We Made It Home !

We made it home at on 11/21 ! We are settling in and Lu Lu is doing fine !

Coming Home

This is our final post as after today Lu Lu is officially a U.S. Citizen - so now we can bring her home. We now have completed the adoption process after a brief trip to the U.S. Consulate in downtown Guangzhou. Unfortunately recently they moved the consulate from the island to downtown so it is a bus trip to get there.

Thank you to everyone who watched our progress in China - we felt like you were all here with us and we appreciated all your thoughtful comments. We had an incredible time here in China and are excited to bring Lu Lu home with some lifetime memories for all of us of her birth country.

This is a beautiful country with a long and interesting history - we hope someday to bring her back to see it and appreciate it for herself.

On Her Way Home...

Today Lu Lu got her approval on her Visa so she can come home. Now all that's left for Pam and I is a visit to the consulate tomorrow and then we can bring her home. We have been waiting around today to get the good word and walking around Shamian Island. We are still having fun but are very excited to come home !

Yuexiui Park and 6 Banyans Temple

Today we ventured out to see Guangzhou with three other families from our agency. It was nice to finally be part of a group in touring around and to actually have to take a bus to fit everyone. Although having the guide exclusively to ourselves in previous cities was nice, it was fun this time to talk to other families going through the same adoption process while we rode the bus. We first visited Yuexiui Park. This park has a famous statue in Guangzhou depicting 5 goats. The story of the goats says that five gods riding on five goats brought the first rice leaves to the city so the people would never go hungry. It is the reason Guangzhou is sometimes referred to as Goat City. Also an interesting side note Guangzhou - although small in comparison to other cities in China is a city of 3.2 million people and serves as an important center of foreign commerce helped by it's proximity to Hong Kong.

While in the park Kyle and I played some hackysack with the locals. Simon, our guide approached a group and opened the door so we could play with them. Their version of hackysack is some rubber and metal disks with feathers sticking out the top. You kick it in the air between people like you would a hackysack in the U.S. - but it is much more popular in parks in China. We saw women and men of all ages playing it. Especially the retired people were playing it. Our guide pointed out that the normal retirement age in China is 50 and we saw many retirees playing hacksack, dancing and exercising throughout the park.

After this we took the bus to the 6 Banyans Buddhist Temple. Although they were performing another ceremony so we could not do a blessing for our babies - something which is a tradition for adoptive families - we still got to see the temple and experience the monks chanting. They were having a service to celebrate the birthday of one of the Buddha's. There are three Buddha's - past, present and future in the Temple - they are around 2 - 3 stories high and all three sit in the temple.

Throughout the day Jia Lu was very animated and seems to enjoy any activity we do. She is continuing to try to walk more and more. We think soon she will be walking on her own once she gets strong enough. She definitely wants to try to walk a lot more now than when we first met her - it's very exciting !

In and Around Guangzhou

Today was our first full day in beautiful Guangzhou. Our hotel and the consulates actually reside on Shamian Island which is connected to the mainland by three bridges. Shamian Island is a 44 acre sandbank on the Pearl River that was created over a century ago outside the city walls as a protected settlement for foreign merchants. Since much of the architecture was done by Europeans who built their mansions on the island it has a very colonial look to it. Much of it was renovated recently so it is very beautiful to walk through the gardens and parks and see the old architecture.

First thing today we got to enjoy the authentic western buffet they have at The White Swan. Kyle was excited to see some old favorite foods re-appear here - things we haven't seen since we left San Francisco. As usual we had to cut off Lu Lu from breakfast and whisk her of to her Visa photo and medical exam appointment. We walked to both of these and on the way we saw many Weddings' pictures being taken - around 7 or 8 - We were told later this was a lucky day for weddings. Lu Lu did well in her Medical appointment and only fought it when the tried to check inside her mouth.

After getting back to the hotel we were surprised to find a complimentary going home Barbie in our room. This Barbie is made by Mattel exclusively for adoptive parents staying at The White Swan hotel and includes a Chinese baby which Barbie is holding.

Everyday we are seeing more and more new stuff from Jia Lu. Today was no different - she really started to move around a lot more and walk around using various objects for support. It is so exciting to see her motivated to come over to us and to see her starting to really connect and bond with each of us.

Guangzhou Arrival

Today was a travel day for us, we left Nanjing and headed for Guangzhou (pronounced Gwahng-joe) in the tropical south of China. We arrived here at 7:00 pm tonight and are staying at the world famous White Swan Hotel where many families stay as their final stop when they have adopted from China. The U.S. Consulate is right next to the Hotel which is why we all stay here - so we can get our children's Visa's before we head back to the United States. The weather here is considerably warmer than Nanjing - Today Guangzhou hit 86 degrees and was sunny while Nanjing was 63 degrees and raining.

Today was Jia Lu's first plane ride and she handled it well. Pam kept her busy eating(something she seems to love) and she took the flight in stride. I was across the aisle from her Jia Lu and Kyle and was able to keep her smiling throughout the flight. So at least we know she can handle 2 hour flights.

Chinese Restaurant Dinner

Linnea seems to prefer Chinese food so we have been trying to eat authentic Chinese food at least once a day. Tonight on our last night in Nanjing based on a referral from our guide we went to a Chinese Restaurant that is adjacent to the bridge in the main square by our hotel. We had our guide write out what we wanted in Chinese characters to make it easier to order. In fact we had her write the name of the restaurant in Chinese characters so we would know we were at the right place. When we arrived at the restaurant we were not sure it was the right place so we showed our note and they confirmed it was the restaurant we were looking for and escortated us up to a table overlooking the bridge and the lighted Dragons on the river - it was a beautiful view. When the menu came - althought there were pictures in it - there was no English writing on it so there was no way to tell what type of meat each dish was so we gave them our note. After a few rounds of going back and forth they delivered our food which was very good.

During this time at a table right next to us there were three older Men who were talking exuberantly in Chinese and Jia Lu was mesmerized by listening to their language - just as she is with our guide when she talks Chinese to her. After a little bit the Men began making funny faces at Jia lu and making her laugh, all of us enjoyed this interaction very much. At the end of the night as they left their table they all said "Bye" to us and smiled fondly at Jia Lu. We saw them again as we left the restaurant and they excitedly said "Hi" to us again as we left to head back to our hotel. These were the only two English words we heard them say all night - So I am not sure what they were talking about but they and Jia Lu sure seemed to enjoy the interaction and we enjoyed watching it happen. -- Paul