The Lacher Family

So we started the day with one and ended with the other, although we only ate one of the two! Last night was rough night, with all of us awake from about 11:30pm-1:00am as Julia was having terrors and then became fully awake and trying to self-soothe by scratching. She would get agitated if we tried to comfort her, but also was upset if we left her alone. You can consistently see the battle in her between starting to trust us and not wanting to lose control. I feel so horrible for this trauma for her. We finally gave her another bottle and after she sucked that down she was able to go back to sleep. It is hard having nights like that but it is also showing promise that she trusts us enough to actually call out in the night rather than staying silent.

This morning Julia was in good spirits. We ventured out with Helen to a traditional Chinese market where we saw things like live scorpions (in many sizes) and turtles, to dried seahorses and hundreds of pounds of mushrooms. Helen shared so much interesting information with us. For example, in this region it gets very hot in summer so people will eat snake or eel because since they are cold-blooded animals they will help people to feel cooler. We also walked through a pet market where there were pet supplies and lots of kittens, puppies, bunnies, fish, and turtles for sale. Strange that turtles are pets AND food…

When we got back we knew we had to cut Julia’s fingernails. They have gotten very long in this past week and she was scratching so much last night that I was concerned. Well…let’s just say that didn’t go well. She screamed and thrashed and even though we bribed with Gerber puffs it was evident it brought back traumatic memories for her. She was completely wrecked after that. She refused food and was nearly inconsolable. Dan finally was able to get her to sleep by lying next to her on our bed. She slept for about an hour and a half and was a new girl when she woke up. We had lots of good playtime together and she practiced her crawling skills. Then we got ready to do Red Couch photos with our friends. This is a tradition for adoptive families to take pictures in traditional Chinese garb on the red velvet couches of the White Swan Hotel. I put Julia in the dress that we bought for her in Shanghai. Unfortunately, the zipper does not hold together and one of the buttons came apart in the process. Plus, Julia did not like it. At. All. It also seems to be a tradition that kids melt down during these photos. We were able to get a few good ones and were glad to take pictures of Julia and Eliana together as they are “Shanghai sisters” from the same orphanage and looked so cute in their matching dresses. Then we got ready for dinner.

We went out with Beth, Howard, and Eliana to Cow & Bridge, which is a Thai restaurant here on the Island. (Side note – someone asked about “the Island” – we are on Shamian Island, which is a very small part of Guangzhou that is completely surrounded by water. You can walk around the whole island in less than a half hour. The market we went to is off the island so was about a 10-15 minute walk from here.) Dinner was fun and then we came back to our suite to have dessert – we got the mango chocolate crispy cake from the deli next door. Kelly, I am guessing THIS is the cake you were talking about, not the one I posted about yesterday. They didn’t have this one yesterday but now I see I probably got the wrong one. Anyway, we all enjoyed cake here and it was fun to see the girls play together. It is encouraging to me that I believe Julia will really learn a lot from the girls when we get home.

Need to try to get to bed a bit early tonight. Tomorrow is our US Consulate appointment. We are meeting our guide at 8:30, but we have gotten accustomed to sleeping in a bit. Can you please pray for wisdom for us as we consider our travel options? We are supposed to depart Wednesday for Hong Kong to then fly home Thursday via Tokyo. With the earthquake, we really are not sure if we should change our flights or not. It will be quite an expense to change them, but we also don’t want to get stuck in Tokyo.

Today we discovered that Julia loves being on the cold tile floor so I am guessing she will be constantly underfoot in the kitchen once home! She continues to engage us with her smiles and giggles. She made good strides today in making eye contact while I was feeding her food, but during bottle time it is still a challenge. OK, I will wrap up here and let Dan get the pics linked in so we can get to bed. This blog is a 2 person operation. I do all the blabbing and Dan gives you what you really want – the pictures!