Last Day in China -2/2/2008

Today is the last day in Guangzhou. It was another cold and wet day again. We have been in Guangzhou for a week. It seems like a long time in this cold and rainy weather. On the other hand, we became to like this city. We could have spent a few more days here.

Because of the cold and rain, we decided to let the kids to stay in the hotel room. We got up early and went out to get our dumplings. We have been eating these dumplings since we got here. They are from a small shop on the side of the street right across the river. They are the best dumplings, just like home made. Unfortunately we do not have picture of this place. We have a lot photos, but there were few times we did not have our camera with us when we found ourselves in the best photo moments. On the way to the dumpling place, we stopped by a tea shop. The owner of the shop invited us in and we had tea together. We admired very much how he prepared the tea and the nice tea cups and tea table made with tree truck and had a built in drainage. It was another moment we wished we had camera with us.

We bought enough dumplings and fresh bakeries that served not only breakfast, but also lunch. Bert and Sue started packing while waiting for Sue's sister's family to join us. We were glad that we could fit everything in the original 5 suitcases. After all the organizing and packing, Sue realized that she had not seen her waist bag. We then had to open and repack everything until she found her bag in Joshua's backpack in another room! Bert wondered what would have happened to him if this was him who did this. For the rest of the day, he teased Sue every now and then about her waist bag!

Later in the day, we left all the kids to Sue's sister and brother in law. We went out to take another walk. Although it was raining and wet, the air was crisp and fresh. This probably will be the last long walk we could have for a long time until the spring in Michigan.

We had Dinner at another hot pot place with Sue's friend Baiyan. It was even hotter than the one we had a few days ago. The food was good, but we are ready for home cooking. When asked what kind of food they want when we get home, kids actually want tacos. Go figure!

The girls continue doing well together. There were nearly no fight today!! Jenny really loves to dress up. After dinner, we all dressed up with our Chinese costumes and went to the White Swan Hotel to take some photos. Kids had great time. Mom and Dad were a little tense because they knew they still had some packing to do.

This will be the last posting we make from China. We will be leaving Guangzhou very early tomorrow morning. Our flight leaves the airport at 8:30am. Our first stop is Tokyo. Then from Tokyo, there will be 12 hour flight to Detroit. Due to the time difference, our flight arrives Detroit at 12:10 pm the same day. We hope to be home before the evening, right on time for the Supperbowl.

Thank you all for following us on our trip. Knowing you are with us has given us the inspiration to document our trip though there were many times we did not know if we could be awake enough to write. It has been a wonderful trip. A part of it is because that you are all with us and prayed for us. Thank you all!

You may have wondered who did all the writing and what the publishing process was. With a few exceptions, Bert did the all the initial writings while Sue uploaded the photos and made web albums. Sue then added her parts to the writing and published them on the website. It was a teamwork!

Sue and Berthold

Visa Day - 2/1/2008

Today was an important day. We went to the Visa Department of the US Consulate to get the final paperwork done so that jenny will become a US citizen as soon as she sets her feet on American soil.

We started the day late with a brunch at Pizza Hut. We haven't had Pizza Hut in a long time in the US. The food here was just great – we are not sure if the Pizza was so much better than that in the US or we simply were ready for some Western food. Jenny first did not want to go; she wanted to have the food on the street (dumpling, lamb or beef on a stick etc.). One thing is different here in China; Pizza Hut is kind of upscale eating. Jenny had spaghetti. She ate the whole plate. The rest of the family shared two large pizzas. We had to take some home with us. They are huge.

