Trip to China
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Thursday, December 10, 2009 So here we are! Let me start with yesterday to catch everything up. I woke up yesterday morning and realized that we had every single piece of paper that we needed to complete the Visa process in Guangzhou. I knew that the rest of our time in Zhengzhou was going to continue to be challenging and I didn’t see any reason why I should put us all through that. So I called and emailed our agency coordinator and told her that we wanted to leave for Guangzhou as soon as possible. She completely understood our decision and got right to work making phone calls to make it all happen. We were scheduled to meet our guide in the lobby at 9am. We got ready for the day and went to breakfast. At 9am we met our guide in the lobby. He wanted to take us on a tour of a park in the mountains. At that point it was about 30 degrees outside. The girls were all bundled up and they started coughing. I didn’t want to put us through a day of confusion and misunderstanding so I simply told our guide that the weather was not favorable for the girls to be outside for a long period of time. I then told him that we had phoned our agency coordinator and asked to travel to Guangzhou early. He had not received notification of this yet so he was a bit surprised. In my heart I hoped that we would make the move that day but understood if it took some time to make hotel reservations and flight changes. Katelyn thought it might be a good idea at that point to go by Walmart and get snacks so we asked to do that. We spent about 30 minutes shopping for various junk food. During our Walmart trip our guide received the phone call to tell him about our flights. We were booked on a 6:10pm flight out of Zhengzhou and into Guangzhou. We were ecstatic! We traveled back to the hotel and the guide asked that we be down in the lobby at 2:00pm to check out of the hotel. At 1:45pm we brought all of our luggage down to the lobby and patiently waited. At 2pm our guide and driver showed up and we checked out of the hotel. He asked us where we wanted to eat and Katelyn wanted Pizza Hut. We had already walked to the restaurant previously so we knew where it was located. We explained where it was and between our driver and guide...confusion ensued. We were driving up and down different streets when the restaurant was simply 5 blocks straight down from the hotel on the same main street. We finally made it to Pizza Hut and the guide and driver chose to sit in the car while we ate. About 1 hour later (after our food order was messed up) we exited the restaurant and then made our way over to the van where our guide and driver were waiting. As we began to load up into the van the driver asked that we take some pictures with him. We were very surprised! We took a couple of photos and then climbed back in the van for the 1 hour drive to the airport. The guide originally told us that all we had to do was show our passports at the ticket counter to get our tickets. I was a little bit surprised. With our 3 other adoption trips we have experienced that the provincial guide escorts you into the airport and helps you get your tickets since in-China travel is always booked by the local guides. I had a feeling we might have issues getting the tickets and I guess my facial expression spoke volumes. Our guide then said he would accompany us into the airport. Once inside they told us that we couldn’t check in for 1 hour. At that point our guide said it was time for him to leave and we said our goodbyes. We took some seats and waited for time to pass. We made our way up to the check-in counter and after some back and forth discussion, we were issued our tickets. We had about 1.5 hours before our flight so we walked around. At 6pm our flight still hadn’t boarded although the departure sign said it was leaving on time. Turns out there was a delay. We finally boarded at around 6:30pm.

The flight was about 2 hours long and we got into Guangzhou after 8:30pm. Our new guide Elvin was waiting for us with a BIG sign! We were so happy! We came right to the White Swan hotel, checked in and ran off to eat at Lucy’s. Everything about this place was a sight for sore eyes! If you were here with us you MIGHT have seen me hugging one of the lion statues in front of the hotel!!! Today has been relaxing and wonderful! We woke up at 8am, got ready for the day, ate at the fabulous breakfast buffet and then turned in our laundry. We walked around the island for a little while, played in the park, walked by the river then ate lunch at Lucy’s. The mood has been so much lighter. The days are so much easier. Since this is our 4th adoption trip to China I have been analyzing what went wrong in Zhengzhou. We have used 4 different agencies, 1 NSN adoption and 3 SN adoptions, different in-china guides, etc. Regardless of what agency you use it is the same basic process. The only variable while in here in China is …. the assistance you receive while you are here. Now, our guide in Zhengzhou was very nice and friendly. But truthfully, I think he lacked the experience needed to make this adoption trip smooth. Now I understand that every trip has its bumps. I do not believe this is all a fairytale and that things should automatically run smoothly. Has anyone read Luke’s adoption story???? However I do believe in a certain level of expertise and service because this is what was displayed to us on 3 previous trips with 3 different agencies. I am not a picky person and I come here with a “roll with the punches” attitude. But at some point it goes past little bumps here and there and it becomes glaring that a lot of the issues we had simply could have been avoided. To put this in perspective...even when we received Luke in his horrible state I never thought of leaving Nanjing early. And now I am done with that. I promise to move on. This afternoon we met a guide at 2:30pm and we visited Yuexiu Park. (I only remembered the name of the park because I re-visited Luke’s myadoptionwebsite and then googled the name!) I felt so much better that I actually STROLLED through the park, enjoyed the statues, smiled at the people, took lots of pictures and had a fabulous time! We also visited the museum that is next to the park. It was full of Guangzhou history and I enjoyed learning more about this area. We arrived back at the hotel around 3:45pm. We came back to the hotel room for some downtime before dinner. At 5:30pm we headed over to the Pearl River area and strolled through the streets. Katelyn flipped out when she saw the New Moon DVD for sale and I bought it for her for the bargain price of $2.50! She spent some time in various stores looking at purses and I made 1 purchase for her. Then it was time for Lucy’s for dinner! We met several other families who also have sites here. It was great to meet them! We are now in for the night and waiting to Skype with the family this morning. Tomorrow we will be doing some touring in the afternoon. The rest of our agency group will be arriving tomorrow evening. We look forward to meeting the families and meeting their new children!

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