Monday, June 12, 2017

“There are three things that will endure---faith, hope, and love---and the greatest of these is love.”
~ I Corinthians 13:13

Shamian Island & More…

Welcome Back!

It is nice to be on this side of the adoption appointments. We have a lot more free time and we appreciate that. We slept in, enjoyed the great breakfast here at the hotel and then spent some time watching fish in the garden this morning. The fish close to the hotel are “on a diet” according to the posted sign so we walked out into the garden to feed the fish there. The garden fish are not nearly as fat as the ones at the waterfall by breakfast. It was a great way to start the day.

I also had the chance to talk with the kids back home while the boys here were getting ready for breakfast. It was funny to be preparing for breakfast and then call home to find the family there eating dinner on a day that had already ended for us. I loved seeing all the kid’s faces even though we are so far away. It will be good to be home together soon.

The plan for today was to go to Shamian Island. Basically this means souvenir shopping… I made a list last night and we zipped to a couple of stores to order custom made items so they would be ready before the bus headed home. Then we browsed through a variety of stores to see what we could see. Eventually we ended up at Lucy’s (a sort of American diner) to get some lunch and to get a break from the weather in the air-conditioning. A quick stop at Starbucks, picked up the custom items on the way to the bus and…we were ready to come home to the hotel.

You wouldn’t think the previous adventure would make us tired but it did. I can’t decided it if is what we’re eating, how much we’re eating, the exercise level, the heat or just simply adjusting to new family dynamics but something wears us right out. We just hung out in the hotel room for a couple of hours to recover. The boys watched NBA basketball (a replay from the current series) and Lucas did some phone time. I read for a while and I admit it…I took a nap. I know… shocking…I don’t nap much at home, but this place wears me out. I think it’s too much down time.

The boys headed to the gym to work out and go swimming so I decided to see if I could get across the street to the Friendship Store. I got there all right, but it wasn’t what I expected. On our previous trips, we usually skipped the Friendship Store after our first trip to the one in Beijing in 2008. We didn’t need more high-end art from China. That said, they did have some Christmas ornaments and things that were cool and reasonably priced so I thought…why not since it is so close. Well, either this is a VERY fancy one or they have upgraded. This Friendship Store is a multi tower, seven story mall. I assumed that meant the “Friendship Store” was a part of the mall, but it turns out that the whole store seems to be that way. With the help of customer service, I found the types of things I was looking for but I didn’t end up buying anything. The cheapest things I saw were at least $1880.00 RMB (about $300.00) for even the smallest items. Not for this mama…

Instead I headed back to AEON, the Japanese supermarket near our hotel…LOVE IT! The first floor is grocery items, then clothes, household, school supplies, etc on the next three floors and restaurants on the top floor. There is a good selection and the prices are ones I like (ie options cheaper than home for good things). I went to get some items for the kids at Jonathan’s orphanage…basic art/school supplies like crayons and pencils. I also looked at purses, but I didn’t buy one yet. We will see. My one at home is dying and many years ago, I bought my favorite purse of all time in China. Perhaps I will be so blessed in the days to come.

I got home moments before the boys came back. It is so nice to be traveling with a 17 year old who can be trusted to do things like go swimming with his little brother! We walked back to the supermarket to get dinner. I discovered on my earlier trip today that they had a HUGE section of meat, rice, noodles, etc ready to eat. I showed the boys and it was a success. We bought dinner for about $7.00 and we had a lot of food. Hard to complain about that! The store even has microwaves by the checkout stands so you can heat your food if you want to.

Now we are winding down for bed. Showers, reading, a bit of learning…quiet activities. Lucas is counting to ten now in English. I guess I’d better be intentional about starting some letters next. We start with the sounds first and add the names later to facilitate getting started reading sooner. It is really strange to be doing things verbally and not really using the sign since we have had to supplement with sign language on all the previous adoptions except Jonathan’s trip. I’m still using some signs to clarify that words are changing and also so he can recognize what Connor in particular is trying to say to him, but Lucas is only using words.

Tomorrow will be an early morning start since we are driving to Jonathan’s orphanage to visit it. It will be interesting to see where Jonathan is from and how much it has changed since he left. Our hotel notified us today that they are having a reception for the adoptive families tomorrow night as well and we are hoping to be back for that though time will tell. We don’t really know what to expect at the orphanage… likely lunch together and a visit to the buildings. Jonathan is hoping to see a friend from outside the orphanage as well, but we don’t know if that will be allowed or not. Meanwhile, it’s time for sleep here…

Celebrating Another Day,
Brandy, Jonathan & Lucas