Last day here!

Well today was a slow day and also our last full day here!! After heading down to lunch we took some pictures of the beautiful garden outside the hotel.

I love these flowers in the lobby!

There is a beautiful waterfall that is so relaxing

 

The men were cleaning out the pond

 

The boys then headed back to the room, while I headed with a couple other women to the pearl market. It is located close to the Holiday Inn by Shamian Island. There is a main shopping strip which has TONS of stores and a jewelry wholesale mall. I can not even start to guess how many stores are in the wholesale mall.....100s all selling the same kinds of jewelry.

 

Guess what I found on the main street?!?! Yep more of those statues. I just adore these things. They are so neat and most have a sign with them that names them. Just love it!

This one was called naughty kids....lol

When we did enter the pearl shop, which is a totally shot in the dark as to which store will give you the best deal, there are bags upon bags lining the wall with pearls in them.

I wanted to get some earrings so she began to show me ones that were already put together. They were beautiful but many were oval shape. If you want the better quality, circular ones you need to ask. Once we did she brought out containers of individual pearls. We then proceeded to pick our own set of earrings. Our guide was helping us find ones that were the same color, size and nice and round. WOW I never thought it would be so hard but we did it! Then they take them and drill a hole in them so they can put the post on. It was neat to watch and the next picture is her drilling the hole in one of my pearls. They really are super cheap. If you din't care that they are oval and not round you can get a pair for around $5-10. The nicer medium size ones are around $35.

I then headed back and around 4:00pm our guide delivered Caleb's passport which now contains the much needed US visa!!! We are good to go tomorrow morning. I still can not believe that when we check out tomorrow we will be done here. I'm beyond excited to get back but it does make me so sad that Caleb is leaving all he has ever known. He will once again be introduced to new sights, sounds and smells. I am just beyond amazed at how these children handle adoption. They are so strong and my heart just hurts for what they are going through. They have no choice but to once again hope that this person holding them will truly love and care for them. Caleb has from the beginning been nothing but pure love and joy. He is truly my little hero. It is clear on his back that the 2 weeks before we got here were not fun. He was away from his safe foster home and not yet in our arms. I do not know if the bruises came in anger from a caregiver or from another child but what I do know is our little guy is strong. He has a heart of gold and no child should ever go through one day of fear from those who should be there to protect them. For those coming and soon meeting your child please remember that for all these months leading up to "gotcha" day you have been falling more and more in love with them, while most likely they have no idea of you. If they do, they probably can not truly comprehend what it means. The fear they have will most likely come out in tears, tantrums and/or silence. Please, please don't push it aside and think they are just being naughty. Let them cling to just one parent if they want. I know it is hard to be the rejected one but you HAVE to let your child lead the way to start.

For those who want to meet us at the airport and all are welcomed we will be flying into Appleton and arriving at 9:34pm tomorrow....thurs march 8th.

AHHHHHHH finally I can say kiddos 1 more sleep and we are home. Nathan, Katie, Ana we love you tons and tons and can not wait to see you!

Oh and I almost forgot. I finally took a picture of some milk type drink we got for Caleb. Our first guide said is was sweetened or something and all the kids love it. In province it was a lifesaver for one family whose little one was grieving very hard. It calmed him down a bit. That family then shared it with others and it soon was every little one's favorite treat. I suggest you pick some up before getting your kid. We got it at the local wal-mart and I believe it was near the formula. It comes in packs of 4-5 and was around 5 yuan I believe which is less then $1