One Full Day Left....WE CAN DO IT!!

Today we did very little! Our American friends left this morning, so we ate breakfast with them and then waited for my Chinese friend, Pam, to get to Guangzhou. We napped, Luyana napped, we played, we ate junk food. It was basically wonderful. Then Pam arrived and we had dinner with her, her husband, and their adorable daughter. I met Pam 12 years ago (yikes) when I was teaching in Beijing. It seems impossible that it was that long ago! Her daughter is 19 months old, Luyana is 27 months old, so you can see what a peanut Luyana is!

 

All of us at dinner:

 

Trying to get a picture of the girls together. I bet you can't tell we're trying to lean out of the picture. Also, I love the mushroom hanging out of Luyana's mouth.

 

Back at the hotel, we put Luyana to sleep and I looked out the window into people's apartments (total creeper, I know) and watched the world go by from 12 stories up. One more full day in China. As I'm nearing the end of my 5th trip to China, I'm wondering the same thing I always do...will I ever come back? While being here is not always easy, a part of me feels like it's home. The smells, even the not-so-good smells, are comforting. The noise of car horns and traditional Chinese music and people chattering drifting through the window is one of my favorite sounds to fall asleep to. And now we are forever connected to this place in an even deeper and richer sense as it is our daughter's homeland. Somewhere in this huge country she has a birth mother and a birth father who may be thinking about her right now, not realizing she is about to get on a plane and go to her new home in America. I wish I could tell them how much we will love her and how well we will take care of her. I wish we could assure them that everything will be ok. Maybe someday we will, maybe not. But I hope, at least, that that this is not our last trip.

 

But don't go thinking we're going to adopt again...I'm thinking some great leisurely trip where everything is easy and everyone is happy and we shop and eat and tour and enjoy. That's all I can think about now anyway :)