new lip for our girl

Dalia is sleeping in my bed in her hospital room. Sleeping. What a relief.

Dr. Laub said the surgery went really well. He was pleased with how the repair of her lip went, especially. He also positioned her left nostril, "I did the best I could", and repaired her hard palate. He commented that the gap in her hard palate was fairly wide, most likely due to nutritional deficiencies early in her gestation.

I went to the recovery area and had to hold back my tears and harden up a bit. It took her another fifteen minutes to come out of anesthesia. When she did, she flailed around a lot, pulled off her arm restraints, wouldn't be held even by me, cried and yelled. Blood dribbled out of her mouth and nose. But, she was fine, and she looked SO different - even in this bruised up swelled up state. Eventually she settled down, and actually took her bottle. Watched some blinking light toys and a Fisher Price plastic aquarium with bubbles and plastic fish moving around in circles to a lullaby.

Moved up to her room and laid down on Mama. Ate a cup of jello. Drank 6 oz of formula. Dr. Laub said this is "ahead of schedule."

Everyone at Fletcher Allen has been so helpful and kind. Doctors and nurses of all kinds stopping by.

Here's a photo of her, post-surgery.

Dina

First surgery on lip and hard palate for Dalia

Dalia is in the operating room right now. When she comes out of anesthesia her world will have changed. Her tongue will no longer poke through her mouth where her left upper lip would be; no longer be able to slither up into her nose. Her hard palate - the front part of her palate behind her gums, will be closed.

When she is in a new setting, or around people whom she has never seen, she is quiet, observant, curious, attentive, trusting. When she is at home or when she’s grown accustomed to a new person or place… watch out! The panther awakens and roars. She talks. By this I mean she vocalizes a lot of sounds and expressions. She is using the language that she is able to make with the back of her throat (gutteral sounds – hard “g”, “ha”, “ch” like Hebrew “chai”, or “ya.” She cannot make the sounds that we make by putting our lips together or putting our tongue to the roof of her mouth.

After today, she will start learning how to make these sounds. I will be patient for her even if she cannot be patient. I think she’ll find a way.

Her sounds are beautiful. Since coming home to Vermont 10 days ago, she has started saying new words. When she first wakes up, sits her little body and big head up and says, softly, “Hi.” Then a little louder, “Gah Gye.” She has lerarned “Uh-oh” – as in the time I was changing her diaper, had taken dirty diaper off and I heard “Uh-oh” to find her peeing on the changing table. Way to use your words, Dalia! Last night when Tal was playing peek a boo with her she said “hello.”

Friends and family have asked how she is doing. They/you do not know because, well, I have barely had enough time to keep her bottles clean! I have even more admiration and respect for all of the parents and caretakers out there for raising their kids after doing it for just 3+ weeks.

She is doing so well. We are so fortunate to have had this little beautiful human fall into our lives. Ok, so it took four years and a lot of anguish for us. But, still, we are so fortunate. She is just the right girl for us. She is happy, active, playful, funny, curious, and many have said “very smart.” Coordinated, determined. Loves her cat and dog, watches and laughs with her big brothers.

I brought her to the North Branch School play on Friday night. (NBS students write an original play every year and perform it for 2 nights. A must see!! Always funny, insightful, full of comedy, hope, poetry, questions and truth). SO many people came up to Dalia to say hello, to welcome her home. I felt so much love and goodwill, so many watchful eyes and open arms, so many swift tennis-shoed feet ready to chase after her and catch her when she needs to come back home. She had conversations with Eric Warren (NBS Science Teacher) and a few alums that seem to involve some signing. It sure seems like she may have been taught some sign language. She held her arms up for Michael Seligmann to hold her. She pointed at the stage and said “Gah GAH!” when the students were on stage, especially her brothers. She clapped her hands spontaneously. She danced around with happy Grandma Ginger.

So, in short, she is a joy.

This morning, I “woke up” at 4:30. I probably only slept about 3 hours, having had 2 unique dreams about my alarm clock either not working or going off late. We had laid her down asleep last night at 10 PM and by midnight she had managed to flop and flail herself so that her body was parallel to the pillows, thereby leaving no room for me to lie down fully on the bed. OK, fine. Just get through the night, please, don’t wake up and want your bottle because you can’t have liquids after midnight… I woke her up at 5, changed her diaper, put on her pink Pumas (thanks Kelly and Ruby) and got in the car in the dark and rain. No crying, no whining. Just curious. Slept on the hour ride to Bulrington. Brought her into the hospital and she started clapping. While we sat in the waiting room to be registered, I pulled out Elephant, one of the stuffed animals we had sent to her in December. She hugged Elephant and offered him up to the people sitting on either side. She offered her book to the intake person. Our friend, Gretchen, an RN at Fletcher who is now an administrator for the OR department, and mother of Calder’s teammate, Tyler, came in early to see us and make sure we were OK. I cried when I saw her. I cried last night when Tal told me she would be here. Dalia took a liking to Gretch right away. They played with the little mouse in a box, played with the toys outside her preparation room. Dr. Laub came by, Dr. Chris Yen, the resident Anesthesiologist, Dr. Joe Kautz, the attending anesthesiologist, Karen the nurse. A social worker who blew bubbles. They checked her out, asked me lots of questions. Everyone was available and nice.

They let me go into the operating room with he even though I had told them I have a tendency to faint. I put on my white exterminator suit thing, a blue fabric hat and blue shoe covers. Dalia did not approve of my get-up at all. She let them put a bracelet on her – no problem. She sat on my lap and faced Dr. Yen, who put a mask over her nose and mouth. I held her as she breathed in and out, and went to sleep.

I think of my nephew, Peter, who had Leukemia and has Down Syndrome. All the hellish procedures and after-effects he went through, so bravely. Peter - you inspire me! I hope that Dalia will follow your brave path.

Soon she will be out of surgery. Tal will be here after school to make his little girl feel good.

I sure wish I could talk to my Dad right now.

Thank you all for your words of love and support. We feel it.

I am updating the blog with photos as I can.

Love, and Happy Passover,

DIna

Tal's note to his students - how to live, as shown by Dalia

HEy everybody,

I am learning some lessons from Dalia, ne Hu Dong Ling.

