Our Adoption Story

Went to the US Consulate Office today in Guanzhou. Until this month, the consulate was located right here on our little island, but they've recently moved to a new office across town. It was a 40 minute ride on the bus. We now have Anna's passport, and her visa. As soon as we land in Chicago, Anna will become a US citizen.

Anna had her first ice cream today.

We're going to bed early tonight... tomorrow we head for home. See you soon, everybody!

A grumpy girl... and the red sofa...


















Group photo in the White Swan lobby, and our group's moms with their babies...















And the dinner cruise.... our boat looked like this one...

Our guide took all of the Visa paperwork to the US Consulate office today. We had to stay in our rooms this morning in case they needed to call us with any questions.

We had Danny's Bagels for lunch today, which is pretty darn good stuff. Gina's hamburger tasted a little funky. I think it's hard to get good hamburger in China.

We did our baby pictures on the famous "Red Sofa" here at the White Swan. It's kind of a local tradition.

Went on a boat ride/buffet dinner tonight. The city looks very nice at night. The smog kind of gives things a warm glow... will post some pictures shortly.

Here are a few more pictures... Mark, Gina and Anna at the Zoo..

Some of the nicer apartments in Guangzhou (I'll post some older ones later)...

And the Panda, and the exotic Dalmation.

After making a few phone calls home this morning using Skype, we boarded the ol' tour bus and headed for the Guanzhou Zoo.

The Guanzhou Zoo is not an especially nice zoo... but they do have a Panda. One Panda. I would have put a picture on, but it's kind of hard to see.

They also had a big rooster at the entrance. I'm not sure why they like chickens so much, but we did see lots of information about chickens at the zoo. We also saw a dalmation at the zoo. Kind of strange by our standards, but we've only seen like 4 dogs here the entire time we've been here. And they were all very small dogs.

Had more chinese food at lunch, and came back to the hotel for the afternoon.

Tomorrow we get to have food from Danny's Bagels for lunch.

Tomorrow morning our guide is taking the babies Chinese passports and some paperwork over to the US Consulate office. This should complete the visa process. We have to stay in our hotel room while they check everything in case they have any questions.

This picture at the bottom is three of the babies from our group. Anna is wearing the white onesie. The bottom picture is me and a giant rooster.

The babies all had to have medical exams as part of the visa application process. The medical examination building is a few blocks away from the White Swan, so we walked there this morning.

The medical exam center was crowded. We ran into a family which we first met at O'Hare in Chicago, and again at the Great Wall in Beijing. They're here in Guangzhou, although they aren't staying at the White Swan. They ran the babies through different stations... first was temperature and some measurements (like head circumference, then eyes nose and throat, then height and weight. As you can see from the photos, Anna enjoyed it greatly.

This afternoon after lunch, Ron (one of our traveling companions) and I took a taxi and went to a Chinese electronics mall to see what was available. Most items were priced about the same as you'd see at Wal-Mart. Of course, like most other stores, prices weren't marked so we were probably being given a higher price than the locals. Despite our best efforts to blend into the crowd, I think we stood out. The taxi ride was about 20 minutes, and cost about 20 yuan one way ($2.50 USD).

Our guide brought us lunch from Pizza Hut. MMMMM!

Dinner tonight was at a local restaurant, the "Thai Cow and Bridge". I'm not sure why it's called that, or what that means. It amuses me greatly. Gina likes to call it the "Bridge on the River Thai".

Tomorrow we're going to the Guanzhou Zoo.

The Chinese passports for the babies came in today. We're now cleared to apply for visas. We slept in late and had breakfast at the White Swan, then worked on more paperwork. Lunch and dinner (Vietnamese food) were within walking distance of the hotel, so we didn't do any riding on the bus today.

Bought a new "Polo" suitcase at Jordan's (around the corner from Jennifer's) for $20 USD - only to find the same suitcase for $15 USD later. Oh, well.

We're buying lots of baby clothes. It's so convenient, and the prices are good. Most items are selling for around 40 yuan ($5 USD). The pictures today are more pictures of the neighborhood here on Shamian Island.

Today was Anna's 1st birthday. It was also the 1-year anniversary of her abandonment here in Guangdong province. She continues to amaze us with her personality. She's very content, and a very sweet baby. We know that Jesse, Seth, and Leah are going to be crazy about her.

We're having a great time, but miss everyone at home.

Thursday morning we went to the Baiyun (White Cloud) Hill, which is a "famous scenic area on the outskirs of Guangzhou." This is a large garden, which is very beautiful and very well-kept. Took about an hour to walk the circle around the garden. I'll put a few pictures on. The man pulling weeds was doing so by hand... click on the picture for a closer look.





