Great to be in Guangzhou!!

After we received Kamea's passport in Hefei yesterday, we departed Anhui Province for Guangzhou.   Kamea had the window seat and she giggled as we took off.  The flight was uneventful and we landed in Guangzhou two hours later.

Kamea seems to be a natural traveler.  Between her backpack full of toys and books and her carry on filled with other necessities, she carried (and pulled) at least the amount of her body weight through the airport.  So cute!

Other than Elli's encounter with a huge cockroach in the airport's bathroom, we were very happy to be in Guangzhou.  After retrieving our baggage, we met our guide for the week, Molly.  She had also been our guide when we were here in 2009, so it has been fun to catch up with her.

Driving through Guangzhou is entirely different than driving through Hefei.  It is much more beautiful and the air much cleaner.  We are staying on Shamian Island in Gunagzhou, in the same hotel where we stayed for two weeks in 2009, so we are very comfortable here.  It is great to be back again!  Since there are 4 of us, Molly influenced the front desk personnel to give us the largest standard room on our floor.  It is wonderful to have a little more space.  We love Molly!  

This morning we reunited with Chuck and Jennie and met their beautiful new daughter, Ellie.  We traveled together with them to Guangdong International Travel Healthcare Center for the medical exam.  The exam went fine, but Kamea had a tough time with the TB test.  The poor kiddo was terrified and afterwards she wanted nothing to do with us.  Thankfully there were two Chinese women that noticed how upset she was.  They gently approached her, wiped her tears and explained to her that mama and baba did not want her to be sad or hurting and that we loved her very much.  One of the ladies then took a package of peanut M&Ms out of her purse for Kamea.  It was as if these women (angels) were just hanging out at the healthcare center to cheer up kiddos and give them treats.

This afternoon we walked around the island and stopped at Starbucks for treats. We did a little bit of shopping and the girls played at the park, too. The island is gorgeous right now with flowers in bloom and everything green.  It is so peaceful here.  Scattered throughout the island are numerous statues.  I think we stopped at half of them this afternoon for pictures!

Kamea hit kind of a rough patch for a while this afternoon.  It is so hard to see her hurting.   She's a strong little girl and I can't imagine how hard this is for her.

We enjoyed dinner with Chuck, Jennie and Ellie at a Thai restaurant tonight.  After dinner, we strolled through the island a little more.  In a bit, we're hoping to Skype with the boys back home.  We sure miss those little guys.

Visiting Huainan

This morning we traveled to Huainan City, about 90 minutes from here.  Before we left the hotel, our guide explained to Kamea that we were going to the orphanage and that we would be seeing her foster family.  She also told her that she would be coming back with us, which made her very sad.   

According to our guide, the population of Huainan is about 7 million.  We drove into the city to get to the orphanage.  Near the orphanage are many tombs.  Tomb Sweeping Day occurs next week in China.  It is a holiday in which the Chinese people honor their ancestors.  In preparation for the holiday, there were many people decorating the tombs today and also lighting firecrackers, which is allowed during this period of time.     While we were at the orphanage today,there was a constant sound of firecrackers in the background! 

When we first arrived, Kamea directed us to her classroom.  School was in session, so we got to meet her

classmates and teachers and see where she sat during school.  The kids were so excited to see her (and us) and they greeted us with a great big, "Hello!",  While there, Kamea stood at the front of the class and recited a Chinese poem with her classmates.  

We also met with Kamea's foster mother and foster brother while we were there.  Her foster mother provided us with invaluable details of Kamea's life in China.  It was so wonderful to meet her and see what a kind and loving family that Kamea had been a part of.   

After we returned to Hefei, we decided that we all deserved some afternoon comfort food, so we walked to the mall for treats at Dairy Queen and Starbucks.  After that, we walked through a park where we were entertained by a group of musicians.  In hindsight, I think our family may have actually been the entertainment.  At one point, the male vocalist started shouting something at us (in a loud, but nice kind of way), using a bunch of hand signals.   We had no idea what he wanted us to do, but we think it had something to do with dancing or becoming part of the performance.  We just looked at each other, laughed and shook our heads.  We sat through one more song and then decided to make our exit.

We ate supper at the hotel, which was another night of pizza, noodles and oranges.  Tomorrow afternoon we will be leaving Hefei and flying to Guangzhou.  We spent 2 weeks in Guangzhou when we adopted Dexter in 2009, so we're looking forward to going back there again.  

Huainan City Social Welfare Institute

Kamea's classroom and classmates

Kamea's chair

Kamea and her favorite teacher

The Nelsons with Kamea's foster mother and brother

Kamea and her foster mother

The girls goofing around at the mall

Dairy Queen!

