An early morning post about a late evening dinner

After shopping yesterday, we returned to the room and rested while Sarabeth played with her new doll. A bit later it was time to go down to dinner. As we walked down the hallway toward the elevator, we heard a lot of talking in chinese. We turned to corner to the elevator lobby and there- to our shock-were the foster parents!

They came bearing gifts for Jing Dong, mostly a large bags of treats. They also gave us an old newspaper article, which our guide later translated to us as an article about their love of children and how they have fostered several others. The article was from 2001 and showed a picture of the foster mom and a very young Jing Dong. Then out of nowhere, one of their older daughters (Jing Dong's foster sister) came around the corner and joined us.

This was occurring AFTER our guide had already told them on the phone earlier in the day that we would meet with them on Thursday.

You could tell Sarabeth was very confused. She was trying to hit her foster dad when he attempted to hug her. They wanted her to also show them which room we were staying in- Mary said NO to them. We were polite, but had to make certain they knew it wasn't in Sarabeth's best interests that this keep happening. We made the "loco" sign and pointed at Sarabeth and said you're confusing her! They "ahhh"d and shook their heads yes. We communicated we would see them on Thursday and they left as I took the gift bag down to the room.

Down in the restaurant on the first floor, another adoptive family came right up and said "there's a family looking for you!". She said they were walking all over the 12th floor (we're on the 13th), and also in the restaurant. She said they had been there for over an hour! They were showing pictures of us (they kept the photo album of our family that we had sent Jing, and gave us a photo album of them with Jing) and asking if we had been seen. This was getting serious.

Our guide was in the restaurant and we told her what was going on. She immediately phoned the fosters and told them to STAY AWAY until Thursday. She also told the hotel manager to keep them away. We'll see if this works. Our only other option is to change hotels for the next few days. If there are any other sightings.....we're outta here! We don't want to have bad feelings with the fosters. It is obvious they love Jing Dong and want the best for her. We even have a gift for them for when we see them on Thursday and have exchanged addresses with them to keep in touch after we go home. BUT, Sarabeth needs time to bond to her new parents. They must understand that, and hopefully Cindy (our guide) expressed that clearly.

So, after all that, we had a late dinner (this encounter pushed us back at least 45 min) and came back to the room. We all slept very well- for a change! Our plan today is to do some sightseeing. We are in the hardest phase of the adoptive process-- waiting, waiting and more waiting for the paperwork to come through so we can go on to the next step in Guangzhou.

We'll keep in touch. You all do the same. J,C,G,J & N- we love and miss you.

John and Mary