Ladybug Adventures

Sunday, November 13, 2005 8:38 AM CST

Subject: In Guangzhou

Well, we made it. We are now residing in room 1707 in the beautiful White Swan Hotel. Our room has a king size bed and beatiful view of the Pearl River. It is truly nice to be able to walk the streets around the White Swan and hear American voices. As there are several hundred other adoptive families staying in the same hotel. Where in Beijing, we were nearly the only adoptive family to be found in our hotel. Partially due to the fact that the Beijing Children's Welfare Institute does not do many adoptions.

Now a little bit about our day. We started out by meeting our guide and driver at 9:00 am this morning as we were checking out of our hotel. Our guide took us immediately to the airport and got us checked in and through security. We were expecting Xue Zheng to melt down when Annie left us at the airport, but luckily there was enough activity at the security check that she was distracted and didn't even notice Annie leaving.

We then boarded our flight for Guangzhou that left at noon. The plane was very nice, a brand new Boeing 777. We even had an inflight movie, which is not always common on Chinese flights. However, it appeared to be an old 1970's "B" movie.

Since this was Xue Zheng's first time on an airplane, we had no idea what to expect. She did amazingly well for the first hour and a half of our nearly 3 hour flight. She fell asleep about 15 minutes after takeoff, but something woke her and the melt down began. She cried, loudly for the next 25 minutes. We knew it was mostly because she was tired and it was her nap time. Being the parents of the year that we are, we had forgotten to get a towel to take on the plane with us. (the towel is Xue Zheng's comfort item when she sleeps) After walking around the plane with her, and even letting 4 of the chinese flight attendants take her to the back for a bit to calm her down, Steve finally thought to ask one of the attendants if they had a towel. Sure enough, they did, and that did the trick. She was happy and smiling by the time the plane landed.

When we landed we got our bags and left the baggage claim area to look for our guide who was to be awaiting us. To our surprise, we found no guide. We stood there turning in cicles for a couple of minutes, wondering what to do next. Then about the time panic was beginning to set it, we spotted a gentleman holding a sign with our names on it. He apologized over and over, but showed us that the board he was watching showed that our flight had not yet arrived, and that was why he was not at the exit right away.

Our guide, Elvin, brought us to the White Swan and got us checked in and our bags brought to our room. He even requested this wonderful room with the view of the Pearl River. He then asked us if we wanted to go out for dinner, or if we would prefer to have dinner from Danny's Bagel's delivered to the room. Since Xue Zheng hadn't had much of a nap today, we chose pizza from Danny's Bagels. It was wonderful. We then took a quick walk to do some window shopping and get an idea for our shopping adventures to come in the next couple of days here around the White Swan.

The rest of our group arrives tomorrow around noon and we will be going to Xue Zheng's Visa photo taken and go for her medical exam.

God bless,
Steve, Lisa and Xue Zheng