Welcome Home

Hi Everyone - Just a quick post to say that they have arrived safely and are on their way to the ferry as we speak!! I am sure Sue will post more soon - Susan D

Last Day in Beijing and Tomorrow we are Coming Home

We had such a great day in Beijing today.  We said goodbye and bon voyage to Jeff, Kathy and Julia as they headed home today!  Finally got a group shot of the kids together, always a precious momento of the trip.  

After listening to the horrible hockey game we packed our bags to get ready for tomorrow and then headed out to see the Forbidden City!  We got a little lost on the way there but saw some wonderful of the beaten path streets of Beijing. Once we found the Forbidden City we paid the entrance fee and headed in.  Wow, what an incredible place!!  The scale of it is so overwhelming.  Really need to do a lot of research before you go so you can figure out the lay of the land. Also would like to have had more than one afternoon to see it all but hopefully will go back one day.  Heard that National Geographic has an amazing episode on it so will have to get ahold of that and see some of the movies filmed there again!  Jazzy was really excited to see the place too but was very disappointed that it did not have any jails or dungeons!

We walked around for two hours and then headed back to the hotel and our legs were sore from all the walking!  We went to dinner with Tom, Lisa, Kiora and Serina and then Tom and Kiora joined us as we walked back to Tiananmen Square to watch the lowering of the flag at 7:44 pm.  Quite a lovely ceremony but the crowd can be quite overwhelming and the security is overdone as they try to rush the crowd out of the square quickly afterwards.

Today was also very special for us as it is the anniversary of Jazzy's Family Day!

Tomorrow at noon we are going to the airport and the 4:15 we get on our Air Canada flight for home.  It is going to feel so good to walk into the airport in Vancouver!  China has been incredible but as always, there is no place like home!  We have been away for almost three weeks now!

We have to get through immigration with Lilianna and then get on the ferry to the coast!  I hope we can stay awake and not all fall asleep on the ferry!

June 14 We Have a Canadian Visa for Lilianna

After a quiet morning of breakfast and listening to the disappointing Canucks hockey game, we strolled out into the streets of Beijing and went for lunch and a bit of afternoon shopping.

Lilianna napped in the stroller while we had sushi for lunch.  Jazzy has suddenly taken to eating the salmon sushi and really really loves it!  You have to be quick and get some as soon as the plate hits the table or it is all gone in a flash!

Ali needed some shorts and a shirt so we went shopping for some clothes and then back to the hotel by 3:00 pm.  The group rendez-voused in the lobby for the hotel at 3:30 so that we could go to the Canadian Embassy and pick up the baby's Visas.  They were all ready and this time we actually got to go inside a portion of the Embassy!  I had to hand over my cell phone which was put into a small drawer and I was given a ticket to claim it back when we exited the embassy.  We also had to pass through a metal detector and have our bags Xrayed before gaining access to a the inside of the building.  We waited in a waiting room and were then handed large envelopes which had our daughters' Chinese passports with 
the Visas inside.

We now just have to wait until Firday to go home!  We cannot wait!

We are hoping to knock a few more places off of our list of things to see.  We want to go see the Olympic buildings and the Science Museum, the Temple of Heaven, the Beijing Zoo, the Summer Palace and of course the Forbidden City!!  

Just a few things left to do and we shall see how we are feeling tomorrow and  which ones we want to visit.  Only two days left really so shall have to prioritize!

Lilianna had a wonderful bath tonight with her mamma and really loves the water now.  She splashes away with delight and does not mind getting it all over her face!

June 12 and 13 - Visit to the Great Wall and Happy 80th Birthday Nanna Bee

Sunday was an early day for us as we had to muster in the hotel lobby for 8:00am so we were up much earlier to get the family clothed, fed and on the bus.  It was an hour drive from Beijing to the section of the wall that we visited and turns out it was the same section of the wall that Ali saw back in 2005!  It was stinky hot and very steep so we only went up a short way.  Jazzy and Kiora were taken further up by one of the dads (Thanks Curtis!!) while Lilianna and I along with Lisa and Serina took refuge in one of the airconditioned coffee shops to give our daughters their bottles!  Jazzy had a great time and was so excited to be visiting the wall!  She had heard so much about it she was just buzzing on the bus the whole way there.  She was fast asleep on the bus the whole way back to Beijing too!

On Monday Latifeh, Jazzy and I went to the Pearl Market while Ali had a Lilly and me day at the hotel.  We had a great time in the market and I was a ruthless bargainer with the vendors.  I started off small and by the end of the day I was leaving them crying in their stalls!!  We had a lot of fun but Jazzy did not like their aggressive tones or grabbing so she returned to the hotel with Kiora and her mom.  Though it was a relatively quite day at the market, it was pretty overwhelming for her!  Latifeh used me as her bad cop for her bargaining and was pretty impressed with how much the price dropped when I got involved!  We took a coffee break in the middle of it and then headed back inside for more!