We walk through Shamian Park under the giant Banyan trees and she is enthralled by every living and non-living thing. She may hug a lamp post, run her finger on a rusty wrought iron rail. She lifts the leaves of a giant talk of bamboo and murmurs, "ya ya." See, trees, green living things, are new to her. She walks toward and touches each flower petal she sees. A group of men and women are excitedly playing a game of hacky sack in the park, and she runs toward them to join, no matter that she can barely keep her balance for her flailing, clapping hands. She strains her body over the Yellow River as if she were ready to swim. She has watched an old woman pray at the the Six banyan Tree Temple, and then she has brought her own small hands together and bowed emphatically towards the giant bronze Buddha which sits passively, palm up, in the gloom of the hall. She crouches down to touch grass, maybe for the first time, while a lone man plays an ancient song on a bamboo flute. She throws her head back to try hot chicken broth from a bowl of Thai noodles. She breathes with content as she lays her head on Dina's shoulder. She swings her head back and forth when she hears music. She sits in a stroller, alerts and kicking, as we walk narrow dark neighborhood streets at night, past noodle shops and bicycle repair shops and tailors, past fruit stands where the florescent lights illuminate her face and there is nothing on that face but wide eyes, smiles, shouts of laughter (and a slight sheen of drool on her chin).

A man in the park has been leading a group of women in the singing of traditional songs. The words are written in Chinese characters on large sheets of paper which he has hung under an elevated road. The singing class occurs in the park, under the road, where the sound echoes favorably. The women sing spiritedly and then then finish the last song. I have been listening while assisting Dalia in her fearless climbing up and down a nearby set of of stairs. Dalia walks to the man, calling out "ya ya" and and saying "by by" and waving. I think she means to help him pack up. He is storing away his sheets of music and stacking his plastic stools. She gently drums on a stool, looking up at him, smiling widely, calling out, clapping, then banging the chairs. He lifts her up and sets her down on a stack of stairs. They both clap and he smiles and his old brown teeth all show beautifully. There seems to be more life in just one his teeth than than in a hundred museum paintings.

She runs to hide behind a giant urn. She touches the woven designs on our guide Connie's sweater. She raises her eye brows and growls at one ton marble sculptures of lions. In every way she is pure, free, and benevolent. In everything she does there is the character of curiosity and delight, which is the mind and body in love, the intellect feeling love for the world and all the people in it. She does nothing to wound another, suppress another, limit another, wall off another reject another. She knows nothing of harming others, of conscious selfishness, or rejecting someone or something. She only knows giving and receiving and the pleasure of being alive.Everything for her is invitation, openness, freedom, the in-flow and out-flow of matter and sound and sight and voice.

I am reminded by her that the world is a beautiful place. We damage the world the more we get older. I don't know why this is. We say things and we don't even know why we are saying them. We say things that wound others. We become closed in, locked in our tuneless habitual patterns of speech. We forget that our actions or words chafe others, or diminish us. Our vision becomes narrow, we only look for the familiar. We become so locked down to our habitual motions that we forget that the world around us is alive and burning with life; that the streets are filled with wonder; that in everything we touch there is something spectacular to be known and perceived.

All of this occurs to me now as I know of certain issues that you guys are trying to figure out at school. From the other side of the world (okay, from the fourth corner of the world) I can only say: what you are saying and doing—would it please a small child? Would the words you say to each other be also sayable in the presence of an old woman in a temple, or a child gently rubbing her fingers over the bark of a tree in a park? It is a good standard to use, I think; it may cause you think about whether your words and actions, or to pay due reverence to the world, to the sacred things all around, to pay homage to others. It is not difficult to be holy, to know holiness, everyday, in every moment, and, as far as I can tell, even in a rusty lamppost and flower petal or stack of plastic benches.

That is what I am seeing while I trail behind the little panther.

So do right, be good, and be help the people around you, and make the room be a happy place to be for everyone.

We can bring her home

These were my words to Tal yesterday, through tears, when the friendly Chinese woman at the American consulate, sitting behind a large plexiglass window said, "Congratulations!", handed us a piece of paper with instructions for going through the "Foreign Passport Holder" line at our point of entry in the United States, which will be Chicago.

We took our papers and our little bundle of a girl and sat back down with her, her little hands holding onto her XueBing rice cake We hugged her and hugged each other and both cried some more. It has been a long, long wait for our little Bao Bei, our precious treasure. We kissed, then she looked at both of us, and put her hand to Tal's head and pushed it to mine. Kiss again. Then she puckered her lips and kissed her Daddy, then her Mommy with her one big plump wet lower lip and her two little split upper lips.

I hadn't realized how much emotion I was holding inside these past 11 days, holding in until we were given the OK by our government to grant our Chinese child a visa to come back with us. It first hit me when I looked through the plexiglass: sitting on the counter was Dongling's Chinese passport with an ornate and official visa to the United State including her photo. The look of the American document, the photos of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks on the walls, the American flag, the 60 other Chinese kids in the room with their mommies, daddies, grandparents, siblings, and guides, took me out of my Chinese mode and brought me back to my own life, and the reality of bringing Dalia back home to Vermont to meet her big brothers, Henry and Calder, her Grandma Ginger who has been working so hard to get our home ready for our return, her "Aunt" Blair who has been sending love to Dalia as we all communicate via Skype, Renee and John, all of our dogs, cats, guinea pig and chickens and all of the people in Ripton, Middlebury and throughout Vermont, Hudson, Atlanta, St. Paul, Boston, L.A., Beijing, Minneapolis, NYC, Australia, New Mexico, Florida, Texas, Philly... and everywhere else our friends and loved ones live and receive our letters.

The experience at the consulate was once again not what I had expected. We took a bus from the hotel with about 25 other families. We had seen many of these families every morning at breakfast, filling up their plates to fill our American bellies, diaper bags, bottles, stuffed animals, dazed looks. We've listened in on conversations both heartening and disappointing, "Well, her hair has grown in since we've had her, I mean, she's not on her back all day." "Yeah, we should all get together again, how about someplace nice, like the Bahamas." . . .We've seen them in the elevator, laughing around the fish pond and water fall. Tal bumped into a Daddy from Atlanta yesterday who said, "hey, no problem, we're just dodgin' and rollin'." We are all in this together. On Saturday night, at the White Swan Hotel, the whole thing starts all over again.

Yesterday, we went to check out the "deli" - a little store with fresh baked bread, rolls, bread-roll concoctions filled with meats or beans or cheese, soda, sandwiches, pastries, candy and Chinese food to go. I noticed a little American girl with beautiful thick red long curly hair in ringlets, along with her young and clean-cut American Dad, and a boy whom I thought was her American brother, an albino boy about 8 years old. I had one hand on the counter while I was waiting to pay. I looked down and this little boy was kissing my hand. It was the sweetest thing - and I could not figure out what was going on, why was he kissing my hand?

