Hello to all our family & friends! Thanks for all the e-mails, we are loving hearing from everyone. We wish we could respond to all your questions and comments but we have been a little busy since Anna arrived! Please keep letting us know you are out there, praying for us and following our journey. Knowing that you are just an e-mail away makes us not miss everyone at home so much. "I love technology. . . . . . . (that's for all of our Napoleon Dynamite fans!)".
Anna went to sleep for us so nicely yesterday evening we actually had a little time to just relax. Ken decided to iron. Yes, I think we are the only Wuhan couple that requested an ironing board and iron be brought to the room at 1:00 a.m. when we arrived. The hotel receptionists don't seem to be able to speak English as well as in Beijing and it took three tries before someone understood what we wanted. Of course, I'm sure they don't get a whole lot of requests for irons at 1:00 in the morning! So Ken irons something for myself and him to wear today, then asks "Does the baby need something ironed?" He is too much! Does anybody iron baby clothes? The funny thing is he was really serious!
We all slept really good Monday night, finally. This morning we were all to report to the fourth floor to make the adoption official. We made a plan so we could go down to breakfast with everyone by 7:30 a.m. before the meeting. I would get up first, prepare the bottle then take a shower. I instructed Ken, if Anna wakes up, change her diaper (he is getting very good at this) and give her the bottle while I'm in the shower, then you can shower while I get her dressed. Well, everything was going as planned until Ken went to take his shower. Anna started screaming at the top of her lungs and would not stop for me . . . . .Ken quickly came out of the bathroom and it was unbelievable how she immediately stopped crying.
When we went down for breakfast, all the babies were in high chairs with their families. When Ken put Anna in hers, she started screaming again. . . . . . he picked her up and she immediately stopped. He had to take her to the buffet with him to get his food! This behavior continued throughout the entire day's activities. The classes and information about adoption we researched told us that this could happen. The baby attaches to one or the other parent and sometimes it is the male. Sometimes the babies are angry that they have been taken away from their nanny or foster mom and reject the mother because of it. One of the other couples (the Lipsons) are having the same problem as we are. It makes it a little easier knowing this and having another mother to share this experience with. I guess I will have to be the one to go back to work and Ken will need the family medical leave. (just kidding Bill!)
Ken feels really bad that she prefers him over me right now, but I am trying not to take it personally. (I'll just have more time for massages and pedicures while I am here!) All kidding aside, I am really not worried. This is about Anna and her adjusting to the traumatic separation of everything she knew. I know in my heart that she will be fine once we get her home and she begins to trust and accept her new family. To all our prayer warriors: please pray for little Anna to have acceptance and peace with her new family and for her to have continued good health, pray for Ken to have the endurance and strength to take care of her, he is literally exhausted tonight from this very long day.
On a happier note . . . . . . . Anna is now officially ours! We signed all the papers, got our fingerprints taken, (Anna had her footprint taken), then they took our family photo for the adoption. It went a little smoother than yesterdays chaos. Afterwards we decided to rent a stroller for the rest of the week to give Ken a break from always having to carry Anna. When we went to the front desk we asked "can we get a baby stroller?". Three young receptionists talked with each other for a while then pointed over to the hostess stand at the restaurant. So we walked over to her and asked again "can we get a baby stroller?" The hostess nodded and held her finger up (like one minute please). She left and came back and handed us a little straw! I guess it was a baby strawer! Ha Ha After starting all over again, we finally found someone with enough English to understand and got a cute little green stroller with guess who? Mickey and Pluto on the back!
Tomorrow we get to go to the Yellow Crane Tower. It will be nice to get out of the hotel for awhile, although it is unbelievably hot, hot, hot here. They do not call Wuhan one of the "three furnaces" for nothing! When you walk outside it feels like you are walking into a 350 degree oven! We are looking forward to our group outing and praying Anna will be in better spirits when she awakes.
God Bless your day . . . . . .He has certainly blessed ours!
Ken & Sharon
"I like this sitting down ironing. . . I think I will chop off our ironing board legs when I get home!"
Anna Marie, the Harps have adopted you, what are you going to do now? "I'm going to DisneyWorld!"
