Hong Kong and Arrival in Guangzhou

We arrived in Hong Kong yesterday and spent the night there until we could take a train to Guangzhou today.  We will stay here the entire length of our trip, until we return back to Hong Kong to fly home.  We are jet-lagged, a bit exhusted and overwhelmed from all the travel and transitions, but we are doing well.  Our hotel is amazing.  I can't wait to show pictures of the lobby and various sights - just at the hotel!  It is surrounded by shopping (and American restaurants - yay!) on all sides.  Guangzhou is a large city and very busy - much more than we had anticipated.  Our guide, Miki, is excellent!  She gave us a lot of good tips and gave us a schedule for our time here.

We are very nervous and excited about meeting Jaxson on Monday around 2:00 p.m. (2:00 a.m US time).  Please pray for our nerves and his emotions.  It will be an eventful day!

Alexis did VERY well on the flight.  It was long - and not something I'd want to do often - ha ha!  We made it, though.  We were so excited to have another adopting family from the US behind us (I had actually "met" her on an online message board) and she is here with her family to adopt her Jackzhen!  They were such a wonderful family to meet in person and I enjoyed surviving the trip with them.

Since Alexis and I slept so much on the plane (thank you, Tylenol PM and Benadryl), we had some issues sleeping last night.  Alexis crashed this afternoon, but I have her up watching Barney so that she will hopefully sleep all night (instead of 4:00 a.m. like last night).

Hayley and Jason got a lot of sleep last night, so they are doing pretty well today!  We are glad we have a day of "rest" tomorrow. 

Hong Kong was fascinating - and VERY westernized.  Most people spoke English, most signs were in English and we felt just like we were in Chicago or New York.  Guangzhou is much less westernized, and we definitely feel more like foreigners here.

We took a train from Hong Kong to China and the poverty and living conditions were simply heartbreaking.  We saw HUNDREDS of high rise buildings - many in very poor condition.  We saw rice fields and too many make-shift shacks to count.  It was definitely an eye-opening experience.  Jason said he will never complain about mowing the yard and I will not gripe about laundry!  We saw thousands of clothes hanging outside very dirty buildings, and we saw NO houses that were not mansions.  EVERYONE appears to live in some type of high rise complex. 

Here are some pictures so far...