Wednesday, July 21...
Today we got up about 5am and got ready to leave our hotel to fly to Guilin. It cost us $450 US to fly roundtrip with our guide. We hired a personal driver to pick us up at the airport and transport us everywhere we wanted to go… waiting for us with a smile each time we returned. That was $100 / 650 yuan.
We flew to Guilin because that was where our little one was born. When we arrived, we decided to use the Sheraton Hotel restroom so that we could avoid the local squatty potties… which don’t work much for us female westerners because we can’t squat low enough to aim in the hole anyway.
We went for a bite to eat and discovered at lunch that our baby can use chopsticks. That was quite amazing. I think I was drinking my “cappacino” and she picked up the chopsticks and started using them. I was in complete shock. I didn’t even think she could feed herself. She ate her whole bowl of noodles and “meat”… possibly pork. It smelled horrible... I thought I was going to vomit. She wouldn’t leave a drop behind. She wanted to eat the noodles that dropped on her dress, table, and maybe even floor. And, sharing… well, that’s not even an option. We are going to work on this, but we had many things to do so we opted out of our first lesson on sharing. Baba got her a strawberry sorbet… she wouldn’t eat it, and we couldn’t… ice is not an option for us sheltered and protected Americans.
Mama and baba finished our “cappacinos,” convinced Mei Mei that it was time to go, decided to let her take the rest of her noodles so that we could avoid the screaming fit (which has started as of this morning when she doesn’t get her way) and left with our guide David. Our little princess is going to learn (hopefully before leaving China) that throwing fits are not going to work well on her behalf.
Our desires for today were great. We wanted to see Gabriella’s finding spot, the orphanage, to meet Gabriella’s foster parents, to purchase a red outfit, and a t-shirt from Guilin. We weren’t sure how the day would unfold, but hoped and prayed for the best.
