We are home! Reunited with my Mighty Knights. Greeted with pink balloons lining up the road and our driveway, and joyous ear to ear smiling boys on my front porch. By the time we made it inside after all hugs and kisses, a beautiful homecrafted banner across the fireplace awaited us. "This is my best day ever" says Nathan as he jumps up and down, and Brendan all smiles "I'm really missing you". I cannot express what a warm feeling this all gives me, brought tears to my eyes... What a wonderful homecoming! Thank you to all involved helping the Mighty Knights over the last 2 weeks, I felt so reassured knowing they were in such loving care. You all know who you are, but especially Mom, I couldn't have done it without you. To all who have supported us in preparation for this journey, and all the words of encouragement and best wishes from all our friends and this wonderful community of Cobourg, I cannot thank you enough. Karen needs special mention for inspiring this blog, I wouldn't have started it otherwise! How amazing it is to document such a special event in our lives, and share it with friends, while we are still there!
Now that I've caught my breathe a little, time to catch up with this blog!
(Back in China mode)
Wednesday May 20th was our designated "shopping" day. After fuelling up at Starbucks (yes Starbucks!), we were ready for some haggling! I have to say, I don't consider myself very good at bargaining, but I thought let's give it a try. Maybe I looked a little naive, but this woman trying to sell Susie and I luggage, decided it was ok to grab my arm and keep me there until I put down a "deposit" for luggage when we said we'd "think about"! Lily and Susie were able to walk away, which is why she grabbed me to begin with, as I called out to Lily for help! She started arguing that she doesn't trust me that we would come back, so she wanted my money! Well, I could have done a TaeKwonDo move on her, but decided to stay civil, and wringed my arm out of her grip, and of course DID NOT give her a deposit! After that, we had to hide from her, when we passed back to the escalators! Quite the experience! She was so aggressive! Haggling takes time and I do have to say, you can get some deals there, but as long as you don't get assaulted, it can be quite fun! Then there's the opposite, all the personal flattery and "loving Canadians" (despite the swine flu), just so you'd soften up to purchase goods.
For lunch we passed a noodle house, that Lily told us has been here since the Qing dynasty (1644-1911)! We had a very cheap and quick serviced meal there, listening to all the yelling and general loud talking of the locals. There was a very unappealing looking mashed tofu dish, brown in color, but it was delicious! Lily was kind enough to pick up our immigration paperwork in the afternoon, so that we could have more shopping time, and picked us up on the way back. A quick early dinner, and then Roger, Susie, Aidan and Magnus were off to take the subway to see the Beijing Acrobats, a must see. Again for Lily, this was extra time she spent for us, she really wanted to make sure we had a good experience. I stayed to settle Kristen, who is teething, fingers in the mouth and drooling, and then it was packing time!
Thursday May 21st. We didn't have much more time so decided we couldn't fit the Hutong tour in. (For next time!) We thought instead for the morning, to take a leisurely stroll over to Wang Fu Jiang pedestrian street, like the one in Changsha. Not a lot of shopping done, but we got some exercise, and pleasantly came across some interesting "snacks" at the food stands. Seeing how we were about to board an airplane, we opted out of the wiggling scorpions on a stick and sea horses, and decided McDonald's was a better choice for lunch! Back for last minute packing and checking out, and off to the airport for our final leg of the journey. Of course the real journey with Kristen in our family is just beginning. Kristen is leaving her country of birth, her birth family, her orphanage family. We now land kisses directly on her cheek, but we blow kisses for her to her China ties. Even though she is young, she has experienced loss already, and that will always be remembered. She has a different path in life now, what the other path would have led to is unknown.
We had a great flight home, being her night time, Kristen slept the majority of the flight. I stayed up to continue my movie marathon (so I could get back to Canadian time), but did shut my eyes for 1 1/2 hours. Customs and immigration only took 45 minutes, and then out to get luggage which did take longer than expected, being a full flight, there were a lot of people and luggage. And then out to see my Dad, such a comforting feeling... we're home!
Addendum:
I am starting to post pictures when I can, but attaching them to the appropriate dates, so scroll down to view!
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