Happy 80th birthday to my Mother, Nanna Bee!!  We were thinking of you all day today and hoped you had a great birthday.  I would have loved to have skyped with you but the time difference makes that pretty difficult!!  We will call you 
on Saturday when we are home again!  Wow, four more days and counting.


Not sure what we are going to do tomorrow but we are heading back to the Canadian Embassy in the late afternoon to get our Visas for the babies. 

June 11 More shopping and The Oootah Girl Dancing

We had a nice sleep in this morning and Ali, Jazzy, Lilianna and I went out for lunch and a bit more browsing along Wangfujang Street.  We did not buy anything today as we are going to go to the Pearl Market on Monday so we just scoped out prices and things.  Latifeh went for a long walk today and then did some shopping on her own.

In the afternoon, Ali and Jazzy headed down to the pool for some fun with Tom and Kiora so Lilianna and I hung out in the room and had a lot of laughs together.  We crawled around, stood and walked around and did some Oootah dancing. Check out the video to see how much she loves doing that!! (stay tuned for the video - it did not arrive - sorry)

There was a nice refereshing downpour in the afternoon that cleared up the smog and cooled the air.  There is a Hutong outside of our hotel room that is just fascinating to watch the goings on in.

Later in the evening we gathered with some of the members of our group for dinner and we had a great time with everyone!  Great food and lovely company! 

June 10 Trip to the Doctor and Canadian Embassy Then Shopping and Scorpions

The morning was filled with our visit to the SOS clinic in Beijing to get the medical done that is required for Lilianna's Visa and Permanent Residence Card for Canada.  I was amazed that we saw the exact same doctor that examined Jasmine five years ago.  She was as wonderful as ever and gave Lilianna a thorough examination and passed her with flying colours!  Lilianna is in the 50th percentile for length but only the 10th percentile for weight so we have some eating to do!!  Bring on the butter!  She also needs to develop more muscle mass but I think with all the crawling, walking and dancing this little girl is doing, she is going to catch up very quickly!
We then raced over the Canadian Embassy since we only had 20 minutes before they closed for the day at noon.  A woman met us at the security gate and that was pretty much as far as we were allowed to go.  She reviewed all our paperwork in the tiny entryway where the guards sit and then we were back on the bus to return to the hotel.  We are just waiting for the Visas to be completed so we have no more paperwork to do and just have the sightseeing end of the trip left.  We were told the visas should be ready by Tuesday afternoon but we shall see.  It would be nice to change our tickets and come home early but a quick look at the flights online and that does not look likely to happen as the flights on Wednesday and Thursday are quite full already and there are few seats together anywhere on the flights. We need to have the Visa in hand anyway so will have to check again on Tuesday evening if we they arrive.

We headed out for lunch and then did some shopping on Wangfujang street.  We spent some time on this street back in 2005 and in some ways it has changed and in others it has not.  Ali wanted to eat a stick of scorpions again so we found the very same booth that he bought them from six years ago!  He enjoyed them as much this time as he did the last time.  The worker behind the counter said that he was glad to see them enjoy them so much.  He said that a lot of people look and take pictures and he tries to tell them how good they taste but not many are willing to try.  Hmm, I can understand why but Ali likes them so Enjoy!  (Please see the pictures posted on the blog In and Around Beijing!)

Jazzy got a cool little walking robbot in the big toy store and also a pair of shoes with wheels that click out of the bottom.  Both her and Kiora have been rolling around on one wheel to start every day since they got them!  They are getting really good at it but we won't let them do two wheels without helmets on so that will have to wait until we get home.

Nanna Lee bought a really cute Panda for Lilianna that is mechanized and it pounds on a little drum and blows a whistle.  She is quite perplexed by it and puts her fingers under the drum sticks and then likes to knock it flying!  We bought her a pair of chopsticks that have tigers on them and a pair of silver ones too.

Ali, Jazzy and I went out for a sushi dinner while Lilianna rested with Latifeh in her room.  Jazzy l found that she even loves the salmon sashimi.  She has certainly learnt that there are a lot more kinds of foods that she likes while here in China.

June 9 - Travel Day and Happy First Birthday Lilianna!!

Oh, Happy First Birthday Lilianna

We started off kind of early with finishing the packing and getting all the luggage out the door for 7:40 am.  We raced down for some breakfast and then on the bus for 8:30 to head to the airport and travel to Beijing!

