Random photo gallery

Thursday, April 27, 2006, 11:54 p.m.

HATTIESBURG – It’s been a long, long week.
I’m still trying to find time to sort through my hundreds of photos and hours of video I took in China.
And then I hope to arrange them into photo galleries for my Web site and for a home video I want to make of the trip.
I simply have not had the time.
And I don’t know when I will.
So, that said, here is a look back at a few photos you never saw from our trip to China (and a few extras, too). These photos are in random order. - Terry R. Cassreino

PHOTO 1
Saturday, April 1, 2006. Pam and I joined other families from Holt International Children’s Services for a tour of the Great Wall of China. This is what we call in America a “Big Ass Wall.” It’s long. Very long. Here, Pam and I share a brief, quiet moment while someone we don’t know snapped our picture. You can see the “Big Ass Wall” streaking up the mountain in the background through the arch. This wall was big. Correct that: This wall was big-ass.





PHOTO 2
Thursday, April 13, 2006. We are in Hong Kong on our last stop before flying home to Hattiesburg the next day. Here I am holding Camryn while shopping in what’s called the Ladies Market in Hong Kong. It’s sort of like the New Orleans French Quarter Flea Market multiplied by the thousands. Camryn didn’t much care for the shopping. She wanted to go out drinking instead. I, of course, told her no because we had to find a “Big Ass Suitcase” to pack her in for the return trip home. She didn’t like my joke.




PHOTO 3
Friday, April 7, 2006. Our last night in Nanchang for the 10 Holt families who adopted a child from the Jiangxi province. That night, we all ate at a Nanchang restaurant (I don’t know the name, but I didn’t like it as much as I did the East Restaurant near our hotel). After dinner, the three girls from Jiujiang City posed for this photo with their moms. Camryn, in blue on the far right, is from the orphanage in Jiujiang City and shared this final moment with fellow orphans.





PHOTO 4
Tuesday, April 11, 2006. Here we are in the lobby of the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou for a photo session with all the children in our group from Jiangxi province. Poor Camryn got there late (we fell asleep in the hotel room) and was forced to sit on the arm rest for the photo. Needless to say, the photo sucked (something the child on the sofa, third from the right, also felt).






PHOTO 5
Tuesday, April 4, 2006. Pam, Camryn and I had just finished visiting the Nanchang Wal-Mart when we stopped outside for fresh air. Pam and Camryn sat on a bench while I turned my attention to this child’s split pants. Don’t be shocked. This is a common sight in China. And it’s a perfect example of the pants that Chinese families use to potty train their children. Children walk and run all over town in split pants, which I guess makes it easier for them to take care of bidness, as they say in Mississippi (I can’t help but think they also must leave you cold when you sit on metal or concrete). They were neat in a strange kind of way. I sort of liked them. I looked for a pair of split pants for myself; I thought I’d wear them to work or out to eat with my wife. I bet they are great when you are in a hurry. But, alas, I couldn’t find any in my size.




PHOTO 6
Sunday, April 2, 2006. Out last night in Beijing before we flew to Nanchang to get Camryn. Pam and I met another Holt couple for dinner and walked to this Korean restaurant. When we arrived and found a long line waiting for a table - and everyone talking in thick Mandarin - we skipped it and went back to the hotel to eat. We thought we’d rather eat Chinese food than Korean. I love the neon sign, though. And it is interesting that we were able to walk to the restaurant in safety despite it being about 10 minutes from the hotel.



PHOTO 7
Friday, March 30, 2006. Beijing. Bikes. Bikes. And more bikes. They are everywhere in China. You can even rent one to ride. Appparently, they are faster than driving in a car and getting snagged in Beijing’s nightmare traffic jams.










PHOTO 8
Tuesday, April 25, 2006. Camryn is adjusting just fine to her new parents, her new home, her new city and her new life. She is a different child than she was when we first got her. She is growing fast. And putting on a little weight. She’s even almost as big as that lady bug behind her - a reject from one of those Japanese nuclear-bomb-causes-mutant-insects movies.


Text and photos copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.

Hattiesburg photo gallery

Monday, April 25, 2006, 9:25 p.m.

