Category Archives: China

Day 16 Thirty Seven Hours of Friday

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Well, we made it home and thanks to the peculiarities of times zones and the International Date Line, this Friday was 37 hours long. We traveled for 23 of those and finally made it home. Mmmmm – a shower and our own beds!

Sarah is, of course, afraid of everything. She’s never seen dogs or cats up close, never had this much room to roam in, etc. Throw that on top of two plane flights, riding in a car seat, not enough sleep and all of the trauma of the trip and you can see why. When she first came to us, she was scared for days before she started to relax, and even after 10 days she would still grind her teeth when she felt stressed. At least with this change, she has calmed down and is drinking a bottle an hour after we got home. She’s smiling and talking, now that we’ve put the animals up. I think we’ll introduce her to changes a bit at a time, but I know that in time she’ll be fine.

God has really blessed us with our daughter, just like he did with each of our sons. Wonderful!

Total distance traveled … 18,239 mi
Total time … 375 hours
Which, for all you math nerds out there is:
Average speed (relative to the earth’s surface) … 48.6 MPH

Day 15 The Long Journey Home

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Today, we began our journey home. We elected to break it up partly because we wanted to simplify the connections heading home (want to try changing planes in Beijing with a 40 minute connection, a new baby and not enough sleep?) but mostly to make one long long long (but oh so simple) flight through Newark, NJ so that Grandma would have a chance to spend a few hours with her new granddaughter. We took the train back to Hong Kong, which was both more comfortable and faster than flying, once you take into account all the time you waste in airports. Through the train windows, we got to see a little bit of southern China on our way through, and it is obvious that the Chinese people cultivate just about every available acre. Almost all of the workers we saw were doing the labor by hand – including six men we saw carrying a huge concrete block that was part of the railroad construction that is underway.

Sarah had a great time on the train. So far this trip she’s ridden in a car, van, bus, train and plane. If we could work in a bicycle, a boat and a dog sled, we’d just about have them all. She is really a wonder and we are so happy that God has added her to our family.

Jordan and Sarah are really hitting it off as well. Once we got to Hong Kong, we visited “Snoopy’s World” again at New Towne Center … what they call “the busiest mall in the world”. Sarah dropped Daddy’s hand and went over to take Jordan’s as they walked through the park. She does have a way of melting your heart – which simply shows that she’s related to Jordan. In fact, several people have commented on how much they look alike. Weird, huh?

We will certainly miss the friendly Chinese people we have encountered throughout this trip. In every city, people have said hello and stopped to talk with us. Maybe we’ll try to take a little bit of that home with us.

Day 14 Visa, Don’t Head Home Without It

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The big event of the day was getting Sarah’s visa to travel to the US. The visa she has means she will become a US citizen as soon as she is processed at a port of entry (these days an airport). But while we were waiting for our appointment, we went to the zoo, where we saw some very exotic animals, like this dog. Yup, a real live dog! Good thing he was behind that fence – that beast could probably tear up an ankle in no time flat!

Another interesting part of the zoo was the “Goldfish Garden” where they have a bunch of aquariums with large and small goldfish of every color (even a few gold colored ones). Since Guangzhou never freezes, the aquariums are set out in a garden where you can walk among them. It was interesting to see the variety of colors, shapes and sizes.

Apart from dogs and goldfish, the zoo also had several squirrels and a raccoon. There were a few other things like elephants, zebras and pandas, but you see those every day, so they’re hardly worth discussing. Sarah was very interested in the animals and enjoyed the trip.

After the zoo, we came back to the hotel for a rest and then we were off to the Consulate. The trip was pretty uneventful, but it is critically important, because now Sarah can legally travel home with us. We are very ready to head home, and that visa is the last piece of paper we need to start the trip.

This evening, we had dinner with some friends down by the river and got to watch the light show. Lasers and searchlights light up the night sky twice every night. It’s choreographed to music as well which is pretty cool. One of the songs is “The Beer Barrel Polka” which I was not aware was apparently a Chinese classic.

At the end of the evening, we walked to the market to pick up a few things for the trip. Along the way, Jordan stopped to say goodbye to all the girls he had met, and they all said they would miss him and wanted him to come back soon. He’s been the most eager to head home, but he told every one of them that he enjoyed his time here and he wanted to come back to visit.

I think that we’ve all enjoyed our time in China, and certainly the little girl we’re bringing home is a great joy! I think that we’ll all take a little bit of China and the people here home with us as well – in our hearts.

Tomorrow … Hong Kong!

Day 13 We’re Good To Go

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Today’s big news involved us just sitting around and waiting. Just after noon, our paperwork was accepted by the US Consulate and we got a phone call saying everything was fine, which we expected. We’re ready to go home, so this is very welcome news.

We spent the day walking around ShaMian island (the part of Guangzhou where our hotel is) and visiting the shops. Mommy bought Sarah two big bags full of clothes and a new diaper bag – all for about $120 US which is a great bargain.

We stopped by the “exercise park” again so that Jordan could play, and so that Mommy and Daddy could remember just how out of shape they are. It was a slightly painful lesson, but Jordan enjoyed his time there.

Wednesday … we get sworn in and get packing … Thursday … back to Hong Kong … Friday … home … hooray!

Day 12 Off to the Doctor’s Office

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Part of getting approval for a visa to enter the US is the fact that our little spicy girl is healthy and normal, so off we went to the doctor’s office to get a quick checkup. As expected, all of the little girls in our group were found to be alive and well. A quick check and Sarah had the last piece of paperwork signed off. Tomorrow is the big Consulate day – although our guides do the sweating at the US Consulate while we just need to be available in our room if there are any questions. It’s nice to be finally closing in on the last bits of the process in China.

On the walk back to the hotel, we passed a number of people exercising in a park specially designed for it. In every city, we’ve seen people doing exercise, Tai Chi, dancing or some other form of morning group activity. Some people think it’s billions of Chinese doing this, but it’s not – it’s just groups of 2 or 3 or up to 20 or so doing something in the morning to get their blood pumping. We’ve even seen little old ladies doing morning stretches on their own. It’s really a great thing, and there seem to be a lot of different activities they do. Jordan and I tried out the exercise park, and then a little while later played Chinese hacky-sack with several Chinese people in the park (the old guy was great – we were not so great).

We also had an opportunity to tour Guangzhou. We visited a Buddhist temple where a few families chose to have their babies blessed by the Buddhist Master (not us, but a few did). It was interesting to see a 1400+ year old temple that is still in use every day. There was plenty of incense burning and people coming in for blessings and to “say wishes” as our guide put it. It was a completely new experience for us.

Later, we went to “Old Chen House” which is now the Guangdong (that’s the province) Folk Art Museum. We saw ivory and bone carvings, porcelain and many other traditional southern Chinese arts. One particularly interesting piece was an ivory carving that included an ivory ball that is 54 layers deep. To carve these, the artist starts with a ball of solid ivory and drills some holes into it. Then, using knives and saws, they cut and carve it in such a way that they create a ball-inside-a-ball. Then they do it again and again. Along the way, they carve intricate patterns on each layer. This one was 54 layers inside an ivory ball a little bigger than a softball. The pictures can’t do it justice, so I won’t even post them. This seems to be a repeating current in Chinese arts – extreme patience in creating an extremely intricate piece of artwork.

In any event, our part of the paperwork is now done and we’re almost free for the next two days (just a few little appointments to keep) until the swearing in on Wednesday afternoon. It will be nice to get home, but we will also enjoy the next couple of days of family time.