Christmas Tree is down - finally!

It is the middle of February, we still have the Christmas decoration and Christmas tree up. After a busy day with the boys' robotic team potluck and shopping, Mom and Dad went out for a date! Toby and Joshua worked with the girls taking down all the Christmas decoration and Christmas Tree. It is about time!

Jenny moves to 1st grade!

After some discussions with Jenny's teacher, her principle and her ESL teacher, we concluded that Jenny should be in 1st grade instead of pre-1st. She is delayed on language skill right now. However she is right on target in other areas. She has the maturity, social skills and math skills as a 1st grader. Our fear is that if we keep her in pre-1st, she would be one year behind her normal grade. Once she catches up on her language skills, this may present a problem as she is smart and very capable student. It is harder to jump a grade at later time. If for any reason, she could not pick up her language skill fast enough, we can always easily repeat a grade later. That is why we decide to move her to her normal grade.
This happened today. She did wonderfully with the transition. We are very amazed at her ability to adapt to new thing and new environment. Being home only less than 2 weeks, she is already knows how to count in English to 10, say hello, thank you, sorry, excuse me, let's go, bathroom, potty, eat....she recognize at least dozen or so English letters. She is making progress amazingly!
She and Anna continue to get along well. They call each other by "jiejie" and "meimei" like Chinese children do. It is so sweat!

Anna won 1st place in her swim meet!

Way to go Anna! She took the first place for her 25 yard free style on her swim meet today. She also set her new personal record for this event - 21.09 seconds. This time makes her qualified for division A swim also. What a girl!
We have been home for nearly a week. Everything went very well. Jenny is doing great in her school. Anna has been a big helper to Jenny. They start get along well. They enjoy each other's company a lot. Jenny loves to play all the toys. She tries everything. Her favorite ones are dolls and stuffed animals. Anna still loves her Legos. It seems to us that Anna is more a Tom Girl, while Jenny is a Shirley Girl. Jenny loves everything pink, sparkling or shiny. She loves to dress up while Anna loves blue jeans and t-shirt. It is great this way because they seem don't fight over for the same clothes or toys. We will see how long this will last.
The boys get to their normal selves now. It took them three days to change their biological clocks to USA time. For three days, they went to bed earlier and got up earlier. Now they start to stay up late and have hard time to get up in the morning again.
Jenny has done very well in school. Everyone love her there. Her teachers thing she is very smart and lovely lady. She is very capable of many things. We started to discuss if pre-1st is a right grade for her. Besides language skills, she really fits her normal grade - 1st grade. There will be more discussions next week on this because we would hate to delay her for the future.

Line 7 is Anna!! Way ahead of everyone else!

Her personal new record - 21.09 seconds

Two ribbons - one for first place event winner and one for set her personal new record

Life back to normal again!

It is Monday, day after we are back from China. We send all the kids to school today including Jenny! Toby and Joshua got up very early in the morning. They had time to make breakfast and plowed the drive way. We had a lot snow last night.
It is Jenny's first day of school. Sue went to school with her this morning. She was a little nervous, but also excited about going to school. She was placed in pre-first grade. At lunch time, she went back to check on her again. She was doing fine. She is going to the same school as Anna, Van Raalte Public School. We are so luck to have the full support of the school. They made special arrangement so Jenny and Anna could have lunch together. Principal Mrs. Clawson also were talking about hiring a Hope College student who speaks Chinese to help Jenny.
Toby had a long day today. After school, he went to work for two hours then he went to Robotics. He did not get home until 9 pm. As soon as he walked in the house, his first words were "Mom, I have tons of homework to do". Then he disappeared in his room. Poor kid!
Joshua was tired after school and went to sleep. I think he will sleep through the night or maybe not.
Anna and Jenny are the energetic ones. After school, they both went to the Boys and Girls Club for after school activities. Sue met them there just to make sure Jenny knows what is going on. We then picked them up at 6 pm. We had a small dinner then took them to Anna's swimming practice. She swam for more than an hour non-stop. After her practice, they played in the splash zone for another 45 minutes. We finally got home by 9 pm. They both fell asleep on the way home. What a day!
Sue and Bert took a day off. While Sue was running around with the girls, Bert unpacked all the luggages and did most of the laundry. Yes, we just realized that now we have to cook, do laundries and clean up. Life back to normal again! - no pictures.

