Shamian Island

SHAMIAN ISLAND...........

This island is where the medical clinic for adoptive children is located, as well as the U.S. Consulate to finalize all adoptions.

Everyone adopting a child from China, must go to the province their child is living in to pick up their child and then come to Guangzhou to complete these final steps.

All of the locals on Shamian Island knew that people would be coming here with their adopted children to complete the final steps of their adoption. 

Shops went up catering to their needs.  You could find laundry service, American foods, gifts for your newly adopted child, gifts to take back home, etc.

This made Shamian Island an "adoption shopping experience".

When Robbie and I went to China in 2007 to adopt Rachel, we were in Guangzhou, China the entire time.

Most people arrive in Guangzhou, already having their children. Since Rachel was already in this area, we arrived here without a baby.  We would be meeting her in three days!

While we waited, we would go out and do some shopping or just walk around the area. 
We met a young lady at one of the shops on Shamian Island whose name was Judy.
Each time she saw us she would ask "where is your baby?"

When we finally got Rachel, we went by Judy's shop and introduced her to our new daughter.

Judy loved Rachel.  She gave her a few little gifts.

We bought some short children's books for Rachel.  
The books were written in Chinese, so we asked Judy if we could video tape her reading the books for us.  

She was delighted that we would buy Chinese books for our daughter and honored that we would ask her to read them on camera for Rachel.

Before we left China we exchanged emails with Judy.

I have kept in touch with her and we have Skyped a couple of times.



In 2009, I went to China with my friend Brandi.  She was adopting her 16 month old son, Talent.  When we arrived on Shamian Island to complete Talent's adoption,  I was able to meet with Judy and we went out to eat together.  It was wonderful to see her again. 

 

 

So....................


once we knew our plans with Valerie's adoption, we contacted Judy and told her that we were once again headed her way.

We made another attempt at riding the subway.

This time we had no problems
Piece of Cake!!


We enjoyed our walk,
exercising along the way.................

 

 

 

We made it down to Judy's shop.

 

 
She was so excited to see us all!

 

And we were excited to see her!

 

She treated the girls to an ice cream!

 

We made plans to go to dinner together before we head home.