Thursday, May 20

This has been a very hard day. Olivia is sick- at one point with a 103.5 fever and she was throwing up. Her fever has come and gone all day and the throwing up has stopped for now. Here is the whole story. She had a restless night of sleep and woke up as though in a fog. She wouldn't eat much this morning but that is normal for her so we didn't worry about it too much. she was very spacey at breakfast and really not acting like herself. We walked around this morning for an hour or so and she dozed in the carrier. When we got back we tried to feed her again but she wouldn't eat. It was time for her antibiotic so we gave it to her and then she started throwing up. We had a meeting this afternoon and she threw up right as we met up with our group to go. The meeting was a doctor's appointment for the US government so that they will let her in to the country- this is a big deal. we cleaned up and went. they said that she did not have and ear infection or a throat infection that the hotel doctor said she did. They said she had drainage in her throat which we expect because she has a cold. We said OK and she passed the physical part Hooray! She had a fever but since they took it under her armpit- and they only left it there for about 10 seconds it didn't show up. I am so thankful. When we came back to the hotel she was hungry but still wouldn't eat. We waited and finally at about 6:00 she ate 3 ounces. We gave her Tylenol at 6:30 and then at 7:30 she ate about 5 ounces. The Tylenol has brought down her fever and she is more comfortable. We have decided to stop giving her the antibiotic because when Patrick was doing research on it he discovered that it is a very powerful one- they use it for MERSA. She has never had any drugs before so her little system is just over loaded. I am going to call my doctor in the US in the morning and talk to him about it but we both feel very comfortable with this decision. Please pray that she continues to improve tonight and that it is a restful sleep. I don't want to be up in the middle of the night dealing with throw up in a hotel room.
On a much lighter note I wanted to tell you about dinner last night. We went to a Thai place (I think I mentioned it in yesterday's post) and one of the people in our group ordered 1/2 a chicken. It came to him- exactly 1/2 a chicken. This included 1/2 the head, body and 1 leg and foot. It was the grossest thing I have seen in a long time. He ate it and said that it didn't taste too badly.
I don't think that i have mentioned that Patrick and I call this place Disneyland. It is a very odd mix of poor people and places mixed with beautiful facades of buildings with utter disrepair and a horrific smell coming from them. About 1/2 the roads are beautiful with stunning flower beds all around and the other 1/2 are so torn up that you can't even walk on them much less drive. There are so many people who come to China to adopt and they all end up here at the end of their trip so everywhere you look on this island there are white parents with a Chinese child. We chat as though we are old friends- it is almost like orientation weekend at college (Where are you from, what do you do, how old is your child). Then there are the locals who are very poor and make their money off of us. They follow us around asking us to shop at their store which has the exact same stuff as the other 30 stores like it on the island. They follow us around the store and ask us what we are going to buy. One person so wanted to sell something to me today that he went on and on about how Olivia and I look alike. I was thinking- Yea, we're twins! It is an interesting mix!!
We are at day 7 of being here and we are really missing our life at home. We would appreciate prayers as we have 9 more before we get to go see our other kids.
Tons of love and hugs!
Donna, Patrick and Olivia