Spent the afternoon shopping in one of Guangzhou's shopping district. Don't remember the name of it now. Guangzhou is famous for it's shopping. Found a pair of running shoes for about $20 USD, and bought a couple of pairs of shoes for the kids for about $5 USD each. Also visited a pearl and jade market, and spent some money there. We were fortunate to have a gemologist as part of our traveling group. Ron sold jewelry for about 15 years, so he helped us pick out our purchases.

The video files don't have Anna in them... the first one is of the shopping area we were in. It was very busy.

The second video is of a cashier at the shoe store... she was using an abacus!









Video:

Abacus in Action - 2MB
Shopping in Guangzhou - 6MB

I've been writing this blog mostly for friends and family at home, but we'll also share this with the CWA mail list when we get home, so I thought I'd better share some tips about staying in Guangzhou.

First thing - we've seen lots of people on the CWA mail list talk about washing laundry by hand in their hotel room. DON'T DO IT! If at all possible, hold your dirty laundry until you get to Guangzhou. When you go out from the White Swan, there are lots of shops that will wash your laundry for you. Our guide recommended "Jennifer's" which just across the street from the White Swan. We just picked up our laundry (we've had washing done there twice now) and we're very pleased with the service.

They wash it, press it, and even wrap the shirts up with cardboard inside to keep it wrinkle-free, then seal it in plastic. My wife is really going to miss this when we get home. Here are some prices...

T-shirt - 8 yuan ($1 USD)
Shorts - 5 yuan ($.62 USD)
Underwear - 2 yuan ($.25 USD)
Socks - 2 yuan ($.25 USD)
Baby Clothes - 3 yuan ($.37 USD)

If you drop off before 11 AM, it's done by 4:30 PM.
If you drop off before 2 PM, it's done by 7:30 PM.
If you drop off AFTER 2 PM, it's done tomorrow by 4:30 PM.

The picture is the load we just picked up, which was a pretty large sack of laundry. It cost 94 yuan ($11.60 USD). The only downside - it's not dried in a dryer. The clothes is clean, but it has that "clothesline" smell to it... and it's not a "fresh outdoorsy smell"... it's kind of a "urban outdoorsy smell".

Pretty quiet day here... We stayed in our hotel room most of the afternoon. Anna is feeling much bettter. We went out for dinner with the group (more Chinese food).

Anna had a mild fever this morning - 99.5 degrees. We took her to the in-hotel health clinic, which was quite an experience.

They gave us some Children's Bufferin (which I assume has aspirin in it), some mix-it yourself antibiotic and some yummy-looking black decongestant.

While we were having breakfast, we ran into Steve and Kim Miller from South Bend, Indiana. Kim is Peggy Bellar's cousin... Peggy told us that their adoption trip would be overlapping ours, and it just so happened that we wound up at the White Swan at the same time.

After breakfast, we decided we'd better try to find some Tylenol, so we went down to a local market and bought Anna's customary "Chinese baby formula" (still not crazy about American formula), but had to go to a local pharmacy to find Children's Tylenol.

We went into the pharmacy and found some Infant Motrin, which was close enough, and also noticed some interesting looking dried sea horses under the glass counter. Not sure what those are prescribed for. Didn't bring the camera, of course.

Anna is feeling better, still has mild fever. We're just going to stay close to the room until she feels better.

Oh, here are a couple of video files of Anna playing in our room this afternoon.

Found the shop that sells Calloway golf clubs for $200 USD. Think I should invest in a set of those?

Anna Video 1 - 7 MB
Anna Video 2 - 14 MB

Anna (left) and another baby from our group,
Grace, and her big sister Ashley...








Adoption Registry Center






Traffic is heavy... this is outside the police station...

Our group's bus...


Inside the police station...


This guy is mixing concrete on the sidewalk and
hauling it across the street in a wheelbarrow.



This is our "Going Home" Barbie. You can only
get them if you stay at the White Swan
(and adopt a baby!).

The White Swan is famous (among adoption families) for many things, including their western-style buffet breakfast. The scrambled eggs in Beijing looked like soup, and I'm pretty sure that the bacon was boiled. The White Swan's breakfast was mmm good, and there were no fish heads to be seen anywhere (thank goodness). We've been served fish twice on our trip so far- and both times the head was still attached.

Anyway, after a good breakfast, we went back to the "Adoption Registry Center of Guangdong Province" and had two interviews. Both were very brief, and for the most part they were uneventful. The man who did the second interview was a little curious as to why we wanted MORE children since our family was so large already. Once the interviews were over, we went to a local police station ( see photo) and applied for passports for the babies. It will take a couple of days for the passports to come in, and then we can get the visa for the baby.

Lunch was traditional Chinese again, but this was some of the better food we've had on the trip. One of our traveling companions compared last night's meal to being on "Fear Factor". Our guide knew that everyone needed a break and ordered KFC for everyone for dinner tonight.

