Day 12

Day 12

This is one of the last big days, next to leaving, which is the Embassy.  All of the months and months of paperwork, fingerprints, notarizations, money, and red tape have finally come down to this day.  Without the US visa, all this work is done in vain.  Once we get the visa on Thursday, we get to go to Hong Kong to stay the night and then leave Friday morning.  We actually leave Friday night US time so we will fly in light all the time vs. flying in darkness the entire 15 or so hour flight.  Kind of fitting to fly home in the light as this place is in darkness spiritually.  We have come across some Christians here though.  It is not any more important that the Christians are Chinese people more than anyone who is from the US; it is just nice running into fellow believers.  It is a rarity to know a Chinese Christian.  One surprise encounter is running into a pastor named David Platt who wrote a book called Radical.  Ironically he is adopting a kid at the same time we are and we ran into him at the embassy.  We are also on the same flight home from Hong Kong so it will be interesting if we get to chat again.  After reading that book it was one of the factors that God used to lead us to adopt again.  Funny how God worked that one out.

I did not have any idea that Hong Kong was such a big city and a world-wide destination.  Even though I do not have any intention of coming back (unless God wants us to of course), once we leave this place it is going to be see ya, avoire, adios, arivaderce, and whatever Chinese is for lator gator.

I may not have the chance to post but once more before we leave but I will do my best.  

Day 11

OK, I kind of cheated on Day 10…That day was similar to this day in that we explored the market places again.  Since we do not have anything to do until Wednesday, we have to kill time.  There are the scorpions, turtles, cats, and dogs.  I don’t know which animal is for what, but I think they could be combinations of pets and dinner.   Have also seen animal horns, tiger claws, miscellaneous animal body parts, etc.  We also took a cab to an electronics market which had hundreds of places that all sold the same things.  Some were fake items, and others you could find ok deals if you wanted to.   We walked back to the hotel which is about 3 miles.  It was an adventure just doing that and crossing the streets.  Since Renee’s first incident of being almost run down by the man on the bike, she has gotten a little better, but not by much.  You have to play chicken with the cars, and it seems that the chickens win when you do it right.

We had to eat at safe places like KFC, Pizza Hut, and Pappa Johns since we knew what we should expect.  No real surprises here, but we are definitely over the oily food that everyone has.  The smell of oily fried meat is getting real old.  We again toughed out the main outdoor market and bought a few small things and it is interesting to see how things worked.  Most places expect you to bargain but I am not trying to get something for one dollar instead of paying two.  This day was similar to yesterday so there is more to see in the pictures than I could say.  There are just so many people….

This sweet and happy boy is another BIG step closer to coming home!  Today we had our appointment with the Embassy.  We raised our right hands and took the oath, so when his little feet hit the ground in Detroit he will be a US citizen!  So very exciting.   Tomorrow we travel to Hong Kong and will fly out on Friday.  We can not wait.  We miss the kids at home so badly.  They are going to love this little guy and he is going to love them.

Samuel with his favorite character-Xǐ Yáng Yáng 

He loves all the statues on the Island.

He is getting so much stronger every day.  He couldn't hardly climb last week and didn't know how to run.  Today he mastered walking down the slide.

He is such a sweetie!  We are so blessed!

Oh, and as we were leaving the US Embassy today we met David Platt (author of Radical) and his wife on the steps.  They were walking in with their new Chinese daughter Mara Ruth.  He was really nice, and it was a fun blessing to meet him there. A neat little blessing! 

To market, to market, to buy a..a..a..

,Markets, shopping, producing, selling are a big part of the Chinese culture here in Guangzhou.

The markets are specialized.  You have the spice market where you can buy anything from tiger paws, rhino horns, live scorpions (for your soup), dried sea horses, lizards on sticks, snake skins, live snakes, and a gazillion other spices.  There are rows and rows of sellers who all appear to be selling the same thing.  I have no idea how one chooses which spice place is best or how they all make a profit being next to each other selling the same items, but it's how it works.  They all seem to think Jim and I need saffron as they rush out of their stalls to try  and get us to buy it.  I am not sure why, but it tickles me every time.


