Visit to Martyrs Park & Xiang River

Hello Everyone,

We hope all of you are doing well. We have now been in China for a week now and are starting to miss the little things from home, such as a soft mattress, ice in drinks, being able to drink tap water, etc. The mattresses in China are hard and you cannot drink the water from the tap.

We went out to dinner last night at a Chinese restaurant, right next to our hotel with the other family in our group. We really like them a lot and have fun on outings together. Their new son, whose name is Wylie, kept showing me his new sneakers that light up when he stomps his feet. So, every few seconds he would run over to me and stomp his feet so that I could see the lights. He is so cute and is 4 years old.

We are having a great time getting to know Ruthie. She is a very sweet girl. We are at the stage now when she is testing us to see where her boundaries are, but she mostly responds well when we tell her yes or no. Daphne, our guide, said that she is impressed at how well Ruthie is adjusting, but said that Ruthie told her that she woke up 4 times last night, but was able to get back to sleep. She said that each child responds differently to the upheaval that adoption brings in their lives and sleeplessness is one symptom.

At mealtime, Ruthie uses chopsticks all the time. She discovered that she likes bacon and was trying to pick it up with her chopsticks, so Kai showed her that she could eat it with her hands. Today at breakfast, she started to use her knife and fork. She was using her knife to cut up her breakfast sausage & also her carrots, but she didn't use a fork to stabilize the food, so it was a little harder. She had a ball, and cut up everything in very small pieces and then had fun seeing how many pieces she could put on her fork.



When we go out on outings, Ruthie spends time with Daphne, holding her hand and talking to her. It is a respite for her - being with someone that she can talk too and that understands what she is saying. However, she does come and hang out with either Todd or I from time to time. Today while we were visiting the Xiang River, she saw people fishing and rushed back to me to bring me over to see. You see, one of the photos that we sent her in the orphanage is one of me catching a fish and she remembered that. She asked me (through Daphne), if we would take her fishing. I said we would take her fishing to the same place in the photo next summer (Williams, AZ).

Ruthie brought out her scrapbook/photo album to show me last night. We showed her Rachele's, (her new older sister), photo before she spoke to her on the phone. She did not want to look at the orphanage photos, she just skipped over them to look at the photos of our family. That is a good sign that she is bonding with our family. She has really bonded well with Todd & I and plays with Kai sometimes. The kids are all taking turns tickling each other right now as I am writing this.

Last night I was putting lotion on Ruthie's feet, which are small and very cute, but noticed that her large toes were misshapen. All of her toenails were bent over the top of her toes, so that you could hardly see them. The toenails had a lot of ridges on them. It looked like she had been wearing shoes that were way to small for a very long time. So, we checked the pair of shoes that she was wearing when we got her with her new ones and there is a difference of about 3 full shoe sizes. We are pretty sure that her toes will adjust to wearing normally sized shoes, but we will have our pediatrician look at them just to be sure.

Ruthie brought a disposible camera with her from the orphanage and we got the photos developed yesterday. The orphanage officials took photos of her and her friends and other people at the orphanage. We weren't sure if we should show her the photos right now, or if that may make her really homesick so soon after leaving the orphanage. So, we asked our guide, Daphne, who has 10 years experience with adoptive families. She recommended that we wait until we are home to show her the photos, which is what my instincts were telling me. From the photos, you can tell that they really cared for her.

We have noticed that she has difficulty seeing things from a distance. She squints quite a lot and seems severely near-sighted. We knew about that she did have an eye condition and have a referral to a good pediatric opthamologist when we get back home. Her eye rarely wanders and I have only seen it happen once.

Ruthie loves to laugh and she is wonderful. She loves to turn our lights off and on in the room. She did think it was so funny to turn off the bathroom lights when someone was in there (just like Sofie (Kai Kai). She also loves to push the elevator buttons and open our room with the room key (card). Todd lets her carry the room key around when we go out and she takes the responsibility seriously.

She absolutely adores her little Barbie doll, Kelly. She had to tuck her in bed last night. Today, she took her doll and all of her accessories and put them in her jean pockets. She took out her doll while we were out at the park and had me hold one doll's hand while she held the other. So, picture Ruthie & I walking through the park holding a little 3" doll between us, or just look carefully at the photo below.


We had a great time at Martyr's Park in Changsha. It is a very large park with beautiful grounds. It is very popular with many of the local people. We saw people doing Tai Chi, couples dancing, women dancing with fans, artists with their watercolors and it was a beautiful day. I got stopped again by two people who wanted to take a photo with me. For many Chinese people, they have never seen a Caucasian person or only very rarely. They were very nice and courteous - my days as a "celebrity" will be over as soon as I return home :)



We are nearing the end of our time in Changsha. For this part of the adoption process, we need to stay in the provincial capital (Changsha), of the Hunan Province, which is where Ruthie is from, for approximately one week. The adoption was finalized 2 days ago, but we have to stay until the end of the week for the adoption paperwork to be completed by the notary and also to receive her Chinese passport, allowing her to travel to the United States.

We leave on Saturday morning on a flight to Guangzhou, which is a large city just north of Hong Kong, if you are looking at a map. We need to stay in Guangzhou to complete the requirements of the United States. The US Consulate is located in Guangzhou. We will have to apply for her visa, allowing her to travel to the US. We will be staying there until Thursday, when we will board a plane for home!

Okay, my Chinism for today came from our breakfast. We are staying at a 5-star hotel and the breakfast buffet is wonderful. There are both Chinese & Western food choices. Yesterday, one of the Chinese choices was "Pig's Blood in Bean Curd". Also, there is an area where you can make your toast and select from a choice of Jams & Jellys. The selections are: Strawberry Jam, Grape Catsup & Tangerine Catsup. Of course, they are not really catsup, but jelly.

*We are having a little difficulty responding directly to emails. I am sorry. Please keep emailing though, we can read them. So here are some quick replies:

Humphreys - yes we have seen the "Willy Wonka" doorman and will print off your photo for him.

Brittney - we would love to have you spend the day with us after we get home. Yes, I think she will like the watch.

Chenzhou Older Kids Group - thank you so much for your emails and advice.

Thank you all for your comments, prayers, & support.

Noelle