Shaimin Island, Lucy’s, and US VISA!!!!

Just a quick entry…we have to leave the hotel at 6 am for the airport and it is after midnight.  Today was our last day in Guangzhou.  We took a TAXI to Shaimin Island to walk around, do a little shopping and eat at Lucy’s!  At 5:30 pm we got Lucy’s Chinese passport with US Visa in it…so we were jumping for joy!  The paperwork is done!...at least for now!  The bags are packed and we are ready!  See you all back in the USA!  Thank you all for your love, support, babysitting, and prayers.  I will post a couple more posts before we get down to business when we get home!

The Long Awaited Consulate, FrenchFries, and Eye drops

First on the agenda today was a quick stop at the building where we went for Lucy’s medical exam.  Our guide ran upstairs to pick up her results from her exam in a sealed envelope.  It was the last document that had to be put in our clear envelope of important documents going to the US Consulate.  Next……the US Consulate appointment!  We had to take our clear envelope and passport to the appointment.  No cameras or bags.  We took a group oath and then they called us each up one by one so we could turn our clear envelope in.  They go through the docs and make sure everything is just so, and it was…our guide triple checked it!  Then we sat down again and then they called us up again for our fingerprinting AGAIN!  That was it!  Back outside we grabbed our cameras before leaving the secure area to take a quick picture!

For lunch, I figured that we would take Lucy to a noodle place that was real close to McDonalds.  The plan was to get her whatever she wanted to eat there and then Abby and I were up for another cheeseburger from McDonalds.  I don’t know if Lucy understood the plan, but when we got to the noodle place, I asked her if she wanted to get something there…she nodded her head, no.  I asked how about McDonalds?  Her face lit up!  She pointed to a sundae on the menu.  I said eat food first holding up one finger and pointed to ice cream and I said, second holding up 2 fingers.  She understood.  We ordered her a spicy chicken sandwich, fries and coke….then a strawberry sundae!  She ate every last bit of it all!  Can you believe it?  I think she likes the ice cold drinks as well!

Needless to say, when we met up with the guide to go for some really good Chinese food, she was still not hungry!  And only ate a few bites right before we left that restaurant…oh no!  What have we done Abby?

On the “How are you feeling today?” report:  Lucy doing fine!  Thank goodness.  Abby’s ear pain fluctuates throughout the day…she has a cough, but otherwise is hanging in there…McDonalds changed her attitude!  Me?  Still have swollen glands in neck, tight cough, and the eye drops I borrowed were barely keeping my eye/s from being totally uncomfortable.  I felt like if I were to stop the drops, the gook would be all over the place.  That would just be lovely on the long flight home!  Not to mention, contagious!  Anyway, I asked the guide to go with me to the pharmacy to get some antibiotic drops for eye infections…over here they sell them over the counter….as I was putting them in, I told Abby that I hoped I could see when we got home!  They stung like crazy for about 30 seconds, then they seemed to be working…I will put some more in before bed.  I am very optimistic!  Sometime today a sore appeared on the bottom side of my tongue!  Honestly!  Glad we have one more day to let our bodies mend before getting on the plane home!

Lucy was having fun with the rolling desk chair and Abby came up with the brilliant idea to push her up and down the hallway outside our room…until we looked up and saw all kind of security cameras!  Uh oh….hope they missed it!

Abby transferred some pics from my phone to my computer tonight.  The picture of the chocolate waffles was taken in Chengdu the first day we were there.  We ate at a coffee shop right next to the hotel there and this is what Abby ordered for dinner.  She wanted you to see it, David!  I personally thought they looked better than they tasted!

Tomorrow we go by taxi to the island to walk around there, do a little shopping and eat at Lucy’s!

Goodnight   

Yuntai Garden, TB test result, and Relaxation

We met in the lobby this morning at 9:30 to go to the Yuntai Garden.  Again, you can read more about it by Googling it.  We had fun, taking pictures, as you can tell from all of the pictures!  Lucy had so much fun finding the next spot to get her picture taken and then she loved to look at it right away.  It was a shorter outing with more physical activity which suited Lucy just fine!

Abby is feeling a little better but the ear is still bothering her.  We have a couple more days before we fly and I am hoping it resolves on its own.  I have a tight cough and swollen glands and sore throat but I feel better.  My eye is doing better but not quite sure the drops are totally going to resolve the problem…

This afternoon we just spent in the room working on Abby’s math a little, working on English with Lucy a little and Lucy was teaching Abby to count in Mandarin.  We played a game, painted fingernails, and the girls watched Frozen on Abby’s IPOD.  Lucy has the cutest giggle and she thought lots of parts in the movie were funny!

