Final Day in Guanghouz

Well, it's Wednesday here in Guanghouz, a hot humid day... just waiting on David's Visa to be issued to travel.  Zhou (aka Joe) will pick it up this afternoon.  Tomorrow morning we leave for Hong Kong to fly home.  Anxious to get to the airport before the Typhoon heads in that direction.

Tuesday we hung out in the morning and then met up with the group in the afternoon. We took the subway to a museum, not what most of us think of when you say museum.  It was sort of a folk art museum, with gift shops.  We got to see an artist paint with his hand, something you normally don't see. The subway ride was nice and very clean, it seems as if the kids liked it.

Today we have finished up shopping and taken David to the playground, a short stop at Lucy's for lunch and then back to the playground.  Afterward we made one last stop at Micheals, a small local place where we got our laundry done and picked up a Chinese Checkers set for David.  Now we wait for the arrival of David's Visa and dinner with our group tonight here at the hotel.

Otherwise a quite afternoon hanging out, I am sure we are due for another trip to the playground and some ice cream somewhere along this afternoon

David has found his snack of a drumstick

 

 

Tomorrow (Thursday here in China) we leave for Hong Kong Airport.  We leave at 7:30 am. It is about a three hour trip.  I honestly wonder if it is that far mileage wise, I think it is a three hour trip due to traffic.  Here in  Guanghouz, as well as Xudxou (Shu dough) where the orphanage was there is as not as much traffic as compared to Nanjing and out of all the cities Beijing was super congested, it is a wonder how people get anywhere.  There is a lot of bike and moped transportation, kind of neat they actually have a separate part of the streets specifically for bikes and mopeds, separated by a cement barrier from the cars.

Our trip to China has been very good, David is adjusting and seems to understand what we say. He does try to communicate with pointing to things and he is starting to use more words. This morning when we were talking to the kids he looked at me and said "eat" .  He is learning words as we have been playing memory, as he picks up a magnet from the game we make him say the word to identify the picture. 

John and Laureli are excited to meet their brother.  We are excited to get home and have the five of us all together. 

A big thank you to my friends Stephanie and Suwanna who took Laureli to camp and brought her home and helped get her to skating while we are gone.

We will be anxious to see everyone and I know everyone wants to meet David.  Once we are home, if you want to come visit, please give me a call first, we should be around but we will need to gauge how things  are going each day.  So far our transition has gone well but that may change once we are home. I am optimistic that things will continue on this path however there are no guarantees. Thanks to everyone for their support through this process and our trip. 

Look out USA here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We are bound for Dallas, TX from Hong Kong on Thursday then onto Cincinnati.

Our First Few Days in Guanghouz

Dinner at Lucy's

Saturday night after medical appointments earlier in the day we ventured to Lucy's it's an American restaurant, sort of they serve American food.  David choose beef and noodles.
The hotel we are staying at is on an island....but not what I would consider and island, there is a river that surrounds the hotel and other buildings, but not like what I imagined, like in the Caribbean.

Sunday was pretty much a free day until later in the afternoon, we ventured with Zhou (aka Joe) to the vegetable and herb market.  The interesting thing is that they sell fresh fish and poultry there as well, we actually saw the people from the fish market delivering fresh live fish to one of the hotels.  The guy was actually carrying around in his truck large industrial size trash cans full of fish and then he was picking them up and putting in a trash can filled with water to be taken to the restaurant. We also went to the pearl store, the is an entire building dedicated to people selling pearls, it is a wonder how anyone makes money.  Also there was a stop at the jade place as well, it too is an entire building of stores of people selling jade.We topped Sunday evening off with dinner at the Hut... Pizza Hut.  It seems weird, this is the second time we have eaten at Pizza Hut during our stay in China. It seems odd to us of course because we go to get pizza at Pizza Hut, here in China they serve Chinese dishes as well. The pizza is close to home, but they don't use as much pizza sauce actually use very little.

Monday was our trip to the zoo, it's about 30 minutes away, but traffic wasn't bad.  That is one thing that seems better here and Xudxou (Shu Dough) where the orphanage was.  Nanjing and Beijing were super congested with traffic, Beijing more so than Nanjing.

The visit to the zoo was nice, we saw elephants, black bears, tigers, we did see the panda but she/he was inside, we also got to see white and black swans, lots of fish, flamingos and various reptiles along with several types of monkeys.

We hung out at the hotel this afternoon we went to the playground near the hotel after a bit in the air conditioning.  Then tonight it was Lucy's for dinner, nothing super exciting, David had Chinese, Geoff and I had American food.  Although Geoff finished off what David didn't eat.  After dinner another trip to the playground where his friend Matthew joined us for a bit.  Now we are back in the hotel room, David got a bath and we chatted with John and Laureli.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is the big day, our consulate appointment.  We leave bright and early to be there to complete our paperwork and be a step closer to home.

