Visa Appointment

Today we had scheduled appointments at the U S Consulate to obtain US visas for our children to enter the US on their Chinese passports.  The appointment was at 8:30am and we  were to meet in the hotel lobby at 7:40am to catch the bus.  That of course meant we had to get up at 6am in order to have breakfast before going.  Normally this would be just little bit annoying but last night Joyah was quite stubborn and kept us wake from 1:30 to 5:15am.  So, yes we were tired and she was not happy when we woke her at 645am for breakfast.  She is currently napping and has been for 3 hours.

We all gathered in the lobby waiting for our bus but at nearly 8am it had not arrived.  Our guide found a van getting ready to leave to take 1 family to the Consulate amd piled us tightly in to go with them.  There was no room for our guide so we were at the mercy of the new driver and guide.  Our guide said she would meet us there.  So off we went in the rain that had never stopped to our appointment.  We quickly found out why our bus was late.  A huge traffic jam and of course we were late for our appointment.  Thankfully the Consulate allowed us in as both guides called to plead our case because of traffic and weather. We could only take a few needed items in a plastic bag and had to trustfully leave bags and purses on the van.

We walked in the rain to the building, went through security with our clear plastic bags and had to leave umbrellas with the guide outside.  After getting through security we walked quickly to another building without umbrellas and eventually found the right place.  We took numbers and waited our turn to complete visa paperwork after saying an oath promising to take care of our child and that all info was correct.

Tomorrow we are supposed to receive the visa  for Joyah and will take a 3 to 4 hour van ride to Hong Kong airport at 4:30pm.   We will sleep at the airport hotel and will fly to Tokyo at 8:20am Wednesday, China time, arriving 4 hours later. We have a 3 plus hour layover before boarding a 9 hour flight to Seattle.  We have a short layover to get through customs before boarding another 4 hour flight to KC.  Scheduled arrival is 4pm Wednesday in KC. Please pray with us for smooth travel and an agreeable daughter.

We do not have new pics from today because cameras were not allowed.  We will share a picture of the "squatty potty" that all of us girls are tired of and some familiar American snacks.

Rainy Season at it's Best!

Thunderstorms rolled in at 2am and the rain has never stopped.  It is nearly 6pm here.  Needless to say the rain and now my upset stomach has put a damper on the day.  Hopefully the Pepto does the trick but another member of our group has been sick all day.  Pray for our group as all of us have to be at an early morning visa appointment with the Consulate, sick or not.

We did go to a few places in the rain but did not get to experience the architecture of the buildings on Shaiman island.  Shaiman Island was once controlled by the British and contains lots of shops, restaurants and hotels built in the Colonial 19th century.  It is listed as Guanhzhou's top attraction.  We had lunch at a Cantonese style restaurant, went to 2 stores and then the rain kept us from going any further.

This morning we stopped at The Chen Ancestrial Hall which was a vacation home in the 1800s during the Chen dynasty.  The Hall is now an Art Museum containing many carvings, paintings and silk embroidery.  One of our pictures is of an ivory ball that was carved into 54 layers.  Some of the silk embroidery pictures we were told take 5 to 6 years to complete. Pretty amazing.

We were also taken to a huge mall that was filled with nothing but jewelry vendors.  Five floors of jewelry!  There is so much retail in China that is hard to believe that they can all make a living.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Guangzhou before heading to Hong Kong on Tuesday to begin our journey home.  We will have a visa appointment in the morning and are supposed  to attend a river cruise tomorrow evening.

Shaiman island

Jewelry mall

54 layer Ivory ball

Silk embroidery

Journey to Guangzhou

Yesterday was a travel day getting to Guangzhou where the US Consulate is located.  We had to check out at 2pm and hang out in the lobby until 3pm for the van to the airport.  Beforehand we killed plenty of time packing and figuring how to communicate to order a KFC lunch.  We have not been able to eat easily on this trip.  In fact, Ramen noodle buckets have been an easy and cheap lunch or dinner many times especially since you have boil water in your room before drinking it.

While in the lobby waiting for our guide we finally got Joyah to take a 30 minute nap before heading out to the airport.  This ended being the only rest she got until the bus ride to the hotel at 9pm.  She just can't rest if there is any noise or chance she might miss something.

Our guide came at 3pm to take us to the airport for our 6pm flight but on the way we needed to pick up our Child's Chinese passport.  The passport office usually takes 9 days to complete them but in the adoption process we have to ask favors and give gifts for them to be done in 3 days before going to Guangzhou.   When our guide arrived at 3pm he told us that we would leave at 3:30 to go pick up the passports and head to the airport because they were not yet done.  So at 3:30 we piled all of the families and luggage into the van.  We could not have been packed in much tighter.  We drove drove down the road a bit and eere told to wait in the van with the driver while our guide went to get the passports.  The driver opened the sliding door for air while all of us (3 families) waited.

