Back in Hong Kong!!!!

Who knew that getting to Hong Kong would be such a relief. It is good in so many ways. The biggest, of course, is that we are almost home. Also, English is common here, I can post to the blog myself, we can read all of the comments, we are familiar with the area, the food is better... I could go on.

We are very thankful that we had time to spend in Olivia's homeland, and we are now very thankful that we are almost home. It has been a grueling two weeks, feeling like we have been going non-stop for the entire time. I have lots of thoughts about the whole experience, but right now, I am really too tired to be coherant about it all. Suffice it to say that everyone in our travel group (except Josh!) is more than ready to be home.

As for the last couple days, Tuesday morning, we went to a temple to have Olivia blessed by a Buddhist monk. It was really neat. Michael, Candi, Josh, Caleb, Zoie, Olivia and I went into the temple, took off our shoes and knelt on the floor while the monk hit on a drum like thing and we offered our wishes for the babies. Afterwards, Michael visited with Mandy, one of our guides while some of the group climbed to the top a tower.


After returning to the hotel, I ran laundry over to the island while Michael got Olivia fed and napping. We then left for the US Consulate at 2:45. The extremely uncermonious ceremony took place, we got our documents and instructions and left. Back to the hotel to change, then to the White Swan for the infamous red couch pictures. Three tired, hot babies trying to pose for pictures!


After pictures, our entire group went for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We were the only non-Asian people in the place. On the way in, there were lots of things to eat swimming and crawling about. Fortunately, when we walked to our table, Mandy and Echo (our guides) were at the next table. Echo helped us with ordering. Everything was good! I had to not look on the way out!

One of the best parts of our trip was getting to visit with Dong, his niece and nephew, at Susan's Place on Shamain Island. He and his neice staff his store around 14 hours a day and for a small place, he has an amazing amount of stuff. We visited with him every day that we were in Guangzhou, he had our laundry done, and generally made the trip extremely pleasant. I will miss seeing him, but am glad to have met him. We did a lot of shopping in his little store, and I would highly recommend it to others, he is a very kind, fun person. And all you who Olivia will call Grandma and Grandpa - wait till you see what we got from him for you!!!



After saying good-bye to Dong (and some last minute shopping!!!) we headed back to the hotel. Olivia was asleep before we made it to the bridge. She slept while Michael and I packed. This morning, we were out of the hotel room by 8:45. We took a train to Hong Kong and got back to the Holiday Inn Golden Mile a little before two. By the time we got here, Olivia was tired, hungry and wet. We had a cranky baby on our hands. I changed her before we got the bags to the room, then food, then a bottle, then more food when room service arrived. She is now sleeping comfortably on the bed. I hope she stays that way for a couple hours because she really needs a good nap.

This will most likely be our last post while on the trip, although I may try to add a few more photos later. Pray for us on the flight home.