We Did Make It Home

Hi all, we did make it home Friday night! It was a very long day but made it none the less. We left Guangzhou on time and then were an hour late leaving Tokyo which put us in San Fransisco that much later. Considering we had only a two hour layover we missed our connection to Boise by about 20 minutes, crappy! However, we were able to get on the next flight back to Boise and arrived at 6 pm versus 1 pm.

My parents, Danielle's parents and Danielle's brother, sister-in-law and Kate's two new cousins all met us at the airport. It was a very nice reception.

We headed back to Caldwell for Pizza and catching up.

All in all a nice reception at home.

Monday afternoon is Kate's cardiologist appointment. We will keep you posted on the outcome.

Thank you all for your support, prayers and comments over the last 2 1/2 weeks.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Today was the final day on this leg of the journey. Our flight leaves Guangzhou at 9:15 tomorrow morning and we head to Tokyo. Which means we are meeting in the lobby at 6 am or 4 pm Thursday afternoon if you are in Boise. We are scheduled to arrive back in Boise at 1:15 on Friday afternoon. Guangzhou to Tokyo (4 hours flight 2 hour layover) Tokyo to San Fransisco (9 hour flight 2 hour layover) then San Fran to Boise (1.5 hours). Kind of nice that the flights are broke up I guess, no straight 13 hours of flying. We will see how Kate does on this go, as the first attempt was not so good.

This morning we slept late and met a local guide at 10:30 where we then went to a pearl wholesale shopping area and an antique market. It was an awesome excursion and I am glad we went. Danielle and I could have spent hours shopping and people watching but after two hours the girls were done. We picked up some great deals and really enjoyed it.

From there it was back to the room so the girls could nap. Although it took some time for nap time to occur as Jessica just laid by Kate's crib and they both laughed and played together. I finally put Jessica in her bed and the girls were out in no time. Danielle to the time to go out and do some last shopping and photo taking.

We took an early dinner tonight and then headed out for one last walk around town. It seems that are timing was a little off, because by the time we made it to the district we wanted to explore people were putting their shops away.

We are outta here, see you all later.

Badminton and Noodles

Not sure if that is correct, the spelling of badminton, but the "sport" seems like a local past time. In fact the restaurant that we were dining at this evening had the championship game between Hong Kong and South Korea playing on the big screen television tonight. Unfortunately it is hard not to get drawn in.

One thing I have realized about Jessica is you can take the girl out of China, but you can never completely take China out of the girl. Not that I would want to, but there is just something about her that is China. At about every meal the girl asks for noodles, she just can't seem to get enough of them. We have ordered them pretty much every meal since we arrived in Guangzhou. Guangzhou is actually know for a speciality noodle that is made from rice, not a flour noodle. The other thing that I have observed about Jessica is that she is drawn to badminton.

This evening at dinner, Danielle left early with Kate. So Jessica and I stayed behind to finish, and after she was done she crawled on my lap and we began watching the badminton match on television, must have been 15 minutes before we finally got up. Once we began walking back to the hotel, we crossed through a park. At night the park is crawling with locals out exercising and one sport that they really enjoy is badminton. Tonight was probably the third night that Jessica and I have spent alone strolling the park, and probably the third night that she specifically requested to sit and watch people play. She loves it! Of course she was correcting the people and telling me that the people can use their legs and arms to also hit the bird, something tells me she thinks badminton should be taken to a whole other level. Once we arrived back at the room she proceeded to tell Danielle all about it, so Jessica and Danielle have ventured out once again to observe.

Since Jessica and Danielle are out, Kate and I are getting along great. Of course Kate is asleep. I will say that today we made huge progress between the two of us. Today she actually let me hold her hand, she openly reached for me and she gave me a smile. I guess that is what will happen when you are locked in a van for 11 hours with someone you are really unsure of.

Eleven hours round trip. That is what it takes to travel to Maoming, including a 2 hour stop over. Today was the day we journeyed to where Jessica is from. I have to say it was a mixed emotion trip. Jessica has never asked about adoption, where she is from, etc. She is happy being herself, it was important for Danielle and I to go and find our more about the beginning.

