Our Final Week in China

This post concludes our time in China.  Part of our hearts will always remain in our daughter's homeland.  Photos to accompany this post are coming soon. 

Khloe is doing AMAZINGLY well at home and is blossoming more and more with each passing day.  I look forward to being caught up on our posts so that I can share more about our "new" day-to-day life at home.  We are so blessed!  I also look forward to perusing others blogs and catching up with all of you... know that you remain in my thoughts and prayers, as well!  Miss you all SO much!!

Love,

Tanya

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We left Fuzhou on Friday, May 21st for Guangzhou. It was a relatively short flight, lasting only about an hour and a half, which was nice. Khloe did great for the most part…though she wanted to be on my lap much of the time. We landed that evening in a hot and muggy Guangzhou.

By the time we got to our hotel, everyone was pretty well spent. Once we got the cot situation squared away, we were off to sleep. Khloe fell asleep in my arms in the van on our way to the hotel, and never did wake up. We slipped her into her pj’s and she only whimpered a little before falling back asleep.

It was a late night and we had to wake early the next morning to get breakfast before meeting our guide to take us to Khloe’s health examination. The place was unbelievable. I’ve never seen so many people waiting to get checked out. Thank the Lord for a VERY organized guide, who helped our process to go very smoothly. Martin sat and filled out some paperwork, while I took Khloe around to the various stations for her exam. I was praying that she would not be mad at me for this, and I just wanted it all to be over. But PTL!!… Khloe only needed ONE immunization! It was hard enough on this mama, so my heart really goes out to the parents who have had to watch their children get more than a handful at one time (which is the ‘norm’ BTW!) This is all mandatory by the US side, which is so frustrating to me. I pray this is something our government will again allow a waver on until our children reach stateside. I know there are proposals for this out there, as I have personally signed some of the petitions in the past. Anyway …besides the shot, Khloe needed to have the required TB test (also mandatory by the US) so it meant another needle! The nurse made me hold her arm out straight at the elbow, so she wouldn’t bend it during the test. I was pretty upset that they couldn’t do it themselves, as Khloe just looked at me as though I were betraying her. My heart sank as I fought back the tears myself. I was so grateful that part was over. There were other stations we had to visit for the rest of the exams, and she held tight to me for each one. Our guide and I had to convince her that it would be quick. She made it through with some tears, but no more pain.

Later that afternoon, Khloe was a feeling a little warm, but didn’t appear to have a fever. I laid her down for her nap, and took one with her, as I didn’t get much sleep the night before. When we woke up a couple of hours later, she was crying and didn’t want me again. Since she had usually preferred me whenever she was emotional, this was very hard. She wanted anyone BUT me! I think I was as emotional as her, as I could no longer hold back my own tears. I thought she might be mad at me for holding her arm that morning when they stuck her with that needle, and then allowing them to give her another shot in the leg. Poor girl. Martin held Khloe and comforted her until she calmed down. In the meantime, it was obvious Breanna felt sad for me and came over to hug me…followed by Dawson. Khloe watched them intently. Martin continued to talk to Khloe and explained to her that Breanna and Dawson were hugging mama because she was sad. I said another silent prayer that God would comfort Khloe’s grieving heart and help her not to be mad at me, if she was, and that He would restore her trust in me. About a minute later, she reached out her arms to come back to me and just cuddled with me for awhile. I think two hearts were ‘healing’ a bit in that moment. We went out to dinner at the nearby Pizza Hut that evening, and all was well again. The night ended with a ‘wild’ Khloe bath and everyone got a good night’s sleep.

Oh, and you’ll never guess who we seen while waiting for her medical exam that same morning?! ~ Jesse from NewDay! I would’ve recognized those big eyes anywhere. We visited briefly with his parents, and they recognized Khloe from the website, too. It was cute to watch the two of them just stare at one another. We learned that we were staying at the same hotel (The Garden Hotel…not on the island, but very, very nice!) so we had planned to try for a play date for later in the week. We ran into them several times during breakfast throughout our stay, but we never did work out that play date. Jesse’s dad invited us to join them when Doug Bush (from New Day South) had planned to come over and meet them at our hotel later that week, but I ended up coming down with a severe headache and had to lie down with Khloe that day when she napped…I was so bummed to miss them. Anyhow, it was still a joy to meet Jesse’s family and I look forward to staying in touch with them through their blog. They adopted an older son at the same time, so their story reminded me much of Mandi’s family, with Drew and Jaxon. So neat! It was also so cute how Khloe pointed out Jesse every time she would see him. It was very evident that they both ‘knew’ who the other was! :)

Staying off the island had its pros and cons. The Garden Hotel was absolutely STUNNING! This was an “Executive 5 Star Hotel” recommended by more than one family who had traveled before us. Some who had even stayed at the White Swan in the past, and liked this place better. It was very nice and luxurious, though our suite was small compared to the space we had in our connected rooms in Fuzhou, but we made it work. The reason for staying off Shamian Island, was that the island is currently under major construction in preparation for the Fall Games that will be held in the area. It will be really nice when it’s all done, though. But the major con was that we missed out on connecting with very many other AP’s (adoptive families) and the convenient shopping that is just a walk away when you stay on the island. I really wanted to do a little more shopping for gifts for Khloe as she gets older and special occasions. But as it was, we only made it to the island once for shopping, and we only were given a couple of hours at that time, so we hit two shops. Jordan’s was our favorite, and we highly recommend them. He even did Khloe’s name for her in calligraphy…it turned out beautiful! We did take a cab to a pearl market one other morning though, and met our guide there. I was glad we at least did this, as I was able to get a few special gifts for Khloe for when she is older. We missed out on the tea shops and a couple other recommended places though. We had hoped to catch a cab back over at some point, but we simply ran out of time. So I guess if I were to do it over, I’d probably stay on the island for the sake of convenience. Or if you’ve been there before and prefer the luxury, then I would recommend our hotel for sure. No construction and very nice accommodations and amenities. And if you plan it right, you can catch a cab for very little money. We didn’t realize this until we had been there a few days…thus the reason we ran out of time with our busy schedule.

