The Lulu Chronicles

The blog lives...

2007-07-29T16:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, yes, despite not having posted since forever, we're both alive. Here's my weak excuse for not posting: first computer issues, then just lack of time, followed closely by either laziness or lack of blogging rhythm. So there, done...

This was a big week for Lulu who is now a great big four and a half years old, though her teacher says she's definitely at least 40!

First, on Tuesday, July 24th, the wiggly tooth was finally plucked! Wahooo. It was creeping me out watching that thing bend 90 degrees one way and then the other. We'd been trying for a couple of weeks to pluck it out, but success finally came, as did the tooth fairy the next morning bearing Hello Kitty lip gloss and nail polish and some shiny quarters. Here's the video of the tooth pulling.

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Then, we had the California readopt on Wednesday. It was a pain to gather all that paperwork myself, but $20 to do-it-myself was better than forking out $500 to have my agency do it. It wasn't much of a ceremony, but I signed a final document in the Judge's chambers, took a quick pic and were back off to the routine. I dropped her back off at school and then zipped to work. Later, after swimming lessons, I had promised her dinner at the restaurant of her choice, so unfortunately, we celebrated at McDonald's. Of course, how can you beat a "restaurant" that gives out toys with your meal and has a labyrinth of colorful tubes you can climb and slide through!

On Thursday, Lulu took a leap off the diving board into the 13 foot end of the pool. She's only had about 10 hours of swimming lessons and up until we started about a month ago, she'd been in a real pool only once or twice. (We live where it's too dang cold to swim almost any time of the year.) Lulu is an absolute fish with literally no fear of anything water related! Her teacher calls her his little nuclear reactor. On the first day of class she was the youngest by at least 2.5 years and all the other kids had been swimming for ages. There wasn't a thing that they asked the kids to do that she didn't raise her hand and scream, "I can do it!" And she usually did; though she often sunk after a forward glide or backstroke, but she never panicked. Now, just a few weeks later, she's got the whole blowing bubbles, arm-stroking, side-breathing (sometimes), kick like all hell thing down. I never, ever thought she'd get this far when I enrolled her. I just thought that in preparation for our trip to Hawaii, it might be good for her to have a little bit of confidence in the water. Who knew this little Guilin girl was part fish?

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And hey, this video just cute (I uploaded this accidentally trying to upload the pool one, but since it was uploaded, I thought I'd share.)

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So we are down to the last week of summer here. School starts on August 6th. Lulu's preschool follows the local school schedule, so she'll be moving up to the pre-K class from the preschooler class. She'll be 5 in December, but if she was about 5 days older she'd be starting Kindergarten! Whoa, where did the time go? In any event, I'm glad I don't have to make the decision as to whether or not to send her off to Kindergarten at 4 and a half. But she's probably perfectly ready academically: she's got all the letter sounds down and is figuring out that when those sounds go together she can read words. Nothing earth-shattering, mostly short vowel three-letter words, but for a kiddo who didn't know a word of the English language 18 months ago, a pretty darn amazing feat. She saw Akeelah and the Bee a few weeks ago, and now she wants to spell everything. I find little pieces of scratch paper all over the house with words she's written - even saw one that said COLGATE on it and it was written so neatly I thought I had started a grocery list!

Well, I'm sure you can't tell at all that I love my girl. She's the chattiest, goofiest, giggliest, most sweet, loving, sensitive soul I have ever known. I won the lottery with this little one for sure. I'll try to pull myself away from her more regularly to post to this blog. I'll try...

Long-awaited update - November 2006

2007-01-01T05:28:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know, it's been a loooong time since I've blogged. Well, nothing earthshattering has happened, just a flurry of end of the year and holiday activity. I've been telling people I'm lucky to leave the house each day fully clothed. Blogging fell down on the priority list somewhere below dusting. Anyway, I'm back. I figure I have two ways to go on this - lots of short posts detailing the last two months, or a long one. I'll shoot for November at least... And I have been taking photos, so I'll add a lot of those to make up for the dry spell.

Trick or Treating -

It was fun. Temperature was comfortable. Lulu was only scared at a couple of houses decked out with moving ghouls. Collected a lot of candy, most of which is still in the pumkin on the kitchen table. I guess it's time I dump that thing.

Mom's Trip to Alabama -

Had to go for work. This was the first time I had to leave Lulu alone for any real period of time. It was just three days. It was good for both of us. I enjoyed the non-mommy time and Lulu got three days of ultra-spoiling at Grandma and Grandpa's house. She missed me some, had one conversation waaay to close to her bedtime when she got a little weepy and said, "Mama, you no belong to Alabama, you belong me!" I have to agree, though I didn't really get to see any of Alabama as I arrived in a storm, never left the confines of the Birmingham Marriot, and left in the dark.

Lulu's Office -

Had to take Lulu to work with me one day before or after a doctor's appointment. She's not been there often, but she does like to "do her work."

Christmas Card Outtakes -

I certainly have a patient child. (Or a total ham) I took 100 photos of her in this hand-me down holiday dress. Definitely wasn't going to go in and get a portrait taken. I figured if I couldn't get a decent shot or two with my digital camera and a wrinkly sheet backdrop, then the money I spent on that undergraduate degree in film was wasted. Anyway, these didn't make the card, but I just loved them so much I had to put them somewhere.

And this goofy shot, it, well, I don't know. But I had to post it too...

Thanksgiving Feast at School -

This year's thanksgiving feast made me wax poetic about where I was just one year before. Lulu had already started school, but she was NOT a happy camper there yet. I think she had attended about 4 or 5 days by feast time last year. The two and three year olds dress as indians and the four and fives dress as pilgrims. So this was year two for Lulu to wear the feather and seed adorned indian paper bag vest and hat. She still looks uncomfortable in it, but I continued to flash back to last year when we had only been home a couple of weeks and the look I got from my new daughter was something on the order of, well at least in China we didn't have to wear paper clothes! But, what a difference a year makes. Last year she was still in somewhat of a daze and this year she took the camera and photographed all the parents and kids. She is a total natural with that thing. She knows how to review pix, enlarge, zoom, run the video.

And the other Thanksgiving feast -

Well, next in the order of things was thanksgiving. Small by normal Portuguese standards - I think we were 14. Man, there were years where we crammed 30+ people onto folding chairs in my grandparent's garage. Anyway, my nephew Brian was able to come and anytime Lulu and Brian are together, there pretty happy campers. They play so well together that it almost makes me think that a good choice for child number two would be an older boy. But Lulu wants a little sister so much, and is such a good helper/mentor to the little ones in her school it's hard to know what would be best.

School Halloween Party & Puppy Love

2006-10-29T19:08:00.000-08:00

We went to the Halloween potluck at Lulu's school on Friday and I couldn't help but snap a few photos of her and her sweet friend Pookala (I'm sure I'm bludgeoning the spelling there).

When Lulu started at her preschool after two weeks home, the local school district was on break and her preschool (not associated with the district) often takes kids up to six years old during the breaks. So, that's when Lulu met Pookala. And that's where the puppy love began. He was in kindergarten and she wasn't quite three. I never got to see much of this, but the teachers told me how she would follow him around and he would be protective of her (at that point, she was scared to death of school). The few times I got to see them together, she was always attached to him at the hip, staring at him like he was some sort of idol.

So, anyway, Pookala, who has a brother that still attends school with Lulu, was at the party. Lulu about knocked over every person in the room to make her way to him. They had games set up and a movie playing with 8 or 10 tiny chairs in front of it. Pookala asks Lulu if she wants to go to the movies with him. A definite yes from the googly-eyed sleeping beauty. So there they sat, chomping popcorn and watching Monster House for much of the evening. He offered to get her a drink. She saved his seat (Don't sit there, that's my Pookala's seat!) and even sat in his lap for a while when the "theater" got crowded. It was hysterical and I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

Oh, I'm going to be in trouble in about 10 years. And did I mention, when Pookala's off at "big kid school" Lulu's started calling Pookala's cousin Zion, "my Zion." Yep, big trouble.

And here's Lulu carving her pumpkin for the school contest. She told me the pumpkin had a lot of seeds and spaghetti in his brain.

Gotcha Day Anniversary

2006-10-24T21:07:00.000-07:00

One year... I find that nearly unbelievable that it was one year ago today that I walked into that room at the Welfare Lottery Hotel in Nanning and saw that cute little sweet pea for the first time. She has changed so much in the last year and in many ways is still the same spunky, opinionated, bright girl that I met that day. I am awed by her perseverance. In one year she's been yanked from a family she adored and was adored by, stuck on a train to meet her kooky single mama who whisked her away from all she'd ever known and brought her to a world where every sight and smell and sound was new. After two weeks home and when things were just starting to seem okay, she was placed in a preschool which had to have seemed just like an orphanage where she has to worry every day if mama was going to come back for her. Then came surgeries, two of them, and speech therapy. And she's fine, well adjusted and damn smart. No one every believes she's only been home a year. She is such a talker. While her speech is still not as clear as it needs to be, her vocabulary is at least a couple of years ahead of her age. I don't have this word for word, because it went on forever, but here's an example from yesterday (she'd come up with some fanciful story about something she had done at school, which I knew for sure she couldn't have done, so I asked her how she came up with it):

Lulu: I know why, it because I have a very big imagination inside my head, in my brain, in the bones inside the skeleton in my head. My brain is big, it working hard on my imagination so I can be thinking of things that are everywhere. (I'm cracking up at this point) Now listen to me, mama, that is rude to be laughing when I be telling you about my brain inside. You have to have patience! Now, sit down - cross your legs - put your hands in your lap and be quiet, okay. Now listen me better this time. (I comply) There, you a very good girl. That's good listening.

Me: Okay, go on with the story about the dinosaur that came to school.

Lulu: Yes. Miss Chris was sitting on the chair like this and then the dinosaur came and ate Jevon.

Me: Really? Poor boy. How did you feel?

Lulu: I was a little bit worried and a little bit sad. Why? Because the dinosaur ate Jevon, all of him.

Me: All of him?

Lulu: (waving her arms) All of him! Everything! His hands, his toes, his chin, his elbows all of Jevon was gone.

Me: Where was Jevon?

Lulu: Inside the dinosaur. In his mouth, then his troat, then his stomach! After that, then he poop it out.

(Mom's still laughing)

Lulu: Mama, it not funny. Jevon came out all dirty. Oooooh. Yucky. Poop all over his body.

Me: Was he okay?

Lulu: Yeah, he was all right. He took a bath to take all the poop off. Then it was all better. He learn his lesson.

Me: What lesson was that?

Lulu: Don't go inside a dinosaur!

Me: And all this really happened?

Lulu: Yes, at my school.

Me: And what happened to the dinosaur?

Lulu: Oh, it not a dinosaur. It was a mask. Inside the dinosaur, underneath, it was a panda. A purple panda. Inside. So, everything is okay now. Don't worry. It not a real dinosaur.

Me: But I thought it ate Jevon.

Lulu: Yeah. You not listening mama. I told you it inside my imagination! My imagination inside my skeleton in my head, in my brain...

And on, and on, and on...

So, we had a little party to celebrate the day. Nothing big. She wanted a strawberry cake (yeah, try to write happy gotcha day on a bunch of bumpy, glazed, strawberries!) So grandma and grandpa came over. We had some balloons, looked at pictures of gotcha day and looked at the clothes she came in (hey mom, no panties for me in China!) It was a fun day. Fun year. I'm so looking forward to the next year.

Here are some pics of the day:

Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

2006-10-19T06:06:00.000-07:00

So, two days after the family pumkin patch trip, Lulu's preschool took a field trip to the local patch. I've got to give it preschool teachers - I don't know how they cope every day with 40-50 2-5 year olds!

Here's some of the gang:

Yeah, try to get six girls to look at the camera at the same time!

Lulu and buddy Karizma with their pumpkins:

Avila Beach

2006-10-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

We went down to Avila Beach for Pumpkin huntin'. It was a remarkably nice day and just about every person had the same idea. We went with Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle Chis, Ayi Dianne and cousin Brian, as Lulu puts it, "the whole family, all of us!" The kiddos had a great time running around haystacks, petting animals, chomping down hot corn on the cob, all the while smell of hot baked pumpkin pie wafted through the air. Now I don't even like pumpkin pie that much and I was drooling. All in all a fun day.

Here are the munchkins with Grandma/Ava & Grandpa/Avo:

Here's Lulu in a fit of laughter on the hayride (same hayride Mama fell off of and had to make a flying leap back onto to make it down to the pumpkin patch!):

And this is Brian and Lulu showing off their Halloween costumes for each other. Lulu was absolutely fascinated about Superman's muscles! Just waaaay too cute.

Disneyland

2006-10-08T08:02:00.000-07:00

So, we are back and exhausted, but we sure had fun. Left at 5am last Saturday and got back Friday at about 6:30 pm. Man, did we go non stop. I really thought Lulu would need more downtime, but she was always ready to roll. We had lots of fun with family and friends while there: Grandma and Grandpa were down for a few days, my cousin came up from San Diego for a day, and a friend of mine zipped down for a couple of days too. It sure helped having extra adults around because when Lulu's happy, she's really happy, and when she's not, well, she's not. Here's the visual on the extacy and the agony of a Disney trip.

I got some kind of bug on the way back so this blog entry is mostly pix, but they pretty much tell the tale.

First off, Disneyland and DCA were all decked out for Halloween, so it was a great time to go. If you can get yourself there while the decor is up, do it. The crowds are generally light and it is really very nice to look at.

We stopped off at Central Plaza to see the stone of my cousin Sean. He was a cleft kiddo and passed away a few years ago. He was a big reason I was comfortable adopting a child with a cleft lip and palate, so it was cool to let Lulu see his stone.

We started out in Fantasyland with the more timid rides. Lulu loved the teacups and she could make those things spin!

We took a turn into Toon Town and discovered Lulu was scared to death of the Disney characters. She wanted nothing to do with them. We toured Mickey and Minnie's houses and then Lulu saw the Gadget Go Coaster, which is a very short, but real working roller coaster. "I wanna go faster" she begged. There was no line, so we went. She did the whole thing with her hands in the air. We're in the fourth car back in the pic. Wild child she is. Aside from the characters, she was absolutely fearless.

We had reservations made for Ariel's Grotto for a Disney Princess lunch. Given what I had seen with the characters, I was hoping she wouldn't be scared outta her mind by the princesses. She'd been asking about them for days. Where we were seated, we were the first stop on the "princess circuit, so it was always a suprise when a new one arrived. I don't have all the best shots as my back was to where they appeared, but my mom got some good ones I'll try to post later. We saw Jasmine, Belle, Cinderella, Ariel and Mulan. Lulu liked Jasmine, Ariel and Mulan, but was scared of the big billowy dresses on Cinderella and Belle and wouldn't get very close. Mama! After lunch they bring a big heap of cotton candy to the table, and honestly, that was the biggest thrill of the day for her. As you can see though, she was pretty exhausted by the end of the meal.

Lulu's favorite rides were the scary ones - both thematic and thrills. She loved Pirates, the Haunted Mansion, etc. and rode over and over again. And as she saw some of the more thrill type rides, you couldn't convince her not to ride. Fortunately, she made the 40 inch height requirement necessary for most of the rides. There are a few she couldn't ride, so we stayed clear of those areas in the park. She did Thunder Mountain (again, hands in the air most of the time - mom holding onto little body for fear of it flying out on a bump!), Soaring Over California, Star Tours, Space Mountain and even Tower of Terror. On that one, one time when the lights went on her whole body was trembling and she looked like she was scared out of her mind. She barely got out, "mmmmma mmmaaaa, I wanna go home..." I thought I'm going to a special mom hell for mama's who couldn't convince their kids not to ride the scariest of rides. Then, the next time the lights went on she had her hands in the air. When the ride ended, I asked her if she liked it and she said, "let's do it again!" Okay, she's an odd little kid. She really loves to be scared. I think I've got a future thrill seeker here for sure. Not really any pix of these rides because they're not exactly the kind of rides you can have your camera sitting on your lap for! I did get one of Lulu waiting in anticipation of boarding the Thunder Mountain Train.

Gosh, the rest is just a blur. I'll post more pix as soon as I get them from my mom. What else did we do? We ate at Ihop a lot because kids eat free. We did some swimming and Lulu is a fish. It was her first real time in the pool and she was floating around and having people dunk her head under water trying to turn summersaults. We went to Build a Bear Workshop to put together a $25 bear for $75 dollars but it was worth every penny. BTW - She picked a pink fluffy bear to be her "son!" The ride back was hell, I had a fever, Lulu was spent and started crying for her Grandpa and Grandma about 20 miles into the 350 mile drive. It took forever to get home. But, I've upgraded my 5 day pass to an annual pass so as soon as the memory of the drive back begins to fade, I'll be Disney bound again!

Speech Assessment

2006-09-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

(Here's a post I wrote weeks ago, but forgot to change from draft to post, duh...)

Went up to UCSF a couple weeks ago for Lulu's post-surgical and speech assessment at UCSF. All's well there. There looks to be no need for further surgery for speech improvement. The palate looks long enough and there is plenty of movement. She can make most sounds, just not consistently at the beginning, middle and end of words, so speech therapy is all that is prescribed for now. That's really good news! Interesting results too indicate that while she's about 40% unintelligible to the untrained listener (I'd say there's only about 10% of what she says that I don't understand) she's testing at the mid kindergarten level for language use. Pretty amazing for 10 months home and only 3.5.

In preparation for the upcoming post placement visit by the social worker, I did a little cleaning in Lulu's room. The girl loves her shoes and has so many pairs it's ridiculous. When we got home from China, she had a pile of three or four near a set of bins. Well that pile has grown to 20+ pairs and I finally got one of those shoe holders that go in the closet. While she was with her grandparents one afternoon, I put most of the shoes in the closet, leaving out the two or three she wears most often. When I brought her home, she called me into her room. "Someone stole all my shoes! They are all gone." When I asked who did it, she said, "maybe Grandma." So we called grandma and she held the phone up to where the pile of shoes had been and said, "hey, look what happened!" God, it was hysterical. She wasn't at all upset, but just amazed that they had all disappeared.

We went to the monthly FCC gathering at a local park and Lulu fell in love with my friend's little girl Ryleigh. She's exactly the same age as Lulu's foster sister would be now and she had a great time pushing her on the swing and going down the slide with her. Truly, every time Lulu sees a baby, she asks if she can touch it and then if she can hold it. She really is a little mama!

10 Months with Sleeping "Bootie"

2006-08-27T06:16:00.000-07:00

This week was the 10 month anniversary of Gotcha day in China. I can't believe 10 months have already gone by. I've been trying to take a photo each month on the 24th so that at a year, I can see how she's grown. Here's this months:

I'm in awe at how she has handled what she's been dealt. I'd be a puddle of goo if I had to endure all the changes she's had to endure in the just three and a half years. And she's so aware of the life she had and the one she has now. The other night we were talking about how she was so sad at Gotcha. She said, "I not sad anymore. I love my mama. You. You different in china - Lulu was scared. I cried a lot. You not different anymore mom. I love you really, really really lot." Yeah, that can make your day. Of course the next day, she said, "I done with China!" That of course, makes me sad. I want her to want to be here, but I don't want her to dislike China. Right now, she talks a lot about China in a good way, but if unfamiliar people talk too much about it, she becomes visibly uncomfortable. My parents took her to church (pic below) last week and an Asian woman offered her a donut after the service - "No! Never!" she yelled. She does NOT like unfamiliar Asian people. She'll talk with asian parents of kids at school fine, but new Asian looking people, I think, make her nervous that she's going back. I've had her now, just as long as her foster parents had her, and I'm sure she often wonders if these new Asian people will be taking her back or to a new home. A lot of baggage adopted kids come with, a lot...

So, Disneyland is on the horizon and halloweek not far behind, so as I zipped down the aisle at Target, the Disney princess dresses caught my eye. Well, I touched one and Lulu saw me and her eyes widened. Princess!!!!! So we came home with a frilly, fluffy, pink sleeping "booty" dress. And just so you know that she's not all princess, I offered to buy her a halloween t-shirt and with all the adorable girly ones she picks a boys all black long sleeve one with a creepy white image: "little vampire motorcycle club." My girl is definitely a study in contrasts.

Lulu also took a trip with my parents to meet a wealthy older couple my dad does some work for. I didn't go, but my parents said she was delightful. She shook their hands and said, "nice to meet you," and then charmed the cookies out of them like she'd been doing these social kind of events all her life. Sitting on a swanky setee, during a lull in the conversation, she announced, "you know, I'm from China..." Which caught everyone off guard, but was evidently hysterical if you were there. She went on to explain about how she'd had surgery on her palate and has shiny new teeth.

Oh my god, Lulu has discovered polly pockets. She got a small set for Christmas, but didn't enjoy it much because she was frustrated by the tiny pieces. But the little box filtered up in the toy bins and she's obsessed, and yeah, hurray for mama, she can put all of the pieces on herself. Oh and I can actually get things done while she dresses and undresses the dolls with those tiny pieces of vinyl. My favorite so far was when I asked her what the names were, she of course answered, "this one is polly pocket, this one is polly pocket, this one, etc...," but when I asked if they had other names, she said "this one is Aavia, this one is Ayanna, this one Azaria (friends from school) and then came a naked one, save for the purple painted on bikini, and she examined it closely and said, "this one is grandpa." Okay, I got to talk to my dad about this one! LOL

Well, that's about it for now. Hope all's well with everyone in cyberspace!

Lulu Tidbits

2006-08-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back here before a month has passed. I thought I'd toss out some tidbits about my girl...

She started year two at her preschool - officially now in the ladybug class. New classroom, new cubby, proud girl. She just had to go to school in all ladybug attire - shirt, pants, socks, etc. She's one proud insect.

We were at a Burger King and there was a mom there with her two daughters. A California Highway Patrolman and father to the girls stopped in to eat with them. He was decked out in his CHP attire and Lulu looked up at him and told me, "Wow, that man has power." Surprised, I ask her where she learned that concept. "S-chool" (yes, it's always a two syllable word). "Look, see, he have a power in his pocket" then makes the pointer finger gun with her hand and says, "pow, pow, pow, like the power rangers." Oy. The stuff she gets from school..

We sent a package off this morning to Lulu's foster family. I included a lot of photos, a box of Sees candy, a talking picture frame where I was able to record Lulu singing and saying 'Nihao" to her mama and baba and baby Meili. I wish she would have hung onto her Chinese. She dropped it like a hot potato as soon as I got her and still gets nervous if she hears too much of it. I hope someday, that she'll want to learn it again. We also sent a ton of Lulu pictures for them to see how she's doing in her new life. They are the most amazing family. Lulu was so lucky to have them. We also sent a little dress to Lulu's beloved baby sister Mei Li. I hope to find her on a waiting child list sometime in the future - if not to adopt her myself, to at least let Lulu have contact with the little one she loves so much. So if any of you see a Yang Mai Li (or maybe Mao Li, or Mei Li or something similar - I'm going on Lulu's word here) born in Guilin, Guangxi, 12-20-04, SN-cleft lip and palate, probably both repaired, let me know! That would be incredibly cool.

Pics above are from last weekend's jaunt down to see cousin Brian. Had oodles of fun on the slip and slide!

Finally have decided on a vacation destination. With a three and a half year old in the house, where else would it be other than Disneyland. Oh there is one excited girl around here. The Disneyland sing along tape is going to wear out before we go, I'm sure. Every morning she wakes up and asks if we are going to Disneyland. It's going to be a long month before we go!

I'm having problems loading photos to blogger, so hopefully I can add them tomorrow. See ya later...

The Travel Game

2006-08-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

Well, not 24 hours later here I am again. I finally actually put up four auctions for my homemade travel game yesterday. I've got some sort of bug and was feverish all day. Joy of joys. Maybe not the best day to create text for an online auction, but I didn't have much energy to do anything else. Anyway, the game is simple and fun and can has a number of ways to modify play based on the number of kids traveling, age, etc. So, if you're off on a road trip with the munchkins before school starts come take a peek. This game has been a lifesaver to me in the past!

I've got two unisex versions up:
Fun Travel Game

Fun Travel Game

And one boy and one girl one (boy sets are more likely to have bugs or vehicles, girl sets dolls or rings, etc.)

Fun Travel Game for Girls

Fun Travel Game for Boys

Shiny Teeth, Ladybugs, Games, Mei Meis and a Portuguese Chinese girl

2006-08-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

So here I am again, apologizing for not blogging more regularly. I'm envious and awed by those of you who post daily. My goal is to blog more than once a month. Well, enough of that. I'll try to do better.

The biggest event since last posting has been Lulu's second surgery since coming home. Technically, it was dental, but it had to be done at UCSF because of the extent of the decay in her mouth. In short, Lulu likely never saw a toothbrush during her time in China. That, it conjunction with a less than ideal amount of nutrition in her early days, has lead to the state of her mouth. If you're grossed out by open mouth shots, look away now...

By the way, ever since Lulu had her first visit to the craniofacial clinic and they took shots of her mouth, she has loved to take this kind of photo. And she loves to take them of me. I have at least fifty open mouth and up the nostril shots of me on my digital camera. I'll spare you from seeing those!

Lulu's upper molars had the worst decay, but I couldn't get enough light to really show what was going on.

Our local pediatric dentist gave me a two page list of all that needed to happen - spacers, root canals, crowns, caps, pretty much everything and the kitchen sink. The amount of work necessitated doing the work under general anesthesia. Normally, they do provide this service in the office, but because of Lulu's cleft palate -even though it is repaired - she will continue to have a compromised airway and putting her under in a non-hospital setting was not recommended. In fact, they wouldn't do it and I totally understand. So, that's how we got to UCSF.

