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It seems like so long ago when I posted our itinerary, and our lives have changed a lot since then. According to our itinerary, we were to have our US consulate appointment on Wednesday, take the oath on Thursday, and get Josiah’s visa on Friday. On Wednesday, we found out that the consulate had an event on Thursday, so we got to take the oath on Wednesday and received Josiah’s visa today (Thursday).
The good news is that all of the paperwork is done and all of the fees are paid and we are ready to come home. The bad news is that we don’t fly out of here until Sunday morning, and we want to have our family all together. We will try our best to make lemonade from the lemons given to us, and hope to see a little more of China before we head home.
Don’t forget to click on the links to view the latest pictures of Josiah and his new family.
Guangzhou has become a very special place for us to visit. After traveling here for Rachel’s and Rebekah’s adoptions, it has become a familiar and enjoyable place. Yesterday we went on a short tour of the city with others in our travel group. We went to the Six Banyan Temple, a very old and very beautiful Buddhist temple. Although we had seen the temple before, it was good to show it to Rachel, and it was great hearing how insightful she was about bowing before other gods.
We also went to the Old Chen House, a very well preserved Qing Dynasty era building. The colored porcelain on the roof, and the stone and wood carvings throughout the house are stunning. Josiah, however, thought the stairs were much more exciting. He likes to go up and then down, then up and down again, then up backwards and down backwards, then repeat.
Our group stopped by a local arts and crafts store where we were able to see some local craftsmen and women making beautiful porcelain, clothes and carvings.
Today was mostly a free day, but we did visit the pearl market and, more importantly, McDonald’s. Yes, it does taste the same.
We also had to take Josiah back to the health clinic to have his TB skin test read, and we are pleased to announce that it is negative. We celebrated by going to the playground at the local elementary school where Josiah and Rachel had a lot of fun playing.
This afternoon we did the paperwork for Josiah’s US Visa, and then finished the day off with a nice big meal. Since we’re in China, we decided on a nice Italian restaurant where our waiter was from India…go figure.
Today, we had to take Josiah to the medical clinic for his physical. We took him to all the stations - ENT, Ht.& Wt. & Medical exam. He did just great on these. We found out that he would have to have 7 shots, 1 oral polio & a TB skin test before he would be able to leave China to come to the US. To say the least, this was not a good experience for him. He feel asleep shortly after all the shots. We go back on Monday to find the results of the TB skin test. If it is positive, he will have to have an X-ray. We are praying that it is negative.
Today, we got to sleep in for the first time. This was the first day we didn’t wake up early in the morning. We have had a hard time adjusting our clocks to China time. We took a walk a the local park after breakfast. We attracted attention from the locals. They are very curious about the children.
We flew from Zhengzhou to Guangzhou tonight. We arrived in Guangzhou at about 9pm, so we got to the White Swan hotel at 10:30 - 11 & to bed around 12. We are so thankful that we made it here safely. Thanks you so much for your prayers.
We went to a Museum in Henan. It is the 3rd largest museum in China. It all kinds of artifacts from the different dynasties in China. We got to see ancient Chinese musical instruments. and see a musical concert with these instruments being played by people in traditional Chinese dress.
We received all of our paperwork back from the notary, today. We found out that Josiah had not immunization records, which means that he has to have immunizations prior to us coming home the the USA.
Today, we went to the Aquarium in Zhengzhou. It had amazing exhibits. We saw a sea lion show & a mermaid show. We even got to pet a sea turtle. Josiah and Rachel had a great time. Josiah was amazed by all the creatures.
Yesterday, our first full day with Josiah, was a great day. From the time he got up until the time we laid down last night, Josiah was happy and pleasant. In many ways he reminds us of Joshua: he likes to play, wrestle, and he especially likes to go.
When he is playing, he can become pretty excited, and often a little rough. We had to quickly learn some Chinese phrases like, “Bu Yao Da,” meaning “Don’t Hit.”
We went to the registration office and notary office yesterday, and made our adoption of Josiah official.
The birth of a baby or the adoption of a child is an incredible event in any family, and it is often stressful. In many ways, yesterday was harder than the birth of John David and Joshua, or the adoption of Rachel or Rebekah.
After our dress rehearsal, we went back to our hotel room where we waited, and waited, and paced. We had been told that the bus with Josiah would arrive around 12:30 or 1 o’clock, which came and went.
Yisha, our representative finally called about 1:30 and said that it would be about 40 more minutes, and we should go get lunch. Unfortunately, we were afraid to leave our room for fear of missing the call so we skipped lunch. What we didn’t know was that those forty minutes turned out to be almost 4PM.
Rita, Yisha’s assistant, called us and said the babies are in Yisha’s room. We rushed down and there was Josiah.
We were able to get a couple of pictures before Josiah started to cry and get scared because of all of the strange people in the little room. Robin and Rachel took him back to our room while I signed the papers. After the papers were signed, I was able to play with Josiah for about 15 minutes before we had to meet with the group to do more paperwork.
After the paperwork was finished we had to take Josiah to a photo shop for a picture that the other families got to take at the provincial office.
We finally got to settle down and sit down as a family and enjoy dinner together. Josiah is happy, friendly and healthy. He speaks Mandarin very well, making us wish that we had studied the language more. After getting back to our room, he quickly went to sleep and has slept well all night.
Rachel has been wonderful, and we are so glad that she is here with us. Despite being tired and hungry when Josiah got here, she was helpful, kind and loving to us and especially towards her little brother, Josiah.
We started out this morning with breakfast in the hotel, and then we were to travel to the provincial notary’s office to get the babies, or toddler in our case.
The babies in our group are coming from 5 different orphanages located in various parts of Henan. We we arrived at the office several of the families were greeted by nannies who were holding their babies. More nannies with more babies continued to arrive.
Unfortunately, Josiah and another baby weren’t among all of the babies at the office. We were told that a bridge along the route was closed due to very thick fog, so they were going to take a different road. They would meet us at the hotel about 12:30 - 1pm. So we when back to our room waiting for a call that our son had arrived. Well, we finally received a call at 1:40pm, but we were informed that it would be 40 more minutes, so we continue to wait for our little boy.