Well, as most everyone knows, we made it home, although very tired, on August 30, 2006. After several days at home and a partial recovery from jet lag, we returned to work and began getting into a routine at home.
Betsy and Ryan have started the melodrama practice and that’s been taking between 2 and 3 nights / week. Since they missed the first practices due to our China trip, they have been attending faithfully since then.
Grace had her first doctor visit in Estes Park today and she is doing great! Betsy said that she received 4 shots for different kid’s things and they took a large volume of blood. Betsy had an unpleasant job tonight … she collected stool samples to send to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to check for parasites, etc.
We are planning to get some of the pictures posted from our final days in China as well as a few pictures since we’ve been home, but that’s not happening tonight.
People have been fantastic and it’s been great to see everyone! Thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts. We continue to appreciate as well as need them.
We’ll try to get the pictures posted within the next few days, but no promises!
We’re heavily involved with packing right now since we leave the hotel for the airport in about 6 1/2 hours and we need to sleep during that time as well! We were concerned that we weren’t going to have enough packing space for all of the souveniers that are coming home with us, but it looks like we’re going to be ok.
Today was our final appointment with the US Consulate. They did a final check of Grace and us to be sure that we had the correct baby. After that we took an oath that basically covered the truthfullness of the information in all of the paperwork that we’d submitted for the adoption. It was rather disappointing, but the guy who helped us at the consulate was interesting.
We will leave the White Swan hotel at 6:00am tomorrow morning and arrive in Denver on the same day, late in the afternoon. It should be a great trip.
Our time in China has been fantastic and I don’t think we could have fit in any more activities. Between the stop in Hong Kong, the initial days of running around with adoption related appointments, the trip to Zhanjiang to see the orphanage, the day tours offered to fill the time while we waited for the final appointments, the final appointments themselves as well as all of the other exploring we did of the island and off of the island really filled the time.
The Chinese people have been great to work with, are hard working and have treated us very well. While we’re looking forward to coming home, we’ll miss our time in China.
I need to work on pictures next and may post a few if time permits. Otherwise, we’ll see everybody when we get back!
This is Ryan. Here are some things we have done since I’ve posted. First we went to a soccer game with some other pople from our travel group. It was a good game but it was pretty boring. Our team won 5 to 1. The second thing we did was go to Zhanjiang and see Grace’s orphanage. We also saw her finding spot at the train station. Finally we went to the toy market and the technology market where I got some games. It is the first day of school china time so mom is going to get my back to school pictures in front of the hotel. I:-}
The only trouble we have had with this blog is that sometimes we are too busy to post. This is one of those times. A short recap of the last two days follows.
Yesterday we went to the Baiyun Mountain Park. We visited a beautiful temple and climbed to the top of Baiyun Mountain. We spent the afternoon in search of the technology market. We think we found it just as it was time for us to return to the hotel. We hope to go back to this area tomorrow afternoon. If anyone reading this has been to the market and can post or email directions, we would be thrilled. We are looking for the place to buy cheap DVDs and Gameboy/Nintendo games.
We had adoption related paperwork to tend to this morning but we were off and running in the afternoon. Our destination was the Toy Market. It was almost more fun than I could handle. Seriously. It was a blast. I am not quite sure how but I am going to find time to get back to this place before we leave. It was great fun.
More Later. Betsy
Our trip to Zhanjiang and back was terrific. Here are a few brief highlights. It took us 6 hours to reach Zhanjiang. Once we were out of the city the highway was not all that different than a major highway in the U.S. We had one bathroom stop at a gas station/truck stop. The facility was large…….more squatty potties than I could count.
The bus we traveled in had seats for 24 people including the driver. The last 4 rows in the bus had 3 “regular” seats and one fold down “jump” seat. When the “jump” seats were down, there was no aisle. These seats were down except when we were loading and unloading as we filled almost every seat on the bus. 26 of us made the trip; 14 adults, 5 kids, 5 babies, the driver and Maggie. Before we left Gaungzhou Maggie assigned each family a row in the bus. I am not sure if this was to save time loading and unloading or if she just wanted to be sure that the rowdy folks were in the back of the bus! You can guess where we were. That’s right. The Simms and Thamert Families were in the last two rows!
The drive down and back wasn’t all that bad. The kids and babies did very well. So did the adults! Everyone loved seeing the countryside and visiting with one another. Once we were out of the city we began to see small villages and a lot of rice, sugar cane and banana farming. There were other crops too but I have no idea what they were. It was especially neat to see the rice paddies, water buffalo and the people working in the fields and paddies.
