Day 5 - Ancient Village 8/23/11

The first picture (above) is of a typical traffic jam on our way to visit an ancient village south of Guiyang. The large truck was trying to make a U-Turn right in front of all of us. The ancient village of Qingyan is the original city which preceded the more modern capital city of Guiyang. It was and still is important to the growth of Guiyang as it supplies most of the agricultural products for the new city. The entrance was pretty grandiose with a large stone gateway. It was a very interesting place and kind of reminded us of Silver Dollar City in Branson. There were long winding stone streets that were lined with all kinds of little ships. I believe many of the shop owners lived behind or above their shops. There were several shops which sold all kinds of different spices and dried vegetables. There was also an archery booth and a booth just for sitting and playing cards. There were several shops which sold different kinds of handmade art and garments. Of course there were also the food vendors selling many things which I didn't recognize. And, there were shops which sold more modern things like cheap children's toys. Of course Jacob wanted everything. We got him a couple of little small toys and a butterfly toy with a handle that you push along the ground. There were actually three different types of churches located int he village, a Buddhist temple, a Hindu temple, and a Christian church. I also snapped a picture of a typical squatty potty you find out in public.

Day 1 & Day 2 Pictures

Day 1 and Day 2 Pictures

Day 3 Pictures

I had to add these pictures in a separate post because it wouldn't let me edit the previous post to add them in.

Day 4 - More Paperwork........

This morning we went back to the Adoption Center for another round of paperwork and a lot of just sitting and waiting. We were able to get a copy of Jacob's "Finding Ad" which is what they put in the papers when a child is found abandoned in a public place. We also received his adoption certificate making him officially ours! Yeahh!!!.

We then finished up some paperwork so his passport application could be completed. We then had to go on another "half hour drive" (each trip we have made so far we were told by our guide that it was a half hour drive) to the "new construction area" to deliver the the rest of the passport paperwork to the office responsible for issuing passports.

It will take about 5 days for Jacob to get his Chinese passport. We should get it back on Friday so we can depart for Gaungzhou that evening.

The rest of the day we just chilled out in hotel room playing with Jacob. And I went to the business office center in the hotel to get some of the blogging done. Fortunately I wrote most of it out on paper so I could remember it. That night we discovered one challenging habit that Jacob has. He sometimes likes to spit and then laugh really big because he thinks its so funny. Mommy and daddy are going to have to work on that one. Jacob went to sleep much easier tonight.

Tomorrow morning we are off for a tour of an ancient old town village.

Day 3 - Gotcha Day!

We don't go to get Jacob until 4:30 this afternoon. So after breakfast we ventured out of the hotel for a very short walk. We were surprised to find the weather very pleasant. It was about 75 degrees with a nice breeze blowing. We were not so surprised that we were the only non Chinese people on the sidewalk. One man kept staring at my K.C. Chiefs t-shirt and smiling. I'm not sure if he was a fan, or if he thought I was a real Indian Chief. After that we went back to our hotel room. That's when I encountered our second snafu of the trip. I discovered that I had left one of my medicines behind. Oh well, that is in God's hands. We decided to take a nap to kill some time before going to get Jacob. We didn't wake up until 3pm. I guess we were a little tired.

The government Adoption Center Office was being renovated so we went to their temporary office. It was located on the top floor a very old hotel. That's where we met our son Jacob for the very first time! He had a little shortsout fit on and pink "Hello Kitty" clogs on packing a water gun and a Mickey Mouse backpack. He was there with his foster family. His foster mother told Jacob we were Ma Ma and Ba Ba (Daddy) and she made him give us kisses. Trish was able to ask the foster mother several questions through an interpreter about foods he liked, sleeping habits, pottying, and all those other things that are important to mothers. All this time Jacob is running around and shooting all of us with his water gun. He thought that was just so funny and would giggle each time he did it!

After awhile and some picture taking, it was time for the foster family to leave. The foster mother had done a wonderful job of preparing Jacob for this moment as he had already taken to Trish and I he didn't cry much at all when they left. She had shown him pictures of us, told him who we were, and that he would be going to live with us. Trish and I hugged the foster mother. We thanked her for taking such good care of our son for us. Trish told her we would meet her again in heaven. That's when the tears came, not from Jacob, but from Trish.

After that Trish played with Jacob while got to fill out a whole lot of paperwork. I had to sign and thumbprint my signature in triplicate on about 5,000 documents that were all in Chinese. Ok, maybe not 5,000, but they were all in triplicate.

Finally, we were finished and we went to Walmart to get some bottled water, snacks for Jacob and us, and look for an A/C voltage converter. This was a very unique Walmart in that it was all underground including the parking. And this place was like a small city it was so huge. About 3 times the size of our supercenter at home. It had everything from fresh fish and seafood still swimming around in the tanks of water, to a deli which had stir fry made to order with the "fresh" meat hanging up right by the woks. With the help of our guide Michael, we found all of our snack stuff and we got Jacob some milk since his foster mother said he loved milk. I struck out on the converter though. Of course Jacob had to go to the bathroom during all of this. I stayed with the cart while Michael helped Trish and Jacob find the bathroom. Trish saw a mother lift a little girls dress and she went to the bathroom right on the floor in the middle of Walmart. I guess Trish is old fashioned as she preferred to find the bathroom for Jacob.

There was also a KFC in Walmart so Michael helped me order dinner to take back to the hotel. Jacob got a bath before bed and he loved playing in the water! He was splashing around and giggling most of the time. However, he did not want to go to sleep that night. Mommy and daddy wanted to get to bed because we had to get up early next morning for another round of paperwork. But, all he wanted to do was play!