Leaving Lanzhou

Friday we departed Lanzhou at 8am. We drove an hour to the airport, in time for Belle to catch her flight to Beijing. Belle was so sweet to join us this past week and so very helpful. Not every family here had the privilege of traveling with a professional photographer!

Our flight left two hours later and baby Belle did pretty well for her first 3 hour flight. We arrived in Guanghoux, a much larger city in the southeast part of China, around 4:30pm. The temp was around 100 degrees- much warmer and more humid than last week. We drove an hour through traffic (again) to the China Hotel, a Marriott hotel with a Starbucks, ESPN and Bloomberg news channel, and met up with the other four American families adopting through America World that we had initially met upon arriving in Beijing that first night.

We strolled around the shops attached to the hotel, walked around the outdoor pool on the fourth floor, then had a really nice dinner at one of the four hotel western-style restaurants.

Today, we all had the required doctor's appointment for the children - not very comprehensive, but baby Belle checked out fine. No fever, ear infection, etc. Our little bus stopped at a grocery store so we could get some more diapers, formula, water, Pringles (barbecue flavored) and fresh chicken feet...

Thank you all again for your prayers. God has been so faithful and continues to go before us.

Tim

Saying goodbye to Bebe for good-she is on a 20 hour journey home and we are on a 4 hour flight to the southern part of china for more paperwork

"I was hot on the bus so my mommy took my pants off! I wanted to show off again that I would be a gymnast!"-belle qing

belle loves to be carried around by daddy in the bjorn! these teenage girls are from austin(sisters) and their parents were bringing them back for a "reunion trip."

mommy on the airplane giving bottle-lots of stares for sure! 

Another adoptive mom who lives in baltimore-our babies are the closest in age

Baby Belle getting her medical exam

More Pictures :)

China's "Toms" 

Biker

Off to market

Smoker

Market dentist

Teeth for sale

Spices

Pictures

Sweet Baby Belle

2 Belles

Smitten

Our sheep skin raft (Yellow River)

Last day in Lanzhou

Our last day in Lanzhou has been quite interesting. Again, we have not seen one foreigner at all and it has been a week now. Not even one at our hotels. We just cannot get over the way people stare at us everywhere-I got some good video of it today.

The employees here now know what we want after 3 nights when we ask for ice or salt. Belle had to draw a photo for about 4 people one night to explain that we would like some ice (i sometimes forget to bring my little translation booklet). None of the Chinese use ice. They drink warm water, warm tea, warm coke, and even warm beer!

Today we had our usual buffet at the hotel. We have been sticking to toast and fried eggs. The veggies do not seem very appetizing for breakfast. I had beef noodle soup to change it up this morning though! I got a great little video clip of the way they make their noodles-it is very fascinating!

Our guide picked us at 9:30 and we headed to the zoo. It is at the base of their mountain range and the weather was good today after several days of rain. People here everywhere have umbrellas. We heard a large group of people singing Buddhist songs before we entered. We spent about 2 hours in the zoo looking at all the animals. It felt good to walk. Belle likes to be on her daddy in the Baby Bjorn. Thankful he has a strong back. It is difficult here to use the umbrella stroller we bought because the sidewalks are so bad... even the sidewalks at the zoo. All of the Chinese kids wanted their photos with us and wanted to see the baby. Belle Johnson and I decided to be adventuresome and take a camel ride for 10 Yuan(roughly $1.50). My favorite animal may have been the panda.

We left the zoo and moved to the Waterpark Area that shows the history of the old water wheels. It is down by the Yellow River. There is so much history there with the silk road and the river. There was an opportunity to float down the Yellow River with Muslim men on a sheepskin raft. (I truly cannot wait to see these photos!) Our guide encouraged us to "take the 15 minute trip" so she held our baby and cameras while we ventured out! We put on life jackets and the three of us hopped on this tiny vessel made up of about 20 hard blown sheep skins that were tied together. This is from a tradition that the Muslims started 400 years ago on the Yellow River. Belle got some great video too! It floated us down at a fairly rapid pace (water extremely muddy but we did not get too wet!) and then a small motor boat took us back. This was a great chance to say that "we floated down such a historical river!"

