Thank you Anhui Moms for the shower!!

Five of the Anhui moms got together this weekend at Lake Geneva, WI. It has been our tradition for the past three years. Interestingly enough, we have had baby showers every time we met. First was for baby Rosie, then for baby Eyob. This year, it was my turn for Jenny. I have to say that I was very surprised by the amount of gifts we received!! I had great time opening them. I wish Jenny and Anna were there with me.
Thanks Anhui Moms!

Egg Hunt in the Snow!

We had more than 12 inches of snow last Friday! We had had some beautiful days last week. All the snow was melt. We thought that was the end of the snow season. On Friday, I went to work despite the fact that Gentex had a day off because no one else in the family had a day off and I needed a day off next Tuesday to take Jenny to UofM for her ear. School called me around noon to pick Jenny up because she had fever. I was so surprised to see snow when I stepped outside. The traffic was chaotic. It took Berthold 2.5 hours to get home from work. Cars slid left and right.

On Saturday, we had our scheduled Easter Egg Hunt in the neighborhood. Kids had a great time in their snow gears hunting these colored eggs on the snow. Jenny got strap throat, but she was fine now because of the antibiotic. She was surprised there were eggs everywhere and asked me where these eggs coming from. I was attempted to tell her that Rabbits brought them, but the on the 2nd thought, that may bring more questions that I can't answer. So I told her that parents put the eggs there so kids can have fun. Talking about not lie to your kids, I am taking the magic out of the whole thing. Geesh!

It took me mroe than 16 years to get used to the concept of East Egg Hunt fun. I never made Easter baskets for kids before. The boys were at Robotci competition while the girls had their egg hunt. So I decided to make Easter baskets for the boys too. It was actually fun. Each kid gets some small gifts besides eggs and candies. I have not heard a thank-you from Toby yet. I bet he even did not check his basket and assumed they were just filled with eggs and candies.

We had a great dinner - Rosemary Garlic Lamb and Potatoes. Berthold and I took the girls to Easter Vigil. It was three hours long from 8 to 11 pm with all 9 long readings. When Berthold and I returned from our communion duty, we found two sleeping girls on the bench. It was Jenny's first time to see a baptism. It will give her a visual picture when Sue will explain her about her baptism later. Hers is scheduled to May 25th.

The boys went to Church on Easter Sunday. Joshua was cross bear and sound technician and Toby was server. It was nice to see them dress up for church - once a year they do that. Sue insisted to take some family photos. It was not an easy task with the boys goof around. They hate taking photos. Hope one day when they are older or become a parent, they would apprecite these photos.

We will do our egg coloring this afternoon. Right now, everyone is taking an after lunch rest.

It is a great Easter.







Start the slide show for more photos

Broken or not?

I am in the hospital waiting for Toby's x-ray results. He hurt his finger during Lacross practice. It looks like broken. We will find out soon....

Yes, it was broken! Yak. He will now miss some Lax practice. HE IS NOT HAPPY. I am fine with. He has been working too hard lately with Robotic, Job, Boyscout, Lax and Homework!
Sue

Life is good!

It was a great day! The Boys and Girls Club closed today for a special event. My girls had no place to go after school. Toby and Joshua both have sport practice, Lacrosse for Toby and Field and Track for Joshua. So instead of hiring a babysitter, I picked them up and took them to my work. It has been crazily busy and I had not had time to bring the girls to work. Only some of them met Jenny so I think it was about time for me to introduce her.

I got them each a pair safety goggles though that is not really required. They look professional this way. After saying hi's to office people, I took them to see the robots on production lines. On the way there, we passed our cafeteria. Anna had been very up beat. She kept saying "Mom, this is a great place to work!". I was proud too for the place I work. Finally, at one point, I asked "honey, tell me why do you think this is a great place to work". She replied "you have free pops,coffee and TV here!". Oh, that is not what I was thinking why this place is a good place to work. I thought she would say it is great here because all the robots and cool mirrors we make. Oh, well. It may take some time for them to appreciate the same thing as I do yet.

It is a great day also because Jenny had her first cry for Mommy! Normally, I would appraise brave girls. But with Jenny, I was actually happy she cried. Right before dinner, she was playing outside. She fell down and got her pants wet. She ran into the house with tears and cried for Mommy! That made me feel so good. I nearly cried. I have been suffering the fact that this girl is too independent. She almost made me feel that she did not need a mom! I am so happy to know that she knows what Mom is really for. She came to me for comfort!!! Yippppeee!

I also noticed that Today instead of just speaking Chinese to me, Jenny started to ask "Mom, how do you say....in English?" She is making an effort to learn English now all by herself! What a girl! For the past few days, we have been listening the "learning Chinese with me" DVD every time we were in the car. I bought it for Anna before we went to China. Anna learned to sing about 5 Chinese songs from the DVD. Now both girls love the DVD. Jenny is repeating the English words and Anna is repeating the Chinese words. They both then sing the Chinese songs together. It is good to see them bonding. They have been playing well together for a while now. It is quiet at night in out house expect the laughters from the girls!

Thank God, life is good!!
Sue

A weekend with only girls

Bert went to Houston to play golf with Anhui Dads. Toby and Josh are at Boyscout Councilor training camp. It left only the girls and me home for this weekend. We stayed in bed late. Then we went to Sam's club to develop some photos from our trip to China so we can make a life book for Jenny. In the afternoon, we took a walk with Elizabeth and her kids. Anna and Jenny really loved to be with Eleanor, Evelyn and Kevin and their dog Luke. We took a long walk in the Saugatuck Dune park all the way to Lake Michigan. I was surprised to see that there are still a lot snow on the ground. The open air on the lake was really refreshing, but it got cold after a while. Beside, this walk was really not satisfying Luke. He just wanted to run. So we took him to the dog park. He had great time there. It was first time I had been a dog park. It is so interesting to see dogs interacting with each other. They are kind of like kids.

We did a quick grocery shopping after the walk. For some reason, Anna could not stop saying "Mom, you make the best dumplings in the whole world"We had wanton soup for dinner. Yes, we had homemade wanton soup for dinner -that is Anna's version of dumplings.

We had a great day..now I miss having a full house. It is too quiet.

We are going to Masschusetts in April!!

Kids will have spring break in April from April 5 - April 12. We can't just sit at home! We have decided to visit our friends in Massachusetts and visit some colleges there as well. Both Toby and Joshua have their eyes on MIT! I will be just very happy if they can go to University of Michigan - top university with an in-state tuition, what else I can ask for....We will see. We do want to learn more about Harvard, MIT and Brown University. If not anything else, we hope this trip will help Toby to determine what field he will be learning in college.

Instead of staying in a hotel which we will need two rooms, we decided to look for alternative solutions. We found a house on the ocean in Plymouth/Manomet area for rent at a reasonable price. It has four bedrooms and sleep max 8. I can't wait to go now!! It is going to be fun and relaxed. Most importantly, we will spend family time together again. Downside of this house? No internet. I wonder if we could survive the week. Or we probably will spend a lot time in the library or a local Panera Bread. I am hoping that we can stay together to read and play board games!

We hope to visit our friends Pat/Judy, Malte/Marcia, Kevin/Jeanie....I wonder if the hospital where Toby and Joshua were born is still there:)..I think we may drive by our old house just to see what it looks like...maybe there are some neighbors that still remember us...yes, possible visit Rody and Mike. They were were our neighbor then moved away and Rody was Joshua's favorite babysitter!

Here are some photos I down loaded from the website....I can't wait! Yes, we will pack the van and drive over there straight! We have three drivers now. Can't wait to go!!

But, first Bert will take a trip to Houston to meet Anhui Dads and play a lot of golf. Then I will go to Lake Geneva in the end of the month to meet Anhui Moms for our B&B reunion. These are our friends from Anna's adoption group.

Remembering Ian

Parents, friends and schoolmates of Ian Guarr organized an event of remembering Ian. It was very educational to both parents and children about teenager depressions and suicide preventions. It was an opportunity for those who grieve to express our feelings through arts and music. I wish my boys could be there. After the surprise birthday party, they had hard time to drag themselves to even the boyscout events...hope there will be more events like this.

Surprise! Joshua!

Mom and one of Joshua' friends planned a surprise birthday party for him. His birthday was 2/26. Since he has not had a birthday party for some years, he did not expect there would be a party 3 days after his birthday!
His friend tricked him to Laurel's house. They tricked him to go to the basement. Once he was there, surprise!!! "Why all of you are here and I am not invited?"....After having pizza, we picked them up and headed to the Lost City. We played two games of laser storm, miniature golf and some games. Then we all headed back to our house. The girls went home at 11:00pm and boys stayed over night...of course they played video game the whole night!!
Boys are boys!!
Sue

Fun with Beanie Babies

RC and Henry Luten gave my girls two beanie puppies. The girls love them so much. Mom had fun of taking photos too. Thanks, RC and Henry!!
Sue

Dentist again

We had a lot work to do on Jenny's teeth. Poor thing! She had already had two teeth taken out at last dental visit. She got two more taken out. I think she is quite worried. "How am I going to eat with holes from both sides" - that was her first question after the work was done.
I have to follow the dentist's direction. Dr. Thomas Bouwen is a pediatric dentist. In his opinion, these two baby molars are so bad that they can't be repaired. It is better to take them out now and put a spacer in place so her adult molars will have room to come in normally. She still have one more big tooth on each side so she should have no problem eating. These teeth have been bothering her. She was afraid to eat anything hard, even not apples!

