We did what?
I honestly don't have much to say about today. We did some sight seeing and souvenir shopping and then spent the rainy afternoon trying to keep two busy boys from driving us nuts:). We even hit a repeat noodle joint. Between busy boys and Kristi's magic with laundry soap and hair dryers I think we are both relieved that bed time has come and gone with two sleeping boys. Ahhh quiet.
Here are a few pictures:
One more day in Guangzhou and off to the races we go.
St. Patrick's Day
We managed to do a few things right today. Yeah us! Joshua is super receptive to the power of suggestion. I suggested he had an issue buy buying diapers, he proved me wrong by wearing one and not needing it. Until he knocks off a few nights of success in a row though the diapers stay on. That's a decision parents get to make. In other exciting news I managed to set an alarm and get up before 6:30AM so I could have my beauty time before running down to breakfast so we could get to the consulate on time. I must say that every time we work hard to be on time the true time is really more like island time... a loose suggestion of a time that may be on time, or a little late, but never early. The bus to the consulate picked us up and off we went for the final non-air travel trial of the trip.
Our photo in front of an American building. Even the design looks less like Chinese and more American. They ban cell phones and food, yet the guard inside the door was rocking his Android and they well pop on the 2nd floor. Curious isn't it?
We met a nice man named Patrick at the consulate who looked over our paper work, asked us a few questions, and then told us not to open the brown envelope. Apparently the brown envelope is super important yet contains only a copy of everything we already have. If you open it before you get to the US you get sent back and that would be a super bummer at this point. I guess a man once tried to open it secretly and he got caught. After hearing that story Kristi won't let me touch the brown envelope once we get it... but that was it. Hand over papers, say we'll be good parents, and pending the paper work arriving in our dirty little hands we are officially parents of four!
After that we paid the price for having so much fun yesterday by taking a mandatory family nap. Ben was convinced he wasn't tired so he was just going to sit on the couch. An hour later he was eyes closed and dead to the world on the couch. Funny how that works sometimes. The rest of the day you can probably fill in yourself, but I'll do it for you:
- Errands (Starbucks)
- Find the hotel play room
- Swim
- Eat
- Sleep
That's all for now. I have another post brewing but I just don't have the brain power for it tonight. Until next time.
Guess what day it is?
Monday. What'd you say?
Today was a bit of a treat for us. We got to sleep in a little which lately for us means slept in too long. We ate our usual breakfast which is usually broken up at the half way point by a certain someone needing to use the boy's room. Usually this wouldn't be a problem but picture your 2 year old niece or nephew climbing up to use the big kid potty and you'll know what we are dealing with. Back to breakfast... we ate and successfully executed the snag and borrow. Knowing that we were to pack "snacks" for our activities today we prepped Benjamin to grab some Nutella packets from the buffet so we could use them to make sandwiches on bread that we purchased (Hey we're not animals) at the local super market. Ben snagged his hazelnut happiness and I somehow "borrowed" a knife from my table so that we could spread the Nutella and Peanut Butter with a real metal knife rather than plastic or toothbrushes. I promise that the knife will magically reappear into circulation later in the week, but for now it is in a secret location.
After making our dutch lunch we hopped on board the bus with a few other families and headed off to the Chimelong Safari Park and wouldn't you know it, moments after getting on the bus we were told no outside food is allowed in the park. (If you own an echo say "Hey Alexa, play sad trombone" it works) Thankfully my otherwise black and white wife had the idea of moving the sandwiches from the big compartment to the middle compartment of the backpack. I did so and with every intention of not showing a blessed thing, I dutifully complied and showed the gate agent the big compartment containing water and a few candies. She poked around and sent us on our merry way. Kristi's cleverness for the win.
We were told that we puny Americans could only manage to see about 1/2 of the park in the 4.5 hours we had to visit. This seemed rather insulting to us so we crammed in everything we could. A safari on wheels, dinosaurs that spit water in Ben's face, scare Joshua, and neon lights to boot. We saw Koalas, snakes, Pandas, Lemurs, a Monkey or two, a peeing baboon (Thanks Rafiki), and a ton of other stuff too. Josh and I also saw the men's room half a dozen times. You do not have to wonder if we are keeping him hydrated...
