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Erica and whoever else is reading, we will be here overnight. Our 6 hours were up about 9:30PM The doctor was still here and came by to discuss what he saw. Kim will blog with all the correct terms on what is going on. Her pressures were ok. They will discuss her case in the next month we were told. So no rush on surgery. As you would expect keeping her still for 6 hours has been impossible. Her insision on her leg has bled some but they don’t think it will be a problem.
More to come from Kim
We are curently still waiting for them to call and tell the nurses to give Rachel her “relaxing” medication. Then we will go with her to the procedure area where they will give her some flavored gas then 2-4 hours later we will be waiting for her in recovery when she wakes up.
There is a very young baby ahead of us and then we are next. We have been here since 6:30 a.m. and hopefully will get to go home today. If not it will be tomorrow. Just thought I would put an update on here.
Above is YouYou (pronounced yo-yo) with Rachel while we were in China.
Please join us in praying for YouYou and her family as she will have open heart surgery tomorrow. You can click on the link to the left to read their blog regarding the surgery.
Tommy
We are all asleep (except me) in Hong Kong. Very nice hotel overlooking the Harbor. Hong Kong is Beautiful at night and I actually wish we had more time here to see more of it. Also wish we had a suite like this at the Victory (we were supposed to but for some reason couldn’t get one).
We get up early and head to the airport. I plan on blogging about our travel plans at some time, but we have a very tight connection in Atlanta again! Really stupid to plan that in my opinion Hopefully we will make it, and be home soon!
Kim is out shopping. AGAIN! 
(retail therapy) Rachel is was napping. Kim wanted me to post a few pictures. We went to a “toy market” today. 7+ story mall that looked like Oriental trading company exploded.
After lunch we took some pictures of Rachel Suhui and youyou in the park and also on the red couch. Red couch pictures are a tradition in Chinese adoption.
Rachel and Clara
Rachel
Clara Youyou (yo-yo)
Caleb was bribed.
Youyou decided to hug Suhui
a Nixon fan! (very common pose here)
Rachel poking head around column.
She is watchign some new year special on TV and singing along. Her volume goes up each chorus.
Tonight we go on a River cruise.
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BTW her behavior seems to be noticably better today. We had only one time that she HAD to stay in her stroller and wanted out and getting those new PJ’s off her this morning wasn’t easy, but she is learning. Our guide says it is good that she greives out loud and shares what is on her heart instead of being withdrawn. That she gets it out and soon is back to being happy. That is a good perspective.
I am sure Kim will wake up in the middle of the night and post about today as well. But I will give you my 2 cents while I am waiting on photos to upload so that I can charge batteries for tomorrow and play at making another “video”.
This morning we and the Hammond’s went to the Zoo. We were driven around in a large golf cart kind of thing to see the whole layout then walked most of it again later. As we were driving we would see an animal and Rachel Suhui would squeal and say in Chinese “Beautiful!”. As we approached a lake with swans both black and white she yelled “OHHH little Chickens!!!” The driver was very amused asking why in the world she would think they were little? She loved the animals and we bought her and Caleb suffed tigers. She spent much of the rest of the day trying to scare people with her tiger.
Rebecca told us that she thinks Suhui developmentaly is ahead of normal in terms of intellegence and also that she is VERY bossy. We knew the bossy part! She was bossing the driver today as well yelling GO! She does get out of breath very easily and tires from walking very far. Heaven help us when that is corrected!
We came back to the island for lunch and all went to Lucy’s which is very near the White Swan Hotel. We went first into the White Swan to see the lobby. It is MUCH nicer than here at the Victory, but from all accounts our rooms are much better and cheaper. The walk between the two is only a minute or two. Lucy’s is western food. Suhui (hard to call her Rachel, because innocent lamb doesn’t seem yet to fit) showed a little of her button pushing or the Hammonds. she started by throwing her plastic chair then later kept eating flowers that were falling off the trees. Can’t really remember the rest of it. Kim said the hamburger tasted strange and couldn’t eat it. I guess the cheese covered mine. It was REALLY nice to have sweet tea.
Kim went shopping after that while we played “DON’T SPIT IN BABA’S FACE” in the room. Which is followed by how many kisses can I give you. Apparently pretty classic behavior to see what it takes to make you explode. We are learning when it gets too much to get away if you can, go in the bathroom / let her cry. At least that is what I think I am learning. I asked Kim if she for some unknown reason might have prayed for patience and this was our way of learning it.
