We're Home!

And in the words of our 5.5 year old, WE ARE GLAD TO BE HOME! Will post more later. Need to try and get some shut eye!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Today began just like any other day. We all slept in a little later than we planned, but it seems that the four of us were really needed to catch up on some much needed sleep. We were all very excited that today was the day before we left to begin our long journey back home. By this time, the three of us (Madison has no idea that her life is yet to change again) are just ready to go home. Today was also our swearing in ceremony at the US Consulate.

After we had breakfast at the buffet (although the food is very, very good, after 13 days of basically eating the same thing for breakfast each and every day, it was really getting old), we went back up to our room and began the task of packing up our suitcases (we did good, did not have to buy another one this time around) and thus the three we came with, did come home VERY STUFFED, but we managed to stay under weight with all three of them. We spent the better part of the morning packing, then took the girls swimming and grabbed a bite to eat for lunch. Before we knew it, it was time to meet Gracie in the 2nd floor lobby of the White Swan Hotel to board one of several buses heading to the US Consulate for our swearing in ceremony and the picking up of the immigration packet to be opened ONLY BY AN IMMIGRATION OFFICER AT OUR FIRST PORT OF ENTRY BACK IN THE US and in our case, it will be Los Angeles, California. Our appointment was for 3:45 pm and thus we boarded the bus at 2:40 pm for the 30+ minute trek the consulate which is no longer located on the Island. There were several buses headed to the consulate today and it was a full house once we arrived. I think all 46 families who received their children on September 14th, or at least most of them, plus a few others that had come to Guangzhou after doing their child's province portion of the trip were all at the consulate for their swearing in ceremony the same day as us. It was very anti-climatic (just as I remember) and uneventful. You drive 30+ minutes for literally less than 5 minutes of repeating after me and you're done. You get your immigration packet and child's passport and visa and you board the bus for the trip back to the hotel. The new consulate was nice, but it was still more convenient when it was on the island and within walking distance.

After we got back from our swearing in ceremony, it was just about dinner time so the four of us walked to the Italian Restaurant (yet again) for pizza and spaghetti (and our last dinner on the Island) and afterwards went back to the hotel to get ready for bed. Dale and Sammie did make a 7-11 run for ice cream treats (one last time in China) and then we finished up last minute packing and turned in early (and tried to get some sleep - we were all anxious for tomorrow to come so we could finally start heading home). It was time . . . will post more from home . . . until then, good night!

Next Stop Home

We leave for the airport early tomorrow (Friday) morning. Although we are not looking forward to the long flights home, we are all ready to come home. Our next post will be from the comfort of our home.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Today was really another day of not doing much of anything. At this point in time, Shamian Island is beginning to get old! We have had our share of the same foods/restaurants, same shops, same sights and same smells. Inasmuch as we had a lot of shopping to do, we did venture out to finish up our souvenir shopping, as well as finding Madison a small gift for to receive on each anniversary of her adoption until she reaches the age of 18. We did a lot walking around the island and did find some pretty good deals at certain shops. We also did another batch of laundry so that it was compacted for the trip home ~ makes packing much easier too! We were going to be adventurous today, but decided not to press our luck. In any event, we took the girls to the Swan Room (yet again) and then went swimming before lunch and then Madison took a nap. As I recall, Dale and Sammie went out and did a little bit more shopping. Later that night, we met two other couples for dinner at the seriously getting old ”Lucy's”. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable dinner. Afterwards we walked over to Jordan's Place and finished up our last minute shopping (and we still had a lot to buy). Jordan's shop was very nice and he was very reasonable in his prices too! We were very pleased with everything we purchased in his shop. We had not been there previously on this trip, and one of the families we had dinner with mentioned where it was (he moved his shop) and thus the reason we had not run across it (plus it was down a street that looked like it was totally immersed in construction). His shop is now straight down the road from Lucy's. After we got back to our room, Dale and Sammie made the nightly run to 7-11 for ice cream treats and the four of us turned in early as we knew tomorrow (Thursday) would be a very busy day!

