No pictures from Anna and me today. We haven’t left the hotel room since yesterday afternoon. When we got back from Heavenly Lake, I started not feeling well and woke up with a fever. Peter and Rachel went on our scheduled visit to Shi He Zi, Anna’s birthplace. It is about a 2 ½ -3 hour drive each way and there was no way I was up to it today. Sarah volunteered to stay at the hotel and be a nurse to me and baby sitter to Anna. She did such a great job. She kept Anna very happy and entertained. At one point, I woke up from a little nap and she had Anna asleep, had tidied the room and put fresh drinks and some crackers out for me. Rachel and Sarah have been such a blessing. It has been so nice to have Rachel’s help with journaling and photography since Pete and I often have our hands full. Both girls have really jumped in and helped with Anna and her needs. She is very attached to both of them and upset when they leave without her. When Pete and Rachel returned from Shi He Zi, they picked up Sarah to go to the Grand Bazaar for some shopping. Anna has been asleep the whole time. She is a little angel, even if she does have pretty strong opinions about things. It was probably good that she and I were forced to have a down day today, it gave her some rest and gave my back a break. She insists that I carry her all of the time, especially when she is sleepy. She seems to have the same elevation sensor that my other children had when they were young, and prefers that I stand and hold her. She is quite a solid little thing and it is taking a toll on my back and arms. The good news is that with all of the standing and carrying I have been doing, I have not had any of the pain and numbness in my leg that has plagued me for 5 years. I guess that is an endorsement for my new chiropractor. A friend convinced me to try it and I’m amazed that only 4 visits in the two weeks before I left made such a difference. I’m sure I would have been in a lot of pain with all of the standing and carrying I have done otherwise. Anna loves the telephone. She had a little toy telephone that came with her. She was thrilled when Pete called to check on us today and she got to have a real conversation. She has been practicing “hello” and was so excited to hear “ba baa” on the phone. I’ll let Rachel add more about today.
More notes and observations from Rachel—
Hello friends!
It was really an interesting day today! Unfortunately mom couldn’t be there because she was sick and Sarah and Anna stayed with mom so it was just me and dad.
First we went to the Shi He Zi Peoples Park. It was really pretty and there were tame pigeons that you could feed.
After that we went to the Shi He Zi Peoples hospital, where Anna was found. It was a nice place, but there wasn’t much to see.
Then we went to a Muslim restaurant and had one of the best lunches we have had yet.
After that we went to the orphanage in charge of her care, but we weren’t allowed to go inside so we just took some pictures of the outside.
Then we went and picked up Sarah and did some shopping at the grand bazaar.
I am sorry if this is not very long, but I am tired and not feeling very well, I hope I’m not getting what mom has.
That’s all for now!
Rachel
Sunday – August 6 – Peace that Passes Understanding and Many Cars
This is our last day of touring Xinjiang Province and Urumqi city. Tomorrow morning, Jenny will pick up Anna’s passport and then she and Sunny (our wonderful guide) will take us to the airport for the flight to Guangzhou. We’ve been told the flight is about 5 hours, so we’ll have an idea of what to expect from Anna on the long flight home.
I was feeling MUCH better today. Peter was coming down with the same thing this morning. We started him on the same combination of meds that helped me yesterday and he was feeling better by the afternoon. The girls are feeling so-so, but were up to going with me to see South Mountain this morning.
The drive and the sites at South Mountain were very beautiful. We tried to take lots of pictures, but I’m afraid we missed more good shots than we got. Between holding Anna and trying to take pictures out of the very, very bouncy van, it was a bit challenging. The batteries we’ve been buying for our camera here aren’t very long lasting and that interfered with some picture taking.
On the drive out there, we drove past many large fields of sunflowers. All along the road were many bee tenders with boxes of bees sitting next to the road and honey for sale. We saw many houses made of what looked like mud bricks and adobe. It was quite a lifestyle contrast between the homes we passed today and the walk through the underground mall that we took when we got back to Urumqi.
At South Mountain, there were many yurts for vacationers to rent and many, many horses. If Pete had been with us, I’m sure he and Rachel would have rented horses to ride up into the hills. We rode in a horse drawn cart up to the waterfall. I let Rachel rent a horse to ride back down (don’t ever call me an overprotective mother again…) One of the women renting horses escorted her down to the point where the carts and horses separate between the road and a trail. Her guide knew we wanted to catch up with her, so she let her out on the road. Rachel thought she had said we had already passed by. We were quite a ways behind because it took a while to get a cart going down the hill. We found Rachel hiking back up the hill. She ran along side us a while until our cart driver let us out and we all walked the rest of the way back to the parking lot.
The waterfall and surrounding cliffs were beautiful. Rachel climbed up the hill and took lots of pictures. Back near the parking lot, she begged to hike at least partway up the hillside while the rest of us waited for our van driver. She came back after a man started shouting. She thought she might be in trouble. I thought all of the men there seemed to be shouting all of the time. They were all Kazaks and Sunny tells me that visitors from other provinces always think they are quarreling, but it is the way they talk.
