Hadley went for the prepster look today in her polo and sweater. It suited her well and she received numerous comments about how cute she looked. She was sort of embarrassed by all the positive attention.
After breakfast we met the four other families in our group and our guide to head to the the pearl and jade market. It is a five story building full of wholesale jewelry, but with the majority being pearls and jade. Thank goodness for our knowledgeable guide Aron who knew just where to take us. I purchased a pearl necklace for each of the girls to have on their wedding day and a bracelet for them to have in the next few years whenever they grow into it. They are tiny and so cute! I also got myself a necklace and some earrings. They are all real salt-water pearls and are beautiful and were very reasonably priced. You got to choose the strand you wanted and they strung your necklace while you waited. It was amazing to see how quickly these women could string pearls and how pretty they all turned out. I can't wait to wear mine. Unfortunately so many of us bought so many items we used up the majority of our time and had to leave before checking out the jade.
This is just one wall of the pearl store. There were even more than what is in the picture.
It was overwhelming to make a decision. So many pearls to choose from!
From there we continued on to the Chen Family Temple which was build in the late 1800's and was made entirely of brick and wood. It was beautiful and the first historic Chinese building we were able to see. Who knew you could come to China and be here a week before ever seeing any old Chinese temples or landmarks? Apparently we have been in the wrong cities for sight seeing.
In front of the Chen Family Temple
This guy protects the temple and keeps the evil spirits out.
In the Chen family temple there is an old man who does calligraphy on beautiful scrolls. We had a scroll made that has the characters for Family, Love and Sisters and our three girls names and birthdays written in Chinese. It turned out really neat and I am excited to get it home and find the perfect spot to display it.
Old man writing on our scroll: Family, Love and Sisters
We also got each of the girls a chop which is a Chinese stamp that has the girls Chinese zodiac carved on top and their name in Chinese on the bottom. You get a red ink pad with it and can stamp your name in red ink. Our girls zodiac animals are a tiger, a rabbit and a dragon. Our guide told us those are three very strong animals and that means we have three strong girls. That is definitely true! We spend some time touring the temple and hanging out waiting for all of the families to make their purchases. Some of the other mother's and I were sitting in the courtyard area feeding the babies snacks and getting them out of the carriers to stretch their legs. There was a women who had a young son that was lingering unusually close, staring at us. She watched all of us for about 10-15 minutes. I went back in the shop to check on our scrolls and came back out awhile later and she was still there staring at us. We gathered the group out front when it was time to leave and stopped to make sure we were all there before heading to our bus. Wouldn't you know this woman was still there standing in the middle of our group of 15-20 people. It was so odd and I can't figure out what she was doing. I wish people would just stop and ask if there is something they want to know. 99% of adoptive parents I know are happy to talk about adoption and answer questions if someone is asking in a polite way to educate themselves rather than just being nosey and rude. I really regret not taking a picture of her. People here will blatantly take pictures of us a couple of feet from our faces so I totally could have gotten away with taking her picture. I sure regret that missed opportunity to share with you all.
