What I Tell My Heart . . . About Another Little Heart

A note from Angelle . . .

Pierre got a Pediatric Cardiologist on Skype with us today. He said that the fact that her lips and fingernails are pink is a big, big deal. She has survived these 21 months, is very spirited and energetic.... He is encouraged. He would strongly suspect that the condition she has is not very bad or irreparable, based on what he is hearing and seeing. He also said that the fact that we can pinch an inch on her upper arm means that she is not terribly malnourished, very thin, yes, but not excessively malnourished.

When I described what I feel when I put my hand on her chest and when I described the way she perspires when she sleeps, he said that perhaps there may be a hole in her heart, but again, this is repairable and she can lead a normal life. It would be open heart surgery and a four day hospital stay... but it can be fixed!! We are all doing this without the aid of the echo-cardiogram, but we will just have to be patient until we get home. He said that going to Kunming should be fine. Another assurance he gave us is that some of the noisiest murmurs are some of the least harmful. This was all good news.

A little something from me . . . listen . . .


For best quality, please pause the music playlist while playing this.

Giving credit where credit is due:
• All of these photographs were sent from Landon and are featured on previous blog entries.
• The music is taken from a CD that Angelle gave me years ago: "Count the Stars" by Sheila Walsh.

Psalm 121

I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.

The LORD shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul.
The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.

Final thoughts to all of you . . .

Though the Highs are not able to see the blog itself while they are away, they have been able to read the comments. You all have been an encouragement to them beyond measure.

It is a privilege and a pleasure to pass their story on to you, dear family and friends.

"Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all. " II Thessalonians 3:16

~Kevin

True Love: News from Guangzhou

Today, on our first bright morning here in Guangzhou, as we enjoyed the beauty of Shamian Island here in the middle of the Pearl River, we learned some very sad news about little Anna.

At a routine medical check-up (required for granting her visa to travel back to the U.S.), doctors at the clinic discovered what they termed a heart murmur. Undetected, it seems, throughout all of her medical check-ups throughout her abandonment, her time with the foster family and when she was prepared to be adopted, this condition forced the doctor at the clinic to fail her health examination this morning. We now believe that her very small size in comparison with the rest of the girls in our group may be a symptom of this heart condition. At this time, we do not know the impact or the gravity of the particular heart murmur that Anna has.


Please, please begin to pray for Anna and our family as we rush to work things out here in China and please include us on as many prayers lists as possible. Please pray that Anna's condition would be harmless and not serious in any way. Please, also pray that our work to re-do the visa and adoption paperwork would be expedited and that it would come at little to no extra trouble or extra time in China.

This condition has now placed her in the special needs classification, as opposed to a healthy child. This is something we were unprepared for in a number of ways. Our paperwork and the documentation required for her visa into the United States does not cover what is required for a special needs child. Currently, we are working on expediting this process in order to update our paperwork to handle this unforeseen situation.


It is also something that we were all unprepared for emotionally, but it is also something that brings out what I believe is most beautiful in Anna's parents and in this entire process. The way everything was intended to be, we have waited for four years in the healthy child program to adopt a healthy child. But, we all know how seldom things end up how they were intended. We often sit still to stop and wonder why. Why us? Why her? Why me? I don't know if we will ever know the full answer, at least not at present. I believe God has a purpose in everything. And, I don't think that the question 'why' is really what matters at all; I think it is our reaction that is most important.

I know one thing: It has been really a wonderful, eye-opening experience to stand where I am and watch Angelle and Jay and their reaction to this crisis. This is what real love is. Here the reaction is what has taken the front seat. The foremost question here is how to fix the paperwork problem and how to get Anna home.


I stand amazed at how our ideas about things change with time and with perspective. You see, I don't think we were supposed to travel the 8,357 miles to adopt just any healthy child, even though that is what we signed up for. We were supposed to travel the 8,357 miles to adopt Anna. Maybe we were supposed to be patient, waiting those four years and maybe Anna's heart condition wasn't detected...all for a purpose.


All I can say for sure, is what a joy and an honor it has been to watch Angelle and Jay continue, even in light of recent difficulties, to follow through on the promise they made four years ago- the promise to adopt someone on the other side of the world. I believe this is how it is supposed to be.


