Three hours to Gotcha!

I think I should let Adam write all of our posts!  He did such a great job describing our day yesterday. My brain has not been functioning well enough to put together a coherent thought.  We were up at 3:30am again – wide awake!  Wuhan will be cool (highs in the 40s) and rainy all week, so no ‘sunshine therapy’ to reset our clocks. 

 

I wanted to mention a few things about our Shanghai trip before I forget about it.    Ben sketching at YuYuan garden piqued the interest of many of the Chinese visitors (thanks for the new sketchbook, Rob, Joanie, Zachary and Hope)!  Eliana just wanted to run and play!  We were worried she would tumble into the water chasing after the Koi fish.  She also found another little Chinese child  to chase around and get into trouble with. I thought the picture of her sticking her head in the  stone container was SO funny! I think I forgot to mention the tea demonstration and how absolutely fascinated Eliana was, especially with the Rome and Juliet varieties of tea, where a full flower ‘blooms’ in front of your eyes in the hot water.  She was quite serious while sampling all the varieties. We bought several types, including both Romeo & Juliet, ginseng and black tea with something I am forgetting and rose  to bring home and perhaps to have a little tea party in the hotel room while we are here.

 

Our guide here in Wuhan, Shirley, is wonderful.  She met Mei Mei last year in March and went to visit her again recently, so it is great that Mei Mei will have a familiar person when we meet her.  She knows we are coming and is as prepared as possible.  I can’t even imagine what she and her foster family must be feeling this morning.  I imagine that she is quite nervous and scared, and sad to be separating from her foster family.  The female staff at the hotel are all very fascinated by Eliana and that we are adopting another Chinese daughter.  We will have many willing translators here anytime we need them!  The executive lounge is open 6am – midnight and there is always an English/Mandarin speaking hostess available.  That may come in quite handy if we need something after Shirley is gone!  Shirley has also let us know that she is available  24 hours a day on her cell phone.

 

I am so excited and nervous!  I have Mei Mei’s backpack ready to go with some little things to break the ice – a small digital camera, things to write and color with, including a white board with colored markers, a notebook, pens, pencils, crayons, etc, a Leapster2 handheld game, some candies and some ‘lip gloss’ (Chapstick type), and some Polly Pockets dress up dolls. I have a small suitcase I am calling my ‘bag of tricks’ to pull things out of as needed in our hotel room.  It is full of games, crafts, activity books, paper dolls, Polly Pockets, etc. I also have a portable DVD player that will play DVDs from all regions of the world and several movies with Mandarin tracks (Nemo, Toy Story, Mulan, Disney Princesses).  We will let Mei Mei pick out Chinese DVDs, books and CDs before we leave China.  We will also see if she is interested in going swimming in the hotel’s indoor pool – I have no idea if she has ever been swimming  before!

 

Okay, I must get myself ready and go eat some breakfast!  Our next post will have pictures of Maya Mei with our family!

 

Hugs from Wuhan,

Laura Beth