We are trying to get our bodies back on the Eastern time zone!  It is 8:30 tonight, Ali is already in bed, and Kelly and I would be happy to go up ourselves at any moment!  The problem with that is that you end up waking up at 4:30 in the morning with eyes wide open!  Plus it lets the older boys ravage the kitchen if we go to bed too early.  The grocery budget can not afford that to happen too many evenings in a row!!

Today Ali went to Cincinnati Children’s for a marathon of doctors appointments.  Because the port wine stain on her face is sometimes associated with an increased risk of glaucoma, her first appointment was an in-depth ophthalmology visit including vision screening, eye dilation,  pressure testing, and pictures of her retina with Dr. Yang.  The results were somewhat mixed, although not discouraging.  Ali’s right eye pressure is greater than her left.  And, the diameter of her optic nerve is slightly greater on her right than her left. Does this mean that she has glaucoma?  No.  While both measurements were higher on the right than the left, the same side as the port wine stain, they were only moderately different and were still within “normal” range.  They want to do some peripheral vision testing in a couple of weeks just to make sure there are no deficits there.  Then, I think they just want to periodically check her eye pressure, evaluating it at different times of the day, to determine if it is something that needs to be treated or not.  Treatment would be in the form of daily drops that helps limit the eye’s production of fluid and/or help increase the fluids passage.  

After that we went to the Cincinnati Children’s Hemangioma and Vascular Malformation Clinic.  This is a multi-disciplinary clinic that pulls together all the different specialists that are needed to treat Ali’s condition.  This is one of only a few clinics of its kind in the U.S.  It was something that I had never experienced before in all my years in health care.  Once we got checked in, a Hemangioma Fellow came in to evaluate Ali from a surgical perspective and get a history and physical.  While she was there, the medical director, Dr. Adams, joined us and we had a long conversation about Ali and what her options were.  Dr. Adams was wonderful.  She was very laid back and personable and encouraged us greatly.  Then, while the fellow and Dr. Adams were still in the room, Dr. Elluru joined us.  He is the ENT that handles all of the laser surgery that is done.  I sat there amazed as these three doctors stood around in our room as if they had no where else in the world to be and examined Ali, answered our questions, and discussed the plans for the future.  It was a very collaborative experience and it was extremely satisfying.  

Our decision at this point is to try and get to know Ali a little bit better before we do much more.  One of the things that we talked about was Ali’s “clumsiness”.  It is hard to know, with the short amount of time that we have known her, if that is just Ali going through a growth phase or if there is something more that needs to be evaluated.  She does have one leg that is just slightly longer than the other, but not beyond what any other person might have and definitely not enough to affect her gait or balance.  Also, her one hip is a little more stiff than the other.  But, still, not enough that it should have a great affect on her.  We had originally planned on having a neurology appointment next week, but we are going to put that off until after the first of the year so that we can watch Ali over the next month or so and see what we observe on a daily basis.  Plus, we have thrown a lot at the girl in a very short period of time.  Everyone agreed that it was a good idea to allow Ali to adjust to her new life before we try and throw too many things at her!

In all, I think we were very happy with the experience today.  There is no question that without this clinic so close to home, we would be making the trip out to NYC to follow up with Dr. Levitin, the surgeon who performed the procedure on Friday.  His knowledge and commitment to this medical condition is unquestionable and we liked him instantly.  His willingness to see Ali on such short notice and make special adjustments to his schedule was so very appreciated by Kelly and I.  But, it is hard to argue with the approach taken by the clinic at Cincinnati Children’s, especially when you factor in that the Cincinnati clinic is about 20 miles from our house!

Overall, although a long day for Ali, it was a good day.  Cincinnati Children’s provided us with a Mandarin interpreter for the entire afternoon.  It was nice to ask various questions of Ali and get the answers without resorting to hand gestures or pulling out our translator apps!  It took Ali awhile to warm up to her interpreter, but her presence today was invaluable.

The one challenge we are having is finding food that Ali likes and will eat.  She eats a lot of fruit and likes boiled eggs, but that will certainly get old quickly.  The interpreter told us about a Chinese grocery store in Cincinnati.  I may try and get by there sometime this week and see if there is anything that can be of benefit to us.  

