Literally spring fever - the Bredenbergs fall victim …

As every parent knows, the bond between a mommy and her child grows ever stronger with sickness. Although she was the picture of health for the first 4 days, 2 days ago little Sydney Grace started coughing just like most of the little babies in our group. We think someone involved in the transfer of the babies from Ningdu to our hotel must have started it all, but the upper respiratory infection has struck our little family and Grandma seems to be the only one unscathed so far. Rollin was out of commision most of the day with a fever, headache, sore throat, etc ... he wasn't even up for coming to our last group dinner here in Nanchang, which was very telling of how poorly he felt. I have been fighting off all the head cold symptoms as well, but our little Sydney Grace has been a very sad and uncharacteristically irritable baby. After sleeping 13 hours last night, she has been feverish, coughing, and blowing snot bubbles most of the day. Listening to her chest with my handy stethoscope, things sound ok but a little suspicious - I loaded her up tonight with Motrin, Benadryl, cough meds, and an antibitotic I had brought (my first-time mommy skills are at least enhanced by my degree). Right now she is sleeping restlessly - methinks she is having Benadryl/fever nightmares. And guess what - we get on a plane tomorrow! WHAT an adventure.

It has been quite warm and sunny here - instead of the 40-60's we anticipated, it feels more like 70 outside, and we're sweating with our long-sleeved clothes. That, combined with a we've-been-here-a-bit-too-long feeling and being sick, is making us all antsy and ready to move on. Rollin and I are ready to be home with our new threesome family routines to enjoy, and Grandma is just itching to get home and kiss on Josh and Beth. Nanchang will hold precious memories of our first days with Sydney, but home is where we long to be.

We've been spending the days doing grocery shopping (table foods for 11 month olds can be tricky here), visiting some local pagodas and porcelain shops and parks, and walking though the Nanchang Social Welfare Institute. This is the city orphange (not where Sydney spent her first 10 months - Ningdu Children's Welfare Institute is a good 6 hour drive from here). Although the little babies and toddlers we saw truly broke our hearts, the conditions revealed a well-kept place. I fear that other orphanages are not so encouraging. We snuggled with our little Sydney even more today, and I prayed that the future adoptive parents of those little ones would be able to come soon to bring them home, too.

Please pray for Rollin and Sydney particularly today - we'll keep you updated on their recovery, but tomorrow may prove to be awfully long with packing and travelling while sick. We will get our daughter's new passport in the morning, and then we start another marathon of getting 10 familes (11 babies) and all the accompanying adults on a plane and landed/situated at the famous-for-adoption-familes White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. Hopefully we'll post more about our time here in Nanchang and the daily routines tomorrow night if all goes as planned. The Lord is merciful, and we lean on his mercy tonight.