So Far to Find You: Last Step of Paperwork DONE!

This morning we decided to skip breakfast since we had such an early leave time. We ate a pomelo for breakfast that we got off the street. It was really yummy. It is a citrus fruit and it kind of tastes like an orange or grapefruit, but it’s less juicy. We met our guide in the lobby after forgetting all the paperwork in our room! I realized it after we were in the elevator, so we came back up and got it. At least we realized it before we got too far!!!

We had to go to the medical office to pick up the medical report for MeiMei. That is part of the required paperwork for getting a visa. The consulate is right across the street from the medical office, so Lily, our guide, took us across the street and made sure we knew where we were going. It wasn’t too difficult, since there were other families that were there and all the guards knew what we were doing. We had to sit in a waiting room for a while until it was our turn to have our paperwork checked over. There was a little play area that the girls played in. One of the walls was a chalkboard. Lydia drew some great pictures and MeiMei was writing Chinese characters. I’m pretty sure they were the characters for the numbers, but I’m not positive. I would have taken a picture, but they don’t allow any cameras in the consulate. After getting our paperwork checked, taking the citizenship oath for MeiMei and getting any questions answered that we had, we were able to leave. On Wednesday, Lily will go back and pick up the visa and other paperwork that we need for MeiMei to become a US citizen.

We met our guide back at the medical office and she got the van to take us back. On the way, she took us to a 100-story building. The top 30 floors are a hotel, so the hotel lobby is on the 70^th floor. We went up there and looked around at the city of Guangzhou and the Pearl River. Across from the hotel is another building that is even taller. It is the tallest building in Western China – 530 meters tall. We took some pictures and were just amazed at the enormity of the towers. Looking up was even more impressive than looking down, I think. I’m pretty sure that buildings are in the clouds some of the time. Today was a clear day though, and we could see to the top. While we were looking down at the river, it reminded us that when we came to adopt Lydia, we went on a river cruise down the Pearl River. Lydia thought that sounded like fun, but we weren’t sure how to get tickets and get there.

After getting back to our hotel, it was time for lunch. We decided to head a different way and see what we could find. Well, there wasn’t so much of the other side of the road right away, so we ended up stopping at Burger King. Of course, MeiMei and Lydia were happy to get French fries and chicken nuggets. Burger King has some different foods here in China. One sandwich that they were advertising was a breaded crab cake on a bun with a square egg. There are some things that just wouldn’t go over so well in the US. But…they also had lava cakes with ice cream on top. That on the other hand, I would buy. And we did. Sharing food is a good way to bond, so MeiMei and I shared a lava cake and Brian and Lydia did too. MeiMei thought the ice cream wasn’t the best part, so she fed that to me and wanted to keep the cake for herself. That didn’t quite cut it for me, but I did let her have most of it.

We were going to head back to the hotel room, but I saw another adoptive mom heading a different way. I figured that she was headed to Wal-Mart, which we heard was nearby. We followed her and found an honest to goodness Wal-Mart. We picked up a few things that we needed/wanted like candy and a coloring book. Wal-Mart was on two levels and it was kind of confusing to find things. MeiMei had to go to the bathroom, so we had to search for that. Good thing that she can tell other people what she needs because otherwise we would never have found the bathroom!

After Wal-Mart, we headed back to the hotel for a nap. Lydia fell asleep, but MeiMei just can’t seem to fall asleep in the afternoons. She laid there for a while, but she kept waking Lydia up.

While the girls were “trying” to sleep, I asked the concierge about river cruise tickets. We found out that there is a ticket office behind the hotel, so we could get cruise tickets there. After talking to Brian, we decided to go tonight, since the weather was so nice. Kids under 1.2 meters are free, but I have no way to figure out how big that is, so we took MeiMei down to check. She was below that, so she was free at least. 😊

It was such a nice day that on the way back up, I suggested going to the pool. Lydia was, of course, very excited to do that. The three girls got their swimsuits on and headed to the pool. When we got to the pool, the ladies that were checking people in and out warned us, “It is very cold water!” I knew it was going to be chilly based on how it felt when the girls put their feet in earlier this week. If you know me, you know that I HATE cold water!!! Well, in order to help bond with MeiMei, I got in the freezing cold water and played. We stayed in the shallow end, but MeiMei LOVED swimming. She had no fear at all. Lydia was jumping of the side and she wanted to do the same thing. She jumped into my arms and was laughing and playing and having so much fun. Lydia was enjoying herself too. The water, we found out later, was a whole 69 degrees warm. MeiMei didn’t last for too long before she was shivering. She didn’t want to get out, and Lydia definitely didn’t want to get out, but I insisted that they go sit in the hot tub to warm up. They got warmed up and Lydia wanted to get back in the pool. There was NO WAY I was going to get back in the water, so I only let her get back in after MeiMei was in a towel in Brian’s arms. She thought the water was freezing then too.

We showered and headed for a quick dinner before we had to catch a taxi to the river cruise launch point. It didn’t take too long and we had plenty of time to exchange our receipt for our tickets and get into the line. The way people wait in line in China is much different than in the US. They made the announcement that people could start boarding the boat and there was a mad rush for the door. People get so close and you just have to go with the flow. I’m pretty sure Lydia’s lack of personal space is come by naturally! We did get on the boat finally and found our table. We chose to sit on the top (even though there was no covering! – They lady selling the tickets didn’t think we would want to sit there). I remembered from the last time that even though we had tickets to sit down below, we wanted to be on the top to see better. It was fun being in the open air. We were at the front of the boat and we could see really well from there. Guangzhou was lit up so beautifully. They have dancing lights on the side of the buildings and the Canton Tower is lit up in rainbow colors. It was fun to watch the lights and cruise along the river. MeiMei loved it and didn’t have any problem with motion sickness! Yeah!!! We met some other adoptive families on the boat that we flew to China with. It was fun to catch up with them and see how things were going in their family too.

We took a taxi home and MeiMei ended up falling asleep on Brian’s lap. She woke up when we got out of the car, but not very much! Brian brought her up to the room and she went right to bed without even getting her jammies on. Lydia was hungry – again, so she and I went in search of something to eat. Of course, we ended up at the noodle and rice restaurant. We brought back some noodles and dumplings and shared with Brian. We also had to get a bubble tea/juice on the way back too. We enjoyed eating our second supper while Lydia FaceTimed with some of the other cousins she hadn’t talked to yesterday. She’s in bed, MeiMei is sleeping too and Brian was about to abandon me. He’s the one who has been downloading the pictures, so he knows where he’s putting them, so I made him stay up with me. I think I’m going to sleep good tonight! We’re both ready for a good, long night of sleep!!!