Final Appointment Finished! (China Day 13)

That's right, we had our very last adoption-related appointments here today!  We headed to the US Consulate early this morning.  The Consulate is located on the 5th floor of a building downtown.  We had to wait in line for awhile to enter, and it felt strange seeing so many American flags and hearing people speaking clear English.  All adoptive families present had to take a formal oath, followed by a paperwork check and a signature on one last piece of paper.  We turned Helen's Chinese passport over to the US Government so they can add her US Visa.  Cameras weren't allowed inside the Consulate, but we got a few pictures from outside the secure area.

Best of all, we have Helen's official adoption decree in our hands!  

We were back to our hotel by 10:00am, and at 11:00am we had an exit meeting with our agency in the hotel.  After our (hopefully) final Guangzhou McDonald's lunch, we just bummed around the hotel room for the rest of the day.  Helen pretty much skipped her nap, so she was more feisty than usual at times.  She learned quickly which things are no-no's to touch (computer, remote control, etc).  She holds out one little finger... slowly moves it toward the forbidden object... and slowly moves her eyes up to meet yours.  She kept getting into EVERYTHING today.  Digging bottles out of the garbage, throwing diapers all over the room...  Cute, but naughty.  That's our little girl.

We joined the two adopting families with from our agency that were also in Guangzhou the entire time for a pizza party this evening (takeout from a place called "Tomato's" and it was great).  After finishing up a bunch of pizza and spaghetti, the guys headed down to 7-11 to buy Magnum bars for the whole group.  Helen had her first taste of ice cream tonight, and she LOVED it!  In true Helen fashion, she scowled as the first taste hit her mouth...

The passport and other final documents will be delivered to our hotel at 4:30pm tomorrow.  We'll immediately hop in a van for the long drive back to Hong Kong.  Please continue to pray for a break in the bad weather down south, that we will arrive safely by van, and that we'll fly out on time Friday morning. We're 100% ready to get back home to our other kiddos.  We miss them terribly!  One more sleep in Guangzhou, one more sleep in Hong Kong, and then many more sleeps in our own comfortable bed with the five Adolphs family members under the same roof, right where we all belong!  

Hidden Blessing In The Midst Of Big Disappointment (China Day 12)

We were up and at 'em early this morning.  In fact, today was the first day we actually had to set an alarm clock!  We were in the lobby at 7:30am, all packed up and ready for the 3.5 hour drive to Yangjiang City to visit Helen's orphanage.  We were greeted in the hotel lobby by our guide with some bad news.  A typhoon was sweeping across the province and it was directly over our destination.  We took the advice of one of our agency folks here to cancel the trip.  After looking at a weather radar map online, we saw just why they were making such a big deal out of the storm:

This has been one of the worst storms southern China has seen in several years.  They say heavy rains could continue for the next 24-48 hours, so please pray that we make it to Hong Kong safely on Thursday, and that our Friday flight back to Detroit will be on schedule!

Unfortunately, today was our only chance we could make the orphanage visit, so it's not going to happen.  We were pretty bummed, but we took it as a sign that we just weren't supposed to make the journey.  

Because the typhoon was already pushing heavy rainfalls upon Guangzhou, we spent most of our day in the hotel room.  This turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  Throughout the day Helen opened up to us more and more.  She started smiling at more things.  She started responding to our talking and touches more naturally.  She even let her little voice be heard a few times!  Overall it felt like today was intended to simply be a day of bonding between the three of us.

We did head out late this afternoon to join up with another adoptive family for dinner.  This is the family we met in Detroit during our layover enroute to Hong Kong.  They're heading back to Hong Kong tomorrow, so it was one last time for our families to get together here.  It's been so great to build new friendships like this one during our time here.  We joked tonight that we have family vacation destinations lined up for years to come, based on where our new friends live:  Nashville, Myrtle Beach, Branson, etc.  :-)

Tomorrow contains our final steps to complete the US portion of the adoption.  We'll head to the US Consulate bright and early in order to apply for Helen's visa and take the official oath.  Later in the morning we'll have a final exit meeting with our agency.  Then we simply wait around until about 4:30pm Thursday, when Helen's passport & visa will be delivered. At that point we'll hop into a van and make the long drive back to Hong Kong.

Please continue to pray us through this home stretch of our journey!  We only have three more nights in China before we head home!!!  Pray for energy, our reunion with the other kiddos, and our adjustment to the "new normal" back in Iowa.  For those reading this back home, we can't wait to introduce you all to our new little blessing.  Here are some new pictures from today.  Check out that smile!

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Yet Another Free Day... (China Day 11)

Yep, today was yet another day with no official appointments for us to attend.  One of the things we dislike most is all of the waiting around we have to do here.  We just want to be home with our family of five!  Helen's passport was supposedly ready and picked up by our agency late this afternoon, so at least we feel like there's been a little progress.

