Back in the USA

We are safely back home . Our Trip home started with a 4:45 AM wake up call this morning. We were already packed. Our flight left Guangzhou about 8:30 AM for a 3 hour flight to Tokyo, 2 hours of layover, then another 9 hours to San Francisco, then a 1.5 hour drive to our house. I did not sleep at all on the trip but Mary managed to get a few hours of sleep. The reason I could not sleep is because the flight between Tokyo and San Francisco was completely full and our family was split between 2 rows. Karah & I were in between two nice Japanese ladies but Karah is a sprawler when she sleeps. I had to stay awake to keep her feet out of the lap of the lady sitting next to her. MeiLi is smaller & was not quite as bothersom to her neighbors.

We pulled in to fill up the SUV gas tank about half way home and as I was standing there a couple of cars blasting their subwoofers and rap music pulled in. I thought to myself, what a contrast to the bicycle bells and horn beeping I got used to hearing on the streets in China. Both Mary and I still feel a bit squirely in the legs from the flights. MeiLi is settling right in. She's playing games with us like tag and keepaway. She also calls around to me "Baba! Baba!" when she cannot see me. That's probably because I have been within her eyesight almost constantly since we got her on September 8th and our house is much bigger than the hotel rooms we've been living in. When we get some rest I'll take some photos of MeiLi in front of our house & post them.

We took MeiLi's Chinese Passport & Visa, along with a sealed brown envelope given to us at the US Consulate in Guangzhou, to the appropriate immigration area after we arrived in the San Francisco Airport (SFO); they opened the envelope and stamped the documents, then congratulated us on the adoption. MeiLI is now an American citizen!

Last Post from China

Today is our last full day in China. We got the kids together for some traditional photos on the Red couches in the 2nd floor lobby and then in the center of the Atrium. Later, we traveled to the US Consulate in Guangzhou. We got MeiLi's Passport back with the visa to enter the US. We had to travel across town to do this and then went through a ceremony with 30+ other American families adopting from China. We are packing now for the long trip home from Guangzhou to San Francisco. I don't really have time to blog much tonight. I'll do some blogging when I get home with some of the pictures I've taken in the last couple of days here in China. God Bless & good night.

Free Day

Today our adoption paperwork for MeiLi was processed and we were informed that there were no problems. This morning was the usual breakfast buffet. We did a walk around the block, visiting the local shops. Then we went to the pool again which we all enjoy a lot. We got the arm
blow ups so we did not have to worry so much about the girls. Karah was pretty much hands off with those so it was more relaxing for me, not having to hold her so much. MeiLi has been VERY active in the pool too. She loves to play tag and keep away with a beach ball. The girls got very tired at the pool. Mary showered them there and we came back up to the hotel room. MeiLi went to sleep so we ordered take out Pizza by phone. We settled in and watched 2 Doris Day movies. Not a real exciting day but very fun, nonetheless.

While here, we have gotten to meet Tonya, John, Cossette and Daniel Eisenhauer. Daniel is a 6 year old Chinese boy they are adopting. It has been nice to meet them after reading their blog for a few months. Their blog is at http://www.builtbygod.blogspot.com/
We have met several other adopting families while here in Guangzhou. One family lives about 1.5 hours drive away from us in California so we exchanged addresses & phone numbers.

Today it was about 97F here and and very hazy with the usual high humidity. Now that it is night time, I think I'll go take another walk by the Pearl River to be amazed by the lights.

