T.G.I.F.

Friday June 22nd...
Thank the Lord for Fridays and after a happy week filled with every emotion possible, we get to have a fun day!
We are going to the Chen Ancestral Hall, it is an old Emperor's Temple that was built in the 1800's.

 There are stone carvings in the walls and on the roof.  Each has it's own meaning. 

They repaint them every 5 years. The expression on every face is different.

This is a wood wall and is hand carved.

This is one of the doors to the temple.  The back doors with the red panels on them are closed in the wintertime to keep in the heat.  The shorter doors in front are for the summertime and function like a screen door to let the breeze in. 

This is where the emperor would have slept.  No matress and the blue and white porcelain boxes are the pillows.  They have small holes in them so that the breeze can flow through them as well.

Looks pretty uncomfortable to me,  I love my down pillow too much! 

This guy is ink painting with the back of his hand and pinky and they are incredible.

It is quite impressive to watch! This is a side shot of what he painted. 

This is not a painting or photo, it is actually tapestry.  There are probably a million threads in this picture frame.  I am amazed at the detail.

This guy is painting cherry blossoms on the inside of these tiny little bottles. 

This is an ink stone, when you add water to it makes ink for drawing calligraphy.

This is carved out of ivory, they are beautiful and have so much detail.  It crazy!

All in all this we had a great day enjoying some sight seeing.  When it was time to go it came a down pour!

I think it has rained everyday at least part of the day since we have been here and somehow still manage to leave our rain jackets back at the hotel??? So needless to say we got soaked! 

 

Good friends!

This is the Godfrey's and they are standing in the spot where there son Brice was found.  It is amazing how God places people in our lives so strategically.  We didn't know each other before this trip but ironically they live in Pelham, AL only about 10 minutes away from us.  They go to Hunter St. where Kevin works.  Cowinkiedink? I think not!

They are super nice people and great friends, our sons are from the same orphanage so we hope to keep in touch and have play dates!

Notice the bamboo scaffolding? Yep bamboo; not sure I could work under these conditions?

This is the street that the orphanage is on.

So far in China we have visited 3 major cities.  As you can see every building has it's own unique architectural design.  Some with a contemporary flare and some with the traditional oriental look.

Here are a few shots of Maoming City

They really outdo themselves on the lanscaping.  Every median and intersection of all the major cities have beautiful trees and lillies.

We say goodbye!

Well this is where Graham has been living for the past 1 1/2 years.  As far as facilities go, it seems like a decent and clean place. 

However at this point Graham is clinging pretty hard to Daddy,  our guide explained to him that we were only there to say goodbye to his friends. 

As you can see there on the right it is under construction for new classrooms.

Opposite view: there on the right side is the nursing home section of the orphanage.

They have a small little play ground out in the courtyard.

Here are a couple of shots of his class rooms and his friends all came to the window to say goodbye to him.  The kids seemed really excited to see him.

I think that is a boiled egg that they are eating with something green? like spinach maybe?

Both ladies were his nannies.  They seemed to love him very much and were very excited to see him again.

We are saying "yay" with a peace sign.  Apparently that is what they do here when they get there pictures made. 

We are both smiling in the shots, but it was really most uncomfortable.  They are a very loud people and have no personal space rules.  They both immediately come up to us trying to grab him out of our arms to hold him talking so loudly to him and us.  Finally our guide Miko came in to help interpret for us. It was kind of crazy for a second.

They did give us a couple of photos of Graham they had on the wall and a drawing that he did.

 One of the last things they asked him was "who is your mama and papa?" and Graham looked up at them and pointed to me and Kevin. 

I couldn't really understand every word of that conversation but I knew the jest of it and it made my heart smile.

This is the "bedroom"  - the crib with the pink blanket in it was his.  I got to say it was kind of sad seeing this room and Graham really did not like seeing that again so Dad had to take him out of the room. 

Heart wrenching!

