Moving on

Greetings from Guangzhou!  After a much longer travel day from Nanchang to Guangzhou than any of us anticipated, we have arrived at the White Swan Hotel, where we will be until Wednesday.   Yesterday was a very difficult day, getting on a plane and knowing it wasn't to go home to the rest of our family was really hard.  Madeline had quite a few mommy tears christen her sweet little head during the trip.  I miss Leo so very much, but am so glad he is having the time of his life with Grandma, at home where life is comfortable for him.  

Our travel time was much longer than we expected, and we missed lunch, finally got dinner in our room at 8:30 pm.  I had a mommy brain-lapse and only packed one bottle's worth of food and a few crackers, normally I am way over-prepared for even the smallest excursions.  Kevin said he had to chip a notch out of the wooden beam of trust he has in my mommy 

prepared-ness, and I have to agree.  She was not the happiest camper until we finally got our bags at 7:30 and had a bottle.  But once we got to this beautiful hotel we all cheered up a bit.  

The hotel is amazing, on the level of hotels we would never, in real life, be staying at.  But this adventure is not real life, it is a surreal excursion with surprises at every turn and a happy ending for this very delighted family.  This is the hotel that all families come to for the final few days of their adoption process, so there are throngs of families here with their newly adopted children.  Thus, the hotel really caters to the adoptive families, as does the immediate surrounding area.  There are many small tourist shops down our street and very western foods at the buffets here in the hotel.  I had cereal and milk for breakfast this morning!   A small miracle....

Guangzhou seems to be more accustomed to westerners being here, and we are getting much fewer stares which makes us all more comfortable.  However, today, it was as if the paparazzi were at the market street where we shopped, and we all joked that we could end up in some Chinese publication somewhere.  No joke!  I do have to say that we do not see many children here, and if we do, only one per family, just as China policy permits.  So perhaps a group of 16 parents pushing strollers through a busy market does look a bit odd.  There are many young adults in their early 20's in this city of 11 million.  We took a tour of a museum today built in a much older, dynasty style architecture (think of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) with amazing carvings, furniture and embroidered pictures, and a very peaceful inner garden.  Very Feng Shui.  

I am still enjoying listening to the spoken language here, and today we watched a Charlie Brown special in Chinese (mandarin/cantonese not sure).  And the store we found to buy Madeline some Chinese dresses was playing 'O Holy Night' sung in Chinese, and other Christmas songs.  There are quite a few Christmas decorations here, but mostly lights and Santa Clauses, nothing religious.  

Madeline continues to change every hour it seems.  She can now put small pieces of food in her mouth with her own hand, she could not a week ago.  She continues to sit up really well, not falling over as much.  Even her cry has progressed into a bigger, more intentional cry, not so much of the moaning and sadness.  She is guzzling formula and eats solid foods really well, and I see her plumping up a bit.  She is also more comfortable without clothes, which was quite hard for her at first, so I'm hoping that helps her be more comfortable with baths, which she still hates with a vengeance.  There is one soft spot on the top of her head that is still open, about the  size of a stretched quarter, so we almost wonder if she is younger than we've been told.  She behaves much like a 6-9 month old, the birthdate we were given puts her at 13 months.  I am glad for some baby-ness left in her as I was sad I might have missed most of that.  She babbles dadadada, nananana and has a belly laugh to make your insides melt.  Tomorrow is her doctor appointment so we'll be curious how things check out there, and to experience Chinese medicine first hand.  She still cries herself to sleep, and goes a couple minutes longer each day, but I'm hoping once we stop moving her to new cribs  and sleeping arrangements she will adjust better.  She's a bit of a light sleeper and seems to hate missing out on opportunities to play with us or go out on the town.  Another social one, like her brother (Guh-Guh in Chinese)!  

One more note, our internet access is limited here, so we will not be able to post every day, hope I haven't spoiled you all!  I am so glad we can share this experience with you while it happens, and the journals are therapeutic for me as there is so much to absorb on this amazing trip.