Guangzhou & the Pearl Market

Hi everyone! I wanted to write a little bit about Guangzhou. We have to say that it actually might turn out to be our favorite amongst all 3 cities that we’ve been in. We’ve arrived during their winter, which is their rainy season. Most of the days have been warm but so far it’s rained every single day we’ve been here except for the morning of our clinic visit. While the traffic is still pretty thick around town, the drivers don’t try to kill each other the way they did in Chengdu. The Hotel that we’re staying at, the White Swan Hotel, is located on Shamian Island, which is right next to the Pearl River, which is the 3rd largest river in China. My favorite part about this area is the HUGE Banyan trees that line the streets near our hotel. Most of these trees are older than 100 years old and form huge canopies over the sidewalks and streets. Guangzhou will be hosting the 2010 Asian games in November so they’ve been doing a massive facelift to spruce up this already gorgeous city. Most of the buildings near our hotel have scaffolding surrounding them as they complete the renovations. Our guide, Jason, told us that they’ve already been working on the renovations for a few months already and will be continuing those for another 3-6 months, all paid for by the government.

Yesterday, we had the privilege of going to the pearl market and I have to say it wasn’t quite what I expected. I was thinking it would be this huge outdoor marketplace with all sorts of vendors and booths but that was not the case. We arrived to this huge mall (at least 7 stories tall) and it was filled from top to bottom w/jewelry wholesalers of every possible kind. Many stores had already closed up shop for Chinese New Year but many were still open. Our guide, Jason, took us to a specific vendor, otherwise we would have been overwhelmed by the choices. We did get each of our girls a small pearl pendant to give to them either as a graduation gift or a wedding gift, but we could have bought full on pearl necklaces, bracelets and earrings of a variety of qualities of pearls and them designed however we wanted.

Today was mostly a free day. Our guide, Jason, presented our paperwork to the US consulate so we had to stay in our rooms for about ½ hour in case the Consulate had any questions about our paperwork. Thankfully, everything went smoothly! Yea God! So tomorrow morning, we’ll go visit the Chengdu Zoo and in the afternoon, we’ll go to the Consulate to take our oath. Once again, thanks to Jason & our agency, all of the hard work is done for us so we’re basically finished with all of our paperwork. On Thursday, he’ll pick up Jasmine’s visa and we’re all done until we leave!

We can’t believe we only have about 5 more days here! Yea God! As amazing as it’s been, we’re really ready to come home and get into a regular routine. Things have definitely gotten better so thanks so much for all of your prayers and encouragement! I know I say that a lot but I REALLY mean it! We still have a ways to go towards attachment but bonding has begun and the foundation is laid. We’re trusting God to knit our hearts together as He did with Lily.

Jing Jing’s cold seems to be getting better. It did get into her chest a little bit but it appears that all of the meds the docs gave us seem to be working. We took her back to the clinic today to check her progress and we’re given a few more days worth of meds to hopefully knock everything out. We ask for your prayers for complete healing for her so that our return flights home won’t be completely miserable.

Lily’s also doing much better. Those 2 days where she seemed to be really grieving the loss of her birth mom, have eased up a bit and now we’ve added Daisy to our prayers at night. Once again, we’re trusting God to heal her precious heart and give us wisdom to know how to deal with things and hopefully handle them in a way that will promote that healing and trust in God. She’s still dealing w/jealousy off and on but that’s also normal. Again, that routine at home will be really helpful in getting us all into a groove again.

As for Jim & I, we’re really hanging in there thanks to your prayers and God’s grace! This has been extremely stressful, emotional, exhausting and amazing and God’s really given us the strength to pull together and get through this as a team. We are so incredibly thankful! We would ask your prayers as this has brought up more feelings of grief from our former church situation, that God would continue to heal our hearts and help us forgive and let go and let God be our defender and protector. It’s funny how sometimes these happy times can be so bittersweet. You appreciate what you have now because of what you went through and yet with the new, you grieve what was lost. Over the last year, we’ve experienced a new house, new neighborhood, new church, new friends & new family member and yet it’s been a year of loss as well. But in and through it all, God has shown Himself to be ALL that we need! Praise God for His incredible faithfulness and love! “Who am I that you are mindful of me?”

Well, needless to say, we can’t wait to see you all soon! We found out that our flight into Hong Kong was cancelled so they’ve put us on an earlier flight, which means we’ll have a 10 hour+ lay-over in Hong Kong, before we leave for home. We’d really appreciate your prayers over our flights and both girls doing well on both flights as well as prayer for something that we could do besides sit around the airport for 10+ hours. We could take a train back to Disneyland as it’s a very short trip from the airport but aren’t sure if we can get tickets or not. Please pray that we wouldn’t have any other cancellations and are able to work out those details. Well, talk to you all soon and thanks again for the incredible difference you’ve made in our lives! ☺