TUESDAY IN GUANGZHOU

We finally made it to Guangzhou last night. The last few days in the hotel at Fuzhou were getting really boring! Now we are here with the families we met in Beijing, and their precious little ones. We are staying at the White Swan Hotel. It is a very fancy hotel, the bathroom is all marble with gold fixtures! When we got in our room last night, they had the bed comforter turned down for us and a pair of slippers next to each bed! The lobby is very pretty and has a beautiful waterfall and big goldfish swimming . All of the beds in China are not big, and very hard. Brodie did not like the flight from Fuzhou to here yesterday. His daddy had to hold him pretty much the entire time, which was nice for me! Hopefully he will do better Friday as we have 3 flights to get home! Any prayers would be greatly appreciated! There will be a few other families flying back to Chicago with us, and one family even back to KC with us. That will help. These are some pictures from Guangzhou. This is how we get our Papa Johns pizza delivered, by bike!! This morning we did the rest of our paperwork, and then had to walk to the medical center for the visa medical check up. That didn't go over so good, I am so glad all that stuff is over! Brodie was ok until the nurse took of his new spiderman shoes. That set him off, he is very fond of his new shoes, and we just don't like to take them off!! It went down hill from there, but we made it through ok!
We saw some school kids out doing some activities as we were walking back to the hotel. I also went into a market to see what kind of fresh food there was. I took a picture and got out of there! The snakes or whatever they were looked way to scarey for me. I sure wouldn't be bringing that home to fry up for supper! I did a little shopping this afternoon while Brodie is napping. That made me feel just so much better, I just love shopping here! Don't know where we will eat tonight, there is a German restaurant that Curt wants to try, and an Italian one too. Only 2 more days here!! We can't wait to get back home to our girls!!!!!

sunday in fuzhou

Today we just stayed around our hotel. We went bowling in the tiny bowling alley in the basement of the hotel. Brodie gets a little more honorey every day! Just wait until he gets home to his 3 sisters! Tomorrow we are finally flying to Guangzhou. The U.S Consulate is there and we will do our final paperwork with the consulate. He will also have a little medical check-up for his U.S. visa also. That won't be fun, I'm sure he will be very scared.
We are so ready to get back home! Won't be long now!!!

shopping in fuzhou today

This morning we went to another big shopping mall in Fuzhou. There were several floors. We bought a few things to remember the Fujian province where Brodie was born.
There were several little shops that sold jade carvings and jewelry. This statue was carved out of jade. We stopped and talked to this cute little girl and her grandma. She had her purse and loves to shop. Brodie likes being around other kids. I can't wait to get to Guangzhou on Monday and meet back up with the other families that we met in Beijing.
It was a rainy day today, and is supposed to rain tomorrow too. We took a taxi to and from the shopping mall. I think the ride back to the hotel was the worst. You wouldn't believe the traffic here and how people drive! It is just amazing that there are not many accidents here or pedestrians run over! If we are walking, we make sure to cross the street with a bunch of the local people, just follow along with them!
Tomorrow we don't have anything planned to do. There is a small bowling alley in the basement of the hotel, we might go bowling if we get really bored! I don't know what we will have for supper tonight, pizza again? We don't have much to choose from here since the hotel is a little walk from the main streets, and there are no "american" kinds of food close by.
This afternon the rain stopped and there were several paddle boats out on the lake here. All of the flowers are so colorful and bright, and everything is so green here.

yes there is a walmart in China!

This morning our guide met us at the hotel, and we took a taxi to Walmart. Yes a 4 story walmart. They have escalators made for shopping carts, so you can take your cart from 1 floor to the next. The meat department had fresh pigs feet. Not just the feet but the whole leg. I saw a lady buy a big eel and they put it into a bag of water and it was squirming around.
Here are pictures of the traffic taken from our taxi. Curt went for a walk this afternoon and almost got ran over by a scooter! We went to get Brodie's passport this afternoon, and took a van to the passport office, but we walked back to the hotel. Along the way there was a performance just in the parking lot of some shops. There was a little stage set up, there were musicians sitting off to the side, they were performing a chinese opera. We didn't have our camera with us. But it was really neat to see.
We will probably order Papa Johns pizza again tonight. We had McDonalds for lunch!

