TRIP TO FU ZHOU

TRIP TO FU ZHOU
Originally uploaded by aimeenance.

CLICK ON ANY OF THE PHOTOS ABOVE TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS FROM TODAY

Click HERE to see Aimee get mobbed by the locals.

Today we took at trip to Fu Zhou (also called Linchuan) and saw the spot believed to be where Emma was left by her biological parents to be found. Whenever I looked for information about her home town it always said that Fu Zhou was a rural town and was mainly made up of farmers. In my mind we would be driving out to an area with nothing but dirt roads and a few building here and there. Wrong. Fu Zhou has over 3 million people (this is rural to the Chinese) and has a full city, tall buildings and crazy traffic. Not what most of us were expecting at all. We drove to the orphanage and were able to get out and take some pictures. I handed Emma to another woman on our trip to watch her (not to chance that she would remember the orphanage and get upset) so I could take pictures. To my surprise Emma was upset that I was handing her over. THis made me happy as she is starting to recognize that "yes" I am her mom. After we picked up the orphanage director he took us around town to the different finding spots of where our daughters were found. We saw Emma's "finding spot" which was in front of a computer shop on a very busy street. Once again, not what I was expecting. In a town like Fu Zhou they don't come across too many white faces. There was a point in our trip today where some of us got off the bus to take video and started to get swarmed. One of the men read my tag and pretty much told the entire block to come over and check out the Americans that are adopting...not like I can understand what he is really saying, but pretty sure that's about what he said. Then a pediatricion on the tour got off our bus with some stickers her gives out to his patients. Well these people acted like we were giving out $100 US bills. That really got the crowd going. After the stickers were gone some of the women noticed the "white" faces with Chinese babies through the bus windows. I told Phil to hold Emma up to the bus window. And of course she's staring out the bus window with her huge Emma smile. The whole thing was crazy. After our quick tour of Fu Zhou it was back to Nanchang. The bus ride one way was about 2 hours. The entire 4 hours round trip was amazing. If you ever think you've seen poor.....you haven't seen a thing. Not to say these people aren't happy. Jiangxi is a pretty poor province all together.

We gave Emma another bath tonight which went OK. We had another great dinner at the hotel tonight and now it's time for PJ's. Oh ya.....months ago I was fretting about what I thought was the worst thing that could happen on this trip. Sure enough I bit into a pot sticker and my crown fell out! ARGGGGGGGG I knew this was going to happen. No worries...I have my stinkin' tooth wrapped in a napkin. Funny thing is I was talking about this in Hong Kong...the worst thing would be a crown falling out. I know the question has been "do they have salsa in China"? Well Hong Kong has salsa, not too sure about mainland China. But the real question is do they have Soy sauce in China? Eating real pot stickers and egg rolls....but no stinkin Soy sauce. Tonight we asked for soy sauce and got salt. After 5 servers we did end up with the real stuff. Emma is warming up and her personality is starting to show. She is an awesome person and we feel so lucky to have her. I think tomorrow we are going to shop.....we haven't bought too many gifts. And to answer and even bigger question.....we found out what was crawling off the plate in Hong Kong. Some sort of giant shrimp. We saw this "creature" again and asked our guide...he said it was a giant shrimp. Still not too sure......Phil and I think this thing was large enough to call a pet. Well it's time to call it "curtains".... More tomorrow.