As I close, and as I think that we are all here beginning to question a little and beginning to feel sad and overwhelmed, there is something else I think you should know about today. Today, as we wandered through the beautiful streets of Shamian Island with their 19th century European architecture and ate at one of the favorite American restaurants, Lucy's, Anna laughed, and ran, and played and smiled...a lot. It was pure, free, unhindered joy. She wandered around the hotel lobby as Angelle worked problems out with Elsie, bumping into the tourists signing in and throwing her balloon everywhere. She even put her very, very small hand in mine to go up a flight of stairs...and she hadn't really taken to me before this. She is so, so beautiful when she laughs. And, I think this part of today deserves to be told just as much as the first.

Goodbye, Expensive Sunshine

As I sit here, writing this post, we are packing up at the last minute to leave Guiyang tonight. We are flying to Guangzhou, where the American consulate is to finalize some of the adoption paperwork for Anna.

Thursday morning, Jay, Micah and I loaded into the bus with Elsie for the two-hour long drive to the Huangguoshu Grand Falls, the largest waterfall in all of Asia. As we drove out of the city, we began to pass between the relatively small, cone-shaped, almost hill-like mountains. They were covered all over with small trees and bushes and every once in a while, we could see the white, chalky rock in the form of a cliff or outcropping. As we moved farther and farther into the country side, the mountains, which Aggie said was an example of karst topography (landscape shaped very distinctively by erosion), became more and more terraced and laced with small little stone walls that curved up and around. Elsie told us that these were old cemeteries built into the sides of the mountain by past generations. On the flat fields that stretched in and around the mountains, grew great green plots of rice in paddies. Small clusters of buildings dotted the fields and a few times we saw workers in their conical hats and with more water buffalo, tending their crops.

We drove further and further up into the countryside and finally arrived at the Huangguoshu national park. We started through the jungle-like terrain down the walkway and towards the main gate. We passed through the Bonsai garden with massive pots on pedestals supporting bonsais of every kind: ginkgo, juniper, mulberry, pine, and others. We passed near a pagoda and a lily pond with choi.



As we began the descent down to where the waterfall viewing platform was, we could already hear the distant roar. Looking in between the trunks of the surrounding trees, we could see the bright stream of white water plunging off the cliff in contrast to the dark green of the undergrowth which grew on the mountains surrounding it. Toward the bottom of the falls, there was a spray coming off the great, deep emerald pool into which the water spewed- a mist thrown into the air by virtue of the pure force of the mighty river. We climbed to the bank of the river for a view from the ground and then climbed up again, over another hill and wound our way around to walk underneath rocks and boulders and into the water curtain cave- a natural viewing spot from behind the waterfall. We all were able to touch the water from behind as streamed off the sheer cliff above us- a very neat experience! With one last view from a rickety wooden bridge (boards missing and all) strung over the rushing river, we climbed aboard the newly installed, massive escalator which brought us to where we had parked.



That night, we brought everyone out across Guiyang's gleaming city centre to eat at Pizza Hut. Anna and Angelle were very glad to be out and about, even if people did continue to stare at us, after having stayed inside the room for literally days on end.



Now we were ready to climb aboard that plane to head to the last stop of the adoption trip, Guangzhou, home of the American consulate. Goodbye, Guiyang! Goodbye, Expensive Sunshine!

Expensive Sunshine: Guiyang and More on Anna Banana

On the way up to the hotel from the airport, Aggie told us a little about the city of Guiyang itself. Out of all the things she said, I thought that the etymology of the city's name was particularly interesting.

In Chinese, the name 'Guiyang' is actually two words in one. The word 'gui', very common here in China, means 'expensive'. For example, when the laundry delivery people came to our room this morning to drop off the three little loads of laundry we gave them and handed us the bill for 900 yuan (roughly 130 USD; yes, that is a true story), we quickly let them know 'tai gui le' (too expensive!) and demanded a lower price. Needless to say, our interaction with the launderers here was not the most pleasant we have had here in China. 'Yang', the other part of the word, means sunshine.

