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Today is an important day because we are going to the US Consulate for Alice's Oath Ceremony. They will give us her visa tomorrow and we will go home on Friday! The last couple of days we wandered about Guangzhou, even walking over the foot bridge that goes over the Pearl River and discovered a Buddhist Temple where the ancestors were honored. It was a very serene place among the trees, with incense burning, people meditating, monks wandering about and it was very touching to see all the plaques, each with a photo or picture of a long ago relative or a baby that may have been lost. There were rooms and rooms of them, filled from top to bottom, each row labeled by year.
One of the photos I'm attaching is of a statue of Guanyin - the Chinese Buddhist version of who we refer to as Mary. The Goddess or Mother of Mercy, and of Motherhood... I asked one of the sweepers near the temple, and she pointed at the statue. I brought Alice over to see, and thanked Guanyin for this daughter of China. I know some Christians might think that is sacrilege, but I believe God will understand why I found it important in that moment to do so. I wanted Guanyin's blessing as well as our God's blessing, because it is such a long long way home and I don't know who her original family worshipped. Perhaps they will now know that Alice is safe.
Yesterday we came across a gallery owned by a teacher who helps and advocates for orphaned children with special needs. We found out that the orphanage he mainly works with is sponsored by a church in Oregon, and he has bought many materials to help the kids and teaches them how to paint and carve so they can make a living when they are too old to be in the orphanage. The stories and the pictures he showed us were amazing. I'll have to link to his website later because I can't seem to find his card right now. Anyway, after thinking it over last night we decided to buy one of his paintings on canvas. He does beautiful work and so do his students. He was very neat guy to talk to.
Alice has been doing well the last couple of days. She is a very happy girl in the morning, and was even in a joyful mood when we talked to my parents and the kids on Skype this morning after breakfast. We have been doing a lot of walking with her since she seems to like that a lot. I'm not really looking forward to the 40 minute car ride we have to take this afternoon. In the afternoons she seems to need a nap, but won't take one unless she falls asleep while we are walking around outside. Hopefully we can get her to take one at home where we can actually leave the room and still hear her. This makes for very cranky evenings, and last night she was in survival mode again... I rocked her and she and I cried together for all that was. These times are so difficult, but I know she must still be heartbroken to leave her Yangchun family behind. Last night, we met up with another family that will go to the orphanage. We had to make the hard decision not to go because it is a 4-hour drive and would just be too much for all of us. Thankfully Rebecca and her husband will take our small suitcase of gifts for the orphans and pick up Alice's book which Sandra still has for safekeeping. I am so very thankful that we don't have to try and find a way to mail all those lovely little sweaters.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Guangzhou and I'm sure we will be busy rushing around to our favorite shops to buy gifts to bring home and will begin packing everything up. Tonight we are meeting up again with our internet friends, Nina and Brian from Minnesota, for dinner at the Thai place. There are so many adoptive parents that come and stay here on the island, and we've been getting to know many of them. Most of us don't remember each other's names so we refer to each other by where we are from - "Hey, New York!" "Oh, there goes Boston..." "Did you see Texas downstairs? Their little one looks like she's doing better." And so on. It's nice to have so many people around who know exactly how we feel and what we are going through. I know a lot people think two weeks is too long for all this processing to be done, but I think it has been good to have this time just with Alice in this special place with all these newly matched families. I think it would have been much harder, especially for her, to go directly home with us. That being said, I can't wait to be back.
