Photo of Emily's Incision

Here is a pic, as promised, of Emily's back. The incision gives a perfect outline of exactly how crooked her spine is.

On another note, you may recall how much we were quoted as to the cost of surgery being about $35,000. Well, a statement came yesterday...$62,810. Yikes! We're bracing ourselves as to how much the insurance company is going to say they won't pay and hence the balance falling back on us. Ouch!

Two Week Follow Up to Surgery

I'm way over due for this update. My apologies...

Last Thursday, Emily had her first post Op check up with the surgeon in Ft. Worth. Synopsis: Everything looks good. It's incredible to look at her back at that scar and see how crooked it is. I probably should post a pic of it for you all so you can have a better understanding of what we're talking about.

The amazing thing is that she's back to her normal self. She's practically running as best as she can run, that is, with a spine that has a nearly 30 degree angle on it.

We were in IKEA yesterday and a woman approached us explaining that she has a little girl, now 12, that has gone through almost exactly what Emily is facing. She said what is interesting in these cases is that the children have a heightened awareness to detail and truly excel in particular areas academically. I suppose we'll see.

One thing I had promised was the surgeon's notes on the surgery. So I will transpose those for you now. Trust me, they're Greek to us as well. But there will be some items that make some sense. Happy reading. Hint: Read this at bedtime tonight. Sure fire way to put you to sleep. :)

The next post op is in one month.

Operative Report

Diagnosis:
1. Diastatemyelia
2. Syringomyelia
3. Tethered spinal cord
4. Scoliosis

Procedure:
1. Thoracic laminectomy with excision of intradural and extradural bony spicule.
2. Lumbar laminectomy with detethering of spinal cord.
3. Thoracic autograft osteoplastic laminoplasty.
4. The use of operating microscope for microsurgical dissection.

Estimated blood loss: 100 ml

The patient was taken from the OR to the postanesthesia care unit in stable condition. Needle and sponge were correct times 2.

Brief summary: Emily is a 2 year old female who has recently been adopted from China. The family has noticed that initially she would not walk; however, over time she has progressively gotten better. However, it is noted she has progressive scoliosis and they had a workup with an MRI scan evaluation due to concerns of tethered cord. This showed cervical spinal cord. Also, was suspicious for a tethering of her spinal cord and her lumbar spine. Due to all above, it was recommended to the family excision of the diastem and repair of her tethered cord. The risks, benefits, and alternatives of seizures, CSF leak, damage to the spinal cord resulting in weakness, numbness, paralysis, chronic pain syndrome, difficulties of walking, difficulties in bowel or bladder, sexual dysfunction, chronic pain syndrome, probable need for future requiring repeat multiple operations, heart attack, stroke, blindness, and death. The family understood all these risks and asked me to proceed with operative intervention.

Description of Procedure:
The patient was brought to the operating room and placed supine on the operating table. The patient was then intubated and had general endotracheal anesthesia begun. She was gently rooled supine to prone position on 2 chest rools. Previously appropriate IV access, arterial line and a Foley catheter been placed. She also had a preoperative EMG and SSEP monitoring started. It was noted throughout the case she occasionally had some minor abnormalities noted in the bilateral abductor longus in the bilateral lower extremities. These were only noted be brief and went away on their own. I then performed a lateral x-ray with towel clip over her small cutaneous abnormalities which correlated with her underlying deformities. After this was done, she was then prepped with DuraPrep solution and draped in routine sterile fashion. A 0.5% lidocaine with epinephrine was injected into the incision site. Preoperative IV antibiotics had been given.

An incision was then made over the lower lumbar spine with a 15 blade scalpel. Using electrocautery Bovie, dissection was carried down to the spine. There was noted to be an area where there was a large gap in the lamina. At this area, I easily removed the soft tissue and could easily see the dura. This was then sharply opened in this region and this felt like to be region of L5-S1. After this was opened, it is noted that this appeared to be a spinal cord with some abnormal tissue. There was noted to be nerve roots seemed to be coursing from this region. Therefore, I went a level below this and I noticed that there once again was a large defect in the bone. Once again, the soft tissue was removed over this area and it was noted that once again that there was suspicion that this may be active spinal cord. However, at this level was noted to be more fat and also noted be more scarred. Therefore, this incision was then extended further in the skin and then down over the sacrum. I then exposed the area where once again there was noted to be no lamina in this region. After the soft tissues were dissected free, the dura was then opened sharply with an 11 blade scalpel. I continued this dissection from the previous durotomy which was made above this. The operating microscope was then used. I then continued the microsurgical dissection after the operating microscope had been draped. With this I was able to free up the spinal cord, which at this time became just a mass of scarred fatty tissue. Once this tissue was freed up with, I used the nerve stimulator on the spinal cord and there was no action potentials. I then stimulated the higher part of the sacral region and we did get some anal sphincter contraction. I then inspected this area and I saw no known nerve roots coursing in the lower part of the sacrum. At this area, it was then gently bipolared and this area was then cut. Once this was done, the spinal cord shifted upwards nearly an inch indicating it was severely tethered. The end of this was then gently coagulated and cleaned up to prevent scarring. I placed 1 single 6-0 Prolene stitch in this region to reapproximated arachnoid so it performed a smoother stump. After this was done, the dura was then reapproximated primarily with 6-0 Prolene sutures in this region. Once again I only removed minimal bone in this region and therefore there was no bone to defect in her lower thoracic upper lumbar spoine. I then made incision with a 15 blade scalpel superiorly above this and extended all the way down to the previous incision. Then using electocautery Bovie dissection was carried down to the large boy overgrowth in this region with multiple levels of fused vertebra. Once again, there was noted to be multiple areas where there is also missing lamina. Just above this area where the diastem was, there was noted to be a large laminar defect. Started from this area then removed the lamina over the diastem and this area was completely excised until I easily saw a bony spicule causing the spinal cord to be split with 2 dura. At this time, using a high speed air drill, I extended the laminectomy several levels above this with a high speed air drill. These lamina were easily rotated superiorly and secured out of place. At this time the dura was then sharply opened with an 11 blade scalpel above and below this diastem. This dura was opened on both sides of the diastem that follow both spinal cords. Once this was done using 4-0 Nurolon sutures, the dura was then tacked up and placed out of the way. The operating microscope was then once again brought into the field and was used for the next part of the case. With using gentle dissection, I then stripped the dura away from this bony spicule. Once this was done, I then gently removed this bony spicule both with a rongeurs and also a high speed air drill with a micro diamond drill bit. This was done very carefully while protecting the spinal cord at all times. This was very difficult because initially the spinal cord could not really be mobilized on either side. However, once the bony spicule was removed the cords could be mobilized. I was then able to continue this down into where the spicula was now flush with the vertebral bodies. At this time, the spinal cord was noted be mobile was freed up in this region. I then reapproximated anterior part of the dura primarily with 6-0 Prolene suture. The posterior dura was then reapproximated primarily with 6-0 Prolene suture in running water tight fashion. However, it was noted there was a small area where the spicule was that I could not reapproximate this primarily. Therefore, a small dural patch was sewn in place with Dura repair. Once this was done, the eara was then copiously irrigated with bacitracin solution. I then replaced the 2 levels of the thoracic lamina that were normal to perform a thoracic laminoplasty with DLS titanium plates. Other lamina were noted to be abnormal and also part of this was removed to get exposure to the diastem. Once this was done, the area was then copiously irrigated with bacitracin solution again and then the incision was then closed in layers with 3-- and 4-0 Vicryl suture, then a 4-0 Vicryl Rapde to skin. The patient was taken form the OR to the postanesthesia care in stable condition.

Home at last!

I was able to go retrieve the rest of my family today around noon. So, needless to say, we're all home and resting. Emily is a bit restrained from mobility as can be expected. She was propped up against the fireplace with a pillow a good part of the afternoon.