This very unique name is also very appropriate. As Aggie explained it, the sunshine here is expensive not in that its presence is hard to detect, for that is not the case at all. When the sun shines here, it shines. When the locals say the sunshine is expensive here, they mean it drains you, it costs you. If you have ever spent most of a hot summer day outside, even if you weren't really doing much, you know what I mean. You literally feel exhausted and sapped of all energy. So, in a way, the sunshine is expensive...actually very similar to Louisiana.


I would like to share a bit about Anna before I discuss what we have done in the way of sightseeing these past few days. I'm sure you could tell from the pictures, but I just have to say it again: she is adorable. She has been quite sick these past few days, and not very happy as a result, but when she is not crying, she is always up to something, playing with something, rearranging something. She is beautiful, as well; of course, I am biased. She has fairly large eyes and hair that is always sort of messed up. The next thing you should know is that she is very, very, very, very small. Gosh, she is tiny. She is definitely smallest in our group and there is not much to her. She is almost two and 18 month clothes are almost big on her. Next, she has a temper. When we got Rebekah and we knew we were going to adopt again, we would always say, "Oh, Anna is going to be quiet and soft-spoken." I am pretty sure we were wrong. Even the little bit that we have experienced, she has quite a fiery personality. If she is annoyed by something, she will just throw it out of the way. So, in some respects, she is a lot like Rebekah. So, far she has said baba (daddy) and jiejie (big sister) and has taken quite a liking to Rebekah. Rebekah seems to have grown up quite a bit, just from having a little sister already. As for right now, we just hope that Anna begins to feel better; she has quite a cough and has been in and out of some fevers, though she is doing better. Now for some sightseeing notes...


On Monday, our first day after getting Anna, we took our trip to a Chinese Walmart. This was such a cultural experience that I think it is appropriate to describe it here. While most of us hate Walmart and grumble about 'having' to go, most of us have never experienced a Chinese Walmart and now you can know for sure: yes, there is a place that is worse. To be sure, I enjoyed being able to see it, but it is not a place I would like to frequent on a regular basis.

To get there, we all loaded into the bus, and as we began to get closer and closer, we noticed a nice, open space with lots of flowers, trimmed bushes, walkways and benches and one little lone box about the size of three phone booths stuck together with stairs leading downward and the traditional Walmart sign. Then, we went underground to park.

Yes, you read that right. There was underground parking for Walmart. They eliminated the box store look by putting a nice garden on the 'roof' at ground level and having one little ground level entrance. That was actually a nice improvement. Everything else was the American Walmart...not even at Christmas...but, just American Walmart on super steroids. The Walmart extended two levels underground. As we entered the lights were extremely bright, the music was blaring and the place (and the people) seemed to go on and on forever. As soon as you thought you were done there would be a little door in a back wall that would open up to an entirely new section. Nothing was very easy to find. Behind the counter, in the meat section, there were entire sides of pig hanging on large hooks. In the little displays, there was every body part imaginable. In the 'other' meat section, there were long eels laid out on the ice next to huge heaps of random body parts of squid. The water tanks next to it held what could possibly be your next dinner: bullfrogs, snails, crabs, and huge fish, swimming around in large tanks. Here you can not only have frog, but you can have the perfect frog...your frog. As soon as you point to it, it has your name on it. Walmart was definitely an interesting experience. I even had a few conversations with the locals. I think I did pretty well, even if I did have to pull the easy escape ('Wo bu dong, duibuqi.'- 'I don't understand, I'm sorry.') a lot.



On Tuesday, we left fairly early for a park nearby: Qianlingshan Gongyuan park. We passed through the city, edging little cars out of the way with our big bus as bikes, and mini-cars swerved around us and pedestrians walked alongside. As far as I could tell, we didn't run over anyone :). We came to a more rural area. Women carried the babies in huge baskets on their backs and peddlers sold their wares from the backs of huge pallets conveyed by their bikes or carried on a pole across their shoulder. We passed by the small, cone-like mountains on the way and then by the huge reservoir/lake for which the park is named. We were dropped off in the middle of the road partially up the mountain.


