More on Guangzhou

There were so many adoptive families at the White Swan. There was a play room for the children. Gracie Mei is so playful so we were there quite a bit. It was so interesting talking to the other families. I think all the kids had some kind of special need. Lots of families back for the second time to adopt. Their older adopted child along with. There was such a range of experiences. Some people reported that their children had been so well taken care of and their province and orphanage were beautiful and well maintained. Others had stories of children extremely malnourished with major parasites. There were children who were 3 and looked like they were 1 and children who were 8 who looked like they were 5. There were older children being adopted who surprisingly had no formal education. Could not write their name or add 1 +1 in Chinese. There were 4 year olds who could not stand up from a seated position. You could see major positive changes in just 4 or 5 days though. Major miracles all around. Overall it was just amazing to think about all of the children there entering into families where they would be loved and where their needs would be well met.
Gracie Mei was getting more and more comfortable with us and her surroundings. I missed the kids so much and wanted so much to go home but I just could hardly handle the thought that Grace would have to go through yet another huge change. Up to this point I am sure she thought we would always live in a 5 star hotel with a huge breakfast buffet! lol! I worried about how it would all go with the kids at home. Grace was doing well with other kids at the White Swan but she really did not trust adults. She would shake her head no at people and if they would get too close she would act like she was going to hit them. We noticed that she acted this way pretty much only to white people. Oh, she had a lot to learn. When we would be in an unfamiliar situation with crowds around us etc. Grace would many times hit or scratch us. We could tell she didn't mean to be mean but was just very unsure of what was going on around her and of course unable to express her fear appropriately.
We flew to Beijing and then New Jersey on Thursday. It took us over 26 hours from door to door. Grace did amazingly well. We flew during the night and she slept for 8 hours and then again for an hour or so. Not bad for a 13 hour flight!