All is good…

Cameron

We are in our hotel room in Hong Kong ready to catch the flight to Newark in the morning.  It has been an adventurous as the guides take you to the train station in Guangzhou and basically leave you there and you are on your own at that point.  We had never taken the train before, so it was an experience.  Everything was new!

Here is the crew waiting things out in the waiting area.

True to our normal experiences (3%), we were brought Ali’s passport with her U.S. Visa in it just a few minutes before it was time to start boarding the train.  We are getting so used to this stuff that we really were not even beginning to sweat yet!

Abby has about had enough of the picture taking, I think.  The smile is all gone, Tay!

Finally, after clearing immigration and customs, we were on our way to the train!

Everyone was in a pretty big hurry because we were told there was not a lot of available space for luggage.  Since there were so many of us, we went ahead and took all our luggage with us, which meant that we had to store all six pieces that we had on our own.

We found our car pretty quickly and everyone jumped aboard.

Everyone had their seat mates, except for me.  I got to sit with the guy with body odor.  Nice…

We always new were we were on the trip because the sign at the end of the car told us.

Of course, it was in Chinese.  But, for anyone thinking about the train, look at all the space up top for luggage!  We had NO problems finding room and getting everything stored quickly.

Once we got to Hong Kong we had another issue.  Most of the people with us were taking taxi’s out to the airport, but that was pretty expensive and there were a lot of us to try and fit.  So, I had looked at both a train option and the bus option.  We started for the bus and then changed my mind and decided to take the train.  Then I talked to one of the guys at the ticket counter and he said you had to take a bus to a different train station, which seemed like a hassle.  So, I went back to the bus (double minded).  It was a great choice.  You go to the bus terminal and get on the A21 bus that says “Airport” right on it.  It was $4 per person, it was a double-decker bus, you got a beautiful view of downtown Hong Kong from a great vantage point, and you had Wi-Fi the entire way.  Took probably 45 minutes to get to the airport.

We got to the Regal Hotel, which is attached to the airport, and we had to book two rooms because of how many people we had.  I wasn’t really comfortable leaving some of the girls in a room by themselves, so I talked to the staff and they gave us a King Suite with two additional beds.  Worked out very well.

Ali was a little hungry in this next shot.

We leave at 11:30 tomorrow morning for Newark and will get there Thursday afternoon around 1:30.  Then, we have an appointment with Dr. Levitin on Thursday afternoon around 4:00 and the procedure to remove the granuloma will probably be early Friday morning.  Then back home Friday night!  We can’t wait to be back in the USA!!

Cameron 

Today was a cold, wet, rainy day, which means it was pretty boring!  On the positive side, we had our meeting with the U.S. Consulate, took the oath, and got all the paperwork done for Ali’s VISA to be picked up tomorrow.  We have worked things out that we are leaving early, tomorrow, instead of waiting until Thursday, and flying into NYC Thursday afternoon.  This allows Ali to be seen by the specialist on Thursday afternoon and have the granuloma on her gum line removed at the hospital on Friday morning.  We talked to Ali about this tonight and if she wanted to do that right away or if she wanted to wait and get accustomed to life in the U.S. first.  She said she wanted it off, so off we go!  The guide who talked to her about it tonight told me that Ali is so brave.  She was so impressed!

This evening we went on a dinner boat cruise up the Pearl River in Guangzhou.  I have to say, this is a MUST and it is something that we didn’t do last year with Caleb.  Guangzhou is an amazingly beautiful city at night and it is worth you time to take this cruise if possible.  It is an hour and a half, but we really enjoyed it as did the other families that went on it with us.

The girls spent part of the afternoon “primping” for the big night on the town!

Here are two of my four beautiful girls!  I’m missing my little peanut, Mia!!

We arrived at the “ship port” and took a quick family shot while we waited to board our cruise.

Ali seems to have taken a liking to our guide, Grace, and likes to talk with her.  Grace is 13 weeks pregnant and went to the doctor this afternoon and heard the heart beat.  Everyone enjoys being a part of Graces life!

While waiting, Ali takes a few minutes to do Eva (or, as I like to call her, Helen’s) hair.

