Still on China time- and more computer issues!

We made it home safely Sunday night. All our flights were early- amazing for us, we arrived at the Rochester airport at 9pm to our wonderful family and friends waiting for us. Megan seemed to handle all this attention well. Loved her balloons- thanks Grace! She seemed thrilled with her room, liked all the animals, but not sure she wanted Sabrina- who had planted herself on Megan's bed.
Thought we were home free when we put everyone to bed at 12:30am, all sleeping until Monday morning- but no such luck. It is 6am now, and everyone has been up most of the night. Katie and Grace went to bed great at 7:30pm last night- exhausted. I woke to them awake and playing in their room at 12:45am. Gave them some Benadryl to help and went back to bed. Woke to some noise at 2am or so, which I tried to ignore. Heard Megan laughing at 2:45, went upstairs to find her showered, dressed, and watching a movie on her DVD player in her room. I was greeted by both boys, who said they had been awake since 12:45am.
So here we all are, 6am and feeling awake, which I am sure will turn to feeling completely exhausted by noon.
Tried to use this early hour to transfer the rest of my pictures to find that my computer is not reconizing my USB ports- have no idea why. Soooo will try to do that later on Jim's computer.
Love to all from the family still on China time-
Benadryl for all tonight!

Beijing day 2 and 3

Sorry about the delay everyone! We are having trouble with our internet connection at this hotel- had someone in our room for an hour yesterday, they could not connect us. Luckily- we are back up tonight- was able to upload some of yesterdays pictures but it took forever, so

yesterdays pictures you can find here. The pictures on this page are from today, I will post the rest on shutterfly on Monday from home. Back to our time in Beijing- first off, the company we chose for touring has been amazing. We love our guide Echo- yes, thats her English name, she is wonderful. We have been riding around in a BMW van, really comfortable. Yesterday we began our day at the Summer Palace. Built in the Ming dynasty for the emperor that the Forbidden city was built for. Very similar structure to the forbidden city, but situated on a beautiful lake. The emperor and his family spent their summers at this palace as it was cooler. This palace has the longest hall of any structure. It was an outside covered walkway completely covered in beautiful paintings. I cannot remember how long it is, but seemed like we walked forever. We headed after this to the Forbidden city and Tianneman square, kids did great with all this walking, but really did not appreciate it, except for Kellan. He has really loved seeing everything we have seen. The others have been more interested in when lunch is, and how cold they are- and boy, is it cold here! Our travels from Guangzhou to Beijing are equivalent from traveling from Florida to New York. Kellan even bought a hat that covers his ears, a red army hat, but hey, keeps him warm. We have been carrying instant hand warmers in our gloves. Back to our touring yesterday, we headed in the afternoon to the Temple of Heaven, which was breathtaking. Pictures do not do it justice. If it was warmer I would have loved to spend more time there. There were many people flying kites, and many senior citizens all gathered on this walkway in their winter coats playing poker and various musical instruments. I kept thinking you would never see this at home. They were having a great time, and it was about 38 degrees outside. For dinner we had Peking Duck, which Kellan said was the best thing he has ever eaten. It was really delicous! Today we visited the Great Wall, Katie surprised us all and began climbing quickly on all fours up the stairs. She did very well and we all went together up quite a ways, when the girls, and quite honestly we, began to tire out. We headed down, Kellan and Patrick decided they wanted to climb all the way, which they did- we waited for about 45 minutes for them to come down- they were really proud of their accomplishment telling us how few people their were at the top and what could be seen from up there. This afternoon we toured a Hutong village, which is the oldest still functioning village in Beijing. Very few cars pass though, so after going over a small bridge we all hopped on Rickshaws to ride through the streets. We were able to visit with a local family in their home. A retired couple that proudly showed us around their small but very cozy home. They told us that the government gave them 3,000 Yuan to live on per month- equivalent to about $400 USD. Because of their simple life, they are able to save half of it each month, living off of less than $200 per month. The had three birds, one talking bird- funny to hear a bird speaking mandaring- and a pet chipmunk in a cage. Thought it was a hampster, but nope, a Chipmunk with a little wheel to run on and all! Went to a tea room, where we sampled for different kinds of tea- all wonderful. For dinner we ate at a incredible restaurant that serves the best imperial cuisine in China we were told. It was situated in a local park that was closed to nighttime traffic, so we had to park outside and walk through the park along a lake to get to the restaurant. We were greated at a cement walkway lit by two red lanterns lit with candles, and a woman dressed in traditional imperial dress who escorted us further along this lake to an absolutely beautful restaurant. We did feel a bit like royalty. The food was amazing. Patrick again, tried everything and has continued to be surprised with how much he likes the food! I am sure I am missing so many details I would love to share with all of you, but we are so very tired and ready to come home. Not sure if Megan Su Xue Wei has any idea of the significance that tomorrow holds for her. When we enter the US in Chicago she becomes an American citizen, but looses her Chinese citizenship. From then forward she will need to request a visa to enter the country that has been her home all her life. I am sure we will be back here with her in the future, but I cant help feeling sad for all that she is loosing. Tomorrow we head for home at 5:30 pm Sunday China time arriving in the Rochester airport just "four hours" later at 9:30 pm. If only our trip was that short! We are off to bed- our next post will be from home- with more pictures from our last day in China-

Love to all of you!

