Thursday Evening - The Group Photo

Tonight was the night all of the families got together for the final group shot and baby pictures. This is a tradition done at The White Swan, along with every child receiving their very own specialized Barbie from Mattel. So on with the photos...


This is our group photo of all the families and the adopted babies. It's probably hard to see, but Jan and I are just right of center. Alex is in my lap and Sydney is in Jan's lap.


Jan and I with the girls right after our group photo. Jan purchased these Chinese outfits here in Guangzhou for less than $7 US dollars. Sydney is on the left and Alex on the right.


This is our trusted guide Samson with the Twins. He has just been the best. He has made this process so much easier getting us through all the hoops and getting us from place to place. He has also been a great ambassador to China answering all our questions and giving us the history and other important information. He and I even went out running a couple of times. We can not thank him enough for his efforts. And by the way, every time he came around, the Twins just seemed to pay attention to him. Samson has also picked up how to tell the twins apart too.


This is Ann. She works with Samson and has been another guide assisting us while in Guangzhou. She just loves the twins and tells us how beautiful they are every time we see her. She a very sweet person and wanted to make sure she got a picture with the twins. Sydney is on the left and Alex on the right.


Jan, Parrish, Mimi, and the Twins.


This is a picture of all the adopted babies in our travel group on the famous red couches in The White Swan Hotel. It seems all of the crying babies were on the left, including Sydney, who just whaled out and was quite unhappy. Alex seemed to be okay for a while then felt left out and cried some too. Sydney is second from the left with Alex next to her.


A close up of the girls on the red couch. Like I said, Sydney was not happy, but Alex seems to be having a good time.


Sydney and Alex by themselves after the group baby photo. Sydney has regained her senses by now, but still had watery eyes.

Tomorrow is a pretty relaxed day. The only appointment left will be in the late afternoon where we will be visiting the US Consulate’s Office to take an oath and to receive the girls American passports. We are not allowed to take anything in with us except for our passports and the babies.

The Catching Up post

The girls are wearing us out, not to mention every time we get out of the hotel, it's back to sweatsville. So, let me catch everyone up on the past three days of activities.

Tuesday was a travel day from Guilin to Guangzhou. It took most of the day since we were traveling as a big group. The girls did great for their first flight. Our guide Samson, even took Sydney off my hands for a few mintues and she was treated to the VIP area of the airport. Already spoiling the kid and she hasn't even made it to the States yet.

On Wednesday, we walked down to a small side shop to have all the girls pictures taken for their US Passports. This happened so fast it was like a moving conveyor belt. Then we walked down half a block to complete the medical exam. This hospital was air conditioned and sterile. It was nothing like the hospital I visited while in Yulin, which was one of the baby abandonment sights. The medical exam took us maybe 30 minutes to complete. Honestly, it was sort of a joke. They weighed each kid. Ours each weighed in at 16 lbs. each. Then the length of each kid was taken, along with their temperature. We then moved over to see the ENT. The doctor checked the girls for hearing and looked up their noses. And let me mention that the hearing test is not what you were thinking. It consisted of the doctor using a child's play keyboard and a squeaky toy. As long as the kid looked toward the sound, you were good to go. The last part of the exam was to see another doctor that basically looked over their body, for what, I'm not really sure. That was it. Another item checked off our list.

Us waiting to see the Doctor. These strollers were borrowed.

The afternoon was spent doing some shopping. We luckily found a shop that had a double stroller (seating front to back) for sale. Since everything in this area is negotiable, we ended up getting this stroller for about $47 US Dollars. We thought we got a pretty good deal. We have just reached the point where carrying around both of the girls all the time, especially with the heat and sweat, that we needed something. Plus, we'll need it in the airports on our way back home. Jan and Mimi also did some shopping without Parrish and the twins. Jan was able to pickup some Chinese outfits and some squeaky shoes for the girls. The squeaky shoes are all the rage. They have this air-filled bladder in the soles so when they stomp their feet they squeak. They're pretty cute. Mimi also found some silk fabric for her collection.
Out in the new stroller.


Alex trying the squeaky shoes out.

