Last Day in Beijing

Tomorrow we all leave Beijing.  Mike has to be in the lobby at 4am to meet his car to the airport.  Erin, Jinny, and I leave in the afternoon, once we receive Jinny’s passport.  We are ready for the slower pace of Guangzhou.  Beijing has been fun, but we’re ready to go. 

Jinny has been doing well.  She’s sweet and giggly.  When she gets tired though, watch out.  She is WILD.  I discovered today that she thinks it’s great fun to scream at the top of her lungs in the public restrooms at the mall. (Did I mention she has an extremely high pitched voice?)  It does make a nice echo, but my ears are still ringing!  While we never really had to use the word “no” with Jia, it is free flowing with Jinny.  Being that she has no idea how to act in a family, it’s not surprising.  Jia had been in a foster family for three years.  She had better manners than me!  She was very proper, even refusing to go into a squatty potty that was slightly dirty.  She was never disobedient while we were in China.

Well, Jinny’s attitude is more like, “Woohoo, I have a family.  I can do whatever I want.  This is great!”  So, we need teach her the very basics of being in a family.  It’s a delicate balance though, trying to get her to obey while she’s still not deeply attached to us.  I’m praying for wisdom in just how to do that. 

And, she WILL be napping from now on.  She’s been sleeping very well at night, so we’re adding naps back.  Hopefully, that will help taper off the afternoon wild child episodes.  It really wouldn’t be so bad if she would let Mike carry her around, but I almost feel like a single parent, as she won’t let Mike do anything major.  It got better after their trip out together, but she’s mostly shunning him again.  It was a big deal when she let him zip her coat after lunch.

Erin is at the Great Wall again today.  Without us!  Another family from our agency is staying here at the hotel.  We had dinner here last night, and they mentioned they were doing the tour today.  Erin asked if she could go back.  Well, my first instinct was to say, “Are you kidding me?  I’m not letting you out of my sight.  Don’t you know we’re in a foreign country?”  But, we thought it over and knew that she’d be with this family, their two kids, and the guide hired by our agency.   And off she went this morning.  I can’t wait to hear how she liked it and what the difference was between the expensive agency sponsored tour and our very inexpensive bus-full-of-youth-hostel-kids tour. 

Pictures coming soon!