Ruby's Medical and exploring The Garden {Guangzhou, Guangdong}

 This morning was baby girl's medical appointment.  Every adopted child has to have one in Guangzhou.  Ruby slept in and we didn't have the heart to wake her after her rough evening on the plane last night, so we called Elvin our guide and asked if it was ok to go a bit later.  Normally we would never have done that but when we left him the night before he have us the impression that we didn't really have a set appointment time.  So, we thought it couldn't hurt to ask.  He was totally fine with pushing the departure time back an hour!  We decided that I would stay back with the big kids and John would take CanCan.  We are trying to evenly distribute the time spent with each parent(for bonding purposes) and she is with me a bit more- plus takes the bottle better from me, so we thought this would be a good time for him to be with her- especially if she was scared and needed comforting... good bonding.

We were instructed before we left on the trip that this is not the time where you want to bring anything up and have a big chit-chat about any concerns.  The biggest fear that comes out of this appointment is that the doctors will be alerted to something that will in the end prevent you from leaving the country on time.  Ruby has had a cough and runny nose since we got her which of course they noticed but John didn't make a big deal about it.  She checked out totally fine but did not like being weighed as you can see.  7.4 kg... that is about 16 lbs... and that is after eating like crazy for the last week!  What a tiny peanut.

 All done and ready to go!  John said Elvin was so awesome... that he kept getting him in before other people and you could tell he had some connections and pull there.  We love him already!

 Super blurry but John tried to snap a photo of the vending machine full of wine on his way out.  He asked Elvin why on earth that was there and Elvin jokingly responded it was for the parents that just find out their child tested positive for TB and would have to stay in GZ for 6-8 weeks.  Oh boy!

 Meanwhile back at the hotel, the kids and I had discovered an amazing courtyard with a waterfall, ponds, koi fish, and gardens.  We were so excited to show John and Ruby when they returned!

 Happy to be back with the rest of the family!!

 Ruby loved the fishies and kept reaching for them.

 Look at this waterfall!  Isn't this cool to have right in the middle of your hotel?  I love The Garden!!

 Below is the view from our hotel room.  I kept wondering what was going on on the roofs of those buildings!  It is so muggy here that things look almost mossy.

 Ruby's preferred way of sitting in her stroller.  I'm sure it has a lot to do with her having very little core muscle strength... funny story:  a woman came up to John pushing Ruby and leaned over talking in Chinese and took Ruby's legs and put them in leg holes of the stroller.  I wonder if she thought we didn't know how a baby went into a stroller??  The kids were fit to be tied about it but we just laughed because as soon as the lady walked away Ruby pulled her legs out and plopped them on top of the bar again- ha!  She must like how it feels.  She was probably thinking: what was that lady's problem?? :)

It was time to get out of the hotel and explore Guangzhou!  Since we got in late the night before, we hadn't seen a thing.  We are so excited to be in our 3rd city of the trip and look forward to all there is to experience and discover here.  Nobody is sick, nobody is homesick, and Ruby is doing great!

Off to Guangzhou, Guangdong, China {The Garden Hotel}

It was time to say goodbye to Fuzhou, Fujian.  I was sad to leave the place where Ruby was probably born(we will never know this for sure unfortunately) and where she had spent the last 16 months of her life.  I knew we would be back someday when she was older but it was such a strange feeling to take her from there.  

We headed to the airport in the late afternoon along with our new friends that had been in Fuzhou adopting their little boy at the same time.  All families have to complete the second part of the adoption process in Guangzhou.  It is basically the American side of the adoption process.

 Another flight- another anxious John.  Ha!  Airports and catching planes really stress him out- especially on this particular trip.  Plus we always had several pieces of luggage to worry about.

 It was sad to say goodbye to Maggie, our guide- she was really great and she had been with us through all the important events of the past week.

 This picture of Ruby cracks me up!

 After farewells with Maggie, our whole group headed to eat supper at McDonalds before boarding our plane.  It was Ruby's first time!  We let her try a fry but she didn't seem to like it.  I got a Big Mac but it didn't taste the same.  Plus, ironically, this would end up being one of the most expensive meals we would have on our entire trip to China.

 Seated on the plane and ready to go!  Oh how blissfully unaware we were of what was to come...

 Ruby would scream literally the entire flight- 1.5 hours.  A lady behind us kept insisting we give her a hard candy to suck on(for a baby!?!?) and then at one point she asked to hold her so she could try and calm her down.  Ha!  I told her sorry but we just adopted her so we aren't supposed to let anyone else hold her for awhile.  She didn't seem pleased about that.

