September 22, 2008
P.S.
I forgot to add one more important thing in my post about my impressions from China. I remember thinking this same thing last time we were here. And that is if you want to make a ton of money in China, bring in a Select Comfort or Temprapedic franchise here and sell the mattresses to the local hotels. Maybe you've heard the mattresses in China are hard. Well that is not an exaggeration! It's basically like sleeping on your box springs. The beds at the White Swan seem particularly hard. Oh well. Thank goodness they are not like that at home : )
September 21, 2008
Impressions from China
Well our trip is drawing to a close. We only have three more days here before we leave for home. This trip to China has been so much better/easier for us than our trip to get Lia. I think a big part of that is that fact that we really knew what to expect this time having already been to Chongqing once before. And we knew more of what to expect just about the adoption process having been through it all before. Plus this time in Chongqing we stayed at a hotel that was located in the pedestrian area so we could go out walking to the department shops, restaurants, etc. which really made the time pass so much more quickly!
This time as I visited my daughters' homeland, I think I came with a different perspective. I really tried to soak in the impressions of the people and the culture so I could share that with Lia (and eventually Chloe) when I got home. Tonight I took a taxi by myself to go to the local McDonalds in Guangzhou since Julie, Bill and Dan were having pizza and I can't eat that. Like I said in an earlier post, I normally don't eat McDonalds but I do here. This McDonalds was located in a very busy pedestrian area where a lot of teenagers hang out. I looked around and I was the only non-Asian person around. It helped me remember that this is how life is like for a lot of our adopted daughters here in the U.S. Luckily for us we live in a city where there are lots of children who are adopted from China so Lia doesn't feel like she's different. But that's not the case for all adopted children.
And once again my heart was moved by the sweetness of the Chinese people. They are so gracious and warm. They constantly come up to us and want to see the babies. We show them our card and they always are so happy that we are adopting one of their babies. They often give us the thumbs up sign. I compared that to how so many people are in America where they kind of keep to themselves and feel uncomfortable walking up to a stranger and asking a question. We could learn a few things from the people in China in that regard.
And then there are the hair do's (or maybe I should say hair don'ts) in China. For all of you who still have the 80's vibe in your brain and wish you could you ask your hairdresser to give you a mullet (bi-level) cut - well here in China the mullet is alive and well and many, many people are fans of that look. So if you want to fit in and you have a mullet, China is your place : ))
And of course as I looked around at all the people walking by us as we're out and about, I kept thinking about how many people in China don't know about God. And the fact that they don't have many opportunities to hear about Him. My prayer is that God will continue to move in China.
But all in all, Dan and I are so grateful to be the parents of two precious little girls who were born in China. China will always hold a special place in our hearts because of that!
This time as I visited my daughters' homeland, I think I came with a different perspective. I really tried to soak in the impressions of the people and the culture so I could share that with Lia (and eventually Chloe) when I got home. Tonight I took a taxi by myself to go to the local McDonalds in Guangzhou since Julie, Bill and Dan were having pizza and I can't eat that. Like I said in an earlier post, I normally don't eat McDonalds but I do here. This McDonalds was located in a very busy pedestrian area where a lot of teenagers hang out. I looked around and I was the only non-Asian person around. It helped me remember that this is how life is like for a lot of our adopted daughters here in the U.S. Luckily for us we live in a city where there are lots of children who are adopted from China so Lia doesn't feel like she's different. But that's not the case for all adopted children.
And once again my heart was moved by the sweetness of the Chinese people. They are so gracious and warm. They constantly come up to us and want to see the babies. We show them our card and they always are so happy that we are adopting one of their babies. They often give us the thumbs up sign. I compared that to how so many people are in America where they kind of keep to themselves and feel uncomfortable walking up to a stranger and asking a question. We could learn a few things from the people in China in that regard.
And then there are the hair do's (or maybe I should say hair don'ts) in China. For all of you who still have the 80's vibe in your brain and wish you could you ask your hairdresser to give you a mullet (bi-level) cut - well here in China the mullet is alive and well and many, many people are fans of that look. So if you want to fit in and you have a mullet, China is your place : ))
And of course as I looked around at all the people walking by us as we're out and about, I kept thinking about how many people in China don't know about God. And the fact that they don't have many opportunities to hear about Him. My prayer is that God will continue to move in China.
But all in all, Dan and I are so grateful to be the parents of two precious little girls who were born in China. China will always hold a special place in our hearts because of that!
September 20, 2008
Pictures from today's excursion to the Chen Family Academy
Today we went to the Chen Family Academy which is a museum. Lucy and Bill didn't go because little Lucy was running a slight temperature again this morning. Julie thinks it's because she keeps going from the extreme heat outside to the cold AC in the buildings. So hopefully she'll be better this afternoon after some good rest with her daddy! 
Medical exams yesterday
Sorry there were no posts yesterday. You might have thought it was because we were out shopping. Yes, we did do that but in actuality, the hotel was having internet issues and we couldn't get on the internet. Sorry if we left you hanging because of that.
