On our way!

We are leaving for the airport in one hour!  Cannot wait to see Doug, Hailey, and Ginny and introduce them to Avery.  Next stop-home!

We have the visa

This evening three families in our group departed for the airport for a short flight in HongKong.  There they will stay overnight, then fly to New York and connect for a flight to Tampa tomorrow.  We fly out tomorrow midday directly from Guangzhou to Seoul, Korea.  We have a two hour layover there before flying to Chicago on a 13 hour flight.  We will do customs and immigration in Chicago and arrive at last in Indianapolis at 9:06 PM Saturday night.  We already miss our group.  They spent most of the day packing, so we took a short trip to the Guangzhou City Zoo.  After all, when do you get to see a real white tiger or a pair of pandas??  The zoo was beautiful and we might have stayed longer if it had not been drizzling.   We had taken a taxi (with our destination written in Chinese for the driver).  After seeing what we wanted most to see, Anya hailed a taxi for us for our return.

After the visas and all needed final paperwork for the babies were distributed, there was the traditional photo of the babies seated on the red couch.  The babies were hilarious and so darling in their traditional Chinese "pajamas."  We really enjoyed getting to know our group and bade them farewell with mixed feelings.  We are all happy to be going home, but we have enjoyed our new friends.  Tomorrow we go to the airport and home!

Touring Guangzhou

Today we had no official duties; we are just waiting for the visas.  Poor little Avery is still having issues with the rash and the diarrhea, but she was a trooper on all the outings.  Our guide Jocylin had arranged an outing for us to see a famous Buddhist Temple, Temple of the 6 Banyon Trees.  It was crowded because it was a special day on the Chinese lunar calendar.  Many were lighting insense sticks and worshipping.  China has four main religions:  Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Christian.  Within the temple area, there was one female Buddha figure representing Compassion in a smaller structure, but the main attraction was the three 20 foot high golden Buddha figures representing the Past, the Present, and the Future.

Kristie, Anya, and Avery in front of the elaborate jade boat sculpture

We also visited the Chen House and Academy which showcases the 4 arts and crafts of the province:  jade sculpture, ivory carving, porcelain, and embroidery.  This was a very ornately carved building used by one family of the province for their family affairs, but later donated to the government due to  prohibitive maintenance costs.  The government operates it as a museum.  The examples of the fine work were amazing, but we were especially interested in the bed.  We had heard about the White Swan hotel being notorious for hard beds, and indeed the beds are hard (however, if you are exhausted, you do not notice).  We found out the traditional Chinese bed has NO mattress and this example used porcelain blocks for pillows!!!

You can see a bit of the intricacy of the carvings on the roof.

We also got to shop for some fine things today with this part of China being known for jade and pearls especially.  Anya selected some pearls and had them strung for a necklace while we were there.

"Shopping Street"

Anya at the Pearl Market

Oath and the Pearl River Cruise

Well, the U.S. Consulate has now agreed that all of the paperwork is in order for these little girls to become U.S. citizens.  We all went to the offices so that the parents could take an oath that all of what had submitted was true and everything was finalized.  No pictures of that are available because we were not allowed to take any electronic devices through security. There were 6 families altogether taking the oath and adopting children.  We were told that in 2005, there were 8000 such adoptions from China to the U.S.  The number of adoptions has slowed considerably and the proportion of children being adopted with special needs  has increased each year.  In 2010 there were about 3400 adoptions.  As recently as 2 years ago,  30% of the adoptions were of special needs children.  So far this year, 73% of those adopted have had special needs.   All we await now are the visas for the girls.  At the first city of entry into the U.S., when we present the final packet of completed paperwork, they will actually become U.S. citizens.  For us, that will be Chicago.

Poor little Avery is now suffering through her 6th day of diarrhea.  We went to the hotel clinic after returning from the consulate.  The doctor had no explanation for us.  It may be that she is alergic to the formula, or something else we are giving her that she has not had before.  Her rash has quit getting worse, but is not yet getting better.  He had the nurse grind up some medicine, which she then put into little tissue paper squares containing enough powder for a single dose.  It seemed like something from a different era or out of a movie.  We put a dose of powder into some drink for Avery and she, of course, will not drink it.  Hmmmmmmm.  Despite the issues and the many blowout diapers, she remains in good humor.  She played in the hotel baby playroom today and Anya has had fun with the dragon bathrobes in our hotel room.  Kristie and the girls went out for Starbucks while Ginny caught up on her work.

The blowout diapers have resulted in more trips to the Chinese laundry.  That is another story.  We had heard it was very inexpensive to have laundry done and so in Nanchang, we sent out what would have amounted to two small loads at home.  While it came back clean, precisely folded, and packaged neatly in clear plastic bags, the cost was $70.  For women used to doing their own laundry, there was a lesson here:  define "inexpensive."  Regardless, we have no choice for the baby items.  We are good at catching and preventing, but there is still laundry.

Even Anya had some bathroom disaster laundry.  Please skip to the next paragraph if easily offended; however, this must be reported because Anya thought it was a very big deal.  You see......the toilets here are frequently not "Western" toilets. How women manage to do this is still unclear to me, except I am thinking it involves incredible thigh muscles.  Plus, these Chinese women nearly all wear spike heeled boots.  It is beyond me. Anya refers to these as  "squatty pottys."  All I know is there was a desperate situation today that involved a tiny cubicle (the one pictured here is spacious by comparison), one of these non-Western fixtures, Kristie with Avery in the baby front pack in the stall assisting Anya.  Somehow the end result (no pun intended) was that Anya's pants are in the laundry collection for the morning.  Although Kristie laughed later, it was reportedly not amusing at the time.  Ginny was assigned to take Anya to the restroom later in the day.

The evening brought the Pearl River Dinner Cruise.  The views were spectacular and really showed off the billions spent by the government to beautify the city for the 2010 Asian Games.  After viewing the sites, on the return portion of the trip, the most bizarre entertainment occurred on the boat.  There was suddenly a loud whistle and loud Ricky Martin music playing with the appearance of what must be the Chinese version of a clown.  It was a woman dressed up as a rabbit (this is the year of the rabbit).  She began with balloon animals for the small children and then she began to juggle.  She was really quite good and Anya got to be a part of the act at one point.  It was pretty incredible and we were glad we had gone.

Cruise Boat

Guangzhou Tower by Night

White Swan Hotel where we are staying

 

Guangzhou at Last!

We were unable to make an entry yesterday as we were traveling and getting our directions for what all would go on during the next round of governmental procedures and obtaining of the documents needed to bring Avery home.  We all know how long it takes to get a passport in the U.S., and you can imagine what all is involved in an adoption: verification of immunizations, obtaining a passport for a Chinese baby, medical examinations, obtaining a visa for her to leave the country, applying for her to become a U.S. citizen, emigration, immigration, etc.  This is carefully orchestrated by our agency, but the process is the process.  We were finished in Nanchang and now we have come for the work to be done in Guangzhou.

Guangzhou is the third largest city in China, and the population just within the city limits is at least 10,000,000.  The parts of it we have seen could not be more different from Nanchang.  It is gorgeous.  Kristie said it reminded her of Savannah.  The guide told us that the government spent billions making the city attractive when it was host to the Asian Games.  It is clean.  It is a port on the Pearl River and our hotel, the White Swan, has a magnificent view of the river and its traffic.  It is a very posh hotel that caters to families adopting Chinese children, so it is not uncommon to see other family groups similar to those in our group.  The hotel even has an indoor waterfall.  Anya is very impressed, and frankly we are appreciative of the comfortable surroundings in the hotel and the cleanliness of the city.  Even though we have enjoyed the elaborate international breakfasts buffets we have had in all the hotels, this one is the finest we have ever seen in any place.  Anya appreciated that there were chicken nuggets on the breakfast buffet as well as corn flakes!  Familiar food is a comfort as we grow weary of travel.

