Asking for Prayers

Monday and Tuesday were sightseeing and shopping days here in Guangzhou. Monday we went to a local park . It is a holiday this week in China (Mon-Wed) so there are a lot more people out and about then on a normal day. The park was crowded with people enjoying the outdoors. We saw groups line dancing and many others playing Chinese hacky-sack. We also stopped by a mall for the first of two shopping excursions here in Guangzhou. It was at this stop that we realized Lottie did not seem to be feeling well. She became pretty irritable and fell asleep on the way back to the hotel. We put her down for a nap hoping it was just exhaustion and that she would wake up feeling better.

 

Lottie continued to feel bad throughout the rest of the day and started running a fever after her nap. She was pretty fussy the rest of the night and REFUSED to take any medicine. We tried every trick we knew to get some Tylenol in her system but, as we saw at the medical appointment, Lottie is a fighter!

At breakfast Tuesday morning, we attempted to hide medicine in her normal breakfast porridge, in yogurt, in a spoonful of jelly, and in some baby food. NOTHING WORKED! She did not have much of an appetite and refused to eat all of those things we tried hiding her medicine in. Can we say stubborn!!! We think we got just a tiny bit of Tylenol in her system Tuesday morning and headed off to the Guangzhou zoo with another family. Lottie loves to ride in her stroller and it is the only thing that seemed to calm her down throughout the day, so we decided walking around the zoo might be better than her fussing in the hotel room all morning. She did well at the zoo and was content as long as she was moving. The zoo was crowded, but we were able to see most of the animals and enjoyed just walking around some. We made sure to say, "Roll Tide," to the elephant and, "BOOOOO," to the tigers.
 

 

 
Lottie continued to feel bad throughout the day and ran fever off and on all day too. You can tell she is missing that little sparkle in her eyes in the pictures we took today and we definitely didn't get any smiles out of her. She cried and fussed all day and was not able to nap very well either. She hasn't had an appetite all day, but has at least been drinking water and pedialyte regularly. We went ahead and started her on an antibiotic we brought with us to hopefully knock out any infection she might be fighting. With all of her symptoms, I am wondering if it is her ears bothering her. We will press on with the antibiotic and tylenol again tomorrow and pray our sweet girl comes back out!

I can't even describe to you how we have had to get her to take any medicine. It is quite the circus. She does NOT like it to say the least! Let's just say Chad has had his fingers bitten hard several times as he is prying her mouth open while I squirt some medicine in her mouth and wait for her to swallow.

Please pray that she will begin to feel better. Pray she will sleep well, eat better, and have relief from whatever may be bothering her. Pray also for us as we care for a sick, fussy baby we can't communicate with. We know the Great Physician and pray He will get all the glory in her improvement.

Day of Rest

Today was a very restful day allowing us to catch up from such a crazy weekend.  With no appointments this morning, we decided to let Lottie sleep in as long as she needed.  We ended up having to wake her after all at 9:00am so we could make it down to breakfast!  We walked to China's version of Wal-Mart with the other Lifeline families for things we needed and grabbed lunch on our way home.  Lottie LOVES riding around in her stroller checking everything out.  Our only scheduled outing today was a dinner cruise down the Pearl River.  We boarded the boat and enjoyed dinner with our friends before heading up to the top floor to check out all the sights.  The city was so pretty all lit up and the weather was perfect for enjoying the cruise.  Our guide, who has taken dozens of Lifeline families on this same cruise, gave us the heads up to head back downstairs for a "show."  There was a clown with balloons for the kiddos juggling and doing other tricks.  She had our little ones mesmerized and put on a pretty good show for us all.

 

Medical Exam and New Friends!

Saturday was a tougher day for us.  As part of the clearance process for her visa, Lottie had to have a medical exam.  Our group headed to the appointment Saturday morning after breakfast.  The doctors and nurses checked her ears, mouth, and eyes.  Then they took her clothes off and looked over her body comparing it to the notes in her medical file given to us at her referral back in November.  They asked us to identify what we knew her special needs to be and asked us a few other questions about her condition.  They weighed and measured her and saved the worst part for last.  Any child over the age of 2 has to have a TB test for their visa clearance.  Lottie met that by one day!  They do a blood draw to test for TB and make you send your child into the room without you.  Leaving us for a room full of strangers was already pretty scary for Lottie, then they have to take blood on top of that.  She entered the room with two nurses and a few minutes later one came out and got three more nurses to join them.  We could hear her screaming and obviously giving them fits trying to get her blood!  Our little 17 pound Lottie was putting up a BIG fight!  They finally finished and brought her back to us.  She was just exhausted from fighting and thankfully relaxed pretty quickly once she was back with us.

 

The rest of the day was actually very pleasant, and we were glad to have the medical appointment behind us.  We toured an area of Guangzhou that has been totally transformed and remodeled over the last ten years.  When Guangzhou got the bid to host the 2010 Asia Games, they began a HUGE building project to accommodate the games and created a really nice area right in the center of town.  We saw the opera house, the stadium, and the tallest TV tower in the world.

