We are already home but I'm going back in time a little bit here to document the trip home...
On Tuesday, finally the day is here when we start our journey home. The big story at breakfast was the blizzard in Chicago. Many of the families here were flying into Chicago on Wednesday, so this was a serious concern. But before we got more definite information, we were optimistic. Back up to the room, I checked the flight status and the weather forecast online. Our flight was not cancelled, yet, but there were 18 inches of snow predicted for Chicago. There was packing to do, so I took Nathanael for a walk in the stroller, just Daddy and Son, while Keyanna packed. We were scheduled to leave the hotel at 1 PM for the train station.
View of the fish pool on my walk with Nathanael
The White Swan waterfall
We took a few minutes to watch the fish.
The white koi with one orange spot was very cool.
Pirate ship carved out of jade
Nathanael can make friends with anyone, even a jade toad.
Daddy are you going to take pictures of these statues all day?
This is where Nathanael played with all the toys.
White Swan first floor entrance
This is the park next to the White Swan. I think the statues are supposed to be American adoptive parents. Don't ask me why they look like 80 year olds.
Nathanael was so excited to get his picture taken with more statues. Ha ha.
There were several groups of 4 playing this game. Only feet could be used to keep the white thing in the air. It was a weighted ball with feathers tied to it.
The locals were really good at this game.
Next we discovered the playground!
Nathanael will try to climb on anything! He is very determined.
See Daddy? I don't need help.
We had a good time. I tried to get Nathanael to go down a red tube slide. I was at the top with him to send him on his way, and the rubber of his shoe sole got stuck as he started sliding. This caused him to spin around and go down the slide backwards, head first on his back. I jumped to catch him and I ended up sliding down after him. We tumbled out at the bottom in a heap. There was an older Chinese man sitting right there staring at us. He started hee-hawing at us. I wish I had a picture of his face. It was hilarious. Nathanael fell right on his head but there was a rubbery padding on the ground so he was not hurt at all. After that I figured we better go back to the room to check on Keyanna.
As we got back to the room, a new friend who was on the same floor came walking down the hallway. She and her family were on the same Chicago flight as we were. She asked, "Did you get a new flight? Chicago is totally cancelled." Oh no! I got in touch with our travel agent. With no way to check email until we reached Hong Kong, we left the hotel knowing that she was trying to work something out for us.
Here we are at the train station headed to Hong Kong
Cool glass roof architecture
Veronica, our guide, picked up all of our new children's passports at the Consulate with their U.S. visas and the "brown envelope" for immigration. Here she is handing them out to us. We were given strict instructions to guard this carefully and not to open the brown envelope but to hand it to U.S. immigrations officer at our point of entry to the U.S. When this process is completed at our point of entry, Nathanael's U.S. citizenship would be official and permanent.
Adoption certificate, brown envelope and passport visa
Posing with Veronica. Nathanael is so happy he will soon be an American!
We had to wait about 2 hours at the train station.
Nathanael had fun playing with new friends.
Keyanna with her new friend
The happy family
Finally time to board the train for Hong Kong!
Following our luggage. This was all the checked luggage for our group. 10 families from our group were on this train.
Time for a quick ice cream before getting on the train
Of course the little birdie wanted some too
Our train
Bye bye, Guangzhou
Where are we going Daddy? HOME!
View inside our train. We actually sat with our backs towards the front of the train.
On the train for almost 2 hours, we had to entertain Nathanael.
He was grabbing, climbing and flopping everywhere.
Big moment for our friends. This the the first time their little girl let Daddy hold her without crying! Mom is holding her hands up celebrating her freedom!
She'll be Daddy's little girl in no time!
Getting closer, but still a ways to go
Playing with the girl in front of us
Getting antsy. Grabbing anything within reach.
This boy is going to be worn out by the time we get to our hotel.
He was giving Mommy kisses but I couldn't get the exact moment.
He got brave (or maybe desperately bored) and let Daddy hold him for a few minutes.
We made it to Hong Kong. Here we are in our taxi riding to the hotel. It is around 7 PM and Nathanael is already asleep and he would stay asleep until morning.
When we got checked in at the hotel and up to our room and Nathanael in his bed, I got online to check email. A message from our travel agent was waiting that said there was a flight to Tokyo in the morning at 8 AM. We had to be at the airport early to try to get on the flight. So we quickly went to bed knowing we had to be up at 4 AM to leave the hotel by 5:30 AM. We were both so thrilled to have a flight! It had been a long day, but we knew the road ahead was going to be a long and exhausting one.