Next, our guide took us to a neat place to buy some souvenirs. I am trying to collect some things to give baby belle each year from her province. I got a really neat piece of art for her nursery that I can frame when we return. Also, bought some local tea and dried painted gourds that have scenes of the town on them. Last, we went to get Pizza! We were so excited to eat something different than Chinese Food for a change! Belle and Tim thoroughly enjoyed having some coke on ice too! By that time baby belle was pooped and it was time to go back to hotel for her nap! She seems to like her crib OK and we are beginning to pack a little for our flight in the morning.

We will be sad to say goodbye to our dear friend Belle Johnson but so thankful for the fond memories and laughs we have shared. She will head back to Nashville and we will head southeast to Ghaungoux. Supposedly, it is VERY hot and humid there right now (Tim's favorite combination!) We hear that it is a neat city to explore- we will have more paperwork there to do and a doctor's check-up. We will also reunite with the other 4 AMerica World Families we met the first night in Beijing.

We will hold those amazing memories of Gansu close to our heart. We hope that someday we can bring baby Belle back to her roots with the other kids. Again, please pray for our continued safety and that all the little details on her paperwork will go as planned. Will post photos soon!

Love each and every one of you!

Carissa

Day 6 in China!

We had a restful day off from any official paperwork, which was helpful in trying to establish a good sleeping and eating schedule for Belle. She has only had three bottles a day, and one nap a day, which is probably not quite enough for this little 16 month old!

Around lunchtime, we took a stroll to an eight-story mall and milled around for a while. The line "gee (elwood), this mall's got everything" kept ringing true. More gawking and staring, so Tim decided to start speaking in Spanish to curious ladies that would come up to us, staring and looking us up and down. Like puppies hearing a new sound, they would tilt their heads, not quite sure what to make of it, which was extremely gratifying.

We spent most of the afternoon reading, charging cameras and re-organizing our suitcases. There are no western TV channels on the television (why would there be??), so we were reduced to watching women's soccer with Chinese play by play. Baby Belle slept again, which was great, then our guide showed up around 6pm to deliver notarized copies of all the paperwork that we will take with us to the next city. She then took us to a local seafood restaurant with the evening's options: sea worms, beltfish or turtle. Hmmmmm. We went with the fried rice... again....

Carissa and Tim

Some pictures

new passport photos

paper work party. 

bundle of love:)

look what I can do :0

tiny fingers

loooong eye lashes!

her crib is empty!

Another fine day.

Yesterday our guide finished up some more things with a notary while we made our way to the e-market around the corner (thankfully our hotel here is very centrally located and we can walk many places). It was like the Chinese version of Best Buy.

As most of you know-Belle was in her element looking at camera lenses and all the new gadgets out. Baby Belle still continues to take in all the new sights and smells she has never seen before. She really likes facing outward in the Baby Bjorn on daddy or facing forward in the sling on me. Belle has been a very welcomed extra pair of hands as she is so sweet with babies and we are carrying cameras, strollers, and diapers bags around too.

We try to bring Baby Belle back to the hotel around noon for her nap and we usually will order room service from the Japanese restaurant downstairs (we will not want any fried rice or noodles for awhile when we return). Our guide took us to Gansu's famous museum yesterday afternoon where we saw the origins of the silk road, pottery, great wall, dinosaur bones, and many other very interesting pieces of history. There was a local "antique shop" next door where I found one or two treasures to pass along to her one day from the dynasty days. Our guide Jessica and our driver took us to a local place for Chinese food. She usually tries to get us a small private room because the smoking is so bad everywhere. Then we went to the Yellow River at night
and saw the "lit up" RiverPark. A wonderful very big dragon that is huge along the river and one of their famous landmarks here in Lanzhou. We were all very sleepy last night!

Today we woke to do some more touring. Baby Belle is still a little joy to carry around. Please pray that she will continue to attach to us and for our safety. We almost got hit yesterday by a crazy driver... and as you know, no car seats here!

We have Wednesday and Thursday here and then we all depart Friday morning. Belle will return to the states and we will go to Guangzhou for the week. We will reunite with 4 other America World families and have our consulate appointment and wait for her passport.

We are thankful for all of your prayers once again. We miss our kids back home but we have heard they are doing very well with grandparents! It has been such fun to Skype with them!

Carissa

Oh, and here's a wonderful picture Belle took the other day of Daddy and daughter :)