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"Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west." - Isaiah 43:5

5/25/2006


Each day with Dayna is definitely more interesting! Last night’s screaming took a toll on Dan. He didn’t get much sleep, if any at all. (Alaina was working off the Dramamine buzz.) We were quite worried after breakfast, when Dayna didn’t eat much. She hadn’t blessed us with a dirty diaper since the first one two days ago. Leila called in the hotel doctor, who pushed and prodded on Dayna’s little tummy, while speaking rapid Mandarin. Since the doctor is not a pediatrician, she suggested we take Dayna to the local children’s hospital. The thought of taking our baby to the hospital in a country where we don't speak the language caused us much anxiety. Leila called the orphanage to find out what they thought we should do. We decided to wait on the hospital and changed Dayna’s recent diet instead. We have gone back to a strict diet of rice cereal and are trying to more closely follow her orphanage schedule. (That’s been hard to do with our schedule the last two days.) Dayna was also much calmer once the doctor was no longer pushing on her tummy.

So, Daddy bravely administered the rest of her medicine (Alaina recalls a promise he made once that he would handle everything that came out of the bottom end if she took care of anything that came out of the other end. Good deal for her!) We spent the morning walking around Hot Spring Park. She seemed to really enjoy that, and was much more pleasant and calm. Once we got back to the hotel, she was conked out. After her nap,we tried the rice cereal. At this point, we made the discovery that she won’t take ANYTHING from a bottle. So, we fed her the cereal out of the bottle with a spoon. She polished that off quickly.

Fed, napped and happy, the three of us went with Leila to the Fuzhou Panda Zoo. That was a lot of fun. We saw a bear show with trained sun bears, plenty of red pandas (they’re very small and awfully cute), and of course, your good old standard pandas. After the zoo, we walked to West Lake Park. It was a beautiful park with old pagodas, water features and beautiful flowers everywhere. Dayna enjoyed the afternoon’s outing, so we went back to the hotel while the going was good.

Dayna ate dinner (rice cereal) and then we went out for the adults to have dinner (Fuzhou has a specialty: thread noodles. Imagine a Chinese version of angel hair pasta with a variety of seafood mixed in. You might not want to imagine the seafood too hard.) We’re waiting for Leila to come back and we’ll walk through Hot Spring Park again tonight to see the dancers and musicians. It looks like Dayna’s birthday party will have to wait yet again. She’s just not herself in the evenings. Please continue to pray that her system gets worked out. As one person in Waiting China Families wrote, we hope to have the “sweet smell of success” in the morning!

A few more China observations:

  1. Split pants are quite the thing for little ones. They are basically crotchless pants; the kiddos just squat wherever they are and do their thing. Chinese baby bottoms (and other things) are hanging out all over the place.
  2. Personal hygiene is unusual. For some reason, people here have abnormally large amounts of mucus buildup. It is not uncommon to see the most delicate lady “hock a loogie” right in front of you.
  3. The people in China are the most gracious, kind people you will ever meet.
  4. Cab rides are still scary.
  5. We have yet to see a dreaded “squatty potty”. (We’re not going out of our way to find one, either. It’s just not a memory we want to take home if we don’t have to.)
  6. If we haven’t mentioned yet, it is HOT here. Okay, not so hot (we have yet to see the sun), but unbearably humid. It will be quite a while before we complain about Nebraska humidity.

Two things we’ve learned today about Dayna: when she looks up at us with those big brown eyes, our hearts completely melt; when she cries in distress, our hearts completely break. Her good times are more frequent, and she definitely is connecting with her Mama. She enjoys time with Daddy for short periods of time, but needs to know Mom is close by.

Tomorrow we leave Fujian Province. We’re looking forward to seeing Guangzhou and other families, but we’re sad to be leaving the land of Dayna’s birth, possibly forever. It will be Dayna’s first flight, and she won’t take a bottle to help her ears. Please pray for a restful flight for all of us. To our new friends, Jim, Jackie & Blaise, we can’t wait to finally meet you tomorrow at the White Swan!

Blessings to you all,
Dan, Alaina and Dayna



Finally happy!
Giggly girl
Daddy's girl
A sweety pie with her sweaty guy
With Leila at the Fuzhou Panda Zoo
Not another picture
Wilson family

5/25/2006





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