First day in Guangzhou

Morning:

What else can I say about the morning other than, China has BACON!!!

The Garden Hotel hosts an enormous Breakfast Buffet included in your stay every day.  It was very good and had many different kinds of food to choose from. Yummy Donuts, Duck Breast, Chicken Teriyaki with steamed rice, omelets, waffles, toast, cereals just to name a few. Everything I tried was very good.

So my morning started by forcing myself to wake up at around 7:00. After going to bed at 2:30 waking up was difficult. I got up, went downstairs and enjoyed breakfast. At 9:30 I met with the rest of the All God’s Children’s families that are here this week. They consist of 3 other families adopting from Washington State, Circleville, Ohio, and LA. I will spend some time with them throughout this week.


Once we all assembled we left for a tour of the Guangdong Folk Art Museum. It was a very interesting place.

Many intricately developed sculptures. The men would traditionally carve things out of ivory, or wood. Some would even scribe stories onto a single grain of rice!

The women on the other hand would use embroidery and create some beautiful pictures by hand. Jack indicated that it was considered a woman was not worth marrying if she did not know how to embroider. I told him that being a dad, I would hope that my girls never learn to embroider.  He laughed and said, embroidery is not important anymore. The women changed from embroidery to computer typing. If she doesn’t know computer, she no good. J

 

We left the museum and went to a park in the center of the city. Many people were there playing, exercising, socializing and staring at us as we walked by. I had the cutest little girl come up to me at the park and smile and wave. I waved back and she just stood there patently waiting on me. I then realized she wanted me to take her picture. Once I did, she smiled and ran back off to her mother.





Another cutie kept blowing me kisses over her dad’s shoulder as we walked behind her. As I got the camera out, she became shy and stopped. J

The park was beautiful and so was the weather. We returned from our activities of the morning around 1:30. I felt so bad for the little kiddos in our group. Every one of them was having a meltdown. They were just too tired and stressed from the week. 



As the culture goes, it is amazing to see how people transport themselves and their livelyhoods. You see Bentley's parked next to Bicycles. Bicycles parked next to motorized dolly carts. This man was selling Cotton candy out of the back of his bike. I thought about getting some until I found Chinese Mt. Dew! And Yes Chinese Mountain Dew really is that color but tastes pretty close to the original.

Afternoon:

This afternoon I found out about all the things I should have packed but didn’t.  Like a backpack and small containers for snacks. I anticipated a lot of walking, but it never occurred to me I might want something to carry snacks, drinks, extra clothes, wipes, bug spray, Sunscreen, etc. for Camellia. However, having the backpack wouldn’t have helped too much as I also forgot half of the items in the above list trying to stay under the baggage weight limit of 50 pounds.

My guide, Jack, recommended that I not take a nap today and push through until bedtime so my clock will be adjusted to China time by tomorrow. Let’s hope that works. So I went for a nice long walk, found a small grocery store and bought drinks, and snacks for Camellia.


Evening:
After still being full from my large breakfast, I simply skipped lunch all together. So I went out on an expedition for dinner to find some new and exciting food. All of the younger chinese people were friendly and helpful. Many came up to me simply to say hi! One young woman stopped me to have me fill out a survey for her school. She was SO excited that I said yes, she gave me 2 "Christmas ornaments" as she called them. The people are great so far. However, I think the Chinese people are misunderstanding me.
 When I ask any of them where to get good food, everyone kept pointing me to the KFC and Chinese Fazoli's. Although it is finger lickin good, I was looking for more authentic Chinese cuisine. So I circled the block near the KFC and eventually settled in on this little restaurant that had a picture menu. When I ordered, the lady asked, You want that? I nodded. minutes later out came just 2 chicken wings. I thanked her and left her puzzled. She must have realized that 2 wings were not going to be enough for a growing boy like me. After doing the conversion of money in my head, the two wings cost me $1.20. I decided I needed something else to go with my 2 piece main course. I stumbled into a bakery and bought what looked like a small baguette. Both the wings and the baguette were splended.


As the sun sets over Guangzhou I become more and more excited to meet Camellia tomorrow. The anticipation became especially painful today as I spent a good portion of the day with the three other adoptive families who received their children last week. Below is a picture of the group from All God's Children. In one trip, this group will change and ultimately save the lives of 4 children. I can't imagine what God has planned for us next.

It won't be long now before Camellia is in my arms! I meet her for the first time tomorrow at 2:30pm. Please continue to pray for all of us so that the rest of the process goes smoothly. It will be hard on Nicki and the kids having to wait an additional 2 weeks before they can get to meet her. So continue to pray for them and also that Camellia and I take these two weeks to really bond and not just rush through all the events of the week.

Tomorrow my life changes forever....