Chinese Walmart

After a couple of hours to settle in, we met with the other couple travleing with us (Jon and Tamela) and Emma for a trip to Walmart. The taxi ride was about 5 minutes and only cost 8 yuan (about $1.20). Emma sent Jay and Jon in a taxi ahead of us, and we waited for the next. Tamlea and I wondered if we would actually see them when we arrived Walmart, but sure enough, they were standing on the curb when we got there!

 

So Walmart is Walmart no matter where you are. If we forgot to pack it, we can find it here. This one was a two story Walmart complete with a cart-ready escalator. You could even shop for things as you rode up or down. I know my boys would have loved it so I took a picture to show them. I found some potty chairs that look more like ride-on toys, and I am tempted to pick one up and have it shipped home for Sydney since she is still in love with her diapers. :) We bought Coke Zero (no Diet Coke here for us addicts), water, Oreos, Snickers bars, Nestle candy bars, Chinese Starbursts, and some suckers. The last thing is to bribe Ava into actually coming to us today!

 

We are getting ready to meet Ava in about 4 hours. It hardly seems real. It was so nice to have dinner last night with Tamela and Jon because they were able to answer so many of our questions about what will happen today. (This is their second time adopting.) They gave us lots of good advice! Right now we are off to the breakfast buffet - we hear it is great. Then we will log on to Skype to say goodnight to our kids and good luck on their first day of school tomorrow! Then it's off to the provincial office to meet our baby!!!

 

Guangzhou to Chansha

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Our overnight flight from LAX arrived in Guangzhou on time at 6:00 a.m. After the "painful" trip through ticketing to get our boarding passes, and another trip through security where the guard smelled all of the contents of our suitcases, we made it to our gate for a 2 hour wait. We learned the hard way in the ticketing line that you need to stand really, really close to the person in front of you, or you will lose your place! We had some wonderful "Coffee American" at a shop near the gate. It only cost us $7.50 each. Yikes!

The flight to Chansha was only about an hour. They served us what we thought were juice boxes, but turned out to be tea in a box instead. Our luggage was practically the first off of the plane, and we found Emma just 2 steps outside the gate. She is so nice, and it is so relaxing now to have someone looking out for us. Our drive to the hotel was about 30 minutes. The Dolton Hotel is just beautiful! The picture is from our window (that opens!) on the 32nd floor. Our room came equipped with a crib, a baby bathtub, and a cute little plastic bowl and spoon for Ava.

LAX

We are in LA now with a 5 hour layover. Ugh. Hopefully we will be nice and tired by the time we board so we can sleep away our 14 hour flight to Guangzhou. :)

Update from the Greenlees house... Grandma treated the kids to McD's and playland for dinner, so they probably aren't missing us too much yet.

Cleveland Airport

We are at the airport getting ready to check in for our flight to LA. Did I overpack?

Leaving Tomorrow!

It's so hard to believe that we are leaving tomorrow! There is still so much to do. We took our kids on a last minute trip to Cedar Point yesterday, and I had to go in to work today. So, not much has been getting done! We are going to kick it into high gear tomorrow morning, and finish with all of the last minute details. I am hoping to have some time tomorrow morning to just relax (ha ha) and hang out with my kids before we leave.

I was just looking at my blog and I realized that I have never posted our original referral picture. So here she is... the first picture we saw of our precious baby girl...

Her Name...

Our daughter's name (by unanimous family vote) will be...

Ava Guiyu

We are leaving one week from today. We can hardly believe it. I am supercleaning the house, packing our bags, and doing lots of last minute shopping. It is such an exciting time!!

The Dates are Set!!

We meet our baby on August 23rd!! Details to follow...