The evening ending with almost all of our traveling Gladney Families eating at a local Cantonese Seafood Restaurant. Once again, it was warm and sweaty for us. However, this restaurant specializes in fresh seafood. So fresh, that you walk through an area of water tanks and pick out the seafood right from the tank that you want to eat. The pictures below were taken at the restaurant. We had shrimp, flounder, and scallops, plus some additional non-seafood items such as pork ribs, beef strips and chicken. Of course there was rice too. Overall, the food was good but a little overcooked compared to the seafood we get at home. For example, the pork ribs are not tenderized prior to cooking and were very tough and chewy. The shrimp was grilled, but also over-cooked. The best item of the night was the flounder. It was very tender and flaky and had a great taste to it. The scary item of the night was the eel. Jan and I stayed clear of it, but our guide Samson convinced Mimi to try it. The picture below is of her eating the eel. As far as the girls go, Alex slept through the majority of the dinner, but Sydney was up and ready to eat. Besides the Cherrios and fruit puffs that her mother fed her prior to dinner arriving, she dined on the rice noodles that came with the scallops.

The outside of the restaurant.


Taking our shrimp out of the tank.


Alex is in back asleep and Sydney is feeding on rice noodles in their new stroller.


Mimi eating the eel.

So that brings us up to today. The morning began with us traveling to a Buddhist Temple. While we were there, a Buddhist Monk preformed a "Blessing" Ceremony for us and our children. The Ceremony itself only lasted maybe 1o minutes, but it was very nice. Inside the temple where the Ceremony was performed, there were three giant Buddhas. These are the biggest Buddhas I have ever sceen. They must have been 30 feet high. Pictures are forth coming on this event.

Tonight is the night we take our group photo and all the adopted babies are grouped together for a photo too. It's another tradition that is a part of The White Swan Hotel and the whole China adoption process. We'll post these pictures as soon as we can.

We have two more nights at The White Swan Hotel and then we begin our trek back to Dallas.

Monday on the Li River Cruise...

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip,
that started from this Chinese port,
aboard a broken-down ship.

The babies started getting cranky,
the ship board lunch was tossed,
if not for the courage of the once fearlful parents,
the adoption would be lost.

As Jan stated above, it was a long (five hours), hot, and tiring boat ride. The scenery was unbelievable, but it was hard to spend any time looking around because our babies were wide awake and looking all around, grabbing everything in sight. The food was sub-par, and probably to be expected considering the "kitchen" was hanging off the back of the boat. And if I am not mistaken, they were washing dishes in the river water. Imagine taking a New York hot-dog cart and tying it to the back of the boat - minus the hot dogs - those would be gourmet compared to what we ate. Nothing was marked, so you weren't really sure what anything was. And with all of use a little afraid to get sick trying to care for twins, mostly we ate rice, french fries and bananas. At least they had a choice of bathrooms here - one western and one squatty potty. This trip up the river would have been amazing during April when it's not so hot and without two new babies to care for! Oh well. So below are a couple of pictures from the trip.



The picture below was taken right after we got off the boat. Leaving the docking area, you enter a tourist trap where you are bombarded by street vendors selling everything from post cards to knock-off Polo's. The heat was sweltering with no breeze and we had to walk probably 4 blocks. We were not having fun and all sweating on one another yet again.


That evening, Jan ordered some noodles from room service and the girls loved thier noodles. The pictures below were taken while they ate. Looking at the pictures, I think they ended up wearing most of the noodles they were given. They sure had fun though. Sydney is on the left and Alex is on the right.




We'll try and make another post tonight or in the morning. We're about to leave for the airport. We're headed to Guangzhou and the last leg of our trip. More to come...

Sunday evening dinner in Guilin - Jan's postscript

Our guide in Guilin told us a great joke - unfortunately it was on the way to our group dinner, and that scared me...

People say the Chinese eat everything in the sky but airplanes.
And people say the Chinese eat everything on land with four legs but tables and chairs!

It sounds even funnier when it is read with a Chinese accent, so try your best. And you know the phrase "your goose is cooked"? Well, yours is, and I saw it in the window of our restaurant. Still looking like a whole goose (head and all), but de-feathered and roasted. I think Parrish skimmed over how hot it was in that restaurant. One of the mothers across the table from me said she could feel the sweat running down the backs of her knees. And this is in the middle of dinner!

