Finally Home

Tuesday, October 25th was our last day in Guangzhou.  We couldn't get Juliet's U.S. Visa until late in the afternoon so our flight out to Hong Kong was scheduled for that night at 10:20pm.   We checked out at 2:00pm from the Garden Hotel and went over to Shamian Island again to kill some time before being picked up for the airport.  We did a little more shopping and said good-bye to some of the store owners we had become acquainted with.  We also walked over to the big market area across the bridge from the island.  In this area, you see just about everything.  There are tiny shops with goods protruding out into the streets, selling everything from live scorpions, dried turtles, various herbs, roots, and even illegal tiger paws and antelope skulls.  You have to see it to believe it.  On one street you can buy all sorts of pets and pet supplies, and Juliet was especially enamored by the puppies, kittens and rabbits.   If you keep walking through this market area, you end up in a big, bright, loud shopping district.  Each store is blaring loud music, and the workers stand outside encouraging you to come in and shop.  Believe it or not, we also ran into another "Chicken Man"!   There are also all kinds of restaurants, many being fast food places, like Pizza Hut, KFC, Papa Johns, and McDonalds.  We decided to introduce Juliet to her first McDonalds experience.  She seemed to enjoy some bites of chicken nuggets and a few french fries.  We took a cab back to our hotel where John, one of our guides, met us with Juliet's visa and to take us to the airport.  The flight to Hong Kong is only about 30 minutes, but since it was delayed slightly, we didn't land until around midnight...right when Juliet fell asleep.  We had to go through customs there, and then head to our hotel, which was attached to the airport, luckily.


After about five hours of sleep, we got up  for our flight home (with a short stop in Tokyo first).  We were convinced that Juliet would sleep a lot of the flight home since she hadn't had much sleep the prior day.  However, that was not the case at all.  She was so overtired, she couldn't stay asleep.  She had her own seat, but she wanted to sit with us most of the time.  She was crawling all over the seats, would fall asleep for a short time but wake up crying, and just seemed uncomfortable and exhausted.  She did have some silly times when she wanted to play pat-a-cake and giggle with the people around us.  However, of the thirteen hour flight, Juliet only slept about two or three of them (and not consecutively).  The passengers all around us were annoyed and each of them offered their own advice on what we could be doing differently (none of which worked).


We finally arrived in Detroit around 1:00 p.m. and when Matt looked at his phone, he realized it he had a voice message from his Dad.  Apparently there was some confusion on which date we were coming home.  When we looked at Matt's phone again, we realized it was October 26th, not the 27th which we had previously (and mistakenly) thought we were arriving on...thinking we were losing a day coming back.  It was such a stupid oversight on our part, but being so tired, it actually seemed funny at the time.  We had it all planned that both sets of grandparents would get the kids out of school early on the 27th (Luke's birthday), and they would all meet us at the airport when we arrived.  Luckily, Matt was able to call his dad, and Grandpa Jakubik was able to pick us up after we got through customs.  Unfortunately, there was no one to greet little Juliet as she became a U.S. citizen dressed up in her fancy outfit!  


The grandparents met at our house and Matt picked up Luke and Mia right after school so Juliet could meet her family.  It all worked out, just a little different than we planned.  Juliet was very interested in everyone, despite being tired.  She enjoyed walking around our family room with her new squeaky shoes, taking toys to everyone.  She also really liked looking at Sydney, our dog.  She would stand and stare at her, and then reach out a finger to touch her nose.  It was very cute.  Luke and Mia kept saying that she looked just like the blog pictures, laughing at her.


Today (Thursday) was a good day.  We woke up to signs planted on our front lawn, welcoming Juliet home.  Juliet had a good night's sleep and a super long nap to catch up on her rest.  It was Luke's 11th birthday, and she enjoyed watching him open his presents.  She played a lot of pat-a-cake with both Luke and Mia.  Every time we stopped, she would start again, trying to get us to keep doing it.  We took Luke out for a quick dinner at the Asian Buffet.  We didn't want to be out too long with the baby, and Luke loves Chinese food so it was perfect.  Juliet was a hit there with the waiter and the owner.  She liked it when the owner spoke in Mandarin to her.  Luke was sung to and got a special dessert plate.  Juliet watched intently at all of these new experiences and even broke out into pat-a-cake after Luke's birthday song.