Finally, our boat arrives!  The boats are almost as pretty as the city’s buildings and scenery.

Everyone heads down the gangway to load aboard!

A quick shot of Kelly and Ali before they board.  That is the Lee’s, Bob and Heidi, on the left.  They have been our companions for most of the week and we really have enjoyed their company, even if they are from Minnesota.

All Aboard!

Because of space, Abby sat with Grace and the Lee’s.  She is always getting the short end of the stick!

 

A couple of quick shots before the boat pulled away from the dock.

This is how the buffet looked BEFORE they opened it up and the mad rush of people began.  It was something to behold and I am not quite sure WHY I didn’t take a picture of the people crowding up there.  People were pushing and shoving and to get food you basically had to push you way to the food.  It was an experience!

Brittany brought glow bracelets for Ali and the kids to play with on the boat.

I guess Abby is one of the kids, also?

Ali and Brittany show off their bracelets.

I believe I have already told you that Ali can eat.  Here are the two platefuls of food that she STARTED with.  She ate more later.  She was like an eating machine tonight!

Let’s talk about the food for a minute.  It was traditional Chinese, which isn’t what you and I would consider Chinese food.  There was enough to eat, but it was a little challenging to find things that were appetizing.  However, Ali LOVED it and enjoyed the food very much.

(Editor’s Note:  Koreen, just roll past the next couple of pictures.  You will NOT appreciate them!)

One of the things that Ali really likes is chicken’s feet, and they had them available on the buffet tonight.  She had several on her plate, along with sea weed noodles.

Now, I’m not posting the next picture to make fun of Ali.  She is welcome to like what she wants.  Her mother likes Goose-liver, so who am I to complain.  I only post it so that you can see that she did, in fact, eat them.  Brittany might have a hankering for duck neck on occasion, but she isn’t touching the chicken’s feet!

The very BEST part of the buffet is yet to come!  Even Ali wouldn’t eat this, but I’m not sure if that was because she wouldn’t, or she was just full from all the food she was eating!

Yup!  That is a cooked chicken’s head!  Along with his pal, the fully cooked shrimp.  If that doesn’t make you want to run out and have a three-way at Sky Line, I don’t know what does!  I tried to keep from bringing this back to the table, but just couldn’t control myself.  I thought Kelly was going to gag.  THEN, I made her had it over to the table next to us!  She about freaked out!  I’m told that the best part is the thing on top of the head.  Whatever.  I’ll take their word for it!!

Now that we are past the gross part, how about we look at the some of the prettier things of the evening … besides my girls.  Below are the pictures taken from the boat as we went up the river.  I’m going to just post the pictures with little comment because they are nice enough to look at on their own!

The cloudy and rainy sky’s really made the pictures have some unique qualities.  Here is Brittany out on the railing with me taking pictures.

This is the new TV tower in Guangzhou.  I have been told it is the tallest TV tower in the world.  There is an elevator that goes to an observation deck at the top and an obscenely expensive restaurant up there.  We did neither, but the tower sure is pretty to look at!  I tried to narrow it down to just one picture of the tower, but couldn’t do it!

Both of the girls out on the deck.  Although Ali started getting cold and went inside not long after this.

Abby taking shots from the side of the boat.

When you are on a dinner cruise and it is raining outside, what should you do?  Why, you should dance in the rain!  Brittany and Ava (Helen) Lee dance on the top deck of the boat.

Bob Lee holds his new baby daughter, Ellie.  I don’t have any special names for her…

I’m not sure how much more I will post on here.  We take the train to Hong Kong tomorrow, so I will probably have some pictures from that.  Other than that, it is NYC on Thursday enjoying being in the States.  Then home Friday night to see the kiddos.  We sure miss them all.  Our internet went down for a couple of days and we didn’t get to see them on Skype for a little while.  That wasn’t fun, but Jake was able to fix things up and we talked with them this evening.

The adventure is almost over … or just starting, depending on how you look at it.  Thank you so much for all your prayers and support.  They have been felt!

