LookingforLuna: February 27, 2016

We got up, we had breakfast, we skyped with the boys back home in Alabama. We took a few deep breaths, at that point the hotel could have been charging me 100 bucks per Snickers bar and I'd STILL be sneak-eating them out of the minibar. We were tired, we needed a break, and we knew right where to go: Shamain Island. Shamain Island was the home of the White Swan Hotel where all the American adoption families stayed in the late 90s and early 2000s. When we had last been in China, in 2012 for Q-Boo's adoption, it was in the middle of renovations. After renovations, the adoptive families had been moved to other hotels, but the director of China adoptions for our adoption agency, Catherine, still had an office on an upper floor. In the old days there had been a red couch in the lobby of the hotel where adoptive families had made a tradition of taking family photos. The "Red Couch" photo was a Chinese adoption tradition that we'd missed and I was always a little sad about that fact. The couch, I came to find out was in Catherine's office. Anyway, the Island had been there for a long time and was a beautiful oasis in the middle of the city and our hectic time away from home. We couldn't wait to get there. We headed to Rosie's, an American style café, at one entrance.

Near our hotel:

Guangzhou, on the way to Shamain Island:

At Rosie's, Luna practiced her English letters off the menu and Q-Boo practiced her Chinese characters.

After lunch we walked around Shamain Island:

Inside The White Swan Hotel:

Luna was warming up to me, although I swear, she'd rolled her eyes at me earlier when I'd tried to touch her. She was very careful that mèimei was always included in everything that we did- we'd stopped even calling Q-Boo by her first name. For that matter, we'd stopped trying to call Luna, by her English name, either. We just constantly murdered her Chinese name as it was the only one she'd answer to, anyway. At one point that day, she specifically came and got Q-Boo so that they could pick on K-Man, together. Luna was still hilarious. There was a time when K-Man had said "duìbùqǐ," (excuse me) but what he'd meant was "thank you." "Xièxiè," she'd quickly correct him. Although, lately, when she said it for herself, she was trying use English, "sank you." We gestured so much with Luna that we used the same gestures with Q-Boo and, finally, I'd started communicating with K-Man this way, too.

Shamain Island was lovely.

At one point, in a shop, I managed to have a successful conversation about the girls in Mandarin. The shopkeeper pointed at Q-Boo. I explained, "Wǒmen lǐngyǎng" (We adopted.) She nodded her head. I pointed to Q-Boo, " Yī" (one) and then to Luna, " Èr" (two.) She pointed at Luna and raised her eyebrows a tiny bit, I said, "Yiwu." She smiled and nodded. Honestly, people on Shamian Island saw so many more adoptive families that I knew that it was quite possible that she'd seen other kids with albinism. Then, I pointed at Q-Boo, "Guangxi." We smiled at one another and I decided to chose to believe that I had had myself a conversation in Mandarin.