I saw, for the first time, the incision on her back. Ugh! Maria Marcela told me that it was 10 inches long and sure enough, it's basically the full length of her back. She's definately sore, but doing very well.

She was put to bed a little while ago and was crying asking that her feet be covered.

There is yet to go through the complete details of the doctor's summary for the surgery. I hope to post that soon. There is a follow up appointment with the surgeon in two weeks.

Thus far, everything appears to be good. There is one aspect that makes it very difficult for us with her tendency to "cry wolf" so often. So we're unsure as to, when she cries out, whether it's something we should be concerned about. Needless to say, it keeps us hopping. Overall though, everything appears to be settling well. She is not experiencing chronic pain, just soreness that is realized whenever she is moved, OR whenever she realizes she's not getting what she wants. :)

Thanks again to everyone for expressing your concerns, and prayers.

Day 3 - Recovering after Surgery

Everything is looking a lot better. Emily is wanting to sit up and is able to take steps, go to the potty, but retaining some in her bladder.

She displays some discomfort when Maria Marcela tries to move her around.

The doctor came in this morning to see her and said she'll be staying tonight as well. They just want to be sure and take all precautions.

Some questions we have for the doctor is her rehab and also what the state of her split spine is or will be; whether it can be expected to come back together as normal.

At this point, Maria Marcela will stay with her again tonight. Andrew is in school today while I'm in the office.

Status - Day 2 after Surgery

We just had the doctor in and was told we can expect her to be here a couple more days. We're still holding out for her to be able to walk around by herself and also go to the potty. They want to see evidence that her bladder is working properly.

Maria Marcela will be staying at least another night while Andrew and I go home so he can go to school and I can go to work tomorrow.

Emily has stood up on her own. She's also tempermental when staff come in. Otherwise she is doing fine. Since she's prone to seek a great deal of sympathy, we're not too sure when it really hurts and doesn't. The doctor tells us that kids typically think they're hurting more than they really are, that it's more psychological. I just wonder if they got that information from a kid. ;)

The red blotch on her chin from being in that position for nearly 6 hours has cleared up.

Day after Surgery

Good morning. Maria stayed with Emily last night in ICU while Andrew and I went back to the hotel. She is just now being moved to a standard recovery room and we have yet to know if she'll be going home today.

She was put in ICU yesterday because of the difficulties they were having with the surgery yesterday. Due to the length of the surgery, she had lost stubstantial enough blood to require a transfusion. That may sound more serious than it is, I'm just not sure. It may be that they just had to give her some blood. Apparently she had suffered a drop in blood pressure, but she is fine. They had her in ICU just for precaution.

One thing they're concerned about now is the affects the surgery might have had on her nerves, particularly which may affect her bladder control. I suppose that is yet to be determined.

We still haven't received the full report from the doctors, but hope to get that and post it soon.

Moving to ICU for Recovery

Thought I'd go ahead and post this pic. It's strange that she's got that distinctive red spot on her chin. Of course it's there because of laying on it for 6 hours.

All is well. Maria is in with her and since they wouldn't allow Andrew in recovery, we're in the ICU waiting area. Probably will head back to the hotel once we get word on what's next.

Out of Surgery

After nearly six hours of waiting, we spoke to the neurosurgeon and he tells us the surgery was a success. He said it was very difficult however. They made one larger incision than two and upon making the first cut to release the cord, it expanded about an inch, which served as proof that she was in dire need of this surgery.

We're going to get the details in writing as requested since all we heard was that she was alright. I will hope to copy that to the blog.

She's now awake and moving her legs. We're told that they're going to call us back in about an hour. Maria will probably stay with her the afternoon while I take Andrew back to the hotel.

Something that just came to my attention as the doctor was talking with us was Andrew expressing deep concern for Emily. He just crawled up into my arms was moping and sighing. I asked him what was wrong and he said, "I'm just worried about Emily. Is she going to have to get stitches?"

Maria mentioned that he was earlier talking about how worried he was for her. He's alright about it all now after realizing that she is going to be fine.

Thanks again to everyone for thinking of us and Emily. This is her first step and a big one.

Will post more later.

What is Diastatomyelia?

Diastatomyelia is a condition where we have the spinal cord is split in the middle into two halves. Each half is surrounded by a separate dural sac. In between the two halves there is a fissure, which usually contains a bony spur or fibrous band, which arises from the back of the vertebral body and attaches itself to the vertebral arch. This condition is usually associated with other vertebral anomalies like scoliosis, wedge vertebra and other bony anomalies. Occasionally there is overlying cutaneous changes in the form of hairy patch or skin pigmentation. Sometimes there is a dermal sinus overlying that area. .

Notice the two round objects that look like fried eggs. That is the two separately enclosed segments of spinal cord. Some cases would present with limb and feet defects in the form of a wasted leg. Other bladder and bowel changes can also be present. Various motor or sensory changes are seen.

This condition is usually found in childhood. In cases it may be a tethered cord syndrome.

In Surgery Now

Just thought I'd drop an update and a few notes.

It's a few minutes after 10 a.m. We're in the waiting room now and just received a call from the operating room that they're going to be another 45 minutes to an hour, but she is doing fine.

Emily and I got up early this morning to be here by 6 a.m. She was very calm and even allowed me to take her ear rings out without any pouting. :) She likes her ear rings.

Anyway, she only became disturbed when the room we were in was suddenly bombarded by about 6-8 people. This was when they shot a burst of liquid in her nose to start sedating her. Here is a pic of her in hospital gown.

The other procedure I was trying to think of in the previous post is called "diastatomyelia" which is describing what they will do for the area where her spine splits in two and then comes back together.

One interesting thing occurred this morning when the doctor performing the surgery asked me if he could pray over her. I told him that we've had many people praying for her and I certainly wasn't going to turn down one more.

We'll give you more news as we receive it.

Thank you to all have expressed concern and prayed for her to be made whole physically.

Surgery is Upon Us!

Well, we just returned from Cook Children's hospital in Ft. Worth today for Emily's pre-op procedures, which basically was us paying them our deductible portion. Needless to say, with this, we've fulfilled the full amount for this year. Now, we're just hoping that we're not going to get hit with the full 10% of the $35,000 they are charging for the surgery. I guess it could be worse.

Anyway, they took blood to determine her blood type, which they didn't tell us yet, what it is and then we had to wait around for the anesthesiologist to determine that she was prepared for the surgery. The notes of her having had heart problems was enough to alarm them and confirm that there weren't any complications. It was somewhat disturbing to us that they hadn't done their homework to gather that information before we came. Which they had access to. Anyway...

Surgery is scheduled for Monday morning at 8 a.m. And since they want us there at 6 a.m., we've opted to stay in a hotel there close by, particularly since she will be there overnight, maybe two, depending on her recovery and the success of the procedure.

Here is what they're going to be doing: Probing and discovery of condition. Untether cord from vertebrae in 3 different places. Address a particular spot of which the term escapes me right now. The doctor anticipates 6 hours of surgery time.

We'll keep you posted on this channel.

6 month Follow Up

From what we understand, Chinese authorities (don't know which ones) require our adoption agency to assure that we complete a 6 and 12 month post adoption homestudy follow up.

We just had our 6 month follow up with our home study agent Janie Cravens, from Austin. Janie has been involved with our journey of adoption since the start.

We had to supply her some information and meet with her personally, which we did this past Sunday.

I will copy and paste the information plus four photos required at this stage.

POST PLACEMENT SUPERVISION (CHINA)
DATE OF REPORT: September 7, 2008

Adoptive parents name: John and Maria Snyder
Address: 8108 Stern Street, Frisco, TX 75035

Profession(s): Information Technology/Computer and Homemaker

Child’s Given Chinese name: Wei, Ming Su
Date of Birth: 1/19/2006
Name Changed To: Emily Mei Snyder
Health Status at adoption: [if special needs, briefly describe the issues] Scoliosis and Spina bifida, one kidney, misshaped skull, unable to walk due to inactivity and malnourishment.

