Thursday May 20th 14th Day in China

Can't wait till we are home. We really miss the boy's, and just can't wait to see them.

Last Thursday we were still in Ningxia and did some touring. James is very interested in it all, I have such a hard time, so i just try to look interested. We left for Beijing on Friday afternoon. We arrived at our hotel in Beijing around 8:00pm.

Saturday am we had to do somemore paperwork, Canadian Citizenship/Passort's/Visa's for all the kids. Went to the Beijing Zoo in afternoon, but a waist of time, as the crowds were ridiculous, we were all a bunch of sardines trying to get around. Beijing has changed so much since our last visit 5 year's ago, there is just so much more traffic and people, you can't go anywhere without traffic jams. Our guide told us that 3000 car's are added to the roads in Beijing alone everyday!! just crazy.

Sunday was the great wall. I stayed behind with XiangEr for the day, there has been just too much going on. I will visit the Great Wall for sure the next time.

Monday was the Summer Palace, what a disaster that was!! We arrived around 1:00pm and all of a sudden the crying started and never stopped for a full hour. Oh the stares were unbeleivable!! James got pretty upset with the nosy ones trying to parent, he shewed them away. Once we decided to get out of there and take a taxi back (not wait for bus back with the group) she fell asleep in James' arms. We then realized that she still really needs her naps and have napped her everyday since.

Tuesday was the silk market/pearl market, we took a taxi instead of going with the group just in case we had another crying episode in public. She was really good, and once she started to wimper we left, and took her back to the hotel and napped her.

Wednesday most of the group went to Tinaman's Square and the Forbidden City and we decided to stay close to the hotel and go to some market's. We went for Peking Duck with the whole group (as the east coaster's were leaving Thursday to go home). There was a magician and cake etc....to say goodbye to everyone.

Today we decided to go do a bit more shopping, we took a taxi there and met up with two other families from BC. We got in two hours, and came back for a nap. We packed up a bit and met in lobby a 5:00pm for our last dinner together. Five BC families and Two from Alberta.

We will leave for airport at 12:00noon tomorrow, as our plane leaves at 4:00pm. We have a 12 hour flight, and im not quite sure how we are going to make it (i think the other families are feeling the same).

Mary has been very very good, and has made some really close friendships. The one family who we went to Ningxia with (Nyah who is six) they are from Toronto. And all her other friends that she became close with are from BC (which is perfect), Alyssia who is 10 month's younger than Mary and is from Hunan just like Mary, lives in Langley and they have become very close. There is one photo taken of them today when we were shopping which i will add to the photo's. Mary received so much attention while in China. James and I recieved alot of wonderful comment's about her.

XiangEr has improved everyday. Just to give you an idea on how much, we weighed her in Beijing on Friday night she weighed only 21 lbs!!! We were told 27-28lbs before we came to get her.
We weighed her 5 nights later (Wednesday) and she had gained 3 lbs in those 5 day's. Unfortunately she has been severly traumatized over food, and still has a hard time when we give Mary food, she get's very angry. She is getting much better with the toy's, and it isn't too much of an issue. She is the size of a two year old, and it is just so hard, but we can both see that time is in our hands, and we can work through all these things. It will just be nice to get home, and start the process of moving forward with the help of specialists etc...
She is a very happy girl right now, and alot of the time she is giving kisses, laughing, and playing, and eating. I can see these two girls being very close, and bed time and bath time has been great bonding for the two of them.
We just can't wait to get her home to meet the rest of the family.

This has been such an emotional rollercoaster this time around. We thought we were prepared with the information that was given to us about this precious little girl, but there was so much info.that was so wrong, and we weren't prepared for some of the challenges, but we are leaving here feeling very optomistic!! We are just amazed at such big strides she has taken in only 10 day's. Wow.

I will add some more photo's of the past several day's, although we didn't take as much as we would have liked. You can use the link in the last blog.

Cindy