Pizza, Coffee and Chinese Massage

Today we attended our swearing in ceremony at the Consulate office. We simply raised our hands with a group of 37 other adoptive families and promised that all the information we had provided up until then was true and accurate - and that was it! We are now officially not only her parents, but due to our paperwork drive, she will be a US citizen when we arrive home. Sorry I have no pictures from the ceremony, they ban any electronics in the building. Even small toys with any battery operation were confiscated.
We celebrated with a great Italian dinner at a new place we found around the corner from our hotel. Jack and Avery were in heaven with the pizza they ordered.
Danielle, we think, sampled her first pizza slice. She picked it up at first and really didn't know how to eat it. Jack showed her the ropes. I think it was a hit.

We hung our at Starbucks today - they have a terrific 2nd floor lounge, the kids all love the hot chocolate while Greg and I get caffinated.

Love this photo.........

Jack found his newest passion in China - Chinese massage. Ridiculous, I know. He and Greg went last night to the Health Massage center next to our hotel. He loved that it got all the "kinks" out of his back. Yes, he thinks his 11 year old body has kinks. He could not wait to do it again tonight. Greg said Jack giggled a lot, but it was inexpensive and the massage was terrific.

Exploring Guangzhou

Monday night, we went to Shaiman Island, this is where we had the medical appointment too. The island is very scenic. We walked around, shopped, had dinner at Lucy's, which has more western food. Then we found the park, which was a fun diversion. The park is right along the Pearl River. The River was very pretty at night, they have dragon boats lit up on the water that are very authentic. We woke up Tuesday to have the TB reading at the clinic. They had injected Danielle's arm with the TB liquid on Friday and then we had to go back to make sure that the injection did not indicate a possilbe TB infection. She was fine, no TB. The clinic was madness.

Then we headed to the Guangzhou zoo. Danielle loved to see all the animals up close. We especially loved seeing the pandas!

Avery was still suffering from a heavy cough, so we headed back to the hotel to hang out for the rest of the afternoon. Once we got a second wind, we headed out for a walk around the area. We met up with about 8 police just standing on the sidewalk in a busy shopping area. They stopped us and asked to see our passports. ummmm..... we forgot to bring them this time. Stupid. They were not happy, although I don't understand why they care. We quickly talked our way out of them apprehending us for lack of proper ID and headed back to the hotel to get our passports. We went to dinner at an authentic Italian restaurant nearby. Jack and Avery were not impressed with the pizza - just not Chicago enough for their palate.

Today we are heading to the Consulate for the swearing in ceremony - the last formal step before they will issue Danielle's visa to return home. We are ready to get home.... we are ready to see Austin again... we are ready for Danielle to start her new life with us!!

More Pictures from Today

Chinese Chings.....

~ The police in Beijing work in teams, one carries the gun the other carries the bullet (which would you rather be?)
~ Urumqi has 3 million people, it is the 35th largest city in China; Chicago has 3 million people it is the 2nd largest city in the US
~ The toilet as we know it, does not exist here, it is all about the squatty potty - think of it as an in ground pool versus the above ground version. Avery does not like the hovering technique.
~ Did I mention you have to bring your own toilet paper too?
~ There is so much smog here because they still burn coal as fuel for the cities - natural gas is too expensive for their budget (don't they practically own the US though??)
~ These people can park anywhere, sidewalks are their favorite.
~ They have a bill in the amount of 1 RMB (yuan) which equals .0015 of one US cent
~ Their version of "to go" is to literally toss your food into a plastic bag and hand it to you. This includes soup. The bag is see-through too, so your food looks super appetizing on the walk home.
~ They have no silverware in the fast food restuarants. Everything is finger food.
~ Beijing introduces over 2000 new cars a day into their roadways. Traffic is a problem.
~ There is no McDonalds allowed in Urumqi because the head official of the city is Muslim and does not like the pork products sold by those westerners.
~ We have yet to see either orange chicken or wonton soup on a single menu.
~ If you choose to have a second child, you pay the government the equivalent of $10K, if you have 3 children, the "penalty" is $30K (which few Chinese can or would want to pay)
~ The reason the Chinese language is so hard for westerners is you need to train your voice to "travel", our voices are stuck at one location.
~ You can buy an IPhone knock off here for $100 and the only difference is the missing Apple symbol and the much higher price tag.
~ The low cost of Chinese laundry is so misleading - the hotel laundry charged us $3 for a pair of children's socks (could have bought 10 pairs for that price), the chinese laundry on the street generally will not even wash your socks and underwear (and this is exactly what you need done the most urgently).
~ Split pants are their way to potty train - just what you are thinking, split right down the middle - just squat and there is free access. There is little modesty here.
~ Women on the street have a strange sense of fashion - pretty much anything goes. It has been a long time since I have seen a leather vest with men's tie, knickers and red wedge high heels.
Oh, and by the way, no typhoon - it decided to visit Vietnam instead.