We are home! 2/3/2008

Arrived home two hours ago. The trip home was uneventful. Thanks Joanne and Gregory Szalai for picking us up from Detroit airport with our car. It saved us a lot of time! It was nice to see Amy, Sarah and John again.
We stopped by Arby's for lunch on our way home.
We are glad to be home now. Anna misses her American TV. Jenny loves all the stuff animals. Toby and Joshua are watching Supperbowl. Normal life begins:)
Thanks the Timmermann's for the food and taking care of the house. We are so delighted to see the balloons and banner of welcome. Thanks the Windermuller's for taking care of the cats, fish and plants. Cats are happy to see us home. And thanks the DeVries for clearing the driveway. We are glad the weather was good for our driving home from Detroit. From Sue's friend, we know the weather in Guangzhou starts to warm up too today.
Sue and Berthold

Banner made by the Timmermann's

Yes, the christmas tree is still up....

Anna enjoys being back home and watching TV.
Jenny loves all the toys, especially the stuffed animals.

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.

We are in Guangzhou Now! 1/26/2008

At 4 pm, The Franz’ and Szalai’s we left our hotel and headed to the airport. The Murphy’s already left earlier this morning. At the airport, Jenny made a few phone calls. She called her orphanage and connected with her Big Brother and Big Sister. She was excited to tell them about her new family and said good bye to them. She also talked to them. She thanked them for being friends with Jenny and promised to keep in touch with them. Jenny also called one of the orphanage workers who often took her home at night and on the weekends or took her on family vacations. Jenny had talked very fondly about her. We have a picture of Jenny with her when Jenny was about 3-4 years old. Jenny was excited about the airplane ride. She kept herself busy with Legos.

Sue’s classmate, Hao Xing came specially to see goodbye to us at the airport and gave Sue a nice cashmere sweater. It was so sweat of him. At lunch time, two of her classmates called from distance. They were talking about class reunion in the near future. I guess we will have another trip to China soon.

We have had great time in Hohhot for these short four days! We will come back.

The flight was uneventful. She was very excited about going to a different place. Anna had a good long nap on the airplane. They both showed more of their personalities and they both get along well most of the time. We arrived Guangzhou around 10pm. Sue's sister and her niece was already waiting for us at our hotel. They arrived yesterday. Sue's brother in law and nephew will come tomorrow. They will stay with us until we leave for USA. We are kind of disappointed that the weather is not very good, but we really appreciated it that it is not -19F anymore. It was 45F at 10pm, wet and damp though. Hope we will have some good weather. We had to switch a bigger room so by the time we settled, it was way pass midnight. We will stay here for the next 7 days.

Mongolian Lunch - 1/26/2008

We had a wonderful day today. Sue’s classmate Hao Xing invited us to a traditional Mongolian Lunch in a Mongolian Hut next to the Horse Racing Field. According to Jenny’s paper work, she was found on the street near the Horse Racing Field. It makes more meaningful to visit the place. We were also joined by another Sue’s school mate from College who is a history major and has recently just translated a book about Mongolian History.

The Mongolian Hut is a model of the real Hut in the Glassland. It is not made of felt as the real one, but made of clay. Inside the Hut, it has a table in the center instead of just floor as the real hut. Surrounding the table, there is a circular brick bench which is heated by the smoke generated from a stove outside of the hut. The lunch started with milk tea – a traditional Mongolian Beverage. It tastes just like tea with milk. Then we were severed with many kinds of milk products like cheese – not a typical Chinese food, but a typical Mongolian food. In a short time, the table was filled with all kinds of food, like lamb steamed dumplings, meatball soup, beef jerky and some other food items that we even don’t know the name.