Beijing day 2 and 3

Sorry about the delay everyone! We are having trouble with our internet connection at this hotel- had someone in our room for an hour yesterday, they could not connect us. Luckily- we are back up tonight- was able to upload some of yesterdays pictures but it took forever, so

yesterdays pictures you can find here. The pictures on this page are from today, I will post the rest on shutterfly on Monday from home. Back to our time in Beijing- first off, the company we chose for touring has been amazing. We love our guide Echo- yes, thats her English name, she is wonderful. We have been riding around in a BMW van, really comfortable. Yesterday we began our day at the Summer Palace. Built in the Ming dynasty for the emperor that the Forbidden city was built for. Very similar structure to the forbidden city, but situated on a beautiful lake. The emperor and his family spent their summers at this palace as it was cooler. This palace has the longest hall of any structure. It was an outside covered walkway completely covered in beautiful paintings. I cannot remember how long it is, but seemed like we walked forever. We headed after this to the Forbidden city and Tianneman square, kids did great with all this walking, but really did not appreciate it, except for Kellan. He has really loved seeing everything we have seen. The others have been more interested in when lunch is, and how cold they are- and boy, is it cold here! Our travels from Guangzhou to Beijing are equivalent from traveling from Florida to New York. Kellan even bought a hat that covers his ears, a red army hat, but hey, keeps him warm. We have been carrying instant hand warmers in our gloves. Back to our touring yesterday, we headed in the afternoon to the Temple of Heaven, which was breathtaking. Pictures do not do it justice. If it was warmer I would have loved to spend more time there. There were many people flying kites, and many senior citizens all gathered on this walkway in their winter coats playing poker and various musical instruments. I kept thinking you would never see this at home. They were having a great time, and it was about 38 degrees outside. For dinner we had Peking Duck, which Kellan said was the best thing he has ever eaten. It was really delicous! Today we visited the Great Wall, Katie surprised us all and began climbing quickly on all fours up the stairs. She did very well and we all went together up quite a ways, when the girls, and quite honestly we, began to tire out. We headed down, Kellan and Patrick decided they wanted to climb all the way, which they did- we waited for about 45 minutes for them to come down- they were really proud of their accomplishment telling us how few people their were at the top and what could be seen from up there. This afternoon we toured a Hutong village, which is the oldest still functioning village in Beijing. Very few cars pass though, so after going over a small bridge we all hopped on Rickshaws to ride through the streets. We were able to visit with a local family in their home. A retired couple that proudly showed us around their small but very cozy home. They told us that the government gave them 3,000 Yuan to live on per month- equivalent to about $400 USD. Because of their simple life, they are able to save half of it each month, living off of less than $200 per month. The had three birds, one talking bird- funny to hear a bird speaking mandaring- and a pet chipmunk in a cage. Thought it was a hampster, but nope, a Chipmunk with a little wheel to run on and all! Went to a tea room, where we sampled for different kinds of tea- all wonderful. For dinner we ate at a incredible restaurant that serves the best imperial cuisine in China we were told. It was situated in a local park that was closed to nighttime traffic, so we had to park outside and walk through the park along a lake to get to the restaurant. We were greated at a cement walkway lit by two red lanterns lit with candles, and a woman dressed in traditional imperial dress who escorted us further along this lake to an absolutely beautful restaurant. We did feel a bit like royalty. The food was amazing. Patrick again, tried everything and has continued to be surprised with how much he likes the food! I am sure I am missing so many details I would love to share with all of you, but we are so very tired and ready to come home. Not sure if Megan Su Xue Wei has any idea of the significance that tomorrow holds for her. When we enter the US in Chicago she becomes an American citizen, but looses her Chinese citizenship. From then forward she will need to request a visa to enter the country that has been her home all her life. I am sure we will be back here with her in the future, but I cant help feeling sad for all that she is loosing. Tomorrow we head for home at 5:30 pm Sunday China time arriving in the Rochester airport just "four hours" later at 9:30 pm. If only our trip was that short! We are off to bed- our next post will be from home- with more pictures from our last day in China-

Love to all of you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Best to all of our family and friends at home for a wonderful Thanksgiving. We were really missing home today. Made it safely to Beijing, we are at the Holiday Inn downtown, nice but NOT the White Swan! They are doing major construction on the hotel in anticipation of the olympics, so the view out our window is of another wall! Our flight was smooth when we finally got off the ground sat for an hour on the plane waiting for air traffic control to give us clearance. Seemed like forever with the kids. The flight was three hours, made it to our hotel at 3pm. We were going to go to the zoo today but opted to do it on sunday as our flight leaves at 5:30pm. Just too tired and hungry after traveling all day.
Had a great buffet dinner here at the hotel, actually had turkey! Not quite like home, but we were happy. they also had really good mashed potatoes, that we heard another American cheering about at the buffet!
Sorry this is such an uneventful post, no pictures today either- but we are touring all day tomorrow, so I am sure there will be lots of great pictures. It is cold here- Megan says "too cold" when we exited the airport- about 30 degrees F. So we will be touring with our hats and mittens on!
More tomorrow-
Love to all of you- eat some apple pie for us!

