the Guangzhou Safari Park and Visa issues

We we had a wonderful day yesterday at the Safari park.  Four of the five kiddos took a nap on the way there in preparation for the busy day.  (Dad may or may not have also napped.)  ;)
All 5 kids seemed to enjoy it.  We saw lots of animals up close and personal and got to feed elephants, giraffes and goats.  It was 90-95% chance of thunderstorms all day which kept the locals away and it isn't yet summer vacation in China so that also kept domestic visitors to a minimum.  There were many times that we thought we had the park to ourselves!  Usually, the park is wonderful but is madness as far as the number of people.  One of the interesting thing about the Chinese culture is their total lack of belief in taking turns or standing in line.  Usually it is a free for all with people literally pushing people on to or off elevators or subways. We enjoyed having a quiet day.  We only had about 10 minutes of heavy rain and that happened to be when we were indoors eating ice-cream anyway.  It was incredibly hot and humid but it just reminded us of our growing up years in Mississippi.  It also gave us good reason to have ice cream 3 times yesterday!

Ian's SWI had warned us that he likes to run off or perhaps just that he is easily distractible on outings and so I was worried about losing him  but we had no problems at all.  He would occasionally test boundaries some but he showed absolutely no defiance or sneakiness with it.  Again, I will say it was a huge blessing to have such an empty park.  :)  Usually all of thee available trains are running and it only looked like one or two was running yesterday.

We had our pick of seats at the shows and durin the dinosaur exhibit, we had only our own kids screaming with delight (fright?).
Now, on to some not so good news.  It looks like Tim and I will have to separate for a little while.  :(
The American Consulate is still saying that the visa system is down.  It has to be fixed in Washington, DC and since it is now way past working hours in the US, the likelihood of it being resolved today is low.  That means staying here until Monday for Tim and Ian and having me and the rest of the kiddos going on to HK and leaving as scheduled.  We could all stay but that would mean paying for the two rooms here and the 2 in HK.  You have to cancel 1 week in advance for HK and obviously it is too late for that.  So by us going we can just keep the smaller room here for Tim and Ian and the rest of us can go ahead and do the days at HK Disney as per the plan.  I'm not thrilled about it; I don't like dividing the family but I also hate to disappoint the littles and not let them see Disney.  If it isn't resolved by Monday that means changing the flight plans too.  Ugh.   There is still a chance it will work out in the next few hours...

Anyhoo...I'll update as we get info.  We appreciate the good thoughts and the prayers!

Shamian Island fun and American consulate

It is Tuesday afternoon and we are essentially finished here in China!  Today we did our consulate appointment and Ian was given the opportunity to say if he wanted to come to the US.  He was also asked if he knew his biologic parents.  He said "yes" and "no"  in the correct order.  :)  This was the final step of many that will allow him to get a US visa to come into the US.  Hopefully, if all goes according to plan, he will have a US Visa on Thursday evening and we will leave Guangzhou on Friday.  His Tb test came back normal, so Yea!, he does not have tuberculosis.  He continues to do well and is trying to learn some English.  He has a couple of phrases but it will be a LONG time before he is fluent.   

After the visa appointment, he fell asleep in Daddy's arms.  When we got back to the hotel, we met up with the other family and went to Shamian Island.  That is the place that all Americans used to stay.  It has a giant hotel that used to cater to adopting families.  It has been closed 4 years now for renovation and the American consulate has moved into the city center.  These changes have left the island pretty deserted.  It has a lot of classic locations for family photos and we took lots of pics.  Unfortunately, the temp and humidity were both high and we were all drenched.  I haven't looked at the pics yet, but I'm not expecting much.  :) So now, the little boys are at the pool with Laura and Dad, Mitch and Katie are sleeping and I'm watching gymnastics with Chinese commentary on TV.  Tomorrow is a rest day so probably some pool time and the YUMMY hand-pulled noodles from a near-by noodle shop and maybe a first pass at organizing in preparation for leaving the hotel Friday am.  Hard to believe that so much of the trip is already behind us.  

The guides have been great, the food has been delicious and plentiful,  the weather has been gorgeous and all of the kids (big and little alike) have been flexible and sweet!  There isn't anything that I could have wanted to go differently.

Tim's random musings. :)

Tim here with an update and a list of quotes from this trip.