PLACEMENT HISTORY:

A. Date of arrival in China: 1/14/2008
B. Travel Approval Certificate Number: Need clarification of what this is. I’m putting several numbers in the body of the email.
C. Date of Adoption: 2/19/2008
D. Place of Adoption: Tianjin, China
E. Welfare Institution: Institute of Children’s Welfare Tianjin, Center for Rehab of Disabled Children Tianjin
F. Date of Arrival in USA: 2/29/2008
G. Date of Post Placement Visit: 9/7/2008
H. Date of Court Validation: [actual or anticipated] 6/6/2008, District Court of Collin County, Texas
I. Citizenship: [either put USA and give date; or write “Chinese” if child is not yet a citizen] USA, 2/29/2008
J. Social Security Number Received?: [yes or no] yes

ADJUSTMENT TO THE HOME:

A. What routines have your and the child established? Meeting with Chinese born friends, meeting with other adoptee parents. Children’s playgroups weekly, daily interaction with older brother.

Wakes up around 8 a.m., eats breakfast, plays or other interactivity with children, lunch, plays and/or activities, dinner around 7 p.m. Bedtime at 8 p.m. Sleeps about 12 hours nightly. Rarely wakes up in the middle of night.

How are they eating and sleeping? Yes, very well.

B. How is your child bonding with your family? How are you adjusting to parenthood? How is the child relating to other family members? Child is bonding to all of the family, as well as extended family in east Texas and Boston area. The parents have little adjustment since this is not their first child.

C. Extended family & community reaction to child: Everyone is in love with this child and received very well.

D. Any significant changes in the family? The only significant changes are the visits to the doctors and clinics in preparation for you corrective surgeries to treat the scoliosis and spina bifida.

E. Daycare or school information: Taking a music class one day a week sponsored by the local community.

HEALTH:

A. Child’s health at placement: Malnourished and unable to walk, otherwise good.

B. Pediatric visits & immunizations: Update to date.

Current weight and height: 22 lbs. 29 inches long

C. Illnesses? Treatments needed – Other than a cold this past July, there has been no illness.

D. Physical stamina/development (include gross and fine motor skills): Doing very well, with the exception of her scoliosis restricting her from raising her right arm above her head. She walks but on a slant due to her the severe curvature of her spine. She is sometimes off balance due to the condition.

F. Intellectual development/personality: She is developing a very close relationship with her big brother who she mimics and repeats everything he says.

G. How is speech developing: She understands much of what we say. She can speak many words in English. And few words in Chinese and Spanish.

Why we adopted...

We've been asked a few times why we chose to adopt, particularly since we have a son biologically. I'm going to keep this as short and to the point as possible, which, as I write that, am having serious doubts that's going to happen.

Maria Marcela and I, shortly after being married, and quite possibly even before we were hitched, spoke about children and more specifically about the prospect of adopting. We both agreed that it was a possibility for our future, especially given that we did not know if we could have our own.

We chose to begin trying for a child biologically. We've been very blessed to have Andrew of whom I'm sometimes fearful of the love I have for him. That may sound strange to some and would probably deserve some explaining of its own. I'll refrain for now.

Needless to say, after having Andrew, for whatever reason, it was confirmed in our minds to seek adoption. To put it as plainly as we can, we were just simply led to make this decision. After plainly seeing that having our own flesh and blood is one thing, we still questioned when faced with the option to bring a nonexistent child into this world as opposed to taking an existing life and giving it a home.

Based on that, it was an easy decision for us. We remained hopeful that God would lead us through this process.

When we first inquired of adoption with an agency in Dallas in the summer of 2005, we sought first to go domestic. It only made sense to us at the time. However, we were met with so many obstacles such as my age (yes I'm getting older); the fact that we can have children biologically put us at the back of every list; not to mention the potential risks of having been given a child only to lose it to it's biological parents in a court order.

We next sought South America, Central America, then Europe, and then Russia. The fact that we were seeking an infant girl solidified China as our choice.

Given that China still has the one child law, the fact that the culture dictates that most families choose to have a boy who will grow up and support the parents. And then finally, the fact that the culture also dictates that children with handicaps are usually shunned, kept indoors and never taken out to society for the mere belief that the family is cursed and it is a shame to family to have such a child.

So, as you can see Wei Ming Su, now Emily Mei Snyder, had 3 strikes against her. Some may say she's a very fortunate child and we've done a good thing...

We say we are fortunate that our Creator allowed as much as to bring her our way and change all of our lives forever.

Emily has certainly weaved herself into our family and admittedly, at times, she can seem as a stranger that has come into our lives and in our midst. But I'll tell you...I felt the very same way the moment Andrew made his first appearance that day in October of 2003.

Life is anything but normal. But then again, what is normal? I believe it to be an existing culture's way of saying, accept me. We're not necessarily seeking that road.

As any parent will attest, having children is an aspect of life that is gained from taking the focus off of ourselves who provide for our own needs, wants and desires. But all of the sudden, it's realized that true happiness is when we've given of ourselves entirely and completely. It is no surprise that we mimic what our very own creator does for us.

At the end of our lives, it isn't what wealth or social status we've acquired that determines our success and fulfillment, but what is on our heart and how much of that heart has been laid upon others...an orphan, a widow, a complete stranger.

Don't be duped into thinking we've accomplished that. We can only hope to be going down that road.

Status Check - July 30, 2008

Just wanted to give an update.

We're all currently up in Boston visiting with Maria Marcela's family for several weeks and introducing Emily to the other side of the family.

Some good news, or so it would appear, on the medical financial front. We were able to find another pediatric neurosurgeon over in Ft. Worth who is in our insurance company's network. So, needless to say, the original surgery scheduled for August has, at the very least, been postponed and Emily will be visiting a Dr. Johnny Honeycutt, and then hoping that a surgery will be rescheduled very soon for the untethering of the cord.

I was going to post more, but my son is interrupting me to go outside and swing. Priorities...

Facing Medical Procedures

Maria Marcela found an excellent link that describes Emily's condition almost perfectly.

http://neurosurgery4kids.net/tetheredspinalcord.htm

The latest situation we're facing is sorting out the surgery that needs to take place in order to untether the cord. The doctor we're now seeing happens to be 'out of network' for our insurance company, Blue Shield of CA. It's just lovely dealing with insurance companies. Anyway, what we're being told is that we're certain to get hit with at least 30% of a $28,000 doctor's fee for this surgery. And on top of that, this insurance company is notorious in not even paying the full 70% of it's share. They determine for themselves, what they want to pay, which will leave the balance to you know who to pay.

We're trying to find doctors in the network and are striking out since there are no other pediatric neurosurgeons in the area.

At this point, Emily is slated for surgery in mid August, but it looks like that will change since they told us that pre op procedures need to be done earlier than what they initially told us and we had just purchased tickets for Maria and the kids to fly up to Boston for a month.

Otherwise, life is going good. Emily is putting her hand to the test of bleeding us for any ounce of sympathy. So I'm told can be typical of a girl. She's also on course for her potty training.

We'll keep you posted.

Medical Updates

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted. There has been, as you can imagine, a lot that has taken place.

First of all, I'm happy to report that Emily has been walking, almost running, for over 2 weeks now. Though she has a definate crook to her walk, she is becoming more and more able to balance herself and get around quite well.

Also, in the last week, she has had success in the potty training department. As we realized when we first met her, that she was close to have having been potty trained, we did not focus our attentions on that. However, now she is close to being fully trained.

As for medical, well, each week since the specialist we saw a month ago, she's had, on average, of 3 tests or visits to specialists.