Shamian Island Nights

广州 - 沙面岛
Mary bathed the girls tonight so I slipped down to the second floor of the hotel where the famous red couches are. There was a pianist & flutist playing there and I walked over to the wall of glass to gaze out at the night lights on the Pearl River. It is very beautiful. We are on the opposite side of the hotel which also has a great display of lights but the Pearl River really takes the prize. I'm not a great photographer but I did find some photos that show a good representation of what we see at night here. One is of the White Swan itself as seen from the Pearl River. One is of a bridge we see across the river. The last shows the street here in front of the Hotel. This district is called "Shamian Island". It is a combination of old colonial buildings and new modern skyscrapers. It stays warm at night so it is pleasant to walk around outside. We don't go out much at night though, except to eat because the hotel restaurants are very expensive. With this post I'll say good night. Tomorrow we have a free day while our BLAS guides take our paperwork to the US Consulate to get the adoptions for the babies & toddlers finalized.
晚安

Guangzhou Afternoon

We spent time again this afternoon at the hotel pool. This is what Karah & MeiLi really look forward to. MeiLi is really adventurous and she keeps us busy. Karah loves for me to take her

under the waterfall. After spending a couple of hours there we headed back to the hotel and some Chinese folks just stopped us and wanted to have pictures taken with us. I spoke with them a little in Mandarin. The woman was giving us the thumbs up sign for adopting the girls. This seems to be a common way that the people thank us.

Guangzhou children

The medical exam was within walking distance of the hotel. On the way back, we saw some little children, probably Kindergarten age, all being moved along by their teachers. The teachers encouraged them to greet us with "hello, hello!". I responded with "hello!" back to them.

Medical Exam

MeiLi had her exam this morning; there were no problems found.

Relaxing at the Pool

After we got back from Safari we decided to cool off in the pool at the White Swan. We spent almost 2 hours there. It's quite nice with the palm trees and it sits right next to the Pearl River (well actually the entire hotel is right on the bank of the Pearl River). The girls seem to have a very good time. I think this may have been the first time for MeiLi to be in a public swimming pool. She had no idea of how to enter the pool or walk on the floor of the kiddie pool. But she got the hang of it pretty quick. They had so much fun that they did not want to leave the pool. I could have lounged there longer myself but we needed to go so we could get something to eat for Dinner. We ended up taking a long walk down to a Italian restaurant. It was good but I still like Olive Garden (back in the US) better. We got back from eating and I bathed the girls while Mary
chatted with Kathy on AOL Instant messenger. Now, as usual, I am typing in the dark here as Mary Karah & MeiLi are all turned in for the night. I need to turn in too because tomorrow first thing on the agenda is MeiLi's complete physical exam. Wan An! (Good Night)

Guangzhou - Safari Park

Today we visited the Safari Animal Park. I had MeiLi on my back the entire time. I'm not much for zoos but this was better. We rode around on a tram through the park and saw just about every kind of animal you would expect. The park itself is a sub-tropical garden. We saw Pandas too. It got very hot as the day went on. I was glad to get back to the bus with the AC.

Tonight is the Autumn Moon festival but we stayed in the hotel and ordered pizza delivery. We were just too tired and so were the girls, to go out into a crowded public place tonight. We had taken the girls earlier to play in the Mattel playroom and they wore us out too. I bathed them, Mary got to do teeth brushing tonight. So we are settling in for the night.

For anyone wondering why we are spending this time in Guangzhou, it is because we have to get MeiLi's visa, medical exam & go to the US Consolate for oath taking ceremony before we can depart for the US.

Mary's turn

I just thought that I would put my little bit in here also. We are enjoying our stay here in China so much. It is so interesting watching MeiLi open up to us more everyday and to watch her learn to trust us. I have had several other parents say that we make it look easy to parent an older child, but its just God's mercy and grace to us and MeiLi that has pulled us through... Thank you for your continued prayers. Please include one of the other families whose little girl is having trouble bonding to the mother (who is a great woman) and has superglued herself to her new daddy. I try to encourage her but since this is her first child its hard to accept. I'm sure that it will work out, but sooner would be better than later. We have offered to have Karah go to play with the little girl and mom together to model that momma is a safe and good person, but we haven't tried that completely yet... Maybe at the playroom they have here. Then Daddy could step out and she would be able to play with both mommy and Karah and MeiLi... (She likes Karah too.) We are looking forward to going shopping and getting some special things bought. I always see so many things I would like to buy. Today I saw a pearl in a special case ( had a magifing glass on top) there was engraved on the pearl a Chinese poem, but it was so small it needed the magifing glass to see it... pretty cool huh! I didn't have any extra money exchanged right now, so I let that one pass. We got MeiLi's "White Swan adoption Barbie" I put it aside so that the girls wouldn't be tempted to take it out to play with it. It's something that is a special keepsake and they only give them to the adoptive little girls at the White Swan hotel. Karah has one that I have put aside from her adoption too. I might try to find some Asian Barbie's that they can play with for the plane ride home. Or maybe some other doll or toy. Anyway, I guess I had better close now.

