Outta Here!

It's our last afternoon in China and no one is more anxious to leave than I am. It's been a long trip, but as I'm sure most newly adoptive parents feel, you just want to get your kid home. Yesterday was a great day - we spent the morning at Yue Xie Park - absolutely beautiful, but loaded with many, many steps that were wet with rain. Very tricky for crutches and strollers. A monument in the center of the park marks the geographical center of old Guangzhou. It was a humid day and the park was more like a jungle. Another cool aspect was the ancient wall that ran through the park - to keep out invaders. Then, last evening, we went on a wonderful dinner boat cruise up and down the Pearl River. The girls LOVED it. This morning we went to the consulate at 11:00 for the "swearing" ceremony. Then crazed packing until 3:30, when we received the girls passports and visas! Hooray! Now it's just after 5pm, and our luggage was just carted away. We're to meet at 5:30 to begin the bus ride to the airport. We're hoping that our airport experience will be better than our last trip. Fortunately the airport is brand new, so we're hopeful. So the next time you hear from us, we'll be back on your side of the world! Thanks for all of your supportive emails! Love, Katie, Tony, Joe, Sam, Claire and Sydney

White Swan Hotel - view from our dinner boat cruise on the Pearl River 

Wayne and Samson (our local ICA guides) 

ICA travel group in the White Swan Hotel 

Traditional red coach photo at the White Swan Hotel 

Claire and Sydney dressed in Chinese silk attire 

Claire, Sam, Sydney, and Joe in Yue Xie Park 

Wayne and Jim helping Tony up the slippery steps at Yue Xie Park 

Crowd forms around the adoptive children 

Claire and Sydney having a picnic with their teddy bears 

Shamian Island School - Class Drill 

Sydney's Medical Exam for US Visa 

Birthday in China

Hi Everyone! I have to say it has been a birthday unlike any other. Claire had a rough night and I rang in my birthday sitting on the floor in a Guangzhou hotel, between the two air mattresses that Sydney and Claire were laying on. A little surreal, I admit. Fortunately Claire settled down and the rest of the night was decent. The day "dawned" either incredibly smoggy or incredibly foggy. From our 24th floor suite, we cannot even see to the other side of the Pearl River. At least it's a little warmer today. No "field trip" today - we spent the morning preparing our paperwork for the U.S. Consultate appointment tomorrow. Then in the afternoon, a ten minute walk for the girls' medical exams. Sydney passed with flying colors. Everyone laughed when the ENT pulled out the tongue depresser and she opened her mouth wide, without being asked. Walked past the elementary school here on Shamian Island, where they were doing military-type P.E. exercises. The children are all in uniform and were so amused by Tony's crutches and boot (as is everyone here). We took photos to show Claire and Sydney what they missed by not going to school in China. Guess they'll have to settle for wearing flip flops and sweat pants through the Herndon school system. Just had a lovely little birthday surprise - Marcy just stopped by with a quart (that's right - QUART) of Tsingtao Beer for my birthday. Came nicely giftwrapped in addition to being nicely chilled! I am sharing with Tony. Tonight we're headed out to Lucy's Restaurant again - they seem to have the best selection to suit everyone. Then we're going to stop at a deli next to the hotel on the way back for Haagen Daz ice cream with which to celebrate my birthday. Despite what my friend Barb says, there will be no pigeon cake with squid icing! Tomorrow we're headed off to a park in the morning and then a boat cruise for dinner. We're a little concerned about what we might see in the water on the boat cruise - we've witnessed multiple oil slicks in the river in addition to a variety of other trash. But we do need to celebrate our last full night in China in style. So we continue to count down the days. In just over two, we'll be heading to the airport. We are more ready with each passing day. Miss you all! Love, Katie, Tony, Joe, Sam, Claire, and Sydney

