Last Night in Guangzhou

This has been a wonderful trip, but all good things must come to an end...and we're ready. Keilani was able to see Beijing and the Great Wall, we came to Guangzhou and received our son, and have been able to spend many great days here. We have made friends with the people we traveled with, our guides, and the local merchants. Matt gave one of his Texas Rangers tshirts to a store owner because he was wearing a Chicago Cubs tshirt, and in return he gave us a nice Chinese scroll for good fortune. We also got to see our friend Ike, this was truly a great surprise. Ike stopped by very quickly today and brought us Mak's journal of his two years in the orphanage translated. This is priceless. We were able to read through it and at the very end, a note from his nanny to him. She told him of the day she found out we were adopting him and she was so happy for him. She asked him to study and grow up strong. We knew when we met her that she loved him very much and it was very difficult for her. We thank her for loving him and taking such good care of him. He was in my lap when I was reading the translations and he pointed to pictures of himself and then his nanny and then he would close the pages. Not sure what that meant. I am sure he loves her so very much.

Today we went to the US Consulate and were sworn in for the adoption. We go back tomorrow to pick up Mak's passport and visa and then we go straight to the train station. We hear the train ride to Hong Kong is beautiful. We are getting are things packed and ready to leave.

It's been a wonderful trip and thanks to everyone who has followed along on this amazing journey to our son and back to China for Keilani. We will try to post from Hong Kong, not sure if we will be able to or not.

Thanks again for all your support and encouraging words, they have meant more than you will know!

Love,

Matt, Tami, Keilani, and Makaio

Link to pictures

Here is a link to all 8/8 pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/webUpload?uname=112534544232201234221

What a GREAT Day!

We started the day out by going to the 7 Banyan Buddhist Temple. What a beautiful place! Our guide Kelly walked us around and explained what all the different budda statues meant. Kelly then asked if anyone wanted their babies to blessed. We were the only ones who chose to do it. Matt, Keilani, Mak, Kelly, and I went in. We knelt down and the priest did a chant, threw some water on us, did more chanting and then it was done. It was pretty neat!

We then went to the Chen Family Temple. All the Chen families paid to have this temple done and it is very beautiful to walk around and see. We actually got some rain while we there. I think it rained on us the last time we were there too. Matt was a big celebrity there, people kept wanting to have their pictures taken with him.

We came back to the hotel and had some lunch. We are starting to go stir crazy. One small room for all four of us is beginning to drive us all a little nuts. Mak finally let Keilani finally pick him up today and she was swinging him around. Fun for them, scary for us! All I could imagine was her dropping him. Luckily that never happened and they both just laughed and laughed.

While every was napping, I heard a rumble of thunder. I looked out the window to see a large storm coming our way with lightning. I quickly ran downstairs and got the cool breeze. That was so nice because it's been so hot and so humid. I caught some pictures from our room. After the rain the humidity is insane.

After everyone woke up, we went for a walk, first stop Starbucks. While inside we saw some strange cartoon like advertisement. I took a picture of it and got busted and was told to not take pictures inside. Seemed strange but I complied. They also have liquid sugar here. Kinda weird, but good.

We met up with our friend Ike, who was our previous guide with Kei's adoption. It was so great to see him. He talked about how tall Kei is and that she is too skinny! LOL! Matt said it's because she's Chinese and he said she still needs to gain weight. He also asked if anyone had mentioned Mak's "big" ears to us and we said yes. He said he has big budda ears and that means fortunate. We had a great Chinese dinner and caught up on everything since the past six years since we last saw him. We told him about our five year reunion with the other Hengyang families in Orlando and how the other girls are doing. Keilani insisted that she sat next to him at dinner. She asked him to show her how to use chopsticks. After several attempts, Ike got her a fork =) We had our first Chinese beer at dinner, it was good.

After dinner Ike came back to our hotel and we showed him pictures of all the girls at the reunion. He was very happy to see that they're all doing well. Since Mak is from a Half the Sky orphanage, we received a journal of his progress since he was an infant. It is written in Chinese and I showed it to Ike to see if he could tell us anything. He offered to take it with him and translate it for us. This is great for two reasons, we will know what it says and we will get to see him again.

Pearl Market and Papa John's Pizza =)

Today we went to the Pearl Market. I had imagined it would be outdoors and hot. It was actually an indoor mall, still hot, but indoors. When we walked in, there were some women doing their exercises, maybe Chinese Zumba? See picture.

For dinner we ordered Papa John's pizza! FINALLY something that actually tasted like home! Everyone enjoyed it, even Mak.

After dinner our phone in our room rang. We were surprised to hear the person on the other end of the line was our guide from 2005, Ike! Our guide is friends with him and let him know we were here. He asked how we were doing and how Mak was. He was absoloutely thrilled when I told him Keilani was here with us. He asked to have dinner with us tomorrow. So we are excited to get to see him again.

Here are some pictures from the 7th and the Pearl Market and our babies!

Pictures from 8/5

Here are a few pics we took on the 5th. We went to a tomb that was uncovered that belonged to a King. It was really neat, but we couldn't take pics in the tomb.

Chinese Valentine's Day

Yesterday was Valentine's Day here...China's version of it. There were sooooo many couples out and about last night. Our hotel is so crowded right now, guess it's cause of the weekend too. Our hotel sits right on the Pearl River and we were walking and watching the boats last night. In the distance you could see people swimming across the river which is crazy with all the boat traffic. We thought for sure these people would get hit, but they didn't. It's kinda like the traffic here, people will walk out in front of cars or ride their bikes in front of turning traffic. They do like to use their horns here, really like to use their horns. Last night with all the people, the cars were at a stand still and the horns were blowing!

Today was fun going to the Pearl Market, it's crazy! There are stores with tons and tons of bags of every kind and color of pearls. We bought Kei a jade pendant, it's really good quality and cost about $50. I bought one on the island and it was $8. I now know that mine is not as good of quality...sigh. After the Pearl Market we were able to look at children's clothes. We bought Mak some shorts that will fit him and some Spiderman pjs. After that we went back to Carefor, the Chinese Walmart. We bought some snacks, drinks, diapers and lunch. They cook it right there. We got noodles and fried rice for 12 yuan, about $2 US. Tonight we are going to order Papa John's pizza...nom nom nom! Hopefully it tastes the same, unlike most foods here.

It's nap time here for everyone, so I will post pics later.

Every Day A Little Better

Yesterday had to be our best day yet! Less crying and more laughing and smiling. Mak gave Keilani her first kiss last night. We just all layed around on the bed playing and laughing. It was a really good night.

When we were eating breakfast we were treated to great surprise. 300 Americans with their Chinese adopted children are on a heritage trip. We met so many families and got to hear of their great experiences. This is their last stop, after two weeks, before returning home. The children, mostly girls, range in age from 8 to 18 years old. They all spoke about how neat it was for them to visit their orphanages and finding locations. It made Keilani start asking questions about herself that she has never asked about before, like "where was I found?" When we told her on a bridge she thought we were joking. It is going to take her some time to take it all in, but she asking a lot more now that she is here.

Today we are going back to the clinic to have his TB test checked. He should be fine by how it looks. After that it's a free day for us to do whatever. All of us are anxiously counting down the days to return home, we're all home sick.

We will post pictures later today! Missing everyone!

Matt, Tami, Keilani, and Makaio