Well, of course, that is not the real name...the real name is Shamian Island.
It's undoubetedly one of the loveliest places in Guangzhou - a teeming city of 34 million people.
But, unlike the bustle and throngs of people elsewhere else in Guangzhou, Shamian Island is peaceful, with little traffic and few people on its European-looking, tree-lined streets.
For many many years, couples adopting had to go to Shamian Island to the American Consulate to complete the paperwork for an adoption. The consulate has moved. Couples no longer need to go there.
But some do.
Yesterday, in our short visit to this lovely, little island, we saw FIVE adoptive parents; 2 single moms, and 3 families who adopted girls from China.
Two of the girls had a physical handicap of some kind, in fact, one of these was a 10 year old girl adopted by a retired Navy man and his family.
Each little girl was stunningly beautiful. One was abandoned the day she was born, one was left at an orphanage when a growth appeared on her bottom. I don't know the circumstances about the other three girls.
One couple had waited five years for this moment....to take a little girl home from China. One single lady was so excited to get her little daughter.
Baby girls in China are a disadvantage. One of my students just told me that she is from a family of four girls; her grandmother was very angry at this girl's mother because she had GIRLS - four of them.
So, it's always a beautiful sight on lovely Shamian Island to see little girls in the arms of new parents, who are so thrilled to have these beautiful little GIRLS.
Thank Heaven for little girls and the wonderful families who will give these girls a chance in life.
It's undoubetedly one of the loveliest places in Guangzhou - a teeming city of 34 million people.
But, unlike the bustle and throngs of people elsewhere else in Guangzhou, Shamian Island is peaceful, with little traffic and few people on its European-looking, tree-lined streets.
For many many years, couples adopting had to go to Shamian Island to the American Consulate to complete the paperwork for an adoption. The consulate has moved. Couples no longer need to go there.
But some do.
Yesterday, in our short visit to this lovely, little island, we saw FIVE adoptive parents; 2 single moms, and 3 families who adopted girls from China.
Two of the girls had a physical handicap of some kind, in fact, one of these was a 10 year old girl adopted by a retired Navy man and his family.
Each little girl was stunningly beautiful. One was abandoned the day she was born, one was left at an orphanage when a growth appeared on her bottom. I don't know the circumstances about the other three girls.
One couple had waited five years for this moment....to take a little girl home from China. One single lady was so excited to get her little daughter.
Baby girls in China are a disadvantage. One of my students just told me that she is from a family of four girls; her grandmother was very angry at this girl's mother because she had GIRLS - four of them.
So, it's always a beautiful sight on lovely Shamian Island to see little girls in the arms of new parents, who are so thrilled to have these beautiful little GIRLS.
Thank Heaven for little girls and the wonderful families who will give these girls a chance in life.
We have friends who have adopted little Chinese girls, and that has worked out extraordinarily well for all of them! Both of their girls were abandoned in China, but they have a wonderful life here.
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