Sara:
if you are reading this...I keep getting the e-mails I send to you kicked back. Can you e-mail me please and update me on the kiddos??
For the rest of you: We made it to China! That flight to Hong Kong is LONG! For the last 4 hours of the 16 hour flight I was ready to jump out of my skin. All I could think of is that I could not wait to get off that plane and stand in line at Immigration Services. (How insane is that??)
Our stay in Hong Kong was short, and we got a little nap in and then we were back at the airport to go to Guangzhou. We all have stamps from Hong Kong in our passports now. That was the highlight of the detour to Hong Kong! The flight to Guangzhou took all of 38 minutes, which I think is shorter that Milwaukee to Chicago. This time there was someone from our agency with a sign to meet us! We sailed through immigration again (and we were sent to the "Special People" line again. Traveling to China with a Chinese child has proven to be a blessing when it comes to Immigration as we are always pulled from line and sent to the diplomat line.)
Our room is very nice. We have plenty of space and everything is glass and metal. Not exactly child friendly, but the weather is nice, so we plan to go to Shaiman Island and walk around once Matthew is adjusted. Our guide was impressed with our knowledge of Guangzhou and called me smart. She also was impressed that I could work full time and be a mom to 5 children. In China the grandparents stay with their children and help raise their grandchildren. She wanted to know if we lived with our parents (in China it would be Mike's parents) and we said "no, we live by ourselves." It is always fun to see people's reactions to the size of our family! In China, we would be like the Duggars, since the Chinese families usually only have one child, maybe two children tops.
Owen has developed a Starbuck's addiction (to tea) and is loving the food here. We ate at the Chinese restaurant in our hotel. We sampled some Dim Sum- which is filled steamed buns, he shared some dumplings with Mike and I had to try the lemon chicken since it was so good last time. For the record, it was just OK this time, and I was not impressed.
We learned that we will not be meeting Matthew until late Monday afternoon. We had hoped to meet him earlier, but that is just not how it is happening. Since we skipped the Beijing portion of the trip, we missed the orientation from our agency. That means we missed getting an update on Matthew. We still do not know if he stayed at the foster family ot if her was returned to the orphange. We have no idea how prepared he is for what is about to happen to him. I hope that seeing Owen helps his transition, and we REALLY hope his first day with us is less traumatic for all of us than Megan's first day with us. That was rough.
I am going to work on getting some pictures put up with the help of Grace. Until then, picture us happy and well rested because we just took a 5 hour nap in the middle of the day here! :)
Oh, and I am sending this through e-mail, so I apologize for any advertisements that come after this sentence...
if you are reading this...I keep getting the e-mails I send to you kicked back. Can you e-mail me please and update me on the kiddos??
For the rest of you: We made it to China! That flight to Hong Kong is LONG! For the last 4 hours of the 16 hour flight I was ready to jump out of my skin. All I could think of is that I could not wait to get off that plane and stand in line at Immigration Services. (How insane is that??)
Our stay in Hong Kong was short, and we got a little nap in and then we were back at the airport to go to Guangzhou. We all have stamps from Hong Kong in our passports now. That was the highlight of the detour to Hong Kong! The flight to Guangzhou took all of 38 minutes, which I think is shorter that Milwaukee to Chicago. This time there was someone from our agency with a sign to meet us! We sailed through immigration again (and we were sent to the "Special People" line again. Traveling to China with a Chinese child has proven to be a blessing when it comes to Immigration as we are always pulled from line and sent to the diplomat line.)
Our room is very nice. We have plenty of space and everything is glass and metal. Not exactly child friendly, but the weather is nice, so we plan to go to Shaiman Island and walk around once Matthew is adjusted. Our guide was impressed with our knowledge of Guangzhou and called me smart. She also was impressed that I could work full time and be a mom to 5 children. In China the grandparents stay with their children and help raise their grandchildren. She wanted to know if we lived with our parents (in China it would be Mike's parents) and we said "no, we live by ourselves." It is always fun to see people's reactions to the size of our family! In China, we would be like the Duggars, since the Chinese families usually only have one child, maybe two children tops.
Owen has developed a Starbuck's addiction (to tea) and is loving the food here. We ate at the Chinese restaurant in our hotel. We sampled some Dim Sum- which is filled steamed buns, he shared some dumplings with Mike and I had to try the lemon chicken since it was so good last time. For the record, it was just OK this time, and I was not impressed.
We learned that we will not be meeting Matthew until late Monday afternoon. We had hoped to meet him earlier, but that is just not how it is happening. Since we skipped the Beijing portion of the trip, we missed the orientation from our agency. That means we missed getting an update on Matthew. We still do not know if he stayed at the foster family ot if her was returned to the orphange. We have no idea how prepared he is for what is about to happen to him. I hope that seeing Owen helps his transition, and we REALLY hope his first day with us is less traumatic for all of us than Megan's first day with us. That was rough.
I am going to work on getting some pictures put up with the help of Grace. Until then, picture us happy and well rested because we just took a 5 hour nap in the middle of the day here! :)
Oh, and I am sending this through e-mail, so I apologize for any advertisements that come after this sentence...
