Travel Journal - Day 12

Ni Hao from the White Swan!

Another lovely day here in Guangzhou! The weather has been beautiful - a bit breezy but just gorgeous. Much better than Jiangxi...We started our day out again with Miss Abby's daily croissant and some eggs. She is so happy to just sit there and eat - it's amazing. All the babies eat like crazy. I think they were given enough at the orphanage to get them by, but it certainly couldn't have been enough. Abby was definitely the runt of the litter! LOL We constantly see babies that are younger than her and are so much chunkier. I'm actually glad we are going to be going to see Dr. Lee (an international adoption doctor) very soon after we get home - I'm pretty freaked out that she hasn't gained that much weight. We were given an update in October that said she weighed 15.4 lbs., and a month later at the medical we just took her to, she had only gone up to 15.5 with clothes on. Please God, don't let her have parasites or something, although with the way things have been going with her, it will probably be our luck! Ugh! She is turning into such a happy baby - smiling so much more, bobs her head up and down, laughs. I just can't wait for you to meet her.

We had to spend the mornings in our room in case Guilan had an issue at the consulate, so my mom went out and shopped for a bit and I stayed in while Abby napped and straightened up. We try really hard, but our room is in a constant state of confusion - between the baby's stuff and all our stuff, and the stuff we keep buying, we are running out of room! LOL We went out this afternoon and bought an extra suitcase to bring home all our loot. Since we bought Abby a seat for the plane ride home, we are able to check an extra bag. Thank Goodness! When Guilan got back from the Consulate, she came to my room and said that there was a slight problem. For an instant, I almost had a heart attack because I was sure that it had something to do with Scott not being there or I needed something of his that I wouldn't be able to get quickly. Turns out I missed having one of my signatures notarized and we had to go to the consulate to have that done. Oh brother. I was so careful too, or so I thought, but what can you do. So I spent the afternoon at the American Consulate instead of shopping and sight seeing. Oh well - At least it kept me from buying Abby yet another outfit. LOL

Since Guilan is leaving tomorrow evening, we had our "farewell dinner" tonight. We went to a authentic - really authentic - Chinese restaurant since we were treating Guilan and this is one of her favorites. Unfortunately Kim's digital camera battery is pooping out, so I didn't get to take pictures of the restaurant to post (we only have ones of Abby tonight - I'm sure that's not a problem, right? LOL) There were snakes, turtles, water beetles (yup, you read that right!) I lost my appetite before we even sat down. Once we did, it got worse - there were pig intestines, pig lung (I'm ready to vomit while I type - hope none of you are eating breakfast) among other disgusting things on the menu. Somehow we ended up getting fried rice, broccoli, sweet and sour pork and some shrimp dish and we made it through. Have I mentioned that I hate Chinese food at this point? LOL We were hysterically laughing at dinner while our friend Nick mentioned that he saw a 3-legged dog outside the restaurant and we now refer to fried rice as fried lice. I think we're all a bit punchy and need to get home. All I want is a slice of Mike's pizza from home and I will be in heaven. The babies were all wonderful - we have a great group of little girls here - they are all so good, rarely cry and just sat and slurped their noodles. Abby's a pretty good noodle slurper - I know Aunt Jen will love that.

So, I'm going to end here for now. We want to try and get a handle on much of the packing tonight so we can go out and enjoy our last day in Guangzhou. I am going to miss China so much - I absolutely love it here. A part of my heart will stay, that's for sure. We leave the hotel every early on Wednesday am - I believe 5 am. So, I'll post one more time before we leave. It should take us about 24 hours from the time we leave until we land in Newark. Oh joy - but just knowing that Abby is going to meet her daddy, big brother, and all her family and friends that have been waiting will get me through. Can't wait - Evan - mommy loves you so much and I miss you and Daddy sooooooooo much. We'll be home soon. As always, blowing you kisses from China.

Love always, Kris/Mommy