Travel tip: Some families have great wifi in their hotel rooms, but mine is spotty. I discovered if I stand in the doorway of our room or out in the hallway, it works really well most of the time.
As Silas has already said, on Monday we went to White Cloud Mountain. It had a paved road going gently up the mountain and there were many local people there out walking. The students were on a break for the upcoming spring festival (Chinese New Year), so there were quite a few students walking in groups being silly, pushing and teasing each other, just like our students. There were also a lot of older people walking and some were dancing together in some of the little areas off the main road. It is so nice to see the retired people out doing community activities and exercising.
The weather was perfect for the walk. Rachel fell asleep in the stroller for most of the way up. This is a tropical region, so there was an abundance of trees and flowers. It was lovely.
We spent the afternoon in the hotel again. That afternoon Rachel had a fever so we stayed in for the rest of the day.
Tuesday we went to Shaiman Island which was an English and French Concession. I don't exactly know what that means, and am too lazy to look it up right now, but basically I think it was under English and French control. It has western architecture and was interesting to walk around. This is where the famous White Swan hotel is, where many adoptive families in the past have stayed. The consulate used to be there but moved a few years ago. This is also where the famous statue is with the children walking behind each other. Again, the weather was perfect for this outing.
We also spent about an hour at the "International Toy Wholesaler." This was another large mall, about 6 stories tall. The stores are little, more like booths, and just packed next to each other. Sometimes you could not even walk down the aisle because the store had boxes and packing material and products out. It was a whole mall of stores that were all like the little carts we have in the middle of the walkways at our malls. There were cell phone cases, toys, novelties, clocks, purses, glittery things. (Travelers tip: there were some inappropriate things, so don't let kids go off on their own!) I hear that the higher up you went the nicer things are. We only made it to the 2nd floor but found gifts for the boys back home.
Tuesday evening we went on a beautiful dinner cruise on the Pearl River. The dinner was good, the view of the city was spectacular. The city lights up all the bridges with colorful lights in addition to all of the tall, lit-up buildings. There was also a performer who was like a clown. She juggled oranges and knives, spun a soccer ball on peoples fingers and in general acted silly. See Silas' blog post for more pix.
This morning (Wednesday) we had our very important consulate appointment. I got teary eyed when we walked up to the building and saw lines of people waiting to get in. We did not have to wait in that line, though, because we had an appointment. I was just so grateful to be so blessed to belong to this country. And the babies our group had with us are so blessed to get to come to the U.S. (There are just so many left behind......). I am not saying my family is particularly special, but just that so many people want to come to the U.S., and these few get to. We truly have a great country. Anyway, that appointment went well, and we took an oath on behalf of our children. They will become citizens when we land on the ground in the U.S.
We are now just waiting on Rachel's visa, which we will get tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. As soon as we get it, we and another family who has been with us the whole time will travel by bus 4 hours to Hong Kong. We will spend the night there in a hotel and get on the plane about 11:45 am Friday morning and land in the U.S. about 12:20 pm Friday afternoon (35 minutes later on the same day). There are a lot of hours in between though (with the 14-hour time change)! We are flying through Chicago, then we arrive in OKC late Friday afternoon. Praying for good weather for all of this! I am ready to get home and start figuring out our new normal.
Rachel has had a fever on and off. Thankfully my pediatrician let me take some antibiotics just in case, so I have been giving them to her. When she is happy, she is so fun. We went for a walk in the park this afternoon and she was walking around watering the plants with her sippy cup. It was so cute! But right now she is tired, and doesn't feel good, so she is fussy.
She definitely is preferring me to everyone else. She doesn't mind having others around, but she holds her arms up to me if she wants something. Sometimes she lets me kiss her head, other times she lets me, but then she wipes them off. However, I still have a hard time comforting her when she is upset.
I can't believe we have had her a week and a half already! Thanks for praying for us, we are doing well.
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