Monday, April 02, 2007
Getting Peter Part 2: "Ning Ning"
It turns out that Yan Ning goes by “Ning Ning” in his home town in China. With due respect for Gina’s grandfather, Ning Ning is a catchy name that may be tough to lose back in Michigan.
We met Peter at 3:00 pm in the lobby of the Provincial Child Welfare bureau. Peter was in a denim jacket and pants. We discovered later that he was wearing a sweater and turtleneck under his jacket and a pair of sweat pants under his jeans. The Chinese are forever fearful off children catching colds – even in April.
The first minute of our meeting was basically awkward. See the video. After that, things started to unwind. Peter screamed and cried for 10 minutes. He scooted around the office lobby with an empty water bottle in one hand and a half a bag of potato chips in the other, avoiding contact of any kind with his new family. Gina, David and Grandma Pat all began to get misty-eyed while Margot, Elliot and Gwyneth clearly had no idea what to do – shock and awe. For the entire scene, I guess the word ‘pitiful’ comes to mind. Video will be sealed in a vault until Peter’s 99th birthday. In the end, we all started smiling at Peter in hopes of calming him down. Gina held him. I held him. Our family photo on the black leather sofa tells it all.
Next came the bizarre. We loaded our screaming, kicking and warmly dressed 6-year-old Chinese son into an unmarked white Ford Econoline van that was literally parked on the sidewalk in front of the building. From any perspective, this event had the makings of a full-on, child abduction. In the US, someone would have pulled an ‘amber alert’ before the van door slid closed.
We had nowhere to go but up. Thankfully, Peter and the rest of our kids soared. Gina orchestrated a pint-sized 'intervention' with toys, food, water and the enthusiastic participation of the kids. Peter came out of his shell. Within an hour, Ning Ning was smiling and playing. David’s Chinese helped. Gina’s mom got the kids settled down with a game of Uno that also served to pull Peter from his chair near the window. She also made everyone laugh when she accepted the challenge to do flips on the bed. She surprised the kids, and made everyone laugh. Dinner was fun as well. By then, Peter was smiling often. He joined the bedtime routine without a hitch. The final photo of Elliot and Peter sleeping is worth a 1000 words.
I’ll end it here…. stay tuned for more.
We met Peter at 3:00 pm in the lobby of the Provincial Child Welfare bureau. Peter was in a denim jacket and pants. We discovered later that he was wearing a sweater and turtleneck under his jacket and a pair of sweat pants under his jeans. The Chinese are forever fearful off children catching colds – even in April.
The first minute of our meeting was basically awkward. See the video. After that, things started to unwind. Peter screamed and cried for 10 minutes. He scooted around the office lobby with an empty water bottle in one hand and a half a bag of potato chips in the other, avoiding contact of any kind with his new family. Gina, David and Grandma Pat all began to get misty-eyed while Margot, Elliot and Gwyneth clearly had no idea what to do – shock and awe. For the entire scene, I guess the word ‘pitiful’ comes to mind. Video will be sealed in a vault until Peter’s 99th birthday. In the end, we all started smiling at Peter in hopes of calming him down. Gina held him. I held him. Our family photo on the black leather sofa tells it all.
Next came the bizarre. We loaded our screaming, kicking and warmly dressed 6-year-old Chinese son into an unmarked white Ford Econoline van that was literally parked on the sidewalk in front of the building. From any perspective, this event had the makings of a full-on, child abduction. In the US, someone would have pulled an ‘amber alert’ before the van door slid closed.
We had nowhere to go but up. Thankfully, Peter and the rest of our kids soared. Gina orchestrated a pint-sized 'intervention' with toys, food, water and the enthusiastic participation of the kids. Peter came out of his shell. Within an hour, Ning Ning was smiling and playing. David’s Chinese helped. Gina’s mom got the kids settled down with a game of Uno that also served to pull Peter from his chair near the window. She also made everyone laugh when she accepted the challenge to do flips on the bed. She surprised the kids, and made everyone laugh. Dinner was fun as well. By then, Peter was smiling often. He joined the bedtime routine without a hitch. The final photo of Elliot and Peter sleeping is worth a 1000 words.
I’ll end it here…. stay tuned for more.
# posted by David @ 10:46 AM 
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]