Hangin Out in Guangzhou

We had a free day yesterday to just explore. We found the Starbucks (I so needed that overpriced, over caffinated latte), shopped a bit (still looking for Sprite Zero), ate at McDonald's (Jack nearly pee'd his pants when the golden arches came into view), and then tried a little swim at the hotel pool. It was in the mid 80s outside so definately warm enough to swim. When we showed Danielle the pool outside our room window, she nearly jumped through the glass! She was so excited to swim. We donned our suits and went to the pool - she was all smiles and giggles. When we got to the pool, we noticed that not too many people were in the water - for good reason, the water temperature of the pool was like ICE. I would have wept like a baby if I had to get in, which I did not. But, of course, there was no telling Danielle she couldn't go in. So Jack braved the water and swam with Danielle for about 20 minutes. She loved it. I owe Jack a piece of Jade for playing lifeguard. Not even kidding, he was threatening to bail on me and I had to promise him something short of an IPhone 4.

We stayed in the hotel for dinner at the Chinese restaurant and then turned in early. Danielle was still suffering from her cold a little so a good nights sleep was welcome. (Yes, I know you are thinking, how could we let her swim in ice cold water when she is still trying to recover from her sickness, well, I have no good justification, guess I don't win the Mom of the Year award this year...)

Today we got up and went to Liuhua Park and a little shopping. We finished our paperwork for the Consulate today with our guide, Elvin. We are all set for our appt and swearing in on Tuesday.

I am having such a hard time posting pictures again - I will try again later....

One Step Closer to Home

Today we travelled to Guangzhou. It was a long flight. Almost 5 hours. Danielle did wonderful on the flight. She pretty much hung out and did what every 4 year old does on a 5 hour flight - got busy with everything she could!

It was a smooth flight. Since we ended up getting to Guangzhou earlier than our guide expected, he ushered Danielle and I to the medical appt today instead of waiting until tomorrow. This worked to our advantage for 2 reasons, first, we were the last appt of the day, so we did not wait at all in the clinic. If we would have participated in the original appt. we would have waited along with 37 other families. The wait would have been hours. Second, this now means tomorrow we have a free day to explore the city. It looks like Vegas outside our window. The lobby of the hotel has an entire wall with a gold (18kt) mural. There is high rise after high rise and they are all lit up. We are excited to explore tomorrow...oh, but there is still this typhoon thing. The locals are not so much worried about it. They say it is "mysterious" - no way to know if it will hit here or not, so they simply ignore it. We'll happily play that game.

So Danielle went from the airport to her physical exam. This is a requirement by the US government before they will grant citizenship to an adoptive orphan. You need to have your medical check up at least 2 days before your Consulate appt in order to complete the 48 hour TB test. She walked into the clinic with me and immediately started to whimper. Clearly she has had her fair share of doctor's visits from her heart condition. She knew instinctively this was not going to be as fun as the plane ride. She made it through the triage without loosing it, but then when we were escorted to a side room for the 5 vaccine shots she needed, it was all tears. Yuck, 5 shots is tough. They poked her in both arms and both legs, plus a tb test in the lower arm. I swear after her being sick last night, and then the trauma of the shots today, I was getting a little worried that she might try to run screaming down the street as fast as she could to get away from this blond woman who is absolutely torturing her! But NO - she was all smiles and hugs within minutes. She is unbelievably resilient. Avery could take some serious lessons from this tough chick.

If you think I am painting an unreal picture of how wonderful Danielle is, you are right. She has exceeded Greg and my expectations exponentially. We are so blessed to be touched by this young spirit. We know she will bring such love and new adventure to our family. .

