Explore China {Zhapo Dajiao Bay ~ Hailing Island}
Most adoptions from China require around a two week stay. Typically the first week is in the child’s province and the second week in Guangzhou. Since our daughter is from the same province that Guangzhou is located in, we could have spent our entire trip in Guangzhou. We got most of our official stuff done in the first few days, but we must wait for our daughter’s visa to be processed. We have one more big appointment later this week before we can return home. Instead of staying in Guangzhou, we traveled to Yangxi and Hailing Island.
Chris is very travel savvy and coordinated everything for us. We got to spend a day and night at Zhapo Dajiao Bay on the island. It is a resort area – very beautiful. It is not ‘western friendly’, in the sense that no one speaks english, there aren’t picture menus and not much is written in english (like in the bigger cities). However, if you are ever in southern China and don’t mind those things – we highly recommend visiting. If we had known ahead of time how great Yangxi and Zhapo Daijao Bay were, we would have stayed longer. Both are so much more slow paced…we Okies like slow pace 🙂
Little One rocked two headbands today…and we were still asked if she was girl.
(headbands from My Little Dear / LuLu & ChaCha)
She is smiling more just on her own without us working to make her smile. When she smiles really big her nose is all scrunched up in the cutest way.
Zhapo Dajiao Bay on Hailing Island
Chris found it online and read a few reviews (Chinese reviews translated with Google Translator). We really weren’t sure what we’d find once we arrived. I think we’ve told the boys at least 20 times a day “remember it’s an adventure”…for walking, food, hotels, etc. This adventure turned out really well.
In the bay area you have to pay a few dollars to swim. The boys played in the sand to their heart’s delight.
And not to their delight, they were interrupted on numerous occasions for photo ops. They handled it all well. They asked if they could charge for posing in photos….smart boys. We told them “no”.
It is so fun to have a snuggly baby in our arms again. So fun!
Group shots are an extra fee, no discounts. If we had let the boys charge, they could have made a killing today!
These girls were so giggly. They wanted a photo with our 6 year old but were too shy to ask. He was completely oblivious.
Still oblivious to his fan club, he started dancing on the beach. Giggles and laughter from the ladies ensued.
Trying to be sneaky with his camera phone. I think my way of coping was to take photos of people taking photos. Total coping mechanism.
My other coping mechanism when people are staring and photographing me…act awkward because I am not sure how else to handle being uncomfortable 🙂
So peaceful….southern China is beautiful.
Being the great traveler he is, Chris knew there was a free local beach on the other side of the bay…we like free. We also like Lonely Planet. The books are great, but they also have translator apps that don’t require data service. Chris downloaded a Cantonese translator before we left so we were able to communicate the gist of what we needed.
The free beach. According to the Google maps he looked at there were no buildings near the beach. I think Google needs to do a little updating.
These pics are for their younger brother…they want him to see the building that looks like a Star Wars ship and the ‘pirate’ boat.
Hands. Lovely hands. Her hands are definitely related to coping and comfort. The more we learn her, the more we know that looking at her hands soothes her and is kind of like a retreat for her. The reality of living the majority of everyday in a crib means you find ways to comfort and cope. She must have found her hands. I am thankful it wasn’t a toy or an object that had to be left behind. I’m thankful her hands get to go with her anywhere and everywhere. I look forward to when she allows us to be that steady comfort in her life.
The boys didn’t know what to think about walking up to an aquarium and picking out their dinner.
She was so cute in the stroller tonight with her arms stretched out taking it all in happily. Back in April we got an update on her with new pictures. One of the pictures had her sticking her tongue out and it just stole my heart. I so giddy that I had my camera out fast enough to capture her doing it tonight as her daddy pushed her stroller. Goodness I love this girl.