We ate Ti food tonight (how do you spell that? any way it was good but Caleb had Subway…I think he made the better choice.
I just realized as I was putting some pictures into a set on Flikr that it has been a week. We have had this tasmanian devil of a little girl in our lives for a week now! Despite all the challenges I can honestly say it doesn’t seem that long. A week ago she ran arround a table and changed our lives forever.
Eli and Titus…I miss you both so much! I will not be too much longer now until we are home. Caleb misses you guys and Molly too. Tomorrow we go to a toy market in the morning! And I think (unless my days are mixed up) we will talk to you guys on Skype in our morning your afternoon.
Now a few pictures from the day.
Arron asks “How much do I have to pay for you to take this snake off my son?”
Caleb chose to take his picture with the exotic Dalmation.
Suhui dragging her feet in the stroller…a little trick she likes to do
I love my tiger.
The gang eating at Lucy’s
Naptime
new PJ’s and ready for bed!
I got a Sword!
It got quiet for a minute, it should have been a sign. The latest look in marker makeup.
Today started off with us having the morning off. We did get up and talk to folks at home on Skype. We have decided to take a break from that as it is actally making it worse for Caleb. We REALLY wish we hadn’t brought him. I know that everybody says they remember the good and it is a great experience but our little boy is miserable. He is also now sick, running a low grade fever and that on top of things makes it even harder. So, my vote is, you want your kids to go to China, send them when they are college age. Seeing the world is a great thing, but you need some perspective to really get much of what you are seeing.
Caleb and I went to the store this morning, I had promised him we would get him another remote control car, Rachel broke his first one. (Eli nad Titus, you better be placing locks on all the doors, this girl is destructive).
We got two so that we could race them around the hall of the hotel. Which we did later in the day until the batteries ran out. We also stopped to get some groceries. We passed on the chicken feet on a stick, Octopus, etc. But did get some Oreos and come of the little milks that Suhui likes so much. (somebody asked about the name. We are calling her Suhui right now we will slowly add the Rachel and then eventually drop Suhui.)
Then it was time to go siteseeing and check the notory stuff on the adoption.
Suhui wanted to hold GuhGuh’s hand at the museum.
It has been a very stressful 24 hours. Last night I had Suhui, and everything was going great till bed time. I made her stay in bed and she is so spoiled that it was awful. Today she was still not wanting to have anything to do with me. That makes it hard on me but also on Kim, because she wants her to do everything.
We didn’t really get to enjoy the museum due to being exasperated with Suhui and ready to either kill each other or just crawl into a corner and wish we were home. But that I think made us talk more and clear up some of our frustrations. I just share this because I am 100% convinced that everyone is a mess. In someway we are all a mess and maybe somebody else will not feel alone in the stress of adoption.
Tonight we all went down to eat at the Buffet in our hotel. It wasn’t that good tonight. Caleb feeling sick and then Kim had gotten Rachel some Chicken she was wanting and then after she sucked on the whole peice the way she does (it sad to watch she eats the whole thing spitting out bones after getting every bit of meat and sinue out of the joints) she spit it out intact. Kim then realized it was a CHICKEN HEAD!!!!! That will kill your appetite. Sweet little one, but she eats like a goat.
Tonight we thought we would just let Rachel go till she dropped. We told her that we were very glad she was in our family, that we would neither one ever leave her, that we loved her, that she was safe with us. She nodded yes at most of that, but didn’t think I loved her. That is so hard to see.
Later I was trying to get her to bed and she screamed and screamed and bit and punched finally was willing to laydown by herself and went to sleep.
The calm before the storm.
But now she is sweetly sleeping as is everybody else. We will have to start over tomorrow, Kim needs her to let me carry her and unfortunetly we can’t leave her unwatched in the room and certainly not anywhere else. She would literally run away in a crowd and would do who knows what in the room. She is trying so see what she can get away with and has any number of attention getting behavior that aren’t really appropriate. Either of us telling her no gets met with whining, rocking, or an all out fit. I expected withdrawn, we got the other end of the spectrum.
But for all the difficulty, I told Kim tonight thank you, because without her desire, I wouldn’t have this beautiful little girl in my life. Kim said to wait till tomorrow, I would probably be saying “this was YOUR idea!” Then we both agreed that down the road she better be something extraordinary! Now don’t tell me she already is. We know that.
