A Home Update

Greetings!

Since I have been so lousey about keeping up with the updates since we have been home, I will try to fill you in on the past week or so.

Back up to Monday of last week. This was our scheduled date at the Consulate. Fortunately, our guide took all of the paperwork there for us, so we could avoid the 40 minute bus trip (for those of you who thought the Consulate was right around the corner from the White Swan, it has since moved). SO, we had another free day in Guangzhou. Of course, we spent this day exploring, which was just great. After dinner in a restaurant that featured such tempting menu items as "screw powder" and "ramped pasta" (I would have given my right arm for a copy of that menu), we also discovered, via one of our Shanghai crew couples, another market. This required, of course, venturing off of the island. It was awesome! The shops were closing up, so we had to rush through (hence the rather blurry pictures), but it was quite a slice of life that we will never forget.

Dried Mushrooms at the Market

Market Street Scene

Tuesday, we took the famous red couch picture - or should I say, MANY red couch pictures. Our little Shanghai group went early to get our own pics on the couch, and this is where I discovered the need for fancy pants. Lucy is quite adept at taking off her diaper, and at the most inopportune times. So here is our precious little girl, on the red couch with the other 3 precious girls in our Shanghai group, deftly hiking up her nice traditional red dress, leg in the air, whipping off the diaper. Spicy girl.

The Shanghai Crew Kids (note the twinkle in Lucy's eye)

About 30 minutes later, fancy pants now securely on Lucy, the rest of the group shows up for the pictures. Mind you, there are 17 families in our group - LOTS of kids to put on a red couch. Fortunately, they broke the group into provinces. With no access to her diaper, Lucy proceeded to perform many comedic antics. and distract every other Hunan child. Spicy girl.

The Hunan Group

Our Family on the red couch

The entire group

2 of Lucy's buddies from the Shanghai Group
These two were crib mates in their orphanage.

Tuesday evening, we had our last meal at Lucy's and rushed home to pack so we could have our bags outside of our door by 9:00 PM. We got up at the crack of dawn, Wednesday, and headed off to the airport to come home! Somehow we managed to make all of our flights, despite MANY bag searches, sniffing of liquids, and a horrific 2 hour wait at immigration in Detroit. I might add that if it weren't for our fellow adoptive family traveling companions letting us cut in line, we would probably STILL be in line in Detroit. The flights were uneventful, and Lucy slept quite a long while on the big flight from Tokyo to Detroit. OK, so adjusting back to Memphis time isn't as easy at one might think. From Thursday to Sunday, I was back to my "just arrived in China" trick of falling asleep without warning, and waking up at 3:00 AM, ready to start my day. I don't think Lucy or Ed were faring much better. However, Lucy finally got a full night's sleep last night, and Ed and I did too (more or less). This whole adjustment thing has been made so much easier by our family and friends who made sure our house was cleaned, signs were up in the yard and in the house, and dinner was in the fridge for the next week! We have been so well taken care of!

We have our first post-placement visit tomorrow, so I should probably get busy and print the required 10 pictures to send back to China.

Say a little prayer for Lucy!

Lucy and Another Little Friend