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Day 11 pictures....
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Hey … we’ve missed a few days of blogging … So sorry! We only have one computer with us and between the kids’ homework and Danny’s social life, we’re not getting as much time to blog as we would like … Ha!
I’m enjoying my first cup of coffee since we got here … can you believe it? For some reason the cream here is brown, so I’ve passed. This cup is wonderful though … it’s from Starbucks! Such a small world we live in and since being in China we’ve really come to appreciate that fact.
We do very little here in China without our guides. But yesterday with a few instructions we took on the subway on our own. We actually got to where we wanted to go with the kind help of one Chinese woman and an English speaking Mexican man. Different cultures and ethnicity are wonderful! Our guides are Chinese men and women who all work for our adoption agency (Children’s Hope International - CHI) and live in China. We always have one local guide who lives in the city where we are staying. They have all worked for CHI for years and have visited the orphanages in the different provinces multiple times. They keep us laughing and busy seeing the city. While a relaxing day in the hotel or by the pool sounds wonderful … we can do that at home … which has been our motto: if we can’t do it at home, we do it.
This morning we went to Yuexiu Park. It was absolutely beautiful. The day was bright and clear, the breeze was wonderful and the air was fresh. This we really appreciated! I would guess that it’s been in the low 70s here everyday. This afternoon we went to visit a Buddhist temple. It was a beautiful and holy place. About 60% of Chinese people are Buddhist. After the temple we went to a modern Chinese mall (much different than our malls in the US). Our local guide has connections at some shops in this mall and this made our afternoon an exciting and eventful one!
Elizabeth is wonderful on our excursions. Most of the time she just sits in the stroller, smiles, jabbers and chats, and takes it all in, and naps from time to time. She does always let us know when she wants to be held and when she’s hungry or needs a nap. It’s amazing. I know I’ve used that adjective to describe her and this journey a million times, but it is just so perfect. I’m sorry that I’m being so repetitive. I’m beyond humbled by all of this and so thankful.
She is progressing so fast. In just over a week her fine motor skills and other muscle tone have advanced so far that she can now feed herself finger food without problem, she LOVES to stand on your lap, and she plays on her tummy without complaint. She still moves very little at night though and stays on her back. But she’s fussing more during sleep and I think it’s from lack of movement as her once dormant muscles don’t want to lie in the same spot for 10 hours anymore. Last night when she fussed, I rolled her over on her side in her sleep and she slept that way until morning.
I worry a bit about her sleep position because I found a small concerning lump on the back of her head. We saw a doctor yesterday here and I heard two stories (through translation) one that it is a result of her flat head and too much time laying on her back and it should correct itself as she grows. The second is that it’s a lymph node that will also correct itself as she gets older. “Normal, Normal”, was what I heard both times as well. I pray that this is the case. But I’m anxious to find out for sure. I have an appointment for her with our pediatrician the first weekday back.
Yesterday we went to Shamian Island for the medical exam and to do some shopping. It’s an area of Guangzhou that caters to the adoption crowd specifically. It’s a beautiful little island with tons of shops. On the way to the island our guide told us most, I think he said 90%, of households in China are double income and that the average monthly income, nationally, in China is 680 Yuan – the Chinese currency. That equates to 100 dollars a month. Unbelievable. And then we go into the shops and our guide tells us that all prices here, in every shop, are negotiable. And that we should do our best to get the price down. Needless to say, we didn’t do much negotiating. 100 dollars a month? Oh my goodness.
We’ve learned that everything is much smaller in China than in the US. Larry went into a dressing room (4 ft X 4 ft max) the other day to try on some sweat pants for the long plane ride home. He bent down to untie his shoe, got wedged in the dressing room, and ended up stuck in that position. As he finally got the door opened up, Larry came stumbling out of the dressing room and the clerk came over ‘yelling’ in Chinese for walking on the floor in sock feet. Apparently that is a no-no in China (the slippers on the floor in the dressing room should have been a clue but they did not have a chance of fitting on Larry’s fat feet). Finally, in his 2XL pants, Larry explained to the clerk these were “Too small, too small”. About to give up, the clerks went scurrying to the back room and 5 minutes later came running out with a dusty, unopened package, smiling from ear to ear, mumbling something that sounded a lot like “shree S L, shree S L”!! They fit! How could we not buy these after all the effort? We feel like giants here! I know we have not gotten bigger here but somehow Larry has grown to a 3XL pant size! (BTW: I’m a 2XL here - Can’t wait to get home!)
Across the canal near Shamian Island is an outdoor market called Qingping Market. You may have heard of it. It’s the place where the SARS virus started. And after visiting there, we’re not surprised. We are also pretty sure that most of the people there make the national average in wages. The pictures tell it all. It’s a real taste of “old Guangzhou”.
Our local guide here (Simon) tells us a lot about the history and current policies of the Chinese government as we drive around in the bus. He is very entertaining and honest. It makes us appreciate living in the US all that much more. All the Chinese people in the cities live in high-rise apartments (which are purchased from the Government) or dormitories (which are rented for a very small monthly fee from the Government.) No single family dwellings exist in the cities. You can see from the pictures that some apartments are new and nice and some are not. It’s not clear who chooses where you live.
We also try to get some insights into living in a communist society. The guides don’t want to tell too much about this and we don’t press but there are some telling comments that give us some hints. One of our guides on Election Day (in the US) told us “I cannot imagine what it would be like to vote”. We heard another story of the Chinese quizzing the US citizens about “when the election was decided”. They could not grasp the concept that Election Day was actually a ‘real’ vote and the president was not decided by some insider action beforehand.
We haven’t visited the countryside at all. Some in our group shared their personal research which revealed a possible reason; shame. The people in the countryside are even poorer and have less than those in the city. On our last day in Nanchang, our local guide there gave a humble and touching account of life in the countryside and in the orphanage. She was moved to tears as she told of her own struggles to get her family to accept that adopting and loving an abandoned little girl was a valuable way to spend the little time and money that they have to share. There was not a dry eye in the bus when she finished.
That’s all for today. We are off to bed for some rest. Tomorrow the American Consulate ‘approves’ all the adoption paperwork and finalize the visa for Elizabeth to be able to travel back to the US with us.
Things are winding down for us here in China. Only a few more days until we head back home. We seriously are having a life changing experience not only for Elizabeth but for us... though we are looking forward to getting back HOME.
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Day 12 Pictures
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