Sunday

Today we enjoyed another day with Mei Ling and her friend, Kai Qing. We had heard about a church on the island that had a bilingual service, so we headed there this morning.  I'm so glad we did.  Half of the songs were English and the other half were Chinese, but even in another language, it was so good to hear God's praises sung.  The first English song they sang was There is None Like You.  It has a line that says, "suffering children are safe in your arms…" and I got so choked up. Several times during the service, I was trying to keep my emotions in check. Mei Ling seemed to know the words of the Chinese songs and I found out later that she had learned them from her cousin and grandmother. Kai Qing had never been to church before.  I'm so glad they came with us. The church had a little book store and we picked up some Chinese worship music. Joshua really likes listening to music – especially Hillsong, so we tried to find some we thought he would enjoy.   After the service, a woman came to speak with me and asked about our boys. She told me she works for a clothing catalog and asked if we would have time for her to use Mark in a photo shoot.  I asked how long it would take.  She said about four hours, so even though Mark thought it sounded fun, it didn't seem like a good idea. The church is on Shamian Island and we have seen photographers taking pictures there every day. Today, we saw some newly married couples having photos.  We also saw some models dressed in strange costumes.  We heard from Mei Ling that there is a movie star staying in our hotel. I guess there were lots of young girls gathered in the lobby talking about him. Around mid night last night I had heard a lot of commotion and had wondered if there was a fire alarm we hadn't heard about…I think it was just excited fans.   We took Mei Ling and Kai Qing to lunch at Lucy's Diner.  Around the time we finished eating, another huge storm rolled in. We were soaked, even with umbrellas, before we could get in a taxi. We took the taxi to a shopping area and an electronics store thinking we might find a cheap camera for Joshua, but they were all too expensive. The electronic store was crazy and the whole area was about what you would picture in the busiest part of a city of 10 million people.  It was overwhelming.  We decided to take a taxi back to the hotel to let the boys rest and swim while Mei Ling and Kai Qing did more shopping. Joshua got car sick again, but perked up after resting in the room a while and wanted to go swimming.   Mei Ling called us later and asked if they could take us to dinner in another shopping area they visited. We met them there and they took us to a "home style" restaurant like her mother would cook.  It was a unique restaurant. We were seated upstairs where we had to duck to walk to our table. The food was very good and not something we would have ever ventured to try on our own.   The size of this city is hard to describe. I have to imagine it is like being in New York without being able to read the street signs or recognizing any landmarks. I'm attaching a picture out our hotel window – it looks like that in every direction. I'm also attaching a picture of the boys in the area we were tonight. Mei Ling had just negotiated a good deal on rubix cube type toys for them, so they were oblivious to the crowd and bright lights.   Mei Ling told me it is difficult for her to keep up with my English over the phone, but that she can understand me in person when she can see my face and hand signals. I've learned a few useful Chinese words and phrases, but am a long way from being able to converse. We communicate with Joshua with a Chinglish, improvised sign language method. I think Pete and I could take on anyone in a game of charades by the time we get home from this trip!   Tomorrow we go have the TB test checked – it looks good to us. Then we go from there to our consulate appointment to turn in all of our paperwork. Our guide, Rosa, wants to take us around in the afternoon. Tuesday, we will pack our belongings and head to Shamian again to meet up with another friend, then go to Joshua's citizenship appointment at the consulate and board our van to drive to Hong Kong for our flight home on Wednesday!