Later, we saw this family at the consulate. The boy was speaking fluent Chinese. Turns out he is the one being adopted. He was going around the room, picking up dropped sweatshirts and handing them to people and being generally helpful. Wow. I looked around the room. There was another adorable boy, about 4, who walked with a limp and had one arm that looked as if it didn't move so well, who had stopped to "talk" to Dalia yesterday. There was a tiny girl with a birthmark of very dark skin on her neck and chest and a thick mane of hair on her lower head and neck. There was the little boy, Henry, with a cleft lip that had been repaired whom Dalia approached our first day here and immediately touched his lip, and two more girls with cleft lip and palate. This is the first year that the number of special needs babies outnumber those without special needs. Babies 2 and over are also considered special needs.The number of domestic adoptions is increasing. This is good news for China, in my opinion.

Along with 35 other families, we were dropped off at the big modern building downtown Guangzhou near the Eastern Train Station. We passed the train station where Tal, Jean Gaines, Dave Case and I stepped out of 22 years ago when we first traveled from Hong Kong to Guangzhou and everyone outside the train was wearing either dark blue or dark green matching shirts and pants.

The consular office is set up almost solely to provide visas to the U.S. In 2009, 3,000 visas were granted for Chinese children to come to the U.S. The other families rode up 5 flights' of escalators; Connie whisked us along and said, "let's take the lift."(She prounounces "lift" with a silent "t".) We all went through security, shoes off, no electronics. then we all waited in the big room. Three consular officers called off names, one at a time. "The family of Hu Dong Ling, China Adoption with Love." We jumped up as fast as we could to the window with our little Dongling.

That night we celebrated by going to a local Chinese restaurant on Shamian Island within walking distance of the hotel. I did the nightly conversation with a waitress and manager to get some help ordering. We ended up with noodles, Chinese spinach, rice, and deep fried beef ribs on the bone. Little Dalia celebrated by eating a lot of noodles by herself - I was elated. Drank a big bottle of Chun Sheng beer (from Guangzhou) and were relieved.

She is doing great. She is flopping around the bed right now and we are hoping she will fall asleep. She is talking to herself, making noises, lifting her arms up and down as if to retell the stories of the day -- visiting the Chen Family Temple, bumping her head on the floor, bumping her eye on the shelf, burning her hand with hot water, running up and down the halls, finding the Xi Yang Yang comic book, taking a long nap while lying on top of Mommy.

We leave in 12 hours for Shanghai, then Chicago, then home. So many more things to tell. We are grateful to have people to read our emails and to care. We will post stories and photos on our blog when we return home, after some sleep.

I will also forward something Tal wrote a few days ago for his students, who are dealing with some challenges related to how to treat each other, how to decide what to say about each other and to each other to be respectful and honor each other. We are all learning from Dalia.

Buddha Baby

It's Tuesday afternoon in Guangzhou. This morning after breakfast, I waited by the phone while Connie, our guide, took our paperwork to the U.S. Embassy on our behalf to apply for Dongling's visa to come to the United States. She will remain a Chinese citizen until we finalize her adoption at home. We filled out the paperwork yesterday, very carefully. There was a little concern as I had written an extra little loop on the "R" in "Ruth", her middle name. Any correction is not allowed. Fortunately, everything went just fine. The only question that the Consulate had was weather Dongling's cleft lip and palate had been repaired, which it has not. First surgery is scheduled for Monday, March 29th, the first night of Passover. Grandpa Don will be looking down on us from heaven while we sit in her room at Fletcher Allen Hospital in Burlington, Vermont as I remember a lifetime of Passover seders with my Dad at the head of the table. How he would have loved his little Dalia dumpling/matzo ball!

Photos:
Dalia and Dina walking in the Temple
Tal, Dina and Dalia at the Temple
Close-up - this is her!

Because of her cleft lip and palate, Dalia has had to devise some methods for getting food and formula into her belly. When she takes her bottle, she puts it firmly on the side of her mouth were her teeth are. She clamps down with her teeth and uses her tongue to swish and push the nipple around and then swallow. This makes a beautiful rhythmic sound of breathing and drinking that I will miss when she moves from the bottle to only solid food. If we don't catch her cues about being thirsty, she'll tip her head way back and put her finger in her mouth. Last night, Tal and I found an amazing Vietnamese restaurant. I ordered some Pho (rice noodle soup) and put some broth on the spoon for her. I held her on my lap; she put her head way back so the soup would go down her throat and not up and back through her palate and out her nose. I poured the soup into her mouth. Sometimes she looks right into my eyes as she does this, as if to say, "Ok, Mama, throw it back. I'm ready." She loves to eat tangerines, hard-boiled eggs, red-bean cakes (sweet), rice cereal, and new discoveries -- rice noodles and toast with honey and butter. Yogurt resulted in a skin reaction, which the hotel doctor confirmed. As I watch her eat and drink, I think, there must be a reason this kid was put into foster care rather than staying in the orphanage, a reason why she was available for international adoption - she is a feisty fighter with an easy laugh. There are 50 children in her orphanage in Tian Shui, 30 of whom have a special need. She is tough and lively and smart. Connie told us yesterday that sometimes children end up staying in the "system" longer than necessary because the CCAA (China Central Adoption Authority) translates the description for a lively or active child as "naughty." If that's the case, we are fortunate that our daughter is as naughty as she is.

After dinner, we walked around the beautiful neighborhoods, small streets, little kitties sitting on top of items for sale, past upscale but small shops of clothes with Chinese brands, stopped to buy a red bean cake for a snack for Dalia, shopgirls came out to hold her and run with her, and bought a suitcase for about $10 to take home extra stuff of hers with us. Upon getting into a cab, we saw a woman begging on the street. She had a red birthmark on her face, half arms and half legs with only a few fingers and toes. She was sitting == if you can call it that -- on a makeshift skateboard, tied with a string to one of her half-arms. One of her feet was wearing a child's patent leather pointed shoe. All around her were people shopping, eating, getting their hair cut, zooming by in cabs and buses. Our cab ride back to the hotel was silent.

Yesterday morning and through lunch, we went to a Buddhist Temple, Liu Rong Si, the Six Banyan Temple, which was built 1500 years ago. The poet and calligrapher, Su Tong Po, was a frequent visitor there. The smell of incense and flowers in the warm air, along with the peaceful surroundings and ancient statues of the Buddha and of the fertility goddess, Guan Yin, were transportive. Perhaps it the was the influence of the family we met from Thailand but I felt a bit like I was at a tropical paradise instead of in the middle of one of the world's largest cities. Dalia walked up in front of the Buddhas, next to the people kneeling and praying, put her hands together and did some bows.

