Shamian Island

This morning we took all of the kids to have their Visa pictures taken. They all did great but Justin wouldn't sit on the stool alone so I had to sit on it and hold him while trying to lean out of the picture, but we got it done and are ready to complete the Visa paperwork.

Justin's Visa photo

The rest of the day was basically a free day so we spent the day with some of the other families walking around the island and checking out the cute little shops. Shamian Island is beautiful and so peaceful compared to the rest of the areas we were in. It definitely has a slower pace, but just across the bridge within walking distance is a nice mall that has just about anything you could need. I  cannot say enough good things about our two favorite shops on the island, Michael's and Jenny's, and their owners. We had our laundry done at Michael's (it was cheap and they did a fabulous job) and bought lots of little gifts and souvenirs at both shops (I'll share some of those in a later post).

Jenny's Place

Michael

Since all of us were together again we decided to go out to eat as a big group to a local Chinese restaurant. It was just like when we were in Beijing except we had 6 little additions to our group. All of the food up to this point had been good and hadn't given Jason or I any tummy  trouble, but that was about to change :( We ate at this restaurant and I know what ya'll are thinking: she should have known she would have tummy trouble eating at a place like that with the food swimming around on the sidewalk! And to that I say: But lots of the restaurants were like that and I never had a problem before (except for the spicy lamb dish in Nanjing that almost killed me).

After dinner (and before the tummy trouble started) we walked around the island and could see the city of Guangzhou across the water all lit up and beautiful.

Boat on the water

This is not where we ate, but I would have loved to!

After our evening stroll we headed back to the hotel to try to get some rest which didn't happen because I was up most of the night with the tummy trouble, but we did get some cute pics!
Justin absolutely loves the stacking cups (and the baby keys and water  bottles are close seconds).

My tummy issues meant that Jason was on full time Justin duty for the night (have I mentioned Justin is not a good sleeper? no? well, more on that later - lots more) and for the next few days Justin was a daddy's boy.

Luckily, by morning I was feeling a little better and although I didn't eat much breakfast I was 'ok to go' (name that movie!) for the next day, and as a side note I was the only one who had tummy trouble from the meal which leads me to believe it was something that just didn't agree with me.

Note: Many of the photos in this post are compliments of Jamie (as usual).

Part 2: Travel Day - Guangzhou, Guangdong

Oh my word! Today was another crazy travel day! If anything it was worse than the bullet train insanity of yesterday!

I don't have any pictures of the second half of today because it was so crazy (did I mention that already?), and actually the pictures I do have I didn't take (they were taken by the resident photographer in our group, Jamie).

The plan for today was get up, eat breakfast, pack everything up and put it in the van. Then we headed to the Xuzhou orphanage for a visit and from the orphanage we went straight to the airport to catch our flight to Guangzhou (our last stop before heading home). The orphanage was having a special Chinese New Year celebration so we stayed to watch some of the kids put on a little show for the orphanage workers and the visiting police officers. Then we had a little dumpling snack made from scratch by the police officers (it was delicious), but all of this put us a bit behind and we arrived at the airport a little later then planned and were the last people to check in for the flight.

This would be Justin's first time flying! Little did we know that seats are assigned at check in (I don't know if this was specific to this airline, flight, or what),  but needless to say it wasn't looking good. It was taking forever for our guide, Zhou, to get us checked in so we sent the dads to see what the hold up was and Zhou informed us that the problem was that the plane was full and 3 of the 7 seats left were in the emergency exit row (we learned later that 3 other seats were in the very last row of the plane and one random seat was in front of the exit row). We had 7 adults (3 couples plus Zhou) and 3 lap babies, and if you've flown very often you know that children are not allowed in exit rows which meant we had a problem. I know this is crazy confusing so I will translate - we were going to get split up from our spouses! Through all of this Zhou was cool as a cucumber (at least on the outside) and assured us that the plane would wait  for us - what!?  Zhou went ahead and sent one couple and their baby on through to security and boarding, but told them that their seats were not together and told the rest of us again that if we had to we would catch the next flight. Sigh. I was done, exhausted, and so ready to go home. Turns out Zhou was finally able to get us all on that flight, but we would not be able to sit with our spouse because the guys had to sit in the exit row and the girls had to sit in other rows with the babies.We rushed through security only to catch up with the other couple waiting in line to board because the plane hadn't even started boarding yet! And it was already after the flight was scheduled to take off (this should have been a clue or hint as you will soon see).

So we got in line and took turns using the restroom, but by the time it was my turn to head to the bathroom the plane had started boarding and my nerves were so fried I was afraid  they would leave without me so I decided to skip  the restroom. We were the last people on the plane and as we made our way down the aisle of the packed plane and Jason and the other guys moved into the exit row, I almost had a break down right there in the airplane aisle. But wait! As the other two moms and I made our way to the back and started to call out our seat assignments to each other we discovered  that we were seated all together in the very last row of  the plane and on the same side next to each other! Hallelujah! It was a short lived celebration. Before we were even settled in our seats a flight attendant approached our row and informed us that we could not have 3 lap babies in the same row because there weren't enough oxygen masks for all of us (there are only 4 in each row per side of the plane), which meant that two of us had to move to other rows. She proceeded to have passengers in the rows around us trade seats with Jamie and I (to their credit I don't think any of  them complained), and I was really ready to lose it at this point friends!

In the end, Jason, another dad, and Zhou ended up in the exit row. One mom and baby pair were in our original row on the right side of the plane, the other mom (Jamie) and baby pair were in our original row on the left side of  the plane, and Justin and I were in the row in front of our original row on the right side of the plane. Since we needed to trade seats with other passengers one of the dads (Erik) was able to move back to our original row so he was across the aisle from his wife (Jamie) and was deemed the mom helper  by the other dads.