Last day in Guangzhou

Our last day in Guangzhou- we wake at 5am, to get all of us down to breakfast and on the bus to the airport by 7am. We had a great last day here, the weather ended up being wonderful. Did some last day shopping this morning, Megan actually picked up a dress and admired it. She wanted to try it on- chose a beautiful pink one. Looked wonderful on her! This afternoon headed to the consulate for the anticlimactic oath taking. I got emotional anyway- a big shock I know. We had dinner at the hotel tonight. they have a barbecue buffet each night right on the river. The weather was perfect, the view was wonderful. Many boats went by all lit up with beautiful lights. Food was wonderful. Great way to end our time here.
I am feeling very sentimental as we prepare to leave here. We passed through here as we added each of our girls to our families. Not sure if we will ever be back here in Guangzhou, although I am sure we will find ourselves in China again as our girls grow. Guangzhou is a special place, almost like a maternity ward of a hospital. New parents proudly carrying their new little ones in their arms. Some bigger than others of course- I think we won the award this week for biggest "baby". We have been joking with her all week about her being our new baby- she thinks it is very funny and plays along.
Tomorrow we head to Beijing, and as much as we want to come home we are looking forward to our time there. Our three days will fly by and we will soon be on the plane home-
Link to pictues is here!
Love to all of you-

Guangzhou day 4

The beautiful Guangzhou weather has ended- it rained almost all day today, and will tomorrow as well. Never made it to the pool (except for Kellan that is) but still enjoying our time here very much. Today was the all important consulate appointment. Not an appointment we attend, our facilitator delivered our paperwork to the consulate, where they review it and decide if all is acceptable. This is when they decide to issue a visa or not. We needed to wait in our room from 9:45- 10:45am until our guide called us to say all was ok. We were sweating it out a bit, as our guide in Shanghai told us one of her documents was not really up to the standards the consulate likes, but that she received pre approval from someone, and was sure it would be ok. She could not remember the persons name that she spoke to at the consulate- soooo we were a bit nervous- but it all worked out, she will have her visa! Tomorrow we all go to the consulate to take an oath that all that we have attested to in our paperwork is true. Sounds important, but really a non-event, although always cool to visit the consulate.
After we got the all ok, we headed with our group to the pearl market. My intent was to buy pearls for a friend that asked for them, but got there, and ended up buying a full set for all three girls. They were just beautiful, and a full set with necklace, bracelet, and earings cost just $100 USD. Megan really liked hers, got to pick her own clasp to put on it- Of course she did not like the one I picked- I took one picture inside the mall this pearl market was in, hard to see in the picture, but this mall is about 4 stories high, each store sells just pearls or jade.
From there we went to the DVD market, a small store that sells DVDs and CDs for rediculously cheap. We walked out with 30 DVDs- Megan thought we were a bit nuts I think. Laughed at our stack of DVDs. She has no idea how much these cost at home.
Had lunch at Pizza Hut, it was right next door to the DVD store, and we were starving. Pizza tasted the same, not quite as much sauce as we are used to at home, but still reminded us of home. Megan is not thrilled with pizza, so ordered spaghetti.
It started to rain pretty heavy as we were leaving the market, so we caught a cab home and hung around our room a bit. Jim and I headed to the playroom in the hotel with the girls. I decided to give the hotel massage a try. We were told the place down the street from the hotel was also very good, and much cheaper, but with the heavy rain was not worth the $12 extra dollars it cost me to stay at the hotel. Massage was great- although different from ones at home. The chinese woman actually got up on the table and stood on my back! Thank goodness she was small! Felt great, and much needed after the long week we have had. This 45 minute massage cost a total of $20 for 45 minutes. Down the street it is $8 for one hour! If only I had asked the question about this at the beginning of the week! Many of the families have been going, and have loved it.
For dinner, we went back to Lucy's. Asked about the buffet in the hotel, but is really expensive. So got some umbrellas and headed over. Kristen- our free Lucy's bags for spending over 200 yuan are starting to pile up! Jim ordered a baked potato, which Megan perked right up and asked "whats that??" She ended up eating half of it. She agreed to try Katie's quesadilla tonight, with salsa, loved that too! Other things we are learning about her- she loves brocolli, pork, any kind of noodle, KFC, McDonalds, anything chocolate! She does not like ice cream (go figure) but does love chocolate milk shakes. When she laughs, she laughs with gusto- loves to tease and joke. She is lighthearted and takes things in stride. She is full of energy and gets bored easily- we now know how to say "bored" in mandarin, we hear it a lot. She is pretty wonderful, we feel very lucky! We have just four pictures from today- sorry to dissapoint you- not much to take pictures of in our room! They are here.
Love from Guangzhou!

