COMING HOME!

Boy are we ready to come home. No one more so than Kaia the way she is telling everyone. It is always bittersweet for the adopted child in my mind. On one hand she is coming home to a pretty good life, on the other hand, she is leaving the only life she has known up to this point.

We never made it to the orphanage either, kinda bummed about that. Hope everyone enjoyed my stab at doing a blog....my first.

She you soon!

US Consulate Day

Greetings! Our guide called us yesterday morning from the US Consulate to tell us our paperwork was in order and that: "by the way, your oath appointment has been moved up to this afternoon instead of tomorrow!"

So we walked to the White Swan where we met up with a TON of families heading over. We ended up with 3 large bus full of kiddo's, Mama's, Baba's, Grandma's, Grandpa's, aunties, etc. etc.

It was quite the site, but since no cameras were allowed...no pics :(

Today is our last full day here. Kaia is so excited to be coming to America. She is telling all the maids, servers, bellboys, etc that she is "heading back to the States" in one day. They all laugh knowing she has never been there. Our favorite server at Lucy's, Joy, says Kaia is doing much better than most newly adopted older children. She says Kaia is "Happy in her Heart" to be going home with us. She is quite the jabber-jaw when she talks to various Chinese speaking people.

We can't wait to get home!

Some Local Pictures

We are in the room this morning waiting for the "all clear" from our guide who is at the US Consulate applying for Kaia's VISA. Once she calls, we can get out and do some walking around the island.

I took some pictures of the sites on our way to the Safari Park yesterday and thought they might be of interest.

Safari Park Day

We went to the Safari Park today which is pretty cool. They let you get MUCH CLOSER to the animals than any zoo back in the States. We got to throw raw chicken meat to White Tigers, Darlene was in 7th Heaven as they had many Giant Pandas of which you could get pretty close to. Made for some tired girls. Kaia went on Kiddie Rides, a first for her. She almost broke her face from smiling so much. It made me, a grown man, want to cry to think such a simple thing makes her so incredibly happy. Just wait until she gets home.

We tried the Chinese/Thai restaurant down the street. Interesting, since the wait staff speaks no English, you just point to pictures and hope for the best. I had a rice dish with a lot of tentacles in it. Kaia eats like every meal is her last which is sad. She will eat so fast and so much that she will vomit at times. We have even found food in her sweater pockets. We are really liking her little personality. We can't wait to see how she reacts to her new home, bedroom, etc.

Only a couple more days!

Chill Out Day

Didn't do a whole lot today. Lee (Li), our guide came to our room this morning so we could fill out all of the forms for the US Visa. Tomorrow, we are going to a Safari Park about an hour away that many families have raved about. Sounds like fun. Can't wait to get out of the room.

Kaia is in the best mood we have seen her in. Not wanting to even be touched up until now, she is all of a sudden coming up to us and hugging us and now gives a kiss on the cheek! You can see a twinkle in her eye for sure. She is a total flirt with the doormen. Counting the days until we leave, although it is 20 degrees back home and calling for heavy lake effect snow!

Mountain Trip

Our guide took us to the Baiyun Cableway which takes you up to the top of a mountain with an incredible view of Guangzhou. We keep forgetting that everthing Kaia is doing is a first for her. Like taking the Tram! She was scared to death! She was a pro on the way down.

Kaia and Hannah got into a little altercation and Kaia put the knuckles to Hannah's face. Didn't leave to bad of a mark :) It will definately take some adjustment time.

There are quite a few families around also adopting which makes it nice since we are here alone this time. Very nice people.

Hanging Out

We are still hanging out in and around our hotel. It was gorgeous weather today, about 80 degrees. Many of the locals were in the park enjoying their day off. Kaia still has shown no signs of separation issues. We asked a English speaking local to ask Kaia if she knew what was going on and she told her she was adopted and going to America to live with her new Mama and Baba. Kaia told her they don't eat rice in America but only Big Mac's! That was pretty funny. She loves fruit and some veggies. We eat at Lucy's at least once a day as their food is pretty good. They make a great Long Island Ice Tea too!

We are really looking forward to some siteseeing in the next few days.

Doing Great

Kaia continues to do quite well. She really is well behaved and it appears the nannies did a good job with her. We question her age as she is a full 3" shorter than Hannah although supposedly a year older. Hannah is also Zhuang Chinese and a little taller than Han Chinese so maybe that is part of it.

Kaia had her first piece of pizza tonight and it was comical because she didn't know how to attack it. Stayed away from the "Danger Zone" of across the river today :)~

We have the weekend off as our guide says weekends are too busy to go to the zoo? Oh well.

We are enjoying just getting to know our new addition. Oh, she can write 1 to 20 in English so they must be teaching some of that at the orphanage.

That's it for now!

Good Day Bad Day

The Good News is that we finalized the Chinese portion of the adoption making her legally ours from the Chinese standpoint.

After leaving the Civil Affairs office, our guide took us to a shopping area which was very busy. Nothing like you have ever seen in the States. Anyway, I kept telling Darlene "lets get out of here", as I just felt uncomfortable being so crowded, especially since I had a large amount of US Dollars on me for official fees. I carried it in my front right pocket which is deep rather than in my wallet or backback as suggested by the guide. In an instant, someone stuck a lit cigarette on my left arm, which made me not only distracted but made me take my right hand out of my pocket to rub the burn. I was then bumped from behind not knowing immediately I was just robbed of about $2100.00 US cash. All but one dollar we had left for remaining fees and food for the trip. So to say the least, it was a bittersweet day.

The most important thing is that the girls are safe. We will figure out the money thing somehow. I feel like quite the idiot that this could happen to me.

Most important is the fact that Kaia is doing better than we ever could have hoped for. We will update soon.

Tim

We Got Her!

We went to the Civil Affairs office yesterday about 3:30pm as we got stuck in traffic like I've never seen before. Cars, People, Bikes and Mopeds all vying for the same space. Then low and behold, a car will drive right up on the sidewalk!

Kaia is fantastik. So appreciative and well behaved. She has a pretty good chest & head cold. She is coloring right now with Hannah. She eats anything which is good. The little Mandarin I learned turns out to be of no use to her as she speaks Cantonese! Jokes onme :)

We go to the Civil Affairs office this morning to finalize the Chinese portion of the adoption.

We are going to head down for breakfast so we will update soon.

The Metz's

In China Now

Well, the flight is as long as we remembered! But all in all everything went well. Even Hannah did well dispite having Bronchitis right now. She only asked "are we there yet" 2 hours into the trip.

We hung out around our hotel (the Victory) today and then walked over to the White Swan Hotel where we stayed last time. We get Kaia tomorrow at 3:00pm (Tuesday) We have seen two families that adopted older children and their reactions are total opposites. One child is very distraught (and who could blame her) and the other child was doing pretty good.

Hannah wants to say hello to all her friends and says she misses you.

Talk to everyone soon.