Well, we are back home. Wireless internet was difficult and expensive to come by in Guangzhou, so we went dark as far as this blog went. Guangzhou was a very different experience than Beijing. It was a laid-back town. The people were friendly and there were plenty of interesting little shops to peruse near the hotel. We stayed in the legendary White Swan Hotel, which we found to be nice but rather overpriced and somewhat overrated. We also met some other families that were in Guangzhou to finish the adoption of their children. While shopping, we met and befriended a guy named Dong who owns one of the stores in Guangzhou called Susan's Place. He and Matt bonded over a shared love of the martial arts.

One of the highlights while in Guangzhou was attending a bilingual Easter Sunday service at Shamian Christian Church. We also were able to purchase a Mandarin/English NIV Bible while over there. While In Guangzhou, we finalized the US side of the adoption at the US consulate. All went smoothly on that front. It was as efficient as any bureaucratic process can be.

From Guangzhou, we took a train to Hong Kong. The Guangzhou train station was nightmarish at best. You had to tote all of your luggage up 3 long escalators to get to the train and then board the train with all of your bags and get off the train with them upon reaching your destination. We spent one night in Hong Kong before getting on our flight back to the US. It was a 14 hour flight from Hong Kong to Detroit, Michigan. Zach was amazingly well-behaved on the trip as we took turns dealing with him. In Detroit, we cleared immigration and customs (so Zach is now a US citizen) and then had our final flight back to Atlanta where we were met by Matt's dad and Julia's sister Camille and her family. It ended up being a 31 hour day.

It has been a few days now and some sense of normalcy is beginning to re-emerge. Zach and Matt's dad are fast friends, which is good.

The first couple of days back from China, we were all jet-lagged and irritable. So far, Zach is very unsure about the chihuahuas. They would not hurt a fly of course and want nothing more than to be his friends, but he is not at all receptive yet. It will come, though. Matt has been having very strange dreams and sleep interruptions (not due to Zach) since returning. Last night was the first night that he has had semi-decent sleep. This morning, Matt ran some errands, cut the grass, and did some other yardwork. Julia has been working on continuing to put things back in order after the trip and with the new addition. Zach is presently having his first full-scale chernobyl-level meltdown in response to being put down for a nap. Hopefully this is not setting a dark precedent for days and nights to come. Altogether, things are reasonable, though. Things should continue to improve as normalcy continues to return.

Yesterday, we took Zach along with Bingo the chihuahua to Rabbit Hill Park, which is close to the house. He walked a bit and got to play with some of the lower level playground equipment such as a swingset and a slide. What fun.



Well, I am going to cut this short to try to assist with the meltdown. Pray for us.