A Fond Farewell (for now) to our Children's Birth Country

This morning, Jennifer and Hannah toured the Forbidden City, while the rest of the clan did some last minute shopping.

The Forbidden City lies in the heart of Beijing, north of Tiananmen Square. It was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties, with construction starting in 1407.

In the afternoon, we spent some time with everyone's favourite travel guide, Ma Rui, from our previous 2 adoption trips (she says hello to everyone). It was nice to connect with her once again. In the evening, Hannah enjoyed a wonderful Martial Arts show with the Lotens' 8-year old son and his Grandfather, while we did some more shopping and spent some time chatting and laughing with our guide, Fontana, in our hotel room.

With mixed feelings of sadness and gladness, our journey has come to an end, a journey that we will never forget. Three weeks ago on a cold winter morning in Burlington, we started our trek to China to meet our new son Shi Lin Yu (Quinn). Three provinces, 2 "province-level status" municipalities, 6 cities, 4 planes, 1 train, and 5 buses later, we are preparing for our final flight to Toronto Thursday afternoon.

A big thank you to our niece/cousin, Jennifer, who was a tremendous help throughout the trip, lending a hand at every turn. A big thank you to our travel guide, Fontana, who is a very genuine, down-to-earth and caring person. Especially for the girls' homeland trip prior to meeting Quinn, it felt like she was an extended member of our family. Also, a big thank you to the Loten family for their fun times over the final 2 weeks of our journey, and their new daughter, Alice, for keeping our Quinn in line. It is our hope that we can maintain a special friendship for years to come for the sake of our respective new family members, and for ourselves.

We hope that you enjoyed sharing our experience with us as much as we enjoyed sharing with you, and want to express a heart-felt thank you to all of you who added well-wishes along the way.

We can't wait to introduce our newest family member, Quinn, to you following our return. We'll add a final post after settling in at home to let you know how well we survived the flight. It should be eventful.

Below, are just a few of the memories that each of us will take away from our adventure:

Steve

Seeing Hannah light up when greeted by her caregivers at the Jiujiang SWI
10 high-5's within the first half hour of meeting Quinn
Becoming Ba Ba's (aka Daddy's) boy after only a day with Quinn
The panoramic views in the lifting fog at the Lushan Mountains
Alice and Quinn “Food fights”
Banana Bread in China
The "Waltz" of the pedestrian, bicycle and vehicle
The disappearance of the bicycle
The vibrancy of the Chinese people - hard working, full of life

Jane
Meeting Quinn and knowing that he liked Mommy for the first 2 days
Hubei Provincial Museum
Our crazy driver in Shanghai
Wuhan breakfasts
Returning to each of the girls' orphanages and seeing their positive reactions
Seeing Hannah's caregiver cry after meeting Hannah for the first time since her adoption in 2000
The drive up the Lushan Mountain, knowing that we still had to go back down
Alice and Quinn (Shiyan SWI mates) talking to each other about all the planes they saw, across several rows when landing in Beijing

Jennifer
Squat toilets, and Jane's expression when she discovered that she had to use them
Movie night with Hannah and Stephanie - Cheetah Girls and High School Musical!!
Hanging underwear and socks in the bathroom
Crazy drivers
Playing "Evil Robot" with Hannah and Stephanie
All the adorably cute babies at the orphanges
Being told that I use the word "Cute" to describe everything
Tickling Quinn's tummy
The Great Wall
Lushan Mountain
Our guide Fontana (and the funny moments we shared)

Stephanie
Visiting her orphanage
The Great Wall
Visiting Hannah's orphanage
Lushan Mountain

Hannah
Visiting my orphanage
Going to the Great Wall
Going to the porcelain shop and buying gifts for my friends
Going to the Kung Fu show at the Red Theatre
Seeing the Shanghai acrobat show
Visiting Stephanie's orphanage
Emailing my teacher and getting emails from her
Not the Lushan Mountains as I was afraid
Meeting Quinn
Meeting Evan and Grace, and playing with them everyday
Playing with Quinn and Alice, Evan and Grace's sister