10:30 pm Saturday
Gotta love a good thunderstorm. That is what we are experiencing right now here in Guangzhou. I think you are supposed to stay away from windows during a thunderstorm, but being the brilliant people we are we have been glued to the window watching the lightning.
A good chunk of yesterday was spent getting to Guangzhou. It was a three hour flight and a different experience flying with a toddler. If this was any indication of what will happen during our full day of flying on the 13th, please by all that is good in this world, start praying for us now. Okay, it wasn't horrible, just a bit difficult. Kara is a girl on the move, and she does not take too kindly to having to be strapped down. On the way home she will have her own seat, but this time she was belted onto our belt. This sweet older man sitting next to us (poor soul) was doing all he could to cheer her up. After being told "Ting bu dong" he started using a lot of hand gestures (nice ones I assure you) to give me parenting advice. He would also pick pictures out of his newspaper and hand them to Kara to look at. She would respond by crumpling up the pictures and throwing them to the floor (what gratitude). The man even made an airplane for her out of an airsick bag (my people use origami paper, but you use what you can in a pinch).
We were happy to leave Beijing, and Guangzhou is a very different place. On the negative side, it is very humid, even worse than Beijing. On the positive side, it is a very interesting place. We are actually on an "island" (really only separated from the mainland by a moat). A number of the buildings here were once owned by the British, so the architecture is different (though I will say that Beijing had some wonderful looking buildings) from what we've seen. Another feature of the island is that it has a church on it, something we have yet to see in our time here.
We are staying in the White Swan Hotel that is in a word, saawaaaaankyyyyy! In the drawer there is a yearbook of sorts that has pictures of various dignitaries who have visited the hotel. They range from Chinese governmental figures, to George Bush (Sr.) to Fidel Castro. There's another book that has photos of special foods the hotel has prepared for various important functions. There is a 20' (?) waterfall in the middle of the hotel and a number of huge jade statues. This must be a classy place as there is no clothesline in the bathroom (Bummer for us, though laundry is much cheaper here. We already took some things to be laundered. Souvenir shops advertise that they also handle laundry. And they all advertise a special of 50% off the usual price. ).
As fancy as the hotel is, it has the nickname of the "baby hotel." A number of different adoption agencies converge here. To quote Frodo Baggins in "The Two Towers", "We are not alone." Everywhere you look you see Chinese children with not so Chinese parents. Think of a bunch of Jameses with a bunch of Karas. Oh, sorry, was that scary? Just think of a bunch of Karas then. The businesses around the hotel cater to adoptive families and advertise as such. Unfortunately with the number of adoptions falling by about 50% since 2004, a number of the businesses have closed down. We found out that all adoptive families must come through Guangzhou because it is the only place in China that issues immigrant visas.
We got a lovely gift on behalf of the Mattel company since we are an adoptive family. We received Barbie in a box wearing a pink mini-dress and pink stilettos holding what is supposed to be an Asian child (or as a friend's son says, "A brown baby.". I think I'll pack that one away for Kara until she's too old to play with Barbies (Barbie fan I am not). Lest you think I'm being mean, the box does say "For ages 14 and over" and "This is not a toy."
Mattel has funded a room in the hotel in which preschool age kids can play. We went down there tonight and met the kind of people that make you think, "Wow, I am but a mere peon." This family has 13 children (one in heaven right now). They adopted 6 from Liberia (a number with special needs) and 2 from China (the one they adopted this time has a heart condition). And get this, they are a homeschooling family. I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy! Seriously though, we had a wonderful conversation and I agreed with Kitty when she said, "My soul feels refreshed."
We have been reunited with the other Bethany families and have been having a blast seeing all their beautiful kids. We had the kids' medical exam today which involved going through three "stations." It was busy and packed, but it was fun talking to the other families (I know shocking, me, talk?). When we went to the last station, we were unnerved when the doctor asked about Kara's diagnosis. We showed him that her diagnosis (given when she was 3 ½ months old) is "mental retardation." At that he got up and left. He came back, looked through some of our paperwork and left again. We thought, "This can not be good." When he returned, he was accompanied by Shiyan, our guide in Guangzhou. She translated for us as the doctor asked if we thought the diagnosis was correct. We said that we thought that she was developmentally delayed, but definitely not mentally delayed. Before she translated that to the doctor, we asked, "Is that okay to say?" To which she said, "Yes, the doctor thinks she is fine." Tsk, just fine???
We had a long meeting today to go over all the documents needed for Kara's visa. Nope, we are not out of the paperwork woods yet. The adoption is complete, but now we are dealing with immigration and lots of forms and documents (and moolah of course).
Tomorrow we do some touring around to a folk art museum and a park. We can't help but think of our kids at home right now and the wedding of friends that will occur in a number of hours. Charis is in the wedding, and we are sorry to be missing it. There was the offer to Skype us and let us watch the wedding, only we'd be doing that at 4:30am. As much as we love this couple, I think we will watch the video.
Six more days and counting down…
Oh, let me leave you with some quotes from a section of the China Daily newspaper titled "Better English."
1. "It's so warm that the dog is chasing the cat, but both are walking."
2. "Flies are falling down tired!"
3. "I am leaking!"
4. "It's raining fire!"
5. "It's so hot my tongue is hanging out."
6. "I am sweating like a chicken!"
7. "It is like a Turkish bath."
8. "You could boil a kettle on your head."
9. "It's hot enough to melt hell!"
10. "It's so dry the trees are following the dogs around."
and my favorite:
11. "I'm sweating fat!"
No comments:
Post a Comment