The Bushell Family: Last Day in China

Hi Everyone - apologies for the delay, but I tried to send this from the
Hotel and then the Airport with no luck.

This is Sunday's email:

Well today is our last in China. We catch the bus for the airport at 4pm,
and arrive in Melbourne at 1.30pm tomorrow after transferring in Sydney.

Jade continues to be a delight, but we now remember what sleepless nights
are all about, as Jade has had two trips to hospital and has been diagnosed
with bronchitis. Finally we were able to get antibiotics after they took
blood to check her white blood count. Interesting mix of medications we
have been given after the two visits. We have drops for up her nose, adult
cough mixture, fever medication, 2 kids cough mixtures, anti diarrhoea
medication, and powdered sachets of antibiotics – I need to mix 1/3 of a
sachet of granules with water, quite tricky. Anyway she takes the medicine
like a trouper now, and after 3 doses seems to be improving. I am looking
forward to taking her to my doctor though. The Chinese Dr asked me if
Jade had a rash, and I just mentioned the spots over her that seemed to be
old scars. Again maybe scabies scars, I queried, but no-one seems to
know. The Dr. asked me how long she has had them, and I said she has
had them since the first time I saw her last week, but really I have no idea.
I can’t believe how little information I have on her past health.

She has fared better than her batchmate Jessica, who has been visiting
hospital for drip medication for pneumonia. Poor little mite. But she too is
improving and will be visiting her own Dr in Australia very soon.

We enjoyed our visit to the Zhou Zhang Water Town – China’s answer
to Venice, and where Arthur had his first date with Susan. We had a
lovely day there and the shopping was amazing. The boys helped Gerard
with Zheng Fei who is 4 and who was missing his new Mama who had to
return to Melbourne early. He thought our boys were wonderful and he
hung off their arms all day.

We were looked after wonderfully by the ANZ on Friday. We got to
have a good look at the new office in Shanghai, and Daniel organised a
lovely Shanghaiese lunch with Fang, her husband Mark, James and Frank,
and Daniel even had some lovely gifts for all of us which will be treasured.
We were very spoilt. After lunch Mark then took the boys shopping,
giving Alex and I some hotel time with Jade.

There is a photo of Jade from the 26^th Feb, when she tried to pull off my
red thread and jade bracelet, and I decided to give it to her to play with.
The bracelet was an adoption gift early on our journey from Sue Stent,
and has been on my wrist for almost 4 years without ever being removed.
There is a saying in China that two people destined to be together are
connected by a red thread, and it will never break. Jade and I have now
been drawn together, and I no longer feel the need to wear it. She
seemed very excited by it.

Saturday was Alex’s 45^th Birthday. The Hotel Manager rang to say that
they would be sending up a cake from the kitchen, which was a lovely
surprise for him when he answered the door. I had organised some bird
and flower water colour books for him, sadly all in Mandarin, but he can
see the pictures. I had given the boys some money to get him something
else, but they failed to find anything suitable. So we will have to make it up
to him when home. As I had a bit of an upset tummy, I sent him out with
the boys to enjoy themselves, and they caught the fast train, 431km, to the
airport and back. This was the exact time when Jade’s temp went through
the roof and I had to manage a hospital trip with her in a sling on my front,
my backpack on my back, our coats and medical documents in my hand,
and my upset tummy. While waiting I had to prepare a bottle and feeding
at the hospital, and then get back to the hotel when I failed to take their
card with their address in Mandarin. Argh. I do not know how single
parents can do it.

Later in the afternoon we met up with Fang and her family again, and we
got to go to the Peoples Park where the boys had bumper car and pirate
ship rides with Fang’s daughter Ming. We thought the gardens themselves
were busy but still relaxing. It was funny to see the number of groups of
middle aged+ folks sitting around advertising their marriageable-aged
children for matchmaking purposes. We then went on to the Yu Yuan
gardens with them to finish off our purchases, where Fang assisted us with
the bargaining, and we had a lovely meal of dumplings before Fang took us
back to our hotel. The Bund Hotel, not on the Bund. Tricky.

This morning at breakfast we met Australia’s newest twin Chinese girls
and their parents from Darwin, who have just started their last week of
their journey before flying home. Today Alex and the boys have headed
back to the Yu Yuan gardens, to collect some orders from last night, then
it will be time to pack these 2 bomb sites that are our rooms into 5
suitcases. We are hoping we will not have to organise another China Post
Parcel, but we will see. Luckily we have 10kg allowance for Jade, so we
will be able to be over our 20kg each limit a little.

We are looking forward to seeing those of you that are meeting us at the
airport, and those that are gathering at our place to welcome Jade home.
I know that you will understand if we seem a little tired and Jaded (no pun
intended), but here’s hoping we, and the rest of the passengers, get a good
nights sleep on the plane. Although so sad at leaving, I am really looking
forward to being home again, and getting into our own normal daily routine
with our little one.

I hope to catch up with everyone sometime real soon, and you can meet
our little treasure in person.

Cheers,
Cindy…