on to spokane.............

this is our last day in guangzhou. it is hot this morning, and we are spending time shopping and maybe some shopping. we are taking pictures of the girls on the famous red couch of the white swan in a bit, and on to lunch with lily. our consulate appointment is this afternoon, and than it will be just about a wrap on guangzhou. we will see you in spokane...............

some of what i saw in guangzhou.............

saturday............

skipping around again, we ran into a wonderful group of schoolchildren saturday with their teachers. they were practicing their english, and wanted us to sign their notebooks. we exchanges coins with them, and i even had my picture taken with the teacher. it was fun to speak with all of them, they were so sincere, and working hard.

sunday in guangzhou

skipping around in time a bit. our guide took us shopping at the local mall. i know john would have liked this giant tv on the building, especially if video games could be played on it.

this guy has some mojo

how do you wash windows?

here was our morning entertainment in room. four guys washing windows shimmying down 28 floors of hotel on ropes. we are on the 15th floor. would love to post more pictures, but keep getting kicked off the internet

would love to post but.................

internet is slow, and having a hard time blogging or sending pics. dani is learning to swim, she loves to shop, and is all girl. and the shopkeepers want to sell her everything. we spent some time site-seeing at the mall today, and john would have loved the big giant building tv. we also played alot in the playroom....hope all is well and will see if the computer wants to be faster tomorrow.

soccer again in wuhan

some of our last pictures in wuhan. we took our washington state youth soccer newsletter to china, as they have a section where they post pictures of people taking the magazine around the world. so here's our pic, down at the park by the yangtz river, (sorry, probably spelled wrong). there was a park there that we spent the afternoon before the flight to guangzhou.

sitting in starbucks in guangzhou

a whirlwind since yesterday and tonight alex and i sit in starbucks in guangzhou. we have met our new guide, rebecca and she is awesome and quite a dynamo. we had to say goodbye to ivan in wuhan, and we feel we have a new friend in china. we also met our new travel family that will be on the same flight home with us, so it is nice to see some american faces.
a whole different world here. we sat at breakfast with at least eight different families surrounding us all with small newly adopted babies. though if you continued to look, everywhere there were families with new children. it was a fantastic scene.
we now find out that wuhan is considered "the stove" in china. i thought it would be warmer here, but it has been much cooler, and rainy. we also found out that wuhan has "spicy" ladies, which i would completely concur!!!
we have a "ringleader" here, as dani was the star of the playroom. and oh my, can she play and engage other children. there was one almost five year old little girl that the parents have been worried might have autism. dani soon had the little girl imitating her imaginative play and trying to play with dani. this was a nice scene.
guangzhou reminds me of disneyland, las vegas, and just one gosh darn gigantic ciy. and i thought wuhan was booming.
time to check out here as i am operating on borrowed battery. last note. dani had her physical, and everything went well. the iridocoloboma in both eyes was confirmed, and it is visible, but there was no huge issue that showed up with her vision at this time.

last day in wuhan

this is our last day in wuhan. we will meet ivan presently and spend some time at the park before heading to the airport and on to guangzhou.
wuhan is a huge and interesting city. much attention is being given to it. there are cranes on rooftops everywhere, and skyscrapers being built like crazy. ivan says old buildings are being torn down and will be replaced with the new buildings. the streets are full, and it pays to be careful as we do not have the same pace as the chinese people do. we have made it ok, and have been able to avoid all cars, buses, scooters, and bikes.
we have ate ALOT at kentucky fried chicken, hence the picture.
well it's a wrap here at the hotel, next stop, new city...............

dani

we are learning more about dani. she is a bright, funny, and very imaginative girl. ivan has been able to fill in more about her as the week has progressed through conversation. we know she speaks fluent wuhanese, the local dialect and also mandarin. she says she plays the piano, ( she could very well be pulling ivan's leg on this one), and when she speaks with ivan, he says that she is asking one question after another to him, rapid fire and is a very curious child. she is busy all the time, but we have found that she can also be busy in a quieter fashion, phewwwww. she adores alex, and wants her to play all the time. alex is absolutely amazing with her, dani does very well with jeff, and prefers him. she is starting to change a bit towards me, and i find her fascinating in how she is approaching family dynamics. wait until she meet john!! she is definitely capturing our hearts.

