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! Post or view Messages

Today we got the babies's visas, so we're ready to head out tomorrow!Today is our last full day in Guangzhou. We spent most of the day shopping, shopping, shopping! We definitely wore Zoe out, and her Mama too! But I was determined, in the short time we had, to buy Zoe 16 little gifts, one for each Gotcha Day anniversary. I managed it, believe it or not! Most of it is very small stuff -- a tiny cloissone teapot, a mirror in a silk case, a carved wooden comb, etc. But for when she is older, I have jade earrings and a pearl necklace. I want to be able to give her a special gift from her homeland on each anniversary of when we met. I also bought her a lovely white silk Chinese-style dress for her baptism. I also got a granite etching of Zoe. Shamian artists are famous for this among adoptive parents. From a photo, and totally by hand, they'll etch a picture of your child into a small black granite slab. While we were shopping, we actually saw the artist working on Zoe's! Very exciting! Shamian Island is very pretty, and very Western-European in design. I guess that's no great surprise, given that Guangzhou was the main shipping port into China, and that Shamian Island was the European Quarter in centuries past. It's still a little startling to see, since it isn't quite what your pre-conceived notions of China are. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch with our travelgroup. The food wasn't great -- I much prefer the Chinese food we've had here to the ersatz American fare. But Zoe did get to eat her first-ever ice cream! We leave tomorrow morning for Hong Kong, and then from there to Taipei, then Los Angeles. We're still planning to stay the night in LA, and arrive at DFW on American Airlines at 3:01 p.m. As happy as I am that we're almost home to see all of you, I'm also sad to be leaving the country of Zoe's birth. The people have been amazing. I can't wait 'til we can come back when Zoe is older, so she can know what the country of her birth is like. This page accessed 443 times