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- January 30th, 2005
Attaching some more pictures...
We
are enjoying Guangzhou. It's much easier to go out walking,
shopping, etc... The hotel in Changsha was fantastic. But
the White Swan is much nicer. There is a huge waterfall right
in the middle of the hotel. Plenty of shops on the first floor.
A playroom for kids. And great restaurants.
When
we got back to our room after going out this morning, we had
a nice surprise waiting for us. Every adoptive family that
stays at the White Swan gets a Barbie Doll. But not just a
normal Barbie Doll. This is a Mother with an adopted Chinese
baby girl. On the back of the box it reads "This souvenir
is presented by Mattel (HK) Ltd. to adopting parents of Chinese
orphan children staying at the White Swan Hotel, Guangzhou,
China." Pretty cool!
I
wanted to take some pictures of the hotel, so after we put
Kaylee down, I went out by myself to take some pics. As I
was walking around, I went into a store in the hotel that
sold a lot of jade. Naomi was planning to buy a jade bracelet,
and we looked at some of the shops out on the street but we
weren't crazy about what we saw. The store in the hotel had
the best selection of jade. It was more expensive, but they
were willing to negotiate. I talked with the two ladies that
worked in the store and they were really nice. I knew that
Naomi would buy something from their store but it was 10:30pm
and the store was closing at 11:00. Kaylee was asleep so Naomi
could not come down. I told the ladies that we'd come back
tomorrow but they were not working and they get paid on commission.
They were so nice that I went upstairs and talked with Naomi.
It didn't take much convincing to get her to agree to let
me take Kaylee downstairs with us. Kaylee was asleep and she
wasn't going to wake up. So off we went. Naomi loved the bracelets
and bought two. One for herself. And one for Kaylee when she
gets older. We wanted to buy her a jade bracelet in China
that we could give to her later. So that was the excitement
for the evening. Well, other than eating at a Thai restaurant.
The guy sitting across from me ordered some type of chicken
dish. Part of the way through it he got a confused look on
his face. He reached into the pieces of chicken on his plate
and picked up the head. Yep... there was a chicken head mixed
in with everything else. He took a picture of it and then
pushed his plate away. Most of the people in our group only
ate a few bites of their dinner. It was just a bit different
and most of us were not comfortable with what was on our plates.
Naomi
is feeling a little better. She still has moments during the
day when she needs to take a break. It's not completely out
of her system yet and she got some more medicine today. Kaylee
has been sneezing and she has a running nose. The hotel has
a clinic on the third floor so Naomi and Kaylee got to see
the doctor. When we took Kaylee in, the Doctor and the nurse
made a huge fuss over her. The visit lasted about a half an
hour, but they only spent about ten minutes checking Kaylee
and getting her medicine ready. The rest of the time they
played with her. Kaylee loves to hear people speak Chinese.
They had her laughing, and smiling, and waving her arms and
legs around. It was a lot of fun. Everybody loves little Kaylee!
Today,
one member of every family met with Raymond and Kathy, our
CCAI Representatives in Guangzhou, and will filled out a stack
of forms. That was the last of the paperwork. Tomorrow Kaylee
gets a physical (part of the requirements), and on Wednesday
we go to the US Consulate to do an oath. That's it. We are
almost finished.
Kaylee
is doing great. She spent a lot of time in the hip hammock
today. And she slept in it while I was walking around for
a long time. She really likes it. She is smiling, laughing,
and sticking her tongue out a lot. The best way to describe
her is to say she is a very happy baby. Daphne told us that
she was lucky to have her sister Ellen since there is a one
child policy in China. She said that Ellen was born shortly
after they put the law in place, and at the time it wasn't
enforced like it is today. So Daphne said that Ellen was like
the lucky fish that swims out of the net. I thought that was
pretty cool and I can't help but think that our little Kaylee
is a lucky little fish too.
Mark
(Naomi & Kaylee)
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