3:00 pm Guangzhou time, Monday October 15

We're on the home stretch right now . . .

Sue is shopping and the kids are sleeping, and so I'm trying to make the most of this post. Be forewarned that it may be unorganized and will be more like a stream of consciousness.

So . . . here's where things stand. First, in terms of the kids, Eli is doing quite well - probably as well as can be expected. He is crying less before going to bed at naptime and at night, and we appreciate all of your prayers on that. He likes to test the boundaries of what he can do, but mostly because he likes to have fun. He really is a good kid. We love to hear him laugh and see him smile - which he does quite often, and that's a real blessing. We were concerned before we left about whether he would smile at all because he doesn't smile in any of the pictures that we saw before coming here.

Because everything is so new, Eli is still scared of some things like escalators, small rides in a park, etc. He clings to me when something new comes up. I'm sure that's to be expected and I don't see anything unusual in that.

Eli doesn't speak a lot, but I suspect that has to do historically with his cleft palate and lip. Our guide tells us that his pronunciation is pretty good, although he has trouble with the "zzzhhh" sound. Since he doesn't speak very often, I wondered for a bit whether there was something else going on. But now I don't because Eli continues to appear very bright - some of the stuff that he does amazes me.

The biggest challenge as of late has been the kids getting kind of stir crazy - particularly when we're together in the hotel room. That's because, unless we're sightseeing or eating, there really isn't a lot to do within any reasonable distance of the hotel and so sometimes the kids get on each other's nerves. Frankly, Stacie has had more difficulty with this than Eli. We're working with her on trying to play with Eli rather than compete with him, and I'm sure she will come around soon. Right now she's often tired and getting used to the "new kid in town." She also told Sue today that she wanted to go home.

When the kids get all riled up, it's kinda difficult for Sue and I as well. But then, when I was picking out the pictures above, I am reminded how worth it this is. I'm biased, but what good and beautiful kids . . . It will be a joy to be their parents.

In terms of Guangzhou, it's been a good thing. Some random thoughts:

-We've been to Guangzhou before, and so it is somewhat familiar territory (at least Shamian Island is). It's great to be here, though, because now we are with 3 other families (all from Michigan) who are adopting kids through Adoption Associates. So we have a group to travel with, go to eat with, share with, etc. Before this point, we just had a guide for our family and there were no other families with us. It's so much nicer to be able to share this with other families. For me, the highlight of the trip will be (1) the trip to the orphanage, including having a sense that Eli wants to belong to our family rather than stay at the orphanage; and (2) the relationships that we are and will be developing with the other 3 families.

-The stuff we've done in Guangzhou is pretty similar to what we've done before. There's been a fair amount of shopping on Shamian Island as well as other places. We've had Eli checked out at the medical clinic on Shamian Island as is required for every adoption (he's fine) and we had his passport picture taken. Sue has taken care of some of the paperwork with the guide. In fact, Sue has been amazing on that stuff - keeping track of the paperwork, all that needs to be done, etc. We've also toured a Chinese folk art museum, which is the same one we did last time.

-The food in Guangzhou has been excellent - and I don't mean just excellent as compared with other Chinese food. Our meals have been very good, including a couple of lunches at what is kind of a fast food Chinese place called Noodles (I think). The food is excellent. I would go there if they franchised one of these in the US. The other, more traditional restaurants have had very good food as well with tons of selection and lots to eat. The cost for our whole family at one of the restaurants was 50 yuan, less than $7, and there was tons of food. Of course, we've also had Pizza Hut and McDonald's in Guangzhou(maybe KFC later on). The McDonald's food was better than in the US. And, just like last time, the server in McDonald's sat us down and took our order at our table and almost ran to deliver the order to us. I wish McDonald's in the US were run like the ones in China.

-The beds in Guangzhou, just like in other places in China, are quite firm. I would have called them rock hard, but our guide grew up sleeping on hard wood with no mattress or anything - now that would be rock hard. Apparently the new generation of Chinese is getting somewhat softer beds. Our guide thinks that the beds in our hotel are soft. In fact, she says she wants to visit the US, and she wants to find out two things when she's there: (1) she wants to feel how soft the beds are; and (2) she wants to see a US hospital.

-Speaking of the hotel . . . it's a nice hotel called Yutong International Hotel. It's a new hotel (only 1 year old, I'm told) and is nice in a lot of ways. If I could ask for just one thing it would be to have a US television channel. There are a lot of channels, but all in Chinese. Other hotels we have stayed at have had BBC World or CNN International, or other channels. One hotel had ESPN, but it was an international version of ESPN. Despite that, I was able to watch part of the Yankees - Cleveland game on that station (where the bugs invaded Cleveland). For the record, I hope Cleveland beats the Red Sox.

-We have an easy schedule for the next couple of days. A pizza party tonight at 5 pm with the other families. The pizza's coming from Pizza Hut, and it's good pizza. Then tomorrow afternoon we go to the US Embassy. And then, believe it or not, we take off. We leave bright and early on Wednesday morning (8:15 am Guangzhou time). We first travel to Tokyo by Northwest on a Boeing 757, then to Detroit on a Boeing 747 and then on to Grand Rapids. We're supposed to arrive in Grand Rapids at 4:30 pm Wednesday.

In some ways, the time has gone by fast, but in other ways somewhat slow. In our last trip to China 2 years ago, I wasn't really looking forward to returning home because I really enjoyed China and we had our whole family with this. I would really have liked to extend our time in China and I'm sure I would have really enjoyed the extra time.

I enjoyed China this time as well, but the 3 other kids are still at home and we'd like to see them. Plus, we need more space than what we have in a normal-sized hotel room. All that adds up to being ready to leave, and so I'm kinda anxious for that.

Even though I'm ready to go, I am hoping that we will be able to keep in touch with the 3 families that we have met here. I think we'll be able to do that since they are all in Michigan.

By the way, we're also hoping to see Sandy tomorrow - our friend from China who we met in our last trip. She worked at the Dolton Hotel in Changsha but now works in Shenzen.

That's about it for now. Eli's just waking up and I better get him. Thanks for all of the prayers and emails.

Gord