HATTIESBURG - Sorry it has taken so long to post. Between work, jet lag and other things, I simply have not had the time to post as often as I did when Pam, Camryn and I were in China. Oh well, c'est la vie. At any rate, here are a few photos I thought you'd enjoy. Oh, and as a side note, I have not yet watched "Lacombe, Lucien." - Terry R. Cassreino



PHOTO 1
Here, Sophie, Camryn and I watch television on Saturday night, April 15, in Hattiesburg. It was one day after we returned from China. We were wiped out; I still haven't recovered from jet lag. Sophie seems a little jealous, but she also seems to have accepted Camryn.









PHOTO 2
On Easter Sunday, we celebrated Camryn's homecoming with family and friends at our house. The main attraction was a crawfish boil orchestrated by my brother-in-law, Paul Amore, aka Uncle Paulie. We also celebrated Camryn's first birthday, which actually took place two weeks earlier in China. Here, we nearly set the birthday cake in flames.







PHOTO 3
Pam wanted to see Camryn's reaction to her own cake. So Mommy bought her baby daughter a special cake. Camryn stared at it at first; she only got aggressive after I urged her to do so. And even then, it was relatively uneventful.















PHOTO 4
Nana Jo came by to visit for part of last week. She helped Pam with Camryn. And while I was away at work, they kept the house clean. Here, Nana tries to put Camryn asleep while I recline in an adjacent chair.











PHOTO 5
Aunt Brandi visits with Camryn outside our house. Aunt Brandi also visited last week and helped Pam and Nana Jo decorate Camryn's bedroom. Sorry the photo is overexposed.










PHOTO 6
At first Camryn despised baths. She screamed bloody murder, puked green pea soup, spun her head around and shouted frightening baby gibberish. It was a horrifying sight. Then, she found out she loved taking a bath in the kitchen. Here, she decided to eat the bath sponge before Pam begins the rinse cycle.








PHOTO 7
Here, I watch Camryn practice for this year's running of the Kentucky Derby. I actually thought it's a bit too soon for her to try something so ambitious. But Camryn disagreed and said the best way to prepare is to ride the rocking horse Maw Maw Gay gave her. After all, Camryn says, you can even hear the horse gallop when you squeeze the ear.




Photos and text copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.

What a difference two weeks make

Friday, April 21, 2006, 7:31 a.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino
HATTIESBURG – Camryn is a different child.
Two weeks after getting our daughter at the Gloria Plaza Hotel in Nanchang, China, Camryn has quickly changed from a scared little girl to a happy, fun-loving child who enjoys the non-stop attention from everyone she meets.
Two weeks ago, Camryn cried and scrreamed her head off. Today, she eats regularly, is adjusting from the 13-hour jet lag of our return trip, loves to be around her parents and enjoys attention from her grandparents and other relatives.
But for you to better understand the progress, allow me to go over a few key points in this young child’s life. Then sit back and take a minute to ask yourself if you could have done any better adjusting to the many changes Camryn did.
• Camryn was born April 5, 2005, possibly somewhere in Jiangxi province of China. We will never know exactly where. And there is a distinct possibility that Camryn is from Hubei province which is one over from Jiangxi.
• Her mother abandoned her. Think about that for a moment: Her mother abandoned her the day after her birth, possibly placed her in a basket, left her on the side of the road and fled. Luckily, someone found Camryn and she was placed in an orphanage.
• We’ll never know the real reason the child was abandoned. But there are several possibilities: Her mother wanted a boy so she abandoned the baby because she was a girl; the mother was affected by China’s limit on children; or her mom was a teenager ashamed of her pregnancy.
• I’ll throw in one other possible reason: Her mother was freaked out by Camryn’s polydactilly, an extra thumb on her right hand. So mom abandoned the baby with hopes that officials could care for her; they did, by the way, and her hand is perfectly normal.
• After a year in an orphanage, Camryn was ripped from her daily routine on April 3 and casually handed off to two strange-looking white people (one bald guy with a strange sense of humor who likes to visit Wal-Marts in other countries) with unusual accents.
• The child lived in three different hotels in three different cities over the next two weeks before being dragged (well, carried) screaming and crying aboard a jet for a 24-hour flight away from her homeland and to a new country.
• The child was bombarded by family and friends at the airport in Jackson, Miss., and again at our home in Hattiesburg. Plus, she found herself in another strange place, although with two white people she has slowly come to like.
This is a tall order. So, in my opinion, it’s not that shocking that Camryn has needed a little time to adjust to us. What is surprising, though, is how quickly she has appeared to adapt to her surroundings and new people.
They say children are resilient; I have proof.

