Around China

We are all looking forward to getting home.  We leave Guangzhou tomorrow evening and drive to Hong Kong.  We are thinking we may go to the zoo in the morning.  We can't leave earlier because we have to wait for our paperwork from the US consulate.  

Today we were at the US consulate and turned in the last of our paperwork and took an oath.  We will get an envelope of papers to turn in when we land in Chicago and Brooke will then be a US citizen.

I thought you might like to see some pictures that Brooke has taken.  I'll follow with some of ours.  

 

Yesterday we went to this wonderful park not far from our hotel. We had a great time playing with the Parsons.  The park has exercise equipment that mostly the senior citizens use but the kids loved it too.  

And here are a few more from today.  

No we are not bringing one of these puppies home.

 

Family Time Today

We had a fun day today exploring some places around Guangzhou as a family.  I will probably have a chance to upload a few photos tomorrow.  We did not take a lot of pictures today but Brooke did so when I look through them I'll post of few so you can see China through her pictures.  I'm glad we have digital cameras now so she can click all she wants and we don't have to have them all developed.


This evening we walked a few blocks to a park.  We were with our friends from Wisconsin and the girls had a great time together.  The park has lots of exercise equipment that the senior citizens use but the kids had a great time on it too.  We do tend to draw attention when we our out together with five Chinese children and two couples.  


Tomorrow morning we will be up early and go to the US Consulate to finish the US part of the adoption process.  We get the paperwork the next day and then head to Hong Kong.  We are looking forward to being home and settling into some routines.  


Brooke continues to do well.  When she is around people who speak Chinese she is such a talker. It has to be frustrating for her to with us and not able to easily communicate.  She does know some English and uses that to get her needs met or she is good with gestures.  She is so dramatic.  Can't wait for you all to meet her.

Safari Park

We had a great day today at Safari Park.  It has a drive through area like Disney's Animal Kingdom but much larger.  As we drove by the park rangers would toss food to the animals.  It was very fun.  After the drive through park, there was a walking zoo as well.  We all had a great time.

These are the kids in our group.  It has been fun having them along.
They are a great group of kids.

Daddy and Brooklyn feeding a giraffe.

And the highlight of the day for me was petting a tiger cub.  Brooklyn got to feed it.  (Petting a tiger was on my "bucket list."

We spent a quiet evening out and about around the hotel.  Brooke saw some of our group with with ice cream cones so we promised her one after supper.  We are sure it must have been her first one because Dennis had to show her that you eat the cone part.

And here is a picture Brooke took of herself in the mirror at a store.

We are really doing well.  We are amazed at this incredible little girl we are privileged to call our daughter.  

Tomorrow we have decided to spend a day as a family rather that with the group.  Our plan is to do a little shopping and just spend some quality time together.

Restful Day

The day began with a return trip to the clinic to have Brooke's TB test read.  I knew she would have a positive on it when I saw it.  She had been vaccinated so this is not unusual for a skin test to come up positive.  She had to have a chest x-ray to prove she did not have TB and it was fine.  

From the clinic we headed to Shamian Island. This is a very restful place to spend some time.  Brooke enjoyed playing in the park there.  There was even a nice gentleman who played badminton with her.  

The park has many sculptures in at and some really great places to get some pictures.  

In the past, most adoptive families stayed on this Island as the US Consulate and the clinic for the children's physicals were located there but they have moved off of the island now.  

This shop owner, Jordan, did Brooke's name in Chinese characters for her.

This was the first day that Brooke did not need a nap in the afternoon so we stayed on the island longer than some of the families and took a cab back to the hotel.  Cabs are very inexpensive here.  

We relaxed back at the hotel for an hour before going to dinner.  Brooke got a mini-tea set today and had fun serving us tiny cups of water.  

We had a fun evening with the Parsons and went to a genuine Chinese restaurant for supper.  

 

After dinner we walked to a local grocery store and got a few supplies.  We were almost out of bottled water.  

Tomorrow is a waiting day for us as we could not get a consulate appointment earlier than Thursday so most of our group is heading to Safari Park.  

We are all doing well.  Brooke puts a sticker on the calendar Dennis made for her and each day counts the number of days until she goes to America.

Today in China

Our day so far has been interesting.  We met for breakfast with our friends.  It is so nice having friends from home here with us.  It certainly has been a blessing for us as new parents to be able to  have someone we know and trust to ask for advice.  God was so good in working out the details so we could be here together.


After breakfast we headed to one of the few remaining old homes in the area.  China's rapid growth in the cities has meant that most of the older homes have been knocked down to make room for high rise modern buildings.  

Brooke and her new friend from our group enjoyed their time together.  This little girls is so sweet and has been such fun to be with and so good for Brooke.  It is amazing to see how kids can get along and communicate even with language barriers in place.

We also went to one of the markets.  Guangzhou is a harbor city and known for their pearls.  We saw bag after bag of pearls in the stores.  

Your prayers on our behalf helped us through a very tough time with Brooke today.  To this point we had not seen one single tear but when they came today, they came hard.  The grief of a little girl who had her world turned upside down was very hard to see and hear but in the long run we know how important it is for her to grieve.  We stayed with her, assuring her of our love. We knew this would come and expect it to happen again but that did not make it easy to see.  She is doing OK and has needed extra hugs and kisses this afternoon.  We are glad to supply these.  Our agency requires pre-adoption training that helped us prepare for how best to support her through the transition and grief and we are so glad we knew what to do when this happened.  

Later in the afternoon she had a good time playing with some of her toys.  She did her dolls hair to look like her own.

Tomorrow we will go to have Brooke's TB test checked.  From there we will go to one of the favorite places for adoptive families to relax and get souvenirs - Shamian Island.   

Thanks for your prayers.   

Medical Exam Today

Today was a medical exam for Brooke.  Think of your most chaotic experience at an urgent care and you aren't even close.  There are adoptive families everywhere and three stations your child needs to pass through.  One for weight, height and a very basic eye exam; one for ears and throat; and one for a very basic physical.  Because Brooke is over three she also needed a TB test.  She handled that well and did not even cry.  

Two new families joined our group and one of them has a seven year old daughter.  Brooke and Megan hit it off right away.  They were playing video games on the bus and while waiting at the clinic.  

After the hectic morning, we came back to the hotel so Brooke could have some down time and a nap.  This hotel is in a great location and there is so much right around it.  I ran out to get us some lunch.  I found a Chinese food place to get something Brooke would like and got Dennis and me lunch from McDonalds.  While Brooke napped we finished our paperwork for the consulate with our guide.  

After nap time we went and got a few supplies from the store across the street.  We then met up with our friends from home, the Parsons, at Pizza Hut for dinner.  Brad and his new daughter joined us.  

Tomorrow is a day where we have no official duties.  We will be tourist in the morning. I'm not sure where we are going but our guide will take care of all of that for us.  

We are doing well.  Brooke is also doing well.  She hugs us and kisses us often.  We still expect that at some point she will grieve for all the changes in her life.  Please pray for her as she works through all of this.

We have been using Google Translate to talk with Brooke and tell her things.   This has been so helpful.  Today, Dennis got her to talk into it and translate back to us.  She told him she was hungry.  Good thing I was out getting food at the time.  We will try this again tomorrow and trust she will get more and more comfortable using it.  She is learning words very quickly also.  Tonight when she was washing her face before going to bed, I was point to her body parts and naming them and she would repeat them.  Then she started pointing to things in the bathroom and wanting to know their names.  It is amazing how quickly kids this age pick up language.  

We appreciate your prayers, emails and posts.  We look forward to them each morning.