Preparing for the baby's arival

Friday, March 31, 2006, 6:34 a.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino

BEIJING – It's early morning Friday, just three away days from getting Cao Ai Hua.
Pam and I are starting to get a little nervous. Actually, Pam has been nervous and antsy for several weeks and I'm slowly starting to reach the same point. I don't know what to expect, what I'll see, how I'll feel. I have a feeling it will be an emotional moment when we see Ai Hua, but I'm not quite sure how emotional.
The scene likely will take place at our hotel in Nanchang. The staff of Ai Hua's orphanage will arrive with the babies who will be matched with approximately 10 U.S. familis rom Holt. We'll all gather in a room at he hotel for the hand-off and from there I'm not sure what happens next.
Unfortunately, we won't be able to visit the orphange.
One couple Pam and I met on Thursday said the last time he and his wife were here – this is their third adopted daughter and second from China – said the scene was chaotic as orphanage workers brought a large group of screaming, crying babies into a room at one time to meet their parents.
That same family said their daughter took to dad quicker than mom, something I've read happens to a lot of times in Chinese adoptions. I guess the baby is still upset that her birth moher abandoned her and is looking for help from someone other than a woman.
Anyway, Pam is starting to fret over baby supplies. Do we have enough? What about formula? Should we buy some now to have it available when we get Cao Ai Hua? Should we get milk-based formula? One family recommended soy milk based formula because you don't know if the child will have an alergic reaction to milk.
I discouraged Pam from buying formula backome in Hatiesburg before we left. It just didn't make sense to get there and transport it all the way to China when the country has Wal-Maert SuperCenters that most assredly stock baby formulas we can use.
So when we visited the Wal-Mart in Beijing the other day, I again advised Pam not to hold off purchasing baby supplies. But after talking with a few more Holt families on Thrusday, we bought some soy milk based formula at a small grocery store near the hotel. I think the price was about $11 in U.S. money.
I know we could have bought the formula and other supplies when we visit the Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Nanchang (yes, they are all over China), but we aren't scheduld to go there until Tuesday and we needed something for the baby for Monday night.
As we continue to meet other Holt families, I'm sure we'll get some more ideas about what we need and what we can expect.

Copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino

China photo selections

Thursday, March 30, 2006, 6:08 p.m.


Photo Selections

PHOTO 1
This is from Wednesday night. One of the restaurants at our hotel, the Kunlun Hotel, was featuring an Indian buffet. So Pam had her photo taken with the two hostesses.











PHOTO 2
Here I am video taping Thursday afternoon at the corner of a busy intersection. But don't ask me where I am because I don't know.









Text and photos copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino

Downtown Beijing bustles with life

Thursday, March 30, 2006, 6 p.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino

BEIJING – Live scorpions squirmed while impaled on wooden sticks that sat upright in a bowl atop a counter as a group of workers urged passersby to buy them for a snack.
And if that didn't whet anyone's appetite, then maybe they would want the starfish on a stick, or the sea horses on a stick, or the grashoppers on a stick. And inside the case was squid on a stick along with the more traditional Western favorites as chicken on a stick and beef on a stick.
Welcome to downtown Beijing where hundreds of residents, business people and visitors cram the streets, huge four-story department stores and back alley shops and restaurants everyday looking for a bargain or just taking a break from work or life.
Pam and I joind the crowd on Thursday. We didn't dine on such delicacies as scorpions, starfish, sea horses or grasshoppers. We didn't even go for the chicken, a personal favorite of mine that I could literally eat every day ofgthe week.
We just walked, talked and watched. And it was exciting. This truly is an international city with folks from all over the world including other parts of China, Asia, Europe and the United States. Many are here as tourists, while others are here for the same reason we are: to adopt an abandoned child.
Some people are even here on business – incuding Jay Moon, the head of the Mississippi Manufacturers Association in Jackson who I just happened to literally shock when I ran into him accidentally outside a hotel near downtown Beijing. Talk about conicidence.
Jay and I go back alomost 20 years when he was head of the Community Development Department for the city of Gulfport and I worked for The Sun Herald in Gulfport-Biloxi. Jay, wearing a Mississippi jacket in the chilly afternoon weather, just happened to be in Beijing on a business trip.
Whatever reason people are here, one thing was certain: They enjoyed the thriving life of this historic, huge, growing city. There's an electricuity in the air here and everyone feeds off of it; people are friendly, outgoing and helpful.
Pam and I even found that to be true in the back alleys where we wandered looking for bargains among vendor after vendor displaying his or her crafts. Chinese workers stopped to chat and practice their English; some were excited that we tried to talk to them in Mandarin.
And everyone had something to sell – from classic, floor-legth Chinese dresses to kitschy ceramic and marble paper weights depicting the Great Wall; from caps with braided pony tails in the back to magic tricks that seem complicated but are simple; and from fried fish balls to live grasshoppers.
Welcome to Beijing.



Text and photos copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino