Travel Adventures Day 1

We have started our very slow journey home. Our van driver was caught in traffic so the company sent a back up to drive us to the Hong Kong border. This was great except both boys finally calmed down right about the time to change all of our things to a new van and fill our immigration paperwork for the border. The van section of the journey took about 3 1/2 hours of mostly comfortable travel. We arrived at the Hong Kong airport to find out that there is a typhoon in Korea that has delayed our 12:45am flight to 4:30am which means instead of a 3 hour wait for our flight we now are waiting 7. So the good news is that should shorten our layover in Korea. It was supposed to be a 6 hour layover so I'm hoping it will all even out somewhere in the middle.

Here is how we entertain ourselves at the Hong Kong Airport:













James and I decided we should sleep in shifts so that we could be sort of alert parents. Since I am more of a night owl he took first shift...



Then Paige gave in...



then Parker...







and Andersen...



Xander is wondering what happened to the party, it's only 1am...


finally, Xander...

Last Day in China

There is an island near Guangzhou that most adoptive families used to stay but the main hotel there is under construction so not everyone stays there now. But the island is known for fun shopping for tourists and we heard it was very pretty so we decided to give it a try. Both rumors were true, we found some great treasures and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We enjoyed watching all of the photographers take pictures of brides and other occasions that we didn't quite understand. Our guide told us that the locals like to take day trips to the island because it has a much slower pace, it's less crowded and its beauty. The Haas family is staying on the island so they showed us their favorite shops and restaurant.

Here are a few pictures from the day:

This is a picture of us with the Haas family and our guide "Judy"



There are several status around the island but a lot of adoptive families take this picture so we did too...

Xander had a messy lunch and lost his pants :-)










These are a couple of the other statues:











Here are a couple of other quick pictures we took while leaving...

Missing in Action

Hello! Sorry we have been behind on our blogs lately, I came down some some kind of nasty sinus infection that had me in bed if we were not at an appointment. James has been successfully manning the troops while I have been useless. Our guide was able to get me some stronger medicine yesterday morning and this morning I woke up feeling like a new woman! I'm still not back up to normal but I am at least able to get out of bed, hooray.

For some reason I'm not able to pull up our previous blogs so I can't remember where we left off but I'll try to catch you up as best we can. On Monday we had our appointment at the US Consulate, it was very quick and well organized. We went through security when we first got there and they took our cameras to hold until we were done and then we basically just stood and took a citizenship oath on behalf of the boys and then gave them our paperwork so they could process their visas.

Here is a picture as we were leaving:




After the consulate appointment we went to the Guangdong Folk Arts Museum, you can read about it here for details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Clan_Academy

It is tradition in China to have chops made with the kids names, they are stamps. Our guide said this is the place the locals come to have them made so we decided to do the same. We enjoyed walking around the museum while we waited for the chops. Here are some pictures:












After the museum, I went to bed for the rest of the day and James took all of the kids swimming and played in the hotel room the rest of the day.

On Tuesday, we went to the Safari Park because we've heard there were pandas. The Safari Park was really beautiful with kind of a tropical feel with all of the greenery. There was a dinosaur exhibit that the kids enjoyed with life size dinosaurs living in the trees and hills. We also enjoyed the giraffes, monkeys, pandas, koalas and lots of other animals. I didn't take a ton of pictures but here are a few:

















Tuesday was also Xander's 1st Birthday!!! The hotel brought a cake to our room for him so we had a little family celebration.



















And some fun giggling:















Now we are all caught up. Today we are headed out to explore for a bit and then our driver comes to take us to Hong Kong at 6:00pm. And our flight leaves Hong Kong at 12:45am on Thursday and arrives in Korea at 5:15am on Thursday and then we fly from Korea to Dallas!!!!

Busy Day

Today started with a check up at the local medical clinic. Thankfully they have a section for adoptive families so we didn't have to wait in the longer lines. I don't have a lot of pictures of our activities today because I've found it's very hard to herd 4 kids through large crowds and take pictures. When we first got to the clinic they took pictures of each boy to attach to their files that followed them to each room. When it was our our turn they weighed and measured the boys. Xander didn't really mind but Parker was not a fan of anyone who took him away from James. After they measured them we waited some more and then we saw a "doctor" :-) He asked us what their special need was and then examined it and took notes but we couldn't read them since they were in Chinese characters. Our guide was reading over his shoulder and just said it was just notes about their conditions. Once we were done with the doctor that was the end of our medical visit. It was very painless and it was fun to see the other families with their new kids.

After the clinic our guide dropped us off at the hotel for some afternoon naps. Xander decided that sleeping was not as important as screaming last night so we were both a little sleepy. Both boys seemed a bit nervous in the new hotel last night and were not thrilled about the new cribs so we were all ready for some rest this afternoon.

Once we were rested we headed out with our guide and the Haas family to do some shopping. Our guide took us to a wholesale shopping area that reminded me of a huge building of oriental trading stuff. Paige ended up with some treasures and we all enjoyed the experience. We were impressed with how well the boys hung in there for 2 1/2 hours of shopping in crowded buildings. Below is the only picture I took today. The Haas family was looking for some kites to take their boys at home so our guide asked a shop keeper and they said they had more kites on a different floor. We followed him to the basement of the building, it felt like we were doing a secret kite deal :-)




We are now back at the hotel and the boys are enjoying climbing all over Andersen and Paige and video chatting with their Grandmas at home.

Tomorrow we don't have any appointments so our guide is taking us shopping again and to one of her favorite restaurants for lunch and then we are going to swim and relax after lunch.

Last Stop Guangzhou

We made it to Guangzhou! Today was a very uneventful day of waiting and travel. We started off the morning just re-packing and waiting on the passports for the boys. Once we had the passports we headed to the airport and had some fantastic spicy beef something at the airport and then caught our flight to Guangzhou. We were very pleasantly surprised by the awesomeness of our hotel. The rooms are suites so we finally have a bit of room to spread out and Paige is very excited there is a desk in the room. She has been watching a Nancy Drew movie on this trip so she has decided to be a detective and is excited to have a place to work! Here are a few pictures of our room. Oh and the beds have soft mattresses, YAY!! The other beds have all been very hard.




The hotel had a gift basket for the boys with a panda for each of them along with some baby lotions and things.









Look we can all watch each other take baths and showers :-)

Tomorrow we have our medical appointments for the boys in the morning and then we'll see where the day takes us from there.

Location:729 Country Rd,Guangzhou,China

Happy Valentine's Day?

Well we learned tonight that it is Valentine's day here so we had a night out on the town. Okay it was already planned but now it seemed more official :-) We walked to place called August the 1st Square which is about 30 minutes from the hotel with our new friends the Haas family. There is a water show every night at 8:00 in the square that is set to music that I read about before we left home so we decided to check it out tonight. We grabbed some dinner first which is always an entertaining game of charades for anyone who is near. Then we headed over to a dessert place the Haas family found yesterday for a tasty treat. It was a bit crowded inside so I took the kids outside to wait for James but I always forget I'm with celebrities. In no time at all we were surrounded by at least 20 people asking if they could take pictures with Andersen and Paige, they politely agreed. I didn't get any fun pictures of that tonight because I was trying to keep tabs on everyone which is a little more nerve racking at night when I'm by myself with so many people around.

After we had our treats we headed over to the square and waited for the show. The weather was great tonight and there were people spread out all around the square flying kites, roller blading and doing tai chi. The water show was very entertaining and we didn't realize that the water actually left the fountains so we were in the splash zone. Paige and Xander had a great time in the water!