We were in a tourist spot again, which means most people had cameras and we have several requests for pictures again today. Two gentlemen thought Sarah was a Uighur girl, but still wanted a picture when they learned she was American. I guess we aren’t obvious Americans since we’ve been asked if we are German, Russian and English. We haven’t encountered another American in the week we have been here or even any one that has been to America that I can remember. We met some Canadians in the hotel and ran into them twice while we were touring. We feel very blessed to have had a week to tour this beautiful part of the world that we otherwise would never have seen.
Anna seemed to enjoy today much more than our day in the room yesterday. She got VERY upset when Rachel left us to ride the horse. She is talking more and more all of the time and we wish we understood more Chinese. I’m pretty sure she is trying to teach us and she is very expressive at explaining her intention. I usually understand when she needs to go potty, when she wants something, when she doesn’t like something and when she wants us to do something. This afternoon she was quite clear that she thought “ba baa” should take a ride in the stroller and was very persistent in trying to persuade him to climb in. We all agree that she has many personality traits that remind us of Mark. She is very determined to do things herself and capable of doing far more than we would have expected. We can’t wait for her to meet her brothers. I pray that she and Mark will both adjust to having to share my lap. I think it may be a bit of a challenge for both of them. I do think they will have a lot of fun playing together and will probably have a good share of mischief together too. It is a good thing they will have James, Sarah and Rachel to look out for them. My guess is that Mark will end up understanding her better than any of us and that she will learn a lot from him.
Writing about my boys makes me miss them very much. We have been blessed to be able to call them every day for very little cost by using Skype on our laptop. As much as we are loving China and experiencing another culture, I’m sure that in another week we will be very ready to be home to our boys, our beds, our language, our friends and food we recognize!
Many thanks again to all of you that are praying so faithfully for us. As we were speeding down the bumpy highway, passing cars on corners in the midst of oncoming traffic, I was reflecting on the peace and calm that I have felt while we have been here. It is a peace that has carried me through treacherous traffic, allowed my daughter to ride off on a horse with people that don’t speak English, enter “squatty potties” with confidence and eat foods of unknown origin. It is truly a peace that surpasses understanding! Much love to all of you. Kristine, for the Aldrich Family
Sunny with Anna
Sprayed by waterfall
Rachel's artsy shot
Rachel trying to catch cart
Uighur dresses
Monday – August 7 - A Traveling Day
I thought I would do some journaling this morning since I think it will be late before we are settled in Guangzhou. Rachel is feeling sick this morning and I’m praying we can get her some relief before our long flight today. Sarah and Pete are still sleeping, so I’m not sure how they are doing.
Anna is making progress in her apparent fear of water. The first bath she had she screamed her way through. Last night, she had so much fun playing with Sarah, blowing bubbles and pouring water on herself that she screamed when I took her out of the bathroom. She did get pretty upset with us when we washed her hair, but still wanted to stay and play. Have I mentioned she has a temper? After observing her determined personality, I expected she also had a temper to go along with it. She is quite capable of throwing a screaming, kicking (not us, just in the air) fit when she is angry. I’m praying for wisdom to know how much grace to extend to her given her circumstances. I’m sure it is more than was appropriate for her brother who has such a similar personality and was prone to similar fits when he was two. Our guide has tried to tell me how to say “don’t cry” in Chinese. I haven’t wanted to tell her not to cry because I think she has good reasons to cry. I’m trying to find my own ways to communicate “don’t scream” and “don’t spit.” She wants very much to be held and carried when she is upset, so I’ve just been putting her on the ground next to me when she screams or spits. So far, the spitting has not been in anger. She seems to think it is alright to spit whenever she feels like it or to be funny. Of course, I won’t have the option of putting her down somewhere during our flight today, so hopefully we can avoid confrontation for those five hours.
We bought some Chinese language sing along DVDs and some pictures books with the words printed in English and Chinese. I’m sure she will start picking up English quickly when immerged in a household of four chatting children. However, if any of you reading our posts that have brought home a child that was already articulate in their native language have suggestions for us, they are most welcome!
For those of you preparing to make a similar journey, here are some tips that I can think of at the moment. We sent a package, camera and letter through Blessed Kids. We received the camera full of pictures back when we received Anna. We received a fairly prompt reply to our letter and questions from the Orphanage which we also had translated through Blessed Kids. It gave us helpful information about her schedule, tastes and interests. We made a little photo album for her with pictures of home and our family that we brought with us. She has spent a lot of time looking at it, pointing us out and learning to recognize her brothers. It turned out to be very good that we brought some food from home. A recognizable cup of noodles was good when we couldn’t find an open restaurant the first day and when we had unsettled tummies. I had brought some liquid laundry detergent. Even though we have used the hotel service, it is a bit spendy. Some things were easy and more convenient to wash in the sink – especially some of Anna’s things. Bring lots of extra batteries from home. We’ve gone through lots of batteries here and the ones we’ve bought here haven’t lasted long. Bring lots of packages of tissue and hand wipes. The “w.c.” (restroom) isn’t likely to have tissue, soap or a hand dryer. Even in our room the tissue has been handy because they only seem to replace the toilet paper roll every other day. If you come to Urumqi (woo lu moo chi) ask your guide to take you to the Uighur market (not the Grand Bazaar) my girls loved it. That’s all for now.
