Heading Home

Tonight is our last in China, we're packed and ready to head home. We have an early morning flight to Hong Kong and then straight to San Francisco from there. We should be arriving in Denver around 5pm-ish local time.

Today we were at the US Consulate and got a US visa for Julie. Just like Pat, she'll be an American citizen as soon as she hits immigration in the States. Other than that today was a nice lazy day, we did some last minute shopping followed by packing....and repacking.

We'll, I'm off to help Micky put the two goof balls down to sleep (4am is going to come awfully early for them) before trying to get some sbut-eye as well.

See you all back in the States!

In Guangzhou

We arrived at our hotel (The White Swan) around 1000pm last night in Guangzhou. What a better way to spend Micky's birthday - travelling in China. She can't say it was boring!

Guangzhou has warm tropical weather, gotta love it. The weather is absolutely gorgeous with temps in the low 70s. A nice break from the rainy 40s of the past week.

The hotel is located on Shamian Island where much of the architecture is left over from French and English presence. Between the weather and architecture it feels like we are in Charleston SC....

Julie had a physical for her US visa application today, other than that we just walked around the island enjoying the weather and atmosphere. Tomorrow (Sunday) is another down day and we are going to explore the city......

Well its Thursday evening and our last in Guiyang. Tomorrow we are flying to Guangzhou for the last leg of our stay here in China.

Didn't do too much today other than visit the Juixin Pavillion which is only about 15 minutes from the hotel. We've posted some pictures. After that we took a walk from the hotel and stumbled across a market street with all its wonderful sights and smells. Actually it was quite fun both Pat and Julie had a great time.

With Julie having Australian foster parents, she understands quite a bit of English which is a pretty nice surprise. She has a good understanding of a good number of words.

Downtime and bonding

Yesterday was a nice downday, we went to a park with a Buddhist Temple and got to explore some of the countryside. Some more pictures have been posted. Little Pat continues to be quite the celebrity among the locals.

Julie and Pat are continuing to bond as brother and sister do; Julie has bitten and hit little Pat several times now. Fortunately little Pat is good about telling us instead of retalliating on his own. Julie is turning out to be quite the animated and independant little girl, she's very commanding and bossy - very expressive.

Today is more of the same as yesterday while we wait for paperwork to get processed.

It's Tuesday morning and Julie is begining to get adjusted. With the exception of waking up once last night she slept (and is still sleeping) through the night.

We got her on Sunday and needless to say it was emotional. She was living with foster parents who, to our complete amazement, were Australians. So yes, she knows good ol English words like "no" and a few other mumblings wich we are creatively trying to fit to possible phrases. Something tells me that we are stretching it with a few of them.

We spent much of yesterday filling out paperwork and making the adoption official here in China. After that we went to WalMart (what's a trip to China without a stop at WalMart) to get supplies (milk, water, etc) for Julie and of course a toy car for little Pat.

The little guy has been doing great, after about a 10 struggle with the concept of being a big brother on Sunday evening, the night we got her, he decided that she was fun - crisis adverted.

Today is a down day, we are waiting on paperwork to be filled out, so depending on the weather (which has been foggy and overcast since we got here) we'll head out to see some of the city and surrounding areas.

One of the funniest "things" that we've encountered in these past couple days is the Chinese fascination for boys who have blue eyes and blond hair. I can not count the amount of times that we were stopped and asked if little Pat could be photographed. It was actually getting a bit embarrasing after a while.

What a great day! Today we walked on part of the Great Wall of China at Juyongguan. Little Pat trekked the entire way himself without any assistance, pretty impressive considering it was almost a 1000 foot elevation gain in just half a mile. We've posted pictures on the Pictures section of this page.

Afterwards we went to an acrobat show in downtown Beijing - that was pretty impressive too.

Tomorrow we're going to get up early and head out to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City before heading off to the airport. From there we fly to Guiyang and meet Julie for the first time.

We've arrived in Beijing

Hell0, we arrived yesterday afternoon with no hitches. Despite a snowstorm and a very short connecting flight in San Francisco, the flight went smooth and little Pat slept most of the way!

We all woke up at about 0430 this morning to no electricity in the hotel room. Micky and little pat are sharing a little book reading light and Grandpa's headlamp. I'm in complete darkness as I write this, hoping that the battery doesn't go out on my laptop - the only main source of electricity and light at the moment.

Later today we'll be off to see tour the city - we'll be posting pictures later today.

Check out the map below

Pat put in a mark where Julie is. She is in the Duyun Social Welfare institute, currently in a foster home. We don't know if she is in the city itself or in a nearby area which the institute is responsible for. Duyun looks like a pretty decent size city.

We leave for China on Valentines day and we are so excited. Little Pat has invited about ten people to come with us to see the Great Wall of China.

Well our name poll has closed and we'd like to say thanks to all who voted. Although the name received only 9% of the votes, we have chosen Julie.

Just received our first pictures of her.......

Pat has a sister!!

She was born in June of 2006.

Her Chinese name is Qian, Yun Ya.

In November she was 31 inches and 23 pounds. She has 8 teeth.

We will get updated measurements in a couple of weeks.

We will be getting pictures very soon, our agency will be email that and some more translations of the documents. We are so excited. She will be 19 months old just next week. She is just a few months older than lil Pat was when we adopted him. Lil Pat is so excited, he asked if we can have a sleepover with her.

She is in Guizhou Province, China. Check out the map Pat did below, he pinpointed the location of the province.