Guangzhou day 3

Today started way too early for all of us. Now that the kids are adjusted to the time difference we are finding it hard to get them settled down at night all being in the same room. It was after 10pm before the little ones were asleep, I soon followed but ended up sick most of the night. Another stomach upset of some sort. I think I am just sensitive to whatever is in the water here. I really dont want to know what it is. Anyway, with how miserable I felt all night I thought today I would not be up to doing much, but after some breakfast, and various medications I was feeling alright. At 9am we headed to have all of the childrens visa photos taken, then to the medical clinic. Megan did not need a physical, as this was done the week before we arrived in Shanghai, but she did need three immunization boosters, since she is older. Poor kid must feel like a pin cushion this week. She took it all in stride, and headed back to the hotel. I needed to meet with our guide and one parent from all of the families to complete the paperwork for the American Consulate to apply for her visa and to classify her as an immediate relative which will allow her to become an automatic citizen upon our arrival in Chicago.
After lunch I was on a mission to take her to two shops, one that was selling down winter jackets for very cheap, another had some two piece jogging type outfits. We bought a couple of pairs of jeans for her in Shanghai, but they are all way too long. Just need something to get us by until we get home. We never made it to the jacket shop, after 45 minutes in the clothing store she was done. We purchased a 2 piece outfit, the saleslady said we got another piece for free, she just couldnt decide. She is not a shopper I think. Maybe this will change, she certainly is not used to shopping.
We stopped in a shop that we ordered granite etchings of the kids from and they were working on ours. The kids got a kick out of watching them work on it. Kellan, Patrick and Megan headed up to the room, and Jim and I with Katie asleep in the stroller enjoyed some time poking around in the shops by ourselves. Got a beautiful traditional dress for Katie which she insisted on wearing to dinner- now needs cleaning. But she loved it-
Went to the Cow and Bridge for dinner for all of you out there that have been here. Great Thai restaurant with some exotic entrees, all delicious. Jim's dinner came in a pineapple, Megan's came in a coconut. Kellan ordered a crab- the whole crab, which came with plastic gloves and a tool to pry it open with. On the walk home a little boy about Katie's age came up to her and gave her a flower he had picked, I grabbed the camera, she proceeded to sit right next to him and put her arm around him. Too cute!
So here we are, it is 10pm, Grace, Kellan, Patrick and Jim are all sound asleep in the next room. Katie, our energizer bunny is wide awake showing no sign of being tired. Megan is telling me she is not tired either. I am exhausted. So I am off to try and get them to think about sleeping!
Tomorrow we visit the pearl and DVD market!
For pictures from today- visit here!

Guangzhou day 2, shopping adventures

We are all much better today we are happy to report. Megan Su Xue Wei's fever is gone, and she was wanting to explore shops with us today! She introduced herself to someone in one of the shops today as Megan, for all of you who cannot pronounce her Chinese name! We have discovered that we have been pronouncing it a bit wrong all this time ourselves. The correct pronunciation takes a bit to get down! One other little tidbit I forgot to share with all of you, which is quite amusing, we received her school records, one of the classes she completed last year, required by her school, was Gun shooting. Thats right, our daughter had a whole year (not just a semester) of learning how to shoot a gun. Hmmmm
So, on to today's adventures. We started with picking up our large load of laundry- thank God for the cheap laundry service here! Then on to shopping. Asked Megan if she liked any of the beautiful silk traditional Chinese dresses in the shops- Nope, she wanted the wood sword. She did choose a pink silk robe, which she tried on in the store, turned to Jim and said "Daddy, Beautiful!" She is proudly sporting it around our room tonight. By lunch all the kids had tired of shopping, so we headed to Lucy's (an infamous restaurant for all of those that have adopted from China) for some lunch and chocolate milk shakes. Everyone else went back to the hotel for a rest as I shopped until my money was gone. I love this city!
This afternoon we took our group photos on the famous red couch. We posed first as a family, then with all the other families from our agency that have children from the Waiting child program traveling right now. For all of you that do not know what that means, the waiting child program is for children that are over the age of 6, or with various special needs. We have been chatting on the internet with many of these families, so it was nice to finally meet. The last photos were of the children being adopted. I was not sure how she would feel about this since all of the other children were mostly ages 2 and under, there are two 4 year olds- but she happily got behind the couch and smiled proudly. After all of this she looked at Jim and said "Daddy" then wiggled her cheeks to indicate they were tired from smiling!
She had some fun running around the lobby with her new siblings, seems so at ease with them. She is very much like Katie, very happy and quite the comedian.
Before dinner we walked outside to see the pools, the weather is nice here, but not quite swimming weather by my standards. The pool looked lovely, but was cold- Patrick told Kellan he would pay him 20 yuan to jump in the pool (equivalent to just over $2.00) he took him up on it and jumped right in. Megan got quite a kick out of this and had quite a laugh. I am sure she thinks we are crazy.
For dinner we joined another family at Lucy's again- funny thing at dinner, Jim and the other dad were trying (without a lot of luck) to fold a piece of paper into one of those thick triangles to flick across the table- the ones all of us did in grammer school, when Megan said "dad" and held up this swan she had folded out of her napkin- Oh, is going to be fun getting to know this kid! Tomorrow we head for the Visa photo. The rest of the group goes for their medical exam, Megan's was done in Shanghai and are told does not need to be done again. Very rare, but we are thankful not to put her through one more thing. More paperwork tomorrow. then of course, more shopping!
For pictures from today- click Here For all that have asked I took pictures of our adjoining Hotel rooms- wild with 7 people! Kristen, we are at the very end of the hall, and the rooms seem to be much bigger than the one we had in June. Plenty of room to move around, even with the extra roll away bed- Maybe because this is where the adjoining rooms are? We are very happy here- what a wonderful hotel!

Hello from Guangzhou!

