Shamian Island

 

Sunday, June 23rd (Day 8 in China)

Shamian Island is a place I've heard so much about since starting our adoption process.  This is where the White Swan hotel is located where many adopting families stayed during their time in Guangzhou.  It's currently being renovated.  Shamian Island is very quaint, with cobblestone streets.  It is filled with  shopping, restaurants, and beautiful architecture. 

 

 

 

Our guide Lily helped us get a taxi and took us out to the island at about 10:00.  We told her some of the spots that we wanted to see, and she briefly showed us around. 

Our first stop was to attend church.  The service from 10:00-11:00 is in Chinese, and the service from 11:00-12:00 is in both Chinese and English. We were there for part of the Chinese service, and about half of the English service.  We were the only Americans in church (that we could see), and we got a lot of smiles and stares. They were very welcoming! We could really feel God's presence that morning.  It was such a moving experience singing praise and worship songs in China, and while holding our daughter whom we have prayed so much for.  We met a sweet Chinese couple sitting next to us and they were so proud to tell us they were Christians.  Caroline loves watching and staring at other children, so she enjoyed watching a little girl on the row in front of us during the service.

 

 

It was amazing singing "We Fall Down" in this church! 

 

 

 

I have watched China's Lost Girls over and over again through this whole adoption process.  Lisa Ling does a wonderful job following several families over to China, and telling their stories about adopting their girls.  This statue was mentioned in the documentary.  I couldn't believe I was standing next to it! This used to be how adopting families were depicted.....older couples traveling over to China to adopt a child.

 

After church was over, we headed over to Lucy's for lunch. This was a restaurant that I've heard so much about from reading other adoption blogs. They have American food, lots of American memorabilia, and they played 80's and 90's pop music (Tina Turner, Duran Duran, etc.).  One important thing for other adopting families to know is that you pay for refills.   We ordered sweet tea with one refill each and half of our bill was from all the tea we drank!



Caroline was quite comfortable.
We can work on table manners later.

 

 

I can't get enough of that smile!

 

 

I ordered a hamburger for lunch.  I took a couple bites....Bo says I'm a picky eater, and I'm starting to admit that he's right.  The french fries and onion rings were really good, though. 

 

 

 

We were then off to explore the island. 

We saw several people doing Tai-Chi.

 

 

One of the many statues on the island.

 

 

It was such a pretty day!

 

 

This was the statue I was determined to find.  I have seen a photo of this on so many blogs! It is called "Lingering Music."  Caroline was trying to hold the hands of the children.  It was precious! We got quite a few stares while we were taking pictures.  You can see some of the people in this photo.  They loved watching our little girl.

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of the many beautiful brides we saw posing for photos.  Our guide told us that brides buy three different wedding gowns for their wedding.  I've read that the brides have a photo session, and display the photos in an album at their wedding. 

 

 

Hungry, anyone?

 

 

 

This is Jenny, the owner of "Jenny's."  My friend Kelly told me about her when she was here adopting Bella Mei.  Here's a photo of us buying some more "squeaky shoes" for Bella Mei.  They have tons of them, at a great price! Jenny and her family are Christians, and she has such a sweet heart.  We bought several gifts for Caroline....gifts for us to give her to celebrate her next several birthdays. We also bought some gifts for Brin and Savy that I know they will love.  Jenny has a photo album in her store filled with photos she's taken with other adopting families.  It was really neat to see! We were there on a Sunday, so we had the chance to meet her precious son.  He was trying to talk to us in English, and it was just too cute! I loved his peace sign in this photo!

 

 

 

 

She had tons of squeaky shoes and traditional Chinese dresses.

 

 

Chinese are very cautious about protecting their skin.  We saw women carrying umbrellas everywhere, rain or shine. 

 

This is the White Swan Hotel mentioned earlier.  This is where I wanted to stay at so badly! When I emailed them back when we got our referral asking them when they would be open, they told me sometime in the fall.  From the looks of it, I doubt that's the case.  We've seen several people who are here in China adopting their second, third, and even fourth child.  Several of them have referred to themselves as "White Swan" people (meaning they've stayed there while adopting their other children).  Who knows?  Maybe we'll be able to stay there some day. 

 

We shopped 'til we dropped!

 

 

 A funny thing happened while we were strolling the streets. I told Bo that I'd like to come here and do this again. He said "Sure, we'll come back." I thought, "Wow...that was really easy!" He thought I meant that I wanted to come back the next day. What I really meant was coming back one day to adopt. We'll see what the Lord has in store for us.