Here is the rundown:

On May 5th, we made our visit to the Scottish Rite hospital of Dallas in which we were assigned to Dr. Dan Sucato. This hospital comes highly recommended for treating Emily's condition. They had asked if we would be willing to allow them to use Emily's results for research that could be used for future cases. We consented. It doesn't mean anything other than we allow them to share the results. She will not receive any type of experimental treatments.

Next was an MRI of her body, an MRI of her head, x-rays, a visit to the cardiologist, eurologist, neurologist, craniofacial specialist. From all of this, we learned that she is minus one kidney. Her heart is sound, except with a slight murmer, but nothing to be concered about. The neurologist explained to us that the first MRI did not show what she needed in order to make a good evaluation on the steps she will take in surgery, so she is ordering another MRI for this Friday. Surgery is scheduled for August 12th to untether the chord. And supposedly, 6 months later, an evaluation made. If all is well, they will proceed with correcting the spine.

I am going to post some more recent pics on http://www.flickr.com/johnnysnyder

Orthopedic Specialist's Diagnosis/Prognosis

It's been some time since my last post and I believe I still owe a post explaining why we chose to adopt. I will save that for later.

In the meantime, this past Monday she had her initial consultation with the specialist and our hopes of her condition being better than we thought were somewhat dashed.

Here's the lowdown:

Scoliosis - hemivertebrae
Syrinx
Hemicords, Bomi Bai ?
Diastomatomyelia

What does this mean? What we were told is that the only positive thing we have to go on here is that she is moving around, able to stand and will be walking in the next few weeks...surprisingly. He is amazed that she is not paraplegic.

However, her condition is quite severe and if left to itself, she would likely die of lung failure before reaching 10 years old.

It is such that the spine is developing in a way that it is split at a point and then comes back together. At that point of the split is a sack of fluid. All of this in combination of her spine curvature.

Bottom line...she will be needing surgery as soon as possible to start correcting this. Otherwise, over the next 2 years, the lungs will not be allowed to develop properly, along with other vital organs.

We're waiting to see a neurologist to determine when they should sever the spinal cord during these procedures. Also, the specialist just wants someone else's opinion from that standpoint.

Our fear is that she's moving around quite freely now and almost able to walk. By messing with the chord, we're hoping she won't be left paralyzed.

We're told that she will be receiving surgeries at the rate of every 6 months and a team of other doctors will be in on the process.

Apparently, we will get to know them all very well over the next 20 years.

As with anything like this, it's always advisable to get a second opinion, which we plan to do. Not that we don't trust this specialist. It just would be foolish in the medical world not to, especially when we're talking about serious procedures.

Emily is extremely happy in her new home. Her serious looks have been replaced with laughter and teasing. She mimics Andrew's words and it will be no time before she is in on the conversations.

I'll keep you all posted as we move forward.

Medical Results - Thursday, March 13th

Maria Marcela received a phone call from the doctor yesterday with Emily's blood test results. Thankfully everything came back normal. There were no signs of lead poisoning which is one of the common things they look for in children coming from particular environments such as a highly polluted city as Tianjin is.

We are still waiting for the stool sample results, which should come later. Next will be her appointment with the specialist to determine the severity and recommended treatment for her spine. Aside from her condition, she is definately gaining strength and it wouldn't surprise me if she is walking in a few months. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but it's a definate possibility. We're giving her some goat's milk that we got from my mother in east Texas this past weekend.

On that note, we had them all over for the weekend to introduce Emily to her extended family and we also enjoyed a wonderful welcome home gathering Saturday night over at John and Becky Elliott's home in McKinney. Monica Noguera-Jedamski, Jeannette Gordon-Reinoso and Becky were terrific in hosting with about 50 people in attendance.

On another note, throughout this whole process, many people have asked about our adoption and why. In the next post, I hope to answer that.

Settling In - Friday, March 7th

Just an update to this week's events.

Emily had her primary doctor's visit on Wednesday, so we're still waiting for the blood test results to come back. However, what we got from the doctor regarding her condition thus far is that she has an abnormally rapid heart rate, the flattened portion on the right backside of her skull might could have been corrected had she been given a special type of helmet before her front lobes had closed. There will be further tests to determine the seriousness of both and whether anything can be done.

The red spidery web looking blotch on her back is thought to be a birth mark. Man, what a birth mark. Interestingly, Andrew has a dark area on his back since birth, but no comparison in size.

The TB test came back negative.

All is going well at home. She is certainly settling in to her surroundings and, more importantly, "ba ba". That's me.

Today, Maria went to the chiropractor and left her with me. We're becoming quite chummy, although she sporadically feels the need to counteract my supposed male dominance. A trait that I've most recently been unfortunate to encounter. But that's another story...

Anyway, Emily allows me to hold her. She lays her head on my shoulder. So, all is good. More later. Guests have just arrived and I'm ready for a drink.

How to Subscribe to New Posts

Ok, what I originally suspected is true. At the bottom of the post page, there is an option to "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)".

When you click on this, it will open a new browser window, under the main heading is a hyperlink allowing you to subscribe to the newsfeed. By clicking on this link, it will open a small window telling you it will, by default, put it into your favorites center along with Favorites (bookmarks) and History of your internet browser under feeds and will update daily.

Having never done this before, I'm not certain as to the way it functions. I, myself, have subscribed and hope to let you know as I find out more.

Another family's blog and thanks...

Upon returning home, I thought to look at one of the other family's blog that was in our group and frankly, I wish I had looked at it before our trip and taken the time to put a little more into ours. Anyway, in case you're interested, I would certainly encourage you to look at it. I believe there to be more details to the trip and their personal experiences.

http://ladmans.blogspot.com/

Also, if I have already mentioned it, I'm going to mention it again. I can't imagine having taken this trip without Beatriz and Anamaria. It made all the difference in the world having them with us to help, support and share in our experiences. I want to thank Ana for incredible photography that we would not have otherwise had. What an amazing record we have to pass on to Emily when she is of age to become interested in her heritage. Not to mention, the recollection of the memories we shared.

I wanted to ask if anyone knows of a way to subscribe to the blog in order to know when a new post has been uploaded. Reason being is that I will probably continue to post updates now and then. Particularly the results we receive when we take her to the family doctor this week and, more importantly, the diagnosis of her scoliosis from the specialist we will be seeing on April 7th.

Anyway, I don't anyone to have to keep checking and there not be anything new posted.

Oh, I do want to report that Emily is yelling out "Ba Pa" and "Ma Ma" quite a lot and it seems certain she is referring to me, obviously on the "Ba Pa" part.

As I might have mentioned, when we picked Emily up, we were given a journal that was either kept by the foster family or the representative at the orphanage. Either way, I have a few resources in which I'm hoping to get it translated. I will share those findings as soon as I get them.

Formal Statement

Since Andrew was sick the Friday Ana and I went to visit Emily's birth town, I had not posted the info. I think I gave a different name for the city, but it should be Jinghai. Below is the formal announcement from the orphanage's president proclaiming her to be an orphan. I believe she used the same wording from the announcement in the Tianjin Legal News that ran from March 13 to May 12, 2006:

This is to certify that Wei Mingsu (female, born on January 19, 2006) was abandoned at the north coal room of the doorway of a resident home, No. 9, Row 1, Dongfanghong Road, Jinghai Town, Jinghai County, Tianjin on February 9, 2006 and was found at the same place herein above. The local Xicheng Police Station of Jinghai Branch, Tianjiin Municipal Public Security Bureau had searched for her parents or relatives, but nobody claimed that she was the daughter of them. After that she was affirmed as an abandoned child and was sent to Institute of Children's Welfare Tianjin by the said police station on February 9, 2006. Her biological parents or other relatives can not be found up to now.

President: Feng Liwei

Institute of Children's Welfare Tianjin (January 23, 2008)

The first pic is the address with copy of the newspaper announcement (you can find the larger pic on Flickr), then the residence where she was found and finally, our guide, Wendy, showing me the coal room. Apparently, a passerby found her and took her to the police.

