Visa is here!

Our last day here we spent in our room just hanging out. We discussed that we should have made his middle name be danger. He was flipping backwards on the couch trying to dive head first. Each time I caught him and he would just break  out into giggles. He also got a pretty stripe on the right side of his face just before group pictures. He was following me into the bathroom, slipped and hit his head on the corner of the door. This was the first time he cried after getting hurt. He is finally trusting us to comfort him.

At 4:30 we received Nathan's visa he now has permission to enter the United States!

 He was mad at daddy. We are not sure why, he had been happy just moments before.

 Dressed up in his Chinese silk for group photos

 Group 2132

 Trying to coordinate a photo of 9 children, not easy

 We had two girls trying to bail head first out of the picture

 Getting ready for our last sleep before heading to America!

We leave 7:30pm Texas time we won't be home until Friday night at 8:15. It is going to be a long 25 hours!

Consulate appointment day

We are almost done! We had our consulate appointment today and should receive Nathan's visa tomorrow afternoon, then Friday morning we will be on our way back to the US!

This was half of our travel group. We had the largest group they have ever had come at one time. There were 16 families and 18 children. This is only half of them as we were divided into two groups once we made it to Guangzhou. We have made some good friends and are sad to say goodbye, but even more glad to be headed home.

 9 of the babies. We were actually a part of the second group, but they were kind enough  to let us in the pictures. I think everyone was sad to be separated this last portion of our trip, because we were already so close. It  is difficult to get them all to look at the camera and smile at the same time. Nathan isn't much for cheesing for the camera. He likes to give his serious look.

 We have walked many times by this playground with Nathan in the stroller. It makes him happy to play speed racer on all the floors in his stroller and people watch as we zoom by. We finally let him out  to play, against Robert's will. Robert just wants to make it home without having a sick baby. When he looks at playgrounds all he sees are giant germ factories.

 Fortunately, Nathan spent most of his time walking around checking the place out. Not too much time was spent on the slides.

 They had this cute bridge by the play area. No need to worry, I was standing close by. He did not even try to leap into the water.

 This girl could not keep her hands off of Nathan. She was hugging him, but because he is new to balancing , kept knocking him over. He would just stand there and stare at her while she man handled him. He is a pretty good sport. He is still more of a parallel play type of guy.

 I finally rescued him after this fall.

Pearl Market and Shaiman Island

Ready to start the day. This is one of Luke's baby outfits. It's so fun seeing my new little one able to wear the same outfit.

 We went to the Pearl Market. It is overwhelming trying to figure out the exact strand of pearls you want. I do not have the ability to determine what a good set looks like. We went for shiny without spots. They told us they were high quality. Who really knows. As long as we think they are pretty I guess that is what counts.

 We took a short cab ride to Shaiman Island. This is where the White Swan Hotel is located. Before they began reconstruction it was the hotel all adopting families stayed at. It has more Brittish looking architecture and lots of fun statues. We ate hamburgers and French fries at Lucy's.It was niceto have some American food. The pictures on the wall were all American celebrities, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe etc.

 This statue is popular with adoptive parents. They stick their babies in the empty space in line. Nathan sweetly stood there not sure what to do. He is so serious when he is unsure about his environment.

 I took this for Jon. He loves Chess. They had little chess pieces sitting around.

I liked these ladies. Robert wanted me to practice my curtsey.

Medical Exam

Today Nathan had his medical exam. He did great! He only cried at the very end when they took his diaper off, but the crying was short lived.

The bad news, while we were there another agency came in from across the street and said that the US consulate was shut down for the day. It could be more days, we are not sure. If they are not open on Wednesday for our appointment, we will not be able to return to the US on Friday. Prayers that they reopen this week. Without his visa we will be stuck in China.  We are hopeful that things will reopen and we will not have any problems, but are prepared that we could be here longer than planned.

 

Nathan is doing better. He was not nearly as fussy, but he is still fighting the bus rides.  

Flight and first day in Guanzhou

 Saturday we spent the day packing and flying to Guangzhou. Nathan did great at the airport. This was even his first time to venture away from me and say hi and clap hands with a Chinese lady. Then we got on the plane and his happy sweet demeanor that he has showed us all week changed. He cried and did the limp noodle act almost the complete 2 hours we were on the plane. We went through every snack and drink we had packed. We then used our two free drinks, water and apple juice to add to his bottle. He finished the bottle off just minutes before we landed and finally fell asleep.

 

This is one of the few moments of calm sitting on the floor at daddy's feet playing.

 Once on the ground, he woke up and was happy as long as he was allowed to walk on his own around the airport waiting for our baggage. Then back on the bus for a 40 minute drive to the hotel he screamed the whole way. One of our guides Raymond sweetly held him the last few minutes and spoke Chinese to him. He seemed to calm down a little after that. Once in our room he became the energizer bunny. He was running, speed crawling and laughing. I'm really scared for our 24 hours of flights coming up this Friday. If you think about us say a little prayer. We are hoping he will do better this next time. We are going to be stocking up on lots of snacks.

 Dressed and ready to go. He woke up in a good mood, but shortly started loosing it at breakfast. I thought we may have to skip the touring. We decided he felt a little warm and gave him some ibuprofen. That made him happy, and off we went. He did pretty well, but still fought the bus transport. I tried to keep him occupied with lots of patty cake.

 

 The 6 Banyan Temple

It's a Buddhist temple and was so sad seeing people presenting their offerings hoping they will have a better life in the future by doing great works.

 Past Present and Future Buddhas

 The Chen House

This house was built in only 5 years. It is amazing to think that such great art could be created in such a short amount of time. Everywhere you looked there were amazing carvings. We bought the boys some scrolls and had them write their name in Chinese on them.

 The Doctor