Last Travel Journal Entry

Hey everyone~

We have created a new section for Home Updates. You can access it from the home/front page of our site. All further updates will be posted there. Thanks very much for visiting and Happy Birthday America!!!

Hello Everyone....from HOME in the USA!!!

Good morning at 5:00 AM! Hey at least she made it from 8:00 PM in the crib (all night)! That's two nights in a row that she has slept relatively all night. What does she like now that we are home?

~ Peanut butter
~ Milk
~ Cheerios
~ Pringles
~ Peanut butter and jam sandwiches
~ Her WaWa's (dog in Chinese) we have three dogs and she loves them, especially our boxer Bren. She always wants him where she is.
~ Her GeGe (Guh-guh, big brother in Chinese) The first thing she asked for this morning when she woke up was her brother. He was staying with his grandparents in Florida and was supposed to leave Sunday morning to come home. They decided to leave Saturday night and supprise us. We were very supprised and very happy to see them.
~ Swinging
~ Riding in her stroller
~ Eggs both scrammbled and hard boiled
~ Gerber graduates stars in both banana and strawberry
~ Orange juice
~ Gold fish (or Stouffers Whales)
~ Oranges
~ Popcorn
~ Peaches
~ Brown Rice
~ Corn chips

We are having so much fun with her. Watching her experience all the new things is so much fun. It is best to let her wake up on her own. She is much happier that way. She loves to get her food from head to toe, if she can. Each day brings another surprise and big laughs in response to her hysterical actions. She never stops moving unless there is food in front of her or she is sound asleep. She loves to feed her food to the dogs (and they love her to feed them)! Enjoy some of her best pictures.

We're coming home!!

Yesterday was our last day in Guangzhou and this morning we are packing up and getting ready for the LONG flight home. Please pray for us that the flight goes smoothly and that Olivia is calm. We are looking forward to going home. We have really enjoyed our time here and will remember it forever, but there is no place like home.

Yesterday we got to do some more shopping in the morning and then right before lunch, Olivia and Baba got some more pool time while Mama shopped. After lunch we all packed up and headed to the US Consulate here in Guangzhou to get Livi's Visa and have the swearing in ceremony. 57 families with their children all filed into a large room where they looked over our paperwork and then did a mass swearing in. No cameras or other electronics are allowed in the room so we don't have pictures. But, there was a camera crew there from Reuters doing a story on adoption and they were allowed to film the ceremony. Livi fell asleep on the bus on the way there and didn't wake up until after the whole ceremony. She didn't miss much.

From the consulate we headed to another mall that had a Pizza Hut in it. Our guide, Amy, said that since we had eaten all Chinese food for dinners in Guangzhou, we should have some balance and eat American. It was very good. One of our travel mates was having a birthday and his wife surprised him by ordering a cake from a local bakery and bringing it out after dinner. He was very surprised and the cake was delicious.

We headed back to the hotel then and crammed in a few more hours of (you guessed it) shopping. This morning we are up bright and early (4:00 AM) to get ready to catch our 8:30 flight. We will see you all in the USA!

Chen Family Temple and shopping

Livi and Daddy in the pool

Gate at the Chen Family Temple

Livi in the room

Daddy with Olivia by the waterfall

Today was another full day in Guanzhou. After breakfast this morning we did a little shopping in the shops around the hotel. From 11 to 12 we had to be in the room because our guide was taking our paperwork to the consulate. She called around 11:20 to say that everything was in order and our paperwork was good. Yeah! That means today around 2:30 we will be going to the US Consulate for our appointment there. We should then get Livi's US Visa and leave tomorrow morning for home.

We have to leave the hotel at 5:30 AM for our flight to Hong Kong, but we will be in Charlotte by 7:00 PM on the 31st. We can't wait to get home.

Yesterday after our paperwork was OK'd we spent a little time in the pool. Well, Baba and Livi spent some time in the pool. Mama took pictures and sat on the side. The pool was great. As we expected, Olivia loved the pool after a few minutes of nervous trepidation. As we were leaving to go to lunch she kept pointing back at the pool and saying "I want, I want" in Chinese (We have learned this phrase well, as we hear it all the time). At least she knows what she wants.

After lunch at Lucy's again we set out with our Guide Amy for the Chen Family Temple. We took a nice tour of the temple in the 95 degree heat and then headed for the pearl market. The pearls were very inexpensive there and we picked up a string for Livi's 16th birthday. Then we were set loose in the "Open Market". It really wasn't what we were expecting at all. Amy told us that we could bargain here but nobody would negotiate on prices. And it wasn't very open, it looked more like a large mall with about 6 floors. Livi fell asleep at the pearl market and slept in her stroller all the way through dinner. She was very tired.

We ate dinner at another Chinese restaurant. One of the items they brought out to eat was snake. We declined, and said thanks very much. Neither of us found much to eat at that dinner, but tonight we might be going to Papa John's or Pizza Hut.

We just can't believe that we only have one more day here before we head home. It has been quite an experience. One we will never forget. I don't know if I will get a chance to post again so thank you all for following our journey here and we can't wait to see you when we get home.

Day 2 in Guangzhou

Breakfast at the White Swan was fabulous. French Toast, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, fresh fruit. We really enjoyed a great American breakfast buffet.