Near the end of the lunch, three musicians came to play and sing traditional Mongolian songs for us. At the end of each song, the guest was offered a cup of liquor. It is not polite or even insult to refuse the drink. It is also a tradition to do this three times. So Bert and Sue each had to drink three cups of liquor for each of the songs they sang for us. They are beautiful songs. The lunch could have lasted longer but we need to catch a plane to Guangzhou.

We took some pictures outside for Jenny so we can remember this place.

Tour the City -1/25/2008

At 4:30 pm, all three families aboard the bus we rented. We took a short tour of the city.

In less than two hours, we stopped by The Five Pagoda Temple, the Xilutuzhao Lamasery - (also called Xiaozhao Lamasery) and Dazhao Lamasery . We drove along a main street in Hohhot, the Danan Street toward north to Tongdao North Street. It is actually the same street with two different names. On the south of the intersection of Zhongshan West Street is the Mongolian section of the district. On the north of the intersection of the Zhongshan West Street is the muslin section of the district. We passed the Mosque on the right hand side, but we decided not to go out because it was dark. We then made a u-turn back to the intersection and turned left on to Zhongshan West Street to eat at pizza hut. The architecture here is just beautiful!

Sisters -1/25/2008

1/25/2008 –

Outside of our hotel rooms are elevators. Right there, kids found their play area. The girls love to do cartwheels or somersaults on the carpet there. That was what we did yesterday afternoon after the movies.

Visit Orphanage - 1/25/2008

It is 2 pm in the afternoon. It is a quite time for the family. We had been running around so much in the past few days. Everyone was so tired. Berthold is taking a nap right now. The boys are in their room alone reading and doing homework. Anna and Jenny are watching a movie – Fox and Hund. It is so peaceful.

We had a busy morning. We visited Jenny’s orphanage. Jenny has two best friends in the orphanage. One is a 16 year old boy whom she calls “Gege” – big brother in Chinese. Another one is a 14 year old “Jeje” – big sister. They both go to local schools during the day so we did not get a chance to meet them. Last night, Jenny prepared some special gifts for them. For her big brother she packed some of the bubble gums and chocolate we gave her. She also packed a family picture of ours. It was actually a picture card Sue made for Valentine’s Day for Joshua. It happened to end up in our luggage. Two days ago, Jenny found it and we told her she might keep it. For her big sister, she gave her a blanket. It was a blanket we bought one each for her and Anna. We had given her a small carry on suitcase. She had been keeping these and some other important thing she considers “hers” in that suitcase. It is so moving to see her willingly give her precious things to her big sister and big brother. On the way to the orphanage, Sue suggested that we should bring some candies and snacks to the children. Jenny protested. She said candies are not good for the children. We should bring fruits. So we did. We bought four cartons of sweet oranges.

We only saw less than a dozen kids in the orphanage. The director of the orphanage told us that they send all health children to foster care. The orphanage only houses special need child. There were more boys there than girls. We were able to take a picture of the infant room where Jenny spent a few months of her early days in the orphanage. We also visit her room and saw her bed. She shared room with two other girls. One is deaf and one is her big-sister who is severely handicapped. We meet the deaf girl, but did not see her sister. We were told she was in school. Her Nannies told us that Jenny is a very caring person. She always helps other kids, especially her big sister.

