Update: we slept 11 hours.
If you wonder what we looked like yesterday, look here.
I’m going to back up and try to wend my way through the fog of memory to fill in blanks of yesterday.
We landed in Guangzhou, China and I felt like I’d come full circle. For years Nick and I tried to adopt from China and our paperwork went through offices in this city. If we had been successful adopting, we would have met our daughter in Guangzhou. Arriving in the city with my 9 year old daughter gave me chills and I thanked my lucky stars I get to be Vivian’s mom.
How Viv got her name:
When we were trying to adopt, we wanted to name our future daughter so we could talk about her as a person rather than an idea. We chose Vivian for several reasons:
- Nick’s great aunt
- The root means alive
- My middle name is Anne so my daughter and I would have a bit of commonality
- Endless nickname possibilities
- We think it’s a beautiful name
was born and hit the ground running, we knew her by name.
Hang on. I’m feeling very full of love.
I’m not crying.
It’s time to explain the shirt.
Tiffany and I met at orientation for the Fulbright and I knew as soon as I saw her that we’d be friends.
We met in DC so I’ll always be grateful to that city and think of it as Where I Met Tiffany.
Every time I go somewhere new, I look for a shirt like this and take a picture.
When Viv and I met up with Tiffany in Brussels, she was cold and wanted a sweatshirt but the only one she could find that fit was I ❤️ Brussels.
Accurate. We do ❤️ Brussels!
Can you believe all that chocolate? What’s not to ❤️??
Tiffany and I met Al at orientation. Viv and I met up with him in Amsterdam and got great advice: always get souvenirs and mail them if you have no room in your luggage. Wise words, Al.
So Tiffany and I met at orientation.
And we are both going to orientation this year as alumni!
We try to get together when we can, but it’s tough because she’s in California and we are now in Nee York. But we did get together in Finland during our Fulbrights.
My advice via Al and via experiences with Tiffany is: get the souvenir and match it with a memory if you can.
Now...back to current life.
There’s a play area at the airport in Guangzhou and Viv made the most of it:
Then we were up, up, and away again:
Check out our first glimpse of Thailand!
And the view from our hotel room!
Viv made a friend at the pool (Ella) and the two of them swam all over like wee fish and pretended to be mermaids by flopping up and sliding on a flat part of the pool.
One of the men working at the hotel had to tell Ella’s brother - several times - to pull up his bathing suit. Imagine the giggles as Viv reported this to me. The poor little boy was having so much fun and trying to keep up with his sister and her new friend that he almost left behind his shorts.
Then it was the marathon sleep session after a shower and it was divine.
This morning we got room service because we were up before breakfast started.
Of course, breakfast was beautiful - not just because I got two pots of coffee, but also because they present the fruit like this:
The sun is finally coming out and we are going to meet our ride to go to the elephant sanctuary.
No comments:
Post a Comment