Day 16

It was nice to wake up in Guangzhou this morning. The kids said that the breakfast buffet here was a big upgrade from our previous stops. Again, that's a major first world problem, but this blog is unfiltered...you get whatever we think.. :) For those of you keeping score at home:

-our shower and our shampoo in Shanghai was the best (although this hotel is a close second)

-the bottled water here is the best (since the water in China is generally unsafe to drink, the hotels give you bottled water in your rooms each day. The brand here is our favorite.)

-the breakfast buffet that serves poison bacon is our least favorite.

After breakfast, Ruthie had to go to her medical appointment. Before she can leave China, she has to be examined (Seth will have to wait until his passport arrives). They told us that only one parent had to go, and that it was better if all the other kids didn't go, so Anne and Hannah took Ruthie and the rest of the crew stayed at the hotel. 

Ruthie obviously has been to the doctor before, and didn't like it. As soon as she saw the nurses in white masks, she started freaking out. This does not bode well for her future, as she's got a lot more doctor visits coming. But, Anne was able to console her, which is a big win. At her appointment, they drew a little blood and they tested her for TB. We'll get the results back in a couple of days, but needless to say, we're pretty confident she doesn't have TB.

We did have one mystery solved today, which is huge. She keeps repeating this phrase to us which sounds like "eta bien." We know that "da bien" means "poop," but we knew she wasn't talking about poop this much, so we had no idea what she was saying. We have the Google Translate app, which lets you speak into it and provides a translation, but we couldn't get her to speak into it, and when we tried to speak into it it translated it as nonsense. She won't generally repeat stuff for our guides when they ask her to, and they haven't been able to understand our phonetic pronunciation of it in order to help us out.

Finally today, she said it in front of our guide, who translated it for us: "Where are we going?" Poor thing has been living in a fog for days now, without us being able to answer her simple question. But, already things are looking better. Tonight, as we headed out of the hotel to walk to dinner, she was kind of whining, and Kris was able to repeat the phrase and then tell her "food." She stopped whining and started laughing. Not sure if she understood, or if she was just laughing at his Chinese pronunciation.

While Ruthie and Anne and Hannah were at the doctor, the rest stayed back at the hotel. We had fun playing with Seth. He's really opened up a lot in the last few days. Today, while we were on the bed, he rolled over for us on his own. And then he rolled again and again. That's the first time he's done that for us, so we were very excited. He did it again later for Anne (see the video below). Needless to say, we're glad to see some progress with him. He's definitely found his voice and formed some strong opinions with us. He's not afraid to cry when he is hot, tired, wet, hungry, or just bored. We have to keep reminding ourselves "this is really good" because life with a baby is as hard as we remembered. :) We're so grateful to have all our kids, and we're especially grateful to have these two new ones, knowing that our lives and their lives could have gone a lot differently. When we stop and think about it, it is really overwhelming what God is doing in the life of our family. 

Seth started to get tired from all his rolling, so we went for a walk. There's plenty to explore around our hotel, so we took our time. Conveniently, Seth took a nap in the stroller while we journeyed. Our hotel has a lovely garden attached to it, with a large koi pond with a pavilion. That was fun to see, and we knew that the rest of the crew would want to see it later, too.

When they got back from the doctor's visit, we walked across the street to a market to buy some baby supplies and some lunch. We found some Gatorade, which was a surprise, so we got some for Kris since he's still not 100% after the food poisoning incident. Incidentally, the Gatorade featured Jeremy Lin on the bottle. That dude is advertising everything here. Every other ad is either he or Jackie Chan. Or an ad for plastic surgery. We've seen an alarming number of those.

We noticed as we were out that the congestion and the traffic is much less here. Maybe it is because we are just on a side street or something, but there are much less people walking around, and we haven't had to dodge any bikes and scooters on the sidewalk here (yet). 

The two kids napped at separate times from each other today for the first time. We don't have adjoining rooms, so we have to walk down the hall to get from one room to the other (in all the hotels we looked at, the occupancy limit was three per room. Not sure if that is a specific to China thing or not). During nap time, Anne stayed with the two new kids, and the rest of the crew went to the other room. But, thanks to the magic of wifi, we can text each other for free (our hotel in Zhengzhou had no wifi, except in the lobby, which was frustrating). While they napped, Kris went to a meeting about our consulate appointment and the older kids had a dance party. (Because, why not?) They found a TV channel that plays American music and had fun with it.

At the meeting, there were six adoptive families all together. We worked with our guide to get our paperwork all sorted out (except for Seth's passport) in preparation for our consulate appointment. Another topic of interest at the meeting was how we were going to get from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, where we fly out of. There is a train between the two cities that is only two hours, or you can take a van (about three hours). Our guide was laying out the two options, and we were having flashbacks from the crazy train station experience when we rode from Shanghai to Nanjing. In this case, we would be on our own when we got to HK, and would still need a taxi to get from the station to the hotel (we would actually need two, since we won't all fit in one). So, even though the van is more expensive, it seems like the best option for us. As we were mulling this over with one guide, the other guide came into the meeting. She said, "I saw your family at the airport last night. You need the van, the train is too much for you." And, that settled it. She was actually able to negotiate a better price on it for us, so that is good. Part of the complication is that you need a driver who is licensed both in Guangzhou and in Hong Kong. Plus, there is customs to deal with. In the van, you don't have to worry about customs when you get to HK, because the driver takes care of everything (so they said in the meeting). Plus, he'll take us from hotel door to hotel door, with no need for a taxi in between. So, we're praying that all goes smoothly.

By the time the meeting was done, everyone was awake and getting hungry. We walked across the street to eat. The kids chose McDonald's, because they said the chicken nuggets in China are better than in the US. I'm not sure if I want to know why that is. Ruthie has discovered a love for french fries (how do you say "Eat your chicken before you eat any more fries" in Chinese?). Kris and Anne have discovered a loathing for eating out every meal for 16 days straight, no matter if it is American or Chinese food. But, we're hoping it will make us even more grateful to be home.

After dinner, we walked back out to the hotel garden to show the ladies. It was really peaceful at night. We saw a couple of very small bats flying around above the koi pond. We learned at the museum in Zhengzhou that bats are a symbol of blessing in China (the word for bat and the word for blessing are very similar. In order for that to be true in English, you have to say the word blessing really, really quickly.)

It was a nice thing to see, and a nice ending to our day, knowing how blessed we are to be here, and to be on this journey that is really just beginning.

For our sleeping arrangements, we've got the girls in one room and the boys in the other. Seth is pretty active in his sleep and cries out a lot, so whoever he is sleeping with him is going to be up and down a few times. Last night it was Anne, tonight it is Kris. Kris and Elliott had some fun male bonding time being just the two of them (since Seth was sleeping). I'm sure the girls are having fun, too, doing whatever it is that girls do for fun. Goodnight, all.

Here's the video of Seth rolling over. Hope it works for you:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21147169/Seth%20Rolling.MOV