In the past few days, Jenny had been telling Sue stories about her birth mom and dad. She told Sue she has a big brother, not the one in the orphanage. All these stories were coming up randomly. For example when we had dinner with the Szalai’s who adopted an 18 months old boy, Jenny ordered a high chair for Jon and then told Sue that her birth mother put her in the high chair when they went out to eat. So Sue asked her more. Jenny then said her birth mom took her brother and left her to her dad and her dad sent her to the orphanage. In another occasion while we were eating again, she told Sue that she had to finish her food or her birth mother would be very mad of her. It sounds like she remembered her birth parents and how they sent her to the orphanage. It surprised us because her paper work clearly stated that she was found at 3 months of age in the horse racing field. Berthold thought that it could be that she was making up stories, stories she heard from other friends in the orphanage. But the way she said these things and how they randomly came up makes Sue think that these are real. Today, as Sue had some conversations with the orphanage director, Sue felt comfortable enough so she asked why Jenny keeping telling us that she remembered her birth parents. It turned out Jenny was in a foster care until she was 4 years old. Her foster parents had a boy who is older than Jenny. While still caring for Jenny, her foster parents went through a divorce. Her foster Mom took the boy and left Jenny with her foster dad. He then sent Jenny back to the orphanage. It all makes sense now. The foster parents are the only parents she remembers so she refers them as birth parents. It also explains why she is so comfortable with family life and so much looks forward to having family life again. As we leaving the orphanage, Sue told Jenny in Chinese that we are keeping her forever!

We are so glad we had this visit. We would never know what was going on with her story if we had not visited the orphanage. On the way to the orphanage, both Berthold and Sue were very emotional. But the visit was short and sweet. We left with great satisfaction and relieve. We thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and positive vibes to make this happen. We thank God for everything that has happening to us.

On the way back from the orphanage, we stopped by a folk craft manufacturer where they make cashmere sweaters, camel wool jackets and blanket and Inner Mongolian dresses. We bought the girls including Mom some Mongolian dress and some other souvenirs. We had to leave because we are now more brokeJ. But it is all worthy it. Jenny and Anna had great time.

Back in the hotel, the girls show off their costumes to the Murphy’s and Szalai’s. Mrs. Murphy was so nice to give all the kids a socks and yoyo, both having lady bug prints on them. When I ask Jenny to say “Xiexie” – means thank you in Chinese. Jenny responded with “thank you!” in English. Way to go Jenny!! What a quick learner!! I think by the time we are home, she will be fluent in EnglishJ.

Tonight, we will go to Pizza Hut for dinner for a group celebration. We got Jenny’s passport. We are ready to go. We will pack tomorrow and leave Hohhot in the evening.

Sue rent a minibus for later this afternoon. We will go out with the Murphy’s and Szalai’s to take a tour of the city before heading to Pizza Hut. It is the only way to see the city in this cold cold weather.

Sue and Berthold

Hohhot - 1/24 - Visit Museum and Having Hot Pot for Dinner

Today was just a day of waiting. We slept a little longer and then had breakfast late. During breakfast we got the good news from the guide that we may be allowed to visit the orphanage tomorrow. This is very unusual since there is an order from the province not to allow visits. We think our repeated asking and the fact that Sue is Chinese may play a role. Bert thinks the real causes are the positive vibes from the Anhui Family (our travel group from the first adoption) and prayers from all of you. So far they have always worked.

Our next stop was a visit to the "Inner Mongolia Museum" ( Neimenggu Bowuguan). We rent a minivan from the hotel. It is a wonderful museum covering all of the history, culture and tradition of this area – from the Dinosaurs to the present with 14 exhibits. Two hours was all we can do with the kids but it was great. The museum is very new and there is still building up some of the exhibits. Some rooms are still empty but the building is so huge that it really doesn't matter. We tried to find some picture on the Internet (the building is so big that we never got a good shot). It appears that the building is so new that all posted pictures (as close as 11/2007) refer to the old museum in Downtown. Inner Mongolian because independent from Mongolian in 1947. Many new things were added in 2007 as they celebrate the 60 years of independence.

In the museum there is no much marble; they builders must have used a whole quarry or more to use in this building. Besides the exhibits, the architecture is just marvelous.

Inner Mongolia is famous for their grassland and blue skies with beautiful white clouds. The best time to visit here is in August. As we tour through the exhibit, Anna described that the Inner Mongolian people like American Indians. She made a very good observation there. They live in Mongolian Huts and ride horses. Inner Mongolia is one of the autonomous regions of China, like Tibet, where they have their own government and language, though they are still a part of China. Everywhere you go, you will see both Mongolian and Chinese languages on signs, menus and directions. Mongolian language is always either on top or in front of the Mandarin language here. The city has about 2 million people. Majority of them are Han Chinese. Sue is Han Chinese with ¼ of Mongolian blood from her maternal grandma. If we were visiting here in the summer, we would have opportunities to visit the grassland, the ranch, huts and even have horse rides. But, Bert was unable to find any golf course for the annual Anhui Dad's golf outing. It might be a niche market to open a couple of golf courses here, but then the summer is less than three month in this region – last frost in May – first frost again in September or latest early October.

