Our Flights Have Been Confirmed:)

Thank Goodness!!! I just received confirmation from American Airlines that we have
flights going home on April 30th and we will still arrive at the same time; we just have to be routed through Shanghai instead of Beijing - we are getting the full tour of China! That is certainly a relief! We are very anxious to get home and see the boys and rest of the family, not to mention, start to enjoy some of the comforts of home!

Today, we had our Consulate appointment and everything went through just fine - yeah! They are now processing the final paperwork for Jadyn and they will issue her visa tomorrow after our swearing in ceremony at 2:30. Then, we will start packing up as we will have to leave the hotel around 5:30 a.m. Friday morning. It will be a long day of travel for all of us, but especially for our little girl, so please send your prayers our way as the plane is packed full (due to the cancellation) - no chance of an open seat for her to sleep or be changed on. She did great on the short flight, but she has one two hour flight, a 6 hour layover, a 13 1/2 hour flight, a 1 1/2 hour layover through customs and immigration, and then another 45 minute flight to Milwaukee and an hour drive home. She will be a US Citizen as soon as we land in Chicago - I've been told there is an announcement on the plane and everyone claps:) How cute! Please also keep our travel mates in your prayers - there were supposed to be 4 families total on that plane from Beijing to Chicago and only two made it out through Shanghai; one other family has to stay in China until May 2nd and the other family isn't getting home until May 1st and their travel arrangements are horrendous.

This afternon we took a short walk a few blocks from our hotel to a Buddhist temple that is 2210 years old - it is truly amazing to see something that has been around for centuries. Our country is really "new" if you think about it - the history here is incredible. Tonight we will take a walk to the park across the street and maybe hit Pizza Hut for dinner. I feel like I can relax a little bit now that the flight situation is taken care of; although we are not on the plane just yet:)

A Day of Surprises...‏

After a quick run to the market to get some diapers and water, we were greeted by our travel mates who informed us that our American Airlines flight from Beijing to Chicago has been cancelled. Apparently, American Airlines has lost their license to fly into Beijing until May 4th. I immediately tried calling American Airlines and after almost 30 minutes was able to speak to an agent who tried to get us on a flight from Guangzhou to Shanghai to Chicago to Milwaukee still arriving at the same time on 4/30; however, we are still waiting for confirmation for the initial flight from Guangzhou to Shanghai. I tried calling back this afternoon after shopping (on hold at least 45 minutes) and they said they still didn't have confirmation and that I should try back tomorrow morning. Not good! I also have emailed our travel agent to get him working on this tonight (daytime in US) so that hopefully, by tomorrow morning I can wake to good news that we will still be able to arrive home on time.

In the meantime, we did some more shopping on the island today, and after being turned down on our offer at one store, we came upon Jenny's which went over and above to give us great prices on all the items we wanted and top notch service. We HIGHLY recommend visiting them if you come to Guangzhou! They were so kind and thankful for our business and really gave us such good prices on the quality items they carry. They are just down the street from Starbuck's - don't be scared off by the construction and look closely because they are not easy to see. She is located next door to Sherry's - another great place to shop.

Tomorrow morning is our Consulate appointment so we have to stay in the hotel room until we get the call saying all is good (please keep your fingers crossed) and then we will also hopefully have good news about our flight home.

A Day on Shamian Island and A Rainy Monday Spent in the Hotel Room...‏

Sunday we had four families take two cabs to Shamian Island to do some shopping which was so much fun! We found some really good deals and some wonderfully beautiful items - even plenty of squeaky shoes! We had a late lunch at Lucy's (a great Western style restaurant with HAMBURGERS); that is where I met a fellow Rumor Queen follower (Waiting for Olivia and her mom, Nana to Livi). We then got back to the hotel by about 4 p.m. and had a visit from the King family who we toured with in Beijing. They are doing so well with their daughter, Anne, who is 5 years old. They are such wonderful people who helped us get acclimated to Guangzhou since they have been here since leaving Beijing. Anne's Auntie Shannon even bought me my first Starbuck's coffee here and boy was it good!

Today, it has been raining all day so we have been held up in our hotel room all day. We did take a couple walks down to the hotel lobby and restaurants to check out the menus (not much to pick from - we are about done with rice). Looks like we will have some of the noodle cups we bought and hang out some more in the room. Tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy, but no rain after morning. We hope to go back to the Island to do more shopping and bargaining - we have learned to bargain for everything!!!

Here are some pics from the last two days...

Pictures of Jadyn

We Made it to Guangzhou!‏

Well, we left Guiyang at about 6:40 p.m. Friday evening and arrived in Guangzhou at about 7:50 p.m. (Jadyn was a trooper on the plane). As happy as we are to have begun the third phase of our China trip, as it brings us one step closer to home and family, we were a little sad to be leaving Jadyn's birth province and the place where we first became a family.

Guangzhou is beautiful - lots of trees and clean smelling air. Something that Beijing did not have and we had a taste of in Guiyang. We checked into our hotel at about 9:45 p.m. and had to meet our new guide, Peter, in the lobby at 8:30 this morning to go to get pictures for Jadyn's visa and then on to the medical exam. Wow, was that an experience! Talk about chaos! Lots and lots of people and crying children everywhere! We were happy that Peter made us arrive early so that we could move through rather quickly. Jadyn did quite well; she just did not like getting undressed:)

After the medical exam, Peter took us to the White Swan hotel and we sat in the lobby to complete what seemed like endless paperwork. There were many legal documents to complete for the Consulate appointment on the 28th. That took about 2 hours and then we came back to the hotel by about 1:30 p.m. We will have free time from now until the 28th when we will have to sit in our hotel room during the Consulate appointment. Peter takes all of the paperwork that we completed to the appointment and should there be any questions they will call us to come to the Consulate. Otherwise, we wait for Peter's call to say that all is good and then we are free for the afternoon. Then, on the 29th at 2:30 p.m. we go to the Consulate to take our oath and all of the official stuff is basically done - only thing left is to get Jadyn's visa so she can come home:)

More pictures of Guiyang

Pictures Of Guiyang