Anybody for scorpion soup?

I know this may seem strange, to post this at this time, but I thought this was sooo strange on our trip, that I had to show the photo as I described in a previous post of us going through the China market.

This woman is funneling a measure of live scorpions into a container. From the four bowls, there were four different varieties to choose from.

For a larger view of this, you can click on the post title above and it should take you directly to the photo on flickr.com/johnnysnyder.

Our Welcome Home!

It was so nice landing in DFW. Actually the flight from San Francisco to here seemed like a breeze. Both kids slept and I sat there in a stupor thinking about how life will never be the same.

We arrived the baggage claim to the welcome signs of the Brent, Corrie, Lily and Ethan Kern who were so kind to come pick us all up in two cars. We had to put a claim on a bag that we lost somewhere around Hong Kong. But the good news is that it was located and it is in transit. They say they're going to deliver it to our home thankfully.

Emily seems to be right at home and very comfortable with her new surroundings.

Maria is putting her to bed right now and it's been pretty consistent since we've had her of her putting up a fight of going to bed. We let her cry it out and she's usually gone within minutes.

There's a great deal of adjustment for this little girl and us, for that matter.

In regards to Emily being a citizen, we were told that she becomes one at the moment we had the immigration officer stamp her passport. We got a guy that doesn't seem to do it very often and he was very nervous. In fact, he did some stamps, a few signatures and said go on through, I'll finish this all up later.

I still have a few pics I want to post regarding the location that Emily was originally found. However, there on the other PC and I'll have to do that later.

It's been fun sharing our trip with everyone via this blog and I hope you've been able to get a good taste and experience of what we went through. It's certainly a trip to remember, in more ways than one. There will be a day that Emily will want to know every detail of this trip. And maybe, even yet, a trip of her own to Tianjin, China.

On the way home from the airport today, Brent Kern was asking something I was already thinking about regarding the blog. The fact that I seemed to be picking up some of the ways the Chinese speak English, always in the present tense.

Well, I knew that there were some serious typos and incoherent thoughts when posting some late nights and I was inclined to go back and correct them. However, thought later that if I did that it might take away from the essence of the moment. There's no doubt I've got a writer's problem of typing before I think and it's not unusual for me to put double words or different spelling of the same word, etc. Maybe some day I can go back to 6th grade grammar.

In the meantime, I'm going to go with it being late nights and preoccupation.

Home, sweet Texas!

Hi all -
Well, the long flights are over and we are back at the Snyder household in Texas! Everyone is happy to be back and maybe even happier to not have had a meal consisting of rice or noodles. Monica, Tony and Ana Karina welcomed us back with yummy enchilada pie!
Transition to the States has been easy for Emily. She has decided that the kitchen floor is one of her favorite spots in the house. She crawls in there and lies on her back as if she was doing the backstroke and giggles away! Needless to say, she seems to be very much at home! She is enjoying herself playing with Andrew's toys and even more exciting, she is crawling around looking for Johnny and yelling "ba ba".... which I can't remember if we told you, but it means daddy!
It's been a great trip and an incredible experience. Look forward to more stories from these guys!
-ana

We're Home!!

Just a quick note saying we're home safe. I'll update more in the next hour or so on how our day went.

So happy to return to familiar surroundings.

Last Day - Returning Home

Well, mission accomplished. Today we went, along with probably 50-75 other families, to the U.S. Consulate and gave our oath that the information we supplied was true and thereby, received a single entry USA travel visa for Emily on her Chinese passport. Her Chinese passport is under her name given at the orphanage, Wei Ming Su. After 45 days, we should receive her certificate of citizenship for the U.S.A. and with that apply for her social security card and U.S. passport. All of this under her new name Emily Mei Snyder.

Today was quite quick and painless, aside from the bus ride over there and herding everyone up 5 stories.

We took it easy today and we're all packed ready to come home. We're actually waking up in the morning 5 a.m. local time, eating breakfast and leaving for the airport around 7 a.m. We're taking a flight from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, then to San Francisco (this is the rough leg), and finally back to DFW, arriving around 4 p.m. CST. So, while you're sleeping tonight, we'll be on a jet plane. And man, do I ever hope we're sleeping too.

I want to remind you of the photos I uploaded yesterday at http://www.flickr.com/johnnysnyder. There are over 2000 for this trip alone. Also, you might be interested to know that we had around 500 different people to view the blog with over 1300 different visits altogether. So that averages over 2 visits to the blog per person (computer). We realize there are many households that have more than one person reading.

Also, I want to thank everyone for posting comments. We had fun keeping in touch with you by this means and really appreciate the encouragement given.

I'm sure I will give an update upon our return home.

There's a couple of stories that I've wanted to convey to you in the blog along the way and I, for whatever reason, keep forgetting to post it at the time. Anyway, at this point, I can only remember one of them and think it's a little amusing.

The other day when we had to take Emily, along with other adopted children, to the clinic for the routine exam in applying for the visa, we were waiting outside the clinic for a moment and an adopted young boy, with his new parents had pulled up the zipper on his jacket and the folds of the skin on his neck had become stuck in the zipper. Well, as you can imagine, there was a little panic, not much, but a little. It's not every day you get your skin stuck in a zipper. Anyway, in it all several of us came over to offer some assistance and in it all and me trying to offer a calm word to the situation blurted out, "oh, it's probably worse than it looks." The adopting mother stopped, turned and just looked at me. I did not immediately realize what I had actually done in saying completely opposite of what I had intended on saying. Well, to say the least, after all of the humiliation had passed, we had a good laugh about it. Oh, and the boy was fine, without a scratch.

Seeing as though we're getting up early, I better get to sleep.

Posted by Beatriz

Thoughts on China


This trip to China has been a real eye opener. It isn't at all what we had imagined. In fact it's much better, well in general. I've been very pleased to see that the people of China have indeed entered the modern world. They seem to have the things they need. The stores are very well stocked with all kinds of merchandise, plenty of food and all the everyday necesities. There are literally thousands of enormous apartment buildings where we are told the workers live in one and two bedroom apartments. No need for more space since they only have one child per couple.
From what we have seen, the Chinese seem to be very loving parents, and many of them have expressed surprise and a bit of sadness when I mention that I now have 6 grandchildren. Chinese grandparents apparently can only hope for a maximum of 2, one on each side. But there are so, so many people, that I can't imagine what it would be like if they didn't have the one child policy.

It has also been a surprise to see that in an atheist society such as this one, many people still practice Buddahism. We actually visited a temple called the "Flower Pagoda" where people were burning incense and I guess were praying for "good luck and prosperity", which seem to be a bit of an obsession here in China.

On the other hand, yesterday we walked through what I call the real "China Town". Boy what an experience! It was a big long narrow street with all sorts of little shops on either side, with people selling whatever they could get their hands on. I can't even begin to describe it, so maybe you can get an idea from the photographs that will be posted. Suffice it to say that it not only tainted the good image that I had of this country, but it also ruined my supper!

Well, pictures speak louder than words, so if you look at them, you will see many beautiful and not so beautiful things in China, but if anyone asks me whether or not it was worth coming here, I would answer, "of course." It's always worth a trip to see how the rest of the world lives. The Chinese people are extremely friendly and curious about foreigners. They seem to be content with the way their country is developing, and are always comparing life today with what life was like 20 or 30 years ago in China. Of course I assume that we've seen the better side of China. Hopefully the other side isn't as bad as we think. But who knows, there so many people!!

Guangzhou Zoo

I forgot to post the pic from the other day in which the adopting families traditionally take here at the White Swan called "the Red Couch" photo.

We visited the zoo today and had a special treat visiting the lions. There was one lion roaring and rather loud too. We could hear from across the park. I had recorded it, but the recording is broken up. I think I will still post a clip so you can get the idea.
On our return from the zoo, we got word from the consulate that all of our paperwork is in order and we're good for the signing tomorrow.
This afternoon we bought our lunch at the deli just outside the hotel and brought it back to our room since it was a little chilly outside.


