We've had Ellie for a week!

June 8, 2008
We arrived in Guangzhou yesterday afternoon after a less than pleasant flight. Ellie came down with a cold and she was quite congested. We were worried about the change in pressure and the sensitivity on her ear. Our pediatrician told us to give Ellie a bottle of something to drink during take-off and landing; the sucking helps equalize the ears. We did this on take-off and it worked. Unfortunately, Ellie had a bottle at the airport, too, so we didn’t have anything for the descent. As the plane started down and the pressure began to change, without any kind of build up, Ellie began screaming and crying at the top of her lungs. Yes, we’d become “that family;” the one we’ve all murmured about on any given flight whose child(ren) scream during the whole flight. I felt so bad for Ellie; she was in such pain. The only thing I could do was hold her tightly to my chest.

When we arrived at the White Swan Hotel, we began to run into the other 10 families who were part of our travel group in Beijing, but went to different provinces to get their babies. It was great seeing everyone’s child and hearing other parents tell their “gotcha day” stories. I believe that our Jiangxi Province group is the only one whose “gotcha day” was last Sunday. The rest had to wait until Monday.

After Ellie’s morning nap we took a cab to the pedestrian zone and walked around for a few hours. Just as we were getting ready to head back to the hotel at mid-afternoon monsoon like storm swept through downtown Guangzhou. We found sanctuary in the entry way of the jade market. The rain came down in buckets and we were so unprepared; no umbrella, no rain coats, no hats. It poured non-stop for 20 minutes. As we were under some time pressure to get back to the hotel for a meeting, when the rain let up a bit we made a break for the taxi stand…as did many others. It was a no-holds-barred-every-person-for-themselves event. People would run with a taxi until it stopped to let its fare out. People would cut people off in line. We were doing our best to keep up, be cultural yet considerate all the while, it began to rain harder. A young woman standing near us had an umbrella and she came over to cover Ellie. Then she called out to two other young women standing in the street, also waiting for a cab. What the woman with the umbrella over Ellie had done was ask the other two to help her get us a cab before they got a cab. It was so sweet.

It’s just 5:00 p.m. We’ve had Ellie for one whole week. There are times when I look at her and the whole past week (and the last three years) seems surreal; when am I going to wake up back into my reality. Yet, at other times, I look at Ellie and experience this feeling that she’s always been a part of our lives. Walking down the pedestrian zone this afternoon, Caroline said to me, “Can you imagine how differently our lives would have turned out if we hadn’t found each other? I wouldn’t ski and you wouldn’t travel and we wouldn’t have Ellie.” I for one, am grateful that we did!