Keep your comments coming

Thursday, April 6, 2006, 3:38 p.m.

NANCHANG, China - Just a quick note to all of the folks who are visiting this blog and joining us, in a way, on our journey: Pam, Camryn and I appreciate your thoughts, prayers, e-mails and blog posts.
If we don't respond right away, please don't take it personal.
Remember, we are using the Internet from overseas and don't have access to many of the sites we can access in the United States. For example, we can update our blog but can't access it directly.
Please continue to post your blog responses and comments. While we can't access them through the blog, we can receive them by e-mail. And as soon as we have a chance to personally respond to the comments we will.
We have a long way to go - another week left in China - before we return home. Please continue to follow us through this blog; your prayers abd thoughts are appreciated. And maybe we'll even see a few of you at the airport in Jackson when we return on Good Friday.

- Terry R. Cassreino

Chinese village offers glance at past

Thursday, April 6, 2006, 2:47 p.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino

LIU TIAN, China - The scent of wood-burning stoves hung heavily over this 1,200-year-old family village nestled at the foot of the Mei Ling Mountains.
Some of the 1,000 residents who live here, all of whom share the Huang family name, were cooking lunch when our tour bus arrived today with families adopting Chinese babies.
The sight of Americans toting young Chinese babies didn’t alter their plans. Some residents, particularly the elderly men and women, stopped briefly to look at the babies.
Others, though, went about their normal routine taking care of their homes, playing mah jong friends, playing card games friends or plowing rice fields with their water buffalo.
This is life in rural China, where people still live in cement-block homes and life is centered around their family and a small gathering place in the center of the village.
It’s also likely that our child, Camryn, may have been born in a similar rural village. Camryn was found abandoned on the side of a road and taken to an orphanage in Jiujiang City.

Proud history

Liu Tian has a proud history. The Huang family settled here years ago after they fled their original village, also called Liu Tian but located in the Hubei province.
They have everything they need to live a full life without having to trudge 60 kilometers south, or about an hour’s drive, to the much larger city of Nanchang.
Residents here live in ancient homes, many furnished with antique furniture almost as old as the village.
Water drains away from the city beneath the large cement blocks that make up the maze of narrow walkways through Liu Tian. You can hear water steadily flowing beneath the walk.
Chickens and ducks roam freely about the streets. Some of the chickens are used for their eggs; others are feathered, cooked and prepared for meals.
A convenience store near the center of town offers fresh fruit and other food. Signs advertise the Chinese telephone company and cell phone service is readily available.

Village restaurant

Liu Tian also sports its own restaurant.
Patrons sit at wooden tables that resemble picnic tables in the dining room; uncooked meat selections hung from a string that stretched across the room.
I couldn’t read the menu which was written in Chinese. But the cook was crouched outside the restaurant this morning feathering either a duck or a chicken to cook later.
The winding maze of corridors left me in daze and with no sense of direction. And it was difficult to communicate with residents who spoke no English at all.
Holt International Children’s Services scheduled the tour for two reasons, including to help kill time while parents wait for the Chinese government to process their child‘s passport.
The chief reason, however - at least in my point of view - is to help parents like Pam and me to better understand and appreciate their new child’s culture.
And while touring the village was like watching a film in which much of the bright colors have been drained , Pam and I left with a fuller picture of China and its people.
This is a China few people see, and that is a sad shame.

Photos and text copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.

Sleeping in the heat in China

Thursday, April 6, 2006, 6:10 a.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino

NANCHANG, China - After more than a week overseas, we finally feel like we are in a foreign country: Our hotel air conditioning is out.
So, Pam, Camryn and I are trying to sleep in a room with the air conditioning circulating lukewarm air (but not cooling) while our 11th floor window remains open to the constant noise of traffic you would expect in a city of 4 million.
It kind of looks like a scene from those films that take place in Mexico or Asia in which the Americans constantly sweat and sleep in a room with the windows open and no air conditioning.
Hey, it’s an adventure.
At any rate, it’s hot in here. Not unbearable, just not too comfortable. At least Camryn slept from about 7:30 p.m. all the way to 5:30 a.m.; she woke a little while ago and is still half asleep.
Today on our agenda is a trip with other families from Holt International Children’s Services to a small village in the country so we can get a taste of rural China.
The trip will take about an hour.
Then we’ll shift into the hurry-up-and-wait mode for Camryn’s Chinese passport. I think I have some paperwork to complete this afternoon, but I’m not sue exactly what.
Maybe the air conditioning will be back on by then.

Copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino

Orphanage tour touches the heart

Wednesday, April 5, 2006, 9:55 p.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino

NANCHANG, China - Behind the iron gates and inside the aging walls sat one of many Chinese orphanages which have become home to hundreds of children, both infants and older boys and girls, who are waiting to be adopted.
Our group of families arrived at the complex at around 10 a.m. Wednesday, and one of the first people to greet us was a young boy who was probably about 9 years old. He waved repeatedly, excited to see visitors from the outside.
Although we didn't have time to talk to him and other orphans, we did spend about 45 minutes seeing how the orphanage operates. We visited a unit where caregivers tended to 13 infants, some of whom were hooked to intravenous drips.
Here in China, they wrap all babies and young children tightly in clothes to protect them from the cold. Because of that, orphange caregivers keep the babies heads shaved so they can insert drips beneath the skin on their scalps.
We also watched older residents, some handicapped, knit clothes while watching television. And we toured a group home - where one of the Holt International Children's Services parents in our group met her 3-year-old's foster mother. The two wept as the foster mother showed the parent her child's old bedroom.

Bookstore visit

Besides the orphanage, our group also visited a two-story bookstore off the People's Square and across the street from Wal-Mart in downtown Nanchang.
Although it wasn't Barnes & Noble or Border's, the store still had a fascinating selection of compact discs, cultural DVDs and bilingual books in Mandarin and English. We bought Camryn several books and some Chinese music.
We believe it's important to maintain and preserve our child's heritage and background, so we will do everything we can to encourage her to learn as much as possible about her homeland, its rich history and its beautiful language.
The trip to the bookstore was a strong start.

Afternoon stroll

On Wednsday afternoon, we took Camryn for a stroll up the street from our hotel. The weather turned cool Wednesday after a stuffy, humid day on Tuesday and strong thunderstorms that swept through the city Tuesday night.
We thought Camryn was well prepared for the afternoon chill. She was wearing a pink, hooded jogging suit (no, she didn't actually go jogging through town) and thick socks. But the city's grandma police didn't like it one bit.
As we stopped briefly so Camryn could see a dog riding on the footrest of a motorcycle, a group of ladies converged and began fussing about the baby's cothing.
We couldn't speak Mandarin or underastand what they were saying, but their smiles and gestures said it all. Camryn was way underdressed for the cool weather and they wanted to make sure we were well aware.
One lady smiled and began to take off her jacket to make sure we understood exactly what she and the others were saying. Pam and I didn't take their criticism lightly; we understand how much children mean to the Chinese and promised them we would do better.

Paperwork update

Pam and I interviewed today with the notary for the adoption. I'm not quite sure exactly what a notary does in China, but I'm pretty certain it's a little different from the responsibilities of a notary public in the United States.
Anyway, we continue to wait for the Chinese government to process our adoption and Camryn's Chinese passport so we can take her home. This part will be completed by the time we leave for Guangzhou on Saturday.

Photos and text copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.

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.