Spicy girl!

Rose “the best guide in all of China” has given AiLi the nickname of spicy girl. Half named for the cuisine from her native province and half for her spicy personality. Nowhere was this more evident than the plane ride from Hefei to Changzhou. She was about as loud and shrill as any unhappy child I have heard on a plane. We started off fine enough with her sitting quietly in her seat playing with the boarding passes but when I had to hold her on my lap for take-off, she started wailing and prety much kept at it for the entire flight. The doctor we are traveling with thinks she was suffering from gas. I think she was being kind. She gave her some medicine which did help a bit. Thankfully having witnessed Nora’s discomfort with her bouts of colic and reflux, I’ve had some experience with greatly distressed babies. I’m hoping we have an easier time of it on the flight home.

Every day is a day of discovery for us all. She has progressed from spoons to sugar packets to promotional flyers as her favorite toys. She loves to hold things, feel their texture and pass them from hand to hand. It can entertain her for hours! If she doesn’t like something she has no problem letting us know. We’ve got the fake cry down pat and just laugh at her when she tries it out on us now. If someone is looking at her and she doesn’t like it, boy, does she give them a look. She gives it to Mommy every once in a while as well but never Daddy. She’s smiling more and more every day and Daddy can even get an occasional belly laugh out of her. Her walking is improving as well. She takes a few steps unaided now and then but is still pretty fearful of falling down so she doesn’t try too hard. It’s been a week of firsts. We took in our first outdoor concert today at the riverside park next to our hotel in Guangzhou. We had our first poopy diaper, first steps, first laugh, first tubby (first fart in the tub as well, which she didn’t quite understand), first bus ride, plane ride and walk in a stroller. Her world has turned upside down and she is taking it all in stride. She is also becoming verbal. Yesterday when we put her in her crib for a nap, instead of falling off to sleep, she played (with her promotional flyer), talked to herself and overall had a great time of it.

As a group we have been very lucky. All the babies are doing great and everyone is healthy. And yes Joan, small world….18 month year old Hannah Autrey is in our group. The Autrey’s are from Hingham and an incredibly nice family. They are traveling with their three boys; a set of 11 year old twins and a 13 year old. The boys are so sweet with all the babies, 11 year old Nick is especially enamored with AiLi. They are the family that traveled with us to Huainan and are in the picture where we are all seated in the farmers courtyard.

We continue to be quite the center of attention wherever we go and have not yet been admonished by the clothing police…..little old chinese ladies that will walk right up and yell at you if your babies are not bundled up. The Autrey’s are like a traveling circus. In a country that values boys over girls and only allows one child per family, you can imagine the stares they get with three boys and one little Chinese girl. People will walk right up to us to get a close look at AiLi and then we get either a thumbs up (universal meaning) or heads nodding (universal meaning) or big smiles (universal meaning). We have also found that those Chinese that know a little English will walk right up to us and engage in conversation. We think they like to do that to test how good their English is. Surprisingly, speaking English is very important. When we were visiting the village outside of Huainan, one of the older men told us through Rose, that they were very proud that their grandchild was learning English in school. Sadly in most of these villages the parents travel to the cities to earn a living leaving their children in the villages with their grandparents.

For the most part everyone here is appreciative of what we are doing for the lost girls of China, what they don’t quite understand is that we are the lucky ones.



Karen