Today was fun hanging around the ship. Sydney loved all the activities on board and even had fun at the kids camp for a couple of hours after dinner....that's great! It was pretty hot today but we are enjoying the weather.
It was the formal night tonight and it was great to see Sydney in a dress. I will post pics later of the dinner.
Tomorrow we will go to Grand Cayman and swim with the stingrays and play on the 7 mile beach. Sydney had never been to the beach...so it should be fun
FIRST DISREGARD THE QUALITY OF THE PICTURES...MY SCANNER IS HORRIBLE AND DOES NOT DO THEM JUSTICE.
I am sure many of you have been on a cruise but for those who have not traveled on Royal Caribbean... they are all about pictures. We have only sailed on Royal Caribbean so I have no comparison but we love this line.
They take pictures all the time and have portrait stations set up before each dinner. I LOVE these and enjoy taking pictures. The problem is when you go to pay for them...OUCH! They are expensive and how can you resist them when they look like this?
Sydney is such a natural when it comes to posing for pictures. It doesn't matter if she is in a terrible mood...when someone says smile...she turns on her charm which is immediately extinguished when she sees the flash and hears the click. It is pretty funny to watch her in action.
We are having a great time and the weather is ugh.... hot! Sydney loves the ship and calls our room the "hotel". It is funny to hear her say "Can we go back to our hotel?" Too cute!
A mother and father had to make the most desperate and difficult decision of their life on this morning. They had to do the unthinkable... they made sure their 15 month old girl was safe standing in front of the orphanage gate before turning and walking away forever.
I think of Sydney on this day but I also think of her birth family in China. I am sure this is a day that will haunt them forever. I wish I could contact them to let them know that their daughter is safe and is thriving in America. I wish I could send them a picture to see how beautiful and happy she is each day. I am sure they will live with the guilt forever and I wish I could ease their pain.
People in China DO care about their children and we could not possibly understand their situation unless we lived in their shoes. A country where 1/4 of the people died of starvation 50 years ago is trying hard not to put the country in that position again which is mostly where the One Child Policy came about. I could not imagine having to make that act of desperation or that difficult decision and I do not hold ill feelings for her birth family.
My heart breaks for Sydney today and what she must have gone through on this day 6 years ago and the family who still lives with the pain of what they felt they had to do.
Yep, We are taking Sydney on her first cruise tomorrow. We wanted to take a short vacation (around 5 days) and asked Sydney where she wanted to go. She knew exactly... "I want to go on that BIG boat!"
We leave out of Fort Lauderdale on Royal Caribbean and will stop at Grand Cayman and Cozumel. We have been to both places a few times but this will be the first time to a beach for Sydney!
It will just be the 3 of us since Elizabeth will be in California at a camp, Andrew is getting ready to leave for college and spending every second with his girlfriend, and David is with his mom.
I will post from the ship and hopefully I get a lot of amazing photos!
Sydney FuXia was born in Guangxi, China and was united with her Forever Family in June 2008 at the age of 6 years old. She has been a wonderful addition to our family and we are truly blessed. We are now traveling back to China to adopt another 9 year old girl. We hope others who read this blog are inspired to adopt older children.