After our brunch we went to the Visa Department and with the driving to and from the consulate, the whole afternoon was gone. We were not allowed to take any cameras or any electronic devices, like game boys or computers. We had to go through a security check point. We had our "interview" which really was nothing else than comparing our faces from a passport photocopy with our real faces. Bert was disappointed that he was not asking any questions during this interview. Afterwards they gave us (altogether 49 adopting families from various agencies) a little speech and we had to swear that everything we said in our documents is the truth "to the best of our knowledge". Then we got our brown envelope. This is the envelope we have been waiting for. This envelope contains all the required immigration paper work for Jenny. Without it, we could not take her out of the country or take her with us to USA. We have a little discrepancy with the case number in the passport and the paper on the "brown envelope". We questioned that and were told that this is normal – nothing to worry about. Okay, we heard this before – let's hope all will go well at Detroit Airport Immigration.

Jenny met the same boy from her orphanage – the same boy we met on the medical exam day. They spent quite some time playing together. Anna was a little bit jealous that Jenny had someone else to play with and she did not understand what they said to each other. She enjoyed her time with him. We exchanged our contact information with his new parents from OH and promised that we will keep in touch.

On a side note: We were told today that we should get the Certificate of Citizenship within 35 to 45 days – automatically. It would be nice if this works out. We heard through some of the e-groups that nowadays the Department of Homeland Security now makes parents that adopted a few years ago and never applied for the certificate now go in person to a USCIS office with all the adoption paperwork. It is all a formality but for some people it might mean a drive across a State. Some states are a little bigger than Rhode Island.

At night we dined in Style with Sue's family at Kentucky Fried Chicken. KFC is very popular here in China. The streets were crowded in the shopping district like it was the Friday after Thanksgiving and so was KFC. We had Fast Food in style and enjoyed it. But, we have to say, the Chinese often seem more practical. With your chicken, you get free thin plastic gloves. Sure, it might not be environmentally friendly, but it makes eating chicken a lot easier and cleaner.

Afterwards we joined the crowd and went a little more shopping along the busy streets, including going through a food alley where street vendors offers all kinds of food – just marvelous. Looking at the people shopping, the lights in the streets, the neon advertising, the loud music, the giant screens – who would know you are in China. The amount of neon advertising, light, music, people and merchandise can compete with cities like New York Time Square.

Kids are doing great today! Toby and Josh are wonderful as usual. Jenny and Anna were trying hard and got along very well today. No strollers! No fights except one small jealousy event at the consulate appointment. They did their entire walk with their own feet! We see the hope of that thing will work out over time. Today we realized that even Toby and Josh compete and fight at times. So are Mom and Dad! It is all normal part of our lives. We are happy and feel blessed that everything went so well so far. We can't wait to get back home and meet our friends including Anhui Adoption families to introduce Jenny.

We really can’t complain much about the weather here. It is cold, much colder than normal here. However, at least there is no snow. Back in Michigan, we have few feet of snow. Kids missed three snow days!! I think Jenny will feel right at home! One more day here. We will be home on Sunday!

Guangzhou Zoo 1/31/2008

Today was another cold day. It is hard to find something to do with two families and three younger kids. You can’t go shopping all the time (although Chinese people seem to do that).

We got up late this morning and skipped breakfast for a brunch with noodle soups from a small diner on the street and fresh bread from a bakery. From there we went on to take the subway to the west part of Guangzhou near the sport center and met with Sue’s sister and her family. On the spot we decided to go to the zoo that was in the general area. It turned out to be quite a walk and we took a break at McDonalds. It was more a break to warm up again from the cold than a break for food. The kids enjoyed the play area. After that we made our way to the zoo. It is worth to mention that our team of Chinese Guides (J) lead us right passed the entrance and did not realize it until we where at least ½ mile further down the road. We all paid too much attention to the restaurants on the street. Finally we made it and had a great time. The zoo was fairly nice but would have been real pretty if the weather would have been close to “normal”.

The kids had a lot of fun watching the animals and the afternoon went by really fast. We did not realize how cold we were until we arrived at the restaurant afterwards.

We had some good traditional northern style Chinese food, just the way they serve it in Sue’s hometown area. The only “strange food” was donkey sausage. Bert had it before when he ate with Turkish friends and it tastes really not bad – just like meat.

