A Rough Day

Two parts to this posting: this morning's events, and then Callie's sadness.

First, just a sidenote to the NMC guys: Until today I had only seen one dog in China. That was yesterday, and three people were chasing it. I saw two more today, and all three dogs seemed to have the same scared look in their eyes. (Sara's in bed right now, so this paragraph will make it to the blogsite for now.)

I.

We started the day by doing a web cam with Andrew and Caty at Ben and Jess's. They got to see their new sister for the first time, and we got to talk with our kids for the first time since Saturday morning.

(By the way, I learned from my dad, who measured him with his big shoes off, that Andrew is now 6'2" tall. He's only 13!)

Then we went shopping at Wal-Mart. There are at least three in Fuzhou, as well as a Sam's Club. On three levels! Sara got practical items, and I stocked up on snacks I'm more familiar with.

From there we went to Panda World, where we saw Giant Pandas as well as "Lesser Pandas," what we call in the States Red Pandas. We saw a "Lesser Panda" show. I'm sure they had been trained, but not even food could seem to entice them to do much of their routine. We learned halfway through the show, by way of apology, that it was mating season. The price of the ticket was worth that announcement.

As we drove through downtown we saw drummers and dancers and dragons rehearsing for the ceremony on Sunday when the Olympic torch comes through Fuzhou. We may get to see it ourselves.

II.

Parents are amateur, yet experienced, child psychologists. This is the role Sara and I have been playing all day as we have tried to discover the source(s) of Callie's sadness. She has spent a great deal of the day crying, some of it wailing, and most of it obviously sad.

We suspect two sources. First, we've discovered she's potty-trained, but communication issues between her and us led to a great deal of discomfort on her part today. We think we've got some of it sorted out, but not yet all of it.

Second, we think she's grieving the loss of her foster mom and that environment. She doesn't like being in our hotel room: she often points to the door, indicating she wants to leave, and when we return to our hotel room and shut the door, she often starts bawling. It's gotten to the point that she starts crying even as we head down the hall to our room. This evening, she was sitting in my lap, and she said "Mama" a couple times and pointed to the door. "Mama" was what she called her foster mom.

Our hearts are ripped for her. If you pray for us, she could use your prayers to help her as she grieves.