Ben had a blast, Kristi and I enjoyed it, and Josh... well... I'm not sure he likes animals that much. He did seem to like the Giraffes at one point, and he showed curiosity here and there, but during the safari he kept telling Kristi "no". I tried to show him the Koi but he didn't enjoy being placed inches from their swarming teeth either. He did enjoy being used as a human "pong" as Ben and I shot him back and forth to each other in the stroller, but that could have been late afternoon toddler too. If you have a toddler you know what that means. If you don't, borrow one for a day and see what I mean :).
Over on the Facepages Kristi has a post of Ben with a girl whose name is Nicki. She's 11 and is diagnosed with CP, some cognitive delays, and some vision issues. The thing I notice about people with "special needs" is that they are often more aware of those around them. Nicki (I'm told) spent a lot of time with the babies and toddlers when she was in the orphanage and so she spent the first half hour or so trying to hold hands with Joshua or give him kisses. We let her push Joshua in the stroller and she loved it. She had a job and she did it incredibly well... perhaps even better than a certain 6-year old I know. Somewhere in my gallery below there is even a picture of her with Josh and Kristi (When did Josh learn to flash a peace sign?). All in all it was a great day at the zoo followed by a quick trip to the supermarket and (gasp) night two of noodles. We hit up a Chinese restaurant under the Irish Pub (See I DID FIND CHINESE FOOD AFTER ALL) which was a surprisingly good find and likely a place we will return to.
I did take a few pictures today, hopefully they show up in the gallery below:
Today I made friends with an 11 year old girl (Nicki) who has a label in China, but to me is as sweet and wonderful as as any other 11 year old I know. I also met a girl named Arianna (???) who is bound to a wheel chair and suffers seizures. She and I were exchanging papers and playing in the van on the way back from the park. Arianna is the 4th adoptee for her mom and dad, and at least the 5th in the extended family. Yesterday a boy named Jacob was about to sit on my lap and later we had a high five moment and he is 10 or 11 out of 11 other adopted kids. There are also two friends who were adopted as the younger siblings of 24, 22(?), 18 years old biological children who look and act like brothers. That was just in the last two days... last week we met Cameron Junior who is a two and a half year old who has 1.5FT of large intestine and is on a strict diet. Cameron also happens to be a happy bright eyed little guy who went home with some great parents. So if I add it up, carry the one, subtract the seven, I get ... 7 kids that I've interacted with in the last week who are going to a new home. Each one of the 7 has a "health" issue that makes them unique. Each one of them is a living breathing human being that we've been blessed to have been able to spend time with.
For my house Kristi heard a distinct calling early in 2016 and it took until April for me to hear the same thing. But we both heard clearly that we needed to adopt. So we did, and many of you reading have supported us in our journey which we will be forever thankful for. I do have one favor to ask though and no this isn't about adoption #2 for the Van Dyk's (that comes later). No, my favor is to ask that you consider doing one of the following things:
- Seek out a child that you know is hurting and ask to spend time with them for the sole purpose of listening. Don't try to fix a thing, just listen.
- Pray for the kids who need homes, the wives who are busy doing the paper work, and the dads who are dragging their feet. Pray that they all meet up together in a new forever family.
- Spread the word. You don't have to adopt, but perhaps you know someone who is thinking of doing so. Send them to us, we don't bite. Hard.
- Pray for the mothers who saw no other way than to give their baby away for adoption or to an orphanage.
That's it. You don't have to do much, but I'd suppose if we all did a little something we could make a big impact on the orphans who are waiting for parents to call their own.
Thanks for reading, I'm off to bed. 8:30am departure for the consulate tomorrow. We have to convince the US and A that we will be good parents.
Opposites Day
As I sit here looking out our hotel window I feel it necessary to tell you that in my house we celebrate Harry Potter. First we celebrate the books, then we celebrate the movies (as it should be). Are these books about witches, wizards, and sorcery? Yes. Are there also redemptive themes that we can emphasize and use to educate our children? Kristi and I certainly think so.
If you haven't read the books or seen the movies I will not wait for you to do so. That is something that should be enjoyed slowly, like a cigar around a campfire. It isn't something you should do while you know someone is waiting on you. Why do I bring this up? Great question...
Do you love yogurt this much?
