Great Wall, Pandas, and Mcdonald's

On all of our adoptions, I have tried to broaden my horizons.  Before the adoption, I only listened to English music.  Maybe a little Spanish, like Pitbull.  I did not go out of my way to listen to foreign music.  I do think there was one artist from France, but I can't remember when I discovered his music. Our first adoption, we stayed at the White Swan in Guangzhou, China.  For those who have adopted, it is usually the last stop before coming home.  The American consulate is located there, or one of them.  They handle the final stage in the adoption process, in China.  I will discuss this in a later post. Around the hotel are shops.  Most of them have knickknacks for people to take home to their families.  The prices are reasonable and you can haggle.  Next to the White Swan was a CD/DVD store.  Being a lover of movies, I had to go.  They had a big collection of western music and movies.  I will discuss the movi...

When you are in China, you get to eat lots of Chinese foods or McDonald's/KFC.  You do get sick of it.  Pizza Hut is in China.  On our first trip, our guide ordered pizzas from there.  It was so good.  It was as good as the pizza here.  I might be overdoing it, but on the first trip, we were leery about eating.  Too many stories about the food from previous adoptive families.  Stories of which were more of their biased opinions than actual fact.  We loved the food.  On our second trip, or was it the third, I can't remember.  We had made it to Guangzhou.  On one of our shopping trips, we saw a Papa John's.  We decided to give it a try.  The pizza was good.  The restaurant did not have many people in it.  I did take a picture of the menu.  During the meal or after, it caught up with me.  I turned to Angie and asked her about the price.  Once you do the conversion, the pizza cost us $17....

When we first went to China, the newspapers were interesting.  They did not have stories like we are used to seeing.  Of course, I know they are government controlled.  I remember one story was about a dog that committed suicide.  The owner had left the dog on a balcony.  Sensing the owner was not coming back, the dog decided to jump to its death.  One theme I noticed was the heroic citizens that saved people or reported issues.  After the first trip, the next trip saw a change in the papers.  The stories seemed more serious or like news.  I guess this might have come about due to the Olympics.  The third trip the papers had more of a look of what we are used to in America.  Minus stories about the government.  They did have stories about our government.  There were editorials about things that were going on in the international theater.  It was always critical of others and praiseworthy of the Chinese.  The ...

On our third Adotion, second in China, Kayla and Michelle accompanied us.  From our first shots, I know my children were going to entertain us.   I would say they did there best.  In the shopping area in Beijing, Kayla had a Elmo leash around her body.  This was done because Kayla has a habit of running off.  So, she decided to make the best of it.  She did this in from of the police.  She had seen too many episode of Cops.  Believe me, she knew what she was doing.  While she had her arms behind her, she was looking at the policemen.        While visiting the Forbidden City, Kayla noticed that they had pedastals near some of the doors.  To her, they look like stands for statues.  I think it was probably where guards would stand.            

I guess I should mention our visits to fast food in China.  It was an experience.  They are set up like the restaurants in the US, but like John Travolta said in Pulp Fiction, "it's the little differences". They have some of the same items, but they have some things that appeal to a Chinese taste.  I tried a spicy chicken sandwich.  It was really spicy.  Another time, I ordered a burger with mashed potatoes, bacon, burger, lettuce and tomato.  It was pretty good.  When you walk in the restaurant, they see that you are a westerner and had you a laminated card to order off of.  This has the English.  Most western restaurants have these.  We did go to a local restaurant in Guangzhou and they actually had a laminated card for Westerners.  In line, you have to be aggressive.  It's okay to be kind, but people will take advantage of that.  See my future posting about Taxis in China.  After you grab your f...

In 2005, November 26th, we woke early for our long flight to China.  We had driven to North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with our families.  Not only that, but Kayla had to stay.  We tried to get her a passport, but due to the fact that they postponed the adoption to November of 2005, we could not get her a passport.  This flight would be the first time either of us had flown internationally.  I have been on long flights before, but nothing like this.  I think the longest flight was about 4 to 5 hours.  This flight was going to last about 17 to 18 hours.  The first leg of this trip was going to be from Raleigh Durham International to Detroit.  From there, we had to fly to Japan and board another plane to Beijing.  The flight up north was uneventful.  It was a short hop, then we had to wait to board a Northwest Airlines plane.  It was a big plane.  Our seats were towards the middle.  There was snow on the gro...

So, I was talking to Angie today.  She tells me that she has read other stories by families adopting from China.  They all had issues arise after starting their adoption process.  Well, that is now our story.  About a month or two ago, my car started having problems.  Turned out I needed a new battery.  Last night when I got home, I discovered that our air conditioner was having issues.  The sad part is that we just replaced our air conditioner recently.  This is the second major issue we have had with it.  Not only that, but it is during a hot time in Florida, with little rain.  We slept with no air conditioning last night.  Most of us managed to sleep.  I'll keep my fingers crossed that this is our last problem for awhile. Today, the air conditioning company came out to fix the unit.  The motor had blown out.  We still had to pay for the repairs.  Our tech told Angie that it seem to have low voltage.  He...

On our second adoption, Kayla and Michelle came with us.  We wanted Michelle to have a chance to visit her birth country and to share the experience of the adoption with our daughters.  One thing about China is that there are not that many blonde people.  Kayla found out that this creates lots of attention.  When we would go places, people would go up to her and ask to take her picture.  I asked her about it.  She told me it was because she was a star and the Chinese were her fans.  We have many pictures to prove that point. 

Let the good times roll!  We received our packet from the agency.  They want us to read 3 books and do book reports, as well as internet seminars.  I asked Angie if we could be grandfathered in, since we have adopted 4 children.  We could write a book about our own experiences.  But, she said no.  I did find some books that might be interesting.  I don't know if I will learn anything new or just get a perspective from another adoptive parent that I may or may not agree with.  We were able to get some money for the adoption yesterday.  We sold some Southwest stock we had.  Then, I found out we need more upfront.  We have it in the form of Disney and Imax stock, but I want to hold on to those.  Next year will be a big year for both of them. 

I'm back.  It's been a busy summer.  Renewals had me doing a lot of overtime.  At the same time, Angie has been coming up with ways to earn money for the adoption.  Just the other day, we received an email from our new agency.  They have assigned us to a case worker.  She will be with us every step of the way.  That is encouraging.  Our last adoption had a  new person every step of the way.  When you need an answer, no one knew a thing.  Now OT is over.  I can start dedicating time to home.  I really want to start selling collectibles.  At the same time, I am saving money by getting free tickets to movie sneaks.  Stay tuned for more revelations, etc,