Once in Zhanjiang, we checked into our hotel and then headed for the orphanage. The orphange visit was amazing. I can’t begin to share the emotions or adequately describe the visit. We were able to take pictures of the facility and of the nannies that took care of Grace. They were excited to see her which was neat to see. Grace did fine on the visit although she preferred to be held by Andy rather than the nannies. During the visit we “passed the hat” and collected money to purchase a washing machine for the orphanage. The director was thrilled.
We are so glad that we made the trip. It was good to see where Grace had lived and to learn more about the orphanage. We hope to return and explore the area more when Grace is older.
I
Zhanjiang Travelers. There is not much more room on the bus.
The Bus Ride to Zhanjiang
Here is a picture of a squatty potty. Believe it or not, we were happy to see these on our one rest stop!
Outside of Grace’s Orphanage. These girls were happy to see Grace.
Grace and her Nannies
Zhanjiang Traffic
Water (not CU) Buffalo outside of Zhanjiang. We really felt Like tourists when we stopped to take pictures of them. We created our version of an Estes Park elk jam!
Doing Laundry
The Thamert Family in a Banyan Tree
Another Village Scene
Village Carpenter
This picture makes me think of the Easter rabbits at the Plaza in Kansas City
Afternoon in the Village
A Bike Repair
The Market
Street Scene
Double Bike
Water Delivery
Traffic on the Pearl River
Getting Ready for a Swim
Fresh Fish at the Carrefour Store
Pearl River Light Show
Get ready. The Thamerts want to show you their picutures and there are lots of them!
We toured a village in a rural area outside of Guangzhou yesterday and did we ever take the pictures! The area is known for the fruit that is grown there but it was the people and their homes that we enjoyed seeing. Visiting the local kindergarten was also a highlight of this trip. In a few days we will post some pictures which will show what we saw better than any words I could put together here.
In the afternoon we left the island again, this time taking a taxi to the Carrefour Store which is like a Super Walmart. Everyone should take a taxi while they are in China. Getting to the store and back was half the fun. The Carrefour Store was neat to see and while there were similarities to our stores, there were also big differences. Our Safeway and King Soopers stores don’t carry live worms, turtles, and frogs in their meat departments!
Today is an exciting day. Grace is taking her second road trip and we are going with her. We are taking a bus to Zhanjiang where we will visit Grace’s orphanage. It will take us 6 hours to get there and Maggie tells us there will only be one stop about half-way through the trip. She has never been on a road trip with me. I hope my bladder lasts!
We will return from Zhanjiang late tomorrow. We are not taking the computer with us so don’t look for another update until Thursday or Friday.
We are having a lot of fun with Grace. Every day she seems to become a little bit more comfortable with us. She has a good disposition although when she is hungry, watch out! She has no patience when she wants to eat! She chatters a lot, far more than the other babies in our group. Ryan thinks they matched Grace with us because there are so many “talkers” in our family!
Grace is becoming a better eater by the day. The first few days that she was with us, she did not eat much. That has changed. She now downs a bottle in no time and is willing to try a few bites of solid food once in awhile. Last night she had her first taste of ice cream. It went down just fine.
Watching Grace’s personality emerge has been neat. She smiles and laughs more and more each day. She is loves to be kissed and tickled. So far she does not have any interest in toys.
Yesterday was another packed day. We spent the morning touring parts of Guangzhou. We visited the Six Banyan’s Temple, one of the oldest Buddist temples in the area and then the Provincial Folk Art Museum. Our final stop was the Provincial Arts and Crafts Store where we shopped for treasures from the Guangdong Province.
This afternoon Ryan, Grace and I went swimming. We were at the pool over 2 hours. Grace just loves the water. It was fun to watch her track Ryan as he swam around us.
The adventure part of our day was this evening. We ventured off the island, this time taking a local ferry across the Pearl River. Once across, we watched a light show and walked around a park. Many families were in the park exercising. We’ve noticed that the locals exercise in the morning and in the evening when the temperatures are more bearable. This park had a large cement area which served as an outdoor roller skating rink. We also walked around a market which had many shoe and clothing shops. The markets are great places to explore. Not only is it interesting to see what is being sold, but the people watching doesn’t get much better. In one part of this market a large group of men and older boys were gathered around a tv. Andy and Ryan joined them. I am not sure what was on the tv….a sporting event, an action movie or perhaps something that was not G rated! We did not stay long enough to find out!
Time to go. We are headed down to breakfast and then are off to visit a local village.
Action at the Soccer Game
View of the Soccer Field
Grace Gets Checked Out at the Ear, Nose and Throat Station
The Simms and Thamert Families in Front of the Clinic