After starting our day at breakfast we took a short bus ride to the local pearl market. The weather is warm but rainy and I figured we'd be outside in make shift booths getting drenched while shopping to support the local commerce. According to our guide there are quite a few small businesses in China and many of the owners have little to no education in running a business. They just try because they don't have any other options. Instead I was pleased to see that that "market" was actually a five story building with a common area in the middle. I'd consider it a mall in China as many malls are multiple stories high and consist of many different stores all under one roof. I handed Kristi my wallet and said have fun sweetheart (major points right?) and off she went. Actually she and Ben picked out some nice necklaces for the girls back home and a jade "life saver" for Ben. It's actually a necklace too but it looks like a lime green life saver. I was off taking Joshua to the sitting room while they did their shopping.
If you aren't familiar with my family here are my two daughters who had to stay home for this adventure. Madeleine is on the left and takes after her mother. Kayleigh, the sophisticated one is on the right and is the spitting image of me. If you believe that I have a Nigerian prince I'd like to introduce you to.
Having completed our shopping at the pearl market we wandered up to the silk embroidery store where we were just going to browse... until we saw some nice wallets that replace failing wallets back home. The best part of the store was they took American Visa!!! We are in a weird quagmire of not having enough cash on hand, not wanting to take out too much RMB cash that we have left over at the end of the week, and having American money that is difficult to turn into RMB. So if a store accepts the "American" Visa we are fans. (Turns out Visa isn't really everywhere I want to be) Our final shopping destination was Shamian Island which is home to a little store called Jenny's (they too accept American Visa) where we were able to get updated Chinese clothing for the kids. Shamian Island is also where we get back to the Harry Potter nonsense at the beginning of the post.
Shamian Island must be cool because it has it's own Wikipedia entry. I do not. The Island was a French and British hotspot back in the day, and legend has it a prominent Chinese girl married a British Sailor and the powers that be jailed her entire family because of the marriage. I'm not sure if they were upset she married a Brit, or a sailor. Regardless you can see on parts of the island that there is a great deal of French architecture in the buildings. Our guide mentioned New Orleans and it was clear walking through parts of the Island that it could be mistaken for parts of the New Orleans.
In the Harry Potter books there is a place where the students get their supplies located in London called Diagon Alley. It is a nice place with nice clean stores and everybody who is there seems to be having a good time and a good if not great life. Our first stops at Shamian Island were like that. Nice, clean, and fans of the Oxford Comma.
However, somewhere near Diagon Alley is another place called Knockturn Alley. Knockturn Alley is the place you tell your kids never to go even if they are with a friend. It's a place where even if you need flesh eating slug repellent, you don't exactly announce that you are going there. When all the shopping was done we walked to the "other side of the river" to the market where they had weird stuff. Fish scales, scorpions, deer parts, bugs, herbs, spices, and a variety of other things were all over this part of the island. This side of the Island made it click that todays' topic should be opposites, or the difference between Diagon and Knockturn Alleys.
The pictures don't necessarily do it justice, but hopefully you can see the difference walking 1/8th of a mile makes. Kristi mentioned it was a little uncool, unfair, or just plan cruel to parade a bunch of Americans past these people as if they were some sort of side show on the trip. I hadn't given it much thought but she's probably right (you can count that one sweetheart) in her statement. There are probably many deep conversations that could be had, but the very bottom line for me is that there are people who have some and are working to get more, and there are others who have even less, but they too are working to get more. Regardless of class it seems that everybody is taking responsibility to try and do something to make a living. I think that is the end of my deep thoughts for now.
At the conclusion of the Island adventure we stopped for a treat at Subway. It was a meal of firsts as both Josh and Ben learned they can eat ham and cheese! As a father and fellow picky eater I was quite proud of boy #1. Boy #2 seems to eat most anything so he's already cooler than me. Upon returning to the hotel we took a quick nap, family hot tub session, and then it was off to a local noodle shop for dinner. Kristi even managed to get a photo of me with noodles in chopsticks. Who needs portion control when you have chopsticks? I get so tired of trying to eat I just give up.
Joshua seems to be doing very well and is responding quite well to the family so far. I'll stop short of making any bold proclamations that will come back to bite me, but he's a little guy with a big personality so he'll fit in quite nicely.