I didn't get to spend as much time preparing Lulu for this surgery as I did for palate surgery in May. But she's so adaptable and ready to take on anything, it didn't really matter. We traveled up on Thursday the 27th and she had her prepare appointment and got another set of doctor's stuff (mask, gloves, surgical cap, oxygen mask) which she wielded like a pro. She was set for a 7:30 am surgery so we had to be there at 6:30 am. She could hardly wait. That pic up at the top is her at about 5:45 am that morning asking if it was time to go to the hospital yet.

So the surgery itself went well, but was long. I had been told it would take two hours and it was nearly four. Ugh. I had mentioned the trouble Lulu had coming out of anesthesia during her palate surgery, so they gave her a mild sedative to ease her waking. Brilliant move. Lulu woke up in recovery, took a peek around, saw me, and napped on and off, quite peacefully for the next hour or so. Outpatient surgery is weird though. One minute, your kid has every tube and monitor known to man attached to them, and the next the nurse is saying, okay, put her shoes and sox on, you can go. So, I did just that, walked out of recovery and to the parking lot we went.

So, the chipped and pretty much dead tooth got a shiny silver cap. As did just about all her molars. She took one look in her mouth and was so proud of her shiny teeth. "All better!" she exclaimed. Her teeth were a little sore, but she was eating potatoes and eggs just a few hours later. So, she looks great, feels fine, and all that work is going to start falling out naturally in a couple of years. C'est la vie!

So, here's the after shots:

Elsewhere on the homefront, Lulu starts her new school year on Monday. She'll officially be in the "Ladybug" class. They arrange the preschool into three groups: Butterflies, Ladybugs and Busy Bees depending on when you're slated to start kindergarten. Lulu joined the Butterfly class of mostly 2-3 year olds two weeks after coming home. This is a pic of her last day of Butterflydom. She wasn't a happy camper that day, not because of the changeover, but because she vetoed on her decision to wear the dirty yellow sweatshirt from the previous day. She misses her kindergarten cut off day by a handful of days, but that's probably for the best. She'll be a kindergartener in the fall of 2008. Could she have handled it in the fall of 2007, I honestly think so, but what the heck for? School starts so early here, (early August) that she'd be barely 4.5 and not turn five until December. She'll also be starting speech therapy soon as the district will be back in session. That will be good for her. I understand about 90 percent of what she says, most others I would guess would get about 50 percent of what she says. As her vocabulary has exploded over the last few months it has also made it difficult to distinguish which word she's saying.

Me: Truck or trunk?
Lulu: Truck.
Me: Oh, truck.
Lulu: NO, TRUCK! Like elephant nose or on back of the car where you put stuff - TRUCK!
Me: Oh, trunk.
Lulu: (with eyes rolling) "Yeah Mom.

Okay, looking forward to speech therapy here!

And one of the things Lulu is talking about all the time of late is going to China to get a mei mei (Chinese for baby sister). I have every intention of doing this again. I don't dig the only child thing. I don't have any problem with it for others, I know lots of happy, well-adjusted only children, but of all relationships in your life, the sibling relationship is the longest and most enduring. I wouldn't trade my sister for anything. Plus, as I'm sure identity issues will arise in the future, I'd like Lulu to not be the only Chinese girl in the family. Could I do more for one than I could do for two? Probably. No way in the world can I envision paying for college for two (probably not even for one, LOL) but I figure if they want it bad enough, they'll find a way to do it. I somehow got myself a BA and an MA on my own. I see the determination of my little one and know that she could too. And as far as little ones go, I'm so in love with another three year old girl on my agency's waiting child list. She looks like Lulu right down to the look of her cleft. She's only only five months younger than Lulu, but she's luscious in every way. Oh it makes me wish I was independently wealthy. I do have to wait until Lulu's in kindergarten, because at $600 a month for preschool, two would put me in the poor house in no time at all. All this talk about mei meis though has made me start thinking about ways of financing adoption number two. I have a very simple little travel game I've put together for friends for and kids I know for years. I'm going to stick a few up on ebay to see if there's any interest. If so, maybe dear daughter number two doesn't have to wait for two more years. Anyway, we'll see. So, speaking of games...

Lulu has discovered board games. More so the girl is my child. My sister and I had more games as kids than we had hairs on our heads. Love em and so glad Lulu does too. Here are the links to some of her favorites:

Cariboo is a great treasure hunting game, too easy for Lulu, but she loves it still the same - here's the link if your interested:
Cariboo

Hullaballoo is wonderful. Something sort of between a cake walk and twister. Great, great, great for preschoolers:
Hullabaloo

We've also recently discovered Guess Who, which is a little hard for her (ages six and up) but she's quickly becoming an expert: Guess Who

And this new game, which I've seen played and have purchased -hopefully to be saved until Christmas if I can hold out:
The Touch Game

And lastly, we went to a Portuguese festa a few weeks ago. These are big celebrations I had to be dragged to as a kid. Think "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and you sort of get the picture. Parades, food, festivities and lots of loud talking Azorian Portagees. There was a local one and my parents asked if Lulu and I wanted to go. Lulu of course jumped at the idea. She loved it. I swear to god this kid has more Portuguese blood flowing through her veins than I do and I'm a pureblood. And she willingly wore a dress. Had to take a picture of that one!

Ta ta for now and I hope to post within the month!

Interpretive Dance Choreographed by Lulu

2006-07-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, this one speaks for itself...

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And I know, I've been a baaad girl. Haven't blogged for close to a month. I have no excuse except to say I'm busy with my girl and summer just seems to bring all kinds of activity. So, I'll go with the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words...

No sooner did I post about Lulu not wearing dresses, did she get a hand-me down from mom's work friend's granddaughter and insisted on wearing it. The ruby red slippers too.

My birthday... Lulu opened most of my gifts. Best one was from her. A big, chunky, blue bracelet she picked out at Target. She liked it because the beads looked like balls and jellybeans (Jello Beans in Lulu speak).

My cousin, Ayi Vickie (certain very special women get the "Ayi" title from Lulu) was here for a DUI conference (she's a lawyer, not an offender!) and Lulu loved following her around copying her every move. Vickie, she still wants two white shirts! We had a good weekend, ate like pigs and spent one afternoon walking around Cannery Row.

We went swimming at cousin Brian's house last weekend. Lulu's first time in the pool and not two minutes in, she slips and falls under. Uncle Chris got her quickly, and after one "no more" request, was soon dipping her face in and splashing around like an old pro. My Lulu definitely throws herself into new things with wholehearted gusto!

Oh, and one event of note, but no pic, last Thursday a couple of hours after Lulu went to bed, I heard sobbing. I went in, turned on the light and she her on her knees on the floor at the edge of the bed. I assumed incorrectly that she's had some wild, scary nightmare and I flicked on the light and picked her up and found blood gushing from her nose and mouth. As far as I could tell, she'd rolled out of bed and hit the nightstand. Now, the nightstand is at the exact same height as the bed, and bumper guarded to the hilt, but she managed somehow to whack her face on it. Poor babe. Bled for about 20 minutes, she was asleep in about 10, but the cold compress did the trick. She had a fat upper and lower lip for a couple of days, but she was so proud to have a nice big "owie" she could show everyone in school the next day.

And this weekend my parents, Lulu and I went to Bonfante Gardens: http://www.bonfantegardens.com/ This is a theme park with a horticultural theme with fun, mostly gentle rides for kiddos primarily under 10. It also has incredibly beautiful gardens and wild circus trees. I'd recommend to anyone, particularly if you've got little ones who are often too small for regular rides at most theme parks. Lulu couldn't quite get that it was a park without swings and slides. But once we got there and she saw the park, she got it! She rode everything and didn't flinch at things that moved quickly, were dark, made a lot of noise, etc. Oh yeah, this girl's ready for Disneyland!

A denim obsession

2006-06-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

Is there a 12 step program for jeans? Lulu needs it desperately. She's always had a preference for pants despite having a closet full of dresses - 90% never worn and the remainder each worn about 10 minutes tops). For a long while, the preference was for any denim, but it soon became, "jean pants with pockets" and quickly moved to "my long jean pants." So, here's Lulu's heroin:

If she could wear this particular pair 24/7 she would. She's asked to shower with them on. She begs every morning to wear them and I've been letting her wear to school about twice a week, but the moment we get home, before I've had a chance to close the door, she's pulling off whatever she's wearing to put on her long jean pants.

I guess I was a bit of enabler getting them for her in the first place. She loved her denim and I bought a cute pair with appliques down one leg at Target. They were too big and she was so disappointed. A few days later I saw these similar ones and got them for her. They came with a belt (known to Lulu as "My seatbelt!") which made them even more enticing.

God only knows what's going to happen when she outgrows these. Most of her pants are 3Ts with some 4T and 5Ts in the mix, but these are just size 2T and she's pretty much filling them out, though there's still a little room in the waist, so I'm preparing myself for major withdrawal symptoms. (Just as an FYI, that little purple half sweater thing she's wearing isn't Lulu's, but rather her doll's size 12 month sweater - she begged to wear it out, but I DID draw the line there!)

Cute Stuff

2006-06-03T07:07:00.000-07:00

My Lulu never ceases to amaze me with her insight. I had the blog up on the computer screen the other day and she saw the picture of herself on the pillow in the hotel room in China a few hours after I received her. To me, she looks mad in the photo.

From across the room I hear this pitiful, "awwwwwwwwww."

"What is it?" I ask.

"Let me see" she asks. She crawls up onto my lap and pulls the screen closer. "Oh, poor Lulu" she says empathetically.

"Was she sad?"

Lulu pulls the screen even closer and stares into her own little eyes, "No, not sad, I worried."

"Worried? About what?"

She turns around and taps my shoulder. "I not know this mama, Lulu WORRIED." Then she smiles, "I not worried no more! Lulu HAPPY!"

Hey kiddo, way to both break your mama's heart and make it swell all at the same time.

And this one...

Lulu's whining about some non-issue like her hair hurting or not being able to eat a hershey's kiss before bedtime and I smile at the passion she exhibits, which of course pisses her off royally. Her hands get firmly placed on hips and she marches to my mom who was here at the time and reports, "My Mama not listen to my sad!" Of course my mom laughs too, irritating her even more, so she huffed and puffed as she stomped into her room. Overall though, amazing to me that she can sort out the feelings/emotions of being sad for not being heard. Note to mama - try to listen to her sad...

And this one...

Yeah, I live in California, but the weather isn't particularly warm in this particular area, so Lulu hasn't seen many shorts since her arrival last November. She wore a pair a week or so ago and thought it was odd to have her legs sticking out like that. But she did like being cooler. So the other day when she was getting ready for school she put on a pair of jeans, but then looked down and said, "Mama, I wanna wear my short sleeved pants."

Memorial Day Weekend

2006-06-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

Lulu had a great Memorial Day weekend. I'm not big celebrator of holidays (except for Christmas where I go hog wild) but I thought with three uninterupted days of Mama-Lulu time, I had better come up with some fun stuff to do. And the weather was beautiful!

On Saturday, I decided to take the big plunge and take Lulu to her first movie. She was very excited about going, even though she was a bit confused by my explanation of a big TV and lots of people in the dark. Over the Hedge was playing at 11 something in the morning and I thought it would be good to go early since I didn't know how she'd react to the whole thing. I got her a hotdog and I got a small bag of popcorn and a couple of drinks and we marched into the theater. She thought it was so cool that all the seats could be folded down that she did our whole row. Look Mama! she said with each seat she opened. Then I handed her her drink and she plopped it right into her cup holder like she'd done it a million times. Previews began and except for a little questioning about what happened to the lights, she started watching. She pulled the hotdog from the bun and chomped it down two-fistedly. There were a couple of "I scary, Mama" moments at the beginning where the bear is a little threatening, but she was fine to just hold my hand (thank you very much for the slobbery hot-dog hand). Later, she took the popcorn bag and started chomping down on that too. It's the first time for that too. So she sat through the whole movie and seemed to follow the plotline pretty well. Overall, it's like she was a seasoned movie goer.

On Sunday, we went down to visit cousin Brian, who is six. Now to say Lulu adores Brian is a huge understatement. They had a blast and a half. This is a pic of them after playing Brian's concocted game - Jungle Roof Ball - wherein players toss the ball up onto the roof and he who gets the most roof bounces before the ball hits the ground is the winner. The pic here is of the two of them during a JRB break.

On Monday, I took her to a local park created by Dennis the Menace creator Hank Ketchum. It's a grand old place with a hedge maze, cool play equipment (not as cool as when I was a kid and they had all kinds of really super-cool equipment that you could really get hurt on!) and even an old locamotive engine for kids to crawl around on. Fun stuff, but usually crowded, especially on a holiday weekend. She was there once before, soon after she arrived from China, but this was the first time where she really got to have fun. Let's just say she pretty much frolicked. What a happy camper she was! That is, until the point at which we had to go and I had to carry her out football style, screaming for more. As much as she seems so much older to so many people, she still has her totally three year old moments! Here's a pic of her before the meltdown...