Karah, at Chen Clan Family Academy

Today we went to the Chen Clan Family Academy. This photo is about a man telling a story for others to hear, if they like it they would pay him for the storytelling, if not they would just walk away. We shot a few photos there but it is mostly like a museum with displays inside. I have some photos on my Handycam that I will post here later because I have to wait until the DVD is finalized to be able to copy them to this blog. I added some airport pictures that were taken yesterday (below). You can right-click and select "view in separate window/tab" to enlarge them. You can see some of the other children/babies in those pics. A few Chinese families came up to talk to us and thank us for adopting the children. The area we are staying in is full of foreigners and tourists. At night there are a lot of young people with boisterous activity in the streets. There are a lot of young American military men around and many of them have Asian ladies with them. There also are many, many adoptive families here in the hotel. In the morning buffet, they have a section already set up with a baby chair at each table. We went to a supermarket to get baby supplies. Right now it is almost 2PM here and we are resting in the hotel. The hotel is very posh. On the bottom floor it is like an art shopping mall/museum. There is a large waterfall in the center atrium. You can see the website at http://www.whiteswanhotel.com/ if you are interested. I just have been too busy to shoot many interesting pictures. I will try to get a few and post them later. MeiLi has become more demanding of us which is challenging but is a good thing .. she's feeling very comfortable with us.

She also has started finger-painting on the hotel window. I think Karah showed her how to do that. Tomorrow we got the an Animal park and will see Pandas amongst other animals. It is quite hot and humid here compared to Kunming. Maybe we will try the pool soon.

We are in Guangzhou

Just a quick post to let you know we have arrived at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. Mary has the girls down in the Mattel Playroom while I unpack a bit. We already went ovver to the 7-Eleven store to get drinks. Sprite is called "雪碧" pinyin "Xue-Bi" pronounced "shway-bee". Well they had the green bottle and the blue bottle here. I bought one of each and to our surprise, the blue bottle is peppermint flavored. We really like it :-) . Will post more, later when caught up.

Goodnight from Kunming

A Walk through Green Lake Park

Last day in Kunming

Today we ate breakfast as usual and then the group went to a tea tasting place. It was a tourist place but very fun and we did buy some tea. Yunnan is famous for very good tea, not that I am a qualified tea connoisseur but the teas was indeed good. After that we went for another walk in the park. This time Mary, Karah & MeiLi went with me and another family also accompanied us. This evening we received MeiLi's Chinese passport (which is why we were waiting here in Kunming) so tomorrow we fly out to Guangzhou. We will be paying for Internet service in Guangzhou and since it is quite expensive my blog posts may be short. Personally, I do not believe a hotel to be proper unless it has free Internet service :-) One thing about Kunming, the spoken English here is not really very good and not everyone speaks Mandarin either. So communication in the hotel was a lot harder than in Beijing. For example, it took us awhile tonight to get someone who could understand that we wanted to order one meal and split it between the girls. It was spaghetti and boy can MeiLi slurp noodles! They have a play area in the restaurant so we were ale to get some good pics of the girls playing.

