Day 19

Sitting down at the computer and looking out the window of our 23rd floor hotel room makes me wish I had been the guy selling neon and LED lights in this city. Our photos don't do it justice, but there is so much to look at here at night. Our kids keep saying, "is that lighting?" But no, it is just flashing from the giant screen down the street. We also have a cool view of the Canton Tower, which is the tallest tower in China:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Tower

We started off the day bright and early. Seth had another restless night, but he also had a medical appointment at 8am. Only one parent had to go, so Kris and Seth got up for an early breakfast. His passport arrived (finally) so his appointment was able to happen without problems. We appreciate those of you who prayed about that.

He did really well at the doctor's office. He was pretty bored by the cab ride over there, though. Since he is under 2 he didn't need to be tested for TB (Ruthie came back negative, which is good), so his check-up was a bit more cursory. Taking the kids to the doctor here, though required, really just makes us want to get home even faster, so we can have them fully examined by our own doctors, Nothing against the Chinese doctors, but we can't do anything for the kids until we get home, and taking them is just a reminder about that. After the examination was finished, they told us that because of the measles outbreak at his orphanage he would have to come back tomorrow to be examined for measles. Not sure why they couldn't do that while he was laying on the table with his clothes off, but for some reason, it has to be tomorrow. But, he's showing no symptoms of measles, so that is good.

While the two boys were gone, Ruthie enjoyed having Anne "all to herself" again. That being said, she is warming up to Seth a bit. She will help hold his bottle, and she loves to throw away his used diapers. She has learned what "trash" means, and if we say it, she'll take the diaper and throw it away. Often, she'll pick the diaper up and ask us in Chinese if she can throw it away. So, she will be a good helper when we get home. She still won't kiss Seth, even though she loves kissing the rest of us, but we'll take what we can get.

By the time Kris and Seth got back, it was time to go to Shamian Island. It is a quaint little island along the Pearl river with ties to British and French colonial periods. There's another major hotel that caters to adoptive families on the island, called The White Swan. As a result, many of the little stores on the island are designed for foreign adopters to go and buy "Chinese stuff." We enjoyed looking at the architecture and we enjoyed the serenity of the island, but the cheesy commercialism of the place was a bit of a turn-off.

Fortunately, our good friend told us of a shop to go to where we would be treated well. Sure enough, when we walked in and told Michael that we were from Walla Walla, he said, "Oh, you are friends with Patty. So nice to see you!" We had a nice time chatting with him, and we were able to buy a few small things. He has two young boys who were at the shop with him, and we're told he scrimped and saved in order to pay the fine to have a second child. We got Ruthie (and Calla) little silk dresses, and we got Seth a small Chinese outfit. I'm pretty sure it is a law that if you adopt from China you have to buy your kids little Chinese dresses.

One fun thing we saw on the island was people playing what looked like hackey sack, but with an object that looked more like a badminton birdie. It had a weighted end and had feathers on the other. People of all ages were gathered in circles of 4-5 and kicking this thing around. In America, you don't see adults hackey sacking much, but there were adults of all ages enjoying this game (and some were smoking and kicking it).

We were at the island during lunch time, and we were recommended to a restaurant called "Lucy's." It billed itself as an American restaurant, but had everything from Italian and Mexican to grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken satay. We ordered a bit of everything. Seth had some congee, which is very popular here, and Ruthie enjoyed the satay we got at the Thai restaurant last night so we got her some of that. The kids had grilled cheese sandwiches and a cheese pizza. We were set to meet our bus pretty soon after ordering, so we ate very quickly. We're trying to balance eating locally with giving the kids something that feels comfortable, and this place helped to do that, even though the food wasn't that great. The decorations were entertaining, though. It looked like someone had robbed everything off the wall at an Applebee's and mailed it to China. There were old movie posters and random photos of Hollywood celebrities. My favorite poster was by the front door. It said "Breakfast of Champions" and it had a picture of a mug of beer and a bottle of what looked like aspirin. Whatever. Which reminds me: I forgot to mention our favorite shirt of the trip (so far). A guy at the zoo was wearing a t-shirt that said "why me always suck so much." It is hard to know how to answer that.

We got back to the hotel and it was time for naps. Seth took a short nap right when we got to the island, so we laid Ruthie down first. That meant that Seth had to nap in the other hotel room, so he wouldn't wake her up. They took long naps, which gave everyone a break, and gave Kris a long chunk of productive time to work (being away from work for 3 weeks is not easy).

By the time they woke up, it was just about time to eat again. For dinner, I'll pose to you a question: what is better than the best Mexican restaurant in Guangzhou? If you answerd homemade Mexican food, delivered by our friends, then you're correct! They came over and brought us chicken fajitas with homemade salsa. We tried to sit and eat poolside, but they told us you could only eat the hotel's food there. Seems like a strange rule, but we just piled around our hotel room's coffee table and chowed down. Good news: Ruthie liked the salsa. Or at least, she liked the chips with a hint of salsa, which is a gateway. So, she should fit right in to our family when we get home.

We had a nice relaxing dinner with good company. They taught us how to say "pray" in Chinese, which will come in handy for Ruthie. They also taught us how to say "be careful" which will also come in handy.

Finally, we got everyone ready for bed. Seth went to sleep more easily than last night, so we are praying for a more restful night for him. The other kids watched the documentary "North America" on the Discovery channel, since that and HBO are about the only consistently English channels here. Ruthie spent a bit of time loving and rocking her stuffed panda bear, which is good. We have tried to really encourage her to understand that sort of empathy, and tonight she did it on her own for the first time.

Tomorrow morning, we go to take our oath at the consulate, which I believe is our last official act before we can fly home.