Photos from Monday

Here are the photos from our Monday in Guangzhou, and our second trip to a Chinese zoo that ended with us being rain-soaked.

Quick update - no photos!

Sorry - no photos with this update because I'm just too darn tired to wait for them to upload.

Anna's TB was clear - yahoo!  Tomorrow, we have Anna's visa appointment with the American consulate in Guangzhou.  This is our last hurdle to clear before we can travel.  The appointment is tomrrow (Tuesday), and if all goes well, we will be issued Anna's travel documents on Wednesday.  We are scheduled to leave Guanzhou Wednesday night.  We will drive to Hong Kong and spend the night, and we will depart Hong Kong for our long flight on Thursday morning. We arrive in Dallas later Thursday evening and will make it into Lubbock on Friday morning.  Woohoo - we are in the home stretch!

Anna is doing much better.  She now knows how to latch on when being held.  She knows how to give and receive hugs and kisses.  She knows how to hold hands, and tonight, we went out for ice cream, and she was able to sit and eat her treat and then walk back to the hotel without running ahead.  This is huge progress!  Today was the 1-week mark.  I think we will see improvement each day.  She isn't signing much, but we think she still hasn't caught on to what we are trying to show her. 

Lucy did great today.  She signed "go," "stop," and "sit" to Anna and taught Anna how to hold her hand.  Even when Anna hit Lucy, which, sadly, happens a lot, Lucy was kind.  Amelia is my director of air traffic, usually too much so.  If she would stop trying to control the younger children, things might be a little easier.  I know she means well, but really, she is a bossy pants!

Please be in prayer for our flight. Anna is not easily occupied or entertained, and 15 hours on the plane has the potential to be real torture for all involved.

Big Burch hugs to everyone!

We are in Guangzhou!

We left Anna's provincial city of Zhengzhou yesterday evening and arrived in Guangzhou, where all American adoptive families are required to travel to complete the immigration process.  Our hotel in Guangzhou is a palace!  Seriously, we have never stayed anywhere this nice.  When I heard that this is where the agency put all the families, I was a little grumbly at the expense, but now that we are here....oh, what an oasis!  Lucy was asleep when we arrived, but she awakened long enough to exclaim, "oooh, a castle!"  Our rooms are beautiful and big with enough room for the children to play.  There is a huge swimming pool that is absolutely gorgeous.  They have a playroom here, and even a library with English reading materials.  The service here is impeccable.  I've never received such wonderful, efficient, easy service anywhere, ever.  This hotel has been a real treat for the Burch Family!

Anna had her immigration medical examination this morning.  The purpose of the exam is to make sure Anna's special needs match her referral information and also to make sure she is free of infectious disease.  The great news we learned today is that none of the doctors we saw (three total) believe that Anna has cerebral palsy.  We think she may have had a mild form at some point, but she is definitely able to walk, climb, run, jump, take the stairs, balance, etc.   The ENT doctor who examined Anna said her outer ears and inner ears both look normal based on a regular exam.  She urged us to take Anna to a specialist in the US who would be able to do more sophisticated testing to tell us more about Anna's hearing loss and its cause.  She repeated this several times, as if we were only weighing the possiblity of seeing a specialist.  We assured the doctor that we would do everything we can to help Anna.

Amelia, Lucy, and Anna had a great day together.  There was lots of progress on that front.  Actually, we saw progress on all fronts with Anna today.  She even sat and ate a whole meal (granted, she was in a high chair, but still -- for Anna and us, this is progress, and we will claim each victory!).  Anna is having to learn how to play.  It appears that she has never had toys, and playing 'pretend' seems new to her.  She is learning to play with pretend food and a baby doll.  We also bought inflatable swimming rings that were the hit of the day even though we can't swim for a couple of days because of Anna's TB test.  Speaking of that, we need you all to pray for a clear TB test.  If it comes back positive, someone has to stay in China with Anna until she is cleared for travel, which could take weeks.  We know one family that had to leave their new son for several weeks with a foster family and make a second trip back to pick him up.  PLEASE pray against this for Anna and for us.  We all want to be on that plane on Thursday.

Our travel group here in Guangzhou is full of wonderful people.  There is a family here who adopted a little girl two years ago, and they are here adopting another 3 year old, so they will have two 3 year olds.  Both girls are just precious!  There is one family who lives in Chengdu, China, where Amelia is from.  They are adopting a 2 year old that they have been fostering.  We had dinner with them tonight.  What a sweet family! The last family is a couple with two grown children who came to China on a mission trip and met a boy in the orphanage.  They are now adopting this 13 year old boy who is wheelchair-bound.  This young man has the MOST delightful personality and he even speaks beautiful English.  He will be a wonderful addition to their family.

