Chinese New Year!

Year of the Dragon

The sights and sounds of Chinese New Year can be seen, everywhere! The front door of all businesses are decorated with tangerine trees that have red envelopes hanging on them and encircled with potted flowers. The front door of families are also seen with min-tangerine trees but no so many with the potted flowers. The tangerine trees signify, good luck!

Chinese New Year is the largest celebrated holiday in China with companies and local businesses closing so that family can travel home and be together. Actually, it's New Year's eve that is the big celebration, as this is when families gather for a large meal and to spend time together. Chinese New Year is comparable to celebrating Christmas in the US

Red envelopes are given to children, which contain money and it's custom to give two bills in the single envelope. Children wear new clothing on the day of Chinese New Year. Families sweep their homes and outside their business as a way of clearing away the bad spirits. This year, Chinese New Year is January, 23.

We leave China on the eve of Chinese New Year and it's most likely, we'll be the only flight at the airport. We didn't realize this when booking flights but not that it would have really changed our flight path but we do feel sorry for our driver who is driving us to the airport. Fortunately, we leave late at night so the driver is able to eat with his family and at 9:00pm, drive us to the airport. We are told families typically have their holiday meal between 6-8.

Friday-1/20

Today is Friday morning and we only have 3 more days until we return home. We are all enjoying our time in China but very much look forward to returning home and working toward a new normalcy in our family. Things continue to go well! Bonding with mama, baba and brother have all been great. The past couple of days, Arabella has started to push the boundaries but nothing too extravagent or extreme. Even with these few moments, we still feel very blessed that it is going so well!

Arabella and I became comfortable very quickly and have been close since day one. Arabella took a couple of days to warm up to baba but since about day 3, she has been very close to both mama and baba. We had no doubt that we would love Arabella and be comfortable with her since day one but our concern was with Sterling and Arabella but thankfully, we've been truly blessed and the two are best of friends!

Arabella is cute as a button, she seem to enjoy being a girl and all the girlie accessories we brought to China. She is kind to her brother and enjoys his company and being the "big" sister. We haven't seen any dominant behavior toward Sterling but we will continue to monitor their interaction together. She's tried to play "mama" a couple of times but it seemed to be innocent. Older children are known at times to feel a sense of "dominance" with younger children. Thankfully, we have not seen this behavior and have seen nothing but acceptance. She's a smart girl and enjoyes reading Chinese signs when we are walking around. She also has some English skills. With each passing day she becomes more comfortable with the family. Today, we feel she was sharing with us what she has been learning in school with regard to English. She was signing a song that included body parts in English. Arabella loves to talk! We get a kick out of listening to her when she is with other Chinese speaking individuals. She will talk and talk. It's great! She is a strong willed little girl with little outward display of emotions but understandable given her past. She's had to survive and a survivor she is. She doesn't display much affection but it doesn't stop me from hugging on her, placing my arm around her and giving her kisses, the same as I do with Sterling. I am trying to be very aware of keeping all things, (affection, words of praise, choices) even between the two of them so that no one starts to feel different or left out.

We've continued our routine and now have added to it. We continue to hit the Starbucks after the kids have easten breakfast and now, we've added McDonald's to our routine. Nothing like a little taste of home to get us through these last days! The McDonald's has a nice dinning room and is on the second floor with floor to ceiling windows. We enjoy the walk through the local markets and housing area. One of our friends, Jennifer/Harry/Baby Elliott, return for home today. We are blessed to spend a couple more hours together before they depart. Chris her girls and our family will depart on Sunday. We are down to only a few days before our journey, home. 

                                                                     Beautiful Rose!

                                                                 Baby Elliott & Baba

Monday's Adventures

Continuation of Monday-1/16

This past Monday, we met up with our friends at 3:00pm at the local Starbucks and then all headed over to the playground for some fun. The kids look forward to their play time at the park. We spent several hours at the park and then it's off to dinner! Well, dinner on Monday was quite the adventure. To start off, we got a very late start to dinner, not leaving until 7:00 pm. Earl loves Italian food and had found the listing for an Italian restaurant off the island. (A friend had told us about an Italian restaurant on the island but we learned it has closed down) So, we wait around for a tax with the need of 3 taxis but once we heard it can be a long wait we found a way to fit 11 people in 2 taxis. <LOL>

It was a 30 minute drive to the restaurant and a cold evening, only to discover, the restaurant is closed on MOnday's. So, we immediately flagged down 2 more taxis and returned to the hotel, 30 minutes later (an hour round-trip) and simply walked over to Lucy's for dinner. It was a late evening for everyone and our family had to be awake extra early for our Consulate Appointment on Tuesday morning. What an evening! But regardless, we had a great time spending the afternon and evening with our friends.

Families you meet during your adoption travels become very special friends. We still have friends from Sterling's adoption and also friends from last year's travel. We've now bonded with more families and look forward watching all the children grow up. Thank goodness for email and family blogs!

                                                            Jennifer & baby Elliott

                                                                Chris and the girls

Monday in Pictures

Monday, 1/6

Monday was a great day! We met two other families at 3:00 at Starbucks. We each enjoyed a drink and then made our way down to the park to allow the children to run and play. We are so thankful to have these friends here in Guangzhou and especially here at our hotel. It's become a routine now to meet in the afternoon at 3:00 at Starbucks, when there isn't any sightseeing scheduled with their guide. We also went as a group to walk through the area where the locals, live. That was quite in interesting walk. I sure enjoy seeing first-hand how people live. I enjoy it in the states as well but it's always more interesting when abroad. While people are different around the world, in reality we are all the same and while we all have different ways of life, I"ve always said, the way people live around the world is unique, no parrticular set of people are right and no one is wrong, one is not better than the other, simply different. 