So, throw in a few visits to Grandma and Grandpa's house where she could have the run of the house and all in all, a fun weekend for my girly.

Lulu's Gotcha Story

2006-05-27T05:54:00.000-07:00

I started this blog months after Lulu's arrival, but I've had several people ask about how her transition was and what our time in China was like. So here, mostly cut and pasted from my yahoo group, is the story of my Gotcha trip to Lulu (often referred to here as Miranda, which is her legal name, but her middle name is Lu, and she's been Lulu all her life, so for now, Lulu she certainly is!) For those that were members of the yahoo group, I finally do have some more pics and video here that I wasn't able to upload from China.

The long, long, really long journey...

Monday, 10/24/05

All is good now, but I have had a quite the time getting here..

I started off on Friday morning at the local airport. There was
fog and my flight to San Francisco was delayed, but there was a
decent layover and it shouldn't have been a problem. But time
creeped on and what was a fifteen minute delay turned into one that
made getting the connecting flight to Beijing from SF impossible.
The United guy tried for a long while to find something to get me to
China for a Monday gotcha day. Virtually everything was booked due to the trade fairs in China. We tried other airlines, flying to Chicago or the east coast and then back, but the best that could be done was a flight Saturday afternoon which would get me to China late Sunday night. So I went back home...

I called Sue Sorrells who had booked the flights for me to see if she
could do any better. She was even checking flights through
Frankfurt, Germany to see if I could go around the world the other
way. She said the flight I had was probably the best I could get.
Then I started looking at the tickets I had received at the local
airport. The actually had me arriving Monday evening (after the time
I was supposed to get Miranda!) Okay, panic time. I called Sue back
and she went back to work again. (Anyone out there who will be
traveling in the future, USE SUE SORRELLS. She's a miracle worker.)
She called me back asking if I could get myself to San Francisco
which is about a 2.5 hour drive from home. I needed to leave within 10
minutes. I was able to get an airport shuttle to take me to SFO. We
got there, checked the bags, and boarded a flight to LA, to then
switch to China Air to Beijing and then China Southern to Nanning.
When we got to LA we went to China Air with our confirmed
reservations, and they said we had to go to united for a paper
ticket. We rode the shuttle back over. United couldn't figure out
what we wanted. Finally, they gave us something. Then we went back
to China Air. They said the tix were no good. They had no seats.
Back to United (did I mention each time we do this it's at least a 20
minute wait for the shuttle?). Now, it's past midnight and the
United ticket counter is dark and empty. We ask a security guard and
said maybe if we waited, someone would come out on their way home.
We did, and after what seemed like forever, we got a nice guy to
help. They couldn't figure out why China Air didn't have a record
of us, because they see from their end that we should be fine. They
call China Air and finally tell us to go back there. It's now
inching ever so close to takeoff of the China Air flight at 1:40 am.
Back at China Air, we find about 15 other really bummed out people in
the same exact situation. China Air has no idea who they are and
really can't help. We waited to see if anyone didn't check in or if
there was any stand by, but no. So back again to the United area,
but now everyone is gone and it's 2 am. I found a pay phone and
called United in Chicago and the woman says they can probably pay for
a room for the night, but I have to do it through a United ticket
agent. There's no one back until 5 am...

I was pretty bleary eyed and at this point, there's no one even
outside the airport. I looked for a taxi, but couldn't find one. I
went back in the terminal and found the board of hotels with shuttle
services. I started calling and finally found a Days Inn that was
willing to send a shuttle even though they stopped service at
midnight. So, this wasn't the nicest place, smack dab between an
adult bookstore and a bail bonds place, but hoo ha it had two beds
that never looked so good. I set the alarm for very early so I could
call Sue and then Stefani (the angel from my adoption agency who had thankfully given me her number while on vacation). I got about 2 hours sleep, but they were total dead to the world hours. I left a voicemail message for Sue and then got in the shower. While I was rinsing soap from my hair, my traveling companion says I have a call. So I ran out, drippy and soapy to answer the phone. It's Sue, she just asks, are your bags packed? Pretty much, I say. She says I have to get to the airport
right now. I have a 9:38 am flight back to San Francisco. I look at
the clock and it is 8:55 am. So I put on my clothes (later I
discovered my underwear were on backwards, so you can get an idea of how quickly I got dressed). I pulled my soapy hair back into a pony tail and high tailed it out of the Days Inn. A shuttle appeared miraculously
after just a minute and we raced to the United terminal. We went to
check in and because we had only carry on at this point were able to
make the flight back to SF.

We get to SF with just enough time to eat something, neither my
friend Deborah or I can remember when we ate last and think it must
have been close to 24 hours.

We get to Beijing and wonder if the bags that we checked the day
before may have made it there. I spent a long time in a room with a
sweet guy who spoke fairly good english and then I went and looked at
a lot of bags, none of which were mine. He told me to check when I
got to Nanning.

So we board and we're in row 59 or something where the seats are
squished so tight you pretty much can't move, but I'd never been so
thankful to be so uncomfortable. And not a single empty seat on the
plane.

So we arrive in Nanning at 11:30 at night and there is no guide
waiting. Of course this makes a lot of sense, because I had called
Stefani at least three times to change my arrival time, some of which
were voicemail messages and I have no idea if the final arrival time
was ever provided.

So, I was going to try to call someone, but I couldn't figure out how
to use the chinese pay phones and at midnight, there's not much going
on at the Nanning airport. I finally got a woman who tried dialing
the numbers, but none of those worked. I finally called the Majestic
and of course because BOIT books groups of rooms, they didn't have my
actual name. They did say if I had a credit card that I could come
on over. So I got a taxi and made my way to the Majestic.

Soon after, my poor guide Cindy called. The latest info she had was
that I was to arrive at 4 pm, and she waited for 3 hours for me and
was very worried. Once I checked in, they hotel contacted her, so we
are all cool now.

Cindy is the cutest, sweetest thing. I want to bring her home and
help me like this every day. We made a quick trip to Walmart for
some snacks, a stroller, potty seat and kiddo clothes. It is a trip
there. I could have wandered around in awe for hours. Some of it is
so Walmart, and some of it, well, definitely isn't.

So, now I'm just waiting for my little one. Just two more hours and
I'll be going to civil affairs to get her. The journey has been long
and hard, but it is all falling into place. China is wonderful. I
haven't seen much of it, but the taxi rides have been fun (nothing
like seeing a sea of cars, scooters and bikes coming at you head on
in the seatbeltless back seat!) I can't wait to see more of Nanning,
it looks like a place changing so fast, as is I guess, much of China.

I'll try to post again later if I can get back on the internet to let
you know how Miranda is. I can't believe I just wrote that. It's so
soon... Finally!

GOT HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Later on 10/24/05

Miranda Lulu is officially GOT! I am so in love, she's beautiful,
sweet and oh so smart! She on the other hand thinks quite a lot less
of me.

The poor sweet thing is very, very unhappy right now. Actually,
she's cried herself to sleep, so I've got a minute to post.

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When we went to the Welfare Lottery Hotel to pick up my wonderful
winnings. She was over with her Ayis by a couch. She was all smiles
and cute as can be. I got down and took out a small doll for her and
she said thank you, Mama. She rocked herself on a little rocking
horse and we played a bit and had her doll rock on her horse then
another. She would point at me and say Mama and smile.

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I took some pictures and she mostly held her doll out to be photographed. She's
quite the ham (before she realized she was about to be kidnapped!)
Soon the Ayis disappeared and when she looked around she was very
scared. She spoke to Cindy, my guide asking for her Ayis. Cindy
pointed to me and told her Mama and she just shook her head like she
was crazy and pointed to the door, then she begged, then she
screamed. Suddenly, Cindy who she hadn't really noticed before was
looking awfully good to her. She begged for her Mama-la. The crying
went on and on and on.

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We went out to the van and it was quite the ordeal to get her in as
she knew that her Ayis were the other way. Once in, she pressed her
nose up against the window and searched all the people on the street
and in the cars for someone to take her to her mama. She pointed to
the driver and begged "mama!"

When we got to the lobby, it was more of the same. Didn't want to go
up the elevator (who could blame her, the last elevator didn't lead
to much for her.) Then when we opened the door to the room, she made
a dash down the hall. Cindy talked to her for a while and Lulu just
kept shaking her head, no. That was about a half hour there of me
hanging with Cindy trying to be not too threatening and running back
to the room for more candy and toys. So far she likes the little
Sonya Lee doll I got for her. When we were in the hall she asked for
her little "mei-mei" doll. Finally, I just picked her up and tried
to comfort her. She was doing everything she could to escape my
arms. Just lets say she has a good left hook! Even with a cookie
clutched in her fist!

She begged and begged to go to her Ayi once inside. She sobbed some
more and sat on the edge of the bed and pulled up the straps of her
little back pack. Then we decided we should spend some time alone so
Cindy left and will be back in a few hours to check in.

Oh that made her even more unhappy. Her poor little world is just a
mess right now. Then she did the cutest thing among the sobs: She
pressed her hands together and leaned them up to the side of her face
and pointed to the bed. She wanted to sleep. So she crawled up on
the bed I tried to touch her but she pulled her hands away and tucked
them under her bottom. She let me be close and I just talked quietly
and said bie ku (don't cry) a lot. Finally, after about 10 minutes
she sobbed herself to sleep.

And that's where we are right now. She's snoring away, probably
hoping she'll wake up from the nightmare. We'll see what happens
when she wakes up.

I can't believe she's mine (neither can she - but it will all be good
in time.) I can so tell she has loved and been loved, she's just the
most precious thing ever.

Okay, I'm going back now to stare at her with googly eyes. I'm one
lucky, lucky mama!

No, it’s not a dream, little one...

Tuesday, 10/25/05

Well, not much more to post, but I got up to get some water so I
thought I'd update you on my little Miranda panda.

When she woke up she opened her eyes she closed them really fast when she realized that it wasn't all a just some horrible dream. Little tears started rolling out as she clenched her eyes shut. Sobbing again. Then Cindy returned with the photographers for the family photo - poor little thing. A man and woman tried talking to her to soothe her but she just continued sobbing. They stood her up on the bed and I sneaked behind and smiled while holding onto her and they waved and rattled toys and
snapped away. That's going to be a great pic for posterity, LOL.

Then I had to do paperwork and give thumbprints so we went into the
bathroom so Lulu couldn't see Cindy. It was hard signing my name
over and over and over and over again while I could hear by girl
sobbing in the next room with my friend Deborah. Then I heard Deb
start singing and the crying stopped. It was sooo sweet. I finished
the signing and got my orders from Cindy about how much $ to put in
each envelope for the fees tomorrow. Guilin families remind me to get
you that list later. It's almost all RMB beside the donation and one
other thing.

So, while the singing was still going on I Cindy left with an
additional $200 RMB I gave her to buy gifts (all my donations/gifts
were are in the still missing luggage).

I went back into the bedroom and deb was sitting on the floor still
singing and Miranda was just watching. I sat down and sang too. So
we sat there singing and her looking at us back and forth for a long
while. At one point she put her hand out and asked me to stop. Deb
and I could only communicate via song during this point, so to the
tune of Hush little baby, we were like, "do you think I should stop
singing, no not right now, oh it looks like she's getting tired,
maybe we should get her some juice, where is it? It was pretty funny.

So, she's of course in the bed I had been sleeping in and when she
fell back asleep, getting in it was no easy task. I was finally able
to scoop my arms under her and scoot her over a bit so I could
squeeze in. She's slept pretty peacefully till now. She's moving
around a bit now, but still out.

Okay, for you been there done that people she’s obviously in the pretty
much shut down stage, but I'm a little worried that at this point she
hasn't eaten anything, had anything to drink or gone to the bathroom
yet. We got her at about 5 pm on Sunday and it's now 3 am. She's
got the cast iron bladder of her mama apparently. I'm hoping she'll
be hungry and thirsty enough when she gets up to take in something.
I'm sure no child has ever starved herself to death in this
situation. She likes eggs, so when she gets up I'll send Deb down
for a bowl of them. Keep your fingers crossed.

She's such a cutie pie. More later as I can...

Improvement!!!

Later in the morning, 10/25/05

Much better now! After I got back into bed from the last post,
miranda rolled over and said, mama. I said hi Lulu. She tapped her
hand to her lips. I wasn't sure if that was hungry or thirsty, but I
gave her apple juice which she chugged down. She tapped her lips
again. I had ordered soup last night which she didn't eat, but it
was in the fridge. So I showed it to her and she nodded her head.
Yum cold soup in the middle of the night. She still wanted something
else, which I finally figured out was water. She's had three big
glasses of it already. She's smiled a few times. Cutest thing, she
wanted the TV on. She's clearly familiar with it and the remote and
she quickly found a music video channel. She just grinned from ear
to ear and swayed to the music. Then there was a beautiful chinese
woman with long hair in the video and lulu just smiled and motioned
her hand over her own beautiful hair. She was so in the zone. It was
just precious.

