US Consulate and other Random Stuff

Today was our Consulate appointment.  We went to a room with about 10 other adopting families and made an oath on behalf of our children.  Then we turned in all of our paperwork in hopes to receive a visa for ChunMing tomorrow which will allow us to bring him to the United States.  The moment he arrives in the states he will be a legal citizen!

 For lunch we went with our guide and the Oregon family to eat DimSum.  It was delicious!  We always enjoy our time with our guide as he speaks great English and has a good sense of humor.  I drill him with questions about the Chinese culture which he is always so obliging to answer.  Today we talked about the role of women, the elderly, the handicap, the one child policy, and the current political news.  He starts off some of his funniest comments by, "We have a joke among the Chinese...."

We passed an IKEA and our guide said, "IKEA is like Chinese taxi drivers, they drive you all over the city before they take you where you want to go."  David loved that one as he hates that IKEA is so big and you have to walk through the entire store even if you want one item.  Of course, if you know IKEA like my friend Brooke, then you take the short cuts. :)



Our first course of DimSum. 



ChunMing loved the chicken wings

 From the beginning of our trip we noticed that there are no napkins in most of the restaurants.  If our guide is with us, he pulls out little packages of napkins that look like Kleenex.  I asked him about it today and he said that Chinese don't use napkins.  The restaurants have the packages available for purchase if you want them.  He continued to tell us that he was taught to use his shirt to wipe his face growing up.  After our meal he added the fact that when they had colds in the wintertime, the kids would have contests to see who could get enough layers on their sleeve as to light a match on them.

Unfortunately, we don't have any photos, but with some political tension between Japan and China recently, the police/military presence has been pretty heavy.  Adjoining our hotel is the Japanese Consulate where there have been protests off and on while we have been here.

 These are typical adds here in China.  Rarely do you see an Asian model advertising a product.  If they are Asian, they still have enough of a mix that they mostly look white. 

It's been fun meeting so many families from around the United States.  I met a woman today that was traveling alone to adopt her little girl.  She waited six years and then two weeks prior to traveling, her mother, who was going to be her traveling companion, had a stroke.  Everyone has an interesting story about how they got to this point, how they found their child, why they are adopting, etc.  David and I noticed a common denominator though; most families are very religious.

We took ChunMing swimming today in hopes that David could disappear and I have an opportunity to create a bit of bonding.  It didn't go so well.  David handed ChunMing over to me a couple of times and swam away.  Each time ChunMing would yell out "Baba! Baba!" over and over again until David came back.  The third time was the straw and he started crying.  With the entire pool staring and my heart sinking, I motioned for David to quickly come and rescue the both of us.  Just when I think we are making headway.... I will keep trying.  There's plenty of time.

It has become sort of a joke that ChunMing will hold anyone else's hand besides Mama's. 

Holding our guide's hand

I had just put my hand out to steady ChunMing on the uneven walkway, when he grunted at me and scurried ahead and grabbed the hand of the 13 year old girl the family from Oregon adopted. She thought it was funny and giggled. :)

 For dinner we went to an Irish Pub that we had heard was fantastic.  Yep.  You can find anything you want here in Guangzhou.  This was the first place I had seen in China with a wood floor.  Besides the fact that the waiters were Chinese, it was full of Americans and the environment was such that you could have been anywhere besides China. 



You can see ChunMing in front of the Pub examining an accordion

On our way home from the Pub we stopped in a few stores which carried everyday clothing, shoes, and jewelry, still hoping to find some treasures to bring home.  David couldn't take it for more than a few minutes as it is more difficult to shop here than a car lot in America.  They follow you around within a couple of feet.  They are prepared with large calculators for foreigners; when you ask how much something is, they show you on their calculator.  If they understand the exchange or know some English then they will convert it from the RMB to the US dollar amount.

Tonight it is raining; not the Seattle kind of rain, but a warm rain.  It was fun to walk back to the hotel as  I love the smell and feel of warm rain!  ChunMing huddled under the cover of his stroller because he didn't like getting wet.  Later, the rain turned to a downpour and a crazy lightening and thunder storm ensued.  Neither David nor I had seen anything like it.  At first it was super cool, but then the thunder got so constant and loud it was a bit nerve racking and made ChunMing nervous.  We put him in bed with us and he snuggled in and fell to sleep within minutes.  All is quiet now and David and ChunMing are asleep. 

We have one more day and I am desperately missing my other children.  They are such troopers and I am so stinkin proud of them.  How many people could leave their children for 2 weeks and know that all will be well?  I have no doubt they are counting down the days of our return as well.  Ashton has been running the business and keeping things afloat at the homefront.  Jordan has been the designated dinner chef.  Sid has been substitute Mommy, which is no easy feat, especially since William is keeping her up all night.  Chloe and Sophia are being great helpers I have no doubt.  We wish there was a way we could repay them for all of their service and sacrifice.  Rock on kids!  You're awesome!