Keith reporting:
This was a remarkable day for me as Kasen started looking for her daddy when I wasn’t around. She even “asked” me to pick her up and kept wanting to play games with me. It may not sound like much, but up until now she’s really been clung to mommy as she’s gone through all the ugly American ideas of loving care (i.e THE IVs IN THE HEAD!). My fear of holding babies that so many of you have known about me has turned to my looking so forward to our regular outings on our own to see the sights around the hotel. This feeling is unbelievable!
We started the day with an outing to see a Chinese orphanage (not ours, as it is 200 miles from here, and none of our children stayed in the orphanage; they were all in foster care.) It was both wonderful to see all the happy children, but at the same time very sad as they all looked to us as the parents they don’t have (and most never will). My heart will always ache for them.
From there we went to a beautiful Chinese park and gardens, with a lake, beautiful bridges and magnificent Chinese architecture. Next we went to a genuine American Pizza Hut. I never thought I’d get tired of Chinese food, but at this point if I see one more dish of stir-fried anything I think I’ll scream. Needless to say the pizza tasted better than any steak dinner I can ever remember. Kasen had what we assume was her first pizza ever and she loved it. As I said in today’s photos, that’s a good thing if she plans to eat at the Holt household at many typical weekend dinners. The girl’s appetite is unbelievable, and she wants anything that’s on our plate. She refuses to eat any baby food of any kind, and instead prefers meat, vegetables, cheese, bread and desserts (she and mommy will get along great!) She will not let us feed her, and will have nothing to do with eating utensils, eating everything with her hands. I told her today that if she didn’t learn to eat with a fork that she was going to embarrass herself horribly when she goes on her first date at age 30!
We had planned another trip to Wal-Mart (yes, it’s the same as in the states; you just went to Wal-Mart yesterday, you have to go again today, and you know you’ll be back again tomorrow; and just like home, you go in planning to buy one thing, and instead come out with eight bags and you’ve spent 500 yen (that’s about $60 for what would cost about $160 back home)). Anyway, the babies were too tired for Wally world, so we came back to the hotel.
It was time for us to take Kasen back to see the doctor at the hotel. She wanted us to go for two more treatments of IVs IN THE HEAD, and we protested. We complained that Kasen was eating well, and more importantly, was drinking plenty of fluids, thus not needing the large dose of fluids. She finally consented that a couple of shots would probably suffice, so off to the “wonderful” hospital we trudged again. We had to convince the pediatrician of the shot vs. IV IN THE HEAD approach; he finally caved and agreed on a shot today, and another tomorrow. We’ll also continue to have her checked by the doctors in Guangzhou, our destination on Saturday, where we’ll be until we head home one week from today! We finished the day off with room service of American burgers and fries which Kasen loved, and another bath which Kasen hates. She and mommy have crashed early as I finish this post.
One more thing – for those of you having trouble reading all the guestbook entries, look for Karen’s technical fix she learned from the website company. Also check to see that Marley wrote us an entry in the guestbook! He misses us.
Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. They really helped as is evident from Kasen’s daily improvements. We can’t wait to get her back home to all of you.