She asked to go to the bathroom and stretched her arms to let me pick
her up and take her. Oh that felt so good. I pulled down her pants
and popped her onto the potty seat. She wandered back to the bed.
There was a sticky candy she'd gone to sleep holding on the bed and
she didn't want to lay there, so she found a new spot that was
clean. She's been playing with the stacking cups and quickly figured
out how to stack them appropriately. This little one is so very
smart. She's clearly got that I am of very low intelligence and
can't understand a word she says, so it's all pantomime now. She's
very tired and emotionally drained right now, but I think everything
is going to be fine.

Oh, the backpack she won't let go of, has a family photo of her
foster family. I opened it and showed it to her and she pointed to
her foster mama and sadly said mama-la. She didn't cry, but when I
put the picture on the table, I was clearly notified that it had to
go back in the backpack. She's such a love.

Oh, one last thing, I took a couple of pics with the digital camera
when she was smiling and then showed her in the viewfinder. She
pointed at the display and said mama. So I took one of myself. She
pointed at it and said mama. Then she pointed at it again and said
Mama-Lulu. So Deb took our photo together and she smiled again and
pointed at the display, said Mama-Lulu and bounced her head back and
forth.

She's just incredible and brave and I love her to pieces.

Legally my daughter (at least in China’s eyes)...

Tuesday afternoon 10/25/05

We went to the civil affairs office this morning to make the adoption
official. Miranda was doing well until we got into the room where
her world turned upside down yesterday. She played a little bit, but
then was like, hey, wait a minute, this is the room of EVIL!
WAAAAAA!!!! She sobbed and sobbed as we went into the next room
where I had to answer a series of question about if I wanted her and
if I promise to keep her and raise her and give her an education. It
was a bit hard to hear over the screams, but we got through it. She
was quite the image sitting there behind the Chinese flags on the
table, a mei-mei doll in one hand and a disney cell phone in the
other, screaming her lungs out.

Then her orphanage caretaker and an official from the Guilin
orphanage arrived. This made Miranda stop crying. The nanny asked
where she got her new toys and she said, from Mama as she showed them
off. The official from Guilin said she loved her foster mom VERY
much. They said she knew about me very much. She would come to show off her American clothes and toys from her American mama to all her little friends at the orphanage. They said she's a very independent
girl and has her own ideas about thing. Well, yeah! I'd pretty much
figured that out. She's a hoot. She can definitely get her point
across. When she's very unhappy and crying, you get this hand waving
gesture that is so "talk to the hand" it almost makes you laugh if it
wasn't so sad. She also likes to do stairs and getting in and out of
vehicles all on her own. She takes these huge steps that would be
equivalent to my hip level and just scampers up.

At the notary office there were about 30 families from Spain with
babies. Miranda just sat wide-eyed looking at all the crying and
goings on. Miranda was just about falling asleep so we've come back
to the hotel. Of course as soon as we got back, she started crying.
That went on for about 15 minutes until she cried herself to sleep
again. She decided she wanted to sleep in the crib. It's pretty
funny as her feet are hanging out the end, but it's awfully adorable.

Couple of notes on China. I haven't been able to see much yet and
Cindy our guide has been good about giving us time to rest. I think
we were supposed to do something this afternoon, but I'm glad to be
able to take it easy a bit. I've had a whopping 7 or so hours of
sleep over the last three nights, so I'm working on catching up now.
I was trying to figure out what day I got here, and I think it was
just yesterday if that's possible. I have mashed potatoes for brains
right now. But anyway, there are such strange and wonderful images
going on around here. Outside our hotel window I can see a man
working on the roof of a building slowly banging broken bricks into
cement with the back of a small shovel. All day long there's this
clank, clank, clank. Once it's all dust, he makes a sort of volcano-
shaped pile and pours in water. Then he waits. Then finally, he
mixes the cement and makes new bricks. On the same roof, there are
three other men hammering shelving together. It's sort of fun
guessing what types of furniture are going to be produced next.

The other image that is so foreign is the traffic flow. I don't know
how to explain it, but it's sort of like people, bicycles, motor-
scooters, cars and buses all have the right away. As you travel in
the taxi which of course has no seatbelts, you weave in and out of
traffic, but you might be going the wrong way in your lane or there
may be a series of vehicles coming at you head on in your lane. It's
odd, but it feels very safe. There's a wonderful rhythm and flow to
all the chaotic movement. As you go along, there are cars and people
and bicycles not more than two inches away from the car you are in.
Everyone zigs and zags around everyone else. I'm very glad I do not
have to drive here, but very glad that I get to experience this truly
Chinese experience.

Good News!!!

Morning, Wednesday, 10/26/05

Luggage has been found! It is in Beijing and will be sent here
shortly. Wahoo!!

Good news #2, Miranda is bathed and wearing new clothes!!! I have
the wonderful, amazing, sweet as pie Xiao Xiao from Grace-Hope foster
program to thank for that. Miranda was oh so unhappy last evening
(that's when she really misses her foster mama) and she just drags
you to every door in the hotel pointing and begging to go in in hopes
of finding her. We were near the elevators looking outside and she
had stopped crying and was staring out onto the street action below.
The elevator opened and Xiao Xiao came out. She had brought David
Huang who doesn't speak English but may be the sweetest man I have
ever met. Miranda loves him and ran to him so willingly
calling "uncle, uncle." Xiao Xiao had with her a baby who was over
two years old, but had been in an orphanage where she had been left
in her crib alone. She was a beautiful baby, but so incredibly
delayed. She had come to Xiao Xiao the day before and was going to a
special foster mother her in Nanning the next day. She couldn't even
sit up. Hadn't figured how to use her hands yet, but Xiao Xiao said
in one day, they had been working on her leg strength and a few times
with support she straightened out her legs and supported a bit of her
body weight. I wanted to bring her with me, she was such a sweet babe.

Anyway, David and Xiao Xiao talked to Miranda a lot about a lot of
things and she was getting it all. I have these little flash cards a
friend gave me that I brought and Xiao Xiao went through them and
said, she's is very smart, she knows them all (of course, in
Chinese). They asked if she had a stroller, and I did buy one at
Walmart, but hadn't even made the attempt to get her in it as she was
pretty freaked out just at the sight of it. David had her in the
thing in about 30 seconds and she loves it so much. In fact, long
after they left we still were zooming back and forth in the room and
down the hall. It is very funny, it's really too small for her and
we have to flip the top shade part over or it just rests on her
head.

I told Xiao Xiao about the reluctance to get out of her clothes or
bathe and she rolled the stroller into the bathroom for a while and
they talked up a storm. The ran the bath water, and Miranda leaned
over and splashed with some of the little bottles and such. She
didn't get her in, but she definitely told her how fun it was. Once
David and Xiao Xiao left we went back to play some more. I asked her
if she wanted to get in and she started to climb in. Wait a minute I
said, we have to take off your back pack and shoes and clothes.
Well, poof, I couldn't strip her down fast enough. She had a grand
old time and held out the bar of soap and told me to wash her. I
didn't think I was going to be able to wash her hair and remove those
pig tails, but she was happy for me to do it.

Once out, she was very compliant and I got on a pair of Hello Kitty
panties and a little shorty jammie set my sister got her that
actually says Lulu on the front. She let me comb out her hair and
pigtail it up again (she has lots of thick hair), but definitely
didn't let me dry it with the hair dryer. I tried to soak up as much
water as possible with a towel, but it was still pretty wet. We went
for a few more rides in the hall, hoping to avoid the Chinese
clothing police with bare arms, legs and a damp head exposed and I
guess we were lucky we didn't run into anyone.

So, I'm back off to bed. I guess I've been so used to two or three
hours of sleep that going to bed at 10 and getting up at 4 seemed
waaay too much sleep. We're going to try to get up sort of early to
go see a few sights Xiao Xiao recommended that are very interesting
in the morning. I think now that Lulu has discovered her stroller,
it should be easy.

Take care all, and I'll try to post more later.

China Parks...

Later on Wednesday, 10/29/05

We went to two parks today. The first was at the suggestion of Xiao
Xiao. It's called The People's Park. For those of you coming to
Nanning, you have got to go. It's only a five minute walk there and
something like 2 yuan to get in. (Walk out the front door of the
Majestic and hang a right (don't cross the street) and walk along the
sidewalk a bit and you'll find the park on the right. Xiao Xiao had
suggested we come in the early am to see the "real China." Boy did
we, we were the only Westerners there. It's so wonderful, it is
gargantuan in size. We walked for easily half an hour and didn't get
close to making the entire loop. There were people doing Tai Chi,
women dancing with fans, people exercising, walking backwards,
playing amazingly good badminton. There's a lake and a children's
park with rides. Places to sit and relax and soak it all in. People
were just wonderful, smiling at Miranda and talking to her. We met a
man who spoke English well and once we said we were from California,
he said oh you had a big earthquake! We haven't seen any TV and for
a moment were were both wondering if California finally fell off the
side of the west coast.

About halfway through the park, Miranda decided she wanted to be
held. I don't know if it was sensory overload on her part or just
because it was early in the morning. But it was so nice having her
grip onto me and rest her head on mine.

We went back to the hotel and went to the breakfast buffet. She sat
down and promptly puked. All water. She'd guzzled quite a bit in
the morning. She was not happy that her lap was wet, but she
proceeded to eat a ton of cantaloupe. We offered her a bunch of other
stuff, but once she found the cantaloupe, she wasn't interested in
anything else.

We then met our guide Cindy and went to Green Mountain Park. We got
to see a beautiful temple and a pagoda. Then we went to this pond
where there are all these fish to feed. You buy a bag of food
pellets and toss away. The fish literally climb over each other on
top of the water. I've never seen anything like it. Lulu thought it
was great, but she was tired. One the way back we made another
quickie stop at walmart for some more pants.

When we got back, Cindy had had an artist do a lovely scroll of
Miranda's name for 200 yuan. It's gorgeous. I didn't get to do much
shopping here because of the delays, but I'm very glad to have gotten
that.

Hoo ha! We're off to Guilin in the morning. The time is going so
fast - it seems like we just got here and it's almost time to go.

Go, go, go in Guilin!

Friday, 10/28/05

Whoa, the last two days have been a roller coaster ride! We're
tired, tired, tired (there's sort of a theme here)but having a
really good time.

We left Nanning early Thursday morning for a five hour train ride to
Guilin. It's amazing country. It is very rural and the countryside
is very beautiful. The train was very crowded so we had some of our
bags tucked under us and it was difficult to get in and out. My
cameral was up above and Miranda was not a real happy camper, so
much of the ride was keeping her entertained. A Chinese woman
across the way had a baby girl about 18 months old and she kept
giving Miranda unidentifiable foods, which she liked much better
than the snacks I had packed. There was a boy of about 7 who was
jumping from head rest to head rest throughout the ride which made
it interesting. He spoke a fair amount of English, so he had fun
talking to the crazy foreigners with all the suitcases.

Our arrival at Guilin was a bit traumatic at the time, but now it
comes off as rather funny. We pulled up into the station and 5
chinese men come running up and waving at us and run onto the
train. They pick up the bags and Deborah and I are trying to gather
our personal belongings to catch up with them. They are running way
ahead of us and all I can think is oh my god, my paperwork is in
that bag! Deborah's got Miranda, because she was really irritated
with me (probably for making her endure a 5 hour train ride!) and
Deborah has on the wobbly sandals and is trying to walk fast without
falling. So Deborah's waaay behind, I'm in the middle with one guy
carrying two bags and the other guys are nowhere to be seen. We
walk down a huge flight of steps and I look up and Deborah is only
starting to descend. I call to the one guy closest to me and beg
him to wait for my friend. He does, quite patiently, yet I have no
idea where the rest of guys/bags are. Deborah finally makes it to
me and realizes she doesn't have her purse! AAAAAAAAAAH! I grab
Miranda and she runs back up the stairs to find it. Of course at
this point we don't know if the train is in the station anymore of
if it is, what car we were on. In the interim, Annie, our guide
arrives. Whew! The men belong to her and the bags should be safe.
Deborah found a man who we had spoken to on the train and he had got
her bag for her. (Note, the Chinese people have been wonderful on
this trip, if I haven't said it before, there you go.)

So, it's about 1:50 and Annie says we are going to the hotel and
have to be ready to leave to visit the SWI (orphanage) at 2:30.
Aaah! We get to the hotel to check in and the room isn't ready...
Since the bags were lost and they only arrived in the am of the day
we left Nanning, I hadn't had a chance to prepare the
donations/gifts, etc. We ask if we can go into the room even if it
is not ready yet and they allow it. I was dumping things out and
frantically trying to get things together in the whole 10 minutes we
had. Did I mention we were tired and hot and sweaty and ready for a

nap?

So we take the ride to the SWI and it's like an off road
experience. We get there and met the Director (Mr. Xu, I believe) and the woman who had
brought Miranda to Nanning (I think, Ms Liang), . We have the big tub of donations and they seem pleased, but don't open it. Note to future traveling Guilin families: bring enough candy that can be shared by many,
many children. This seemed to be the ticket. While I wasn't
allowed to take photos of specific children, I was able to shoot any
child (except the very young babies) that we came across. I had a
package of 300 Dum Dums, and we got to hand them out to a lot of
kids.