After the temple, Connie took us to a Chinese arts, porcelain, handcrafted items, and jade store. I had made the decision that in spite of not wanting to go shopping (i.e. for fake Louis Vuittons and other crap), I did want to buy some jade for Dalia and for me. Since I first went to and lived in Taiwan 23 years ago, I have wanted to buy a jade bracelet, a very traditional piece of jewelry worn by Chinese women. In the past, I hadn't purThese past four years, while waiting for Dalia, I have continued to dream about having a jade bracelet to show my daughter my ties to her place and my connection to and respect for the women of China. It's also traditional for some women to give their bracelets to their daughters when their daughters are 16, which I will do with my bracelet. When I picked out the one that I wanted, the women at the store placed a towel on the counter and told me to put my elbow down (for leverage). They then rubbed lotion all over my hand and wrist, took my hand, pulled the bones under my thumb and pinky as close together as possible, and forcefully pushed the bracelet onto my wrist. "Ouch!" I said. All the ladies laughed at me. "Ah, na bu suan tong." said Connie, "That was nothing [That does not count as pain]." When Connie bought her own jade bracelet, which is tight to her wrist and will never be removed, she was black and blue for days. I also bought a nice jade circle pendant for Dalia and one for myself. I do feel a link to Chinese women, and a link to my daughter. Certainly an expensive venture, but something that will only be done once. [Thank you, Tal, for understanding.]

Dalia is napping, Tal is working out. This afternoon we will go to another temple, then to dinner. Some of the other families in the hotel have not left the area. Tal took Dalia to the "Swan Room", which is a playroom filled with toys and stuffed animals sponsored by the Mattel Corp. One of the maids gave Dalia a "Going Home Barbie," a blond, hugely bosomed typical Barbie with pink slip-on heels. Yeah, right. Going Home Barbie comes with a tiny black-haired Chinese baby. Barbie has been relegated to the back of our drawer while Chinese baby dolly is on the desk. . . . Some of the Daddies were talking about how they've eaten every meal at the hotel. We wondered if dinner was included in our rate, too?! Nah, not likely. Maybe some have stopped by the liquor store next to the hotel called, "Alcohol Ocean." All of the parents are either Caucasian or one parent is Chinese. Some parents do not know where their children are from. This is disturbing. We were elated to see a baby girl with two daddies at the medical examination center. The 2 daddies got in under the deadline for gay and lesbian couples adopting.

Tomorrow we go to the consulate to take our oath. Thursday is free again, and Friday, we fly home. Your emails are so meaningful and usually bring tears and/or laughter. We are absorbing this all. We feel so fortunate, and can't believe that we have only had Dalia for a little over a week. We are getting to know her ways and she is getting to know ours.

Our Ambassador, Dalia

We are far from the first Waiguoren/ foreigners) to adopt from China (our friends, John and Penny who are reading this have two Chinese daughters, Noah and Judy's daughter is from Ethiopia... and I'm sure I am forgetting someone else). So we are not blazing new trails here. Still, every time we are outside and able to interact with people, with Dalia as a magnet for their curiosity and attention, I feel that we are doing some tiny bit of positive mutual cross-cultural international learning and understanding. When people say, "Nin shi nei guo de?" (what nationality are you), I am proud to say, "Mei Guo." Then we all nod, as if to temporarily light a match to the daily newspapers, the posturing and mistrust of our countries, as and to the genuine challenges and conflicts, social, economic, environmental that we share and face.

We made it to Guangzhou Friday night after midnight. Driving to the airport in Lanzhou, an hour out of the city, we saw exactly what it means that Lanzhou is at the edge of the desert -- we drove through it. Very very poor, very few people. so dry yet some attempt at growing trees on plateaus.

Our guide here in Guangzhou, Connie, couldn't be more different from Megan. Megan in jeans and converse tennis shoes, no makeup; Connie in heeled boots, her gait like a slow sashay, a tall woman with short reddish hair and big fake long eyelashes and thick eyeliner, sort of an international woman of mystery, like a Bond girl. "you know, Dee-nahh..." as she puts her arm around me and tells me a little secret. She has worked with over 1,000 families.

Yesterday, our only official business was Dalia's medical exam. Connie walked us over to the medical center. It was very orderly and easy. Since we started our adoption process in 2006, before the "Hague Convention" related to international adoption, as long as we provided proof of her vaccinations -- a little green book given to us in Lanzhou -- she didn't need to have any, whereas Hague adoption kids need as many as 7 vaccinations in one day. Dalia had her hearing checked, then her throat and body, then height and weight. (she weighs 10.6 kg - about 22 pounds. I can't remember how tall she is). The primary doctor said she is very healthy and smart.

Today we are free; tomorrow, Connie will take us sightseeing. We told her we were less interested in shopping -- we have what we need (Dalia) -- and more interested in seeing some historic and cultural sights, going to some outdoor markets.

We're staying at the famous White Swan Hotel, where most of the foreign parents adopting kids from China stay when in Guangzhou. The hotel itself is much much nicer, more elegant, than I had imagined. Yes, the breakfast buffet is fantastic. Tal is able to find almost all of his favorite Chinese foods in one meal -- except for a new favorite, Lanzhou Niu Rou Mian (Lanzhou beef noodle/soup). Here in the South, we eat rice instead of noodles.

Tal is working on his Chinese. His favorite is "Xiao Pengyou," which means "little friend" -- it's what people say to kids when they see them and want to talk to them. When Tal says it, the tones get switched around a bit so he is really saying "Laugh, friend!" It's impressive nonetheless. My Chinese is - OK. I am very comfortable and I understand pretty much everything, but my vocabulary is a bit rusty. I can get the ideas across. And then sometimes when I am with Dalia or Tal I end up speaking Chinglish, as in "Ni already chi nei ge" - "You already ate that.

Dong Ling is happily playing by herself right now. She has her Xi Yang Yang plastic fake cell phone to her ear, walking and talking while she is holding her stuffed lion. She's set up a little place to play near the mini-bar, with a shelf and a drawer. She stacks up packages of tissues, opens the drawer, puts her shoes in, puts in her ziplock bags, takes them all out, then re-orders things and does it all again. Nothing unusual I know but very special for a new Mama (me). We just had lunch of a hard-boiled egg, carrot/salmon/rice cereal and half of a corn muffin. The Yellow Meal. She's having a blast! It's wonderful that she can entertain herself SO well. The crib in this hotel sits on the floor and is made out of wood. She immediately went to it when we walked in the room, though she did not use her crib in Lanzhou. She wants to sleep in it every night, with her little animals, with whom she has great conversations and little songs before she falls asleep. She still sleeps through the night -- 5th night in a row. Wow.