Anyway, we had the girl's visa photos taken yesterday and we did their medical exams. Both girls passed the medical exam with flying colors. I have some pictures from the medical exams but I have to download them so I'll probably post them when we get back from our outing this morning. They did take Chloe to have the head doctor look at her forehead because they said she has a slight birthmark on it and they wanted the head doctor to confirm that it was indeed a birthmark (which he did). Lucy weighed in at 17 1/2 pounds and she was 27 1/2 inches long. Chloe weighed 17 1/2 pounds and she was 27 inches tall. Lucy's fever has been gone since we arrived in Guangzhou so she's back to her normal happy little self.
Chloe had a couple of nights of really terrible sleeping, especially the first night we arrived at the White Swan. We don't think she liked the crib because it was very narrow so she's now sleeping on a matress between our beds. And we also think she was hungry so last night we decided to give her some rice cereal before she went to bed and for the first time she slept for six hours straight!! The night before that she was up literally every two hours. And she only had one bottle last night and she is still sleeping and it's 7:15 a.m WOW!
Today we are going to a museum and a Friendship store where we can buy good jade and pearls. We really only have four more days, including today, here in Guangzhou. We leave REALLY early on Thursday morning (like 5 a.m. departure from the White Swan) as our flight is at 8:15 a.m. We arrive at home at 1:30 p.m. EST on Thursday because we are going back 12 hours in time. It will be a LONG day!!!! Please pray that the girls do as well on the plane as they did on the way to Guangzhou.
Anyway, we had the girl's visa photos taken yesterday and we did their medical exams. Both girls passed the medical exam with flying colors. I have some pictures from the medical exams but I have to download them so I'll probably post them when we get back from our outing this morning. They did take Chloe to have the head doctor look at her forehead because they said she has a slight birthmark on it and they wanted the head doctor to confirm that it was indeed a birthmark (which he did). Lucy weighed in at 17 1/2 pounds and she was 27 1/2 inches long. Chloe weighed 17 1/2 pounds and she was 27 inches tall. Lucy's fever has been gone since we arrived in Guangzhou so she's back to her normal happy little self.
Chloe had a couple of nights of really terrible sleeping, especially the first night we arrived at the White Swan. We don't think she liked the crib because it was very narrow so she's now sleeping on a matress between our beds. And we also think she was hungry so last night we decided to give her some rice cereal before she went to bed and for the first time she slept for six hours straight!! The night before that she was up literally every two hours. And she only had one bottle last night and she is still sleeping and it's 7:15 a.m WOW!
Today we are going to a museum and a Friendship store where we can buy good jade and pearls. We really only have four more days, including today, here in Guangzhou. We leave REALLY early on Thursday morning (like 5 a.m. departure from the White Swan) as our flight is at 8:15 a.m. We arrive at home at 1:30 p.m. EST on Thursday because we are going back 12 hours in time. It will be a LONG day!!!! Please pray that the girls do as well on the plane as they did on the way to Guangzhou.
September 19, 2008
Pictures
I know everyone wants to see new pictures of the girls. I haven't downloaded Julie's camera so I don't have any new Lucy ones. Sorry - I'll try to do that tomorrow. Here are a couple of Chloe and Kate. Kate is the other little baby that was adopted from the Fengjie orphanage. These are the first two babies to ever be adopted from that orphanage. I included pictures of the girls with the orphanage director and also a picture of our two families with the director. Sorry for the flash off the window in that picture. We didn't realize till after he left that it had done that. I don't have any photo editing software with me so I can't fix it till I get home. Enjoy!
White Swan!!
Well we finally arrived at the White Swan hotel in Guangzhou. Our flight was supposed to land at 3 p.m. but as we were just about there, the plane started to circle the field. This went on for about 15 minutes and finally they came on the intercom and said that due to bad weather we couldn't land in Guangzhou and we were going to be re-routed to another airport. Our whole travel group was thinking "oh no, how long will it take by bus to get from this new airport to Guangzhou." But about ten minutes toward our new destination and they came back on the loudspeaker and said that the weather had cleared in Guangzhou and we were going back. So we arrived safely about 4:00 p.m. Then it was about a 40 minute bus ride to the White Swan hotel. But this is a lovely hotel (as all of you know who hve stayed here before) and we are glad to be in Guangzhou where there is great shopping! Both the girls did very well on their first plane ride! They both slept for a while and only cried for a minute so we hope this bodes well for our long trip home!
Little Lucy was running a fever last night and today so keep her in your prayers. She seems to be feeling better this afternoon so Julie and Bill will wait and see how she does tonight. The White Swan has a medical clinic with a doctor that speaks English so they can take her there if they need to. But tomorrow we will take the babies to have their visa photo and their medical checks done. Our guide Michelle says the doctor will look at Lucy's ears then and if they thing she has an infection, they will give her some antibiotics.
Only six more days till we come home!!!
Little Lucy was running a fever last night and today so keep her in your prayers. She seems to be feeling better this afternoon so Julie and Bill will wait and see how she does tonight. The White Swan has a medical clinic with a doctor that speaks English so they can take her there if they need to. But tomorrow we will take the babies to have their visa photo and their medical checks done. Our guide Michelle says the doctor will look at Lucy's ears then and if they thing she has an infection, they will give her some antibiotics.
Only six more days till we come home!!!
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