We flew to Beijing today. It was an uneventful two hour flight, thankfully. We have another great traveller on our hands, which we are thankful for.
When we arrived in Beijing and finally made it to our hotel room, our little monkey just took out, running around exploring the new room, giggling with her sister and chattering away to herself. She knows her name now, Phebe. And when I asked her where Baba was, she pointed at her Baba and said his name in her soft little voice. So sweet!
She is such a rascal, it is unbelievable! She always has a trick up her sleeve. When we got to the hotel room, I gave the two girls their water bottles. They drank a little and then Lilah had to go to the washroom. When she was out of sight Phebe grabbed her bottle, took a sip, quickly set it back down again and grinned at us. What a tricky girl! Haha! We sure do have our work cut out for us with this one! She is all fun and games until someone says "No!". I would say it's her least favourite word at the moment!
She had a tough evening - she missed her 2 hour nap today and that did not look pretty at supper time. Oh well. The highs of the day sure made up for it.
When I told Lilah that we were going to see some "real China" today, she looked confused and replied: "Oh, is this pretend China?" Ha! So I had to explain to her that not everyone lives in a hotel and eats in restaurants every day!
When our guide, Amy, told us about the markets here, close to the river bank, that would show us an 'older' side to Changsha, we jumped at the opportunity and were more than eager to check them out. But first we enjoyed our first relaxing morning in Changsha, there was nothing planned for the morning and it felt SO good! After breakfast, baths, a DQ visit, lunch and naps, our driver and guide (Amy) picked us up for the tour and experience of the old Changsha markets and river banks walk.
: First stop on our way, was to pick up Phebe's brand new Chinese passport! So exciting! We are flying back to Beijing tomorrow.
: Next stop was the old Changsha markets - incredible, everything about them. I just think their way of life is so neat. And we also got to visit a Christian Church - let's just say we have our work cut out for us as far as Phebe sitting up (quietly) is concerned!
: We finished the afternoon off with a beautiful stroll along the main river that runs through Changsha.
Phebe is really showing her personality now, each day she is opening up more and more. And I am blaming Baba for this one, because he was saying recently how he was hoping for a more tom-boy-rascal kinda girl. Ahem. Well, he definitely got what he wished for! We sure got the trademark "Hunan Spicy Girl". I used to laugh at that term, but I'm a believer now! She loves to joke around and can be quite the trickster! She is stubborn. She loves to copy, everything you do, she can do too! She basically copies Lilah's every single move. Although to be honest, she also makes it known that she is the leader! She has the sweetest smile and giggle ever. When she talks, her voice is soft and angelic and it melts me. She sings very softly. She loves her baths and doesn't mind water on her face, at all. If she cries and you dry her eyes and wipe her nose with a tissue, she immediately stops crying. When she pees in her diaper she stands with her legs apart and points at her bum, basically telling me to take it off! Actually, we were told (on our visit to the orphanage) that she was being potty trained.
This girl, our beautiful sweet daughter, has completely won our hearts. She has also won over her big sisters heart. We are well and truly in love.
I think after the orphanage visit yesterday, we have turned a corner with our sweet Phebe girl. I remember having the same feeling after visiting Lilah's orphanage. I kinda think of it as us meeting the people Phebe loves and them approving of us, which in return gives her the confidence to trust us a little more.
Of course, it's just a theory. We have many days ahead to show her love and for her to learn to trust us more and more. Today was a good day, we got some more smiles, she held our hands to walk and let us hold her more freely. Can I just say, she adores her big sister. In fact, they adore each other! Lilah is absolutely loving her big sister role too. Today Phebe walked over to Lilah in Martyr's Park and grabbed her hand herself. It was a very sweet moment. They also love to sit and share snacks together!
We just love our girls. Baba and I look at each other, in disbelief, many times a day and agree with how blessed we feel.
This morning we attended the Notarization Ceremony, back in what we lovingly refer to as 'The Spider's Den'! It is the Civil Affairs office where we got our Phebe girl and in fact, we've been back to it three times now - each day for paperwork. Anyway, there is a spider's carcass lying in the window and no joke, the first day I wasn't sure if it was a bird or a spider! The thing is huge. Sure glad I didn't see that one alive!
After the ceremony we went to the Hunan Embroidery Museum, owned by the government. There is a collection of embroidery work here which is very impressive. But even more impressive, was watching these people embroider. They have studied this art for two years and their handiwork is absolutely incredible. Most of the embroidery work they do are requested by government officials, for their buildings. One group of about 10-12 ladies is currently working on a large canvas, which is about 20 feet long.