After a great meal we went back to the hotel. We chose to get off the subway one stop before the stop closest to the hotel so we could walk pass the shopping district again. We did not buy anything, but like to the excitement of shoppers in China. We had ice cream from McDonald and shopped some snacks on our way back. We arrived by 9 PM and everybody was ready to settle down.

Although we wish we had better weather, we think we did the best we could with the situation. We had great time strolling around in the Zoo, but it was cold. All the stores were closed at the Zoo and some of the animals were refuse to show off.

We are READY to go home now. We got the good news this morning that our entire VISA paperwork is done and we will swear in for Jenny tomorrow as US citizen. We will receive her visa package tomorrow afternoon. Our appointment is at 3:00 pm at the consulate. It will be exciting. Please keep us in your thoughts and pray for this important day for us. After that, we will be here for another day. We will be home on Sunday, 2/3. Thanks to the Szalai’s for letting us park our car at their home and for offering to pick us up at the Detroit airport. This will save us a lot time so we can hope to be home on time for the Supper Ball game!

Anna and Jenny are still battling it out. Today Anna kept her distance from Jenny. And if Jenny got something, Anna wanted it too and vice versa. Even the with the seats in the subway we ran in trouble; when one set down the other one wanted that seat. Berthold thought that they both should walk on their own, but Sue got them two strollers anyway because she thought Jenny is weaker and lack of exercise. She was more tired of Anna fighting with Jenny about stroller or being carried. They both were excited to have the strollers early in the morning and pushed their stuffed animals themselves. Sue thought they would stay that way, but soon she found out that they did not want to walk at all. It is quite embarrassing to have two such big girls in the strollers which are really for babies. They both seem to want to be babied. Anna even tried to drink from Vincent’s bottle today. Oh well, we have to do what we need to do to keep them happy.

Don’t get this wrong, it is not “poor Anna” or “poor Jenny” they both are very much alike. Jenny has the advantage that only Sue can talk to her but otherwise she is just as guilty.

Rainy Day in Guangzhou - 1/30/2008

It is another cold and raining day. We decided to let the kids stay in and do their homework. It is ironic that Toby and Joshua have not missed much of school because all the snow days they have back home in Michigan. Nevertheless, they are behind on their school work. Mom and Dad decided to go out in the rain to get food for everyone. The food in the hotel is not very good. We got some steamed dumplings for everyone. Joshua is not fond of dumplings so we got him some cake like bread – it is like angel cake and lamb stew. We also got them a lot of fruits. Fruits are great here, oranges, apples, Asian pears and dragon fruit, also known as Pitaya. It is a new fruit Joshua likes very much. It has a red and green color leaf like cover. Inside, it is white with black eatable seed. It tastes like pears.

Mom and Dad left the girls to Toby and Joshua again in the afternoon and went out for some shopping. It was raining hard, but we had to go out to do something. We did not really buy anything useful or anything we definitely need. We walked the main shopping street as well as some alleys where smaller vendors selling their goods. There were times we thought we got lost. We kept a straight face pretending that we knew where we were going. It was good exercise to walk. We went through small alleys and side streets, places that you only would see in the movies; small alleys that are residential and others that have little shops only known to the locals. At one time we crossed through a shop just to enter another alley with all small food stands. Everything looked rather clean and nice – but no tourists. Another thing we realized is that every street and alley has its specialty vendors – there were pet stores alley/street, health care products alley/street, meat market alley/street etc. We don't know if someone has organized things this way or it is random arrangement by the vendors. It was a complete new experience.

We had dinner at the Lucy's again. With the Szalai's and Sue's sister's family, we have 15 people. Sue made reservation ahead of time to avoid long waitings. It was the Szalai's last night in China. They are going back home tomorrow. We wish them a safe trip. We have become friends with them. Our girls play well with their girls Sarah and Amy. Their newly adopted son John is the same age as Sue's sister's son Vincent. After the dinner, we went to the play room at the White Swan Hotel. The girls played wild. John and Vincent had good time playing together and also good fights for a bottle. John is strong as his name implies. Vincent lost his fight and ended up with protesting cry. Boys are always boys!