Apparently a bunch of Americans packed tightly into a van creates quite the display.  Almost every man that passed stared intently as they walked by and the women smiled or stared as well.  The school children ran by giggling and seemed to be daring each other to run close, say something and run off again laughing.  Time began to go by and still no sign our guide or passports.  Finally at 4:30pm he returns but with only 1 passport for 1 family.  He said we must get to the plane and the other 2 passports, including Joyah's may have to be mailed to Guangzhou or a friend of his would try to get them to us before getting on the plane if they got done in a short time.

I don't know how we would have gotten on the plane easily or how we would have done today with her medical exam and completion of more paperwork without that passport but God took care of the timing.  Just as we were about to walk through security a lady ran in with our passport for Joyah and the other family's child.  We got to our boarding gate 5 minutes before boarding time with all documents we needed for Guangzhou.  Praise the Lord!

Today we visited the US Consulate for Joyah's medical exam and completion of more paperwork.  Boy is it humid here!  We are close to the China Sea and it is the rainy season. It is quite tropical wth palm trees and year round blooming plants.  We plan to go to a park nearby tonight and tomorrow we will sight-see before our visa appointment on Monday.

I will try to add some pics later tonight.

Here are some pics from yesterday, the medical appointment and the beautiful park near the hotel.  New accomplishment, she now likes baths!

Qingyan Ancient Town

FYI:  I am having difficulty with the blog retaining my pictures.  My tablet has not been nice to me!  I will fix when home, sorry!

Today we paid for an extra adventure while here in Joyah's home province of Guizhou.  It was a beautiful day around 70 degrees and much more fun than the alternative of spending the whole day in the hotel room.

We drove about an hour through the city of Guiyang and out into the country a bit.  There was a lot of road construction near the Acient town and we heard that they are trying to make a resort.  Qingyan town was built in 1378 during the Ming dynasty and is still a functioning town with lots of vendors.

Last night was our first "bad" sleep night with Joyah.  She was awake for nearly 4 hours playing in the bed while I was trying to sleep.  Thank goodness James and I are taking turns sleeping with her!

The "Honeymoon" period as our friends call it is also over.  If Joyah does not like something or get her way she throws quite the fit!  She must know the word "No!" by now.  She is still a happy girl a lot but she must have been the one in charge in her previous home.

Tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou at 6pm our time, 5 am Friday in the states to start the completion of our documentation with the US Consulate.  I have been told that our hotel there has bigger rooms and a play room.  That would be great!

Blogging may or may not occur tomorrow.

Dried sweet potatoes

Supermarket pictures

We enjoyed getting out to the supermarket last evening.  It is a very large store right next to KFC with two floors and a magnetized escalator to keep shopping carts from rolling backward.  The baby formula section is the first thing you see.  There are "formula guards" there to make sure you pay for the formula right away.  You can't walk around with it in your cart unpaid as it is too easily stolen.

The whole store has interesting foods and lots of fresh meats and veggies.  They sell all parts of pig etc so nothing is wasted.  Don't look at the pictures while eating if you get sick easily.

Guiyang City Pavilion & New Foods

Life in our hotel room is getting a little old, even for Joyah.  She was fussy a lot before breakfast and when we left the room she started expressing joy.  After breakfast we returned to Skype with the boys and she immediately threw herself backward and cried when entering the room.  Of course getting the tablet out to Skype made her upset too.  It is strange how much she hates the sight of the tablet!

Today we had a short trip to see the oldest landmark area and cultural center of the city.  They call the area, The Pavilion.   There was a crowd gathered in one area to take turns using whips to spin a large top.  They keep a rhythm to music along with the cracks of the whips.  It was enjoyable to just walk around.

Our guide then took us shopping for local gifts that are specific to the city of Guiyang, where our children are from.  He also gave us a lesson in how to properly serve and drink tea.

For lunch our guide took us to our hotel restaurant to try some new foods.  I loved the dumplings and dim sum.  The dim sum was like a baked puff of bread with your choice of meat or veggie type fillings.  James was brave enough to eat some chicken feet but I was not too interested.

Joyah ate in a high chair for the first time and fed herself some banana, rice and veggies.  She is not very independent and does not like to be put down so this was a great accomplishment.  As you will see in the picture, she loves to snarl her nose and make faces for attention.

Tonight our group has made plans to walk to the supermarket after naps just to get out of out of our rooms.  It actually is quite the adventure to find something you think you can eat and figure out how to pay for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Qianling Mountain Park

Today was a much slower day as all adoption appointments are complete here in Guiyang. We will remain here until Joyah's passport is ready to take with us to the US Consulate in Guangzhou.  We will fly there for the last several days of the trip on Friday.