Tuesday 22 September 2009

Tuesday 22 September 2009

Another day of doing nothing. After breakfast we met the other 3 couple and took pictures on the red couch and at the hotel atrium. We then went shopping, even that is getting old. For lunch Sammie had a noddle bowl and the rest of us had Lucy's take-out. Madison then laid down for a nap and Sam and myself went to the playroom while Dale watch Japanese Sumo wrestling on T.V. We then went out for dinner at the Italian resturant with three other family's, it was a good time. Madison was in a high chair right next to another little girl, Madison is not a very good sharer, so that it something that we are going to have to work on. Again Samantha is doing very well, but you can tell it's starting to get to her. We then figured out the calling card so Sammie could call Grammie and Poppie. We all went to bed at 9:30PM and Dale, Sam, and Madison did not get up until 8:30AM. We ate breakfast and are now waiting in the room while are guide Gracie is doing the Consulate appointment. Hopefully everything will be fine. Will write later.......

Monday 21 September 2009

Well, today was another uneventful day. After going to bed late, nobody woke up until 8:30AM. Then the usual: ate breakfast, went shopping, had lunch, put Madision to sleep, Sam went swimming, went to the swan room, then Dale went and got Italian takeout. Then we sat around the room, the girls took a bath, Dale went and got ice cream and then to bed. With that said, Madison is really coming out and behaving like a two year old. She is really getting very vocal when ever she see's food. She is really stubborn and throws a tanter tadrum when she does not get her way. She is also very funny. She mimics Sammie all the time, and you really don't know what she is going to do next. Samantha is hanging in there, but she is getting homesick. Even over here Sam swells up when she gets a bug bite. But we have no idea what is biting her over here. She has about 5 or 6 bites on here legs, but she she's they don't bother her. Dale is also ready to come home. I'm just counting the days until we come home, but I'm not looking forward to the long plane ride. Tommorow we are going to take red couch pictures, and maybe venture out to a gardens and mountain tourist area, but we will play that by ear. Time to go to sleep, we will write again tommorow. Bye for now.

Saturday/Sunday 19/20 September
It really was an uneventful weekend. Saturday, Sam had a head cold so we decided that we were not going to adventure out much today. Dale took Madison to the clinic to get her final four shots. While they were gone Samantha and I work on school work. When Dale got back he went out and got us lunch. Then we all took a nap. Sale and Samantha went out and got pizza for dinner. After dinner we all went down to the Swan room. And then we all were in bed by 9:00PM Madison has been nothing but smiles the entire day and is a real joy to be around. She is also taking naps and going to bed alot easier then the first couple of days. She also continues to just eat and eat anything that she can get her hands of.
After a good nights sleep we all got up about 7:30AM. I checked the weather for today and the temp was suppose to reach 97 degrees with a humidity of 87 percent and a heat index of 115 Degrees. After breakfast we met with our guide and head to a local musuem/temple. It was ectremely hot and one of the little girls broke out all over her face and Samantha got a bite of some kind on her foot. We all were drenched and decided to call it a day at 11AM. Once back to the island we went shopping and had lunch at Lucy's. We all then took naps then went swimming. After swimming we went out to eat and then back to the Swan room for a couple of hours then back to the room for the night. Today Madison was a stitch. She was so vacal and animated it was fun just watching what she would do next. Samantha is such a trooper even though she's not at the top of here game she is doing her best. But she really does want to go home. We all are looking to coming home. We really do not have anything officially going on until Wednesday, so we have to figure out what we are going to do to cover all of that free time. We are also tired of eating the same food day after day. Sam already has said she wants a kids meal when she get to LA. I guess thats it for now, will be talking to everybody soon..............

Friday Sept 18, 2009

Friday, September 18, 2009.

Last night went much better than the night before. At nap time, I simply rocked Madison to sleep and she only fussed about 15 minutes or so before she fell asleep. She slept on and off for almost two hours. She did wake up one time and I had to pick her up and rock her to sleep again. During nap time, Dale and Sammie again went swimming for almost 2 hours. They are having some good Sammie/Daddy time together. Sammie and I have also been having some special Sammie/Mommy time and she has been really good about doing her school work her teacher sent for her to work on. We do a little bit each day and before ya know it she'll be all caught up. She has already learned to count to 50 by 5's and 10's, count backwards from 20 to 1 and actually learned to count to 100 by 10's as well, even though we only had to go to 50. Like I said, she's been a really good trooper through everything thus far.

