One More Thing, And It's a Big One

Tenley and I were holding hands walking in the park this morning with Tom and Maryn steps ahead.  She smiles A LOT, but she doesn't say much, yet.  She gave a gentle tug on my arm to stop me, looked me in the eyes and said, "Wo ai ni,  mommy."  I'm not even going to translate that cause it just might take away from the magic of the moment, but it was special, and so is she.

A Walk in the Park

We walked down the street this morning to see Lord*Bao Park.  It was about a 10 minute walk, and we felt like big shot wei (why) guo (gaw) ren (run) (= foreigners) with directions and a small map on a card written only in Chinese characters.  No big deal.  Now, it will completely ruin the scene I'm trying to create here if I admit that we could see the park right across the street for 9.5 minutes of that 10 minute walk, but it just took that long to get to an intersection (which is really not the correct term to use because intersection sounds so neat and orderly, almost safe, if you will, and it truly is anything but) where we could cross the street.  Once there, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.   It was a photographer's dream, especially for the newest photographer of the bunch, with something to capture at every turn.  A long, long time ago, Lord*Bao was a very righteous man, not to sound so 70's or anything, but those were the words our guide used, and they carried a lot of weight coming from her.  The beautiful temple pictured above was built to honor him way back in 1999.  What???  No, that's not a typo, although I'm sure it could just be Chinglish, but that's what the sign said.  Never thought I'd live to see the day I would be able, without shame, to admit that I was around the year a Chinese temple was built, but this is it.  Oh, well, it certainly looked ancient, and the view from the fifth floor was marvelous.  Dad, you would have loved it.  Off in the distance we could see the hotel we stayed in the last time we were here in 2009.  It was a much different experience then than it is now.  We couldn't step outside the hotel without people staring at us, mouths agape, pointing at us and taking pictures.  We're noticed everywhere we go now, but it's much less dramatic for the noticers and more tolerable for the noticees.  Maryn's going without sunglasses now, having learned how to look right past the people looking at us, and Tenley's just happy to be out and about, I think.

Tomorrow evening we will meet with the guide we had last time we were here.  Her name is Jane, and I know she has been the guide for many other families who have come here.  She will be knocked over when she sees how Maryn has grown.

Tom and I are eager to move on to the next location.  While I certainly love a hotel buffet that serves "Blue Gordon Chicken," I haven't been eating dinner at night, and I'd really like to try a room ventilation system that offers something in a cool, refreshing menthol!  Which is reminding me how this morning, three 20's ish men were sitting in the park, and when they saw us they said, "Hi!"  Tom said hi back, and they were desperately trying to pull any tiny bit of English out of their heads that they could without much success, so one of them did the next best thing and offered him "a smoke".  We gave them the universal sign for are you out of your minds, we don't smoke!  I pulled a tiny bit of English out of my head and with a wagging index finger told him, "and you shouldn't either."  They laughed, and we walked on toward the "ancient" temple of Lord*Bao.

A Pair of Aces

We didn't need to get up and get somewhere this morning so we slept in till 6 a.m., the same time we needed to get up the last two days to get somewhere in the morning.  Grumble.  Maryn started coughing and came to our side of the adjoining room and got in the bed.  I don't know what it is about the beds and sheets here, but they are noisy and when they are being rolled around on by a coughing 10 year old, there's no going back to sleep.  Yesterday we spent a good part of the day in a dusty place, and that got her coughing.  This morning we went to a dusty temple, and she started coughing.  Now, we're in the smokey smelling room and here comes the coughing.  Our allergy testing is complete, and as I typed that just now, kid you not, I heard a guy sneeze twice.  Wish I could holler to him to take two squirts of *Flonase* and call me in the morning - 6 a.m. to be exact.

The girls are getting along like old friends and new sisters.  They come together holding hands, laughing, content and then separate spending time in separate rooms.  That goes on through the day, like an unchoreographed dance.  It's language and figuring out the new roles their playing.  To sum it up, they're getting along beautifully, and it shows in the pictures.  Tenley is a doll, always smiling and kind.  Whenever we heard any little, tiny bit of information about her, that's what it was.  They were right, and we are blessed.

It's Official!

Both pen and thumbprint were put to paper this morning, and we are officially a family.  It was a wonderful, memorable day.  The picture tells the story, and, as I sit here at the keyboard tonight, I can't think of any better way to say it.

H..E..R..E..'S TENLEY!

