Beijing to Guangzhou

The Pearl River and part of the Guangzhou skyline. Notice the haze and smog - it is not nearly as bad here as it was in Beijing.

Inside the lobby of the White Swan ... pretty cool, eh???

Day 2 ...

We were up way too early to catch our flight to Guangzhou ... good thing though because it took forever to check in at the Beijing airport ! Our flight south was uneventful with an on time arrival. We are now in our hotel, The White Swan, moved into our rooms with toys, clothes and a crib all waiting for tomorrow afternoon. We will travel with 5 other families to meet our children.

Our group took a quick walking tour around our hotel. I think we were all in need of some good old western comfort food, so we found a restaurant, Lucy's, that had lots of western foods. Grilled cheese, burgers and fries, club sandwiches and wraps were on our plates. YUM !

Tonight we get our last minute paperwork together and have a good night's sleep to prepare for tomorrow!

Beijing

Tian An Men Square

The Great Wall

Inside the Forbidden City

We made it through our first day in China. After a very strange night's sleep, we were up and out touring the area. We spent time in the Forbidden City, Tian An Men Square and the Great Wall. We drove past the Olympic Village and saw the Bird's Nest Stadium and the Cube from a distance. We are all pretty exhausted.

We hit our beds early as we had to be up at 4 AM to get our luggage out for the bell boys and to be on the bus ready to go at 5.

On Our Way ...

Good Morning from Chicago ... we have been up since 2 AM ...

Well, the actual journey has begun. We have completed the easy part of our journey today and are now in Chicago. We have connected with one of the families from our agency. They will be going from Beijing to a different province and then we will meet up with us in Guanzhou.

Introducing Luolin Elisabeth Webster (Long Luo Lin)

In early December we received a note from our agency asking if we would be interested in a little girl who is a "Waiting Child". This meant that she was a special needs child and would we consider adopting her. After taking one look at her picture, we said yes. The fun had just begun! Now there was frantic paper filing and more waiting. On Christmas Eve we got our preliminary adoption OK from the Chinese and on January 2, 2009 we got the official word that Luo was going to be joining our family!

We don't know too much about her, only what the orphanage in Shenzhen sent us.

She "was sent to the orphanage upon approval of the local civil affairs bureau on June 29, 2006. According to her development, the medical staff estimated that the girl was born in June 25, 2006. She was then named Long Luolin."

" She gets up at 6:00, takes a nap at 12:30, and goes to bed at 21:00." She has four meals per day and is regular on the potty. "The staple food is rice for three times ... crawls ... walks holding onto handrails ... bangs two blocks together... knows red color ... timid .. active ... fond of playing with toys ... talkative ... fairly extroverted, obstinate sometimes, impatient sometimes ... favorite toy: doll ..."

Since she is almost three, we decided to keep and combine her given first and middle names, Luolin, and add Elisabeth as her middle name.

We are all very excited to meet this little person and have her join our family! We shall see if she really lives up to what they say about her ...

Our China Itinerary

Our bags are packed and we are ready to go ...

February 26
Leave Portland at 6:22 AM, arrive in Chigago, IL at 8:16
Chicago at 12:33 PM, arrive in Beijing, China at 4:25 PM on February 27

February 27

Recover from the flight and try to get with the time zone!

February 28
Sightseeing Tour to the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Tian An Men Square

March 1
Fly to Guangzhou

March 2
Go to Civil Affairs to pick up Luolin

March 3 - 12
Sightseeing, shopping and paperwork in Guangzhou

March 13
Leave Guangzhou at 8:15 AM, arrive in Beijing at 11:15 AM
Leave Beijing at 4:20 PM, arrive in Chicago, IL at 4:24 PM
Leave Chicago at 7:29PM, arrive in Portalnd, Maine at 10:41 PM

The Journey Begins ...

Dylan, Missy, Lauren and Kurt

Summer 2005

Way back when in June of 2006, Kurt and I and our children, Lauren and Dylan, began our journey of adoption. After searching and looking at adoption agencies, we decided to go with Great Wall China Adoption and arrange a meeting with the local representative ... the rest is history!