Hello Guangzhou!!

We left our hotel bright and early this morning for the Nanning airport. Our guide, Michael has been so great and had breakfast ready for us on our van ride to the airport. Maeve did great on the airplane and we waved goodbye to Guangxi province as we flew away. She quickly fell asleep shortly after take off and slept the rest of the way (only ~45 min flight). Guangzhou is in Guangdong Province. It is very different looking from Guangxi and Nanning. We are staying in a part of Guangzhou called Shamian Island. It sits along side the Pearl River and is quite a site! It is really beautiful and many of the buildings have British influence in their architecture. There is very little traffic here and it is the US adoption "capital" so it is full of US families and their newly adopted children. I am sooooo comfortable here. Everyone is very friendly and strikes up conversation with us everywhere we go.

We arrived at our hotel, the White Swan (soooooo nice!) around 10:30am, dropped our luggage and headed to Maeve's physical exam and visa picture. She was not happy for the picture and screamed the whole time, so the picture is horrible. Oh well! The physical exam is a total joke. It doesn't help that I am a pediatric nurse practitioner and Susie a pediatric nurse, but the "tests" they ran on Maeve were useless. The hearing test (if you can even call it that!) was to squeak a toy by her ear and see if she turned her head. Well, she is 17 months old, so if she sees you holding a toy by her head, she is going to turn it regardless of if it makes noises or not. Whatever!! Then the "doctor" who did the physical exam, just couldn't get over her hands and feet. He was making me very frustrated and he kept getting our guide to translate for him. He wanted to make sure we knew about her hands and feet (duh!!) and then told our guide that we need to make sure she has surgery when she arrives home. Wow, thank you for that wonderful advice. Anyway, Maeve was miserable the whole time and I couldn't get out of that rats hole fast enough!! Hopefully that will be our only poor experience in Guangzhou.

The weather continues to be chilly here, but better than Nanning. We had a great time today walking around the island and have already purchased some things. We mainly did a search of what everyone has to offer and then made our list back at the hotel of what we really want to get. We have lots of downtime this week until our visa appointment on Thursday so we have plenty of shopping time.

For dinner we met up with some of the other groups that we originally met in Beijing and headed to Lucy's (the "American" restaurant here). It was excellent. (I don't think I have had a bad meal in China) It was great to see everyone's babies and hear their stories. The adoption process is really an adventure and even here is China, every experience is different. These kids have been through unfathomable losses in their lives and their resiliance is inspiring. I don't honestly think I would be as strong as these children and to see them all so happy is pretty emotional!

After dinner we walked around some more and looked out over the Pearl River. It is gorgeous at night, all lit up with boats and lights. Our room over looks the river too and the view is amazing. We then found the play room in our hotel and let Maeve run off some energy. This hotel is just so nice and we are so happy to be here!!
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Maeve's first plane ride. One down, three more to go until we are home!
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This is the awful physical exam room that all adopted children must experience in order to come home. Thank goodness that is over!!
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Our lovely room, much bigger and more up to date than Nanning.
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Daytime view of the Pearl River from our hotel room. At night all the boats and buildings light up and sparkle.
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Nap is done and this girl is ready for dinner. She ate an entire bowl of congee, a piece of fried fish, frech fries and rice for dinner. She can really put some food away!
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Mommy and Maeve at Lucy's.
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Enjoying the views of the Pearl River at night.
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Having fun in the play room.
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She loves the abicus. In some of her pictures we were given she was playing with one too.
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Goodnight, I love Guangzhou!!

Last Day in Nanning

We had a lazy start to our day today. We didn't have to be anywhere by any certain time, so we took our time in the morning. Maeve ate really well at breakfast and she was walking all around greeting everyone at the table. It was good to see that if people spoke back to her, she would turn and run back to us. This makes us think she is "getting" the fact that we are the people she needs to stay with. She has also been very loving today with Susie and their connection is improving each day. Today, while I showered, Maeve was content to stay with Susie and she never cried. Then after breakfast I had to go with our guide and complete some additional adoption paperwork. Maeve had fallen asleep before I left, but then woke up before I returned. Though she initially cried when waking up, she quickly calmed. When I returned to the room she was sitting on Susie's lap watching cartoons and she remained on her lap even after I came in the room. It is great to see this progress!

We then walked to the local market that we have come to love so much. We are going to miss this little neighborhood we are "living" in. It is a very peaceful little place. We also stopped at a little children's shop and bought an outfit and some hair clips for Maeve. The shops along the street are VERY small and about the size of a walk in closet. The store worker stands up when we walk in and follows us while we look at everything saying "very nice." It is too funny.

