We just took Katie to dinner in the hotel restaurant. They have a buffet with lots of Chinese food and some western, like steak and pizza, hamburgs and ice cream (sort of). I would carry Katie to one of the stations and she would pick out something. Some of it had to be cooked, like the noodles, shrimp, mushrooms, clams, mussels, squid, and ox, (but no cat dog or snake :o) ) The service was great, like always in all the restaurants we've been to. The waitresses do everything for you and are always looking for more to do. Jim got in trouble for trying to pour his own tea yesterday.
We took turns going to get some food and getting things for Katie. She tasted some of my cake and wanted more. I told her Baba would take her and she put out her arms and actually let Jim carry her to get some cake! When they got back to the table I told Jim that the cherries on the cake were probably spiked because the orange segment was. So Jim picked up the cherry and pop it into his mouth to find out before he let Katie eat one. It came right back out again, not because it was a spiked cherry but because it was a tomato!
When she was finished eating, but not finished picking out food to bring back to the table and decide she didn't want it, I took her upstairs while Jim took care of the bill. When we got in the room, she was sure I was planning to put her to bed, so she went to the door and started to cry and scream! I distracted her with a few things but she kept going back to the door. I told her that Baba would take her out so she started to yell at the door "Baba!" When Jim came back, the next wonder is that she let him take her out of the room to run around the hotel a bit, without Mama! They came back and had the best time, but she would stop and run to me if Jim did something that she didn't trust for some reason, but most of the time she would run around laughing and yelling in Chinese, "Daddy what are you doing?" The first picture was taken during their romp. The second was taken while they were excercising after her bath. She laughs so hard she can't stand up. Right now, Jim is trying to quiet her down a bit. She's using the picture book of English words we bought her to teach us Chinese.
Tomorrow we're on our way to Guangzhou. I am so looking forward to getting on with the next leg of our trip. We travel on Saturday, have nothing to do on Sunday. Doctor's appointment and Visa photo on Monday, Consulate appointment on Tuesday, take her oath of citizenship on Wed and receive her visa packet. And then head home on Thursday!!!! She becomes a U.S. citizen as soon as we go through customs.
The great thing about Guangzhou is that the Nuss family will be there with their 3 daughters, one Katie's age. I hope to spend all of our free time together. Then she'll see Marissa when we get back home. She will love being with other children. She watches them quite a bit when we see them. There should be a lot of them in Guangzhou. There are 17 families from our adoption agency alone.
You'll next hear from us when we get to Guangzou.
7 comments:
I'm so excited for you! My dad checked out the site and said that she is just beautiful and that he's excited for you as well. I am continuing to pray for safe travels and the building of fun memories! :)
Yeah, those non-cherry surprises in the apparently western chinese food are fun. I remember with great fondness a kind of fermented black bean paste that would turn up in the center of some lovely cakes and breads--you'd think you were getting something akin to a twinkie--light fluffy cake, but it would be more akin to a bad moon cake (don't know if you've had those yet--moon festival is in October--some are quite delicious, but some are just, to the western tastebuds,kinda icky)
Am enjoying reading about your adventures.
best, heather
Beautiful, beautiful child!
Glad the father-daughter relationship is coming along. Pretty soon she'll be hanging on his leg when he goes to school.
Love you guys and can't wait to see you.
Jenny
Oops, forgot to tell you the I called gramma and she is able to get online everyday and read your progress--she was very excited about it, but does not understand how to leave a message (it's a little too confusing) So I send you a message form her--Happy St. Patrick's day.
Best, Heather
Dear Jim, Connie, and Katie,
We loved your blog account and being able to see your adventure as it unfolds. We are looking forward to hearing how it all continues to work out- it is all so amazing and special. Congratulations and we are thinking of all of you as you make this exciting change. Take care!
Mark, Amara, and Miriam
I can't wait until Thursday!
Love, Karen
hey mom, did you guys get any sleep? still a liitle sick, no soar throat but i'v got a stuffy nose thats causing a cough, nothing serious jonathans doing good, we still have the soccer draft today! well mr. brownes calling so i got to go bye, love you guys and can't wait for you to get home.
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