman who had found Jasmine pointed to where she had been found. It was so emotional to stand there and look at the sad little spot. We took a photo and got on the bus. I cannot adequately describe how moved we were by the whole thing. It is going to take a while to process the day.
We returned to
g bus.
We returned to the hotel and everyone went to their rooms for a rest and then agreed to meet back in the lobby for dinner. At dinner I was talking to one of the other mothers and said that I felt relieved that the orphanage visit was over and how I really felt like we had passed some kind of milestone. She was so happy because she felt the same way and then we discovered that most of the group felt like a big relief. That was the last difficult thing we had to do and the rest of the trip could focus on bonding and getting to know Jasmine. There was still a lot of shopping, touring and then the trip to
Take care,
Sue
Day 7 – June 21, 2005: Halfway Home!!
Today was quiet. We had a pleasant trip to a famous embroidery factory where we bought some of Jasmine's heritage gifts. Some beautiful panels of embroidery with dragons, monkeys (she was born in the year of the monkey!), goldfish and one large one with both a dragon and a phoenix.
Then we visited a park that had beautiful gardens and temples. It was very serene and relaxing to wander through the lovely gardens and displays. We bought some Chinese Zodiac pendants at a small counter, a Rabbit for Sue, a Pig for Ali and a Monkey for Jasmine.
A nice quiet day after all the emotional days we have had this week.
Type to you soon from
el day so will probably be incomm
unicado for a couple of days.
sue
Day 8 – June 22, 2005: Travelling to
Today started out beautifully and ended rather badly.
Ali and Eamon were going to go dancing first thing in the morning. I do not know what time they start, but in a parking lot next to the hotel, there is a crowd that gathers for some ballroom dancing. It was something that Ali and I stumbled upon our first morning here, quite special to watch. Ali announced the night before our Exit Changsha Day that he and Eamon were going to go dancing together the next morning. It occurred to me that it would be even more wonderful if they danced with their daughters. Well, they both loved the idea and though
t that it would be great to do this. Eamon mentioned it to one of the other fathers and we agreed to meet in the lobby at 7:15 in the morning. When we arrived P
eter was already dancing with
We later had breakfast and then Ali stayed at the hotel with Jasmine and played with her while I went to a large shopping centre with three other mothers. We were looking for more baby things and Mandarin jackets for our husbands. We found most of the items we were looking for and then one mom had a great idea. She had been taken out shopping by one of the hotel managers the day before and had been told about a Chinese tradition where the grandparents buy silver charm bracelets for the babies to keep them safe, bring them good fortune and a long life. There were these very cute bracelets with two silver bells and Chinese characters. We each bought one for our daughters and for some presents back home. We rushed back to the hotel and started packing at three o’clock since we had to be out of the rooms and checking out by 4:30 and then on the bus by 5:00. Some of us rushed into the restaurant in the hotel to get some food into our bellies as we really had not eaten anything since breakfast. The flight was not leaving
The drive to the airport was a mix of emotions for us. We do not if or when Jasmine will return to
At the airport, we were quite a spectacle for the crowd that gathered to watch us check in. Probably hoping we were not on their flight!! Everything went smoothly but it just took a long time. Our translator was able to get all the families seats that were together so that no one was separated on the plane from their trusty partners. The looks on the passengers faces as they sat close to us was hysterical; some were amused but many were not!! The flight went well but it was late for the children to be flying and many did not settle in well. We gave them Oval for the gas in their tummies that expands during take off and landing and everyone had a bottle ready for these times too so they could clear the pressure in their ears. Some screamed the whole flight. The very wonderful fellow in front of me did not lower his seat back during the flight but the one in front of Ali did. He had a hard time reaching the bags that held all our necessities for Jasmine and he could not relieve me during the flight so I had to hold her the whole time. Thankfully the flight was only two hours long so it was pretty easy.
We arrived in
Anyway, we finally got to the hotel and checked in at 1:15 am and Jasmine did not settle until 2:00 am. What a night!!!
Day 9 – June 23, 2005: Clinic and Recuperate Day!
