Crisis Averted (Maybe) and Baby It’s Cold Outside (in the pool)

Well, last night we had our first major Juliana meltdown.  Settling down for bed she just started sobbing and was inconsolable, and of course we had no clue why.  Hailie was pushing every one of Mom’s and Dad’s buttons the entire evening and we thought maybe that had gotten her really upset.  The scary part was when Kathy was laying with her trying to comfort her enough to drop off to sleep she took her little stuffed dog with pillow set and very deliberately took the dog out, dropped it on the floor, then dropped the pillow right after that.

Then, this morning she did not immediately get out of bed when she woke up, and then when she did she started methodically unpacking all of her clothes from her duffel bag.  Uh, oh.  This one really had us worried, enough that we put in an emergency call to our guide Sarah.  She apparently was already in the building for another adoptive crisis and was up to our room in about 5 minutes.

Here’s what all the ruckus was about.  She was really unhappy that she couldn’t sleep with Hailie (remember Space Time?) and was even more unhappy that we had shut everything down at 8:00 thinking the TV show we were watching was over.  Wrong!  Apparently this is a 2 hour show that has 15 minute long segments, and it is her favorite show according to what she told Sarah.  We verified this when we watched it together as a family tonight.  She also did not like the fact she was made to go to bed before 9:00 which was her bedtime at the orphanage, which we do know from the update report.  Oh, and the bag thing; it was just the OC in her wanting to tidy up her stuff.

Steve and Hailie went down to breakfast while Sarah and Kathy were sorting this out in the hotel room (remember Space Time?) and we ate outside on the patio this morning.  Juliana Fuyang and Ma Ma came down about 15 minutes later and we finished breakfast (the Cascade Café was an absolute mob scene) together.

Today was more sightseeing, the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall (where we got a very nice group photo taken) followed by the Chen Family Temple.

Memorial Hall for the Father of Modern China, Sun Yat Sen

Is that already a teenage pose and look on her face?

A rare stationary moment at the Chen Family Temple

We decided to take a walk down to the Jusco store and get some ready made lunches from the deli section.  Juliana picked out a pork with sprouts and rice with egg fu yung patty dish and some boiled potato chunks with crabmeat.  Dad got to eat the potatoes, and except for the bean sprouts the other dish was a hit over the course of lunch and dinner.

While we were on the sightseeing junket today we worked out with Sarah the details of heading out to Shaoguan City tomorrow to visit Juliana’s orphanage.  She is much more receptive to the idea now since she knows she is not going back for keeps.  She really wants us to meet her school teacher, so hopefully we can get that worked out over the mid-day break they have at school.  We are getting a private van for the (ugggh!) 3 hour ride each way.  Fortunately the DVD player has a 6 hour battery – better make sure that gets charged up tonight.

The one down side of this 5 star luxury hotel is that the swimming pool is not heated!!!!!!!  Currently the water temperature is 17 degrees Celsius (which is 63 F for the metric system impaired), kind of like the Atlantic Ocean up at Cape Cod.  Hailie has been insistent that she would swim and stay at the pool for more than 30 seconds the entire time we have been here.   Anyone who has ventured into the Health Club here at the Garden will know why we were hesitant to get the staff all involved for a 1 minute swim.  Fortunately this worked out to be the best part of the day.  Juliana put on her new swim suit, and we all went down to do the polar bear plunge.  Juliana was amazing in how she took to the water at this temperature, and our Winnetka IL travel partners stopped by to join us after they had seen us from the adjoining playscape area.

This isn't so bad (or is it?)

The kids all had a great time splashing around for the 15 – 20 minutes their bodies could take the water temperature.

Last one in's a rotten egg!

We all sat around on the couch tonight and watched the show that caused last night’s anguish, and it was some nice bonding family time.  We have to remember that this is the most important thing right now rather than keeping up with the blog, filing pictures, and taking care of email and Facebook.

Especially since tomorrow is Shaoguan City.