It's a Small World

When we checked in to the waiting room for Gracie's surgery, there was another little Chinese girl with a caucasian mom sitting across from us. It has become so common to see them , that I don't always even ask about them, but I could tell that this one also had a repaired cleft lip so I just asked if she was there for the same surgery as us. As it turned out, she was, and after asking about birthdays we determined that they were only a few days apart in age. The next standard question in these types of exchanges is which Province in China they are from. That brought us to find out that they were from the same city, Nanning.

We both kind of stared at each other for a second, and then it suddenly became clear that these two girls were not only from the same orphanage, but they had been listed together on the same special needs list from our agency, back when we chose them to be our daughters. What that essentialy means is that had either of us chosen the other one, we could have been raising each other's child. The other mom remembered Grace from the list and then I remembered that her daughter had also been pictured, but was already on hold when we saw the list for the first time. I remember her picture, because she was shown (as Grace was) with her unrepaired cleft lip and had a big smile on her face. It was quite an emotional moment.

She was scheduled for surgery the next day so we were able to go and visit her right before we went home and she had just come out of surgery. We exchanged emails so that we could get together once the girls were feeling better and are already trying to plan our first meeting. The final kicker to the whole story is that we have both determined that we have a picture of the two girls standing next to each other on the grounds of the orphanage in Nanning when they were probably about 14 or 15 months old. The orphanage gave us each a photo album when we adopted the girls with pictures they had on file from their stay there. Even though they were each in foster care, they went back to the orphanage for meetings and classes and that is probably when the photo was taken. You can obviously tell that it is both of them there in Nanning, and now here they are, destined to be friends in Michigan. It is quite mind boggling.

Meanwhile the recovery from palate surgery has taken a sharp downward spiral. For the past four to five days, Grace has decidied that she doesn't wasnt to have any of the liquids that we are offering her. Then she got a little stomach bug that had her throwing up, so we ended up back in the hospital for an i.v. She has completely shut down on us emotionally and has just had it with the whole thing. She doesn't understand why we won't give her food any more and is completely despondant. At this point the only thing she'll eat is popsicles and juice, so that's what we're giving her. I tried force-feeding for a day or two but it just wasn't happening. She cries for half-hour stretches at a time, not wanting to be held and just kicking and screaming if we try to do anything for her. It's not a pretty picture, but it's only for eight more days and then we can at least start with some baby food. Oh what a Merry Christmas that will be!!! Let's just say that this year our advent calendar is serving a dual purpose.

Susan