Before that could happen we needed to eat breakfast.
I know she looks sad but this is just her resting face, not a sad face. In fact, as you can see, she has yogurt on her face. Yogurt she took willingly into her mouth without crying.
Friends, this is truly a miracle. A gift we weren’t anticipating for many days.
My doctor reassured me last night that she will be absolutely fine with whatever she will take willingly. He did mention that she perhaps has gingivitis which would cause the gums to bleed and be painful. He recommended we try to find some penicillin or amoxicillin. And if we can’t, just give her Tylenol 30 minutes before feeding her. So that’s what we did this morning. She ate a small amount of yogurt.
Then we went to the breakfast buffet. Just look at that delicious steamed bun filled with egg custard. I hope they have them for breakfast in Guangzhou. But just in case they don’t, I ate two.
So big!! Standing all by herself for short periods of time.
Love the opportunity to hold her and look into her eyes. This is a labor of love as I gently squeeze the milk from the bottle into her mouth and encourage her to open her mouth to accept it.
Then it was time to go! We said goodbye to our sweet guide, Amy. She was responsible for all of the updates, photos and videos we received when Heidi was in the orphanage. After talking with her I was even more impressed that she only learned English in middle school. She was really helpful and generous with her time to escort us to the orphanage, the finding place, and out for meals.
On the plane! Heidi wasn’t too sure about this. We taxied forrreveerrrrrr. Then we finally got into the air. We discovered in the hotel that Heidi loves to look in the mirror at herself. When she got antsy we turned the phone to selfie mode and she was happy.
Laughing at herself.
Sticking out her tongue.
This was the snack passed out on the flight. The scallions tasted like those cream cheese and chives crackers but without the cream cheese. The green thing is actually a clementine. I don’t know why it’s green. The bread thing was tasteless and the green package was like a peanut wrapped in a cereal ball and almost spicy. I feel like it shouldn’t have been good but I thought it was really tasty.
Overall Heidi did really well on the flight. Unfortunately she didn’t fall asleep. I’m sure it was because it was such a short flight (just over an hour in the air) and she’ll sleep amazingly well on our flight home.
Lots of waiting. I remember from our last trip there’s a lot of down time this week. It is hot and humid here in Guangzhou!
Guangzhou.... so many apartment buildings and construction!
Heidi was the happiest I’ve seen her on the hour long bus ride from the airport to our hotel.
Isn’t she beautiful??
By the time we got to the hotel I knew she had to be hungry. I gave her some Tylenol first. We tried to feed her some banana yogurt but she screamed and refused it. Trent, wisely, recognized that she was likely just too tired. We gave her some sips of water and the next thing we knew....
She was sleeping in daddy’s arms.
We debated whether to let her sleep all night or wake her. We felt like she should try to eat again... but first.
We were happy to find some new additions to the hotel since we were last here! Namely, Burger King. Our whoppers were just as good as they are back home in Quarryville.
Little sweetie didn’t want to wake up but I gently prodded her awake. When she realized I was lying beside her she started laughing. It was too cute to watch her wake up with joy. She reached her arm out to me and grabbed on to me. It was lovely.
We decided to walk around first to let her wake up before feeding her.
China’s mid-Autumn festival (New Moon Festival) is coming up on Friday. All these people are lined up to buy moon cakes. We actually bought some in Nanchang to bring home to eat with the girls. For some reason hotel lobby’s seem to be the place to go to buy moon cakes. There was a long line at the last hotel and an even longer line here.
Trent had to get the walk up to the window McDonald’s ice cream. We didn’t know what flavor this was, he just pointed at the picture. Turns out this black ice cream was Pina colada flavor and the sparkly sprinkles are coconut. Unexpected but refreshing.
Back in our room Heidi enjoyed a good stretch and a look at herself in the mirror.
Then came the moment of truth. Will she eat? At first she cried and started to refuse. But once she got a taste of the banana yogurt thinned out with some banana milk she was content. She ate the entire package of yogurt that Trent fed her. Happily! Then I gave her a few ounces of milk in the spoon bottle. She took this much more easily than the regular bottle so I think we’ll stick with that one for now.
We are so thankful to all of you who are praying for us back home. I genuinely can feel your prayers as I have so much peace when I feed Heidi. I know if it was dependent on my own strength I would be a crying, worried mess. But I’m not. I’m calm. I sing. I pray.
And tonight. We praise. We don’t deceive ourselves into thinking it will all be perfect from here on out. But Heidi is learning to trust us. She is learning that we will never force feed her. As with all learning there will be challenges and occasional setbacks.
Thank you all again. And give God the glory because his power is made perfect in our weakness. If this doesn’t prove it to you I don’t know what will.
In the morning we go to the medical clinic. I remember this being a bit traumatic for Ruthie so please think of us. It will be 9 am here so about 9 pm at home.
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