No sooner were we all finally settled in our new seats than a flight attendant came on the intercom to make an announcement which was in Mandarin, but the groans of the passengers around us alerted us to the fact that the news was not  good. The announcement was repeated in English, but with the intercom static, people noise, and accent of the flight attendant it was hard to decipher however we got the gist which was that we were delayed and they planned to keep us all packed like sardines on the plane to wait. To try to make up for the delay (nothing could) they decided to feed us and the flight attendants proceeded to roll out the food and drink carts and serve a late lunch.

Since we were in the back of the plane we were right  by the restroom and by this time I had to pee SO bad (remember I skipped the restroom while waiting in line to board for fear of being left behind :/ ).  So I faced more bad news regarding the tiny restroom and an 11 month old - after contemplating the challenge I decided that there was NO WAY I could use the tiny  restroom and  take Justin with me. The other moms in back with me were already holding their babies so the job fell to Erik (the dad sitting with us and honorary mom helper) who was sitting directly behind me. I handed Justin to him and headed into the restroom while Jamie snapped this adorable picture from across the aisle - I think it is so cute and just reminds me of the blessing of making some amazing, new friends on this journey.

Shortly after I got back to my seat the food/drinks arrived at our rows and let me just tell you that it is nearly impossible to have your try table down and eat with a baby on your lap. I did the best I could while trying to feed Justin and keep him from grabbing everything off the tray.  I will say that the wonderful lady beside me who was flying with her son was so sweet and helpful! 

Jamie and Kaiya

Jacole and Max

I don't really know how long we were delayed on the tarmac but my guess is somewhere between 1 and 2 hours. Finally, the flight attendant came on and announced we were ready to take off for our 2 hour flight. Luckily, once we took off Justin fell asleep and took a nap for a good part of the flight .

We landed in Guangzhou, grabbed our luggage, and headed out to find our driver and van. Guangzhou has a tropical climate (similar to Florida) and was much warmer than Xuzhou and Nanjing so we shed our jackets and sweatshirts as we made our way out of the airport. All adoptive families must travel to Guangzhou before going home because the US Consulate which issues travel Visas for newly adopted children is located there.

Guangzhou is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in South China. Located on the Pearl River, about 120 km north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port. Guangzhou is the third largest Chinese city and the largest city in South Central China.

We headed straight from the airport to the hotel and were excited to meet up with the other families that we hadn't seen since Beijing. Our agency always stays at the Victory Hotel on Shamian Island. This hotel used to be very popular with adoptive families becasue the medical office and consulate were both located on the island, but it has lost some of its popularity since those two offices moved off the island. The Victory is an older hotel that is not as fancy as some of the new hotels located in the city, but after all the hustle and bustle of the past week we loved the quiet, peacefulness of the island and we were so glad to finally be in Guangzhou and at our hotel that it probably wouldn't have mattered what it looked like!

After a little rest in our room we decided to head out as a group to eat at Lucy's. Only four of the six families were able to go to dinner so we couldn't celebrate being all together just yet, but we were looking forward to all being reunited the next day. Lucy's is a well known restaurant on the island that serves American food, and while it was good, the food definitely wasn't quite like home. 

What a long day! A little smile and then we crashed!

Note: All photos in this post except the last one are courtesy of Jamie.

Part 1: Orphanage Visit

Today was a crazy busy day so I am splitting the day's events into two posts :)

We were up bright and early this morning and after breakfast we packed up our suitcases and the van, and headed to the Xuzhou City orphanage (the plan was to head straight to the airport from the orphanage to catch our flight to Guangzhou which is our last stop before heading home).

Xuzhou City is located in Jiangsu province, and since the initiation of economic reforms in 1990 Jiangsu has been a hot spot for economic development and now has the highest GDP per capita of all Chinese provinces. Jiangsu is home to many of the world’s leading exporters of electronic equipment, chemicals and textiles, and has also been China's largest recipient of foreign direct investment since 2006. Jiangsu has the highest population density of all the provinces in China (though the provincial-level municipalities of Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin have a higher density).

The Xuzhou orphanage is a new facility and was extremely nice as far as orphanages go. The director and nannies all seemed very nice and compassionate, and the children were well cared for. But...it is still an orphanage. It was still sad, and I still cried. The little ones in these photos still do not know the love of a family, or what it means to be a son or daughter. I wanted to scoop up and take every one of those precious little children home with me.  It was a humbling and overwhelming experience and one I will not soon forget.

reception room for visitors

The first room we visited was the music room where the older children were having a special program in celebration of Chinese New Year (which I did not get any pictures of). Our guide told us that local police officers often come to the orphanage on special holidays to celebrate with and visit the children.

Next we visited the youngest baby room and I came undone. The teeny tiny babies in incubators and row upon row of cribs was more than I could take. It was heartbreaking and I broke down and cried.

There were three tiny babies like this one in incubators in this room (you can see the incubators and oxygen tanks along the back wall in the next photo).

The next two rooms we visited were for older babies and young toddlers and each had about 30 cribs (I cried some more).

In the younger of the two rooms it was feeding time and several nannies were alternating feeding and holding about ten babies.

The last few rooms were for older children including a school room and play room.

This little boy was so sweet and was hugging everyone in our group.

Before we left the orphanage we were treated to homemade dumplings served and made by the visiting police officers! They were delicious and unlike a restaurant there were no forks so we had to do our best with chopsticks (we managed, but it wasn't pretty).

We also got a quick picture with the orphanage director. She is the one who took Justin straight to the hospital upon his arrival at the orphanage, and is also the one who contacted and escorted him to the care of Love Without Boundaries.

What an emotionally draining morning! And all before lunch! Little did we know that we were still in for a long, stressful, and trying day of travel.

Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.

~Isaiah 1:17