We're Going Home!

We are now officially finished with our adoption! Yesterday we went to the US Consulate to pick up Qi Fu's passport and Visa and swear our oath. And now we are heading home after a 2 hour train ride to Hong Kong. And speaking of Hong Kong, this city is amazing. We opted to not spend a day here, but maybe someday we will make it back here to explore. But, our hotel here is the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in and that includes the Hilton Time Square and the Ritz! It is very modern with lots of chrome and frosted glass - very posh...I love it!

Today is a day of mixed emotions for me. I am so happy to go home - especially to see Lilly, but it is so sad to say goodbye to people that we have become so close to in such a little bit of time. It is amazing how quickly you bond when you share such an emotional journey together. We have cried, laughed, complained, toured, and eaten with our group of families everyday for the last 2 weeks. I am thankful that we are all on the east coast so that we can have reunions and get togethers. And "yahoo" for the Internet and facebook! Makes the world a lot smaller.

Now we are on our way to the airport to begin our 19 hour journey home. It should be an adventure that we will never forget - especially considering we will have a very active little boy to try to keep in a seat! And I am not happy because there was a mix up with our seats and I have a window seat - I know a lot of people like that, but I am an aisle girl all the way. We'll see what we can negotiate...

See you all in a little while:)

Photo on The Red Couch at the White Swan

Guangzhou and The White Swan

Well, we finally made it to Guangzhou and the White Swan! The White Swan Hotel is amazing. It is the mecca for adopting families from the US - the place is just crawling with us. It is really neat to meet families from all over the States and to be reunited with our friends from Beijing. I am amazed at how many people are here for their second or third adoption. Maybe we will be back in a year or two...

We are on the last leg of our trip and I think I speak for everyone when I say we are so ready to be done! We have all really enjoyed our trip to China, but it sounds so good to go home, see our Lilly, get Emmett started on his new life, and not eat out for a very, very long time (especially Chinese food). Last night we went to the "American Buffet" for dinner and we were all so excited. They even had chicken nuggets and mini-cheeseburgers!

Yesterday was our last paperwork day! We (ie Eric - I am, so sick of papers that he took over the task) did the papers for Emmett's Visa. On Thursday we will go to the consulate for an oath taking ceremony and then we will be COMPLETELY finished with the adoption. YAHOO! We also had to take him for his physical yesterday. He was not so happy about that. Actually, he was doing fine because our friend Vipa (she is the woman that is on her 4th adoption and who is super prepared) kept giving him some cheerios. But, when they left he broke down - not because of the impending exam, but because his supply had dried up!

Well, that brings me to the next topic - Emmett's mooching ability. I am not exaggerating when I say that he gets goodies from people all the time! All he does is go up to them and smile and they give him whatever he wants. It's like he has some mystical power or something. Yesterday alone he got cheerios (from Vipa), a tomato from a lady at the park, a barbie phone from a vendor, 4 flags from some man in a store, a box of blocks from the girls in the Holt office, a balloon from another mom, and of course candy from random strangers. I think that completes yesterday. I tell you, he is a charmer so you better hang on to your valuables when we get home or you will magically find yourself giving them to him. Man, I sure hope he uses his powers for good and not evil as he grows up :)

Emmett and two of his friends spent some time at a playground after their physicals. It was so cute to watch him climbing up and going down the slides. You would never guess that he has anything wrong with his feet - they do not limit him in anyway. We also got to see a Chinese school in action yesterday as we walked around Guangzhou. They were out in their courtyard practicing something. We did not know if it was for some type of performance, or if they were doing a gym class of sorts. But they were standing in formation reciting and dancing. There were a couple of girls that kept looking at all of us and smiling and covertly waving. I think they enjoyed having an audience.

Another great thing about being in Guangzhou is the shopping. Hannah and I spent the afternoon going to a lot of fun shops. We did our first bargaining and it is kind of addicting! Hannah even got into the act. And we met this really nice lady. Her name is Ju D. She told us she has been a Christian for four years (pretty rare for China)and that it was some Americans who told her about it. We talked with her for about an hour and during that time another American woman came in to tell her good-bye. So, obviously she makes friends all the time. We exchanged e-mails before we left and she actually had a whole book of people's e-mail addresses. It will be fun to see if she keeps in touch!

Our Days At The People's Park In Nanning

Yiling Village and Humble Pie

Today Jane took us to a local Zhuang village. China is made up of 56 different ethnic groups. The majority for all of China is the Han people. But, here in Guangxi the majority is made up of Zhuang. The first time we met Jane she told us that she took one look at Qi Fu's picture and knew right away that he was Zhuang by his features. She said he is very Zhuang. She also claims that at least 2 of the girls in our group are Zhuang also.

The Zhuang people are known for their ability to do fine embroidery and sing. They have festivals where there are extemporaneous signing competitions and the boys ask girls out by singing to them! We seriously hope Qi FU has inherited this singing ability! They are also pretty small people - very slender and shorter than most - totally explains his size.

Yiling village is a very typical village for rural China and since all but one of our children came from rural orphanages, Jane really wanted us to see what life is like there. Let me just say, it was a very humbling experience. But it was also very eye opening for me. I just kept thinking that these people had very little, but their children were still loved and taken care of. There is no crime - everyone in the village trusts one another and they never lock doors. The children run around the whole village by themselves because everyone looks out for everyone else. The sense of community is very strong. It is too bad we have lost these traits. I think church is probably the closest thing that remains.

