Thoughts on Chongqing

As I'm sitting here for our last night in Chongqing, the county/province that Faith was living in before she came to us, I'm feeling rather sentimental, grateful, thankful and so DARNED happy - all rolled into one.

Our time in Chongqing has been nothing less than wonderful. We MUCH prefer Chongqing to Beijing (that said, not sure if we gave Beijing and good enough 'chance'). We really hope to bring Faith back here when she is a little older to go to where she is actually from (about a 5-8 hour train ride in Xiushan). There are so many wonderful things we've learned from our guide, Michael...HE has been nothing less than wonderful.

Chongqing is about 400 KM in diameter, has a total of 32+ million people, with 8 million just within the downtown core. It has been amazing driving to and fro with Michael, I often have my camera in hand snapping and videoing. He must think I'm a lunatic! How high rises are built into the side of mountains is quite the site to see.... How people drive their cars and motorcycles is scary (but not Michael)...

Michael was quite the comedian...had us laughing alot with funny little 'tid-bits' about Chongqing. Some of them are:
There are not too many bikes in Chongqing because it's such a hilly, mountainous area. So he said, people often have to take "Bus 11" (meaning walking - 11 being like 2 legs). He said this is why they are so 'fit' around here.

He said there are 3 things you have to do before crossing the street:
1. Close your eyes.

2. Make a wish.

3. RUN

As we spoke about driving in Chongqing, he said he was the 2nd best driver here. When we asked who was the BEST driver, he said 'they were in the hospital'!!!
When we were out, he would help us carry groceries, help us push/carrier the stroller, speak to Faith in Mandarin to help her understand, translate for us when needed, helped me find deodorant that we never found, shared with us one of the most breath taking moments of our lives and even LOANED us over $1000 (when we forgot our money for the Adoption Services in the hotel room safe). We have shared one of our families' most intimate moments with him. Possibly it's just a job to him, but we have thoroughly enjoyed his services and company! He is really great at what he does and when we come back, we will definitely use his services (hopefully, he will still be available - I hope so, he's already been in the business for 13-14 years already)! He told us that international adoptions are down dramatically, we are the 56th adoption in Chongqing this year (where as in 2005-2006, I think, there were 1000-1500 in each of those years).

We head back to Beijing tomorrow (at 6:30 pm Friday night China time, or 5:30 am Ontario time or 6:30 am NB time) night. Our flight is about 2.5 hours, so we should be into the airport around 9:00 pm and back to the hotel by 10-10:30 possibly a little later. It will certainly be a long day and we pray Faith does well on her first flight. Once back in Beijing, the Internet is not so great, and our schedule is really full...so I probably will not be online much. We will be in touch when we can!