We're Coming Home

As unreal as it seemed that we were leaving for China a few weeks ago, it now seems unreal that we are actually coming home.  This has been quite a journey - geographically and emotionally.  For our last meal in China we opted for Pizza Hut.  Before coming to China, we were very anxious to try authentic Chinese quisine.  Now that we have been here, we are quite content with the Americanized Chinese quisine.  Monday we went to a restaurant called "O, La La".  Kind of funny since Chinese people can't pronounce "L" very well.  We asked our guide to tell us the name of the restaurant and she pronounced it very well.  Nothing like the O, Ra Ra we could have expected.  The menu was full of weird stuff - pig lung, turtle, chicken platters with everything but the cluck, eel, pigs feet, cow tongue, turtle, etc.  We wanted to buy a menu from them just to bring home.  After looking at the menu, Deanne and I both thought we would be stopping by McDonalds on the way back to the hotel, but Ann did very well ordering for us and we had a great meal.  There were some very soft steamed rolls that we dipped in carmelized sweetened condensed milk - that was yummy.  Another family with us ordered the local micro brewed beer - Pearl River.  Yes, this is also where the Pearl River pianos are made. Anyway, we ran out of Sprite and Bria wanted more.  I reached for the beer bottle and said I will give her some of that, assuring everyone that it was OK since she wasn't Mormon yet.  That got a good laugh from the other Christian friends there.

We went to the circus last night.  That really was an amazing circus - nothing like we had ever seen before.  And most definitely nothing like Hyrum and Bria had ever seen before.  They were on overload about 15 minutes before it ended.  I had to take Bria out to watch the last act from the top of the arena.  It was guy getting shot out of a cannon and the noise from the cannon put Hyrum over the top and Deanne came up with him right after that.  We took a shuttle bus back to the subway station and made it back to the hotel around 10:30.  Everyone was wiped out - we let the kids sleep as long as they wanted and they finally stirred around 9:30.  We missed the buffet breakfast in the hotel so we settled for instant oatmeal in the room. 

The 3 families in our group took taxis to a book store this morning.  We met a guy named River (his self assigned English name) who wants to be a Christian and wants us to meet his Christian friends here from America.  He emailed us by the time we got back to our room so we emailed him the link to the Chinese version of LDS.org and told him he would learn more about the gospel on that site.  He seems very anxious to soak up whatever he can about Christianity, as a growing number of Chinese people are, so we'll keep in contact with him and see where it leads. 

We packed our suitcases this afternoon.  Ann dropped of the visas for the children around 5:00. We took a walk to a nearby park - we had seen part of it, but didn't have the camera last time we were there, so we wanted to go back with the camera before we left.   Walking around the park worked up the appetite for Pizza Hut.  

We are all ready to go with 4 suitcases, each weighing 49 lbs.; 3 carry-ons with vital adoption paperwork to verify in customs that we are not smuggling the kids from China, enough snacks, kids books, games and diapers for almost 30 hours of travel and layovers.

Bathtime has changed in the last couple of weeks.  It took me 5 minutes to get him used to the idea the first time.  Now you can see he has overcome his fear.

The splashing was pretty intense.  I am sure that will be a hard habit to break them of at home.  Oops.

Circus.  These two were about 50 feet in the air with no net or wires.

Elephant jump rope.

This guy was about 80 feet in the air running and jumping on the outside of these wheels with no net or wires as they were spinning .  A certified lunatic. 

In front of the circus, obviously, can't you read the writing?

Another lunatic going under and horse at full speed.

A walk in the park with the much appreciated front pack.

More lunatics riding motorcycles in the wire sphere.

More lunatics waiting for the shuttle to go to the circus.  If you saw how the shuttle bus drivers drive those buses, you would agree with me that these are lunatics.

Sea food restaurant.  Or should I say, "see" food restuarant.  You can find your own Nemo and have the cooks fry him up while you wait.  Doesn't get much fresher than that!

Mom and Hyrum outside the US Consulate after final visa approval.  He and Bria are officially approved to travel to the US, however, he didn't seem too thrilled about it at that moment.

Hyrum and Bria trying out their new "squeaky shoes".  They normally want us to carry them through the lobby of the hotel, but not when they can annoy everyone within earshot of these noise makers.  Do you know how loud these sound in a 3 story lobby with granite floors and walls? 

Like we needed one more reason to call attention to ouselves...