GZ - Day 2

Again, today was a wonderful day….We actually had the whole morning to ourselves because today was one of the big days in the whole process.  Our guide took all of our paper work, passports and adoption certificate to the US Consulate to apply for a Visa for Mina.  Wow, so unbelievable to think that in less than one week we will all be home together as a family.  We have one last thing to do to legally be able to bring Mina home……the swearing in.  That will come tomorrow!  So with the morning to ourselves, we spent much of the day checking out the hotel, walking up and down the steps…..Minas favorite and checking out the local shopping scene, Again.  That never seems to get old.  You can walk into the same shop day after day and it still never gets old.  If you like to bargain, this is the place to be.  “Best Price for you….Today only!”  Our hotel is absolutely beautiful.  They have an amazing waterfall from which this one picture was taken by.  Along with the waterfall, the entire staff is wonderful, always someone around if you need something.  After all of our shopping we met our guide for some lunch (not so good this time) and a stroll in a nearby park.  Very nice, other than the fact that it was raining a little.  After that we went to a local “Tea House” and taste tested some tea.  Its pretty amazing all the different types of tea they have and what each one supposedly can do for you and your health.  After our Tea Party, we had a little time to ourselves……so what did we do???  We shopped!  Mina is a sport.  We put her on my back in a carrier and she passes out.  By the way, (btw) this is Marc writing the blog tonight, because……..you guessed it……Amy is shopping.  We decided as a group to do a dinner cruise tonight, so after our shopping we boarded a cruise and sailed up and down the Pearl River for almost 2 hours.  The food was good and the scenery was beautiful.  This has been such an awesome experience.  I cannot wait to show off our little girl.  I can’t get enough of her.  She melts my heart already.  Thank you all for all your prayers and support.  We are truly blessed beyond imagination.  Until tomorrow….Good Night, or for you…Good Morning! 

GZ

Other than the fact that we miss our two little ones badly, we had a great day.  Mina is really warming up to Marc which is great.  We toured the Chen family temple today which was pretty neat.  The architecture and carvings are amazing.  It was so cute, a group of high school girls approached "C" and wanted to get their picture taken with him.  They all took turns posing a giggling and I think I actually saw his head double in size.  He has had quite a few comments, people have asked if he is a movie star,  I am not sure he ever wants to leave China... he really is liking it here aside from all the attention, he loves the food and the culture as well.  We took a long walk to the Pearl Market, and went through the "herb market" & pet market on the way... We saw some of the most amazing and unusual things!  I wish I could post 100 pictures to show you.  I can't wait to make my scrapbook!  We had a very interesting dinner, roast pigeon.  It was pretty good. Taste like a little tough roast chicken... Check out Mina sporting the chopsticks!  Too cute.  I really want to take a Mandarin Cooking Class when we get back (you know with all my free time). By the way, thank you all for leaving comments.  It really warms our hearts to know how much support and prayers we have!  We are blessed.   

LAST DAY IN CHANGSHA & FIRST DAY IN GUANGZHOU

Check out this Chinese magazine that Marc found our last day in Changsha!!!  Too cool,  it is a bit like Cosmo in the states, but it is named after our daughter!!! I don't know why I think this is so cool? 
We missed the day of posting yesterday, we had a super busy day and didn't get to the hotel in Guangzhou until 11:30... Mina was fast asleep, and we were beat...so I missed posting yesterday.  The last day in Changsa was bittersweet,  we were very excited to be coming to Guangzhou, but we were leaving the place where our daughter was born.  We visited a beautiful riverside park and spent the afternoon, before going to dinner and the airport, where again Mina was making tons of friends with the local people.  Most everyone was very nice to us, lots of people were asking questions and taking photos, especially of Mina.  She loves the attention, and goes up to several people and waves and shares her toys and snacks.  The local people get a real kick out of her and it really encourages her to ham it up even more.  It really hit me when we were taking off from the airport...  there was a huge red neon sign on top on the terminal that said "Changsha", as we were taking off for some reason, Mina was waving to the terminal,,, I lost it. My heart was breaking for her, her "story", and the possibilities of what her life may have been.  We are head over heels for our little "spicy girl" ( This is what they call girls from her province, and boy, she sure lives up to it, to call her a firecracker is an understatement). So how do you keep a 1 year old occupied on a plane, how about an ipod?  She started fussing right after take off until I gave her my head phones, this kid catches on really quick!  She is also quite the bed hog as you can see... the first few nights she slept great, but now she really seems to want to make sure I am close by so she has been sleeping with me halfway through the night.  Marc snapped this photo this morning.  Too cute.      We had a great first day in Guangzhou... It is sooo nice here. We really felt like we were in China while we were in Changsha, but here we feel like we are on vacation.  We are staying at the White Swan, which is very nice, and breakfast was great, check out Mina putting down the dumplings!!! Her fave ( along with Rice noodles) . We had a great time walking around the island, shopping (can anyone say "squeaky shoes"), going to Starbucks (Mina loved this because "C" fed her all the whipped cream off his frapaccino.  We did some touring of a temple, which actually made us feel a little uncomfortable and we all just wanted to go to church afterwards.  The day was so "tourist" event filled that the fact that we are still knee deep in this adoption process is a blur.  Mina had her physical exam today,  Which was not exactly high tech, but quick and painless.... Tomorrow we will just be touring and shopping and eating...  looking forward to it.  

