In China
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Tuesday, May 5, 2009 WHAT A DAY, WHAT A DAY! Oh my, I do not even know where to begin – what an amazing amazing day – but it didn’t quite start out the way we thought. Ok, so let me take you through it chronologically…… Its 3am, and Ethan starts crying in his sleep. We don’t think much of it except that maybe he’s having a bad dream or he has to go to the bathroom, so as we pick him up to take him into the bathroom…….we see his sheets are covered in blood……are you gasping yet? You can imagine our reaction. He had a bloody nose – not a little bloody nose, a faucet, and it freaked me out. I’m on the phone with the guide in a flash as Gregg tries to wipe away the blood and get it under control – and we go through 2 washcloths that become completely red. The guide starts to give us advice like keeping his head back and pinching his nose and all I can say is, poor Veronica, because I nearly lunged at her through the phone……ok, so Adda, if you’re reading this….this was my moment (for the rest of you, this was when it hit me that I’m Ethan’s mom – and heaven help anyone who stands in the way of getting him what he needs). We wanted a doctor! In the end, we decided not to go the emergency room at that hour, but it did take us about 45 minutes to get it to stop and then I slept with him holding up his head. We went to the hospital instead at 8am . Now that was an experience. It gave us an opportunity to see, what we called, the real Beijing . Veronica and our driver, Ms. Suun (spelling?) took us to the city’s Children’s Hospital. We were surrounded by families with children with all sorts of conditions. We spent about an hour there, in the Ear Nose Throat area – they confirmed that Ethan’s nose is fine and they checked his blood. I was a little hesitant to let them take blood, but it is actually done with a laser prick to get the blood. I have to tell you, for the entire hour, Ethan didn’t make a sound, and he was completely cooperative. When other kids were screaming as they were getting checked or their blood taken, he didn’t make a peep – he just cooperated, and not a single cry. He’s our brave boy. So, it turns out he is fine, and everything is normal. We were told that for some Chinese children, the combination of the dry season and eating both too much food as well as food that can upset the stomach such as chocolate and nuts or too much dried fruit can cause nosebleeds. It is completely counter-intuitive for us, but we’re going with it. The advice was to let him drink lots and lots of liquids, limit harsh foods, stick with softer, blander food. He’s absolutely fine now. Now on the way there, we also had a learning experience. Because we left much earlier than planned, our driver had her daughter with her, to drop her off at Kindergarten, which is the equivalent of day care for us in the States. As we were telling her that her daughter was beautiful (she is 6 years old; her English name is Linda, and truly she is beautiful), she proceeded to tell us [through Veronica’s translation] that her daughter is very expensive. It turns out the Linda is Ms. Suun’s second child; she has an older son who is 21. For those of you not familiar, China has a strict policy about second children. Some regions and provinces are more strict than others, and Beijing is one of the more strict. Mrs. Suun and her husband were fined several times their annual salary when Linda was born. In order to keep Linda, they had to receive help from their parents and other relatives to pay the initial fee. At the same time, in order to have Linda attend school, they need to raise additional money, otherwise, Linda cannot have an ID card, which is required to go to school. This is why Linda is in Kindergarten vs. school. She was very open about what a hard decision it was for them to have Linda when she found out she was pregnant, and how costly the decision had been. Veronica was also kind enough to share with us that when she was a child, at that time in Beijing , if her parents had a second child they would have both lost their jobs. For those of you who never understood why there were many children available for adoption, it is primarily because of the one child policy and its ramifications, not out of any level of irresponsibility or a lack of caring for children. In fact, we have always heard and now we have seen how the culture is extremely caring for children. And for the record, we hope you all realize that we are not critical of this policy in any way – it was developed as a potential solution for population control, and Ms. Suun’s story gave us a fuller appreciation of the difficulty facing parents when the very tough decision is made that they cannot care for their babies.

