October 18, 2010

Up at 0630!! We have a big day of last minute shopping to get done. We went on the subway to do some shopping and I was super thirsty for some reason. Roger saw a grocery store but it was underground down a flight of stairs, so I told him to go down and I would wait with the baby. First, a lady came over to me and said something I did not understand while tapping on my shoulder. Then she walked away. Then she came back and said something again. The 3 others came over and were speaking to me in Chinese and I did not understand them. I finally said, “I don’t understand you”. When she persisted, I said a bit louder, “If you don’t speak English, I won’t be able to understand you.” At that point a young girl came up to me and asked if I was okay. I asked her to translate for me. The lady was asking where this child’s Chinese parents were. Through translation, the young girls explained to this woman that he was adopted. She was asking very personal questions and the young girl was embarrassed to ask them.

Finally, the young girl expressed that she was very grateful to us for adopting a Chinese child and stated that she knows that he would have a better life with us. She stayed with us on our shopping spree for almost 2 hours. She was 27 years old and reminded me of my friend Clarissa. She was not thrilled to be 27 and not married!

She actually lived in Pennsylvania for 3 years getting a chemistry degree. She says she is still Americanized and it has been hard getting used to this culture again. When she came back to China after living in the US, someone asked her if she was in a foreign country. She was shocked and said, “Yes, how can you tell?” They said she was smiling all the time and gave people personal space. It was so funny because it is so true!

We had another interesting encounter today as well. We saw a lady that was from the US, but now lives in China somewhat near Tibet. She is adopting a young boy from Beijing. She was so sweet to Kai and was speaking to him in Mandarin. She was informative about the language. I wish she was our guide throughout the entire stay because if she was, we would be speaking Mandarin!

Kai was in such a good mood tonight on Skype with his Nai Nai! He heard her voice and was saying Nai Nai! Nai Nai!!! It was so cute how he would touch the screen to touch her face. He will even kiss the computer! He has not even been in the same room with these people and he already loves them so much! I can’t wait for my family to see him in person and touch him and hold him! He is so lovable and he loves to make people smile.

Well, off to bed now. We have to get up at 3:30 to meet our car at 4:30 AM. We are finally packed and ready. I am so thankful we will be in first class. I will need to entertain this kiddo on the flight to keep the paying passengers from hearing a fussy baby. I think Kai knows something big is going to happen because he is so excited and active. He saw us packing and he knows after a train ride and two flights under his belt what that means. He is my little world traveler!