Sunday

I am writing this on Monday morning at 7am in China.  We will receive Maya Grace in less then eight hours. I hope I can continue to blog in detail so that I can have a chronicle for her of our journey.  So to Sunday!
Breakfast buffet again.  We met a sweet family from Australia.  They are here adopting their second daughter from China.  They will be at the Civil Affairs Office the same time as us.  Their other daughter is with them and she is ten.  She and the girls had a nice conversation during breakfast. Hope to connect further with them.

Being that I am who I am and need much order Billy took the girls to the hotel playroom while I went back to our room to re-organize and straighten.  While straightening I packed the bag I will take with us to Civil Affairs with a few small toys and snacks for Maya.  That was a moment that made it seem truly REAL.  Billy and the girls returned and we went out walking again.  If I do not drop a pant size while here I will be shocked! I love the exercise.  I wish we lived in an area where you could walk regularly in your daily life and not lead the sluggish life that many Americans live. Billy is taller than 99% of the people in China so I feel very safe with him.  We truly went out exploring.  We went up alleyways and in residential areas.  We found a small playground/exercise area in a courtyard.  Two little children spotted the girls and their mother brought them out to play.  They obviously enjoyed practicing their English.  They kept saying "Hello" and "How are you?".  The girls said a few things in Mandarin to them and they seemed to understand.  A man came by and exercised for a few minutes.  He had an adorable dog which the girls wanted to pet.  The man looked very nice and dog looked very clean and healthy so I let them.  We saw men sitting on the side of the road making brooms.  It was a short but nice glimpse into daily China life.

 *We found the girls caps at the everything 10 rmb store.  No more clothes police for us!

We returned to the hotel at 2pm as our laundry was being delivered.  For those traveling our laundry was picked up and returned in less than 24 hrs.  It smelled SO good and fresh when returned.  The cost was $26 for three days of soiled clothing for the four of us.  Billy's blue jeans were the bulk of the cost.  We had instant noodles for lunch.  There is a hot pot in the room.  I had taken storage containers for Maya's snacks which we used to eat the noodles from.  I just put the dry noodles in the container and poured the boiling water over them.  Then let them sit for a few minutes and they were perfect. We will venture back to Trust-Mart to buy more.

We met our guide in the lobby and obtained a taxi to drive us to the church for Mass.  There is a Catholic cathedral here called Sacred Heart.  The taxi dropped us off a few blocks away and we walked through an extremely crowded bustling wholesale market.  There were many vendors on the side of the road preparing food.  It was very festive in appearance with multiple Christmas decorations being for sale.  We turned a corner amidst all of this chaos and saw the breathtakingly beautiful cathedral.  It was built in the late 1800s.  *Sarah our guide is on the right in the black jacket.

There were masses of people standing inside the doors and taking photos.  They were obviously just onlookers.  We arrived early and the rosary was being said.  The beauty of the church is stunning.  To find Jesus in the midst of China was such an amazing experience.

This was definitely a cultural experience.  The English mass is held at 3:30pm on Sundays.  From our vantage point in the church over half the people in attendance were African males.  After mass I questioned our guide and she told me that there is a very large population of Nigerians in Guangzhou who come here to trade.  There were many Asian people in attendance as well.  Our guide told us that Chinese are not prohibited from attending religious services which had not been my understanding.  The church was literally packed.  People were sitting on light blue plastic stools in the aisles.  There were people standing.  The choir sang beautifully.  The rich soulful African male voices were beautiful.  Offering was collected into a bright red fishing type bag tied on the end of a very long bamboo pole.  The universality of the church was evident with few exceptions.  At the end of the service there was an explosive round of applause.  When the priest said "the mass is ended go in peace to love and serve the Lord" the people thrust their hands in the air and made pumping motions. Oh and as in all of China with pedestrians and with drivers there are NO lines.  In American we start in front and go by rows to receive the Eucharist. We realized quickly that you must stand and push your way into the line.  Upon leaving mass it was horrid.  There were lines of beggars on each side with tin buckets.  The beggars on the street had upset and frightened Mary Bailey so I could only imagine what this was doing to her little heart.  I had her hand.  I looked straight ahead and walked as fast as I could go get through them.  I wish there were no hurting needy people in the world.

We left the church and took a taxi to an awesome book store.  We needed Christmas gifts for our children.  I am not sure of the name of the bookstore but there is a multi-storied pastel colored elementary school directly behind it.  The third floor is the children's department.  They had many Chinese/English books, activity sets, etc. I would have loved more time to browse this store.  It was dark and getting late.  We rode the subway back to the hotel.  The hotel was only one stop away. I think we could easily return to the book store alone via subway.   Billy went to the Jusco deli and brought noodles and dumplings back for dinner.  We were all asleep by 8pm.

It is now 7:46 in China on Monday, Christmas Eve.  Counting down the hours to Maya Grace!!