Guangzhou free day

Today was a free day in the schedule so we took the morning to visit Shamian island.  It's not really an island but it is located on the water.  There is some shopping and some residences but it's also just much slower paced and has pretty garden areas.  It's also apparently a good place for brides to come for photo shoots.

It was really a pretty place, many said it reminded them of New Orleans or Charlotte, NC.  There is also a restaurant there that serves American classics like cheeseburgers and onion rings.  Yum!  Main downside was the humidity.  I've never felt anything like it.  I really felt like we were in a sauna.  It was a nice morning anyway.

After lunch we went to a jade and pearl market.  It was quite overwhelming.  There are so many vendors and it's hard to know whether you are getting real stuff or fakes, so we avoided most of it, but still neat to see.

Tonight we are laying low in the room as we've been out most of the day and have a full day tomorrow.  We are going to the safari zoo tomorrow and it's supposed to be really amazing.  White tigers and pandas and other wild animals up close and personal.  Should be fun if little man doesn't tire out from the long day.  We are trying to rent a stroller from the hotel which should help.

Four more sleeps until we come home!  Miss you all and especially miss our sweet Brooklyn.  Can't wait to see her and give her a big hug.  Mommies need to be with their babies.

Specific prayer request:  Please pray Charlie sleeps well and we have a really fun day at the zoo!

Shamian Island

There was a man doing Tai Chi in the park

One of many brides

We sure do love this cute little dude!

Church on the island

Brian was happy to get his Corona with lunch!

My guys

Guangzhou travel day and Medical check

Sorry for not blogging yesterday, I was not in the right state of mind.  You know how they say, If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all? :)

Well the day was going well until we got to the airport to fly to Guangzhou.  When we got to the airport, it was nap time for Charlie and he was letting the whole airport know he wasn't happy about it.  It took forever to check in because we had "prohibited items" in our checked luggage.  They made us go through our bag but we couldn't figure out what they were saying was prohibited.  After 15 minutes of taking our bag apart, we figured out it was our bug spray and they made us throw it away. Sheesh....

Brian finally got Charlie to sleep while we waited to board and he woke when we got to our seat.  I was pretty anxious about the flight with him, but he actually did amazing!  We bought some baby headphones and turned on Baby Einstein (thanks for the videos Lindsey) and he wore them almost the whole trip!  We also kept the snacks coming which helped.  As long as this kid is eating, he's a happy camper!  I really feel like that flight was God's great provision for us.  I felt peace and so did Charlie because he barely made a peep!  That is until we landed and were waiting for our gate.  Charlie's little buddy from the orphanage was a few seats in front of us and he looked over the seats at Charlie and they started having a baby conversation across the airplane.  They were just going back and forth talking away, pointing at things, etc.  It was so cute, the whole plane was cracking up!

When we finally got to the hotel, it was about 8:30pm....way past Charlie's bedtime.  We got things unloaded a little bit, gave him a bath, and started the nighttime routine.  He was NOT having it.  After us holding him and him screaming for what felt like forever, we put him back down to play and ordered room service. Charlie had eaten quite a bit, but we hadn't had any dinner.  10pm and still no sign of bedtime.  Finally, I put him in the carrier and briskly paced the floor of our bedroom until finally success about 10:45pm.  Whew!  By the time he went to sleep we were so tired we could barely think straight!

Sleep finally did come and we woke this morning for our medical exam.  All adopted children have to go to this one clinic in Guangzhou to see their doctors and report to the US Consulate that they are "healthy".  We basically stand in line in a very crowded waiting room (not Charlie's favorite thing to do) and go into tiny rooms to meet with different doctors.  We saw the ENT to check his hearing, ears and mouth.  We saw the "General practitioner" to review Charlie's med file and do a quick overall assessment.  We saw the nurses to have him weighed and his temp taken.  Then, we could play out front of the building until everyone else from our group was done.  It took several hours.

After we were all finished we headed back to the hotel.  I attended a meeting about our consulate appointment later this week and Brian took Charlie on a walk to get him to nap.  This afternoon was pretty fun just walking around and playing and the evening went much better getting Charlie to sleep on his normal schedule.

Guangzhou is very humid but we really like our hotel.  It is a very international hotel, especially with the trade fairs going on right now, so we are by no means the minority here.  There are people from all over the world and many other families that have adopted as well.  It's a nice break from Nanjing where we felt like the local tourist attraction at times.

Tomorrow we have another "free day" so we plan to visit Shamian Island for some local shopping and then to visit a jade and pearl market.  Should be fun!

Specific prayer request:  Things are looking up.  We are getting to know Charlie better and he is learning to trust us.  Only a few more sleeps until we can come home!  Please pray that we can keep finding joy in our trip as we anxiously await coming back home!  Goodnight friends!!