Well our day started way too early after the previous evening but there we were in the lobby at 7:45 to go to the International SOS clinic for our appointments. These checkups are required by the Canadian Embassy for the Visas for the girls. They were weighed and measured and then a brief visit with a doctor who evaluated her overall health and development. She did find that Jasmine probably had bronchitis and one of her ears was pink with a discharge so she told us to start her antibiotics. We knew this appointment was coming so we were anxious to ask her about these very things. The paediatrician we saw before we left
The visit took a couple of hours and we were so exhausted we decided to have a very quiet day and just rest in the hotel room until dinner. Jasmine slept the afternoon as did Ali and I was able to get our things organized in the room so we knew where the bottle paraphernalia was and at least her clothes.
We had dinner with three other couples in the hotel restaurant and then to bed for an early night. With all the travelling Jasmine’s routine is pretty upset right now and she is too. It takes a while to get her to settle down for the night. We can’t wait to be back in
Day 10 – June 24, 2005: SHOPPING!!!
We had breakfast in the hotel. Their restaurant in the lobby is too small to handle all the families so they set up a buffet just for us in one of the fancy ballrooms upstairs. The chairs have beautiful cloth covers and the table cloths are quite fancy. The food selection is nothing like the big buffet we had access to in
Our goal today is to buy a stroller for Jasmine. The hotel in
The first area we went to is called
We then tried to find a taxi to take us to the Pearl Market, we were refused by a lot of taxis. We were not sure if it was because of the distance or that we were four adults, two babies, two strollers and a lot of shopping bags already. Finally one fellow agreed to take us but then we realized why the others had refused. It was quite a distance away from where we were and we had to pass through a patch of traffic congestion. They do not get any money on their metre if we are not moving. We also did not realize that this fellow did not have air conditioning. There are several levels of Taxi’s in
At this market there are four floors and as you go higher the stalls and the merchandize is a bit higher quality. The top floor was full of pearl and jewellery boutiques, was quiet and cool so we went there right away to change diapers, give milk bottles and rest for a second. We went into one of the better pearl stores and bought a pearl pendant necklace for Jasmine for her sixteenth birthday as
We got back to the hotel at 3:00 pm and tried to put Jasmine down for a nap. She had a complete meltdown over this and it took us at least an hour to calm her down again. She would be asleep in my arms and the minute she was in the crib she was crying inconsolably again. She was so exhausted and had not had enough sleep in the last three days. She finally napped for a couple of hours and then it was time for dinner. We packed her into the stroller and went to a lovely restaurant around the corner with some of the group and had a great dinner. A rare restaurant with English menus, so each couple picked two dishes and we had a really good feast. Jasmine sat in her stroller the whole time and had a bottle, a bunch of cheerio’s, a lot of steamed egg, and a lot of fried rice. She seems to just want to keep eating now and not stop. We have to gauge how much she has eaten and then slowly try to stop. She has a great signal for more food where she is leaning back and puts her hands up facing her and then pinches her hands together. “Just keep it coming!” is what we imagine she is trying to say. We have great video footage of her doing it. Eventually she will figure out that there will always be food. She always screams when her bottle is finished, even though she has drunk the entire 8 ounces! We have cheerio’s ready and that satisfies her until we cut them off eventually with some toy time.
Back to the hotel and then it took a while to get Jasmine settled but she finally fell asleep at around 10 pm.
Day 11 - June 25, 2005: Rest Day for Jasmine and Sue and to the Great Wall with Ali!
Jasmine was still asleep at 8:00 am and we had to muster to the lobby for 8:45 for our Great Wall visit today. There were other stops planned to a Cloisonné factory, a Jade factory and a “Friendship Market” for more bartering stalls. We decided that it would probably be better if Jasmine just had a regular day today so I stayed with Jasmine and Ali went off on the tour. We will still get photos and a chance to get her more “heritage gifts” but it would have little meaning for her to actually be there at this point.
I sprained my wrist yesterday so am having a painful time since she still prefers Mommy to be holding her than Daddy. Ali ran out and got some Chinese herb patches and bandage before the bus left so at least it is getting some support. The bandage reminds me to hold my wrist a certain way before I pick her up too.
Ali will have to write more when he gets home from his trip as our day has just been filled with bottles, naps, dancing to music and playing. A perfect day for us!!
