Thanks so much for visiting us during our journey, Jim, Vickie, Amber, Anagrace and Austin!
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March 18 -20, 2006
March 18 -- Saturday morning we were up early and headed down for the wonderful buffet breakfast! While we have stayed at some very nice hotels since we've been here, none can compare to the customer service and the breakfast buffets that you receive at the White Swan. When we adopted Anagrace, we stayed here for the entire trip and so walking into the room for the first time brought back a flood of wonderful memories of our baby girl. It is good to be back! But boy did it ever made us homesick for her!!!
After breakfast we headed for Austin's medical exam, a requirement by the US government. As soon as Austin saw the doctor with the mask over his mouth he started to cry. He knew what was coming next. Sir Austin weighed in at a whopping 33 lbs. I forgot to write down his height, so I can't remember how tall he was. He passed his physical with flying colors. They gave him a pretty good exam with regards to his hearing and he did just great! We really don't seem to notice that he has trouble hearing from his left side. We've been told that he doesn't have any hearing from his left ear, but we all feel that this is not going to be an issue at all. He hears us just fine.
After the medical exam we broke for lunch and then met upstairs in the hotel conference room to do all of our paperwork for the US side of the adoption. Lots and lots of forms---yep, you can tell that we're dealing with the US now--ha!
Our friend who was our guide for the first part of our trip came to our room in the evening to visit with us and to meet Austin. She had quite the conversation with him. It was fun to watch them communicate with each other. He got out the photo album that we had sent to him in the orphanage and he went thru it several times, explaining to her who all of the people are. He told her that he is anxious to see his new home and that he wants his mama and baba to take him for rides in the cars (there were 2 of our vehicles sitting outside the garage in the picture). I asked her to ask Austin what he thinks of his new family. He told her that he likes us very much, especially his new mama (just had to post that tid bit of info--ha!). He said that he is anxious to learn our "talk" so he can talk to us. I thought that was a pretty mature thing for a 2 1/2 yr old to say. She said that his speech is excellent for his age, he speaks Mandrin. We decided to video tape the whole visit so Austin can see and hear himself once he is older. We've decided that we're going to have him keep up with his Chinese language so that he doesn't loose it. Plus, this will also allow him to help us while we are learning.
March 19 -- On Sunday we went to the Chen Family museum. We visited this the last time we were here, but Jim had stayed back at the hotel with Anagrace because she was sick. So this was a new experience for him. We had scrolls made up for Anagrace and Austin by an artist that displays his work at this museum. They are beautiful hand painted pictures and then we had the kids' Chinese names, birth dates and birth cities written in Chinese on them. They were delivered to our hotel last night and they are absolutely beautiful! I can hardly wait to get them hung once we're home. The workmanship is just amazing!
After the museum we hit the pearl and jade market, again this was a first for Jim. We had a list of things to get for people back home and we able to get everything on our list. It was a lot of fun and the prices were very good!
Once we got back to our hotel Jim and Austin went down for a nap and Amber and I hit the streets of Guangzhou to do some serious shopping! Fun, fun, fun!! We put in our order for 100 pair of squeaky shoes. We're going to be taking them back to the US and will re-sale them with the proceeds going to help fund other families adoptions from our church. We have friends who are waiting on their travel approvals right now who will bring back another 100 pairs. The shop gave us a very good deal, as they knew what we were going to use them for. So if anyone needs any squeaky shoes, email me!!
Well I think that's about it for now. It's Mon morning now and we're planning on going on another tour this afternoon if the weather holds up. We have some drizzle today, but the weather is still warm--70-75 degrees. Perfect shopping weather!
Anagrace continues to do just great, please keep praying for her as she is really starting to wonder what on earth is taking dad and mom so long at the store-ha!
Please keep the emails a coming, we love hearing from everyone.
