Last Post from China

I cannot believe our time in China is already up.  I am so not ready to leave.  We have had an amazing time here.  If you dare to read on, brace yourself for lots of pictures and commentary below.

 To be fair to the hundreds of (hilarious and sweet) emails and FB messages I've received detailing your breakfast experiences, here's what I've had for breakfast everyday here in GZ.  Dim sum, steamed veggies and fruit.  It's not Beef Noodle Soup, but it'll do.

Our beautiful breakfast setting

Gianna, Evie and I were really sick yesterday (like in bed all day, missed hugging our travel group goodbye sick!--SO bummed!), but we are all feeling sort of better today.  So we forced ourselves out of bed to spend our last day in Guangzhou in one of the best places: The Chimelong Safari Park.  I know some adoptive families traveling soon are following this blog, so I definitely recommend this park.  It's a little pricey for China at about $45 USD per adult and $25 USD per child, but it's so worth it.  It was the best zoo I've ever been to.  It was amazing how close we were able to get to the animals.  The girls loved it.

They even had dinosaurs!

Many animals were roaming around free, like these lemurs. 

And this owl spying us from an above branch.  SO cool.

And these peacocks.  And this trouble making primate splashing water on us.

Thankfully, this white tiger was behind glass.

Next we visited the nursery, full of baby animals.

This baby chimp was HILARIOUS!  And I think he knew it.

The girls got to feed a baby white tiger.  (For families going after us, this is in the Animal Kindergarten house.  If another family hadn't told us, we probably would've have found it.)

The giraffes were hungry too. 

Mommy and Baby koala snuggling.



Evie spotted this shirt in the US a while ago and had to have it.  She's waited her whole life, or at least 3 weeks, to wear it to see "real pandas in real China".  If you can't see it, it's a shirt with a panda on the front.

We had lunch with them (see pandas munching bamboo in background).

 This elephant was trained to spray water on the crowd in exchange for a banana. 

Thirsty?  I have a drink for you.  Is it just me or is this wrong?

The grounds of the zoo are amazing.

 I'm so proud of these girls.  Before we left, we had a talk about how this trip would be hard, but was a privilege.  There would be a lot of running around.  There would be a lot of waiting around.  There would be some unpleasant moments.  But we talked about how important it would be to have patience, use good manners and represent Americans in a positive way.  Our trip would be fun, but the most important reason we were here was for Tallulah.  So our most important job was to make her feel welcome into our family.  I think they nailed it.

My Favorite Quartet

 

Sickness, plywood beds, peepee smelling showers and mini-bus collisions aside, we've had the best time here. We got to see and experience things here that we could never replicate in the US.  It was truly a once in a lifetime experience, and I'm sooo grateful that we were able to spend the whole time together.  The weather was great (considering what we've experienced before on other adoption trips: -30 in Kaz to 100F plus humidity in China last time).  The food was not only delicious, but appeared magically every time we were hungry.  The beds got made and the carpet got vacuumed while we were out.  The laundry man knocked at the door everyday at 3pm. 

Best of all, we got what we came here to get.  She is more than we hoped for and her transition is FAR better than we could've ever expected.  Her sisters all absolutely love her and the feeling is mutual.  I'm SO thankful we took the leap for number 4.  My heart is filled with humility and gratitude that we have this little girl in our lives forever.

With smiles and tears, goodnight and goodbye, China.  Thank you, yet again, for one of the most beautiful gifts this world has to offer.  We will treasure her always.