Today we had to say goodbye to Su Xue Wei's wonderful family in Shanghai. She actually did very well with it, all the rest of us were a mess. They are wonderful people and I look forward to continued contact with our new extended family in China! They gave us each a card which I have not oppened yet. I cannot imagine being in their shoes and watching the child you have loved as your own leave, not knowing when you will see her again.
We are now in Guangzhou- wish I could say we were having a wonderful evening at Lucy's, instead we had to visit the White Swan clinic. Our new daughter woke this morning with a very upset stomach, became sicker on the plane (I will spare the gory details) by the time we got to our hotel she had a fever of 102F chills and all. We called our rep who met us right down at the clinic at the hotel. We were seen by a doctor who concluded that she has tonsilitis, and prescribed about 4 different medications, a nebulizer and a shot of antiviral medication- After all of this and some advil for the fever she is looking much better. Kellan and I headed to Lucy's for some take out, we brought back 2 orders of congee for her which she finished, and is finally keeping them down.
All through this she still has a smile on her face, charming the doctor and nurse at the clinic with her jokes. Didnt flinch with the shots- this kid has been through so much. She smiled for a picture so you could see her laying in her bed here- laughing at some Chinese version of funniest videos. I really need to buy some Chinese DVDs for her for home.
Did manage to get our laundry down to be washed- two baskets full. Hopefully tomorrow she will feel better! We will go to the clinic twice a day for the next two days for more antibiotic injections, all of this for just $50 USD, visit meds and all.
On a funny note, when we arrived and were unpacking she asked for her shoes. I pointed to the sneakers I unpacked for her, she shook her head and said "blue shoes" well, she doesnt have blue shoes, so I had no idea what she was talking about. She tried her electronic translator, then the book, came up with the word packed. Still had no idea what she was saying- called our guide, she was asking for her blue slippers- she has these huge puffy blue slippers which she loves. Her stupid mother could not figure this out, even after she managed to get two english words out- oye. She must think we are idiots! Anyway, there are only a few pictures from today, they are here. Now that we are in Guangzhou, we have access to blogspot and can view comments- if you wish to leave any!
Love from China-

Shanghai day 7, adventures in Bowling!

The past two days in Shanghai have been dark and rainy, very happy we did lots of site seeing those first 5 days!
Last evening we headed over to the other wing of the hotel which contains a sports bar area with bowling, foosball and pool tables. Su Xue Wei had never done any of these things, Jennifer said she did not have a lot of "play time" in her life. We put on our little bowling shoes- which I am sure she thought were pretty weird- then went over to pick our bowling balls. Wish I had a camera for when she picked this ball up- she had no idea they were heavy, we had a good laugh. The first few rolls were shaky- then she began to get the hang of it.
We then headed for the foosball table- never my favorite, but the kids love it. Su Xue Wei, Jim, Kellan and Patrick had the first game. She watched Patrick carefully as he spun the handles, took her about 30 seconds to get the hang of it! The kids were pretty impressed, and ended up playing for about 30 minutes, she worked up a sweat!
Tonight as we sat having dinner, she put her head down. Told Jennifer she was still tired from last night, that she had never been so excited. Are kids are getting quite an education from her. Tonight we had the huge task of packing up this disaster of a room, but it is done. She was quite overwhelmed with packing all the new things that she has, I do not think she has ever had to move before, but we got it done. She let me help her, and we had some laughs with getting it all to fit. She is so sweet, with the prettiest smile, huge dimples. Cant wait for all of you to meet her. Tomorrow we head to Guangzhou. The Chens are meeting us at the airport to say goodbye, and as hard as this will be, it would not seem right to leave without them there to see us off.
She seems happy and ready to go with us, we know we have hard times ahead as she adjusts but it feels so good that she is happy with us. Tonight after packing all the kids somehow started this tackling match, all jumping on Patrick and chasing each other around. It was loud and wild, but she was just giggling and I thought it was good for all to have this contact. We feel like a family- and it feels wonderful!
Pictures from today are here!

A visit to Su Xue Wei's school

Today we had the wonderful opportunity to visit the middle school which Su Xue Wei attended. We were greated by the head teacher and school principal. We taken first to a conference room where they had fresh fruit- bananas and oranges, and hot tea for us. We were most definately welcome guests. It is obvious that the teachers love her, she was greated with hugs and smiles. Her grandparents met us at the school and toured with us. Grandma greeting me with a kiss and holding my arm as we walked through the school.
The first room we visited was her class. She is in the 6th grade here. She did not change classes except for specials like computer and music. The gender imbalance present all through China now was obvious in this school, even in her own classroom. Of 21 students, just 5 of them were girls. We saw the seat she sat in, and saw how she interacted with her friends, like any teenage girls would at home. Great to see her acting silly, she is an amazing kid.
We then visited the computer room, music room and auditorium.
In a room which contained the history of the school with lots of pictures we came across a picture of Yao Ming- apparently he attended this school! Of all the schools in China!
When we were leaving the school grounds her class came right out to say their goodbyes, she did very well, no tears- except for me that is. I got very emotional seeing this sweet child, and how she fit right in at this school, then thinking how different she will feel for quite a while back home. How she loves to chat with her friends, how long will it be before she can talk girl talk with a new friend? This will be such a long, hard adjustment for her. Thankfully she seems like a very resilient child, who rolls with the changes that are happening in her life.
Today after lunch she and I headed over to the department store next to our hotel for some mother-daughter shopping. At first I was concerned that Jennifer could not join us, but really I think it was good that we had to depend on each other. There were a couple of difficult moments when we could not get a question across, but really we did OK. She picked out a couple of pants, and tops. One cute pair of jeans- which when she has a pair of jeans that fit her well, show how little she truly is. She bought shoes that she was quite thrilled with. And at one point when modeling one of her new outfits she said "this is very good!"
We are off to KFC tonight for dinner- her favorite, and really my stomach is not so good tonight so not sure if I will be eating anything. The kids seem alright thankfully but I definately had something not so good.
KFC just arrived- so more tomorrow-
Tomorrow is packing day. How we are going to pack all of this up I am not so sure
Love to all of you from China! For pictures click here.

