Chen Family Temple

Today we visited the Chen Family Temple. This temple dates back to the Chen Dynasty. Looking at it, it really doesn't look like a temple but more of a living space for the family. There was beautiful wood carved doors and there was a Chinese embroidery shop that was absolutely amazing.

Today we also took Zach to get his visa photo. He smiled nice for his picture. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We went back to the Swan Room to play, we ate once again at Lucy's for dinner and I finished up the paperwork needed for the American Consulate.

Greetings from Guangzhou!

Well, we finally made it to Guangzhou. This is our last stop on this adoption journey. Guangzhou is home of the US Consulate and where Zach receives his Visa into the country. This is a totally different place than Haikou. Haikou is the total China experience, while Guangzhou is the China experience with an American flavor. All American couples adopting from China come here to get the baby's Visa.

We arrived at the White Swan Hotel this afternoon, and what a difference in hotels compared to what we had in Haikou. This place is a palace compared to the place we stayed at earlier. The majority of people adopting stay at this hotel and they really have geared it towards families. They have a room called "The Swan Room" where it is a nice playroom with lots of toys for the kids to play with. We brought Zach here this afternoon, and he wasn't quite sure about it at first but as he saw other kids playing he decided he wanted to play catch with a ball. He had a blast doing this. For dinner, we actually had something other than fried rice and noodles. Down the block is a restaurant called Lucy's Bar and Grill. They serve American food and the decor is all American and everyone speaks English (such a bonus). Joe, my mom, and I had burgers and fries while Zach had a good old Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwhich.

No pictures today, but I will post some tomorrow of the White Swan and the Chen Family Temple.

Orphanage Visit

This afternoon we had the opportunity to visit Zach's orphanage. We were kind of nervous about bringing Zach back to the orphanage thinking it might confuse him but we decided to bring him with us and we are glad that we did.

We met several nannies, the assistant orphanage director, the orphanage director, and many kids still living there. The kids were so adorable and I really wanted to take them home with me. We brought the kids bags of Tootsie Pops so we hope they enjoy those.

The orphanage was very clean and organized, but was very hot. They have no air conditioning and I was dying while there. We saw Zach's eating area, his play area, outside play area, sleeping area, and a classroom. Zach received lots of hugs and kisses from the nannies and other children who were all glad to see him.

We also met Zach's primary nanny who he has had since birth. She is very nice and you could tell that she loves him. Zach was a part of the Half the Sky program and his nanny is one of the nannies that this program sponsors. We found out that Zach was a "Big Brother" in the "Big Sister/Brother program". Maybe this explains why he is such a neat freak and likes to keep things tidy and orderly.

We met with the orphanage director and they gave us Zach's care package gifts that he received from us back in late June. They also presented us with a photo book with Zach's baby pictures and other photos of him as he grew. In addition, they presented to us a very large book from Half the Sky with pictures, progress reports, and drawings that Zach completed. This book looks similar to a scrapbook with all the pictures and writings which started a couple of days after he entered the orphanage and the last entry was on July 20, 2008. I now need to find someone that can translate Chinese into English so we can see what this book says.

Park and the Zoo

Today we headed off bright and early to another park on the other side of town. This park was also very nice, and on one end was a small zoo. We went to the zoo and saw different animals, let's just say that animal rights activists in our country would of been outraged at the conditions these poor animals lived in. On a funny note to the zoo, we went to look at the monkeys. Zach loves to carry around his little bowl of Cheerios and accidentally dropped his bowl of Cheerios into the monkey area. The monkeys swarmed all over it and Zach had a complete fit. He wanted Joe to go down to the money area to rescue the Cheerios. It was funny, but we felt bad for him that he lost his precious Cherrios bowl.

Day at the Park

This morning we headed out to a local park in Haikou. The park was very nice, lots of vegetation and right on the South China Sea. It was quite interesting to watch the locals in their element. There is a little patio/gazebo set up and there was a lady singing opera, she drew quite a crowd. To Joe and I, it really didn't sound like opera, it more or less sounded like a cat screeching. It wasn't too good. We only spent about an hour and a half at the park as Zach was getting tired and it was very hot. Tomorrow we will go to another park, so we will have to do a comparison.

On a funny note, Joe and I were watching Chinese TV when a commercial for the Olympics came on. It was a flashback to the last Olympics in Athens and they were showing Chinese athletes standing on the podium receiving their gold medals. We all know that when an athlete receives their medal they play the country's national anthem. While the Chinese national anthem was playing, Zach stopped in his tracks, dropped his toys and stared at the tv. When the anthem was over he gave us a big smile, laughed, and then continued to play with his toys. Because this happened, we know that the orphanage played their national anthem to the children to a point where he recognizes it. Very interesting.

Shopping

Today we headed to the local Carefor. Carefor is a big store (similar to WalMart) in China. They have just about anything you can think of. At the store we wanted to get Zach some new shoes as the ones that he had were pink, and Joe was not crazy about Zach running around in pink shoes. While shopping, we really got stared at and lots of people coming up to us fawning over Zach. I guess they were really curious as to why two Americans had a toddler Chinese boy. All of the people that came up to us were all very nice. After shopping we went to McDonalds. Zach experienced his first french fry and I have to say that he loved it.

Bath Time

This morning we had to be at the China Civil Affairs office to finish up the Chinese side of this adoption. This just entailed us signing a few forms, I actually thought there would be more to it but I guess I was wrong. Zach enjoyed the time at the Civil Affairs Office as the officials were taken with him and continued to give him candy. They had given him so much candy, Zach had stuffed his pockets and his little backpack pocket full. In the end, this turned out to be not such a great thing because on the way to the hotel from the Civil Affairs Office, Zach got car sick all over himself, me, and the van. That was a fun mess to clean up.

The rest of the day consisted of taking walks, playing by the pool (he did not want to go swimming today) and having his first bath. I have to admit I was kind of skeptical on how he would handle his bath, but he loved it. We gave him his beach ball and some plastic cups and he had an absolute ball in the tub. This was the first time that we had heard him laugh so hard, it was very cute.