Our last full day on Mainland China

Thursday September 16, 2010 Today was our last full day in mainland China.  Cindy, Katie and I got up early and headed to Shamin Island.  We decided we could do the metro no problem.  We thought we did it right, noticed it was cheaper then Wednesday by 1 RMB, that should have been a red flag, but nope, we just paid and went our way.  We get off on our stop, try to exit and it wouldn't let us, we tried a couple of times and we had people behind us looking at as funny, probably thinking "Don't you foreigner know anything?"  We were lucky that there was a help desk right there, so we told him where we wanted to go.  He informed us that we needed to pay 1 more RMB per token, while this is going on, a little older lady comes and is trying to shove a card/pass under the glass while we were standing there working with the guy.  The guy just ignored her and finished up with us, she wasn't happy with that, but we are thankful.  Speaking of the metro, there is so much pushing and shoving and squishing on it, yet no one seems to care or be bothered by it.  They just continue onward with their business.  It is the same way with the traffic/bikers/people walking and so forth, they all just weave in and out all over the place and do it in a chaotic way, yet smoothly.  They have no problems making a 3 line road way into 4 or 5 lines and then back into 3.  In America there would be so much road rage and accidents.  So we make it to the island, the first shop we stopped at was Susan's shop. One of our travel mates told us about it.  It is tucked away behind the Christian Church; she had brought some beautiful white silk fabric to make a wedding dress for her daughter when she gets married.  Cindy can never turn down a chance to buy fabric.  While we are there, I find Chinese vest that I really like and 2 piece Chinese outfits for the girls.  In all I had 10 items of clothing.  The items all had priced tags on it.  Cindy was bargaining the fabric with the guy, he was being very hard to bargaining with, I was dealing with a lady who also wasn't wanting to come down much, they kept saying it was pure silk and that is worth more.  Seeing that I haven't shopped much on the island I wanted to look around more.  I walked out of the store and was waiting for my sister to pay, they were working on her to buy other things.  The guy brought me back in and try to bargaining with me more, he came down a little bit, but not where I wanted to be.  My sister is taking her sweet old time and I walked out for the second time only to be brought back inside again.  We finally got close to what I was asking for, so I brought all of it.  We try to leave and he sits us down to have a "cup of tea", he has one of those fancy tea tables and everything and was having us try different samples of tea then started pushing the tea on us to purchase, we finally said we had to meet the rest of the family (it was a fib, but didn't know what else to do).  We continue onward, shopping until lunch time.  We went to Lucy's again, saw some of our travel group.  Once finished eating we did more shopping until we met Dave and the girls.  Dave said the 4 of them had a nice morning and early afternoon until they got of the metro.  Erin decided she needed to walk extra extra slow and since my sister and I weren't there, he didn't want to take her hand or anything to make her walk faster.  She doesn't do well at all with heat or walking.  The poor girl is going to have a hard time in a non air conditioned house next summer.  He spoiled the girls again at McDonalds.  We took our cyber friend Vicki's advice and walked over the bridge into the downtown mall area.  We found the area she was talking about, Erin got to overwhelmed in it and the girls were hot and thirsty (they did really well not complaining, and it was hot, I was dripping sweat, Cindy was sweating that it looked like she peed her pants), so we only walked out with 2 bras, 2 pair of pants, 1 shirt and 1 belt and 2 suitcases (one for us and one for my sister).  We took the hike back to the island and stopped at Jordan's place again.  It started to rain while shopping and it was time to meet with our guide to get Erin's "brown envelope that you don't not touch/open or anything and guard it with your life", so I went and Connie and saw my dear friend Nancy and her family and saw them off.  I am sadden that we didn't get to spend more time together while in China, but I know I will be seeing her a lot at home.  Went back to get the family and then we ate again at….you guessed it….Lucy.  With the rain it made it even more humid then what it was before and it was still hot.  So as we are walking back to the metro station, we talked about the outfit that Erin keeps mentioning.  We had told the girls that they could go swimming, and knew that we all couldn't go to get that outfit, plus get back in time to swim.  Erin wouldn't swim with just Dave and the girls, so it was decided that I would take the girls and Dave and Cindy would go and get the outfit.  