Here is our first glimpse of The Garden Hotel.  I have to say that out of all the (really, really nice) hotels we stayed at on this trip, this one was definitely my favorite.  It was SO GREAT!  Many adoptive families stay here so right off the bat it feels different because there are others in your same situation all around that you can talk to and relate to.  We met some really neat families during our stay there.

Here we are walking down the hallway to see our room for the first time.

Unlocking the door in anticipation...

Oh my goodness.  We couldn't believe how great it was. We had what is called an executive suite(because there were so many of us)- it was a better, less expensive solution to having 2 rooms.  I forgot to take pics of the bedroom but that was just a room with a king size bed.  There were 2 bathrooms.  This is the main, master bathroom.  Crazy!

The toilet seat was actually heated.  I'm not even kidding.  And there was a TV in there too.

This was the office off the master bedroom.  We used it for Ruby's bedroom.  There were doors that closed between our room and her's and we figured out after a bit that we could turn a fan on via the thermostat.  All of this was more for me than her since she could sleep through ANYTHING.

Then between the office and the master bath was a dressing room/closet.

More master bath:  (sorry, the pics got out of order).

This was in the living room:

There was a big couch in the living room that Mary Beth slept on and then we had a queen size air mattress delivered to the hotel and waiting for us by Ann from Red Thread.  The boys shared this on the floor of the living room.  They had a TV in there and we had another one in our room but we never used ours.  The kids watched Boonie Bears on theirs every evening(in Chinese).  They loved it.

I have many more pictures of the outside of this hotel to come!

a walk to Old Fuzhou-3 lanes and 7 alleys{this time on our own!}

 

As I had mentioned in a previous post, we loved Old Fuzhou so much(and felt quite rushed while we were there) that we decided to us one of our free days to go there again- this time without our guide.  Even though we were driven there the last time, we found our that it was actually in walking distance from our hotel.  Not a super short walk mind you but totally do-able.  Ruby is so easy going and the big kids are always up for anything so we set off on foot on what had to be the hottest, most humid day of our stay in Fuzhou- ha!  This also ended up being a fantastic opportunity for us to really see the streets and life of Fuzhou.  We walked slowly and really took everything in.  We wanted to be able to share all of this with Ruby Mei someday since this was possibly her birth city.  

So the photos I am sharing here are mostly from the walk to and from since I shared so many from Old Fuzhou already.   Above is an apartment building.  

Below is... a man walking a turtle?!?!?  I love China.

Below is a little (shop?) where a man was literally going to be butchering these chickens and ducks on the side of the road.  We stared at these cages for quite awhile.  (the butchering had not begun yet)

 There were no birds left on our walk back.

 The streets are very clean but then we passed by this little alley and saw this... it seemed like it was from some demolition maybe?

 More apartment buildings... there are so many tall, tall apartment buildings.  This is so different from where we live so I was always very intrigued.  I loved how they dry their clothes from the balcony although it must take forever considering the humidity here!  We found out that most people do not own dryers so this is how they have to dry clothes all the time.

 Here is the entrance to 3 Lanes and 7 Alleys(Old Fuzhou).

 Below are the most amazing dumplings.  Our guide pointed to the place that sells them when were there with her and told us that they are delicious and very popular and to be sure to eat there if we came back on our own.  Boy, she wasn't kidding.  It is super cheap(I think about $1 for 4 of them) and we kept ordering "1 more plate" over and over again.  They make them right there in front of you.  It got to the point that the people there were laughing and anticipating John coming back to the counter again.  We could not get enough.  Even Ruby was gobbling them up!  If you are visiting here please do yourself a favor and eat these.  I do not know the name of the place but it is easy to spot(they make them in the front and it's open to the street.  I think it was near the entrance?

 A little tip:  they are scalding hot so don't just take a big bite into them unless you want 3rd degree burns.  We cut into them or took tiny nibbles. :)

 More pictures of the city from our walk home this time...

 A dentist office is pictured below!

We were so happy we decided to go back.  We had a wonderful time there(and on our walk!) taking our time and finishing our shopping for Ruby's future birthdays.  I can't wait to bring her back here someday when she is older- this city is so beautiful and interesting- I am so happy that she is from such a gorgeous part of China and that we all got to experience it together as a family.