One of the jobs to do today was to take the babies to the medical examination.  We had to get there on foot and it was, of course, raining.  Regardless, we were so impressed with the lush landscaping and carefully maintained walks and buildings.  As for the exams.....the babies were not about it.  For Avery, we had the worry of now several days of diarrhea and a rash that was getting worse.  The doctor called in another doctor, but they could not decide what it was.  It is not the scabies we treated last week, and it is not chicken pox.  It may be a virus or some type of allergy.  They gave us a treatment for the diarrhea and Kristie gave her an oatmeal bath tonight.  We will hope for improvement.  Although she noted her discomfort during the exams, the issues and the exams have not made Avery crabby for long.  She continues to interact, find humor in immitating or getting others to immitate her; really, she is a charming little girl.  The other job of the day was to prepare the paperwork to apply for the visa.  It all wore her out; it wore us all out!  We look forwrad to coming home.

Last Full Day in Nanchang

Little Miss Cutie Pie has a habit of waking in the night.  She has things to do, crawling around, being wide awake.  Kristie reread the information from the caregiver at the orphanage stating that she likes to get up at around midnight to be fed.  What?????  The last couple nights, however, it was a bad sound/smell that was noticed first....Avery may have some sort of "bug," the symptoms of which we hope improve dramatically  before tomorrow's flight to Guangzhou!  Despite the minor issues, she remains charming, alert, curious, and adventuresome.  She loves to play, to stand, to babble, to be tickled, to laugh.  She really is delightful.

Kristie stayed home with her this very cold day while Ginny and Anya joined others to visit the main historic site in Nanchang.  No old Chinese ladies were wagging their fingers about inappropriate baby care to us today. This is a 1500 year old pavilion built for ceremonies and celebrations.  Within the pavilion we were able to view the elaborate mosaic walls and painted designs covering all surfaces.    The 360 degree views of Nanchang from the upper levels showed the dramatic changes in China from the Teng Dynasty to an entire skyline of highrise buildings that have been built in the last ten years.  That is what we have seen in our trip here - traditional Chinese ways radically and rapidly changing.  Not all things have made equal progress resulting in irregular traffic rules and jams of bicycles, motorbikes, cars and busses; fancy facilities with central heating issues, etc.  We are not sorry to leave Nanchang.  We are grateful to have Avery, but are looking forward to Guangzhou and then home.

Out and About in Nanchang

We have seen some of the sights and had new experiences for the past two days while waiting for the babies' passports to be completed.  Our guide took us to a place which was something like a vertical flea market.  Many booths were crammed in one building.  We purchased a CD of traditional Chinese lullabies and some darling shoes.  The Chinese women generally seem to be about shoes and purses!  Lots of hair additions and nail options were available too.  Anya purchased a scarf which has provided much entertainment in terms of imaginative play.  Today we also shopped for porcelain since that is Nanchang's claim to fame.  Little Miss Avery observed and enjoyed the activities except for napping.

We ate at Chinese restaurants for the past two days with the aid of our Chinese guide.  She explained our choices and helped us order many fine things to share.  We had eggplant, lotus root, and various unknown items which we may never have tried for (justifiable) fear of accidentally ordering donkey meat, pig's head or other supposed delicacies.  Anya was brave and tried some things; Kristie, not so much.  Avery sat in a highchair, called a "baby sitter."

A very interesting stop for us today was a park.  We had not seen anything much but pavement and had asked if there was any place to go for a walk.  The vegetation was interesting but we did note the most common trees were Sycamores.  There was a fabulous exercise area for adults where we saw men playing badminton without a net, people stretching, and adults of all ages using the permanent, playground-type exercise equipment in the open air.  Who needs a cross country skiing machine or an eliptical trainer when these machines are available?

There were also amusement park type rides.  Anya and Ginny took advantage of the bumper cars and the swinging chairs.  There were Chinese style paddle boats.  We also included a photo of Ginny looking tall (and proud of it).  Her son Thomas had noted this was the trip for her to finally be taller than some of the resident adult population.  Kristie was admonished three different times by older Chinese women who did not approve of Avery showing a quarter inch of skin between her sock top and pant leg (pulled up due to the baby carrier).  They usually bundle the babies up in 5 layers for normal activities, let alone taking them outside in cold weather.