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Thursday, August 9, 2012

July 15

We're off to Guangxi, our baby girl's province!

From Beijing it's about two hours south by airplane.







"Bye-bye Beijing!"
"Hello, Nanning, Guangxi!"

Honestly, we were exhausted. 

And, I was  really starting to miss the boys. 

The flight was egads! That’s got to be the most cramped I’ve ever been on a flight. K-Man says, “No," but what’d he do on a more cramped one?  Cut off his legs?  

Nanning is known as "The Green City," in China and it is true!  It was wonderful - very green and pretty, with flowers and  palm trees. It is considered "sub-tropical" so think Miami, Florida in July- it's also hot and muggy and Lyric is from a town three hours south of there so think DEEP Florida...in July. As we flew in, we actually saw from the air, terraced mountains which are so beautiful but, I'm sure, awful to work in. The fields were nestled into limestone outcroppings that had been carved down to strange but lovely shapes by rain and erosion and then overgrown with green growth hanging from their tops. In fact, Guangxi is a province known for its landscapes but we wouldn't be seeing any of that this time. This time was about Q-Boo. I am, however, looking forward to going back one day and seeing it all. :)

If it is possible the traffic was WORSE.  It's not as big as Beijing (and much more "middle-sized city" feeling than Beijing) but there were cars and buses and bicycles and home-made transportation and motorbikes (with toddlers standing in front of their parents or sitting on the back with no helmets and no kids’ seats, just RIGHT THERE in the open, right next to our vehicle) and pedestrians all flying past one another and darting into traffic and wow, wow, wow, just wow.


In California, it is legal for the motorcycles to whizz between the cars in traffic.
 It freaked me out when we lived there because they'd get so close. Not anymore.
That is mere child's play compared to THIS traffic.

Okay, look right in front of the woman in the yellow coat.
See? Standing right up against her?
That's her small child.
Oh, yeah. Saw it all the time.

Our guide, "Glen," met us at the airport, he was very nice and spoke very good English. Later, K-Man would say, "I swear I heard an Australian accent in his Chinese English and I thought I was going nuts." Glen told us that he had, in fact, spent two years in Australia and he was very interesting. He was from Nanning and after I mentioned that we were from the American south and that we have a reputation for mutilating the English language (and therefore not being the brightest people in the USA - a reputation not deserved, by the way :) ) Glen had smiled broadly and said that people in the south of China had the same reputation. Hahaha I find that funny.  Lyric just seems destined to have a southern accent.

He gave us some new info on Q-Boo, seems her hair had been falling out due to a Calcium deficiency and she was on meds to correct.  More recently, her hair had stopped falling out (but they did buzz it right before they brought her to us.)

(This new information did help with understanding her recent photos.  In May she'd had hair, in early July her head had more resembled Bozo the Clown.  She was still  waaaay cute but I remember asking K-Man, "Does her hair look funky to you? What is UP with her hair?"  :) )


May 11, 2012
July 8, 2012
(I have one from the side that is like "really wow," but it won't upload.) 

Glen was going to meet Q-Boo, her caregiver from the orphanage (NOT the foster mom, I wasn't sure how that worked) a paperwork guy, and the orphanage director in the lobby of the hotel at 2:30 the next day and then they would bring her to our room. He said it like he was giving us driving directions and it took a few moments for my brain to really hear it. And then...

All I could focus on was,

"They’re bringing my daughter to our hotel room, tomorrow at 2:30pm."

<giggle…sob…giggle>

"TOMORROW!!!!"






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