Free Day

Today our guide Grace, as she says, 'set us free'.  We were so excited to do nothing!  

We started the day by going to breakfast late since Willow Mei Fen slept in.  She woke up happy, and we very soon saw the intense, hyper happiness from yesterday's dinner.  In fact, we saw it all day long!  It seems that when she is the most happy, she squeals, bites, and shrieks!  We are ignoring the bite attempts in hopes of extinguishing them forever.  Although, even her bites are cute!  She is absolutely the cutest thing in the whole wide world.  I love saying, "Wo ai ni" to her which means, "I love you."  She beams and bites at me or slaps in her glee.  Her grin lights up her whole face; she is SO much fun and so spunky.  She grabs my arms harshly to put them around her, and she rubs both of our arms.  Today because of the way she squeezed my face with her LONG fingernails when happy, I decided to try cutting them.  The girl was a pro.  I'd hug her and love on her after every finger, and she was always ready to give me the next one!  Awesome.  We are all so meant to be together.  Thank You, God!

We go on the elevator often, because she LOVES it.  The ceiling is a mirror, and she thinks it's hilarious to look at us up there.

It was time to see what she thought about the pool.  She liked it, especially as time went on.  By the way, she repeated the word 'pool' after us.  She also repeated 'tall', 'Willow', 'corn', 'yea', 'rain', 'puffs', 'uh-oh', 'bye bye', and probably other stuff I'm forgetting.  

Look who fell asleep on Daddy today after swimming and bath time!  Kyle and I both cried, because it is amazing to see how she gives us a little more trust each day.  Also, she looks for him and gets fussy if he goes somewhere.

We intended to go to a museum today, but it rained and we had planned to walk to it from our hotel.  Instead we delved into the culture by swimming at the hotel, walking around the hotel, dancing in the room, visiting with other Americans adopting from China, and eating McDonalds.  I also watched Steel Magnolias on netflix while Willow and her dad were both napping this morning.  

We have started asking her to open her mouth before getting more food, because she stuffs everything in there!  She's loving trying new things.  We shouldn't have introduced Teddy Grahams.

Daddy feeds her every time!

Her first happy meal toy is proudly featured below.  Like the other toys we have brought, she didn't care about it.  She seems to prefer things that aren't toys (paper, lotion bottles, hair brush, bottle lid, spoon, her tooth brush which I don't believe she had ever used, a snack cup...).

Actually, though, we had tons of great conversations with people.  At McDonalds, two totally different groups of young girls were so interested in hearing about Willow and talked to us for a while.  They wanted to know if she could speak Mandarin, how old she is, and what province she is from.  People always say to us, "Beautiful girl.  Big Eyes."  Many people here can also speak English.  They always look confused when they ask us about her, because apparently they don't see a lot of adoption.  Another family had a boy a little younger than Willow who was just SO happy like our girl, and the two of them kept watching each other at McDonalds.  The family came to ask us if they could borrow a diaper, and we began talking.  We saw them again at the hotel lobby.  It was the toddler, the mom, maybe an aunt, and the grandparents.  There was so much love in their family!  We love the people of China.

Another walk around the hotel to put off going to bed in the evening:

This is what her happy bite looks like, sometimes with a slap thrown in.

We kept saying, "Tall!"  She didn't do it for the picture.

Two funny things about the day:

1.  Kyle and I came back up to the room after breakfast, and we were trying to prevent her from getting fussy which she tends to do when we come back.  We realized after about 15 minutes that our door was WIDE open.  The funny part was that Kyle had changed out of his swimsuit and into clothes RIGHT in front of the open door.  Oh my goodness.  

2.  On the way up from swimming, we were in the elevator with a random lady.  I was confused about why Willow was dripping so much.  Suddenly, I whispered to Kyle, "She's peeing!"  I tried to catch most of it, and we ran out as fast as we could.  Oh my goodness again!

Played with these before falling asleep tonight:

Successfully got her off of me and onto the bed.  Yay!

Have we told you how in love we are!?!

Original SWI visit

Today we met Denise (China Program Director from Dillon) for breakfast.  She had been taking families on a homeland tour.  It was great!

We then rode in a white van with our driver and our guide all of the way to Yangjiang which is the birthplace of our daughter.  We visited Yangdong SWI (Social Welfare Institute), and it was a beautiful and necessary day.  The car ride back and forth was three hours, so our day was very full.  

It rained just a little as we entered the city.  Our guide told us there were many newly constructed buildings in Yangjiang.  

Last night I woke up with Willow sleeping in my arms with her mouth open looking like she'd take a pacifier.  I woke Kyle up and asked him to go get the two we have, as she had not yet been willing to take one from us.  She took it! (the western style one, not the one from the Chinese supermarket). Slept the rest of the night with it!!  I know most parents want their kids off of pacifiers, but I was so thankful to find something comforting to her and familiar.

