Tuesday Night and Wednesday- Last Dinner and Van Ride to Hong Kong...Farewell China!

Last night the kids picked to go to Subway for dinner.  That would not have been my top choice for my last dinner in China.  They enjoyed their sandwich and had fun though.  I took a picture of the menu there because it makes little sense.  Subs that require one meat or the cheapest meat were in the middle to expensive range, yet others that would normally be more expensive were on the cheaper menu.  We hugged the Sanders family goodbye in the elevator because they were going to be leaving very early in the morning for a flight out later that morning.  

 Reid's last meal with his buddy, Mason....for now!

 It is hard to see, but I tried to get some pictures of my son with his drawn on beauty marks.

We skyped our family and then I tested out some melatonin on Reid to see if it would work so I could have that as an option for our long flight.  He was pretty busy for 30-45 minutes, but once we laid down and turned off the lights- he was OUT in 30 seconds or less.  It worked!  He slept well and only woke up once in the morning to go to the bathroom and then went back to sleep for awhile.  We woke up and skyped our family again and then went to breakfast- our last one at the Garden.  We said goodbye to a few more families and headed to our room to finish packing.  I got everything ready to go and we hung out until about 11 a.m.  We then went out and got some lunch- had to be a quick one.   We brought it back to the room and ate and then took all our bags down to check-out.  The family we were riding with wanted us to be in the lobby at around 11:45.   We waited til after noon for them to show up and then said our goodbyes to Richard, our guide, and loaded the van for Hong Kong.  We left at about 12:15 p.m. and arrived at our hotel around 3:30 p.m.   First we said goodbye to Mark, Rebecca, and Sydney- they are staying at another hotel.  I think they were ready to say goodbye to us- I am quite sure they were annoyed by my boys on this trip.   We had some issues with checking in and getting the internet because we are using my dad's rewards points.  They wanted me to have him email them in order to check in.  I told them he was sleeping- it was the middle of the night back at home and that we had done this last year and also on the way over this time- at another Marriott here in Hong Kong.  I guess sometimes you just have to put up a fuss about stuff to get it done.   It was kind of irritating.   We will just hang out here, eat some of our snacks and leftovers for dinner, get a good night's rest, and head to the airport in the morning for our 11:40 a.m. flight.  Praying for check-in and the flight to go smoothly.  We would appreciate your prayers as well.

 Goodbye Garden hotel and China!

 Van ride to Hong Kong.

 Signs for Bao'an- Reid's home for the last six years.  Last year tears came down my face passing these signs- I was wishing I could get off, pick him up, and take him home with Lena.  This year we are passing those signs and he is coming home.  He has a forever family now and is no longer an orphan.  God is good!

 China customs and immigration.  It was so much quicker and easier this year than last year.  We had our passports checked, vehicle opened to ID us and check the van, and those lasers pointed at our foreheads to check for a fever.

Our first views of Hong Kong from the van.

 Lantau island is where the airport is, as well as our hotel and Hong Kong Disney.

 Finally in our room in Hong Kong.

We don't have the view of the airport like we did last year when we stayed here, but we do have these beautiful views and can still see planes coming in and taking off.

 This will be us tomorrow...except we will be taking off for HOME!  We are very ready to see the rest of our family and finally be home, sleeping in our own beds.  Thank you for following our journey and for praying for us.  Our next post will likely be from home! :)

Monday Night-Dinner and Tuesday- Six Banyan Temple, The Guangdong Folk Art Museum, and the Island

 Views from our hotel room.

The main entrance of the hotel is closed- they are making a new one.  We hear a lot of jack hammering throughout the day.

Last night we walked to Oggi's for dinner with 3 other families.  We had to wait to get an area big enough to fit us all, but it was so worth it!   We had a good time and enjoyed the good food.  Reid got to sit by his buddy, Mason.  I will never in my life forget the loud "Bao Sha Hao" call from Mason when he sees Reid....LOVE it!

TUESDAY

We got a Skype call from Rick at 6 a.m.that woke me up. It also woke Reid up a bit earlier than normal.  I think he'll go to bed good tonight!  Yesterday he took a nap and then ended up having trouble falling asleep.  The above picture is from breakfast this morning.  There is a waitress here who seems to really like Reid and she really likes him...didn't see that until today though.   I got a picture of Evan helping Reid cut his sausages- so cute. We met our group at 9 a.m. to head to the Six Banyan Temple, which is also called the Flower Pagoda.   It is a Buddhist temple.  I learned that Buddhism is really more of a philosophy or way of life rather than a religion.  It began in India and China and many other Asian countries have created their own version of Buddhism.  They don't believe in any killing, so they are vegetarians and they believe in doing good works.  It seems that bad choices can be wiped out by coming and praying at the temple.  

 The Buddha above is the happy Buddha. There are often flowers and fruits on the alter.

 The actual pagoda.  People are not allowed in it because some many once jumped out from it.

 There were a few of these things where people lit and burned incenses.

 One of the families in our group chose to have their daughter blessed by one of the Buddhist monks.

The above Buddha is a female Buddha and is very important, especially to many women.  She is considered sacred like the Virgin Mary is to many Catholics.

 You can buy many different types of incenses.

From there we went to the Guangdong Folk Art Museum.  It was beautiful!

 The guards at the entry way.

 The rooftops were amazing!

 The stone above was to protect the meeting room-keep evil spirits out.

These are ivory carvings.  Ivory is now out-lawed so no more carvings can be made.   They had some small ones for sale- they were a small fortune!

 Beautiful handi-work.

 Cantonese embroidery.

 This man was cutting these right in front of us.  We bought one animal for Lena and one for Reid based on the year of their birth.  2009= the ox and 2007 = the pig

 Furniture inside.

From there we dropped off one family at the Pearl Market since they didn't get anything there on our last visit.  The other family and our family went back to the island.  We had 30 minutes to go pick up the things we had ordered a few days ago from Michael's and to get a couple last minute things on our list. 

 More modeling- I told you...you can't miss that on the island.

In the car on the way back to the hotel, the boys were admiring little Sydney and she was just loving them too!  We had lunch in our room and have been hanging out since.  We are waiting for our visas to arrive this afternoon.  Then it will be time to say goodbye to Brian, Sara and their little one Leah.   I am regretting staying an extra day- just wishing I could get in the van with them and head to Hong Kong and fly out tomorrow too.  I played it safe though and we will be leaving with Mark, Rebecca, and Sydney for Hong Kong tomorrow at noon.  We will spend one night there and will fly out on Thursday morning.  I started packing up our clothes last night. Tonight we will go to dinner, likely with some of the families still here.  Then I will finish packing and Skype with the family again before having our last sleep here at the Garden in Guangzhou!