Change of Scenery

Well, we made it to Guangzhou! It was an interesting journey. We spent the car trip to the airport in Hefei with a bag in front of AL so she could re-introduce us to her breakfast. Not sure if it was mentioned before but she gets car sick. Not all of the time but this is the first time we've seen her get physically sick from it. Usually she just sits forward or back and holds her tummy. Needless to say we were looking forward to the plane ride now. Let's see... Girl who never rides in car + girl who never has flown in a plane = MOTION SICKNESS! Boy Scout Motto, "Be Prepared." And we were because we brought some Dramamine with us. She was VERY nervous on the plane and had to go to the bathroom about 5 times in a 1 1/2 hour flight but she did not get sick and even ate lunch on the plane. Yeah Dramamine! Jane our guide in Hefei told her that if she was a good girl for the plane ride we would get her some ice cream in Gaungzhou and we made good on the promise right after we checked into the hotel. She only ate about three bites but hey we kept our promise. By the way, Jane was wonderful on helping us make the transition through the airport and it worked out great. AL was a little upset that Jane was not around, (she sneaked out on her), but she got over it fairly quickly because of the excitment that comes with a 1st plane ride. We arrived in Guangzhou and AL was very excited we were finally getting off of the plane. We used the flat escalator things, (technical term), in the airport and I showed her that you could run on them and really make some good time. She thought that was pretty neat. She also helped pull Angi's luggage through the airport and liked that a lot. We did too... Our guide in Gaungzhou is Susan and she is great also. We checked into our hotel and had a tour around the area and we felt pretty at home. BIG difference from Hefei. The area we are in is on a sort of island and it was built up during colonial times. We can get out and walk around and everything is very close walking distance and adoption family friendly. We feel like we'll have a better time here with AL and have better control of things. We were definately out of our element in Hefei but this is a lot more comfortable. AL is a little off balance even though our guide Susan is around. AL tries to cling to her like she did Jane but Susan knows to redirect her to us like Jane asked her to do. I feel that she responds to us better and I am getting better in tune with how far she thinks she can push things before we stop her. The language barrier is more difficult than I first thought it would be and I know it's very frustrating to her when she says something in Chinese and we can only agree with her, (like we know what we're agreeing with), or make comments she doesn't understand herself. But it's getting better and when she's back home and the boys are speaking english along with us she will pick it up. We talked to a guy at the Hefei zoo who was Chinese but was visiting from Atlanta, (small world), and he said his son was speaking very good english in about 6 months so thats good. Tonight was a good night. We relaxed with some other people from our agency who are here adopting that Angi has been conversing with for a long time and had a very nice time. We actually walked to a restaraunt! This restaraunt serves western food and I had a cheeseburger with french fries! Woo Hoo! Loved it. Ate every bite. I can eat more noodles now. My life is complete. Angi had a chicken wrap and enjoyed it to. I can do this for a few more days. We met some other people there who are adopting also and they asked if we were ready to go home and we said YES. Everyone is. Well this is a pretty long post but we've been slack for a couple of days. Angi and I have not been feeling well along with AL plus we had a couple of rough days mentally. Things are much better now. I am going to try and post a link for a video in here so check it out.

Hello boys, we miss you...

- Ric