Tuesday in Guangzhou

We are SO ready to be home. If you remember before I left my friends had a going away/prayer lunch for me. And I talked about “my village”.

I could sure use my village now! This is the first time we have not traveled with another family and it is hard. Having other families to compare stories with, eat with and just the support is a really big deal.  

We are ready to be back with our family and supported by those who we know will walk along side us.

I so appreciate the emails and texts/messages, they really are good for the heart.

Today we slept in which was nice.

The breakfast buffet with Syler is like an Olympic event. He eats at least 4 plates of food. OVERFLOWING plates of food. He wants to get his own food and there are some things that are so hard to translate.

Do not TOUCH the food on the buffet.

If you DO touch the food before we can stop you, you must TAKE the food.

And if you PICK UP the food, you must KEEP the food, DO NOT put it back on the platter.

You do NOT need to take 5 of each thing to “try” because that is wasteful.

We do not play with knives.

We do not put our food into our glass to make a mixed drink.

We do not slurp our drink.

Or BURP after every drink. (this is driving us bonkers!)

We must be careful with glass everything.

When we get home, breakfast is not going to be a buffet, so don't get to used to this! 

I AM thankful he eats well, and he is willing to try just about everything.

But we are flipping a coin to see who has to go through the buffet with him every morning. J

After breakfast we met up with our guide Richard and the other family with our agency. They have an adorable almost 2 year old girl, first child.

We went pearl shopping where we bought Mercie a set of pearls that we will give her when she is older, as we did for the other girls. We also bought Syler a piece of jade. After that we headed to the Island.

We stayed on the Island with our last adoptions and we loved it. It is quiet, tons of little shops and just so quaint. There was a main hotel all families stayed at called the White Swan. That is closed and most of the shops have also closed, sadly. We went in a few but it was not so much fun.

Mark hates shopping as it is and had already used his patience with the pearls. Syler by this point was mad at us and Mercie was overtired and screaming. So, it was not the most fun experience.  With Sage & Mavery I bought lots of “junk” to put away for each year as gifts. (which I actually have yet to give them because I know they would just lose or destroy it.) Considering how often I am in China now, that stuff just doesn’t seem as big of a deal. I figure I can buy it on another trip, when I am here with out children. OR Mark. J

We did eat lunch at Subway on the Island. So far I have eaten lettuce & vegetables, had ice in my drinks, brushed my teeth with the water and lived to tell about it. Hopefully I did not just jinx myself.

We came back to the hotel and Malaine and I did walk around a bit near the hotel. She wanted a hot chocolate so we stopped at Starbucks in our hotel. There is also a Mc Donalds & 7/11 next door if you are staying here!

We decided for dinner to venture over to a Mexican restaurant everyone had talked about. It is near the Gardent hotel, a taxi ride for us. We can’t seem to get anything timed right so by the time we went Syler was being defiant. (tired and hungry) He was trying to run away from us and when we got in the taxi I tried to make him sit on the seat and he sat on the floor glaring at me. Then glared through most of dinner. BUT once he finally ate his mood did lift thankfully.

We started with chips and salsa, which was SO spicy even Syler could not take it.  $12 for a small plate of chips! I had fajitas. Which had no cheese. Mark said his enchiladas were ok. It is about $2 for the 20 minute taxi ride, a MUCH better deal than the food in my opinion. I am not a huge mexican fan as it is. 

We are having some electronic issues with Syler. The hardest thing with an older child is boundaries. If we say no, he pouts and withdraws. When shopping he asks for EVERYTHING. In the room he wants to be watching TV, playing on the ipad, etc.. We have started hiding remotes and that does work. We bought some Chinese kids movies today, which he was SO Excited about. We let him watch one this afternoon and then he wanted to just keep on watching.  You want to make them happy, but I also want to let him know that he has to listen to us too.

We read quite a bit before adopting about “cocooning”. Keeping the kids home and on a routine. We are SURE that we will have no problems doing that! I am convinced I am never leaving the house again! I do get it now, some of those things I read. Here, you have no choice. If we stayed in the room we would all be crazy. But our house will be where Syler & Mercie will learn what home is.

We are SOO ready to be HOME!

Consulate tomorrow, our FINAL step towards home! Ok, well almost. We then have to wait to get their visa’s, but getting SO close!