Guangzhou

Hello Everyone,

 

We have hard time getting connected to our Email here at the hotel, so it has been difficult to update everyone.  We are in Guangzhou, China right now,  It is one of the 4 largest cities in China.  HUGE!!  Our hotel is wonderful!  It has a revolving restaurant at the top that we eat breakfast at every morning.  We are on the 34th floor! 

 

The reason we are in Guangzhou is for our US Consulate appointment to get a Visa for Lyla to go home.  It takes a while for the paperwork to be processed and for them to issue a Visa.  There are 19 other families with us and several other families at other hotels that we have met, who are adopting and everyone has to come through Guangzhou.  I am sure the Consulate office is pretty busy.  We are hoping to get our Visa for Lyla by Wednesday and then leaving on Wednesday (instead of Thursday) for Hong Kong so we get an extra day there. 

 

One thing I am having fun with is the language!  They understand me here!  YAY!!  It has been neat to get some practice. Guangzhou used to be known as Canton to Westerners, and the Chinese dialect they speak, Cantonese, is what I know.  Most everyone here speaks Cantonese....same with Hong Kong!

 

Lyla had a doctors appointment the morning after we got here.  It is one of the requirements for the Consulate to issue a Visa.  She had to get 5 shots!  She was not happy.  But they also discovered she had an ear infection (which she is prone to because of her cleft palate).  So thank goodness we got that taken care of!  It was funny, because we did not know she was going to need shots and when they told us it was going to cost about 2000 Yuan, we were shocked and of course we didn't have it on us.  But our Guide covered it for the families that needed shots and we paid her back ( I am assuming she has been in this predicament before)....whew!  

 

Lyla is crawling more.  It is kind of gross, because she gets her pants all black after she crawls around the hotel floor.  We give her a bath every night and have been doing laundry.  It will be nice when she is home.  I am sure she is going to have lots of fun on our floors! 

 

Happy Mother's Day to all of our Mother's!  We love you!  I miss you!

 

Love,

Becky

 

P.s. Pictures are from here in Guangzhou on Shamian Island (used to be leased to the British / French).  It's where we've had Lyla's medical appointment, parks, shopping, U.S. Consulate, and the White Swan Hotel (famous for adoption families but not where we are staying).