Cameron

 

Today we loaded up the bus with the Lee family and headed out to White Cloud Mountain.  Before I get to the day, I wanted to let you know that the U.S. Consulate has approved us to meet with them a day early, facilitating our leaving here a day early.  That means we can spend more time with the specialist in NYC.  Please pray about the changes to our flights.  While there is availability, the travel agent doesn’t know how much those changes are going to cost us.  It would be nice if they would do them for free based upon the medical need involved.  We should know later today.

Back to the mountain.  

Rather than walk the 1 1/2 hours up the mountain, we chose to ride the cable cars!  Brittany entertains some of the Lee children while we wait.

When it is our turn, Kelly, Abby, Ali, and I load up!

This was the look on Ali’s face as soon as we attached to the cable and started up the mountain!  She is such a kid!

Almost to the top, I took a picture of Abby and Ali with Guangzhou in the background.

At the top we stopped for a little family picture.

And Kelly and Ali took a couple of mother-daughter shots.

The mountain was very beautiful with lots of pretty birds.

We walked around a huge bird aviary.

Towards the end of our time at White Cloud Mountain, we went to a bird show that was actually quite entertaining!

They had one of the birds take a bill out of Ali’s hand!

As any self respecting US bird park would, White Cloud Mountain had an “Angry Birds” theme going.

We talked Grace into taking us to a good noodle restaurant on the way home.  The price was payment of her lunch and the drivers lunch, but it was MORE than worth it.

They make all their own noodles and we were watching a lady “throwing” noodles from a bowl into the pot of water.  When we pulled out the cameras, another guy stepped in and he was whipping the noodles all over the place, almost hitting the ceiling and the floor!  It was pretty impressive that he kept hitting the pot of water without fail!

Tomorrow morning we head out around 8:30 for our consulate appointment.  That is when we will actually receive her US VISA and we are cleared to leave the country.  Everyone will agree the Ali is truly ours.

Cameron

 

 

 

This morning we went to Safari Park, the same park we went to last year with Caleb.  It is a really nice zoo with a driving part where you take a tram around open viewing areas, and a walking part that is like any other zoo.  They really have some nice tiger and panda exhibits and we looked forward to returning this year.  Most of the animal pictures today were taken by Ali and she manned the camera for much of the day!

Connie, our guide from last year, took all of us to the park today.  There were four other families with us on this excursion.  Connie handled tickets and handing out maps.

We were a little concerned when Ali took over pushing Chase in the stroller AND reading the map at the same time!  We took the map away.  Concentrate on the stroller…

We boarded the tram for the “riding” portion of the park.  The girls grabbed the front row!

Notice how our fearless director, Diana, choose to be somewhat juvenile and do the “bunny ears” behind Kelly’s head.  Thank goodness she is good at what she does!

I ended up in the front with Brittany!

Diana worked hard to stop Chase from picking his nose before I could get a picture taken.

Kelly looked quite fetching today!

The animals walk freely among the cars.  No animals were hurt the taking of these pictures…

Some of the animals along the way:

This little boy caught me taking his picture!

After the tram, we walked around the rest of the park.  Ali and Abby were watching some of the baby monkeys.

We took a nice little family picture at the tiger park.

Ali wanted pictures of her self EVERYWHERE!

It really is a beautiful park!  It is the largest zoo in China.

In case you still don’t believe that people stare at us:

You can get very close to the animals!

A shot of Ali by the tiger cubs exhibit.

This shot is just to remind people that children being potty trained in China use pants with slits in the back so that they can squat and go to the bathroom at will.  Great plan.  We should adopt that here…

Here is the entire group, less anyone taking a picture.

Ali wanted to feed the giraffe’s.  But, as soon as the giraffe grabbed her stick with leaves on it, she let it go!

Ali has been so nice having here today as she is so very helpful and takes care of the younger kids.  Here she is doing one of the little girls hair.

Ali and Britt stop for a pictures with one of the girls from another family.

We stopped for a little lunch at the zoo.  Really thick noodles.  They were actually VERY good!  Abby is trying a dumpling, which wasn’t near as tasty as the ones we had in Hefei.

The entire group heading up to the Panda exhibit.  They have twelve Panda’s at this zoo.  That is a lot of Panda!

Here are a few shots of the Panda’s.

Ali wanted to try on some of the Panda hats!

They have several red Panda’s.  I love red Panda’s.  The Cincinnati Zoo has a couple, also, but they are a lot harder to find than these were.