Now we are back at our hotel and everyone is asleep after our late night :-)

Tomorrow we are flying to Guangzhou which is our last stop in China. We have medical check ups for the boys on Saturday and then our appointment with the US Consulate is on Monday morning. Other than that I believe we have free time while we wait for the boy's visas. We leave Guangzhou on Wednesday night to catch our flight back home and we arrive in Dallas on Thursday morning at 10am!

Location:Yongshu Rd,Nanchang,China

Visit to Nanchang Orphanage

Today we were allowed to visit the Nanchang orphanage were Parker lived. We were told when we arrived that he lived with a foster family but today we learned that was not the case, he lived at the orphanage. From the moment we arrived we could tell how much he loved it there. The first person we saw was a woman who cared for him in the evenings. He immediately smiled and put out his arms to go to her and she was extremely excited to see him as well and gave him lots of kisses. Our guide asked her if she was his main caretaker and she said she had two jobs, during the day she cleaned the orphanage and at night she stayed with the babies. She showed us to the room where Parker spent his days, we recognized it from the video they sent us. Parker was very excited to see another woman in that room who we found out was the woman he calls Mama, she is the one who cared for him during the daytime. It seemed they were very attached and she was very excited to see him. Both women told us repeatedly how smart he is and how he will see someone do something and try to imitate them. They told us he enjoys dancing when there is music on and that he tries to sing. The women also said he likes to do things on his own and likes to feed himself. While we were in the playroom they showed us a little girl who they said he plays with all of the time and he pointed to her and smiled and she seemed glad to see him as well. Apparently this little girl is a little over 2 years old and has a heart condition and she is being adopted in late August or early September sometime.
Then both of the ladies took us upstairs to the crib room and showed us which bed was Parkers and told us that he loves to climb. They said he would climb out of his crib and into the other kid's cribs. (all of the cribs are side by side) It was very sweet to see Parker get passed back and forth between these two ladies, the love between them was more than we could have asked for. We were able to take pictures with both ladies and the little girl who was Parker's friend. Before we left I asked our guide if she would have the ladies tell Parker that he was going to go with us and that we were his family and that he would be safe and that we love him. They both did and Paige and I cried :-) Parker cried when they handed him back to James but thankfully it didn't take long for him to stop and he seemed to be okay for the rest of the morning. We are not allowed to post pictures of the people we met or the inside of the orphanage but here are some that we took outside.












After our trip to the orphanage we went to the Tengwang Pavilion you can read about what it is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavilion_of_Prince_Teng I'm not great about historical details, that is more up James' alley. It was beautiful and we were able to see a show while there where the women wore traditional Chinese costumes and sang and played instruments.




Here are some other pictures from inside and out of the pavilion:












The next two are ceilings inside:








These are views of Nanchang from the top of the Pavilion:
















This picture...




started this...








Yes all of those people crowded around to take pictures of/with Andersen and Paige and I took this after the crowd died down a bit :-) Andersen and Paige were good sports and smiled for everyone who wanted a picture. I think they are getting used to their celebrity status :-)
This is a picture of the gardens outside of the Pavilion:




After the visit to the Tengwang Pavilion our guide took us to a local restaurant for lunch. Yum! At the restaurants here it seems that if you have a large group (over 4) you are able to sit in a private room. We have shared a guide this week with another family who has a one year old with them so with 3 babies it is fantastic to have a private room at a restaurant. The way the restaurants that we have been to work is that one person (our guide) or as was the case yesterday, the men, go downstairs and place the order for everyone. We all sit at a round table with a big lazy susan in the middle. Then the food is delivered one dish at a time and placed on the lazy susan and everyone just turns it and serves themselves. Then about 5 or 10 minutes later another dish is brought in and the same thing happens. There are usually about 10 dishes by the end. Our guide told us that Nanchang is known for having spicy dishes so James and I are loving that!
Now we are back in our room at the hotel and the boys are taking naps. We are hoping to stay awake late tonight...until at least 8:00 :-) so we can go to a water show tonight.

This is a family picture taken of us this morning before we left for the orphanage visit.

Location:Bayi Ave,Nanchang,China