We just arrived in Hong Kong. We are checked into the hotel. Lila is supposed to be napping but she appears to be wide awake. It's about 3:30 pm and we haven't eaten since breakfast so we had a Toblerone from the mini-bar. Lila is a chocaholic in training. We all know I already am...
The train ride was an adventure. We had to drag all our luggage up 2 escalators, through chinese immigration, down an escalator, onto the train, and then into the overhead luggage racks. It was a lot of work! Other than that the ride was interesting. I expected more countryside than city between Guangzhou and HK. There was a small section that was rural but not much. The train went close to 100 mph so it was only a 2 hour ride. Hong Kong is just what I expected. It is a beautiful modern city fabulous views of the mountains and harbor surrounded by lush greenery.
Yesterday we went to the American Consulate in Guangzhou. Lila received her visa to travel to the USA. She will become a citizen as soon as her immigration paperwork is stamped in Chicago. It was a very emotional moment for me (all of us) when the consulate employee announced that this was the last step in our adoption. Our little girl is OURS. She has stolen both our hearts and has a big sister waiting to love just as much. She is amazingly happy. Just 10 days have changed her from a shy, scared, little girl to a silly, laughing, ticklish imp. I'm watching her now play with the remote and trying as hard as she can to NOT give it back to Daddy. Those huge brown eyes are sparkly with mischief and silliness! The lines of chinese citizens lined up to try to become US citizens made me realize how lucky we are to be born into it, how lucky Lila is to be adopted into it, and how hard it is for them to go through the process.
The three of us returned to Shamian Island last night to pick up the chops I ordered for the girls, buy a few more gifts, and have a final dinner together in China. We had American food but it was really a good meal. The food in Guangzhou was much more what we consider Chinese back home. The dishes were much milder than in Chongqing with sauces such as sweet-and-sour and barbecue versus the spicy szechuan and kungpao sauces. The shop we went to last night was my favorite, Craft and Artist shop. I bought most of the things I wanted from China there, tea set, dresses for the girls, a blouse for me, bracelets for gifts, assorted silk gifts, chops (the chops are a stamp with the girls english and chinese names, these are commonly used in China for stamping documents instead of signing), tea, teapots, squeaky shoes, chinese zodiac figures, cloissone Christmas ornaments, and t-shirts, basically if you wanted it, they had it and they were really nice, bargained well, and gave me lots of free stuff too! If you're going soon, you need to stop there. They will give you the price of $8.00 per pair of squeakies which was about the best anyone could find. They are across the street from Starbucks, right on the corner.
We did have to buy another suitcase to get all the souvenirs home. The suitcase is also a souvenir for Hillary since she'll need it soon for college.
Tuesday we had breakfast then had to stay in our rooms from 10:00 to 11:30. Elsie and Simon took our paperwork to the consulate, we had to be in our rooms in case they had any questions. The last group from CHI had 4 people who did not have the correct information to obtain their child's visa. We only had 1 close call but it was a consulate error that they caught so our little Jadyn was able to leave with the rest of us. We went to the island with Jenny and Anna on the subway. It was fun, it had been a while since any of us had been on a subway so we had fun swapping stories about our previous rides. It was very clean and very safe. We shopped a little and then returned to the hotel in time for Jenny and Anna to go on the river cruise. We decided not to go. Those that did go, wished they hadn't. The food was horrible but the views of Guangzhou were beautiful. We ordered Papa John's which Lila LOVED! She also made skipping the cruise very worthwhile. She was laughing and laughing while we tickled her. It was the most beautiful sound I had heard in a long time. I can't wait to get home and hear both my little ones' silly, happy, laughter.
Grace had a birthday party Monday. She, Emma, and Steph had a blast being princesses for a day to celebrate Emma turning 5! The only problem was that Emma had just come down with foot and mouth disease but her mom didn't know. She now has it so has to miss the first 2 days of Kindergarten. I'm not too upset about it since I can now take her for her first day on Monday. It's far more important for her to be healthy and not risk it spreading to the other kids than to be there for that first day. So my Boo-Boo is sick and I'm not there to take care of her. I really really want to go home.
I don't remember when I journaled last. I think I'm caught up. I truly at this point don't remember what we did Monday without looking at the schedule. The past few days have been a whirlwind!
The train ride was an adventure. We had to drag all our luggage up 2 escalators, through chinese immigration, down an escalator, onto the train, and then into the overhead luggage racks. It was a lot of work! Other than that the ride was interesting. I expected more countryside than city between Guangzhou and HK. There was a small section that was rural but not much. The train went close to 100 mph so it was only a 2 hour ride. Hong Kong is just what I expected. It is a beautiful modern city fabulous views of the mountains and harbor surrounded by lush greenery.
Yesterday we went to the American Consulate in Guangzhou. Lila received her visa to travel to the USA. She will become a citizen as soon as her immigration paperwork is stamped in Chicago. It was a very emotional moment for me (all of us) when the consulate employee announced that this was the last step in our adoption. Our little girl is OURS. She has stolen both our hearts and has a big sister waiting to love just as much. She is amazingly happy. Just 10 days have changed her from a shy, scared, little girl to a silly, laughing, ticklish imp. I'm watching her now play with the remote and trying as hard as she can to NOT give it back to Daddy. Those huge brown eyes are sparkly with mischief and silliness! The lines of chinese citizens lined up to try to become US citizens made me realize how lucky we are to be born into it, how lucky Lila is to be adopted into it, and how hard it is for them to go through the process.
The three of us returned to Shamian Island last night to pick up the chops I ordered for the girls, buy a few more gifts, and have a final dinner together in China. We had American food but it was really a good meal. The food in Guangzhou was much more what we consider Chinese back home. The dishes were much milder than in Chongqing with sauces such as sweet-and-sour and barbecue versus the spicy szechuan and kungpao sauces. The shop we went to last night was my favorite, Craft and Artist shop. I bought most of the things I wanted from China there, tea set, dresses for the girls, a blouse for me, bracelets for gifts, assorted silk gifts, chops (the chops are a stamp with the girls english and chinese names, these are commonly used in China for stamping documents instead of signing), tea, teapots, squeaky shoes, chinese zodiac figures, cloissone Christmas ornaments, and t-shirts, basically if you wanted it, they had it and they were really nice, bargained well, and gave me lots of free stuff too! If you're going soon, you need to stop there. They will give you the price of $8.00 per pair of squeakies which was about the best anyone could find. They are across the street from Starbucks, right on the corner.
We did have to buy another suitcase to get all the souvenirs home. The suitcase is also a souvenir for Hillary since she'll need it soon for college.
Tuesday we had breakfast then had to stay in our rooms from 10:00 to 11:30. Elsie and Simon took our paperwork to the consulate, we had to be in our rooms in case they had any questions. The last group from CHI had 4 people who did not have the correct information to obtain their child's visa. We only had 1 close call but it was a consulate error that they caught so our little Jadyn was able to leave with the rest of us. We went to the island with Jenny and Anna on the subway. It was fun, it had been a while since any of us had been on a subway so we had fun swapping stories about our previous rides. It was very clean and very safe. We shopped a little and then returned to the hotel in time for Jenny and Anna to go on the river cruise. We decided not to go. Those that did go, wished they hadn't. The food was horrible but the views of Guangzhou were beautiful. We ordered Papa John's which Lila LOVED! She also made skipping the cruise very worthwhile. She was laughing and laughing while we tickled her. It was the most beautiful sound I had heard in a long time. I can't wait to get home and hear both my little ones' silly, happy, laughter.
Grace had a birthday party Monday. She, Emma, and Steph had a blast being princesses for a day to celebrate Emma turning 5! The only problem was that Emma had just come down with foot and mouth disease but her mom didn't know. She now has it so has to miss the first 2 days of Kindergarten. I'm not too upset about it since I can now take her for her first day on Monday. It's far more important for her to be healthy and not risk it spreading to the other kids than to be there for that first day. So my Boo-Boo is sick and I'm not there to take care of her. I really really want to go home.
I don't remember when I journaled last. I think I'm caught up. I truly at this point don't remember what we did Monday without looking at the schedule. The past few days have been a whirlwind!
The map shows our train route from Guangzhou to Kowloon.
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