Guangzhou slide show

Almost home

Today's the day. We get sworn in. One of the families that we have been going to dinner with the last few evenings were sworn in yesterday and left today. They are actually from Lake, Michigan. They had quite a scare and had to go to the hospital yesterday. Their daughter got bumps all over her. Which in the states would not be a big deal. Parents might even wait a day or two to see if they developed into anything else but since they were leaving today they had to make sure it was nothing serious. If it were chicken pox or something infectious they would quarrantine them for two weeks to the hotel room. They turned out to be mosquito bites (strange since I've not seen a mosquito here). At customs you have to go through a heat sensor to make sure you are not running a fever. Officials also do a quick physical check of the babies. They got a doctor's note stating that it was bug bites so that they didn't get detained. They shared their horror story at dinner last night and we all started to envision what it would be like to be quarrantined to the room for another 2 weeks. You can imagine the conversations. So now we are all paranoid of being near anyone that might be sick. One of the parents came over to us at breakfast to tell us about a table near them was overheard saying that they had a virus going through their group. It was probably just food stuff but our friends got right up and left.
Now that it is finally time to go we are discovering it is a little bittersweet having to leave. It really has been an interesting experience. We have enjoyed the company of our new friends and hope that we can keep in touch with them. We will be going to say goodbye to Judy today too. We have to leave for the airport at 5:30 AM.
I'm looking forward to a nice cold fountain pop with ice and Mike is anxious to get a good cup of coffee.

Cluck, Cluck

Naomi has figured out to do the clicking noise with her tongue on the roof of her mouth. Many of the gift shop workers make that noise at the babies. She picked up on it and started mimicing it the other day.

Only 1 more appointment!

All went well with the consulate appointment today. Tomorrow afternoon we take a bus, along with many other families to the formal "swearing in", where we promise to love and care for Naomi. After 24 hours we are free to go. Unfortunately there are no flights leaving after 7 PM on Thursday so we will be leaving early on Friday. We will be spending a couple of days in Georgia with Mike's family before we come home. Jo-Jo is already there visiting and Brooke will joining us for the weekend too. Tonight we are going to dinner with the families that adopted from JiangXi again and hope to get a group photo to post. It's raining today but we are hoping it will clear up soon so we can do a little shopping before dinner.
We have a VIP guest staying at the hotel here with us. Mike saw a convoy of limos with a police escort coming down the street the other night. Then we heard that the governor of Hong Kong is here. I'm not so sure I'm excited about that. I'd rather the political figures stay far away from where I'm at. The military is all beefed up presently too. I'm guessing this had something to do with it.

Naomi Comaneci

Mama Mia!

Wow, we actually had a great meal tonight! We went with a group to an Italian Ristorante'. This place was FAN-CEE! I almost forgot I was in China. Mike and I got this huge calzone. To top it off, the whole meal was about $20 US/$128 Chinese/Yuan. We were with 4 other families. 3 of them had children from JiangXi Province, which is where Naomi is from. I am learning that certain regions have particular characteristics that are common in the children. JiangXi children are known to have lots of hair and for being tall. They also have a certain shaped eye. I wouldn't have thought there was much truth to that until I saw all the kids from there together tonight.
We have been exchanging contact information with all our new friends in hopes of keeping in contact. We have met two families from Michigan and have already started planning a rendevous. We also have found a few families that will be leaving on the same flight we are. It is reassuring to know we won't be the only ones with a baby on the flight.
We also exchanged email addresses with our Christian shop owner friend, Judy.
Tommorrow we have to stay in the hotel room from 9-11 AM so the consulate can contact us if they have any questions about our petition to adopt. Peter takes all the paperwork there and presents it to them.
Naomi is still being a daddy's girl which I am only tolerating because I know I'll get to hog her when we get home and he has to head to work. I'm just the official potty cheerleader right now. She doesn't seem to want to perform for daddy. Must be a modesty thing.

Green pizza

We had a typhoon yesterday so I wasn't able to post or at least I should say that I was too chicken to turn on the computer with the lightning after blowing out my last computer that way. We took a trip into town to what we were told was the electronics market but it wasn't. It was more like China's version of Best Buy. We toured the mall next door which was probably the Somerset Mall of GZ. Lots of designer stuff and no bargains. The grocery store was next door so we spent some time in there marveling over the strange food again. They must think we are nuts. I was taking pictures. There was a KFC outside the market but we decided to pass it up after we noticed the pictures of the food on the window didn't really look like the colonel's famous recipe to us. We ventured into the Papa John's nearby. It wasn't too bad. The pizza cheese had a greenish tint and they had fountain pop which we were a little leery about but we didn't find ourselves running for the bathroom anytime soon after partaking in it. We had a little trouble getting a cab to stop for us until I figured out that I could stand behind a pole and wave my hand and they couldn't see I was American until it was too late. We hit the pool when we got back to the hotel and later visited the "Swan room" which is furnished with toys from Mattel. Today we are just going to hang around the hotel and relax. We had some new adoptive friends invite us to go to tea later.