The White Swan is located on Shamian Island, a beautiful little enclave of colonial buildings, lush banyan trees, parks. And touristy shops oriented for foreigners. We had delicious but expensive Thai food for dinner at the Thai Zen Cow and Bridge restaurant... we are aching to get off the island. We took a cab to Yue Xiu Park (cab driver, Mr. Zhou, originally from Beijing, two twin daughters - both attend QingHua University - one of the very best, the "Harvard" of China; one is studying in the U.S). Yue Xiu park - huge, beautiful, more lush trees and flower and plants. Tropical flowers dropped from trees as we passed under. Yue Xiu park climbs up and and up. As people walked past us, they would turn around, look at us, then look down at Dalia in the stroller, and we all smile.

We stopped to buy some waters and some "snow cakes" (rice crackers), and as I turned around several people stood there looking at her. I smiled and said hello. Two worker-ladies with brooms made of sticks and wearing lime-green uniforms also stopped by. Gradually, a crowd gathered. Lots of questions and conversation. Is she your Child? What is wrong with her mouth? Can you / will you repair it? Will there be a problem? How old is she? Can she walk? Do you speak Cantonese? I explain all the answers and add some additional information about her, where she is from, how long we have had her, that we just adopted her. More advanced and tricky questions: Will she speak English or Chinese? Did you pick her? Why did you pick one with a problem like that? Couldn't you have chosen one with no problems, with a normal face? The answers are straightforward - explaining the process, and adding more information - that we are willing and happy to adopt her with her cleft lip and palate. She is healthy, she is wonderful -- just look at her. And on and on. More people stopped to look and listen, about 15 at a time, men and women of all ages. Everyone smiled and thanked us, told us we were very big-hearted, that it was my fate to be her Mother. That she is very fortunate. I always reply that we are the fortunate ones. All the while, Dalia sat in the stroller, eating her rice cracker, looking up, smiling, clapping, saying nothing, or saying one of her two favorite words, "Ga Ga" or "Ya Ya."

After about 15 minutes we continued walking up the path. Suddenly, an errant Chinese hacky sack -- metal stacked discs attached to some feathers -- came flying our way overhead. Tal, carrying the backpack and baby bag, kicked out his foot and sent the hacky back to the two men who were playing. Friends! Tal joined them for a while - he's been dying to play hacky sack since we saw some people playing last night. When we got to the top of the park, there were more people playing, and Tal joined in for quite a while. There were with ping-pongers and bandminton, which we both played. I heard the two men watching (one of whose racquet I borrowed) say something in Cantonese that sounded vaguely like the word for "tennis" in Mandarin. "Yes, I play tennis," I told them. Dalia was fascinated by the modern stone sculpture of an older man and younger boy doing T'ai Chi. Sue K - you have a disciple!

Again, thank you all for your emails. I look forward to replying when we get home.

Leaving Lanzhou - Tal's post

HEy everybody,

we are getting ready to leave Lanzhou tomorrow. This is Dalia's home province and it is a special place.

Last night we ended up in an expensive fish restaurant, and Dalia had a wild time looking at the live fish in the tanks, one of which they brought over to us in a bucket to inspect before they plopped it in a five gallon bowl of steaming broth for us to eat. Dalia was running around and observing crowds of smoking drinking eating partiers and she wore us out.

Today our guide took us to the big "Five Springs park" up on the edge of the mountain overlooking the city. This is where the "old China" still is. No fancy boutiques or those damn sideways shag bang haircuts or leather boots or fancy imitation Dolce Gabanna bags. This was an old park where mostly retired people come to exercise, pray, play cards, meditate and sing. It had Tibetan Buddhist temples, a Confucian temple, and a regular buddhist temple, and ponds and a zoo and walkways and trees and it was very quiet and peaceful Every where were giant lanterns from the recent Lantern festival, which is after the Chinese new year.

There was a huge crowd of old ladies doing a giant dance out front, and inside many old couples and others crowded around to look at Dalia and talk to us and talk about her and her cleft lip and they all talked at once very loud and gave us thumbs up for our "good heart" and they held Dalia's hand and were very happy for her and us.

WE saw old ladies practice a Tai Chi/Kung-fu like sword dance to old Chinese opera music, and there were many old men and women using Chinese "yo-yos which are like a spinning top on a string between two sticks and one man showed me how and let me use his. I wasn't very good but I got it to work a little. We walked further up into the park and saw a Buddhist temple and then we heard some singing and we went to it and in the a very small courtyard heard were about twenty men and women singing old local songs, one about the Yellow River, in the traditional style with great vigor. Two women and a man came up to us and they were very excited about Dalia and they kept gesturing to her and then they got across to us that they were all three deaf and mute, but their hearts were overflowing with happiness for Dalia and they all held her and we took a picture and they kept signing about how clean she was and how her lip would be fixed and they wrote some Chinese characters on their hands with their fingers to tell us things and they said we had loving hearts and they were so happy with good wishes and blessings. They gave us their address so we could send them the pictures, and then they asked if Dina and I were a couple and we said yes and then the man and one of the women said they were a couple and then they shook our hands. It was very beautiful and heart wrenching too because these are the wonderful people of Dalia's home and she is leaving it tomorrow.

We also saw all the old people doing their own styles of exercise, dancing by themselves, singing, leaping and kicking, tapping their shoulders, sitting under trees with cages of song-birds, and playing cards in the sun light and gabbing away. No cell phones or crappy music or shiny cars or any of that useless crapola

we went to the top where the Tibetan Buddhist temple was--very quiet, a giant caldron of incense, many brass prayer wheels, and a couple of people praying, and a monk talking to a policeman. Our guide said that most people she takes to the park do not make it to the top to the temple. she knows a lot about tibetan Buddhism because she has many friends who are tibetan and also she lead trips to the areas where there are more Tibetan people.

Dalia is what we call "the little panther"--she is strong, wily, bold, curious, tough, smart, and funny. She is unafraid to try anything and she can communicate amazingly well and she figures out many complicated situations. She smiles at every one, waves, claps, flops her head around when she hears music, and will let the ladies hold her. Here in the room she brushes her own teeth, likes to have her hair washed multiple times, tries on all her shoes over and over, gives her bottle to her stuffed elephant, and eats many bananas.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Guangzhou, which is in the south, near Hong Kong. There we will spend a week and we will do all the final paper work. We will have lots of free time there so we will have to have some adventures. We have learned, again, that the best way is to walk off the main road and find the quiet side streets. That is where the real action is. I tell you this as valuable literal and metaphorical advice. Get off the main road and onto the side streets.