Abby was easy to see at the red Panda exhibit, also.

I took the girls swimming this evening while Abby and Kelly went to get a foot massage.  If you remember the pool last year, it was full of algae and was a little gross.  THIS year, you will be happy to know, it was crystal clear and quite enjoyable!

Tomorrow we get Ali’s TB test read (looks negative) and then we are off to White Cloud Mountain!  Stay tuned!!

Cameron

 

I love this island.  We stayed here last year and it was in the midst of a MAJOR renovation.  The streets were torn up and only a portion of the landscaping was being put in.  But, the island was still beautiful.  This year, all those renovations are done and the island IS amazing.  I could spend a week here just taking pictures.

For those of you that don’t know the history of Shamian Island, I will give it to you briefly.  Guangzhou was a major point of trade due to the its presence on a large waterway.  The British and the French wanted to do business with the Chinese, but the Chinese didn’t want them influencing their culture, so they made them establish a community on an small island which was somewhat desolate.  True to form, they transformed the island into a beautiful place to live with great architecture.  While rather expensive, it is a great place to pass the time while in Guangzhou.

We are staying in the Victory Hotel as we did last year.  However, it has gone through some renovations, also, and the rooms are quite nice. The entryway to the West Building is much prettier than before.

The entry way to our room is very nice also.

The bathroom, while pretty, is somewhat impractical for five people since it doesn’t offer much in the way of privacy!  And four girls NEED a little privacy!

Ali shows off the beds in the room.

This morning took off to the clinic for Ali to have her medical appointment.  Brittany took a shower so that she looked her very best!

The medical exam is, for the most part, kind of a cattle call.  Americans from all over the area have to come her to do the required medical exams and it is bedlam.

This is Grace, our guide for most of our time here.

The children have to go through various testing including hearing, vision, a basic physical, and catch up on any vaccinations that are needed.  Ali had to have four vaccinations plus a TB test.  Poor thing.

After spending two hours getting this all done, we walked back to the hotel.

After a quick stop to go over paperwork, we headed out to lunch with another family that is here adopting their second child and Diana Bramble, who is the director of our adoption agency and is also adopting a little boy, Chase.

We got a large table at the Thi restaurant that Kelly loves that is right by our hotel.

After a very good lunch (thank you Madison), we started on our first afternoon of shopping on the island!

One of the shops that Diana likes has beads that you can buy to build your own necklace.

Kelly, Brittany, and Ali found some bracelets that they liked and we negotiated a fair deal!  Well, somewhat fair.  I would always be happy to pay less!

As I posted last year, the Island is a place where a LOT of fashion and wedding photography is done and this afternoon was NO exception.  There were buses and people and wardrobes EVERYWHERE!

The next shop we went into was Jenny’s Place.  We found this place last year and fell in love with it.  Well, we fell in love with the owners.  Jenny and her husband are Christians and it is one of the few places on the island that you can find English/Chinese Bibles and plaques with Bible Verses on them.  She has a good racket because I don’t negotiate on price in her store.  So, I tried to keep the girls moving as quickly as possible through her store!

Here Ali looks at the English/Chinese Bible that we bought for her here.  It is a privilege to be able to buy her the first Bible she has ever owned!

Here is a quick shot of Ali, Kelly, and Jenny.

Shamian Island used to be the home of the Soviet Consulate.  There building is a very pretty piece of architecture along the main walkway.

There girls take a few minutes to show their sister-love in front of some of the flower beds!

One of the interesting things about the island, and something I haven’t asked about yet, are the large old trees.  There are mainly that have 10 – 12 feel of their root system exposed, as if this part of the island used to be higher at some point and something caused the earth to be moved away and the root system of these large trees to be exposed.  I’m not sure what the story is, but they are very interesting.

Since we were her last year, they added a fountain in the middle of the main walk.

Late in the afternoon Diana brought Chase to our room and the girls had a good time playing with him.  He is a CUTE kid!

It started getting late and we decided to go grab dinner.  We ate a Luci’s, which is about the only place on the island to get “American” food, and I am saying that loosely.  It isn’t my favorite place here and it is relatively expensive, but we couldn’t really thin of any place else to eat.