Things have continued to go incredibly well, with the exception of the middle of the night airport adventures for Mitch's flight (which ended up well and will be one of those stories that is funny to look back on) :-)

Mitch's flight from Shanghai was supposed to arrive at 7:20 last night, but it kept getting delayed more and more ... It eventually took off five hours late, which meant it was going to arrive here in Guangzhou after the subway was closed. Before we left home we had given him enough Chinese money for the subway plus a little bit more, but it was not going to be enough for a cab from the airport to the hotel. We had been following his flight status on the internet so knew that he was getting in too late for the subway. Tracy came up with a great solution of one of us taking a cab from the hotel to the airport and meeting him there.  

So at 11 PM I left for the 30 minute ride to the airport. I found out what baggage claim area his flight was going to use ( the same one as the other twenty or so flights that arrived while I was there) and camped out at the exit from baggage claim to wait for his flight. It landed at 12:20 and I waited for him to come along ... and waited ... and waited ... And no sign of Mitch!??!!?? I waited for quite a while, but still no Mitch. :-0. 

Because of AT&T locking their phones so that you cannot use a non-AT&T carrier, we were not able to use our phones, and unfortunately the Chinese airports require you to give a working mobile phone number to get onto airport Wifi. Finally I headed back to the hotel so we could figure out what to do next. Tracy called American Airlines who the flight was booked through and was told that he had been ticketed but that the flight was still in the air (what???? ... I still don't know what they were smoking). Anyway, as Tracy was trying to get through to China Air (the carrier who actually flew that leg of the flight), we heard someone in the hallway and there was Mr. Mitch!  

He had been on the flight, and he had somehow gotten a taxi driver (who apparently was driving off the books anyway) to take US dollars for payment.

Somehow Mitch had walked by me and I had not seen him ... in my (weak) defense, I had been falling asleep ever since 8:00 PM due to being so tired and it was almost 1 AM by the time he got his luggage ... but still, how did that happen? I knew that I had zoned out a few times while waiting. He had to have walked within 10-15 feet of me ... Oh well. Like I said, it will be funny to look back on in the future. For now, though, I can only assume that I fell asleep on my feet and missed him.

Regardless, it is great to have us all together. Mitch is recovering from jet lag, but doing great with that.

We were all excited to see Mitch, but Ian was especially happy to meet another member of his family! Ian had asked about Mitch several times, starting while we were still at the government office on gotcha day. (We had sent him a letter telling him about our family, and each person had included a message to him. Mitch had told Ian that he might not be able to be there when we first got him, and Ian obviously remembered that because he was asking where his Gege (big brother) was.) 

Because of the five hour flight delay, Mitch got to the hotel at about 2 AM this morning. Ian woke up and walked out and looked at him but he never really fully woke up, and I had wondered if he would remember it, but the first thing he did this AM was to ask about his Gege.

Today was a "free day" with no forms or appointments, so we were on our own for the day. We are introducing Ian to board games and card games and he seems to enjoy them, and he picks up on them quickly. 

For lunch we walked to a dumpling restaurant and Tracy again navigated the frightening menu options ... "Thief smashed lamb portion" ... "Braised brain sections" ... "Dried silkworm chrysalis" ... "Fresh ground donkey" ... and something about preserved skin ... you get the idea. Anyway, she picked several dishes and they turned out to be quite tasty.  

After that we walked to a lakeside park, and it was there that we got our first picture as a family of seven ... While the lady took our picture using our camera, her husband had his phone out and was taking pictures of us, too. By the way, I am certain that Laura has ended up on QQ (the Chinese version of Facebook) several times over the past week ... There are not a lot of blondes over here, and she has had multiple double takes, people taking pics, people pretending to take selfies but really taking pics of her, etc.

It got pretty hot during our walk! Fortunately there is a McDonald's next to our hotel, so we were able to get some ice cream to pick everybody's energy level up.

Later in the day it was pool time and then back to the room to relax.

All of the kids are adjusting well to our new dynamic. Ian is showing a helpful personality. He often has helped with carrying bags, etc, and tonight when I was getting ready to change Katie's diaper and was getting everything together, he went over and was going to change it for her.  

Tomorrow is mostly hanging around the hotel again, so hopefully we will get back to the pool.  

