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.
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