The girls!

The musicians at the park

Another day in Hefei

Our appointments in Anhui Province are done, so we had a free day today as we wait for Kamea's passport to be processed.  After breakfast, Penny took us to an indoor playground at the mall.  The girls had a blast, so we killed several hours there.  The playground is located within a children's store, so Penny helped us pick out some books, CDs and movies that Kamea is familiar with.

Penny joined us for lunch at a small restaurant at the mall.  We're not really sure what she ordered us, but it was delicious.   Penny has been extremely helpful to us while here in Hefei and she's not irritated or offended by any of the questions we fire at her.  She works really hard for adoptive families during the day and then does English tutoring 3 nights a week.    

When we returned to the hotel, Jeff and Elli went swimming.  Kamea wanted NOTHING to do with the pool, so we sat in a chair away from the water and watched them swim.   

Overall, things are going really well.  Honestly, we couldn't have hoped for better, but Kamea had a rough period this afternoon.   First tears.   Our hearts ached for her.  After an hour or so, she was happier.  Most of the time the girls get along extremely well and truly enjoy each other.   They're so excited (loud) about everything that it seems like we're living in perpetual slumber party.  

We had supper in the room tonight.  The girls are ready for bed, and while I type this, they're watching an episode of Kai-lan before turning out the lights.  Tomorrow we're heading to Huainan City to visit Kamea's orphanage and meet her foster parents.  We're looking forward to it, yet dreading it at the same time.  We're so happy to be able to make a visit there and meet them, but we're sure that it is going to be very painful for Kamea to leave them again.  

Lunch with Penny

We bought a balloon from this woman on Monday.  

Inside our hotel.

View from our hotel room.  

View from our hotel room.

A Beautiful Day in Hefei

After a full day yesterday, we all slept great last night.  It was wonderful!  For breakfast, we headed up to the 29th floor for the breakfast buffet, which is included with our stay.  The buffet has some Western food, but the majority of the food is local cuisine.  (Elli has been eating a lot of watermelon.)  With the language barrier, it has been a bit of a challenge trying to figure out what Kamea likes to eat.  She does not like rice or dumplings, but we figured out today that she loves noodles.  She ate two large servings of noodles for breakfast, and wow, she's really good with chopsticks!  

After breakfast, we went back to the Civil Affairs office to be interviewed by the Registrar and the Notary. I guess we passed, because we received our Certificate of Conformity of Intercountry Adoption.  (We weren't too worried about it.)  While we were waiting for some paperwork,  our guide asked Kamea several questions in Mandarin.  Kamea surprised us by counting to 10 in Mandarin and then singing the ABCs in English (probably about 75% correct!).

By mid-morning we were done with our appointments, so we had the rest of the day to ourselves.  The girls played with Barbies and Polly Pockets on the floor of the hotel room for quite a while.  We enjoyed listening to them communicate and watching them play.  So sweet.

This afternoon we walked to a sprawling, beautiful park and pavillion area, not far from our hotel.  It was a gorgeous day, probably in the mid-70s.  Within the park is a large lake and there were several people floating through the lake on small motorized boats.   Other than crossing through the obnoxious traffic to get there, it was really relaxing.  It was nice for the girls to get out and run a bit, too.

Later in the afternoon we walked to Walmart for a few more necessities.  This morning my flat iron fried. Literally.  The voltage here in China is different, so in order to use electronics, small appliances (and flat irons),  you have to use an adapter to change the voltage.  For some reason the adapter failed this morning.  Thankfully, Walmart sells flat irons so I won't have to go the rest of the trip with frizzed out hair.

After Walmart, we walked through an attached mall and spotted a Pizza Hut.  We weren't sure if Kamea would eat anything there, but since they offered a few noodle options we decided to try it.  Thanks to a waitress with some basic English, we figured out that all of the noodle entrees, other than spaghetti, were hot and spicy and most children do not like them.  We decided to give spaghetti a try and she devoured it.  As we were eating, she started playing with the extra straws.  She quickly unwrapped them, put them in her little fingers and used them as chopsticks!

Overall, we've had a fabulous day. The highlight occurred when Kamea leaned over and kissed my cheek - -out of the blue - - she just leaned over and did it.  She did the same to Jeff a little later on.  We are over-the-moon happy!  

  

Gotcha Day!

The day that we have been waiting for all of these months finally arrived, and it could not have been better.  Hallelujah!!

We traveled to the Civil Affairs office this morning at 9:00.  We were one of six families there to meet our new children.  Kamea arrived around 9:45.  She was quiet, but did not cry.  We had packed a little pink purse for her with some goodies.  She immediately found the sparkly ring, bracelet and necklace.  Then she held my hand!

