Let the fun begin!...

A quick note here to say all is going as well as we had hoped for so far!

No photos right now, but just a line or two to say that we are in the middle of a short layover in Tokyo and will be on a flight to the US (port of entry in Atlanta) soon! 

This post is for Tuesday--our consulate day.  Woke up early and had an 8 am appointment at the U.S. Consulate here in Guangzhou.  Security was tight and everyone was serious about the process.  The adoptive parents took oaths on behalf of their adopted children, soon to be granted U.S. Citizenship.  Paperwork was reviewed with the goal of receiving PH's visa for the US on Wednesday before we take an evening train to Hong Kong, the site of our international flight.

You can see a couple of shots from our day--but not at the consulate--no photography allowed there.  We took a dragon boat cruise on the Pearl River in the evening--very beautiful and relaxing.  Ate Papa John's pizza on the way--a big hit with everyone.  Our guide told us a story about how the river got its name--a businessman was making away with a huge and beautiful pearl but was so excited about it on the deck of his boat that he dropped it in the water where it turned to stone.  There used to be a large round rock in the middle of the river but it had to be removed because of the danger it posed to boats.

This post is for Monday.  While waiting for paperwork processing, we visited Safari Park.  That whole day trip was too much for JJ during her trip, so I thought we'd try it this time.  This is probably the most fun that PH has had during the whole trip.  We rented a wheelchair so he wouldn't get too tired and that was a big help.  He was scared during the dinosaur show (see video and you'll see why), but liked everything else.  JE had fun hanging out with other kids his age who are in our travel group.  Safari Park involves a lot of close up encounters with animals, such as feeding bananas to elephants and hanging out just

underneath an orangutang's hammock.   Included some fun signs for you to read this time too.

I am posting this in the morning, but the post is about yesterday (Sunday).  Not a big day--just waiting for paperwork to process.  We took a bus to Shamian Island with all of our Holt adoption families.  Here is a little about the island and a few photos.  Very hot and muggy, but beautiful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamian_Island

One day (Friday) lost in travel (except for a park visit in the morning)  We had some problems with our flight and ended up spending the day in the Zhengzhou airport.  But we made it to Guangzhou safely at the end of it all!

Today (Saturday) was medical examination and paperwork day and PH came through it very bravely!  Re: the TB test, he said (through a translator) that "if you hold very still, it hurts less."  Middle Eastern food and a couple of coloring pages wrapped it all up at the end of the night.

Another long but nice day.  Today we received several important pieces of PH's paperwork... still waiting for one more thing that we hope comes in tomorrow morning or early afternoon.  Then we went to the birthplace of Kung Fu, the Shaolin Temple, established around 479 AD.  

It was a beautiful day, warm, but not stifling.  Little breeze blowing in the temple grounds.  Along the way, we passed many Kung Fu schools, with large group of students dressed alike and practicing various kung fu moves, back flips, etc. across large concrete practice fields.  

In the actual temple, we saw a live show, visited the actual temple itself, and visited an ancient burial ground for high ranking monks from all over the world.  PH received a blessing from the monks and a jade necklace in the shape of his zodiac sign.  In one part of the temple were gold Buddha statues (huge) depicting the past, present, and future Buddha as well as some of his disciplines.  PH

has difficulty walking long distances (or even medium distances), but we were able to borrow a wheelchair to help him get around.  We will have to do this for other future outings and may need to have some kind of moving chair that we can take to locations ourselves.

PH has been to Shaolin temple before and he enjoyed being our tour guide.  The trees are ancient and have holes in the trunks from monks practicing kung fu finger strength through the years.  Lots of people wanted to take photos with L. and JE.  We'll include a sampling here.  

Henan Museum

Well, we've waited too late to blog -- It's been a long day and it's now past our bed time.  But, we thought we should at least post a few select pictures from our visit to Henan Museum.  We got to see some really cool artifacts (some were over 5000 years old), lots of ancient stone sculptures, and jade carvings!  Too sleepy to write much detail about it, but it was big fun.  Hopefully tomorrow we can post more pictures and comments about our day including going to PH's finding spot, bargin shopping, and going to the park where Jon joined in to do some Chinese aerobic activities with the locals (much to JE's disapproval)!  

Formal Adoption Day!