Guangzhou Zoo

Hey Everyone! Today is Tuesday and we're definitely starting to feel the "itch" to return home. Three and a half days and we'll be on the plane. Fortunately, we have the momentous occasion of my birthday tomorrow to break up the monotony...a little. As I've said before, I have spent my birthday in much worse places than China. We had a very interesting evening out last night. Samson (who you're hearing so much about because our other guide, Wayne, was sick and in the hospital) took us out for some authentic Cantonese fare. As you may know, Cantonese cuisine is known for eating virtually ANYTHING, and that was certainly evident. Upon entering the restaurant, there are tubs and tubs of things like worms, scorpions and giant black beetles. I made a comment like "oh yummy, beetles!" Claire (my "try anything" girl) looked at me and said "are they good, mommy?" Tough question. I've never been known as a afficionado of eating new foods, so I'll admit I did more observing than actual eating, all while nursing my Cantonese beer. The others worked their way through a variety of courses, most fairly tame, but some very interesting. Claire, Tony, Sam, and Sydney (Joe was sleeping, again) tried some pigeon, spicy squid, and radish pie. Samson asked us to save the pigeon heads for him - not a problem. This morning, again very chilly, we bundled up and headed off to the Guangzhou Zoo. Parts were very pretty and we saw some cool elephants, giraffes, tigers, and one sort of depressed-looking panda. Meanwhile a few people from our group headed down to the Yangdong orphanage where the five younger babies are from. Jim Walker went with the group. Be sure to see the adorable photo of Jim and Marcy's daughter, Anna, posted to the blog here. She has the brightest eyes I've ever seen. Also posted today is a photo of Sydney in front of the camel area. She's so thin, I was afraid she might slip through the bars, but fortunately her head prevented her from going through! She really did love the camels. Oh, my other amusing story for today involves Joe and Sydney on the bus to the zoo. He kept rattling on to her about how wonderful America is, i.e., "there are 999 channels instead of three; there are cheeseburgers as far as the eye can see, etc." Finally she turned to him and deliberate stuck her fingers in her ears. Enough said, literally. That's all that's new for today. We miss you all and are counting the days until we come home! K, T, J, S, C, and S

Six Banyan Temple family picture 

Scorpions at the Qingping Market 

Anna Laign Walker 

Sydney at the Guangzhou Zoo 

We're halfway through our trip and starting to have fond thoughts of returning home! But, for now, we're making the most of our time in China. The weather warmed up a bit today, to the mid-50s, thank goodness. Tomorrow should be even a bit better, though maybe raining. We just weren't prepared for the cold - clotheswise. I'm getting really tired of the one pair of jeans I brought. This morning we had a great outing to Qingping Market. It's about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. Easy for most people, but for a group of eight families with strollers and Tony on crutches, even the easiest outing can be cumbersome. Needless to say, we drew tons of attention as we walked through the streets and alleyways, where vendors display their medicinal products. Shown here in the picture are two women selling scorpions. You never know when THOSE might come in handy. Our guide, Samson, challenged us to pick them up with chopsticks, but we demurred. After the Qingping Market, we wandered through the streets of Guangzhou (avoiding lots of bicycle and car traffic) and headed to the pearl market. This was like a seven story mall with hundreds and hundreds of small shops, each selling jewelry. This afternoon is a cocktail reception (woo hoo!) and then another Chinese dinner. Things will Sydney get a bit better each day. She's settling down a little and seems to just be starting to understand that we're not going anywhere. She's almost always happy, with a ready smile and is eating like there's no tomorrow. Put a big bowl of noodles in front of her and she grins with her whole face. We had a great laugh last night when she put Sam in "time out." Apparently Sam had committed some infraction, and Sydney, in typical toddler fashion, was playing the parent and pulled her by the arm into the bedroom, all the while lecturing her sternly. Then she closed the glass door. The other funny thing was when we decided to play Claire's Mulan tape in Mandarin rather than English. For the first time, Sydney watched at least part of a video with rapt attention. On our outing today, Tony was able to get several Disney DVDs in Cantonese, which she should understand even better than Mandarin. So curious to see how she'll react. Hopefully she'll like them and they'll help us with the long planeride home. Fortunately most of these movies Claire has already seen, so it doesn't bother her that they're speaking another language. She's even been requesting Mulan in Chinese again. Joe has just returned from "Lucy's" with our lunch, so I'll sign off for now. Oh, before I go, a quick comment on the "bubble bath" photo. Sam and I wanted to take the girls outside yesterday to blow bubbles, but it was just TOO cold. So we came back in, let them stand in the tub and blow bubbles. As you can see, it was a bit hit with Miss Sydney. I guess I did pretty well when I brought the balloons and bubbles. Oh, one MORE thing - she is learning a little English every day. She'll now say the words "shoe" and "Joe" but can point out quite a few things when we say them. It's going to big a long process, but it has to start somewhere. Take care everyone. We're counting the days until we get to come home and see you all!
Love, Katie, Tony, Joe, Sam, Claire, and Sydney

