Monday, February 28, 2011

Friday, Feb 18 FLIGHT TO GUANGZHOU

Friday- Today we flew from Lanzhou to Xian then from Xian to Guangzhou. So we went from almost the very top of China to the very bottom. Lily sat by Daddy. She was timid and scared. She did great though. She handles her fears very bravely. Hope did great. Easy easy. She did have a crying spell but Daddy leaned her head against the plane and she calmed down. Hope likes to put her head up against things. I think she uses her head the way we use our hands to feel something. I remember seeing the babies her age in the cribs in the orphanage. It seems they all did kind of the same things. They rock on their hands and knees, lean their head continually up against the side of the crib, and they say the same thing over and over again and play with their hands. Its all they’ve got. Their hands. Hope is one talented kid with her fingers. She can cross both her index and middle finger over each other while crossing her pinky and ring finger over each other. And she looks at her other hand and can do the exact same thing! She tells us she has had a lot of time practicing these tricks and that all the kids in the big O (orphanage) try really hard to learn tricks to impress their parents!

Right now Hope cannot be comforted by us. When she gets really tired she wants in her crib by herself. She sucks her thumb and says Ya ya ya ya ya over and over. In fact when she says that we know she is tired. I look forward to the day when she wants me to comfort her and I hope it comes before our long flight home!

She holds her bottle all by herself although I hold her when she’s eating. I sing the same song over and over so she will bond with me. She is starting to look at me a lot. It’s as if she says, Hmmm, it’s still you. She has the blackest eyes I’ve ever seen. They stare at me like we knew each other a long time ago and she’s trying to place where!

We checked into the Holiday Inn Shifu in Guangzhou. It is fabulous. Better than the nice hotel in Lanzhou even. I am grateful for America World selecting such nice hotels because we are in our room a lot. Especially since the weather is cold. And we have said over and over again that the clean nice big rooms have helped to make this trip enjoyable. For instance, our bathrooms are nice. But if you go to a bathroom anywhere outside the hotel you cannot count on it being clean or having a toilet. It’s amazing to me…as if the Chinese people don’t care about bathrooms. Even our guide in Lanzhou would tell us where good toilets were. He would say this restaurant has good food but the bathroom is not in good condition. You kind of just have to look the other way and pray that your food is sanctified and doesn’t make you sick when the bathroom is yards away from the kitchen and is dreadful. Smelly, stinking, and pee on the floor. I know it’s gross, but anyone who has been to China knows its just part of being here. And don’t forget your own toilet paper!

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