We then headed to lunch at this great noodle shop another adoptive family had found down the street. Thank goodness they were with us, because she speaks Mandarin and was able to order for us (no picture menus here). It was great and the bill for all four adults was 13 yuan (~$2 US). After lunch, we walked to a local botanical garden and children's petting zoo. Maeve LOVED the animals. It is great to see her face erupt in laughter when she would see the animals. We actually had a difficult time getting her to leave. Everytime we would set her down, she would run back into the animal area. We also walked around the botanical garden. It was a beautiful day today, the warmest yet. Still a bit cloudy, but definately clearer and more comfortable. This botanical garden was beautiful and full of all kinds of tropical plants.

Tonight we are going to hit our favorite Cantonese place again and then pack up. Tomorrow we leave the hotel at 6:15am for Guangzhou (pronounced Gwon-jo). Maeve is now officially our child and now we just need to get her US visa and make her an American citizen. This is why we have to go to Guangzhou. The American Consulate is located there. So it is bittersweet that we leave Nanning. We are excited for our next step (one more step closer to home and our boys which we miss so much!) and we are sad to leave Maeve's home province and the only place she has ever known. We have had a great week in Nanning and will never forget this place. Who knows, maybe some day we will return. Guangxi province is so beautiful and I hope we have learned enough/soaked up enough to talk about it to Maeve when she is older. We want her to know what a wonderful part of this country she came from!!
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Dressed for success. She is loving crackers, cheerios and teething cookies from her cup.
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This couple was taking pictures at the Children's park today. We think they were models, but who knows.
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She loved the rabbits! She would dance and march around everytime she looked at them.
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Playing with the goats.
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They even dress their baby goats in clothes to keep them warm!!!!
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Maeve was born in the year of the pig and she got a kick out of these piglets!
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More rabbits and more dancing!
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This picture hardly looks like her, but I thought it was funny.
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Enjoying a rice cake after nap time.
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I thought I would throw in a picture of all the clothes Maeve was wearing on Gotcha Day. It is hard to grasp the thickness of each of these shirts in the picture, but they are each like a sweatshirt material. No wonder the locals think we are practically letting her walk around naked!

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Qing Xiu mountain

Today was a fantastic day!! Maeve and Susie have made tremendous progress (more on that later!). We had our usual start to the day and then headed down to the lobby to meet our group for a tour of Qing Xiu mountain. Don't ask me to pronounce that! We received a long and thorough history of the mountain on the drive there from our guide Michael. I remember none of it now, but it is the most beautiful place. The weather was much warmer today (~65F), but rainy at the mountain. We still had a great time. The air at the mountain it thought to be the freshest in all of Nanning. There is a thought process that all fresh air in Nanning comes from this mountain. I must agree, it was great there. We walked around and enjoyed some spectacular views from the top of the mountain. We also climbed this massive pagoda. Maeve was walking all over and having a great time. She would walk with Susie a bit and then run back to me. It was great to see her interacting with mommy. After the mountain, we went to a peach tree garden and walked around some more. This country is just so beautiful. I feel like I keep saying that, but it truly is. We are so thankful to have this time to explore and experience this culture!

Our touring was done around 12:30. The mountain was a little ways from our hotel, so the drive provided us the opportunity to see more of Nanning. There are some very "built up" areas of this city with really nice apartment complexes. Then there are the parts of the city that you can tell are probably hundreds of years old. Very cool. Once back at the hotel we ate lunch at the Cantonese restaurant (Yummy!) with our new friends, Michael and Hansun, and their precious new daughter, Zoe. I had some great spicy fried tofu and Susie had chicken soup with bamboo fungus (yes, I said fungus). She loved it. Then she had some of Hansun's soup of pig's feet and vegetables. Susie is going way out on a limb here and I am staying a little more conservative. So far we have not had a bad meal, so that is great!

After lunch we headed up to the room and planned to put Maeve to bed. She was not ready for a nap (after sleeping through the last half of our touring this morning!). We ended up all sitting on the floor and playing. Maeve really started opening up to Susie. She was walking up to her and giving her kisses, hugs, playing stickers together. They also put a puzzle together. Maeve is accepting Susie's touches and smiling at her when Susie comes around. She is still not 100% on board with Susie, but amazing progress has been made. Once Maeve woke up from her nap, we decided to walk to the local Children's Park we had heard so much about. We wanted to see if Maeve would like the swings. Once we got to Nanning's People's Park and found the Children's Park section, we realized "park" is not exactly what this place is. The park is actually a gigantic amusement/carnival park. Only it was closed when we were there so it was completely desolate. We felt like Clark Griswald at Wally World. I have never seen a park quite like this, but it is free so we just walked all over. Maybe we will go back tomorrow when it is running and see if Maeve will ride anything. The rides were a little scary looking though, so not sure about that. The best thing about the park was that Maeve was letting Susie hold her. Granted this would only last a few seconds, but she didn't cry. We made a game out of passing her back and forth between us and Maeve was really enjoying it. She would reach for Susie and then reach back for me. She would barely start to whimper if I didn't get her back fast enough. I can't tell you how different this is from yesterday when Susie could hardly look at her without making her cry. Hopefully it will continue to get better.