This is the entrance gate to the orphanage and we are standing in the spot where they found him.

It is illegal to abandone a child and so they are usually always left in a very public place with sometimes a note but usually no information regarding family name or what city or village they are from.

In Graham's case, the orphanage gave him the name Mao ZhongBing.  Mao(which is really considered his last name) is from Maoming City.  Zhong is from the year.  He was found in 2009, the orphanage gave all 2009 boys the name Zhong and bing means "boy"

But now he has a new name!  Graham Chapman Hall

I think he is already getting use to his name. 

All in all, it was a pretty exhausting day physically and emotionally but I think it really helped bring a closure for Graham.  He needed to say goodbye, this would free him to bond with us more as his parents.

Really BIG Day!!

Thursday June 21st
Today is a really big day!  Today we drive 3 1/2 hours away to Maoming City to visit the orphanage where Graham has been living. We have mixed emotions about today.  It is neat to get out to see some of the country but we are just not sure how Graham will react to seeing his nanny's and friends again.  We were encouraged by our agency and guides that this will finalize it for him. So we shall see...

We took a few pictures along the way...

Being that there is a 3 1/2 hour drive ahead of us, our guides made sure we had an opportunity for a restroom break.  Lets just say that rest areas in China are nothing like ours at home.  (even our most disgusting ones would be considered clean in comparison)

This is the perverbial "squaty potty"  yep it is just a porcelain hole in the ground.  Needless to say, I  (Tracy)didn't have to go so bad after all. I don't think I have ever smelled anything quite so bad.

Lots of scooter and bicycle transportation. They just merge in with all the big buses and cars.

They haul anything, chickens, fruit, boxes, you name it they pedal everywhere.

Driving Rules?? Ha! there are no rules...

Finally made it to Maoming City so we stop for lunch.

Pizza Hut in China is very different.   It is not just pizza here, you might also see a couple of different rice dishes, beef stew, noodle dishes as well (not necessarily italian noodles).  They kind of have an Applebee's or O'Charley's atmosphere to them. They served us hot water while we were waiting on our drink orders.

Wednesday - Day 3

June 20th
Well, thankfully we don't have anything to do until 3:00 this afternoon and because it has been so emotional for both him and us we decide to keep it on the LD today.  We all need some chill time and it feels good to just stay in the room and try to relax and entertain a 3 year old.

At 3:00 we go to the local Police station to apply for Graham's visa to come back to the states, so we have an easy day today!

 We needed an easy day too!

Tuesday - Day 2

Tuesday June 19th

It is back to the Civil Affairs building for interviews.  This is where we promise to love and take care of our child and they sign and stamp everything and make it legal!!! Woot Woot!!

And yes it is hot and humid here, so it is a bad hair day everyday!

It has been a rough couple of days for this little fella, he is wiped out!

So far he sleeps all through the night and is totally potty trained!! Double Woot Woot!!

They call it "Gotcha Day"

It's Monday the 18th and it is "Gotcha Day"  the day we go to the Civil Affairs building (which has very little air condition) to pick up our son!  He is coming from an orphanage in Maoming City which is about 3 1/2 hours away. 

 A long awaited day, so many emotions all at once. Both of our worlds are about to be rocked!

It was a tough day for this little man, we took him from the only women that he has known.  We took him from everything familiar to him and brought him to a different place. He cried, screamed and kicked a little and just when we would have him settled down the nanny would come up to him to check on him.  (that just escalated the tension)  Finally, after they left he settled down and actually got to giggling and laughing.  He almost immediately fell in love with his dad, who can blame him.  Kevin is a pretty likable guy and he had never been around a man before, bonding with mom has been a little slower so far.

After we left the Civil Affairs building we went back to our hotel for a little bit of family time and paperwork time.  One thing for sure is Rebacca and Miko (our guides while we are here) are amazing.  They arrange everything and make sure that we have every paper in order.  They work very hard and at odd hours away from their families.