We bought some souvenir at the museum gift shop. Toby and Joshua bought these knives rangers carry with them on their belt. Sue and Berthold bought some music CDs. It turned out to be VCDs containing sounds with videos for karaoke. Jenny loved it. She sat on Berthohld’s lap, watched and sang along with the music. It was a very beautiful music and sight to see her getting so close and comfortable with Bert.

After returning to the Hotel, kids were tired. We ordered the room service for them – four cheese burgers. Jenny was so hungry; she could not wait because it was 2 pm, way passed her normal meal time. She loved the cheese burg!

After eating, Toby and Josh took care of Anna, Jenny and Leah, one kid from the Murphy family and both of us (Murphy and Franz) walked around the city. We visited some areas where the locals shop and where you can haggle. Sue was just in her element. It was so nice to get out of the hotel and something from the city. But we have to say, it was sooo cold here!

In the evening, the Franz family had a traditional Mongolian Hotpot dinner with an old friend of Sue. She hadn't seen him for more than 25 years (gosh why don’t we get younger with every day that goes by). They were college classmate. They had fun catch up and made some phone calls to other classmates. Sue was very happy to make connections with her classmates again. The dinner was fabulous and we had far more food than we could eat.

All in all it was a good day. Anna exhausted herself throughout the day and there fore we had another melt down during dinner. She actually slept through the most of the dinner. But, we think it is mainly base on the exhaustion from all the play and running during the day.

Jenny is just wonderful. She is happy most of the times and always shares with others. In the orphanage, she slept with another girl in one bed whom she called her sister. This girl was handicapped. Also, her best friend is a 17 year old boy whom she called her big brother. Now when she talks about her sister and brother she talks about Toby, Josh and Anna. We thought for a while she was still referring to her friends in the orphanage. But because of her being around other handicapped kids she is very caring. When Anna cries she is concerned, when Anna sleeps she covers her with a blanket or a jacket, she cares about other little ones around etc. Hopefully we can preserve some of these good habits. But she does have a temper. We have not seen it but you can feel it. And she knows what she wants. It is very clear that we all will have our hands full as she grows up.

Jenny had her first melt down too, but very short. She forgot to take her tidy bear with her on our way to the restaurant. As tired as or maybe more tired than Anna, she had small cry, but did not last very long.

And we still here the word "Mama" all day and Bert still enjoys it.

Hohhot - More paper work -1/23/2008

Today was a different day. It was supposed to be an easy day with mainly easy paperwork. The paperwork was easy – especially for Bert since he left everything to Sue. He signed a lot of things and hopes he did not order more stuff.

There were two families doing paperwork and a third one just to hang out with us. The kids had a lot of fun and it was quite loud at times. One of the documents had Bert's nationality wrong. They listed him as US citizen but his passport is German. We hope that this will be corrected soon. But, it requires a new document from CCAA – there is enough space for additional trouble – lets cross that bridge when we get there.

After the paperwork we went shopping. We ask the doorman of the (five star, Taiwanese owned) hotel if we can get a taxi. He exclaimed that it would be difficult at that time of the day. That was the end of it. This hotel does not make any efforts to get taxis for their guests or has a taxis stand. For such a modern and high standard hotel, that is kind of strange. We walked to a shopping mall about 20 minutes away in the cold of approx. -5 F degree temperature. It was coooooold! We were lucky to get a taxi on the way back. In the taxi Xinxin mentioned that we made there by "walking in this terrible cold for such a long way that her feet nearly fell off from the cold". We have to admit that her boots, as pretty as they were, might have been to tight too – but we bought her new ones right away.

