Trip to China
Itinerary  |  October 17  |  October 18  |  October 19  |  October 20  |  October 21  |  October 22  |  October 23 - Gotcha!  |  October 24  |  October 25  |  October 26  |  October 27  |  October 28  |  October 29  |  October 30  |  October 31  |  November 1  |  November 2  |  November 3  |  November 4

Friday, November 4, 2005 WE LEAVE TOMORROW MORNING FOR HOME!!!   Can ya tell we are a little excited???!!!    Today was our last full day in China.  We all made it to breakfast this morning and then we headed back up to our room to complete some additional packing.  We are trying to make the packing process as painless as possible and do it a little at a time.  The packing process was HORRIBLE from Nanchang to Guangzhou... a very late night and stuffed suitcases.    At 10:30am we met up with some of the group.  Our CCAI Reps Kathy and Bruce took us on a walk through the markets on "the other side of the river".  The Pearl River separates Shamian Island (where we are) and the rest of Guangzhou.  Once you cross the bridge to the other side, it is a different world.  We walked through the local markets and saw many many strange things.  Lots of stalls with herbs used for Chinese medicine as well as stalls where you can buy all sorts of food delicacies such as scorpions and turtles.  Our guides called this "real China".  We went down a whole block with stores that only sold different parts of pigs.  The smells and sights were so real and matched exactly what you see in movies.  We were so happy to see the bridge to go back to the Island.    We then decided to have lunch at Lucy's.  It was our last meal there.  Brandon decided not to eat anything and Kiah and I had our usuals.  We headed back to the hotel to rest before our Consulate Appointment.  We decided on the walk back to the hotel to take Kiah to the doctor at our hotel.  We happened to see our CCAI Reps and mentioned this to them and they secured us and appointment.  We had to take an appointment for 2:30pm.  This was cutting it really close since we had to leave for our Consulate Appointment at 3pm.  When we saw the doctor we were told Kiah had bronchitis.  This was not a joyous moment.  They told us that she would need 2 shots and 2 breathing treatments.  She had 1 shot and a breathing treatment then and she would need another at 8pm.  It was absolutely HEARTBREAKING to her Kiah cry and scream throughout both procedures.  Afterwards we hurried to the meeting location with Kathy our CCAI Rep.  There must have been at least 7 bus loads of adopting parents going to the Consulate Appointment today.  Because there were so many buses needed, our group got stuck on a mini bus.  Some people had to sit on fold down jump seats.  We laughed during the whole 40 minutes bus ride.  One of our CCAI Reps told us that the benefit of taking the mini bus is that we could drive through the city streets where as the big buses had to take the highway.  The Consulate just moved so it is in a new location.  It is now in an upscale office building.  It is amazing the security that you have to go through to get into YOUR OWN Consulate.  We had to show our passports 2 separate times.  The fun continued when a group of people stopped walking at the top of the escalator which made the rest of us fall into them like dominoes as we got off the escalator!!!  Hey, we are leaving tomorrow morning so we all just laughed it off!!!  We were escorted into a large room with chairs AND air conditioning.  We didn't have this type of luxury at the US Consulate in Moscow!!!  The process went very quickly.  We were checked in and then asked to take an oath in front of a Consular Officer.  Afterwards all the parents yelled and celebrated and the babies just looked at us like we were crazy!!!  For the parents, this final step has been the culmination of many months of paperwork, waiting, hoping, praying, traveling, more paperwork and now celebration.  For the babies, they just wanted their Cheerios!!!  We all received our daughter's passports with US Visas and we were back on the bus.  In China the passport is still in the baby's Chinese name even though our adoption documentation states the baby's new American name.  It seems that in 2 weeks most of us have forgotten our babies Chinese names so when they call them out we all sit around and look at each other!!!   It doesn't help that the Chinese say the names much differently then untrained Americans.  The ride back to the hotel took almost 1 hour as there was a ton of traffic.  We ended up leaving later than everyone else since our bus was slow getting back to us.  The funny thing was since we were on the "short bus" we ended up beating all the other buses back!!!

Scorpion bin Market Street Pretty Girl!!! We're going home soon!!! All dressed up!!!

The 1 hour bus ride home was a very reflective time for me.  I thought about all that we have experience and seen.  The Chinese people are very gracious accommodating people.  They accepted us into their world and did everything they could to make our journey pleasant.  China will always be very close to our hearts.  This is the birthplace of our daughter.  These are her people and her beginnings.  We hope to teach her all the wonderful things about China and we hope that some day she fully understands the complicated circumstances that brought her to our family and to the USA.  However, we honestly believe that God had her chosen for our family long ago.  You look around today and see how the hand of God has worked in each family who is walking around carrying a Chinese baby.    We decided to join in a "last night" celebration and order pizza in with a group of other families.  We all huddled in Rick and Linda Pylant's room and ate and chatted about the past couple of weeks.  It is amazing how you can form such a strong bond with people that you didn't know 2 weeks ago.  We are all so excited to go home however, we will miss all of the experiences and time we have shared together.  A lot of us are on the same flights back to the US.   This is our last post from China.  It has been a whirlwind adventure.  We wanted to say a heartfelt thanks to my parents and sister for taking care of Jacob and Katelyn.  We know the job was hard and we appreciate all that you have done.  We love you all very much.    We wanted to say a big THANK YOU to Joe and Jen.  Joe and Jen own myadoptionwebsite.com.  They have been AWESOME to work with.  They are very professional and really just absolutely lovely people.  We would use them again to host a website in a heartbeat!!!  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!  You have added so so much to this wonderful journey!!!   A quick shout-out to Jennifer Raff!!!  Jennifer, everyone LOVED Kiah's Patriotic dress!!!  She looked beautiful!!!  I told everyone about your website!!!    Jake and Katelyn, we can't wait to step off that plane at Dulles and run into your arms!!!    Please pray for our safe journey home and a joyous reunion with our children and family.     Sending love to you all on our last night in beautiful China, -Nicole, Brandon and Kiah!!!

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