Thanks so much for visiting us during our journey, Steve, Heather, Ed, Joe, Emily, Hana, Zeke and Samuel!
November 25, 2007 Only One More Day to Samuel
Today was really a pleasant day. We started out having breakfast, followed by packing up our room in anticipation of moving to a different room. We had a suite because we had been told it was a larger room and would better accommodate four people. However, another family from our agency had what’s called a business room and we decided that that type of room would actually better serve our needs, plus it was a lot less expensive.
We went to church on Shamian Island and really enjoyed the service. After singing and a Bible study, a woman gave her testimony and her story was amazing. The service was really special, especially considering where we are.
Following church we returned to our room for the big move. A bell hop arrived to move us and it was great fun. Hard to imagine having fun moving, but by the time the young man left we were all just cracking up. What fun it was. Just thinking about it makes us smile. And the room is great and much better in terms of layout.
Later in the day, we met up with Leila, our coordinator from AGCI, and the Patzer family who is waiting to meet their son tomorrow too, and wandered through the streets of Guangzhou in a light drizzle. It was a quick trek through the area, but fun. The Patzer’s are here with their 3 year old son, Isaac, and the young boy they’re adopting will, like our son, be named Samuel. What a great family to be here with. They are really nice people.
For dinner we met the Patzer’s and Leila and went to a traditional Chinese restaurant. Dinner was great fun. We ordered pigeon, some kind of salty fried mushrooms, steamed broccoli, lotus root, nuts, steak, fried noodles with shrimp, and tea. All of us were hoping a bowl of steamed rice would show up, but we weren’t so lucky. That must be a given only in American Chinese restaurants since we have yet to see rice on this trip. Come to think of it, we didn’t see much rice on our previous trips to China.
The tea arrived first and it tasted just like dirt. By about the 10th cup it still tasted just like dirt, but at least was liquid and served to wash down the food. Then the nuts were delivered along with the pigeon. The nuts were great, but a little difficult to handle with chopsticks. The pigeon was definitely scary. There truly was a pigeon, head, beak and all, lying on a plate. Joe asked Leila about the head and whether people ate it. She said, in classic Leila style, “sure.” Well, that was all Joe needed to hear. Since no one else seemed to want to eat the head, he took it and ate the meat off of it. Gross is an understatement. The rest of the pigeon was cut in fourths and, since no one was clamoring to grab a piece, Joe took one, Leila took one, and Steve took one. The Patzer’s passed on the pigeon, as did Heather. They were more than willing to sacrifice.
The salty fried mushrooms were clearly, as our son Ed would describe them, a fungus that no one should eat. After one bite, Steve and Heather opted to quit eating that little delicacy, but Joe, again, ate his. We are more than willing to let him put us to shame with what he’ll eat and we’ll pass on.
The broccoli was great, as were the pieces of steak. Joe liked the lotus root, taking several helpings, but one small helping was sufficient for each of the rest of us. Then there were the fried noodles with shrimp. That was actually pretty good, but Joe surprised the whole table by announcing that he didn’t eat seafood because it was gross. We just cracked up given all that he was willing to eat.
After dinner we hung out at the front of the restaurant for a while checking out all of the other things we could order for our next meal. There were tanks of live things and we could order what we’d like, four men were waiting to chop the order up appropriately, and the prepared meal would be served. Some of the possibilities include wheat worms, frogs, water snakes, water beetles, silk worms, various fish including some that looked like the minnows we’d use for fishing, crabs, lobsters, and shrimp. The men chopping up the stuff (remember everything is alive) seemed to really enjoy an audience. We’ll probably eat there again, but we’re still searching for that elusive rice.
We’re back at the room now after an ice cream treat and are about ready to head to bed. It sounds like all is going well at home and we were able to visit again via our webcams and Skpye. That is the best thing to have and we can’t wait to see if we’ll be able to do that tomorrow night with Sam. What a great thing for everyone at home to meet Sam and for Sam to meet them.
Well, tomorrow is the big day. We leave the hotel at 1:30 pm for the drive to the Civil Affairs Building. Samuel is supposed to arrive at 2:30 and we’ll do some preliminary paperwork at that time. On Tuesday morning we’ll return to the Civil Affairs Building to complete the paperwork and complete his adoption as far as China is concerned. We can’t wait to finally meet this young man, our newest son, and our other children’s newest brother.
Please pray that all will go smoothly tomorrow and that Samuel’s transition will be as smooth as possible. And please pray for the rest of the family waiting at home.