Most people in China live on about 1500 Yuan a month (about $200), but people in these villages live on a lot less. They still adhere to very traditional practices. Jane warned us that we would see the women working very hard doing their laundry on rocks at the watering hole, farming, carrying heavy loads, etc, while the men will be sitting around playing games like chess and checkers. She was right. (But to do the men some justice, she did point out they too work hard during the week days in the cities or on farms, but after work they get to come home and relax while the women's work is never done!) And the men help out with children very little in public. The men think that carrying a child or changing it, etc, will make them look weak. So, it is left up to the women - although they may help out in the privacy of their own home. As matter of fact, Eric went up to some men playing a game to take their picture and they laughed at him because he had Qi Fu on his shoulders! It was pretty funny.

We were also told to bring candy with us for the village children. Chinese people are constantly giving children candy - Qi Fu always has a piece or two stored in a pocket that some random stranger gave to him. And it is usually hard candy that he tries to bite. I really don't like this practice! Anyway, I do not know what we expected, but it certainly was not the mobbing we got when we showed our bags of candy. There were children everywhere grabbing and laughing and running away and then coming back for more. At one point we had to shew them away so that we could walk.

After we started walking again, we noticed a little boy about Qi Fu's age standing with his grandma watching us. He looked very shy and would not come over even with his grandma's prodding. Qi Fu noticed him and took one of his own candies from his pocket and walked up to the boy and gave it to him. It was so touching! I hope he keeps this type of compassion and generosity throughout his life.

I wish I could describe the smells in the village. They were...not that pleasant - a mixture of animal, fire, cooking flesh, and typical farm life. Trust me, I did not do it justice. And the flies were something from a horror film - they were EVERYWHERE. I have never seen so many flies in my life and I grew up on a pig farm. And speaking of pigs, we visited the home of a lady in the village who was the "richest" person there because she raised pigs and sold them. She had a typical 2 story home where her adult children and their families lived on the second level, and she lived on the first with the pigs. No joke. (Note: here in the countryside - especially among the Zhuang - the people are allowed to have more than 1 child, that is why this woman had 3 children - 2 daughters and 1 son.) Her house was made of cement and was still very humble by our standards, but a mansion according to theirs. It was pretty neat to see and she was very gracious.

Since a picture can say a thousand words, here is a slide show of our visit. I really hope you can get a feel for the village and the people there.

Green Mountain

Our big excursion of the day was a trip to Green Mountain. It is a state park type of place about 30 minutes outside of Nanning. The weather looked a bit dicey, but it held out until we were walking around one area of the park (we visited 3 different areas), and then it poured! Qi Fu loved it, of course. As a matter of fact, he was already soaked by the time the rain started because he discovered a rain puddle about ten seconds after we got off the bus and promptly not only jumped in it, but also sat! Yep, that's right, I said sat - full bum right down in the middle. Of course everyone laughed and that only encouraged more!

After the rain started, Jane - aka super prepared woman - produced a dozen huge umbrellas from her secret pocket or something. And Qi Fu insisted on being the one to carry it. Do you know how hard it is to stay under an umbrella carried by a two foot high person? Not so easy my friends. Eric, Hannah, and I opted for the soaking over the back aches. But, man did he look cute holding this giant umbrella. Brought to mind Alice in Wonderland and the giant mushrooms.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a local store that sells jade and pearls. Some really pretty stuff in there. Jane told us that it is traditional for men to wear the female Buddah. It is supposed to make them lucky with the ladies. We bought one for Qi Fu - to be kept until he is older, though I suspect he won't have any problems attracting girls with his wit and charm. He already has the ability to make one of the other little girls in our party smile and giggle. And that is saying a lot because she is having a really hard time and will hardly smile for anyone else. He's a little lady killer in the making!

Big Trip To Walmart!

Ok, what a joke! The place is called Walmart, but it DOES NOT look anything like what we are used to. I am embarrassed to admit, but I was so excited to go there this morning. We had a whole list of things to buy - including clothes for Qi Fu. We have only 2 outfits that fit and the pants he wore today kept falling off - literally- and they are a size 18-24 months! But when we got there, we soon realized that there were very few boy clothes - only one tiny rack with the same outfit in three colors. I am not kidding...that was it! So, we bought 2 of them in different colors and I hate them! But, I will keep them forever as a memento (although, he will never wear them again as soon as we go home:))

After our "big shopping trip" Jane took us to Pizza Hut for American food. It was very good!!! Qi Fu had his first pizza and spaghetti and loved it - along with every other food he has tried. I swear that boy eats and eats. Maybe he'll grow so his pants will fit:)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Tonight, we had our first really sad moment. After his bath, he went back into the bathroom and slipped on some water and hit his head. He started crying and I picked him up. He wanted to go to the bed, so I laid him down. Then he did not want me to comfort him. He kept crying, pointing, and saying "Mama, mama, mama, etc." Obviously, he wanted his foster mom, not me. I just sat next to him (but didn't touch) and sang to him. After a few moments he stopped wailing and pointed to his ear and said a few words in Chinese. Obviously, that is where it hurt. So, he let me rub it (for only a second!) and kiss it. Then he cried again! But it only lasted a minute or so, then he popped up and crawled off the bed and went back to playing. However, a moment later he hit his head on the TV stand and came to me rubbing it and pointing. This time he let me kiss it and rub it! BREAKTHROUGH...

To end the day, I pulled out the wikki stix and Hannah and I made him a bunch of accessories. It was funny. He would laugh, then take them off and put them in his cupboard with the rest of his stash. (We have discovered if we are missing something, that he probably has stored it in there!) The funny thing, however, was that I made a necklace and put it on him without his noticing. When he finally discovered it, he laughed hysterically and kept pointing to his neck and talking. He was surprised to find it and thought it was the funniest thing. It was so cute!