Here's our beautiful Tenley.  She is a sweetheart!  We were picked up a 9 a.m. this morning and taken to a government building for our meeting.  Tom and I had hoped we would arrive before she did, but when we got to the door of the room, there she was sitting at the table, and our first glimpse was perfect.  When she saw us, the recognition went immediately to a smile.  Oh, what a sweet smile.  In Chinese I said to her, "I am your mama," and her smile grew.  If she were an infant, she would have been smiling and kicking her feet.  She had that kind of body language.  Tom received the same response when he told her he was her dad.  Her first look at Maryn was one of curiosity and disbelief that Maryn was the girl she had known before, but then she said the nickname everyone called Maryn, and a smile came to her face.  I had Maryn remove her glasses, and Tenley nodded.  Mr. Zhou told us Tenley found out right after spring festival that she had a family, and she was very happy.  I asked him when she found out Maryn was her sister, and he said about a month ago.  Without a doubt, that fact had removed a small amount of her fear, as we had hoped, and we are so thankful for that.  While we completed today's paperwork, Maryn would get close and then retreat.  Without a doubt, Maryn had gained a small amount of fear, but going through Tenley's backpack with her allowed some of that to dissipate.  We came back to our room, where Tenley changed into something cooler while we finished with our guide, and then we walked to get something to eat.  She is eager to hold our hands, as both Tom and I discovered, but she's not needy about it.  As we walked back I encouraged Maryn to hold her hand, but before she could agree to it, Tenley took her hand.  Maryn looked back at me with that 10 year old, shrug of the shoulder, knowing glance thing, and it was priceless.  We went into Wal*Mart so she could pick out some treats for our visit tomorrow and walked back hand in hand with hands changing among the players.

When our day was done and showers were taken, I dried Maryn's hair.  Tenley appeared at the door watching us.  When I finished, I gave her a nonverbal, "do you want me to dry your hair?"   She nodded, and we shared a great couple of minutes together.  I told her in Chinese that she's beautiful, and she said, "Xie xie (thank you) mommy."  I'll go to bed reliving the day's events smiling and kicking my feet.

Deja Vu

May 21, 2012

August 3, 2009

So happy to be reliving this dream.  It's finally here.  Tom and I feel great, maybe a little bit of nerves.  Maryn is talking a lot, even more than she normally does, throwing in a little silliness, and she has whispered to me that she is a little nervous.  Time to hold hands and say a trio prayer knowing we are in good hands, His.  Let's go!

Women Ai Nimen

The title of this post translates to we love you (plural).  These beautiful people are Louise's parents and her friend.  They drove three hours to meet us at the Shanghai airport!  Do I need to tell you how fun it is to walk through the doors through immigration at an airport in *China* and see the smiling faces of three people who are there to meet you?  One of those faces we even recognized from having met her before, and she was beaming.  What joy.  Good thing the interpreter, Candy, was there because we really wanted to be able to tell them how much we love their daughter.  They walked with us to another terminal in the airport so we could get something to eat and visit.  Candy was having to play both sides of the net, but she did a great job.  Louise's mom is a fantastic knitter and sewer, and she gave us a few dresses that she had made for Maryn, Tenley and me.  Beautiful.  (For Christmas this year, Louise game me a camisole her mom had knitted on, I'm not lying, needles as big around as toothpicks.  The stitching, including cabling, is perfect and looks like it was done on a machine.  It is a good thing I saw her knitting one when she was staying with Louise for six months back in 2008 or I wouldn't believe she'd done it herself.)

They were kind enough to stay with us the whole time even though we were less than perfect company.  Eventually we were plum tuckered out and fighting sleep, except for Maryn who actually did sleep, but they stuck with us.  And, you know, it was a good thing they did.  When we checked our bags in at the start of the trip, the agent told us they were checked through to Hefei.  We clarified:  they are checked through to Hefei, and we don't have to get them when we get to Shanghai?  Nope.  Well that's not correct, Missy, but, of course, we didn't find that out until we tried to check in for the flight to Hefei.  Turns out you can't check in without the bags you got to Shanghai, unless of course you don't care if the bags arrive with you at the next stop, and the agent at the counter in Shanghai was able to explain that to Louise's parents.  The sprint was on for her dad, Candy and Tom who had to hightail it back to the terminal where we had arrived, locate the bags, get them on a cart and push the cart at a brisk pace back to the terminal from which we were leaving.  Maryn and I stayed behind sitting down while mama waited in line with the cart of backpacks and gifts she'd given us.  As more people came to check in, she let them go around her, but she was right where she needed to be when the three of them returned with the cart o' suitcases.  Waiting in line in *China* should always be done by someone who is Chinese, or at least has years of experience doing such in *China*.  She was the right woman for the job.  When it was time to say goodbye, I teared up.  They are wonderful people, and it's hard knowing Louise has not seen them in a long time.  I gave them as many hugs as was more than socially acceptable, and then they waved to us till we couldn't see each other anymore.

This morning we had a call on our rented phone.  It was Louise's  parents calling to make sure we got where we were supposed to be.  At least that's what we believe to be the purpose of the call.  There were a few ni hao's (hello) and a few hao's (good, okay) given on both sides before a zai jian (goodbye) grand finale.  We didn't have Candy to fall back on, but we didn't need an interpreter because we know what was in their hearts.  Looking forward to seeing them again someday.