Saturday

We got to Gaunzhou late Friday night. Dylan slept through almost the whole plane ride. He was excited about flying and then just went to sleep! I can't believe our hotel is so nice! There is shopping, bars, restaurants, pools, saunas, spas, etc. It is gorgeous! We went today to get Dylan's  medical check-up. Not fun. He screamed when they had to take blood. He kept crying for Mama and Papa and there was nothing we could do about it. It was so sad! Today we took the kids swimming. They have a very nice pool on the fourth floor with lounge beds around the pool. It is really nice. The only thing missing was a bar :) Dylan was scared at first but ended up loving swimming. Tonight we went to a Mexican restaurant. It was pretty good although I wouldn't say it was great Mexican. I did get to have a margarita, however! Dylan, Lizzy, and Paul played pool for a bit. It was too funny because the pool sticks are so much bigger than Lizzy and Dylan! Tomorrow afternoon we are going shopping on Shamin(?) Island. I hope to get some souvenirs and little man some more clothes. No pictures tonight, but I will try to publish some tomorrow. 

Love,
Candace, Paul, Lizzy, and Dylan

Thursday

Yesterday we went to a park. It was a very nice park. It had beautiful flowers planted all around and a lake in the middle. There was also a children's section with carnival rides. Dylan got to ride his first rides. He loved it. Last night we ate at the restaurant in the hotel. The waitresses were so taken with Dylan that they scooped him up and showed him to everyone that worked there. We think they asked him if he wanted to go home with them and he got very afraid and said he wanted his Papa and Mama :) Paul and I then decided to get a drink at the hotel lobby. We both ordered double Jamesons. Later Paul told me it cost 30 American dollars!!!!!!!!!!!  Guess we won't be doing that again! Lizzy then decided to take a bath in our giant bathtub. Dylan has wanted no part in the bathtub. However, he decided that he wanted to take a bath with Lizzy last night. It was SO cute. They played together and had a good time. Neither had acknowledged each other too much before this. When it was bedtime, Lizzy wanted to sleep next to Dylan. (We all have been sleeping on the king sized bed). They then fell asleep with Dylan's head on Lizzy's chest and her arms around him. It was priceless.
Dylan has already started speaking English. Yesterday, as we were getting ready to go to dinner, Dylan said, "Lizzy, ready to go?" Paul and I almost flipped out. He also now says yes and no and right there. He is such a smart boy.
Today we have hung out in the room. We were supposed to go shopping on a famous street in Tianjin, but it is supposed to rain so we stayed in. The kids have gotten a little stir crazy :) We got to Skype with Nancy and Beach and Stephanie and Rick. Dylan thought it was neat. We leave for Guanzhou tomorrow evening. We have to check out at 11 and our plane doesn't leave until 5:20. I am not sure what we are going to do in between. We'll see. Here are some more pictures to show off my adorable family!

Love,
Candace, Paul, Lizzy, and Dylan

The woman below is our wonderful facilitator, Linda. She is beyond sweet!

The last two days have been a blur. Yesterday was good. Dylan has adjusted very quickly! He is very happy and is always joking. He got a little sad last night when it was bedtime. He cried for a few minutes and then he was OK. Today was our day to run around and do paperwork. He waved at everyone he saw. Poor Lizzy was hot and bored all day. The van did not have the air conditioner on and it was HOT. I can't count the number of pedestrians our driver almost hit today.
Dylan has discovered our camera and loves taking pictures. He has taken a million pictures of his feet. He and Lizzy have had some arguments today over the Leap Pad and pens. He loves to draw. At lunchtime, he amused the other patrons at the restaurant by eating with his chopsticks. He looks like he is a year old so they thought this was quite the trick. This evening we walked to Subway for dinner. We had to stop Dylan from eating because he ate way more than he needed and wanted more! 
Tomorrow our facilitator is taking us to a park for the kids to play. Will update again, soon.

Love,
Candace, Paul, Lizzy, and Dylan

Finally!

