Heading Home

One last picture of Niklas inspecting samples from the family business, found in the 7-11 across the street. We spent today packing and resting up for the trip home. We leave at 7:00 am tomorrow morning for the airport. Can't wait to get home!

Consulate Day

All of our US visa paperwork was successfully submitted yesterday. Today we went to the consulate (about a half hour bus ride) , took the oath, and received all the paperwork for Niklas to enter the US as a citizen! We've spent the last three days recuperating and doing some shopping. Ann was a great guide to the markets - thanks again Kim and Michael! Tomorrow is our last day in Guangzhou. On Saturday we fly home with a layover in Shanghai. Look forward to finally bringing Niklas home and reuniting with Ellie Grace!

Tough Trip to Guangzhou

Yesterday (Monday here) was definitely the low point of our trip. The day started well - we received Niklas' Chinese passport so he could board an airplane for Guangzhou. We had been very concerned that this would not be the case, setting off a series of events that would delay our return trip to Atlanta. We road in a van to the Hangzhou airport, arriving around 2:00 pm for a 4:20 pm flight. Then the fun started ... Our flight was delayed due to "Air Traffic Control Congestion" with an "unfixed departure time". Got to know these announcements pretty well over the next 8 hours we sat in the airport. Well the situation had to do with bad weather in Guangzhou - Southern China is having the worst flooding in the last half century. At one point early on we saw the plane taxi away from the gate not to return. This and the fact that they brought out the food for us to eat there at the gate were certainly depressing signs. Still, we pretty much had nowhere else to go. At around 9:15 pm, they put us in buses and took us out to the plane (presumably the one that had been at the gate previously). Everybody was feeling pretty encouraged ... then we sat on the tarmac for another hour and a half. Finally at around 10:50 pm we took off for Guangzhou ... a ride with a fair amount of turbulence. Needless to say, this is NOT how we envisioned Niklas' inaugural flight would be. He was fussy from being very overtired and did not like being seatbelted at all. He did manage to fall asleep for a while during the flight for which we are thankful. Just hope he doesn't remember too much of this unpleasant experience for our LONG flight on Saturday. Our guide picked us up at the Guangzhou airport at 1:30 am (had been waiting patiently for several hours) and we got to the White Swan hotel around 2:15 am. After a quick shower, we finally got to sleep around 3:00 am. We had to get up early this morning for Niklas' medical check. Although we are tired and both have laryngitis, we are very happy to be in Guangzhou to coast through the last portion of this journey in the comforts of Shamian Island. Today we spent 2 hours preparing the paperwork for the US consulate appointment tomorrow (Wednesday). Tomorrow afternoon we will be shopping with Ann courtesy of the Perrys.

Sicheng Tang Church

Pictures from Hangzhou

Hangzhou

We have enjoyed getting outside this weekend. Our group went on a tour of the West Lake yesterday. The flowers and trees were beautiful! We got on a boat and toured the lake for a nice view. Then our guide took us on a tour of a tea museum since this area is known for its tea production. The tea ceremony that concluded our tour was very enjoyable.
Our guide took us to her church this afternoon. We recognized many of the hymns that we sung including "What a friend we have in Jesus". We wished that we could have understood the sermon because the minister seemed inspired. The scripture was the story of the prodigal son and Psalm 139 and the theme was about father's day. Niklas did really well considering we were there for over an hour.
We will take it easy tonight, try to pack a little, and go eat dinner. We check out of this hotel tomorrow around 1:30 and head to the airport to fly to Guangzhou. We are looking forward to checking in to the White Swan tomorrow night and maybe eating at Lucy's.

Journey to Wenzhou

On Wednesday we made the 5-hour trek to Wenzhou where Niklas' orphanage is located. It was a fairly tiring trip to apply for Niklas' passport. Niklas was a real trooper considering that we were returning to the place he had just traveled by train from the day before. That night we were treated to dinner by the orphanage directors. The next day we went for a quick visit to the orphanage. Returning late in the afternoon to Hangzhou, we were pleasantly surprised that the rain had finally abated. We made a quick walk over to West Lake and ate dinner at McDonalds. Of course, this morning the rain returned ... hopefully tomorrow will allow another window for touring the lake.

