Home One Week

Well we have been home  a week now and are adjusting.

Hannah did great on the van ride to Hong Kong.  She loved looking out the window and seeing the country side.   The trip across the border was uneventful.

When we got to Hong Kong we had to wait for our airline to open their one and only ticket counter. So we stood around a while.  Glad I pushed back on our agency suggesting that we leave at 5 am.  6 was more than early enough.

The airport was interesting we walked miles looking for fast food.  Robin was done with Asian food.   We got food, found our gate and started the trip home.

Hannah did great on the first flight.    Getting through Seoul was a royal pain.  The security folks wanted to take all the souvenirs out of our carry on bags.  Do they not know how long it took to pack those in there just right bubble wrap and all.   Robin finally said "Mam you have 5 minutes wrap it up"  and they did.   By the time we go to our gate it was time to board so we did not see much of that airport. 

Now the 14 hour flight.  Hannah did great.  She ate, she slept (kicking mommy a good bit), I finally held her and she was fine.  She slept until we woke her up.

on the long flight.  She was a good girl.

We got into Atlanta 40 minutes early.  We made it to immigration and let me tell you USCIS Atlanta is the WORST I have ever seen.   We had to go to the foreigner line so she could immigrate and after that long line they pulled us aside to another area to process her paperwork.   After 2 hours of standing / sitting in immigration I finally asked for a supervisor.  The officer that was in that area was not very happy that I wanted a supervisor.   He pulled our paperwork and finally we were cleared to go find our baggage that had been running around for 2 hours.   From here we got out to see Aaron, Karen and the kids. 

We were so glad to be back in the US and to see Hannah meeting her family.   We spent the night at Aaron's and made the journey home Saturday.

not too bad looking for being up and in transit for about 30 hours and after 2 hours of fighting with USCIS.

Meeting Shiyan the baby whisperer 

Nanna with grand baby.

this was on the kitchen table from our great friends who took care of the house.  Also food for us to eat.  

Meeting Stephen

Meeting Anna. 

This week has been a time of adjustment.  The first several days she did not sleep well at all.  Finally by Wednesday night sleep started and we are finally getting some rest.  We had our first doctor appoint with her and are preparing for many more in the coming weeks.   Some of our concerns have been clarified and may not be issues.  We have issues we will be working through with her but feel confident that she will have a good life here.

Pray for Hannah and for all of us as we continue to adjust. 

Thanks for following along.  We will post more updates but not as often. 

Thursday last day in Guangzhou

Today was pretty laid back.  We were able to sleep in since we did not have to meet our guide until noon.   Hannah slept until we woke her around 8 this morning.   She still is morning at times but is doing somewhat better. 

We had our last big breakfast in China.   The breakfast buffet here is plentiful things like Spinach and Salmon Omelet, noodle soup, french toast, mushrooms, dim sum, smoked salmon, smoked duck and lots of things I did not try. This hotel was not nearly as nice as the last one.  the Westin is over priced, the rooms are not set up for families but we were blessed to have enough Marriott points to pay for this one for the week and got a free upgrade due to my status with them.  So we wont complain about the price.   It will be hard to go back to cooking for ourselves and getting back into our routine.

I wonder how Hannah will handle 27 hours of vans, planes and airports.   We have to be up tomorrow at 4:30 am and down stairs by 5:45 to head to Hong Kong by van.   To put this in perspective this will be 4:30 PM EST Thursday for you back home.  We fly out of Hong Kong at about noon and go to Seoul and then to Atlanta.  We get into Atlanta around 7:30 Friday evening.

We are all ready to get home.  Please pray that Hannah travels well and that we can get a little sleep.

Today we went back over near the China Hotel to pick up one last item.  We had to take the traditional stairway hotel like we did when we were a CCAI  family. 

Stopped by the China Hotel and had to get a picture by the stairs.

Guess what another quick stop at McDonald's.  I had to run in and get chicken nuggets for the two little ones.   Hannah actually loves Chicken Nuggets.

Next stop Six Banyan Temple. We have been here before and it is worth seeing.  This temple leans, like the leaning tower of Pisa.   We saw Buddhist praying and burning incense.  They also leave food for the gods, wonder if the gods ever come get the food.  Joshua had many questions about why people were praying to these idols. 

Entrance to temple

notice how it leans.

Lotus flower.  We had Sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf yesterday.

The three Buddha's 

lady praying

part of the grounds

another building with yet another god.

interesting tree

us at the temple

here are a couple of videos from  last night showing the skyline and today at the temple.

It was so hot we did not stay out long.  The heat index here is 112 with actual temp of 99 but humidity is through the roof.

Saw this building from the road.  I bet there is a great view from here.

these poor guys dumped their load in the street and had traffic backed up.

This will be the last post from the trip.  We will try to catch you up next week on how the trip home went.  Thanks for following along during our journey to bring Hannah home. 

Fried Pigeon

The saying is that in Guangzhou they eat anything that fly's except an airplane, anything that swims except a submarine and anything that runs on the ground except a car.  Today we ate fried pigeon.  More on that in a few paragraphs.

This morning we want back to Shamian Island again.   We had to stop at the White Swan for bathroom break and took a few additional photos.

So many cars here and on top of this they have a subway system and a ton of buses.  15 million people in Guangzhou

We passed by the China Hotel.  We have stayed here the previous 2 trips.  The have added a Dominoes and a Burger King.

