Cute Bog Entry - Up and Down Day

Source: Blog Entry

Frannie is definitely progressing -- she only cried when she woke up yesterday and got in the bath. We had to wake her to get her going (she slept solid from 9:15 or so until 6:15). I didn't want to startle her too much, so we just started turning lights on and making some noise, but she slept on. I finally stood next to her crib and coughed and stamped a bit and she finally looked up wide-eyed and furrowed her brow like "Knock it off!"

We had a lot to do yesterday with her passport and the meeting with the Director of Civil Affairs. He's the guy we had to answer to -- why do you want to adopt from China? Why a girl with a disability? What would you do with her if she got sick or if you found out she had something else wrong, etc." It was a bit nerve-racking because he was so serious and I had heard from another adoptive Mom that they have the right to say no. Yikes. Sally our guide told us she had never heard of him saying no, but....we had to pay all the fees -- more than Hope had warned us -- 2,000 yuan to one guy, 2,500 yuan to another, 200 for passport photo, etc. We met the Director of the Orphanage who was very, very nice and we met two other families who were adopting from Spain. One family had a little boy with a deformed hand too, only he had just little bumps with no real fingers. This little boy's Mom (they named him Lino) spoke about as much English as I do Spanish. She had her two nieces with her, the oldest of whom spoke English very well. She looked to be about 14. She kept trying to get Frannie to smile and I told her, "No, she hasn't smiled for us yet." So she danced all around her and jumped up and down and her little sister was singing this beautiful little song in Spanish and ... nothing. So she said "I think she will like bubbles" and I told her we had tried that and Frannie didn't like them. So she said, how about tossing her up in the air above your head? So I tried it and Frannie totally cracked up. Kevin got it on video. Later Sally tickled her slowly up her leg and she gave us lots of smiles then too. What I have failed to mention is that Frannie would not take any milk or water in the morning which concerned me. She ate only a few little bites and would only eat this one cracker that the orphanage had given us. At lunch, nothing. The night before, we had taken her orphanage sippy cup and it leaked all over the place so I had been trying yesterday with her Braves sippy cup. At lunch she only took a tiny bit and again, no liquid. I started to get nervous and when we got home for a 1 hour break she laid on the bed squirming and started to whimper. I suspected she was constipated so I rubbed her belly which calmed her down. She got whimpery again so we laid her in the bed and Eureka! She finally went. I tried with the Braves sippy cup and again and NOTHING. I decided I needed to try her leaky orphanage cup and she drank and drank and drank. Thank you Lord. Later in the day at another office, the Spanish Mom and I were trying to communicate and I understood about 70% of what she was saying in Spanish and at one point I told her I didn't understand so she turned to her Chinese/Spanish interpreter and she asked her "How do you say.... in English" and the interpreter said "I don't know English" (she said this in English) so that interpreter turned to my interpreter and asked her in Mandarin so Sally told me in English and I asked her to ask a question to the lady so Sally turned to the other interpreter.... it was hysterical.

She is getting more and more attached to us, but I think she would go to Sally just as easily as to us. Kevin and I have been so exhausted and still messed on with our sleep -- she are wiped out at 4:00 pm so we go to sleep for a few hours, then again at 9pm, but then we wake up at 3:00 wide awake. We played cards one night and read another, etc. Last night we decided to try to stay up as long as possible to get regulated and it worked. We ordered room service both nights to spend some private time with Frannie which has been nice. Tonight we are going to the local restaurant on the corner.

The new name of Kevin's article is "Tex's Two Cents' Worth"

Tuesday August 30 (AP) -- The U.S. Commerce Department is reporting that the U.S. trade deficit with China is shrinking rapidly and will be a surplus by the Chinese New Year 2008. Officials cite University of Florida paraphernalia worn by Frannie Fay (F squared) is the catalyst to this economic phenomenon. As the "Frannie Across China" tour continues, China officials proclaim "this stuff could become bigger than Peking Duck."

She had a sad look almost all day