Shanghai day 5

Our new daughter called me mom today- she did it trying to get my attention as Katie was getting into trouble- go figure, but still she called me mom. It felt really good, we have come along way in just two days. When I smile at her now she smiles back. She will play games with the girls and I and we laugh together. Today Grace decided she was going to play with my hair, and wanted to do braids, so she helped out and braided my hair as well. We are really doing alright- We have a long way to go, but I have faith now that she will adjust and bond with all of us. She just loves our guide Jennifer, and hangs on her as we walk. A big part of this is that this child LOVES to talk- with Jennifer she can just chat away. It will be hard for her when we leave here for so many reasons. I cannot imagine having no one to talk to, hopefully she will not feel too isolated. She is a really affectionate kid, so I took a chance and gave her a kiss goodnight tonight which she freely accepted.
We had a very fun, and again, very tiring day today. We did start later this morning, making it down to breakfast just before they closed at 9:30, we all needed that. At 12 we met Jennifer and headed off to "the bund" which is what they call the waterfront area. There is a small island just across the river leading to the ocean. This island is the financial hub of Shanghai with some amazing architecture. The one building you will see in the picture- a sphere shaped building was incredible to stand under- the pictures do not do it justice. We had lunch in this huge mall on the island- at a Kenny Rogers Roasters- Jim and I both ordered the 1/4 roasted chicken meal. The waitress, this is a sit down restaurant, returned to tell us they did not have enough chicken- go figure. Kenny would not be happy.
After lunch we headed over to the Shanghai Aquarium, rivals any US aquarium, had the longest underwater walkway in the world. The kids had a wonderful time- there was a tank where they could touch small sharks. I handed the camera over to Su Xue Wei, she had a great time taking pictures.
For dinner we ate at a wonderful Korean noodle restaurant. Patrick was again surprised to really enjoy the food. Not sure if I mentioned how inexpensive the food is here- even on this very upscale, westernized island we were on. All of our entrees were under $3-4 each- we ate for under $20 that was with paying for our guides dinner. We cant eat for that at McDonalds at home! So we are really enjoying eating out! We spent some time in an arcade in the mall. The kids loved this. Not sure if Su Xue Wei had done this before. She was not sure what to do with the tickets that came from the games- you cash them in for little prizes like at home. Of course at home you cannot cash in your 1,600 tickets for a rice cooker!
There was a air hockey table, which she invited Kellan for a game. Very cute.
We headed back to the bund after dinner to get a look at the waterfront at night. Even more
spectacular than Hong Kong at night.
Tomorrow we get to visit Su Xue Wei's school- should be a learning experience for the kids.
For all of you looking for Kellan's blog- last night he could not get his post to publish- it dissapeared into cyber space. Tonight he is sound asleep already at 9:45. So you can look for a post from him maybe later this evening.
For pictures from today click here!
Love to all of you-

We are just loving this city. Each of our other trips we were so ready to head to Guangzhou, not this time. As much as we are looking forward to our time in Guangzhou, we will leave here not seeing all that we would like to see.

Adoption day

Sorry about the late post today everyone, we got home very late- just too tired to do anything more than go to bed!
We had a wonderful day, Megan Su Xue Wei Houle if officially part of our family. The day began with paperwork at the local office for adoption registration. Jennifer told us that Shanghai is not real efficient with their paperwork, boy was she right. We waited 2 hours in this office with three other adopting families for our paperwork to be complete. Really, the waiting gave us an opportunity to play a bit. Quite a few pictures of this, the kids sat in the hall at a table, and broke into a game of duck, duck, goose- which all 5 of them played together for about 45 minutes! It was wonderful to see them all playing and laughing together.
There was a table set up with tea for people waiting, had to get a picture of it- as it said "free" then under it said "keep cleaning" - they meant to say keep the area clean, I am sure, too funny.
When the waiting was done, we had her final adoption certificate in hand and we headed off for some lunch. Went to a huge mall- makes any of our malls look wimpy. This mall was 7 stories high- the middle with escalators was open you could see all the way up. Beautiful stores, the floor with restaurants smelled so good. We ate at a traditionaly Shanghai style restaurant. The food was amazing- even Patrick admitted it was good, much better than any Chinese we get home he agreed.
From there we went to a bookstore to get some books for her to read at home. She picked just 3, even with us encouraging her to buy as many as she liked. We then headed to a music store where they sold instruments. This was Kellans request. We ended up buying a violin for Grace! She has been asking for one for awhile, it was just 30 USD, with the case! We probably should have bought the larger size for her as well! This one will fit her for about 3 years the woman told us. So I guess we are paying for violin lessons when we return home!
Kellan bought a beautiful new guitar, also for about $30- extra carry-ons for us!
From the mall we were headed for the Foster Family's home. We were invited to visit, then to dinner with them.
We arrived to find a local newspaper reporter and photographer there to interview us. After pictures and an interview we had some time to visit with them. I cant say enough how wonderful this family is. We felt right at home there, they felt like family to us. Brought out gifts for all of us. The Mother and Grandmother both commented that Katie reminds them of Su Xue Wei as a baby- which, I told them was what drew us to her picture when we first saw it!
We then headed out to dinner with them, they had reserved a room at a local restaurant- one of the most beautiful restaurants I have been in in China. When we arrived we were greeted by many of their family members who welcomed us with hugs- We had a wonderful dinner- The foster Mothers boyfriend- who speaks English made a wonderful toast to us.
The best part about being with all of them was seeing Su Xue Wei- who she really is. Laughing, joking and being silly with her family. The child we will come to know.
It was healing to have all of us together in one place. they are seeing us off at the airport on Saturday, as all good families do.
We better be off to breakfast now, as we have some hungry kids who are tired of seeing me on the computer! For pictures from today click here
Love from China!

