Unsupervised and off to Hong Kong Disney!

After a long night, the bright morning sun came early, but it was welcome. We got dressed and headed down to the restaurant. My usual breakfast, plus some congee (rice porridge) and a chocolate muffin for Jubilee. She started to really come out of her shell, giggling and playing and showing her sense of humor. She started using her limited speech and hand movements to tell me what everyone around us was doing. Anytime someone stood up, she would yell and sign 'all done!'. She yelled "ah!" and signed 'phone' any time someone pulled out their phone. And as people got up from their tables to walk away, she would yell "bye bye!" 

We went back to the room after breakfast and started to get ready for Disneyland. We got Eric on Skype and Jubilee was showing off her toys and babbling to him when Janice came to give us the final paperwork and escort us to the subway station. As soon as she walked into the room, Jubilee clammed up. She didn't want to talk to Janice, stopped playing and making jokes. She had always been happy and playful around Janice-she may have thought Janice had come to take her back. 

We went over the paperwork, I signed a few things, was warned NOT to open the brown envelope for immigration, and we received yet a few more gifts from the orphanage. Some adoption related books, a book about Hong Kong, and a scrapbook they made of Jubilee's time there. Finally it was time to head out to the subway station. I was so excited to finally be free from the constant supervision and check-ins from orphanage staff-they were very kind, but it's nice to just be a parent and not feel like a babysitter. I was even more excited about getting to go to Hong Kong Disneyland. But I was also so nervous to be on my own in Hong Kong, trying to navigate the subway by myself, surrounded by people with whom I couldn't communicate. Yikes! Janice got a map from the information desk and used a pen to circle the stops I needed. I had to take 4 different subways to get to Disney, so I had to pay careful attention to when and where to get off one train and on the next. We said our final goodbye to Janice, and, armed with my baby and my map, we walked through the gates and headed to find our first train.

I spent the entire time on the subway staring at the little map and straining my ears to make sure I heard the announcement on the speaker to make sure I got my stop. We got there with no problem at all. And when we got to the stop for the final train to Disneyland, it was so exciting! It was all families with excited little kids, and Disney themes started appearing.

 My ticket

More in the next post, I took lots of pictures :)