Last Day in China Traveling

Willow Mei Fen and her last bottle in our 'home' hotel.  This poor child is probably so tired of moving so much!

Last bath here...

We made brushing teeth a fun game.  Not sure how CLEAN hers are getting, but we will get there eventually!

She always watches me do makeup, and she has mimicked me with the brush.  This child picks up on things so quickly!  

Last fancy breakfast/brunch.  We will miss this awesome buffet!

Goodbye, Grace!  Thank you for everything, and God bless you and your family.

Three hour car drive from Guangzhou to Hong Kong.  

We were in between countries!

She loves this applesauce.  And pretty much anything Daddy feeds her.

Gorgeous view from our last hotel room.  The plane was closer than it looks, and there were gorgeous hills and water.

Kyle and I (and probably Willow) are so exhausted.  It's like every bone in my body is just aching with exhaustion!  We've decided someone should create a show or movie about becoming first time parents in a foreign country.  

More kisses, less biting!  Except for a big bite on my shoulder yesterday.  It's when she's happy, though, so I'm not complaining!

Whoa!!! Another ceiling mirror.

First time we've seen a show entertain her for more than two minutes!  Thanks, Netflix!  We got to pack up.  I should really give all packing, bottle making, and paperwork credit to my incredible husband.  He's a logistics KING!

In the Hong Kong airport, almost time to go!  She napped for an hour in the carrier despite our efforts at keeping her awake until the flight.  However, I'm updating from the flight on Kyle's wifi, and she's sleeping peacefully in between us as of 6:35!  Thank You, Lord!

Kyle's excited about legroom.

We are so very thrilled to be coming home, and at the same time, this has been such an extraordinary and special time in our lives!  Thank you for prayers, support, and love.  I'll update again at some point once we are settled in.

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful."

(Hebrews 10:23 ESV)

We praise our Savior, Jesus Christ, for this blessing.  All glory to God!

Last Day in Guangzhou

Getting ready for our full day of fun:

We started out at Chen Clan Academy.  Some of the details may be incorrect, but it was originally built in the 1880s as a memorial for the Chen family to honor their relatives who had passed away.  It was used as a school and now is a museum showcasing the various mediums of art from Guangdong province.  It was very beautiful!

Willow loved walking.

"Whoaaa!"

Not paint but silk thread.

Our guide told us this glass painter is very famous and that we should have a picture taken with him.  We bought a year of the dragon (Willow) glass ornament (for lack of a better way to describe), and he painted her name inside.

Grapevine.

Next we went to Shamian Island.  It has English and French architecture and is home to a lot of shops.  We visited a very cute shop and they served us tea while it stormed outside and the artist was carving Willow's chop "jade stamp".

The shop owner was so sweet.  We were there so long that Willow had an accident and got her pants wet.  We didn't have extra pants with us, so she gave us some for free. 

Also, we got nervous when a man gruffly came in raising his voice at the owners.  They apparently told him no but ended up giving him a little money, and Grace told us it is very common for that to happen.  They weren't nervous; it was just a part of life.  Kyle was ready to grab his girls and run out of there, he said!  That was the one and only time we ever felt scared at all about another person during our trip.

We had asked Grace earlier in the week to show us a traditional Chinese Dim Sum lunch, so she took us to the jade and pearl wholesale market.  We killed two birds with one stone.

The restaurant was on the 4th floor of the 6 floor market so we ate first and then did a little shopping.

The wall behind us in this picture has a sign that says, "no spitting."  Spitting is very common in China. 

 

Mr. Liu (our driver), Grace, Kyle, Willow, and lots of dim sum (dumplings, rolls, rice noodles, puffy things, etc.)

Trying on pearls.

"Boo"  - When Daddy plays peek-a-boo with Willow, he always says "boo" so she started spontaneously doing it during the car ride back to the hotel.  

Willow likes to play with the phone.

Saying goodbye to Mr. Liu.  What a nice guy!  We kept leaving stuff behind in his van, and he would always keep it safe for us.

Time for a nap back at the hotel.  You can see she's pantsless again from the earlier messy incident!

Pearl River dinner cruise.  We brought our guide who has been invaluable to us.  Grace got tired of waiting in the line for a taxi and said, "Can we please take the subway?"  We were up for the adventure!  

It got way more crowded than NY.  However, we noticed it was much, much cleaner.  Grace said it's only about 10 years old.  Willow was highly freaked out, and I just wanted to cover her head to help with the overstimulation.

There's our ride!  Willow kept repeating 'water' and 'boat' after us.

During dinner.  We are all always so happy around food.  It was traditional Chinese cuisine.  There were some yummy sweet rolls and cakes for dessert.

After eating, we went to the third deck.  Beautiful sights of our baby girl's home province and a nice breeze!

Beautiful, tall Canton tower!

We kept saying, "Tall!"

Okay, how do I describe what happened next?  This woman was juggling with balls and knives and things.  She came around and gave Willow a turn spinning the ball on her finger.  When Willow was done, I pressed my face against her cheek to comfort her and saw a little blood!  My first instinct was that it was from the ball spinning lady!  It turned out Willow had squeezed my nose and mouth in her hands, and I was bleeding right below my nose.  The funniest part was that the whole room was watching me as I held a tissue under my nose waiting for it to stop bleeding.  They all probably thought it was from the lady, too!  Grace laughed so hard that she cried.  

Third deck one more time before our tour ended: