We’re home! (HOME!!!)
Hello friends and family!
I’m sooooooooo sorry that it took me so long to write this post that I promised to do so much earlier! Bad bad Tam!
Do you know that jet lag isn’t just a phrase? It’s real. Very real. It took a few days before I had even a little energy. Not to mention that it took Jillie a while (and she’s still working on it) to adjust back to U.S. time. Every night, every single night, she’s usually wide awake by 2 a.m. and stays awake for 3-5 hours. I pretty much anticipated it……so 5-7 times a night I go and put her back under the blanket after she wiggles out, then I’ll catch a half hour of sleep, maybe even an hour, then go do it again when she lets me know she’s cold.
So the last day at the hospital, so many people came to our room and told us good-bye. I’ve left a lot of wonderful people behind at the hospital that are still there as I write this post. I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of some of my friends there before I left!!!!!!!!!!! Man, oh man…….
I miss LaLa very much. She was such a beautiful, caring person, and she genuinely loved us too. The morning before we left, LaLa came to me and put a hand on each of my shoulders and spoke softly in Chinese and had tears streaming out of her eyes. We hugged for a very long time and she embedded herself even more into my heart. We have exchanged addresses so we can stay in touch. I’ll definitely send cards to her with pictures of us in it. I thank God she was there, for the whole three weeks we had her. Not only have I made a dear friend, but the last three weeks would have been so very hard without her there to help with Jillian. And I think she loved every minute she spent with Jillie Bean too. The cool thing is that neither one of us spoke a word of each other’s language, but we still managed to make each other laugh and to communicate just fine.
Just at the last minute, me and Jillian and LaLa brought out the flowers we got for the staff and the banner. We took lots of pictures and I had some tears in my eyes. Then we were whisked away to the elevator and to the mini-van waiting to take us to the airport.
She was such a good girl on the flight home! I couldn’t have asked for a better angel. It was a good trip home………AND it was shortened about an hour and a half. I think the flight home was about 13 and a half hours. She slept pretty good. I even found a semi-comfortable position where I could catch a little shut eye a couple of times. We had a row to ourselves. The man that was sitting next to us was nice enough to take another empty seat on the plane so we could have more room. I found that if I put her head toward the wall, I could lay my head on the other end and keep my legs on the seat behind her so she wouldn’t fall out.
Her tummy didn’t hurt one time. I packed food for her because I didn’t know what the airplane food would be, if there would be dairy or not; which was a good thing, because the only thing that didn’t have dairy (cheese or butter) was the Asian choice for dinner of sweet and sour pork with jelly fish as a side dish.
The airport assigned a nice lady to help us get through the airport. I was surprised that when we went down the actual gangway (I don’t know if it’s called a gangway on a plane or if that’s for a ship…but you get the idea) to get on the plane, there was a second bag check for carry-on luggage. They were adamantly going to take away the soy milk I brought, that I had already talked them into letting me keep at the first checkpoint inside the airport. So I got out my trusty Chinese phrasebook and pointed to the word “allergy,” and after much consideration they finally allowed me to take it on the plane with me. Whew! The flight attendants helped me get the carry-on baggage down the narrow isle to our seat while I carried Jillian. After the flight, the flight attendants helped me carry it off to Jillian’s waiting stroller. In Atlanta, they finally got someone to help me push the cart of luggage while I pushed Jillie in the stroller with the carry-on bags.
And then…………a sight for sore eyes…………….BRIAN!!!!!!!! My handsome hunky hubby!!!! DADDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I held onto him so tight when I saw him! And Jillian was so happy to see her daddy! She reached up to him to hug him and she couldn’t wait to show off her new clapping skills. He got our luggage off of the baggage claim belt and we loaded up in our van, with a car seat for Jillian, and we drove the 2 and a half hours home. Jillian and I slept a lot.
When we got to the house, I just stood outside….. and breathed in the fresh air……..and listened. Quiet. I mean, the hallways of the hospital got quiet at night………….but it was nature……..crickets, the wind blowing and the trees rustling. I could see the stars. Aaaaaahhhhh. The hospital was a million miles away……..okay, more like 15,000, whatever, but we were home!
Jillian was so happy to see her cat, Sabre. He was so happy to see us. Which didn’t help her sleeping at night, because he decided he wanted to be right next to his little girl, so he got in bed with her and she would lay there awake at night petting him. He’s hardly left our side since we’ve been home.
So I haven’t been on the computer much at all. There were days that I didn’t even touch it. So, hence, the delay in this post that I’ve neglected.
I’ve got some pictures of our official send-off at the hospital. It was a emotional time, that’s for sure. When we were walking to the elevator with Jillian and the luggage, I had some tears in my eyes.
But first, I’ve got many thank-you’s that are much deserved. Thanks, first and foremost, to my wonderful mom. Without her this trip and opportunity for Jillian would not have happened. And she made the trip with us and loved us like a mother/grandmother does in grand style. And to many of you that made contributions to help us get there and keep us afloat while we were there. You all know who you are…..and I will forever be grateful. And thanks to Carole for coming to China to support us. And thank you, every single one of you, for your posts sending love, prayers, and encouragement. You have no idea how much every comment meant to me. Please know that you kept me lifted up. I love ALL of you!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will keep up this blog so I can share Jillian’s progress with you all as the miracles unfold. As I know they will. This journey will change our little girl’s life!
So…..here’s some pictures of our farewell with the doctors and nurses and staff at Xiaoshan Hospital in Hangzhou Province, China………..
First, our farewell to Dr. Mike…..a great doctor and a great Dad….. I sure do owe him a lot
And Luca………..he was there for us a lot too
group photo with nurses, doctors, therapists, and interpreters
And of course, LaLa, my Chinese friend
This is the banner I told you all about that I had made to present when we left to express our appreciation
This is an old pic, but it shows again how they display the banners that people have made for them
Of course Jillie had to say good-gye to her (our) friend Zim
LaLa asked if she could make the drive to the Shanghai Airport with us. Bless her heart. I didn’t even attempt to try to take Jillian away from her on the whole drive. She held her so closely. Jillian fell asleep in LaLa’s arms. Oh, and there’s a pic of me too.
Here are some of the pictures I gathered while I was there of friends made at the hospital that were there for stem cell treatment too. I could just kick myself for not getting pictures of Hillary and Nicholas and her mother from Australia; and Agi and her mom from Romania; and Tori, Brenda and Debbie, U.S.’ers; or Lori and her mom from our neighborhood practically, Stuart, Florida; or Lucy and Johnnie, interpreters. Man, I can’t believe I let that slip!
Remember my friend Viorica…..this is her adorable-always-smiling boy Lucian. Jillian LOVED Lucian.
This is Nick and Nancy from the U.S.
This is Dan, Suzanne, and Ryan from Texas
This is Rebecca, one of the interpreters. She went a couple of places with us and looked for us.
This is Larry and Alecia from Ohio.
This is Judd, from Idaho, the guy Zim was there to help. And then Wengey was their helper that they had 24 hrs a day.
This is Bridget and Steen from Denmark. And also James, the accupuncturist. Jillian never got any accupuncture (whew!).
This is Jada from Tampa, one of my favorite nurses Casey, me, Jillie, and LaLa
Did I every show you the pictures of the sunset from our window? The almost-night scene, it doesn’t show all the neon lights that were normally lit up in full night, but you get the idea. And I love the other picture, because you can see the mountains in the background. It’s really pretty if you enlarge the picture.
Okay…….the next post will be of Jillian’s progress!
LOTS AND LOTS OF LOVE FROM TAMI AND JILLIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4 comments October 8th, 2008
