Older Children

The nice thing about adopting older children is that they already do so many things for themselves. The hard thing about adopting older children is that they do so many things for themselves in ways that ......let's say, won't work at home. When Jed first came, I showed him how to take a bubble bath. He locked the door and stayed in for a long time, but I fugured that was okay. Simon said he took showers, so it wasn't until two nights ago that Jed showed him how to take a bath. I should have been paying more attention. They went in seperately and each spent a Very long time in there last night. At the end of that time, when I looked up from my book, every jar of shampoo, conditioner and bath foam was empty and on the floor with all of the towels and an inch of water. Their fingers were clean and pruny. sigh. smile. Tonight there will be showers.
I think when we get to Guangzhou we need to try to communicate a few more things with them that will help at home. Like putting the toilet seatup when they pee. And changing socks and underwear. And brushing teeth daily. And washing hair. And for Simon, not throwing trash on the floor, because at home the lady with the push broom sweeping up trash will be him :) (maybe I shouldn't tell him that yet since things are going so well).
The giggling is of them watching Nemo, which seems to be their favorite - they have watched it over and over the past few days. (For those who will be traveling for older kids, I am SO glad I bothered to bring one of our car DVD players and a batch of movies, mostly Disney we had in Chinese. They have given us the use of Jerry's laptop which we had to make available for R and D to watch movies on when we got them. So far we have not seen any movies to buy here in China, but I know they will be abundant in Guangzhou.)

We said goodbye to our sweet guide , Celine, today. She will be taking a might train to another province to help another family adopt a baby. Her baby, who is two, lives near her, but is primarily cared for by her mother, so he will be fine while she travels.

We visited a museum today and saw the largest stone lion in China, and alot of other Chinese dynasty things. After we went to lunch with Celine and our driver, we went back to our hotel before deciding to venture out on another shopping trip. Unfortunately, the bellmen told us there were no taxis from 3 to 5 in the afternoon. Huh? In a city of Xty million people, all the taxis take a break at the same time?? So, we walked down the street and stood with other people trying to get a taxi. It was true. We saw many taxis, some parked, some driving, but none that would pick up people. We walked.


More trivia. I learned at the museum that the Emperor who buried all those Terra Cotta Warriors under the ground, wasn't the only guy to do that. Emperors and other rich guys were always burying stuff to help them in the afterlife - gold , jewelry, chariots, you name it. So I asked Celine, who the stuff would belong to if were found, say on My property. (Like oil in Texas.) She said, 'We have a Constitution. It says that all of the land in China belongs to China and everything under the land belongs to China. Although, in this new, more capitalist economy, people can own houses and apartments, they can only own them for 70 years. But they can never own the land.'