All is going well, David is learning more English each day.  He seems to understand us so that is a good thing. Tonight he seemed more talkative with both the kids. Well it's about bed time for David, so I will say good night from Guanghouz.

Monkeys

Lemurs

Tiger

Elephant

Giraffes- David got to even feed them

Uncle Zhou and the boys Ty, Matthew and David

David found a drumstick for a snack at the zoo

David's artwork after we came back from the zoo while Geoff went out shopping 

Leaving Nanjing for Guanghouz

View from our hotel in Nanjing

Playing at the Water Area at the Aqua City Mall in Nanjing

The view from our hotel room in Nanjing

Today was our last day in Nanjing, we spent the day walking around and seeing also let David spend some time in the water play area at the mall attached to the hotel.  We left the hotel for the airport only to eventually find out that the flight was delayed and they had no information.....also no air conditioning. Our flight was delayed several hours and we go to Guanghouz about 11:45pm.  We got to the hotel around 1 a.m. or so.

This is David, on the bus to ride out to the plane, it was his first time on a plane, he liked the take off and got to see lights outside the window, but then he slept the whole flight....lets hope that on the flight home he will sleep for part of it as well.

Today it's Saturday here in Guanghouz, it's almost dinner time, this morning we went to do some photos for the kids medical paperwork then to the hospital for medical appointments.

This is David and Matthew, patiently waiting for the photos to be done to head on to the medical appointments. 

David sorting the cards by shapes, occupying time after the medical appointment

David playing on the slide at the park near the hotel.  He is doing well. Over the last several days we are seeing more and more smiles and he is laughing and giggling.  He has skyped and facetimed with Laureli and John.  He sometimes will interact more with them than others. He likes to hide when we skype and then pop up during the conversation.  We found an app on the ipad which will teach him words in English but also have the Chinese words as well.  He seems to like the app so hopefully the words will come as we are here this week.  This week is now a lot of waiting, have to get the final  test. We have our Consulate appointment on Tuesday and then we wait for the visa to the US to be issued.  Should be done on Wednesday and we fly home on Thursday.   Monday should be a good day, we get to go to the zoo, something he may never have done. It should be exciting, hoping to see the pandas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

              

    Some of the sitting areas outside at our hotel

 

Friday July 11, Guanghouz Bound

We are doing well, today is Friday and we are headed to Guanghouz. Tomorrow we do David's medical and then we have a Consulate appointment on the 15th, we leave for HOME on the 17th.

On Thursday we got to visit David's orphanage where he has lived the last 2 years. It is very nice and spacious.  Ms. Tang the Director was very welcoming and wanted us to see everything.  David was fine with going to say good bye to the care givers and friends. So much so he left his stuffed Mickey Mouse we sent him with his buddy.  He is very sweet and seems to think of others before himself.

Today we are just occupying time till we fly  so we are off to walk around and look for kids sunglasses for him and any last minute shopping. 

 Yes, he likes the iphone and ipad

Writing Letters and Numbers

Eating Mc Donald's Chicken McNuggets

Building Lego's with Dad

 Zhou (aka Joe) with Matthew, David and Ty

 Most Expensive Ice Cream Ever... Hagen Das.....but he had chocolate and ate it all

Riding the Train to Xuzhou

Fast Train to Xudxou

Boiler up

Another Local Beer - for Brian Azman

Dinner at the Resort

Showing us his bed at the Orphanage

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 David and his buddy, this is the little boy whom he left his stuffed Mickey Mouse, his friend was sad that he was leaving.

This is the one nurse/care giver that sought David out to take a photo, I do not know her name but she came to say good bye to him

Fun with squirt guns at the mall

More fun with squirt guns and dad

Our First Few Days With David

 This is our first photo with David at the adoption center.  His first words were Hello to us.  It was kind of drawn out.  He does have some speech issues which we will address once we are home.  The first day we spent most of the day in our hotel. He likes to color and is very detailed in all he does.

He has eaten American food so far has not seeming to reach for Chinese food at breakfast.  He has eaten McDonalds and Papa John's pizza and the pizza is pretty close to home, they just don't use a lot of tomato sauce on their pizza.  Below are some photos of the boys...Ty, Matthew and David, these are his friends from the orphanage.

 They have an Ice Age Display at the hotel, David and the Characters.

     

 As you can see, he like most kids likes electronics.  He seems to like the driving game and racing games on my phone.  He has played games on the iPad as well.  It is amazing what technology does and how easily figure things out.

 Sightseeing on Tuesday at the National Park.

Today we are headed to visit the orphanage via the Bullet Train.  We will be overnight there and return tomorrow to Nanjing.  As of yesterday the China process is complete.  We are waiting for his paperwork to be processed and heading to Guanghouz on Friday.  There we will complete his medical and go to the US Consulate to get his Visa.

Thanks for all the notes, if you are on facebook, there are additional photos. I just tried to post a few.
Hope all is well with everyone.