The airport was big and modern and we were quite the spectacle as five families with tonnes of luggage and our little babies in strollers and snugglies!  We caused a big fuss at the ticket counter too since not a single baby was tied to the correct parent ticket!  One of the babies was on Latifeh's ticket and another was on Jasmine's.  Lilianna's name was attached to the ticket of someone else and another child was attached to Ali's ticket too.  The airline staff were not amused and took a long time sorting out the situation with all of us handing over our child's Chinese passport to another parent so that the ticketing could get sorted out.  We then had to be escorted through passport control (I know!...even though we were not even crossing an international boarder) so that we would not get stopped for having the wrong names on our tickets!  We breezed through security and began  the long treck to the departure booth.  We caused much amusement and wonder for the rest of the passengers.  We were all distributed variously around the plane so I (Sue) was sitting with Lilianna in one section of the plane with a very unhappy buisiness man beside me.  He thought he had the right to both armrests and even some space in my ribs for his elbow but I sorted him out quite quickly.  Lilianna sent a few kicks his way too so he settled on the window side of his seat...sortoff.  He got a few more reminders throughout the almost four hour flight!

We landed in Beijing airport and were met by our new guide, Cissy and were led to a bus.  Two families had to pick up new documents at the CCAAA building so we stopped in front of their office tower for a few minutes.  Hallowed ground for those of us waiting to adopt for so long long and this is the government arm that decides on the matches so it was interesting to at least see the outside of it!

We then were driven to our new hotel, the Novotel Hotel that is only 1 km away from Tianamen Square and one block from the Wangfujang shopping street.  It is not as grand or roomy as our last hotel but we are in the home stretch.  We walked into our room with two twin beds and crib but we quickly rearranged the room and put the crib between the twin beds and put the chaise/sofa against the other outside twin to accomodate Lilianna and Jazzy too.

It was dinner time when we landed so Lisa and I headed off to find a grocery store but ended up not finding it and found a Pizza Hut instead so returned to the hotel with dinner for the hungry hourds.  With food in our bellies we ventured out again as I had spied a Hagen Daz store and there we celebrated Lilianna's first Birthday in style.  We ordered very fancy ice cream creations and gave some to her and she loved it!  We had a candle with us for the celebration but we did not light it in the restaurant.  

Wholey satisfied we headed back to the hotel where Lilianna practiced her walking some more.  We decided that we should try to teach her how to crawl so Jazzy and I got down on our hands and knees and crawled the length of the room.  

Well, Miss Lilianna thought that was one of the most hilarious things she had ever seen since she started laughing but then low and behold, she started crawling towards us!  She took a few pauses to sit and clap and then started crawling again.  She loved it.  She sure is a fast learner this little Lilianna!
Beijing is much more pleasant temperature wise than Guangzhou was as it is a little cooler but a lot less humid!  

In and Around Beijing!

More Paperwork, Wonderful Dinner, Walking and Packing for Beijing

Today we had a nice relaxing start to the day and sauntered down to have breakfast at the buffet.  We took our time and had several extra cups of wonderful coffee and chocolate croissants (Ok, that was me! Sue)

We bought a bagette, some ham and cheese and had a Parisienne lunch in the hotel room followed by some nice playtime on the floor with Lilianna and Jazzy.  Jazzy is being such a great big sister and is really trying hard to be a great sister to Lilianna.  She shows her things all the time and spells words for her!  It is great.

Sue went into a meeting room with the other families to fill out the paperwork for the Canadian immigration visa.  We received Lilianna's Chinese passport today and all her notarized paperwork.  Meanwhile Ali stayed with Lilianna in

the hotel room while she napped and Jazzy and Kiora hung out with Nanna Lee in her room.

After the paperwork was all done, the group met down in the hotel lobby and went out to dinner to celebrate the end of the paperwork and our last night in Guangzhou!  Parents tried to eat while babies fussed and cried and Kiora and

Jazzy had a great time playing and eating all night.  We thanked our Guangzhou guide Grace for all her wonderful help, she really was awesome to all of us and looked after this part of our trip with great skill and went above and beyond the call of duty on many many occasions.

We walked across the road from the hotel and picked up Lilianna's photos from the photo shop for her Canadian Immigration paperwork for Friday.  We took advantage and wandered around a bit and did some shopping for clothes and shoes for all of us.  It is still quite hot and humid here so wandering around outside with Lilianna and Jasmine is not a lot of fun so we headed back into the coolness of the hotel after a while.

