Coming HOME!

It is 7:13AM on Saturday morning and I am no longer Crabby. I was soooooo tired yesterday. This is by far the hardest trip I have ever taken and definitely the most tiring labor. I am enjoying it all but it has been a challenge to keep going.

Finally, we are on the final leg home. I cannot post much as usual, as we only have about 40 minutes before we leave. The internet in HK was expensive so Eric waited until this AM to get only one hour.

This is our guide, Kelly, who dropped us off at the airport in Guangzhou.

Megan Ling enjoyed her first airplane ride and really bonded with Ping, a gift from Juma Cindy. Ping has a zipper in his belly where there is a fleecy blanket to cuddle with.

We enjoyed our stay in HK. The day was a lovely sunny one, and the city sparkled. It is nestled in between the mountains (I had no idea of this) and there are thousands of skyscrapers all about 20 or more stories high.

This is on the airport train. We were the only people in the whole car.

Our hotel was about 45 minutes from the airport, so we rented a private bus to transport us there. It was the cheapest way to do it (about $1600 Hong Kong dollars- about 8 HK dollars to the US dollar- $200 US dollars round trip), and we had the entire huge bus to ourselves! It's coming back to pick us up this morning at 8:00 AM.

I think this is a cemetary.

Views of the city:



This is a picture for Aunt Cindy and Amanda:

Our hotel:

We found a park for the kids to play in and they had a wonderful time climbing and sliding. Mary Alice enjoyed playing with Megan Ling and Bao on the playgrounds.

And now we are on our way home!!!!!

On to Hong Kong

It's 4:30 AM and I'm crabby............

Red Couch Day!

This was our last morning at the breakfast buffet. I will miss it. It was wonderful. Most of the families seem to have gone home. Some are still around, just starting their first week.

Bao is getting better and better each day. She has warmed up to us over the last 10 days and gave Eric a really big smile. She is constantly offering Megan choice tidbits and even called her Ling Ling once.

We bought this outfit for Megan Ling yesterday.

And of course, the red couch photo. We didn't really get a great head-on shot. It was hard to get them all to smile at one time. Ling was really sucking on her fingers. Bao kept reaching over and taking them out and Ling stuck them right back in and grinned. She is quite an imp! The video shows the whole story.









This is us on the steps of the US consulate building. It used to be located next to the White Swan but it was moved to a larger location about 35 minutes away. We were not allowed to take photos inside, but it wasn't that big of a deal anyway. We received our children's immigration paperwork and visas and rechecked everything for accuracy, then a man read an oath and we swore everything we put in our application was true and he said Congratulations, you're parents! I did cry a little tear of relief that the whole thing was official. Because both parents traveled, our children will become American Citizen's as soon as we go through immigration upon our return to the USA.

We went to dinner at Lucy's, an American style restaurant. Megan Ling shared my spicy chicken enchiladas and Matthew's fish, and she ate ALL of my Purple Onion! Wow, that girl is amazing!

Here is Matthew, reading the Chinese-English Dictionary (another gift from Uncle Marty). He can already recognize many characters on the signs and buildings around town.


Mary Alice, Megan Ling and I shopped a lot this afternoon. It rained on and off today and luckily, our shopping took place during the break. Because of this, and some gifts from Marty and Cindy, I did not think all the stuff was going to get back into the suitcases. Thank goodness for those wonderful space bags. It took me hours, but it's all in there. We have a 4:30 AM wakeup call for tomorrow morning and our bags have to be out of the door by 5:40. Our flight to Hong Kong will only take one hour, and we have to travel into the city to get to our hotel. I hope it isn't a hassle for us, as in my family we have 8 available hands (not counting Megan Ling) and 7 rolling suitcases, one set of art scrolls (gifts from the foster mom) and Megan Ling. Hopefully, the one extra hand can hold her hand and she can hold the scrolls or pull a bag. It will be interesting. We will leave our guide Kelly behind at the Guangzhou airport and thus the end of the hired drivers. We will take the express train shuttle to the downtown area with all that luggage. I hope it isn't too difficult.

It will be bittersweet to leave here. I am very excited to get home, but home still seems very far away. I have had such a wonderful time with my new friends and my family. Eric and I feel like we have been given an awesome gift and responsibility in being able to come into this precious child's life and share our love with her and hers with us. She is soooo sweet and we love her so dearly. It is as if she were born to us right now and we could not love her more if I had carried her myself. Again, I find myself thinking deeply of her birth mom and dad and I hope that they can somehow know that their child will always be safe in our arms.

I better get to bed. Again, I am amazed that I managed to post. I am glad I have pushed myself to do it each night. It would have been so easy to go straight to bed. The effort is well worth it and I am proud of myself for doing it.

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!