Great Walls of China: Lights! Camera! ...Quiet On the Set?

Well, we are finally in Guangzhou. It's funny; in some ways it seems like our time in Nanchang just flew by, and in other ways it seems we were there forever. A lot happened in six days. We are all a little emotionally exhausted from all the changes in the last week in our family. Things have gotten a little out of control a couple of times, with crying and huge swinging emotions. All to be expected but tiring.

Guangzhou, in many ways, is not like being in China at all. It is a very cosmopolitan city. We see lots of people from all over the world here, and no one stares much because they are used to foreigners. We are staying at the most incredible hotel, The Garden. You just can't imagine how lavish this place is....kind of out of our league. We are really enjoying it though! Probably the last time we will ever stay in so fancy a place, so we are making the most of it.

The weather here is really wonderful. Today it was in the mid-80s and it should be in the 70s for the rest of the week. Humid, though. It will be hard to go back to what must be winter weather by now.

Our last couple days in Nanchang were quiet. On Thursday we spent some time just exploring the shops. We went to the RT Mart--kind of like a Wal-Mart--and bought the girls some small toys and Ethan a remote control helicopter. Unfortunately when we got it back to our hotel room it didn't work, so we trudged all the way back and used our rudimentary Chinese to get it exchanged for a new one. Actually we were pretty proud of ourselves for that accomplishment!

Thursday evening our guide Mary took us to the "new city" to see a really beautiful fountain and light show. Everyone really enjoyed it, and we discovered that more than anything Maia wants to have a pair of roller skates. There were people everywhere on roller blades. It's about all she has talked about since then! I have promised her I will get her some when we get home.

Friday we stayed in our room most of the day packing and catching up on homework, and checked out and headed to the airport at 3:00.

We were nervous about how Maia would like the airplane, but we shouldn't have been. She loved it! She had a couple of sad moments when she realized we weren't headed home yet, but got over it quickly.

We arrived here around 8 pm on Friday night. Today was spent mostly at the medical clinic. All adopted children have to undergo an exam before receiving their visas to go to the US. Unfortunately Maia's was a little more involved because of her age. She had to have both a TB test and a female exam. She was pretty shut down during the whole thing. She talks so much when she is with us, but when she comes to something that makes her nervous she gets this blank look on her face and acts like she can't hear anything anyone is saying to her, and she doesn't respond at all when asked any questions. I think the doctors thought she is very cognitively delayed, which obviously to us isn't true at all. Poor thing, it's a coping mechanism, but it isn't helping her at all. When we get home we have two days of doctor appointments at Children's in Seattle, and I told them to have an interpreter for us, but if she shuts down we won't get anything accomplished at all. Please pray that we will be able to make her understand that she needs to cooperate.

This afternoon I spent two hours with our guides and six other families doing the paperwork needed for the consulate. Our guides are amazingly organized and made it easy for us.

This evening we went out on our own for the first time in this city and found a restaurant full of locals that was very good, and bought ice cream bars at 7-11. Now we are just hanging out and relaxing. We are excited that tomorrow morning we get to go to the International Fellowship with the other families in our group. Then tomorrow is pretty free, and we are going shopping on Monday after Maia's TB test is read at the clinic.

We can't believe she has been our daughter for a week already! The adjustment is going to be long but we can't imagine life without her!