These old cars are stored at the White Swan.  Very nice.

Another look at the Coy Pond. 

Maria took our photo here.  David had Hannah.

We hit a few shops to finish up our shopping list.  Helen's, Michael's then Amy's.  Amy had our stone carvings ready of Hannah and our grand kids.  We will give the ones of the grand kids to their parents.  They turned out great.  Amy is a calls us brother and sister and upgraded us to the large size carvings. 

The stone carvings.  The picture does not do this one justice.  

Nora

Hattie

Grayson

After shopping Amy had to help do Hannah's hair and we took a few photos outside.

Amy and her daughter putting another pony tail in Hannah's hair so she would be cooler.  Chinese women just jump in and help with your kids.

The next stop was the pearl market.   This place is like a mall full of jewelry stores.  The have great prices and one of the items I wanted for Hannah was a string of pearls and matching ear rings for her 16th year gotya day.    This is the mall where Robin got lost 6 years ago.  This place brings back bad memories for her.  Today we stayed together and no one got lost.

yes all of these sell jewelry and it is easy to get lost. 

Looking at some jade

check out all the pearls

stringing the necklace.

knotting each pearl.

one of the side halls.  easy to get lost here.

After the Pearl Market we went out for Dim Sum.  This meal was covered in our tour fees so we were able to enjoy some great tastes.   We had various dumplings, noodles, meat etc. but the highlight was fried Pigeon, (taste like chicken).  The skin was crispy and great there is not much meat and it is very greasy.    We broadened our taste buds a bit.

some of the Dim Sum.  the ones closest to me were the best.  Shrimp and Pork

Fried Pigeon

Two Pigeon heads.  No we did not eat these but some people do.

Then back to the hotel for a break and then out for a walk.

I want to go on record as saying "I HATE MCDONALDS"   and we have been to McDonalds 3 or 4 times since Saturday.   I may stop in a McDonald's once a year and am not a fan.    Robin has been tired of Chinese food and craving McDonald's.   So this evening for dinner the kids got KFC (The passion fruit drink was great) and Robin had McDonald's.   I went up to the executive lounge and grabbed a few things.   I get it, Chinese for Breakfast, Chinese for lunch and most nights for dinner.   We have been here for 2 weeks and yes it can get a bit old. But I am of the mind set that we are here with the best Chinese food in the world and we should experience it.   Robin has agreed to a Ramen house for tomorrow night.

Have we mentioned it is HOT here.  Today it was in the 90's by the time we left the hotel at 9:30.  By the time we headed back at about 3 it was supposedly 104 outside.  My phone only showed 99 but this combined with 100% humidity and as soon as you step outside you get wet. 

The trip is winding down.  Tomorrow is our last day here and we leave for Hong Kong very early on Friday from there to Atlanta and then home after we pick up the other kids from Aaron. 

We are very anxious to see the other kids and for them to meet Hannah.   We see improvement with Hannah every day and she is doing things that we did not expect to see this soon.  Keep praying for her and for us.

Consulate day

Today was Tuesday and that meant it was time for our Consulate appointment.  This is where our government gives final approval and will begin the process to grant her visa to travel home.   We were blessed to visit with some other families.  One man really encouraged Robin and then me. 

Before the consulate we had to stop at the visa medical clinic to pick up her medical report.  I saw this photo of President Trump with the President of China in a travel store.

It was funny as we were going through security I looked through the window and saw a familiar looking Chinese woman.  It was Jocelyn one of our former guides.  She smiled and waived.  We ran into her after we got out and were able to visit with her and Grace.

Jocelyn, Grace and Robin

The time at the Consulate was mostly a non event, they reviewed the paperwork and we had to swear that we had been truthful on all the paperwork we submitted.   Then a quick interview with a guy from Texas and we are done. 

One thing that bothers me is over 90% of the employees you see at the consulate are not US citizens they appear to be locals.   Seems strange to me.

On our drive we got a great view of Canton Tower.

After this we went in search of a Disney Store in search of an item for Aaron but to no avail there does not appear to be a store here any more.   We did see a couple of really cool malls though.

We saw these cool transformers in a shopping area.  Josh had to get his photo with them.

Some of the shopping area views.

This is an ancient clock. Not sure how it works.

We also made a stop over at the China Hotel so we could see how it has changed and wanted to hit the shops next door.  The prices here were much better than on the island.  We picked up a few items we wanted.

In one of the malls Josh found a Lego store and had to pose for this photo

This evening we did something for dinner I have always wanted to do.  We went to a Peking Duck House.   I have had Peking Duck before but never at a real place that specializes in that.   We sat near the oven and watched them cook.  They carved the duck table side and the waitress showed us how to make the little pancakes.   The food was so good and the price was very reasonable.

The chef at the duck oven.

The ducks cooking

the sign shows the process.

trying to reason with a stubborn kid that does not understand English 

Peking Duck

It was SO GOOD!

the lady showing us how to make  the little pancakes. 

After we got back to the hotel the daily melt down started.  Hannah cried so hard, finally we put her in the stroller and went down to 711 to get ice cream that I had promised Joshua.   She calmed down, had her ice cream.   After that bath time went better than usual.  We know she will likely melt down when it is bed time here. 

Today was a better day overall.  Tomorrow we are back to the island, off to the pearl market and then Dim Sum.   Thursday we pick up her passport with the visa to come home.

We are tired and ready to get home.