There were about 6 or 7 little ones outside with their
nannies and we sat and played with them and let them eat candy for
at least 15 minutes. One kept running up into our arms and playing
with sunglasses. I asked if I could have another and they laughed.
Then it was time to go inside. Deborah got a split pant baby
butt crud print on her skirt, which was both cute and gross at the
same time.

We climbed the stairs and stopped at the "disabled” children's area.
The children all scurried to the windows for the candy. This is
where I might have seen some of the waiting CHI kiddos. I can't be sure
because it was very hard to pat little heads, hand out candy, talk
to the director, listen to the guide Annie translating and take photos at
the same time. None of the children here were much older than two.

Anyway, we went across a bridge like thing and up to the tiny baby
room We were not allowed to photograph them, but Miranda's
caregiver for the two years she was in the orphanage was there.
She was in tears and ran out to get her lulu. Miranda was very
scared and started running back for the stairs. The nanny caught
her and talked to her for a looong long while. In fact, she took
the rest of the tour with us. (We were going sort of slowly because
they had trouble calling the foster family and they wouldn't arrive
for about 20 or 30 minutes.)

We saw some more children in two rooms up on a higher floor and
distributed most of the rest of the candy there. Then we headed
back down.

We sat with the nanny for a while and she told many things about
Miranda. Her best friend was Shen Rong Hui and she was just recently
adopted a month or so ago. She said Miranda was a very easy child
to take care of(barring 5 hour train rides)and was a lovely girl.
We played some more with the first children we had seen, now all
with colorful, sticky mouths, then they said it was time to go and
as we stood, I could see the foster father waiting. He was in
tears. Miranda went straight toward him and he was just so very
sad. The foster mother came out with her other foster baby strapped
on and told Miranda that I was the mommy. There was much talking
going on in Chinese and Miranda was listening attentively. We had
about 15 minutes together for talking and soothing and photo
taking. When it came time to leave the foster family walked us to
the van, the foster father put her in and she went happily, but then
she wanted him to join us. She pulled and begged (this is one
determined little girl) and he finally got in. Annie suggested they ride for a while with us. So we all got in and started going. As soon as we were out of the gates, we were able to exchange phone numbers and addresses, which will be very cool for Miranda. That family loved her so deeply and the feeling was so mutual. We stopped at one point and they had to go and of course Miranda was inconsolable.

So we came back to the hotel still stinky and exhausted and now
emotionally drained. Then Miranda wanted to go for a stroll in the
stroller. She definitely dictates who will be the stroller driver,
which shoes they should wear to push and which snack should be
served on the ride. Deb and I basically got to take turns doing the
stroller loop down the hall, through the lobby, outside for a loop,
back in and up the elevator for about 2 hours. She was laughing and
giggling and playing and a very happy girl considering the events
earlier in the day.

Of course then as the night came, she got very tired and when that
happens, she misses her foster mama like crazy. She cried herself
to sleep at about 7 pm. So, I picked her up out of the stroller and
put her in the crib. (Note that this was about 7 and the last time
this girl went the bathroom was in our 10 minute hotel stop and now
she's out cold. I went to bed myself about 11 and wondered if she
would wake up to go to the bathroom. A little call for "mama" at
about 5 am, let me know she had to go. By my count, that was about
15 hours for her 34 month old bladder. I've never seen a kid SO
potty trained at that age. In fact, I went ahead and donated the pullups I brought for her to the orphanage yesterday. I'm going to have to go out and buy some more panties to fit that tiny tushie.)

Today we took a cruise on the Li river. If you've seen pictures of
China, you've undoubtedly seen pics of Guilin. It's a very famous
landscape of karst formations. It was an interesting adventure (yes
AGAIN) because they haven't had much rain, so the boats couldn't
pick up passengers where they normally do. So we drove further
downstream and had to hike for about 40 minutes to get to the boat.
This was dusty, crumbly, sticky ground so we couldn't use Miranda's
stroller so she had to walk or we had to carry her the whole way.
She was very good natured about the whole thing.

We finally got to the boat and set out for another 5 hour journey.
Miranda was very good, but she kept wanting to go up to the top
floor of the boat which is sort of dangerous and not particularly
childproof, so we had to keep brining her downstairs. I think we
were about an hour into the cruise before I actually looked outside
and thought, hey, there are some big rocks out there! We were so
focused on keeping Miranda happy and safe, we didn't get much of a
chance to enjoy the scenery. But it was really lovely to see.
Again because the water was low, we couldn't travel all the way to
Yangshou (sp?) and stopped at a smaller village with crumbling brick
buildings and many rural minorities. Again, another long walk for
the little ones legs. But we were so lucky to see this village that
is never seen by tourists. There were school children getting out
to school, water buffalo wandering by, farmers farming, people
making bricks, and wandering chickens (oh joy, I thought I wasn't
supposed to encounter any livestock on this trip!)

Then we stopped at an art gallery where a professor gave a
demonstration of rice paper and ink writing. We then had a chop
made for Miranda with her Chinese name and American name. Deborah
fell in love with this painting, but knew it was way out of her
price range. The gallery person went out and found the artist and
he offered to allow her to purchase it for $250 US, which was really
only a tiny fraction of it's price because he could see that she
truly appreciated the art, and those who truly appreciate should
have it.. (Have I said the Chinese are wonderful?)

We finally got the van and made our way home. We had about 90
minutes to get ready for the acrobatic show this evening. We went
over and it was really wonderful. There were virtually no children
there, so I was a bit worried how Miranda was going to handle this.
It was wonderful. It's a bit intense with lots of lighting and
scenery changes and loud music, but she just rolled with the punches
and enjoyed every minute of it until she conked out.

So we are back at the hotel now, very tired. Fortunately, we don't
start until 10 tomorrow, so we don't have another 5 am wake up call.

(Oh, I just remembered this, there is a series of buttons that
control lights and AC on the bedside table. I want to have this
particular button installed at home. It says, "clean up room." Oh,
yeah, definitely need that!)

So, I've probably just spent $20 on these emails, so I should be
going. Take care everyone and I'll post again when I can.

Still going in Guilin...

Saturday, 10/27/05

We had a good day today. It was the first day we didn't have to get up
at or near the crack of dawn. We were to meet Annie at 10 am, so I let
Lulu sleep in a bit. That was good for her. She still woke up with
that "oh dear god, it's not just a bad dream" look on her face, but
soon after she was happily bouncing about. We went down to breakfast
and had some to eat. You've got to gobble with this kid because she
will only tolerate being at the breakfast buffet for about 10 minutes.
She is an absolute banana freak. She can't get enough of them. I
think she had 3 yesterday. So far, it hasn't had any ill effects on
her system. She didn't want the melon today, which she usually eats.

We got back to the room to get ready to go, and Annie called and since
it was raining (it was actually quite cold today - comfortable for me,
deep-freeze for the chinese!) we should go to the park later in the
afternoon. 1 o'clock. So here we were all dressed up with no place to
go. Miranda does NOT like being in the hotel room. We can be gone for
hours and stroll her in and in 10 seconds she is begging to leave. I
didn't have any idea how we were going to entertain her for 3 more
hours without being able to go outside. Finally, I remembered how much
she loved the bath (most nights are still very hard and it goes from
crying, to screaming, to sleeping with no time for bathing in there at
all). So we filled the tub. She was happy in there for close to an
hour. Afterwards, she was just a joy. She picked a new outfit to wear
and we played with her hair and tickled and laughed and the time just
flew.

We went out to Elephant Trunk hill and took some photos. She kept
complaining of being cold so deborah tied her sweater around her.
Annie called her a little dahli lama. She didn't like to have to walk
and much prefers the stroller, but Annie kept warning her there were
fun things to do today, but she would have to walk. So she walked when
she had to. Annie says she's a very lazy little one. We called her
Lazy Lulu and she's been repeating it all day long. Lazy Lulu, Lazy
Lulu, Lazy Lulu.

We then went to Seven Star Park and took a little golf cart around
since it was raining. It's really beautiful and we stopped often,
propped Miranda up in front of one site or another and took a lot of
photos. She is such a total ham about photos. She cracked Annie up
constantly because she's always asking for bread. Of course she won't
touch the huge array of western and non-western bread in the buffets,
but as soon as we get in the van, she wants bread, bread, bread. We
stopped once at a bakery and went in and the bread she got was a huge
slice of cake with a hand sized whipped cream pig on top of it. She
ate the whole thing. As far as food goes, she does not like to eat out
in a restraint. We can only be there for a few minutes if she will
stay at all. She doesn't like to eat in either, so she pretty much
just snacks all day long. Fortunately she likes cheerios and nuts and
totes little zip lock bags with her all day long. She's reported to
like noodles and rice, but all I get is a big pouty lip and scrunched
up nose any time I put them in front of her.

After the park, we went to a famous cave here. I'm too brain dead to
remember the name right now, but it's actually very cool. Miranda was
a trouper and walked up and down steps in the dark for an hour. She
had to be the holder of the flashlight which made it hard for Annie to
point out the various formations.

After the cave, we went to a pearl museum where they give you a
demonstration and then try to sell you pearls. It doesn't matter how
hard the sell is, you're not going to get me to buy pearls. I am so
not interested. I'll probably eventually pick up a bracelet or earrings
for Miranda in the future, but that'll be about it.

We then went to some local alley to buy some children's clothes. It is
not as easy as I had thought to find clothes here. In Nanning there
was more of a selection, but mostly for much younger babes. Here in
Guilin, even the local stalls for children had very little in her
size. I found some mismatched stuff I'll try to match with clothes I
brought. She's 30 very solid pounds and boy do my arms feel it. She's
not at all fat, but everyone who meets her says she is tall. I haven't
measured but I'd say she's probably 36 inches tall. Most pants that
fit around the waist are too short. Today, she wore a US 4/5 top,
though she's mostly been wearing 3Ts.

So, that was the day. When we got back to the hotel and had to say
goodbye to Annie. That is never a good thing. She is fine without
Annie and when Annie is around, she is fine with both Deborah and I,
holding our hands, asking us to do things for her, but when we part at
the end of the day, the meltdowns begin. It's close to 9 pm here and
she cried for at least an hour. She would sit in the stroller,
refusing to get out, begging to be strolled out of the room. She's a
stubborn little thing, but she's got a stubborn mama too. I can wait
out the sobbing. Early on, I would try to calm her, but when she is
crying like that, no amount of talking, bringing out toys, food or
anything seems to do the trick. She just tires herself out until she's
exhausted and falls asleep. (If anyone out there needs a self-defense
lesson, she's got this extremely effective Lulu technique to ward off
attackers or well-intentioned mamas- grab the jugular with one hand,
pierce nails into skin, twist and pull... All I can say is OUCH!) So, I
just sit by the stroller and wait it out. Once she goes down, I put
her into the bed and she's usually out for the night. This is why we
haven't had a dinner out yet. I've been eating a lot of protein bars
that I brought, thankfully!

So, just a little about my sweet Lulu. She's so very bright. She can
speak both mandarin and the local dialect. Annie told us today that
she can count up to twenty. She knows many animals and the sounds they make. She remembers everything she sees. We once were trying to open the wrong hotel door with our key and she freaked out because she knew we were at the wrong door. She knows the floor we are on and likes to push the buttons. She loves to boss the van driver around. Hurry up,
she tells him, move the bus (when we are in traffic). She loves to
change her clothes. Even this evening, while she was having the
meltdown she asked to change her clothes twice. She does a lot of
singing and dancing. She's persistent when she wants something. She
talks to anyone she sees. Everyone is just charmed by her. She loves
to shop! She wheeled and dealed for some trinkets in the gift shop and
they actually knocked the price down for her. She's learned several
english words (thank you, good bye, duckie, kitty, doggy, horsey, and
she loves "quack, quack." She's ticklish. She does not like messy
things. She dropped her can of pringles on the ground and she used her
little comb to sweep them all up. That was a 30 minute project.
Deborah and I considered sprinkling more on the ground to give us a bit
of a break, LOL. She has incredible patience for some things. She
worked for 10 minutes on right-side-outing an inside-out shirt so that
the ducks would be on the outside and on her chest. She's a comedienne
too. When putting the shirt on the right way got to be too frustrating,
she pushed her feet through the arm holes and just giggled forever.

She is just the most perfect child. Life is going to be FUN!

I’m one very tired, but happy mama

Goodbye Guilin, hello Guangzhou...

Sunday, 10/28/05

I want to get some of this down before my poor frazzled brain
disintegrates.

Our last morning in Guilin was interesting. Our flight wasn't until
early afternoon, but we were to meet at 10 or so for another
government sponsored factory tour. This time it was a silk factory.
I'm not much into silk myself, but we didn't have much of a choice.
It turned out to be pretty interesting. We got to see the silk
cocoons and how they soak them in a bathtub like contraption and a
woman pops them open and stretches them onto an inverted U-like frame.

