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8.21.2001
8.22.2001 REFERRAL! 8.23.2001 New Pictures 8.24. 2001 To Austin! 8.27.2001The Other Jin Yi Ling 8.30.2001 Care Package 8.31.2001 Update! 9.06.2001 Travel approval 9.10.2001 Poem 9.11.2001 9.12.2001 Travel booked 9.26.2001 Itinerary 10.03.2001 Departure Day 10.05.2001 Hong Kong 10.07.2001 HK Day 2 10.07.2001 Nanning 10.08.2001 GOTCHA DAY! 10.09.2001 It's official! 10.10.2001 Tourist time 10.11.2001 Green Mountain Park 10.12.2001 Market 10.13.2004 Last Day in Nanning 10.15.2001 Visa Day 10.17.2001 Last Day! 10.19.2001 We're Home! |
This is our last full day in Nanning. We got the last of the babies' necessary paperwork today -- their Chinese passports. Tomorrow at 6:45 a.m. we are to have our luggage outside our door, and at 7:20 a.m. we meet in the lobby to head to the airport. We fly to Guangzhou for our last stop on this adventure! The US consulate is in Guangzhou, and that is where we have to go to apply for Zoe's visa to enter the US. We did not do much today. It was quite an undertaking just to get our bags packed! We ordered room service for dinner tonight, and that was an adventure in and of itself. You know how in a Chinese restaurant, they just bring you each dish as it's ready, rather than waiting for it all to be ready? Well, it seems they do the same for room service! We ordered 2 dishes, and they brought us one dish. So we explain that we need the stir-fried bok choi. After a while, we get through to the room service waiter, and she makes a note on her pad. That's when it hit me -- she thought we were ordering MORE bok choi! Sure enough, right behind her came another waiter with bok choi. And then another waiter with bok choi! Yummy, lots of bok choi tonight! Ordering room service was another adventure. They claimed to speak English, but it was pretty sketchy. My mom was ordering, and said "fried rice" about 6 times, and they obviously weren't getting it. Maybe it was her French accent. Anyway, I said, "Mom, say 'flied lice.'" She did, and they understood her IMMEDIATELY!!! How embarrassing when the stereotype actually works! I'm sorry to be leaving Zoe's home province. Nanning is as close as we've gotten to where she spent her first 11 months and 2 days. We didn't get to visit Guiping. But we did get our disposable camera developed here, and the pictures are priceless! Not only do I have pictures of Zoe in the orphanage, I have pictures of some of the care-takers, and pictures of Zoe's first friends. They also took pictures of the city of Guiping! I'm so excited to have all of this. Who knows when we'll be able to return to China, and perhaps visit the Guiping SWI. One of the pieces of paper that Mr. Gan, the director, gave me answers the question, "What do you wish for Jin Yi Ling's future?" He wrote that he hoped that she would grow up happy and that she would come back to China and to Guiping SWI. I think they really care about the babies there. It shows in how healthy Zoe is, and how quickly she bonded to us. |