We left the hotel at 7:30 am and got back about 6:30 or so. It was a long day but still a good one. When we arrived at Maoming we went to her orphanage and met the director and assistant director. We found out that Maoming has a population between 6-7 million people. The city is known for its petroleum industry, agriculture and jade factory. Maoming also has six orphanages and only two of the orphanages are involved in international adoption. I kept thinking what are the odds that out of six orphanages that Jessica would have made it to one of the two that do international adoption. I feel so blessed that she made it to us, and us to her. Someone was involved in the true plan of us all meeting.

Her orphanage, Maonan, has about 60 children. They range in age from days old to six years. The director gave us a tour and we got to see several children, several rooms and we met one nanny who worked there when Jessica was there. Danielle had printed off one of our referral photos of Jessica to take with us to show, coincidence but the director gave us a gift and inside the gift was a photograph. The photograph that he gave us is the very same photo that Danielle had printed off to bring. The photograph that he gave us also had Jessica's Chinese name written on the back. Again, all in Him. Amazing. Once I looked at the photo, I knew that there was no doubt that this was Jessica's "home".

After the tour of the orphanage we took the directors out for lunch at a local restaurant and it was all very good. Jessica really enjoyed the food. From there the directors drove us by Jessica's finding spot. It was sad to see, but the area has changed. The original place was made into a restaurant last year the director said. So we spent a few minutes along side the street, took a few photos, shared conversation. The last thing the deputy director said to Jessica was to never forget where she was from, we hope that she doesn't either.

We are so blessed to have both girls now, and we are blessed to have been to both of their homes. We will always have that, the girls will always have that.

It has been a good day.

It's A New Day

Today we had nothing scheduled until 2:30 when we were headed to the US Consulate here in Guangzhou. So this morning our travel group from the adoption agency got together for a photo session and it was great to see all the little ones ready to get home. One family was leaving right after the consulate appointment, they were taking a train to Hong Kong to spend the night. The other one is leaving tomorrow for a couple of days in Beijing and the other family leaves at 7 in the morning for their flight home. We are the only ones staying on for extra days. That is OK as tomorrow we are driving 4.5 hours one way to Jessica's orphanage.

After our consulate appointment Danielle, Jessica, Kate and I got dropped off a local shopping district so we could do shopping for Jessica's orphanage. We wanted to get a little something for the children. We purchased soccer balls, basketballs, jump ropes, candy and clothes for the children. I guess not much but it was what we could think of. Danielle said that when she spent time in the orphanages in India that the children were very happy to receive candy. So it was important to her to provide some treats.

After the trip to the shopping district we made our way back to the hotel and met our group, or what was left of it, for dinner. We headed back to La Dolce Vita, which is where Danielle first got Kate to smile. I don't know if it is the Italian food, atmosphere, or what, but Kate was certainly relaxed to where she was laughing. It was great to see and we were all happy to witness the moment. Truly a blessing.

This evening on our way back from dinner, we passed the local park where the police officers were training. Danielle got a little video.

We are headed out of the hotel at 7:30 in the morning to meet our guide and start the trek to Maoming. Hopefully we will have a post tomorrow night, but it may be very late.

Some Days Are Better Than Others

This morning we were up and going at 6 am once again, granted we had nothing scheduled until 6 pm because Danielle and I opted out of the zoo trip that was happening earlier in the afternoon.

We instead spent our family time doing our own thing which was very nice. After breakfast we had to sit around in the hotel room until after 11 am just to make sure all of the paper work for the US Consulate was correct. It was. Tomorrow we head to the Consulate at 2:30 pm for our swearing in ceremony, to where we are then Kate's parents in the eyes of the US Government.

We ended up having lunch at an Italian restaurant just down the road and it was a great day for pizza. Danielle actually got Kate in a high chair by herself and she didn't cry. It was awesome, Danielle started interacting with Kate and Kate gave her a smile. A SMILE! I couldn't believe it, I never expected it and was expecting to take a few more more weeks or at least days. What a blessed day today.

After lunch we did some shopping and picked up a few gifts for the girls and a few special things for Kate. We came back to the hotel for a rest before meeting our group for a 6 pm dinner date with a cruise down the Pearl River. It was nice to be out and about.

Winner, Winner, Winner

I realize I forgot to give the answer to my question on who said "I would rather be smart than be an actor"

Danielle is the only one that answered and she is correct. Pinocchio is the answer. We have only watched it at least once a day, every day for the past week and a half. Jessica can now almost repeat the movie word for word.

