The beginning of a long awaited dream come true:
| January 14, 2001 |
| I can't believe it
is already Sunday night. We are packing again because we leave for
Guangzhou tomorrow noon. It will be the last leg of our adventure
and we are a little sad to leave, but we miss our family. The people
are so wonderful here, I am so glad that we are taking home the best
souvenir from this wonderful country, she will always remind me of the
wonderful people we have met. I wish we could bring our guide
Shirley back home. We are looking forward to warmer weather though.
It was cold again here today but not rainy. |
| January 14, 2001 |
January 14, 2001 |
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| We don't have very
many pictures today because our video camera battery died and we didn't
get it charged until tonight. The first place we went to today was
the Reed Flute Cave. It was really pretty, I imagine it was similar
to Carlsbad Caverns. We walked through it and we had enough battery
for this one picture. |
When we got home,
we were hungry again. We ate at the Japanese restaurant in the
hotel. It was so good. We took off our shoes and sat at a
short table. |
| After that we
visited the jade factory and some little shops outside the factory.
After that we visited and art gallery. The local artists paint
pictures on silk fabric and they
are very beautiful. You can bargain with the merchants to get a
better price. Linda can bargain people down from $1.00 to $.50 for
10 purses or so. I bought 20 reed flutes for 1 Yuan which
is just over $.13 but Linda came back with 30 flutes also for 1 Yuan.
Linda says that we can get better prices in Guangzhou, we can't wait to
shop there again. Next, we came back to our hotel.
Linda, Kevin & I went out again by foot while Dennis
and Lillia took a nap. We walked to the flea market. If you
think flea markets are bad in the States, you should see one in China,
pretty interesting. They sell a lot of bicycle parts, keys, gutted
dogs, dirty coats, lizards on sticks, socks, underwear, and a lot of
plastic stuff. Quite a few people will come up and practice their
English on us. We are getting hit up by the clothes police (old
ladies who think our babies are too cold), Shirley says that 6 layers of
clothing for the babies is the average this time of year. I can only
manage to put 3 on plus her coat and blanket and apparently, it is not
enough. It will be nice to go back to a warmer climate.
Shirley took us on a cormorant bird watching boat tour
tonight, just the 7 of us went. We had a great time. This is
an ancient way to fish, it has been done for over 1000 years. The
men stand on a bamboo boat which is only 4 long pieces of bamboo tied
together. The man we watched tonight had 5 birds with him.
They tie a ribbon around their necks so they can't swallow the fish, the
birds dive into the water, when they catch the fish they hop back on the
boat and the man takes the fish out of their mouth and puts it in a
bucket. Then they sell the fish at the market. |
| January 14, 2001 |
January 14, 2001 |
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| Joe and Jen ordered
cucumber sushi which they so graciously shared with all of us. It
was wonderful. Dennis learned that wasabi is very hot. You
should see us eat with chopsticks now, we are going to impress the local
Chinese restaurants back home with our skill. We can even feed the
babies with chopsticks, it is very apparent that Lillia was fed with
chopsticks. She will eat anything from them. |
Here is happy
Lillia. The description we got of her from the orphanage is right
on. She is an extrovert and boy is she active. She does like
to giggle and play with toys. I think she is the only one who will
put food in her mouth, none of the other babies will do that. She is
getting more lower body strength every day. She can roll around
pretty good but she has a hard time standing on her legs. She will
sit and play with toys for hours though. |
| January 14, 2001 |
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| Here she is waving
bye bye. She loves to wave at people. The Chinese people can
sure chatter about her. I don't know what they are saying, maybe
what goofy parents she has. Gotta go pack, good night. |
| January 15, 2001 |
| We were too tired
last night to post our pictures, we had a very long day. We all
packed in the morning and then left Guilin for Guangzhou. Guilin has
a population of only 600,000 people, Guangzhou has over 9,000,000 and
after being in a small city, Guangzhou seems huge. When we first
arrived we thought Guangzhou was such a poor city but after being in
Nanning and Guilin, Guangzhou is actually pretty well off, people are
dressed much nicer here. |
| January 15, 2001 |
January 15, 2001 |
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| This is a male lion
outside our hotel in Guilin. You can tell it is a male because he
has a ball under his foot. |
This is a female