Below are some of the quotes from the trip that will stick with us. Unfortunately there are lots that we cannot remember, things that we said "that needs to be on the list" ... tired brains here.

JADEN

"Thanks, bro" ... to Ian anytime Ian helps him with a game in the iPad or holds the door open or helps in any other way.

"Ian, follow my lead"

"Alrighty, and listen up"

"Alright, let's do this thing!"

"brother!" ... when he calls for Ian because he needs help on a math game on the iPad 

"Hey dzud rhe udd " ... or something similar ... when someone talks to Jaden in Mandarin Chinese because they think he must be able to speak the language, Jaden launches into 'Jaden Chinese' which is nonsense but sounds like he is really speaking a language. :-)

"Ian, that means ... " followed by a full explanation in English ... not really helpful, but entertaining for us.

IAN

"Whoa!!!" ... he says this anytime he encounters something that is new or interesting, be it our hotel room, a bird on the riverbank, and esp when we took off in the airplane from Chengdu

"Silly goose" ... repeating Jaden

"Say good morning" ... He always includes the word "say"

"Hello" ... to multiple people as he would pass them ... said with a great big smile as he shows off his new language skills. :-)

KATIE

"That's Ian" ... Over and over again, with different inflections ... sometimes happy, sometimes amazed, sometimes incredulous, sometime excited, sometimes in awe!

"We have to be quiet" ... she said this every time we went down the hallway to our hotel room in Chengdu ... she would say it all the way down the hallway even though no one else was talking.

MITCH

"I have no idea what you're saying, buddy." ... The funny thing is that Mitch was talking to Jaden, not Ian 

NELLIE (the kiddos grandma) ... at the end of a Skype call tonight, after telling all of us goodnight ... 

"It's starting to sound like the Walton's around here". :-)

Ok, it is past time to head to bed to recharge for another day!

Blessing, y'all

Tim

Guangzhou at the China Hotel Marriott

We'll we've been in GZ about 24 hours now and have finished the dreaded part of this stay.  Ian made it through the physical without issue and was a trooper through the blood draw.  He only came out with one band-aid, which is a good sign!  No tears going in or coming out and he didn't really seem overly nervous.  He has had several surgeries and so we asked Elvin to explain to him that this was not a pre-op visit to help ease his anxiety.  He seems to have good vision and vitals all looked normal, too.  The other kiddos did well; Katie wanted her turn at vitals though.  I think she is missing all the ladies at the office!

The breakfast buffet was huge and had about everything you can imagine!  Lots of random choices but plenty of the comfort breakfast foods I wanted too.

After the breakfast and the medical, the boys went swimming and the girls napped.  Tim said the pool is wonderful and warm.  It is an outdoor pool, the first for this trip, so hopefully we will get some pretty weather.  Ian is still doing well.  He has learned how to spell his name and has begun learning the alphabet.  He is definitely happiest when he has something he can help with; he is enjoying his sibs still.  Jay and Kay are doing fine with sharing us; I had thought that might be an issue.  Laura is still being super sister and managed the littles while Tim and I stayed with Ian for his exams.  She has been so much help on this trip; I don't know how we would have done it without her.  Mitch is supposed to get here sometime tonight, hopefully his plane will eventually get off the ground from Shanghai! Tomorrow is a free day, so at least he will have a little time to recover before we have more scheduled activities.  :)  

From here, the schedule is pretty easy.  Tomorrow is a free day, the following day we have to spend some time close to the hotel waiting to get the Tb results and then that evening we will take a river cruise.  Lots of families have done this in the past but this will be our first time.   Then Tuesday is our Consulate appointment.  They are very serious at the American Consulate.  You cannot go in if you don't have an American passport, so even our guide cannot accompany us.  You have to leave all bags and electronics behind; they won't even allow a diaper bag!  You can bring a diaper and a few wipes in a clear bag but that is all.  You also have to go through a metal detector.  Wednesday is another free day and then Thursday is our Safari Park day.  I can't wait!  It was one of the highlights of the last 2 trips for Jaden.  Then Friday we leave for our last stop before home, Hong Kong!

As always, I want to say thanks for all the good wishes!  It is so comforting to know we have the support of our family, friends and extended community.  Blessings, y'all.