Happy Mothers Day

This morning we met at 9:30 for a trip out and about with our group. Our group is a nice manageable lot with only 3 other families. This morning we headed out to a local park, which just happened to be just across the street from the China Hotel which is where we stayed when we got Jessica. It was fun to see the China Hotel again, and it was nice to keep on driving by the place.

From the park we headed out to another temple where there seemed to be a lot of people. After the temple we headed to a local shopping district where we went to a few shops then had a family style dinner, and I have to say dinner was really enjoyable.

We made it back to the hotel room at about 2 pm where Jessica, Kate and I laid down to take naps. Danielle left the room to do some alone time. Kate and I got along really well, and we will probably always get along really well as long as she is sleeping. That may not be true, as after bout 3 hours she woke from her nap and I picked her up. After picking her up she cried for another hour until I put her on the floor to feed her. She was really good at letting me feed her so that went very well.

I was just getting a bath started for the girls when Danielle got back to the room. Kate really enjoyed her bath this evening.

Tomorrow we are to stay at the hotel while our guide delivers our paperwork to the US Consulate. We will be in our room until he calls us, this is to ensure that there are no problems with the paperwork. After that a trip is scheduled for the Guangzhou Zoo, which we are going to opt out of and do our own thing.

ummm, can you say good times?

Yesterday was a looooong day. We got up and packed in order to finish our paperwork in Fuzhou before catching our flight to Guangzhou. Yesterday morning was an easy morning, then it was off to the police station to pick up Kate's passport. From there is was off to the airport which was one hour away. We got there in plenty of time as our original flight had been cancelled (originally at 4:30) and was rescheduled to 7:30 pm. The flight then was one hour to Guangzhou. I will say that Kate did awesome at the airport never cried once, interacted with Danielle and Jessica (still very leery of me) picked up food from Danielle's hand and gave food back. Huge improvements. Then the flight came and lets just say that Kate started crying as soon as we stepped on the plane until we stepped off. Good times.

We arrived in Guangzhou at 8:30 and were picked up by or guide (Simon), on the way to the hotel he called ahead to Papa Johns Pizza. Jessica requested cheese pizza, which I don't care for, but of course by the time we got to the hotel at about 9:30 Jessica was fast asleep. So Danielle and I got stuck with just cheese, but it really tasted good so we couldn't complain.

Both Jessica and Kate were extremely tired and never once woke after we arrived at the hotel. Jessica has her own bed in the hotel and I have to say it is nice to not receive an elbow to the face or foot in some other location. I actually got a good nights sleep last night.

Our hotel is on Shamian Island, versus with Jesssica we stayed off island and were removed from several opportunities. Today has allowed us much exploring and it is nice to be located in one central location with several choices for restaurants.

This morning we were up and going, but unfortunately Jessica tossed her cookies at breakfast at the table in the restaurant, good times. I assume that she was just so hungry from a long day yesterday and probably ate to fast. We all came back to the room and she was up and jumping in no time. Temporary set back.

After breakfast we headed to get Kate's visa picture taken and then the medical exam. All in all not bad other than since Jessica's adoption the US Government now requires inoculations for all children coming to the US. So needless to say poor Kate received 5 shots today. I don't know what they were so you would have to ask Danielle. Jessica and I got to escape all the shot drama by going to the local park so she could play.

We returned back to the hotel at about 12:30 and we put Jessica and Kate down for naps and Danielle had to go back and finish paperwork. We have a Subway located just outside the hotel, so she grabbed sandwiches on the way back.

This evening we got out and walked around the island and enjoyed the evening. We also found a Starbucks so we stopped for an iced coffee and went back to the playground for Jessica to let go of more energy.

I have to say that Kate has done extremely well today. She is interacting with Danielle more and more, she is eating very well and she is always looking for Jessica. If Jessica is out of her sight for too long she gets to whimpering. Also a huge deal to us is that Danielle held and walked Kate tonight for about 15 minutes in the hotel room then put her in the crib with absolutely NO TEARS. No crying, nada. Huge, Huge accomplishment. Good Times!

"I Would Rather Be Smart Than Be An Actor"

Who can name where the quote in the title of this post came from? The answer to be revealed tomorrow.