                                                                    Scorpions

                                                             Walking among the locals
                           The large white building off in the background is a Holiday Inn Hotel

                                                                      Open markets

                                                                   Skinned Lizard

                                                                       Pets for Sale

                                       Mom, Arabella & Sterling-attempting to cross the street

                 Tangerine trees, everywhere! These are seen at most every door as CNY approaches.
                                              They symbolize good luck for the new year.

                           Down an alley where people live-the door to their home opens to the alley

                                                   More alleys in the local residential area

                                  In the background of the alley one can see tall modern buildings                                

                                                               Seahorse on a stick

Safari Park Pictures

Delayed Post

Safari Park was great fun and we recommend this spot to anyone traveling to Guangzhou! The grounds were very green and lush and were clean,including the bathrooms. Most public restrooms in China do not provide soap or paper towels so I was pleasantly surprised, when these restrooms were clean and included  soap! The lunch was great! It was cheap and the noodles were made from scratch. We watched the chef roll and toss the noodles by hand. Best food I've ever had at an amusement park and was better than some restaurants. The kids both seem to have enjoyed themselves.  

         The park rangers through food at the animals so they will be active when the tram passes by

                                 Chef at work-preparing our noodles from scratch and by hand

                                                 Sister showing us her chopstick talent

                                             Brother showing us his chopstick talent, too

                                                          Sterling feeding the giraffe

                                     Okay, not Safari Park but it's one of my favorite pictures!

Great Day!

Other adoptive families arrive.

We had a super Saturday afternoon! Other adoptive families have now arrived to Guangzhou and we're very thankful! It's sad because you don't see as many adoptive families around the island like we did the last 2 trips. We met up with some of the families at the Starbucks, had adult conversation (once again, thank goodness for the Leapster Explorer, keeping the kids occupied!) and then headed over to the park for the children to all play!

It was great!!! All 6 of the children did super! Little Elliott, stole the show! Elliott is 2 years old and precious as can be! Jennifer and Harry are the proud parent of Elliott. Chris's daughters are all 3 cute as a button! Kendall is the leader and a big help to mama on this trip. Rosalyn has the most beautiful smile and to hear Earl, he says she reminds him of an angel. You gotta see her smile, it's super contangious and she is ALWAYS smiling. Little Lili is precious and spunky! She was having a blast sliding and running with the other children. Then there is Arabella and Sterling--oh my!! They are inseparatable! They ran around, side by side or chasing one another but always, TOGETHER! They would slide down on the double slide, so they could hold hands. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera but hopefully, we all meet up again for a do over.

Angry Birds & Family Bonding

Nothing like a game of Angry Birds to enhance family bonding!

We spent the evening last night, (Friday) just prior to bedtime, playing Angry Birds! Video games seem to be the universal language of love. We enjoyed laughing, high-fiving and learning to share with one another together as a family. It's already been decided that when returning home, we'll have family game night. Our friends are already doing this as a family and it's been a big hit.

We went to Safari Park yesteday and we all had a really great time! There was hardly anyone there. We almost had the park to ourselves. Unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to hold a baby tiger or panda because we couldn't find it in the park but daddy did get the opportunity to pet a baby lion. Wouldn't ya know, after 30 minutes into the park, my camera's battery went out. Just our luck!! However, we did get a picture of Sterling feeding a giraffe! Yes, you read it correctly, our son, who is PETRIFIED of animals, including tiny yapping dogs, fed a giraffe and it was his idea!!! We hope this is the start of his fears breaking down. This park was great fun and a great opportunity for some special family bonding time. We recommend it to all adoptive families during their stay in Guangzhou.

On Thursday night, we had dinner with a very nice family, it was a lady and her beautiful 13 year old daughter. We ate at the Banana Leaf Restaurant. The food was good but warning to other families, it is loud but thankfully, the kids had their Leapster Explorers and did just fine. It was a fun restaurant, as they had a group of employees who were singing and they would gather kids and dance with them. Sterling and Arabella loved it!! They both got up and danced. It was nice to get away from the hotel and have dinner with another adoptive family. We were happy to learn that she also lives in Texas. It was a pleasant evening and we enjoyed the taxi ride, back to our hotel. The city has different ambiance at night. If you're wondering, the restaurant is across the street from the Garden Hotel.

Arabella has been repeating her American name, over and over. She is also starting to repeat all that we say. In the taxi ride, after I said I love you to each of them, she starting repeating it over and over. Sterling wanted in on the action too, so he looked at Arabella and said, "I love you, iter." Very, very sweet! His words are becoming more clearly spoken with each passing day. No doubt they will be learning to speak English, together. :-) Arabella and Sterling will be so good for one another and in so many ways!

Sorry my posting hasn't been very consistent. We have adoption related appointments almost daily and this time around, it's much busier than with our last two trips.

Before signing off, if I still have your attention, I want to make a big suggestion to other adoptive families waiting to travel--Leapster Explorer has been a true blessing!!! We take them with us when we anticipate any sort of a wait (restaurant, adoption business) and the kids have enjoyed playing with them. I'm not sure what we would have done, had we not had our Leapsters. They've been a true life-saver and easy to tote around. If you're adopting an older child, invest in one!! (one for each child, if possible) :-)

                                                          Dancing at the restaurant

                                                          Sterling shaking his booty

                                                              Our beautiful Arabella

                                             Garden Hotel decorated for Chinese New Year