Mia helped me give Juliet a bath and get her dressed for bed.  Mia has always been a little mother, and she is so excited to help out with Juliet.  Both kids are so happy to have another addition to our family.

Consulate and Back to the Island

Today we had our Consulate appointment at 8:30am.  This appointment is part of the process for Juliet to become a U.S. citizen.  The appointment was fairly uneventful, more forms to fill out and documents to sign.  Then we (all the families there) had to stand up and swear an oath that all information we provided was correct.  Once that was complete, we were on our way again.  We'll get Juliet's passport tomorrow night and she'll officially become a U.S. citizen once we go through customs in Detroit.

After that, we headed back to Shamian Island to let Juliet run around and to do a little more shopping.  She had fun exploring all the bronze statues throughout the island and was especially interested in the one with all the little children following a piper. The wedding couples were out again today for their photograph sessions and there were older people playing cards and badminton in the boulevards.  We met an extremely friendly shop owner named Jordan who hand painted a picture of Juliet's name using different Chinese animal characters for each letter of her name.  He also made a picture for her using Chinese caligraphy characters for her name.  He was one of the nicest people we've met her so far.

Today, Juliet also debuted her "squeeky shoes" that we bought for her last night.  They're very popular here and they have a little squeeker in the heal.  Each time she steps they squeek.   She was really surprised at first but then she had a ball walking around and squeeking.  She was quite the hit where ever we went today.  Beth liked them so much that she had to buy several more pairs to bring home.

We had lunch on the island again and then walked over to a park for a bit.  Juliet met a little boy and was showing him all the leaves on the ground.  They were very cute together and he tried to take Juliet by the hand and lead her to the play structure.  She did not like this at all!  She started crying very hard, shook her hand loose and came running back to Beth and I.   Once she calmed down she resumed her search for leaves.



After heading back to the hotel and a short nap, we played in the room for a while and then headed out for dinner.  We went to a Mexican restaurant by our hotel that is very popular.  The owners are both from Mexico and the food is about as authentic as you can get (in China).  We met a couple from Lebanon who was very nice and had many questions about the adoption process and Juliet's story.  She seemed to like them very much and even let the man hold her while his wife took pictures.  We headed back to the hotel and Skyped with Luke and Mia for a while so they could see their new sister again.  Then it was bath time and bed time.

After such an easy first few days with Juliet, the last few have been more challenging and more as expected.  She's definitely going through some grieving and she's becoming more stubborn and seemingly frustrated.  We're doing our best to reenforce to her that we're not going to leave her and that she can trust us.  We're planning to hold her quite a bit, make as much eye contact as possible, feed her instead of letting her feed herself, etc.   All the things that are recommended to promote attachment and bonding.

Tomorrow night, we fly to Hong Kong for a short night's stay and then and early flight back to the States (via Tokyo).  It's going to be another long day as we have to check out of our hotel at 2pm and then we're not being picked up to go to the airport until 7:30pm.  We still have to come up with something to occupy ourselves during that time.  I'm sure we'll find something to do.

This will probably be our last long post until we get back home.  I may be able to post from my phone before the flights, but I don't know for sure.  Thanks for all your comments and encouragement along the way.  We can't wait for everyone to meet Juliet!

- Matt and Beth

Shamian Island

Today Juliet woke up in a good mood so we played in the hotel room for a while before heading to breakfast.  Matt tried desperately to find updates on the Michigan State vs. Wisconsin game on the internet, and when he did, he and Juliet sat at the computer cheering the Spartans on ... and it seemed to have worked!  We headed down to a late breakfast and then took a walk around the hotel gardens so Juliet could get some exercise and see the fish.  She was especially taken with leaves again so she tried to pick up every one that she could see.  Once she seemed to get bored with that, we layed her down for a nap, but that didn't last too long. 

We decided to head over to Shamian Island where the famous White Swan Hotel is located.  The White Swan is known for catering to adoptive families so many adopted children have stayed there.  The hotel is closed for renovations now, but all the shops surrounding it are open for business.  All of the shop owners speak really good english and are extremely friendly.  The shops carry everything that adoptive families may want to bring home, such as traditional Chinese dresses, children's shoes, and other souvenirs. Many of the shops carry the same types of goods, so everyone is trying to get you into their shop.  One woman even offered to feed Juliet some soup after Juliet spied her son eating his dinner.

