Our Family Adventures: Rough start but getting better

It is now Wednesday night here in Kunming, which is early Wednesday morning back home in the western hemisphere. Our first night and the following day with Li Rose were pretty rough. We had some miscommunications with the orphanage on her diet, and this resulted in very little sleep for Li Rose and her new parents. We were able to get some answers last night after a late evening visit to the orphanage, and so last night went MUCH better, and today was a great day.

Yesterday (Tuesday), we went and visited the orphanage that Li Rose spent the first six months of her life before moving to a foster family. It was a very nice visit and we were impressed with the orphanage. We will have more updates about that when we are back home.

Today (Wednesday) was a day off from touring for our family, and so we spent a leisurely morning in our hotel room, and we even had a “late” breakfast. We went down for breakfast at 8:00am! Normally we have been up before breakfast starts at 6:00am because the short people around here seem to think that the food is best when the kitchen staff have not had time to set it all out yet.

After late morning/early afternoon naps, we all went across the street to Green Lake Park. Green Lake itself is quite large, and there are bridges and platforms crisscrossing it that people have set up stands to sell stuff. People also gather at the lake to sing, play music, and dance together. It was quite interesting seeing a group of what appeared to be about 40 women all over the age of 50 dancing to Ricky Martin music (there were many groups all over dancing to other music as well).

Another interesting thing about Green Lake Park is that seagulls come to this area for the winter. The seagulls fly here (southwestern China) all the way from Siberia (northern Russia). What makes this even more interesting is that Kunming is more than 5,000 feet above sea level, but there are literally thousands of seagulls occupying the lake. Josh and Li Rose had a great time watching daddy throw bread to the seagulls, and Josh even got into the fun by throwing bread as well.

Walking around Green Lake Park also was a different kind of experience for us. We remember reading as part of our adoption education something called “Being a Conspicuous Family.” The real point of this was that when you adopt, especially when you adopt someone who does not look like you, that you have a conspicuous family. You tend to stand out and people notice because you are different. Not everyone who notices that you are different have good feelings about this. Well we definitely are a conspicuous family just being here. Josh alone attracts a lot of attention with his blonde hair, blue eyes, and fun personality. He loves to say hi and bye to people, and everyone thinks that he is just a beautiful kid. Then you add in Li Rose, and people do double and triple takes when we go by. Also Asian culture is different than western culture. Where in the west, people might take a second look, then go about their business with good or bad thoughts, here in the east, people make comments, ask questions, take pictures, ask to have pictures taken with Josh or all the family, pinch cheeks, poke noses, ask to hold them, etc. In fact, if we stood still for more than a few seconds, we would draw a crowd of people! It is hard to explain without actually being there and seeing it. The crowds that would gather though were always smiling and laughing and asking questions (we think about if Li Rose is ours, and if we got her here in China).

We all had fun, and then we stopped at a local restaurant and got some Chinese food (or should I just call it food, since we are in China?) to go, and ate it picnic style in our hotel room. Boy was it yummy! Josh and Li Rose ate until their tummies poked out. They are now both down in their beds.

Speaking of Josh, we have just been very impressed and thankful about how exceptionally well he has done with the whole traveling and getting a new sister. He has his toddler moments, but he has been very good. He likes to bring things over to us when Li Rose is upset, and brings her snacks when she is on the bed. Once he came up to her on the bed and put his head on her shoulder, and she just beamed! They seem to be forming a very nice bond already. Last night when he woke up in the middle of the night, his first question was “where is the baby?”

Li Rose is a very sweet little girl. She is starting to smile much more readily, and when she gets excited she does what we call her “happy dance.” It is hard to describe, but is fun to watch. Her little laugh is also adorable, and she likes to be tickled. She is starting to coo and babble some more too, and she is starting to recognize us more, and greet us with a smile, and look to us when she needs comfort or protection. Please pray that this bonding process continues well. She seems to have some developmental delays, as is expected with any institutionalized child, but we are already seeing her achieve milestones that she was not doing when we got her even two days ago. She seems to be a very graceful girl, and she likes to look at her hands. She does not seem to be a very picky eater with solid foods, and will eat both American and Chinese food with gusto.

Well that is it for now. Now on to what many of you have been waiting eagerly for… more pictures!