alex poses for picture

we were at the museum of art today and alex was approached to have a picture taken. i asked ivan about this as we have had many people stare this week sometimes laugh at us. he told me that it is rare to see foreigners and so it was considered cool to have picture taken with them..............

breakfast market, and the hot dry noodle of wuhan

one of dani's favorite food is the hot-dry noodle, native of wuhan. ivan promised us he would take us to the breakfast market to see how it was made. cook the noodles, let it set out overnight, next morning, place it in a bowl, add spices, such as shallots, and carrots, with some hot water.
there is a huge variety of breakfast foods at the market and it is the big meal of the day. lunch is ususally rice, as dinner. the breakfast market closes down for the day towards lunch.
this morning, the cooks at the buffet made hot-dry noodle, which dani happily ate. jeff tried it,...........well, let's say it would probably not be one of our favorites.

we can't forget soccer in wuhan

we found this soccer field in the place that dani was found. ivan told us that if you want to play on the soccer field it will cost 600wren, which is about 100 dollars. soccer was on tv when we went to the turquoise factory in the afternoon. ivan said wuhan has their own soccer team. when we asked if they had t-shirts, everyone laughed at us and said that we didn't want t-shirts. the reason why was that the wuhan team was very bad. we did bring our own soccer ball to china, and has been one of two saving graces. (the other being color crayons). dani loves the ball, and loves to color, especially on the walls, or on alex

special room

this picture is special. this is a room that acts as a mini-hospital for the babies that are really sick, mostly heart babies. they have trained nurses that look over these children. we were told that there are no pictures allowed in this room, but that when dani first arrived at the orphanage, this is where she stayed. because of this we were given permission to take one picture with dani in this room

pictures taken at the orphanage

the orphanage.............

we had a very eventful day today, and i am going to tell it out of order because i know there are some that want to hear about the orphanage, and the children they are adopting.
we did not see the kids that we thought we were to see, however, we did give their packages to the vice-director. the children we did see, in a very busy time, as there were at least four to five nannies gathered, and i did see several other children that i didn't get the impression that we should take their pictures. the two pictured, i was unable to gather any information, just too chaotic, but would be happy to share what we saw with the moms if asked. we were interrupted by an event that i don't think was planned and i will speak about in a moment because it was very important for our family.
we were at the orphanage for quite some time, and i would say that our family appreciates the time and effort that was spent to allow us to visit. we were shown the fifth floor, and told about some of the international aid that is funding some of the really cool things they are doing with these very special kids. my friends down at millwood, you guys would think this place rocks. one room has been funded to an extent where the children have a one on one nanny. they are utilizing massage, water therapy, various forms of physical therapy. i was very interested in how they were showing a little baby how to bring his hands to his mouth. it was truely awesome. we saw another room where the children were painting, another in which they were singing and dancing. one boy came out to speak with us and was interested in jeff. he was smiling and very friendly. part of his special need was probably that he was albino, and had some visual disturbances.
we were able to meet a gal named jenna from boston. she and two other very impressive ladies, were children adopted from wuhan and now living in america. jenna worked last summer to be able to fund coming to wuhan this summer and volunteering at the orphanage. the three girls, who are sixteen years old are here for a month, doing various volunteer activities. we were able to have lunch with her later, and she was a very bright, and enjoyable young lady.
we walked around the orphanage a bit, it is very big and we were told it was funded by some organization in taiwan.
we walked to where we met the children, we snapped pictures crazy, but in the same area. i was busy with that, and wasn't aware of what was starting to happen. when i brought my attention other than the children, i immediately knew that dani's foster mom had found us. i think this wasn't supposed to happen. she was very emotional, sobbing, and speaking, and looking at dani. i think there were alot of nannies yelling, but my focus became about her. i didn't know what was appropriate as from the orphanage's perspective, and all i could think was to grab her hand and hold it tight and the tears were rolling down both of our faces. she held my hand tight also, all the time looking at dani. it was a frozen moment and somebody pulled her away, and we walked up the road towards the car. later, when i asked jeff, he said she had come out and reached for dani, who was in jeff's arms. he gave dani to her, and she was able to hold her, until dani decided she wanted jeff, and reached out for him. dani remained calm.
my heart goes out to this foster-mom who raised dani for five years. my experiences of being adopted myself, have shown me that there are both sides of the story to honor.

