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| Strolling around the streets of Xi'an |
Merle, Lucy and I were "on our own" in the busy city of Xi'an. Sooo many things to see and check out all within walking distance of our hotel. Lucy LOVES the stroller! On yet another beautiful day, we trekked out and about. Finding "bargains" (a.k.a. cheap souvenirs!) and enjoying feeling adventurous. We'd often laugh as many, many people would all but trip over themselves staring. Seriously! Stares aren't a quick flash of a second look it's more like a 45 second long look over from head to toe- look at the caucasian parents and is that a Chinese baby? Some people would ask us "is she Chinese?" Merle and I would smile and banter to each other about what we speculated they might be saying! Funny but also by days end we are always ready to be alone and away from constant stares.
Lucy also LOVES bath time! To try and keep things fun and "happy" for our girl, we make sure we fit in a long bath session with her stacking cups! She giggles and laughs and even dumps the water over her head.
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| Bath time = one happy little girl! |
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Friday was our last day in Lucy's home province - Shaanxi. After packing up the suitcases (and Merle getting on the scale with each suitcase lifted over his head to make sure we fit within the 44 lb. in country flight weight) we met our facilitator in the hotel lobby at 2:00 p.m. and headed to the civil affairs office one last time where Sherry our facilitator would run in and pick up Lucy's passport. (thus the reason we stay in province from Sunday to Friday to allow for time to process her passport). From there we went to the Xi'an airport to board a plane to Guangzhou (where the U.S. consulate is located). Distance probably would be similar from flying from Pennsylvania to Florida. |
| Our lovely facilitator, Shery!! |
Lucy fell asleep shortly after getting into the van. When we arrived at the airport, you could tell she was scared. Wondering where on earth she's now going. Of course Sherry was constantly telling Lucy girl where we were going and what was about to happen. She cried a little when we first entered the airport as I think the building was intimidating. I was concerned about going through security. But they were kind and allowed me to hold her and only needed her to stand a short time while she was "wanded". It went well. After we went through security we had about a 2 hour wait for our plane.
Lucy sat on Daddy's lap and I think felt very secure with his big arms wrapped around her. Big eyes but no crying until it was almost time to land. We're not sure if she was scared, her ears hurt or she needed to use the bathroom or a combination of the three. She cried and I rocked her and sang "Jesus Loves Me" in her ears which quieted her until we finally landed.
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| I feel so secure in Daddy's arms! |
Because our flight was late and luggage took long to collect, we didn't leave baggage claim until about 9:45 p.m. We met our new facilitator, Lily right outside of baggage claim area. She greeted us with a smile and took us to our waiting van.
It was about a 45 minute drive from the airport to the Garden Hotel. It's a BEAUTIFUL five star hotel! We have a living room connected to our bedroom and a gorgeous large bathroom. It's good to be able to "spread out" a bit! We were exhausted - even though we didn't do much but "wait around" all day. I collapsed into bed about 11:15 p.m.
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| In the lobby area of Garden Hotel, Guangzhou China |
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