Globetrotters: Hong Kong

It's Thursday July, 10th and we are in Hong Kong for the day. We got in last night on the train from Guangzhou. That went very smoothly and I would recommend it to anyone travel for adoption (or otherwise!)  No need to pay out the ying-yang for a van service. 

We are back at the JW Marriott here and they have treated us so well:) The manager upgraded us to a suite with an amazing view. Fred has status with Marriott, but they have really gone above and beyond. They know we are on an adoption trip and have been very kind and generous to us.

We are soooo excited to go home tomorrow. This trip has gone amazingly well, but it we all can't wait to see Daniel and Sam. 

Joshua is still doing really well. He has definitely taken to me, but will also go to Baba, but prefers me:) He always seeks my hand out to hold as we make our way through the streets or train station. He's Mama's boy... and I love it. He calls me "Ma", like he's from Brooklyn or something. It's so cute.

I guess the language barrier is the biggest obstacle right now, but we seem to be in tune with each other and I can sense what he wants or needs. I wish I knew exactly what he is saying when he shares something exciting with me, but I get the gist. That is a small inconvenience in the big picture. We sat near a lady from Hong Kong on the street car today and she seemed surprised (like MANY other people) when we told her we had just adopted him. She said, "Well, he is very lucky... lucky boy."  Maybe.... and of course, I tell people that WE are the lucky ones... but really I have never thought of it as "luck." I know that God has had a plan all along. That He puts desires in our hearts according to His plan. I know that I am very blessed, and I don't know why. I don't know why so many children and families in this world have to endure such hardships and tragedies and painful decisions in their lives. But I believe that God can work miracles, and he can heal wounds that we cannot even begin to imagine. I get overwhelmed at the thought of how "lucky" I am to be a mom to my amazing kids... all of them. It is my greatest joy.

We went to Shamian Island before we left Guangzhou yesterday. It used to be owned by the French and British and has architecture from those countries and is a historical district now with shops, restaurants, a school, and a church. 

Bye, Bye China... Hello, Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a very cool city, very international. We took the street car from our hotel area, which is full of banks, businesses, and high-end shopping down to the more traditional, Asian area of Hong Kong. Less than a 10 minute ride we went from Prada, Tiffany, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Burberry, Armani, you name it, it's there... down to places like this...

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Notice the gold sign... hmmmmm

Apple Store

We also took the ferry across the harbour 

This tree in the window is made from thousands of number #2 pencils (I think it was a women's clothing store)

We are resting in the hotel now and will head to The Peak soon to take in the view and have dinner. To bed early and getting up EARLY to catch our flight HOME!!!!  

For those who can come to the airport, our flight gets into Atlanta around 3:30pm on Friday. It's Delta 296 from Norita (Tokyo.) 

My next blog post should be from home sweet home!

Getting closer

I haven't had a chance to upload pics from the orphanage. Here are some from our visit...

Joshua was not feeling well when we arrived. He was a little car sick. They were having a birthday celebration! His good friend was just adopted this past Monday!

His was the bottom bunk

squatty potty in his bathroom

His preschool room

His teacher

Fred, after picking up the kids onto his shoulders, multiple times:)

We are in the home stretch now! This morning we had our consulate appointment, which is the whole reason adoptive families have to come to Guangzhou. Everything went smoothly and we are just waiting to get his passport back with that precious visa stamped in there! We leave Guangzhou tomorrow afternoon by train for Hong Kong, where we will fly out on Friday morning. We will be back in Atlanta around 3:30 Friday afternoon!!! Can't wait to see my boys!

Not only are we getting closer coming home, but we are growing closer each day to this amazing boy. As one of the moms in our group said, "It seems like he's been with you forever."  It's starting to feel like that. He's very comfortable with us and has been in good spirits the whole trip. We've dragged him around through busy train stations, metro stations, busy streets. He's left his province to come to a much different area of China than he has ever seen, met many new people who ask him how he's doing, does like his mama and baba?, etc. 
He's also been hanging out at the executive lounge at the Marriott and has been on a nighttime river cruise and to a safari park (which is similar to the Animal Kingdom, without the rides.)

The day before, we went on a city tour. Here are some pictures from the oldest Buddhist temple in Guangzhou.

This trip is much less stressful simply because we've done it all before and know what to expect. Fred and I are much more at ease this trip, more laid back. We've felt comfortable going off on our own more, venturing out from the flock.  We took a river cruise on our own for half the price that we paid last time with our group (and it didn't include gross food that we didn't want to eat anyway.) We also we went shopping with a lady here that takes you to the places to get great deals on jade and other traditional Chinese gifts. 

 Yesterday we took the subway from our hotel to the safari park, which is a big, glorified zoo with many animals. It's very cool and reminded us of the Animal Kingdom, except no rides. (Although they DID have the drive through safari, which included everything from lions and tigers to wolves and brown bears. 

We had lots of fun despite the heat and humidity (that's what really gets ya.) And the day would have been less tiring had we not tried to exit the park at a different end than we entered. We figured it didn't matter because we had decided to take a taxi back. Once we got out of the park, we saw all the taxis lined up, but then a guy came up to us trying to find out where we were going... red flag... taxi drivers should never come up to you. The guy started saying something about "no meter" and we figured we'd be ripped off, so we decided to keep walking and try to find a legitimate taxi or just go to the subway. Well, that would have been a good plan if we had walked in the right direction and/or if there had been a subway station near the other exit, neither of those things happened. So after walking a ways, then turning around and walking some MORE (on a never-ending sidewalk along the outside of the park) we got back to our original entrance :::sigh:::  Then we had to walk even MORE to get to the subway station. For the record, once we got back to our original entrance we asked a taxi driver to take us to our hotel, but he either didn't know where it was or it was out of his range (Guangzhou is a HUGE city, 2nd largest in China). So drenching in sweat we decided to trudge on to the subway station (thank goodness we had our stroller for Joshua.) The girls were tired, but they were real troopers and we told them to keep focused on the cold Pepsi they would get at the Marriott lounge once we got back to the hotel. (That worked for Shannon... Ella, not so much, but she kept up with us.)

Looking back, I'm thinking it wouldn't have been such a bad idea to have worked out a price with one of those guys, but we really had no idea how much a taxi ride should have cost because we didn't know how far we were from our hotel.
Needless to say we made it back to our hotel, safe and sound... albeit sticky and tired. The subway is very easy to use here and they have 8 different lines that get you around the city. It's very modern and very busy!


Safari Park...

This is what I wanted to be doing

Some new things about Joshua:

He no longer puts on his shoes to go to the bathroom

He eats everything with a fork or chopsticks, even donuts and sandwiches... he must think we have terrible manners

He still sits down on the potty to pee because he's used to a squatty potty (google it). I thought since he used one of these, he would of course stand to pee, but Fred saw how he used one at the train station restroom, and it's a different technique than I thought (TMI ?)

He has taken on the roll of "little brother" like a natural and loves to tease his sisters by rapidly ringing the doorbell on their room about 17 times to get them to come

He loves his mama (and the feeling is mutual)

He calls us mama (or "ma") and baba and calls the girls as well but "Ella" is easier for him to say (It was so cute to hear him calling, "Ella!!" across the pool

He is pretty good about keeping himself busy by playing with his toys or coloring

He's figured out the iPad games with no problem

He says little phrases in Mandarin and they sound so cute (but I have no clue what he's saying)

He has a very sweet demeanor and is also bouncy and playful

He's ours and we're his.

We really are so blessed.