Nice since this is the longest day we have on the whole trip. About 6 h
ours driving time and lunch with the vice president of the orphanage while she is throwing a FIT in the restaurant. Talk about pressure. He is like, "Huh, she NEVER cried with us." LOL!!! He was so nice though. I think he understood. After giving me very well intentioned advice on what to do with her she swatted at him when he tried to hold her. OOPS! SORRY Mr Kind Vice President. 2 year olds just don't have good manners! He eventually said, " I guess she misses her nanny." I told him that I agreed with him and his nanny must have done a very good job because she loves her so much. At the time it was stressing me out a bit but thinking back on it I think it is so sweet. He really seemed to know a lot about her. He knew she loves to walk everywhere and wants to feed herself. He knew she likes steamed eggs. How sweet is that? She did eventually get a little nicer to him. Thank goodness our guide could explain she is usually just as happy as she can be.
ours driving time and lunch with the vice president of the orphanage while she is throwing a FIT in the restaurant. Talk about pressure. He is like, "Huh, she NEVER cried with us." LOL!!! He was so nice though. I think he understood. After giving me very well intentioned advice on what to do with her she swatted at him when he tried to hold her. OOPS! SORRY Mr Kind Vice President. 2 year olds just don't have good manners! He eventually said, " I guess she misses her nanny." I told him that I agreed with him and his nanny must have done a very good job because she loves her so much. At the time it was stressing me out a bit but thinking back on it I think it is so sweet. He really seemed to know a lot about her. He knew she loves to walk everywhere and wants to feed herself. He knew she likes steamed eggs. How sweet is that? She did eventually get a little nicer to him. Thank goodness our guide could explain she is usually just as happy as she can be. Anyway, she did settle down but sweet girl had her first hard core day. It's good though. If she WASN'T grieving I would be extremely concerned. Why would she NOT be grieving? Was she not attached? Is she not able to process these emotions? She is just showing appropriate emotion for loss.
The trip was so cool though, despite the wild child. We drove through a virtual flood to get there. LOL!! Neither wind nor rain can stop us. I'm not kidding... it was so funny. It would have been even more hilarious if I wasn't WIPED OUT from the screaming, grieving child in my arms. :0) It was starting to feel like Noah's Ark and we better find some animals quick.
We visited the orphanage and I was able to meet her personal nanny. They also took us to the place where Kaiya was found. In China you are not allowed to place a child for adoption. You must just leave them and walk away. People leave their babies where they can be found quickly. Then the police are called and the child is taken to an orphanage.
With Kaiya's condition of cleft lip and palate her mother would have been unable to feed her properly. There is also a one child policy and she may have been the second child. It makes my heart hurt for what that decision must have been for her birth mommy. I desperately wish she could know Kaiya is safe and loved like Zoe's Guatemala mommy knows. Perhaps one day that door will open. I was so glad we were able to go see where she was found. It was in front of a major government building in Yiwu.
After all her trauma today I made the decision not to take Kaiya into the orphanage. My mom stayed with her in the van and I went in. Then I invited her nanny to come out and see her which she did.
She was extremely kind and seemed genuinely attached to Kaiya. I cried as I thanked her for taking such good care of Kaiya. She works so hard. More than 30 babies and 3 caretakers at a time. I had little gifts for them. My travel buddy Judy did too. They also had the outfit Kaiya was wearing when she was found and a bag that was with her. WOW!!! What a priceless gift. We are going to frame the outfit to put in her room. So special. We got video and pictures with her caretaker. Wonderful....It broke my heart to see all the the babies left behind. None of them were even registered for adoption. I am told the orphanage is only allowed to pick a few because the Chinese government can only handle so much work load with the paper work. My heart started to ache when I realized that. They picked our girls out of all of those babies. Our Kaiya could have just as easily been one of those other sweet faces laying there with no mommy to hold her. They picked her to have a family.... It makes me cry.
.
My heart aches for more of them to have homes. 6% of those babies will be released for adoption. Only 3% will be adopted. Only 3% of the little "Kaiya's" in China will have a mommy. Only 3%.... why? My heart aches. Many of them have special needs like Kaiya's which is why they were given up. It makes tears stream down my face. I just pray God will open arms and homes and a way for these babies. I will do whatever I can to be a part of that.
.
The whole journey we were with Kaiya's best little buddy XiXi. Turns out there beds were right next to each other!! We were also given pictures of them before they had surgery on their lips. One of the pictures is of them together! :0) Then we were given permission at the same time to come get them. WOW! Too wild. It seems our girls were destined to be special friends.
So after that we went to see XiXi's finding spot and we headed home. I was SO glad to see that hotel room and so was Ms. Kaiya Rain Zhen.
She is happy again! YAY! It was so great when she started to give us little smiles and giggles and kisses again. It's amazing. Like two different kids. Angry grieving kid and funny little pixie. Right now she is walking around playing her favorite new game. This game is called bring EVERYTHING in the room to momma and pile it in her lap. NICE!
She is so funny. She is making all kinds of sounds and tries to mimic almost everything we do. She is SMART! She may have trouble with speech because of her cleft but she doesn't sound very nasal or airy when she makes sounds. I guess we will just see.
.
She is already following commands in ENGLISH! She is awesome. She can understand, "Kaiya put that toy in your basket." YAY! :0) "Kaiya come here. Sit down Kaiya." OH and yesterday she gave me the sign for I'm hungry by patting her mouth. I had only shown her the sign TWICE! I couldn't believe it.
.
She is like a little scientist. You can tell she is ALWAYS thinking and learning. She is SO HAPPY to be able to LEARN. It's like she was just waiting for this moment. Every second she is trying to learn something. She LOVES to walk and in one day she has already gone from super wobbly walker to trying to jog. She is still a little wobbly though! She is also so sweet and cuddly. She knows when she is doing something sweet or smart and gets VERY proud of herself. She will come and tackle me and give me a kiss and then smile SOOOO big. Her smile is so cute.
She is SO STINKING SMART! The last two days I have been trying to teach her to put her hands up in the air and say up when she wants me to hold her instead of yelling. Pretty much everything is just yelling so far. So just a minute ago she walked up, threw her hands in the air and said, "Up!" OK, well maybe it was more like, "Uh!" BUT I GOT THE IDEA! YAY FOR KAIYA! Of course I fussed all over her and made a WAY TOO BIG deal of it.
She is just so cool.
.
FYI!!! I wrote most of this post last night and meant to post it. After I typed "she is so cool" Kaiya started throwing a MONSTER fit again. She was exhausted. I laid down with her while she cried and flipped and flopped and finally fell asleep. Apparently I fell asleep with her. She is STILL asleep-12 hours and counting. I slept 11 hours. Wow... We were both wiped out. Today we have nothing to do. YAY! I feel much better. I pray she is feeling better today. Regardless of how she feels though- I adore her.
Hugs!!! Hoping today we get cute smiley pictures. Please pray for her little heart to heal quickly. She has been through so much and had so little.
Angel