Family at the Outer Court Entrance Family inside the Outer Court Emma and Ethan playing Emma is a Supa-Star! Everyone at lunch The longest noodle ever

As we raise Yunhui, we will remind him that his Chinese mother and father and their families wanted a life for him that they could not provide, and we will tell him of the courage that it must have taken his family to say good by to him in hopes for a better future for him. We will honor his Chinese family; we will speak in terms of his being found, and we will celebrate the day he came to us. For me personally, I will always say a silent wish that his Chinese mother somehow senses or comes to know that Yunhui is safe and well and happy. I cannot imagine the anguish it must have caused her to say goodby. And I also plan to send an update or two to the orphanage asking them to forward the information to his foster mother (apparently you can do that). I know now that you can’t spend one minute with this precious boy and not become completely attached to him, so I want to make sure his foster mother knows he’s doing well. Now back to the day’s story….. Following our foray into the hospital, we went to Tian’an Men Square and the Forbidden City . Ok, so for as long as this day’s account is, I don’t think I can find enough words to adequately describe the Forbidden City . First, Tian’an Men Square sits at the center of: the Chinese Communist People’s (CCP) Great Hall of the People, the China National Museum , Mao’s Mausoleum, and then across the street is the entrance to the Forbidden City . [fyi, there are apparently 3 mausoleums that you can view of former leaders: Lenin’s in Moscow (which I had the good fortune to see many moons ago), Mao’s here in Beijing , and Ho Chi Minh’s in Vietnam ]. In the center is the Monument to Chinese Heroes (primarily for those who died in WWII and the fight against the Japanese). It is massive (I know – “obviously”). It is awesome to be standing at such an icon of a location. But the real wonder is the Forbidden City . We walked 2 miles throughout the city from the outer court to the inner court to the imperial gardens. To say that the colors and the architecture were breathtaking just doesn’t do it justice. These structures and the stone carvings have been here for 600 years. It was spectacular – and huge. 3 hours of walking and we barely touched the surface. The funniest part of our sightseeing adventure here was that Emma was quite the star! People were just asking to take photos with her. Clearly blonde haired, green eyed children aren’t very common, and as much of an attraction as these places were, Emma was an attraction all on her own. I added a photo of only one occasion when people lined up to take a picture with her….seriously, it was hysterical. We told her they thought she was Hannah Montana. From there we went to a restaurant called the Noodle Loft. We originally saw this restaurant featured on a Travel Channel show, Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. Turns out it’s a chain; nonetheless, it was great. You can watch them make the noodles and we thought it would be fun for Emma – which it was – and the food was excellent! And after eating more than you can imagine for 4 adults and 2 children, we paid the whopping bill of $25. Our photo here includes both Veronica and Ms. Suun. After that, we came back to the hotel, walked to the grocery store and nearby underground mall where we also stopped for some Baskin Robbins. Leave it to me to find a Baskin Robbins, but at a cost of $7.50 for a shake, well, we won’t be spending too much time there (ok, so we might, but humor me on this…..) We also discovered today that Ethan absolutely loves escalators – being held and riding escalators to be exact. He doesn’t mind strollers either, and he likes to run while holding hands. He is talking up a storm, but still very softly, and he loves to laugh. When we got back to the hotel, he ran over to the toy bag and began to draw, and then he found the beach ball, and called Baba (or Baabaaa) and ran to throw Gregg the ball, giggling the whole way. The high point – he learned to blow kisses! He’s definitely settling in, and he is an absolute joy. We’re also starting to see a little testing of the limits (like lying down in the grocery store and giggling uncontrollably) but for now we’re taking it as a good sign that he’s getting more comfortable with us, and he is interacting more – asking for food, letting us know he has to go potty, and asking for drinks. He asks softly and is very very content. Well, I hope I haven’t bored you, but I just couldn’t help but share it all. We are doing so well. Ethan’s personality actually reminds me of Emma’s when she was in her 2’s, and he just fits in so perfectly with us. I used to read that on other people’s sites, and I would think, “how nice for them” but I didn’t really believe that it was possible. For those of you still waiting, trust me, it is possible, and I hope you all have as wonderful an experience as we are having. Tomorrow we head to the zoo and then we’re going to the place where Yunhui was found. In the evening we’re also going to head to a night market – not to eat, but just to see it. And once again, I am so grateful to all of you for sending your beautiful posts and your emails. I’m afraid I cannot respond to each and every one, but please do not take that as a lack of appreciation – your messages have been incredibly touching and they make us all feel so good. So please, keep them coming when you can. We’re sending our love (our hearts are filled with it, and we just want to share the happiness!) Until tomorrow! Dawn, Gregg, Emma & Ethan Yunhui   Emma’s Corner Hi Everyone, today I saw the Emperor’s Palace in the Forbidden City . I saw his throne and I saw where he used to change – in fact he had a whole building to change his clothes! I also went to a restaurant where I saw them make noodles and they made a 23 yard long noodle!!!! 5 different people asked to take pictures with me at the Forbidden City which was weird. Ethan is playing with me a lot, but he likes to tease me and put my toys in his mouth until my mom or dad tells him to stop. I miss you all. From Emma.

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