This morning was a very nice quiet morning. We were not scheduled to meet our guide until 2 pm so we took it slow. Danielle got Kate up, fed and changed her. It went pretty well, she is not crying like she used to but still just does a whimper. I guess she is still working through it all. Also, don't know if I mentioned that she has been a sick little girl so we called our pediatrician in Boise yesterday morning and she has us giving Kate antibiotics now. We will see if it works, we suspect an ear infection or perhaps sinus infection. We have been blessed to have found another adoptive family from Ohio and their doctor sent a couple of different doses of antibiotics so they gave us one. Danielle emailed our Dr. with the information and from there we formulated a plan. The couple is from Ohio and they are first time parents, they are a lot of fun.

Jessica joined me for breakfast again, what a blessing to have this little girl with us. She is entertaining, curious, great little girl. I know that Kate will eventually get to the same place as well, all on her time.

After we just lazed around we rented a stroller from the hotel and went for a walk in the local park. It was fun to have the lazy morning and be on our own schedule, the park has an amusement part of it that we went to. We watched a roller coaster and again did the people watching.

From there we met Kathryn (our guide) back at the hotel to review the adoption documents again. Once that task was complete we were off to visit a Buddhist temple and monastery. It is great to see all the carvings and detailed paintings that have been completed. The temple was originally built in 876, and was restored in 1980. Apparently much of the temple was dismantled during the cultural revolution of the 1960's.

After the temple we headed to a market to make a couple of purchases for Kate and a couple of items for Jessica.

Kate did better today, granted that the evenings are still a struggle.

Road Trippen

Yesterday was the first morning that I have been able to convince Jessica to join me for breakfast and leave Danielle to dine alone and have some quiet time. I have to say it was fun to have the company. Kids are so funny, they don't hesitate in doing their thing. At breakfast the waitress was going to seat us towards the back and Jessica kept saying she wanted a window seat. Of course Jessica is confused because she thinks everyone should speak English (and the people are confused because they are always speaking Chinese to her), so Jess was mad at the original seat and just walked past the table and kept going directly to a window seat that hadn't been cleared yet. She sat down and soon the staff was over to clear the table, all I did was stand back and tell the staff thank you.

After breakfast we jumping into a van with our guide and headed out to Gu Tian where Kate is from. It was a very nice break to get away from the hotel. On our last visit we were not allowed to leave the hotel for any drives, I think that was due to so many families had traveled with us and it was hard for the two guides to manage everyone.

We had a wonderful trip and saw lots of great country side. Driving along the river we noticed several barges traveling up and down the river. Our guide informed us that the barges are moving sand from up river into the city for construction. Apparently there is debate between industry and environmentalists, but we could see that industry is winning.

It was a great trip and much needed break from the hotel room. After reaching the city of GuTian (our guide said population of 30,000 but I would say much more), we headed straight for the orphanage. Granted it was a very quick stop (maybe 5 minutes) it was well worth the 3 hour one was drive. Afterward we grabbed lunch at a local restaurant and had a great time.

We rolled back into Fuzhou at about 4 pm and we were all ready to relax. Kate did well and Jessica did also. We are scheduled to drive to Maoming to visit Jessica's orphanage next Thursday but I am still debating on going or if I should stay behind with Kate as that road trip is about 5 hours one way and that might be asking a lot for Kate, given the next day we start all the plane flights home.

Kate is making progress but she won't give up the crying very easily. It tends to be a 2 hour fight every evening, and when she is awake she wants to be held all the time, plus the being held she wants us to be walking.

A Fairly Good Day

Our guide met us at 9 am this morning and we went directly to the Panda exhibit. Jessica loved the Panda's and she was free to run and jump and play as much as she wanted. She really needed it. We spent about one hour there and caught the "Panda Show". Needless to say the show was somewhat interesting. Granted the "Panda Show" were some little creature that possibly resemble a racoon in size and look, other than the color is red.

From there we headed to a famous founder of Fuzhou and toured his house and then were entertained in a ceremonial tea service. We all enjoyed the tea, and Jessica did as well. She is a girl that enjoys tea and will drink it when ever it is available. We ended up purchasing two different types of tea that we can all enjoy at home. Our guide (Kathryn) did something for us as well, she asked for a free gift so the girl doing the service handed us a travel tea set, kinda fun.

I will also mention that yesterday afternoon, with permission from us through our guide, a woman came to our room and measured all the girls (Danielle included) and she is in the process of custom making dresses for them. I guess it will take two days, so we should have them by Thursday. Danielle is excited to have an actual custom made dress. Of course the woman wanted to make more dresses for as the girls grow. We said no as we think once custom dress is a nice to have at this point. We can always shop more when we are in Guangzhou next week.