Because Helen went to bed with a fever last night, we decided to keep her in the hotel room this morning.  She went to bed with a fever of 101, woke up with a fever of 100, and as of this evening it's down to about 99.  Unfortunately we feel like we've undone a good deal of the bonding we've accomplished over the past week by having to give her medicine today.  She fights it so strongly that we have to pin her down on her back and force her to take it  :-(

She seemed to gain a little more appetite throughout the day and ate a little bit of food.  She likes dry cereal best of all.  She has a cute new game where she picks up a single Cheerio, bites off half, and puts the other slobbery half into the mouth of whomever is holding her.  She also loves grabbing a napkin, wiping her hands, and wiping the table when she's done eating.  She must have picked that up in the orphanage!  Here are some pics of Miss Helen from today:

Steve ventured out alone this morning to purchase a few things, and then we had lunch in our room.  Helen only napped for about 45 minutes after lunch, and since she was acting much better health-wise, we headed out to a explore different part of town.  We had asked, through our agency, what items Helen's orphanage might need that we could donate.  We were told that they needed a new DVD player, because the old one broke.  Jordon came through yet again yesterday, going on quite an adventure around town to get us a good quality player at a great price.  One of our agency guides told us that bringing non-noisy toys would also be a good gift.  She recommended we take a taxi to a wholesale place nearby called "One Link Plaza".  Thus, our afternoon adventure was underway.

HO.  LY.  COW.  We were expecting some kind of mini-mall, but there's nothing mini about this place!  It's eight stories tall, and there were easily more than 100 different stores on every single level!  No joke!  We spent three hours at this place and only made it through the first four floors!!

Need a pen?  Check out a pen-only store.  Need a cheap watch?  Go to one of the dozens of watch-only stores.  Need an Angry Birds backpack, fannie pack, alarm clock, pencil pouch, pillow, or pair of shoes?  Yep, there's a store specializing in that, too.  How about some bling?  Look no further than "Best Bling".  Coffee mugs.  Jewelry.  Purses.  Dishes.  Backpacks.  Clocks.  Toys.  Candles.  Electronic accessories.  Every type of mini stuffed animal you can imagine with a keychain screwed into its head.  Seriously, pictures don't do any justice to just how insane this place was, but we'll try!

We were successful in finding two big containers of building blocks to bring along with us to the orphanage.  We are meeting our guide in the hotel lobby at 7:30am to make the long drive to Yangjiang City, where the orphanage is located.  Tomorrow is sure to be an emotional day, and we'll have a lot to write about!

Another Free Day (China Day 10)

Helen woke up in a great mood today after a full night's sleep:

We had breakfast and then the three of us ventured back to Shamian  Island to do some more shopping.  I think we mentioned before just how beautiful and peaceful that place is.  This time we took lots of pictures.  The island is full of local shops, and it has a very nice park.  It was bustling with activity, from shopping tourists to locals playing mah jong, playing badminton, or "jamming" in a band...of sorts.  If it's this busy now, we can't imagine what it was like back when all of the adoption appointments were held here!  There are so many talented artists there as well; painters, carvers, etc.  There was even a shop that shared a name with our little miss.  The owner gave Helen a free little bracelet for sharing her namesake.  We think pictures tell the story of the island best, so here you go:

Helen posed for some pictures on the island.  Below you'll find, of course, at least one mandatory picture of  Helen scowling for the day:

There's a famous statue on the island, titled "Lingering Music".  It's of a woman playing violin with several children following behind her.  There's a space before the last child where you traditionally have your own child stand for a photo opportunity.  Helen wanted no part of it.  We're definitely printing the picture below for her high school graduation party:

When we got back from the island around lunchtime, Helen was feeling a little warm.  She had a slight fever of 99, so we put her down for a long nap.  Steve headed out with the agency for a tour of the jade and pearl wholesale markets.  The jade market was mostly outdoors, and there were more than 100 different vendors selling their goods.  People were tough negotiators there!  Steve eventually found one lady and negotiated her down to less than 10% of what other dealers were asking for the same jade pendant (he's proud of his mad bargaining skills).  This felt much like negotiations when we were in Kenya.  Sadly, just like in Kenya, unknowing tourists (usually rich, older westerners) will pay those outrageous prices without negotiating, so the sellers don't want to budge on prices for non-locals.

The wholesale pearl market was a few blocks away, and this was basically an indoor shopping mall... that was seven stories tall!  There were hundreds of stores inside.  This is where dealers come to purchase strands of pearls and other jewelry wholesale to resell.  They were even tougher negotiators, but Steve got a really good deal here as well.

Unfortunately, Helen's temperature rose a bit more while we were out for dinner with some of our new friends.  She had a fever of 101 when we put her down for the night.  We gave her Tylenol, but please be praying that the fever breaks overnight!!

We have only four more sleeps in Guangzhou, one sleep in Hong Kong, and then we'll be home!  The end is feeling very near!