More From Guangzhou - September 14 and 15

Slowly but surely, we are getting all the things done that need to be done to be able to bring Jensyn home to Springfield with us. Yesterday (Sunday), we spent a few hours in the morning getting all the forms completed that will be needed at the U.S. Consulate on Tuesday (our guide takes all the papers for us, all we have to do is stay around the hotel in case some sort of extra info is needed). Then, in the afternoon we did some touring and even stopped at a small amusement park. Here's a pic of the girls on a ride that moved around in a circle and let the riders shoot water at various water creatures that were squirting back at you.

The hotel we are staying at (the Victory Hotel) is near the Pearl River and a walk along the river after dinner Sunday night looked something like this.

Today (Monday), we went and had Jensyn's medical exam done and a picture taken for her visa package. Then the afternoon was spent trying to do a little shopping. Unfortunately, it's been in the VERY high nineties (both temperature and humidity), so everyone wears out very quickly and we have to head back to the hotel to cool off for a while.










Finally, here are two current versions of what have become sort of "classic" Guangzhou photos for us (this is our third time here, after all). First, we have our pic of Cathy holding Jensyn in one of the corridors of the Chen Family Temple. The one we took of Cathy and Natalie about 7 years ago has always been one of our favorite travel pictures. The lighting in this version was not as "artistic" as it was in the first one, but it's a pretty nice shot, nonetheless.

And traditionally, families adopting kids from China have taken pictures of them on the "red couch" at the White Swan Hotel (where many adoptive families have stayed). As I said above, we're not staying at the White Swan this time around, but that doesn't mean we can't "visit" and take a picture.









Everyone is getting pretty tired of living out of a suitcase, but it's still amazing to us how quickly this whole process has happened. A month ago we hadn't even started planning the trip and now it's almost over. And as much as we enjoy being here in China, we know that the real fun will begin in a few days when we get home and start working with our newest American daughter.