January 31, 2010: Sunday = Family Day

According to our guide, most Chinese families take it easy on Sunday and spend the day with each other. We had the day to ourselves and enjoyed a relaxing time. Lanhua is tolerating our inability to speak Chinese and somehow, we manage to get our points across. We walked through a busy local market area with both dry and wet shops this morning. Wow and yikes. Stating the obvious: this culture is so very different.

Tomorrow we head to the countryside with our guide and her family. Tuesday, it's the American Consulate, Weds we do some swearing and get Lanhua's passport, and Thursday we pick-up her Visa.

January 30, 2010

Saturday in Guangzhou: The day started with a visit to the clinic to have Lanhua’s TB test read. It was negative! What a relief. Even though it looked to us like the test was negative, Steve and I were both silently sweating bullets for the past 2 days. A positive reading, even if the child is asymptomatic with a clean chest X-ray can be incredibly problematic and often leads to a significant delay in getting a US passport. It’s pretty ridiculous. To celebrate the happy news, we went to the Tomb of the 2nd Nanyue King (very cool for Steve and I) and then to one of the many parks in Guangzhou City (very cool for Lanhua). The park has a nice recreational area with small rides, games and crafts for kids. She had a great time. She rode just about everything that goes in circles (thankfully, Dad took many spins for the team), she painted a picture of the pink Pleasant Goat and we introduced her to bumper cars. When we returned to our hotel, we received an email from Tandora with a photo of Pablo, Milton, and Harper from their day's outing to Stinky Island in San Diego. Thank you, Tandora! It was the prefect close to an excellent day.

January 29, 2010 Update

Today we explored Guangzhou. We visited White Cloud Mountain (a large park on a small hill above the city) and went to an art academy/museum. Our sightseeing was interesting and the landscape and art beautiful. We also had a great traditional meal at a "locals only" Chinese restaurant and ended the afternoon with the purchase of a second pair of pink shoes.

Lanhua's mood is generally better today. We're spending a significant amount of time at our hotel, but that's ok as long as she's happy (apparently, she doesn't like the hustle and bustle of Guangzhou City - we assume that she previously lived in the burbs). Our guide is forbidden to ask Lanhua direct questions about her foster family, but she has volunteered that she has an adult brother (who owns a brown car) and adult sister. Her foster parents are older and retired. She asked many questions today about school in America. In China, the kids start school at 8:30am and go until 5:30pm, 5 days a week. Wow....just like in the States.

It's no surprise that Lanhua has quickly warmed-up to Steve. He's a fantastic, amazing, loving dad. So far, he's managed to impress her with his juggling skills, fondness of Disney movies, love of Oreo cookies and of course, his iPhone. He gets her ice cream, laughs at the same goofy stuff she likes on TV and is in full support of her interest in shoes. She's a lucky girl. Tonight, she's in bed reading her Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf book. It's very cute.

Most of today's photos posts are taken by Lanhua. We think Uncle Shuey and Auntie Steph will be excellent mentors.

Editor's Note

Tandora here. Thanks all for your Comments - I have sent them on to S & P & L. I know they will very much appreciate reading them. They are eager to get home!

January 28, 2010 Update

Lanhua had her physical exam and TB test this morning. She tolerated the process quite nicely and met one of her fellow sisters from the orphanage (age 13) while we were at the clinic. It was good for us to talk to another family from the US and even better when we discovered that the family lives in Salt Lake City. Of course, we exchanged telephone numbers and assured Lanhua that we’ll visit them when we get back to the US (preferably during the peak winter months). Later in the day, Lanhua’s mood changed and we experienced what we assume must be classic 9 year-old stubbornness and bad mood. Enough said. The weather in Guangzhou is warming-up and tomorrow we’ll head to White Mountain for sightseeing. Photos include the water beetles from the restaurant we ate at last night, a photo at the temple with our guide Ann (taken by Lanhua) and Lanhua and her friend from the orphanage at the clinic this morning. ps to Emilie: She loves her pink sweatshirt!

