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Updates:

Have started something new - a BLOG! Check it out on the links page.

Still writing the last Travel Entry

Now posting on the Home Updates page 01/31/09

Email from the website is not working. My personal email address larawade@sbcglobal.net

China Time:

Travel Date: 1/21/2009
Subject: Approved!

What we did today:
Today everyone was a little housebound (hotel-bound). From 10:00 until 11:30 am, at least one parent needed to remain in the room available to receive a phone call just in case there were any problems with the consulate paperwork while our guides were taking care of our visa applications.

Well we weren’t the only family who received a paperwork problem call. Because her original referral lists a development delay, it had to be included on one of the sheets I filled out back on Sunday. I just keep forgetting that part of her paperwork. No huge problem, just re-fill out this part and sign again here. Another family was required to add another “special need” because their poor child appears to have been so malnourished and a third family did need to actually travel to the consulate to sign documents again in person.

After all the resubmissions – WE WERE ALL APPROVED! Yeah! Now we can all be sworn in as parents tomorrow (again, but this time for the US) and receive our children’s visas. Woo-hoo! The last piece of paperwork so we can come home!

We’re all so funny right now. We’re not just counting days until we leave. We’ve been counting meals and sleeps. So many breakfasts, dinners, or nights left in China. As great as our group has been, we are now all so ready just to be home with our kids and begin the new phase of family life. Some of these lovely behaviors in China, we’d really like to leave here – “What happens in China, stays in China.”

While waiting in the hotel, Christopher earned the “Awesome Dad of the Year” award (thanks to me and the dollar store). One of the treasures I packed was a little pump and long balloons for making balloon animals. What a nice quiet activity for our family!? After all our sword fighting as family has proven this theory wrong! We joined the hallway party and brought along our balloons. Christopher sat on the floor making swords for everyone. Super Dad! None of my pictures are all that great. It is really hard to capture all the action. But everyone had a blast!

After lunch, some of the group went to the Chen Family Museum. We decided that the time out of the hotel would be great. We all needed to stretch our legs and breathe in some more pollution.

Want to hear how great the museum was? Can’t really say. We were there, but our focus was more on her highness than on the beautiful carvings and embroidery. Keziah Huidong fell asleep on the bus with Baba. He started carrying her after we got off. Eventually she switched to Mama carrying her through the museum. After a week and a half of carrying her every where we go, we are just sore and tired. Finally we put her down near the end of our walk through the courtyards.

Meltdown!

Christopher encouraged me not to pick her up. Finally he tried a new method and lifted her up onto his shoulders. It was great! She loved being up so high. High enough to spot fruit growing on one of the trees in the courtyard and she wanted to pick it. Whining and wiggling didn’t get her down so she spit on her Baba. That worked! Down she came. Now she rushed over to climb the tree instead. Mama caught her this time.

Still not carrying her like she wanted, she laid down for a full fit with kicking and screaming. Every pair of Chinese eyes stared at the mean American parents. We eventually made it out of the museum with our puddle child, but she was not happy and neither were we. Even back at the hotel, she continued the fit while we tried to get on the elevator up to our room.

Ever tired time out in a foreign language? Back in our room we had less than an hour before the group would leave to walk to a Thai restaurant for our celebration dinner. We sat her first on the floor and then in a chair. There were numerous attempts to get up and win back her freedom – crying, kisses and hugs, giggles, anything she could think of. She even reversed the sign we have been doing for “sit” to show that she wanted to get UP. Finally we calmly had a chat. No she couldn’t understand what we said, but it seemed to work. We ended up signing and repeating the whole alphabet.

Dinner at the Banana Leaf Thai restaurant was great. We’ve never had Thai food back home so we don’t have anything to compare it too, but it was fun to try all the new foods. The biggest part for us was that she walked all the way there and back!

We bathed and brushed teeth and settled in for the night. Oh and we did have a visit from another family who has been using our computer to download pictures and update their website. That was more fun, because the other award winning super dad came to our room with another glow stick bracelet.

Tomorrow will be a day filled with lasts – last breakfast buffet (what will we eat at home?), last dinner in China, last day with friends – but it will also be exciting as we pack and prepare to finally go home.

Photos... (click image to enlarge)

Hotel decorations for the Chinese New Year