Family of Four!

Coming home we left the hotel at 5:00 AM via bus to Hong Kong.  I didn't get much sleep the night before so I was tired and was trying to sleep, but wasn't successful even if it looks otherwise.

It was a first for us to be in Hong Kong and it seemed strange to be on the left side of the road and the driver on the right side of the vehicle.

Here is a shot of us waiting in the Hong Kong airport.

Passing time on the plane.

Family of Four!

Last Day in China

Well,  this is my last blog from China.  We are mostly packed and just going to bed.  We'll be up and out the door at 4:30 AM, that is 3:30 PM Thursday for you in CDT.  The only thing happening today was that Bill went and picked up the Kid's visas from the US Consulate, the 3 of us families had the entire day to ourselves.  Pictures are of Bill swinging PJ, lunch at Lucy's, Al Cormier and PJ (they are now good buddies), the tree Greg and PJ are standing in front of is 150 years old, and the ladies at the restaurant tonight had fun holding PJ and showing him the fish (there is an aquarium in the floor where they are at in the picture.  I'm not sure when I'll blog after getting home, so much depends on how tired and busy I am. We hope PJ will sleep tonight, I think he suspects something important is happening.  Pray for a good transition for him. Talk to you all soon! ~Judy

St. Patricks Day

This afternoon the 3 kids were all together while Becky and Jamie were blowing bubbles.  It was really fun watching them have a good time.  I will say that David Cormier has a LOT of energy. It seemed he was running nonstop, not just this afternoon but this morning when we were trying to do the red couch photos, he wanted to keep running!  Who knows, maybe he'll be a marathon star someday. For dinner we went to Cow and Bridge for some good Thai food.  Being it was St Patricks Day, the guys wanted to drink green beer.  However they don't have green beer in China, so the drank beer out of green bottles instead.  :^)

US Consulate

This afternoon was our trip to the US Consulate. Cameras and cell phones are not allowed inside so there are no photos in there. Greg and I were the first family called to the window.  They simply looked at our passports, had Greg sign a paper and then we sat down and waited for the other 50 or so families that were there.  Many of the people we have been seeing on Shamian Island this week were there too.  After everyone was done at the window, they had us raise our right hand and say something like, 'I solemnly swear that the information I have provided to the US Government is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and ability'.  That was all we had to do. Everyone cheered.  Tomorrow Bill will go back to get the kids passports with the visa, and our mysterious brown envelope.  We call it mysterious because we are not allowed to open it, we simply are transporting it to the immigration people at customs in the airport at home and we are told it has all the paperwork needed to get our child's citizenship paper.

Wednesday part 3

Here are a couple extra pictures I thought you might enjoy.  The boat looked interesting out the window where we took the red couch photos.  The other photo is of Lucy's where we have been going for lunch, it is cheap and very Americanized food.

Red Couch photos

As you may remember, adoptive families will go to the White Swan Hotel for a Red Couch Photo.  Today was the best day for everyone to do that.  At one point we had finished the photos but Bill sat on the red couch and before we knew it, all 3 kids were around him, it was really cute.  Bill is very good with the kids.

Wednesday Breakfast

I thought you would all enjoy a cute photo of PJ at Breakfast. He seemed to be posing for a picture, so I took one.  Soon after I took the first one, he started playing Peek-a-boo, so that is the second picture.

Tuesday part 2

We did some of our shopping in this mall.  It has got to be the biggest mall I have ever seen.  The picture I took is only the center of the mall, there are many hallways leading away from it and even more hallways leading off of those.  A person could easily get lost in there!  This photo is of us ladies and our Guide Ann.  Dan Szynal came with us and took the photo.  Greg and Al stayed behind with the boys so that naps could be taken.  The last photo is the entire group having dinner at an Italian Restaurant, MMM good. Hope you all enjoy your Tuesday, it is almost my bedtime.  (Did you remember or notice that time didn't change in China on Sunday because they don't observe Day Light Savings time.) ~Judy