Keep working hard. Get off the book if you are still on it. Make sure you are figuring out the costumes--and get the props in!

Our new family in Lanzhou

We are truly sad to leave Lanzhou today, to leave the friendly people who take such interest in Hu Dong Ling, smile broadly, ask questions, wave to her. Yesterday was especially memorable. Truly one of the most moving days of my life, one that I will tell Dalia about forever. Our guide, Megan (a great tour guide and historian) took us to the Five Springs Park in Lanzhou. Set into the mountains that circle Lanzhou, the park has winding stone paths, many trees, pagodas, courtyards, and statues of Sun Yatsen, Confucius and Huo Qubing who is said to have created the Five Springs here in the desert of Lanzhou when he was sent to fight the “Huns” in the Han Dynasty.
The grounds are especially colorful now as it is just after the Chinese New Year and the Lantern Festival – huge faces/masks from Beijing Opera characters, large animals made of silk in which lights are placed at night. So many people, mostly the young and the retired, walking, dancing, sword dancing, playing the overisized two-handed yo-yo on a string which Tal joined in! Few were wearing the latest fashions; most were wearing padded jackets or other simple clothes, most of the eyeglasses were oversized, from another decade.
From the second we got out of the car with Dongling/Dalia, people looked at us and looked at her and smiled. Some questioned Megan, our guide “Was this our baby, will we operate on her mouth, where are we from? and more. Many, many thumbs up and big huge smiles. The only words in English were from a couple, “ thank you, thank you, you have great heart.” One man looked at Tal and crossed himself. One woman walked alongside me and said (in Chinese), “Oh, you have so much troubles, but your heart is happy.” I think she meant something like “Its tough being a Mom.” She has several grandchildren and is in her 60s. One man passed by, stopped to look, passed by Megan and smiled broadly – there was something very special about his face and about him.
We continued, Tal heard singing and asked Megan if we could go hear. She hesitated to take us within this particular place as she usually doesn’t take adoption families there but she changed her mind. We walked down some stairs, and suddenly, there was the man with the wonderful, bright face, along with two women friends. I was carrying Dalia. He put his cheek next to hers and his hand on the other side of her face, smiled and pressed. I smiled back and spoke to him.
This man and his two friends -- one is his wife - are deaf and mute. The two women smiled and made sounds to each other; one could say a few words to me and both could read Megan’s lips. They touched Dalia, smiled, clapped with her, held her, bounced her, laughed and laughed. They gave us thumbs up, thanked us, communicated with their hands and faces that our bringing Dalia home to the United States was good, that we are giving her a fortunate life, that they approve of our taking this precious living treasure away from China, away from her culture and history, away from them. They know that we will repair her lip and mouth. We took a picture while I was holding back streams of tears. The two women took turns holding her and touching her while I watched, while the man wrote down their addresses so we can send the photos. The women inspected her closely, pulling open her split pants, smelling – commenting that she is very clean, touching her hair, looking at her hands, touching and kissing her legs and arms, along with more bouncing and hugging and smiling. I had a hard time saying goodbye to them. I keep thinking about what it would be like to stay here with her, to bring her to the park, to have Chinese people around her to talk with her and teach her.
While this was happening, in the courtyard of this building were about 25 people singing beautiful traditional folk songs from Lanzhou. Spirited, loud. We took a few steps down the stairs and caught their attention. Many came to the side of the courtyard and smiled, asked questions,smiled, waved, touched Dalia. There were only about 6 people left singing when the song ended. Then a voice shouted, “Zai chang yi bian!” “One more time!” We all laughed.
We continued walking up in silence, to the Tibetan temple at the top of the mountain. Incredibly peaceful. A monk sat next to another man, who was smoking. During the Cultural Revolution, the monks fled, and hid, but fortunately, the Temple was preserved. One of the most fascinating things about Lanzhou is there are 40 of the 56 official “ethnic minorities” living here including many Tibetans.
That night, we went for a walk in the neighborhood near our hotel – a shopping district. We ended up near the walking street/no cars, many high-end shops with an underground mall as well. Couldn’t have been a greater and more jarring contrast to the park. We decided to take some narrower streets back to the hotel and went into a small, very simple baozi and jiaozi (steamed bun and dumpling) restaurant. I had soup and some bean sprouts. Entire meal was about $1.25 and simply delicious.
Dalia continues to amaze us with her curiosity, her abilities and her sweetness – giving me her stuffed elephant, giving her bottle to her stuffed yang yang, running up to waitresses to be held, and waving to bellman. In recent days the little panther has devoured the peaceful buddha just when the parents are most exhausted. And in the last 24 hours she has eaten bananas, rice cereal and hard-boiled eggs. Mama is overjoyed. She is so comfortable with us.
Thank you again for your emails and your welcoming words to Dalia. We are off visit the Yellow River, the water wheels (used for irrigation), have a quick bite then to Guangzhou. Dalia's official medical visit for her U.S. visa is tomorrow.
Love,
Dina and Tal

Hot Pot, Cakes and Xi Yang Yang

Wednesday in Lanzhou, naptime, peaceful time. Jetlag almost gone.

We've had some culinary adventures over the last 24 hours. Last night, I thought it would be fun to take Tal for some Hot Pot, a traditional winter time meal. A big vat of hot, spicy broth is brought to your table and placed in the center on top of a gas stove/heater -- the servers can control the temp and bring more hot water as the broth boils out. We had two types of broth - in two containers - the inner pot had chicken stock with vegetables, ginseng, chinese berries, scallions, taro slices; the outside had hot peppers and a special kind of pepper called "Ma La" -- which tingles in your mouth and sinues. Lots of hot oil. The place was packed with people - I couldn't really read the menu except for a few characters like "beef," "chicken", "cabbage", "stomach" (tripe). We ended up with some sliced beef, cabbage, lettuce, greens, tree mushrooms, pork balls, shrimp, and freshly cut eel, i.e. with blood, which I referred to as "scary fish." And 2 bowls of rice. For the Chinese speakers out there it was "te bie re nao" -- extremely lively - very Chinese. As we walked out, we passed by a table of men with little bottles of grain alcohol with 16 oz. bottles of Pepsi - mixing and doing shots along with their food and cigarettes.