Mary's comments

As Tim wrote we went to the Minority Village today. Thank God it was only about a half an hour away and today was much cooler. While we were in the Village we found some very cute authentic costumes for the two girls. They should be very cute on them. Will have to try them on very soon so that we are sure they fit. We plan on doing more shopping in Guangzhou where the prices are good and there is more choices. We were pretty rushed as far as shopping goes here, well except for Walmart on our own (there we had all the time we could ever have wanted), I got the girls matching sweaters the first day here because of the changeable weather and the local customs. They are really cute. Today the girls got some very inexpensive Barbie type dolls... MeiLi was so thrilled. Karah took all the accessories out right away, but I left MeiLi's in the packaging because I knew she wasn't able to change the doll yet. She did manage to pull off one of the legs already, but it just went back in. (Did I say cheap?) I still have a blow up beach ball I have yet to get out to play with. That should be fun. gotta go and settle the girls down for a nice nights sleep.
God bless,
Mary

Karah at Minority Village

MeiLi's Smiles

A Day in Kunming

Tim writing. We all slept well last night. MeiLi woke up once or twice and cried a little bit but Mary quickly comforted her and she went right back to sleep. We ate at the breakfast buffet with some of the families in our group. Then we boarded the bus and went to the ethnic minority villi ages. It is a cultural center with many minorities and their cultures represented. Because it is a weekday and it is not really the holiday season here, there was not as many shows or cultural demonstrations. Still, we got to talk to several people and the girls at the shops. At one point I stopped to talk with 4 middle aged women having lunch together at a table. I jokingly said to them "现在我是很饿！(xiànzài wo shì hěn è!)" which means "now, I am very hungry!". They then offered me some boiled potatoes dipped in spice and laughingly insisted that I have some. I told my guide to tell them I was was just joking with them but nevertheless, I ate two potatoes and they were delicious. Several people stop and seem amazed to see us with the babies and Chinese girls. I greet them and can speak enough Mandarin to tell them we are adopting the babies & toddlers and that the older girls are already USA citizens. Most of them give me the thumbs up sign, smile and say things about how kind we are and thank us. After we came back from the minority village, another family and us decided to brave the trip to WalMart again to get a few supplies and toys for our girls. We stopped at KFC and got some chicken, mashed potatoes, corn & fries. That was basically a late lunch. On the street walking to & from I had MeiLi in the backpack. After that we came back up to the hotel room; Mary rested with the girls and I went back with some families to the local "Green Lake Park". It was delightful. I only took video on my Sony HandyCam so no stills to post but I will describe it. There were people dancing together. We called it Chinese line dancing and it is something the elder people like to do together. There were several people playing Mahjong. There were groups of people sitting around with traditional Chinese instruments playing music. There was an older couple sitting by the lake on a park bench .. he was playing an instrument called the "Erhu" and his wife sang along to the melody. There were many young couples in love just enjoying being together watching the lake while seated on park benches. There was nothing negative at all in this city park. We all walked back to the hotel and I and another family took the elevator to the 21st floor to see the revolving lounge. The view from there is great and I will perhaps take Mary & the girls up there tomorrow evening for a soft drink & some appetizers. I am using only my HandyCam now because I mistakenly thought that my digital camera charged off of my laptop and the battery went dead. So I did not get many still photos today but mostly video instead. We are getting stills with Mary's camera but I did not get any complete family photos today (my bad - sorry), Mary took a few of me & the girls. Today was just a wonderful day. MeiLi has been quiet and reserved and content to ride on my back today. Tonight in the hotel room she is getting rambunctious and actually tossing a few toys around and laughing & talking a lot (albeit we don't know her language). Karah and MeiLi are just now getting ready to go into the tub & it is Mary's turn to bathe them. They are squealing with delight and gathering their toys for the tub. I also had a turn today about an hour ago, there was this somewhat familiar odor coming from MeiLi and I looked over at Mary and twitched up my nose; Mary responded by raising her eyebrows. I then pointed at Mary; she then pointed at me and said "I did it last time" So, it has been a couple years since I had to do this. Oh, the joys of fatherhood :-)