April 6 & 7

It's hard to believe that today is our last full day in China. This trip has gone so fast and has been wonderful. Susanna's personality is emerging more each day. She is a boisterous, funny little girl.....who also has quite a temper when she doesn't get what she wants. The other night she finished her bottle and seemed to want more, so I went to make one and bythe time I got back, she had decided that she didn't want it anymore. Jimmy decided that he was going to try to give it to her anyway and she proceeded to tell him (by screaming loudly for half an hour) that she didn't want it. He could barely look at her the rest of the night without ticking her off.

Yesterday was fun. Jimmy went exploring in the city. There is a big difference between Shamian Island and the actual city of Guangzhou. Both are very pleasant but very different. Susanna and I did a bit of shopping in the morning, but she was reaching melt-down point by the time we got back to the room. So we got her down for a nap. For lunch (which we usually skip because we have such a bit breakfast buffet) Jimmy wanted fish and chips from Lucy's but since Sanna was sleeping, I decided to order room service. I got a cheeseburger and fries which came on a tray with a rose and a note from the management wishing me a nice day.

We were joined by 2 new families today. One was a family with a 15 month old (I think) who has cleft palate and the other was a family adopting a 14 year old boy who was about to age out of the adoption program.

We met Wendy at 2:30 to do some touring of Guangzhou. We went to a budhist temple, where some of the people elected to get their babies blessed. Jimmy and I decided to forgo that and stayed out in the courtyard and looked at the architecture. The temple is called the Six Banyan temple and is 9 stories high on the outside and 17 on the inside. The others who did the blessing said that they could hear a cell phone ringing while the blessing was going on. They were a bit surprised when the blessing was ended shortly so the monk could answer his cell phone.

After that, we went to a school that was started by the family Chen for their children. It was a beautiful building and is now being used as an arts and crafts museum. It was really nice.

On the way back to the hotel, we dropped Wendy and two of the guys off at a sporting goods store because the guys wanted to buy swords. (It turned out that they didn't get any-I never did hear the complete story on that). We were supposed to meet for one last group supper at 6, since 3 families leave today. So we went to the Thai place that we went to on our first night in GZ. Only this time Jimmy and I were much more coherant since we weren't suffering from jet lag. It was good. I had stopped on the way at the deli outside of our hotel and gotten a birthday cake to celebrate the girls birthdays since most of them will turn 1 year old within a month and a half of each other. Patty: we used your candle that you gave me. It was fun. Wendy had us first sing happy birthday in Chinese. She had taught it to us on the bus the other day, but most of us had forgotten the words so she was laughing at us stumbling through the song. Then we sang it in English and the whole restaurant joined in. Yes, it was mostly filled with other adoptive parents. Jimmy had to leave a bit early because Susanna was losing it. So he walked back to the hotel while I paid. We had 10 families that ate and it only cost us 146 yuan each which is about 15 dollars each. Pretty reasonable for the huge amount of food that Wendy ordered for us.

Today we have our ceremony at the US Consulate where raise our hand and swear that everything we've told them is true. I've heard that it takes longer to walk there than to do the actual ceremony. But it will be a fun part of the process. We can't take any pictures because they don't allow anything but us, the baby and our passports into the consulate. Then this afternoon, I will probably start packing. We don't fly out until 2 pm tomorrow, so it will be nice to have part of the day to relax before leaving. I don't know if I'll get time to post again before I leave, but Í'm looking forward to getting home and sharing our new little girl with all of you.

Catherine