Travel to Guangzhou

Friday morning was our last breakfast at the Grand Shanxi Hotel, and Riley made it a memorable one. She let David and Elizabeth not only feed her most of her breakfast, but sat in a highchair for most of the meal. This was nice for me, and I think you will enjoy her comical pictures. Then we moved into the lobby after breakfast, which has become our morning tradition in order to catch up on our internet and let her roam and visit with all the people in the lobby. She is such a hoot and just makes us all laugh so much!

Later, my plans were for her to take a nap while we tried to pack up the room for our afternoon flight to Guangzhou. I also wanted her to be in a good mood for her first plane ride. Wishful thinking I guess! She wouldn't nap for long and was ill as a hornet. We really didn't even get good airport pictures because she was so tired and cranky. Besides that, the airport and the plane were so hot! She didn't cry too much, just mostly slept and sweated in my lap. She wouldn't let anyone else hold her. Thankfully, we arrived safely in Guangzhou a little after eight and things started to improve .

Here we met the rest of the Bethany travel group at the infamous White Swan Hotel. Our group of parents had all adopted from different provinces all over China, and now everyone was coming together to finalize their adoption at the U.S. Embassy. Everyone was so nice, and we all talked about our new babies. The city of Guangzhou is so different from other places in China that we have been. How do I say this exactly? There is much more order in the traffic. We are on the Shamian Island, which caters to Americans that are adopting. This area that we are staying in reminds us of Savannah, Georgia. It feels very familiar and user friendly to us, and we no longer feel like we need a guide with us at all times in order to explore. David said it best when he stated shortly after our arrival, "Now we are on vacation!" It feels like the hard part of this trip is over, and we just bask in the joy of being with our new little girl and celebrate with all these other families who are experiencing the same things we are.

The long day ended on a high note as we ordered room service for dinner. We had done this a couple of times at the Grand Shanxi out of convenience with the baby, but it was never so fancy as it was here. You can see in the pictures how elegant it was (and costly)! But we are celebrating and we had to eat! Then it was off to sleep.