A family of seven-

It has been a very long day for us, but more so for our new daughter- Su Xue Wei is now with us. I am not sure where to begin, adopting an older child is not for the faint of heart. This will be a challenge in more ways than one, but she is sweet and smart, and will be worth every bit of it to find out who she is. We are told she is very outgoing and very happy, lots of smiles, and never stops talking. Katie may have some competition.
Our day began at an office building of foreign adoption affairs. Our guide was under the impression that we would meet her there. Three other families filed in, one from Australia, one from Sweeden- all receiving their children as well. After some quick paperwork we were told we would be heading to the orphanage to meet our children. We were all a wreck waiting, not sure if she would be walking in any minute. Kellan even said on the way over that he was very nervous. So we got back in the van and headed over to the orphanage.
We headed into the building, into a large conference room where she was waiting with her foster family. The foster dad had his camcorder out and was taping us coming in with tears streaming down his face. This started all of us crying. after some hugs, the foster grandmother brought out three albums of pictures of Su Xue Wei from the time she was a baby. She started to explain each picture, when it was taken, and how old she was, like any proud Grandmother would- with a huge smile on her face. This family was so welcoming and warm, I said to Jim that they felt like our family, to which he responded "they are now" and he is right. We may not be able to communicate well, but somehow we were right at ease with each other.
The director interupted that they wanted to give us a tour of the facility. So we all went off to take a look. The first stop was the baby room. There were five beautiful little babies in a playpen area, all smiling up at us. One little one held her arms up to Kellan, he picked her up and held her a bit. We were able to tour some of the classrooms with the older children, and the preschool room, which was empty.
We stopped on the way out of the building on the steps to take a picture of all of us together. Something that we will all treasure. We are invited to their home tomorrow to visit, and for dinner with them. As difficult as this will be, it will be a good thing for all of us to spend some time together.
As far as Su Xue Wei- she has been wonderful with the girls, thank God we brought the kids with us. We thought it was the right decision, now we know it was. With them we are seeing her smile and laugh a little. With us she is pretty withdrawn, I think she is just really overwhelmed and scared. She has every reason to be. Her english is very limited. She has not tried to communicate much to us yet, but was able to say this evening that she was very tired and needed to get to bed. My heart breaks for her, and I wish there was more I could do to comfort her right now. She is a brave girl. Say some prayers for her as she makes this huge transition.
For pictures from today click here. The backpack she is wearing is the one we sent to her-
Love to all of you from Shanghai
Sandy, Jim and kids

Day 2 Shanghai- Shopping!

We had a wonderful second day in Shanghai! We just love this city- so much to see, and we have just begun to explore it! Our day started way too early with the girls waking at 3am. We managed to get them to stay in bed until 5, at which time we were all up for the day. This is because we were all in bed and asleep by 8:30 last night. Not quite over the jet lag, tonight we are forcing ourselves to stay awake until at least 9:30. The girls just went to bed, it is 7pm here, they have been asking to go to bed since 5pm.
Jennifer picked us up at 11am at the hotel, walked right by Kellan, who headed down to the lobby before us. When he waved and called her name- she apologized and said that "all American boys look the same to me" He got quite a chuckle out of this.
We took two cabs down to Nanjing road, a very popular tourist area which is full of great shops. Department store type, but fun to look around. Had a very good lunch, but Kristen would be dissapointed- was called the "MoJo cafe" and was a western style restaurant. There were some asian choices, which Jim and I ordered, but the kids stuck with grilled cheese and Spaghetti, all were happy. On the way out of this restaurant I spotted a traditional Chinese restaurant, we may head back that way later in the week. Stopped in a park area with beautiful fountains, Kellan was stopped by a couple of young Chinese girls who asked if he would take their picture in front of the fountain, he did, they then asked for a picture With him, he declined, but we all agreed he should have done it!
Thanks Jin for recommending this area- had a great time!
From there we took a cab to "Old town" a beautiful area with LOTS of shopping- much like Guangzhou, prices just as good, but beautiful buildings. Took many pictures, Jennifer helped us get some great deals, we would have paid much more without her. From there we headed home- Kristen you may want to stop reading here-
got some KFC takeout for dinner- hey, it was cheap, right outside our hotel, and made everyone happy. I know, you are dissapointed, we promise to get some real Chinese food before we leave! We are missing Schell here to scope out the good restaurants for us.
On that note, after my post yesterday we headed out to dinner, a small restaurant inside the mall near our hotel. Jennifer thought it would be good food, well, not so good. We had a very difficult time ordering, as nothing on the menu was remotely familiar. There were a couple of western choices, Patrick went for the Hawiian pizza, which ended up having some strange meat under the cheese. Needless to say, he picked everything off and ate the bread. Our dinners, once they arrived were also very strange. Our dinners were a bit delayed by the 15 minute Power Outage in the restaurant- the only light we had came from the mall windows. The kitchen was dark! Along with dinner came some sort of complimentary pudding type thing for the girls- waitress said it was free for us. Took some pictures of this, as we could not decide if it was an appetizer or dessert- we believe it was some sort of green tea pudding, but had red beans on the top. Hmmm, thank goodness for the peanut butter we brought!
One more funny note about yesterdays adventures in cab riding, as there are so many of us, we need to take two cabs everywhere we go. No big deal here, as a cab ride costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $2-$3. We were heading back to our hotel, Jennifer hailed a couple of cabs for us, loaded Jim, Katie and I into the first cab- told the driver where to go, and we were off. She followed behind with Grace and the boys. Well, one minute or so into the ride the driver pulls over, says something to us and holds out his hand. We have no idea what he wants- Jim tries to pay him, not what he wanted, so we give him our room key- to communicate where we were going- apparently he had no idea what Jennifer said to him. Why he took off without knowing we have no idea.
Lots of pictures from today- can be viewed by clicking here
We are off to bed, tommorow at 9am, we will have a new daughter, new sister. We are all very excited, but nervous, not sure what to expect. Can only imagine what she is thinking tonight-

