This is Ginny.
Yesterday was spent packing up our hotel room and saying goodbye to Guiyang City. Mia's birth city. As we were driving to the airport the sun finally came out for the first time since we had arrived. Oh well.
We had to check out by 2:00 but then had time to stop by the adoption office one more time to leave some gifts. We had Mia help pick out a few toys for the foster brother's and sister and some chocolates for her foster mother. We also were able to get some diapers and formula for the orphanage. We are so thankful for everything the foster family and orphanage have done.
Mia was so excited to ride on an airplane... again! Apparently, this was not her first plane ride. She got to take an airplane with her kindergarten class to go and do a dance performance.
The only problem was we got to the airport very early. After getting through security it was only about 4:00 and our flight wasn't until 6:40. Mia was beside herself with excitement but of course it was impossible to explain to her that we had to wait. Every time she saw an airplane take off she would point at the airplane and speak rapidly in Chinese....obviously very disappointed that we were not on it. When it was finally our turn to board the plane she turned into a little girl in a candy shop. She was excited and happily took a seat by the window.
I was glad she had the experience of flying already for a couple of reasons. The main one being that in China kids don't have to buckle up or sit in their seats.
During our time in Guiyang, Mia was all over the van in the car trips.... standing up, wanting to sit on our laps, definitely not buckled up. And when we tried to encourage her to sit down.... let's just say it didn't ever happen!
So, needless to say, I was pretty concerned with how she would do on an airplane and if she would actually sit and buckle up and then of course coming to America where she would need to sit buckled in a booster seat.
But fortuantely, she knew the airplane rules! She sat in her seat and let me buckle her up and did great! When she saw the dinner and beverage cart go up the aisle (domestic Chinese flights are awesome btw... great service and meals and this was a short little over an hour flight), she knew what that was! She loved eating the rice, chicken, and vegetable dinner and was even licking it clean it was so good to her:)
When we arrived in Guangzhou, our guide Wensi was there to meet us. We got in the van and Mia being slightly tired didn't put up a fuss when I buckled up her seat belt. It seemed like a good time to make that transition and what's great is that she didn't even question it.
We were driven to the Garden hotel and let me just say, oh my gosh! Mia even said (translator interpreted this of course), "Wow! Is this my home for this week?" When got to our room we realized it only had 1 bed and that wasn't going to work for us. The staff showed Adam a suite that was probably 4 times as big and when we found out that we could change to that for only an extra $20/day, it was a no brainer. This is by far the nicest hotel either Adam or I have ever stayed at and the breakfast buffet... oh my goodness!!!
So I thought I would try to include some "Mia funnies" from along the way.
1. On her second day with us, Adam showed Mia his coffee and told her what it was. A little while later, Adam was in the shower and Mia pointed to his coffee and said, "coffee" to me. It was the first English word I had heard out of her (she knew no English when we got her) and I knew Adam would be thrilled to find out that Mia's first English word was "coffee." Only later when we were relaying this story to our guide was our bubble bursted when we found out that coffee is you guessed it "coffee" in Chinese as well. Oh well:)
2. On our last morning in Guiyang City we were having breakfast in the hotel. Keep in mind up until this point we hadn't seen any other American families in the hotel or even in the city itself. But on this last morning there was an American family (very easy to spot of course) with a Chinese adopted daughter (this little girl was 5 and she had been adopted 4 years ago. Her parents were traveling around China with her). It was obvious Mia picked up on the fact that this little girl and herself had something in common. They were both Chinese kids with American parents. As the family was leaving to get on the elevator Mia put on her friendliest smile and waving to the little girl, yelled out, "bye bye." Also, keep in mind we had never heard her say "bye bye" before or really very many English words. I wish I could have caught that on video.
3. Each morning Mia has been so happy to have her hair done. She loved it when I put a ponytail in her hair and has loved choosing a headband each day. So I was confused when she took out her ponytail and headband right before we arrived at the airport. I asked the guide to ask her why she didn't want it. Apparently, she didn't wear anything in her hair the first time she flew (the time with her kindergarten class) so she didn't think she should wear anything in her hair this time. She is definitely a creature of habit!