Late afternoon we went exploring a little to find some place to eat.  We decided on KFC because some people we met said they offered rice and chicken as well as fried chicken.  So what does Lucy order?  What we ordered…2 pcs of fried chicken , French fries and Pepsi and then she ordered pudding with ice cream on top.  She ate good!  The Pepsi had ice in it and she put a piece in her mouth.  She wanted to know what it was…or what the English word was for ice…next we hit a Haagen Dazs…$6.00 USD per scoop!  Not very many people were in there!

The first phase of the Trade Show starts tomorrow in Guangzhou, so lots of people have been checking into the hotel.  The hotel decorated with some Easter decorations…interesting…please see pictures.

We have had Lucy for 7 days already!  Some things we have learned about her:  she likes baby blue, she likes her bangs combed straight down, she is goofy and has a good sense of humor…she will fit right in, she learns her way around quickly, she likes playing on the Nexus, she is liking ice cream, she likes chocolate, she likes French fries, she likes bacon, doesn’t really like Cliff bars, she likes to be clean, she squeezed my hand 3 times today out of the blue…our secret code for I Love You!  She likes spicy food!  Duh…she is from Sichuan province!  She notices things that are out of place just like Eli.  Her pronunciation of English words is getting better all of the time.  She says her name very well and is practicing writing it.  She is showing us her personality more and more each day!

I need to get to sleep because we have to get up at 6am!  Tomorrow is our US Consulate appointment at 8:30 am!  We turn in our packet of supporting documents that go along with the application for Lucy’s US visa.  They will issue it the very next day and then we will be ready to travel home! 

The TB test was NEGATIVE!  In China, no news is good news…..

Sight-seeing and Shopping!

Today I woke up with what feels like the onset of a virus…sore hoarse throat, swollen glands in my neck, and I don’t know if it is related, but gooky eyes.  My left one is all red and swollen.  I don’t feel good.  Abby got away from the hotel without a dose of painkiller onboard.  It was a long, hot, miserable day for her.  One ear is plugged and she can’t hear out of it and it hurts.  She doesn’t think it is from all of the swimming though.  She was able to pretend like she felt good to pose for most of the pictures.  Especially for some of the Asian guys that came up to her to get their picture taken with her!  The guy in the picture below said he thought she was very beautiful.  Lucy’s cough is getting better, but it seems like she coughs in the mornings.

It was 90 degrees today in Guangzhou and a ton of humidity…kind of like Alabama.  But it was a sunny day here and that always lifts my spirits.  Tomorrow we are taking Lucy’s sunglasses.  She borrowed mine today.  In Chengdu where she is from, they have about 20 sunny days a year.  So the sun is really bright for her.  She will probably be wearing sunglasses all of the time at home!   We had three stops today.  The first was the Six Banyan Temple.  You can google it to read more out about it.  It was interesting, but obviously not my cup of tea…hahaha!  Next we went to a Provincial shopping center and I thought the prices were a little high for my blood.  Then we went to the Pedestrian Street for pearls.  The guide took us to a reputable store.  They also sold jade there.  When Dave and I were here in 2011 for Eli, we went to the Pearl Market then as well.  This Pedestrian Street was where Abby got to pose for pictures and if you look back at Eli’s blog, you will see a picture of me standing next to a bronze statue of a little Chinese boy with split crotch pants on.  I had to go back there and take a picture of the little guy with Abby and Lucy! Hahaha.  Because of the heat and our ailments and the fact that Lucy isn’t much of a shopper, we drug through the day, but didn’t want to miss it.  When we got back to the hotel, Abby had had it and voted for McDonalds!  It was actually a very close match to the McDonalds in the US.  Lucy had not been to a McDs before, so of course we had to take her.  She pointed to the hot fudge sundae and I said yes!  So she ate that and loved the fries, but would not even try a cheeseburger!  We had to wait until 5pm when they started selling beef and rice and got that and brought it back to the room.  She ate that and we watched Chinese TV.  It is really interesting.  Then this evening we had a skype date with Erin and Neal.  The connection was really good and we were able to visit for a while.  Now we have to skype with Eli and gma and gdad.  It is tricky to figure out when both parties are available with the 13 and 14 hour difference.

I was able to ask the other Americans at the hotel at breakfast if they brought any antibiotic eye drops.  One family brought some and they are letting me use them.  My eye feels better, but it still looks bad.  The guide said we can go to a pharmacy to get some, so we will see how I do with the ones from the other family first.

Tomorrow we head to the Yuntai Garden and I am looking forward to taking lots of outdoor pictures.  We will also find out the results of Lucy’s TB test.  Actually, if our guide hears nothing by 3:30pm then that means it was fine.  We will spend the rest of the day resting.