Breakfast Buffet at the White Swan


Meeting up with Friends in Guangzhou


Olivia's Medical Examination was after breakfast. We stood in a room full of adoptive families going from station to station where they would do various health checks like squeezing a squeaky toy to see if she turns her head. Unfortunately, Livi was not OK with this. This little girl has been through a lot with doctors and hospitals and as soon as she saw the ladies in the whites coats, the tears started. They didn't stop until we were out of there. She kept saying "doh, doh, doh" (which means go) and pointing towards the door out. The doctors checked her medical records and looked at her legs and hands and wrote some things down under recommendations that we can't read.



Get me outta here!!


With the medical exam out of the way we had the rest of the morning free. On the way back from the exam office we stopped at a little store called "Cute Baby". Well, this described Livi perfectly so we decided we must stop and take a look. Because our guide never took us anywhere to shop in Fuzhou, Mystina has been itching for some shopping. We picked up a few cool outfits for Livi and then found a nice stroller for her at another store.

Shopping with my new friend Jenna


A store just for Livi


At lunch, we ate at the world famous Lucy's restaurant. This place is famous because they serve good western style food. We are on our own for lunch while in Guangzhou, so we will probably eat here every day. Mama had a grilled cheese sandwich (they even cut off the crusts) and Baba had a grilled chicken wrap and fries. Livi ate a bowl of chicken congee and helped Baba polish off his french fries. It was delicious.

In the afternoon our guide took us to a tea house and bonsai park, and then a shop with lots of souvenirs and crafts. We got a traditional silk outfit for Livi and some things for Gramma and Boppa. We are shopping at an "open market" today, so I am sure we will buy some more. After the shop, we got to see the 5 goat park. This is a beautiful park with a large statue of five goats in the middle. I forgot to take our camera with us so I didn't get any pictures of it.

Olivia is doing well, but yesterday was kinda rough for her. She had gotten used to taking it easy in Fuzhou with all of the free time we had. She took a short nap in her stroller while at the tea house, but she was fussy most of the day. The other people in our travel group are very understanding. Also, I think that the exam was not a good way to start off the day. Hopefully today will go better. Only two more days until we leave and we are ready to come home.

An update on Bonding...

I just realized that I haven't mentioned how things are going with bonding for a while. We know that God prepared this little one for us. Bonding is going very well with both of us now. Livi will sometimes prefer one or the other of us but she does not have a problem coming to us or looking us in the eye. She calls for "mama" and "baba" and smiles when we answer her. Thank you for your prayers, they are being answered. We can't wait for you all to meet her in person.

We made it to Guangzhou (finally!)

Hello from Guangzhou. We thought we would never make it. Really, it wasn't that bad but we did have some trouble leaving Fuzhou yesterday. We left the hotel yesterday at about noon to head to the aiport to catch our 2:40 flight. We were going to eat lunch on the way at McDonald's.

We arrived at the aiport at about 1:30 and got all of our baggage checked. We were thankful to be on the way to Guangzhou. Then our guide said "The flight may be delayed because of weather". We couldn't understand why as the sun was shining outside on the way to the airport, but soon the rain started. It rained really hard and the lightning was flashing. Soon we heard an announcement that our flight was delayed because of weather. So, we sat in the airport for over 2 hours waiting for our flight to leave. This may not seem like a long time, but when you are in a strange place and are trying to occupy a 2-year old it was not fun.

Finally, we did get on the plane. Olivia did relatively well, since this was her first time on a plane. She was OK until about 45 minutes into the flight. Then, I think the pressure, along with her being nervous and hungry got to her and she got really fussy. She kept whining and saying bao (hug) and asking to be picked up. But we were descending and she had to remain in her seat.

Once we got on the ground in Guanzhou, we were met by our driver who promptly handed Mystina a phone. It was our guide, Amy, who said she had waited at the airport as long as she could but she would meet us at the hotel at 8:00 PM for dinner. By this time Livi was starving and she really dove in at the restaurant. This little girl can eat. She loved the bamboo dish, with mushrooms and veggies. Also, she enjoyed some plain rice and some delicious sweet potato muffins.

We picked up some needed supplies at 7-eleven across from the hotel before retiring to our room. Olivia was so exhausted she skipped the usual 1-hour flopping and flailing and went straight to sleep as soon as we got into bed.

On tap for this morning is her medical exam. Then, this afternoon, we are going shopping. I don't have any pictures to post this morning as there wasn't much to take pictures of yesterday. Hopefully we will see more today.

I must say, we are very happy to be in Guangzhou, but we were sad to leave Fuzhou yesterday. We didn't enjoy a lot of the time there, be we realized we were taking her away from her original home and her birth mother. We pray for her birth mother and hope she is at peace about her decision.

Well that's all for now. We only have three more days here before we head home. We are looking forward to seeing everyone again, especially our little boy. We have been talking to him nightly on the computer, but we can't wait to see him and for him to meet Olivia.

Adoption Certificate and Passport

There is not much to report about yesterday. We just went to the police station to get her passport and adoption certificate. Which shows her name, Olivia Xin Yun Zummach!! It is nice to see the document that says she is actually ours. This is our last day in Fuzhou and we are on our own. We will go over to the park for awhile. We go on to Guangzhou tomorrow where we will meet up with our other travel mates. We will get to do some shopping and some shopping and some shopping! :o) Oh and did I mention that we will do some shopping?
Anyway, when we went to the police station we saw several other families there that are adopting as well. AMERICANS!!!! We almost cried. We had begun to think that we were the only adoptive family in the city. These families were all at another hotel. They invited us to their hotel for dinner. Oh was it nice to talk to some other American, Adopting Adults!!!!

Well we look forward to our next stop and then to bringing her home to see all of you. Sometimes she is such a riot! She loves to make us laugh. Have a wonderful weekend.