We went to the Guangzhou zoo yesterday. It's a nice, little zoo. The cages are old style, but the animals are well taken care of. The best habitat is reserved for the animal of the year. This happens to be the year of the tiger, so a couple of the tigers have luxurious accommodations. I wonder what they do in the year of the rat.
Annalyn slept through the zoo trip and most of her immigration appointment. She did wake up in time for the oath, which was not really an oath for her but for us. We had to swear that all the information was true. We are now officially done. We have to wait for her visa to arrive today, then we can start home.
It has been quite a thing to watch these girls change from being orphans to being daughters. In the orphanage, a nanny has only a few minutes to feed each child. The children learn to swallow quickly and not slow down to chew. They are fed congee with bits of chicken or vegetable for nutrition. Congee is slimy rice mush that slithers down the throat. It's an efficient way for one nanny to feed 20 children. It's a feeding frenzy and the children know that they must move fast to not go hungry.
Annalyn has figured out that we have plenty of food and that she can eat her fill. She (and the others) eats an enormous amount of food. She will try anything and prefers spicy vegetables. She is feeding herself some, although we are still spoon feeding her like a baby. We are also nursing her with a bottle for bonding time. In the orphanage, babies are handed bottles in their cribs. In a birth family, babies are nursed with momma looking into their eyes and smiling at them. We are bottle feeding that way in order to make that connection in her mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment