Pearl Market and Wasting Time...

May 31, 2012 - Yesterday we went to the Pearl Market. It is a huge shopping mall that consists mostly of jewelry, including real salt water, fresh water, black Tahitian pearls, and other jewels. I heard about the Pearl Market before we left for China and already had ideas of what I wanted to buy there. I wanted to find something special for Lucy and Isabelle for either their wedding day or for some kind of special day in their life, i.e. 16th birthday, graduation, or wedding. When I saw this necklace I knew this was exactly what I was looking for.

We did a little more shopping just to waste more time. Nothing too exciting. We try to find as much stuff to do as we can to make the days go faster. Let's just say, we are more than ready to come home at this point.

Playing at the hotel kiddie land. She likes to swing, yay!!! She will fit right in at our house!

We attempted to take Lucy swimming yesterday because she seemed interested in playing in the fountains on the roof top garden, but as soon as we put her near the pool, tears and screaming started. We tried to ease her into it, but she made it very clear she wanted nothing to do with it. Oh well! We will keep trying.

This morning was our Consulate appointment. The whole reason we are here in Guangzhou came and went without any problems. A lady came up to a window (picture a bank drive thru window at a DMV and just as exciting as the DMV), to explain to us what we were about to do and where to put all the papers we are given tomorrow. When she started talking about our children being U.S. citizens once they touchdown on U.S. soil, a little lump in my throat made it hard to swallow. A good kind of lump. The lady then asked all the parents to stand and raise their right hand. We took an oath to say that all the documents that we have submitted to the Consulate are true to the best of our knowledge. Then we were called up, family by family, to the window to turn in our information, review the information and then were told we were done. All those documents that we have had signed, notarized, authenticated and all the waiting on documents to be approved and all the tears because of unexpected delays flashed through my head when the lady at the window said, congratulations, her (Lucy's) visa will be ready tomorrow afternoon. It was a wonderful morning.
Lucy was dressed for the occasion with her red, white, and blue dress, however, we were not allowed to bring cameras or cell phones into the Consulate, so no pictures. One family brought their camera and left it with officers and we did take a family picture in front of the sign for the U.S. Consulate. If they email it to us, I will post it later.
So that was uneventful, which is fine by me. So on to wasting time.....Here is how we are wasting our time.

Every time we passed this display I said, we need to get pictures of those transformers for the boys. We finally walked over and found out it was a new fashion mall. It looks like a pretty fancy mall, way outside my budget anyway.

a pink transformer for Izzy : )

Always drawing a crowd. I think one man was asking if she was Chinese. We couldn't understand anything except, Chinese???

We found a beautiful park near our hotel. I think the Chinese people rank #1 in gardening in my book. Their parks are beautiful and they keep them clean and tidy.

cool tree!

My red, white, and blue girl!

I like these flowers, white with a little red dotted at the end

Another cool tree by the water

A little blurry, but still shows the beauty of these parks

Name of the park near our hotel...good luck pronouncing that one! : )

As we were walking out of the park this caught my eye......

A Mary Kay store in Guangzhou???

Our home away from home in Guangzhou (The China Hotel - Marriott)

U.S.'s newest citizen when we land in Minneapolis on Sunday

Travel Group #1859

May 29, 2012 - Not too much to report about today. We went back to Shamian Island for more shopping with some of the other families that are here. Then we did some playing and napping and more eating. Hey I did get on the treadmill today. That felt good!

I wanted to show some of the families from our travel group. I have been unsuccessful at getting a picture of all the families in our travel group so I will need to post the rest at another time. I am just in awe of the willingness each one of these families have to care for an orphan, and most of them with special needs. This is a great group of people. It brings tears to my eyes to think about the fact that now 8 other orphans are no longer that, orphans. Each one of these special children are with their forever families and that is just awesome! Plus there are many more just within our hotel from other agencies that have added to their family by adopting. God is so good! I see his handiwork in each one of these children. He created each one of these children and after He created them He said, "Wonderful!"

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,   God!
How vast is the sum of them! -Psalm 139:13-17

Wade, Christine and son, Ethan - first adoption

Rob, Kim, Jillian and Laikyn - second adoption

Jordan and Deanna and son, Ethan - first adoption

James and Shari, Andrew and Alex - second adoption

Visa Photo and Medical Exam

May 28, 2012 - This morning after our yummy hotel breakfast, we went to the clinic to get all the children from our travel group checked over by the clinic staff and to get their visa photo taken.

Lucy and her friend Laikyn waiting in the hotel lobby for our bus to the clinic.

Lucy did great, so did the rest of the kids I might add. We were in and out of there in about 1 hour. When we first walked off the elevator onto the floor where the clinic is located, I was a little nervous. There was a sea of people waiting to see the doctor. Yikes!

All people waiting to see the doctor. This looks a little different than Mayo Clinic Health System in St. James : )

The good thing was after getting a quick visa photo - yes, you read that right.....A QUICK photo. This time it was a couple of clicks and Lucy was done with her photo. Yippeeee! Anyway, after a quick photo we went back to a different area for adoption families to see the doctor. There were three stations we had to visit: the nurses' station (get height, weight, temperature), ENT (ear, nose, and throat doctor) and general physical station (look over all of the body).

Lucy getting weighed

At 23 months Lucy is 85 cm tall and weighs 13.5 kg

She did not want to open her mouth for ENT. Probably the last time she opened her mouth like this was when she had surgery on her palate and this may have brought back some bad memories

General physician listening (quickly I might add) to Lucy's heart (or maybe it was her lungs, too quick to tell)

playing with another friend, Ethan, while we waited for everyone to finish up

Using up that energy while we wait

L is for Lucy : )

No major concerns from the clinic. Once everyone was finished we traveled back to our hotel. We made a stop at McD's for lunch (for the 50th time it feels like) and then to our room for Lucy's nap. Once Lucy woke up we took a taxi to Shamian Island where the famous White Swan Hotel is located. The White Swan is where the majority of Chinese adoptive families stay while in Guangzhou. The famous red couch where all the adoptive children get their picture taken is there. However, we do not get to stay at The White Swan because it is closed for renovations. We heard there are a lot of fun shops and places to visit on Shamian Island, so we skipped the Pearl River dinner cruise that was optional for us to attend. We decided to go on our own little excursion. It was a rainy day, but it stopped enough for us to walk around a park by the Pearl River and do some shopping for our kids back home who are waiting patiently for us to come home. We ate supper at a place called Lucy's (how fitting) that was recommended to us. It was pretty good. I am pretty sure these poor shops and restaurants are hurting a little since the big White Swan hotel is close.

Lucy's restaurant

checking out the boats going by on the Pearl River

Lucy found her own little viewing spot

"I crack myself up!"

It was another fun day with our little Lucy. She continues to wave and smile at people as we walk by. People here seem to be a little more friendly and wave back to her and then say something in Chinese to her which I hope is something nice. : )

Our little Lucy Fei

Homesick

May 27, 2012 - I miss my home. I miss my kids. I miss my space. I miss home cooked meals. I miss my morning workout routine. I miss my bed. I miss drinking water from the tap. I miss my friends. I miss it all! We have one week left here in China and I am trying to enjoy the time that is left, but it is getting kind of hard. It makes me appreciate people who have to leave their comfortable homes and life to either travel or live abroad for a long period of time. People like those in the military, missionaries, or those that have to travel for jobs.

We went on another tour today of Guangzhou. Our first stop was a Buddha temple which could have been interesting, but I was so focused on Lucy and following where she was wandering off to, I couldn't really pay attention to what was going on. Plus it was so hot and muggy. Sweat was dripping off me like a running facet. While I was running around with Lucy, I decided (or maybe it was a God ordained thought, either way, it doesn't matter I just did it) I needed to pray to the one and only True God, who has made heaven and earth and everything in it. I needed to pray for those lost people that were coming in to pray to an idol for what they thought they needed. I needed to pray for the lost people of China. It was really a sad place.

 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship —and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. ²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’^[b] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’^[c]
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. ³⁰ In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. ³¹ For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” 
-Acts 17:22-31

We stopped at a few other places then back to our hotel for an afternoon nap for Lucy, which lasted a little over an hour and then we had a crying, sad girl on our hands. We had to walk around the hotel and then go out for dinner with our group before she was happy again. We still see some grieving going on with her and sometimes it can be a bit wearing on us. Another reason I am ready to get home and work on getting into a routine and have places at our house to explore and go to instead of a little hotel room. I mean we even feel claustrophobic in here too. Oh well, we will do what we have to do to bring her home with us. She is is doing better and better each day with bonding to me just as much as she did with Jason at the beginning. Today I held her a lot and walked around with her and most of the time Jason wasn't even around. She did great. Her new thing is she likes to hold both me and Jason's hand so we can do the 1...2...3...weeeeeee! game. Yeah, we have been laughed at and stared at on the street for that one.

Lucy's new favorite activity - go up the stairs.....

 .....and down the stairs

Tomorrow Lucy gets her visa photo taken (let's hope this one goes better than her passport photo did) and her medical exam to release her from this country and to make sure she is o.k. to enter the U.S. It could be a long morning of waiting and poking and prodding and filling out papers. Snacks packed......check! : )

hamming it up for the camera on a hot, sticky day!

Arrival at Guangzhou

May 26, 2012 - We said our good-byes to Yisha and Vivianne, our CCAI reps in Zhengzhou, and headed to the airport. The 3 hour flight to Guangzhou went well. Lucy was a champ on her first plane ride. As long as we keep the puffs container full of snacks, she is good to go. : ) She was hamming it up with a little boy sitting in front of us. Henry is his name. He was adopted by a family in our travel group and is just as cute as can be. Lucy even fell asleep for a little bit of it. Amazingly, all the kids on the plane did very well.

Our group preparing for our trip to Guangzhou

Got my snacks, I am good to go!

When we arrived in our hotel room, we saw a little gift basket. It was so sweet. This hotel is really nice, *ahem*, a little too fancy for me and a toddler who I have only known for 5 days. She is going to tear this place apart before our week is done. I feel a little out of place here. Lucy had a hard time adjusting to a new room for bedtime. There were a lot of tears and pointing to the door and giving us our shoes. I was kind of wondering if this would happen. But, alas, Jason gave her a bottle and she is now in dream land once again and Jason and I were able to eat our Papa John's Pizza. Yummo!:)

Our sweet gift basket in our hotel

Sweet Child

May 25, 2012 - Today was a day with nothing on the agenda. To be honest I was nervous to have no plans because Lucy likes bus and van rides and just wants to be out and about. So we started with our normal routine, gave Lucy her morning bottle (which she doesn't really take much anyway, this might have to be over with when we get home because goodness, this child does not need the extra calories! : ) ) Then we went down for breakfast. I cannot tell you how well she is adjusting each day. This morning, Jason could take a shower without tears coming down her face and she actually played with me while he was in the shower. Yippeee!!!

Love this smile! And she is sportin' her 2011 Wiebe Family Reunion shirt, thank you very much Grandma Penner! : )

After breakfast, we did a little skyping with mei mei (sister in Chinese) and the boys. (We still need to find out what brother is in Chinese. That is supposed to be Aiden's assignment while we are gone.) Then we played in our room for a little bit and then out the door for a walk to Lotus again. We are guessing it is a good 2 mile walk there through a pretty park. Lucy soaked in every minute of it, saying hi to people and smiling at people as we walked. We are so used to the double and triple looks we get as we walk around with our China doll. However, I don't know if I will ever get used to the crazy driving of scooters and cars with a toddler in a stroller. People are crazy around here, but never seem to hit anyone. We just cross the street right next to the locals. They seem to know what they are doing. They pretty much ignore all street signs and lights so we join in their madness. : ) It was another fun trip. This trip showed us that Lucy is feeling more comfortable around us because she was getting into things at the store and then would laugh when we had to stop her. She is a little ornery now, but I soooooooo love it!

Who's climbing where they aren't supposed to be?

After shopping and a little lunch we walked back to our hotel, played for a while and then put Lucy down for a nap. She slept for a little over 2 hours. Rock on! We went to dinner with a few other families at a hotel  nearby and then we walked around with Lucy for a while. She was babbling and pointing and smiling and giggling. She loved it and so did we! It was time for a bath (not a favorite of hers) and then bedtime. Bedtime is still hard, but tonight she calmed down after crying for quite a while, grabbed her bottle from the table said 'mama' and put her arms out to me. I held her while she took her bottle and she fell asleep in my arms. I just sat there and stroked her hair and cried happy tears. My baby girl is with her forever family finally!

Sweet dreams baby girl!

*Tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou where the U.S. Consulate is located. We will stay there the remainder of our trip doing all the final steps in making Lucy legally ours. This flight will be a test run for our looooooooong flight home with Lucy. We will find out if she likes planes as much as she likes vans and buses. Thank you for all your prayers. We treasure them!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Zoo Day

May 24, 2012 - Pictures for the day:

Our home away from home in Zhengzhou. It really is quite nice inside with great breakfasts!! : )

All ready for the zoo. (Yes, her shirt says "I'm Awesome" cause she is!)

Lucy still needs a little work on her photo smile. : )

This is pretty much what she did all morning at the zoo. She loved all the animals and pointed to them as she saw them.

Lucy looking at the giraffes

Where did the ducks go?

Hanging out in the Panda's den

A live Panda bear. Can't say I have ever seen one of these live nor do I know if I ever will see one again. Pretty cool!

No Funning???? : )

It's time to go

Supper at McD's. They serve corn with their happy meals. : ) They also gave us a little ice cream cone. We think this may be Lucy's first taste of ice cream because she made quite the face when she realized how cold it was. Then she asked for more. The two guys you see in the background were obviously talking about us during their supper. We kind of feel like celebrities here. People pointing and staring and wanting to practice their English on us. At first I was kind of annoyed by it, now I think it is so fun!  

It was another monumental day in our bonding process. Lucy did so well all day, playing with us, eating very well, and even blowing kisses without being prompted to do so, that is until after her hour nap this afternoon. When she woke up she acted like the old Lucy, crying and not able to settle down. We ended up taking a walk while she was in her stroller and that seemed to help a little. Each day seems to get better and better with her handling all this change. Praise the Lord!