tuesday twice.............

we are missing john alot and wish he could be with us, and we are also glad he was able to spend time with grandma and grandpa.
today, we mostly stayed in the hotel, getting to know dani. we were able to workout in the hotel's exercise room. the exercise room's windows are open, so it is like a giant sauna. it makes for exercising conditions quite different than what we are used to. it is very nice to have it to utilize, and has made for a giant playroom for dani, which gets her out of the hotel room.
we met ivan and off to the civil affairs office. we completed some paperwork. the room was filled with the other group, which was from spain. organized bedlam, very loud, and hot. didn't have a chance to speak with anyone from that group, but it was a vivid scene in which the families all had new babies, obviously excited about them and interacting with them in individual ways that i felt was quite moving. i wish we were part of a group also, as it would be nice to be with people having the same experience, and being able to speak with others that speak your language. being at the office wasn't the best place to be with dani at this time, as she was tired, hot, and a very busy child.
when we were done, we headed back to the hotel and than out to search for dinner. dani does very well on the move, and this worked fine for her. she is very content walking,(ALOT) holding jeff's hand. i am starting to wonder if we have another cross country runner on our hands. however, she exactly copied alex yesterday in some moves with the soccer ball, so i can't be quite sure. kentucky fried chicken was our dinner choice.
the food here is good, and we have enjoyed the breakfast buffet which every day has had different choices of chinese food, along with american food. something about the smell of the food today just wasn't happening for our stomachs, so we hunted for anything familiar.
i have noticed that the language barrier doesn't seem to be bothersome to dani, and she finds a way to communicate.
tomorrow we will visit the breakfast market, as dani likes some kind of noodles, and we are going to see how they are made. we are than going to the orphanage for a visit, and afterwards journey to the spot dani was found.

tuesday..............

good morning

it's been a busy morning playing in the hotel room. dani slept well last night, glued close to jeff. she woke up this morning and is quite the talker and has been happy. we went to breakfast and were of great interest to the girls working at the buffet. several of them came up and spoke to dani. she talked with one, than became progressively quieter, which we can already tell is not probably normal for her personality. she than quit talking with the girls when they tried to converse with her. one of the girls was much more interested in trying to communicate with us, and told us in broken english that many americans and australians come over and get chinese children, mostly girls, and mostly babies. she told us we had big hearts. in that moment, i looked at dani, and thought,.... we are the lucky ones. when alex and i left, the girl followed us and wanted to know our names, and said she would see us tomorrow morning. later, we are to meet ivan for our next appointment, and for now, we need to join jeff in the work-out room, which is a great place to play

pics of dani

Firecracker Dani

it's 3:30pm and we have had dani since about 10:00am. we drove to the civil affairs office with ivan this morning, and he spent some time explaining how dani might appear. being five, he explained that she would probably be crying, and that she might prefer one parent over the other. we arrived at the office, and went to the floor where we were supposed to meet. we were there for a small wait, and than we were told that we were to meet on a different floor. when we got to the escalator to go down, it was full of people with cameras and video cameras. we predicted that they also might be adoptive parents. the escalator opened, and they all swarmed to the rooms, and we followed. everything was a whirl, very busy, lot's of parents finding their new children. we walked towards the left of the room, and immediately saw dani. she was hugely animated, she speaks very well, and had a big smile. she went right to jeff, and was comfortable with him holding her. she knew who we were, and later on, she pulled out the picture album that we had sent her, and pointed to who we were. she pointed to john, and we told him that he was her brother, which i think she basically said, "i know". we spent some time talking with ivan and the ophanage director, and going over paperwork for tomorrow. the orphanage director was very nice, with lot's to say about dani. she had a backpack with clothes in it, plus the outfits we had sent her, and a white dress in a bag, maybe the one she was wearing in the first video that we saw of her. she had a bag of toys from her foster family, a picture album from the foster family, and a picture album from the orphanage. we were given her finding ad and a special gold coin with a picture of the orphanage, a gift for dani. dani was very talkative, and mischevious in the car ride home, pointing out parks, and the lake and talking about them. she liked being tickled, and she had a great laugh. back at the hotel, it was a rambunctious time, and she played hard. she is very interested in alex. after playing hard, she did have a time of grieving. she grieves like she plays, and seems to be quite a passionate and strong little lady. jeff and alex found mcdonalds, we had some lunch and thought dani might take a nap, but i guess dani though other wise and we've been playing with her since. a couple off-topics, the group was from spain, i think, as i spoke with one dad who was from spain. he was adopting a little boy and was concerned because he had a serious heart condition. he introduced me to his daughter, who is chinese. the other off-topic, we know that dani's foster family called her dren dren, and ivan explained that children often had two names.

Meet DANI, dren dren

sunday in china

we met our guide, Ivan, at 2:00pm in the hotel lobby. he had a driver ready and we were off to check out wuhan. he suggested the museum, or the yellow crane tower, and than remarked something about stairs. two reasons why we picked going to the yellow crane tower, one, we could get some exercise, and two, we didn't know if it was such a great idea to be dragging dani to this place later on in the week.
the yellow crane tower was very interesting to visit. there is alot of history, which i'm not sure i would do justice by trying to write it all down here. ivan did point out the orphanage to us, it looks huge, and told us a bit about it and how it came to be built, and how many children were presently there.
it is hot and humid here, and we are sweating buckets. we worked out in the morning as there is an exercise room here. still, it was hot than. the air is gray, and thick, and at times, it seems more dense in the moment.
we all seem to be drawing alot of stares. mostly alex, and people look at her head to toe. there was a little boy today on the back of a bike with his father, riding down the road. he never once took his eyes off jeff.
ivan showed us where to go shopping, if we need groceries, or thing for dani tomorrow. there were people everwhere, and lot's of sales girls on their microphones, serving samples, a bit like costco, without the mocha freezes. we didn't try the samples though, will save that for home.
we were going to go out to eat but i'm on the computer, and both alex and jeff have crashed. earlier, we all had commented that none of us had jetlag, ...must have been the heat that got them.
tomorrow ivan will be here at 9:30am. we will be meeting dani at 10:00am. ivan says we only be there for a short time, and back to the hotel.
we have been thinking about dani, and wondering what she must be going through today. our hearts are with her and we hope her transition into our family will be an easy one.
one last thing. we have a fred flinstone hotel bed. this thing is as hard as a rock. it's also super wide, and i can say we are not complaining at all, it was awesome to have a place to lay down after the 24 hour travel.

china on sunday

hi family

hi grandma, grandpa, and john.

we have saftely arrived in wuhan, china. what an experience!, that was the longest traveling day i have ever had. that one flight from seattle to beijing was really long. by the time we got on our wuhan flight, i was extremely tired and i slept the rest of the way. when we arrived at the airport we met our guide. he was waiting for us with a sign with our names on it, and he was wearing a red gonzaga t-shirt. how cool is that! our hotel is really nice. we are on the 19th floor and have a good view. really smoggy and humid here. it's a good thing i packed lots of shorts. today we are meeting our guide to go site seeing and tommorow we get dani. i miss you guys and i hope you all are having a good time. john, make sure you unlock all those characters from mario kart wii and be yoshi for me. i'll talk to you later.
love alex.

