Travel Journal - Day 7
Day 7 was passport day and travel day, and of course, filled with little miracles. Other than the trip to the passport office and the flight to Guangzhou, we did not have much on our schedule. We were both thankful for this as we are getting very tired. Fortunately we are starting to sleep a little bit longer. Lucy is a dream sleeper. Once she crashes, she is out for at least 7 hours. Hooray!
If you are a waiting Mom I would just like to say a few words about the beds you will be sleeping in. There are 2 beds in each room and they are just a bit bigger than a twin bed. (somewhere between twin and full size.) The mattresses are the same firmness as a box spring. It is a bit like sleeping on the floor. It is almost funny because the pillows and the comforters are fabulous. I guess you could say it is like camping with really good linens. Even though there are 2 beds and a crib, all three of us are sleeping in one bed. Baby won't sleep without Daddy, and Mommy does not want to be left out. Chris is calling us a "HuiMin sandwich." I would like to tell you that the mattress situation improves in Guangzhou but it does not.
Our first miracle of the day was the diaper change. We had our first diaper change ever that did not involve screaming or crying (from any of us.) I had to sing 4 verses of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" to get the job done but I am willing to do whatever it takes. I may have altered the lyrics a bit but no one seemed to mind.
Our little girl is extremely social. I am already anticipating notes from her kindergarten teacher. "Lucy is very active and likes to be around the other children. Unfortunately, she stole blocks from Emily and bit Katie on the nose." She is definitely not shy! We have really enjoyed watching all the other little girls come out of their shells. Some are taking longer than others but slowly we are staring to see their personalities. Lucy took almost no time at all. At breakfast time she likes to go around and see the other babies, flirt with the waiters, visit the girls in the business center and be held by the other Fathers. She did let me walk her around a bit this morning without Chris. She wasn't exactly happy about it but she let me do it anyway.
What can I say about packing up to go to Guangzhou? How do you describe what it is like trying to fit a massive explosion of baby junk into 2 suit cases? If you are a Mom I am sure you know what I am talking about! These are the times when Lucy's preference for Chris really comes in handy.
Once we got the room in order we headed out with the other families to pick up the baby passports. Lucy was sleeping when it was time to leave and I just hated to wake her up. We put her immediately into the hip hammock and she did not seem to mind too much. The hip hammock is Christopher's best friend. He refers to it as part of his "tactical gear." I know that there are lots of opinions out there about the hip hammock, but for us it is a life saver.
As we were traveling to and from the passport office we were able to spend a bit of informal time speaking with our local guide, Mary. I asked her if she had any children. She responded that she has 2. According to Mary, she is sometimes hesitant to tell people that she has 2 because they want to know why she is able to have 2 when most people only have 1 unless they are a minority. Mary explained that she had to hide during her 2nd pregnancy. She said that there was a day that someone from the government came looking for her but her neighbor warned her and she was able stay away. Mary says that if her pregnancy had been discovered that she would have been forced into an abortion. Once her baby was born she paid a very large fee in order to keep him. Even though I have read quite a bit about the one-child policy and its effects, hearing Mary's story had a strong impact on me.
We picked up Lucy's Chinese passport. The photo was taken on our first day together and she was screaming her guts out. But she still looks cute.
Every day we see little bits of progress. Not only did we get a good diaper change today, Chris got her to sit in the stroller and the high chair. She will not stay in either for very long (total monkey-girl) but every little bit is progress. He wheeled her around the business center while I tried to catch up on e-mails. As long as she has someone to flirt with she seems to be okay. She also let me walk her around for about 15 minutes today. She still whined for her Daddy but it was a little less insistent.
She did great on the plane ride to Guangzhou. It was only a 1 hour flight but the whole process was exhausting. Guangzhou is a whole different city than Nanchang. It is very big and very western. There are lots of neon lights and lots of traffic. We are staying in a Marriott hotel that has a Starbucks in the lobby (Thank You Lord!) and a McDonalds and 7 eleven within walking distance. The rooms are far to fancy for two people with a baby and I feel badly that we are going to trash it. I feel even worse that the beds are just as small and hard and the last ones. Oh well.
We got to our room, ordered room service, created our little HuiMin sandwich and called it an early night!
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