While we wait in the city we will do a little shopping and sightseeing.  Our hotel room is small so we did not mind an hour walk trying to find bananas this evening. This afternoon, our guide took us on a short trip to a park at the edge of the city.  It was called Qianling Park or sometimes referred to as the monkey park.  There were beautiful trees, lake and a lot of monkeys in one area of the park. We found out that Joyah is afraid of a lot of things today.  Monkeys, scary lion statues, the computer tablet and baths are at the top of the list. I think she is teething too so her mood was a little cranky this evening, she only has 4 teeth but I can see more coming.

At the park there were some ladies doing a traditional dance as you see in one of the pictures.  There is also an 800 year old Buddist temple at the park as well. The scary lion statues were at the temple.  Joyah sure did not like them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joyah's Official Adoption Appointment

Today has been another wonderful day.  Last night we took off all of Joyah's layers of clothing and gave her a bath.  Apparently she does cry some and the bath proved to be a little traumatic.  We are hoping she was tired but for now, she won't get one every day.

She slept well last night with Daddy and fell asleep at 11pm just like we were told.  She is used to sleeping with foster grandfather and does not like cribs.  We will have to work on new routines but for now we work focus on bonding.  Best thing is, she slept all night!  Best first night ever with any of our kids!

We went to our adoption appointment today to hand over lots of cash and get official adoption certificates.  They gave her a necklace and doll for gifts.  The group picture is with the 2 other families that traveled with us.  We are so thankful to be doing this together with them.  One is from North Carolina, the other from Alabama.

Not only was today an awesome day for things to become official for getting home next week but we got the opportunity to find out more about Joyah.  She has been in foster care through a Christian organization run by Mr. Han, a Chinese man and a missionary from Pittsburgh who has been here for 23 years.  They both explained to us that they have seen 600 of their kids adopted to US families.  Joyah was a very sick baby with many challenges when she left the hospotal and came to them.  They placed her with the foster Mom she had for 16 months and told us that she was very dedicated to Joyah.  She even took her for rehab twice weekly at the foster care center which they said many mothers do not take the time to do.  They said she benefited greatly from her mothers care and they are hopeful that she will become very healthy.  We thanked Mr Han with much gratefulness and to that he pointed to the sky to give God the credit.

We serve such an awesome God!

James and Joyah are having a Father/Daughter nap as I type.

Gotcha Day!

What an amazing day!  We left for the Beijing airport at 6am and arrived in Guiyang, Guizhou around 11:30am.  Our guide met us along with 2 other families we are traveling with to take us to the hotel and meet our children at 2pm.

The moment we had been waiting for and prayed about so long had arrived.  We went up several floors to the Civil Affairs office.  When we walked into the office there were about 7 children with foster families or orphanage nannies waiting for us.  We spotted her and the tears of joy began to flow.

For the next 15 minutes or so we tried to bond with her as she sat on her foster mothers lap.  Her foster sister looked on.  An interpretor helped us speak with her foster mother about her habits and schedule.  Her mom even brought us new pictures of her and gave us her email so we could send her pictures as she grew.

The hardest part of the day was seeing her mother, who had cared for Joyah for 16 months, have to give her to us and say goodbye.  We will be forever grateful for her love and care forJoyah.

From the moment she was placed in our arms to 5 hours later now,  she has not cried.  God prepared her heart for us.  She has laughed, smiled , played and slept in my arms.  We could not have asked for a more perfect day.  God is so good!

I will post pics shortly!

Forbidden City & Great Wall

Wow.  What a day!  I think I feel a little more like we are in China now after climbing the wall but it all has not sunk in.  We both awoke at 5am and could not go back to sleep.  Hopefully we can do that in the morning again since we leave at 6am for the airport.  Yup, that means we are flying to Guizhou where Joyah is.  Tomorrow is Gotcha Day!

Today we visited The Forbidden City, the emperor's palace.  It went on and on, so many buildings, courtyards and people!  It was another beautiful day in the 70s.  It was so crowded there I had to fight into a bathroom stall.  In the US, women make a line and take turns going to the stalls as they open up.  Well,  I did that at first until I realized I would never get in.  I staked out one stall and fought off 2 others trying to squeeze in between.  Good thing that I am taller and bigger than 95% of them.

It took another hour by bus and crazy traffic to reach The Great Wall.  Our entire group of 3 families made it to the top of the section we were on.  The steps are so tall and steep!  It took us over 1 hour to climb up and 30 minutes to get down.  In the picture of us at the top, you can see below us a tiny parking lot.  That is where we started!

Our day ended with another hour and a half drive through traffic the reach the hotel area.  We ate a traditional duck dinner with the group and now it is time to get ready for tomorrow!