Today was the big day! We finally got to meet Dylan. I gasped when I first saw him. He is SO tiny. Lizzy is a head and a half taller than him! The 12 month bottoms we brought him are too big! His sense of humor is just like Lizzy's. He is very silly and loves to make jokes. He speaks Chinese as well as any five year old (so we were told). Hopefully, this means he will learn English quickly.He is also extremely intelligent like Lizzy. He figures things out quickly and catches on to things the first time.  He likes the name Dylan and called himself that today. He seems to like his big sister, as well. They have already had a few squabbles over some toys and candy! He loves the computer and wants to sit in Paul's lap and type. He also loves listening to music and playing with Lizzy's Leappad. He has quite the sweet tooth and wanted every type of candy we passed at the market. He had never been outside of the orphanage and was quite overwhelmed by the market today. I think the adjustment has already been a little hard on Lizzy. She seemed quiet and a little sad this afternoon. I stayed in and made Dylan take a nap while Papa took Lizzy out for some Papa/Lizzy time. He is quite the eater and ate spaghetti, fried rice, and mashed potatoes all with chopsticks for lunch. He fed Papa with them, as well. He laughs a lot and you can't help but smile when he laughs. He has the cutest smile! Tomorrow we file some paperwork. Hopefully we make it OK. The driving here may even be worse than Ukraine! Will update again soon.

Love,
Candace, Paul, Lizzy, and Dylan

We made it! The plane trip was good. We all kept ourselves busy with the unlimited number of movies and tv shows. Thanks to Ativan mama enjoyed the plane ride as well! Lizzy didn't really sleep, however, which haunted us later that evening! We then met our facilitator at the airport and loaded a bus to Tianjin. I slept the whole time between the honking and the times we almost hit pedestrians crossing the street. It was a little crazy.Also, the bus driver was very mad at me and kept yelling at me to get off the bus once were stopped. I tried to explain that I was waiting for my wheelchair to get unpacked, but he just kept telling me to get off the bus. We then had to take a Taxi to our hotel. We finally arrived at our hotel in Tianjin and it is very nice. We also had a buffet breakfast this morning with some crazy things on the buffet. Liz and I stuck with doughnuts and noodles. The coffee was crazy strong! I liked it, though. Today we plan on sightseeing Tianjin and exchanging some US currency. We also told Lizzy that we will find a toy for her to give to Dylan tomorrow morning when we met him. Our facilitator will be here at 10:00 am tomorrow to come pick us up to get Dylan! We will continue to update as much as possible. Facebook and our blog is blocked out here. Luckily my awesome husband got VPN to work through Autotrader! Below is a picture of Lizzy posing with a statue at our hotel.

Love,
Candace, Paul, and Lizzy

Today was my last day of school until August. I am so excited, but also a nervous wreck. Our plane leaves at 7:45 Friday morning. We fly to Chicago and then 13 hours to Beijing. I hate flying so that is the part of the trip that I am least excited about. We will then travel by bus to Tianjin. Our hotel looks nice so I am excited. We will get Dylan on Monday!!! I can't believe that the little boy I have looked at in pictures will soon be our son! I can't wait to love on him and kiss his little cheeks :) Lizzy is excited about swimming in the pool at the hotel and about meeting her brother. After Tianjin, we will travel to Guangzhou. The hotel is even nicer there. I am excited to tour both cities. After Ukraine, this trip will be a breeze! I will continue to blog and give updates and pictures as much as possible. Stay tuned!

Love,
Candace, Paul, and Lizzy

Adoption- "The Last Hope You Have to be a Parent"

This blog post is going to veer off of the others a little. I feel the need to clear up some misunderstandings about adoption.

1. There are people out there for whom adoption is their FIRST choice for being parents *gasp*!

Paul and I, as far as we know, are both perfectly capable of conceiving a child with our DNA. However, a.) neither one of us wanted a baby. b.) We felt it wrong to bring a new child into the world when there are MILLIONS of orphans just waiting for a family to bring them home. c.) We felt strongly about adopting an LP child that so many other adopting parents would not even dream of adopting. p.s. Children with dwarfism are not mentally handicapped :) d.) The thought of pregnancy makes me ill.

2. We love our child as much as any child that would share our DNA.

a.)Our child may not share our genes, but she will share our love of music, books, sense of humor, thoughts, gestures, etc. b.) Your husband and bestie don't share your DNA, but you love them, right? c.) Yes, she is our REAL child.

3. Yes, the paperwork is a pain in the $#@@. However, I think every person thinking about being a parent should have to go through the same process.

It would cut down on the *idiots who reproduce over and over again.

*By idiots I mean the people who can not afford one child nor do they take care of this child, but continue to have five or six more! NOT the wonderful parents who have a big family and love and take care of their kids.

4. Yes, adoption is expensive, but there are grants, loans, tax breaks etc. that greatly help with the cost.

Not to mention it is totally worth it and none of your business how much it cost. :)

5. "Why didn't you adopt in America? There are children here who need homes."

LPs in other countries have ZERO chance of doing anything with their lives. After a certain age they are placed in mental institutions and live their lives there with no education or any hope of getting out. Also, there aren't any older LP children here. Mostly babies for adoption.

Hopefully, this educates a little more on adoption :)

Candace