Birthday photo gallery

Wednesday, April 5, 2006, 9:02 p.m.

NANCHANG, China - One year ago today a woman gave birth to a young baby girl and the following day abandoned her on the side of a street in Jiujiang City.
She became one of the “Lost Daughters of China.”
Today, one year later, Pam and I, along with several other families from our Holt International Children’s Services group, celebrated this young child’s first birthday.
At a special group dinner at a Chinese restaurant near our hotel, out Holt escort surprised us at the end of an incredible meal with a birthday cake for our daughter Camryn.
After singing “Happy Birthday,” we all retired to our hotel room and capped another amazing day here in China on what has been the greatest trip Pam and I have ever taken.
That said, we now share a selection of 11 photos from Camryn’s big day. We hope you enjoy them.

- Terry R. Cassreino

PHOTO 1
Just before dinner, Papa enjoys a quiet moment with Camryn in the lobby of our hotel. Camryn had been fussy all day wanting only Pam and nothing to do with me. Just before dinner, I decided to take Camryn - literally kicking and screaming - to the lobby so her mom could finish getting ready. After a bit of fussing, Camryn fell fast asleep for just a few minutes before we walked to the restaurant.






PHOTO 2
Pam, far right (I didn’t want you to confuse her with me or Camryn), joins me and Camryn just before I woke the baby for our five-minute walk to the restaurant.











PHOTO 3
Here, Camryn throws a fit after she tried to order a beer at the restaurant and the waitress said she wasn’t old enough and they don’t serve beer to anyone under 21. Camryn insisted, saying she left her driver’s license at home, but the waitress didn’t believe her. I tried to buy one for her, but also was refused.








PHOTO 4
Camryn quickly recovered, calmed down and enjoyed eating steamed eggs (yum), some soup and dumplings her mom cut up into small pieces.












PHOTO 5
Here is a shot of the meal we ate at the restaurant. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get the name of the restaurant because the name was in Mandarin and I don’t read Chinese. Trust me, though, it was excellent. We had two soups, the best being one with mushrooms and dumplings. Jiangxi has its own cuisine, which tends to be hot and spicy. Our dinner wasn’t terribly spicy (just one pork dish was and it was rated three peppers). Pam and I will likely eat there on our own Thursday night.




PHOTO 6
After dinner, the Holt folks surprised us with a beautiful birthday cake decorated with Camryn’s Chinese name (Cao Ai Hua).












PHOTO 7
Pam sits in shock after she lit the Olympic torch sitting atop Camryn’s birthday cake. The torch exploded into several candles (it actally looked like a blooming flower with small candles on each petal - a nice homage to Camryn's Chinese name, which means Love Flower). The exploding device then played “Happy Birthday” non-stop. Needless to say, it was quite a show of pyrotechnics. Only in China.






PHOTO 8
Here, the candles illuminate the cake as Pam gets a little vaklempt.













PHOTO 9
Mama, Camryn and Papa pose as the candles continue to burn and threaten to spread a wildfire through town. We did, by the way, finally blow the candles out. Camryn didn’t. She didn’t quite understand what was going on. I think she was still upset about the problem with the beer.








PHOTO 10
“Hmmmm, what is this stuff?” Camryn asked as she tested the cake to see what it really was. She was a bit perplexed at first, but later understood exactly what to do. . .











PHOTO 11
. . .by eating the icing. Forget the cake. Camryn loved the icing, which by the way, tasted like a lightly sweet whipped topping rather than a sweet, thick tradition icing. The cake also was incredible. And that candle continued to play “Happy Birthday” for 30 minutes after we the ate the cake and left for the hotel. Camryn was exhausted. She quickly went to sleep.





Photos and text copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.