Checking out Charlie's mouth with the ENT

Checking his heart

Quick general assessment

Checking his weight

We're free!  We passed the exam and are ready to play!

Charlie and his little buddy Josh

Free Day in Nanjing

So today Brian was supposed to go to the notary to check some documents, but there was a problem with our appointment and so our guide took care of checking the documents on our behalf.  This left our morning free and we knew we needed to get our little man out of the room.

We went down to Confucius' Temple which is a few minutes walk from our hotel with another couple in our group.  The temple itself is pretty cool and there is a big bell you can ring for good fortune.  There is also a market that we could walk through selling goods and street food, etc.  I'm not much of a street food eater, so we passed on the "mystery meat" on a stick.

We came back to the room for lunch and then met our guide and the group to tour a local garden area.  It was definitely one of the highlights of our time in Nanjing. This place was amazing.  A beautiful garden with waterfalls and ponds located in the middle of the city!

Then we went to dinner as a group at a place called "Grandma's home" which served local Chinese food.  I tried a few items and Charlie loved the egg soup stuff.  Apparently it's very traditional to serve this soup to babies after 4 months of age.

Little Man is coming out of his shell more and more every day.  He loves food and is very happy when there is something to eat around, but doesn't seem to overeat, which is good.  He likes playing ball and with the bubbles and likes to wander around the hotel hallways and lobby.  We are working on getting him to hold our hand when he walks otherwise he falls down a lot.  He's still a little unsteady on his feet but I'm sure chasing big sister around will solve that quick!

 Tomorrow we get Charlie's passport and then head to the airport for an afternoon flight to Guangzhou, our last stop in our journey.  I cannot wait to get there as I've heard great things about it.  Mainly that it has great shopping and an American food restaurant with actual cheeseburgers!  I can almost taste it now :).

Specific Prayer Request: I am a little anxious about the plane ride tomorrow with Charlie.  Will you please join us in prayer that all goes smoothly?  Love you all.

Here are some photos from our tour of the gardens today.  The pictures don't do it justice!

Orphanage Visit Day

Today we had the privilege of visiting Charlie's orphanage where he spent the first 18 months of his life.  I knew it might be a hard visit, but I didn't expect to be as emotional as I was about it.  Seeing the people and the places I had only seen in photos was very moving.  As soon as I saw his nanny walking toward me, I burst into tears and hugged her so tightly.  I have so many pictures of her with our son from when he was very tiny until recently.  She loved him and kissed him and saw his first tooth, first steps, etc.  I couldn't thank her enough for all she had done.

The orphanage is very clean and the caregivers all seemed very loving.  They would see Charlie and stop and want to hug him and kiss him.  It was very overwhelming!  Charlie cried for a moment when we left but afterwards, he was fine.  I am so very honored to have visited this important place in the story of his life.

After the visit, our guide took us to the place where Charlie was found.  We wanted to see it and go in person and I'm so glad we did.  What a special thing to stand in the same place his birth mother once stood!

We came back to the hotel and had lunch and then met the group for a visit to an old official's home that is now filled with antiques and local artists.  It was really neat to see the artists make their goods.  This place also had a beautiful garden!  It was so nice to let the kids down to run around in the sunshine after being cooped up in the hotel room for several days.  One of the little boys in the group was friends with Charlie in the orphanage and they enjoyed playing together.  It was adorable!

Today was a much better day than yesterday.  Charlie was in a pretty good mood and we got some time to see the city and get some fresh air.  I thank God for all your prayers.  You have no idea what it means to us to know so many of you at home are thinking about and praying for us!!

Tomorrow Brian has to go verify some documents and then we are supposed to go on another tour outside!

I forgot to mention how the morning began.  I was feeding Charlie a bottle and Brian was in the shower when we heard very loud popping and banging sounds that lasted about a minute.  It sounded like machine gun fire or like the building was collapsing.  I jumped up and yelled for Brian to get out of the shower.  I looked outside and people were just walking around on the street like nothing had happened.  No one was in the hallways.  Brian called the front desk and they acted like they didn't hear anything.  I nearly had a heart attack about it and no one else seems to notice.  When we went outside to walk to our bus this morning, we found out what the noise was.  Apparently there was a wedding at our hotel this morning.  On a Wednesday at 8am.  They lit firecracker like things when the wedding party arrived and then lit them again as they were leaving.  We got to experience the lovely noise again, but about 25 feet away.  Oy vey....

Specific prayer request:  Pray that little man and I do well tomorrow while Brian is away and that we have another good night's rest!  Sleep makes such a big difference!