The Road to China.......

 

Day 13: Wednesday, June 8, 2005

 

Courage Strength Happiness Knowledge

 

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A Long Journey Coming To A Close

 

I can't believe it's almost over. Stephie does not want to go home. She likes it here!

Thanks for all the nice emails. It's nice to hear from home. I'm glad that people are checking the website/blog and seem to be enjoying my posts. I'm trying to put some interesting stuff out there instead of just all pictures of Abby. Seems like a lot of people are really looking forward to meeting her. Watch out.....you might just fall in love.

We went to the Swan Room today. It is a play room for the babies. It is full toys and has a nice Barbie display as well. Abby just sat with me for about 10 minutes then got interested in a beach ball, but didn't venture out too far. She was just starting to get excited when it was time to leave.

 

swan room

 

 

swan room

 

 

swan room

 

 

swan room

 

 

swan room

 

 

swan room

 

 

swan room

 

 

swan room

 

 

swan room

 

Group Picture Time

Unfortunely we didn't bother to bring our camera with us for the group shot. What were we thinking??? We never leave our room without it. So far we have taken over 2000 shots.

Abby has been playing by herself for over an hour today. We have been uploading, sorting, packing..... She's been so good about entertaining herself.

 

packing

 

This is only 1 bed. All 3 look like this. Yikes!

Stephie is swimming with Kaitlin. They get along so well. I think Stephie will really miss her. Kaitlin's new sister is Kylie. She was in foster care in Nanning and is 13 months old. She's very chatty.

We are getting ready to go out for lunch. This evening we are thinking about taking a boat ride on the Pearl River. It is very pretty.

Tomorrow we go to the US Consulate. We are not allowed to bring anything but ourselves, our baby, our passports, and a stroller - no bags. We have an interview process, then they process Abby's Visa and then we are off to Hong Kong. It is a 4 hour bus ride - yuk. We will spend 1 more night at the Regal Hotel at the Hong Hong Airport then board the plane for the long dreaded flight home. Some of the babies are having a harder time adjusting and some are very active, only a couple babies are calm and quite like Abby. I wonder how long it will last??? This flight is going to seem like a month probably.

I will be glad to get out of this room. It is so small. There is literally a small path from the bed to the bath to the door. We had to send our crib back and park our stroller in the hall. We have a mini bar where we store our drinks and make Abby's bottles, but the only way there is to climb over Stephie's bed. It seems a little ridiculous.

I forgot to tell you about our floor hostess. She has a little desk that she stands behind 24/7. She presses the elevator buttons and holds the door for you. She always greets you with a friendly hello. There is a door man also. He opens the door for everyone all day every day.

The people here have very good memories. Everywhere we go, they remember us from day to day. We have bought several things and had them customized. When we return to pick them up, we don't even need any paperwork, they just run to get our stuff before we say a word. Impressive. They are very trusting. They have customized many things with no up-front payment. WOW! We're not in the US any more Dorothy.

Abby enjoys walking now. When she is tired, she squats and waits to be picked up. She is very hesitant about surface changes (i.e. carpet to tile).

Gotta run, Abby is getting squeaky. Oh I forgot, babies need naps. Ooooops. Hey, give me a break.....my next youngest baby is 10!

I'm back. Al found lots of Chinese money that we need to get rid of today (they won't exchange it back for us), so Steph and I went shopping. We bought a big suit case for $15 and a whole bunch of other stuff.

 

money

 

We even had some left over to bring home.

Our favorite shopping corner. We can see it from our room.

 

shopping corner

 

We are going to dinner tonight with Steph's friend's family. I think we are going to a place called Lucy's. It is an American style restaurant with a 50's style atmosphere including a juke box. Some of us feel that the statue in front of Lucy's is a way of poking fun of Americans......see what you think.

 

lucy's

 

Well, we actually went to an outside grill and it was really good.

Tomorrow we say good-bye to the White Swan - the most over-priced hotel we've ever stayed in and that includes NYC, Chicago, LA, San Fran, Disney......Disney is a close second I think.

 

white swan

 

We just love all the jade and other sculptures all over the hotel.

 

white swan

 

 

white swan

 

Such a beautiful lobby, filled with art, plants, shops, and even tweeting birds. Oh, and don't forget the delicious buffet. YUM!

 

white swan

 

 

boat

 

Hopefully I can do 1 more update from Hong Kong. See you next week.

Abby is really starting to pick up some English. We have been talking to her this entire time. Today when it was time to get ready to go out I was telling her that we were going to go shopping and that she would have to ride in her stroller but before we could go we needed to put our shoes on. I was picking things up around the room and to my surprise, here came Abby with her shoes. How exciting!

 

our little sweetie

 

 

Signing off from China. More from Hong Kong......hopefully

 

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