Hello From Guangzhou (Rhymes with Song,Joe)

Well, we made it. I am sitting in a very lovely hotel room, listening to the deep breathing of Megan Ling in her very tiny crib, with soft Chinese classical music in the background and the occasional babies cry down the hall. This is truly what appears to be the adoption capital of the world. Every family is American with new Chinese Child, of all ages. They are so sweet and seem to be perfectly at home in their new Mama and Baba's arms.

The White Swan Hotel is the place of choice for adoptive families to stay, as it is close to the American Consulate, where we obtain the visa to come home. There is still a little more paperwork to do, but after we take the Oath on Wednesday, we just wait for the Visa to be delivered to us and then we can begin the journey home. This hotel is very lush and beautiful, with many lovely (and expensive) pieces of art in the lobby. There are all kinds of giant carvings of elephants and horses and flowers and birds in wood, jade, ivory and what looks like marble! Very pretty. This is next to the buffet.

There are two pools here too, but they are both outdoors and today it's a little overcast, drizzly and cool and the pool is not heated. Matthew and Mary Alice went in for a dip, but it was too cold to stay long.

Okay, back to yesterday. I took this photo of the buffet so you could see what it looked like.

These are two of the waitresses. They were there morning and night, poised to help you at every step. I assumed that they understood why we were there, but when I showed them the card Grace wrote in Chinese that explained it, they obviously had not understood. I was glad I had the card to tell them about us. Megan Ling is very funny with the card. She understands that it tells a story about her, because people read it and then look at her and talk in Chinese. I have no idea what they are saying, but she probably understands every word. She likes to take it out of my hand and show it to people.

This is Mary Alice's nest, which she made while we were packing up. It looked like an Eagle's nest!

Is this our baby??!!

Around 11:00AM we checked out of the Shenyang Hotel and a driver took us about an hour to a Zoo, outside the city (only the Groats and Michaels did this-the others stayed at the hotel). It was very cool and different from anything I have seen before. We did not have our guide with us, so we could not understand a word about what anyone else was saying. The zoo seemed almost completely empty. After buying our tickets, we walked through the entryway and followed a sign that said "to the place where visitors catch the bus". We got on the bus and we were the only ones on it for about 15 minutes. Slowly others got on the bus, so that after a 40 minute wait, it was nearly full. We had no idea what we were waiting for, and couldn't ask, so we just sat. Just before the bus began to move, the girl who was to be narrating for us threw in three huge bags of raw chicken! Then we were off, lumbering in the bus through some large gates. On the other side were about 15 tigers, waiting for the bus! They were free to wander all around and stood in the center of the road and moved over only at the last minute. It reminded me of how the pedestrians and bicycles treat the cars and buses. One tiger was actually running alongside the bus! We couldn't believe it. Then the driver stopped and people came up the aisle of the bus to give the girl money so they could feed the tigers. They put a piece of chicken on a long pole and stuck it through a grate at the drivers side and the tiger stretched up and put his whole face right next to the window to eat the food! His head was enormous. Then the tiger took the chicken to the side of the road to feast. This happened over and over. We got to see them really well. We even saw a pair of baby tigers that were really tiny, maybe only 6 weeks old. The next section had bears (big dark brown ones) and they were very hungry, too. There were wolves, deer, tiny little monkeys, cranes, camels, pelicans, elephants and a very large display of white tigers. The kids all really enjoyed it.

This was really funny. These rocks were painted pastel colors! Like cotton candy!

No one warned us about the dinosaurs!!

We got back to the hotel around 3:30 and then all of us (Lizanas, LaPointes, Groats, and Michaels) got ready to leave for the airport. We took a family photo with Grace. We took a group photo too, but I guess I did not get one on my camera.

There was a group check-in counter, so I thought it would be easy. We had plenty of time, but when we got there and tried to check in, Grace said there was "a problem with the tickets" and she had to go to the other counter and fix it. We waited about an hour or so for her (this is us waiting--there has been a lot of "waiting" on this trip)

and when she finally came back we were very close to boarding and we had not even checked our luggage or gone through security. Luckily, we learned from the last flight not to bring any gels or liquids in the carry-on. After that, things went very smoothly and we did not have any other delays. We had a good flight, with a good meal. We did not all have seats together and were kind of all spread out around the plane, The newly adopted kids were all seated by themselves! Ha Ha. It was pretty full, so we had to do the best we could to move seats around. It worked out fine. I was with Megan Ling alone in the back and we just snuggled together and slept like zombies. She perked up when we arrived, however, and pitched in to do her share of the luggage lugging!

Grace was going back to Beijing and not on to Guangzhou with us, so we said goodbye at the airport. We will miss her so much. We really enjoyed our time together. I have her e-mail and we will keep in touch. Kelly, our new guide, met us at the other end. By this time it was 11:00 pm and I could barely walk. It was a 40 minute ride to the Hotel and another long wait while we got checked in. Here was that "elevator feeling" of exhaustion again. We got two rooms, again, as the beds are even smaller here. Matthew and Mary Alice have their own room down the hall and they are very happy with that arrangement. We all slept well and even later than usual, not waking until about 7:45AM! Here are photos of the kids' room, not as messy as ours!

This video was taken this morning when Megan Ling woke up. They are having a great time. She likes to play this game with Daddy, too.




The breakfast buffet was unbelievable, with more choices than you could imagine possible. It is included with the price of our room so it is a great way to start the day. The tables were filled with adoptive families. We had a chance to talk to a few of them and it is really nice to hear English and be understood. The staff seems to speak much more English here, so it is easier to communicate. I wished that I could have been even a little more competent in Chinese as I wanted so badly to understand the people in Shenyang.

At 10:30AM we walked with Kelly to get the children's photos taken for the Consulate/Doctor paperwork, then we went on to the doctor visit. Here is a photo of a primary school we saw on the way there. 1st -6th grades. Kelly borrowed a stroller from one of the shops and that is a great help. Megan Ling really likes to ride in it.



The doctor appointment was brief and interesting. The examiner asked me lots of questions about her development and how she was doing. They weighed her (about 31 lbs) and measured her (37 inches). They checked her hearing and she seemed fine in their eyes so they stamped us and moved us on.


One of the stations had a squeaky little eggplant toy, and she really liked it, so we found a squeaky chicken in one of the shops on the way home and bought it for her. The shops are amazing. The one we were in had so many beautiful fabrics and stones and tea sets and baby things. Every thing was a treat for the eyes. I bought a hand made paper cutting of Mandarin Love Ducks to frame for her room. It is painted in a rainbow of vibrant colors and so beautiful. I think we will frame it between glass. Juma Cindy went shopping at the same store later in the afternoon and had a lot of fun!

Juju Marty bought a Chinese-English book for Megan Ling with simple words in it in Chinese, English and Pinyin (which helps we English speakers to pronounce the words). He also found a Chinese Children's songs CD and she really loves it. The first song is My Mother is the Best in the World!

Our main goal for today is to do some laundry. I already did some hand washing, which helped a lot, and Eric took several shirts and pants to be done. Apparently, the local shops will provide this service, although Kelly told us that some are better than others. I guess some families have found their laundry came back smelling like fish!!

The yogurt here is a very soupy and needs to be drank with a straw!



The earthquake is still very much in the news. While we were at the zoo yesterday, we heard all of this noise and blaring of horns in the mid-afternoon. When we got back we realized that it was a memorial gesture during which the the entire country held 3 minutes of silence to commence a 3 day period of national mourning. It began at 2:28 pm, marking the very moment the massive quake struck in Wenchuan County, Sichuan. Flags flew at half-staff, the people wore white flowers and, heads bowed, held hands. Across the country, horns and sirens wailed in grief. During the mourning period of 3 days, all China's flags will be flown at half staff, and all public recreational activities are to be halted. This may be why the zoo was so empty when we went there.

Some of the above information was copied from an e-mail I got from a foundation called Half the Sky, which assists Chinese Orphanages improve the conditions for children. We donated during the cold weather storms that southern China experienced a few months ago, and now they are struggling to provide assistance with more orphans. There are 32,477 people confirmed dead, more than 35,000 still missing. It is really sad that the world can change so quickly in a moment but the Chinese are facing it with strength and courage, even though it is so difficult.

These are some of the interesting things on the road that we saw in Shenyang. Eric saw lots of people with bicycle carts carry all kinds of things like long metal rods (re-bar), fruits and vegetables, people, steel beams, etc....

It has taken me all day to write this, what with interruptions and some difficulty with posting so many photos in one day. We plan a quiet evening, although Matthew is vying to go to the pool again......

I also want to add Congratulations to Chris (Marty and Cindy's daughter's fiancee, who competed in an Iron Man Triathalon in Orlando, Florida yesterday! Way to Go, Chris!