August 2005

Guangzhou

Ian & Mariam MacNeil of Halifax travelled to Guangzhou this August to meet their daughter Talullah. Miriam offered this trip report.

Saturday, June 11th... we were having dinner at home with our friends, we'd just finished telling them that we were hopeful we'd be making our trip to China by September or October when the phone rang... about 11pm Sat night. It was Yulin calling!!!  I ran to our bedroom so I could hear her clearly. She asked if we might be available to go earlier?!! I asked if I could ring her the next morning. My husband didn't understand why I didn't just immediately say YES... we're ready, we'll go!  But, to me, it was as if someone had called out of the blue and asked if we'd like to have a billion dollars... yes, of course we would, who wouldn't...What's the catch? 

There was no catch. And, of course, we said YES! 

When we saw our first photos of Tallulah... we fell instantly, head-over-heels, in love with her and then the wait to leave was almost unbearable. We left Halifax on our 19th Anniversary! 

Finally, in Hong Kong, after about 3 billion emails we met our group... and, Yulin!!!  We feel so lucky to have traveled with a small but diverse group. We were the only Maritimers with Phil and Lynn from Saskatoon, Eileen and her Mom, Betty, from Vancouver, Scott and Jacqueline from Calgary, Donna and Ross from Regina and Al-Kamir and Shalmin from Edmonton. We were blessed to have Yulin accompany even this small group; it was a difficult time for her to leave and we were all very appreciative of her dedication to the effort. Our group was enhanced also with Grace, Yulin’s daughter, Daisy, her niece and Honorary Grandfather and Aunt, Shalmin’s father and her sister Noor.

Yulin had explained everything we needed to have from important paperwork and documents to baby necessities. The day had come. We boarded the bus for the Ministry and were enjoying the guide’s narrative of the sights along the way. Darting and dodging through the traffic of a 10 million+ city. Uh oh. I get this fast and awful sinking feeling... no, not motion sickness but … did I remember to lock the safe?... did I bring diapers?....... what about her bottle?.... sure I've forgotten something... checking everything but sinking feeling gets worse and worse…. Oh Lord!!!  I glance sheepishly at Ian and blurt out “Yulin, sorry, you have to STOP THE BUS!!”  Yulin, Ian and me race through the streets... temp 40 or so!!! Yulin finds a taxi and back to the hotel …I race up to the room... 34thFLOOR!  Race back down like mad woman sweating and clutching for dear life the package of most important documents!!  Back in the taxi, Yulin apologizes!, saying she should have reminded us all and I say, NO, Yulin, you told us at least 27 times!!!  We met the rest of the group at the Ministry, a little worse for wear but so thankful that Yulin was with us on this journey.

As others have written, after so much waiting everything suddenly happens and presto the baby cries from down the hall quickly diminishes as the girls were brought in one by one. Chun, Huabiao!!  We had Tallulah in our arms. It is impossible to describe what the next couple of hours were like.

You’ve heard it here before… Yulin is incredible, great restaurants, wonderful shopping, marvellous sightseeing, incredible culture and tour guides, but, as of August 28th our group shifted from tourist-mode to parent-mode and our focus was Tallulah!…and Zoe and Emily and Jocelyn and Iman and Kathryn!!