Jenny is a little brave girl. She did not make a sound with her dental work. We had to visit a lab to take her blood for her blood work before the dentist appointment. She did not make any trouble on that either. Her doctor ordered so many blood tests that we were worried if they were taking too much blood out of her! She is a trooper!

Anna, on the other hand, was so afraid about these things. She nearly cried when the nurse put the needle on Jenny's arm to take her blood out. Anna had a simple cleaning of her teeth today. She was asking more questions and more worried about her procedure. In the end, she was happy because these people were so good with children!

I tried to take some photos, but my camera was not working. By the time I figured out what was wrong with the camera, Jenny already finished hers....She did not look too happy then.


Jenny just finished her dental work - poor baby!



Anna is ready for her dental cleaning.



Can't you tell Jenny is suffering? Hope she feel better soon.

School Concerts and Lunar Eclipse

Yesterday was one of these days that runs from 6 am to 10 pm non-stop. It was first day of school after two days of snow days and a weekend! We quickly squeezed in a dinner before we headed out to Holland Christian High School for Toby's and Joshua's school concert. It was one of the events that we love very much. Both Toby and Joshua showed their talent in music. They both were drum players in school bands before. Since last year, Toby had picked up Bass Clarinet and Joshua recently picked up Saxophone. In yesterday's concert, Toby even played a solo - way to go Toby!
Kids really did great job. Every year, you see them improving. Today, they played together with Hope College students. Hey, I am bias. I think my kids did better.
Jenny was very excited about the concert. She clapped at the end of every number. She was especially excited if she could see Joshua or Toby - which was hard thing to do because they were blocked either by a music note stand or someone in the band. Jenny also loved to be allowed to hold video camera, but I think we will have to turn ourself 360 degrees many times in order to watch the video she taped. Oh, well - everything comes with practice.
Anna, on the other hand, slept through the whole concert. It was just another high school concerts for her. She was tired after a long day of school. Kids were get used to stay home for the past 4 days because they had two snow days - Monday and Tuesday. Today was the first day they went back to school.
We were home just in time to see the start of the Lunar Eclipse. We had some clouds but most of the time, you could see it clearly. It was very cool! Taking photo of it, though, was not easy. We tried anyway.


Holland Christian High School Concert


Toby is getting ready


Joshua just finished his peformance


Lunar Eclipse ~9:30 pm


Lunar Eclipse ~10:00pm


Lunar Eclipse ~ 11:00pm - with clouds over it.

Things we know and learn about our kids

We raise three children before adopting Jenny. We found out that everyday, we learn something new about Jenny. It makes us realize that we have taken granted about the things we know about the children we raise.

Things we know about Toby:

1. He is a very caring person
2. He loves his job
3. He is a good leader
4. He is dependable
5. He is responsible driver
6. He is an excellent student with very good grades
   
7. He loves Lacrosse
   
8. He knows what is right and what is wrong
9. He loves everything mom and dad cook especially mom's dumplings
10. He is left handed in everything except golf
    

Things we know about Joshua:

1. He acts as careless, but cares a lot in his heart on everything surrounding him
2. He is an excellent student with very good grades
   
3. He loves everything Mac
4. He loves computer and programming
5. He is very good at Math
6. He is a picky eater
7. He likes smash potatoes, broccoli, corn and peas
8. His favorite food is Lasagna and Steak
9. He hates messy food, but does not mind messy room
10. He is left handed in everything
    

Things we know about Anna

1. She loves her teacher Mrs. Ashby
2. She cares about her friends
3. She loves her little sister
4. She likes to wear T-shirt over turtleneck
5. She loves to play Legos and video games
6. She loves to watch"Ni Hao Kailan"
7. She loves to eat dumplings
8. She is a very good swimmer
9. She can sing 5 Chinese songs and a lots of Chinese words
   
10. She is left handed on everything

Things we learn about Jenny:

1. She loves everything pink, sparkling and shiny
2. She loves Spaghetti with meat sauce
3. She loves to dress up
4. She loves math
5. She can count to 100 in Chinese and to 10 in English
   
6. She can add and subtract with numbers smaller than 12
7. She loves to do jumping robe and playing video games and dolls
   
8. She wanted to ride bike in the snow and got "no" for answer
9. She adores her sister and calls her "jiejie"
10. She eats with left hand and write with right hand most of time, but some time with left hand.
    

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.