Catherine Sutherland (and Larry Tait)
We are back now safe and sound with Hannah Emily LiLan Tait, after a nightmare trip but luckily with a happy ending.
Here goes:
On Thursday February 26th, 1998, we received the long awaited call, matching us with Ji LiLan born September 28th 1997. We were told that she had strabismus, a visual impairment, and asked if we accepted. I made the mistake of a lifetime, and looked strabismus up on the internet. I found a site that explained that Strabismus is a condition where the muscles controlling the eye movements can be too loose or too tight on one side causing one eye to turn in or out as the case may be. They explained that this was quite common, but that Strabismus could be caused by brain tumors, Cerebral Palsy, and Hydrocephalus to name a few. Of course I immediately imagined the worse case scenario, especially since our agency does not supply pictures. We accepted the proposal the next day, but it took a few days, and the support of my family (including overseas phone calls to vacationing parents, and a Doctor Uncle in Texas) until I was able to relax, put everything back into perspective and get excited about the new baby again.
We said goodbye to Clara, our eldest (3½ years old) on April 3rd, and left her at her grandparents for the two weeks we'd be away. The next morning we left Montreal for Beijing and stayed the night at the YuYang hotel. The next day we flew to Guangzhou where we spent the night at the Landmark hotel. Our bus broke down before we even got out of the airport however, and the men all jumped out and helped push the bus to the side of the street, as we were blocking off the traffic.
That afternoon we went to the adoption registry office, where we discovered we had forgotten our photographs and had to jog over to a nearby photo shop and have our pictures taken. When we got back, we discovered that all the other families dossiers were there, but not Ji LiLan's. This meant that everyone else got to see the photo of their daughter but us. This was quite hard to take, and put me on the verge of tears, but I was able to manage an "oh well it'll be a surprise".
The next day we flew to ZhenJiang where we stayed at the Silver Sea Hotel which boasted a lovely outdoor pool. Unfortunately it was being repaired when we arrived, and would only be completed after our departure. It wasn't until the next day April 8th, that we would finally see the children. We all hopped on a bus first thing in the morning and headed off to MaoMing. The drive was really something, they were in the process of making a new cement highway, and sometimes there were 4 lanes, sometimes two, and often the highway would disappear to rural back roads. We stopped en route for a bathroom pitstop, but all the travelers who hopped off (but one), hopped right back on the bus without using the "facilities". Luckily for them, we were almost there.
We arrived at the notaries office after one wrong turn, and saw the babies through he window immediately. By the time we got inside, they had all disappeared up the three flights of stairs we had to climb to the room where we would finalize the adoptions. Almost immediately I overheard LiLan's name and saw who she was. She was a real cutie, (no sign of strabismus), and emotions were flying as the children were matched one by one. As soon as LiLan (Hannah) was placed in our arms we were concerned by her lack of strength and development. She was the least able of all the 9 children to hold her head up although definitely not the youngest. When I picked her up, she would arch her back, and throw her head back, as if to say "I want to lie down", and would not take any of the soy formula that we had brought. Before we realized she was suffering from painful stomach cramps, my husband had run off to buy the local formula that she was supposedly raised on, changed bottles, and tried various temperatures. In the end she was inconsolable until she fell asleep in my lap on the bus ride home. When we got back to the hotel, we were finally able to get her to drink (much to our relief). A doctor couple in our group, made their rounds of the new babies, and checked Hannah's heart and lungs, and everything looked good. At the same time they noticed a possibility of active scabies, and as some of the other babies had it for sure, we gave her a scabies treatment (which she quite liked). One thing Hannah did have for sure was Diarrhea, and in the 24 hours following our first meeting I went through at least 5 outfits because of it.
On the 10th of April we flew back to Beijing and basically did nothing but tour around and wait, until the 15th, when we had our Medical Examinations. We were terrified that Hannah's health would somehow prevent her from passing the exam, but the doctor was very blasé about it all and assured us she would catch up etc.. no problem.
We left for Montreal two days later, but in the meantime Hannah's health deteriorated. The diarrhea got worse, the cramps got worse, and she started to be able to tolerate only small amounts of formula without throwing it up. Basically the return trip was let her sleep a half hour and then give her an ounce or an ounce and a half of formula and then change a diaper...repeat.
Needless to say the first place we went when we got out of the airport was to the Montreal Children's hospital. Hannah was admitted that evening with what we discovered to be Bacterial Gastroenteritis (Campylobacter), she was 10% dehydrated and was on IV for the four days we spent in the hospital. We are also seeing an occupational therapist on an outpatient basis to follow up on her "failure to thrive".
Hannah is now holding her head up very well and gets stronger every day. She has a very sunny disposition and delights everyone she meets. I can not imagine life without Hannah, but I hope I never have to go through anything like that again!