We have met several other families with amazing stories: the lady in the hallway today who is here alone adopting a 12-year old girl and a 2-year old girl.  She has four other children at home, all adopted from China, all with significant special needs.  Her eyes filled with tears as she described how the Lord has called her to adopt.  There was another family we met today who have teenagers at home who came to China to adopt a 4-year girl who is blind.  We met another family with children at home who are here adopting a pair of 3-year old boys, each of whom is missing an arm. We have met families adopting older children and younger children, boys and girls, minor special needs and significant needs.  We have been so moved as each family shares their story.  Adoption is such a special thing, and the China adoption community is a community like no other.

It's very late here, and we are hoping to get to attend a church service tomorrow.  I will try to post some photos from the past couple of days.

A little taste of WalMart

Yes, friends, Wal-Mart is in China.  We have trekked there nearly every day in search of one thing or another.  Like the U.S., the store has groceries and daily necessities as well as clothing, toys, and most anything you might need.  However, there are some things that are, well, a little different.  I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

"Anna not touch my...."

This is how Lucy begins nearly every sentence.  "Anna not touch my..." fill in the blank.  Lucy does not want Anna touching anything that might possibly belong to Lucy.  Lucy and Anna even had a throw-down yesterday, with Anna doing the chihuahua chew, where she bares her little teeth and growls, and Lucy doing her best gorilla imitation, where she towered over Anna, puffed out her chest and growled back.  It was comical and yet a little sad.  Lucy is very seldom angry, so it's a little unnerving to see her react this way.  Even so, I know it's normal two-year old business when she sees someone honing in on her still-recently-established territory.

We have commandeered Lucy's stroller for Anna.  Lucy is heavier to carry, but she is less squirmy, and she knows how to latch on (boy, does she!), so she's easier to maneuver being carried than Anna is.  Lucy has also lost some of her wardrobe to Anna since Anna is much smaller than we anticipated.
Most of what we brought for Anna (sizes 4 and 5) is too big.  Anna is a little taller than Lucy, but she's extremely thin.  I have cinched the size 4 shorts down as far as they will go.  Even 4T bike shorts hang on Anna's skinny frame.  Yesterday, I sent over some of Lucy's 3Ts to my mom for Anna.  Today, when we arrived to breakfast, Anna was sporting one of Lucy's shirts.  I figured Lucy would never know the difference, but Lucy is paying attention!  She spoke right up -- "That's MINE!"

Our day was downhill from there....Anna testing EVERY limit placed on her, and our usually easy-going Lucy sobbing over the tiniest of slights.  Add one overly-helpful Amelia AiChun trying to set things right among the younger set, and well, you have the picture.  The good news is that this time around, I am not letting any of it rock me.  I know this is normal, and I know it will get better. 

This time, I am the one assuring my mother and father that all WILL be well -- maybe not immediately, but eventually.  The LORD did not bring us this far to do anything except to cause us good things.  He intends to prosper us, not harm us.  His plans for us a good plans.  These good plans are for all of us, the children already in our lives and this precious waif who has just joined our family.

I wrote the beginning of this post earlier in the day.  Later in the day, we were telling Lucy about how Anna can't hear and how we need to be kind to Anna.  Lucy looked lovingly and her treasured stuffed kitty, then tentatively made her way toward Anna, where she pushed kitty into Anna's arms as a peace offering.  It was the most precious, beautiful thing!  My mother cried.

Later in the day, I lost my confidence about our ability to handle all of Anna's needs and found myself in tears at the thought of trying to properly integrate Anna into the family and being able to give her everything she needs.  She is so behind in every way, especially just in daily life business.  We have not seen positive signs yet even about her ability to bond.  Still, we TRUST the one who showed us Anna's face, who brought her into our lives, and who has numbered our steps.  It seems SO completely overwhelming at the moment, but greater is He who is in us than He who is in the world.  Anna will make it, and so will we.  We cannot fail -- too many lives are at stake.  Amelia, Anna, and Lucy are gifts that our family never even knew to ask for, and yet, our Father, in His infinite wisdom, has called us out and chosen us to shepherd these little hearts.  Their souls are important to Him.  They have purpose in His kingdom.  We will prevail.  It may just be a long, bumpy road.

Please pray for us all.  Prayer makes the biggest difference.  We beg for your prayers.

Here are some photos from today.

More from China

Ni hao (hello) from Zhengzhou, China!