Tuesday March 16

Not a whole lot to blog about today.  After we got up and had breakfast we needed to stay in the room a couple of hours while Bill went to the US consulate to apply for the visas.  We filled out the paperwork yesterday but they like families to stay in the room just in case there is a problem with the paperwork.  After that we did a little shopping on the island.  On our way to Lucy's for lunch we saw this statue, I must have missed this one when we were here adopting Alicia.  I love the statue, it is a lady playing the violin and some kids following behind her.  PJ seemed rather scared of the statue, it would have been so cute to see him "blending in" with the statues.  Further up the path we came across these school kids doing some kind of drills outside.  After lunch some of us went shopping off island with a guide we hired from the area (she has a website called red thread china).  She is a very nice lady and knew exactly where to go to find good deals.  We all found what we were looking for and paid 1/3 or 1/2 of what we would have spent in the island.  To get there we walked through the Qing Ping market.  The items there are used for medicines or soups.  Anyone care for some dried lizard?  We walked passed a section where people were selling pets (yes we verified they were for pets).  So I had to take a picture of the cute puppies.  Our shopping guide said they cost 300 Yuan which is equivalent to about $50.

Dinner pictures

I just looked at my sent mail and saw that I didn't attach the pictures so here they are.

Dinner

For dinner we walked to the other side of the island (4 blocks maybe) and ate at a French restaurant.  It was very good food.  One of the dining areas was a train car, so we ate in there. We plan to do more shopping tomorrow. Good night from China. ~Judy

Tomb

After the temple we went to the original site of a king.  It was interesting. The body was covered in Jade because they believed that the jade would prevent the body from decaying (it didn't work).  The swords are about 1500 years old if I remember correctly, they didn't look much like swords though.

Temple

After lunch we went to do some touring.  We stopped at a temple and saw several buildings and people.  Before we walked in, there was an old lady that took an interest in Phillip.  I wasn't able to communicate but I think it was just one of those things when you see a baby somewhere and you go to the baby and smile and say something nice because the baby is cute.  She didn't stay long.  We took a minute to relax and the boys took the opportunity to run around.  They were sharing leaves with one another, it was really cute.

Monday March 15

Today after breakfast all 3 families walked down to the medical place to have the kid's TB test looked at.  I am happy to report they all passed!  After that we had a paperwork meeting because tomorrow is our US Consulate appointment. We then had 2 or 3 hours on our own.  Greg, PJ, and I went to a shop called Judy's.  The lady goes by Judy because her Chinese name sounds a lot like Judy.  From there we went to Lucy's for lunch.  We just sat down and the Cormiers showed up so we all ate together.  While we were waiting for our food, a lady got Greg and Al involved in a game of Hacky sac.  (There is a park right out the back door of the restaurant and since we were sitting out there on their back porch, it was easy to get involved with a game.)  They didn't do all that bad considering they don't play that game.

Safari on wheels

The next part of our zoo visit was going on a safari train ride that took us by some animals with no boarders between them and us except the train we were on.  The boys slept threw about half of it because it was nap time and they were exhausted.  Annie didn't sleep until the van ride home. I am truly amazed at the fact that PJ is mostly potty trained.  He manages to keep clean and dry most of the time.  I think I just need to get him to the point where he can let me know he needs to go to the bathroom with some kind of sign language.  He has only had an accident a couple times since we got him because we were away for to long and he couldn't hold it long enough.  Today he kept dry all day because I brought him to the bathroom a couple of times while we were at the zoo.  He has woken up each morning dry and goes to the bathroom when I set him on the toilet!  Wow this is going to be sooooo nice! Hope you all have a nice Sunday!  (I am going to bed now since it is very late here in China.) ~Judy

PANDAS!!

And the highlight of going to the zoo was to see the pandas!  They have a lot of pandas because the earthquake in 2008 in central China destroyed the area that held many pandas so they transported them to Guangzhou.  After the Pandas it was lunch time.