Wednesday, October 17, 2007

A Quiet Wednesday

We did very little today. It was a nice change from the busy days we have had.

I can tell that a few things will have to change when we get home. :) MinMin has taken a liking to my new laptop. I let her watch a DVD on it today, but then she didn't want to give it back to me to use. She has just been chatting with our friend, Ping, who wrote to her in Chinese. She thought that was fun. It was good for her, but again, she wasn't too happy that I wanted my laptop back. She's going to have to learn once we get home that I don't share it much.

We will be heading out in just bit to have some dinner. We are all packed up, and will come back after dinner, pick up our suitcases, and head down to the train station. Our train heads out just before 10:00pm, arriving in Guangzhou around 9:00 tomorrow morning. We will then head to our hotel, and have to wait around during our consulate appointment. Our guide, Connie, actually is the only one who attends the consulate appointment. Please be praying that there are no problems with our paper work---there shouldn't be any, but one never knows. Some of you will remember that with LiAnne, the consulate had no record of our fingerprints, and we did some frantic faxing and emailing back and forth to the Mexico City consulate to get the fingerprint records sent over here.

We will then have the rest of the day, and until Friday at 2:30pm to spend in Guangzhou. We take a bus over to the US consulate at 2:30 for our swearing in ceremony. It actually isn't much---just saying that we told the truth on our documents. We will then receive MinMin's passport with her US visa in it and we are free to go.

Right after that we will take the train north to Beijing. We had planned to fly, but decided to go ahead and take the train, since we will get in at the same time as the plane would on Saturday afternoon. MinMin will be able to see a lot of China as we fly by on the train. From there we will spend a couple of days seeing the sights.

No pictures today. I'll try to do better tomorrow. You'll notice in the pictures that I have on here that MinMin is pretty well dressed the same in all of them. She wears one outfit, washes it out, and wears it again when it is dry. She has a suitcase of nice clothes that I could have left behind. I am hoping that we can talk her into wearing something prettier for the consulate appointment on Friday. If I do we'll be sure to get a picture...but I have my doubts.

7 comments:

Chelley said...

I cant even imagine how Min min must have lived.

For her needing to wash her clothes everyday, it must be so hard for her to even think in her head that she can wear different clothes everyday... Something we take for granted

Shannon and Boyd Bringolf said...

I think washing out the clothes is a cultural thing. Our guides did the same when we traveled. Our Taiwanese exchange student does the same. We finally have her wearing something different for three days then back to the same.
The Chinese do not have a lot of clothes normally.

Shannon B in IL

Unknown said...

I was thinking the same about the clothing as Chelley. She must be used to having to wash out her clothes so they are clean the next day. She will eventually get used to the fact that she can wear something different everyday. Maybe it will help when she gets to MO and meets Molly. Funny thing about the laptop. She is part American already! Love you.

Sherri said...

I'm sure that the washing the clothes thing is cultural, but I can also say that our 2 year old we adopted absolutely refused to allow us to change her clothes! If she even caught a glimpse of them, she clutched onto them and wanted to put them on. She slept in her shoes--wouldn't let us take them off so she could bathe. I think partly it is that she is holding onto the old life and the clothes are what she has left from that life.

We ended up hiding the clothes from her. We kept them, but she just didn't see them. I know--our daughter is 2 and yours is 12--quite a difference there.

We're praying for you.

Sherri

Paul and Jackie said...

As soon as I could, I put Ava's clothes away, too. She seemed to forget about them after awhile. Out of sight. She recently found the coat she wore in China with us. Too small for her now, but she would wear it if I let her. Also, I could not hand down the few outfits she remembers as her "China clothes" that we brought for her to wear the two weeks in China. They are her special clothes from Mama and Baba. Funny, she didn't seem too keen on them back then. :)

Laptop computer sounds like a good bribe for good behavior and attitude when she gets home!!!!:)

Jackie

Charlotte said...

Raeghan just came and sat on my lap ! She wants to meet Min Min she said ! She loves to follow the blogs !

Charlotte
www.rachaeljanew.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

On our way! Its snowing!
cK