There are three adoptive families staying in our hotel.  We all received the children on the same day in the same room, so it's fun to check on each family's progress at breakfast each morning.  The first family is from Sweden, and they adopted a baby boy who appears to be less than one year old.  He is the sweetest thing!  The dad is so precious - very doting.  The mom is all business!  He is eating and sleeping and doing just beautifully!  The second family is from Colorado.  They are first-time parents who adopted a cutie-patootie 3 year old girl.  She has the chubbiest cheeks!  The mother has hand-made all these cute little outfits with matching bows and jewelry for each day.  She is also doing very well  - no real issues, eating and sleeping and bonding well.  What a joy to see a child who is labeled "orphan" become a treasured son or daughter in the blink of an eye!

Isn't that what the Father longs to do?  Adopt each one of us as His own, in the blink of an eye, from wayward, lost, unclaimed to found, treasured and adopted forever!  Amen and amen.

In unrelated news, we are missing the US Olympics coverage.  The Olympics coverage is rather, umm....selective.  We only get to see the events in which the Chinese medal.  They also don't seem to show just the final match.  Instead, we see all the rounds of competition.  Yesterday, it was synchronized diving. Today, it was badmitton.  No offense to my office-friend, Steve, who assures me that badmitton is a bona-fide sport.  But really.  Badmitton?!  Now, some kind of shooting event is on CCTV (women's 25m pistol).

I will try to post some "around China" photos tomorrow. 

She's officially a Burch!

The 24-hour "harmonious" period has expired, all the papers have been stamped and notarized, and Am Xiao Chun is now Anna Joy XiaoChun Burch.  The past 48 hours have been full.  We made a car trip to Anna's birth city, Anyang, which also happens to be where Amelia's pre-K teacher (and our dear friend was born and grew up.  We did not know that when we were matched with Anna - it was one of those fun little surprises that we learned when our friend was reading the referral information with us.  We had to go to Anyang to apply for Anna's passport, but we had the added blessing of being able to have lunch with our friend's mother and brother-in-law, who is a government official in Anyang.  They took us to a delicious hot pot restaurant, and we had a delightful time together.  We enjoyed the trip as we got to see the countryside between Zhengzhou and Anyang.

We also had a full day today.  We had scheduled a trip to the Zhengzhou zoo to pass the time while we are waiting on paperwork to be processed.  It was raining, but that did not deter us.  We visited the zoo in the rain. 


Anna is full of joy. She loves to be loved. She loves for us to hug and kiss her. She has clearly spent most of her time with adults -- she pretends to use the chopsticks like cigarettes for smoking and when we get our drinks at meal time, she initiates the clinking of the glasses for "cheers".
It is also clear to us that Anna is experiencing many "firsts".  Today was Anna's first visit to a zoo.  We are also pretty sure that Anna saw and held a crayon for the first time today and ate in a restaurant for the first time today. 

We are finding that we need to treat Anna like a much younger child.  For example, yesterday, when we ate hot pot, we put Anna in a high chair.  Since the pots are boiling hot, we can't have a little child running all around, or she could be seriously burned. We ended up putting her in Lucy's stroller while we were out walking the streets, just to keep her safe.  Still, we have seen vast improvements in Anna's behavior and communication in even these past 48 hours.  We definitely have a long way to go, but we are so early in the process.  Once Anna feels secure in our family and once she has the medical and educational and behavioral interventions that she needs, there will be no stopping Anna.

For now, we enjoy what we are affectionately calling "the many faces of Xiao Chun" -- the funny faces she makes when she sees the camera, the happy face she makes when we give her something she likes to eat, and even her "angry" face when she bares her black little teeth and makes her jaw go up and down (think chihuahua).

The last photo is just for one -- spicy fish soup flavored chips, anyone?  Or do you prefer lobster cheese flavor?  Sometime soon, I need to do a post of the random things you see in China.  Tonight, there was a lady selling turtles from her bucket on the street.  Today in the supermarket, we saw live bullfrogs waiting to be someone's dinner.  The supermarkets have all live fish and seafood, and the people come in and pick out their fish, crab, frog, or whatever, and they butcher it right there on  the spot.  The Chinese definitely live without the preservatives we put on our food, and there is no table salt anywhere.  We also think it's funny that they don't have soy sauce on the tables, and they never know what we are asking for if we request it.  Baby bottoms abound - you can't walk the street without seeing bare hineys.  They can also fit more people and more stuff on a motor scooter or bicycle than most soccer moms can stuff in a minivan!  China fascinates me every time I come, and yet, this time, I know it will probably be a very long time before I come back, which makes me treasure it a little more.  So much has changed in the almost six years since I was last here, and I know that if and when I return, there will be even fewer traces of the "old" China as it moves as warped-speed toward Westernized modernity. 

If our Internet connection holds, I will try to post more photos.