December 5, 2011

  • Two Days and a Flight

    Yes, we are counting down the days. Two full days left in Guangzhou and then one horrid day of airplanes and layovers. Then we will be home!

    Tomorrow we have our US Consulate Appointment and that's the last official step. YiLin's TB test came back a-okay this morning so after the Consulate Appointment we just need to wait one day for his Visa and then we can leave on the 8th bright and early. We're confident we'll make Beijing okay but it's the layover and then the flight from Beijing to Dulles that has us concerned. We'll survive - just might not be pretty.

    leading the way

    Our group of 9 families went to a big park yesterday. It was very interesting but YiLin is struggling with environments that have a lot of stimulus. Very typical for kids raised in an orphanage environment but it's been our number one challenge. YiLin seems to be the only kid in the group having issues (three kids are older and doing really well, the rest are under 3 and are easier to manage) so the guides have been good about helping us to keep him under control. They let him be the line leader for our group. He took the job pretty seriously (although he did frequently tell the group to "hurry up") but ultimately I had to have him give up the flag as he went into Kung Fu mode and started swinging it about.

    slide

    The park had a very unique playground. Which YiLin enjoyed. He was a little tentative at first with this slide - he went up the stairs but then the other kids were going by him one by one and sliding down. I went down with him the first time and then the second time, another mother asked the other kids to wait at the bottom until "Didi" (little brother) came down. That was very sweet of her.

    sunflowers

    Who would have guessed that we'd come across a field of sunflowers here in China in December! I love sunflowers.

    merry christmas

    And Christmas is going up everywhere! Our hotel lobby has a spectacular tree. There is another one outside as well and decorations of all sorts - well, mostly the gawdy sort - everywhere.

    Tomorrow we are going to a safari park and then Wednesday we have a free day. Not sure what we'll do that day as our guides are busy taking the other families to either their consulate appointments or to the airport. Two more days!!!