Just me and 47 theives.....

So the title of this blog post is just something that kinda happened last night at the Guangzhou airport when we were waiting for the last two families planes to arrive.  It is surprising to think back that the phrase never came up previous to this but it didn't.  So we are sitting there and trying to communicate with Ally in that 3 year old way the we parents do.  Oh, it's also important to know that daddy in Chinese is baba (bah-bah).  Some of you may have just figured it out after that.  So again we are sitting in the airport trying to get Ally to understand who her mama and baba are and we are just going around in a circle pointing to each of us and saying our names, "mama, baba, Ally, mama, baba, Ally"  and then we reversed to "Ally, baba........" and that is when we started laughing and those few Chinese that weren't already staring at us looked at the goofy Americans laughing in the middle of the airport.  So it is I, Allys-baba and my forty seven theives.  I guess you had to be there.

So, we are as indicated above in Guangzhou and at the Victory Hotel on Shamian Island.  It's not an island in the sense we are all used to.  Think of it as several city blocks that are ringed by a canal that has multiple bridges onto it.  The canal is only about 100 feet wide or so.  Previous to coming to China we had decided to head some advice on getting a top end business suite here in the Victory.  Boy are we glad we did.  We have a king size bed with a nearly real mattress instead of a rock disguised as a bed like in Beijing and Taiyuan.  Then there is another room with a L-shaped couch and matching chair.  It also comes with a nice flatscreen and a desktop computer.  The bathroom is big too and has a shower that rains on you from the ceiling.  Nice!  Also it has a seperate water spout that is filtered and potable (drinkable).  That is another bonus as China's tap water is not drinkable.  They live by boiled and bottled water.  In fact at lunch today the menu even stated that you could get "boiled water".  We laughed, all except Ally who was trying her best to melt down because we were past her nap time.  She is napping now though.

So as I said we are here in Guangzhou now and even though it was only like 50deg out I put shorts on.  That felt sooooo nice.  Loved it.  Anyway, we are here to finish our immigration work so Ally can come home to the U.S.A.  This is where all families that adopt from the U.S. come for their final week, so the amount of stairs at the Americans with the Chinese baby are less.  We are grouped with 4 other families that are from our agency and we will do some touring together with them.  All of them are nice and easy going.  Our friends from Philly, the McColes are part of that group.  it was good to see them again, especially with their new little boy.  Jo is down in the lobby doing some paperwork right now in fact with one of the McColes and our guide Alvin who is really terrific.  I think once that is over we are going to walk around a bit and see some of the island.  We also put out first load of laundry in at the little shop next door.  Thats just odd.  I'll bet we don't even spend 20 bucks for a weeks worth....time out, Ally just woke up......OK, I am trying to get her to play with her magna-doodle while I finish this but she's just standing there next to me with a look on her face like, "baba, let me climb onto your lap!!!"  It's kinda hard to refuse. So I'm goign to wrap this up for now.  I'll tr and do another one tonight maybe with some pictured of Shamian Island.  One last thing, my parents and Zack are reporting we have lots of commenting on the blog and that is great.  We can't wait until we are home and can read them all.  China blocks the blogspot website so i have to send these in via email and therefore can't read them or the comments to them.  OK. Ally is beginning to whimper to get on my lap, gotta go.....

Jim