The Great Wall trip:
Well, what can I say about the tour? The entire experience was a mixture of awe at the beauty of some of the things we saw, with a bit of disappointment of feeling like a herd being pushed through gift shop after gift shop like tourist link sausage.
We began at the jade factory, were after a brief look at some of the carvings being done, we where let loose in a huge space with more jade carvings than any brain could process and told that the bus would be leaving in half an hour. Needless to say not many in our group were ready to make major purchases in such a short time amidst such mind boggling selection. I myself finally did buy a small pendant of a monkey (Jasmine) holding a peach (Sue), only because it appealed to me (knowing that anywhere else I could have actually bartered a much better price). But for anyone with enough time and money who would be interested in some major jade purchases, there were certainly many amazingly beautiful carvings to select from.
We were then off to the Great Wall. Neither pictures nor words do it justice. We all have seen lots of photos and films of the Great Wall. But up close, brick by brick and step by step, it is something breath-taking. Once again, I found it hard to ignore the bus after bus of tourists (and yes I do realize that I was one of them!) they walked into every photo I took. There came a point that I decided rather than looking at the butt end of the sweaty German tourists waddling up the stairs in front of me, I would get off the tourist conveyor belt and explore some of the surrounding shrines. After all, having climbed some of the steppes I wasn’t expecting the hundreds of more steps above to be any different. At that point my day took a major turn for the better. I found that I was almost alone, standing beside the wall, and really getting to enjoy its beauty and majesty and the magical setting that surrounded it. I managed to take some really nice photos and even stop and do my tourist duties by buying a few nick-knacks to bring back for friends and family. A great morning!
We were then taken to the Cloisonné factory (which was also the “Friendship Store” and the place that we had lunch). Once again after lunch I found myself just wondering around the huge warehouse of a store and just enjoying the beauty of the many works of art that were for sale. I am glad that I didn’t buy anything there, as anything that I would have bought, we managed to find in the markets later, were you could actually barter on the price.
As I said, at the beginning, the whole experience was a mixture of savouring the beauty of what I saw while trying to ignore the yucky feeling of being herded! I guess this really was the first time that I had actually done “tour-bus-travel” and I can not see myself doing it for holidays.
But most of all, I missed my monkey and my peach all day and was very glad to get back to them in the afternoon.
Ali
Day 12 – June 26, 2005: Pearls, Peking Duck and Her First Heist?!?
Well it’s the end of day 12. Mom and daughter are asleep after another day of adventures, while we fill time for Jasmine’s Canadian visa to be issued.
We decided to go low key today and not get whipped up in the whirlwind of the group (who where off to do more sight-seeing tours). So with our friends, Eamon and Susan (and their daughter Georgia), our strollers in hand, we took a taxi back to the pearl market, to do a bit more shopping. We went for only a few hours so that we could have the girls back in time for naps to avoid any meltdowns later on. We bought little nick-knacks and souvenirs at the market and had fun bartering for them. The only major purchases that we were making, were a few pearls both for Jasmine and other family. Not really being a “pearl-person”, I was mostly having fun pushing Jasmine around the stores in her stroller while Sue (and Susan) did most of the pearl shopping.
Now, our lovely daughter has, for some reason got a great fascination for plastic bags of all sorts. To this day one of her favourite toys is an empty Huggy’s Wipes plastic bag folded inside a Ziplock bag!!! Go figure! So, it’s fairly easy to entertain her. So here we were in a fancy pearl jewellery store, when I decide to leave with Jasmine while mom keeps looking at more pearls. As we are exiting the store (un-obstructed, I might add), I look down and see jasmine sitting in her stroller chewing on a Ziplock bag with some 100 pearls in it!!!! She had managed to somehow take this bag out of an open drawer (on her level) without me or the sales clerk seeing it! I was so proud! My daughter’s first heist! And it went without a glitch until stupid dad returned the bag of pearls to the store owner who was completely stunned. I can just imagine them eventually missing that bag and reviewing the surveillance tapes at the store. I think I’ll take her shopping for emeralds tomorrow.
We came back to the hotel for her afternoon nap (thievery is tiring work after all) and some wonderful playtime. It has been amazing to see her progress from the quiet, frail thing that we met over a week ago. Her appetite for food is now insatiable; in fact we occasionally have to stop her from eating more. I think it will be a while before she fully realizes that she does not need to compete with others for food and attention. She is getting better everyday at being able to pick herself up while holding our hands (though it’s hard to say when she is dancing in spot and when she is just wobbly on her legs!).