These are more pictures from today. This is a 5 story building, that had 100 carved statues on each floor. Curt went to the top floor and took pictures from the top of the building. We didn't get to take pictures of some of the prettiest things that we saw inside of the temples, as it was disrespectful to take pictures inside of them. There were some very big buddahs, they had different expressions, some were at least 30 feet tall. There was a lot of incense burning too. There are a lot of carvings in the buildings and outside, and they are all very detailed. It was really neat to see.

more of the temple

Curt was impressed with the scaffolding in China!
This tower is 15 stories tall. We didn't even try to climb to the top. If you make it to the top, you can see the entire city of Fuzhou.
The trees around the temples are very old, and really pretty. Our guide Stephanie is in the picture with Brodie and I. The weather has been very pretty here again today. The traffic and the city is just crazy, but inside the temple grounds it is so peaceful, quiet and beautiful.
We reallly need to get to a store and find a stroller! Brodie wants me to carry him everywhere when we go out! He won't go to anyone else, but he reallyl likes his daddy. They have a lot of fun playing with the beach ball we brought. And he likes his little John Deere tractor!

1000 year old temple

This morning we visited a 1000 year old temple in Fuzhou. There were 36 buildings, and beautiful old trees and flowers. There were people praying and burning incense. There are monks that live there also. We saw big goldfish in the ponds.

Weds. in Fuzhou

This morning we changed our plans from going to Walmart, to go to Panda World, It was a beautiful day here. There are 8 pandas there, and a couple of them were rescued from the earthquake in Sichuan province. There was a panda that is 131 years old! This adorable little girl in the picture is 2 years old. We tried to get her and Brodie to hold hands, he was shy! There were school kids on a field trip there too. They were about 8 years old. When we got to Panda world, we went into a small auditorium for a presentation about pandas, and the room was full of the school kids. They stopped the presentation to welcome us!! Once again I felt like a rock star!! I could get used to this!
Later we saw the school kids again, and they were so nice and a lot of them were coming up to us and sharing their snacks with Brodie. He liked that! It was a lot of fun seeing the kids.
Brodie really likes me to carry him all the time! My arms are very tired tonight. We walked around Panda World and I held him, when we walked back to the hotel, I held him. It was about 2 or 3 miles from our hotel!! He's waiting to eat some noodles now. He likes a drink that is like yogurt and milk. We found out today that he likes french fries, chicken nuggets, and Chips Ahoy cookies!

this is last night at the lakeside hotel, where we are staying. We went for a walk along the lakefront, it is very pretty but we have not seen the sun since we have been here, maybe today. When we go out everyone stairs at us, we have not seen to many americans in this province, Debbie says they are just curious, iam not so sure, its kind of creepy. We are going shopping at a walmart today, 4 floors none the less, even in China I cant get away from walmart. Brodie is adjusting well, he is a little partial to Debbie, but he tolerates me as long as i play catch with the beach ball, he is a very soft hearted boy and very loving.

Brodie is officially our son!! We went to the civil affairs office and then to the notary office to sign all of the paperwork this morning. These are a couple of the ladies from the orphanage they seemed to care alot for Brodie, and were very nice. They were the ones that brought Brodie and another boy who is 9 years old, to the hotel. We met him and his family this morning at breakfast. He seemed very happy to be with his new family! There is a lake right outside of our hotel, at night there are very pretty fountains and lights on the lake.
We just had a Papa John's pizza delivered to our room. that tasted so good! Brodie ate a good breakfast, he likes soft foods, can't get him to try a cheerio yet! We are going to take a nap, and venture out around the hotel area this afternoon. We miss everybody, can't wait to get home!!

We have Brodie!!!!

We finally have Brodie!! We got to Fuzhou at 2:15 this afternoon, and it was an hour drive to our hotel. He was here waiting on us, but the guide had us check in and get our cameras and ourselves ready before we got him. We got him at 4:30 this afternoon. There were a few ladies in the room, a couple of them were caregivers at his orphanage. He did ok at first, then started crying for a little while. We took care of some paperwork, then I brought him back to our room. I turned on tv, he loves baseball!! He was glued to that for a while, then I got out some bubbles. He loves the bubbles. But his favorite so far is the beach ball. He's been having a lot of fun playing with his baba with the beach ball.
Hopefully we will all sleep good tonight!