Still Here...

Happy Birthday Jack! My sweet Bear. I’m sorry we’re not there to celebrate with you.

Sorry I didn’t post yesterday it was a busy day and a late night. Yesterday was another “free” day with travel in the evening. We packed up early to have our things ready then ventured out on our own adventure. We headed to a park recommended by a guide. The park was a beautiful garden with a walking path along the Yellow River. There were supposed to be five large water wheels, but there were way more than that. At the entrance to the park was an open air theatre (where Steve drank a beer in preparation for the flight) and stone statues of different parts of life in Chinese culture. We wandered around for a while, and then stumbled onto a small shop selling paper cut art. Steve and I “invested” in two large pictures. They may sit on the shelf for a while until we can frame them but they’re beautiful. She jumped at my first offer, so I don’t think I negotiated hard enough, but oh well. Money spent, we caught a cab back to the hotel to finish the loose ends of packing and eat a picnic lunch in our room.
We left the hotel at 130 and headed to a local market. It’s called the “Central Temple”. It used to be a central command for management and protection of the city, but was changed to a market in the 1960’s (if I remember correctly). The four families each bought a “chop” for their children – a stone with their Chinese name engraved in it, used to stamp on written art and documents as a signature. It’s a tradition in the IA community to purchase one for the child coming home. Our guide made up Chinese names for the Munsters at home too, and I had one made for them. We also visited a merchant who did calligraphy. The other families had their children’s names written, but I had a verse written out that is closely translated from the “All because two people fell in love” one that hangs on our wall of pictures. I forget now what it says exactly, something like “love is strong enough that we came from afar” or something. I’ll have to get one of Steve’s friends who reads Chinese to translate it for me. Beyond the trinkets we bought, the market was very interesting to see and experience.

WE headed back to the hotel to drop off our new friend from Pheonix and the two Canadian families headed to the airport. Our flight was at 635. I was worried about Wen tolerating being cooped up in the airplane for two hours, but she did very well. She ate some of the dinner, but dropped more of it on the floor. She sat and chatted with us, munched on snacks and played with the pocket in front of her. She wasn’t impressed with the seatbelt, but stopped fighting it. She’s very expressive with her face and makes a whole pile of expressions, big grins, puckered looks, hurt and surprise with her eyes, etc. She kept frowning in an expression between hurt and irritation and pointing to the seatbelt. I’m sure she wondered why we laughed at her discomfort.

We landed about 8pm and traipsed off to get our baggage, which comes out very fast here in China. We met our guide who said we needed to wait for another family coming in at that time – a family we had met in Mississauga for a play date. We sat in the chairs, struggling to stay awake and with it while AnnaWen and Kira burned their excess energy by chasing each other around the chairs. I don’t want to jinx anything but Wen is doing much better with Kira, and there haven’t been any incidents of aggression for the past couple of days. By the time we met the family, boarded the bus, arrived at the hotel and gained access to our room it was after 11pm. We were all tired, but Wen was still going strong, running around the lobby, investigating the room and playing with the phone. In the last hotel, the crib they provided for Wen was too small – the size of a doll playpen – so we used it for a toybox and she slept in our bed. Here she has a crib that is close to full sized. The side flips down so it’s more like a toddler bed. I put her in that to see how she’d do on her own. She whimpered a bit, but more like she didn’t want to go to bed than she didn’t want THAT bed. She fell asleep very quickly. I’m not sure what time, but she woke in the middle of the night and called out. It was the first time since meeting her that she has gotten up in the night. I got up quickly, and went to her, rubbing her belly and brushing her hair back, then I turned the bed towards ours so she could see us. Tonight I’ll turn her head and feet so we’re sleeping foot to foot and she can see our bed. I’m pleased she seemed so comfortable on her own.

Today we had breakfast and completed some paperwork. Then we headed out to an open air market. It was awesome! I found some great souvenirs, knocking a couple things off my list. I should warn those who are reading that I’m too stressed to keep a list of people to bring things back for, and too broke to buy something for everyone so the bottom line is I’m not buying anything for anyone, sorry. We went from there to a restaurant where we struggled to order things that sounded safe and yummy. No one wanted to try the duck tongues with me, but we did eat bamboo shoots. Right next door was a McD’s! We got icecream there for dessert and AnnaWen played in the (pathetic) play area. She was nervous of the slide the first time, but once down once, she LOVED it and went over and over and over.

On our walk back, Julie and Steve bought tickets for the ParaOlympics. I had hoped to go too, but the two times we knew we had time available to go, there were no tickets. So Julie and Steve got some for Tuesday and Wen and I will complete whatever adoption trip stuff they have scheduled. Not a big loss, I’m hoping we’ll go by the Olympic venues to see them from the outside. Wen and I came back to the hotel, mostly to get her out of the high security bank (I’m talking bullet proof glass and security guard with vest) where she was trying to access their computer. We read some Spot books (in Chinese and English) while we waited for them to get back. Now we’re heading out to find a supermarket to get some snacks and food and to keep AnnaWen awake until bedtime. Tonight we have some adoption stuff to do, and maybe meet with a seamstress, we’ll see…

Tomorrow is the Great Wall of China… I may or may not be able to post. Sorry. Sleeping through the night has it’s disadvantages too.

I’ll post pics later, the troops are getting anxious.

N