On with our time in Guangzhou…

The week was filled with little appointments here and there. Sunday was pretty low-key. Our guide had set up for us (and the other family in our group) to go to a park with the kids. It was also a small children’s amusement park, with rides, though we opted out... Khloe shook her head ‘no’ every time we asked her if she wanted a ride. She was content just watching. We went for a walk through the park and along the lake. It was beautiful. There were families everywhere. We loved seeing the people doing Tae Chi along the trails, exercising and stretching, women doing traditional dances with fans, badminton, adults playing foot games (like hacky-sack…only with a ‘birdie’ of sorts) and simply enjoying one another. The people of China are warm and kind. It was a beautiful and relaxing day.

Monday we headed back over to the health clinic where the exams were done for the results of the TB tests. Everything was clear and we were good to go. Khloe was not happy to return to that building though, and started crying as soon as we stepped in the room. I was relieved to learn she was clear and nothing more was needed. She was clinging to me as I would tell her ‘it’s okay…no more’ (shots) and shake my head and hand ‘no’ towards the nurse. Khloe looked into my eyes for reassurance, shaking her head ‘yes’ in understanding. She is one very SMART little girl! After we left the room, I offered her some fruit snacks that I had brought along, while we waited for the other family. She was ALL smiles then! :) As we left the building, she happily waived and said ‘bub-bye!’ a few times over …so cute!! We then went on with our guide and the other family in our group for our couple of hours of shopping and to drop off some laundry to be done. We ended our time on the island with lunch at Lucy’s…good ol’ American menu choices! (Though we really couldn’t complain about any of our food during our time in China… it was all quite good and we did have a decent variety.)

Tuesday morning when we returned from breakfast, we had to remain in our hotel until we heard from our guide regarding our paperwork and consulate appointment. Everything was good and we were free for the remainder of the day. I ended up having a headache that afternoon, and laid down with Khloe during her nap. The big kids enjoyed some pool time with Martin, while Khloe and I watched…she was not interested in going in, but liked watching them play. We mostly just relaxed that day and enjoyed room service for supper.

Wednesday morning we were off to the pearl and jade markets to meet our guide. The cab ride was very reasonable and we were wishing we had taken advantage of them to go back to the island during our previous free times. Oh well. We were glad for this opportunity anyway. We got back to our hotel just after noon, and grabbed a quick lunch from McD’s for take-out, as we had to get ready for our consulate appointment that afternoon. Breanna and Dawson stayed back to work on homework, while Martin and I went to our appointment at the US Consulate with our guide and the other family. Everything went smoothly and we were officially a family in the eyes of the US now, too! Oh happy day!!! :) We celebrated our last evening in Guangzhou, dining at a nice Italian restaurant nearby. Khloe entertained our waiter with her charming smile. It was a nice (and delicious!) time and we all enjoyed it!

We started off Thursday with our usual trip to the breakfast buffet. We enjoyed our final breakfast outside by the waterfall and took it all in. We snapped a few more photos and then headed back up to our room to finish packing for the final leg of travels to Hong Kong. It was bittersweet preparing to leave this country that had brought us our daughter; but at the same time, we were all so ready to get back home. We met the other family from our group and said our good-byes, as they were off to Beijing that evening to catch their flight out to D.C. the next day. At the last minute, our guide returned with Khloe’s VISA. A few hugs and photos later, and we were off to catch our bus. It was a pleasant ride and Khloe napped through more than ½ of it. We caught a connecting ‘van’ ride through the border and customs into Hong Kong. It was dark when we finally arrived, but the lights of the city were beautiful. Even though we were so ready to be home, the other part of us was wishing we had stayed one more day to spend in HK and enjoy the city, along with a visit to my dear blog-friend Kim and her family, who are currently residing in HK for her husband’s work It was so hard to be in that city and miss out on seeing her.. I was SO very bummed! We arrived safely in HK and checked into the airport hotel. Martin went out and grabbed us some Burger King for supper. Not healthy at all, but it did the trick. We then took turns showering, gave Khloe a bath, and were off to sleep for about 5 hours, before we needed to get up to catch our early flight out.

Friday morning came WAY too soon, but we were motivated knowing that we were finally going home…WITH our Khloe!! We had many, many hours of travels still ahead of us, so we wanted to get started. Our flight out of HK was comfortable and took just over 4 hours to Tokyo, Japan. We had a couple hours of layover there, before getting ready to board the final connecting flight home to the States. Khloe did fairly well on both flights, though she was pretty squirmy on the longer one. She spent much of it on my lap or lying across my seat and hers while she slept, tossing and turning trying to get comfortable. She would wake up occasionally crying, but not really opening her eyes… I think her ears were bothering her whenever the pressure would change. Poor girl. A very, very LONG 12 hours later, we arrived safely at MSP, so happy to be on home soil with our precious new daughter!

More about our HOMECOMING arrival, soon!! ;)
 Stay tuned!.....