Missing Taylor

While Taylor was in China, Ms. Lily, Taylor's teacher enjoyed showing Taylor's classmates back at home the blog. She would log on in the morning and the kids would all enjoy seeing Taylor and her new baby sister. The class enjoyed commenting and making a welcome back poster for Taylor and Kendal.

Monday 15th US Consulate Today

We call Kendy Shinfan-fan most of the time. Hard to believe since we have called her Kendy for 4+ years. She is so cute and I just can't get enough of her. She is wearing 12 month and I just roll up the 18 month items. She has a cute wardrobe already thanks to my friends and family!
Today was a big day! We had our Visa appointment interview at the US Consulate. Once approved we will be issued a Visa for Kendy to enter the US. This is the step that the US took away from Nepal and left 80+ adopting families hanging, one of them a family we know in Denver.
All immigrants must take an oath and so the adoptive parents all say it together. It brings tears to your eyes knowing this is the final step before going home. Actually, shopping is the final step but more on this later when Kip is not watching me. There was a small group of Boy Scouts from a local international school earning their badge for patriotism, so they stayed in the room with all of us. It was cute watching them watch all of us. You know when you get teary-eyed at a hallmark commercial? Well that is what it is like walking in the US consulate and seeing our flag. It is a very proud moment.
Dinner tonight was a huge success. Kendy ate mashed potatoes from a spoon!! She sat in the high chair at Lucy's on the patio and took about 5 bites of actual food. We count this as a major moment in China! Lucy's serves American and Asian food and the best french fries. We have had dinner there a few times so we can sit outside and Taylor and friends can play in the playground. The lighted boat parade goes by every night. It is really pretty. We also eat at the Deli (just outside the hotel) which serves fabulous BBQ Pork and rice with Bok choy. Their ice cream is awesome. We have tried the local Subway and McDonalds and both were delicious. We have had a group dinner and one more tonight at the Thai restaurant down the street, Cow and Bridge. Hopefully tonight's attempt will be much better than last week. Kendy is sitting in the high chair now and maybe she will eat again. My favorite dinner was at the Orient Express in an actual train car. We ate with the Davis family and enjoyed good wine and fine French cuisine. We are not going hungry.
The exchange rate is at 6.58%. We are getting great deals on everything, but it is still money spent. I am buying gifts for Kendy to give her on her yearly gotcha day. Some are very simple, like silk wrapped chopsticks and then some very nice, her pink pearls.
Taylor is playing with Kendy on the bed and taking pictures of her with daddy's camera. I love the sound of them together. Stop laughing; I have heard the not so nice sound from Kendy as well.
Green poop. Need I say more.
Off to the breakfast buffet we have every day at the White Swan.

Official Appointments and More about Kendal

Today we are going to get Kendy’s medical exam. It is a short walk about 4 blocks away. When we get there several people are wearing masks…no worry….sure, the clinic is full of healthy people! You should have seen the parents in our bunch freak a little over this….us included. I remember well how much Taylor screamed during this exam. I can only image what Kendy might do since she can hit a high note! We are to go to three stations 1-Check body weight, height & temperature, 2- A general medical check-up, 3-Check ears, nose & throat. Kendy weighed in at 21.6 pounds. I didn’t catch her height, but we will get the report back today. She did not have a fever. I was worried a little about that only because she always feels warm. It doesn’t help that it is 80 degrees with 50% humidity and hot flashes! Everything else looked fine and she only fussed a little. Really pretty simple and we will definitely have our pediatrician take a look at her. She appears healthy and well fed, but by no means chubby. Compared to Taylor at this age Kendy is about 6 pounds more. We know she must have eaten foods not just a bottle, but she is only taking a bottle. Her head whips away so fast when we offer food. I can’t believe she hasn’t bitten my finger! We keep trying with every meal and snack, but so far no interest in food. I even offered an Oreo (sorry to beat you to the punch Grandpa Bob).
The afternoon trip was to the passport agency to apply for Kendy’s Chinese passport. Again, the tour bus. It is actually a very nice bus, but crowded with fussy babies it becomes claustrophobic. One of the guides, Jocelyn, speaks the entire time giving us valuable information and knows just about everything we could ever hope to learn about Guangdong Province. I appreciate this since we received very little information regarding Taylor’s province of Guizhou. At the same time a little quiet time would be good too. Nothing eventful with this trip, but we do get to see a lot of Guangzhou and the people. We see lots of babies and small children and wave to them. Most people make a quick glance at us, but we are not unusual in this part of Guangzhou.

Kendy wakes up a few times during the night but immediately soothes herself and goes back to sleep. It is amazing how well all the babies are sleeping through the night. Our bus trips to official appointments are the hardest and she enjoys about 50% of the time while fussing the other 50%. It is too warm to carry her all the time so we have a stroller to walk around the island. We carry her everywhere else. I should have the best arms. She will walk a few steps when we hold her hands, but she is still unsteady on her feet. Kendy will walk around the bed and play with everything on the bedside table including the buttons which operate the lights, TV, radio etc. She is so cute and has several facial expressions that crack us up and scare us when we think of her as a teenager. The side glance with just her eyes…watch out! She will allow Taylor to touch her more and they play on the bed. We are reading to Kendy while she tries to eat the books. I love listening to Taylor talk to her. She is asking her if she can say “Kendal”. Very sweet.

About Kendal

We call Kendy Xinfan (pronounced shinfawn) or XinfanKendy and she likes it. We were told the babies from Lianjiang were not used to strangers since they did not get out much. You could have heard a pin drop in the room when they told us this! One of the 8 year old girls back to get her baby sister is from Lianjiang and she is a cute girl, very tall. Kendy is the oldest in our travel group #1655 at 15 months, then the rest follow by two weeks, a month, etc.; the youngest is almost 10 months. The babies all were wearing the same outfit~pink corduroy pants and a long sleeve flowered sweatshirt.
Kendy weighs 21.6 pounds and I feel it. She has four teeth and soft skin. Her hair is soft too, not as coarse as some or as thick. I tried a bow and she let me take on picture and then off it went. We have a few special gifts for Taylor, the first one a charm bracelet. She is enjoying her sister and the friends she has made on the trip. She is the youngest and they occasionally let her know it. Ahhh, girls.
Kendy sleeps all night and takes a bottle for meals. She definitely does not like food...what?! Can she be mine! So far any attempt to put food in her mouth has been unsuccessful. She acts like she has never had anything in her mouth before. Until yesterday, she wouldn't even pick anything up. Definitely a sign of shutting down. Our first bath! No, Kendy does not like it!
It is good to see her reacting to things and reaching out now. She makes noises but like a 9 month old would. Oh so very different from Taylor. She is coming around and we are looking forward to a fun day today with our group. We are going to do some sightseeing. More to come, Kendy is waking up after sleeping all night again. Happy baby, happy mommy.