01.07.2005 REFERRAL!!! 03.03.2005 Travel Plans! 03.11.2005 Arrived in Beijing 3.12.2005 More on Trip 3.12.2005 Touring Beijing 3.13.2005 Second Day Beijing 3.14.2005 We Have Maya! 3.15.2005 It's Official! 3.16.2005 Shop 'Til You Drop! 3,17.2005 AM Museum 3,17,2005 PM Mother's Love 3.18.2005 Nanning Zoo 3.19.2005 Green Mountain Park 3.20.2005 Paperwork, Park, & P 3.21.2005 Guangzhou 3.22.2005 Shop 'Til You Drop! 3.23.2005 Last Day in China! 3.23/24.2005 The Journey Home 3.24.05 DFW Homecoming Post or view Messages

Hello from SUNNY Guangzhou! At least, it has been sunny, and cloudy, and rainy, all in one day! At one point, the wind was blowing so hard and it was raining so hard it was easy to understand monsoon season. But that lasted for about 30 minutes, and then it was sunny again! It's hard to believe that we've been in Guangzhou for a short 36 hours and that we'll be leaving in about 24 hours! Today has been a non-stop shopping orgy for us, including the purchase of a new suitcase to bring home the booty! I'd love to have the suitcase concession in Guangzhou, since LOTS of adoptive parents buy extra to haul home all of their purchases. In the short time we've got here, I've been buying Chinese outfits for the girls in both silk and cotton, and rushing around to buy the 16 gifts from her homeland that I plan to give Maya one at a time, on each Gotcha Day anniversary (I did the same for Zoe). The gifts will culminate in jade earrings and a pearl necklace. I also bought a white silk Chinese dress for Maya's baptism (I'm not sure Zoe's will fit, since Maya will be a little older than Zoe was when she is baptized). And I bought a white silk embroidered handkerchief for Maya to carry on her wedding day. Whew! And all of this shopping actually happened during half a day, really. This morning, I had to stay in my room waiting to hear from our guide whether the visa application was acceptable -- it was! Tomorrow we go to the Consulate to swear that everything in the application is true, and the visa will be issued by 3:30 tomorrow afternoon. And then in the afternoon, we visited the Chen Family Academy, a famous old house in Guangzhou. It was built by one of the seven Chen families that settled Guangzhou. It served as a school for all the Chen family children, but then became a house to worship all the Chen ancestors, and is now a museum. The quadrangle house features elaborate carving and paintings, and houses amazing calligraphy scrolls, embroidery paintings that look as if they were done in oils by the finest artists, and statues depicting scenes from the life of the Chen family. We ended the tour at a porcelain and jade shop, where I kept repeating compulsively, "Zoe, don't touch ANYTHING!" Wow, it was gorgeous stuff, but PRICEY! While I waited in our room to hear from Veronica, and part of the time while I shopped, Maya and Zoe and Mimi played in the Swan Room. I have to say, the Swan Room is a little the worse for wear compared to when we saw it newly minted in 2001. More broken toys than whole ones, but it's still lots of fun for the kids. Zoe especially loved rough-housing with Alan, one of our travelmates, as his wife also cooled her heels in her room waiting to hear that our visa applications were OK. Mimi also took the girls for a walk along the Pearl River, which flows next to the hotel. There is a small group of amusement park rides, and of course Mimi let Zoe ride! We had a casual dinner in the room this evening, buying sandwiches from the White Swan deli. This was also the last meal Mimi and I had in China for Zoe's adoption trip. Best part -- the deli has ICE CREAM!!!! Maya had her first taste of ice cream, and after initially making faces at the cold taste, kept coming back for more! It is such fun watching Maya blossom! She is funny and charming, and KNOWS she is funny and charming! She is just reveling in all the new things she is seeing and experiencing. She is an incredible mimic, and can alreay patty-cake like a pro! She keeps adding new words to her vocabulary -- "baby," "nose," "ear." She definitely knows who her people are, and wants to know where we are at all times. She is still a little stand-offish with Zoe (mostly because Zoe has no sense of boundaries with her, and keeps thrusting toys in her face and grabbing her hands and doing all the other things an eager 4-year-old will do when playing with an 18-month-old) -- not wanting to hold her hand, not wanting Zoe to help her do things. But she absolutely knows Zoe is "jie-jie," big sister, and looks around for her and calls "jie-jie" if she can't see her. She'll try anything that big sister tries -- doing a summersault, climbing into the fenced area in the Swan Room, jumping on one foot. Of course, she can't manage any of these things, but she tackles it all with great enthusiasm! I'll try to get one last post in before we leave China tomorrow evening on the 9:30 p.m. flight. I expect after a full day, the girls won't have too much trouble sleeping for at least part of the flight! (And there's always Saint Benadryl!) This page accessed 545 times