Trip to China
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Wednesday, July 25, 2007 Today is our final day in Guangzhou. Sadly, my cold seems to only be getting worse. I really hope to feel at least a little better by the time I get on the plane bright and early tomorrow morning. While there’s no place like home, I still wish we had some more time to spend in China. I feel like there is so much more I’d like to see and do. We’ve had an amazing trip and we can’t wait to return. We will be happy to be home with our pug-kids, and I know we have several people who can’t wait to meet Oscar. We want to make sure we give Oscar plenty of time to adjust to being in his new home, so we don’t want to overwhelm him at first with too many visitors. We will also need some time to recover from the trip and jetlag. However, we really can’t wait for everyone to meet Oscar! He’s such an amazing little guy and he proves this more and more each day. This morning we went to the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees. We took a 10 minute or so cab ride with our guide to the temple. Today has by far been the hottest for us while in Guangzhou. I believe the temperature was 104 degrees! When we arrived at the main gate of the temple, we bought some incense. Our guide, Simon, then took us to the halls where we could light incense in numbers of 3, 6, or 9. We did 3 at the hall with Guan Yin, and 6 at the main hall with the 3 large Buddha statues. Oscar helped me light the incense and place it with the others. We asked for blessings for his birth parents and for his foster family. At the hall with Guan Yin, we asked for blessings for the members of our family, especially those who have been struggling with illness. We then took off our shoes and went into the main hall in front of the 3 Buddha statues that our guide said are 5 meters tall and weigh 5 tons each. The monk had the 3 of us with Oz in the middle kneel down while he did the blessing. This was one of the most beautiful moments we’ve had as a family here in China. I felt such peace as I listened to the monk chant and watched my sweet little boy kneeling down on his knees on the red cushion. Oscar was so still and calm as if he felt a sense of peace, too. We felt very blessed to be able to share in this tradition of his culture. I am also grateful to our guide for providing us such valuable information on Buddhism in China. The rest of today has been spent trying to figure out how to pack all of our stuff including the massive amount of goods we’ve accumulated on our trip. We decided to buy a large rolling duffle bag. We returned our borrowed stroller, and visited with the shopkeepers where we did our laundry (Sherry’s Place). The people working there were all very good to us and gave us excellent prices. They had some kittens in a box they were trying to find families for. Oscar seemed very amused by the kittens and didn’t want to leave them! I hope he feels the same way about dogs, because he’s about to inherit 3 pug sisters! We picked up Oscar’s chop with his name and Chinese name. We also had an etching done of one of his photos in the shape of a heart. The White Swan has been a lot quieter today since I think many of the families left this morning. We are not looking forward to our 5 a.m. wake up call, but I think we will be relieved once we are finally home. I just hope that Oscar sleeps at least some on the plane. We have a long, long trip with 2 stops and won’t be home until 7:30 p.m. Thursday. I’ll be up very early Friday morning for Oscar’s first pediatrician visit. I didn’t want to waste anytime getting him into seeing a doctor. His first cleft team appointment will be in 2 weeks with the second visit being 2 weeks after that. I also have him scheduled for his evaluation with early intervention in the middle of August. So we will be quite busy our first few weeks home…not to mention August 23rd will be Oscar’s big 2nd birthday! We can’t wait to celebrate it with him.

One of the most wonderful things about this trip has been the beautiful sentiments expressed in our guestbook. We can’t thank all of you enough for your kind words and for taking the time to be part of our journey. We were happy to be able to share this monumental event with all of you. I almost can’t believe it is coming to an end, but with it, a new beginning is on its way. Our Road to Oz has led us to Our Life with Oz, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in the next chapters. We hope that all of you will continue to check the website periodically for the “we’re home” updates. Please also feel free to continue leaving comments in the guestbook for Oscar or if you have any questions for us about travel, cleft issues, or anything else. I’ve really enjoyed hearing from all of you. Your words will live on as a part of our journey for Oscar. We will be making this site into a keepsake CD for him to cherish as he grows. We are thankful he will see how many people were cheering for him and loved him so much before he even came home. Thank you all again. We’ll see you on the other side – back in the USA!

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