We’re almost home! One more night & we’re on our way. We are all very ready to come home. Marissa has her Chinese passport and American Visa now. We were sworn in yesterday at the American Consulate.
It’s been raining almost non-stop since I updated you all last. We woke up to rain Tuesday morning. We had a thunder and lightning storm again – these seem to be common here. Peter informed us that the rainy season here is from April to August. He said it’s unusual for it to rain all day like it has been though.
We decided to keep our plans to go to Lotus Mountain on Tuesday with Peter. We had no intention of sitting around the hotel room all day while it rained. Peter told us we were the first family he’d ever taken out to a park in the rain. What can I say? We’re typical Oregonians. A little rain won’t stop us. It’s an hour drive from Guangzhou. It’s pretty interesting. We headed east toward Hong Kong (which isn’t all that far) through another city and the countryside. We got to see rice patties, orchards, gardens and factories. The mountain itself is a converted quarry. After the miners got done hauling out some of the sandstone there, the government decided the spot was pretty enough for a park and so they made one. They are right. It’s a beautiful place. There aren’t too many stairs and the landscaping is well done. The rock they cut into is very high and a beautiful pink/gray color. There are pools, and we got to see some waterfalls start up because of the rain. We didn’t go far as it was literally a downpour while we were there. The park rangers thought we were strange. We were the only people in the park. Peter said it’s typically crowded as it’s very popular, except when it’s raining, I guess.
The park contains a Buddhist temple and large gold Buddha. It’s unusual because the Buddha’s are all feminine rather than masculine. Peter said that the women said it was unfair that all the statues were made up like men, so they made some up like women. We drove rather than walking over to see them. Marissa and I hung out at a little covered eating place while grandma and Peter headed off to view the temple. It has 4 floors and the view is supposed to very nice. The cloud cover was too low for them to see much though, but grandma got a lesson in Buddhism from Peter. She said it was very interesting.
We arrived back at the hotel in the late afternoon. We had to move back to the Victory Hotel today unfortunately. We really miss the White Swan. The service here at the Victory leaves something to be desired as I think I’ve said before. Even Peter commented on how rude the front desk people were to him when he spoke to them for us. He said he wasn’t going to book any more people into the Victory. He actually hadn’t booked us there. Another adoption agent did. I thought his comment about the people here being rude to him was very telling about the lack of service they have here at the Victory. Not only were the front desk people annoying on this round, but our toilet was faulty and the plumber didn’t get it fixed even after 2 trips to our room. In addition some girl knocked on our door and rang the doorbell in the middle of the night. That doesn’t happen at the White Swan because they have a concierge on the adoption family floor and no one is allowed up to your floor without permission. Despite all this, we did get settled in and fortunately aren’t here much longer. Once again, we postponed our cruise on the Pearl River. It was raining!
Wednesday morning we waited around our hotel room per Peter’s instructions. We were waiting for him to call us from the American Consulate. He takes over the paperwork, they look it over and then tell us when to come and be sworn in. I received some very unhappy news from him when he called to tell me the consulate didn’t want to give Marissa a Visa because my homestudy didn’t say I was adopting a special needs child. I knew this to be untrue having read it myself, but dutifully took down all sorts of fax numbers so an addendum could be made up and added to my homestudy. When I got off the phone with him, I double checked my homestudy (sure glad I brought a copy a with me), and sure enough right there on the 1st three pages it talks about my adoption of a special needs child. I called Peter back and he gave me a phone number to speak to the consulate directly. I faxed them over a copy of the homestudy they already had for good measure and then called them up. I spoke with a Chinese lady who told me she didn’t see anything on the last page. I referred her to the proper pages. She apologized saying there is so much to read & it would really help if we underlined these things. I don’t know about that. My homestudy is all of 6 pages long & not hard to read at all. In any event, I got it all straightened out & they issued Marissa’s Visa. We were sworn in with a group of other families later that afternoon. The adoption coordinator at the consulate explained that once Marissa goes through customs back home, she automatically becomes a US citizen at that time. No more paperwork!
After the consulate, Peter invited us to go to a supermarket he shops at. It’s very large he told us. We attempted to catch a taxi, but had no luck. We’d come in a taxi instead of renting a car and driver. The White Swan offers a free shuttle to the consulate. Another good reason to stay there instead. Peter told us it might take awhile to catch a cab because of the trade fair. He also suggested the subway & we decided on that. It really is pretty easy to ride the subway here. The signs are in English and the routes seem clearly marked. We headed off for the supermarket at China Plaza. We took the green line and got off after 4 or 5 stops. The Plaza is a conglomeration of stores including the supermarket. Large is an understatement. It starts underground in the subway. You get off the train, go through the turn styles and you’re there.
The Plaza is clearly where the Chinese here shop. Not touristy at all. We walked around and shopped ourselves a little. It was fun. The supermarket is interesting. All the meat is laid out unwrapped for inspection. Apparently they wrap it when you choose it. Well you can certainly inspect it closely, I guess, but it does tend to smell up the place a little especially in the fish department. Peter was going to leave us in the fish section while he shopped, but we vetoed that idea. Instead he left us by the ice cream. That suited us as we wanted to get some anyway. It’s much cheaper here because you can get the local brands instead of just the imported stuff like what’s at the shops around the hotel. We bought a pint of ice cream, 2 pastries and 2 sodas all for 25RMB. That’s about $3.50 Pretty good, huh?
We had to catch a taxi after this to get back to the hotel. Peter had to run (several times) off to try & grab one. He was eventually successful & we made the long trip back to the hotel. It was rush hour & very crowded.
We decided to forego a trip on the Pearl River again. It looks like we won’t get to take one after all. The weather was still iffy and the other two families we were going to go with were all sick. One of them has been to the emergency room twice with some kind of bacterial infection. We are fortunately all well although we are both feeling a little ill this morning (Thursday). I think it’s allergies.
We are moving to the airport hotel today. Peter is meeting us for the last time just after noon. I believe the other families are also moving today. We all fly out tomorrow. Well they may be taking the train, we haven’t heard the final word from them. You can take a train from here to Hong Kong, which isn’t that hard or bad I don’t think, but according to Peter, it’s not easy to get from the train station in Hong Kong to the airport. Apparently you have to take one or more taxis to get there & it’s a long trip. I wouldn’t want to do that with all our luggage and a toddler to boot. I’m glad we’re flying out.
The fathers of the other two families visited their children’s orphanage this week. I did not want to visit the orphanage, so we did not go to Marissa’s. One of them showed us pictures though and told us about their daughter’s orphanage. This particular one could hold up to 100 children and had 75 at the time. He said there were about 30 babies there all lined up in their cribs. The older children go off to school. He said the building is old and looks worn, but is clean. They have a very tiny kitchen with one burner. He said they have a large laundry room and a small playroom. The playroom is just an empty room. It had one toy and a slide. He said the director took them to see his office & pointed out a new air conditioner one of the adoptive families had purchased for him. His office is the only place in the building that has air conditioning. We’re betting that whatever adoptive family purchased that air conditioner had probably meant it for the kids, not the office. Just goes to show that their priorities and perspective on things here is a little different than ours would hopefully be.
I’m looking forward to seeing you all when we get back. Of course I’ll be bringing Marissa around at some point to show her off. I think we’re going to have a trip to the pediatrician first and also take some time to settle in. She’s decided to start using the toilet again (yeah!!) and she continues to have a healthy appetite.