I updated the links on the right-had side of the page, check them out when you have time. The information about the "island" where our hotel is located is interesting. Driving in, you don't feel like you're an island, you just feel like you've gone across the river... but it is actually a small island.

The Danny's Bagels link has a page about Guangzhou with some good tips for travelers. The air here is cleaner than in Beijing, but it's still smoggy.

I also made it easer to post comments on our site here, so if you visit our site, please post a comment. We'd love to hear from everyone.

Across from our hotel are several local stores and gift shops. It's fun to mingle with the local merchants. They enjoy checking out the Americans with their new babies and trying to talk you out of your yuan. Bought a nice stroller for 160 yuan (about $20) and several baby outfits for about $5 USD each.

Monday morning we had a western-style breakfast at our Hotel in
Beijing, then left for the airport. Flew on China Air to Guangzhou and stopped for lunch before going to the White Swan.

The White Swan is famous among Chinese adoption families, as Guangzhou is usually the "last stop" before returning to the US. The White Swan is probably the most popular hotel among these families, so as you walk around, you see Americans with Chinese babies everywhere.
Since Anna was from the Guangdong Province, we'll spend the rest of our visit here.

After getting some things together, we took a short drive to "Adoption Registry Center of Guangdong Province" where our babies were brought up from their orphange.

I'm going to cut this short for now, but after about 15 minutes of crying, the babies settled down and all seem to be doing very well.

She's very "serious" about everything, but she's also a happy baby, and seems to be warming up to Mom and Dad pretty quickly. She's eating American formula OK now, and slept through the night. We've got a couple of interviews this morning, but should have the afternoon free.

Mark

We arrived in Beijing at 10:40 AM local time. After going through customs, we went straight to our hotel, and then to the Great Wall. After making it back to Beijing, we were taken out for some authentic Chinese food, and back in our hotel room by 7:00 PM local time.

We're up at 5:00 AM in the morning and off to the airport again... we fly to Guangzhou tomorrow to get Anna!

Friday - We woke up in Wichita at 4:00 AM and headed for the airport. Our flight left right on time at 6:00 AM, and we arrived in Chicago at 7:30 AM. We checked the “departures” board and found that our flight, which had originally been scheduled to leave at 12:30 PM was delayed until 3:00 PM.

To make a very long story short, our flight was delayed several times and finally canceled for the day. We left the airport a little after 6:00 PM and spent the night in Chicago at the Crowne Plaza? Hotel very close to the airport. It was a very long day, and there was little to do in O’Hare International Airport. Power outlets are scarce, but we did manage to plug the laptop in and watch a DVD. We tried to walk around quite a bit because we kept thinking that we would be leaving soon.

Saturday - Woke up at 5:00 AM and caught the 5:30 AM shuttle bus from our hotel back to O’Hare. Flight was supposed to leave at 8:00 AM, but by the time we took off, it was closer to 8:47 AM. From here on out, I’m going to switch over to Beijing time.... as I write this, it’s 5:28 PM CDT at home, and 6:28 AM Sunday morning in Beijing. We’re due to arrive in Beijing at 10:20 AM (Beijing time). Today was the day that our adoption agency had scheduled for us to see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City - we still hope that we get to do those things, although we’re going to be pretty tired by the time we get to Beijing, as it will be 9:20 PM in Kansas.

The flight is about 13 hours, and time is going rather slowly... we’ve met some of the other families that are adopting through our agency, and look forward to spending more time with them once we get on the ground. It’s nice to be traveling with a group, rather than just stumbling through everything ourselves. We’re in coach, but had our seats changed yesterday (while we were waiting in Chicago) and got moved up to an “exit row”. Good move... we’ve got lots of legroom, which is very nice (although we’re right next to the galley, and it’s a little noisy at times). We’ll try to get a couple of pictures of plane before the flight is over.

Well, we've traveled a whopping 70 miles today...

My dad is a frequent traveler for his job, so he got us a free night at the Airport Hilton in Wichita. Good thing, too... we fly out of Wichita at 6AM tomorrow morning for Chicago.

Will have a layover in Chicago and then fly out from their at Noon.

Went to a birthday party for my neice this evening, kissed the kids goodbye, and my dad took us to the airport. Jesse and Seth rode along to the airport, Leah stayed at the birtday party with Nanny...

Going to bed, hope to get something posted fairly quickly when we get to Beijing.

--Mark

Wednesday night and we're not quite packed. Gina always does a great job getting things packed, and this one's kind of a challenge because we're not just packing for a trip, we're leaving the country completely.

We hope to be checked into the Hilton in Wichita, KS tomorrow night early, so we can get a good night's sleep before we fly out of Wichita on Friday at 6:00AM.