Datong – Quinn’s hometown

Ni Hao, dear friends and family!

Well, we have had another eventful 2 days. Yesterday was quite an experience! Our fabulous guide, Linda, was able to arrange an early morning appointment at the Civil Affairs office to finalize the adoption. The Civil Affairs office is kind of like the Department of Social Services in the US. They interviewed us and we officially promised never to abandon or abuse Quinn. Then we signed all the paperwork and paid the orphanage donation. The officials there were really kind….one of them even gave us a fan on which her husband had written a poem in Chinese calligraphy. After that, we immediately left for a 4-hour drive north to Datong, Quinn’s home city. We had to go there to request a passport from the local Police Station for Quinn. (This process is unique to Quinn’s city….most other adoptions do not require travel back to the local government.)

Because Linda was able to arrange the early civil affairs appointment, during our Datong visit we had enough time to visit Quinn’s orphanage! We spent about an hour touring the facility and were able to meet his teachers. You could see their genuine affection for “Hai-hai”, and he loved them, too! Almost all children are “fostered” in Quinn’s orphanage, but it is very different than fostering in the USA. They actually have a large apartment building for foster families on the site of the gated “Social Welfare Institute” which cares for the handicapped and the elderly in addition to the children. Quinn’s foster family is also caring for 4 other children. He did have both a mother and father in the home. Each morning the children go to the orphanage building, which is really more like a nice preschool setting. In addition to the traditional preschool-like rooms, there are rooms for different therapies….physical therapy, speech therapy, water therapy, and music therapy. Our guide said that this orphanage was the best one in the province. The children go home at lunch time, nap, and then return to the orphanage for the afternoon. We were visiting during the nap time, so there were no children around while we were there. I would have loved to see the children, but am so thankful that we were able to go at all.

When we arrived at the Datong police station, the meeting took about 5 minutes. It seemed to be going fine until Linda very formally introduced the policeman handling the meeting and out of habit, I shook his hand. I knew immediately that it was not appropriate. He kind of smiled and did not shake Monte’s hand. Linda said he was very serious and she’d never seen him smile before, ha! Oh well! Then as we were leaving, Linda began speaking with another lady very graciously and animatedly. After we left she explained that this was the director of the police department, and there had been some significant issues with a family who adopted from that city the week before, and she was trying to prevent a similar situation. Apparently, the conversation did not have the desired effect, so, Linda’s manager and our adoption agency began calling their contacts in the government to try to figure out what to do. Basically, we have paid some “fees” to rush the passport….otherwise, we would not have been able to leave China as scheduled.

On the drive back to Taiyuan (the capital of Shanxi province), the stress of the day and sleep deprivation began catching up with us. Monte thought he packed his Ambien, but we can’t find it, and we both have had a really hard time adjusting to the 12-hour time difference on this trip. I keep waking up at 2 am, unable to go back to sleep. Last night was the first night I slept more than 3 hours, so today I’m finally feeling better. I bought some "traditional chinese medicine" for sleep from a pharmacy today out of curiosity...it will be interesting to research it a bit when I get home, to see what is in it (it actually lists the ingredients in English, but I don't recognize most of them!) Our internet connection has been pretty patchy here, so updating the blog and skype has been more difficult…it’s working now, but it’s very early in the morning in the USA, so I guess we won’t be making a call!!

Today, we finally have some time to relax and get to know our son! Quinn has a more calm disposition than Zane, but it could easily change as the shock of everything lessens. He’s also still clearly preferring Monte, but he’s starting to warm up to me.J He has a sweet grin and loves to be held. He slept part of the night in his little bed, but woke up around 3 and would not get back in his bed, so he ended up sleeping the rest of the night with Monte. (Hotels here usually have 2 twin beds in the rooms.) He’ll point to us when others ask who his “mama” and “baba” are. He knows his body parts (in Chinese), and he talks a lot, and sometimes sings. He recognizes “twinkle, twinkle, little star”! He refuses to use “squatty potties”….which we couldn’t understand until we got to the orphanage. They have little western toilets for the children!! He cannot use a spoon or fork, yet, so there won’t be any “chopsticks” videos coming.J He’s six months younger than Zane was, and the developmental differences are pretty pronounced. He’s not fully potty-trained, so I’m glad I brought a full supply of diapers. We are happy about one thing, though - he can use bottles and sippy cups with the valve still in!!! So hopefully less spills! He’s not able to drink from an open cup, but did use a straw to down some “hot milk.” From a medical standpoint, before we came, his paperwork was not clear whether he had a left eye. So, he does have a left eye, but it is very small. It moves along with his right eye, though, so I would guess that is good. His vision in the right eye seems to be normal. We have his first appointment at Wake Forest in April.

He’s definitely still in 18 months clothes: the 2T pants and sweater he’s wearing today are tooo big! So, we’ll need to get more clothes when we get home….all of Zane’s clothes started at 2T, and I didn’t want to buy much until I knew what size Quinn was wearing.

We’d really appreciate your prayers. Yesterday afternoon was pretty discouraging, but we know that this is a very different culture. While the politics in the USA can be frustrating, we are very blessed to be American. We are confident that God is working in all of this, and it may be beyond building an earthly family….we hope that our spiritual family will grow through this adoption as well