Ali started to fix her bangs and we were all concerned what the final outcome was going to be!

Luckily, it turned out presentable.

When then took an evening stroll around the island.  We found several groups of students practicing their martial arts…

The girls posed for a picture along the river…

And I, again, enjoyed all the buildings!

It really was a great afternoon and evening.  Every day Ali’s personality comes out more and more.  Tonight was so much fun as she just had fun with us being her goofy self and enjoying life.  She spend much of dinner trying to teach us various words in Chinese.  She would praise us when we were correct and, like your fifth grade English teacher, scowl when we were wrong saying, “no, no, no!”  And she isn’t lenient, either!  It was exactly correct or we did not get credit.

Then on the walk around the island she laughed and ran ahead, played on the kids jungle gym for a few minutes (hurting her ankle in the process.  Remember what I said.  Uncoordinated!), scared us multiple times when we thought she was going to back up into the river, and enjoyed walking arm-in-arm or with her arms around the necks of her mom, sister, and cousin.  It really was a beautiful thing to watch the four of them laughing and enjoying each other so much.  It’s nice to have another female in the house. 

It truly is a blessing to see how well Ali has done over the last week.  It is hard to believe we haven’t even had her a week because she feels like such a part of our family.  All the prayers that we made and that everyone else has man on our behalf and her behalf have been heard.  I’m sure there will be times of challenge for her as she adjusts to the changes, but she seems to take everything she does at face value and jumps in with both feet, albiet sometimes wobbling just a little bit.  

We also told Brittany tonight how this whole process was made easier because of her help and her accepting spirit.  There are many things that happen in a day that Brittany could be jealous of or irritated with during this process, especially since they are almost exactly the same age.  But Britt just continues to be a rock and is so very patient with Ali and loves on her night and day.  She is a huge blessing and I can’t imagine what we would do without her.

Tomorrow we got back to the zoo where Brittany held a baby tiger last year.  I have NO idea what tomorrow holds, but I know that it will be fun!

Cameron

Before we left Hefei, we went back out to the amusement park and enjoyed some of the more “tame” rides!  Plus, I took a few shots on the “ride of death” that Ali and I went on the other day!

Ok, so lets set the record straight for those people back home that thing I’m a baby about that ride.  Here is what this thing looked like during the daytime!

And here are what the cars look like swinging through the air at probably 100mph or faster!  I mean, this thing was 100 feet tall if it was an inch! As you see below, these poor souls are plummeting to their death!

Being more sedate in our preferences now, we walked toward the Duck Boats!

The process was made MUCH easier with our Jibbigo translator app!  Last year, with Caleb, we had to find a lady that spoke a very little bit of English and have her help us rent a boat.  This time, I typed in “Duck Boat” into the translator, we paid our money, and we were on our way…

Now, remember … Aly is beautiful but a little klutzy.  So getting her ON the duck boat was a little more challenging than maybe someone else!
 

Once we were on, it was a LITTLE bit tight for five people.

We were literally on the other side of the lake when one of the employees chased us down in his boat to tell us that we were listing dangerously to one side.  I guess when you put 200 lbs of American on one side, the boat doesn’t do so well.  After lots of loud Chinese that we didn’t understand and much hand gesturing, we realized that people needed to move!

Brittany handled the navigation needs …

 

We let Ali try her hand and steering also!

Ali grab the camera and decided to take a few more of her own shots!

We pulled back into the docks as it started to rain a little bit.

On our way out we passed back through the amusement park area and Ali and Brittany wanted to ride the bumper cars.

Ali couldn’t figure out how to actually DRIVE the car, so one of the staff had to come out and show her.  If my insurance agent is reading this, please skip over this part.  My premiums are high enough as they are!

Two hands on the wheel, honey, at all times!  Notice the look of abject terror on Brittany’s face!

 

Brittany wanted to go on the Ferris wheel, so I thought that ride probably moved at a speed that I can handle!

Now, mind you, it wasn’t until I got ON the dumb thing that I realized that this is a ride that has been around MANY, MANY years and has a LOT of rust!  While good for tiny little kids, I wasn’t so sure of the ability to handle my weight.  It was a little disconcerting.