What an amazing day.... I knew this was going to be a tear jerker, I think I am actually a bit numb. I can not believe our fortune of how today worked out.  We woke up early (Check out Mina's bed head), talked to the Kiddo's via computer, and headed out..  How fortunate are we that we were able to visit Mina's orphanage!!!  She has been in foster care a little more than half her time here but she had also lived at the orphanage and would visit often while in foster care.  We met all the nannies, the director and assistant director.  They were more than hospitable!!! I couldn't believe it. We had asked the other day if Mina had a birth note, and today they gave it to us... the original birth note with a short letter and Mina's time and date of birth!!!  I will cherish this always. The one photo in here is in the same spot as one of her referral photos.   We also took several photos of the city where she is from,  I posted just 2.   She fell asleep on the long trip back to Changsha.  We also went to KFC for lunch and then to the Chinese Walmart, what a difference than back home... unreal.  We are hanging in the hotel for a bit right now, and will have dinner later.  My Internet connection is still a little sporadic so I will post photos as soon as I can.  We leave for Guanzhou tomorrow evening, We are really looking forward to it.

Changsha day #3

Again having "blog" issues today's pictures are all posted out of order but this is how it went:

We went to this amazing Park,  it was filled with local people singing, playing music, dancing, doing exercises and Tia-chi.  Let me tell you this girl brings in a crowd.  Several people would stop to talk and play with her.  She danced and played with several older ladies at the park.  We fed the fish and walked around for quite a while,  we would have stayed all day, but our guide was trying to rush us a bit.  Then we went to the embroidery museum, which was actually much neater than it sounds.  The women that work there will spend 8 hours a day for over a year to make one really nice piece of embroidered artwork,  it was beautifully amazing and Mina's province is known for their outstanding embroidery skills.  I have been amazed that in China, it seems like being a craftsman or artist is a very honored profession.  Mina loves walking the busy streets and now waves and smiles at all the people,  which makes them laugh, wave and come and talk to her.  She has such an amazing spirit.  She keeps us cracking up.  Marc walked into a store, and she hollered out "Baba"  so cute.  She fell asleep, sitting between us on the way to the embroidery museum, and Marc carried her around sleeping for a good hour.  She has such a great time with the simplest things, and she is always busy.  She always wants to have something in her hands. She loves to smile and laugh & her face lights up every time we see a kid on the street.
She is definitely the spit-fire I had imagined from the first photo we saw. To steal a line from one of my girlfriends- I am so happy that I feel like my heart is just going to "pop".  I dream now of being with all of our kids, in our home.  That will be a great day!  China is great, but there is no place like home.  We are looking forward to being in Guanzhou,  it will be a nice change of pace.  Tomorrow we will visit Mina's orphanage & finding spot.  Although I feel blessed that we will have a little piece of her beginning, I am very saddened by it and not really looking forward to the reality of it all. We will of course post again tomorrow.  We just can't keep the cuteness to ourselves!

Pictures from Changsha day 2 (see post below)

Catching up on the photo of day #2 in Changsha