The Garden

We're at the Garden Hotel in Guangzhou (GZ).  It's incredible as you can see...the picture of the two of us is in the lobby in front of the beautiful arrangment by the front desk.  We'll post more pics later.  The other picture of Ernie is in front of this incredible staircase in the lobby going up to another floor of shops.

 

We had breakfast and met this couple from Pennsylvania with their 3 1/2 year old little girl they just adopted.  They were so sweet and she had quite the personality!  They said that she was adjusting and bonding well.  We're praying for the same with Madison. There was also another couple who had just adopted a little 18 month old girl, but we didn't get to talk to them...the PA couple told us about their little girl.  She looked so small for 18 months we were thinking she was only a year old or something. She wasn't bonding quite as well with them this couple said.

 

We received our agenda for the rest of our stay here...I'm posting it for you guys so that you can pray accordingly - we are 14 hours ahead here so I'm writing this post at 9:50 AM on Saturday where it's 7:50 PM Friday night Alabama time (so know that these are GZ time):

Sunday 1/29 at 2:00 PM we'll meet with Lifeline personnel so that they can go through our paperwork and talk through the rest of the agenda

Monday 1/30 at 2:00 PM we'll meet in the lobby and go to civil affairs office to meet MJ!!!!  We have been waiting and praying for this for almost 2 years!! This will be midnight Sunday night for you central time zone peeps!

Tuesday 1/31 we'll meet in the lobby at 9:30 AM and go back to civil affairs to do adoption interview and notary interview

Wednesday 2/1 we'll meet in the lobby in the afternoon and then go to apply for MJ's passport...although it will be Mao ZhongQian's passport!

Thusday is sightseeing!!!

Friday 2/3 we will possibly get to visit the orphanage.  Please be in prayer for this as I know it could be difficult for Madison.  She will see her nanny again and her little friends and that could be traumatic for her to be taken away from them again after that's all she's known for 2 years and 4 month!

Saturday 2/4 we'll go to Shamian Island to get her visa photo and medical exam/TB test.

Sunday 2/5 we'll go to local mall and shop!!

Monday 2/6 we go back to Shamian island to check her TB test results and go shopping and have lunch there

Tuesday 2/7 we'll take our oath and submit our visa documents

Wednesday 2/8 we'll go to the GZ zoo and then go to the train that will take us to Hong Kong where we'll spend the night

Thursday 2/9 we're due back in Birmingham airport at 4:30 PM!!! We hope to see some of you there!!! 

I know that's confusing on the time, but it's because they're ahead here so when we're spending the night in Hong Kong it's really the day before for you guys so we catch up when we hit Chicago.

 

We can't believe after all this time that we're finally here and 2 days away from meeting our daughter for the first time.  We hope to post again soon...just not a lot to say at the moment as we're a bit overwhelmed and swirling with questions and emotions, etc.  I think we're going to go exploring now around the hotel...it's colder than we expected and a bit rainy which makes it cooler too.  I'm representing with my Packers shirt...Go Pack Go...still upset they're not in the Superbowl! *sigh*  Love to you all from over 6,000 miles away!!!