July 22 - We leave for Hong Kong tomorrow

First, thank you for sharing in our "Journey to Sarah". We are going to have her story printed up into book form so she can have the memories of her journey to keep. If you haven't and would like to leave a message to Sarah or us, just clik on the word "Comment" that follows each day's message and pictures, click inside the box and type your message, then click on Post Comment.

Well, today was a pretty low key day, except for waiting for paperwork from the Consulate; we had the rest of the day free. While Simon worked and waited for the Consulate paperwork (which came back fine), the girls and I ventured out to the shopping mall next door and then went to lunch at McDonald. For anyone who wonders how Sarah’s English is coming along she can say McDonald’s quite well and tries to get us to go in every time we pass one. She also says “stop it” quite clearly, courtesy of hearing big sister, Rachel say it to her way too many times. She is picking up a few words here and there and seems quite proud when she is understood. We are still a curious bunch with three of us speaking English while Sarah continues to talk to us in Chinese and others translating for us. The most embarrassing so far as been the man who let us know “the girl needs to go to the bathroom. She now knows the sign for toilet and tells us in English which helps a lot. She has quite a personally and catches the attention of waitresses and has gone so far as to ordering her own apple juice. We now make sure the waitress knows we are doing the ordering, who knows what we could end up having delivered to our table.

After lunch we spent time in the pool, the girl’s favorite activity. It looks like we’ll be spending quite a bit of time at the pool when we return home. Rachel is talking about getting (home, home), not the (hotel home) but HOME. At this point, I think we are all getting anxious to get home. As for me, I am thankful for the prayer I got that I would “stay in the moment”, (meaning enjoy where I am). Though I have not particularly liked the heat and some of the smells, my time in China has been one of awe for the country, for the two girls who were born in China and the opportunity and privilege to be able to spend time in the country of their birth.

After the pool today we did a bit of shopping and then had dinner at Danny’s Bagel, an Italian-American restaurant I had read about other families visiting. We were all pleasantly pleased with the yummy pizza we had. Today we didn’t take many pictures so I have included a few from the Yeuxiu Park we visited yesterday, girls with giraffes at the Shanghai Aquarium, dinner at Danny’s and new sun dresses courtesy of one of Daddy’s exploration around Guangzhou.