Hotel Living

We don't quite know how to break it to Michael.

You see, even though we have been living in this hotel room for the past however many days it has been, this is not actually our home.

At home we don't have an elevator--or an escalator.

And we don't have cards to hang on the door when we want fresh towels--or just to play with, as Michael likes to do.

We don't have a breakfast buffet--unless you think picking one of three cereals counts. And one day when Mama and Baba talk about making dinner, they won't mean using the hot pot....

 

or calling our favorite hotel restaurant for a carry-out order.

It's hard to believe anything could be more delicious or nutritious than Cup of Noodles. Or more fun than spilling them all over Baba's lap.

What we will have are plenty of books to enjoy with Baba, Mama, and your big brother.

Already this little guy seems to understand that books have entertainment value.

Imagine how much more comfortable it will be to read on our very own couch.

And this hotel bathroom may be a blast. But our house has nooks and crannies just waiting for you to explore.

OK, so there's no waterfall.

But we will have a phone--and people to call. (The other day we got a text message--I assume it was a wrong number--on our rented Chinese cell phone and it was entirely in Chinese.)

Michael is a talker, so we suspect he'll appreciate the phone. (He's already saying "quack quack" for duck and something that sounds like "go get it" when we chase the beach ball around the room. And he says "bye-bye," but it turns out that's Cantonese for, get this, "bye-bye." Yesterday I asked one of the guides what the Cantonese word for ball was, and he said, "Ball." "Yes, ball," I said. "What's the word for ball?" "It's 'ball,' he said. Turns out that because we're so close to Hong Kong, where many people speak English, that there are some English words in Cantonese.)

We have told Michael that we are going to leave this place. But even though he understands enough English to point to his socks when I mumble to myself, "Where did I put your socks?", I'm pretty sure he doesn't understand the journey we have ahead of us. Neither do we, really. We just know it's going to be long, taking more than 24 hours, and at the end we will be home, together as a family of four.

Today we went to the U.S. consulate to take an oath that all the information we provided was true. Our whole trip to China was designed around this one 15-minute meeting. It's over and tomorrow we will get Michael's visa. Then we leave Thursday morning.

So it seemed like a good idea to put Michael in his traditional Chinese outfit and take some pictures. Since he smiles more in the room than anywhere else--and yes, this is the child who hated our room up until three or four days ago--we decided to try to take photos here.

I've had better ideas.

Michael thought the outfit was fine and he happily let me dress him.

But he showed no interest in sitting still for long.

 And the lighting in the hotel room is not ideal.

Michael was content to run back and forth across the room.

Every once in a while I would catch up with him.

Even a little emperor has to stop to rest now and then.

He did some light reading.

He had to check in with Baba.

 

He reminded me that his balls were in the crib--which has otherwise been a useless piece of furniture on this trip.

 

And he stopped to inspect the hotel door.

He was just too fast for me--and my camera, which seems to have a slow reaction time.

We're going to try again tomorrow. Typically China adoption families take a red couch photo of the children sitting on a red couch at the White Swan hotel. But as I may have mentioned once or twice in each blog entry, we're not at the White Swan. Tomorrow we'll try to start a new tradition and assemble the children here on the hotel lobby steps. Will it be the same? No. But it will be fun to see all the children in their outfits and maybe Michael will even sit still and smile.

And maybe he'll sleep the whole flight home the next day.

I just hope he's not too disappointed that we don't have an incense smell pervading the house or floor-length mirrors all over the walls.

I just want to share one brief video of Michael laughing. It's just a simple little video, but it is so amazing to me how much personality this little guy is sharing with us each and every day. He is opening his heart up to us as we are welcoming him into our hearts, our family, and our home. We're so blessed to be his parents.