Guangzhou

Thank the Lord we have made it to Guangzhou!!!! Cheryl isn't here yet, but will be here at about 1 am. It is SO wonderful to be here! First of all, it is the last step in our journey before we make the long trek home as a family of four (all Americans come to Guangzhou to satisfy the American citizenship requirements of their adopted Chinese children at the US consulate here). Jonah especially is extremely excited to be back home to his own bed, his food, his friends, his toys, etc. Also, Ryan and I as we were being driven to Shamian Island (in Guangzhou where all the expensive hotels are - we're staying at one near the consulate) both noticed that Guangzhou is quite similar to Shanghai. Of course we adore Shanghai...the part of China where we used to live, and so that is something that we really like about Guangzhou.

It is darn good to be out of Lanzhou. There really isn't much to do there at all, and we had to stay there for awhile to wait for everything that we needed to have processed to finish. Of course, that is where Grady officially became our son (adoption date 2/18/08), so that does make it special. As a side note, for any adoptive parents reading this who will be going to Lanzhou to complete their adoption, my word of advice is: BRING SHORTS AND A COUPLE OF TEE SHIRTS (even in the winter)!!! Yes, it is cold in that part of China, but at the Sunshine Plaza hotel, they keep the heat up!! And since you will be there with at least one young child, you will be spending plenty of time in that hotel, and you will want some clothes to keep cool. I'm telling you, I'm writing this from my nicely air conditioned room at the Victory Hotel here in Guangzhou, and boy does it feel good to this long sleeved shirt wearing mama!!!

We had more adventure than we would have liked leaving Lanzhou. Our flight was supposed to leave at 4:10 pm. The guide, Yisha, told us to be ready to leave at 2. Since it is 45 min-1 hour to get to the Lanzhou airport from where we were staying, this seemed strange. Then she told us to be ready at 1:30. Then at 1:10, when we were in the room getting the boys ready for the flight (diaper for one, potty for the other, etc - we were planning to be down checking out by 1;15), the bellboys knocked on the door and told us to go down right then. We were downstairs before the other family (who I'm assuming was following the schedule which we were previously given). After we checked out and loaded into the bus, the bus driver drove way out of the way to get more gas. Then we got to the airport. Then the real fun began. Yisha took our passports and went to check us in. You had to buy the infant lap tickets (one for our family, two for the other - they brought their 14 month old son and were adopting a 12 month old) in a different place than Jonah's child ticket and our adult tickets. After running around all over the place with this other guy who was from a travel agency and was supposedly helping Yisha get the tickets, she came back over minus one infant and one adult ticket. So, she loaded us all over to the security area (6 adults, three babies, and one three year old). We were waiting for the rest of the tickets. Yisha and the other guy were running between counters, and somehow got the wrong tickets again. We knew that there was a direct flight from Lanzhou to Guangzhou leaving at 8:30pm, so we were thinking that maybe the people with correct tickets could go through security and hopefully get on the plane (this flight had a stopover in Xi'an and was supposed to arrive in Guangzhou at around 8:30 pm) and the others could come on the later flight. By this time, we were lucky to have not missed the flight but heard over the intercom that the flight was delayed one hour. So, everyone but Cheryl, Grady, and Katie went through security. More running around. One guy was demanding that we re-buy the tickets and Yisha was adamant that we not spend any more money. Finally, we had boarding passes. While going through security, Grady had to be wanded by the security guard, and every carryon bag that we had had to be opened and resent through security. During all of this chaos, Yisha is yelling to me from the other side of security that there is a problem with our boarding passes, but some guy from the airlines will be at the gate to get everything straightened out. Yeah right. So we get to the gate, and the other family isn't being let on the plane because their boarding passes aren't coming up as valid. I got Jonah, Grady, and I got through and took them onto the plane because they are both tired (missed naps) and hungry. Ryan stayed back to help the other family since he speaks some Chinese. I got on the plane a little teary eyed from the ordeal, and convinced some people to move so that our family can be together. At the last minute, everyone but Cheryl, Dean (the father in the other family), and their newly adopted daughter Mia got on the plane. There is an extra seat (but not enough for both adults). Apparently, Dean's boarding pass eventually worked, but they wouldn't let him on the plane with Mia because hers didn't and so he and Cheryl stayed behind with her. Ryan tells me that he told them to go find Yisha who was taking a plane to Shanghai. I also knew that Cheryl had the emergency phone numbers given to us by our agency. However, Dean didn't have the bottles, formula, diapers, etc. for Mia. Sheesh!!!!!

So, when we got into Guangzhou, and were pleasantly surprised to see that our luggage had arrived as well (we were seriously doubting it), we immediately asked the guide here, Grace, about Dean, Cheryl, and Mia. She tells us that Yisha called and said that they should be on the flight arriving shortly after midnight and should be getting to the hotel around 1. I really hope so!!!

Tomorrow if we wake up in time, we'll go explore the city a bit. We have never been here before. There isn't any official business to be completed until Monday. I will also include some pictures in tomorrow's post. For now, though, there has been enough excitement, and I will try to sleep some while the boys are, too.