lion because she has a cub under her foot. In China, the women carry
the children, I have never seen a man carrying his child, they must think
we are strange because all of the husbands take turns carrying the babies. |
| January 15, 2001 |
| We didn't have many
chances to take neat pictures today. We arrived at the White Swan
and there are many people here with adopted babies from many different
agencies. Everywhere you go you see babies. When we first
arrived in Guangzhou, we only saw 2 other Americans with babies. We
were obviously the some of the very first couples to come to China this
year. |
| January 15, 2001 |
January 15, 2001 |
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| After we got
settled we went back to the Hard Rock Cafe. This is Lillia in a high
chair. She doesn't seem to mind it one bit as long as she can eat. |
This is Lilli
Butterfield enjoying the Hard Rock Cafe. I think she is pretty happy
with her parents, they seem very nice. Lilli is the smallest baby
and the most mobile. She can crawl all over the place and she looks
too small to be able to do that. |
| January 15, 2001 |
January 15, 2001 |
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| This is Dennis,
don't you feel sorry for us being in a third world country with hardly
anything good to eat? |
After dinner, we
did a little more shopping at the China hotel and then came home and
crashed. |
| Last of all we
would like to wish Dennis' dad happy birthday, and my dad happy birthday,
his birthday is today and Dennis' dad's birthday was yesterday.
Today we have to get the baby examinations and this evening we are going
on a Pearl River cruise, do you feel really sorry for us yet? We
will be tired when we get home. Good Night. |
| January 16, 2001 |
January 16, 2001 |
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| Today we started
off with paperwork in the baby room at the White Swan Hotel. We will
be so happy when all of the paperwork is done. The babies are
playing while the dads do the paperwork. Left to Right:
Lillia, Beryl, Samantha, Emma, and Emily. |
This is Anna, her
parents are Pete and Teresa from Englewood, Colorado. Teresa is now
referred to as the puker. Sorry Pete, I meant it in a loving way. |
| January 16, 2001 |
January 16, 2001 |
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| After all of the
babies had their ear shot photos taken, we went for their medical exams.
This is where we went, it is somewhere in China. |
Here is Lillia, we
think she is just perfect for us, I bet Justin and Daniel will think so
also. Isn't she cute? |
| January 16, 2001 |
January 16, 2001 |
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| Jayne, this picture
is for you. I tried to take a picture to show you her eyelashes.
I prayed for a baby with eyelashes and my prayers were answered ten-fold.
They are actually longer than they look. |
Lillia is receiving
a clean bill of health. They didn't even look in her ears or mouth,
I think they just wanted to make sure that we weren't smuggling a boy
out of the country. She weighs 8 kilograms which is just over 17
pounds. She is about the same size that Justin was at the same age,
maybe a little shorter. |
| January 16, 2001 |
January 16, 2001 |
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| Here I am with
the Doctor who examined Lillia, she was very nice. |
Here is a picture
of Raymond (on the left), he is CCAI's Guangzhou representative. He
takes us everywhere and helps with the paperwork. He has a son
who is 10 years old. All of the staff enjoyed holding Lillia, she
just smiled and laughed at everyone. |
| January 16, 2001 |
January 16, 2001 |
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| More staff playing
with Lillia. Since she can wave bye bye, they think she is very
clever and intelligent. |
Joe is preparing to
climb Mt. Everest, oh, I mean change Emma's diaper. He has
discovered that life after baby requires more preparation. He has
become very skillful at administering Enemas (if you need a translation,
he would be more than happy to describe one.) |
| January 16, 2001 |
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| For lunch we ate at
#%**^&%$*), It was wonderful, I still haven't lost a pound.
I tried to take a picture of the menu for you. Please take notice of
the fried duck webs with oil. We didn't try them but I am sure they
are tasty. |
| For dinner we ate
at a Thai restaurant. It was okay but very crowded. We wore
Lillia out today and she went to bed early so Linda and I did more
shopping. Shopping is a blast here, we are learning to bargain with
the best of them. So many things to buy, so little room left in the
suitcases. Linda found a few trunks to send home.
Tomorrow we have our consulate appointment and they we
are all done with our paperwork and paying the fees. I can't believe
that it is almost time to go home and get back to work. Good Night |
This page was last updated on
08/24/06.
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