They got off one stop before us, talk about the stares I was getting, a single woman with four daughters and two suitcases with one of them having Erin's papers in.  We get  off the metro and head outside, turn the corner and made our way down the road/alley that is dark when there is no cars.  I am trying to hurry the girls up and so forth when all of a sudden a man shows up behind us talking on the phone,  I was trying to make sure the girls stayed together, and trying to figure out what suitcase had Erin's paperwork in it, since we brought the same kind of suitcase as my sister.  This man stayed about 5 feet behind us the whole way.  I said many quick little prayers asking to keep the girls safe and Erin's paperwork safe.  In USA I would never had down what I did tonight, I am proud of myself and my family, we really went out of our comforter/safety zone this trip.  The girls and I swam for about 45 minutes, Erin is getting more braver with the water and she is really trying to copy the girls in swimming.  Tonight she was jumping into the inner tube, it was before I started to swim and I was thinking what happens if you miss, the water depth was up to her chin, she lucked out and never missed.  They had a lot of fun.  As we are leaving the pool, Erin must had gotten water in her nose, she all of sudden plugs one side of her nose and blows towards the floor, I didn't stop it fast enough, but she was told don't do that again, she apologized, she was given a towel and said sorry.  Erin has gotten so much better about not grabbing off people's plates, she now ask and says please, she is very good about saying thanking.  She says sorry if she knows she did something wrong, if it was an accident she doesn't get upset or pouty, but if it something she knows I am not happy about, then she will pout.  She has comes so far in such a short way.   Erin was very happy when Dave gave her the new outfit, she had a big smile on her face, I wasn't in the room at the moment, but she came and found me (in the bathroom) and showed it to me.  Erin continues to share little bits of pieces of things from the orphanage or school, I am so thankful that she trust us enough to be doing that already with us and feeling secure with us.  She has been reassured almost daily that Dave won't hurt her, that he isn't like the boys and male workers (she hasn't said they have necessary done anything bad to the kids, but they bring in stuff and some other things that we are still working thru with her) at the orphanage.  Her school was only 15 minutes away from the orphanage, so she did go back frequently.  She is a quick learner and one thing she has stressed with us, she wants to play badminton still, but doesn't want to miss school because of it.  She said she was forced to practice badminton even when she was tired out or when she wanted to be in school, her teachers would hit her if she wouldn't practice.  We have reassured her that we don't hit in our family.  I think she believes us, but she also keeping her guard up. Thank you Lord for opening the door to a precious face on June 6, 2009 Thank you Erin's birthparents, who created and gave birth to her so she could be our daughter. Thank you China for allowing Erin to be adopted and us to be her forever family. Thank you everyone that encouraged us to make Erin our daughter when we didn't have the financial means. Thank you everyone that help us with the financial side of Erin adoption. Thank you everyone who prayed for us, sent us prayers and guidance during this adoption. Thank you everyone who gave us advice on how to prepare us for Erin to be our daughter. Thank you Half the sky for giving Erin the chance to leave the school and play badminton and see parts of China that she wouldn't have seen. Thank you to the Guiyang School of the deaf for teaching Erin, as she is a fast learner. Thank you Guiyang Social Welfare Institute for caring for Erin since she was 18 months old to the best of your abilities. Thank you to Jade's parents for the wonderful hospitality, and showing us sites we would have never seen, and all the tasty food we experience even when it was in abundance. Thank you to a special person who gave us the ability to bring our 3 youngest daughters with 9 days before we were due to leave. Thank you to Aggie and Connie our guides that made the adoption final in China and showing us new sites. Thank you Crossroads for the being our homestudy agency and going the extra mile. Thank you Madison Adoption Associates for all you hard work to make this happen for us. Thank you Gift of Adoption, Showhopes and A Child Awaits for the grants. Thank you for everyone that wrote references for our grants. Thank you everyone near and far that had any impact on this journey of making Erin our daughter, we couldn't have not done it without all of you no matter what you did, it all means so much to us.   Good night mainland China for the last time on this marvelous journey