Wednesday, May 21, 2008, 11:00PM

I briefly considered not posting today, but after a long Skype conversation with my mother, I decided that it would not be fair to skip when so many seem to be planning their day around the arrival of the post! I know how I have waited and wondered what was going on when others I followed had traveled.

So, although it is after midnight here, I am not nearly as tired as I was the earlier days in the trip, and I am still perfecting the post after about 90 minutes of work!

Last night we ate a late dinner in the hotel restaurant. Cindy order these Stuffed Scallops and Marty got this Rooster Chicken Platter. It was beautiful how they were presented. I love the Rooster plate.



Grace had told me that she was taught that China is in the shape of a rooster. I did not know that before, but when she showed me, I saw it clearly! The head is to the right, the tail to the left and Taiwan and Hainan are the feet. She said all Chinese school children are taught this.



Here is a photo of Ling in her crib. This one is very tiny compared to the crib in Shenyang, but she seems to like it just fine.



This morning we got to talk with some more adoptive families at breakfast and hear some of their experiences. Some of them are just beginning their journeys and some are just ending. I love to hear their stories, and inevitably I push it to the last minute and have to run to make it to our scheduled activities.

Today we were destined to tour the Chen Family Residence (where beautiful Chinese Art is housed). The Lizana's opted out of this trip. This fan is carved out of wood! It is hard to see it in the photo, but there is a very detailed and beautiful scene carved in it.


This is a wood carving and I asked Eric to take this photo especially for Erin B. who is a wonderful artist and sculpts beautiful clay creations. Erin, this is one panel part of the very large wall carving that we are standing in front of in the photo below!

This thing is HUGE!

Even here, where foreigners are more common, we were swarmed with people wanting to take photos of all of us. They especially liked the kids! They all had their own cameras or cell phones and we took multiple shots, with various combinations of people! These girls made a huge fuss over Mary Alice! I think she liked it.

We also went to the Pearl Market (a mall where they sell tons of jewelry, stones, jade, pearls, etc.). We all found some good bargains! Here, Cindy and Marty are buying a pearl necklace for Cindy!


There were hundreds of these tiny stores on each floor, and five or more floors!!! I think you can see the floors in the background of this picture.

Matthew loved the Giant Agate!

Here is Sofia Bao doing her favorite thing.

And this time Megan Ling joined her.

Here we are on our way to the pool in the afternoon. As you can see, Ling is all ready! She has no idea what we are doing, but she is so excited to get there! She is so funny!

Juma Cindy is having a great time!

Megan Ling loved splashing in the water. It was pretty cold in the pool (not heated) so she did not go in very much (just Matthew and Mary Alice swam). The day was overcast again, warm but not sunny.

This is such a pretty spot in the hotel.



There was a wedding party there today.

Tonight was Cindy and Marty's last night. They leave around 6:30 in the morning for the airport, so we went to a Cantonese Restuarant recommended by the concierge for a special last dinner tonight. Marty gave the waiter our Bright Pink Peanut Allergy Alert Card in Chinese and at least 10 waiting staff and the Chef poured over it for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, we studied the menu. You can click on the photos to enlarge them to read. I especially amazed by #1107 and #1207.....




At first, we were a little stumped as to what we would have. The menu was very extensive (about 10 pages of the above) and quite surprising, to say the least. I saw one other adoptive family in the room and went over to see what they had ordered. They named several shellfish dishes that sounded reasonable and then pointed to the empty plate in the middle of the table, save for the heads of two tiny pigeons that they chose not to eat! They said the rest of them were very good, better than chicken! Luckily, Uncle Marty never loses hope and he ordered a very wonderful assortment for us, including fried rice, a chicken platter, sirloin steak tidbits, some very savory sweet potato puffs that were moist and creamy inside, some passion fruit pastries, fried bamboo fish (no head-I was worried about that part) and baby bok choy with garlic sauce. It turned out that everything was very delicious (although we could not convince the kids to eat much) and we really enjoyed the meal. Cindy, Marty and Eric are very big on trying new things, and me and the kids are not so much, so I was really proud of myself for not only sticking it out, but for actually trying and liking the dishes.

There were about 50 large tanks at the front of the restaurant. Here are a few specimens:




This is the photo of us with the wait staff and the Chef (holding Megan Ling).


Well, it is very sad to say goodbye to Juju and Juma, but we so very much appreciate their coming to celebrate this wonderful time with us. They have made deep connections with Megan Ling that we will always remember and cherish. We will get to see them in another few weeks, as their oldest daughter, Amanda, is getting married in June in Tennessee. Both Matthew and Mary Alice are in the wedding. That will be another blog worthy adventure.

Their leaving marks the last day for us in Guangzhou. Tomorrow we have our Oath at the Consulate and our red couch photos and then early Friday we fly to Hong Kong. We have the day to spend there and fly out the next morning. Our flight home arrives on Saturday, May 24th around 5:15 PM. Our local friends are all invited to come to the airport to see us arrive. We will be tired, I am sure, but would be thrilled to see everyone briefly, before returning to our neighbors home for a quick dinner and an early bedtime. It is so wonderful to be thinking about sleeping in my own room. As organized as I am, it has been nearly impossible to keep my head straight with all this stuff everywhere. I will be happy to get home!