Playing Dress Up in China

Sorry about the short post yesterday. With John incapacitated, the kids require a lot more of me and once I got the kiddo’s to bed I really needed some alone time to rejuvenate. I had a bath, read a bit from a book, listened to worship music on my iPod, enjoyed some dark chocolate covered prunes (you know what those do for you, right?) and went bed. Today was a new day, better in some ways.

We were able to get John to a Chinese doctor. He poked around on John’s back and rattled off in Chinese to Maggie and left the room. He came back with an herbal compress that he attached to John’s back. Gave us verbal instructions to change the compress every other day and not to eat a gazillion different things (fish, beef, chicken, mutton, etc). Basically all he’s supposed to eat is fruit and veggies only for 10 days. Ha, have you met my carnivore? Not likely to happen, but we happily paid the 35 yuan (about $5) for the visit and took our herbs to go. John is feeling better, hopefully the herbs are helping. It could be the Aleve too. We will know more when the meds wear off by the morning. Thanks for your well wishes and prayers. Picture above and to the right is the Doc preparing John's herbs.

Tomorrow could be a difficult day, the morning packing then a 3.5 hours flight to Guangzhou. John’s back is a concern, but also Daniel likely has no concept of an airplane. We have been talking about it a bit, but until it happens you just have no idea how he will respond.

After the Dr’s visit, we dropped John back at the hotel and went to the arboretum. It was beautiful, but in a completely different way then I expected. There were a lot of architectural structures that were beautiful. Not as many flowers. I’ll try to post a slide show for you to enjoy. There was a spot where for 5 yuan each, the kids could dress up in traditional Chinese clothes and have their picture taken. They are adorable! Cosette is dressed in Tibetan dress, and Daniel like a little Chinese Emperor. What fun to get to play dress-up in China!

Daniel did fairly well today. We had one indicant in the gardens this afternoon, but we got through it relatively well. Later that afternoon in the hotel I thought I’d set Daniel up with a movie for some down time. He wanted to watch Cars. I thought he had seen Cars about a dozen times already (remember the 4-5 hour van rides to and from Dalian) and maybe he would enjoy Ratatouille instead. I told him, mostly with mime and gestures, that it was really funny and he finally decided to give it a go. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later we hear roaring laughter coming from our little guy. He is laughing so hard I think he’s going to cry. He cackled for the rest of the movie. It was such a joy to listen and watch him enjoy that movie.

Well, we leave Liaoning tomorrow, finally. John and I were talking about our trip today and realizing that most families would be packing to head home tomorrow, rather then preparing for another week in China. We do love China, and are appreciative for the time to learn more about it and its people, but we are also ready to be home too. Being in Guangzhou will be a little easier, at least there are some people there who speak English! Our guide is about the only person in Shenyang that we have found that speaks good English. There are a few people at McDonalds and KFC who have learned enough English to navigate their menu, but not much more than that. It will also be nice to be in a hotel where there are other adoptive families we can connect with.

Well, it’s 11 p.m. and I need to head to bed.

Be well my friends,
Tonya (for J, C & D)