This journal was made and unable to post until now.
It is Friday in Changsha and we are packing our bags. The morning was spent at the Buddhist temple on the other side of town where Daphne took us nearly seven years ago with our Gracie. It was much cooler then, although we thought it a bit warm. Today, it was stifling. And today, we went on our own. Amy, our rep, wrote out the directions and off we headed with the Braddocks and Weinbergs. Awaiting taxis in the entryway to the hotel our friendly gentleman from the elevator who appears at all hours from every corner of the hotel with a giant smile and a heavily accented greeting in broken English, jumped out of a cab nearly bounding toward us with "hello, friends!". He appears everywhere and always with a smile and happy greeting. We jumped in three old cabs and drove across town to the temple. After purchasing entrance and walking the gardens and looking at the hundreds of turtles safely protected within the walls of the temple (no turtle soup for these guys), we found shade while worshipers and monks walked passed barely breaking a sweat.
I stood with Emma under a tree fanning her watching ladies carefully place cut leaves and fruit out in various places in the garden area. They live, eat, and work here inside these walls and their quiet manner drew my attention and thought while I beat off the flies and fanned Emma's face.
So quiet and simple here and the streets outside so crowded and busy. A few nodded at the babies and several ladies inside the small shop selling small jade pieces and incense lit up at the sight of the little ones and played with them, cooing and talking to them, nodding to us and giving us greetings in English. I tried to return my greetings in Mandarin, but I am not very confident in my words, always worried my tones are not correct( and that could be disastrous in some cases.) But they were kind and responded.
After an hour or so in the heat, we grabbed taxis and drove the long hot trip back to the hotel to pack our rooms and head for the airport. It had been a last minute decision to go to the temple gardens, but we had taken our girls to see little of the area they were from and we were leaving so soon.
Now, I hurriedly pack our bags throwing things in every crevice after two hours of organized packing and while I search for the last remnants of our stay here, I get a little sad. We are leaving Changsha, the place we first held both our daughters. And this room and these short 5 days here seem like a lifetime and yet over too soon. I grab the last bag and Emma and we head for the elevator meeting our friends on the way to the lobby. 5 days and we are all so close now, have shared so much and knowing the next leg of the journey, this is the end of a very surreal and precious 5 days...the place we bonded with our little Emma and where she spent her first birthday. We load up in the bus, and Amy shares her last thoughts for us as we drive to the airport. Then, after we present her with a gift of our appreciation, she breaks out in karaoke...on the way to the airport. Her favorite song? Country Roads. And we Americans only knew the chorus while she sings every verse with her lovely accent.
"Country road, take me home to the place where I belong...."
We join in on the chorus while she sings....
She sings every word and then joins the girls in the back of the bus.
Amy is quite the lady. She loves children, loves what she does and has such a heart. A beautiful heart and a beautiful spirit. I give her the remaining half of Emma's birthday cake she had delivered the day before. She promises to eat it as it will mean bad luck for many years for the baby if it is not all eaten, she says. We bid farewell after she has checked us in and she waits at the entry to security to give each of us a hug and final goodbye. What a gift she has been. What a gift to bring families together and make such moments go so beautifully. She says to not forget her and we won't. How could we?
Leaving Changsha means leaving the place where are our sweet daughters entered our lives. It also means leaving a kind of surreal living. Our rooms lined beside each other, our meals altogether sharing the progress of our little ones...no expectations, work or worry. A close knit little group just enjoying our babies. Guangzhou's beautiful island, baby friendly streets of Shamian Island and the community of families at that White Swan will all be a welcome change, but there something I can't really describe that we say goodbye to today. Something beautiful.
Farewell, Changsha...