This park was known for its monkeys (it was their wild habitat), ranging in size from about knee-high to little bigger than my palm. We were advised not to get too close. These monkeys were known for taking things and being aggressive...as in, taking water bottles away from tourists and even snatching and unzipping backpacks and purses to find food. After one of the monkeys stole a bottle from a baby in our group and opened it and drank it...we knew that these weren't just rumors.


We left the savage monkeys and visited a temple/historic site, and, while we were there, saw one of the native ethnic minorities for which this area is famous. We then came back to the hotel and ate lunch at Pizza Hut where Jay almost broke a few plates in his charades game with the waitress, while trying to communicate the idea of 'to go'. In order to really get the idea across, he picked up the food, plate and all, and started walking out the door. They got the idea, even as they were falling over laughing.


Today, we visited an ancient village. The structures we saw were two hundred years old and older. The town was built with a fortress surrounding it with huge, stone walls. Inside were narrow streets, winding and sloping, with small, traditional Chinese buildings lining them, all decked with red Chinese lanterns. People would open the front of the building as their store and live in the back and upstairs. There were traditional carvings and crafts being sold and spices, especially large red peppers out to dry. There were also kegs of boiling pigs feet, a local delicacy and cosmetic, apparently. As we left the town gate we walked out into a huge open space, cordoned off into different plots of crops, like a quilt. A farmer in a cone-shaped straw hat passed us with his water buffalo. Off in the distance were the hill-like mountains. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip, and I got some good shots. Because this note is already too long-winded, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.




When we came back (after the laundry incident) we decided to walk around Guiyang to see (and smell) a little more of it before we leave. I (this is important; supposedly, I have a bad sense of direction) navigated us successfully to the bridge over the river that runs through the city. As we were returning, dodging people and motorcycles on the sidewalk, the sun started to set.


It got dark and the huge digital billboards and neon signs lit up everywhere. Nothing slowed down; in fact it seemed like more people crowded onto the streets. That's how it is here...always moving, always bustling, always selling, always going. Tomorrow we'll go see one of the largest waterfalls in the world and the largest in all of Asia, and then, on Friday, we will fly out.


Regardless of us, the City of Expensive Sunshine continues to bustle on and on.

More of Anna!

Traveling Across the World to Meet Someone We've Never Met and Someone We'll Know Forever: Anna Noel Tian High

I know that all of you have been anxiously waiting to hear about our day here in Guiyang, China after we arrived earlier today here from Beijing and picked up Anna later on in the afternoon at the adoption center. The big news is that all is well, Anna is with us, she is safe, and although she has been very sad to lose her foster family, she is noticeably becoming more and more familiar with each of us!

Leaving at roughly 6:30 am, we arrived at the airport in time to check in for the flight and on top of that, managed to overcome some slight security issues, one of which was caused by the fact that my mom had packed grits in a suitcase for friends in Kunming. The Chinese did not know what this was and thus were suspicious. Obviously, they had never been in the south :).


The flight was pretty noneventful and we arrived in Guiyang in good time to meet up with our local guide, Aggie. Aggie talked a little bit about the history of Guizhou Province and Guiyang city. Guiyang and Guizhou in general is known for its large population of minority peoples (making up about 38% of the population). Guiyang is considered a relatively insignificant small city at only 3 million people.

We arrived at our hotel, settled in into our hotel rooms and, within a few hours, were marching down the crowded and pungent streets of Guiyang. We turned into the adoption center, which was literally only 5 minutes away and went up a few floors.


There in a small cluster of rooms filled with simple furniture and some toys, we waited. Angelle and Jay had some last minute paperwork to finish.





There's nothing like that feeling of the wait before some event that you know will change your life forever and there aren't many times that you experience it, but this was definitely one of them. Everyone was tense and people were making nervous jokes and small talk. Five little families were about to be totally changed and it wasn't easy waiting there, knowing that was about to happen. It also wasn't easy not knowing exactly what would happen; all of the children had been with foster families since very early on and would probably be pretty attached.