Ali and Abby got in one car…

Brittany and I in another ….

Kelly took her chances on the ground!

The view was quite pretty from the top!

 

As we finished our first rotation, I noticed this:

I’m really hoping that isn’t the bolt from MY car!

On our way out of the amusement park, and ultimately out of Hefei, Abby took a little family picture to remember it by!

 

Cameron

Just a quick update. We made it to Guangzhou without TOO much difficulty. We decided not to give Ali Dramamine. Probably not the best idea we have had, especially since the flight was rough. She got a headache and is now in bed. We are staying at the Victory hotel, the same hotel that we were at last year. However, they have done some very nice renovations. The entire hotel is very beautiful and our room is amazing. I will take a picture tomorrow before we demolish it! Cameron

There were a lot of pictures that didn’t get posted from the beginning of the week, so this blog will get those all posted in one place!

Here is were things started for us … in Newark Airport.  Eating with American’s for the last time!

After a 14 1/2 hour trip over the North Pole, we arrived in Shanghai!  I don’t think we look too bad for such a journey!

Dinner in the Shanghai airport was pretty much whatever you could find in your bag or this:

While it wasn’t so bad, it WAS the worst Chinese food I have had on this trip so far.  We had an eight hour layover in this airport so it became like home!

I said earlier in the week I would post the picture of Abby snoozing on a bench and here it is:

She said it was the best sleep she had had for the last two days!

The airport did have interesting architecture and I wanted to make sure I grabbed a shot before we headed out.

We have spent all week in this hotel and have yet to show it to you, so here it is.  This is a five star hotel, one of the few in Hefei.  They have just recently built a Westin, which is a SIX star hotel, not far from our hotel.  But, the area doesn’t seem quite as nice for things to do as the are around our hotel.

Our first morning breakfast in the rotating restaurant!

I posted some pictures from Britt’s iTouch when we received Ali on Monday, but wanted to follow up with a few from my own phone.  Remember that Ali was VERY sick when she arrived, so the dour look on her face is because of that, not because of a lack of desire!  Cherry gives us an update on how the day will go.

Then we got to see our little Ali for the first time in person!

Poor thing.  You can see how miserable she was, but at the time Kelly and I didn’t know that.  The lady on the right is Kathy, who was the music teacher that came with Ali and stayed that first night in our hotel with us.

Kelly and I both had paperwork to fill out and to sign.

And Cherry gave Kelly Ali’s immunization records.

Ali had brought some of her school books with her in her backpack, so she showed them to all of us, including Cherry’s manager who had showed up at the government center.

Ali also got out the picture album that we had sent her with pictures of all our family in it.

That afternoon, again not realizing that Ali wasn’t feeling well, we went out to a local park and walked around.

We stopped at a local restaurant and ordered food, but Ali, Kelly, and Kathy ended up going back to the hotel and Ali didn’t eat anything.  Brittany jumped right in and decided SHE would eat Ali’s meal!  No sense it going to waste!

On our way back to the home was when we stumbled upon the DQ!  It was the only time this week we had it, but we made sure to tell Cherry that she needed to inform new families of its existence!  It isn’t easy to find, but it was SO nice!

We got back to the room and this is pretty much what Ali did for the next three hours!

When she woke up, she seemed better and showed her two bracelets that we had brought with us.  One said “Sisters” and the other said “Forever.”  Brittany let Ali pick which one she wanted (“Sisters”) and Brittany took the other.

That afternoon the girls made flip flops with some material that we had brought with us.

That night, the girls brushed their teeth.  Maybe another first for Ali???  Not sure!

That pretty much brings everything up to date.  Sorry for the confusion!

Cameron

 

 

There was this emperor, Lord Bao, who was born in Hefei and become the emperor of China some 1,000 years ago.  So, he is a pretty big cheese here.  Got an entire lake named after him.  So, they have a temple named after him and we went and visited it.

The temple was, you can imagine, on the river bearing his name.  They had tons of lily pads out in the river.  In the summer I am sure the area is beautiful.

What temple would be worth anything without the incense burner?

This is the big man himself, all in gold.

And here are his guards.