Day 1 in Shanghai

Feeling so much better today after some much needed sleep. Everyone slept strait through the night thankfully. I was sure with the time difference one of the girls would be up half way through the night- I think we were all just exhausted. After we were all up and showered ( not a small task with 6 people in a hotel) we headed off to breakfast. Patrick was thrilled to see some familiar food on the buffet!
After breakfast we met up with our guide Jennifer, who we had on our trip for Katie two years ago. We stopped at a local grocery store to stock up on water and snacks, had some lunch in our room then off to a local temple. The girls saw some women kneeling to pray and preceeded to kneel right down after them and bow. I got a cute picture of them doing this! I changed the site I upload pictures to, the link should work better this way. Click here to see all of our pictures!
It feels so good to be back here. The familiar smell in the air- all of you that have been to China know what I mean- it brings me right back to our trips for the girls. It is also exciting to see the kids experiencing all of this for the first time.
Enough for now- we are off to explore the park accross from our hotel, then to dinner at a restaurant our guide said was "safe" for us. Patrick is really looking forward to it! I will let you know what he eats tomorrow. He was very happy with a peanut butter sandwich for lunch!

Hello from Shanghai-

After a flight that Patrick described as feeling like it lasted 4 days, waiting 1 1/2 hours in line to go through customs, finally locating our luggage- (they had put our flights luggage asside and no one seemed to know anything about it) THEN driving 1 1/2 hours to our hotel in traffic that rivals NYC in rush our we have made it to our hotel in Shanghai.
The kids are all tucked in, and have really been troopers. We made it to the Holiday Inn downtown Shanghai at about 6:30 pm, unpacked, ordered some room service and we are all off to bed . Pray they all sleep through the night, god knows they are tired enough.
I have some great pictures of us on the plane, but am just too tired to do one more thing tonight!

We do not have access here to read our blog- just to post, so any responses on the blog will not get though to us! You can email us at jimandsandyhoule@yahoo.com

Nighty Night-
Jim, Sandy, and four very tired children

Travel dates and itinerary- woo hoo!

Here it is- our day to day itinerary! We are leaving Thursday morning on United- thanks to the great people at United, called them directly on Wed. they gave us a great rate, way better than the two travel agencies we received quotes from- and we have seats all together! Pretty amazing when you think we purchased tickets for 6 people 8 days before the flight!
So here it is for all interested:

Nov 9th, fly out of Rochester at 6am to Chicago. 10:30am fly direct to Shanghai from Chicago arriving at 2:30pm Friday China time (1:30am Friday our time)

Nov 11, 12th- free time in Shanghai

Nov 13th- meet Miss Megan Su Xue Wei for the first time!

Nov 14th- Adoption finalization- paperwork, paperwork, paperwork

Nov 15th-17th- tour, shop waiting on her passport to be processed

Nov 18th- Receive passport and fly to Guangzhou where the American Consulate is located- Check into the White Swan Hotel!!

Nov 19th- Free time to Shop, Shop, Shop!

Nov 20th- Visa Physical and Photo day-

Nov 21st- Consulate appointment- we do not go to this, our representative delivers our visa paperwork to the American Consulate

Nov 22nd- We go as a family to the Consulate to take an Oath that all we have reported in all of our adoption paperwork is true!

Nov 23rd- Happy Thanksgiving! We fly to Beijing today, arriving at 12:30pm China time- Check into the Holiday Inn Downtown Beijing, visit the Panda's at the zoo this afternoon!

Nov 24th- Tour of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City in the morning, after lunch Tour of the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. Peking Duck Dinner-

Nov 25th- Visit the Great Wall in the morning! After Lunch we will ride in Rickshaws and tour the Hutong village- an ancient village which families have lived in for generations- we will visit a local family there. Dinner we will be enjoying the Imperial Cuisine at Fangshan Restaurant- which boasts dishes once prepared for the emperor- referred to as a "luxurious evening"- for all of you that know Katie- I can hear your laughter!

Nov 26th- head for Home at 5:30pm China time arriving home just "4" hours later at 9:30pm in Rochester- we gain a day going home! Whew, I am tired already!

Anyone have a good suggestion on how to entertain Katie for 15 hours on a plane??