Medical Exam and Passport photo (Day 6)

We started the day off with passport photo for Alyse's Chinese passport.  She will be actually travelling to the states as a Chinese immigrant until she goes through immigration back home.  After that, we walked to the medical exam office near the hotel.  We are worried a little because she isn't eating and hasn't pooped yet.  The doctors tell us she is fine and that she is going through a little bit of shock.  That night she still wasn't eating and she needed to so bad.  We called Maggie, on of our guides, and she came to our room to help try and get her to eat.  She began to speak baby Mandarin to Alyse and she started to eat a little bit.  Our pediatricain prescibed some amoxicillan in case she was sick and she was.  We began treatment, which she didn't like at all.  We went to bed a little relieved that she finally did eat something.

Registration Day (Day 5)

Today we registered the adoption with the Provinvial Civil Affairs Office.  It went smoothly and now the country of China considers Alyse ours.  We went to the Carrefour Supermarket to stock up on the formula and rice cereal that Alyse has had in the orphanage.  She just stairs at us for long periods of time.  She is sleeping just fine but not eating so well. 

The way she sucks her fingers is priceless

Look at that smile

Gothcha Day (Day 4)

We woke up this morning with a little extra spring in our steps.  Today is the day we receive Alyse.  Our group has a 3:30 appointment with another 29 other people.  When we arrive at the government building, we wait in the lobby for the elevator for the eight floor.  As we were waiting, these women began to usher in little girls one by one.  Our group's girls van was stuck in traffic and just made the appointment.  We got to see our kids walk in.  Imagine this, thirty-eight families (some with travel companions) in a room with about 500 square feet trying to receive our kids at one time.  It was nothing short of utter chaos.  Babies screaming, parents crying, camera flashes everywhere, it was quite a scene.  Here are some photos of us with Alyse for the very first time.

The hand-off.  Notice Susan was crying, wasn't expecting that.

Scott and Heidi with Sydney.  Alyse is blowing air bubbles on Susan's arm.

Notice how Alyse is sucking her fingers.  She already Hook Ems!!

A cute photo back in our room.

Her first nap with us and she is still callin' the Horns.

Bus ride to Guangzhou (Day 3)

 After a day of touring and a goodnight rest, we headed to Guangzhou by bus around 10:00am.  Once we actually left Hong Kong proper, we had to go through a Chinese port of entry.  At the entrance, we had to remove all of our belongings from the bus and carry them through immigration.  We had to show our passports departure card from Hong Kong, and has our baggage examined once more.  After we were all through, we got back on the bus for a three hour tour of the country side heading towards Guangzhou.  We saw some very rural areas of China along with some industrial cities that have literally popped up over night.  When jobs become available, people began to mirate from the east and north for these jobs.  These cities tend to grow very quickly.  There is excitement in the bus when we go through the Guangzhou toll booth.  We are almost there!!   We arrive at the White Swan Hotel about thirty minutes later.  Our home away from home for the next 10 days.



Here is a partial group photo of our travelling caravan.  
Knelling is Scott, Susan and Joan.  Standing left to right is Matthew
 our Hong Kong guide, Michelle, Garry, Amy (friend of Joan's)
Ellen (Garry's wife, Me, Amy (Michelle's friend) ,Heidi (Scott's wife),
Deberah, Melinda and Joan (Melinda's mom)



One of those pop-up cities

                                                            


The toll booth getting into Guangzhou





Hong Kong (Day 2)

After a somewhat restful night on a bed made of plywood and a fitted sheet, we head out with other members of our travel group to tour Hong Kong.  What a beautiful city.  We got to see Jackie Chan's house, went and walked on the beach, shopped at some street alleyway shops, took a boat tour of a finishing village and made our way up to the "circle" of Hong Kong.  Here are some photos of our tour.

The hole in the middle of the hotel is there to allow the dragons to come down from the mountains and fly through instead of crashing into the hotel.  Interesting!