I wished I'd had the camera, cause it was pretty cool. They would do
about 10 silk cocoons on a small U and then that would make one piece.
Then that one piece would be stretched onto a bigger U frame, that
needed 8 of the small ones. Once done, those 800 silk cocoons would
make one layer of a many hundred layer quilt. They had four tiny
woman on each side of a mattress like contraption pulling the small
pieces toward themselves and stretching it over the mattress. They
let Deb and I try and it was really hard work. It turns out it takes
something like 80,000 cocoons to make one quilt. During all of this,
Annie has taken Lulu off to parts unknown. I still have no intention
of buying anything.

We go into another room where they showed us the prices of the quilts.
I think they were about Y450 for a double bed (about $50). Not so
bad. The woman doing the sell has a nice presentation, but Deb and
I both had to try hard not to laugh when in the midst of the very
proper schpeal, she says now if the child "takes a piss" on the bed,
how easy it is to clean up. I'm sure she had no idea that it sounded
so out of sync with everything else in the presentation.

Then they brought out these duvet covers that were just beautiful.
There is a whole room of them and they pulled them out left and right
according to which ones we seemed to be charmed by. So I bought one.
Never mind that I have a really nice down comforter, but they were so
pretty and I was just taken in by the whole thing. They offered to
ship for Y200 which was a good deal, but only found out much later
that it goes by boat and will take 2 months to arrive! LOL... I also
ended up buying some Chinese silk dresses for Miranda as well as a
little jacket someone had put on her that really was adorable. I
still don't know how much it cost, but the silk factory put me back
Y2500 which was probably a little over 300 US dollars. Deb was
suckered too, so they did well by us. I will look forward to seeing
the quilt & duvet when it gets here.

So we then went to the airport and Annie had our bags checked for us.
We bought Miranda an apple to keep her happy and since she had pretty
much refused to eat anything for breakfast in the morning.

Annie was really good about leaving and did it when Miranda wasn't
looking so that she would cry. Boy is maneuvering through an airport
with a squirmy toddler and luggage and a stroller a challenge! We
managed to find our gate, but we were pretty early. Miranda has this
game about telling me she has to "ooh la la" which means she needs to
pee. It's really niao niao, but that's how she says it. Maybe she's
been taking lessons in French on the side. So we go into the bathroom
(for those that don't know, there are not regular western toilets in
China, only what are termed as squatty potties, which are basically
holes in the ground. I'm a total camel, so I never had to use one,
but Miranda loves to take journeys to the potty, even if she doesn't
have to go. With the squatty potty, you pull the kiddo's pants down,
face yourself and your child toward the hole, put your hands behind
her knees, lift her legs up and aim her bottom toward the hole. It's
pretty easy and I used this a few times with some western toilets we
encountered that lacked seat covers and or TP)...

We met a couple from Spain that couldn't believe I'd only had Miranda
for a handful of days. She was giggly and cute running around. We
boarded the plane and she wanted to sit with her Ayi Deb. She was
fine until we placed the seatbelt around her. As far as she was
concerned, it was equivalent to strapping her into the electric chair
while it was doing its thing. She wailed and wailed and screamed and
threw her shoes and banged things. There was a Chinese woman one seat
behind who kept leaning up and over to see what the heck was being
done to the child. It really did sound like she was being tortured.
She cried herself into exhaustion and then sleep. I was never so glad
for a 45 minute flight to be over.

We got to Guangzhou and was met by our driver and another adoptive mom from my agency, Sue, and her sister and Sue's new boy, Timmy or YouYou. He's a cleft palate boy too and apparently quite the dickens as well.

We took the half hour or so drive to the White Swan on Shamian Island.
It's a big mucky-muck sort of place. There are photos of royalty and
presidents and the like staying here. The place is big and very
showy. Huge carvings for sale, marble and inlaid wood everywhere,
staff of seemingly millions (one woman seemingly does nothing but wipe
off the reception counter. Another guy brushes off crumbs from under
the breakfast buffet's toaster. Each floor has an attendant who will
push the up or down button for the elevator. Then when one of the six
elevator's lights goes on to indicate one is coming, the attendant
will walk to the opening doors and extend her arm out to guide you to
the door. I found that so annoying at first, but got used to it. Our
floor had a couple of very sweet girls.) So overall, I find five star
hotels sort of meh... I just don't like to be catered to like that.

Oh well, our driver tells us we have to meet the other families at
6:30 pm in the lobby. We're tired, Miranda's irritable from the
flight and the day in general and when we get to the room there's this
big king bed. We had had so far in Nanning and Guilin what they call
two doubles, which are in reality two singles. So I called reception
and they told us they would get us another room. I was so tired, I
considered briefly sharing a bed with Deb, but she's like a tornado in
her sleep and I didn't think either one of us would get any of the
precious sleep we needed if we shared. So we waited... And waited...
And it was getting closer and closer to 6:30. Finally, we got a call
that they had found us a room on the 9th floor. All the other CHI
families were on the 16th floor, but I was just glad to get our room
finally.

We rushed to the new room and scrambled to get downstairs in time.
It was 6:30 and Miranda had had an apple and Deb and I had had a few
crackers on the plane and that was it. We met the other families in
the lobby and they were all so cute. There were two boys, Timmy (You
You) who was 3 and his mom Sue and his aunt; Mike and Katie and
their five year old Seth (Xiao Xiao), James and Micheline and their
2.5 year old daughter Bella, Lajuana and her 22 month old (think)
daughter Lilly, and Jordan and Rebecca and their 11 month old twins
Mei Mei and Li Li. All were special needs kids except the twins. So,
it turns out the meeting was rather brief. Just met our guide Connie
and she gave us our instructions. We were to get two copies made of
our child's passport and something else I can't remember right now.
We were then to meet in a room in the morning to get the kiddos's
medicals done.

Deb and I were so tired we were just stupid and couldn't even figure
out what to do. I made the copies and did the other task and then we
just ordered up dinner. The room service is damned quick. You call
and before it seems humanly possible, the food is rolled into the
room. Deb had ordered a vegetable lasagna with artichoke and mushroom in a cream sauce and Miranda ate most of it. Did I mention this child will eat nearly anything? I don't know too many toddlers who will try almost anything. Almost every kid I've ever met would balk at sauce covered anything and I have to admit, it didn't even look appealing to me, but she' gobbled the stuff.

We did the bath thing and that seemed to make going to bed easier.
THANKFULLY!

Well, the time in GZ flew by. We took a cruise on the river (nice sites, horrible, horrible food) at a Lucy’s a lot (sort of american food) for convenience, shopped a bit, did medicals (Lulu was a trouper!) and visa pics. Took a bus to the American Consulate which used to be next to the White Swan, but is now a half hour away. Totally anticlimactic. Lots of security and waiting, and then, poof, you’re done. The flight home was SO easy, I couldn’t believe it myself. Lulu loved all the food and snacks that were provided and she slept well.

When we finally landed in our home airport my parents were waiting, holding a little doll and a stuffed lamb. Lulu jumped into their arms like she’d known them forever. It was an amazing trip that started with a scared little girl and ended not two weeks later with a little girl, ready to begin a new life. She is an amazing little girl!

Food!

2006-05-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

So, for two weeks Lulu has been on a liquid diet. Nothing that can't be poured from a cup. Palate surgery cuts and stretches what palate is in there and pulls it together. So she's got three big rows of stitches on the roof of her mouth. It's a surgery normally done before the first birthday when kids still are on a basically liquid diet anyway. But for a nearly 3 and a half year old kid who loves her food, it certainly wasn't easy. Initially, four ounces an hour was hard labor. Begging, pleading, sticker charts and bribery etc. were the only way to get her to drink. After the first few days, the more hungry she got, the more willing she was to drink. I literally gave her anything liquid that she would take, including this disgusting list of blender-ized and watered down products: catsup, spaghetti sauce and really soft boiled eggs. It grossed me out, but she was, as she is through most things, an absolute trouper. A few times unknowing people offered her food, and she'd pipe up almost proudly, "only drinking for Lulu!" She never tried to sneak or eat food and only asked a handful of times for pizza and bananas. She really was counting down the days until she could eat, giving long lists of things she was going to eat after she saw the doctor.

We went up to UCSF on Tuesday for Lulu's post op check. The doc walked in and Lulu cocked her head back and opened her mouth: the girl was ready. Dr. Hoffman turned on his light and took a peek and stood up and said, "looks good." Lulu asks, "No more? All done?" Dr. Hoffman tells here yes and she squeals and claps. "No shots? No medicine?" "No," said the Doc. She grinned from ear to ear. After about 3 minutes of finding out when our next check up would be, we were done. Lulu bounded down the hall to my dad who'd made the 2.5 hour drive up with us, and told him she was all done. My dad must have asked her if she could eat, because she came running back to me asking, "Mama, Lulu can use s-poon??" When I told her yes, the realization that she could eat finally hit her and had the whole waiting room laughing as she bounced up and down listing the food she could eat. "Banana!" "Ham-bur-bur!" "Pizza!" "Spaghetti!" "Cup-cake!"

So she still is supposed to avoid hard or chewy food for the next week, but she has little idea that she has any restrictions and is so unbelievably happy that she can have her food.

My "Spicy" Girl

2006-05-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

So if sugar and spice are what make a girl, my little one definitely got an extra dusting in the spice department. This spicy moment is brought to you today by house rule #37 - HAND HOLDING REQUIRED WHILE STREET-CROSSING. Rule #37 is usually not a big deal for Ms. Lulu, but she was feeling rather the big girl today and was completely convinced that this rule no longer applied to her. Yes, definitely not amused.

Mom's first Mother's Day card

2006-05-13T08:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, way to make a mama's first mother's day! Because of her surgery and the liquid diet thing, Lulu hasn't been to school this week, so has missed out on making all those cute, beloved, hand-made mother's day gifts that preschools always do. She did, however, spend a few hours earlier this week with Grandma who purchased a card for me. Lulu's pretty good about writing her name, though sometimes instead of Lulu, it's Lulul or ULUL, but she's got the idea pretty much down. Grandma wrote LOVE LULU on a separate piece of paper and Lulu copied it to my card. Count me among the millions of proud mama's this weekend!

There's a palate stuck to the roof of my mouth!

2006-05-06T00:13:00.000-07:00

Well, Lulu's doing fine after her palate surgery on Thursday. The icky pic is there to show anyone interested in a cleft affected child, that's about as bad as it gets. In the grand scheme of things, not really all that bad.

And this is Lulu 24 hours after surgery pretty much back to her old self...

The surgery itself went quickly (palate repair and ear tubes) at just about two hours. I had gone down to the cafeteria to eat and it seemed like no time at all before they were calling me back up to recovery. I'd really thought there would be time to read, or at least worry, but it went so quickly it was done before I had a chance to do either.

Recovery what HARD!!! She was in there for four hours. She woke up from the anesthesia way too early, they said, and she was violent and thrashing and really irritated. I walked in to find a nurse trying to hold, or maybe just contain a child, but all I saw were flailing arms and tubes everywhere. Yep, I knew right away that was my girl. She calmed down once they handed her to me, and that lasted about two seconds. Then she got pretty mad at me. Shot me the evil eye and threw several left crosses right to my face with that lovely board thing they put under her arm to stabilize the hand for the IV. I was holding her baby style (one arm under her head, one under her legs) and was being hit on both sides of the head with alternating blows from arms and feet). I had to laugh though, when she clocked me right between the eyes, and I mean hard, she had this evil look in her eyes that quickly turned apologetic as she said, I sorry mommy, I don't know... and then just as quickly kicked up her leg throwing the cord of the blood pressure cuff on her calf over my head and around my neck before pulling her leg down and nearly decapitating me. The nurses said they'd never seen anything like it happen so soon after surgery (this is literally less than 10 minutes after the completion of surgery). That's my trailblazin' kiddo for sure. They gave her something quickly for the pain and to calm her down, but it did zippo towards that. I heard discussion between the recovery room staff and it was quickly decided she needed morphine. That finally calmed her down and made her fall asleep. I had to be extremely still because even moving a little would stir her enough to wake up, throw a punch before drifting back off. On the flip side, with all the screaming, I did get a very good view at a palate repair just minutes post-surgery, sort of gross, but closely resembled chewed up strawberries.

They said she would need a good hour to recover, but there weren't any clocks in there, so it wasn't easy to tell the time. I could hear other kids coming into recovery and going out of recovery, so I was getting a bit worried, but more than anything, just numb. My girl weighs about thirty-five pounds and when she's unconscious it apparently triples her gravitational pull. When I could feel my feet, I did those plane exercises to try to increase the circulation. At this point, I also had time to look at the mess she made of my clothes, and I don’t know who it was that recommended it, but thanks for recommending wearing old clothes. I was just covered in goo. It looks like a lot of blood, but it’s more saliva than anything else, but I had a very nice coating on my shirt, neck, shoulder, face, arms, etc. I also had a chance to look at Lulu, looking actually rather healthy for having just come out of surgery, not really swollen, with one piggy tail still intact and naked except for the tinkerbell panties she had made certain she could wear to the hospital. She sure looked cute.

