Jing-zilla takes the Consulate

Hi everyone! Sorry it’s been a couple of days but things have finally wound down and we are so ready to get home! Wednesday (our time) we went to the Guangzhou Zoo for ½ day and had a great time. The zoo is so beautiful with tons of Banyan and Hong Kong orchid trees and many others. I can tell that Guangzhou must live up to it’s moniker, “city of flowers” in the spring and summer as it’s gorgeous in winter. We were reminded a little bit of the San Diego zoo because of all of the gorgeous scenery that surrounds all of the walkways in the zoo. We had a blast seeing all of the animals and it was a refreshing change of scenery for the morning.

Wednesday afternoon was our appointment with the Consulate so we went on a bus with about 34 other families staying at the White Swan. It ended up being a rough afternoon as Jing Jing had not napped enough. She ended up pitching the fit of the century (REALLY) while we were waiting with all of the other families in the waiting area. That was a fun time. NOT! At any rate, daddy took over and gave mommy a break and she calmed down quickly after that. (Yeah, mommy’s pride took a severe beating.) Later (much later) we were able to joke a little bit about Jing-zilla (no disrespect intended) emerging and taking the consulate. It’s funny the things you laugh about when you’re beat up and tired! Sometimes humor is the only thing left.

Thursday morning, after our bed tried, unsuccessfully, to kill us again, we decided to spend some quality time outside as it was a rare gorgeous day out. (Normally winter time is rainy season so we’ve seen a lot of rain.) Jim & Lily did a local park while I stayed w/ Jing Jing to make sure she got a nap in. After we decided to check out the swimming pool which is outdoors to see if we could do a little swimming while it was hot and nice out. Apparently, there’s no heater so the water was a chilly 69 degrees! We actually went in anyway and tried to convince ourselves it was hot. Ridiculous but we had fun!

Later that day we took Jing Jing to the clinic for the third time because we could still hear garbage rattling around in her chest and wanted to make sure we stayed on top of it. Thankfully this time they gave her a nebulizer treatment which helped clear up things dramatically. Yea God! The other “yea God” was we emailed our pediatrician w/some questions relating to her treatment and they got back to us immediately with some answers, so we’re very thankful. We’d appreciate your prayers for both girls as we get ready to head back to the States, that the flight would go smoothly for them and us and that we’d figure out the right mixture of sleep so that we can all get a jumpstart back on to our time zone.

Today and tomorrow will be uneventful days for us as almost everyone has left and most of the shops will be closed for Chinese New Year. We’ve done over half of our packing today and expect to finish the rest tomorrow, as we’ll be leaving early Sunday morning to get to the airport. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to walk as this bed is seriously debilitating us both. ;-) We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to update our blog and facebook page once we get to Hong Kong and may try to upload some pics and journal entries then. Otherwise, we’ll be updating you all when we get to San Francisco on Sunday. Thanks in advance, for prayers for safe travels.
Thanks so much for all of your prayers. Despite some really rough moments, we’ve had good ones too and believe that God has had His Hand on us this whole time. We feel so incredibly blessed and thankful that He loves us so much! Truly, what an amazing God we have! We can’t wait to see you all soon!