Today was one of the days we were both looking forward to when we saw our itinerary - the opportunity to visit TCH and see where Miah had most recently been cared for and meet (and thank) some of the folks who had worked with her.
The drive out to TCH took a little bit of time since we are in Guangzhou which is a slightly different spot to the location of TCH, so another early start - into the van and onto the highways. The drive out was pretty uneventful and we got to TCH around 9:30 or 10:00.
Once inside things got a little difficult. Many of the children that are helped by TCH are involved in some sort of foster program, so at the point when they are adopted they likely don't think of TCH as "home" any more. Not so with our Miah. Prior to Monday, she stayed full-time at TCH. So, not entirely surprisingly she had a very hard time coming back, as did many of her caregivers.
For the first 30-45 mins that were there, Miah screamed and cried and went from caregiver to caregiver... sometimes to Mum or Dad... but basically was just a bundle of confusion. We pretty much all unanimously decided that these circumstances were really not beneficial to anyone, so we went upstairs with Miah where we could calm things down a bit and talk over some things.
We got to meet Jenny who is an absolute dynamo and seems to be the driving force that makes TCH what it is. Indidentally, I should talk about what TCH is :O) We were all hugely impressed at the excellent standards of care, concern, cleanliness, and organization that were offered to all the children we met there. We have seen orphaned children in China before, and TCH was far and away the best care we have seen provided, across the board. Ok, all that said... we also got to meet Katrina who can speak both English and Chinese fluently and just seemed to have a wonderful heart to help out by offering anything and everything she can. We also had the opportunity to speak to Dr Angela Le and get some much needed understanding about Miah's surgeries to date... the purpose... the goals, and how and why the brace works, and how it should be used. Important for us, considering we realized we really hadn't been using it correctly for the first few days we had Miah!
After leaving TCH, Jenny very kindly took us out to lunch. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel.
In the evening, we found a nice restaurant right in our hotel complex - perfect for dinner. Still, like many restaurants in China, the menu required careful navigation (note the "roasted suckling pig" in the corner.
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