Shortly after we arrived on the island, Matt remembered that, although he brought the camera, the battery was still sitting on the charger back at the hotel room.  So, we unfortunately do not have many pictures from the island.  We tried to make due with the iPhone, but the photos just weren't the same.  The island looks very much like New Orleans actually.  There are boulevards that people walk along with moss covered trees overhanging.  Every so often there are fountains, statues, and even a Starbucks.  Usually, the area is teaming with foreign families and their adoptive children, but since the White Swan is closed, it was mostly Chinese families enjoying the area.  It seems to be a very popular place for photography as we saw several brides and grooms getting photos taken as well as aspiring models being followed around by their "paparazzi".  Juliet was most taken in by the little dog playing fetch with her owner ... and by the leaves ... and by the little boy with the lollipop.

After buying her some chinese dresses and some shoes that actually fit (the ones from the orphanage are about 2x too big and have cotton shoved in the toes), we decided to head to Lucy's for dinner.  Lucy's is a restaurant on the island that caters to American families.  Even though they have a large menu with American items (hamburgers, cheeseburgers, etc) we ironically found ourselve still ordering Asian food.  Juliet loved the chicken congee!

After the taxi ride back to the hotel, we found a huge party of some kind going on in the lobby.  It was so crowed.  There was a guy cruising around on roller skates playing the flute and wearing a costume that looked like he was riding a chicken.  He was handing out some sort of dried olive snack.  Juliet wasn't sure what to make of him.  After her bath, she practically fell asleep on the bed she was so exhausted.  She's now sleeping soundly.



Juliet is still doing very well.  We both agree that she seems to be going through some sort of grief process as she's not quite as happy go lucky as she was the first few days.  There's less smiles and giggles and she seems to get frustrated very easily, which results in some very stubborn behaviour.  She definitely has a temper and she lets you know when she's not happy.  All the changes that have occurred in her life over the past week or so are probably taking a toll on her, however, these moments don't last long and she can be easily distracted by something interesting .... like leaves.  It will be good to get home to a normal routine.  Especially in the fall .... because of the leaves.

From Hangzhou to Guangzhou

Yesterday we had an eventful day before leaving Hangzhou.  We were picked up by Jessica at 10:00 a.m. and taken to the The Hangzhou Children's Welfare Institute (the orphanage that Juliet lived in for just over 8 months).  It was a beautiful facility and only about 3 years old.  From the minute you walk into the front doors, you can tell the children are well-loved.  There is a large wall with laminated pictures of the children taped to it.  Some of the pictures are of the kids with their adoptive families too, and we were encouraged to send them a picture of Juliet with Luke and Mia as soon as we get home to post on the wall.  We found two pictures of Juliet taped on the wall already.  We were greeted right away by Chen, one of the directors that brought Juliet to us at the Civil Affairs Office.  Juliet was a little stoic at the orphanage, just looking around and thinking.  Although Juliet had been in a foster family for about 8 months, she returned to the orphanage about three weeks ago to prepare for her adoption. It must have been somewhat confusing for her, but she handled it well.  Chen offered to hold her, and she reached over to her, sat in her arms for a minute, but then she wanted to come back to us.  Chen laughed and said that was good.  Chen sat us down at a small meeting table in the lobby to give us a bag of "goodies" for Juliet to take home with her.  There was a giant stuffed cat (as big as Juliet), a CD of photographs of her time spent in the orphanage, some Chinese play-doh, and a memory book.  The memory book describes in Chinese her likes, dislikes, friends, schedule, etc..., and it has cute pictures of her in it too.  There are even photographs of the day she was brought to the orphanage at two months old. 

Chen took us to the toddler room where Juliet stayed.  We saw the crib she had slept in which is now occupied by someone else already. We saw the play room which was full of toys. In the washroom, each child had a towel on a hook with his/her picture on it.  As we were looking around her room, the other toddlers returned to have their lunch.  They were all dressed in little yellow sweatsuits and were so excited to see us.  They were waving and smiling.  They liked getting their picture taken.  They each had a seat around a table for what looked liked a pretty yummy lunch of rice, meat and vegetables.  Juliet started to squawk a bit hoping to sit down and eat with them.  We took Juliet's picture with her three nannies, and they all gave her kisses good-bye.

