Day 1 in Guangzhou

Sunday, September 13, 2009

We left Minnesota bound for Los Angeles at 6:15 a.m. on Friday, September 11, 2009. Our plane left Minneapolis at 9:00 a.m. and we arrived in Los Angeles at 10:55 a.m. We had a 2 hour layover and then boarded our second flight of three bound for China. We left Los Angeles at 1:15 p.m. on Friday the 11th and arrived in Tokyo (Narita) Japan at 4:20 p.m. on Saturday the 12th had one hour to make our connecting flight to Guangzhou, China. We left Tokyo/Narita at approximately 5:30 p.m. on Saturday the 12th. We finally make it to our hotel room around 10:30 p.m. or so and finally went to bed around 12:45 a.m.

Our flights were unenventful and all went rather smooth. Samantha did wonderful the entire time but did get air sick the last hour or so of the long flight fromLA to Tokyo. I on the other hand, got sick even before we were a block from home. Sammie only slept about 1 hour on the first flight, maybe 1 1/2 on the second flight, but did sleep most of the last leg of the trip, which was good. She was very exhausted. I think some of the air sickness had to do with not having ate very much yesterday as the food on the ANA flights left a lot to be desired for. It's a Japanense airline and thus all meals were japanese food. Dale and I were not very fond of their meals either. We both managed to eat some, but Sammie really ate very little, but did drink a lot of fluids, which was good. Once we got to our hotel, she ate a banana and had some juice.

We managed to get a bit of sleep but were up at 5:30 a.m. so we only had about 4 hours sleep in 24 hours. This caught up with Sammie and today she had a melt down and I knew she needed a nap, thus we laid her down around 4:00 p.m. and as I type this it is 6:25 p.m. and she still does not want to wake up. We are thinking we will just let her sleep until tomorrow morning. She'll probably sleep the entire night.

Today, Sunday the 13th, we were up early and went to breakfast. Sammie ate a really good breakfast today as I'm sure she was starving after having hardly ate anything yesterday. So far today, we have just taken it easy are and trying to get adjusted to things before we meet Madison tomorrow. After breakfast we walked about the Shamian Island and did a bit of sightseeing; most of the shops that early in the morning were still closed. After we got back, we took Sammie down to the pool once it opened for the day and all three of us enjoyed some water time.

Guangzhou is extremely HOT and HUMID and being outside in the heat really can take its toll on a person. My legs have been cramping up several times today; Dale says it is from the heat and humidity. Must be so because they are fine once I'm back inside the hotel where it is thankfully air conditioned. After swimming, we again walked around the island and this time the shops were open. Sammie had to get a new pair of pink silk shoes. They are very pretty.

We met with our agency's liasion at 4:00 pm today to get our paperwork in order for tomorrow (September 14th) as we meet Madison tomorrow. We leave our hotel at 2:00 p.m. to go the Civil Affairs Bureau where we, along with two other families, will be united with our children. When we met with the guide, she gave us two pages of questions she had faxed to the orphanage director and it gave us a bunch of information on Madison's habits. Here's a few of those:

* They call her "Fen Fen"
* She likes to eat all kinds of "snack" foods (whatever that means!)
* Her favorites drinks are milk and orange juice
* Her favorite toys - ball, doll, blocks
* She has a HAPPY AND ACTIVE PERSONALITY (yeah!)
* She's described as not being afraid of anything
* When she cries, giver her a hug and kiss and she'll stop crying
* She can use a cup to drink water
* She takes a bath one or two times a day

For the remainder of our day today, I think we are just going to chill and Dale will run out and find us some dinner some place and bring it back to our room. I think we may just watch a movie and then call it an early night so we can try to be well rested for when we meet Madison tomorrow afternoon!

Here's a few pictures from today. Sorry if ths post was a rambling of my thoughts, but hey, what do you expect on less than 4 hours sleep in 24 hours?