Sing a Song of Six Kids: Sometimes we struggle through a tasteless coffee till the last sip, then we find sugar lying at the bottom .. that's life, sweetened but not stirred well.

Somehow my last post didn't post. It is out there somewhere....it may show up someday unexpected, who knows. But I will try to reconstruct what my jet lagged brain can gather.

Our last days in Guangzhou flew by. We were able to visit Shamain Island twice and it was great. I absolutely love the island. It was probably 15 degrees cooler since it is surrounded by water and tree lined. We walked around and showed Serenity some of the places that were important in her adoption trip. We shopped and had dinner at the famous Lucy's.

The consulate appointment went off without a hitch. I was able to meet the officer I had emailed with to expedite Belle's Article 5. It was so nice to put a face with the name. I thanked him for being so responsive to her need. We had left the hotel at 8:50 and were back by 11:15. Pretty quick. We did group pictures with everybody and the reality that we were heading home soon started setting in.

Then next morning we had nothing we had to do except pack! After a nice breakfast we started finding places for all the treasures we had gathered up along our journey. But we needed to leave a little room because the afternoon was time to hop on the bus for more shopping!
(are you sensing a theme in Guangzhou? Not only is it the place to do the American portion of the adoption but it is also the reward for surviving Zhengzhou!)
We started at the Pearl Market. We bought 6 strands of pearls, 1 for me, 1 for Serenity, 1 for Belle, 1 for Nikki and 1 each to give Mattie and Donovan's brides on their wedding day, Then it was back to the island. We were able to find the shop we had been looking for and make some special purchases for back home.

That evening we bid farewell to Guangzhou and started out trip home. But that is a tale for another time. Until then Guangzhou in pictures