Long Road to China - Our Adoption Story


Trustmark National Bank account set up:

Donations can be made nation wide at any Trustmark National Bank through the account:
Phillip Smith or Niki J. Smith's Adoption Account

If you would like to mail a donation, please mail it to
Phil or Niki Smith
P.O. Box 332
Rienzi, MS 38865




Friday, March 8, 2013

Long delay.......

I am really sorry for such a long delay in writing!!!  I brought all of you on this journey to share with you & I did not mean to leave you out!  It have been absolutely crazy!  This is how it's gone since Saturday:
Saturday - on plane by 6:30 am
                - changed planes 2xs (once in TX, once in Seoul)
Sunday   - get to HK about midnight (slept just a few hours)
Monday  - left hotel in taxi to train
               -  on train by 10:30a.m.
               - train in Guangzhou  China by 12:30pm where we met our guide                                                                           
                - go to hotel (check in & put down bags)
                - by 3pm we had our daughter
                - eat, buy translator, buy clothes for Guan Ya
Tuesday   - adoption completed by afternoon
Wednesday - paperwork, pictures for GY, walk around shops close to hotel
Thursday - rough morning start but it was nothing not expected.  
                   Guan Ya was mourning all she knew and is leaving.
                   We went to the see beautiful flowers & she was much better.
Friday - go to the Island; walked around close to the hotel

Yesterday was a great day!  I have to admit I loved the most hearing Guan Ya giggle!  2 of my most memorable moments happened yesterday!  First, we were in a shop & GY wanted to get my attention.  I heard the sweetest voice say "Mamma"  When I turned around it was Guan Ya showing me something!  The second was as we were walking home, Guan Ya reached to for my hand for the first time.

We have been surprised at how well the signing has gone for communications.  Many of the Chinese signs are the same or similar to the American sign.  We are all teaching & learning from each other.  We are teaching GY the ASL & she shows us the CSL.  When we sign, we often sign one form of SL followed by the opposite form of SL.  I am very pleased at how well we are translating. 

Since I have this much written, I'm going to post it.  I'm going to start a new blog now.

The much wanted pictures of Ya Ya & her new doll. 










7 comments:

  1. She looks like she has wavy hair. Erin has wavy hair too. Where in Guangzhou is your daughter from, I have 3 daughters from Guangzhou. Erin is from Guizhou Providence, she showed us her CSL they used some of the same signs as ASL does, but they meant different things, I wonder if different providences use different signs. Happy birthday to her.

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  2. Very interesting! When we adopted our son from northern China we started using baby sign with him right away. He does not talk but can hear and we still sign, but what I wanted to say was that our guide told us that Chinese people did not use sign language. I wonder if she had just never seen it done or heard of it?

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  3. Thank you Tonya & Sue! Sue, her hair is very wiry/frizzy but not curly. Kippi, I'm not sure why your guide said that but our daughter was in a school for the deaf and that is where she learned sign. Maybe your guide just wasn't familiar with it. :)

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  4. I have been following your journey, we have been home for 2 months with our beautiful 6 year old from China. God bless you in your journey, we serve an awesome God!!!

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  5. Congrats! She is gorgeous and looks happy!

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  6. Our daughter is from Beijing, she had deaf friends at the orphanage and taught herself CSL (against the teachers desire!). She used much of it from day one...she still knows a lot and wants to learn ASL next year in school. She's 15 1/2 and been home almost 2 yrs. So excited that you have her and that she's doing so well!

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