We have landed in Guangzhou

Monday, April 7, 2008

Sorry I have not posted lately. I am so tired and done with the trip. Plus not too much positive has happened since we got here. We have made the best of it, but every turn the White Swan (WS) sucks more and more. Here is our White Swan saga. Actually I will preface the saga by saying that everyone in the adoption world stays at the White Swan. It is crawling with white families and Chinese babies and kids. Also, everyone raves about it and says it is so incredible and talks about the “White Swan Experience”. Mattel has a play room here and they give each family a Barbie! It is a Blond Barbie holding a Chinese baby girl. So our story begins on Saturday when we fly to Guangzhou (GZ) and land at 5:00 PM, right on time. There are 8 families now going to the WS with A LOT of luggage and extra kids and people. They send one van. There was not even enough room for all the families. So a few of the families stay behind and all the luggage. We get to the WS and check in. Now all the arrangements had been made by David Tam. He is the travel agent for Homeland. Everyone raves about him too. We go up to our room and it is a tiny room with two tiny twin beds and an old rickety archaic crib. There is no where for Sam to sleep and David will not fit on that bed. M and D are next door in an adjoining room. Dad comes over and their beds are so old they visibly sag. Now these rooms are costing us $140 a night. So we go down to the desk again and start the “process” of getting better rooms. This is hampered by them not speaking enough English and not being reasonable and not being accommodating. They tell us they can put us in the palace suite or something for 3000 Yuan a night. That is a few hundred more dollars a night. Then they take David and Dad up to see another room at the same price. It is just as small but they have crammed a king size bed in it. There is still nowhere for Sam to sleep and no where for M and D to sleep. They are up there a while and S, E, M and I are waiting in the lobby. I must pause in the story to say that S and E were excellent. Mom and I were a mess, I am sure you can all picture it. It was not pretty; we had been on a plane for over two hours, a van for 45 mins and still had not eaten. So finally D and GPK come back down with the manager. They somehow got us in to the palace suite for no extra charge. The only charge is a nominal fee for a roll away bed for Sam. This room is great. There is a large room with a king sized bed, enough room for a roll away for Sam and the crib. There is another large room with two twin beds and in between is a living room area. So we are all in the same suite with plenty of room. So, it is now 8:00 PM and we are just getting to our room and we still don’t have luggage. It comes about 8:30 as we are heading to dinner. We ate in the hotel since it was dark and we were all so exhausted. Dinner was 450 Yuan and not very good. The last two weeks we had paid about 120-150 Yuan a meal for way more food and it was all very yummy. Now the crib story, they brought the same crummy one up to the new room, we promptly put it in the hallway and E slept in our bed. David and I were both very nervous and did not sleep much. On Sunday when we were off doing paper work (another saga) GPK spent the time trying to get a crib. First they brought back the old one, then some sort of inflatable thing covered in cloth and then finally a nice one. Then last night they brought in two fruit baskets and apologized for the problem with the crib. Then this morning at breakfast they told us they would charge us 168 plus 15% gratuity for Sam’s breakfast buffet. Ours are included with our room. That is about $30 for Sam to have an omelet and a Danish. GPK and I went through the roof! He called the manager over and hopefully we got that taken care of. That is outrageous. So in the end we are in a really nice room, but I feel guilty for the other families staying in the tiny crap holes they call rooms. I can’t believe we are forced to stay in a place like this. They are not accommodating at all until you start to complain. So for those of you about to travel here, be aware of how the WS sucks and be ready to complain and raise a stink until you get what you need and want. The Nanjing Grand was great and the Hutong for $40 a night was incredible. The service was better, the room there was better than the first room they showed us here. I think they can charge so much here and treat us like garbage because they know we have no choice and are forced to stay here. We can’t just pick up and leave. I am done with the little shops full of tourist junk and the pearl market tour yesterday was just a dirty over crowded mall. We (and the other families) thought we would be on the water and they would be diving for pearls and it would be a fun out side market.

Ok, enough complaining, on to some positive and fun stuff. I think I have mentioned before that we have become really close with two other families. They have been such a blessing to us and I hope we have been to them. The other girls, Mae and JiJiu are in the pictures with Elizabeth. JiJiu has her Daddy and Grandma Ruth here with her. At home she has two older brothers I think they are 9 and 10. They live in Alaska. Mae is here with her Mommy and Daddy who decided to adopt not because of infertility but for conviction. Maureen had worked in an orphanage overseas and promised herself she would build her family through adoption and Stu had always wanted to adopt from China, and when they got married it was a perfect path for them to take. Plus they said they both come from large families and there are enough of them running around. I would love to meet Nicole, JiJiu's mommy sometime and I wish they all lived so much closer. Maybe we can convince Mae’s family to come out in June for our party! Alaska is pretty far though for JiJiu’s family to come. Mae is in MA though. The whole group has nominated my parents as honorary grandparents of the trip, especially GPK as the honorary Grandpa of the group. Mom is more like one of the girlfriends, than a typical “grandma,” and that is how I like it. When we get home to Grandma Candy, we will get the “typical grandma” with cookies and such. GPK is doing his best to help all the kids come out of their shells and to warm up to men. Most of them are having a really hard time with men, which is really hard on the daddies. Luckily E is really young and her personality is more passive (for now). The ones that are a bit older are having more trouble. Mae is really attached to Mommy and cries when Daddy picks her up or Mommy walks away. JiJiu is ok with Daddy, but goes to Grandma Ruth for comfort more. I think Grammy Fran has enjoyed having Grammy Ruth around too. Mike, JiJiu’s dad reminds us a lot of David’s cousin Tom, just an older version of him. Maureen reminds me a lot of my friend Jeanne and she is also a college professor (she teaches international something).

Sorry for the long post, but I am sure you are all wondering how Elizabeth is doing. Each day she comes alive a little bit more. Each day she comes out of her shell a little more and shows us a glimpse of her self that she has kept guarded away. We are seeing bits of sass and bits of stubbornness (just like Mommy, I love it). We broke down and got a stroller yesterday. My goodness we will have so much to bring home. We brought the backpack and will try it again, but it is sooooooooo hot here (80’s-90’s and humid) that it is too hot to use the backpack or sling. She loves the stroller though and is so small and flexible she moves all over in it. They have a nice racket here, the stores will loan you a stroller for free, but it is clunky, no sun shade, cloth (who knows how dirty it is ) and it does not fold up too well, or you can buy one for about $20. So I bought one. Anyway, E is just incredible. The antibiotics are really working well. She is barely coughing, no green gunk in her nose, she is sleeping really well, and she has not thrown up since Friday and is eating more and more each day. She does not know how to feed her self really and does not eat a lot of solids. She will take about 4 ounces of a bottle at a time. We have been making four ounces of formula and adding two ounces of yogurt. She loves it and we know she is getting something in her. We are all so in love with her and her two “sisters,” Mae and JiJiu. I will really miss them and their families. Sorry for long post, but it had been a few days. Oh, one more thing about the WS, the internet connection is way more money than at the Nanjing Grand and the connection is really slow. So I can’t upload any pictures. I think it would take all day. I will try soon though.

Love to you all! I can’t wait to be home, I heard it was warming up!