Day 1 in Guangzhou

We arrived in Guangzhou late Friday night.  Our flight from Guiyang to Guangzhou was pretty sweet as we were all in First Class- too bad we won't have that for our long flight next Saturday!

Yesterday was a bit crazy- Zach had his visa photos and medical examination/TB test.

He was a total Zoolander for his photo- he sat right down in the chair and just sported this totally adorable smile.  I think I might have a little casanova on my hands

The pic of Ross and Zach below in front of the medical exam sign was taken BEFORE the exam- there were a TON of tears during the course of two hours.  We had to go thru several different stations with a long wait between each stop.  During the wait we were able to catch up with our travel group and swap stories and also meet other families from other agencies.  There are a lot of families here adopting special needs kiddos- every person I meet and every story I hear brings tears to my eyes- it's been  cool seeing how God has woven all of these families together.

After the exam, we took our laundry to a place that Jennie and XiXi scouted out to do our clothes.  They will deliver our CLEAN clothes later today!

The White Swan Hotel is just as amazing as I remembered it.  The breakfast buffet is to DIE for- and the view of the Pearl River from the window is equally amazing. XiXi and Zach both love the indoor waterfall with the big Koi fish swimming everywhere!

Zach is warming up to me.  This morning at breakfast, Ross got up to get some food and left Zach at the table- he screamed for a few minutes and then motioned for me to get him out of the highchair and let me hold and comfort him for a few minutes before he pointed to the highchair again!  He also let me swing him around a bit ago too!  YAY!

Apparently, a lot of the other families have experienced the Dad being the "chosen one"- so we are not alone in this...

This morning we went to the porcelain, jade and pearl markets- the shopping here is amazing!  and I have 5 more days of it!  WOO HOO!!!

We are enjoying getting to know the other families in our travel group- one other family had a 5.5 year old daughter they adopted in 2004- she and XiXi have totally hit it off!

It's so great to be here- the weather is in the 80s and sunny- lots of other american families to meet (HEAVEN for a sanguine extrovert!).

gotta go and take xixi to the pool!
more later!