Journey of a Lifetime
We are back from China! What an INCREDIBLE journey it was. Two full weeks
in a country that is rich with history and different in so many ways. It reminded me of
America 30 years ago, when nothing was regulated and life was
simpler and less homogenized. We are still having trouble getting used to
the time change. Dale and I keep waking up at 3:00 in the morning ready to
start the day!
I have to give credit to Children's Hope International for pulling off a
flawless 12-day trip. Everything was taken care of for us and we never had a
moment of stress over the travel or adoption arrangements. In Guanghzou I
met adopting couples from other agencies who spent a monotonous 17 days in
one city and had to take a 30 hour flight home with stops in two other
countries. No such nonsense for us!
We first arrived in Beijing, which used to be called Peking (yes, we did
have Peking duck...at the Peking opera!). It's the capital of the country
and very modern. The Great Wall is, in a word, great. The steps are
incredibly deep and Dale and I wimped out about a third of the way up. Our
intrepid 7-year-old son, Connor, made it all the way to the top, though, so
he can now, as our guide told us, justifiably call himself a great man.
Connor was such a great sport the whole time. He loved the country and now
wants to become a Buddhist!
The Peking Opera was really wonderful. Rent the movie "My Concubine" and
you'll see exactly what it's like. We also saw the Ming Tombs, which is sort
of a Chinese version of King Tut's tomb...without all the gold. Fresh water
pearls are cultivated in the mineral-rich water near the tombs, and I bought
a beautiful black pearl necklace.
The Forbidden City was an amazing complex of buildings used by Chinese
emporers up until the early 1900's. Rent the movie "The Last Emporer" and
you'll get a great idea of how incredible this palace is.
After 1 1/2 days of sightseeing, we flew to Chengdu, which is the capital of
the Sechuan province. Just as the name implies, the food there is very hot.
Connor and I had a hard time getting enough to eat. After 4 days in
desperation I had our guide write down the Chinese characters for peanut
butter and bought some at a local market. Our new daughter, Madeline Jing
Johnson (Maddie), is 4 1/2 and a whiz with chopsticks! She was brought to
our hotel room in Chengdu by a worker for the orphanage. Maddie was very shy
at first and cried for about 10 minutes when she was brought to our hotel
room, but she's been happy ever since (not counting a little pouting and a
few power struggles when she got sick.) She is in great health...but was a
little dirty and had many scabs from scratching dry skin. We have been
lathering her up with lotion. It was very touching that the orphanage had
obviously tried to make her well-dressed for us. She had ten tons of layered
mis-matched clothes and her shoes had been cleaned with very smelly
terpentine.
We are incredibly lucky that she is such a sweet, funny, and well adjusted
child! She was left at a train station in Chengdu at age 3 1/2. She's been
at the orphange 1 year. I suspect she had been with a loving family who
chose to give her away when a son came along. Everything the orphanage said
about her in their report is true. She adjusts easily to new situations,
she's smart, active, and likes to sing and dance. She sings to herself in
Chinese all the time. And Connor makes her laugh hysterically! She bonded
immediately with Mom, and it took a week or two to decide Dad and Connor were
okay for hugs, too. Her level of engagement is extremely high. She's always
saying "Mama" or "Ma" and pointing to something new. And I think many things
are a first for her. The last week we were in Guanghzou, which is just above
Hong Kong in Southern China. The White Swan Hotel is a 5 star hotel and has
a beautiful waterfall in the middle of it with fish. She kept pointing to
the big, orange ones and giggling and running to me and hugging me with
excitement. When we got back to St. Louis, I was starting to dress her in a
pants outfit...but she saw a summer sun dress in her drawer and grabbed it
up. She insisted on wearing it. I had to put a winter shirt on underneath
so she wouldn't freeze. The whole time I was putting it on she just beamed
and blushed with pleasure and pride. I'm sure it's her first dress.
Whenever I put lipstick on, she wants some, too. And when her dad tells her
she's a pretty girl (pialiong de hiza... phonetically speaking), she blushes
and hides her head. She's just adorable! So loving, too. She always shares
her food at the table. And she combs my hair for me. I'm so glad I took the
time to learn some Chinese phrases before I left (I am your mother, smart
girl, I love you, don't touch, be quiet, etc.)
Chengdu was very interesting. It has a Seattle climate and is very wet and
the streets very dirty. Black pants came in handy. There were gorgeous
Buddhist Monasteries and a lush bamboo park. We bought souvenirs there so
Maddie could remember her heritage. The panda bears live there, and we saw
those at the zoo. There were bicycles everywhere...3 to 1 ratio over the
cars. And there are several hundred bike deaths each year in Chengdu alone!
I believe it after seeing the way people drive...few stop lights or no yellow
lines in the middle of the road. No helmets or rearview mirrors on the
bikes. It's a constant game of chicken. Amazingly, no one yells or even
frowns as they risk their lives on the road. Our guide in Guanghzou said
it's against the law to honk the horn.
By the time we hit Guanghzou, we were ready to come home. Maddie got
bronchitis. Fortunately, I had brought some chewable antibiotics in case
Connor had trouble with his breathing. I used them on Maddie. I could have
taken her to a Chinese doctor, but I was confident of my diagnosis from
experience with my son and I wanted her to get well quickly. Living in a
hotel room is stressful enough.
Maddie was terrified of our pets when we returned to St. Louis. We have a
cat and two misbehaving basenjis. She made friends with them, though, when
she had a tea party and fed them water in her little teacups. She's adjusted
beautifully to our home. We had a family dinner on St. Patrick's day at my
parents' home and she was the life of the party. In some ways it's hard for
Connor to share the limelight, but he loves playing with Maddie and he
finally has the sibling he's longed for. Maddie is my little shadow. She's
a loving and fun little girl, so I welcome my new constant companion with
open arms. This journey was a leap of faith. I'd been so worried about
attachment disorders with older children. But our courage has paid off with
an incredible new addition to our family. And no diapers!