Our Last Adventures in Shenyang

After most of the day relaxing and playing in the room, our guide came and brought us some notary documents to check.  I had her explain to Jia that Mike was going home the next day to be with her other sisters and that she, Rachel, and I were going to another city in China for one more week.  Jia responded, “OK.  I won’t cry, but I will miss him.”  Oh my word.  She’s precious.  (She’s been saying Baba a lot since he left.)

She doesn’t like us to be out of her sight at all.  When any of us is in the restroom, she will bang on the door and call our name.  Just making sure we’re still here.   

We went out to a bookstore.  (An awesome bookstore, I might add.)  Jia loved it.  Yay!  Just like her sisters.  They had books galore for every age.  My favorite one is a little hardcover pre-school book that has a drawing of a baby animal on one page and on the opposite page, you lift a piece of the book and there is the mommy and daddy animal.  She loved that.  We used it at bedtime and also read lots of things to her out of the Chinese translation book.  We all cuddled up and went through the book several times, reassuring her that we loved her and that we were a family and that she was special.  No tears last night.  She slept perfectly.  Thank you, Lord, for giving her peace and security.

We had yet another crazy squatty potty experience at the bookstore, but I’ll save all those stories for their own post, including the time I fell in one!  Ewww!!!!  (I’m scarred for life!)

Last night, we had a true Asian adventure.  We decided to get in a taxi and go visit an American friend I met online.  One might think that is completely bonkers, but we were totally up for it.  I had our guide write the address in Chinese so that I could give it to the cab driver.  (Whether the cab driver feels like taking you to that place is another story.)

Let me preface this by saying it was only about 10 degrees (or less) last night and I was the only one of us who wore long underwear.  Our guide had told me that there are two locations with the same name as these apartments, one was a University and one was the apartments and that I should make sure the driver takes us to the apartments, not the University.  Um…how would I even do that?

Oh well, I decided to take a chance anyway.  Our guide was correct and the driver dropped us off at the University gate.  Two police officers were standing there and I showed them the address.  He said all sorts of things to me in Chinese.  So I called my friend and her husband talked to the officer.  After several minutes, we realized that we were, indeed, quite far from the apartments.  Meanwhile, we’re all standing in the cold (it had to be below zero wind chill) and I was profusely apologizing for putting them through this.  Poor Rachel is still not feeling well either.  Jia was doing fine as long as daddy was bouncing around with her. 

The very kind police officer hailed another cab for us.  (He wouldn’t let me try.  He pointed to his hat and grunted.  Haha.  He knew they’d stop if he flagged them down.)  Back into a warm vehicle, we went another 20 minutes through crazy rush hour traffic.  No deaths or crashes to report, but about 40 near misses.  It took the driver a while to find the right building, but we eventually made it.  Yay!  All this time (an hour or so), Jia was such a trooper.  

She didn’t really enjoy the visit though.  She was confused and uncomfortable and wanted to leave.  She ate little bites here and there, but didn’t sit at the table with us.  She finally started crying at what should have been bed time and we gathered up and left.

We had a delightful time chatting with our new friends.  We loved hearing about their experiences in China and learning more about Jia’s hometown.  They served the best Chinese food I’ve had yet.  It’s called bing and it’s little thin pancakes that are used to wrap all sorts of different fillings.  So. Delicious. 

Thank you so much, Paul, Sandy, and Elizabeth for your hospitality!  You are so kind and generous.  We loved spending the evening with you.  Paul, thank you for waiting out in the cold for our taxi to finally arrive. 

We are missing Alli and Erin terribly.  We Skype as often as we can, but we can’t wait to get back to them.  Not much longer, girls.

Here are a few pics of today.

I can’t find the book store pictures. 

Bing

Jia was very interested in their foster son, but she was ready to leave.

Happy back in the room with her red dress on. 

A girl who worked in the restaurant really liked Rachel.  They had several conversations this week.  The girl, Abby, brought Rachel a gift.  So sweet!  And Rachel put together a gift for her too. 

See you next in Guangzhou.  Looking forward to the slow pace!