Xinyang Sunshine Hotel

... finalized and ready for our oath taking ceremony at the US Embassy on Wednesday.

We headed off to Lucy's again for a late lunch/early dinner as we had a group trip on a Riverboat sunset cruise on the Pearl River to get to at 6:30. Emma is learning new expressions every day and today it was how to make fish lips. It's great watching the kids teach her so many wonderful things (ha ha). We have to be careful what htey are teaching her b/c she's ...

... which was somewhat dated compared to any others we had experienced, and settled into our seats. Or squeezed ourself onto our benches should I say. After 3 hours of the journey we were informed by a nice young lad that the journey all the way to Xinxian would take about 11 hours, oh joy. Our seated carriage was filled with others standing as well. There was no kind of air con and the fans were broken. Now I don't think I'd be understating it one bit when I say we felt like Jew's in ...

... collected by the 8:15am train on the way to work when strangely you are not at the station but in your car listening to the radio when WHAM, the 8:15 decides to collect you anyhow. No one on the 8:15 will go to work that day and time has caught up with them all! Prior to you unwillingly catching the 8:15 train did you fulfill all your dreams? Did you find the love you have always dreamed of? Did you ...

... that the uni student introduced himself as Zhuong. He was a student in Zhengzhou Uni and was coming home to Xinyang to visit his parents. We arrived after eleven and just as the rain began. What a real bugger! There is nothing worse than doing the Cheap Hotel Boogie in the freakin rain! Thankfully Zhuong offered to help find me a hotel and at the time I was thankful but the hotel I ended up in ...

... out of his house with tools, fixed his chain and then went back to his home, not expecting anything in return - truly nice people. Anyway our 13 hour overnight train ride to the city of Yichang turned into a 13 hour day time train ride to Yichang after our scheduled train was booked up. Now 13 hours on a train at night isn't so bad if you like your sleep (which I do) but 13 hours during the day in a 6 berth cabin with no ...

This morning all the paperwork went to the consulate with our guides. There was no problems so we should have Jaymee's entrance visa tomorrow. It has been a good trip. All are tired and a little cranky at this point. Tomorrow while we wait for the visa ...

We are now safely in Guangzhou. This is a big city with many Western influences. Even during the time of Mao when China was closed to all Westerners some were here in Guangzhou. We did her medical check today and LOTS of shopping! Hope you are all doing well! I will write more soon! Amber

We went on a tour of the orphanage today. It was nicer than I was expecting. It was obvious the staff and the Director care for the children very much. They will not allow us to meet the foster family but they have taken good care of her and that is evident. We got to tour a 400 year old Buddist temple, eat some more Chinese food ...

This has been a very emotional 2 days. Jaymee was terrified of us at first and cried some. She did better than we were expecting thanks to lots of prayers from many of you. She is now taking a nap with Grandma after a long day. Today we went back to the Adoption Affairs office and signed all the paperwork. Tomorrow it gets notarized and is offical. She is mostly ours now. We have her dressed up in some cute outfits we ...

We arrived here on Sunday, 1/15 @ near midnight. The flight was delayed for "big fog in Wuhan." Monday Morning we left the hotel (which is very, very nice by the way) and drove across town to the adoption center @ 9:00. We took her back with us to the hotel and she has ...