A few diners with small children left our table to entertain them some and check out the front of the restaurant. You know the seafood is fresh in China since you see it swimming in the many tanks when you walk in. However, they also saw a live snake get its head cut off and the innards drained. Of course they had to tell us all about it when they got back to the table, and since I really didn't know what I was eating to begin with, my meal was essentially over!

Welcome to Guilin

We left Nanning today and arrived in Guilin after about a four and a half hour bus ride full of parents, grandparents and babies. Our babies of course slept for only an hour of the entire trip. Guilin is a tourist destination for all sorts of nationalities. The big attraction here is the Li River. Tomorrow morning is when we head out for the big boat ride down the Li River to see all of its beauty. It is supposed to be well worth the trip to float down this river. Our only reservation about this besides taking two babies on a boat is that we have to take a 45 minute bus ride to the boat. Then the excursion lasts 4 to 5 hours, then it's back on a bus for another 45 minute ride back to the hotel. It just makes for a really long day, especially if the girls don't sleep a wink while were on the boat and end up out of their routine. I will have to admit though that this city is quite pretty and is surrounded by lots of water and scenery.

In addition, all of the adopting parents and babies went out for dinner together tonight. We were taken to a local restaurant for Chinese. Our guide, Samson, ordered for us. Everything is served restaurant style so everyone can sample the various dishes. The food was pretty good. Jan and I ended up spending most of our time feeding the twins and making sure they didn't pull something off the table though. The one thing that made it uncomfortable for everyone was the fact that the restaurant did not have AC and therefore we all sat there sweating. You can imagine sitting there in your only sweat and then you have a 15 pound baby on your lap sweating too. Not fun.

For those checking on the girls on a daily basis, below are some random pictures we took today. More to come tomorrow after the big boat ride.

Sydney crawling around like a maniac.


The twins down for a nap - finally.


Parrish holding one of the twins trying to get them to sleep.

My Trip to Yulin & the Orphanage

Today was the day I (Parrish) took off for Yulin to see the orphanage where the girls used to live. Jan and I decided it was probably best not take the girls as the trip to Yulin was about two and a half hours one-way. So she was brave and stayed with both girls today. My mother, Mimi – as the kids refer to her, stayed with Jan to help out as needed while I was away.

Yulin seemed dirtier than Nanning and a lot of the buildings were in decay. Once outside of Nanning, we passed through a lot of farming land. The dwellings around the farm land were primitive and run down. Most of the dwellings were made of brick, but there were no windows or doors on most of them. This is most likely the area our daughters came from. You can just tell it would be a tough / hard life farming the rice paddies. It seemed to be a very poor area.

The orphanage itself is located in an area referred to as Cheng Xi or “West of the City”. The area is very industrial and is located off a back alley way after turning off the main street. The buildings surrounding the orphanage are run down as well. The orphanage itself looks fairly new and well cared for. Because the orphanage is considered a part of the social system, the first two floors are dedicated to the elderly. The third floor is actually where the babies live. Unfortunately because of the risk of the government finding out, we were not allowed on the floor where the babies were. However, we were permitted to enter and walk-through the first floor to a second building / meeting room. It was there that our guide Samson translated any questions we had to the Director of the orphanage. Everyone that went to Yulin took a group picture with the Director and his assistant, which is found below. The red banner hanging on the wall behind us signifies a thank you and gratitude for the donations provided by the adopting families.



I was also able to take pictures of the outside of the orphanage and front gate. The next pictures are of these. In addition, the third picture below was taken from the front gate looking down the street or alley way as if you were exiting the orphanage. Pretty grim.





It’s documented that the girls were found on the backside of the orphanage. The actual backside is a separate building that is on the same grounds as the orphanage. This area is right off the main street. There are two big green doors shut off to the public street. The building looks to be three stories tall and the orphanage have staff working in the building. The street is pretty busy (at least during the day), but looks run down and there are a lot of industrial supply shops around. The number on the building is 874 and the doors had traced writing on it that meant “Peace” and “Prosper”. This is the location the twins were abandoned. One of the other girls adopted by one of the families traveling with us was also abandoned in this location. The pictures below are of this area.