Dalia had so much fun, as usual. We sat her in the chair next to me - she laughed and laughed, ate her cheerios and sweet potato puffs. Meanwhile, Tal was turning red and sweating from the Ma La spice. One of the waitresses brought Dalia a pink balloon which she held onto the rest of the night.

We had a little adventure in the room yesterday when the electricity went out. Two service men came in and navigated a huge ladder around the stroller (which she doesn't like), stacking cups and baby stuff. One crawled up into the ceiling while the other held the ladder. Dalia came over and held the ladder, too.

Nothing "official" on our schedule today. Went out exploring this very interesting city. Not so crowded as Beijing - surrounded by small mountains.

Dalia's orphanage director told us that "She takes her botlle and she likes to have "cakes."" This was the translation - I hadn't seen the Chinese word. We have been wondering what "cakes" means -- and found out today! We went for breakfast at a very simple local place (see photo) -- had amazing hand-pulled noodles, "niu rou mian" - beef noodle soup, along with some kimchee. Picked out a steaming sesame cake and a corn cake... brought to the table and for the first time, Dalia set aside her cheerios and dove in. The women in the restaurant adored her and gave her a few more corn cakes to go. Great meal all for about $4.

We have been getting a lot of stares, which we understand. We smile back; Dalia smiles and sometimes waves, too. One woman at the restaurant asked, "That baby isn't yours, is it?" Then I explained we had adopted her and she understood.

After breakfast Mama discovered two favorite street foods - Jian Bing (fried egg wrapped in a thin crepe-like wrapper with cilantro and scallions and another crunchy breadlike thing; and candied apples on a stick -- very traditional Beijing winter snack. Dalia loved them like a good northern China baby girl should!

She mostly sleeps through the night with usually a time of waking up and crying, then back to sleep. She is a very happy baby when she wakes up. She is very fond of two stuffed animals that we sent to her in December, talks to them, kisses them, gives them her bottle.

We are well, we are grateful for your messages. We stay in Lanzhou two more nights and leave for Guangzhou Friday night; return to U.S. the following Friday night.

Love,
Dina, Tal, and Dalia/Dong Ling

For the hard-core baby lovers:
I wrote that I love all the sounds she makes, like when she is having her bottle, and when she is sleeping.
She'll point to her bottle or a toy or a balloon and say, "Guh, Uh" which correlates to "Gei Wo" in Chinese, which means "give [it] to me". When she's really happy she says, "yah yah yah yah" or just "yah yah." In our photos of her taken in January, she is wearing red shoes with a cartoon character on them. Fortunately, she arrived wearing those shoes along with her warm "OK" pants. We have learned that the cartoon charachter is named "Xi Yang Yang," or "Happy Sheep". She'll point to her shoes or her pajamas and say "Yang Yang!" and have a great laugh. We have already started spoiling her; today we bought her a Yang Yang fingernail clipper/trinket that also hangs from one's backpack, AND a blue hoodie with a huge Yang Yang that came with a Yang Yang backpack.

She is wonderful; we are having a blast

Thank you everyone for writing back to us with your good wishes for Dalia. We feel your joy and love! This is the first time I've had a chance to email since I wrote about 30 hours ago. Hope I am not overloading anyone's inbox; part of the fun is sharing with our friends and family and journaling - if you want to skip reading, I've included a few more photos:

1) Dalia putting her stamp on the official documents
2) taking a bottle from Mama at the museum (dress by cousin Vivian)
3) real-time - napping


We had a whirlwind morning yesterday as we rushed to get our official business done in the morning before all the women of Lanzhou had the afternoon off for the International Women's Day holiday.

First to buy presents for some of the officials, then to the photographer to have official photos taken of Dalia and the three of us for the registration of her adoption. Then to the Civil Affairs building. Up the elevator and two men were looking at her, and explained to me in a very thoughtful way that the Chinese Government "the Party" is now offering free surgeries for cleft lip an palate.

We walked into an office to do the business. The the orphanage director from her orphanage in Tinshui along with the nanny, Ms. Yang from Sunday night. 2 female officials, several other men and women. Tal and I kept to Dalia, who was playful, ran around the room, went right to the locked cabinet and took out the keys. Many papers to fill out and sign - I honestly didn't pay much attention as I was playing with and holding Dalia. I brought her over to Ms. Yang to hold and give her her bottle (before they returned to Tianshui). I fought back some tears.

We put a red-inked thumbprint over our signatures on every page of every document; Dalia used her entire foot! Some of the ladies squeezed her calf and were impressed at how strong and healthy she is. When we finished, Tal picked her up, we got in the car and she conked out - asleep. Went back to the room and we all slept for 4 hours.

Throughout the entire morning- not one tear, not one fuss. We learned quickly that this is just how she is - and we had nothing to do with it. She came to us this way - just a wonderful baby, so easy, so quick to share her toys, loves to play and laugh. Puts her bottle and her shoes and her animal on the floor in a row, just so. When it's time to put her hat on, we hold out her hat and she leans forward to give us her head. When we want to walk down the hall, she grabs for our fingers.

Ventured out last night and tried to find a huo guo or "hot pot" restaurant -- we went up the escalator 2 floors and went into the wrong door - ended up having Sichuan food; will do hotpot tonight. HUGE restaurant, definately no foreigners. She had a good time, sits at the table when we do. Then to the grocery store to pick up some washcloths to pin around her neck. One thing about her CLP is that she is drooling quite a bit (but still cute!). So, we take after her nannies and just pin a towel around her. She loves to be carried, doesn't like the stroller too much.

Plays in the bathroom, reads, can hold a pencil and draw lines, likes stuffed animals. We are getting to know her little sounds and expressions, and what she is asking for. She slept from 10 AM to 8 AM (!) with only one bit of crying in the night - I picked her up, put her on top of me and she was fine.

Today, Megan, our fantastic guide, took us to the Gansu Museum of History -- fantastic, beautiful museum. The Silk Road cuts right through Gansu... so so much history here of Ancient China. So much for our guide, Megan to be proud of. I am glad that we are in this part of China and want to return.

Now Dalia is napping.

Special Delivery - Early!

It's now Monday, March 8th, 6:42 AM in Lanzhou.

Sunday, March 7....
8:50 PM - wheels down in lanzhou
9:15 PM meet our guide, Megan at baggage, wait outside for driver, Mr. Bi, while howling winter sandstorm winds blow
9:17 PM Megan asks, "Are you tired?" I knew the reason behind her question... Dalia/Dong Ling arrived 12 hours early!
Today is a holiday - Woman's Day ("Fu Nu Jie"), so the official provincial offices we need to visit are closed in the afternoon.
10:40 PM - enter our hotel room
11:00 PM - knock on door - there she is! Dalia arrived, wearing her "OK" pants, with Mr. Liu, orphanage director, Ms. Yang, Nanny.

