OK, enough teasing. Time to explain what we've been up to for the last few days. As I said a few posts ago, we had all of our paperwork and interviews done on Tuesday, 2/7/12. Then, on Wednesday we got Victoria's visa and the packet of papers she needs to enter the country with us. Usually we would have gotten on a plane the next day to come back to Springfield. But this time we had one more thing we wanted to do.
A short distance from Guangzhou is the city of Yangshuo, where the couple who had been Jensyn's foster parents live and are building a school for kids who cannot attend regular schools due to disabilities. Cathy has stayed in touch with Jensyn's foster mom by email for the last 3 years and when Cathy mentioned we were going to be close by and would like to try and visit, Julie and her husband, Andrew, were excited and set about helping us make the visit happen.
So, instead of boarding a plane for the States, we flew to Guilin (the nearest large city). There, Julie and Andrew picked us up at the airport with all 10 of the kids they are currently fostering and took us to where we would be staying for the next 2 nights.
Yangshuo is in the center of an area of China known for it's beautiful scenery. The tall spires of mountains are all around us
and beautiful rivers ( the Li and the smaller tributary near us) flow thru the area. Julie and Andrew got us rooms at the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat,
a comfortable but rustic place built by an American who loves the area and wanted other non-Chinese to discover it's beauty. We are literally surrounded by the mountains. And from here it's just a short 5 minute drive to Julie and Andrew's home.
After a few hours to rest and explore the grounds and to eat dinner in the resort's restaurant (where last night's pic was taken - if you can see it :-), Andrew picked us up and took us to his home for a visit. Andrew and Julie are amazing in many ways. They have both taught at Peking University for many years before deciding to move here and build their school.
The home their family lives in was built by Andrew himself (who says he has no formal training in house construction, although you couldn't tell by what he has created). And they currently have 3 foster daughters and 7 foster sons, all with disabilities of some sort.
Some of the kids had been with Julie and Andrew when Jensyn had lived with them, so she was treated like some sort of returning dignitary. They had treats to eat, presents were exchanged between both families, and the kids even put on a talent show for all of us.
You haven't experienced chaos until you've had 10 young kids running around speaking Chinese (and a little English) to 4 slightly older kids (3 of whom don't know enough Mandarin to converse in it :-). But along with the noise came an amazing feeling of love. You saw it in the way Andrew had built slides for the kids right into the house, how almost every room held something for helping to educate them, and how Julie and Andrew treated each and every one of the 10 kids. It was extremely inspiring and a lot of fun.
Today we are supposed to return to their house for lunch. We would like to do a little more sightseeing in the area (bamboo raft down the river anyone?), but unseasonably cold weather may curtail much of that. Time will tell.
Tomorrow we will return to Guangzhou for an evening and will leave to come home the next morning. Coming to Yangshuo meant living out of a suitcase for a few more days, but in many ways, it was definitely worth it.
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