Pics from Jan 26, 2010 outings

January 27, 2010

Lanhua has had 2 very solid nights of sleep. This must be a good sign. Today we tried to take a walk without our guide in Old Guangzhou (where we’re staying) but it was a short stroll. When she’s alone with us, Lanhua seems to prefer to hang-out in our hotel room. She’s been through so much change in the last 3 weeks, the stability of a room with all of her stuff, a TV, and plenty of books and crafts must feel good to her. When our guide arrives, Lanhua is full of questions and is very talkative. It’s tough on her to not be able to speak to us.

Lanhua likes pink, she prefers an animated movie about mermaid/fairy Barbies (Fairytopia?) and she’s nuts about a popular Chinese cartoon called “Pleasant Goat and Big, Big Wolf.” (You may want to Google this one. Steve and I are convinced that the goats are actually sheep, and that one of the wolves is supposed to be Dick Cheney.)

This afternoon we applied for Lanhua’s passport and completed our paperwork with the Chinese government. Next step: medical appointments, application for a US Visa and our visits next week to the US Consulate. It’s an endless maze of paperwork and hoops.

We visited a Buddhist temple in the middle of Guangzhou City late today. It was incredibly beautiful and peaceful. Surprising, since this is such an enormous bustling city. We also went to a traditional Chinese market. It was anything but beautiful, although the fruit and noodle sections were impressive.

For dinner, our guide took us to a traditional Cantonese-style restaurant. The food was excellent. We took a pass on the water beetles, silk worms, and sea cucumbers, but there’s always tomorrow. Right now, Lanhua and Steve are watching a wacky game show and they’re both laughing pretty hard. All is well.

The photos posts are from yesterday.

Pics of Day 1

January 26, 2010: Shopping

Ann took us to the Beijing Row today for Lanhua’s first shopping spree. Much to Steve’s happiness, we spent most of our time in the book stores. She’s a reader. We also hit the Converse store for a pink pair of Allstars and hit the local department store for some essentials. She definitely likes to shop and absolutely knows what she likes. She’s very gracious. It was a good morning.

We’re back at the hotel watching videos, coloring, and playing with the iPhone. Tonight, we’ll slip on her pink Converse tennies and hit the local noodle shop.

Observations: Lanhua is a tidy kid. She’s also very careful to keep track of her stuff. Last night, she moved all of her belongings next to her bed.

Jan 25, 2010: Introductions

Today we were introduced to Lanhua at the busy offices of the Guangzhou Social Welfare Institute. The process of the adoption was simple and efficient. Although the adoption was straightforward, the situation felt incredibly complicated. It’s difficult to describe in words. We walked in to the office with a stack of documents and records that we’ve accumulated over the past 4 years. We left with a 9 year old child. Our guide from our adoption agency is named Ann. Her English is excellent and she is very patient, experienced, and kind. She will see us every day and help Lanhua communicate with us. Much of what we describe is based on Ann’s translations and direct discussions with Lanhua. Rather than trying to explain how we’re feeling or how hard the day seemed to be for Lanhua, we’ll just describe this wonderful little girl. She is incredibly independent and inquisitive. She makes her own food, bathes herself, and is fairly capable of communicating what she wants despite the language barrier. She misses her foster family very much, but is counting the days (literally) until she can travel to the United States. She wants to go to school in the US and learn English so that she can talk to us. She loves to play on the computer, is discovering Steve’s iPhone, and has a great eye with the digital camera. She’s very pretty and is quite particular when it comes to her hair, clothing, and yes, her shoes. Our first meal with Lanhua was at the venue of her choice: McDonalds. For dinner, she wanted Cup-of-Noodles. When in China…….. Lanhua slept like a log last night. She’s showing amazing strength and resilience as she adjusts to living with her new parents. We’re stunned by the soul of this child. There are no words.

Bypassing the Great Firewall

Hi Folks! It's Tandora. Apparently the Wedels are not able to access this blog (or Facebook or Twitter, etc) from China. So, they will send me the updates and I will be posting on their behalf. I'll be sure to forward any comments you post to them too. They have arrived safely in Guangzhou after a 16 hour flight and were preparing to meet their guide Ann and LanHua at 10 am on the 25th. It sounds like they are in the middle of Awesome, Amazing, Overwhelming, and Emotional!

Read On!

Travel to Guangzhou

Friday, Jan 22: Depart from LAX 11:50pm
Sunday, Jan 24: Arrive in Guangzhou, China 6:50am