Hangzhou Fun

Today has been a busy day. We got up early and went to the Civil Affairs Bureau around 9am to meet the babies. One of the girls was crying for awhile at the beginning, but all three little ones did pretty good while we were there. Niklas was very quiet and interacted very easily with us. He liked the soft monkey and really giggled when Erik tickled him with it. The O-ball was also a hit and he knew how to throw it to me. He seemed to utter the word "ball" while we were playing. His favorite toy was the toy phone by Parents that I got at Target. It has the ability to record a message and Ellie Grace said "Niklas, this is your sister Ellie Grace, I love you". The record button is on the outside of the phone so it has been pushed and the message is gone but he did hear big sister's voice!
The tears started when we set foot in the taxi, he didn't like leaving and was crying loudly for his nannies. We were told to wait for the pictures but he got upset again when we left our room to go downstairs for the picture. Rebecca talked to him and we got him to walk holding her hand and then my hand.
The three of us went to lunch and ate some fried rice. He loved the rolls and the rice! He likes to eat. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the room. He has been playing with the phone, ball, 2 stacking cups, and his sippy. He doesn't want anything to do with the backpack we brought and gets mad at me when I show it to him. He did put all the toys in a paper bag but it just broke.
His personality isn't quiet or shy or timid from what we have seen today. We were told he is stubborn and his actions have proven it so far!

First day in Hangzhou

Most of our group had to meet Helen at 5 am yesterday to ride to the bus and get on planes to go to the province where we would meet our children. We seemed to have the earliest flight but wondered why we were at the airport so early if it departed at 8:40. Well, our flight left an hour earlier!
We got to Hangzhou and met our guide Rebecca. She took us to a store so we could pick up formula, diapers, snacks, and water. She said there might be a surprise at the hotel and we might want our cameras out. We drove up to see Josh and Lilly (our agency founders) waving at us! They had been checking on the orphanages in Sichuan that were effected by the earthquake before coming here for a quick visit.
We decided to go get a bite to eat with our little group and ended up at Pizza Hut. Our table was a sight to see (many around us kept looking over) because most ordered the 12-inch pizza thinking that the 9-inch would be what was a small personal pizza at home. Everyone brought pizza home!
We are up early because we went to sleep very early last night. We leave to get the children around 8:45 this morning!

Beijing Olympics 2008

We climbed the Great Wall!

We started the day touring a jade factory and then made our way to the Great Wall. It is quite an impressive structure and very difficult to climb. We got very tired and almost gave up but we are proud to say that we did make it to the top. One of our travel mates said she counted 2000 steps going up! I ran into the youth choir that was on our plane and chatted with them for a minute before getting back on the bus to go to lunch. What a small world! We went to a cloisonne factory for a quick tour and then some lunch. The bus took us to take a peak at the Olympic stadium for a few quick photos on our way back Tonight for dinner we ate.....McDonald's! We weren't very hungry and need to get some sleep soon because we must meet for the bus to the airport at 5am.

First Tour Day In Beijing

Our first day here was a very active one. We toured Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Hutong (old Beijing Neighborhood), and a silk factory. We rode a ricksaw through the Hutong. We also saw an exciting show of the Beijing Acrobats. Tonight we went to a popular restaurant serving tasty Peking Duck. We have a fairly large group of families here - total of 45 people. We met a family from Marietta - the Bowens - that live close to our neighborhood who are also adopting a son.

Finallly...we are in Beijing!

Erik and I want to say a quick hello before we go to sleep. Our flight to Shanghai was very long and a little turbulent. We also had to cross Beijing on our way in and then sit on the plane in Shanghai due to the bad weather that would still cause a little more turbulance on the way back to Beijing. Not the best route for us after all, but we are here!
We will be touring tomorrow and Sunday so we need to get some rest.

Our Travel Plans

We are leaving for China tomorrow morning :). It will be Friday night when we arrive in Beijing so we will probably get a bite to eat and try to get some sleep. We will go on group tours on Saturday and Sunday before getting on another plane Monday morning. We will arrive in Hangzhou on Monday and fill out more paperwork. Tuesday is the day we get to meet Niklas!!! Please pray for the three children in our group as we will be turning around on Wednesday and driving back to Wenzhou (2 of us) and Taizhou (1 family) so they will have three long days of traveling. It is our hope that we will get to see the orphanage since it seems like many families have been able to visit. We will stay overnight in Wenzhou in order to get Niklas' passport and then make the return trip to Hangzhou on June 12. We will spend the next few days touring and completing paperwork. Our group will fly to Guangzhou on June 16 and that is where we will stay until flying home. We take Niklas for his physical, have our Consulate Appointment, and receive his visa during this time. Our plane departs for Shanghai and then we travel home to Atlanta on June 21st. We are very excited to be going back to China but we are also looking forward to coming home and transitioning into a family of four.