Keith reporting:
Day five as parents, and day five of sticking sharp things into our daughter! We started the day out going to get Kasen her passport. From there we went to a really good Chinese restaurant for lunch (treated by our guides). Once again, Kasen astonished all by eating everything they brought out to us. (Still not allowing anyone to help her eat.)
We went back to the hotel for the others to rest while we took Kasen back to the hospital for what we hope and pray will be her final injection of any type while in China. She was a real trooper, and actually laughed and played with us immediately after the requisite three minutes of screaming bloody murder! We plan to continue seeing a doctor once we get to Guangzhou, but really don’t anticipate any further shots. She’s eating like a pig, drinking like a horse, sleeping like a bear and entertaining like the Chinese “monkey” she is (she was born in the Chinese year of the monkey). She’s not coughing at all anymore. Once again, thank you all for your prayers.
From there we met back up with the group and went to tour a poor Chinese farming village. The villagers were very receptive to our presence, invited us into their homes, and even gave us beautiful presents of Chinese calligraphy of our daughter’s names made on the spot. The most amazing thing happened when school let out. We were immediately surrounded by hundreds of children who wanted us to take their pictures. We got them to dance and shout in unison with us, and even had them all screaming “I LOVE YOU!” in English before we left. Though they are extremely poor, they seemed very happy. It’s another one of those images from China that I’ll always cherish.
After our last dinner at the Lake View Hotel buffet (the first time it was fantastic, the second time it was really good, but by the fifth time I must say that I despise it), we headed to our rooms to pack in preparation for leaving for Guangzhou first thing in the morning. We’ll be staying at the world famous White Swan where all the Americans adopting from China converge weekly to finish the visa process with the U.S. consulate. This is the final official step before leaving the country with our children next Thursday.
We can’t wait to get back home with our daughter. We’ll land in Nashville at 7:30pm Thursday 07 April. Please keep writing in our guestbook. We look forward to reading that every evening. Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers.