Today our group visited Xuanwu Park. Xuanwu was named for the first emperor of the Ming dynasty if I am remembering what Veronica said correctly. ;)
It was a beautiful park, with lots of wide open spaces, places to rent boats to go out onto the lake, and many walking and biking paths. I think I would have appreciated it more if it had been a bit less hot and humid...it didnt take too long before I was plastered in sweat...and if it had been cooler, and we had more time, it might have been neat to try and walk farther than we did. I'm not sure how many miles or kilometers all away around the lake would have been, but it really was lovely.
We did attract quite a bit of attention as a group of caucasians with Chinese children -- but again, none of it seemed hostile. (I had forgotten our explanation card in our room and wished I had brought it just in case.) Many people smiled at us and waved or said "Hello". I would like to think they liked our greeting them with "Ni Hao".
After the park, we came back to the hotel. Veronica had to stop at the notary office to collect some corrected documents, and then to the Civil Affairs office to pick up our children's Chinese passports. So as of this evening, little miss Yang Qianya has her own passport from the PRC. When we are in Guangzhou she will receive an immigration visa from the American consulate. If both Royce and I had traveled, she would be an American citizen the minute we landed at the first US airport.... as it is she will receive a permanent resident card, I believe..and become a citizen once she is readopted in our home state.
At any rate, while Veronica was doing all of the official stuff, we could do what we liked. Some families chose to take a nap.... mom and I tried to get Georgia to nap, but she had had just enough sleep on the busride back to be up and raring to go. So I got into my swimsuit, and put Georgia in a swim diaper and her summer reading Tshirt (I thought I had packed a swimsuit for her, but evidently not)...
I wasn't too sure how she would react to being in the pool -- given I had read she didn't like baths...and she had most likely never been in a pool before. But she did fine...more than fine even. Judge for yourself:
One last note -- mama was good to pack sunscreen... bad not to use it...so I now have a mild case of sunburn ouchies to help remind me to do better!
5 comments:
Aww! That looks very cool and refreshing! Hehe! Seems to me that she doesn't mind being in the water at all. ;O)) Must be your presence or something. :OD))
I absolutely love all of the pictures you've taken so far. I think it would be cool if you had two different albums ... one for the tourist spots ... and one with pictures of Georgia> :O)
She looks amazing :) I can't believe it's only been a few days. She is clearly thriving. I'm so happy for all of you.
Awwwww. What an awesome time you seem to be having! Georgia looks like she's having a blast in the pool. *waves*
Wow! So cute AND in a library shirt! She's damned near perfect!
(Richard has to stay perfect in my book... you understand!)
A and I are so thrilled for you guys, hope it all goes super-smoothly.
-Vanessa
That's great that pretty much everywhere you're going, people are happy to see the abandonded children with families of any racial history. :-) Congrats on her passport! *cheers* I hope when she officially becomes an American citizen that you'll be allowed to keep her passport and immigration visa to put into a photo album for her. And she looks like she's having a BLAST with the pool!
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