Our last day in Guangzhou::

November 7th was our last day in Guangzhou and all we had to do was wait until 4:30 to receive Charlotte's passport back with her United States Visa inside.
We decided that we would ride the subway to the zoo we needed to be out of the room for our sanity and the weather was beautiful!

Miss Charlotte with her Dragon. 

The biggest reason we went to the zoo was to see their two Panda Bears.  It was so funny they came out of the inside part and this bear came walking right up to us and looked up in our eyes.  The bear was gorgeous!!

 



The raccoons killed me!  I was sure the sign was going to say "Raccoon, American Pest"

 



 

And of course since you can feed the animals in this zoo the Brown Bear was catching some bread that was being thrown down from the upper viewing area.

 

 

On the subway, on our way back to the hotel I saw a couple who I had seen several times that day.  I first saw them on the subway to the zoo.  Then twice at the zoo, and now again on the subway back.  They were standing just across the isle from us so I  bent down to kiss Charlotte who was being carried by my husband and told him I thought we were being followed.  He mentioned he had remembered them from the subway this morning but had not seen them in the zoo. 

There was something about this couple.  They were probably in their late 30's but you know its hard to tell.  They look sad and their eyes heavy with holding back tears.  The biggest thing that stood out to me and it took me a little while to figure out just what it was, they were holding onto each other and this was not something we had seen at all in China.  They had been staring at us each time we saw them but that was nothing new.  Everyone in China looks at the American holding the Chinese baby.  May even want to take your photo. 

I have no idea what this couples story could be but I got the feeling that seeing this American couple holing tightly onto this Chinese baby spoke deeply to them.  I will carry them close to my heart I feel that this was a look into the eyes and hurt of a couple they may have had to give up a child they could not care for because of the laws their country had put into place.

 

Once we got back to the hotel we only had a couple of hours to pack our bags and start our long journey home!  We received Charlotte's passport and Visa and went straight to the mini van that would drive us to Hong Kong.

I still can not believe we survived the drive to Hong Kong.  It was 3 hours of pure torture!!   The driver was crazy fast and dashing around cars like we were in some kind of high speed chase.  On top of that he was on his cell phone speaking Cantonese to a man who seem to be yelling on the other end.  I wasn't sure if we were going to die in a car crash or going to be kidnapped.  I told my husband we needed an exit plan!  :)

I almost kissed the ground when we finally got to the hotel in Hong Kong in one piece!!