We also bought a lot of snacks in a grocery section of the mall. Xinxin really enjoyed this and tried to buy a lot of things. We ended up with two bags of mainly snacks in all kinds of varieties. She also knows what she wants when it comes to shoes and cloth. We are deeply worried that this is another member in our family that is "born to shop". Daddy was already talking about a second job this morning at breakfast when he saw the amount of food that this girl can eat. After the shopping experience he might know that hard time lies ahead.

After shopping we spent the rest of the day in the hotel and the kids of all three couples played together, ran up and down the hallway, and did cartwheels, chased Toby and Josh, made necklaces, watched movie together…… and many more things. That led to the first problem with Anna. She was very tired and finally got real jealous of Xinxin. Xinxin acted real mature and cared about everybody. When we eat snacks, she first offerd one to all the other people around her and then she took a snack herself. (We wonder how long this will last??). Also she was really upbeat and as the new kid took the center stage. Pair this with Anna being tired and we had a real melt down which started right in time when we were having dinner with the Szalai’s. Luckily they understand the situation well because they have two girls too. When we returned to the room the battle lasted a few more minutes before Anna fell asleep.

At the dinner table, Sarah – one of the girls from the Szalai’s called Xinxin by her Chinese name. Xinxin told Sue to tell her “don’t call me Xinxin. Please call me Jenny!”. She really likes her English name now. She did not understand why Anna was not very happy. All we explained to her was that Anna was tired. We wonder how long this will last before she figures it out by herself. She can speak some English words already. We are sure soon she will speak and understand English.

By the way, Mama is real exhausted. She actually took a nap during the day. Lots of things are going on and Jenny calls "mama" about every 5 minutes or more – depending on what is going on. With Anna it was much easier she – called daddy all the time. As lovely and rewarding as it is being needed and chosen the first person be called in need, now Mama finds out first hand how exhausting this can be. Every time she sits down or tries to do something you hear this little sweat voice calling out "Mama?". J Daddy enjoys observing and tells Mama frequently: "now you know how this feels".

We now get more free kisses and hugs from her. She is still a good eat and tries everything. This morning, she broke her rule of not leaving food on the table. We are not surprised that this rule is the first to be broken. Now she knows, she has plenty to eat. It is a good thing, but also a bad thing because we wished she could have kept her good habit of not wasting food for a little longerJ.

Next two days will be “free days”. Tomorrow, the Szalai's will visit their son's foster family. We wish everything goes well for them. The Murphy's had already their daughter's orphanage director visited them today. Their daughter Leah is very close to her orphange director. She was very upset on the Gotach day. She was very upset when her orphanage director left. We will visit a museum and hope to visit Jenny’s orphanage on Friday – not being promised yet, but hopeful. Everything is central government controlled including if an orphanage is open for foreigners or not. Jenny's orphanage is not approved for allowing foreign visitors. Right now because the Chinese New Year, many political leaders visit local welfare organizations. They don't want us to show up to get them in trouble. However, this is a chance that no political visitors this coming Friday and because Sue is Chinese, they may let us visit. Keep us in your prayers. We think it is good for us to visit Jenny's orphanage so she can show us a little glimpses of her life in the past.

We hope that all of you are in doing well and hope that the snow in Michigan comes to an end soon. We all want to be home in time for the evening of the Super ball.

Here comes Jenny! -1/22/2008

Okay, here we go. This morning we had to get up early and pack. Yesterday evening the jetlag along with a whole day sightseeing just caught up with us and we had to start the packing at 5:00 am in the morning. At 7:30 we left for the airport. The trip was normal and without excitement. By 12:00 am we arrived in Hohhot. Hohhot is a nice city that seems to be in the middle of nowhere; surrounded by mountains and with a wonderful blue sky. It is cold but dry. The temperature today was about -20C / -4F. What we saw from the city was very nice. They had snow yesterday and that made the traffic real difficult. We settled in the hotel room and waited to get XinXin (Jennifer) at 3:30. There was quote some tension and nervousness in the air. After two days of tourist program we finally got to our original task.

