Leaving for Guangzhou

Our bags are almost packed and we leave tonight on an 8:00 pm flight for Guangzhou. It's bittersweet as it's one step closer to home but we're leaving Lydia's province behind. Hunan was her home for the first 19 months and we can see she was very loved and very spoiled. We're so grateful that she has been taken care of so well.

As we packed our cases she had more 'alone' time than usual and she was in to everything. Opening draws, climbing and generally checking everything out. I'm expecting to have to baby-proof the house more for Lydia than we did for Gabby.

Vicky our guide just called and she has picked up all of Lydia's paperwork. Sometimes the Chinese passport isn't ready until late in the day, but Lydia's is ready and we're set for our flight tonight. We're excited to see all the families from Beijing again with their new babies. We do not know what the Internet will be like in Guangzhou but hopefully we will not have a problem posting from our new town.

We had to go down and ask for a late checkout time, as soon as noon rolled around the power went off in our room so Kara had to go down to the front desk to clear it up. However, when she returned to the room, the lights still would not come back on. We called for the front desk and they sent up a repairman who left the our room door open...that was just too much temptation for Lydia who had been cooped up in the room the whole morning as we packed.

She went and began pulling Rob's finger to go with her, but he was taking too long putting on his shoes. Kara went over to Lydia and held out her finger and off they went out of the room together alone. Lydia paused for a second at the door to wait for Baba, but the draw of the playroom was too much and she kept leading Kara down the hall. They played alone for about 5 -10 minutes and walked down the hall to look at ourselves in the mirror. She put her arms out for me to pick her up and you could see something click in her mind, the lip went out and she began to wail....we started walking back to the room but Rob met us in the hallway. It was wonderful to have a few minutes alone with her and she did really well, when strangers came in she would cling to me...so the pecking order goes, Daddy, Mama and then strangers....a BIG step forward. Love to all !