Then there is the "pet market" where you can buy fish, kittens, puppies, turtles, mice, whatever critter you need.  Once again each stall is selling the same goods for the same prices.  It's very interesting.

The pet markets open up into the main market where you can buy clothes, shoes, purses, anything to do with clothing.  Again, many …many, many, many vendors selling similar goods at similar prices.  This is a huge market with tens of thousands of people shopping.  It's amazing just to sit and watch.

Yesterday, we ventured to the electronics market.  It was in the other direction and we took a cab to get there.  Like the other markets it was very specialized being that there was nothing but electronics.  So many dealers lining blocks, and block of the city streets.  One block was all camera equipment.   The others were a mix of cell phones, ipods, game systems.  Some appeared real and others were really bad knock offs.

There were mobile salesmen who were all selling the same things..literally.  They each had a back massager, an elecrtic thing that pulsates your muscles, a garden hose, and our favorite... a taser.    Yikes.  It was amusing to have one approach about every five minutes or so.  My favorite was when the man tried to sell Jim by pointing out a man who had just bought one and said, "You brother over there just bought one.."  We looked over and saw a middle eastern man holding his purchase.  Too funny.

We decided to skip the cab ride back and just walk back to the island.  It was about a 3.5 mile walk.  I think each day we have walked at least 5 miles a day Jim with our backpack which weighs around 30 lbs. and me with Samuel on my back who is 30 lbs.  It's one of my favorite things about China is that you can walk so many places, though with the crazy driving I still clutch Jim's arm as we cross the roads.

There were people selling goods around the river walk.  Jim was bargaining with a lady and he drew quite a crowd.  The dealers will type the price they want you to pay in a calculator and then you counter it.  Jim would show the crowd his counter for their approval or disapproval of a fair price.

It was a really fun day learning about some of the Chinese ways.  Samuel loves being out and about.  He loves being outside and having so much to see.  We can see him really opening up and gaining strength each day physically and emotionally.

Lions, tigers, and bears...oh my..

The biggest difference between this adoption and our African adoptions is that when we were in Africa we spent our time when we weren't doing official paperwork playing with the kids in the orphanages.  Here we don't have that opportunity and it leaves us with time where we aren't sure what to do.  Our guide scheduled us and two other families from our agency to go to the Safari Park.  It was really a lot of fun, and the best zoo I m sure we will ever go to.

Samuel had a great time and really enjoyed the animals.

After we returned from the Safari park we headed out to the Ling Ping Markets and then we attended a small church service on the Island.  It was all in Mandarin Chinese, but we did pick up that the sermon was on Esau and Jacob.  The music was lovely and the experience was a blessing.  Samuel was so good through it all, Jim and I on the other hand had a hard time staying wake as were were seriously jet lagging and had to keep pinching each other.  

All in all a blessed day.

Day 10

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen?  Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen?  Sorry to say, not anymore….

Day 9

Today was a free day in that we get to have a “tourist” day.  I really don’t want to do this because I am not here to tour the land or have fun, I am here to get this kid and get home.  The problem is that you have to wait several days in between these appointments so there is no choice.  We decided to go to the Safari Park, aka the zoo.  This is somewhat of a real safari park in that you drive around half of the park and can get close to the animals.  I have to say it was kind of neat and interesting to see these different animals.  Although the animals were different too, getting close to some of them made it more adventurous.  Kind of like being on a safari.  Go figure.  Made it through this place without much incident.

We get back from the safari park in the afternoon and still have time so we then decided to do what they told us we should not do; go off the island.  It is like the wet paint sign, you have to touch it if it says wet paint.  We had to get out of there.  It is hard to explain, but there are different markets for a lot of different things.  We happened to go to the spice market.  It goes for blocks and everyone sells the same things.  The spice smell was a bit overwhelming.   The dried seahorses and lizards on the stick were there as I was hoping.  There were spices from who knows what and you do who knows what with them.  All I know is that I will stick to salt and hot sauce.

We went one step further and discovered a huge shopping plaza a few blocks further.  This makes the malls in the US look like kiddie playgrounds.  There are literally hundreds and hundreds of stores.  We later found that about 60,000 people per day go here.  I can believe it because it was crazy.  The pictures can say more than words, and besides it is easier to say that and I can stop writing now….