Chen also showed us the music room, and the older kids' classrooms.  They have a strict curriculum they follow for their schooling.  They learn both the Chinese characters and the English words that go with them. They take their education very seriously even in the orphanage. We were also able to see the music room, and the playground area.

In the craft room, we ran into three women and three young girls from the states that volunteer their time for Red Thread Charities.  This organization goes into the orphanages for a couple of weeks each October and helps them with a variety of needs.  One of the women, Jane, actually had sent us pictures of Juliet back in July from her last trip to the orphanage.  She was so kind and excited for us.  She couldn't get over how well Juliet was doing and that she totally seemed bonded with us already.  She had brought her own adopted Chinese daughter along, as well as her grandaughter to help for the few weeks she was there.  The girls ranged from probably 9-11 years, and they kept telling us, "Thank you for adopting the baby, Congratulations!"  It was a great experience at the orphanage, and we feel lucky that Juliet had been cared for so well during her stay there.

Before heading to the airport for Guangzhou, we stopped by Juliet's finding place.  There are four bus stations in Hangzhou, and she was found outside of bus station #2.  Although we weren't sure of the exact location of the spot, we took some pictures of the entrance to the station. 

Although the plane ride from Hangzhou to Guangzhou is about two hours, Juliet stayed wide awake for her first flight.  She layed her head down just as we were starting to land.  We were greeted by our guide, Judy, after getting our luggage.  She informed us that we were upgraded to the 5 star Garden Hotel with a suite.  We weren't sure why, but we didn't complain  It is the nicest hotel we have ever stayed at, and the staff is super friendly.  Juliet was even given a small basket of bath accessories and a stuff panda to play with.  You see people from all over the world staying here and quite a few adoptive families too.  There is a beautiful garden area behind the hotel, with a cascading waterfall, and a giant fish pond.  Juliet liked watching the huge koi in the pond after breakfast. 

We had to visit the Guangzhou Medical Center for Adoptive Children today so Juliet could get a brief physical.  She was a hit with the doctors, and she passed all of her tests with flying colors.  She only took a short nap unfortunately, and doesn't seem very well rested as of now so we think a change of scenery is what she may need.  It is 88 degrees and sunny here so we are going to go out and investigate the area. 

Made it to Guangzhou!

After an extremely long day, we finally made it to our hotel in Guangzhou.  Today we woke early, checked out of our hotel in Hangzhou, visited the orphanage where Juliet stayed, visited the "finding place" where she was found after she was abandoned and then went to the airport for our flight to Guangzhou.  It was a very long and very emotional day.  We're all exhausted.  Juliet did not get a nap today and was very restless on the airplane.  The women sitting around us all tried very hard to entertain her, but it wasn't until the snack was delivered that she decided to calm down.  She finally fell asleep in the van driving from the airport to the hotel, but she only slept for about 20 minutes.  Once we checked into the hotel, it was bath time and then we put her right to bed.  She fell asleep almost immediately.

China 10/21/11

We're very tired as well and we plan to try to get a good night's sleep tonight.  We promise to post the pictures and a better description of our day when we have more time tomorrow.

More Paperwork, More West Lake

This morning we did our last day of document work here in Hangzhou.  We were first taken to the bank to exchange our money for the adoption payment and orphanage donation.  Juliet liked waddling around the lobby while the local customers smiled at her.  Even the serious security guards at the bank seemed somewhat amused by her.  After the bank we had to go to a notary office to make all of the documents official.  We were done for the day with Jessica before 11:00 a.m.  She offered to take us to see how silk is made in the beginning stages at a local center, but we decided to return to the hotel since we had already visited the silk market near our hotel three times.

Juliet slept about 2.5 hours again this aftenoon.  It is hard to believe how tired she gets after sleeping twelve hours at night, but all of these new experiences in the "real world" exhausts her.  She seems so curious when we are out, like everything we do is completely new and exciting.