Seattle and the BK Lounge....

this one is for you john. we had lunch at the BK Lounge. sorry, there wasn't a drive-through, but we were able to get in without coups.

we are currently waiting to board our flight to beiijing. i am already hearing people speak chinese. we are wondering how it's going to go navigating the beiijing airport, should be fun. we are expected to arrive in wuhan approximately 9:00pm, saturday night. we also understand we will be meeting dani on monday. for those moms whose children's packages we have with us, everything fit nicely in our suitcases, and we are well under the weight limit. our carry-ons might be a different story. ok, people are starting to gather, time to fly. thanks danae for calling, love you

Lake day

Thank you for the pictures............

hello to the family currently in china adopting their little guy, and thank you for the new pics of dani, and friend. we are enjoying them this morning. have a safe journey.

surprise pictures!!!!

gloomy/sunny day

Today has been a simple day. however, mom and i did get a new hair cut. i love it when my hairdresser raven staightens my hair, it's so soft and smooth. plus, it smells delicious. we had a short day at school today so i got to go home early yahooo... i am kinda (emphasize on the kinda) sad that school is ending because i wont get to see some of the new friends i made at school for a while. but then i wont miss it too much because i'll get to go to china and hang at the lake, run morning cross country with some of my friends and play soccer. except soccer's not that fun when you have to play in the middle of the summer, in the middle of the day and when it scorching heat. !AY churumba! well i am super, super hungry and mom's dinner smells fabulously (spelling ?) wonderful.. this is the sound of my bell.... GGGGRRRRRRR

totally random............

here is a result of today's renewed interest in how alex's camera works, a candid of my favorite son, john.

We saw some sun...............

what do you know? we had some nice weather today, the makings of a good yard work day. the cool thing was that everyone helped, and it was done much quicker. off to lunch, than doing some trip preparation, making sure the camera is ready to go, and that someone knows how to run it. double-checking adoption paperwork, and alex studied on an end of the school year biology project. john has informed me that it is summer, and is fully expecting not to do any school work tomorrow. we discussed as this might not be very fair, since alex still has one week left. i don't think john is sympathetic for alex's plight, however, and i am sure i have not heard the end of the subject. i actually planted some plants in the garden tonight, no use doing seeds, this late in the ball-game. so we have some tomatoes, cucs, zuchinni's, (which are one of my least-favorite veggies, but someone might eat them), yellow squash, (yum), and watermelon. i will be interested to see how everything grows this summer, as i have not a very green thumb. last thoughts, am seriously hoping for sun again tomorrow.

Another rainy day.................

another rainy day, still waiting for some sun, maybe even some summer-like weather. not much going on today. it's saturday, and i think my feet are stuck in mud. though i will say it was nice to visit with several friends, through phone conversations. alex, john and i had a lively game of smash brothers brawl, john once again, successfully the winner. we did get out for a cosco lunch of pizza, pop, and the ever popular, mocha freeze. alex and i had some serious discussion in clothes shopping today for dani. her recent measurements are 111 cm, tall, and 43 kg. i might be really missing the boat here, but this makes dani one big, little five year old. i can't imagine these measurements are correct, maybe someone in china accidently measured the wrong child.
-two weeks to china--

SOMEBODY

-I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.-Lily Tomlin

art by alex

rainy day in june

rainy day in june, may we have some summer please? our TA arrived yesterday by fedex, our last paperwork on this side of china, letting us know that dani will soon be our daughter. we are finishing up on school, and just registered alex for running start in the fall. still making plans on what's new and exciting for john in the next school year, besides homeschooling. john at the moment is clamouring for the internet, as he likes to explore you tube for videos on his new favorite comedian, so gotta go, gotta go........... our thoughts are with our far-away new friends that are leaving soon for china to meet their new son. wish we could meet you in china, maybe next time, hehehehhe......... have a safe and adventuresome trip.