She is absolutely wonderful. Doing great. She came into the room, we sat on the floor, and within 5 minutes, reached out for me with both arms up. She goes to Tal easily, too.

Tal did paperwork, we asked questions about sleeping, foods, habits... and Mr. Liu told us once again how smart she is. It's clear she has been extremely loved and cared for.

Everyone left, and she was fine, playful, gave her a bath.
(til bedtime... tears and howling, then finally calm, snuggled with us).
1:30 AM - asleep; 5:00 AM up!! Happy, smiling, playing with two plastic jumping frogs.

The pajamas we brought were too small, so she is wearing a one-piece Middlebury College blue sweatshirt/jumpsuit with snaps on the bottom and a paw print. Our little Panther. Thank you, Cousin Peter for sending this to her!

We cannot access blog or facebook here. Thank you for your good wishes. We're having so much fun with her, and it's only been 7 hours.

On the way to China - Tal's travelogue... when we were 2

We left early Saturday morning after a great weeks-long flurry of activity to prepare for Dalia. Getting Dalia’s room ready (emptying it out first, which meant spreading our office all over the house). We cleaned her room, painted it (lemon-drop yellow), and began to fill it with a few of her things: a crib, which Calder and dad assembled, which is akin to activating one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions, for which we had to manufacture our own parts since crucial parts were missing), blankets and crib sheets, a picture of Dina, Tal, Henry and Calder which Calder hung in the crib for Dalia to gaze upon; setting up a high-chair, a stroller, safety gates, a cat door, a rope handrail to climb the stairs, and a few safety latches here and there. Hanging a painted scroll with her name—Hu Dong Ling—in Chinese characters, which Dina had made when she was in China in November; filling the crib with stuffed animals, hanging mobiles, painting chests of drawers, retrieving old books and toys of Calder and Henry’s (Calder particularly likes discovering his old trinkets and playing with them again); and inventory-ing all of the clothes we have been given or collected.

Dina was wildly busy pulling all the difficult final details together, and it is true, Eisenhower and General MacArthur undoubtedly had someone like Dina planning the Invasion of Normandy. In the last days—visiting the bank (again), Toys’R’Us, Walmart (ahhh!), appointments, checking all flights on the old internets, working out final details with the travel agency and the adoption agency, packing, packing and packing. It is not that we have to take a lot; but we do have to pack for the winter weather of Gansu Province (something like the weather in Vermont now—roughly equivalent geographically to our upper plains states), as well as for the hot summer tropical weather of Guangzhou, in the south, and more difficult, packing for a little girl we have only seen in pictures. And then more packing, organizing of notebooks, strategic placement of all necessary objects, (stacking cups, sippy-cups, toy frogs, cardboard books about puppies and kittens and farm animals, photos and gifts for the orphanage), disbursement of weight, etc, until, finally on Friday night at mid-night, we have it done.

(This is all done while squeezing in a rock concert, Henry’s band’s first gig at the Ripton Community House, between the end of Tal’s last day at school and our bedtime)!

Up again then at 3:30 a.m. The half-moon is out over the trees, it’s 15 degrees in Ripton. Lugging bags down the hill over the crusty corn snow. Ginger, grandmother to be, is waiting to take us to the Burlington airport. In the dark of the back seat I did one last task—the set-up of the ever necessary but eternally infernal spanking new car-seat. Car-seats, medieval in conception, Again, adjusting it to size for a little girl we’ve yet to hold.

In Chicago we found our gate to Shanghai, and once there, China felt closer. The waiting area was filled mostly with Chinese travelers; Cantonese and Mandarin conversations all around us; Tal’s propensity to eavesdrop while in public is stymied, since he knows only about ten words of Chinese, while Dina can, if she so chooses, have a field day listening in to everything.

On the plane I watch the electronic map on the back of the seat rest which shows our minute by minute progress. It has been nearly four years since Dina and I began the journey of getting a child together. Now that years-long journey is shown in measurable minutes and altitude and geography—truly, these are the last distances to pass over. Up from Chicago, over the Great Bear Lakes, Winnipeg and Edmonton, over the Queen Elizabeth Islands, over Fairbanks and Juneau, over the Bering Sea and the International date line—truly, into another time— crossing over Siberia over spectacular mountains, the Verkhoyanskiy range, and the Aldan Plains—uninhabited, stretching out into invisibility, and below us frozen white expanses seen through the porthole, nothing but white cracked ice from 34,000 feet, 551 miles per hour, 3 mile per hour tail-wind, plus a great flood of loving good wishes behind us.

***

heading to Hu Dong Ling

Tomorrow at 6:20 AM we are off to China to meet our daughter.

We fly BTV-ORD-PVG (Shanghai)- Lanzhou. 27 hours. If we land in Lanzhou on time, we will meet her on Monday, March 8th = Sunday night March 7th U.S. time. We'll be with her in Lanzhou until Friday, then fly to Guangzhou for a week, and then return on March 19th. She has cleft lip and palate; her first surgery is March 29th.

Her Chinese name is Hu (that's her last name) Dong Ling. When we first got her referral, it felt extra-right as "Dong Ling," sounds a little bit like my Dad's name, Donald. We are naming her after him: Dalia Ruth Wolkoff -- Ruth after my Grandma, Ruth Freidson.

I have felt the love and enthusiasm of every single email, phone call, box of hand-me-downs and hand-made quilts (!!), smile and gift, from family, friends, colleagues, CAWLI -our adoption agency, the North Branch School community, the Synergy Football Club (Calder's soccer team), Middlebury people.. everyone has been so generous and supportive. Though we have waited 4 years, of late, time has not been plentiful enough to call and write personally.

Today, I am thinking about her foster family in Tianshui, where she was born, and am sad to know that while we are just meeting her, they are saying goodbye. Perhaps it will not be forever.

Meanwhile,
Grandma Patty said a prayer for Dalia and our journey tonight at Shabbat services in Rancho Mirage (thanks, Mom!);
Grandma Ginger will go with us to the airport, take care of our animals for the next few weeks, drive Henry and Calder around to practices, and help build and paint sets for the NBS Play
Blair and John will have Henry and Calder at home and share our excitement from Ripton.
We will try to post from China - not sure it will work. Thank you for thinking of all of us, most of all, Dalia.

Love, Dina and Tal