Another incredible day here in China. To be honest, part of me was a bit anxious about the trip just because I knew there would be so many elements in play - the constant travel, the emotions of the adoption experience and so forth - but we are having the trip of our lives. New people, new vistas, familiar haunts, and so much more. Every day is literally an adventure.
This morning we woke up in Nanping and Spring Flower and I met Sophie for "Operation Finding Flyer Distribution." We spent about an hour and a half walking from park to park talking to people and handing out flyers. The people of Nanping were absolutely wonderful. They immediately wanted to do what they could to help. They suggested contacting the orphanage and the government (gee, why didn't we think of that?) but also suggested putting up posters (which I fortunately came prepared to do) but what they did most was tell SF what a beautiful girl she is and that she will find her birth family and that they will do whatever they can to help. They would pat her arm and just give her huge smiles. After a while, we had drawn a crowd of probably close to 40 people and it got a bit crazy as we got separated from Sophie and weren't able to ask or answer any questions. It was about at this point that SF started to get very emotional, quickly followed by me, and then, believe it or not, even Sophie. Three women completely overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of spirit of the people of Nanping who treated SF like a returning rock star. I will never forget this day.
SF and me with some park goers, holding flyers, before things got really crowded.
After the park experience, it was a bit hard to change gears but we had agreed to meet one of the orphanage workers for a walking tour of one of the mountains just across the walking bridge that you can see in the background of the photo above. It was insanely hot and humid by the time we set out at about 9:30 but we did climb the first part of the mountain. It was gorgeous and shady and breezy but we decided not to go any higher as we knew we had a long day ahead. We sat to enjoy the breezes when SF found a fairly malnourished dog along a path. She asked if she could pet it and I told her to be extremely careful.
Unfortunately we didn't have any food, but I poured water into her hands and the dog gratefully drank the water. We didn't want to give him too much so then SF just sat and patted him for about 15 minutes. He seemed to love it. When we had to leave, it was tough for her to walk away and gut-wrenchingly, he began to follow her. A very difficult few minutes ensued and I know part of it dealt with all that SF had experienced in the preceding 24 hours.
Then it was time to depart Nanping and catch a train back to Fuzhou, We absolutely loved the new bullet train between Nanping and Fuzhou and the station is wonderfully modern. Below are SF and Flying Sparrow, waiting for a train American style.
After an easy 45 minute train ride we had an hour-long drive to the Fuzhou airport. Sophie got us settled in at our gate before she headed to her own gate on her way to Beijing. After only knowing her for a bit more than 24 hours, it was tough for me and the girls to say goodbye. She was so very good to us and so understanding of SF's need to try to make some sort of birth family contact.
One very easy and relatively ontime flight later, we arrived in Xi'an and we met by yet another guide, Jerry. We always get a kick out of the names chosen by the guides, to accommodate the Americans who typically can't handle the actual Chinese names.
We're now settled in to our beautiful hotel in Xi'an and are ready to explore another famous city in China. We will rejoin our travel group for the morning before they head off to Chengdu and we try to catch up on Xi'an. After Xi'an we will truly rejoin them in Guilin. So for the next few days it will be just us and Jerry and maybe a few thousand Terra Cotta Warriors!
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