After having our usual coffee, we walked around a park area, allowed Andrew to play with Emily looking on. Then stopped at a restaurant near the hotel called "Lucy's" which had very good authentic food for a reasonable price. We found that we had to pull our our yuan together and still had to throw in $15 US dollars to pay our bill since this restaurant didn't take credit card.

On our way home, we stopped by a JC Muran Chef restaurant in which, I think I mentioned, has all the tanks in front for you to choose your dinner entree. I suggest those with weak stomach not look at these. I particularly found the water beetle of interest. Along with that is the sandworm, snakes and frogs.

I am in the midst of uploading all of Ana's pics she has taken since last Wednesday. They are quite nice. And though there are many, they are certainly worth going through each and everyone one of them. We have mixed in ones that we have taken. So, when you see a bad shot, you may understand. : )

China Town in China Town?

If you can imagine going to China Town of an actual China Town, we did it. Today, we went to what they call the Pearl Market and did a little shopping. We had taken a taxi there and opted to walk back. On the walk, what we saw, ugh. We went through the Chinese herb section and saw things like dried lizard on a stick, dehydrated seahorses, thousands of them. Apparently this is considered an aphrodisiac. And as if we had seen enough, there was an open shop with three large trays, each having a different variety of scorpions in them. These were thousands of live scorpions being served up to the interested buyer and funneled into a jar. These things were on display in such a way that a child could accidentally fall into or place their hand into the batch. What a sight.

On our way back, we did our usual Starbucks stop, did a little souvenir shopping, picked up laundry at a local shop and then back to the room.


This evening we spent probably 45 minutes going from restaurant to restaurant trying to decide what place wouldn't turn our stomach. The first place outside our hotel had seafood and really I should call it "see" food, because everything that was being served was out front in fish tanks or buckets. Things like shark, eel, turtle and things that I don't want to describe. My attention focused on one container on the floor in which I had to look closer thinking it was small turtles, but then realizing that it was large water beetles swimming around. As you can imagine, we opted to come back to the hotel and decided on the restaurant that we normally eat our breakfast at.

We're back now and all are in bed and I'm heading that way. Very tired.

Today, Emily has become noticeably more comfortable with molding into our family. She was instigating teasing and playfulness on most every occasion. She was actually searching ME out on most occasions to get my attention and tease with me.

It was a most interesting day. The river that our hotel is situated on, "the Pearl", is lit up tonight with every shop and tree shining all it's lights. Why on a Tuesday night, we don't know. It wasn't like it last night.

We had a funny misunderstanding the other night. Each night the staff comes to the rooms to provide an extra service. Well, the first time we experienced it, we were in the room and they knocked. Ana answered the door and they stated what they were here for. Ana turned and told us that there were hear to give us the "$10 dollar service". We all looked at each other and later discovered what they were trying to tell us was the "turn down service". We had a good laugh. The service was to remove the bed covers, place a towel at the foot of each bed with slippers and put chocolates at the head of the bed in a persimmon looking container. They probably did some other things that we weren't aware of.

Before we called it a night, Ana, Andrew and I went up to the 27th floor and looked out over the river. Ana got some shots and I shot some video. It likened to the Vegas strip.

I forgot to mention that around noon today, all the adopting families in our group got together for what they call the "red couch" photo. It's just us all gathering with the kids for a photo to remember the occasion by.

Goodnight and good day.

Made in China

I guess I didn't have such an original idea regarding the t-shirt. They sell them in almost every shop. So, apparently, no offense taken over here.

ge ge means big brother.

Monday, Feb 25th - The Homestretch

Good morning. It's strange knowing that we're ending our day just as the majority of you all are beginning yours.

We had a busy day today, first starting with all of the documentation this morning at 10 a.m. with 6 other families and our guide helping us fill out the paperwork in applying for our child's visa to the U.S.A. After getting together about 20 documents, pulling together fees...$400 for the visa and 468 rmb for the medical exam, we were done in about almost 2 hours.

Afterwards, Beatriz, Anamaria, Andrew and I went down the street from the hotel and sat out on the patio of Lucy's Bar and had a burger. It's been overcast and misting since yesterday, with the temperature in the 60s. A little cool for my blood, but still moderate and least not windy. We brought back a sandwich for Maria Marcela who stayed behind allowing Emily to nap.

At 2:30, we all headed down to get Emily's visa photo taken and then to the medical clinic for routine examinations required upon requesting travel visas. Emily did great with the exception of a little crying when he probed her ears. We were surprised when he examamined her to have seen bruising on her tailbone and a bright red spidery blotch on her right rear shoulder blade. We didn't understand how we missed it before, but also realized that we didn't really do a thorough lookover on her either since we've had her. We're anxious to get more details on this to determine the seriousness of it.

On our walk back from the clinic, we stopped for a Starbucks coffee break. Emily is definately becoming more playful with me and warming as each day passes. I believe she's realizing that we not only do not pose a threat to her but that we're most certainly tending to her needs. She seems to really be reaching a comfort level with us. I should say me. She had that with Maria from the get go.

We did a little walking around and stopped in some shops. Every store offers laundry service very inexpensively, but it appears that they may send it all to one or two laundrys.

I want to interject here before I keep forgetting, and mention an expression that Andrew was using back in Tianjin where we were experiencing all the fireworks. I believe it came up today and he mentioned it again. Anyway, he says fireworks for fireworks, but as for firecrackers, he has an interesting way of pronouncing them as...firecratchers. The cuteness of it is beyond how I can explain it, if you can imagine.

This evening, we decided to order in for pizza, so we got a thin crust grilled chicken and onion from Papa John's. It was terrific and the even better news was that Andrew ate 2 full slices. So, it would seem that his appetite is on the mend and nearly back to normal after nearly 4 days of misery.

When we sit around and chat, our conversation seems to inevitably center or come back to the fact of amazement that we're here in China. A country that none of us thought we'd ever be in or go to. We all agreed though, travel to a foreign land is such an invaluable education that can never compare to a classroom or video.

I'm adding a few pics tonight from yesterday and today. First is Andrew with a few of his fans. You can tell how thrilled he is. The next is us at the buddhist pogoda. The scene with the waterfall is our hotel lobby area. Ana and Beatriz while we're out strolling around the neighborhood and then finally heading into the Starbucks.

I haven't been able to copy Ana's pics over yet, but there are many. I hope to have them soon. I will post the few that Maria Marcela has taken on Flickr right now.

Until tomorrow...

What am I thinking?...

I can't believe I signed off without saying anything about Emily.

She is doing great and becoming more and more attached to mama. She is warming up to the idea that I'm around, but she's making it very clear that she's not turning over any warm fuzzies to me any time soon. That's alright though. I'm patient in this department for some unknown reason, but I'm fine with it. At least for now. I feel compelled to not force the issue.

I am taking advantage of opportunities to pick her up. Some are good, some are...well, not so good. As long as she knows she's got Maria there as her option, it's "I can't get away from this guy fast enough."

She let's me feed her. She's always got an open mouth.

It would be interesting to know how she was treated in order to define her actions now.

Anyway, there's plenty of time for the rest.

To give you a little bit on her. It's hard to tell the seriousness of her condition. She is able to crawl, but she is largely dependant on the use of her arms and she goes about as if her legs are lifeless, however, she is able to stand next to something as long as she can lean against it. Ana and Maria Marcela have stood her up, holding her arms and she's taken steps, so there's something there definately. She may, in addition to her scoliosis, be malnourished. The way she eats anything put in front of her and the way she guards her food, makes us think she rarely had a full belly, so to speak.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but we had come across some caligraphy with names and their meanings. And believe it or not, the name Emily means the same as Mei in Chinese, "beautiful". Maria Marcela had no idea of that when she picked the names. She just knew she liked them.

