Day 14 - Waiting and Walking (lots of walking)

Today started off by playing the "waiting game". We had to stay in our room until 10 AM to ensure that we DIDN'T receive a call from the consulate regarding any of Lize's paperwork. We did not receive any call, which is a good thing. That indicates that everything should be going as necessary with all the paperwork to finalize her adoption and visa to enter the states.

After the waiting, Dawn and Richard wanted Starbucks and then we decided to walk some more (actually walk A LOT). I'm sure that we walked over 8 miles today. First, we walked all over an open air market selling herbs, rice, and other foods such as snakes, skinned goats, fish, squid and other normal items. Here's some pictures of the walk in the market:





You get the "picture". Although the the market was "unique" to what we consider normal in the states, it was a great peek into the great culture here. It gives you a chance to understand that what we may consider abnormal is actually a fascinating way of life for others.

After the market, we were off to walk the riverfront (looking for a Mc Donalds). After a very long walk, Richard and I finally found the Mc Donalds. It turned out to farther away than I first thought but we found it nonetheless. Here's some pictures:


Along our walk we saw several people pulling huge amounts of weight by cart and/or hauling it on bikes. Richard and I finally reached our prize....



At the end of the day, the girls and I were off to Guangzhou's equivalent to Chicago's magnificent mile of shopping. This place was great and full of life and bright lights. We had great Chinese food known as Pizza Hut (that's right the same Pizza Hut as in the states). Here's some pics of our night.....

Tomorrow is a BIG DAY, it's our consulate appointment. This will be our final adoption appointment and then we pack and come back home....YEAH!

Day 13 - Group trip to the Safari

Today was a fantastic day. We took a group trip to Xiangjiang Safari Park Guangzhou. If you've ever had a trip turn out to be much more than you ever expected (as a pleasant surprise) this was one of those times.

We drove in downtown Guangzhou and then around the city (which happens to be the 3rd largest city in China) which gave us an opportunity to see just how big it was....let me tell you, it's big. After about a 45 minute drive, we arrived at the park:

Once we got to inside, we were off to take a tram trip around the safari area. It was a HUGE open space area that took you around the world. The safari area was open with the animals open to roam anywhere they wanted. There were cape buffalo holding traffic up, ostriches pecking at the window of cars, elephants, lions, rare white tigers, to sum it up - there were too many normal zoo animals along with rare endangered animals to mention. Here's a few pictures:

I was able to feed a white tiger cub, Dawn was able to be very close to her favorite animal and Lize was so excited she......:

The good news is that she woke up in time to the see the main attraction (in my opinion) at the safari park, THE GREAT PANDAS. There were 10 of them and it was amazing to see them "doing their thing". I was surprised at how big they are in real life and what they sound like. One of them were biting another and they sound like a dog barking/howling. Just being a few feet from these animals was incredible especially when you consider that it's estimated that only 2,000 remain in the wild. Here's a few pictures:

At the end of a day like today, what else is there to do except go to dinner and then bed. ZACH be advised, there's going to be more pasta eating in our home. Your sister loves pasta..... I know you think that's GREAT!

Today's close brings us one day closer to having our family together again. We love and miss you kids!

Day 12 - Medical Exam and more shopping

Today was more group photos and medical exam day. The good news was the examinations are done right here on the island, the bad news is that the kids didn't care for them. Although none of the "checks" are painful, most of the kids cried during some or all of the procedures. Lize was very happy to leave this place and move on to shopping.

Here are some photos from the day gone by:

We ended the night with a very nice group dinner and then a walk around the island.

Tomorrow is a planned group day of fun at a local safari. Guangzhou is in a tropical location so I don't know what to expect what type of animals they will have but we'll know in few hours.

Finally, we would like to again thank you all for your prayers, support and comments (even the one's about my clothes). Until tomorrow.....good night.

Day 11 - WOW, What a busy day..... with a great ending

It's great to be back in Guangzhou. What a difference two years make. The kindness of the people is the same (as it is everywhere in China) but the air quality is not - - It's dramatically improved from the last time we were here. You can see the blue skies and white clouds this time. The population is now over 20 million and you'll see later what the translates into during our shopping trip.

Today was a very busy day with several planned group activities. We jammed the following into 6 hours. We visited: The Chen Family Academy, The Six Banyan Temple, The Pearl Market, The Jade Store, and had lunch at a great 5 star restaurant overlooking one a park and the mountains.

Here's a few pictures from our visit to The Chen Family Academy (The center picture includes Uncle Morgan - our guide/friend from AAC Adoption Agency and Vickie and Faith Grows):

The following pictures are from the Six Banyan Temple. I love this place as it leaves you feeling very calm. While at the temple, we had a blessing for Lize - which is rare to get a blessing from a Monk when you're not a Buddhist. We did this with Sofi as well and we treat it as a way to say goodbye to their past religion and life (while we will never take away their heritage and ancestral culture and once their old enough and want to learn about it, we'll help them in any way we can including trips back to China) and moving forward to a future of promise, hope and faith.






Then we were off to lunch (Good thing I didn't have any of those "CRAZY" shorts on I don't think they would have let me in - by the way, I love the comments about them). Here's some pictures of us and the location ....what a great view - Thanks Morgan!

After lunch, we were off to do some shopping. We purchased some pearls for the girls. You get a chance to see what a not so busy street looks like on a Sunday afternoon at the mall entrance (those of you who know Dawn well know how excited she was with the small crowd)....

We got back to the island we're staying on and then went shopping for Lize's squeaky shoes. Once we got them on, she was so excited. She was running and walking all over the place just to hear the "squeak" - she especially loved the hallways in the hotel. Here's a couple of pictures:

Our day ended with a dinner with Judy. As you may recall, (for those who followed our journey to Sofi two years ago) Judy was our coordinator during Sofi's adoption who became our friend. She and her son met us for dinner on the island at one of Judy's favorite restaurants.

A funny thing happened during dinner. Lize began saying a couple of phrases that she's been saying quite often and Judy busted out laughing. When we asked what was so funny, she told us that Lize was saying, " It's mine! and I want it!" Judy was impressed with how smart she was for only being two.

Another funny thing happened on our walk back to the hotel after dinner. Judy's son touched Lize's hair and Lize whipped head around and said, " Don't touch my hair". Judy again busted out laughing and once she interpreted what Lize had said in Chinese, we did the same. What's really funny about this is that Lize tells Dawn this every time she tries to put her "pretties" in her hair. (we thought she was just using Chinese baby talk.....what do we know?)

Here's a picture of us before going to dinner:

Day 10 - We finally arrive in Guangzhou

Today, was our travel day to Guangzhou, China. Lize had her first flight ever and traveled well. I must admit that it felt great to be back to somewhere familiar. After settling in at our hotel, it was off to a dinner at Lucy's. We met some more AAC families and other adoptive parents. Here's some pictures from today's travel. The first is a groups picture before departing for Guangzhou and the rest are from the day's travel:

Overall, it was a good day and with it's close we get one day closer to coming home. Let the countdown begin.