Day 8

We arrived in Disney in the evening.  The reason I say Disney is when we arrived at the hotel, which is located on an “island,” it looks like an older town located on Main St USA.  It was built by the English one hundred or so years ago and the place has been restored.  This part does not feel like China.  The hotel room is small but very modern.  It is a change from the “five” star hotel that we stayed at in Jinan.  Since it is late, we did a quick stroll down several streets and decided to call it a night.  We had to get up early enough Saturday morning to go to the medical clinic so that we can get the kid a final check out exam and a TB test. 

 I am renaming this place from Shamian Island, to “Adoptive Island” since most all the tourists like us are adopting kids.  There is a second name I will call this place and that is “Wedding Photo Island.”  On a strange side note, there have been at least one hundred different couples that had their pictures taken here since we have been here.  I have learned from watching the movie the Incredibles that when the bad guy says that when “everyone is a super (hero), then no one will be.”  I hate to tell them this, but if everyone gets their special wedding pictures taken here, it is not special anymore.  I would think that the muddy waters of the Pearl River would have more meaning at this point.

Once we left the clinic I noticed what appeared to be thick dark smoke coming above some of the buildings, so my first thought is one of the smokestacks from a nearby factory.  Then as I further examined, I realized there were sirens in the distance and traffic stopped all around.  After convincing Renee to walk faster, we finally came upon a strange scene.  There was one of the buildings at the market on fire, and hundreds of onlookers staring at the burning building literally a few feet away from it as the flames were trying to be extinguished.  Once again, be thankful for our fire departments across the US.  This place just burned and burned and the hoses were barely making a difference in stopping the flames.  There were apartments attached to the building so you would think an evacuation would be in order.  Silly me, this just became the hit ticket item with box seats looking down at the rising smoke.  Who would have thought that so many people would be entertained by this, but it was free.

Once the fire started to die out, we kept walking around the island.  It is surrounded by a moat so you are isolated from direct traffic.  When the lights go down the streets are still well lit and you are in an area where it seems nice and safe to walk around.  There are also many shops here where everyone wants you to come in and look.  It is fairly reasonably priced compared to what we would pay in the US.  Not much else happened this day, but otherwise fairly straightforward, for China….

Samuel had his medical check for the US Embassy early in the morning.  All of the American families come through Guangzhou for their Embassy appointments after their week in the capital of their child's province.  It is really nice to be able to meet other families, and there were several at the medical center.

The medical center was absolutely packed.  There was wall to wall people, literally in the building.  Some were American families and some were Chinese citizens..  The scene was bordering on chaos.  There were so many little ones just screaming in fear.  The process was like a factory assembly line.  The child sees the ENT for a hearing test.  Then they head to the general dr. who strips them down and checks them from head to toe.  No hand washing or gloves between patients Jim noticed.  Then on to the eye doctor and the grand finale... is a tb test with a needle.

Samuel did pretty well.  He got very quiet and was holding onto me for dear life and was just stroking my hair.  The general physician called in another doctor to listen to his heart, and they both said he still has a murmur, which isn't a surprise to us.  By the time Samuel was at the eye doctor he had pretty much checked out emotionally.  He wasn't crying, but he would not participate in the exam.  We know he can see well as he picks out his favorite little cartoon character in stores, but I think he was just beyond scared.

After the appointment we went back to our hotel to have a meeting and to go over our paperwork.

When that was over we stepped out to explore the island and walked upon a massive cloud of black  smoke.  Jim knew right away that something was on fire.  We went up the road and sure enough there was a huge fire in what looked like a shopping center.  The hole center was engulfed and flames and black smoke were sky high.  The fire dept was there, but their hoses were so weak you just knew it would be hours before there was any effect.  Thankfully, it seemed nobody was hurt, but we were shocked to see the people from the adjacent building standing on their balconies watching instead of evacuating. It all was handled so differently than it would have been handled in America, but it did get out out, and we didn't hear of any injuries, thank you Lord.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the island and just enjoying the beautiful weather and sweet Samuel.  He is such a fun and easy going little guy and has brought us so much love and laughter.  We can't wait to introduce him to the kids.  They are going to just love him to pieces.