Six Banyan Temple

Hi Everyone! Here is a photo of us while visiting the Six Banyan Temple this morning. We were able to get all of the girls in our group blessed by a Buddhist Monk. Very beautiful. Then Joe had the chance to climb a nine-story pagoda. After that, we hit the jade market and after THAT, the highlight of Joe's day - a trip to Starbucks and McDonald's! We've all been looking forward to the McDonald's apple pies - they still fry them here! Actually Sam and I ended up with pineapple somehow, but they were pretty good. Also posted here is a photo of Claire and Sydney with one of our two guides, Samson. We always have wonderful people looking out for us while we're here - this time we have Wayne and Samson. We love listening to them switching between English, Mandarin, and Cantonese in two seconds. Now we're off to the Swan Room to let the girls run around and play with a million toys. Tonight we're off to the Cow and Bridge Restaurant - Thai food. I'm a little concerned about the name of the restaurant. After today, we're halfway through the trip. Hard to believe. Hope everyone there is doing well. Love to all! Katie, Tony, Joe, Sam, Claire, and Sydney

Better late than never

http://delapaz.smugmug.com/gallery/431469/1/17317140 - Well, we've had so many issues with the front end of the this trip, I hardly know where to start. I guess I'll start by saying that we're having problems posting to the Web log, hence the delay. We're not able to post photos at all at this point, so please see the link above to take a look at the one photo we've posted to our photo Web site. As some of you know, about an hour and a half before we left on Monday, Tony got the word that due to a serious infection resulting from his Achilles surgery, he would not be able to travel with us. Mark dropped me and the three kids at the airport and then dropped Tony off at the hospital for another surgery. What a day. Thanks also to my wonderful co-workers who helped us get a Power of Attorney notarized and Fed Ex'ed in under an hour! So the kids and I flew out on Monday night and had a long but uneventful trip to Guangzhou. We were able to check into our very nice suite on Wednesday morning at around 10. We wandered around a bit and got reacclimated to Shamian Island. It's a gorgeous place to walk around and the weather was good, thought we haven't seen the sun since we've been here - the haze is ever-present. We were trying to figure out a way to communicate with Tony, but it took us a while to get our local phone and Internet access. I was thrilled to get an email saying that he would be flying out Tuesday night. Unfortunately, that didn't come to pass due to the snow you all got that day. He wasn't able to get to New York for a connection. We were greatly disappointed, knowing that it would mean that he would miss "Gotcha Day" for Sydney. But we kept our perspective, knowing that he would be with her as soon as he could. Gotcha Day went very well, and Sydney only took about half an hour before she smiled for us. Joe got her first smile and soon she was even laughing. She is super-friendly and SUPER full of energy. Velvet described her perfectly as a "fireball." She's talking lots, but of course we can't understand her. My very limited Cantonese has come in handy - the first day we had her, I asked her "Mama hai been do ah" (Where is Mama?) and she would point to me! She's also really coordinated and FAST. Claire is taking her big sister role very seriously and we've only had a few incidents of jealousy. Claire has "modeled" lots of behavior (potty, bath, etc), which has helped a great deal. She loves "showing" Sydney how to do things. For the time being, we're calling Sydney "Yin Yin," which is how Ying Yan is pronounced in her local dialect. So fast forward to yesterday morning, when we were all SO thrilled when Tony arrived at long last. Because of the surgery he's back on crutches not allowed to bear weight at all. Fortunately we had lugged all of the luggage with us and he only had to tote a backpack. But he still had to rely on wheelchairs through airports. Yesterday morning our "outing" was to a local grocery/department store which resulted in the usual "circus" atmosphere - eight American families with Chinese daughters, along with the man with crutches - LOTS of b0ld staring. We even had check out people laughing at us - we had no idea we were supposed to weigh our doughnuts and oranges BEFORE check out. The checkout girl thought if she told us enough times in Cantonese, we would suddenly understand. Nope. She had to send a co-worker back to do it for us. And we were not the only ones. They were glad when we left. Last night we had a fabulous Chinese dinner. Sydney, who was content to let me feed her for her first few meals, was shoveling food in throughout dinner. I can't believe how much she ate. She loves fried rice and noodles (in addition to juice and chickens - Barb). We were supposed to go on an outing to some type of museum this morning, but it was POURING rain, so we're to try again this afternoon. Thank goodness for the Swan Room, sponsored by Mattel. A huge room, full of toys. Claire and Sydney love it and it gives us a chance to meet other adopting parents from all over the world. The girls also love the indoor waterfall and goldfish pond. Claire has named every fish "Shang" - one of her favorite characters from Mulan. So that about brings us up to date. We're hang out here for six more days, trying to fatten Sydney up and teach her a few words of English (Joe already has her saying "hello" perfectly). Much more later. Love to you all! Katie, Tony, Joe, Sam, Claire, and Sydney

Sydney and Tony