We're not in Kansas anymore!

Throughout the trip we keep looking around and saying "we're not in Kansas anymore" ... which, we were never actually in Kansas, but you know what we mean! It's just all so new and different all the time! Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days! We left Nanchang, where I spent 3 days without leaving the room much at all, to Guangzhou, where we have been SUPER busy! But it's making the trip go much faster, so we're thankful for that ; )

 

First off, a few pics from our last day in Nanchang... so here is Kate. Pretending she doesn't crawl or walk ; ) Scooting all over the bed! Silly girl. She's sort of reverting back, which is totally fine and normal for these kids ; ) She's such a doll!!!!

 

Here are some pictures of her reaching for the beach ball! She really liked it!

Ok, a few more random pics... on the top right, that is our Lifeline travel group (us and the Wall family) with our guide, Mary, who sadly got cut mostly from the pic. We love mary and the Walls and it was a neat experience to walk through with them! On the bottom left is a pair of families from Hawaii. They each waited SIX years for their healthy baby girls. Both girls are 11 months old. They were pretty astonished that we'd only waited 15 months and Kate is so healthy! They were really sweet families. Kate likes my sunglasses ; ) and a pic in the elevator...

Oh, McDonald's... I don't think we will be able to eat you for a very long time! We ate there 3 times last week. Phew! The sweet Chinese McDonald's worker in the bottom right pic knew our order! They like to have their pictures taken with Americans and they always do the peace sign - they think pics with us are good luck. She was a great employee and James contemplated trying to get her to come to Alabama and work at Burger King!!! ; ))

Kate's first airplane flight was from Nanchang to Guangzhou! She was super active on the flight. She only cried once for a few minutes when her ears hurt. She is such a sweet little thing!

Then we get to Guangzhou and our new guides, Miko and Rebecca, meet us at the airport. There are other families too - 7 in all from our agency here in Guangzhou now. Each family spent the first week of their trip in their child's province and then everyone comes to Guangzhou for the second week because the US Consulate office that deals with adoptions is here. See our hotel? And we thought the last hotel was nice? This is CRAZY! Like hotel workers at the elevators pushing the buttons for you sort of crazy!!!! It's amazing!!!! We've never stayed anywhere this nice!!!!

Here are the papers that our guides gave us with our itinerary and the map on them - so cool and organized!!! I like schedules and lists ; )

Ok, I am missing pics of the entry to our room, the "workout area" and office area, and the bedroom... but Kate's asleep and I forgot to get those yesterday! But here are a few of our room! SO fancy! I think we have a suite, which we probably didn't need, but it wasn't much more expensive (maybe $40/night?) and we had just asked for suites b/c we heard we should - but in Guangzhou, for those of you traveling, you probably could just do a regular room! This is like 1000 square feet and amazing!!!!! See fun bathroom toiletries, awesome tub, cute toys/things in Kate's crib? So neat!

I'll try to post more room pics later. Also heated toilets and such! Really cool! Below are pics from our medical appointment with Kate! Is she sick? Ummmm ... we are instructed to say NO so we can immigrate back to the states! Which is true, thankfully, she is much better!!!! She doesn't like medical exams...  ;)) We saw 2 different docs and had a time at the nurses station (see their cute white caps??)

Some soldiers/police marched through with really big guns at one point. We've seen that in a few places. Very interested! Top left pic below is an awesome family adopting a 14 year old. She turned 14 on Nov 1 and you have to be adopted before your 14th bday, so they just came over here before getting travel approval and have prayed their way through this! they are awesome. Also hoping to get a second child who is 13 on this trip. The medical trip wore sweet Kate out!!!

And then we had a paper meeting to get our documents in order! Rebecca and Miko talked us through it. Each family sent one parent and it was crazy to get all the documents in order! But so great. Lifeline is so organized. The other families who had adopted before with other agencies said this was amazing to have help with this step and that the other agencies left them to do it on their own. Thank you, Lifeline! We love you! Ok, many more fun and exciting things to report, but I need to go get ready! We love and miss you all!!!