Peking Duck Dinner!

Thursday, November 12th, 2009 - Part II:

Tonight our wonderful guide Sara arranged for a Peking Duck dinner for our travel group. Six of the families were able to attend and it was a really neat experience! We went to a restaurant about a 15 min walk away but after the long, cold, wet feet morning, our family decided to take it easy and hailed a taxi. Never have we been in so many taxis as we have been in the past 2 weeks but they're very reasonable ($7 for a 45 min. ride) and also easy to locate as they're waiting at all the places we visit.

Before dinner I popped the Flip onto the lazy susan in the centre of each table and took a quick video of the great people we've been sharing the past 2 weeks with. It's been an amazing 2 weeks and life changing for all of us and I trust that we will stay in touch with one another as our daughters grow and we foster the friendships that have been born here. We arrived in China as a group of 25 and are going home as a group of 35 who will never, ever be the same due to the babies we have been blessed with as well as the time we have spent together here in China!

Dinner was a number of dishes that I'm told were very good. Heh, my chicken stomach still only tried a few but I did enjoy what I tried especially this hot sweet potato dish with candied sugar and sesame seeds poured on it. Oh my!!! Now that's one dish I'd love the recipe for!

At the end of the dinner the chef rolled the peking duck and carved it behind a glass wall. I tried a bit (we made it into kinda taco things) and it was good but I'm looking forward to getting back to food I'm more familiar with. I remember reading blogs of people who were in China and ate most of their meals at North American style restaurants and wondering why they did that. Guess what....that's totally me!! I'm not an adventurous eater and add to that the fear of getting sick from the food and not being able to properly care for Hannah, I've been pretty boring when it comes to food adventures. Dad and Norma have tried their fair share of new stuff but Mom and I have stuck pretty much to what we know.

Hannah also gave me one more dinner where I could eat...yay! She enjoyed much of it from my lap and then at the end was content to sit in her stroller beside me playing with toys and being entertained by a couple of the other kids that were there.

Sara gave gifts to each of the babies....these adorable, beautifully decorated headbands. Had to be fast but I did capture one pic of Hannah wearing hers. So cute!

Back at the hotel we had a bath and Hannah was ready for bed. Once she was asleep I was going over some paperwork that had just been returned to me and I noticed a small typo in her name. I quickly called Sara and she came down but said it was fine. It was just a space missing in XiaoFen and it would not cause any delays or anything to be issued with an incorrect spelling. Phew!!!

When Sara was in our room I had some videos up on the computer. She had been busy with all the families on Family Day so hadn't seen Hannah's original reactions when we met. She was amazed at how well she had done and that she was looking at me and even smiling. Her response and I agreed 100% is that it was God!! Truly He layed the foundation and many, many people had and were praying for Hannah and He was answering our prayers. Sara has been doing adoption trips for 10 years and she said she had never seen a baby react so well. Yes! Truly God!!

Sara also brought me a couple of things that she had helped us order. First is a jade chop that has an ox on top and when stamped it says, 'HANNAH, Yong, Xiao Fen, 2009 2 27' Cool!!

She also brought me a beautiful scroll that I had ordered and had been painted by hand using Chinese calligraphy. It says, 'The LORD has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes.' Psalm 118: 23; Family Yong Xiao Fen; Love Mommy Cathy' What a treasure this is and it will hold a place of honour in our home.

The LORD has done this and it is marvelous in my eyes!!!!!!