When we got back to the room there was more play time before bed and Jazzy was so tired that she asked us to put her to bed!  So Ali and her wandered off into the bedroom while I tried to tire out Lilianna who had had an extra long nap

this afternoon.  We were playing our usual games when she just suddenly rolled over onto her tummy, tucked her legs under her tummy and pushed herself up onto her feet!  I held her hands and she just started walking around the room.  I

called Ali and Jazzy back in and we laughed and took pictures for about an hour.  Oh, Lilianna had such a huge smile on her face at times and at others she was knitting her brows in furious concentration.  She did not want to stop and after a while I had to get back to packing but she kept popping back onto her feet and trying to walk on her own. Wow, she was so proud of herself, you could just see it in her face!

Ali and I packed up all the stuff we have with us and are ready to head to Beijing tomorrow morning.  We have a pretty decent start time and must gather in the lobby by 8:30 to head to the airport.  Will type from Beijing tomorrow!

Smiles and Giggles!!

Today was another day of hanging out together.  We watched the horibble hockey game on the television in the hotel and were shocked at the poor show put on by the Canucks!!

We just hung around the hotel for the rest of the day and just relaxed again.  

Jazzy played with Daddy and Nanna Lee and in the afternoon spent a good two hours swimming around in the pool.  Ali and Jazz were playing "Whale Rider" and swimming lengths in the pool.  Her swimming has advanced in leaps on this trip!  

She was even doing handstands and flips in the water!  She started out in the Disney pool not wanting to get water in her ears or eyes....Wow!

Lilanna went to have her photo taken for the Visa work we have to do next week in Beijing and had a bit of perfomance anxiety and cried at first.  I took out her rattle and she was ready and then the photographer could not get her flash

to work.  When it finally went off, Lilianna started crying again.  It took a little while but we got the shot we needed eventually!  Then she and I went back up to the hotel for a nap and play time and boy did we have fun!  We had some

great floor time play and some real genuine giggles together.  Fingers running up her belly and tickling her neck were hilarious to her and having her feet pat

her cheeks appeared to be one of the funniest things that anyone had ever done!  

We have video and will have to post later when we get home.  

I have included only one photo for this post but that smile says it all!!

Tomorrow we recieve her Chinese Passport and other paperwork and that frees us up to head to Beijing and start her immigration work at the Canadian Embassy on Friday.  We travel on her birthday and then the consulate appointment is Friday so we will have a little birthday party for her with the group on Friday or Saturday!  

Oh, we had a great day and it was nice to see Lilianna relax a little!

Visit to House of Chan, Little Bit of Shopping and Great Playtime

Today we visited an interesting building.  It was originally build by the Chan family as a place to come and hounor their ancestors.  There were other uses of the buildings such as housing for the Chan children while they went to schools

and persued higher levels of education.  During the cultural revolution the Chan family converted it to a printing house to honour Chairman Mao and his publications, in this way they saved the property from destruction as families were no longer allowed to pay respect to their ancestors during this time and many great buildings were destroyed or taken away from the clan families.  Today it houses a museum showing many of the beautiful arts and crafts from this region of China.  We saw beautiful carvings, porcelain pieces, furniture, paintings all displayed in large rooms.  It was so hot and there were many fans moving the hot and humid air around.  We moved from fan to fan as we tried to enjoy the beautiful pieces on display!

We were then taken to a store that sold many of the finer pieces of arts and crafts from this region.  Many peices of porcelain and carvings were just spectacular and way, way, way out of our price range for this trip.  Ali and I did get a couple of nice pieces of jade for the girls for later but for now Jazzy got a fan and a bead bracelet that she was just thrilled with.  The fan she chose is black with a dragon embroydered on it.  The minute I saw it I knew it was going to be the one that she would want!  The sales lady was trying to convince her to the the one with the Pheonix on it and explained to her that it was for girls. No way man, she wanted the dragon!!  Ali got a jade piece that has a tiger on it, now he wears it with the jade peice of a monkey that we bought six years ago when we in China for Jasmine.  

Then it was back to the hotel where we had a quick nap and then Ali and Jazz went to the swimming pool and I stayed with Lilianna who continued to nap for several hours more.  When she woke up though we had a wonderful time together and got to play on the floor with some krinkley paper and a piece of cardboard! Forget all these little toys we brought with us for her.  She is so curious to play with anything and experience touching things!  The wonder of a world outside of a metal crib for the first time!

She has a nasty little bruise on her cheek from fumbling over onto the edge of her crib when she woke up yesterday, poor thing.  Sticks out so strongly in the photos and will be on her official photos that are being taken tomorrow! We

might get to the zoo for an hour tomorrow but it will be stinky hot so not sure how much Jazz is going to enjoy it, we shall see.

When we got home from dinner we had some play time and Lilianna was enjoying some standing time and even took a few stepps towards Ali,  It won't be long now she will be walking very soon.