The Floating Restaurant.  It can hold up to 3000 customers @ one time.

These photos are through the "wheel" of Hong Kong

Outside of the hotel, was a park that had footprints from cities from all over the world.

May 12th, the Journey begins (Day 1)

We finally get to sleep about 2:00am and get up at 4:30am to start getting ready.  We finally get the car packed and Madison ready and head to Gigi & Papa's so they can take us to the airport.  It was very hard to say goodbye to Madison.  She did throw a little fit about not being able to go inside the terminal with us, but was soon okay as she and the grandparents quickly made it to IHOP for breakfast. After getting our boarding passes, we wait in a very long security line.  It was the longest line I've seen at DFW.  After getting through security, we had about 10 minutes before we were boarding the plane to LAX.  Needless to say, we did not get breakfast or anything to drink.  The flight to LAX was uneventful which is nice since it was only suppose to be a 45 minute layover (continuous flight on same plane) before heading to San Francisco.  This is where the fun begins.  We asked an attendant if we stay on or get off, she said either it doesn't matter.  At this time, I noticed that they took our checked baggage off of the plane.  I raced to another attendant and told her such and she explained to me that they were just making room to get other baggage off the plane.  You're probably thinking the same thing we were which is, that's strange, but...ok.  We get off the plane to stretch our legs and find a quick bite to eat if possible.  After finding no food in the vicinity, we head back to our gate only to find a flight attendant explaining that our flight into SFO has been delayed because of weather.We race down to customer service because we have to make that connection to Hong Kong as arrangements have been made by our agency to pick us up at a specific time.  There were directions on finding your own way if you miss the arranged pick up, but we aren't that adventurous and really didn't want to be in that situation.  While waiting in line, a gentleman passes by us to look at some flights on a screen.  On his way back, we're in his way, and he excuses himself.  That's when I noticed that is was Dave Foley.  If there are any "Newsradio" fans out there, he was the boss.  I told him that I was a big fan, and he stopped and talked to us for a bit.  What a great guy.  He wished us luck on our adoption and we bid him safe travels.  He was nice to talk to and really down to earth.  Once we got to the counter, we were informed that our flight was now boarding and about to depart.  We race back to the gate to make that flight.  We made it, but with a 45 min delay to SFO. Once we landed in SFO, we had one hour and fifteen minutes to catch the flight to Hong Kong.  For anyone trying to making an international connection in SFO, you have to leave the airport then re-enter through security.  We do all of those things with fifteen minutes to spare.  Upon heading to the gate, we hear our names over the loud speakers telling us we are needed at the gate.  I start a mad dash through the airport to that gate to catch that flight.  I must have looked like OJ from his old Hertz commercials.  I got there completely out of breath and couldn't even speak to the attendant.  We did make it though.  We left the United States on Cathay Pacific about 1:40pm (3:40pm CST).  Still no food or drinks.  Cathay Pacific took very good care of us.  By far, the best airline I have ever been on.  Susan wasn't feeling too well, so they rushed to get her some water, apple juice and a sandwich and checked on her the entire trip.  Other than that, the thirteen hour and forty minute flight was great.  We finally touched down in Hong Kong  on Friday the 13th @ 6:45pm (5:45am CST).  We breeze through immigration and made our way to pick up our luggage.  After a bit of waiting at the carousel and giving each other that "oh, no, not again" look.  I hear our name over the loudspeakers and rush to baggage claim.  Our checked in luggage was still in LAX.  Of course, right!!! All in all, not that big of a deal.  We are met outside of the terminal by our guide Matthew and another couple Scott and Heidi.  We get in a taxi and make our way to the Regal Kowloon Hotel.  We had no idea that Hong Kong was so mountainous.  The terrain was quite beautiful and we really enjoyed our couple of days there. 

Blogging in China

It seems that the Chinese government has blocked blogger so we were not able to blog while there.  We will try to post the entire trip over the next few days.  Day one to follow...

We finally have a name...

Alyse Arden Glendenning