guangzhou

The final leg of our trip!

We arrived after a painful flight--T slept a little at the beginning (before takeoff, even) and then proceeded to scream the rest of the way. After a bit of confusion at the airport, we found our driver (our guide met us at the hotel) and headed off to the last stop on our journey.

Panoramic view from the Garden Hotel.

T and I stayed at the hotel, while Chip and Judy took a quick tour of the area for shopping and food. Chip came back with a pizza and the plan for the next morning, which was to start the medical visits!

Bright and early we hit the clinic, which started with getting T's visa photo taken. Then upstairs for various tests, including a blood test (man, that was hard to listen to--the nurses had some trouble finding a vein, apparently--we were outside the room, per protocol).

Then we got another tour of the area and walked down to Aeon to do some shopping. Across from the hotel we found lunch, and though no one spoke English (and we were the only white people there, folks), it was delicious.

It doesn't look like much, but this was soooooo good!

Now was more waiting time for paperwork to be processed, so we had a couple of sightseeing days. Chip asked our guide to suggest things other than the zoo, so she took us up White Cloud Mountain (via cable car!) to get a full view of the city. While there, Chip and I took a spin through the bird sanctuary and then we all headed to a restaurant for lunch.

Our guide, Judy!

We decided to hit up Aeon for snacks instead of eating out again, especially as we were tired and had more sightseeing to do the next day, which was a visit to Sha Mian Park (something everyone does, apparently). It was raining, thus not our best experience, but it was fun to see all the statues. We also ate lunch at Lucy's, an American-style restaurant, which also is something everyone does. 

Finally it was June 1, Children's Day in China, and what we're considering finalization day. Adoption appointments are first thing, so we dashed to the clinic to pick up medical paperwork and then over to the Consulate to get in line for opening. There were four families total, so everything went pretty quickly once we were all there.

Afterward, we visited the tea market and relaxed for a while. We ate lunch at another nearby restaurant and they found one employee who spoke minimal English, but it still was a bit of a headache--we meant to order two beef rolls, but somehow that got miscommunicated and we only got one. Chip ended up picking up something from a nearby stand later... We also went to Aeon again (bought treats to bring home) and ate supper at the Ramen restaurant there (they had a picture menu for English-speaking families!).

Our last day was relatively low key--we headed over to see the Ten Family Temple, but that was about it. We had to be up and ready to go early the next day to drive to Hong Kong for our flight, as traffic gets absolutely horrible the longer the morning goes on.

No longer a temple, this was a fantastic museum and activity center.

The flight home was long and T only fitfully slept, but he was hardly a problem (praise God!) and we made it to Texas on time with few issues.

I'm glad we had a good amount of time with our layovers, as getting through customs took some time... And I got frisked going through security in Dallas because I was holding T. Hm. But God was  gracious and allowed us to make it to our last flight.

It was a little weird to suddenly be in a place where you could drink the water without boiling it first, and to have plenty of English-speaking people around, too...

We made it back to Chicago on time and before we even left the secure area, met a good friend who was flying home from a business trip! He was thrilled to be the first to meet T in person. Then we trooped down to baggage and were met with a large group of family and friends, which was absolutely fabulous. I was blessed they all decided to make the trip down, even though it was late and a school night!