After dinner, Mom and dad took another walk. TGFTJ – thank god for Toby and Josh. Without them Mom and Dad could not get out at all. They took a long walk along the river and found the Bar and Club district. It was a contrast to see many upper class people going in and out of the clubs and homeless people sleeping on the same street.

We heard that the weather is not going to get better. In a way, we are stranded in our hotel rooms because of the bad weather. There is really nothing much we can do with such weather. You see all these beautiful green trees, nice flowers and even palm trees, but you don't feel the warmth. We hope kids can catch up more on their home work. We really wish we could be home now. Three more days seem very long now.

All kids are doing well now. Anna has no fever anymore. Jenny is getting stronger and stronger everyday with her legs. She even had a race with Anna on our way back to the hotel after dinner. The girls are slowly getting better playing together. Occasionally there were some complaints. Mom and Dad now started a new strategy. We start to tell them to deal with their own problems when one of them coming to us to tell on the other. This was the strategy we used when Toby and Joshua were little. After a while they stopped telling on each other. We will see if this will work on the girls or not.

Three more days...we will be home for the Supper Ball Game!

Sue and Berthold

Visit Jinan University - 1/29/2008

Today we woke up to another cold and rainy day. We canceled our original plan to visit the zoo. We stayed in bed and started our day around lunch time. Bert, Sue and Toby ate some food from street vendors – steamed dumpling – they are good. The rest of the kids had McDonalds for they are not too keen about Chinese street food. Toby had McDonalds again. He is a big growing man.

We were supposed to meet Sue’s sister’s family. But the weather was not good and little Vincent was sleeping so we canceled that plan. Our family went to visit Sue’s friend – another classmate who teaches at Jinan University. We took a subway there. The subway system in Guangzhou is very good. We took a tour of the campus and her lab. There are some very impressive new buildings on campus. Bert was especially impressed with the main teaching building and the library. The library looks huge from the outside. Inside it has a court yard with the actual rooms build around it on several stories. It is a wonderful architecture. The main teaching building is also new and of very interesting architecture.

After lots of talking about the past and the tour we went on to have a Sichuan Hot Pot dinner at a famous local restaurant. By then the family of Sue's sister had joined us. This hot pot meal was quite different then the one we had in Mongolia. The Szechuan style Hot Pot was incredibly spicy – but very good. It is also a buffet style hot pot where you pick the raw ingredients yourself and cook them on your own table. We all ate more than we should.

Oh, we forgot, on the way to the restaurant Bert, Toby and Josh spotted a Starbuck sign and disappeared instantly for about ten minutes and then showed up with Venti Cappuccinos and Mochas. The expression on their faces looked like they just won the lottery.

After the meal it was time to get back to the hotel. It was raining cats and dogs and we arrived all wet. That was it for today – we called it an early night.

This morning we suddenly realized that we do not talk much about Toby and Josh in our blog. This is true, but we should give them the credit they deserve. They have been great in helping us with Anna and Jenny. Anna and Jenny still fight their jealousy battles. For example, we did not want to take the stroller this morning for Jenny since Anna was fighting with her about the stroller yesterday (she is 7 years old!!!). This morning, Anna convinced us to use the stroller today again; she promised not to fight – that lasted only about two hours until she was tired. Last night Jenny saw pictures from Anna's adoption on Daddy’s computer – now she is jealous that we have pictures from Anna at a young age and not from her. It is a constant battle. Toby and Josh are a great help to separate them and help to overcome this. They also have to carry them frequently when they get tired. Besides this they can help out when Mom and Dad have to run an errand. Toby just helped Anna to do her homework. All in all, their presence is making this trip far easier and more cheerful. They are willing to take the backstage. No jealous among them or with their sisters at all. We are so glad to take them with us. We are all one family and it would not be the same without them.