Hard-knock life

Life in the orphanage probably was not easy.
Pam and I were unable to visit the orphanage in Jiujiang City where Camryn spent much of her first year of life. The city was simply too far away from Nanchang and in another part of Jiangxi province.
But we did visit an orphanage in Nanchang and, like most social service institutions in the United States, it was sad to see the residents. This place was filled with children, all homeless and all looking for a place to live.
If anyone in their right mind visited, they would have been emotionally touched and wanted desperately to help these children. Of particular note were the older children of 3, 4, 5 and above, who are harder to place in families than infants.
Anyway, I digress.
Life in Camryn’s orphange probably was similar to a degree to the one we visited in Nanchang. And in these institutions, children long for attention and love of which they don’t receive enough. The orphanages simply don’t have the staff.
And that leads to the children being substantially behind the curve compared to those of the same age in the United States. For instance, Camryn can’t crawl, sit up on her own, prop herself up on the stomach or hold her bottle.
Here’s another sad image: Many children from orphanages, including Camryn, have a flat spot on the back of their heads which indicates they were left in their cribs. Some who were adopted the same day as Caryn had a bald spot on the back of their head for the same reason.

Re-adoption process

Now that Pam, Camryn and I are back, the next step is for our social worker at Catholic Charities in Jackson to visit our home and file a post-placement report on the baby for the China Center for Adoption Affairs and Holt International Children’s Services.
I talked this week with our social worker and she will get back with me with a date for the visit.
Then Pam and I must initiate re-adoption procedures in Mississippi. We will re-adopt Camryn here through Mississippi courts and obtain a state birth certificate; she already is a U.S. citizen, so this is just a formality most families follow.
And finally, we’ll apply for a new passport for the baby in case we ever go on a cruise or visit China again (which, by the way, we just might do because Pam and I are interested in doing another adoption in the future).

Photos and text copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.

Jet lag causes havoc

Friday, April 21, 2006, 6:23 a.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino
HATTIESBURG - Damn, this jet lag is awful.
I have been battling it for several days now. It really hit hard on Monday night, and I've been struggling with it ever since. The good part is that I don't go to work today until about 2 p.m. or so, which gives me a few extra hours to relax at home.
It also means that Pam, Camryn and I likely will remain at home this weekend, Sunday and Monday, instead of driving to New Orleans for the annual French Quarter Festival. The festival is a free concert on stahes throughout the French Quarter.
The festival is an incredible event made even more special because it’s free. And don’t forget that it is the first huge even in the Quarter since Hurricane Katrina laid waste to this city in August 2005. Oh well, c’est la vie.
Maybe next year.

Copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.

Back on the job again

Tuesday, April 18, 2006, 7:20 p.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino

HATTIESBURG – Back to work.
Today, I returned to work for the first time in three weeks. It wasn’t too hard to get back in the swing of things. It’s the jet lag that is still slowing me down. Crossing 13 time zones in one day has finally caught up with me.
I was so drained Monday night that I fell asleep at about 9 p.m.; I hope it’s not that bad tonight.
Highlights from the past few days:
• We had a successful Easter Sunday crawfish boil that attracted family and friends to our house to celebrate Camryn's homecoming. We even celebrated Camryn's first birthday (we also celebrated it in Nanchang two weeks ago).
• Camryn had a Monday doctor's appointment. But Pam and I arrived at the doctor's office too late, so we pushed the appointment back a day. Camryn went today, and the doctor said she is a perfectly healthy girl.
• And I’m still toying with the idea of pulling together all my posts on this blog and using it as the basis for a book, maybe expanding it and turning it into a memoir or sorts. This is just in the early stages.
I’ll try to post a few new photos when I have a chance. Until then. . .

Copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.