Second installment, emails from China while on my adoption trip. This one was sent Sunday, March 6, 2005.
Hello all!
I'm getting a second chance to make an e-log here so I'm taking advantage of it. Actually this email could be entitled, "Chapter Two: In Which Thalia Takes a Really Big Dump and Improves Her Outlook Considerably." I've heard that they sometimes give the girls something to constipate them for long train rides up so that people don't have to deal with diaper blowouts. Don't know if that happened here, but since almost all the Maoming girls were constipated the first 3 or 4 days, I wouldn't be surprised. Our co-ordinator made a run to the local pharmacy for some Special Chinese Herbal Tea, and at least in Thalia's case, it did the trick.
Her spirits have perked up considerably, though she still basically will only stand for me holding her. Also, when we're out of the hotel room she mostly won't walk and absolutely refuses the stroller. She's pretty much a velcro baby. Generally that's good, but an entire week of carrying a 17-pound baby ALL THE TIME is doing things to Mommy's back. Things almost reached a breaking point Friday evening. We did paperwork all afternoon, Thalia had to sit on my lap but squirmed and griped all the time. Then she and Kellie and I went out for dim sum and she was squirmy there, too, and I just was really fried. But yesterday, the sun came out and we did the trek to a local park and the Chen Clan Temple/Academy. Weather was nice. Thalia fell asleep in the hotel room after, and Kellie insisted I get out for a walk. MUCH better! Today is absolutely gorgeous. Around 70 degrees and sunny. The locals are all still in long sleeves and jackets and looking at me like I've taken leave of my senses. Kellie and I went on a walking tour of a couple of Buddhist temples this morning. I burned some incense at a few altars and only messed up once (I bowed to the sand pit instead of the altar--oopsie), but the locals just smiled indulgently. One of the nuns told me Thalia has beautiful eyes and looks very smart (at least, that's what Kellie thinks she said).
Anyhow, Miss Thalia is in many ways about a 9-month-old baby in the body of a 15-month-old toddler, but that's to be expected. Her movements are still awfully spastic. But she smiles a lot more than she did. She shows a pronounced preference for her left hand, so I may have a leftie in the house! Probably too soon to tell. I think she'll be OK, and if not, then I'll deal with it. When I call home Abra just wants to talk to Thalia, and doesn't quite get it that Thalia has no concept of the telephone and couldn't talk on it anyway.
Thanks to people who responded--I had a chance to read your emails. I will be back in the U.S. on Thursday morning March 10, after taking a red-eye from LAX. We'll be pretty fried, but I'll do my best to check in at some point soon after. Thanks for all the well-wishes.
Author's addendum: It seems a little funny to me now that I ever would have described her as physically "spastic" or "developmentally delayed," though at the time it was true. She was by U.S. standards very small for her age, and developmentally behind. But within six months of coming to the states she was fully on-track developmentally. And now, it seems she excels at nearly everything she does. Chris and I have long since grown accustomed to meetings and conferences with teachers who sometimes struggle to find new ways to say, "Holy shit but that kid is smart." Far from having intellectual delays or disabilities, she's actually an academic phenom. And physically, she's gone from spastic to jock pretty quickly--it's a lot of fun to watch her shimmy around over every piece of dangerous equipment she can find, turn dozens of cartwheels in a row, or outrun most of the boys on the playground with her.
And I turned out to be right about the left-handed thing, too.
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