When Juliet woke up, we walked the 30 minutes back to West Lake with her.  She likes traveling in the baby carrier strapped to us, although even in that, she gets heavy after that long of a walk.  It is funny how you rarely see strollers here.  Most people just carry their kids around in their arms, and that seems really tiring and awkward.  They either don't have space to store the strollers or they are just too bulky to maneuver around the fast paced sidewalks. Occasionally you see a little kid sitting on the "floor" of their parent's scooter zipping around.  It looks totally unsafe but it seems to work here.

Today seemed more crowded at West Lake.  People must come in at the end of the week for a long weekend.  It was a totally different view of the lake today, being overcast. The big dragon boat coming in was cool to see.  We stopped at the two-story Starbucks that overlooks the lake and  Juliet liked walking around the garden area.  She was trying desperately to step on each leaf she saw.  We saw the tail end of a huge fountain show that occurs each day at the lake.  They are quite large, and on a sunnier day or lit up at night, they must seem even more spectacular.

After the lake, we walked along the main road across from the park. It is lined with high-end shops like Cartier and Prada.  This area definitely caters to the very wealthy with the designer stores, expensive restaurants, and flashy cars everywhere.  It is not what most would envision China to be like here. 

We ate at a nice Thai inspired restaurant across from the park.  It was the first restaurant we have eaten at where we didn't accidently order too much food.  We have had to point at pictures of items we want and then hold up our fingers, trying to tell them one of this or two of these. We usually try to tell the waiters we need something for the baby, and then a huge bowl of food shows up for her that is too much for even an adult to eat (although Juliet likes to eat...) We are getting the hang of this now.  Juliet liked playing with the wooden chopsticks tonight.  She is getting pretty good at feeding herself with the fork and spoon we brought for her, especially if we help her get the food on the utensil first.  The nannies in the orphanage usually feed the young kids by spoon so most likely she hasn't had much practice on her own.  She seems to like the independence though. 



We are constantly watched in restaurants or on the streets with Juliet.  The local people are very curious about her, probably wondering how we look as we do, yet we have her.  At least once a day, a local person looks at us, then at Juliet, and asks us (or Jessica) if Juliet is a "China Baby".  It doesn't seem like the local people see many adoptive families here.  Tomorrow we get to visit the orphanage, her "finding place" and then we are off to the airport for the flight to Guangzhou where the U.S. embassy is located.  This will be Juliet's first plane ride, and luckily it is only about an hour.

A few more videos .....

Luke and Mia liked the first video we posted so much that we thought we would post a few more that were taken over the last couple of days.  They love watching their new little sister and they've had a lot of fun using Skype to talk with her.  We miss you Luke and Mia!

Juliet playing in our hotel room:

From Videos 10/19/11

Playing in the hotel lobby:

From Videos 10/19/11

Goofing with Daddy:

From Videos 10/19/11

West Lake and the Tea Plantation

Today our guide, Jessica, picked us up at 9:00 a.m. from the hotel, and we spent the morning touring West Lake with her.  We went to the opposite side of the lake from where we were walking around Sunday on our own.  We took a beautiful boat ride around the lake, and Jessica explained the stories behind the two different pagodas, the gardens, the bridges and the islands located around the lake.  The people of Hangzhou take such pride in their historical West Lake, and it plays a very important role in their community.  After the boat ride, we took a walk around the gardens and let Juliet look at the fish pond and the birds on the property, which she was very interested in.  This part of the lake was very crowded with many tourist groups, and Jessica explained that this is very typical.  People from neighboring provinces come here often on buses for tours of the area.  After leaving the lake, we decided to visit the tea plantation that was close by, even though Juliet was getting pretty tired.  At the plantation, we learned the process of making Dragon Well green tea, one of the two major products that Hangzhou is known for, the other being silk.  It was interesting to see the hills of terrace farming around the plantation, and to learn the intense process that goes into producing the tea.  Jessica entertained Juliet at the plantation as we had our crash course in tea production.  Juliet was especially interested in a little dog, named Dodo, that roamed the property.  We're hoping she has the same curious interest in our own dog at home. 



