Today, according to the Chinese/Lunar calendar, it is
Sarah’s birthday. Chinese people celebrate birthdays according to the lunar
calendar. (In our family we celebrate lunar/Chinese birthdays and “real”
(Western) birthdays.) So, while we missed Sarah’s actual birthday of August 1,
today we celebrate her Chinese birthday. And for her, it’s the first time her
birthday is being celebrated. There is no recognition of birthdays in the
orphanages in China. (The exception is if a child has a family waiting to
travel to adopt them, and that family arranges for a cake and/or care package
to be delivered to the orphanage. That’s what we did for Aaron’s 3rd birthday,
which was 3 months before we traveled to adopt him.) Last year for Sarah, her
1st birthday passed with no recognition. Today we celebrate, and every birthday
after this!
We ordered a birthday cake from a bakery near our hotel.
This morning, after another great breakfast, we had a change
of plans. While we would have loved to have gone to Xiangjiang Safari Park
today, (It was a highlight of our trip when we adopted Aaron,) it was just too
hot and humid today. It’s a good 45 minutes by subway, and we would have been
spending at least 5 hours there and it is SO UNBELIEVABLY HOT AND HUMID TODAY.
And it is supposed to be HOTTER and MORE HUMID the next 3 days. We are NOT
going to the Safari Park this time!
So we opted instead to take the subway to Yuexiu Park
and walk around. The subway was quite an experience. It made the NYC subway at
Rush Hour seem NOT crowded at all! Oh my! When we got on the first subway, there was a bit of a commotion and two men tapped (or jabbed) a young man (college age most likely) and pointed to me. He jumped out of his seat and pointed to me and to the seat. I sat down with Sarah on my lap, between two young men. They kept glancing at me, as did most people around me. I noticed there were several Chinese women holding young children and they had been on the subway before we got on. Made me feel like some sort of celebrity, receiving special treatment. On our second subway, a young woman jumped right up and offered me her seat. On the way back to our hotel, there was the same response. On our final subway home, we had only 2 stops so when a young woman offered me her seat, I declined and indicated we only had 2 stops (quite short) to go.
Something humorous today was we were in the elevator of our hotel. There was a Chinese family with a little boy about 4 or 5. He said "Ni Hao" (Chinese for Hello) to Sarah and his mother shushed him, and said, "AMERICAN baby." Then they said, "Hello" to Sarah. Rupert and I chuckled to ourselves. (Well, technically, she will be an American when our plane lands on U.S. soil on the 14th...but she is just as Chinese as that woman and her little boy! Oh, if they only knew!)
It is humorous the looks and double takes we get, especially me pushing the stroller. For example, they walk by me, look back at me, look down at Sarah, and then say something in Chinese like, "Their baby looks Chinese." Today on the subway several people said, "Beautiful baby" to me. Two families stopped us in the park today (one was a grandmother and grandfather with their granddaughter, and another was a mother and father our age, with a little girl) and told Rupert in Chinese, "Your daughter is very beautiful." She is! Rupert said many people look at us and say in Chinese, something like, "Look his wife is American but the baby looks totally Chinese." Of course they have no idea, and would not guess we just adopted her. The majority of Chinese people have no knowledge of the MILLIONS of orphans in their country, or the thousands of orphanages here. This makes me very sad. They are allowed to adopt a child from an orphanage, but very few do - very few people here know these children exist. (An exception was after the earthquake tragedy a few years ago - those children were all adopted. To the Chinese, helping from that tragedy is different than helping a child who was purposefully abandoned..)
The entrance to Yuexiu Park is very close to the subway.
However, after riding the subway, getting UP all the stairs, and walking to the
park, we both said, “There is NO WAY we could have done the safari park today!” IT IS JUST SO UNBELIEVABLY HOT! Not just for
this Vermonter either. Rupert said that today is 34 degrees Celsius (93 Fahrenheit)
and probably the hottest he experienced in Hong Kong in his entire life.
Saturday is supposed to be 37 degree Celsius (99 Fahrenheit). YIKES! The humidity
is close to 100% right now. It is BRUTAL!
Yuexiu Park is the largest park in downtown Guangzhou.
It is most famous for the Five Rams stone sculpture, which is the emblem of the
city. Here we are in front of it.
There are hills, lakes, waterfalls, and walking areas.
Many Chinese people do their morning exercises there. We spent about 90 minutes
in the park. Here we are in front of a small waterfall:
We came back to the hotel, had lunch, and decided to attempt
the pool with Sarah. We had very low expectations. We expected she would scream
and we would each separately jump in to cool off and then we would race back to
our room with a screaming child. We did
not even bother to bring the camera (our mistake). When we got there, Rupert
went right in. Then he got out and sat near Sarah while I went in. Sarah
started crying, as expected. I got out and Rupert got back in. I took Sarah and
sat at the edge of the pool with our feet in the water, splashing Rupert. She
was okay with that. After only about 5 minutes, I just got right in the pool holding
her. She was totally fine with it. For about 10 minutes she held on for dear
life. We showed her how to move her arms in the water and splash. She was very
interested. She spent about 20 minutes gently splashing and moving her arms in
the water. Then the last 10 or 15 minutes she was wildly splashing, getting us very
wet, and even getting her own face wet. She was also starting to move her legs,
although most of the time they were wrapped tightly around me. We ended up
there for 45 minutes and she was laughing and giggling so much! We of course
wished we had brought our camera. We will absolutely be going to the pool each
of the next 3 days and will bring our camera.
When we got back to the room, Sarah fell asleep quickly for
her nap. After nap we plan to walk to the hot pot restaurant for her birthday
dinner. Rupert just went and picked up her birthday cake, and we will celebrate
after dinner. Donovan and Aaron are going to sing Happy Birthday to her over
Skype.
When it comes to holding hands, being carried, or being
held, Sarah has a very strong preference for Mommy. She will allow Rupert to
feed her (and she LOVES to eat) and play with her. This afternoon they were
playing basically Dodgeball with a beach ball in the hotel room. It was wild
and crazy and they were both laughing so much.
Today Sarah started repeating some English words. Last
night she was quietly saying “Mama” while looking at me.
Here is information on the Five Ram sculpture. “The
Five-Ram Sculpture is one of the most famous structures in Guangzhou. It has
become the emblem of the city. Legend has it that more than 2,000 years ago,
the city was a barren land with people who despite hard work were suffering
from famine. One day five immortals in five-color garments came riding on five
rams, playing their legendary music. The rams held sheaves of rice in their
mouths. The immortals left the sheaves of rice for the local people, gave
blessings to the city and left. The rams turned into stone and the city became
a rich and populous place. Guangzhou got the name of the City of Rams and the
City of Ears.”
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