Chen Family Temple

The day after we did the TB test and medical exam we visited the Chen Family Temple.  I wish I could attach more pictures to these posts, but it is what it is.  The temple is very ornate with lots of carvings an paintings everywhere.  Inside the temple are many gift shops.  We bought our Colombian kids cards with their names in Chinese characters and bought SongSong a wall hanging with his name on it and a brass ancient Chinese warrior figure (his part of his bedroom is pretty lacking in decoration right now - but we planned to buy things for him here to fill it in a bit).  I got a jade pendant with the symbol for happiness on it.  Tim got a brass Chinese dragon figure.

 

I'm attaching a picture of the man who did the Chinese calligraphy and of the outside of the temple.

Civil Affairs/ Shopping at Carrefour (July 24th - Chengdu)

In the afternoon on Tuesday we went to the Civil Affairs office and then to a Notary (which I don't think is quite the same as one here in the US). At Civil Affairs we took pictures (Tim and I with SongSong) and signed the final adoption papers. We had to promise to never abuse or abandon SongSong - which of course we did. Signed our names several times and that was it - it's a done deal now. Next we drove to the Notary's office where they looked at our passports and read through the circumstances of our son's abandonment while our guide translated. I think we signed something there too, but I forget now what it was if we did.  We've signed so much stuff these past few days, it's all a blur.

Mandy from the orphanage was at Civil Affairs (Debbie, I gave her your box to give to Jaxon - she delivered it). I got her picture with SongSong while we were there too.
 
On Monday, so as not to intrusively rifle through our new son's bag of belongings, we had Oscar help him unpack and report back to us what he was missing. When we were finished with "official" stuff we went to Carrefour (a department store) to pick up some things that SongSong was lacking and really couldn't do without before we get home.  I must say that Carrefour has the weirdest store layout I've ever seen in my life. They had cosmetics, jewelry and hygiene items on the main floor, then you took an inclined conveyor belt thingy so you can take your shopping cart with you up it (which I've actually seen before at a grocery store in Mexico) to the 2nd floor where they have clothing and household goods, then you take the conveyor thingy up to the 3rd floor where they have groceries. Very odd, but we got what we needed (and Stacey we bought Seth's chicken feet there!).

Later we met up with the other family at Tianfu Square (the main city square) and went to a noodle place called Chef Kong's. The boys loved it! They all got the spicy bowl of noodles. I got some noodles that had some spice in it that made my mouth numb - I couldn't finish it :). I got it because the picture showed it had cilantro in it (one of my faves). Couldn't taste the cilantro due to the numbing effect of the other spice that was in it.  Very disappointing, but we got ice cream after dinner which made up for it :).  If anyone knows what that spice is, let me know so I can avoid it in the future!

 

Tianfu Square is incredible looking at night.  I'll post a pic of one of the buildings.  There are tons of people there after dark.  Almost all the kids are playing with glow in the dark flying toys and people will walk right up to you and strike up a conversation in order to try to practice their English skills.  All this happens under the watchful gaze of a giant statue of Chairman Mao.  Just can't help but wonder what he would think of how much things have changed in China is such a short amount of time...

Happy Valley (July 26th - Chengdu)

When we skyped with SongSong about two weeks prior to coming to China, one of the questions Tim asked him was what he would like to do if he could do anything in Chengdu while we were there. He told us he wanted to go to the amusement park. So, I found the amusement park online before our trip and we made plans to go. It's called Happy Valley and it's a franchise within China - kinda like Six Flags is in the United States. The kids enjoyed it a lot more than they did the People's Park (which we did on our own the day before).

 

Attached are a couple of pictures from that day.

Panda Reserve/ People's Park (July 25th - in Chengdu)

We also visited the pandas. They're cute, but it was (as usual) extremely hot and humid that day. We bought our girls some cute panda stuff from the gift shop. I have pictures of the 3 boys feeding koi and swans and ducks - oh, and some of panda bears too :).