We also went by the hospital where one of the girls adopted by a family traveling with us was abandoned. I’m mentioning this as it was an eye opener for me. The first observation I made was that this was a hospital and there was no AC in the building and it was quite busy. We went to the second floor where it was recorded that “Lilly” was found on a bench. The hallway was lined with wooden benches outside many exam rooms. The place did not seem sterile and everything in it seemed primitive compared to America. I saw a baby sitting with its mother on a bench. Nothing strange there, except the baby was receiving acupuncture on its head and all the needles were sticking out. I also glanced into another exam room and saw a man on his side hooked up to some sort of electrodes running the length of his back. In no way would I want to be treated for anything in this hospital.

Well, we are leaving Nanning tomorrow to spend two nights in the area that has been referred to as the pearl of the region. I don’t have the name of the town and Jan and the babies are sound asleep, so I’ll have the town for you in the next post.

A Few Other Bits of Information

While staying in Nanning, our primary focus has been to try and establish some sort of routine with the Twins. However, we have found a couple of other cool things. For one, we were looking around the gift / art store in the hotel and were interested in purchasing some jade bracelets for the girls. The lady working at the store told us we could get some nice pieces at a cheaper price through her. It sounded a little shady, but we were game. She came back to the hotel later that night and we really did get some nice pieces. We purchased two pearl and jade bracelets and two jade necklaces for the girls. The jade necklaces are of roosters since the girls were born in the year of the rooster. In addition, Jan and I both purchased two pieces. All this for less than $100 American dollars.

Oh, and I had all the intentions to post the picture below on our first update to this site. As everyone knows, it costs money to adopt. As part of the expenses to adopting in China, you have to make a donation to the orphanage in American money. Because we were adopting twins, my donation was going to be around $10K. I've never held that much money in my hands before, so I thought I had better take a picture. Hence the picture below. And on top of this, I had to carry this sum of change all the way over here.


Another thing that happened that made me feel good, was after a cab ride I took back to hotel after retrieving those McDonald's fries. The cost of my cab ride in Chinese money was about $7. This is about equal to $1 in American money. Therefore, I was thinking that cab drivers probably don't make that much and that I should tip the guy. So I gave him about three times the fare cost, which in American dollars was not that much, but the look on his face was of pure surprise and happiness. I think I made his day and mine too.

Friday Morning in Nanning

Today, we had breakfast at our free hotel buffet (and where else but Nanning can you get sauteed broccoli at 8am?) then went to a local park with our adoption group. The park was just a five minute walk from our hotel and was amazing. Large - huge - koi ponds, rides for kids and adults, a restaurant, areas for music and exercise and lots more. We never did locate the skating rink or the swan pond though. It was incredibly warm outside - the humidity was just really intense and we didn't last more than two hours outside. We were all just dripping with sweat, and no breeze was around to cool us off. The babies didn't seem to mind the heat as much as us, though they slept through part of the excursion!




And here's a picture of the side show we have become and the crowds that want autographs from the twins!

Let sleeping dogs (I mean babies!) lie...

First french fries

But of course - leave it to us to fly thousands of miles to China only to eat McDonald's french fries...Sydney is in white and Alex is in pink.

Thursday afternoon at the pool

On Thursday afternoon we headed to the hotel pool to try and tire the girls out so they would sleep better at night. They had a blast and looked so cute in their swimsuits!

It's weird, but everyone says that when the adoption officials do the "matching process" that they try to pick babies for families that have similar characteristics. I've always thought that was kind of goofy, but does anyone else see a father-daughter hairline resemblance?





I think I have forgotten to mention this in my previous posts, but the five of us are quite the sideshow. If only I could charge to view us, I think I could pay for this trip with the proceeds. At Walmart it was really bad. We went to check out, and just like in the states, the lines are LONG. I took the girls and went to wait at the end of the checkouts. We attracted quite a crowd, all trying to speak Chinese to me. Luckily, our guide taught us that "schwan baa thai" (phonetically) means "twin girls". So all these Chinese people come up to us and say that. Then, when we nod yes, they take that as we speak Chinese and start babbling away. Even once they realize we have no idea what they are saying, they still stand there staring at us. Then others gather around to see what is happening and soon we have an even larger crowd. If only I could sell tickets....

Wednesday's bath pics - Alex

I can't remember who told me to get the blow up turtle bath tub at Target, but thanks whoever did! It's been great to have here in China!