Yesterday was spent packing up our hotel room and saying goodbye to Guiyang City. Mia's birth city. As we were driving to the airport the sun finally came out for the first time since we had arrived. Oh well.
We had to check out by 2:00 but then had time to stop by the adoption office one more time to leave some gifts. We had Mia help pick out a few toys for the foster brother's and sister and some chocolates for her foster mother. We also were able to get some diapers and formula for the orphanage. We are so thankful for everything the foster family and orphanage have done.
Mia was so excited to ride on an airplane... again! Apparently, this was not her first plane ride. She got to take an airplane with her kindergarten class to go and do a dance performance.
The only problem was we got to the airport very early. After getting through security it was only about 4:00 and our flight wasn't until 6:40. Mia was beside herself with excitement but of course it was impossible to explain to her that we had to wait. Every time she saw an airplane take off she would point at the airplane and speak rapidly in Chinese....obviously very disappointed that we were not on it. When it was finally our turn to board the plane she turned into a little girl in a candy shop. She was excited and happily took a seat by the window.
I was glad she had the experience of flying already for a couple of reasons. The main one being that in China kids don't have to buckle up or sit in their seats.
During our time in Guiyang, Mia was all over the van in the car trips.... standing up, wanting to sit on our laps, definitely not buckled up. And when we tried to encourage her to sit down.... let's just say it didn't ever happen!
So, needless to say, I was pretty concerned with how she would do on an airplane and if she would actually sit and buckle up and then of course coming to America where she would need to sit buckled in a booster seat.
But fortuantely, she knew the airplane rules! She sat in her seat and let me buckle her up and did great! When she saw the dinner and beverage cart go up the aisle (domestic Chinese flights are awesome btw... great service and meals and this was a short little over an hour flight), she knew what that was! She loved eating the rice, chicken, and vegetable dinner and was even licking it clean it was so good to her:)
When we arrived in Guangzhou, our guide Wensi was there to meet us. We got in the van and Mia being slightly tired didn't put up a fuss when I buckled up her seat belt. It seemed like a good time to make that transition and what's great is that she didn't even question it.
We were driven to the Garden hotel and let me just say, oh my gosh! Mia even said (translator interpreted this of course), "Wow! Is this my home for this week?" When got to our room we realized it only had 1 bed and that wasn't going to work for us. The staff showed Adam a suite that was probably 4 times as big and when we found out that we could change to that for only an extra $20/day, it was a no brainer. This is by far the nicest hotel either Adam or I have ever stayed at and the breakfast buffet... oh my goodness!!!
So I thought I would try to include some "Mia funnies" from along the way.
1. On her second day with us, Adam showed Mia his coffee and told her what it was. A little while later, Adam was in the shower and Mia pointed to his coffee and said, "coffee" to me. It was the first English word I had heard out of her (she knew no English when we got her) and I knew Adam would be thrilled to find out that Mia's first English word was "coffee." Only later when we were relaying this story to our guide was our bubble bursted when we found out that coffee is you guessed it "coffee" in Chinese as well. Oh well:)
2. On our last morning in Guiyang City we were having breakfast in the hotel. Keep in mind up until this point we hadn't seen any other American families in the hotel or even in the city itself. But on this last morning there was an American family (very easy to spot of course) with a Chinese adopted daughter (this little girl was 5 and she had been adopted 4 years ago. Her parents were traveling around China with her). It was obvious Mia picked up on the fact that this little girl and herself had something in common. They were both Chinese kids with American parents. As the family was leaving to get on the elevator Mia put on her friendliest smile and waving to the little girl, yelled out, "bye bye." Also, keep in mind we had never heard her say "bye bye" before or really very many English words. I wish I could have caught that on video.
3. Each morning Mia has been so happy to have her hair done. She loved it when I put a ponytail in her hair and has loved choosing a headband each day. So I was confused when she took out her ponytail and headband right before we arrived at the airport. I asked the guide to ask her why she didn't want it. Apparently, she didn't wear anything in her hair the first time she flew (the time with her kindergarten class) so she didn't think she should wear anything in her hair this time. She is definitely a creature of habit!
Excited to finally be on her way!!
Mia is still happy but some of the sparkle has left her eyes as she has had to watch airplane after airplane take off without her.
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