Tomorrow we pick up Maeve's passport and then have free time most of the day. We see "drizzle" on the forecast which sums up our entire experience here in Nanning. It is too bad because it appears to be so tropical and I imagine it is even more beautiful in warm weather. Oh well, maybe it will be warmer on our next trip :)!!

Thursday pictures.

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Gold fish at Qing Xiu Mountain. Maeve loved feeding them and watching them practically jump out of the water.
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Boats for rent at Qing Xiu mountain.
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Base of mountain.
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We made it to the top. Now we just need to climb the pagoda!
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We climbed all the way to the top of this pagoda. It has some significance to this mountain, but I can't seem to recall that information right now. It was an amazing view of all of Nanning from up there. The pictures didn't turn out great because of the clouds, but in person you could see for miles.
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Maeve walking around the top of the pagoda. She loved it! She climbed up much of the way and let Susie help her!!
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View from the top.
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Our lovely bus that gets us around Nanning.
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At the peach tree garden. Very beautiful place!
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The entrance to the peach tree garden. Maeve was out cold.
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Big smiles at Nanning Children's Park.
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The spider.
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There is quite a large lake in the middle of Nanning's People's Park. Very pretty.
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More rides, not in service. Is this really a park or an amusement park?
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Major progress!!! Susie hates herself in this picture, but I told her "too bad." Maeve is really warming up to mommy today!!
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Taking a rest on the streets of Nanning.

Thank you for smoking!

We began our day with a bath and some skype time at home with the boys. The bath did not go well (again) as expected, but it was much better than the previous one on gotcha day. After talking with the boys, we ran downstairs to inhale some breakfast before meeting our group for a morning of shopping. We headed to the city center area again and spent some time walking around the mall and some shops. It is so rainy and cold here. This is not at all what we were expecting, nor what weather.com had predicted, so we are completely out of warm clothes. I have some pics below of this area. It is very nice and I imagine much better in warm weather. After shopping we were back at the hotel. We walked around a little and checked out the gift shop. We bought Maeve some clips for her hair. These broke in half the minute we got back to the room. Oh well! Maeve napped from about 2:15 till 5:15. After that we watched some DVD cartoons we had gotten her and just hung out in the room. We sent our laundry out for cleaning and hope to have our warm clothes cleaned by tomorrow! Tonight we ate at a Catonese restaurant. It was excellent and probably the best food we have had here in Nanning. The meal was still cheap (~15 US) and we had the place to ourselves. Maeve was able to run all over and we didn't bother anyone. Also no staring from strangers, which is nice. I think we will head back there tomorrow.

There was one group of men at a table next to us when we first sat down for dinner. They finished about half-way through our dinner and left. They all smoked the entire time. The smoking is another cultural thing here that I just don't understand. Everyone smokes EVERYWHERE. In the lobby, in the restaurants, in the hallways, in the elevators, in the cabs, on the streets, in the market, in the shops. Seriously, enough with the smoking. Susie keeps telling me I will survive, but I am not so sure about that :) Anyway, it is totally irritating, but another funny quirk about China. We continue to be amazed by this country and its culture everyday. It is a very special place and we are having a great time soaking it all in while we can. We know that someday this will seem like a blur and I want to remember every detail (even the smoking!).

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Rainy streets of Nanning.

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Coca Cola, universal in all languages!

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Born shopper!

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Checking out the lobby waterfall. Still not so sure about Mommy, but making progress.

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Trying on Mommy's shoes.

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Cantonese restaurant and stacking cups. Great idea to bring to China. Hours of entertainment!

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She sleeps.

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Tuesday in Nanning

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Did anyone really think it would take us more than 24 hours to slap a big 'ol bow one this baby's head? Tell me she is not the cutest kid in China!!
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Having fun with the rolling ball at the Civil Affairs office. Little did she know how important this day was in all of our lives. Note: This ball looks soft and bouncy, but it is not. It is rock hard and quite heavy. Odd toy for children.

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Walking around the hotel lobby. She is really liking her China baby doll. She puts it up to my shoulder and pats the baby's back. Very sweet!

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I guess some things are the same in any language.

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She absolutely loves her purse (thanks Bebe!) and all the contents inside of it, including this compact with mirror. A girl has to look good when out on the town!

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Trying to get her to pose for a picture while at Pizza Hut.