We thought to add a few facts to our writing every day. Here is a link to one of the newest roller coasters that is being build here in Guangzhou and the amusement park where it will be – watch out for competition Six Flag.

http://en.chimelong.com/News/Detail.aspx?Id=803
http://www.chimelongparadise.com/en/default.aspx

Also, Guangzhou is currently experiencing the longest and lowest cold spell in 50 years with (according to locals). Most buildings don't have any heat which can be difficult if the temperatures drop in the upper 30's at night. Because of the unexpected winter problems all over China, we expect 600,000 people to be stranded at Guangzhou's main rail road station due to the amount of travelers that want to go home for the Chinese New Year.

Day 2 in Guangzhou - Medical Exam - 1/28/2008

It is Monday morning and we woke up to our second day in Guangzhou. The average high temperature for this time of the year is supposed to be 65 F, the average low is supposed to be 50F. Now today is the "hottest" day of the week with an expected highest temperature of 53F and the rest of the week it will be around 45F – with rain showers all the way. Why? We packed all the cloth for Guangzhou in one back and the one for Hohot in another. It turns out that the winter clothes are more appropriate to wear than we thought. The Guangzhou pack stays unpacked.

But, we take it in strides and make the best out of it. This morning we had the physical examination for Jennifer at the Health Clinic – just a formality. There were three departments we need to go through – internal, ear/nose/throat and physical measurements. Jenny did very well. She passed every exam. On our way out of the clinc, she ran into an orphanage mate – a boy who was adopted by an Ohio couple. It was exciting. They talked and compared notes with each other about their adopted families. At the end, it was hard to separate the boy from Jenny because the boy wanted to go home with Jenny instead.

After the medical exam, we spend several hours together with Sue’s sister and her family walking around one of Guangzhou's shopping districts, the one not for the tourists. This was one of the shopping areas for whole sellers. Many people come to Guangzhou shopping and then bring goods home to other parts of the country. You want to see crowds going crazy over shopping?? You have to come here – it was incredibly busy – but lots of fun. We saw what we think is one of the worlds smallest McDonalds – six barstools for eating. It has only ice cream, no burgers. There was a picture of a burger. After the ice cream we ate some meat on a stick from a street vendor. Bert ate the Squid on the stick. It looks ugly but he ensured everybody that it was delicious. Finally we went to a local restaurant and ate some traditional dishes of rice with veggies and meat. Sue had to wait for hers 20 minutes longer than anybody else. According to the waitress they had to make new rice (we came in with 10 people), but we are not sure if they simply ran out of pork ribs and had to go and get another pig. All in all the meal was very good. Josh, our picky eater, ordered fruits with molten chocolate – chocolate fondue. It wasn't the greatest but it was lots of fun.

Before returning to our hotel for a rest, we stopped by some electronic outlet stores. You could buy some nice MP3 players for less than $10. There are some imitation iPod for $10. iPhone is about $120 here. Toby bought micro SD card for his MP3 player. We are happy to find out it works!

After some rest, we went Xiajiu Street – a more civilized shopping street. We had dinner at a nice restaurant. As usual, Sue ordered too much. All was good, except one She thought either she did not order it or she made mistake on ordering it. It was dish of eel. She only smelt it. Berthold and Toby tried and thought it wasn’t too bad. Although Joshua is a picky eater, he actually is much better comparing to Sue’s niece Snow. She barely ate anything.

In a general note – the battle of the female minds continues. They are still fighting to mark their boundaries. All day long we hear "She has that and I haven't" or "If she get's one then I want one (…)" or more general – "this is not fair". When they are on their own they seem to make it work, but around us there is always somebody not quite happy or complaining about what the other one did or had. Jenny is getting a little frustrated at times with Sue since Sue is the only one that can talk to her and therefore criticizes her once in a while. Today we wanted to get a stroller for Jenny, she is not that strong for long walks – that did not do well with Anna. Then Josh picked up Anna to carry her for a little bit since she was not feeling good – that did not go well with Jenny. I think everyone can get the picture.

