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