We headed back to the hotel and were all worn out and starving. I headed to the room to feed Hadley and put her down for a nap and Aaron went to pick us up some lunch. We heard from another family in the group about a tasty takeout restaurant. They said they had a picture menu with a little English on it so it sounded like a winner to us. They recommended the beef fried rice. We can only go places with picture menus or else we would have absolutely no idea what we were ordering. Aaron headed to the restaurant and had a bit of trouble finding it. He was told what the name of the place was but when he got to where he thought he was supposed to be all of the building's signs were in Chinese. He picked one and headed in and pointed at a picture of what he thought was beef fried rice. (Side note: another mom told me she saw a menu item listed as MICED beef and rice. Clearly an important letter was missing from that item's name. She decided to pass on the mice beef). Anyway, Aaron mumbled beef fried rice and the lady said, "NO!" He pointed to the picture and the lady said, "NO!" Apparently they were out or she didn't want him to have any so he ordered some dumpling soup and two chicken dishes. He walked back into our room a while later and prefaced his delivery with, "I think I need to go get McDonalds instead." That is not what I wanted to hear. I opened the soup and it had noodles and dumplings. It looked good so I had a bite of the noodles. Not bad. Then I cut open a dumpling to try to identify what meat was inside and it was bright pink. Aaron tried to convince me that it might be ham. I was not convinced it was a ham dumpling and decided it was not safe to eat. I am horribly paranoid we are going to get sick from the food or water. We are not drinking the water, the ice, eating any fresh fruit or uncooked veggies, salads, or using the water to brush our teeth. A lot of other people in our group are eating the ice as well as fresh fruit and brushing their teeth with the water. I am disgusted at the thought and not taking that risk. Several other people in our group have been sick and we have not (knock on wood) so my paranoia is paying off in our advantage. Aaron accidentally rinsed his toothbrush in the sink the other day and I insisted he put it in boiling bottled water to disinfect it. I will not feed Hadley any of the fruit or the water either. Aaron explained that she has had her bottles made with this water for the last 16 months and can obviously drink it but I am not convinced and am only giving her bottled water as well.
We continued on with our lunch and opened the two chicken dishes. When I saw them I had to turn away in disgust and shield my face. There was still skin and parts of the chicken that we do not see in our meals or even on chicken in the grocery store. I couldn't bring myself to eat it. I felt like it was still sort of alive. Aaron had a few bites but then I made him paranoid and he headed to McDonalds instead. I swear to you that in the last year I have not eaten McDonalds 3 times. Well, in the past three days I have eaten McDonalds three times so I have hit my quota for the rest of the year. I am so ready to be home and eating real food again. My first meal in the Chicago airport will consist of a salad, a bowl of fruit, a McDonalds coke WITH ice and I will wash it all down with a big drink from the water fountain.
We had an afternoon walk to the grocery store where we wanted to pick up some food for Hadley. We left with a $6 bag pack of Goldfish and a little prepackaged container of pears and peaches. I had to pass on the baby food pouches because they were $5 a pouch. I thought they were steep at home at $1.50 each and will only buy them when they are on sale for $1. We did leave with about $50 worth of Chinese New Year decorations which I am so excited to have. CNY starts in a few weeks and we plan on celebrating it every year from now on.
The highlight of the day was dinner at Tequilas, which is the Mexican restaurant near the hotel. Yes, they have a Mexican restaurant here, in addition to the Irish pub and the Italian and German restaurants. They are all within walking distance of our hotel so who knows where we may end up tomorrow night. We met about eight other moms and their newly adopted kids and their families who I know through one of my adoption Facebook groups. We had a huge group and had a lot of fun sharing our stories and experiences. We sat next to a couple and their little girl Mayleigh, who is 19 months old. Poor Mayleigh was sick with a fever when they got her on Monday and is really having a hard time adjusting. She didn't eat for several days because she was so sick and they had to take her to the hospital once and back to the doctor again this week. She is a precious little girl and she and her family could use everyone's prayers. They are struggling here and missing their other kids back home. We are all struggling and torn between enjoying our time here and cherishing the one-on-one time with our new kids and wanting to be back home. Everyone is very homesick and we are all ready to get out of here. As much as I am dreading the 3+ hour van ride to Hong Kong followed by the 15 hour flight , then the 4 hour layover and the final hour flight, Thursday morning can't come soon enough! I can't wait to get my arms around my sweet girlies and let them meet their baby sister.
Fellow Louisvillian Stephanie and her new daughter Abby
Off to bed to rest up for our busy day trip to the zoo. I hope I see one of those dogs that has been groomed to look like a lion like you have seen in the news recently. If you haven't seen it, Google it. Apparently people felt cheated that they were trying to pass off a dog as a lion when they visited a Chinese zoo, but I think it sounds awesome! Can you imagine you are looking at the lion and it starts barking? That would be hilarious. I can see a lion at our zoo anytime, but a dog lion that is something I have not seen before!
Good night from China.
No comments:
Post a Comment