Beijing

Our time in Beijing was spent of course getting to know Caleb and going on lots of sight seeing trips! My favorites was the Great Wall and shopping at the markets!

We are on our way to get some groceries.

Our room before we messed it up.

A wedding was happening in our hotel. The bride and groom spoke to each other from behind the curtain and then the curtain dropped and there was dry ice smoke and rose petals. We stuck around and watched it.

At the Beijing Zoo.

Caleb, me and Flat Stanely at the entrance to the Great Wall!

Before our climb. It was cold at the bottom but the higher we got the warmer it got. I carried him up and Bernie carried him down. My legs were like jello!

Amazing!

This little gril is wearing the traditional "split pants", it allows for ease of going to the washroom for babies.

Bernie and Caleb

We met this girl and her mom on the Great Wall they were very interested in us and of course Caleb. They took a few pictures and just sat by watching us for a while. It gave them a Nova Scotia pin and took a picture of her with  Flat Stanely and it all happened on The Great Wall!

Very tired after his days adventrues!

The Summer Palace. It is a huge park it was rebuilt in 1902. This is a marble boat.

At the summer palace.

The Summer Palace. This building is called The Tower of Fragrance of the Buddha.

The Olymic Birds Nest.

A traditional tea ceremony.

So sleepy!

Our goodbye party.

Getting ready to fly home!

Goodbye China

One month ago today we met Caleb! In ways it feels like we have had him forever and in others its like we just met. It is amazing to watch the changes in him every day. 

The Gift of Life

I didn't give you the gift of life,

But in my heart I know.

The love I feel is deep and real,

As if it had been so.

For us to have each other

Is like a dream come true!

No, I didn't give you

The gift of life,

Life gave me the gift of you.

--- Unknown

 

Guangzhou- The rest of our days in Guangzhou were spent getting to know Caleb, paperwork and exploring the city. It was a beautiful city. Most days it was mid 20's but there were 1 or 2 chilly days.

Shoe shopping!

Those boxes are filled with shoes from the warehouses!

 

A park we vistited displayed differnent kinds of carvings. In the picture above the roof is all carved by hand.

Bernie was asked to play. It is part badminton, dancing and tai-chi.

We went on a cruise of the Pearl River.

This was a park outside of our hotel. These were fitness machines for seniors. Very neat!

Getting ready to fly to Beijing!

On our way! After exploring his surrondings and trying to eat everyone's food he fell asleep for most of the trip.

We flew our of Beijing on Monday late morning and arrived in Guangzhou the afternoon. I think we were all just a bundle of nerves I know I was. There were 9 other families traveling to the same province to meet their children. Once arriving there was no time to stop at the hotel it was just straight to the adoption center. Once there we waited about a half hour. The emotion in the room was almost electric. I am not sure if I could find words to descibe how we were feeling. They called out each child's name one by one and you went up and got them. We were given time with an interpretor to answer any questions we had.

At the airport.

Arriving at the adoption center for Guangzhou.

Our first glimpse of Caleb as he arrived.

Beside me is one of Caleb's caregivers and beside Bernie is the director of his orphange. They seemed to have loved him very much and gave us many oppurtunites to ask questions. They gave us photo albums and gifts for Bernie and I.

Mommy and Caleb....at last!

Looking sad and scared........first night.

The following day we returned to the same building to sign paperwork.

After papework we went to a store similar to Walmart called Carrefour. We stocked up on formula and snacks as well as bought a stroller. They had escalators for strollers as you can see form the picture.

They had a few different food choices than our grocery stores!  They also played the music extremely loud almost as loud as we would hear at a bar. My ears were ringing afterwards!

Enjoyed an iced coffee after shopping.

View from our hotel room window.

Nighttime view from our room. Everything was lit up reminded me of Vegas.

Thanks for all of the great comments!

Here are some pictures of the first part of our trip to China before Caleb.

                                        Packing - Had to get Mom to do it, there was just too much!

Grammie and Poppy to be!

On our way to the airport, so excited!

 

The next day waiting in the Toronto airport.

Me and Flat Stanely waiting for our flight to Beijing!

About 11 hours later we arrived in Beijing. We watched a few movies, slept a bit and it seemed like every half hour they were feeding us or offering us drinks.

Here we are in the Beijing Airport. It was newly built for the Olympics. It was an amazing building.

These are a few pictures of some of the buildings in Beijing. This was an older part of the city.

The next few pictures are of the Lama Temple. It is a place of worship for people in Beijing. It is the most famous Buddhist temple outside of Tibet. There was many people there praying and lighting incense it was almost hard to breathe. In one of the halls there is an  80 foot high Buddha carved from a single piece of sandalwood. It was huge! No pictures were allowed though.

This is Ghost Street. The street is lined with restauraunts and they have red lanterns up and down the street. We had supper there with our group.