We then had lunch, can you guess? Spicy beef again - they threw some yellow peppers in this time and I honestly couldn't feel my lips for a while, but it was SO good! The girls had ham and green bean fried rice and my oh my, can our new girl eat! With her new found trust today, she is eating wonderfully and that does this Mama's heart good. Then it was nap time, in which I stayed with Phebe and Baba took his big girl for some special time to Dairy Queen, yes, there is a DQ not too far from our hotel: yummy ice-cream!
After nap time we walked up to Martyr's Park and just enjoyed a little relaxing walk through part of this beautiful spacious park. It was nice for the girls and it gave them a little freedom to run around, just what they needed today. I have to admit, I just love sitting back and watching my girls be sisters, it's something I've dreamt about for a long time. Lilah is so caring towards her sister - she made sure her sister was walking on the inside, when they were walking across a little step, because she didn't want Phebe to fall off. They share such a special relationship already.
It was an emotionally charged trip today, to Phebe's orphanage.
I should mention that Phebe is the best little sleeper ever! She sleeps from 8pm - 7am as well as a 2 hour nap in the early afternoon. This morning started out a little rough, Phebe eat well, but no smiles today. It's only day three, so we are trying to give her the space she needs. She doesn't cry much, but she does grunt a fair bit and she pushes all of us away from her, about 70% of the time. We're trying so hard to take is easy on her. Lilah told us last night that she doesn't like to see her little sister sad.
Anyway, we were picked up by our driver and guide at 8:30am and settled in for a long drive, 3 hours to Changde and 3 hours home again! Phebe did amazing on the drive, I was fully prepared for her having travel sickness, but that wasn't the case, thankfully. Our little trooper napped for over an hour each way and her big sister probably had more ipad time in one day, than she's had in six months. Ha!
We arrived at the orphanage at 11:30am and Phebe was very pleased to see her nanny again. They walked hand in hand, right into her little room. The nanny had rice prepared for her, for lunch. She is the sweetest and most warm lady, her smile could light up a room. It's so obvious that Phebe was loved by her, in a big way. It's also easy to see why our little girl is grieving the loss of this wonderful lady.
After Phebe eat two bowls of rice... yes, you read that right, she sat up on the little seat, opposite her nanny and downed two bowls of rice in less than 10 minutes! Our little girl can eat! Anyway, after that we headed next door to the little school that the special needs children attend. Phebe has also attended this school since Bonnie pulled a few strings, back in March! We met Phebe's best friend, Rocky, who obviously adores her - he will start attending the public school next Monday, he is super excited... so excited he's already wearing his backpack for the occasion! We met her two wonderful teachers, who obviously do so much for these children - they were making flowers today and they gave Phebe one, she was so very thrilled with it and wore it right up until she went to bed tonight. We also gave out the care packages we'd prepared for all the children, craft supplies for the school, toys for the children to share and gifts for the staff. It is hard to put into words the emotions we go through on a meeting like this. Words can't describe the gratitude we feel towards these people that cared for our daughter, for almost 2 years of her life. And words can't describe the emotions we feel about the children we leave behind. It is so very hard - so many of them capture a piece of your heart.
We heard little stories... like how Rocky followed Phebe out to the gate of the orphanage on Monday, the morning she left, just so he could say goodbye. How today was her Nanny's day off, but she came in just so she could see Phebe again. How Phebe cried for 20 days when she started attending the little school, back in March. We also met the lady that found her, outside the orphanage gates.
All of it was emotional. We cried happy, sad and thankful tears.
Afterwards, we took some of the staff out for lunch. It was so delicious. I'm not sure if I'm going to have a stomach left after all this spicy Hunan food, the hot pepper dishes are absolutely amazing!
After lunch, we came back to the orphanage to drop the staff off, we captured a few final group shots and then it was time to say goodbye. I had myself prepared, because Phebe did not come near us the whole time we were at the orphanage and restaurant, but she calmly got into the van with us and waved bye-bye to the staff. Her calmness was a huge answer to prayer and we know that only the Lord could have given her the peace she had in that moment.
We knew this wouldn't be an easy day. But for Phebe's sake, we knew we wanted to meet her nanny and the staff that took care of her. And to see and know where she lived for the first two years of her life. These are the memories that we can tell her about, one day.
This evening, her big sister was distracted and on the ipad doing puzzles. Phebe walked over and made