Today (actually yesterday--Tuesday--I'm posting for yesterday) was the day that we formally adopted PH into our family.  We went to the Civil Affairs Office and they had a nice little ceremony for all of the parents who adopted this week--about 5 of us, I think.  We all were brought into a circle and formally presented with our adoption certificates (a document that we will need and use throughout PH's life) in a ceremonial fashion.  You can see a photo of the paperwork and of PH making his handprint to indicate that he is willing to join our family. 


Then we went to do several steps of paperwork.  First, PH needed a photo taken for his visa or passport application (not sure which).  This was interesting, because apparently the government had given permission and was somehow paying for an entire farming village to go to an area near Hong Kong.  They were all in the office to have their photos taken.  Hard to put into words the throng this created.  We were in the middle of it, but our guide somehow managed to get the village to let us get in front of them for PH's photo.  Otherwise waiting in that line would have been our entire day.  One man wanted to sell us local honey from his bike basket. 


After that we went to the police station and had some steps there.  I'm going to include a photo of JE standing in line for part of the process--the guide and parents stood in one line while he stood in another.  This was all great people watching and experience.  Many little children like to see L. and JE up close and sometimes both adults and children like to practice saying "Hello". The police official was a woman and was very kind to PH and to us. 


Next step... the notary's office to have documents notarized.  One step with this is that we all have our photo made with the notary to prove that we went through the process. 


After this PH started saying "Woh eh le." ("I'm hungry.").  Have I mentioned that he eats like our son P.?  Well, he does.  Jon says he is going to have to add a part time job at Kroger to get the food discount and I don't think he was kidding.  I think we had better get cranking on the garden when we get back.  Anyway, when I told PH we were going to have mian tou (noodles) again today, he informed me through our guide's translation that too many instant noodles were not healthy for the body!  Everyone's a critic.  :)



After this unhealthy meal, we walked and did a little shopping... you can see a few images here.  We made a lot of friends along the way.  It's hard to tell, but the little guy in the photo was wearing split pants and he took advantage of the convenience in the store floor while we were there.   Students might want to look up the tradition of split pants.  

We had pizza in an italian restaurant in our hotel for dinner.  P. will remember we ate Italian quite a bit when we were in Chengdu too.  We'll go back to Chinese for dinner on Wednesday. We swam after dinner--there was a lot of energy to manage, I will say.  The shallowest water was over 4 feet and the smaller two boys were floating around in little inflatable rings. Jon deserves some praise--the boys had a great time. 


We are goign to visit a province museum on Wednesday and take a big trip to the Shaolin temple (birthplace of Kung Fu) on Thursday, so if people from school are tuning in, don't give up on us...we will include some wider cultural education type information soon.  You might look up information on the Shaolin temple--lots to read about it.  Some kids might have seen Kung Fu Panda. 

The layover in Beijing is loooooong!

Had a fairly smooth flight to China but mighty tired! Still waiting on the last flight. Thank goodness for wifi and charging stations! JE seen here while these fellers look over his shoulder while he plays Minecraft...

One more post for tonight.

1.  PH can put away some food.  He has been with us since about 11:30 and has had:  one big thing of instant noodles (huge), an orange, a banana, an apple, some of those little tofu snacks that Nannan taught us about, some candy, pokis, about 8 big dumplings, and an adult size portion of rice and a shrimp, tomato, and egg mixture (he selected dinner).

2.  Look at L. suffering from jet lag.  He missed dinner, no matter how many time PH called out "Di Di!"  PH thought it was funny.

We have PH! 

OK--this was more detailed the first time I wrote it.  I somehow erased everything.  We have been to the civil affairs office to pick up our new brother and he is a great kid!  Talking like crazy until I put the voice recognition translator in front of his face... then he only says "Hi" because that's what I said to demo it.  He has taught me how to say "Wait" in Chinese. 

He and L. are watching Tom and Jerry in Chinese right now and cracking up.  He calls L. "Di Di" (little brother) and me "American Ma ma"! 

He is a busy guy, just like all of the rest of our guys--he should fit right in. 

His foster mother was able to accompany him to the Civil Affairs office this morning--wonderful to be able to meet her.  She is a beautiful woman and had made him hand made pajamas and hand embroidered inserts for his shoes.  His foster father had gotten him a big remote control helicopter and I am struggling right now to get that thing charged and working. 

Let's see if we can give you some photos of our day!