Friday Morning - 2/24/06

It’s Friday morning and today we have the swearing in ceremony at the U.S. Embassy. This is when all the families stand before a Government official and promise to care for our newly adopted children and to never abandon them. We leave at 3:00pm for that and are back at 5:30. Then we have to hop on a 6:00 shuttle and off to the airport for a 9:00pm flight. But get this we have to have our luggage packed and waiting out the door by 2:30 and we’re supposed to have group pictures taken on the red couch in the lobby (a tradition) at 2:00pm. I don’t know how Ann is going to pull it all off. (ha ha)

Sarah is awake and jabbering in her crib. Her crib is next to Emily’s bed and she holding Emily’s hand while Emily is asleep. Tried to get a picture but wasn’t fast enough. We have many nick names for Sarah. Emily calls her Sarah Barah Narah; give her a break as she is only five and Mrs. Sullivan has her rhyming everything. I call her Mellon Head, give me a break, I’m on a diet and all I think of is food. Her head is almost perfectly round and it reminds me of a beautifully shaped mellon. My favorite nick name however, is the one Ann calls her. She calls Sarah her “little rose bud” because she has a rose bud mouth. It’s perfect for her. Emily has always been her “little sweet pea” and when Ann has slipped and used that name for Sarah, Emily has reminded Ann, “Hey, I’m sweet pea.”

Last night when we were coming back from the dinning out I had Emily on my shoulders and she wanted me to sing with her, so we started to sing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” So we started going down the list, He’s got the little tiny babies and so on. It was a long walk so we had to make some up and Emily suggested “He’s got all the little girls” so when I suggested “He’s got all the little boys” Emily said girls don’t sing about boys until they are older or if the boy is a prince. What are they teaching her at that school? ;) The last verse she sang was “He’s got all the vegetables, in his hands.”

Now that Emily knows we’re leaving today for home, she is again planning her ‘gradulation’ party for Sarah (yes a cross between Congratulations and Graduation). Before we left, she hand made invitations for her friends and talked about the need to decorate and have everyone come over to meet Sarah. Today, she keeps telling us all the things we need to do to get ready for the party, “We need cupcakes, check; cake, check; balloons, check; ribbons, check; camera, check…” and the list goes on and on. We can suggest things for the list and if she agrees, she’ll say “check.” We love the little mental check list she uses.

I walked by the bank when I went to get lunch. The guard almost gave me a heart attack was there and he agreed to let Mark take a picture of him handing me my lisence. He told me he was still laughing about it today.

Ann’s part of the blog - later Friday morning

It is now around 10:21pm and we're pretty much packed, girls both had baths and we had some family pictures snapped by the waterfall. Steve and Mark Alexander just headed out to find some lunch for the girls, probably peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from Lucy's for the bigger girls and congee for Sarah and Billie. Emily and Anne are pretending to be dogs on the bed in our room. It is just a waiting game right now to leave.



Here are a few other tidbits of information.
This morning we picked up the chops we ordered. A chop is a square stamp, usually carved into a heavy block, that has your name etched on it and is used with red ink to stamp your name, most commonly seen by westerners on Asian paintings and other artwork. Our chops have our last name on it, both in Chinese characters and English. We also need to buy snacks for this evening as we don’t anticipate time to find dinner tonight…should be interesting with two hungry little girls and limited, if any, food options and the chaos of the Guangzhou airport.

I did some shopping over the past two afternoons and it is an experience. Every shop owner sits outside his shop and politely asks you about your child or how you are, then asks you to come in his/her shop. If you do enter, they follow you around the store, pointing out everything they offer. If you show one bit of interest in something they are showing you how something works, other colors, constantly asking, “You like?” Here’s the best part. Some prices are marked, some are not, so if you ask the price, they tell you, “If you like, good price for you.” So now, after I ask the price and the salesperson answers, I ask, “If I like it, how much is it?” Also, as with most places where you negotiate the price, you simply start to walk away and the price drops, or “If you buy more things, we give you good price.” Often, you just have to keep smiling and saying “no thank you, not today” or “I already bought that” as most shop owners carry the same items. It gets old after while, though Susan Alexander and I were able to find shops that let us browse on our own once we got a block or two off the main strip of shops right outside the hotel. Overall, we purchased two traditional red Asian dresses for Emily and Sarah for 100RMB ($12.50 US), and picked up a traditional dress for me, matching embroidered shoes and a silk robe for Steve for 500 RBM. We also picked up some paper cuts, a few small water colors by local artists and some gifts.

We may have some time to post another blog on Friday night (US time) after we're settled in our hotel in LA...I'm sure there will be some interesting stories from the plane ride and we'll have cleared US customs at that point as well. Just need to get that IR-3 stamp in her Chinese passport and we're done; she's automatically a U.S. citizen at that point.

I remember the plane trip home with Emily to be very uneventful and wasn't so bad, but Emily was a very calm baby that liked to cuddle and wouldn't walk yet. Sarah is more active, full of energy, wants to walk continuously and we have a five year old along this time, but luckily Emily is a great little travelor...should be very fun! Sense of humor is needed for this trip. Sarah has also learned how to play limp and to throw her head back when she doesn't get her way...I remember that from Emily so was ready for it the first time it happened.

We'll probably add a final blog once we arrive back home so everyone knows we arrived safe and sound and we can post a picture of Sarah in her forever home.