After the tea plantation, we made our way back to the hotel, trying to keep Juliet from falling asleep in the van so she could take a good nap in the hotel room (she starts falling asleep anytime she is riding in the van...hard to believe with all of the honking of horns and sudden stops that occur). She does perk up when she hears a wrapper of any kind, thinking she is going to be able to eat more. We kept digging in our bag and handing her goldfish crackers to keep her awake.  To say she has a good appetite is an understatement.  She flaps her arms, squawks, and kicks her feet at the sight of food.  Our strategy worked because she is going on 2.5 hours of a nap as of now.  We plan to walk back to the silk market again before dinner.  She loves to look around at the people, the colorful silk scarves, and the red lanterns that hang in the street. 

It's Official!

On Tuesday we traveled back to the Civil Affairs office to receive the adoption certificate.  We spent the better part of the morning there with the 3 other families we saw on Monday.  2 were from Spain and the other was from Sweden.  One of the boys, who appeared to be about 9 years old, was from the same orphanage as Juliet.  He told us (through an interpreter) that they lived in separate buildings.  Once our certificate was ready, we had a ceremony where the civil affairs woman read through our document and made the adoption official.  Juliet is ours!

We returned to the hotel after that to have lunch and so that Juliet could take her nap.  She only slept for about 45 minutes though which made for a long afternoon.  She was very tired.  We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Silk Street where they have shop after shop of items made from silk.  Scarves, dresses, pajamas,etc.  Everyone was very interested in us as we were the only westerners there.  It's funny how they react when they see we have a Chinese baby.  They can't seem to figure out why. 



We returned to the room after this to let Juliet play and run around for a while.  We had a quick dinner and then returned early to put her to bed.  She was very tired.  She fell right asleep, but after about 30 minutes, I (Matt) went to check on her.  She her me, woke up and could not fall back asleep for about 45 minutes.  However, once she did fall asleep, she slept for almost 11 hours. 

We're off to breakfast now and then we're going on a boat tour of West Lake.

Quick Update

Juliet continues to be happy.  She did great at dinner last night, loved her bath, and went right to sleep when we laid her down.  She slept through the night for almost 12 hours!  She was exhausted from the big day yesterday.  As we walked to dinner last night, she was so interested in everything that was going on around her!  She kicked her feet, babbled constantly and was amazed by everything she saw. 

This morning she was a little more reserved and confused, and we actually saw a few tears.  But after having a huge breakfast, she's back to her happy self!

We're on our way back to the Civil Affairs office today to pickup the official adoption certificate so we have to run.  More updates to come later.

Welcome Juliet!

We met our guide Jessica in the hotel lobby this morning at 8:30am.  After a short drive to the civil affairs office, we were led into a large meeting room with 3 other families that were adopting that morning.  There was a family from Sweden and 2 families from Spain along with us.  We had to fill out the necessary paperwork that stated why we wanted to adopt Juliet, as well as sign many different forms.  About 20 minutes later, the 4 children were brought in.  Juliet was easy to spot as she was the only girl.  The 3 other boys ranged in age from about 18 months to about 9 years old.  They were all adorable and dressed very nice for the special occasion.  The oldest boy was particularly excited when his new parents gave him a Nintendo DS.  They even returned all the things that we sent her in her care package.  You can tell that she enjoyed them because all the picture books and toys seemed well used.  She loves her little bear.

Juliet is just beautiful and healthy!  We was a little unsure when Jessica first handed her to Beth, but she quickly became comfortable with both of us and hasn't stopped babbling or giggling since.  She's extremely ticklish and loves to play peek-a-boo.  She's walking on her own and seems to be fearless (like all other Jakubik kids).  She loved the car ride to the shopping market and everything seemed to be a new experience to her.  She's a very curious girl.  After getting back to the hotel, she was a little cautious entering our room, but now she runs around like she owns it. 

Videos - 10/17/2011

She ate a nice lunch and she's now taking her afternoon nap.  She layed down without crying and we haven't heard a peep out of her the entire time.  We've checked on her a few times and she's sound asleep.

One interesting thing that we found out about her was that she was not abandoned right away as we had thought.  She was actually found when she was about 2 months old at a bus station here in Hangzhou.  We hope to visit that spot so that we can take pictures.  We also found out that we'll be able to visit the orphanage on Friday so we're excited to meet the staff that takes care of these wonderful children.

We feel very blessed to be matched with such a wonderful baby and to bring her in to our family.  Luke and Mia will be so excited.

