Thursday- Our Last Day in China

I wish that I could say that we enjoyed our last day in China celebrating in a deep and meaningful way… but instead we really spent more time being completely lazy and uncommitted. We slept in, ate a late breakfast, and played outside for a little while before the humidity made us feel melted, and then retreated to the apartment to play the Wii until lunchtime. After lunch we bathed all of the kids and dressed them up a bit for our visit to the US Consulate for our swearing-in ceremony at 4pm and to pick up the infamous “brown envelope” that we must deliver unopened to the US Immigration desk at Newark airport.

We planned to come back to the hotel for a quiet dinner before an early bedtime, but those plans were happily reworked when there was a little knock on our door shortly after we returned home, and it was Shin, our dear little friend from our first here to the Gold Arch. He was checking to see if the boys wanted to go out and play, but was quickly drawn to the Wii, which it seems is still undiscovered here in China. After some lessons from Steve, Kyle, and Spencer, Shin was keeping up with the Rowley clan in games of tennis, bowling, golf, and boxing. We even had him run upstairs and check in with his Mom to make sure that it would be okay for him to join us for dinner (pizza) tonight. Finally it was time to say goodbye- with lots of promises to keep in touch and hopefully see each other again!




Here are some pictures from last night’s after dinner walk over to the Pearl River here on Er Sha to check out the neon lights.


The girls enjoying bathtime.


Charlotte has just joined in so well with our family… if she wakes up in the morning before her siblings, she can’t stand to leave them asleep and wakes them up to join her in her revelry. She often walks over to her brothers and kisses them on both cheeks (and now she also adds a “zerbet” on the end, as taught to her by Poppa). Charlotte and Lili love to play together, and Lili even tries to imitate Charlotte’s words in Chinese as she play-talks on the cell phone. But more than anything, Charlotte adores her “Baba”… she tells him “Wo ai Baba” (I love you Baba) without prompting, and she loves to feel his cheeks and give him kisses. And it is Baba that she listens to best- when she doesn’t want to cooperate with Mama, all it takes it a stern finger-shake from Baba and she readily complies.

Our new little girl is in for some many changes in the next few days. A long plane ride, a first ride in a car seat in a car (oh, I hope it goes well!), and an introduction to her new home. Along the way she will have to say goodbye to her Nana and Poppa, and hello to her Gramma and Grampa. She will have to get used to not having Chinese speakers readily available to help us understand one another, and begin to embrace her new English- speaking skills. The wonderful sights, sounds, and smells of China will be left behind as we being our lives together as a family in suburban New York. I wish my little daughter much bravery and strength as she starts down this path, and I hope that I can be there to cushion her as she falls, and help her to get up and get started again.


Thank you to everyone for all of your kind words and support while we have been half-way across the world. I will post again sometime this weekend from home… but please be patient- I expect that the net few days and next week will be quite a challenging time for us!