There was concern though that her heart rate was not coming down and because her O2 levels were not high enough. Of course I'd been staring blankly at the monitors for a couple of hours, clueless to what they were showing. They brought in an oxygen blow-by which was just a tube blowing cool, misty oxygen towards her mouth and nose. Made it easier for her to breathe. So that occupied my time for the next couple of hours watching what the monitor did as the tube moved around her face. The surgeon came in and was puzzled by the high heart rate. Oh, that’s just fun to hear. They take her temperature and she’s got a fever of nearly 104. There’s lots of scurrying and pretty soon she gets a tylenol suppository. Oooh, fun. Anyway, it finally does the trick and we get to get out of recovery. Surgery was at 11:30 am and Lulu left recovery after 6 pm. It was quite the day.

Once in the hospital room, she was better. My parents had returned from the hotel (worried of course since they thought I’d have called hours before) carrying balloons which cheered her up instantly. Once in the room, she was chatting away, of course sounding nasalish and congested, but pretty understandable.

She did fantastically overnight with just tylenol. Slept comfortably, drank far more than I’m told she would, got up several times to use the potty and woke up totally her Lulu-self.

She was released midday, and one dead car battery later (thank you AAA) we were on our way home. Stopped at McDonalds and got her a sundae, no chocolate, no nuts, and let it melt and she drank most of it on the way home. My favorite comment was on the way home when drinking she pointed her finger to her mouth and said, “Mama, what’s in there?” I told her it was her palate and she replied, “Mama, I don’t want a palate!”

Ouch!

2006-04-01T05:49:00.000-08:00

Lulu was supposed to have her palate surgery this week, but because of an abscessed tooth it has been postponed. Next, she was supposed to have the dental surgery to extract several teeth, get root canals, crowns, a spacer on April 10th. That was supposed to happen locally under general anesthesia. When the anesthesiologist discovered Lulu has a cleft palate he was not comfortable doing the anesthesia in a non-hospital setting. So we have been referred back up to UCSF pediatric dentists who will do all the work at some point (not sure yet whether palate surgery or dental surgery will happen first).

In any event, there was still the abscess to deal with. Yesterday, I called the local dentist again to get an appointment and they have one in the afternoon. I had to leave work early, pick up Lulu from school with no preparation whatsoever, and take her to have her abscessed tooth extracted. Do the joys of motherhood ever cease?

On our initial trip to the dentist a week or two ago, Lulu was remarkably relaxed for a three year old. She laid on top of me as they poked and prodded, took a dozen x-rays, and cleaned her teeth. She loved Dr. Bayless and wanted to stay longer. Yep, that's my amazing kid. So, this time, she wasn't really worried, but the poor little bugger had no idea what was ahead. We got there and walked right into the office and she jumped into my lap and got into position for dental work. She was really relaxed. The dental assistant asked if she would tolerate a mask with some laughing gas to calm her, and I said, go ahead and try. She was fine with it over her nose. They examined the abscess and she was fine watching Thomas the Train on the overhead screen. Then they had to put on a topical anesthetic to numb the gum in preparation for the injection of novacane. Oh, she did not like that. I had her legs gripped between my legs and her arms in my hands and she was fighting. She started wailing and I could feel her little heart pumping. It's not her "whiny, please pick me up I'm tired" cry, but the almost never heard "I'm being tortured Mama, save me!" cry. Then the dentist came in and all kinds of contraptions go into her mouth and her tears are flowing off her cheeks onto mine. Poor baby is begging, "no more, no more, pleeeeease no more... Owie!" So that parts done. Just 10 minutes for numbing to take effect and then the pulling could happen.

So we were pretty much left alone and she's nearly breathless and she's got that look of fear that I haven't seen since China. But she calms down. She touches her cheek and says, "feel funny." She relaxes pretty quickly and is ready to go. I tell her that they just have to come in for one more minute to finish. The thinks and says okay. The dentist returns and she laid right back down willing and ready to go again. Of course the real fun part is about to begin. I can so feel the wrenching back and forth to get it out and again she's begging to go to the car. But then, before we knew it, we were done. She hated the folded gauze that she had to bite on, but kept it in her mouth the whole drive home.

After about a half hour, I made a soft-boiled egg to try to see if she wanted to eat. We took out the gauze, and I told her to chew on the other side, which she did, and after a few chews, she giggles, jumps up and down and screams I all better! I all better! Kids are so dang resilient it's amazing.

A B C D E F G.....

2006-03-21T09:41:00.000-08:00

Video Hosting - Upload Video - Photo Sharing

I get to hear this EVERY day. My girl loves to sing!

Welcome to the Lulu Chronicles!!!

2006-03-13T07:54:00.000-08:00

Well hello all! “Lulu” is my amazing cleft lip and palate kiddo who came home from China early November 2005 at almost 35 months old with a repaired lip and unrepaired grade III palate.

She’s so unbelievably mature for just 3. If It weren’t for the occasional toddler meltdown over minutia - like wiping a drippy nose, I’d swear she was 10. She’s got that cock her head back, roll her eyes, heavy sigh and the long, whiny “Mo------M” of a precocious preteen down to a T.

She’s also got the manual dexterity of a kid so much older. She can unwrap a DVD in record time. Half the time, I can’t even do it myself! I put an old imac computer in her room, and once she figured out how to turn it on, I couldn’t stop her. She can start it up, log into the program by clicking her name and maneuver that mouse like a pro. She seems to be a lefty, but right hands the mouse with ease. I won’t go into all the the stuff she can do there, just suffice it to say that I can remember doing the same things in the first grade. (Of course that’s just kids these days, my nephew is in kindergarten and he has to do more than I did in fourth grade.)

Lulu announced last week that she’s too big for a bath and now wants to shower like me. We showered together for a few days, but since then she’s been on her own. I just sit nearby and watch as she picks out her panties and pajamas, gets undressed, hops on the potty, gets in the shower (at least she lets me turn on the water), brushes her teeth, washes her hair, rinses, cleans up. She still lets me dry her up, but then she dresses herself and scampers off for story time. And here we are 5 months post adoption and yet to have an accident of any kind, day or night - not eve a close call. I swear the foster mother who trained her could make a fortune selling her potty training secrets.

She’s in preschool five days a week, 7:30-4:30 and doing really well. She got a really good report card (can’t believe they do that for three year olds!) In fact, they move her up to the four year old class several days a week when too many kids in the 2-3 class show up on the same day. She’s done really well in that class too according to the teachers.

I’ve been LUCKY in the attachment area. Lulu tolerated me in China about 20% of the time and despised me the other 80%, but she was grieving. Since getting off the plane here, I’ve become THE mama for sure. If anyone talks to me for too long, Lulu will interrupt and say forcefully, “MY Mama!” So there... I did have one of those magical moments last week that are just simply priceless. We were watching video of our visit to the Guilin SWI where Lulu got to see her foster parents. She loves to watch it. I’ve asked her many times how she felt then, and she’ll answer, “Lulu was sad. Miss Mama and Baba.” It has seemed that watching gives her some sort of comfort, rather than making her sad, so, we watch it often. Anyway, we were watching last week and as it finishes she points to me and says, “I like this Mama, the pretty one. Lulu stay here. No China.” I told her that of course she was going to stay here, but we could go visit Mama and Baba in China someday and then she just smiled and bounded off to play.

One day, she’d been particularly good and I told her she could pick out a small toy at the store. She picks this 30 piece puzzle and I just think, oh great, she never does the puzzles we have at home and she wants yet another one (for ages 4-6 to boot). So we come home and she just is enthralled with the thing. She has incredible spacial sense - she picks up a piece and sticks it in the right space. She looks at it and says, hey, that’s her glasses, or it’s his toe, and boom, to the right place it goes. Me, the idiot mom, thought she didn’t like puzzles because there were about 5 unused ones just stacked in the toy bins - and it turns out the chunky wooden stick the chicken piece in the chicken hole were just too easy. Bad mama... I’m really starting to think she might have something close to a photographic memory. Just a few weeks ago I was looking a a video on the blog of a friend of mine - just a 10 second snippet of her baby toddling down the White Swan hallway and Lulu, from across the room shouts, “Hey, China!” I ask her what she’s talking about , she makes me rewind and she points to the carpet and the wall points off into the distance and says, “China, member Mama?” (like, you imbecile) and then points at the carpet in the video again. “See?” Well, yep, I do. And here’s another one about her memory. On gotcha day in China, we were back in the hotel and I was in the bathroom with my guide doing paperwork and Lulu was with my traveling companion, screaming in the bedroom. Finally, my friend started singing “Hush little baby...” and we discovered she would stop crying if we were singing. I sang the same song later in the evening, but I could never remember much beyond “If that diamond ring turns brass/don’t shine” so I switched to other lullaby songs and never sang it again until a couple of weeks ago. Lulu was sick and cranky and resisting sleep and I had gone through all the goodnight songs we normally sing. Then I resorted to Hush Little baby and Lulu’s eyes opened wide and she smiled, “Mama! Pretty song, from China!!” I didn’t even remember at first.

Most people say we look alike, I can see it a bit, but in many ways we are so much alike, stubborn (boy will there be head butting in the teen years!) and creative (she’s got an amazing capacity for imaginative play - today we were invaded by flying, toothless, blue and white furry monsters with only one eye and one leg. We had to stay under the covers for safety and if we needed to venture out, we had to wear socks on our hands for protection. I had nothing to do with this, it was all Lulu creation.) She’s also incredibly sweet and compassionate - a friend of mine had a serious cut on his finger and was all bandaged up - so Lulu was the nurse, face stroking, offering food, asking over and over, “you want____?” Okay, Lulu get it.”

People who I tell of the adoption (still no one has asked me) say she’s a lucky girl. I’m the one that is so very lucky to have her in my life (I did, however, save her from a life of 8 layers of clothing - I’ve never seen a child who likes to be naked and cold as much as possible. Yes, I live in California, but I was always a “sleep with the heat off and the window open” kinda gal, even when the temperatures dropped down to the 30’s. That was one of the things about adopting a child that I knew I’d have to give up. But this kiddo puts me to shame; I can be freezing and she’s running around shirtless in panties and flip flops saying “Mama, I tooooo hot!”)

On the medical front, we finally did get the UCSF cranio-facial appointment in a few weeks ago, and Lulu was scheduled for palate surgery on the 30th. The dentists says she’s got horrible tooth decay (‘course what can you expect from three years of not brushing and not the best of nutrition?) and the audiologist says she’s currently suffering from mild to moderate hearing loss from the fluid in her ears (should be cleared up with the tubes), but all in all, she’s healthy and should do well with surgery. Of course one of her decayed teeth has absessed this week and the surgeron has decided it would be better to complete the dental work first and then repair the palate with no risk of infection in the rotted teeth. Joy of joys, more delays. Of course given my journey to Lulu, I guess I should expect everything to at a snail’s pace.

On the downside, I still can’t get her to sleep in her own bed, hopefully after surgery we will work on that, I can only take so many more foot-jabs to the nose and abdomen before I have to take myself to the ER. She’s also a total backseat driver and is always telling me to be careful, watch out for that car, go that way, etc.! And she has an unnatural obsessive fascination with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I have seen that movie every day since Christmas. I would kill the person who purchased that DVD for her if it wouldn’t make Lulu an orphan all over again. If I find myself singing “The old bamboo” in the shower again, I think I will have to kill myself. She can be so defiant and persistent when she wants her own way. She’s so good about using “please” but can’t quite grasp why 100 PulhLEEEEZEs wont work when she wants candy for breakfast. She’ll usually lecture me with one hand on her hip and one finger waving in admonishment, “Mama, listen Lulu! Lulu LIKE candy. Lulu WANT candy. Candy NOW, not later! Humph!” Like I said, the teen years are going to be some kind of fun!

But I’m so thankful to everyone who supported me on the crazy journey to this remarkable little girl. I also owe Love Without Boundaries, Grace & Hope foster care and Half the Sky foundation a huge debt of gratitude for all they did for my girl the first 34 months of her life. I recently received the translations of her HTS reports and it is nothing short of amazing how far she has come. She entered the program at 11 months at which they wrote “ her eyes were dull looking and she was physically weak... She could not yet sit up alone... Neither could she crawl to a toy... She doesn’t yet speak...” So there. That’s what these programs do - from a very delayed, sad little babe to the spunky, little wonder I’ve got here. If you can afford it, please sponsor a child in one of these programs. It makes ALL the difference in the world.

So I love my Lulu to pieces. She’s just the most perfect match for me. I still have the occasional frazzled moment where I think, what in the world have I done here? But they are more and more outnumbered by those precious moments of sticky fingers stroking my face, uncontrollable giggles and I love you, Mamas. Oh, this is just the best thing ever.