Stopping to smell the flowers

Well, last night we flew to Guangzhou, China (after a short delay of our flight–maybe 1 hour or so), and so far the only negative weather we have experienced from the typhoon that has made land fall here is just rain. We have had rain today, but it hasn’t put any kind of a crimp in our schedule. This morning we met our guide and made our first stop at the photography store where all of us GWCA (Great Wall China Adoption) families got our visa photos for our babies/children (one child is 13 who is being adopted the rest are 4 for younger). After that it was off to the medical office where our children got their “medical exam” (I put this in quotations because it’s a pretty cursory thing–basically making sure we are not bringing any communicable diseases into the US). So, medical exam–check.

By this time it was around lunch time and we were done with most of our official business for the time being, so Mark, Savannah, Jade and I went to get some lunch. We had a good surprise, in that we found out that Jade will eat congee (a rice poridge that many Chinese babies like). Since it’s been like pulling teeth to get her to eat anything else but Cherrios we were very happy to find this out. Yay!

After this, some more business. I (Melissa) had to go do paperwork with our guide, Helen. It all went very well (Helen is very efficient and detail oriented…thank goodness someone in this world is…if that were my job I’d be forgetting things left and right!). After this it was almost dinner time, for which we went out as a group. I’ve posted a picture of some of our dinner…cute, but unfortunately for those birds they are just too delicious to remain alive long (at least in China anyway).

Tonight Jade is not going to bed well, so I guess I’d better get off the computer (clickety clickety of the computer keys maybe keeping her up?) so she will settle down. Love to you all! We can’t wait to be home (notice I didn’t say COME home…I’m still not wanting to think about the flight home–13 hours for the 1st flight, not sure how long for the second from L.A. to Cincinnati, then maybe 1.5 from Cinci to Grand Rapids).

Blessings,

Melissa, Mark, Savannah and Jade