On other times, they are doing great together. They ate on one table alone together at lunch time. They played on the swing chair. They took a bath together which lasted more than an hour. They watched a Chinese TV show together. Now they are playing in bed.

Anna is doing well. She had fever last night. Joshua had fever the day before. We think it was all because of sudden changing of weather. Our body has hard time to adjust the sudden temperature change from -20F’s to +50F’s within 6 hours. We put Anna on antibiotic this morning. She is all doing well now. We thought we brought two sets of antibiotic, but somehow we had only one with us. We started antibiotic on Jenny a few days ago since she was warm. Thankfully, the Szalai’s came to the rescue with their antibiotic for Anna.

A few interesting facts we learned recently:

o Everywhere you go shopping in China you get these thin plastic shopping bags. The Chinese population uses 3 to 4 BILLION of these plastic bags EVERY DAY. They are so thin that they can hardly be re-used. Now the government has decided to "outlaw" these bags and only allow plastic bags with a certain thickness and force the shops to charge the shoppers a small amount of money for these bags. The idea is to get people to re-use more of these bags and reduce the waste and the resources that go into these bags. We thought that this was an interesting fact to share.

• Here on Shamian Island (http://gocn.southcn.com/English/localculture/200406070067.htm) you run into families with adotpited children every day. One of the topics is the slowdown of adoptions processed for Chinese orhans with NO special needs. We don't know much about it but here are some interesting facts about Chinese adoptions:

Number of Adoptions from China:
2006: 6,493
2005: 7,906
2004: 7,044
2003: 6,859
2002: 5,053

Age/Gender of Children Adopted From China in 2005
Source: INS Immigration Statistics
95% Female
35% under 1 year of age

1st Day in Guangzhou - Picture Day - 1/27/2008

We did not post last night. Anna had fever so Sue cuddled her to sleep. Berthold was so tired he literally fell asleep in front of the computer.

Yesterday was a busy day. We started to do our immigration paper work this morning. It took 2 hours to fill out all the forms that are required for getting Jenny an immigration visa. In the afternoon, we had her passport photo done. That was all the official business for the day.
We are very excited to be back to Guangzhou. This place brought a lot good memories of adopting Anna. The red couch in White Swan hotel is still our favorite place for photos. White Swan is a beautiful hotel. We love it. But, we have decided to stay in the Victory Hotel two blocks away from the White Swan hotel, simply this hotel is less expensive and rooms are little bit bigger. We need two rooms. One of our rooms has three beds. We combined all three beds together to make a huge bed where all four of us (Mom, Dad with two girls) sleep together. This leave ½ of the room free as a place area. It works out great so far.

We spent some time taking photos at the White Swan hotel. The girls attracted a lot attention from foreign and Chinese guests. Most of Chinese adopted children wore some kinds of traditional Chinese costume. Anna, Jenny and Jon from the Szalai’s are the only three girls dressed up in Mongolian Costumes.

In the evening, we had dinner with the Szalai’s and the Murphy’s at the famous Lucy’s Bar and Grill. Anna was very excited to sit next to Amy, one of Szalai’s girls who also has hard time about with her new brother Jon. Both girls enjoyed each other’s company very much. Anna likes to play mother or caregiver to Amy while Amy enjoys the attention being taken care of.
Sue’s niece was with us for dinner while Sue’s sister went to the airport to pick her husband and her son. We were happy to see the whole family after dinner at their hotel which is just one block away from the White Swan Hotel.

Guangzhou is colder than usual but it is still warmer for us. It was 47F. After dinner, Sue and Berthold enjoyed a walk along the river. We miss our Anhui Doll family very much. Berthold especially misses all the Dads and their cigar evening. It would not be the same to smoke a cigar alone. We did visit the spot where all the Dads had their cigars 6 years ago. It was great memory.