Expressive eyebrows!

We stopped at a convenience store on the way there and on the way back.  It was a very cool and authentic place.  We got a good deal on a Chinese tea set bought in Willow's home town that happened to have willow trees on it!  

Grace (far right) taught us that if you dont push your way forward in line and place your items on the counter, people go in front of you.  She is right!

The two co-directors at the SWI and a few other workers met us in this room and offered us hot tea.  I was sweltering under Willow's body heat in the intense humidity of the city, but I tried taking a sip or two.  We asked all of the questions we could think of to make sure we have her history down accurately.  Some details we will share, and some will be her personal story to share in her own time or keep private.

With Director He and Director Chong:

A few of the other sweet nannies.  The one on the far right was who first gave us Willow on Monday.

We thank God and the people who work at Yangdong SWI for Willow's life.  They advocated for her by calling the care center they knew could help her by getting her life saving heart surgery.  They said her lips and fingernails were very purple.  I asked how many children they have sent to Shanghai Hospital, and they said they have sent only a total of three, and she was the first.  Thank You, God, that they cared for and loved our daughter well in her six months in their care!  It was so obvious the nannies, especially Director He, cared about Willow!  They all wanted to hold her, but she stuck with me.

This is a courtyard in the center of the building.  They said this SWI houses about 60 children with the oldest being about 10 years old.  The children can come to the courtyard to play!

This tree grew in the courtyard, and they let us try some.  It looked like a grape but tasted like a mild lemon.  They also gave us a to-go bag of them!

They also have a playroom.  We tried to play with Willow, but she wasn't having it. 

The next part was hard.  We visited the room Willow stayed in from 2 1/2 months to 8 months.  All of the littlest babies are lined up in the cribs of the row by the wall.  They said hers was one of the center beds.  

There was a child in each bed, but we were asked not to take pictures of their faces.  When we entered, they were napping, but many started waking up.  We talked to about 7 or 8 for a while and rubbed their backs and arms.  Their faces are forever etched in our minds.  A little boy grabbed my hair, and he fell down hitting his head on the wooden crib!  I felt horrible, because it was really loud!  He didn't even make a sound.

I have seen two orphanages in Honduras, but Kyle had not.  His heart broke for a tiny 4-5 year old boy who wanted to give him high fives and who looked devastated when we left.  Even though this one was well run, nice, and smaller, it is heartbreaking to see children with institutionalized behaviors in person and to think that most will not have parents.  Most of the kids had some kind of special need.  There is a hunger in their eyes I can't explain.  You have to see it when you interact with them, so commercials with sad music won't capture it.

It might sound strange, but I don't think my daughter is more special than any of the other kids. I'm floored that God gave us to each other, but I believe EVERY single life is beautiful and unique, called to live a life full of love.

The sad part is that the older kids who are more aware of their situations are the least likely to be adopted.  Please pray with us that ALL of the children in this room will receive loving families.  The director said eight children have been adopted so far this year.  God, please place these children in families and put the persistent desire in the hearts of families everywhere to adopt!

One little sleeping girl and one girl a nanny held both looked a little bit like Willow.  They had her eyes, round face, and mouth.  Willow and the girl the nanny held touched hands saying goodbye.

It was confusing and emotionally overwhelming, because I felt extremely sad for the children, but I felt an immense sense of gratitude toward the staff there for nurturing our baby girl as much as they possibly could.  I wanted them to know that I thought they were doing amazing work.

They served us a delicious lunch, and we sat around the table laughing and talking like old friends (with the help of our guide).  They said they think both of us are so good with Willow for first time parents, and they were obviously so happy to see our family together.  They wanted to hear back through email on how Willow does as she gets older.  

Dessert:

Willow and Kyle!  Right before we left.

On the way home, we got so many sweet smiles and interactions!

Discovering her personality is amazing!  She opened up at dinner back at the hotel, and we were at a loss for words.  She started giggling, smiling repeatedly, excitedly cooing, and more!  She was hyper!  She let me kiss her cheeks in a silly way, cracked up, and kissed mine twice in return.  She was so excited she would slap me (face, arms, anything) with joy.  She tried to bite a few times, but I successfully dodged.  Hopefully she won't do that.  We were so lost in joy, but I was also apprehensive, because we could NOT predict what she would do next!  I can't even tell you how cool this moment was, and we forgot our camera back in the room.  :/

Willows feet propped up how she likes in the back of the van!  She came to us with partial finger and toenail polish!

Later that night... She cries every time we enter the room because she doesn't want to sleep.  First pigtails!

It's 1:16AM, and the other two Robinson's are both asleep!  Good night!!