Today was another quiet day until the afternoon, when we met our guide, Gracy, to go the local shopping street, pearl market and had an authentic dinner at a local restaurant. Prior to our outing with Gracy, the four of us did some walking around the island and finally did a little bit of shopping for things we wanted to get. The prices seemed alot higher then they did last time, that or Dale is getting cheaper. That afternoon we took the hotel shuttle to the market area. We walked around, but we basically went into pearls shops. I have never seen so many pearls in my life. They just had bags upon bags of pearls. We ended up getting Sammie a nice pair of pink pearl earrings. We then had our celebration dinner. It was interesting. Of course Dale tried anything put in front of him, Sam and Madison eat only pan noddles, and I eat cautiously. We had dim sum, Vegtables, Shrimp, and Goose. When Dale and the other guys saw the Goose, they asked where was the meat. While Dale was chomping on the carcus, our guide said the Goose was a regional specilty and was cooked for eating the skin. Hmmm. On the way back we were going to catch a taxi to the hotel, but we could not get one, so we decided to walk back. That was an adventure in itself. It was about a 20 minute walk, and we could'nt get more local. From fighting the crowds, dodging people, cars, bikes, and even moving around a little boy doing "#2" in a piece of news paper on the edge of the side walk: we finally made it back to the hotel. We went straight to the swan room, where Sammie watched Shrek 3 and Madison ran around and around. In the room, I started to put Madison to sleep, while Sam nuggled up against Dale and before she get say "wheres my ice cream from 7/11, she was sleeping. Madison feel asleep within 15 minutes. We all slept from about 9:30PM-8:00AM. I guess that is all for now. We will be writing soon...

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Thursday, September 17, 2009.

Here it is Thursday morning and we had a very rough night. Yesterday at nap time, Madison decided she does not want to lay down and go to sleep and she cried quite a bit, but then I finally got her to rest for an hour and a half or so. Bedtime was horrible. No matter what we did, she did not want to go to sleep. She cried for about 3 hours, despite Dale and I trying to console her, rock her, whatever we did, SHE DID NOT WANT US TO DO. Finally, she stood next to Dale's bed for about an hour and simply grew more and more tired, and when it seemed she was going fall over, Dale picked her up and put her on the edge of the bed next to him and about 30 to 45 minutes later, she finally feel over and went to sleep on the bed by Dale. We let her sleep there about 15 or 20 minutes before we put her into her crib for the night. She woke up a couple times during the night, but Dale was able to console her relatively quickly.

Today we had Madison's medical check up, which went much smoother than we had anticipated. Back in 2005 when we adopted Sammie, the medical appointment was very hectic, but this time around, it seemed to go relatively smooth. Madison did need to have seven shots (this is a new requirement under Hague), but they allowed us to break them up between two days. She had three shots on Thursday and then will have the remaining 4 on Saturday morning if she does not have a fever. She ran a low grade fever and we kept giving her Tylenol every four hours just to keep any higher temps at bay. The medical appointment took about 2.5 hours. According to their scales, Madison tops out at around 18 lbs. The afternoon we were free to do what we wanted and while Madison took her nap, Dale and Sammie went swimming for about 2 hours. We had dinner at dinner at an Italian restaurant on the island and it was pretty good. We all had pizza and Madison had a bowl of vegetable soup.

Madison is a HUGE eater and she is constantly eating. She LOVES snack foods and it does not matter who has them, she will take them or she will throw a little hissy fit. She continues to do really well and her and Sammie are getting along great! Madison copies almost everything Samantha does and it is really cute!

The weather has been extremely HOT and VERY, VERY HUMID! It is almost too unbearable to be outside at times. Although we had hoped to do a few sightseeing trips while here, with the weather, it is a big iffy as heat exhaustion sets in pretty quickly, especially if you are not used to this type of weather. We are still playing some of those trips by ear.

Hope you enjoy the pictures we've posted. Miss everyone back home and are counting down the days until we are back in Minnesota!