February 29, 2016

We'd be taking the Pearl River Cruise this evening. Which was a good thing, we'd be riding down the Pearl River and seeing the sights and lights of Guangzhou at night. It'd be fun and laid back and interesting. First, we had to return to the American Consulate for paperwork for Luna's Visa. We decided to just take it easy in the hotel afterwards since we'd have a late night. In the meantime, I had a Chinese massage. When John found out that that was my plan, he suggested that K-Man check me later for bruises. He wasn't wrong. Wow.

They watched TV and, after being so exhaustingly busy for nearly two weeks, they were so, so, so bored. Luna even practiced writing Chinese characters.

Finally, that evening we traveled to the Pearl River, waited on the boat to dock, and watched the lights as they came on up and down the river.

That day Luna had told K-Man that she loved him about a dozen times. Up until that point, she'd never said this to me. This night, John explained to her that bàba would be going back to work after we got home. "Who will stay home with me?" she wanted to know. John told her that “Māmā would be staying home with mèimèi and gēge and xiǎo gēge and you.” “Ooo-ooh.” She'd replied, very disappointed. Watching her face as they had this conversation, I knew the exact moment when she figured out that she’d be staying home with me and that K-Man wouldn't be home until dinner time. It was all I could do not to laugh out loud.

Luna would allow me to hold her for a few minutes, but it was mainly because K-Man asked her to. It was almost always he told her, because Q-Boo needed a turn to sit with him. She wasn't happy about it, but she'd do it because he'd asked her too. We had pizza on the second floor of the boat and then went up top to see the lights.

Up on deck, we listened as a musician played a Chinese instrument, the Guzheng.

According to John, it was custom to pat your mouth as the boat sailed under bridges, so we did. Under all of them. I'm fairly certain that it was at these moments that Luna was thinking to herself, "I'm going to be stuck at home with this woman? Really?" The looks on her face were hilarious.

It was laid back and fun and interesting. Most of the people on board the boat were other adoptive families, there was no where for the kids to go, there was music and lights and people who understood what we were going through. So we let the kids run and we laughed a lot.

There was another little boy who was also being adopted and, since he and Luna could understand each other, they hung out. Luna took him all over the boat, chattering in Chinese and pointing at the lights. "She's teaching him about everything,” said, John. “She’s such a good little teacher.” I don’t think I would have used the word “teach,” but I didn't care. Whatever worked. I wished that I could understand what they were saying to one another.

Q-Boo made a friend of his new adoptive sister, who was also Chinese and adopted previously, like Q-Boo. This was one of the many reasons that we'd brought Q-Boo with us on this trip, her own experiences were being normalized and this was a good thing.

Interestingly, Luna made another friend. The little girl (below) in the "Shall We Dance" jacket was one of the few Chinese tourists on the boat with us. She and Luna swiftly became friends, speaking quickly and loudly in Mandarin to one another. Whatever did Luna tell her about us? What did she report about her experiences with this strange foreign family?

That night, back at the hotel, we were all exhausted. While I helped her put on her pajamas, I explained to Q-Boo that the next day would be the last full day that we'd spend In China. "Why did we have to wait so long?" she wanted to know. I explained about the Visa and how it was necessary, "….so that when we go home we can take Luna with us...” Q-Boo sighed, “Home…” and fell over onto the bed. Me too, honey. Me too.

Februrary 28, 2016

This day we would load up in a bus full of other adoptive families and we'd drive across Guangzho, to spend the day at Chimelong Safari Park. We knew that it'd be an exhausting day and we really didn't have the energy, some families chose to skip it, but we'd done it once before and knew that it wasn't something that we wanted to miss. Chimelong Safari Park has large populations of breeding animals, is one of the biggest zoos in all of China, and it is impressive.

Panda house:

(This was my life.)

White tigers:

Safari ride:

She fell asleep.

Everyone was worn out.

We were off the safari ride and back out in the park, watching more animals, when a Chinese tourist walked up to Luna and stuck her camera right in her face, chattering in Chinese. The lady pushed Luna's hat back and pulled her glasses down to take a photo.

She.touched.my.child.

John and K-Man were standing with Luna when it happened so I stayed where I was. I waited on them to handle the situation, I was focused on maintaining my composure, I was a visitor, her father and our guide could handle it, right? They just kind of froze in shock and watched it happen. After the tourist took her picture and went on her way, I felt very angry. In a lot of ways, Luna became MY child at that moment. Gah, I was furious.

I took a deep breath and I told John and K-Man, "If the two of you can not protect her from people taking advantage of her- doing exactly what just happened- I will protect her.  Either deal with people like that, or I WILL and it will be ugly."

At that moment I stopped caring about being "nice" inside of China and I, for sure, became a mother for the fifth time. The picture below would have been made right after that happened, she was not going to let me hug her, but I didn't want to forget. I won't ever forget. I remember thinking something along the essence of, "Little girl, you may hate my guts forever. I'll learn to be okay with that...but no one will ever hurt you again."

Momma bear? Check.

Finally, on our way out of the zoo, and I told the girls that they could pick whatever they wanted (within reason.) Q-Boo chose babies for her Bamboo Panda that we'd bought earlier. Luna picked another backpack. Q-Boo also picked souvenirs for the boys.

(Yep, I'm still mad.)