My on-line friend fellow China Mom, Cynthia, is in China right now adopting her 6 year old son (just 11 days older than our Irene is now)! I am LOVING reading her blog and following her journey. A couple of things brought back specific memories of our trips to China to adopt our three daughters.
First, there is a picture of Cynthia's younger daughter jumping on the hotel bed. That one brought to mind our trip to adopt Irene (then 4 years and 8 months of age). Irene's jumping, her fall, lots of blood-soaked hotel towels, Chris taking Irene to the hospital (in Nanchang, Jiangxi, PR China) for 3 stitches (the equivalent of 6 to 7 stitches in the USA) and her banging her head on a glass coffee table and breaking the stitches open again in Guangzhou and Chris taking her to the hospital there.
Here is Irene in her little net hat which kept the gauze bandages in place. (OK. That was what it was intended to do. It didn't work very well.)
Moral of the story? Try not to let your kids jump on the hotel beds in China. And, in our case -- pay more attention to your children than to the chops (name stamps) salesperson who is visiting your hotel suite.
The other memory that Cynthia brought to mind involved the fact that her new son tries to get away from their hotel room and "go home." He runs for the door. He attempts to climb out the window. He sleeps in his clothes and shoes -- ready to LEAVE at any moment. (This is all NORMAL, by the way.)
When we went to adopt Janie, she was 2 years and 3 months of age. She was sooooooo sad, and she cried the most quiet and sad tears. She was truly melancholy. Having met her foster grandma (PoPo) twice (she approached me secretively when we visited the orphanage on Janie's trip, and we got to meet her in a much more open and official way when we visited the orphanage again during Irene's trip) I now understand Janie's grief in leaving her.
ANYWAY -- Janie would go to the hotel door and reach up and cry and cry and cry. One time, she walked us to the coat closet and motioned for us to give her her new coat and snow pants (her NEW ones, not any of the 7 top layers or 5 bottom layers she was wearing when she arrived to us on Gotcha Day), along with her new tennies (not the really cute orange boots she arrived in) and her new mittens. We dutifully helped her put them on. Then she was able to willingly sleep through the night.
Yes - clothed in her outdoor gear.
To this day, the following photo is one that can pull my heart right into my throat. Love sometimes takes a while to grow between adopted kids and their new parents. But, Janie had me at "Hello" -- or at least by the time this photo was taken:
1 comment:
Beautiful Memories! I had forgotten about Irene's net hat! Too adorable! But Janie is precious in her new clothes that gave her the comfort to sleep. Thinking back on those first hours into days brings back a flood of emotions.
Post a Comment