Ok, now I really need to get into bed.

More later.

Guangzhou!!

Let me first say that Andrew is better. Since waking up Friday morning from food poisoning, it's taken him this long to be semi back to normal. He's still not 100% and doesn't have his appetite back, but at least he's holding food down.

He was pretty much out of it all day Friday and most of the day Saturday. Which, if you know me, I couldn't really think about much else with him ailing like he was.

As for everything else, I last left off writing Thursday with me and Anamaria making a trip to the town Emily was found...a city southwest of Tianjin about 20 miles called Jinxing, I may have that spelling wrong. Anyway, we supposedly located the actual address and the coal storage room she was found near. Sadly, when we were inquiring, the residence thought we were asking about babies that had been left there more recently, one of which did not make it.

We learned that the residents themselves did not discover Emily, but it was a passerby that took her to the local police. And from the newspaper notice that was placed asking for whom would claim to be her parents, she was taken to the orphanage the same day she was found. Of course her birth day of 1/19/06 is an estimate given by the attending physician.

I took my video camera so I don't have any stills, however Ana does and I hope to have those uploaded to Flickr over the next day along with all the other pics since last Wednesday/Thursday to now.

The day after was our day to hop a Southern China airline and fly to Guangzhou, we recognize it more by the name of Canton. Speaking of which, you probably already know, but Beijing used to have the name as we knew Peking. Anyway, the flight was good and yet miserable, at least for Andrew and us feeling terrible for him. He managed the flight without losing his guts though, which was good. That morning was the last time he was to have lost it.

The flight was 2 hours and 45 minutes, but not before we checked in over an hour early and waiting on the plane before takeoff another 30-45 minutes.


We arrived Guangzhou and obtained our luggage all fine. There was one sad point of the flight that we're still trying to recover from though...they confiscated our bottle of scotch at the security check point in Tianjin. Gloom and despair and agony on me...oh oh!


I'm hoping you all can discern when I'm using candor in my posts and when not, otherwise we've got a problem. :)

As for Guangzhou, the warmer climate was very welcoming, probably in the mid 70s when we arrived. Also, the hotel with a tremendous amount of amenities that we Western folk are used to. We're so spoiled, it's ridiculous. The hotel room is interestingly smaller than what we had in Tianjing, but the choices of food and also...get this...this hotel is grand central station for all adopting families in China. There is a secondary choice of hotel around the corner for those who wish to have it. Otherwise, this is it, since all babies have to receive their visa in this city at the American consulate.

It's not just the adopting families though. This hotel is a 5 star hotel that would rate very close to what we may experience in the states, so there are many travelers coming through here for business and leisure. The hotel sits on, what they say, an island. Somehow the Pearl River meanders around it. It's quite a large river that looks to be a quarter mile or more across.

We got checked in and came back down for dinner in which they were offering a grand buffet for $40 per person. We weren't that hungry, so we opted to order off the menu. This buffet though, it had it...caviar, every kind of seafood, and I mean every kind. For a person that isn't that familiar with eating things like sea cucumbers, oysters, things I've never seen before, it kind of disrupted my appetite. There were all types of breads, meats, etc. The restaurant faced the river with the whole wall being all glass.

Our hotel is 28 floors high with maybe 150 rooms per floor. I would say that the majority of the visitors were adopting families.

Every place we've stayed, the breakfast has been included, so you can imagine how we're taking advantage of chowing down during this meal.

This morning, after breakfast, we went on a group tour and visited a buddhist monastery not far from the hotel. It had a pagoda about 9 stories high in which it was originally built around 500 a.d. They offered to have the monks bless the children. Some did, we declined. As we entered, they offered incense sticks to light and burn. It was apparent that many come to pay tribute or homage to buddha. I'm not really clear on whether they see buddha as a god. At least now I'm not. Previous to today, I thought they did, but I was told today that is not necessarily the case. Either way, let's just say I'm not racing the embrace the religion. But then again, I'll have to claim ignorance to a large degree.

After we left there, we went to an artist's venue in which we watched painting with hand and fingernail, no brush...very interesting and very talented. We bought a few things and bring them home to show you. We also have pics so you can see online soon.

Finally, a little shopping. Mostly arts and crafts. Then back to the hotel. We grabbed lunch at a deli that is out back of the hotel and yet connected. The breads were tremendous. I just bought several simply because they looked beautiful. They were tasty as well. We bought sandwiches and drinks.

This afternoon, we came back, allowed Emily to take a nap while Andrew, Ana and I scouted out the hotel and it's shops. The shops had all the local treasures...silk, jade, ivory and porcelain items. A cigar humidor was selling Havana Cuban cigars. All over the lobby are carvings, either statues or furniture.

Upon Emily waking, we all went around the corner a couple of blocks to a...you guessed it...a Starbucks for caffeine fix. It's been drizzling all day, so it's somewhat gloomy, but it puts a different feel to our trip since we haven't seen rain while we've been in China. Walking the streets with the mist somewhat reminds us of a London town or maybe even Key West with a little bit of British feel.

We came back and met up with a group to all eat at a local Thai restaurant. Yes, it was difficult again in the ordering and trying to discern what we wanted and what we finally got. It didn't seem to matter that we had huge menus with the pictures, because where we thought we were ordering a nice dish of chicken...we got chicken, but it was refrigerator cold. It was intended to be just that, but it wasn't what we had envisioned.

So far I've batted 1000 with ordering a Heineken. Beatriz folded the menu and said, "you guys order, I'm washing my hands of it." I think she might be involved with the ordering the next time given what we ended up with. It really wasn't bad. We did enjoy dinner. It's just amusing when you have this picture of something and it's quite different.

Upon leaving, a couple was leaving behind us that had just adopted a 13 year old girl, her name is Bing Bing, that we had noticed upon going in. This girl was very cheerful and all smiles. Unfortunately, she is a burn victim with face disfigured...I can't even describe, and fingers missing also due to the fire. It's amazing to feel the happiness of this child finding herself a family, a home and someone to love her. I found myself looking through her scars and seeing a beautiful person that has found hope in a new life.

I have not said this before, but I will say it now. We have heard and we continue to hear the commendations, the accolades, the whatever, of what it means to adopt a child and the supposed saving of a child from a situation, but I believe it works out in many ways the reverse of the adopting family being the ones saved. Yes the child needs a home, needs a family to love them, but too, the adopting family needs a means to give that home and show that love. Now, you may be asking what do I mean...what do we need to be saved from. I believe giving the orphan a home, even though it's monumental and paramount, still only points to a grander plan. We are shortsighted to believe that these orphans wouldn't be cared for and tended to if it weren't for an adopting family.

I don't mention this to limit or reduce what people are doing, but to just say this...God's grace is despite what we might be. And I can only begin to hope of being a part of that and there be a minuscule of that outward expression shine through me. I'm a very selfish person. I'm sure lots can attest to that...about me, that is.

Let me just say, if I may, in all this...we ARE blessed and very thankful for a Creator that shows more mercy on us than we show on each other. Any demonstration of good, I believe to be a gift and we are merely the conveyence.

I don't wish to offend anybody with any of this. I'm just feeling a little emotional right now and rather than erasing all of this and starting over, I'm going to take a chance that you understand what I'm saying and how I'm feeling about all of this.

Before I dig myself a deeper hole, I better call it night. It's getting late and tomorrow I'm preparing all the papers for the consulate visit on Wednesday.

Please ask me if something doesn't make sense in what I'm saying. It's been enough to be misunderstood here in China just ordering dinner, let alone the off-chance of troubling someone with what I've written.

I hope not to go another 2 days before writing again. Also, I am trying to talk Beatriz in to posting. Maybe I'll remind her tomorrow.

Love to all.

Back Online!!!

Just a quick note...I'm currently bringing everything up to date. Stay tuned over the next few minutes.