Apparently, if he wasn’t happy with you, he would cut off your head.  However, which knife he used to accomplish this was dependent upon your status.  If you were wealthy of of high status, you got the lion sword.  If you were middle glass, you got the tiger sword.  And, if you were poor, you got the dog sword.  This are the actual swords used to dish out his punishment!

Ali and Brittany posed in front of an etching of Lord Bao.

They had an inner garden were they had information about Lord Bao’s life.

From his birth to his death, there was a large panoramic intricate wooden carving that depicted the major events in his life.  The craftsmanship on this thing was amazing.  The closer you looked the more amazed you were by the intricate aspects of the cravings.

Cherry was great explaining all the different aspects of his life and what was being represented in the carvings.

We were able to get her to take a little family portrait of us all!

Brittany looks a little guilty here, doesn’t she???

The sisters take turns getting and taking pictures on the lion statues at the entrance to the temple.

This is a special well on the property.  Apparently a bad person took a drink out of it and killed him.  Or, maybe it was bacteria.  We will never know.  I sure didn’t drink from it!

The girls and I did take a little portrait up there, though.

Next, Cherry took us into a wax museum they had on the property.  There were three or four different stories that were told that were important events during Lord Bao’s reign.  Cherry took the opportunity to quiz us at each display for our impressions and what was going on before she told us the actual story.  I think she was just trying to fill time, but it was interesting.  Ali enjoyed using my camera and took a few pictures.  This is one of them!

As is this.  Not sure how to explain “shutter speed” and “available light” to someone who doesn’t speak your language?

Here are some of the wax figures.  You would swear they were moving!

There was a park area around the back of the temple where we went for a little while and took some additional pictures.

On our way out of the park …

Cherry asked us if we would like to take part in a survey.  She asked us a dozen or so questions, all of which she knew the answers to, and waited for us to respond to each one. Ali took this picture, also.  Don’t you love the look on Kelly’s face?  Why are you asking me this?

We asked Cherry to take us to an authentic restaurant that she liked and she took us to one right by our hotel.

The food was very good and for all five of us, Cherry, and our driver, the bill was about $15.  Nice!  Our driver is great.  He always makes sure that the restaurant goes and gets forks for us idiot Westerners!  Not all of us are as adept at chopsticks as the locals!

Kelly was brave and tried some dumplings that, while looked somewhat suspect, were very delicious!!

After returning to the hotel, I had to go change some money with Cherry.  Two interesting things out of that conversation.  First, I was showing her a picture on my iPhone.  You can’t use it here without racking up tons of roaming charges, but I do keep it with me for the Chinese translation program that we use.  Anyway, the day before she and I had a conversation around my company car, something that she found amazing.  While showing her my iPhone it came out that my company has also provided that for my use.  She told me at that point that my company was Welfare!  I laughed out load!

Second, she pointed out that one of the tellers at the bank had on a pink smock and that she must be pregnant.  She told me that this smock was specially designed and that it had a light layer of shielding in it that protected the baby from all the harmful radiation coming from computers and printers!  She was shocked when I told her I had never seen that before and, while I sure you can buy it in America, it wasn’t commonly used.  She thought that the idea actually came from the US.  At $100 per smock, it is pretty pricey, but she said that with one child policy, no one was willing to take any chances!

That night, we went on a quest to find a scarf vendor Abby had seen on the street the night before.  On the way, Ali dragged us into a little boutique.  Girls are so much different than boys!

On the way out, the girls had a good time walking arm-in-arm up the Walking Street!

While the scarf vendor was NOT where she was the previous day, we did find her pretty quickly and the girls looked at her various wares.

In the end we got six scarfs for about $16.  I tried to get the lady to deal with me, but she would only come down about $1.50.  Abby was pretty happy with the purchase, so I didn’t feel too bad.  

Everywhere we go, we draw quite a crowd, especially Abby with her blond, curly hair!  We are looked and stared at so much that we often don’t think about it (well … I don’t.  The girls complain a lot).  While I was taking these pictures, I noticed that a small crowd was standing behind the railing watching the girls every move.  I took a quick picture so you could see what it is like living in a fish bowl!

We took our purchases and headed home to our hotel.  Time to pack up the bags as we head to Guangzhou tomorrow night!

Cameron