04.02.09 Last night in Guangzhou

Today is our free day since we have completed the adoption process yesterday. We are the only family among the nine families in our group that is left here. We will miss the wonderful people we met in our trip and hopefully we will get in touch with each other once we all got home and well adjusted.
Maelyne woke up around 4:00 am with a smile and started talking to us. We wanted her to go back to sleep (it was still early in the morning) and glad she did. She then got up around 8:00 am and we headed for breakfast. It was a little sad because all the families who were on the same trip were nowhere in sight. We were used to seeing them every morning in the breakfast buffet. We think Maelyne knew because she kept turning her head around like she was looking for the other babies. I gave her a bath this morning and I am so glad that she finally let me bathe her with no fight. I did not have any problem at all. She was actually playing with the rubber duckie in the water. That is an improvement!

We took a taxi to the Liwan Plaza (Jade and Pearl Market) for more shopping. This time we bought her more shoes. They are just too cute and affordable and i cannot pass on the good deal.

We did not get her any clothes since she already has a closetfull of them. At the plaza though, they don't give discounts so I was not able to bargain. Darn it! For the first time we've been in China, we had lunch at McDonald's. The taste seem to be like the one we have at home so we loved it. We walked around the plaza and there was this like fastfood place where they sell all kinds of exotic food. Anyone care for scorpions or beetles? Uhmm...

There's so many things to buy here, but right now we are broke :) so we just window shopped. When we were tired walking around, we took another taxi and went back to the hotel. Maelyne took a nap as soon as we got back to the room. When she woke up, we strolled down the park of the Shamian Island and had our dinner at where? Of course at Lucy's. We are also going to have our last lunch in Guangzhou tomorrow at the same place. Funny, the waitresses know us already.

It is time to go back to our hotel room. While Henry was trying to put Maelyne to sleep, I started packing our suitcases. We came to China with only 2 luggages, now we are returning home with 3 luggages to check in. I think because of all the shoes we bought for Maelyne he, he.

As tonight is our last night in China, the feeling is bittersweet. Our precious little girl is leaving her homeland behind. Maelyne might not remember anything with her young mind, and we don't know when she'll see her birth country again. There is a bit of sadness, although Henry and I are both anxious to get home and start our real family life together. We had such an incredible life changing experience and we will always remember and cherish everything that had happened in China during the last 16 days. China will always have a special place in our hearts for a lot of reasons. For Maelyne's birthparents, we thank them for their courageous decision to give their little one another chance of life and hope that wherever they may be living, they have some sort of intuition that their baby has now a forever family that will raise and love her always.

This will be our last post from China as we are returning home tomorrow. We will continue to update our blog after we come home and get a little settled. Our dear family and friends, thank you very much for following us on our journey, we were glad you could be part of this and we've enjoyed reading all your comments.

What an amazing journey it has been!!!

Some last photos...

At the front of the American Consulate bldg. after the oath taking (n0 cameras allowed inside)...

Maelyne's first taxi ride...

At the Liwan Plaza...

Anyone hungry?

At the Shamian Park...

Always enjoys her stroller ride...

Final count - 18 pairs of shoes!