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...