French toast, tater tots, eggs, bacon. Who could ask for a better way to start a morning? The breakfast buffet at the White Swan kicks. After having mainly fried rice and fried noodles and dumplings for breakfast for the last week and a half, we were pretty excited about the awesome breakfast buffet here. And, it was such a pleasure to reunite with the families from our travel group. I started to cry when I saw them each with their girls for the first time. Lindsay (3 in June) is doing great–she is bright and spirited and just bops all over the place. Her parents are overjoyed and wear that joy on their faces. And, big brother Jackson (7) and Lindsay have bonded just perfectly already. Ellie (2 1/2) is a real thinker, always looks very pensive and careful. She’s having a hard time with her routine changing. But, her parents Jeff and Julie are just great and are so patient with her. I look forward to seeing how she grows and is transformed over the next few days even. There’s one other family who is here with our group who wasn’t in Beijing. Their baby Caroline is 2 months older than Lydia. I haven’t been able to spend enough time with her yet to get a feel for what she’s like. But, she’s a real cutie pie and seems to be eating up all the attention given to her by Mom and Dad and her new big sister Nara.

We walked to a photo shop to get visa pictures taken of all the girls. Then, we headed over to the medical clinic. I had walked into that building expecting chaos just from following other families’ blogs. My expectations were pretty much met–though the pictures just don’t do it justice. You gotta see the video and hear the noise to really get it. But, we were fortunate that we were one of the first groups of families to arrive so we did get in and out of there quickly. We took Lydia to 3 different stations–general body check, ENT, and measurement check. I particularly got a kick out of how they checked her hearing–the doctor just hit “demo” on a small keyboard on his desk and waited to see if she’d look at it. As soon as she turned her head, her test was done. Her measurements were basically the same as the last ones we got from her orphanage except for her weight. We were told she weighed nearly 18 lbs. I’m guessing they weighed her with all of her puffy clothes on because even in her clothes today, she weighed not quite 16 lbs. She’s the size of an average 5 1/2-7 mo. old American baby (considering weight and height) which is why she looks pretty funny walking. Though many of the children at the clinic were screaming (poor Ellie was one of them. She was screaming before the doctors ever looked at her AND she needed a TB test and 5 shots. Poor baby.), Lydia was no worse for wear. She didn’t need any shots (though she’ll need all of them once we get home. She hasn’t had any.), and she promptly fell asleep in Mark’s arms afterwards. She seems to like a little morning cat nap.

When we got back, a “white swan fairy” had left a gift in our room—the famous going home Barbie that all adoptive families who stay at the White Swan receive. It’s a fun keepsake to bring home though I have to say that the baby really doesn’t look Chinese to me. Well, guess that doesn’t really matter since I look nothing like Barbie either. Mattel designs the dolls, one different for each year, just for the White Swan and sponsors a play room that families can use in the hotel.

Mark stayed back in the room to work on getting the internet working for us while I went with our travel group to the famous Lucy’s restaurant down the street which serves American food. I had my first taste of American food since we left home, a little pizza which actually was pretty good (Lydia thought so too!). Note to other travelers though—I ordered a coke too and it cost nearly as much as my meal. Bring your own drinks there!

The afternoon was then spent doing oodles of paperwork. It is crazy how much paperwork has to be done. Mark worked on it with our guide and the other families for over 90 minutes while Lydia and I walked around and played in the Mattel sponsored play room with a bunch of other kids and their parents. It was fun to see all the parents working hard to connect with their new children and see some of the children learning to play freely perhaps for the first time.

We had a group dinner which also included the Woods family, a family I’ve gotten to know over email who just adopted a 4 year old healthy little boy named Jake. Jake was a real kick–doesn’t speak a word of English but was super excited to to show off his picture album that his parents had sent him before traveling. And, my heart was warmed when he was calling me “ayi” (auntie) by the end of the dinner. We enjoyed Cantonese specialties of this region including (drumroll, please) roasted pigeon. We all tried it–tasted like the dark meat of turkey, not so great. But, I tell you what, those Chinese kids just went to town on it.

I’m looking forward to the week in Guangzhou–I’m still feeling “resortish” here, and I’ve really enjoyed seeing all the other adoptive families around.

It’s 7:10 AM right now on Saturday morning our time. We are preparing for an interesting today taking Lydia along with oodles of other Chinese adopted children to the medical clinic to be given the okay to enter the U.S. We didn’t get into our room in Guangzhou until very late and couldn’t get the internet to work. So, this had to wait until this morning.

Since we missed a day of touring due to the terracotta warriors’ revenge we suffered from on Wednesday, we decided to fit in visiting the famous site yesterday on our travel day which made for a busy day. We checked out of our hotel early and then drove the 45 minutes to see this amazing attraction. Thousands of terracotta warriors were found here in the 1970s by a farmer (apparently there were 2 very, very human looking ones–see the pictures?) He reported the find to the government who took over the area, recognizing that it was something special. The farmer, as compensation, was given a job at the museum. He just sits there and signs his name in tourist books all day everyday. Each warrior was made uniquely to represent different members of the imperial army and were set up near the emperor’s tomb to protect it from attack after he was buried. Very odd to consider. But, the emperor started building them when he was only 13 years old. So, guess he just didn’t know better??? Jason–you’d be proud of Mark. He told me he’d give me 100 yuan if I jumped the wall and got up on one of the terracotta horses and pretended to ride it. Can you imagine my facial expression back? I think I’d be getting myself a quick ticket out of China if I took him up on it. We also visited a lacquer furniture workshop and shop where they create new terracotta warriors and learned how they make them. They actually fire them in cave like areas under ground using coal. We got some prizes there for our kids (cannot say what they are since they read these posts, but can you guess?) and had one last really good lunch in Xi’an. We have decided that we are terrible at ordering. Every meal we ordered ourselves pretty much stunk. The meals that guides ordered for us have been amazing. So, we quit. If we have to eat out again with no guide, I may very well go to a neighboring table and just ask some random Chinese person to order for us.

We then headed to the airport to head to Guangzhou for the last leg of our trip. Nearly at the same time, my parents are heading home and handing the baton off to Mark’s mom at home. I thought about them a lot as we were leaving. My mom has sent us daily emails summing up their days which have been good to read, and we’ve been skyping them at least once a day. That’s so fun to do–Ashlyn especially is so excited about Lydia and wants us to just set the computer up so that she can just watch whatever she’s doing. Evan’s been a real trooper despite his broken foot, a tooth falling out, and now an ear infection. And, Drew, well, he’s more interested in playing wii than talking to us. Sounds like he’s been a real handful. And, they have been spoiled to death. As one of my mom’s emails read, “Can a body get too many chicken nuggets?” The kids may not want us to come home!

We were quite the attraction at the airport especially because our flight was delayed 2 hours so were there a very long time. Every one was oogling at Lydia. I am shocked how Chinese people will come up to us and just put their arms up asking to hold her. It’s always this uncomfortable situation as we just sort of turn away, and they are standing their disappointed. And, they just keep speaking to me in Chinese about her. I don’t know what they were saying except that I am sure it had to do with her not being dressed warm enough and that she shouldn’t suck on her fingers. Those are pretty much the things we hear most often…in addition to how cute she is, of course. I was so tired from our day that I used the men’s room—yup, I did. As if the women’s rooms aren’t scary enough, I went right into the men’s room at the airport. Didn’t realize it until I came out and noticed our “audience” giggling while covering their mouths. Nice.

She was a champ on the 2 hour flight to Guangzhou—hope she is still a champ on that LONG flight home. We didn’t get into Guangzhou until late, but I gotta say I was pretty darn happy when we drove around to the White Swan. It was all dark except for pretty lights on the water and the colorful lights on the ferry boats. Having spent a week in a busy city and a long day traveling, I felt like we just entered the Disney World of China. And, entering the hotel confirmed that (if you disregard the lovely Chinese karaoke rendition of “Wonderful Tonight” as we came in). The waterfall and koi pond and marble, etc. is just gorgeous. Plus, everyone here pretty much are adoptive families. I’m really looking forward to reuniting with our travel group today and meeting their little girls.