Tomorrow we go pick up some laundry, check out of the hotel, visit the Yellow Crane Tower, go to Suhui’s finding spot and then to the airport. We are praying that the change of senery will bring some relief. An occasional familar face, people to talk to and a bit easier time getting around. I am hoping the plane ride will help Suhui to know we are taking her with us. We have been told it will take a very long time for that to click in her head, but I hope this will be an early milestone.
Our biggest needs right now are your prayers that we can find the right mix of her having some limits as she apparently has been living with absoluetly NONE out of fear for her heart. That we will figure out how to set those limits with her. And that we can continue to work together on setting those limits.
Well this is Tommy. I have been going to sleep with Caleb around 9 Pm each night and seem to always wake around 3 am. But wake feeling rested.
I thought I might share some of the impressions I have had of China, that are things that are different from home.
Here is evidence of the greatness of Air Jordan. This is at one of the stalls set up to sell to tourists. I thought it was funny.
China has a distinct smell. The food, the linens, the air all have this smell. I don’t think it is the water, but probably the air. Of course we have only been in two GIGANTIC Cities. The smell is sort of like an old break shop if you remember that asbestos smell. It is a metallic/sweet smell. Some of it may be the incense. It isn’t at all offensive, although I don’t like it.
Wuhan which you probably have never heard of is larger than ANY city in the US except for NYC. So we have visited 3 of the world’s largest cities in less than a week. Wuhan seems at first impression to be more spread out and less dense than Beijing. The number and size of old apartements that resemble eastern block countries buildings in Beijing is staggering. They are very close together.
The air quality in Wuhan seems to be much worse than in Beijing. our hotel room is very nice and on the 19th floor. the windows were open with the heat on when we arrived. looking down to the street you might suspect a nearby fire of LARGE magnitude. But the buildings as Kim has described are all lit very nicely.
Side note, if you have a choice visit Beijing when it is warmer. WOW it was cold!
well better go. I have to post some pictures for Kim and make sure all our batteries are charged for PICTURES of Rachel!
We will very soon meet her and as our guide said “maybe you will cry?” And I thought yeah, that is probably more than a maybe.
This rescue mission is about to reach a climax! I can hardly wait.
We should be able to post a quick picture or two late on your Sunday night midnight or so. But Monday morning when most of you are checking in on blogs you will see her little face beside us.
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addition: the hotel in Beijing had not soft but fairly soft mattresses the ones here are what we had heard about. Basicaly thing of a box spring, not the real kind with springs but the cheap kind that is a box with a hard flat top. put a sheet on that and you have our beds!
I should be asleep, but my internal clock woke me. It is 1:30 in the morning here. I’ve been up about an hour trying to get to wordpress which is blocked in this country apparently. Thanks to Amanda we found a work around. Sooo glad.
I’ve set things so anyone can comment and we would love to hear from you, we are a long way from home and for a week or so we will not see anyone else we know. Looking forward to meeting up with Hammond family in a little over a week.
it took about 48 hours from the time we left home till the time we got to China!!! Caleb didn’t sleep on the plane and did very well until the end. He was so tired. He had been up over 24 hours by the time we got him in the bed at the hotel. Our room is very nice.
Our Guide whose name is Gabby got us checked in and rearranged our schedule for us. Very helpful. The staff here is overly helpful. It took us a while to figure out the lights in the room. you have to insert your key to turn the power on. Who knew?
well our work around is back so let me post this and then see if I can add some pictures.
after figuring out wordpress is blocked in China (thanks Phil) and finding a work around (thanks Amanda) all while I should be sleeping, I got to wordpress and wrote a post and then it was eaten and now the work around isn’t working. I am posting this through facebook. So no pictures for now.
We made it! it took 48 hours from when we left home, but we made it. Caleb did great on the long, long, long plane ride. Until the end he watched the tv and played games. But he was up over 24 hours by the time we got him in bed. He and Kim are sleeping now as I need to be. But my clock is messed up in my head.
in the morning (night for you reading) we will tour Beijing and see the Forbidden place, Temple of Heaven and other sites.
Please leave a comment, it hopefully we will be back up and running and can read them. We get them as emails so it is nice to hear from home.
Going to bed again.
Tommy
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