Last Day on Shamian Island

In his continuing quest to sample all the viruses and bacteria available in China Mark woke up today with pink eye. Fortunately, we had brought eye drops in case Allie developed it, so he is using her medicine.

Today is our last day on Shamian Island—this is the location of the White Swan Hotel. In the late 19th century when the Chinese were fighting with the French and English they confined all foreigners to this little island. They even forbid them to learn Chinese, on punishment of death. So the Europeans created a little colony for themselves here. The island is still primarily French and English colonial buildings with a couple of new, large hotels. It feels like a resort community. There isn’t much traffic and the narrow streets are great for walks with a stroller. And since so many adoptive Americans come here the stores and restaurants cater to them (us). Many of the stores offer strollers for loan. It is a nice break for us after the intensity of Nanchang. Since China is experiencing a heat wave the temperatures here have been near 80. We are really enjoying walking around in t-shirts and drinking beer at an outdoor café. (Yes, we are rubbing it in for those freezing back home.)

We have ventured off the island to explore the shopping markets. Especially interesting have been the food markets with all manner of dried and fresh veggies, legumes, noodles, fish and meat displayed on the sidewalks. Mark forgot to put the battery back in the camera yesterday so we don’t have any shots of the many kinds of live and skinned animals we saw, but he has them on videotape for viewing at home.

Today we will pack and do some more shopping this morning and then have lunch with our group. We leave at 3:00 to go to the US consulate for our official swearing-in ceremony this afternoon and to receive Allie’s visa to go to the states. Then we head straight to the airport for a flight to Beijing. Tomorrow evening we head home.

Group Pictures

Yesterday we took group pictures in the hotel lobby. Guess who wants to play.

Buddhist Blessing

This afternoon we went to a Buddhist temple for a traditional baby blessing. All the parents held their babies and sat on the floor of the temple in front of three huge Buddha statues (no pictures allowed) while a Buddhist priest chanted and then sprinkled water on us all (parents, too). It was a moment of connection between all the parents, our children's heritage and the larger community--at least that is what I, Mark, felt. A note to Monica Willard: they have a peace pole on the Temple grounds.

White Swan Barbie

This is the special commemorative Barbie made by Mattel for all adoptive parents who stay at this hotel. No comment.

Good Medical Check

Allie passed her medical check with flying colors. She weighed 20 pounds is 28 inches long and has a 43 cm head circumference.

To Guangzhou

Sorry we haven’t time to post much on our blog. Mark’s illness returned on Sunday morning (only this time in his stomach—not nice) and that was travel day. We flew from Nanchang to Guangzhou. Ronnie had a big job to do with caring for baby and husband and packing everything. You can’t imagine what an operation it is to move nine families with new babies. Fortunately, our guides do a wonderful job with arrangements, and though it is long and hard, everything goes smoothly.

Our last day (Saturday) in Nanchang was spent with a visit to a Confucian/Taoist Pagoda and our continued quest for a tea house. We finally found a tea shop and after a convoluted discussion involving a translator on a cell phone we ended up buying a very expensive bag of green tea. We have no idea what it is, but it must be good. We also had to go back to Wal-Mart to buy another suitcase for all our purchases. A Saturday afternoon at Wal-Mart is no fun.

Allie did great on her first airplane flight. She was her usually squirmy self, but a bag of toys and a lot of Cheerios kept her busy. She does like to move. As Ronnie says, “She plays hard and she sleeps hard.”

We are now in Guangzhou, which is a major manufacturing area in China, only two hours from Hong Kong. Driving in from the airport it looks like a much more concentrated city than Beijing. Large apartment buildings packed tightly together. We are staying at the famous (in China adoption circles) White Swan hotel. It is a top-of-the-line 5-star hotel. It has everything and it is all best quality. Because all 6-7000 adopting US families have to go to the US Consulate that is in this city, and they virtually all stay in this hotel, they cater to families with adopting babies.

Right now we are lying in bed watching the Super Bowl. It began at 7:30 AM here and is on ESPN. The only bad part is that we don’t get the US commercials. All the commercials are about Asian soccer. We have to leave for Allie’s medical check-up (standard practice for all babies) at 10:00, so we will miss the fourth quarter—oh, the sacrifices we make for our children!

Allie is going great. It is so amazing to see the changes in her in such a short time. She is a very active, happy child who eats everything. She also likes to have everything on her own time, we are learning to be more flexible. She still sleeps about twelve hours a night and takes an hour nap each afternoon.

Allie pics--as requested

Allie takes a bath, Dad gets a shower.

Starting to crawl

She loves noodles