In the afternoon, we went to Chef Kong's in Tianfu Square for dinner. I got spicy wonton soup - which was made with cilantro and was excellent! Tim got the noodles I had the day before because he thought I was kidding about them (they have some kind of spice in them that literally numbs your entire mouth, which I didn't enjoy) - he couldn't finish them either - HA!

 

We also walked to the People's Park which is just west of Tianfu Square. It was very crowded and very loud. Lots of retired people doing tai chi and what appeared to be karaoke - all of them with the sound system turned up as loud as it would go it seemed.  We thought that the boys could play soccer there, but we couldn't find any open, non-landscaped grassy areas and had to settle for a big open paved area. The area was virtually empty when we got there, and as usual, we drew a bit of a crowd before we left. We had a very sweet encounter with the other family's daughter (adopted from China 6 years ago) and a little boy and his grandfather. When we left they gave the little boy the soccer ball our boys had been playing with.  The grandfather tried to refuse but eventually relented and took the ball.

Orphanage Visit in Chengdu (Monday July 23rd)

We signed the custody papers while at the orphanage in what looked like a conference room. We met the director briefly and also several of the workers (though I don't know exactly in what capacity each of them had contact with our son). They all were very wonderful and it was obvious that each had a warm relationship with SongSong. They gave us a picture album that includes our son's photo at age 5 (when he came into the care of the orphanage), his finding ad from the newspaper and his vaccination records. It's just priceless to have these things for him.

There is another family here adopting also. Their son is 11 years old and it happens that he was at one time SongSong's foster brother. The family is from Pennsylvania and we already have plans to keep the boys in touch with each other when we return home.

While we were there, we visited our son's foster home too - which, in Chengdu, is located on the grounds of the orphanage complex. We were able to meet SongSong's current foster mother and get his picture with her, and some pictures in his bedroom. His foster mother's only stated concern was that we wouldn't be able to get real Chinese food for him to eat :). I assured her that we could, there are at least a couple of Asian markets not too far from us in Kansas City. While we were visiting his foster family, SongSong went to one of the other apartments and got "Lucky" (who had evidently been sleeping). I asked him through a translator if it was okay to take his picture with SongSong and he agreed.

After we left the orphanage, both families went back to our hotel rooms and dropped off our sons' things and then met up for dinner. Our guide arranged a private room for us with an authentic Sichaun restaurant near the other family's hotel. Everything we ate there was excellent and the bill for eight people was very reasonable. The food was served family style and the table had a big lazy susan in the middle of it so you could just spin the food around to everyone. It was great food and fun for all :).

When we finished dinner the other family went shopping for clothes for their new son at a nearby department store and we tagged along for awhile.  At around 8:00 PM we parted company went back to our hostel rooms and crashed for the night.

Ni Hao from Guangzhou

I've heard that my posts from Chengdu didn't come through.  I'm hoping that with the better internet connection we have in Guangzhou that we'll be back in business so to speak.  I'm thinking I won't post (or try to anyway) so many pictures, just in case that's why the posts didn't come through.  I'll also try to repost what I posted in Chengdu later.

 

Our flight was delayed out of Chengdu Friday night.  We were supposed to leave about 7:00 PM and arrive in Guangzhou at around 9:00 PM.  Instead, we got into Guangzhou about 2:00 AM Saturday morning.  Arrived at our hotel about 3:00 AM.  Had to be up to the other hotel by 10:00 AM so that we could get to the clinic appointment required for SongSong's visa.  He had to get 2 shots and a TB skin test.  We go back to the clinic on Monday to have the skin test read.

 

I'm attaching a picture of SongSong at the clinic (with Tim).

First (partial) family photo

Of course we are missing the girls in this picture.  The boys are getting along great so far.  Zane is pretty shy and he doesn't speak much English (like almost none).  He does understand some of what we tell him though and he was trying to read something he wrote in English to Oscar last night (but he wouldn't let Oscar look at it).  So far so good.  I'll try to post more later.  We have to go to Civil Affairs today to do more paperwork and then to Carrefour to buy some things for Zane.