Our evening started on a sour note with yet another poorly planned dinner event by the trip facilitator, a group of five of us decided to opt out. This has been yet another let down by these guys that has left me thinking why exactly are we paying these people, when I could have done a poor job of planning everything for free! Anyhow, we walked to a nearby restaurant for a lovely dinner of Peking Duck (or Beijing Duck I should say) and finished off the evening with a walk and some Baskin and Robbins Ice Cream. Man you should have seen the look on Jasmine’s face (I’ll try to include a photo)!
Two more sleeps till we finally begin our trip home.
Ali
Day 13 – June 27, 2005: Saying Goodbye to
We did more shopping today and then went to Tiananmen Square. There is a huge version of China's flag flying in the square and every evening at dusk, a large crowd gathers and there is a ceremony around the lowering of the flag. It was a very powerful evening for us and to be with our friends Sue and Eamon made it even more special. Jasmine and Georgia saw the setting of the sun and the lowering of the flag together on their last night in China.
Day 14 – June 28, 2005: We are Leaving on a Jet Plane…
We Are Home!!!!
I am so happy to say that we are home. We got home on Tuesday on schedule but had no internet at the house for a few days. We are now connected and can communicate with the world again.
Dad and Celia and our renovation contractor worked really hard to get the house in shape and we really appreciated their efforts. There was a lot to do. But we came home to two working bathrooms and a bed to sleep on so we were happy. Her nursery was set up before we left and still needs some organizing but it will get done.
The eleven hour flight home went very smoothly. We gave her some Ovol for the gas in her stomach during take-off and landing and a bottle to help clear the pressure in her ears. Some Dimetapp helped the congestion in her ears and eventually some baby Gravol to help her sleep. We were given a bulkhead seat so there was a baby bassinet for her to sleep in. All eight babies on the flight did very well despite the worried looks from the other passengers when we were at the gate before boarding the flight.
We had a lot of sleepless nights while we all adjusted to the new time zone. We flipped Jasmine’s clock by about 15 hours but four days later, she is now sleeping through the night and taking her naps so she is finally settled. Now Sue just has to sleep through the night now.
She has a bit of an ear infection so we are still trying to clear that up. We finally found a good doctor the other day and we have to go back to see her to make sure the antibiotics are working. She does not seem to be in pain from it but scratches at her ear a lot.
Today is Monday and Dad and Celia flew home today with much sadness. They fell in love with Jasmine and I had to make sure she stayed in the car and was not slipped into one of their carryon bags before they left. We are going to miss them. Dad made a lot of wonderful meals and cosmopolitans while he was here and Celia spent a lot of time playing with Jasmine.
Ali had to go back to work today and that was sad too. He is not ready to go back yet and misses his Jasmine time. But someone has to go to work so we can keep her in Cheerio's for the rest of her life.
Ali’s Aunt held a wonderful Birthday/Welcome to the Family party for Jasmine on Saturday and she was greeted with a lot of joy into the family. It was so wonderful to see everyone again. Thank you so much for the wonderful time to everyone that was there.
I want to thank everyone for joining us at this site to follow us on our trip. We received so many happy and encouraging emails that meant so much to us. I will now have time to start replying to everyone in the next few weeks.
Thanks so much to everyone and we love you all.
Sue, Ali and Jasmine.
A Note from Grandpa:
Darling Jasmine:
We had a sad flight home from
And you'd like
Anyway, for now we’ve had to make do with second best, looking at all the photo we took of you, but they don't chatter and clap hands and give high fives as you do. So we've decided to put up a big tent to live in on the front lawn of your house, in order to continue to get our fair share of kisses from your gorgeous mouth, and high fives that always come accompanied with a big grin.
We hope the Cheerio’s supply is holding up, and that you don't have to have too many half-bottles (as opposed to the full bottles you'd always get in
Au revoir, darling Jasmine, with many kisses from Your devoted slaves,
Nana Celia and Grandpa
PS - say hello to what'stheirnames - you know, those people who live in your house.