We spent the day getting to know our little girl.  She came out of her shell quickly and there were lots of smiles and giggles today.  Kamea was obviously well cared for and very much loved by her foster family.  She is a smart and independent little girl.  She does not seem frustrated by the language barrier, and she's already picking up on a few words of English by mimicking Elli's actions and words.

Elli has been the most patient, helpful, unselfish and devoted big sister today. We are so incredibly proud of her.  The girls started bonding almost immediately.They played together, ate together, painted their nails together and even held hands while we walked to the store.  If you didn't know their story, you'd think that they had known each other forever.  We just tucked them in for the night and they are nestled in next to each other in bed.

We skyped with the boys tonight and they were excited to meet their new sister.  We are now a family of 6. We are blessed.

Sisters!

New Day, New City

Our time in Beijing has now ended.  We are so thankful to have spent some time in this wonderful city, but are excited to move on to the next phase of our trip in Hefei.   This afternoon, we flew from Beijing to Hefei, which was about a 90 minute flight.  We were met at the airport by our guide for the week, Penny.  She answered lots of questions and gave us an itinerary for our next few days.

We are staying at the Holiday Inn here in Hefei.  So far, Hefei seems a little more like the China that I always envisioned.  It is very busy and the streets outside our hotel are crazy with traffic (bikes and cars).  We're on the 18th floor, and can still hear almost constant honking from the streets below.  

Our thoughts tonight are on Kamea.  We are of course unbelievably excited to meet her tomorrow, but also have some nervous anxiety of how she will react to us and how deeply she will miss her life here and all that she has ever known.  In the morning, around 9:00, we will travel to the Civil Affairs office to meet her . . . finally. 

The Great Wall

Today was another wonderful day in China.  We started out the day by meeting another couple, Jennie & Chuck, for breakfast.  They are fellow Minnesotans and are also here to adopt a little girl.    

After breakfast the 5 of us, with Peter as our guide, boarded a van bound for the Great Wall at Mutianyu.  The drive took close to 2 hours, but part of that was due to traffic in Beijing.  We were told by Peter that there are locations closer to Beijing to see the wall, but he prefers to bring families to Mutinayu because there are fewer  tourists and the scenery is more majestic.    

After we arrived at the parking area for the Great Wall, we walked up a steep incline that was lined with locals selling all sorts of "treasures".  We boarded a cable car, which we shared with Chuck, Jennie and Peter, and glided up the mountainside to another landing, where we began our trek on the wall.  We hiked on the wall for about an hour.   It was a beautiful, clear day, which made the experience even more magnificent.   From the wall, we were able to see part of the Beijing skyline, 35-40 miles away.  

We stopped at a local restaurant for lunch, which Peter ordered for us.  The food was excellent!  Once again,Elli ate only white rice.  We're really hoping that she'll venture out a bit and try something new in the next couple of weeks!  

When we returned to Beijing, we stopped for a quick view of the Olympic Park area, from the 2008 Olympics.  From there, we traveled to the Hongqiao Pearl Market, which was at least 3 levels of vendors selling everything from cheap little souvenirs to jewelry.

We ended our evening with supper at Pizza Hut, swimming in the hotel pool and a video skype session with the boys.  Life is good!  

We depart Beijing tomorrow, excited for our next destination, Hefei, where we will meet our new daughter on Monday.        

Out & About in Beijing

Novotel Peace Hotel 

We had a great day exploring some of the best attractions in Beijing .  After a delicious breakfast at our hotel, we set out on a 30 minute walk with our guide, Peter, to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  We spent close to four hours taking in these historic places.

Elli created a buzz while we were out.  She was quite an attraction with her blonde hair and blue eyes.  While touring the Forbidden City, she was approached by dozens of people requesting to have their photograph taken with her.  We initially agreed to a couple of photos, but it was too overwhelming to continue!      

Later in the day, we took a public bus and then a taxi to the Summer Palace.  We spent a couple of hours touring the palace grounds, which included a hike up Longevity Hill to the Gold Mountain Palace.

After returning to the hotel, we went to a small, local restaurant not far from the hotel.  Although we both thought it was delicious, Elli thought otherwise, and dined on white rice only.

After supper we took a taxi to the Silk Market, which is basically a bunch of indoor vendors.  It reminded us a lot of Mexico.

Tomorrow we are off to the Great Wall.   Another day closer to Kamea!

Standing in Tiananmen Square with the Forbidden City in the background.

Tiananmen Square

The blonde celebrity posing for the paparazzi.

Inside the Forbidden City.

Summer Palace

Summer Palace

The beginning of Longevity Hill at Summer Palace.