When we left our room to meet her in the conference room, Bert said:" Life will never be the same. We leave this room with three kids and will come back with four.”

When XinXin walked in, we saw a smile. A smile no words can describe; a smile that instantly took all the tension out of the room. If we would send kids with such a smile into fighting our wars, nobody ever would get hurt. As we heard later on from the representative of the orphanage, she was excited about being adopted and could not wait to go to her new home. She came directly to us. She called Sue “Mama” right away. Then Anna and XinXin gave each other a big hug. I think we have a picture of this. Then she gave Bert a big hug. The boys were busy taking pictures and video taping the whole event. After a while, all the kids played together. XinXin was fascinated by the video camera and started using the camera. 10 minutes after she walked into the room, she said:" Mama, can we go home now" - in Chinese of course. The whole family feels so lucky and blessed. The boys are happy and Anna is very excited. They plays together, have fun and get wild. We feel so blessed and cannot thank God enough for the gift we received.

We did some paperwork and everything was in Chinese. Fortunately Sue can read it. Bert was not sure if he adopted a daughter or sold his house to buy a boat and move to China or something along these lines. He signed everything and fingerprinted it. There is no way back now in case the boat arrives at our doorstep.

During the paperwork she asked Mama a few times to go home - she is very impatient. She got the package we sent to her and knows we have cats. As soon as we got to the hotel room she asks where the cats are. She doesn't understand yet that we have some way to go. Sue tried to explain what is coming, but we are not sure if she fully understands everything.

We gave her a little suitcase for her few things she brought from the orphanage. She put everything in there and she really appreciates to have her little on space. She brought a notebook with a note from a 16 year old boy. According to the person from the orphanage who brought her, this boy is very fond of her and she calls her “big brother”. He helps her and protects her in the orphanage. He is very sad and happy at the same time to see her go. We have his pictures and plans to keep in contact with him. He gave her a good luck and safe journey necklace. A few times today, she called Bert “gege” (big brother). We think this is a male model in her life. There is also a photo of an older girl who has mental illness. They share a room together. According to this person from the orphanage who brought her over, she is the most beautiful girl in the orphanage. Everyone loves her. She is often being taken home by visitors for a weekend or shopping. Last year, she was chosen to go to Beijing and Climbed Great Wall with a group of foreigners who volunteered at the orphanage. We have some photos of her with these people on the great wall! It so good to know she is well loved and she knows how to love others.

For dinner we went to a restaurant in the hotel. It was a large buffet that was very good. Everybody, including XinXin, ate very well. XinXin liked the food. She had crab for the first time in her life and loved it. She got a little upset when a couple of us left small items on the plate rather than finishing our plates. She explained to Sue that wasting food is not good. Also, she cleaned up after she was done. Something our kids won't even think about without reminder. We had to send her and Anna upstairs with the boys before we pay our checks because Sue could not finish her noodle soup. She was afraid that her new daughter would think she was wasteful.

Later on we met the couple from Michigan in the hallway along with another couple who also adopted a 6 years old girl. Oh, by the way, if you ask these girls, they will say they are 7 years old because in China, you are counted as one year old immediately after your birth. Kids played for an hour in the hallway. We all had a ball.

Xinxin had told us that it is OK to call her Jenny. Jenny and Anna took a bath and shower together. They still could not sleep, so we tried to play some games and do some coloring. It turned out that both girls are very competitive so we have some trouble to deal it…..Finally Anna was so tired and she gave in. Jenny was too excited to sleep. We spent a few more minutes with her. Right now they both sleep and sleep on the same bed!

We also found out that she can speak a few words of English, like Bananas, Apples and count numbers and sing ABC's....She told me she plays computer games too at the orphanage.

Everything is just perfect.... We can't believe it. However, we are still prepared to some melt-downs to happen.

Now it is time to finish. We are all tired and still struggle with the time difference.

More tomorrow - best wishes to all our friends.