We're home!

OK... no pix this time. Tough to do a photo shoot on a 14.5-hour flight when baby Tenley was most of the time completely inconsolable. She is one sick little girl and the flight was really rough for her. Sick, you say? Avian flu? SARS? No. I'm afraid her illness came straight from our family. As a matter of fact, health of our family was the most often mentioned concern when we announced our plans to travel to China. And there we were, hacking and spitting our American-acquired germs all over mainland China and Hong Kong. We just made it under the wire upon arrival into China where body temps are scanned at security. We were all fine then. Shortly thereafter, I was the first to fall with a nasty, lingering (just ask Jessi) sinus infection that started in Bethlehem. Then Ryan got what I had, then Hans got a stomach virus, then Tenley got what Ryan had. Now Jessi is sick. On several occasions, we saw Chinese people with surgical masks walking around in public places. Old thinking: How wonderful. They're sick and don't want to infect anyone else. New thinking: Those filthy Americans are among us! Can't believe we made it back. Can't believe a plane can stay up in the air that long. I know, I know. The physics of it all. But still. C'mon. It's virtually impossible. Overall it was a smooth flight, save the landing in 35 mph winds. A little rocky. (Not as bad as that flight to Guangzhou, though.) Customs was a breeze and my Dad picked us up in our van. Tenley has an appointment with the pediatrician tomorrow. We'll try to knock this upper respiratory garbage out once and for all. Until then, we're enjoying balloons, food, flowers and gifts from family and friends. We're so very thankful. I guess this could be the end of the blog, but we'll probably continue updating on Tenley's transition into our home and family. Casey already got her licks in. Tenley was not amused. Signing off for now. It's 10:00 a.m. for us...been up all night, It's 9:00 p.m. East Coast time. Can I go to bed now? d

Hello From Hong Kong! Well, this will be our official last overseas posting. We enjoyed a great day of sightseeing in Hong Kong. Just a quick afternoon tour of this fabulous city. We definitely did not do this place justice, and wish we had more time to explore. The tour consisted of 4 stops including Victoria's Peak (high above the city), Aberdeen Fishing village (a smelly boat trip to a bunch of moored house boats that apparently float out to sea from time to time to catch fish), a jewlry factory (my personal favorite...I just can't get enough shopping time in on this trip!), and a stop in Stanley Market (a fun place to pick up novelties and gifts). The highlights of the tour had to be some of the vistas and views we passed throughout the afternoon. We are definitely going to have to come back some day! We are returning to the good ole US of A tomorrow and look forward to seeing you all as soon as possible. Hans (substitute blogger - the editor in chief is really slacking).

It is our last day in Guangzhou. The day began with group pictures in the lobby of the hotel with all of the traveling families. It was mayhem with everyone shooting as many pictures as possible, while mixing in camcorders and grabbing new friends and travel guides wherever possible. It truly felt as if we were on the red carpet of a movie premier. Most of the babies were dressed in silk pajama keepsakes. The group shots will be memories treasured forever of these people we have come to know so well over the past few weeks. The large group shot on the stairs are only half of this travel group of 27 families. The smaller group shots are of our Lehigh Valley Travel Group and of two of the guides that helped us Amy and Lineker. We all climbed aboard the travel busses for one last appointment at the US Consulate. We were not allowed to take pictures within the building. The whole appointment consisted of proof of ID for the parents with their adoptive child and a quick oath stating we had not lied on any of the paperwork. Upon learning the children will be official US residents upon opening of special brown envelopes by the US Immigration inspectors, the group let out a huge cheer! We now have the awesome task of fitting all of our stuff into suitcases by 9:30 PM tonight for the bellhops to retrieve. We have an "on the bus" time of 5:45 AM where we will say good-bye to Guangzhou and head to Hong Kong for a one day extreme sightseeing adventure. Friday we depart for the US in the morning - to arrive in the afternoon - technically it sounds like a quick trip...should be no problem with 4 kids! Hopefully we will be able to stick a few more photos of Hong Kong on tomorrow night. Other wise we look forward to seeing everyone stateside and want to thank everyone for the massive support we have received through the whole adoption adventure. Hans (fill-in blogger)

Hello From Guangzhou! Well, we finally did it! We left Nanchang and took the worst flight of our lives to Guangzhou, but we made it. A day later and I'm still sick to my stomach. That Boeing 737 was easily 40 years old and I thought the wings were going to fall off. We said lots of Hail Mary's and what do you know... after an hour-long flight of wretched turbulance, the captain greased it on the landing, so all was not lost. Backing up, though... as I mentioned, we stayed a couple days later in Nanchang to process Tenley's passport. We were a little stir crazy and asked our guide to take us to the zoo I mentioned. I could bear to photograph the elephants only. You could pay a couple of Yuan for some bamboo shoots and carrots and feed the beasts. See below. Also pictured below is a typical shop in Nanchang. Hundreds if not thousands of stores that are so small and all have the same junk -- er.... wares. In another shot, Alex is shaking hands with a little girl. You can see the mother in the background orchestrating the handshake for a photo. The little girl was scared, but her mother insisted and so goes ANOTHER photograph of our kids with complete strangers. I think the next photo is of Hans and Ryan after they scored some pizza at the local Pizza Hut. I'm telling you, after noodles and rice, a little slice of America tastes like heaven. After the zoo, our guide ordered the pizza for us and we picked it up on the way back to the Lakeview. I was never so excited as to see Hans with those boxes full of pizza. The next shot was taken in our hotel room at the Lakeview... it's of Tenley and me. She's able to stand on her own and was showing off her skills a little bit. Cuter this child could not be. The next shot was also in the hotel.... spent lots of time there... did I mention that? It's of Tenley waking up just after her nap in the little crib provided by the hotel. The interesting part about Tenley is that being from an orphanage, she knows she's not going to get a lot of attention by crying when put down for naps or bedtime, so it's the easiest job getting her to go to sleep. Almost too easy... almost like the calm before the storm, i.e. when we return to the U.S. and flip her schedule completely upside down then she's going to make up for lost crying time. For now, however, she's like a dream kid, especially compared to Ryan who didn't sleep thru the night until he was 18 months old. Good times. The next photo was shot in the airport at Nanchang. It's the BUH-BYE Nanchang shot that we just had to take b/c it was so exciting to leave there and get on with the trip. My favorite part of this shot is little Tenley perched on the mountain of luggage. Soon after this, our guide "Sally" said good-bye and we advanced to the gate where we met a Chinese business woman who was thunderstruck that we have four children. She was so touched by Tenley's adoption that she handed out her husband's biz card and told us to call him if we needed anything in Guangzhou. It's really nice to see how appreciative locals can be when they see the wonderful life one of their children is now destined to have. The next shots are taken in Guangzhou. We're staying at the China Hotel -- a place that is so enormous that it has it's own little mall attached to it. I wanted to get pictures of Tenley getting her medical exam today. It's the last step we had to do to catch up with our group. Amy, our local guide, works at lightning speed to plow through paperwork and red tape. Tenley was in and out of her medical exam in 10 minutes. That took place on Shamian Island where we were to return later. Apparently, everthing went well. We go to the U.S. Consulate tomorrow for a brief ceremony with all of the other families. I guess that's when it becomes "official." The shots after that are on Shamian Island. The Hawaiian looking one was shot inside the White Swan Hotel -- a hotel famous for housing adoptive families. It's a very beautiful place and we all wonder why we don't stay there. Still, the China hotel is very nice, also close to shopping and just a hop and a skip to Shamian Island. There's a picture of Ryan in a rattan (sp?) high chair. He was actually sitting at "base camp" ... the place where the guys sat until the gals were done shopping. After shopping, we had lunch at Lucy's. Hans was fighting off a migraine in this shot. The next shot is one of my favorites of all time -- anywhere. It's of a laughing Tenley and Hans. I get 5 gold stars for that shot. It was taken in a little bistro along the Pearl River. As you can see Tenley is coming out of her shell a little and showing a very keen sense of humor. Overall a very pleasant little girl. The next shot is of lanterns hanging over the water's edge at sun down next to the Pearl rivier. How nice to be in warmer weather! The next shot was just of lanterns at sunset along the Pearl River. Upon recommendation of other people in our travel group - we decided to take the kids across the street (actually we traveled under the street via subway tunnels) to a park with Chinese New Year decorations still in place. These are the pictures of the dragon made of dinner plates and the very happy buddha (who apparently is there to bring good luck to all tourists). Little did we know these decorations were spread throughout a 93 acre park - needless to say we headed home after the happy buddha. We suspect the Gundrums are still searching for the exit. Tomorrow is our group ceremony - though we are not allowed to have cameras in the US Consulate (they are sooo repressive). We have a small amount of time after that to see perhaps another site, then we have to get our bags packed for Hong Kong. Signing off for now...

About the photos

Of course, as I've said a million times, I cannot read these posts and have no idea how the pictures and text are lining up. I received one message back that the pictures are all mixed up. So... from what I remember I told Hans to post... Pictures of Taylor with umbrella, chickens, men playing cards while smoking, man pumping water, and maybe some products on a table are were all taken in the tiny village we visited. There may be photos of food. This would be from our daily luncheon or dinner buffet here at the Lakeview Hotel. Not sure if Hans posted the orange-ish claws...those are duck feet. Ewww. Then there was the oxen tongue. Maybe mutton? Other things that may not be pictured are shrimp with their little black shiny eyeballs, fish -- the whole thing. Etc. There may be a picture of Jessi and Alex - the Lakeview is in the background. I'm sure we put some shots of Tenley in there. Cute cute cute. My sister Susan mentioned that Hans isn't in any of the photos. He posted them himself and removed the ones of him declaring that he looked terrible. Truthfully, he's still a little pale from being sick. Will get some better shots asap. I'm trying to remember what else we posted. If you have any questions, email at diannefp@rcn.com. I can check that for sure. Today we visited the Nanchang zoo. Bad news all around. I rather like the natural habitat zoos found in the States. This zoo in Nanchang looked like a throw back to 1950s -- as they were all in small cages, including larger animals like the lions. The animals were filthy and in a few instances, people threw rocks at the poor things as they circled inside their cages no doubt going mad in captivity. Simply put, there's no money to keep this zoo in good repair and the animals suffer for it. Couldn't take it any more and walked out of the "live" show where they had the dirty lions and tigers performing under whips and prods. Not the place for an animal loving vegetarian. On the way there, our guide Sally admitted to eating dog. Said it was tasty. She said the Chinese eat everything. I guess so. That's when Hans said the live show at the zoo is their version of a cooking show. I laughed! Back to the dogs... not sure how they eat dog and keep dogs as pets. I guess it's like the parrot owner eating chicken? Tomorrow Hans is meeting our guide to go to the civil affairs office with Tenley to secure her Chinese passport. That's needed to process her U.S. visa which is what she'll get in Guangzhou. We hope to be out of here tomorrow afternoon to join the rest of the group. Off to care for Tenley. The kids are all over her and she's most comfortable and happy with them. Signing off from Nanchang. Dianne

Hello all… We’re still in Nanchang!! As some of you may notice, the baby girl we adopted looks a little different from the photos we posted before. Well, upon meeting Lu Wei Huan on Monday, it was decided by us, our agency and the China Center for Adoption Affairs that she would fare better on the Center’s special needs list. Wei Huan will always be part of Tenley’s adoption story and we will keep her and her forever family in our hearts and prayers forever. Our Tenley will be a year old on Feb. 27th. We are thrilled to have her as part of our family. We needed an extra business day in Nanchang to process her paperwork, so we’ll be joining our group in Guangzhou on Monday. We miss them very much and look forward to seeing some new sites once we get there. Jessi left today to join the group and catch some new sites of her own. Keep us posted, Jessi! Our grilled cheese, no ham won’t be the same without you! (Although, as I write this, I know that she’s unable to read the post as blogspot access is restricted.) In the meantime, we’re at the Lakeview Hotel in not-so-sunny and rather cold Nanchang. It actually snowed today. Since all of the other families have left, the business center is wide open, so post we will try. OK… to back track, we got to Nanchang on Mondy and since then have visited just a few places – all in miserable weather. There was Tengwang Pavillion which was built in the year 653 and is surrounded by gardens that must be very beautiful in spring and summer. Inside, we were able to watch a show of traditional Chinese singing and dancing. It was short, but very nice and kept Ryan’s attention until he said he was hungry and all I had to give was a cough drop, which he ate, then spit into my hand. Didn’t get pictures of that, though. Let’s see, that was the day that Hans got sick with what I think was a stomach virus. He was in bed all day, out of commission for two days and missed the trip to a typical Chinese village – the one place out of our entire trip that he really wanted to see. It was interesting to say the least and very humbling. The village was very, very poor and we were taken there to show us the type of setting from where our babies probably came. The rule here is one child. If the govn’t learns a mother is expectant with a second, she will be forced to end the pregnancy. Also, expectant mothers are required to carry a permit proving it’s her first and only child. Even in the very smallest of villages, there is a local government representative checking on such goings on. It’s going to take generations, as well, to change the thinking that a baby boy is preferable and that boys show properity for the family. Until then, there are too many baby girls in orphanages in this enormous, heavily populated country. One village family let us into their home. There were chickens running about like pets. I know. H5N1. But as much as I wanted to play with the birds, they were kind of skittish and ran away when I tried to hold them. Kidding. Anyway, it was interesting seeing them roaming in and out of homes. I took many pictures there, but fear I had a battery problem, and so don’t have many to offer. In one room of one of the homes was a newborn baby. I did not ask if was a boy or girl. I can only imagine it was a boy. We also visited a porcelain shop this week. Jaing xi province is known for its porcelain. It’s very thin and very beautiful and very breakable. And, because I don’t have a brain in my head, I purchased a few items that will need to be hand carried through airports because if they’re checked, they’ll surely shatter. One of our most interesting trips was to Nanchang’s Wal-Mart. Because we didn’t go with the group (just a Chinese guide), we were the only white people in the store – a walking parade with blond Jessi leading the show. Everybody stared, some stopped to talk. A lot of people like Taylor’s glasses. The guide said were were like movie stars. Weird. Fun things to get in Nanchang Wal-Mart? Deviled pigeon eggs, dried meat wrapped to look like hard candy, mounds of loose white rice and, of course, live fish. What’s at YOUR local ‘Mart? We’ve been to the local China Center for Adoption Affairs, a modest building. That’s where we met Tenley (the nanny said her nickname is Jing Jing). The workers are very professional and efficient processing adoption paperwork. The people we met from the orphanage were very warm, filled with smiles and Jing Jing seemed very attached to her nanny. We’re so thankful to these people for being a part of Tenley’s first year. What a beautiful job they did under less than ideal circumstances. We also visited the local notary, another very simple office building. One thing I recall about all of these places, our hotel included, and one thing I certainly won’t miss at all is all of the cigarette smoke. It’s everywhere and can be stifling. I forget what it used to be like in the States. Of course, to get around one takes a taxi. One takes one’s life into one’s own hands and takes a taxi. Kill or be killed. Anyway, must dash. We’re ordering Pizza Hut tonight. A little treat while in the Hotel California…. Check out any time you like, but you can never leave…..!!