Traveling to Guangzhou

The night before we left, the kids were getting restless in the room, so I pulled out some balloons. Brody thought they were pretty neat. He wanted to see if he could blow his balloon up bigger than Maeli's. When I showed him how to use the rubber band to make the balloon bounce back and forth, he went crazy and spent the next few minutes trying to get his to do the same.





We tried to see if we could keep them all in the air at the same time.



Before dinner, we went out to the courtyard next to the shopping center to play football one more time. Evidently playing football draws a crowd. One man stopped and stood in our "circle" watching for the longest time. I decided to offer some southern hospitality and tossed the ball to him. Smiling and laughing, he played with us for about ten more minutes. It was a fun experience.

This process is so emotionally draining... It's hard to describe, but the joy and sadness of it comes and goes so quickly for Brody and us. I long to get home. I miss Emma terribly. And then I'm saddened that we are leaving his birth city, the place he's spent most of his life. As we say goodbye to Shanghai, we are leaving a bit of ourselves.

Check out was at 12 so we spent the morning relaxing and getting ready for to meet our driver. Overall the hotel was very nice and the staff were friendly. The extra space in having an upstairs loft gave us more of a "home" feel.


Let's roll!


Saying goodbye to our guide Maggie. Ironically, our guide and our driver were the same the guide and driver Brody had last year when his adoption was disrupted. Maggie was emotional at the airport and it was evident that she genuinely cared about him. We will miss her too!


Waiting at the gate... We had to catch a bus at our gate that took us out to actually get on the plane.


The kids were thirsty so I sent them for water. Chase came back with Evian... American Water=$5 in China!!! He thought rmb and yuan were different. Lesson learned! At least he drank it all :)


Watching TV with Dad.


His love for sour cream Pringles hasn't wavered.


We were delayed after we boarded the plane due to "air traffic congestion" and this little guy was pretty fidgety. I wish I knew what he was thinking. The last time we was on a plane it was to go back to Shanghai orphange. If only he could know how just how loved he is already. Trust doesn't come easy and fear can build walls that could take a long long time to penetrate. Once we got in the air, he settled in.


Welcome to Guangzhou!



This kiddo likes to help! He drives like everyone else in China... We'll work on that later. :)


We met our guide, John after we claimed our luggage. He's a neat guy and we think we will have lots of fun with him this week. His English is great and it turns out he's been a guide for several families that adopted from Maeli's institute so there was an instant connection there. We arrived at our hotel and went to a noodle shop nearby that we enjoyed going to last time we were in Guangzhou. The store owners remembered us. When you find good food in an unfamiliar place you go back! Praying for a great week and more bonding with our little guy. Tomorrow is a big day for him. He has his medical appointment and TB blood test. These have to be completed in order for permission to be granted for him to enter the United States and to received his visa.