Arrival in Guangzhou

We have made it to the last significant stop on our trip, Guangzhou. This is the City where the U.S. Consulate is and where all U.S. adopting families must stop to obtain visa's for their Chinese adopted children. This is the last leg of our trip and we really can't wait to get home. I miss Yasmin, Elias and Kia so very much . . . oh, and Bob too . . . and Diet Mountain Dew! Now to recap the last 24 hours . . .

We got up at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning in time to enjoy the breakfast buffet at the Sofitel one more time. Mom and I loved the bread pudding most of all. Ahn-Bao enjoyed the scrambled eggs, fried rice, and dim sum, oh and the cheerios. He is a very good eater when you find what he likes - fruits, not so much.

Minnie, our Xi'an guide met us at 7 a.m. with a driver to take us to the airport. It was foggy and cold and interesting to see what happens in the early morning on the streets of Xi'an. Lots of kettle fires in front of tiny store fronts with people buying something to eat, presumably on their way to work. Street lights were out, presumably to conserve energy, something people in China take very seriously.

We arrived at the airport right on schedule, but this time we didn't let our guide leave us until we were ticketed and ready to pass through security. Our experience in Beijing taught us a lesson. Minnie was too kind to oblige and helped us secure a boarding pass without a seat for Ahn-Bao for the flight. Our luggage was checked without any extra fees (they were still pretty heavy despite having offloaded some donations and gifts for the staff at the orphanage).

We ended up seated in a 3-seat row without a third passenger seated in our row. Take-off went fine and Ahn-Bao fell asleep shortly after take-off and slept for the first 45 minutes of the two-hour flight. They served us a meal (pork or chicken and rice and some sort of pickled vegetable sort of in the form of a salad). Ahn-Bao woke up and had some snacks and seemed to be pretty well entertained until we started to descend for landing. I think the air pressure started to cause him a lot of discomfort in his ears but he had a pretty major melt-down. It was really the first time we have really seen him cry -- more like wail! He calmed enough to carry him off the plane, but not until all the other passengers thought we were torturing him in some way -- maybe we unknowingly were.

When we arrived at the airport, we headed for the baggage claim area and realized that the luggage "trollies" (those carts you get to load your luggage on) were readily available and free so we loaded it up with our luggage. Our biggest suitcase suffered damage to one of the critical wheels somewhere between checking it in Beijing and receiving it in Xi'an, so the cart came in handy.

As we exited the baggage claim area, Molly, our guide from our agency was there to meet us. Molly is quite efficient and has helped families take home over 300 children to the U.S. from China since 2004. She clearly knows what she's doing. She escorted us outside and we were greeted with much milder weather in Guangzhou than in Xi'an. It was in the 40's and overcast, but there were green plants all around indicating that the weather in general was more representative of southern China.

The weather was mild enough that we have switched from the stocking cap that Ahn-Bao wore in Xi'an to a cap that he wears on and off here in Guangzhou (see the photo above). As an aside, Ahn-Bao has a funny way of pointing at the camera when the camera is pointing at him. The photo was taken in our hotel room in Guangzhou when we tried out the cap for the first time.

Molly met us with a driver and a van who took us to the Victory Hotel here which is quite nice. The Victory Hotel is in an area of Guangzhou referred to as Shaimann Island. It is an area that clearly caters to adoptive families. In the immediate area there are shop after shop selling baby clothes, toys, especially traditional Chinese baby costumes, diapers, formula, etc. This makes for easy access to the things that we couldn't easily find in Xi'an. We checked into the hotel at about 2:00 p.m. and just hung out for the afternoon. Ahn-Bao and I fell asleep about 4-ish and Mom watched the movie, "Enough" (the one where Jennifer Lopez learns to fight her abusive husband) in English with Chinese subtitles.

When we woke up, we went down to the hotel restaurant, dubbed as having a "western" style menu. We were craving some non-Chinese food so ordered a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and fish and chips from the appetizer menu. It hit the spot, and Ahn-Bao ate a lot of fries, and even a little sandwich and fish. We also had soda, not so easy to come by here, but again, no ice.

We went to bed with an appointment for Sunday morning at 10 a.m. to meet Molly and a couple of other families at the White Swan Hotel (the traditional hotel for U.S. adoptive families, the one with the famous red couch) to start the paperwork to be allowed to take Ahn-Bao out of the country and to his new home in 4 more days!