Sunday, June 11, 2017

““(She) realized that family came in many different shapes and packages. It didn’t matter if the people you called family weren’t related to you. Love didn’t have rules. It didn’t set limits. It just was.” ~ Leanna Morgan

Sightseeing Time…

Hello!

Today has been a relaxed day overall. We slept in and went to the smorgasbord of a breakfast served here at the hotel. Then it was off to explore the garden the hotel is named for. When I was here with Connor, Mia, Amalie and Webster last spring we could only see one waterfall and walk about 20 feet on a path because the rest was under construction. I learned today that the garden is quite extensive with multiple waterfalls and ponds with fish. We spent about an hour in the garden wandering around.

At 10:00 we met our guide and the other families and went to see the famous “Five Rams” of Guangzhou and an ancient city wall. Then it was off to the Chen family temple (personal place of worship more accurately). We took our traditional pictures by the giant entrance doors and walked around looking at the art and the shops.

By this point we were pretty hot, but thankfully the bus had good air conditioning which helped a lot. The heat here is not too bad…in the 80’s…but the humidity is a killer. You step outside and you are instantly sweaty…YUCK! As Kelly described it…Guangzhou has two seasons…hot and hotter. Apparently we are entering the hotter season with July being the hottest month of the year.

We made a quick stop at the pearl and jade market on the way back to the hotel. Then it was paperwork time for our U.S. Consulate appointment. We are just about done with paperwork now. We need to make an appearance at the U.S. Consulate on Wednesday and then the U.S. Visa should be issued on Friday so we can come home and Lucas will be a citizen. Hurrah!

The most interesting part of the morning was listening to Kelly. I’m not sure exactly how the conversation started, but it turns out the Kelly was a history major in the university. She was counseled by her professor to go to the U.S. or Hong Kong if she really wanted to learn history. She had very interesting insights into the Cultural Revolution as her grandparents were wealthy and lost everything during it. Her parents lived through the following years where the families of those who had wealth were treated poorly. This was the history Kelly grew up with…living history. She said the schoolbooks literally only had one sentence at the time she was in school about that time and that the truth was not told. She did say that the history her children are learning in school is a bit better now, but that it still is not fair to the Nationalists. She also talked to me about several of her friends who have applied to immigrate to the U.S. or Canada and their concerns for their children’s education with needing to learn English. Like I said…a fascinating morning conversationally.

We walked to Yashinoya for lunch and I introduced the boys to one of my favorite restaurants in all my trips to China starting from the very first one we ate at in Beijing when we adopted Amalie. It was a success and the boys were very happy with it. As a matter of fact, Jonathan already asked to go back there tomorrow.

Lucas decided to test his boundaries today. I was actually surprised it took this long, but I expected it after he refused to talk to the doctors yesterday. It turns out that when mom gives a direction, it is not optional. And when she requires a “yes mom” to acknowledge that you understand, you have to say it. It took about an hour of timeout time to learn this important lesson, but then we were good to go for the rest of the day. He was full of questions tonight about the English names for things so I think the relationship survived just fine. So often it seems that our kids just need to be reassured that there is indeed a boundary and then they settle in and feel safer with us. He actually seemed more comfortable talking to me and being with me tonight. If he stays this curious, he will be fluent in English before we know it.

The boys once again spent a couple of hours in the pool while I waited for our laundry to come. It is a wonderful thing to have clean clothes! Jonathan and I were both down to one more clean set of clothes and then we were going to have an issue. After I sorted out the laundry, I went up to check on the swimmers. They were doing great and I met yet another adopting family. There are so many here this time and I’m loving all the conversations and stories.

Since lunch ended up so late (~3:00) due to the trips, paperwork and then Lucas’s learning time, we weren’t really hungry for dinner. We went to walk around and find something and ended up at the 7-Eleven for ice cream for the boys and noodles for us all. A quick stop at the hotel deli for a big cup of dragon fruit for me and then we were set for the night. I LOVE dragon fruit and wish I could find it in the states easily. I’ll be eating a lot of it while we are here.

Bonding In Guangzhou,
Brandy, Jonathan & Lucas