One sickness gone, another come

Well the last few days have been filled with excitement of all sorts. There never seems to be a dull moment...

So Sara was giving us quite a worry because she had gained no weight after a week of being here, and was throwing up everything we fed her. We tried every possible combination of food, and finally discovered that the antibiotics were upsetting her stomach. She started improving at the same time Susan started showing signs of pneumonia. Susan is a miracle baby. By all accounts she should have passed away long ago, due to the holes in her ventricle and lung problems. She's had one surgery already and is in need of two more (or just one, if she can get it in the US). Right now it's a waiting game to see how soon she'll be adopted, then the surgery place and time can be decided. Her normally blue lips and constant sweating combined with the terrible wheezing made Amanda worried enough that she took Susan to the hospital for 5 days. She improved drastically and returned home last night. She gained .5 kg in the last week, which is what she usually gains in a month! Needless to say, it's nice to know that there are no longer life-threatening sicknesses burdening the babies in the orphanage.

So now that those things are checked off on the list of worries, we can finally start to get cardiograms and xrays on three of the new six babies that supposedly have heart problems. The other three have cleft palattes, and will have to wait until they're 1 year old to get the necessary surgery. Hopefully by that time, they'll be adopted! Just a few minutes ago, Amanda met with the director of the provincial orphanage and a governemnt welfare director...the "big bosses" that Amanda answers to. They have great respect for the work Amanda is doing, and got a better understanding for all that is being done in America to help her. Unfortunately it is still unclear how long the six babies that have now been here eight months will stay here. The orphans' paperwork moves at a slow grind in the government offices, and the rarity of working with a foreign foster parent in China hasn't sped up the process that everyone is still learning.

Anyhow, I'm doing great!It's getting hotter and I'm beginning to wonder why I chose to leave Alaska during the hottest part of the summer. My home has AC though, so things will work out. The other day we went to a backstreet night market that rarely sees any foreigners. We could tell because when we stopped to buy food, there were about 50 or 60 people stacked five and six rows back, watching with wide eyes and listening to the "outside nation people" try to speak their language. It was pretty neat to get so much attention! On Saturday we went to the mountains with a local person and picked cherries. I guess the place we went to rarely gets white folk, because when we were picking cherries, we were interrupted by a pair of reporters. They took our picture, but not before I took their picture! I bet they'd be surprised to know they are now on a blogsite available to millions of people throughout the world.

Amanda has a TV reporter coming to talk with her tomorrow. It's a common thing to have them come and talk to her. Many of the Taxi drivers and other people I've talked with have heard of her on television. Wouldn't that be cool if I could get my face on ShaanXi television, broadcast to 40 million people? This is my chance for fame...

Peace out.