Trip to China
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Saturday, November 24, 2007 GUANGZHOU DAY TWO Guangzhou …what a great place!! We awoke this morning in comfy beds to the sounds of, well, nothing. There wasn’t traffic congestion, loud voices, or horn honking waking us up. It was LOVELY! Our beds are extra comfy here too, so that helps us sleep! As a fellow traveler said, “It’s like we’re staying at a resort!” Between the hotel rooms and beautiful community, she’s right! We gave the girls baths (NO TEARS TODAY!) and got ourselves ready. We ate at the buffet here in the restaurant, which wasn’t as good as our last hotel’s buffet (fewer choices of food for the girls), but decent. The dining area is VERY nice. We then gathered our dirty laundry and headed down to Jennifer’s Place to get it done. We did this based on a tip from another adoptive family staying in our hotel. They said to take it there and tell them we want a discount. Well, we did, and wow, it’s the best! We took about a billion clothes and for $16.00 USD we have it all clean and pressed (same day)! We also bought some little umbrella strollers from the same store. We knew we’d need them when it came to the airport and while strolling around the island. Mind you, they’re light blue and Winnie the Pooh, but you couldn’t beat the deal! They’ll work just fine! We’ve already nearly burned the wheels off of them! In addition, they have a five point harness…that helps us keep squiggley Abby LuLa safely secured. After our morning laundry run, we had to meet our group and go get visa photos taken and our medical exams complete. This is where it gets interesting. The photos went off without a hitch. Our girls like getting their photos taken. Then we walked two doors down to the medical clinic. This is where we had two things happen. 1. Rett had her first public dirty diaper change. She feels like a real mommy now! 2. Laney had a full-on meltdown from the moment she saw the doctor, until we left the building. This is what the medical exam looked like: PURE CHAOS! Not real sure how to describe it but there were 20 families trying to go to three different spaces in three tiny little rooms. In one area it was a hearing test/looked in mouth/looked in ears. The hearing test is state of the art! They take a squeaky toy and hold it behind your child’s head. They squeak it. If they turn to listen, their hearing is deemed ok. The next exam was in the big (only in comparison to the other very small areas) room. It was here that they were measured, temperature was taken and they were weighed. Then we got in line for the rest of the medical exam. A Dr. then looked them over from head to toe after reading their medical information. Abby did ok, just squirmey, and Laney hated every second of it (and everyone heard about it!). We’re glad it is over. After such a rough morning for the girls, we decided to take them to a legendary place on the island…Lucy’s. Lucy’s serves western food! It was wonderful. We dined outside overlooking the beautiful scenery. Again, like Lynn said, it was like being at a resort. The whole area is beautiful. Landscaped walkways, a public park down the middle of one street, etc…hopefully the photos will do this place justice. If we seem excited it is because we are, our last province was scary outside and we could not leave the hotel without our guide. Here, we can walk anywhere safely and most everyone speaks English (because they want to sell you things). It is actually quite comical, they tell you how beautiful your children are and THEN invite you into your store. Sneaky…but usually works. We visited a place called “ Jordan ’s Place” after he ( Jordan ) commented on all the girls (Lynn and Brian were with us and their very cute little girl Kiera). He joked about Hoosiers and Buckeyes so we just had to visit his shop. We purchased many items from him as he wrote the girls’ names in Chinese for framing. What a swell guy. During the afternoon, Tony went to the White Swan Hotel with one representative from every family. There paper work was completed (1/2 of it actually…since we have two children, the other half of the paperwork was completed before typing this post).

Beautiful Guangzhou Dining at Lucy's (first time today) Dining at Lucy's (second time today) Laney LuMei changing the TV channels with the remote Public Art EVERYWHERE...all the girls modeling with the adoptive families statues Waiting for the dreaded medical exam

After the paperwork meeting, we all ventured out again and just walked around. We ended up eating at Lucy’s again and ran into four other families from our travel group. After that, back to Jennifer’s Place to get out laundry and to the hotel for the evening…(did stop at a store or two on the way back and purchased squeaky shoes and a Starbucks Guangzhou t-shirt for Tony). So tomorrow is the big shopping day. (I hope the currency exchange is open on Sunday or Rett will not be happy) We are going to the jade market, porcelain market and pearl market. Monday is a trip to the zoo while Catherine picks up Visas for the girls. We have an early start tomorrow so we are signing off. Thanks for the continued prayers (we know they are working) and comments on the website. Have a great day!! See you all in soon!!

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