Guangzhou - April 3rd

April 3^rd

Today we had to get up a bit early to make sure we made it to the consulate appointment.  I requested to have a wake up call.  So at 6:30 the phone starts beeping so I get up and pick it up and hang it up to lay down for another minute.  A minute later it starts beeping again, so once again I get up and then laid down again and again it starts beeping so I get up again.  This time I laid down and 2 minutes later there’s a knock on the door and the door bell is ringing.  So I tried to hurry and quickly but quietly and gently pull the robe off Willem (which he had to use as a blanket because when they brought his crib they couldn’t understand what I wanted when I tried to tell them he needs a baby blanket and brought up big King sized wool blankets twice instead of a baby blanket) and put the robe on me to answer the door.  So much for letting the kids sleep a bit later.

We got up and had breakfast and Meikiina went over to spend the morning with her new friend and I left for my consulate appointment.  Willem enjoyed the ride over and was so excited when he saw dogs.  He’d pat my leg and point out the window and tell me in Willemese – look at the dog! 

Our Consulate appointment was at 10:00.  When we got there Stefani (part of my group and has 2 daughters she's adopting now and 17 kids total) was up the swearing in area.  She had an 8:30 appointment time and she was the last person in her group to do the paperwork part.  So we got to chat in that room for a bit til she was done.  While we were there we saw this new dad with his child that they had waited 6 years for. He was having paperwork problems. His agency had dropped the ball on something paperwork related and he is not going to get a visa for his legally adopted child. He had a couple of options.  He could stay longer with his child, leave his child here and come back in a month, or his wife could make a flying trip here and they could get a different type of visa.  What a nightmare.  You wait so long and work so hard, and then to have something like that happen is just heartbreaking! And to wait 6 years and then have this happen.  Wow!

So it was finally time for our very, very important appointment - the appointment we’ve been working towards for over a year.  First we would do our swearing in.  So the consulate official asked all the parents to stand and raise their right hand and repeat after her.  ‘I swear and affirm that this paperwork is true to the best of my knowledge…’.  When all the parents raised their right hand Willem leaned forward so he could see the lady and raised his right hand way up in the air too.  It was so cute!  I was chatting to the man next to me who was also from MN, before we started and he saw Willem do that and you could see he got a big kick out of it too. 

A couple of other things – there was a couple of other boys there.  One of the boys was 3 – but he was much smaller than Willem.  He was from the south and Willem is from the north.  Our guide, Kathy, has told us the people from the north are bigger and Willem is for sure is much bigger than any of the kids I’ve seen from down in this area.  And again, he’s probably not bigger than boys his age in America, but I’m sure he’s not smaller.  Then as we were sitting there chatting there was a man who was in front of me talking to the man next to me and all of a sudden I knew who he was.  He was a dad of a bunch of kids, many of which they’ve adopted from China.  I’ve seen his emails a lot on the yahoo groups and have seen a picture of his family.  They were here adopting 2 biological sisters.

After our swearing in, we were the second family called up.  I had to fill in Willem’s name on a form I had filled out some time ago and sign it and we were done.  We went down and Stefani had waited for us so we all rode back in the van together to the hotel. 

For some reason when I was putting baby boy down today, he started crying.  He cried and cried and cried.  He cried so hard he was almost throwing up.  I don’t know what was going on – lonesome?  I’m not sure.  It took a while but he finally fell asleep.  He woke up a happy boy.

It was fun today, because Meikiina was in and out of the room across the hall with Stacy’s family.  It’s also sad, cuz now they are gone.  They are done here and are on to Beijing.  They were here in Guangzhou the whole time being as her son is from here so they were able to get a Consulate appointment a day earlier then us and leave 2 days earlier.  Because Wednesday is a holiday here (Tomb Sweeping Day) we have to wait an extra day before we can pick up our visas for our children.  So our Consulate appointment was Tuesday but our visa pickup, while usually the next day, isn’t til Thursday at 3:00 pm and then we are free to leave.  Then they recommend that you not leave til the next day just in case something happened that the visas are late.  So we leave on Friday morning.

After naps today we went out to walk on the walking street and were going to get pizza, which we didn’t get because it was too busy in there.  So on our way back towards the hotel as we’re pushing our way through thousands (truly) of people we hear someone say, “Well, hi!” And here we meet up with Stefani’s 2 daughters (23 and 10 years old).  They were out shopping and invited Meikiina to go with them.  Meikiina was just dragging along behind me, not at all excited to be out there and when they asked her, she just lit up.  So she went shopping and found some really good deals and had great fun. There really is thousands of people out there on that street.  The other day this happened too.  We were walking and we bumped into our guide out there.  On my way back I ran by this pastry shop that has the most divine tasting custard pastries you could imagine!  Oh, my but they’re good!  And that’s what I had to eat tonight. Oh, we stopped by there a couple days ago with Stacy and the poor man didn’t know how to tell us how much we owed him.  We both finally just started handing him money and finally he had enough.  So tonight when I stopped there he remembered me and when I told him what I wanted he boxed them up and grinned and got a calculator and punched in what I owed.  Most shopkeepers do know a bit of English, but this shop was down a side street away from the main stores and he didn’t know a word of English. J Willem and I came back here and Skyped home and then I played with a most adorable 3 year old boy til bedtime.  Again tonight after I held him and hugged him and sang to him rocking him in my arms for 10-15 minutes he wanted to lay down in his crib so I laid him down and he put his little hand out the bar for me to hold and he fell asleep.  Now why did he do this 2 nights in a row, but at naptime today he seemed absolutely grief stricken?  The poor little tyke – breaks my heart to see him going through this. 

My trip this time feels different.  And I suppose each trip is different, but it’s more.  I know part is because I left one baby home and I miss her.  I miss being on Shamian Island, but when we walked over there, it’s so different.  It has in the past been busting with adoptive families and there were so many shops that catered to the adoptive families.  Now a lot of the shops are gone.  All the shops that I did most of my shopping in last time are gone (Jennifer’s, Shop on the Stairs).  There are still shops, but it’s different.  I don’t know if maybe they’ll come back when the White Swan is done being renovated?  For sure there are less families staying there now because so many stayed at the White Swan and the shops need to be where they have business. 

Ok, I’ve gotta be done here and get to bed, before it’s time to be up with a bright eyed little boy. 

Oh, and I just have to tell you – we had 85 degrees here today!

 These little custard pies are divine!

Some favorites in our room!