Goodbye Shenyang, Hello Guangzhou (and the last leg of our trip)

Our last day in Shenyang (main city of Levi's province) was a long one. We spent the morning at the park and later went for ice cream. In the park, we've been getting lots of inquires but we had a group of seniors approach us and gather around to ask about our children. When we tell them they are adopted, we get Thumbs up and "Lucky Baby" responses...but this day an older couple had tears with their thumbs up.

It has been a long week...and we were glad to be leaving Shenyang. No one spoke much English and we felt very isolated not having a travel group with other adoptive parents with which to commiserate...Because I won't lie...This is very difficult, traveling with toddlers, building trust with our son, no routine, being in another country where things are just harder because of language and customs of the country, being the minority, all while getting little sleep, all of us having meltdowns at times, and being stressed out most of the time because we are out of our comfort zone. STRESSFUL to say the least! Just to give you an example that did, however, though stressful, provide some comic relief...I turn my head for one minute in the Shenyang airport, turn back around to see E with both her pants and her underwear around her ankles! As if we needed to do anything else to draw attention to ourselves! I mean, really! Gotta laugh to keep from crying :)

Our flight out of Shenyang was turbulant, but went okay, and Levi was happy for most of the four-hour flight and E slept the whole way so that was definitely an answered prayer. We didn't get to the White Swan in Guangzhou until midnight. The kids were tired, but not cranky, thankfully. I was so looking forward to getting here because Shamian Island, where we stay, really caters to adoptive families. We adoptive parents all have to come through here before going back to the states. So we arrived exhausted, and just as I was crawling into bed...ARG! The bed is as hard as a rock...the floor is softer! So now I have a week of sleeping in a hard bed! Counting down the days till I'm in my bed. Needless to say, I'm ready to be home!