March 23: Last full day in China

Today we had no agenda. Most of the families leave tomorrow, but many left today. We had a leisurely breakfast (for once!) and packed a bit. It was weird not to be on a bus. Everyone says that one of the hardest aspects of this is that we can’t establish a routine for the babies. I think the problem is that they have a routine – get up, have breakfast with a huge group of people, get on a bus and fall asleep. It will be very strange for Norah when we get home. Not only will she have different sounds and smells and lots of people who don’t look like what she’s used to, but it will also be really quiet. Living in a hotel with other babies is what she’s become accustomed to. And no more riding in busses – and she’ll have to sit by herself in a car seat. That should be interesting. She doesn’t like to go for very long without being held. It will be very confusing to her when I don’t take her out of her car seat when she cries.

We went back to the Pearl Market at about noon and bought a small suitcase and a few other small things. We really didn’t do a lot of shopping while we’ve been here – I guess a lot for us, but that’s still not much. We spent the afternoon at Beihi Park. It was gorgeous. We walked around the water. Of course, Norah slept through most of it. She’s slept through most of Beijing’s attractions! Now if only she would sleep at night. We again attracted a lot of attention. People are very friendly, however. One man asked us about the babies and Joanne told him they were from Guangxi. He said, “You are very kind.” Good thing Joanne is a lot swifter than me – she told him that her daughter is a little treasure in Mandarin. I was just so touched that he would think we were kind rather than realize what a gift the girls are to us.

Ironically, we spent our last night in Beijing at Pizza Hut. One of the couples we went with has a 3-year old who really wanted some Western food, so that’s where we went. After dinner, s few of the women got together for drinks. The men had done this the night before, so Joanne thought it was only right that we have our turn. Although we didn’t have the turnout that the men did, it was really nice to unwind just a little. We’re all interested to see how the long flight home will be and are hoping we all make it though without any major incidents.

This will be my last post from China. I’ll try posting pictures again later – no luck for a couple of days now. It’s hard to believe we’ve been here for only 15 days and have only had Norah with us for just over a week. We’re glad to be returning home, but it’s also sad that Norah will be leaving the country where she was born and a culture that is very different from the one in which she’ll grow up. We’ve seen so many changes in her already that it feels like little Jin Xia Hua will remain in China and Norah Xia Hua Keeping Brown will be one of Canada’s newest residents.