Dalia, Grandma Patty and I went to Boston last weekend to attend a workshop for people considering adopting Special Needs/Waiting Children from China sponsored by China Adoption With Love, our adoption agency in Brookline. Even though I would be one of a few parents who had adopted a special needs child, and it was a long way to drive... I really wanted to give back to our agency in this way and at least try to provide -- through sharing my story, our story, and dalia's story, not to mention bringing her along in person! I also just wanted Lillian, the woman who founded CAWLI (and is in the photo) to meet Dalia. And I wanted Dalia to hear some "real Chinese" from Lillian. Indeed, Lillian saw Dalia, called her Dong Ling, and said, "Guai Guai" - which means something like "Oh, good little girl." (lit. "obedient"). And then when we were taking photos, Lillian told Dong Ling to look at Mama, which she did (in another photo) -- hearing Lillian speak sounded so clear and beautiful to me, and, I imagine to Dalia. I wish that Dalia could be hearing "real" Chinese every day rather than mine.
Before traveling to China, I drove to CAWLI to go over our paperwork with Lillian. She came into the room, sat down, looked at me very seriously and said, "Dong Ling. Very smart." I thought, oh, yeah, that's what she tells everyone. But, Lillian said that the orphanage director in Tianshui had told her this. And when we met Dong Ling/ Dalia, we agreed!
At the workshop, there was a little girl, aged 3, who was brought home with hepatitis B who now shows no signs of the disease. She is definately thriving. There was another little girl aged 5 who was only brought back to the U.S. 3 months ago. This girl has cleft lip and palate. Her speech is obviously challenged. At one point, her Mom said her Chinese name, and she happily repeated her name out loud a few times and pointed to herself. She also spoke some English words. Like Dalia, she hasn't had her palate repaired yet. Another little boy was adopted 3 years ago at 3 years of age. He walked into the workshop wearing a white Tae Kwon Do uniform with a sash and patches. The attendees were in all stages of the process -- one couple had accepted a referral of a 6 year old girl and will be traveling to China soon; another couple have a Chinese daughter already and would like to adopt a second child, and others considering a Special Needs/waiting Child. One woman asked me who stayed with my boys when Dalia had her surgery.... I said, "well, they are my stepsons, so they were probably at their Mom's." She has a five-year-old son. An appropriate question.
All the while Dalia was either standing in front of the group, looking at everyone and tossing back her water out of a bottle, walking over to the other kids and getting real close, playing with their toys or offering hers, talking, or running up and down the hall with Grandma Patty. It was a joy to be there. My heart and mind hurt for the families sitting in those chairs.
The day before, Grandma Patty, Dalia and I spent the afternoon in the Boston Public Garden, walking around, looking at the flowers, listening to the fiddle players, the saxophonists, dancing, and riding on the Swan Boats. Dalia was absolutely ecstatic about the live ducks and would exclaim, loudly, "ohhhhhh!" whenever she saw one. Followed by her version of "quack quack" and waddling around on the ground. Spent a lot of time at the "make way for ducklings" sculpture of the mama duck (which Grandma sat on top of) and the 8 baby ducks. Visited our friends and their two new beautiful twin daughters. Dalia was the big girl!
We came home Saturday afternoon to Baba and Ge Ge (daddy and brothers). Sunday we went hiking -- Dalia in the pack -- to Lake Pleiad in the Green Mountains at the Snow Bowl. Dalia stripped down and played in the water; brother Henry found a red epht, brother Calder fished a newt out of the Lake. She does love being in nature and running around. Welcome, Summer for Dalia!
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