Happy Birthday, Austin!

We Love you and Miss You! Hope you have a great day! Your gift is . . . oh yeah, you ALREADY got it! Your brother and sisters are anxious to get home and have a real family birthday celebration, complete with cake and ice cream and no-hands eating!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Mom and Dad

Recovery Mode

This is how we spent a lot of the day yesterday - Danielle sporting a high fever - and not wanting to take any fever reducer to help bring it down. She was scared - don't blame her. Can you imagine this poor little 4 year old has been taken from everything she knows and loves, deposited in a random hotel room to hang out with some strange people that are trying to coax her into taking medications? Sounds like a case for the police!!
The story has a good ending though, no police necessary. She went into recovery mode about 2am when her fever broke, and she slept peacefully.
Earlier in the day, before she went off the deep end, we managed to pick up her passport and go shopping at the Urumqi Bazaar. I swear Greg finds it such a sport to negotiate with foreigners in these flea market venues - he has so many different strategies, loves to walk away in absolute disgust that they won't agree to his bottom dollar price, and always feels so good about himself that he got the "best deal".


Jack wanted me to post this photo to prove to his teachers he is doing his work while on this trip!! He and Avery both have been working hard on their make up work......

A Typhoon, Really??

Isn't this picture funny - these people are so facinated by Avery!

I forgot to mention that Danielle loves stickers. She places them all over her hands and face - and can't resist putting them on mine too!

C'mon, do we really need a typhoon to complicate this trip? I am told that Guangzhou will be impacted by Typhoon Megi on Friday - that is the day we are scheduled to get there. We do not want to fly into a typhoon obviously, not that the airline would even let us. We have requested that Danielle's passport processing be expedited. The authorities here in Urumqi are trying to help us out. They are trying to get her passport ready for tomorrow so we can leave tomorrow night. We really would prefer not to be in Guangzhou for this weather system, but if we wait, and get delayed or cancelled from our Friday night flight, we would likely miss the medical appt on Saturday. If we fail to make that appt. then we throw off the rest of the processing.
Today we headed to Heavenly Lake. This is about 2 hours outside of Urumqi up in the mountains. Beautiful. The mountain peaks were amazing, the lake was stunning. We also saw many Kazak nomads and their yerts (round houses). We saw goats and cows and sheep in the pastures and major coal processing plants outside the city. The most fun was at the top of the mountain near the lake, crowds of Chinese tourists noticed Avery and her blond hair and, I am not kidding you, swarmed her for a picture. I have a picture of a crowd around her as she was sitting in the back of the trolly. It was as though these people never saw a girl with blond hair before. If we charged for taking a picture with her, we would have made enough to cover the jade shopping we did later! Our guide had to play body guard and scoop Avery up after a couple dozen photo ops and escort her out of the crowd. It was hysterical - thankfully Avery was a great sport about it. We ate lunch at another authentic Chinese restaurant and tasted some great shrimp (yes, we are nowhere close to any coast line) and chicken dishes. We visited a jade market. Jade is the popular local commodity. White jade in particular. We made some purchases, thankfully they took credit cards!
Danielle has been up and down with her emotions today. She started the day OK, but had a bit of a hard time at breakfast. When we hit the hotel breakfast buffet, we are the only Americans, and we clearly stand out in the crowd. I get the sense she is very uncomfortable with all the eyes on her. She wilts. I see her shrink when she notices that everyone is looking at her. This happened at breakfast. She got pretty sad, so we went up the room to work on our sticker book, which cheered her up. We left for our road trip to the Lake and she did not feel well - I think it was a little grief and a lot of car sickness. It took her until lunch to show her smiles again. This evening, as I write, her and Avery and Jack have a major competition going with hide and go seek. Danielle is having a blast!
She loves Skyping with her oldest brother, Austin. She repeats, "Na How Austin" at the screen and waves. Then if we call him on the phone, she takes the phone and starts with Na How Austin and then babbles on and on, and we have no clue what secrets she has just laid on him. He just listens for a while, tries to get a word or two in, and then says "Can I talk to Mama" and she throws the phone my way! Very cute.
Well, we'll check in tomorrow with our typhoon update!