Ana's post - lost in the crowd

Hi all -

Yesterday we went to ancient culture street - much like Faneuil Hall in Boston. Lot's of street vendors and little shops selling all kinds of traditional chinese things like scroll paper and brushes, tea kettles, toys and jade carvings. Yesterday was the Lantern festival,  the last day of the two week new year celebration so we got lucky and had a chance to see a parade while down at culture street. On top of that I really got a chance to experience some interactions with local folks.  I made my way to the front of the crowd to take pictures of the parade and when some chinese folks saw that I wasn't really able to see, they made people move so I  could get up to the front. Then one guy in particular basically cleared a path for me and made me walk THROUGH the parade and up to the front.  I ended up getting swept away among the crowd and lost the rest of the group for about an hour. It was really neat to be in the square in the middle of all that. There were other press photographers there to cover the event and I don't really know if people thought I was also press, but they kept looking at me and were very happy and willing to have their pictures taken. 

People here are quite fascinated by us and are very friendly towards us.  They rattle off all kinds of things in chinese as if we understood the language and when we look at them with blank stares not understanding a word, they just keep talking and maybe point and signal. It's been quite an experience making ourselves understood. We've been to the grocery store a few times and somehow or other we make it through all these adventures without a word of english. I've been trying to work on my chinese but truthfully it's been hard. This morning Wendy our guide helped me with some pronunciations so maybe I will attempt a few sentences this afternoon. I'll let you know how that goes later. 

Laughing

There have been a few requests of seeing Emily in a happier state. I'm attaching a video I think you'll enjoy.

I'm getting ready to leave for her birthtown, but wanted to post this before going.

Andrew woke up this morning with the Emporer's revenge. No telling where he got it. Had a belly ache upon waking up and and followed with a couple of incidents that accompany the poisoning.

He seems to be ok.

Tomorrow

I'm just adding the last of the pics (to Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/johnnysnyder) that Anamaria took the first couple of days of our trip, before I go to bed. It's around 11:15 p.m. Thursday night and we're finishing up a day of the New Year's celebration. Ok, maybe you're tired of reading that in the blog, but let me tell you...the whole evening, this city has been having a barrage of fireworks going off. I'm saying, it sounds and feels like bombs and gunfire are going off all around us. We've been watching out our window the whole night and, EVERYWHERE, are fireworks going off. These are the ones we always go to see on the 4th of July that the city sponsors. We've had them exploding maybe 50 yards from our window. Andrew, Anamaria and I went up to the top of our hotel hoping to find a better lookout over the city and voila...on the 27th floor, the administration offices of the hotel, we found, if you can imagine a women's bathroom with a bay window view on 2 sides. This is not a bathroom you would need to take a magazine or newspaper to read with you. Usually it's a CEO that gets this kind of space with a view.

Anyway, I was going to mention. Tomorrow will be a special day since I am traveling outside the city about an hour and a half to visit the residence in which Emily was originally found. Should be interesting. I'll post the original notice text about her being found. Until then...goodnight.

Maria Marcela's Post - Thursday, Feb. 21st

I wanted to write an update on Emily. She is adjusting pretty well. She bonded with me from the first moment she saw me as if I had been her mommy all along. It is a great feeling. She is really cute and a sweetheart. Very cuddly and likes to be held all the time of course. Today we noticed a big change. We think she is starting to feel more confortable with us and was laughing a lot more. I found her weak ticking spot and she was loving it. Her favorite thing to do is eat. I have never seen a child that enjoys eating like her. She is not picky at all and has a big appetite. She also likes to be out. She uses a short Chinese word to say she wants outside. Very cute. When we go out we put her in the stroller and she can spend a long time there looking around.

We have been quite an attraction for the locals that constantly stop to see her and wonder why she doesn’t look like the rest of us. Our guide explains them that she is adopted and people have a positive reaction and appreciate that we have come to take her home.

Today we had the chance to visit a local Chinese market. It was a lot of fun. There were lots of people since today was the last day of the two week new year celebration. As I write there are a lot of fireworks going on outside all over the city. This has been going on for a couple of hours and may continue through the night. We may not get to bed until who knows when.

Andrew continues to be a target for the “paparazzi” He is quite sick of it and hides his face as much as he can. We still have another week and a half of our visit in China. On Friday we should get Emily’s Chinese passport. We leave for Guangzhou Saturday where we will get the USA visa for Emily.

Free Day - 15th of First Month

Today, we ventured out on the last day of the Chinese Holiday...what a treasure. This is the 15th day of the first month marking the last day of the Chinese New Year celebration (full moon).

We took a taxi to a place called Culture Street. Let me just say it was a mass of people. We did a little shopping and purchased some items to bring back home. Andrew got a little kite and a spinning toy that makes a very loud hum when it spins. It's the same thing that's used in exhibitions like the acrobatic show. We stood there watching this guy demonstrating and crouds of people were gathering around to what we thought they were there to watch the guy demonstrating the toy. After we left, our guide explained to us that the crowd was there to watch Andrew sitting on my shoulders.

I have good news to report that we have some shots of Emily smiling, even laughing. So, don't despair, as you were skepticle and realized her seriousness, so did we.

It is truly amazing how she is finding such comfort and refuge in Maria Marcela. She is just a few steps from me now laughing at Andrew putting on a show in the bath tub.

I wish you all could experience walking through the markets as we did here today.

We stayed for about 2-3 hours and went to a famous restaurant that was built in the mid 1800's. Afterward, went across the street for a Starbuck's.

We came back to the hotel and walked the river side. I'm telling you, I needed I nice big fat cigar just to get some fresher air in my lungs. We opted for a scotch back at the room. Where Beijing was somewhat clear, this town has probably a one mile visibility due to the smog.

I'll be adding some of today's photos later.

Adoption Complete...Partially Anyway

We're getting ready for bed and just wanted to end the day by posting that according to the People's Republic of China, the adoption is final and Wei Ming Su is now Emily Mei Snyder.

Today, we went back to the orphanage and met with the director in which we paid the "mandatory" donation fee of $3000 in US dollars in which the cash had to be in new and perfect condition. Also, an announcement fee of 960 rmb (yuan) was paid. We're not really sure how the announcement is served and for what purpose. It was not explained to us, but we weren't really interested either at this point to ask. The director then gave us a goody bag which contained a certificate finalizing the adoption, a little painted figurine of a boy made of mud, and most important, a journal for Emily. The journal is written in Chinese and we'll need to have it translated. Also, there was a record of her immunizations and a little red silk banner with the orphanage emblem.

After we left, we stopped by the notary office to verify our information that is being submitted for Emily's passport. She will be issued a Chinese passport under her Chinese name and will be using this to travel back home with us. We should be getting this either Friday or Saturday.

We stopped by another market to pick up some things. I was able to get a microphone headset to use on the computer. We've been able to use Skype on the internet to call back to the states at only 2 cents a minute. It's been very convenient.

We stayed in tonight, I uploaded some more of the pics that Ana has taken, not even half. And we ordered in pizza again.

Everyone's in bed and I'm about to call it a night. I can barely keep my eyes open. Tomorrow is the last day of the Chinese new year celebration. We'll be probably going around and do a little shopping.

We've arranged for use of one of the wedding cars on Friday to go out and visit the community/residence in which Emily was found. We learned that it's about an hour or so outside of the city.

No pics for the blog tonight, they're on Ana's camera and I'm too tired to copy them over.

Be sure and check out flickr. The link is below. I'll continue to post until we have every pic that was taken on our trip.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnysnyder

More later. Goodnight, or should I say good morning?

After Breakfast

We had a great breakfast and we're back at the rooms. It's terrific that we have adjoining rooms. Anyway, we're going to start having all of us posting to the blog because I'd like for you to get more than just my perspective of what's been going on.

In the meantime, here's a shot of Andrew being a typical brother.