Sunday, October 9, 2011
West Lake in Hangzhou!
West Lake in Hangzhou. It is very pretty and I am sure we will walk there every day while we are here. Watching the people is very fun. There are older people playing card games around small tables and music and singing. Near West Lake are many places to eat (I have to admit we did eat dinner at Pizza Hut tonight). There were fewer people stopping us to take pictures with Alexander today, but many people stared at us and some walked passed us several times.
We saw several sculptures like this!
There were many designs on the ground.
Playing games in the park.
Making music in the park. It draws a crowd.
Jeff's Dragon ball tea with his lunch.
More music.
These bikes are rental bikes.
The flowers were beautiful.
There were many opportunities to take a boat ride. We will take a boat later, with our travel group.
McDonalds....
for Green Tea Cheesecake.... (YUCK)!
This is an apartment building. Notice the clothes hanging from the windows.
It really was a great day!
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Hi Jennifer, my name is Teanne and I'm a mom of a beautiful Chinese daughter also. Our friend Jennifer Jones passed your blog address on to me so I will be checking in on your family throughout your trip and will be praying for all of you each and every day. We arrived home on July 1, 2010. So we've been a family of 3 for a little over 1 year. I've only read a few days back on your blog so I don't know much about your daughter or your family so I don't know any of the things you've done to prepare for her As a BTDT I have 2 quick pieces of advice for you about this trip of a lifetime. #1 - I really tried hard but I didn't record enough of our time in China-journal, blog, photo, or video. There is SO much that I wish I could re-do so I could take in the details of each situation & circumstance. Especially in the city where she is from. I know there is no time but record as much as you can, you won't regret it and you will have detailed memories to share with Myah as she grows up. #2- We waited for our daughter from start to finish over 4.5 years. that said, I had a lot of time on my hands and I read every book I could get my hands on and as time went by I ended up really focusing on attachment in adoption. There is SO, SO MUCH to share there, too much for a quick note.
ReplyDeleteThis is the 1 thing I would share with all adopting families if I had a way to do it.
1st step in attaching with her new family is making the break from her current caregivers. It will likely be VERY hard for her. Your heart will break just like mine did. It was awful but you have to let her grieve that loss so that she can move on and it will take a while. The hardest part was that Maren did not want me at all. It was all Daddy, all the time. She had lost a foster mom and did not want another woman in her life. She made that very clear. It just about killed me but we did what we had to do to help her make this transition. All is well now and she is thriving but it was hard on a momma to have her daughter not want anything to do with her. If that happens, just hold on, she will come around. In the mean time pray for God's Spirit to fill her up to the brim and overflow with His peace. I don't want to spoil anything for you, I promise, it's just that I was prepared for her reaction but the mom of the family that we traveled with was not and she was absolutely devastated. I pray that doesn't happen for you.
I'm going to pass your blog address on to friend that is a solid Christ follower and prayer warrior and a mom of 2 bio boys and 4 beautiful kiddos adopted from China. Her name is Lori and she will be lifting all of you in prayer everyday as well.
May God hold each of you in His hand as you travel and start life as a new family. Once you are home you will hear often that she is a very lucky girl. I always correct them and tell them that her daddy and I are the lucky ones and blessed beyond our wildest dreams.
Friends in Christ,
Teanne
p.s. I chuckled when I read that you thought the traffic wasn't as bad as you expected. When we were in Guangzhou my husband referred to crossing the street to the old video game Frogger! ha!