 

After a good afternoon nap for Lottie, we spent the rest of our day exploring our hotel and making new friends.  Lifeline has put us up in a beautiful hotel that is the nicest place we have EVER stayed.  It is in a great area with many places within walking distance to enjoy.  We are also blessed to be spending this second week in China with two other Lifeline families wrapping up their adoptions.  The touring and appointments we have this week will be done as a group and it has been refreshing to be with other like-minded families.

Happy Birthday Lottie!

 

Happy 2nd Birthday Lottie!  We are thrilled to have been able to spend Lottie's birthday with her and had been praying that direction for months.  God is so good to bless us with that gift.  Lottie's birthday pretty much revolved around our preparation for and travel to Guangzhou.  We spent the morning packing up our bags and playing in the hotel room.  We ventured out for lunch and a quick walk before meeting our guide to check out of the hotel.  Before heading to the airport, we had to get Lottie's passport and final pieces of important paperwork to take with us.  Our guide, Ring, brought Lottie some birthday cookies to have a quick celebration before we left.  We are so thankful for our guides in Fuzhou who helped us through each step of the China side of our adoption!

 

 

We spent several hours at the airport waiting for our 7:30pm flight.  Poor Lottie was exhausted because she did not get a nap but sweet thing did not want to give it up.  She also was not a fan of sitting still.  Chad ended up walking her in the stroller up and down the airport concourse for a LONG time.  She fell asleep for just a few minutes before it was time to board.  We were pretty nervous about the plane ride, especially because Lottie was very fussy and upset right before boarding.  However, she calmed down and behaved very well on the plane.  She did not sleep any, but we were able to find enough things to keep her occupied for the couple of hours we were in the air.  Upon boarding the plane, we were surprised when a flight attendant brought a small cake to our seat in celebration of Lottie's birthday!  We were very impressed with the hospitality of Xiamen Airline.

 

We arrived in Guangzhou fairly late and by the time we got settled in at our BEAUTIFUL hotel, it was about 11:30pm.  Lottie was beyond exhausted but ended up sleeping very well.  Thank you all for praying for us as we traveled with her and thank you to everyone who helped to celebrate Lottie's birthday in the U.S. while we are away!  It was a successful day but we were more than grateful to see our bed at the end of a long day.

Thursday Tourism

Today we visited Panda World!  There are pandas living in an exhibit just five minutes from our hotel right in the middle of the city.  Our tour started with a red panda show where the workers had one red panda do a number of tricks.  It was hilarious and Lottie seemed to enjoy it!

 

 

We walked on to see the traditional pandas.  There were probably a total of 5 all in separate exhibits. Our guide told us they used to do shows with them too, but now they are just "fat and lazy."  It was still neat for us to see because neither of us had seen pandas before.
 

 

After nap time, we took Lottie for a walk around the lake outside of our hotel.  Apparently, we are quite the attraction here ourselves.  We get A LOT of stares and points our way. People think it is very interesting to see two white people with a Chinese baby.  Several try to snap pictures on the sly while others just stop us and take a picture, even trying to get their children to stand with us in the picture. Ha!  I wish I knew what they were saying!

We had another great day and look forward to celebrating Lottie's birthday on Friday by taking her on her first airplane ride!  We are headed to Guangzhou after we pick up her passport Friday evening.  Hopefully we will check in with the blog once we are settled there over the weekend.  This flight is only about an hour and half, but please pray that Lottie will be comfortable and happy.

Play Day Wedensday

Wednesday started with Lottie's first taxi ride (they don't use car seats here) and she seemed to enjoy all of the honking and swerving! We headed to a really cool part of town that had all kinds of shopping and enjoyed strolling in and out of stores for a couple of hours. It was very pleasant outside and Lottie loved being out of the hotel. Our guide took us to McDonald's where we introduced Lottie to her first Happy Meal. Looks like she will fit right in with Abigail and Luke! The afternoon was pretty rainy so it limited our activities. Fortunately, there is a bowling alley in the basement of our hotel! Chad schooled me in a round while Lottie watched all of the excitement. She got to try it herself on the last frame!

 

Typically on an adoption trip you spend one day visiting your child's orphanage and seeing their "finding spot" where they were abandoned (usually Thursday). Unfortunately, we found out when we got here that Lottie's orphanage and finding spot are about four hours away (one way). Our guide was willing to arrange that visit for us, but we decided it would be best not to make that journey. Lottie only spent her first 6 months in that orphanage and we were not going to be able to meet her foster parents (who live in a separate small village even further from the orphanage) while we were out there. That helped us make the decision to not go see it since it is so far away. As much as I would like to see where she was found and have that picture for her as she grows up as a key to her beginning, we think the trip itself would be asking a lot of her the day before we will be putting her on a plane to travel to Guangzhou.

Thank you for your continued prayers. We are having a blast getting to know our girl!