On the way up to the hotel from the airport, our guide, Aggie told us that it was typical (and it was something that we already knew, at least from personal experience) that when the babies arrive the moms and some dads will begin to cry. She added that, because there was a lot of paperwork and serious business to do, it would be better not to make the moment so emotional. She said something along the lines of, "That is why we ask the mamas to wait maybe a few hours, and then you can cry. We have this afternoon after we meet babies, and we have all tomorrow and all week. Then, you can cry." She was mostly joking, because we all knew what was going to happen. In fact, most of the moms had had that little teary, glazed-over look for most of the day already.


As we waited there with the paperwork, filling out more and more forms that had to be translated for us, the room suddenly began to fill with people. Elsie and Aggie were shouting across the room trying to help everyone finish the paperwork correctly. Foster families crowded into the rooms. Video and still cameras clicked on. Moms started searching the faces trying to see if they could recognize the children. Then they started to call out the names....Cao Bei Lei, Cao Yi Jia. We saw one foster mother clutch her child and begin to sob, as she was helped to the room to meet the new parents of the child she had raised for probably over one to two years. Finally: Cao Tian Qin. Anna's Chinese name was called and we were sent to a small room.

At first, it was just us- the foster mother, her son, daughter and daughter-in-law and little Cao Tian Qin and our family. Two groups of people living over 8000 miles away from each other with no connection whatsoever besides little Anna. We tried to communicate as best we could. Angelle reached over to hug the foster mother and began to cry. Micah and I tried to capture the entire event.


Anna was playing with an electronic toy and, at first did not realize we were there.


She was introduced to 'xin mama' (new mama) and looked but did not say anything or show any emotion. Jay was introduced as 'xin baba' (new daddy) and she had the same reaction.


Then we shared gifts. They gave us a photo album and some toys and clothes for Anna. We gave them a photo album and some other memoires as well, including a locket with Anna's photo inside. Then the translators came in and began to help answer some of the questions we had about Anna's routine.


Then, as suddenly as it had started, Elsie came in and told us we had to leave. Angelle began to cry. I don't think I have ever experienced anything so touching or so strange or so surreal, all at the same time. The entire reason for us coming the 8357 miles was wrapped up in this one moment, as brief or as surreal as it was. It is one of the most personal and intimate moments I think anyone will ever experience, and yet, at the same time, it was also so impersonal. Two families lives were being totally altered because of one little girl and we had only 20 minutes together. We signed the forms, and it was done. Done. Angelle and Jay were the legal guardians of Anna Noel Tian High. As we gathered in the main room, the same thing was happening to everyone else. Coordinators and guides were shouting, papers were being transferred, and goodbyes (mostly final) were being said. Children were saying hello and goodbye all at the same time, only these goodbyes and hellos held much, much more significance. Babies were screaming as they were handed into strangers arms. Mothers and foster mothers were sobbing. Families were leaving. And, of course, the dads and other relatives were snapping pictures and videoing.


We gathered together in front of the wall for one last picture with the family and then told them each goodbye and thank you. It was probably very strange to them that we told them a simple 'xiexie', the same word you would use to express thanks if someone held the door open for you, to thank a family for taking care of your sister for almost the first two years of her life. Mrs. Ling, our tutor, taught us the word for 'deeply thank you' but, being the great Chinese students that we are, we forgot it. Okay, maybe we were just a little preoccupied to remember that far.


We hugged them all and they were gone.



Then we walked down out of the building. Anna began to cry. Then, she began to scream. We were walking down a crowded street with horns honking and vendors yelling. It felt like everyone was looking at us.

We spent a little more time in the hotel room together and then Micah and I took Rebekah into our room. When I went out to buy drinks from the stand down the street about an hour later, the entire hall was crying. Out of every door, you could hear a baby crying and a family trying to find words to comfort. One family with a three-year old desperately tried to communicate with their new daughter as she screamed and cried at them in Chinese, frustrated.


By late afternoon, the rooms were quiet and Anna was becoming more and more used to us and as we ate dinner together, she smiled a little bit. I am happy to report that she woke up only one time during the night for a few minutes. Even Rebekah does that occasionally. If all is not well yet, it is very close to becoming so. It is the strangest and yet one of the most amazing experiences to meet someone on the complete other side of the world and know that pretty soon, you will find it hard to remember that they weren't just always a part of your family.


Welcome, little Tian Qin. We love you, Anna!