Wednesday,
May 6, 2009
A GOOD DAY,
BUT A MORE
SOBERING DAY
Hello there everyone! Well after yesterday, today was a light
day J. The first half was a little more sobering, but it became
better and better into the evening.
We started out at the Beijing Zoo, where we were able to see the
Giant Pandas as well as five baby Pandas who were rescued after
the earthquake last year. They were certainly cute. The grounds
of the zoo were lovely, but truthfully, the nature of the
holding pens for the animals was, well, depressing, so we only
stayed for a little over an hour.
From there, we went to see where Ethan was found. I didn’t
include a photo here; we’ll save that for if and when Ethan
wants to see the location, but it was a small hotel in a more
working class district, normally used by other Chinese travelers
from outside Beijing . Based on Veronica’s view of the place, we
are guessing that the situation for Yunhui’s parents was this:
they came from another province to give birth at one of the many
local hospitals in that district. They either found out about
his heart condition at the hospital after the birth, or there is
even a slight chance they knew about the condition from a
standard sonogram earlier in the pregnancy. Likely they had to
make the very difficult decision that they could not afford or
provide for the medical attention they knew he would need. I
cannot even imagine the heartbreak that they suffered. When we
found the hotel, we didn’t have the kids even get out of the
car; instead Veronica and I got out, I took a couple of photos
while Gregg looked through the car window, and then we drove
away. We honor his past, and now we look to the future….
Next we went to lunch. We asked Veronica to take us to a local
dumpling house – a place for Beijing-er’s, not tourists. And boy
did she deliver. The food was outstanding! But the funniest was
when we got there, it was packed downstairs, so they offered to
let us eat upstairs which is normally a party room. Well the
good news is that it was nice and quiet up there, the bad news
was that the ceilings were so low, Gregg couldn’t stand up in
the room. Being the sensitive wife that I am, I couldn’t stop
laughing – aka the picture included. From now on, all the
workers in the restaurant will be able to refer to the American
Giant who came and ate dumplings.
After that, we got the call from the Civil Affairs Office that
Ethan’s adoption certificate was ready, so we headed back
through the city to go pick it up. It was a nice tour, but let
me add that driving in Beijing is a religious experience – by
that I mean that no matter what spiritual beliefs you have, when
you’re in a car in Beijing, you pray – for yourself, and for
every poor soul either walking or riding a bicycle. There is no
right of way, and no one really cares about lanes and lines…or
oncoming traffic…..or people walking…..its all about getting
where you want to go, when you want to go, however you want to
go. So we just look out the window and leave ourselves in the
good hands of Ms. Suun….. The nice thing about the ride was
listening to the kids in the back, with Ethan laughing at
whatever Emma did, and then having him fall asleep on her
shoulder.
At the Civil Affairs Office, the government official finalizing
Ethan’s documents became quite taken with Emma, and she even
invited Emma back into her office area. Once again, Emma was a
star.
And then we came back to the hotel. We had every intention of
heading to the night market, but frankly, we are all so so tired
today.
Thus we end with the high note of the day….Gregg is the
bath-time master and he was able to not only get Ethan into the
bath, but got him playing and then he didn’t want to get out!
Another hurdle overcome.
Ethan is talking up a storm; he’s a big giggler, and he likes to
sing. Emma is teaching him Old MacDonald, and he likes to sing
e-i-e-i-o, e-i-e-i-e-i-o-e……J
Tomorrow is mostly paperwork & applying for Ethan’s Chinese
passport. The following day we’ll pick up with some more
sightseeing – the Summer Palace and then (woohoo) the Great
Wall. We may or may not include a post tomorrow, but please stay
tuned. We love sharing all this with you and love to read your
posts.
Thanks everyone!
Emma’s Corner
Hi everyone, today we went to the Beijing Zoo where I saw a
Giant Panda and baby pandas and wolves and funny looking birds
with long tails. We went to a dumpling house for lunch and my
Dad couldn’t stand up because the ceiling was too low – it was
funny. Ethan was more playful today and he cuddled with me in
the car, which I really liked. Thank you very much for my emails
and post – they were so fun to read. I’ll write more tomorrow.
From, Emma |
|
Zoo fun together
More zoo fun together
Dumpling restaurant – too small for Daddy
Driving together laughing
Driving together winding down
Our first real bath! |
