Thanks so much for visiting us during our journey, Steve, Allison, Sean, Megan, Ryan and Katelyn!
June 30, 2008
An invisible red thread connects those who are destined
to meet regardless of time, place or circumstance.
The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break.
-An Ancient Chinese Belief
Katelyn continues to eat VERY well, many different types of food (both Chinese and western). She loves hardboiled eggs, but just the whites (Ryan only likes the yokes...what a pair they will be). We walked down some of the non-commercial streets of Shamian Island, enjoying the tranquility from traffic, noise, and the (adoption) tourist store sales people. Life looks so difficult and in many ways primitive, yet when we passed by the area where the elders were all together singing, dancing (the waltz), playing cards, or just sitting and talking, they all seemed very happy with life. A good lesson for us all. Sean tried many of the outdoor exercise equipment stations in the park, all heavily used by the seniors each day (no wonder they are in such good physical shape and live to be quite old). We saw three wedding parties having pictures taken, and unfortunately a couple tiny dogs and a few kitty cats...all making Katie uneasy. Allison enjoyed a foot message on the beautiful stone walkway (intended for this purpose).
Katie and Allison enjoyed a "girls time" curling their hair...or at least trying to with the thin hair she has. She absolutely loves the time with mom being pampered. Her awakening from her nap did not go so well...it took 45 minutes for her to fully wake up and stop being grumpy and emotional. We tried to go swimming, but as luck would have it, it started to rain and thunder as soon as Sean jumped in the pool...but we had sufficient time for Katelyn to express her unhappiness with the idea of swimming.
After another short walk and dinner, we tried swimming again. Sean had a blast, and played with other kids in the large pool with the waterfall. Katie slowly got more comfortable with the pool, and moved further into the water on her own...and had FUN !! (even when she saw the large rat run across the patio behind her from bush to bush). This evening, once again, she got her second wind. She really talks and interacts after 8:00pm. Today she started kissing Allison, she does enthusiastic high-fives, and keeps looking at her photo album of our home, the dogs, her room, her grandparents, and all of us asking questions and trying to repeat the words we say (and teaching us her language). She truly is a night owl...just like Ryan.
We have seen more life in her when alone in the hotel room, and seen her start to shut down in public (just like Ryan did), so we have decided to not do any of the public tours or events as other families are...and it seems to be paying off with smiles, giggles, and cute quiet talking!!!
Sean Says:
After a good breakfast of...you got it...french toast, we went for a walk through the parks with exercise equipment. It was fun to try some of the equipment once we figured out how they worked. No wonder the older Chinese are in such good shape. The highlight of the day was swimming in the pool with the waterfall (the first time we tried swimming it starting raining and thundering just as I jumped in). The waterfall felt like a message and was really loud. One more day here, then the long plane ride home !!
