Saturday, May 31, 2014

Hong Kong Phooey!

I don't know why I have to say "Hong Kong Phooey" every time I think of where I'm at....must be the immature child in me.  I've never really thought much of Hong Kong, but I will have to say, plain and simply, this place is breathtaking. 

Now, go back a few hours to the point where we headed out of Guangzhou via a van and it may have been the scariest 3 hours of my life.  My hubby knows that I can't stand other people driving, but I've been pretty laid back up until this point.  I honestly prayed for 3 hours straight.  God hears from me often, but not for that amount of time and with that amount of anguish.  PLEASE GOD!  AT LEAST SAVE THE CHILDREN!!!!  The driver whipped around 3 lanes of traffic going speeds that I didn't dare even look at.  He would fly up on someone's tail and then whip over and swerve and you know what I'm talking about.  Pure hell.  When we finally made it, the driver got out and Sophia quietly says "Our driver is really nice."  I turned around, with the look of death in my eyes and responded "He's a psychopath!"  But he got us to where we needed to be.  At a random pier in Hong Kong.  Our next leg of the trip was to take a ferry to Mui Wo, a tiny village on Lantau Island where our hotel was located.  But let me first just say, Hong Kong is amazing at night.  I don't know what it looks like during the day, but the lights were just a spectacle in themselves.  We hopped onto the ferry to our island and just slowly gawked as we left Hong Kong and it's majestic skyline.
One thing I've learned about my little Ava girl, is she gets motion sickness really quickly.  In vehicles, she always puts herself to sleep right away, but the ferry was too different.  She was fascinated by the water and lights and unfortunately had a nice big barf fest.  Poor little thing.  But we made it and our hotel was right next to the pier.  Score! 

Now, several people advised me not to hang out longer than we needed to.  The adoption training also told me that Ava's world needed to be teeny tiny so just pick her up and head home.  But I'm kind of bad about listening to good advice AND my airline tickets were going to be considerably less if we waited two days.  So instead of heading straight home, we went to a remote little beach resort on an island off of Hong Kong.  We also decided to go to Hong Kong Disney!  It was right down the road...
The first hour was pretty bad.  I knew Ava was bossy, but bossy and a 10 minute wait to get on a ride didn't mix.  She kept trying to shove people out of the way to get to the front of the line.  Plus, the heat and humidity were almost unbearable.  But after that first hour, we realized that Ava has a lazy streak in her....she was perfectly happy just hanging out in the stroller while we pushed her around.  So we took turns going on rides and walked into the shops for quick air conditioner reprieves.  I'm pretty sure if Walt Disney was still alive, he'd be patting himself on the back for putting a Disneyland in the hottest place on earth.  People hang out in the stores and buy souvenirs that way.  Genius. 
Today, we've spent almost all our time hanging on the beach and relaxing.  Ava has loved every second of it.  And the view....goodness....the view is just amazing.

And my favorite....Ava and her grandma....
What's interesting is that we've used our umbrellas constantly here.  It is so unbearably hot that when the sun shines, it's just painful.  So everyone walks around with umbrellas for shade. 

We are pretty much wrapping up our trip now.  Our flight leaves at 7:30 in the morning, which means we're leaving our hotel at 4:30 AM.  Sophia just gave Ava a make-over, acting like a great big sister should.  Now, I have to go wipe it all off (Ava looks like a Chinese hooker) so we can go for a walk and grab supper.  It's been a great little adventure.  When we first arrived to pick up Ava, I hated the thought that I was taking this little girl away from her foster mom.  But on our last day in Guangzhou, our guide randomly just hugged me and said "thank you".  She said that Ava would have went back to her orphanage at age 14 to live for the rest of her sweet little life.  I hope our little farm and her annoying siblings make her happy.  We love that she's joining our family - bossiness and all.  Each day, we are seeing her change.  She hated the sight of me the first few days.  She wouldn't go near a bath tub without screaming.  Now, she holds my hand (most of the time), hugs and kisses us, and sings while giving herself a bath.  She's amazing. 

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