Finally pictures from Shanghai

So I think I figured out how to post pictures as a slideshow in the blog posts.  Here are the are some of the pictures from Shanghai (a day late).

Hangin' in Hangzhou

So we found out when we arrived in Hangzhou last night that we would not be meeting Juliet until Monday morning because the offices are closed on Sundays.  Our hotel is very nice and we have a huge suite with a separate sitting room and bed room.  More than enough room for a toddler to run around in.

We received a wake up call from Luke and Mia asking if we wanted to Skype, so we spoke with them for about 20 minutes.  Mia wanted to know where Juliet was and Luke filled us in on Michigan State's big win over Michigan (4th in a row, but who's counting?).  After breakfast, we decided to walk to West Lake, a national park which surrounds a huge beautiful lake here in Hangzhou.  The walk took about 30 minutes through the hustle and bustle of Hangzhou, but once we got there, it was very peaceful.  There were families walking around, people sitting by the lake drinking tea or coffee, boat rides, and groups of people singning and dancing.  We saw a big group of people gawking at something, we went to see what it was.  Low and behold it was a squirrel, but everyone was pretty amazed by it.  I think our guide is taking us on a boat tour of the lake later this week.

We headed back to the hotel and once we were in our room, we found out there is a school right down the street.  For about an hour and a half, they were playing a loud recording while each class came out in their uniforms to do their exercises in the school courtyard.  We also found out that we're just few blocks from the Silk district so we plan to visit that in the next few days.

Our guide Jessica is picking us up at 8:30am tomorrow morning to take us to get Juliet.  Her crib is ready in our room and now it's time for us to get some rest before the big day.

On our way to Hangzhou

After a long and exciting day of sight-seeing in Shanghai. We are finally on our train bound for Hangzhou. It seemed like we did everything there is to do in Shanghai, all in one day. We visited The Bund (a tourist area on the Huang Pu River), went to the top of Oriental Pearl TV Tower for a 360 degree view of Shanghai, walked through Yuyuan Gardens which have been around for over 400 years and visited the Shanghai historical museum and the Urban Planning Expo Center. We also had delicious meals for both lunch and dinner at local restaurants. Our guide Nick did a wonderful job showing us around Shanghai and was very appreciative of the Detroit Tigers t-shirt we gave him as an additional gift.

Our train is a high-speed bullet train so it should take us about 45 minutes to get to Hangzhou. It travels at about 300 km/hr.



We haven't been able to post many pictures yet because we haven't been in a hotel long enough to get online. Hopefully we'll have time tomorrow. By then we should know when we'll be meeting Juliet. We're both excited and a little nervous.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Huachi South Rd,Hangzhou,China

Top of Shanghai

Just wanted to post a quick picture of Beth and I on the glass observation deck of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. It's the 3rd tallest tower in the world.









Notice we're supporting the Green and White and cheering for a victory later today!

Go State!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:延安东路隧道,上海市,中国

Made It to Shanghai!

Greetings! After a grueling 16 hours of travel, we finally made it to our hotel in Shanghai. The flight was pretty uneventful, but I (Matt) was sad to find out there was no wi-fi access so I couldn't watch the Tigers game. I did get the game recap from Luke when we called the kids though. Neither of us slept very well and our luggage was delayed, so we're pretty exhausted.

Tomorrow, our guide Nick is picking us up at 8:30am for a day of sight-seeing around Shanghai. Later that evening, we'll take the train to Hangzhou (where Juliet is from). We'll stay there for about a week.

More to come tomorrow.....

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Welcome to our blog!

Welcome to our blog and thanks for checking in.  We're going to do our best to document our journey to China to adopt Song Meng Ying (Juliet).  We're excited to be going back and we're set to leave on Thursday, October 13th.  We fly from Detroit directly to Shanghai, where we'll be staying the night before traveling to Hangzhou the next day.  Our "Gotcha Day" is October 16th and we'll be in Hangzhou for about a week.  From there, we'll travel to Guangzhou to visit the American Embassy to finalize the adoption.  We'll be leaving China on October 26th, arriving back in Detroit on October 27th ... just in time for Luke's 11th birthday!  Both he and Mia are very excited to meet their new little sister!!  Here are a couple of the most recent pictures we've received of Juliet.  However, these are from July so we expect her to be much bigger!