Guangzhou days 1-2 China posts #4

We left after lunch on Friday for the airport to fly to Guangzhou, our destination for the last week in China. This is where the US Consulate is located - where Samuel has to get his Visa to enter the USA. We might have had way too many bags… but there are never too many snacks…

 And the Chinese airline (that I cannot pronounce nor spell) had tablets at every seat… now that's what I'm talking about… couldn't read anything on them, but hey, pretty cool.

 And before reading the story, here is the "after" picture.

 We arrived late, about 5:30 after about a 2 hour flight. Samuel did well for the first few minutes, then had a very typical of a two year old kind of meltdown. We are talking throwing shoes, throwing snacks, tears flailing (he is very good at real tears very quickly), you name it. Oh, and Silas and Avery were VERY upset that Samuel was upset... telling me "mommy, do something! make him stop!" Geesh.  Finally, Mr. David had the magic touch (which included Mandarin… not fair!) and little man gave in and fell asleep. Whew. I was sweating (and the plane was HOT)... we finally landed. 

Traffic was crazy... this was rush hour on Friday in a city of 21 million people... it took about 2 hours to drive to our hotel. But the van had AC, so at least we had that going for us. 

We arrived and met Esther, our program director, who had been with the one other family here in China the week before. They are from Houston - the Pollards. Robbie is a pastor and he and Leslie have three boys biologically, about 10, 7, 4...and adopted Ellie, 3 1/2 year old girl. David and Esther will both be with us all week here in Guangzhou.  Another exciting week ahead!

Here is a view from our hotel!

Bruce and David went out for pizza and we had a pizza and noodle party in the floor of the hotel. Note to self: bathe children after pizza and noodle party. Oh well, we were hungry! and it was way past bedtime.  We all slept well. 

Saturday morning was an early start (after THE breakfast, of course) with Samuel's medical appointment. He was a champ through it all. Silas and Avery were so sweet and concerned about "what they were going to do to him", "is he going to cry", "mommy, don't let him cry again"... The Pollards were there too and Bruce and Robbie stayed in the waiting area with the kids while Leslie, David, Esther and I went through the stations. This place was a zoo. So crowded. Next week is a holiday in China, so there are alot of adoptions taking place this week.  Height and weight, ENT, skin and heart check (doctor check), then TB blood draw. They didn't let me go back for that one, thank goodness. Samuel cried a little but was quickly okay after I gave him a sucker (I was prepared this time!).  He weighs about 25 lbs and is nearly 3 feet tall. Small compared to Silas and Avery, but not as small as I imagined. 

Didn't take long at all, and we were headed back to the hotel to rest. We stopped for a quick grocery run and lunch. Talk about a fish counter! Wow!  Silas and Avery just HAD to take turns fishing.

Then we ate lunch across the street at a local noodle place which was very good. There's no way I could order without our guide!  I cannot even read how much we owe. Funny. Again, the trust thing. The local food is delicious - different from Henan province where they eat alot of wheat noodles, heavier... here is Cantonese food, more dumplings, rice noodles, lighter fare. All is so fresh and very tasty, even if I don't know what it is. ha. 

Thought this was funny.  

Typical.

Sunday morning, we ate the HUGE chinese breakfast buffet (sing with me: "ain't no breakfast like a Chinese breakfast cause a Chinese breakfast don't stop…") and headed to Shamian Island for church and a little shopping.

Of course Ole Miss and Alabama kicked off early Sunday morning (China time)… so we found a way…

(we had eaten dinner in our gear in honor of the big game on Saturday night… and had a fun photo shoot)

Somebody is always (ALWAYS) posing:

Check out that sass!

And a few pretty handsome Rebels, if you ask me!  

Church was really neat, a Chinese/English service. It was really crowded, mostly with locals, and had very little AC. Guangzhou is HOT. Hot like Mississippi, heavy, humid hot. I cannot imagine coming in July. The church was Christian, protestant, and the sermon was on the faith of the Canaanite woman. Some songs were in Chinese, some in English with piano, guitar, and drums. The kids loved it.  Avery followed along (not!). 

After church we did some shopping (drenched in sweat)….

Everybody says we are "glowing" in pictures... actually, we are happy... but we are very high on coffee (very strong and good coffee here) and we are sweating profusely all day. :-)  Sweat sparkle. 

We found some silk traditional outfits for the kids and sat to eat lunch and cool off. We sat outside... but there was a fan... thank goodness a fan. Oscillating, nonetheless, but a breeze.  

After lunch, ice cream! Samuel's first ice cream cone... he was a large fan!  

We headed back to the hotel and enjoyed take out again for supper. Silas wanted pizza, so we had pizza.  And wrapped up the night with baths and some traditional Chinese gear for PJs!

These three. It's amazing to start to see them act as if they've been together since birth.