Home Again Home Again
The last few days have been a whirlwind! Let me catch you up a bit, but start by saying we are happy to be home! We loved China though and look forward to returning…
The big bummer of the trip was that Wed night (last night in Guangzhou) we got deathly ill. We ordered teriyaki beef stir fry from room service (a Marriot hotel!) and spent the night puking. Rick was considerably better on Thursday morn and was able to run out and pick up a few last minute things. I was stuck in bed! Was so hard to not even be able to take care of Sophie. Luckily she took her power naps and gave me a chance to rest up. She is sweet too – when she was up and I was lying down on the bed, she came and layed her head next to mine. Only for a minute of course, but it was a sweet gesture. It was as if she was as sorry as I was that I couldn’t get up and play and lug her around town! The manager called while I was sleeping and said that to make it up to us he would like to send up food and chocolate. This struck me funny. My stomach was churning and gross and he wanted me to eat more hotel food. Oh well. He did send up fruit (which we just left there) and chocolate truffles which we put in a baggie and enjoyed later on the plane coming home.
We headed to Hong Kong on Thursday eve and stayed one night there (saw nothing, just slept and left – big waste of time in my opinion!). Friday we headed home. Funny thing is that we left at 1pm on Friday China time and arrived at 2:30pm Friday Denver time! Only took 1 hour! That 1 hour was actually a pretty long 20 hours of traveling all said and done!
We arrived to a wonderful homecoming party at the airport though!! So nice to see familiar faces upon arrival! Thanks to those who came. We hope to see more of you soon!
We have been home for a day and a half and so far so good. Sophie should have her days and nights mixed up, but at this point I am thinking she might not! We got home around 4pm Friday (I think) and we kept her up ‘til 8pm (almost her normal bedtime except that to her it was more like 7am!). We gave her a bottle and rocked her in her pretty chair that was delivered while we were in China and she went to bed in her crib. She woke up crying several times though. She actually wasn’t quite awake – or I should say she went back to sleep IMMEDIATELY when we picked her up. She usually sleeps through the night easily so this just seems extra needy to us. All new bed and room and house and even all new mommy and daddy! Amazing to think we have only had her for 13 days! The first couple of nights in China, we put her in our bed when she was upset. She would roll frantically over us in her sleepiness. She gripped on me so tight and wouldn’t let go and felt every bit of me as she rolled back and forth and across ways too. It is hard to explain what she was doing. Well, last night after rocking her for 4 hours straight (I finally decided that it was more important that she sleep then where she sleep), I moved her to our bed and she did that roll thing again. It seemed a bit regressive to me – but understandable for sure so we just let her do it even though it is awful for us!
Today she played a little, we went outside a little (I heard sunshine is good for jet lag/time adjustment) and she slept a ton. Couldn’t believe that she slept so much since she really slept a lot the night before. Even though she slept longer then normal for her naps, her naps were at normal times. Then tonight she went down at 9pm. However, she is requiring that reassurance again tonight. Less of it though.
It is hard to imagine what she has been through in these past 2 weeks. We chose to do this, but she had no say. Now I think it is the best thing for her to be with us here in the US, but still, for a little person to experience all these changes – it is just unimaginable! My niece is 10 mos and it is hard to imagine her switching homes and parents at this point! Sophie’s foster parents obviously cared for her very well so even though their standard of living is different then ours, she was ok in China. We got pix developed today and finally got to see the orphanage (foster home in this case of course) camera ones. We sent a shoebox of goodies ahead of us to her before we got to China and we included a disposable camera and asked them to take pix of her in her environment in China and return the camera to us (this is a pretty common thing for adopting parents to do but you never know if you will get the camera back or not). We did get it and were anxious to see what was on it. We were hoping for pix of the foster parents, but no luck. But we do see her in her home which is much fancier then I expected! The couch has tassels and fringe and they have a nice flat screen TV!! It isn’t a fancy home by our standards, but by Chinas, it is. It is also very clean looking and Sophie looks happy in some of the pix. This surprised me because they didn’t send us any happy pix before we got there. She always looked sad. She is holding a stuffed animal in some of the pix and smiling big. She loves stuffed animals and that is the first thing she got into in her room! She especially loves the panda that her great Aunt Ann and Uncle Jerry sent her! Her fav is a little elephant that I took to China for her, but she is pleased as punch with the bigger ones that were waiting for her in her room! She is also holding toys in some of them. I will try to post some pix to the website soon.
Tonight, her Grma Gail and Grpa Glen treated everyone to pizza dinner. Everyone came to our house since we are trying to keep Sophie in her home for awhile and we had a nice visit. The pizza was great…especially to Rick and I since the cheese in China just didn’t measure up! She enjoyed playing with cousins Sarah and David and meeting Grpa David and visiting with the other grmas and grpas. Uncle Ryan stopped by earlier in the day to meet her. While a little shy, she took to him too. She seems happy with all of her new family.
Cousin David is quite funny with her, paying much more attention to her then I would have thought. He watches Sagwa (TV show for children that is about China) so he filled us in on lots of info about China. Yesterday when he was here for a minute when we were being dropped off from the airport, Sophie spontaneously got up and walked across the room on her wobbly legs with her arms outstretched and hugged him. I have never seen her do such a thing! So cute. And he is so gentle with her. He has obviously been practicing his big cousin skills on his baby sister.
Well she is back to sleep now and I am a fool for not being in bed myself! That was one of the plusses of living in a hotel room – when she slept, we slept (at least I did). But here there is always something else to do! And how on earth do you do things with a baby around anyhow?? She would not let me put her down today so I finally put her in the baby carrier that straps to me (couldn’t have lived without that contraption in China and she loves it but she is heavy to lug around!! I was able to do some chores with her strapped to me, but can’t imagine doing that ALL the time! We have some time to figure these things out though – Rick is home for the next few weeks so he will be a big help. (Rick was running some errands today so I was on my own for awhile).
Well, really am heading to bed for a little sleep. Never know when she will be up again.
Not too sure what to do with this group at this point! We can just stop it, or we can continue. It has served its purpose really since we are home now. We will continue for now and then probably just post to the website so you can check it when you are interested and not be bothered when you aren’t!
Have I mentioned lately how much I love this child?? When not holding her, I miss her face, her smell, her everything. I had no idea it would be like this.
Much love,
Tiffany, Rick and Sophie too
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