Yesterday was our last full day in Zhengzhou.  Our guides offered a few options for tours, but I was looking forward to a day of not driving to this place or that, so we opted out of the tour, as did all but 1 of the other families.  Our guide told us about a children’s area in a nearby shopping complex, so we decided to check that out.  It was pretty quiet in the mall, and no other children were playing here.  When the climbing structure started putting Evan in a harness and helmet, I got a little nervous, but it turned to be extremely safe 😊  The boys climbed for a bit, went down a GIANT (2 story?) wavy slide into a ball pit, and raced cars.  

On the walk back we saw a little French-looking bakery and we stopped to bring back little pizza-type bread and other delicious things for lunch.

Later while the boys vegged out with a movie, Tom took a cab back to our last hotel for his tennis shoes we had left there 😊 and he stopped back at the bakery for a phenomenal chocolate cake he surprised me with.  It was a  precious moment to have my three gifts around me on my birthday.

We also received Gemma's Chinese passport.  There had been issues at the passport office and there was a concern that the passports would not be ready at all, but our guides are really miracle workers and push hard and kindly to get us everything that we need.

At 5pm our guides surprised us in our room with a gift for me- a beautiful Chinese tea set.  Vivian was our guide back in 2012 when we adopted Ben.  She took us on the long trip to see his institute and was just a great friend that trip.  In 2014 when we were adopting Evan, Vivian was at Xinyang and overheard that we were coming for Evan, and she sent us the most lovely video of him a few months before we traveled.  Rita was our guide for that adoption, but Vivian met us for dinner on that trip also.  On that trip we got to know Rita, and it was SO awesome on this trip to find out they would both be our guides.  They both go out of their way to get to know you, share with you, encourage your family, make suggestions, and share about life in China. Having them in Zhengzhou was the biggest gifts, and it will be hard to leave them today.  After they gave me this beautiful, beautiful teas set, they took our family out to dinner and it was so nice to talk about life – both have one year old daughters, and Rita also has a five year old daughter. It was the best birthday in China!

In Gemma news, it is incredible how fast she is changing.  She is eating on her own whenever it is possible, no longer getting stuck with a mouth full of food she has to spit out, she is smiling outside the hotel room, and yesterday she jumped out of my lap when we were we in the executive lounge having a birthday drink 😊 and started to run around. Previously she would NOT leave my arms AT ALL unless we were in the hotel room.  She continues to want nothing to do with the crib but wants to sleep near me, in fact last night she literally crawled a few inches from her spot on the bed and settled herself in the crook of my arm in the middle of the night.  We are looking forward to watching her blossom and grow. She liked to be spun in the chair: 

Here are some missing pictures from Tom’s phone:

Our adoption finalization picture from the day after we received Gemma (Ben does actually like her):

Visiting the big park on Thursday – complete with amusement park rides:

Today at noon we leave for the airport- on to Guangzhou!