Wednesday AM in Guangzhou 8/2/06
Good Morning from Guangzhou!
We arrived yesterday and after settling in and taking a dip in the rooftop pool, we met our guide Bob and walked a short walk to meet up with three other families for dinner. We ate at a well know Thai restaurant -- great food!
But the interesting part of the evening was not the dinner -- rather it was the walk to dinner. As we walk out of our hotel, we head down an alley way that is the street. It is "animal alley". For sale for several blocks are dozens of puppies of ever shape and kind, kittens, turtles, fish, bunnies, snakes, rodents, and about anything that walks,, slithers or swims besides livestock. Much like my friend Kelly told me of her dog Mau Mau -- these animals are for whatever purpose you would like -- pets, food, whatever. Now personally, I would think that if someone really wanted a pooch for supper, one of mine might be better than a little puppy -- but hey, who am I??? :)
The streets here remind me more of what I thougth I would see in China and I will post pictures later after our outings today.
This morning we are headed to breakfast, Julias medical exam for her consulate visit, and then the temple and the Jade market. We are going with another family -- Laura who I met through Heritage's list serve. She is from Texas and just adopted her #3 -- the first two are from Vietnam. She is also a single mother and a very nice lady. I am looking forward to getting to know her better today.
For now though -- I do have be short. I will get pictures and I am sure great info posted later after our journies today.
One thing I will note -- our guides here are Bob and Susan -- husband and wife. They are delightful, vibrant people. Bob is HILARIOUS! Susan is charming and last night they came to our room to fill out the needed paperwork for the consulate. Susan actually does all of it FOR ME but I had places to sign and they needed to gather the notaries from Chengdu and such for the process. I can not believe that for the first time in this adoption process - I do not have to do the paperwork -- someone else does it! :) What a nice gift. The other thing that is interesting is that I spoke with Susan for a while. She is in her early 20s and is adopted. She was born shortly after the one child policy was put into place and adopted by a family domestically. She talked about how she still finds it hard to forgive her birth mother for abandoning her. She said that deep down she is still angry and still wants to know what circumstances would allow her to do that. It was very enlightening as I fastforward myself 15 years to when Joy is her age. I may try to see if I can maintain contact with Susan -- perhaps by then in her life she will have some perspective that will help my daughter through that place. I talked with her about the fact that I believe my daughters birth mothers did not have a choice and tried to place their children in safe places to be found and adopted. I KNOW that is the case for Julia and I think the same for Joy. There are times that families will take the child from the birth mother and another relative is the one who actually places the child somewhere -- or some believe pretends to FIND the child and then offers to foster her. It is a tough situation no matter how you slice it. I know that we will have some late night conversations over popcorn to help the girls sort through that piece. Maybe there will be a day that I can tell them that they only way that God could get them to my house was to allow the events to unfold as they have. That will work if the LIKE me at that moment and if not -- well nevermind that!
Off to breakfast!
Jackie
We arrived yesterday and after settling in and taking a dip in the rooftop pool, we met our guide Bob and walked a short walk to meet up with three other families for dinner. We ate at a well know Thai restaurant -- great food!
But the interesting part of the evening was not the dinner -- rather it was the walk to dinner. As we walk out of our hotel, we head down an alley way that is the street. It is "animal alley". For sale for several blocks are dozens of puppies of ever shape and kind, kittens, turtles, fish, bunnies, snakes, rodents, and about anything that walks,, slithers or swims besides livestock. Much like my friend Kelly told me of her dog Mau Mau -- these animals are for whatever purpose you would like -- pets, food, whatever. Now personally, I would think that if someone really wanted a pooch for supper, one of mine might be better than a little puppy -- but hey, who am I??? :)
The streets here remind me more of what I thougth I would see in China and I will post pictures later after our outings today.
This morning we are headed to breakfast, Julias medical exam for her consulate visit, and then the temple and the Jade market. We are going with another family -- Laura who I met through Heritage's list serve. She is from Texas and just adopted her #3 -- the first two are from Vietnam. She is also a single mother and a very nice lady. I am looking forward to getting to know her better today.
For now though -- I do have be short. I will get pictures and I am sure great info posted later after our journies today.
One thing I will note -- our guides here are Bob and Susan -- husband and wife. They are delightful, vibrant people. Bob is HILARIOUS! Susan is charming and last night they came to our room to fill out the needed paperwork for the consulate. Susan actually does all of it FOR ME but I had places to sign and they needed to gather the notaries from Chengdu and such for the process. I can not believe that for the first time in this adoption process - I do not have to do the paperwork -- someone else does it! :) What a nice gift. The other thing that is interesting is that I spoke with Susan for a while. She is in her early 20s and is adopted. She was born shortly after the one child policy was put into place and adopted by a family domestically. She talked about how she still finds it hard to forgive her birth mother for abandoning her. She said that deep down she is still angry and still wants to know what circumstances would allow her to do that. It was very enlightening as I fastforward myself 15 years to when Joy is her age. I may try to see if I can maintain contact with Susan -- perhaps by then in her life she will have some perspective that will help my daughter through that place. I talked with her about the fact that I believe my daughters birth mothers did not have a choice and tried to place their children in safe places to be found and adopted. I KNOW that is the case for Julia and I think the same for Joy. There are times that families will take the child from the birth mother and another relative is the one who actually places the child somewhere -- or some believe pretends to FIND the child and then offers to foster her. It is a tough situation no matter how you slice it. I know that we will have some late night conversations over popcorn to help the girls sort through that piece. Maybe there will be a day that I can tell them that they only way that God could get them to my house was to allow the events to unfold as they have. That will work if the LIKE me at that moment and if not -- well nevermind that!
Off to breakfast!
Jackie
posted by Jack's Journey at
5:06 PM
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