We have arrived in Guangzhou

Hello again,

This time I am writing from Guangzhou. We are soooooooo glad to be here. It feels kind of like Florida, about 75 degrees and the nicest city we have seen so far. Our hotel is exquisite. We feel like we are in heaven. Lilly is sound asleep, as are Scott and Sharlyn. I am tired but wanted to write a little and put up some more pictures. Lilly cut three teeth since Sunday and last night we got about 2 hours of sleep total. She had her first plane ride today and did great. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel and were on the bus headed for the airport by 8 am. It is amazing how all these families are able to juggle so much. So many important documents, new babies, appointments and still we are all on time and ready to go. Whenever Dennis tells us to be somewhere at a certain time we are there. Dennis is our coordinator so he has been with us since last Saturday and will be with us until we leave. We also get a local guide in each province. Here in Guangzhou it is Simon. In Jiangxi it was Mary. All of these people are so kind and generous. They go the extra mile all the time and they do it with such grace. They are handling so many legal documents and juggling the schedules of several families, each with a new baby and yet they do it all with a calm confindence that creates such a feeling of one big family. It will be hard to part with all of these people. They truly feel like our family. Scott has to leave tomorrow. He has been sick the whole time and although we hate to see him go I really hope he will go to the doctor when he gets home. I have been so grateful to Sharlyn for her willingness to undertake this big adventure with us. I cannot imagine what I would have done over here with a sick husband and a new baby. She has been such a joy to have with us. We could never thank her enough. She and Lilly are already deep in love with one another. We walked into our hotel this afternoon and we were so excited. It is absolutely beautiful and we are feeling so nurtured. We ordered room service and it was delicious. It was the first real food I have had in almost a week. They wheeled it in on the cart with the white linen and the fancy dishes. The whole nine yards. We are definitely stepping up the quality here in Guangzhou. We had to do some more legal paperwork tonight and tomorrow we have to have all the babies pictures taken for their Visas so they can enter the United States. We got their passports yesterday. We will also do some shopping tomorrow and try to find some nice things to bring home. The pictures above are pretty self explanatory. Lilly with her Dad, Lilly with her Mom trying papaya juice out of a straw, Lilly on the comfy bed at the new hotel, Lilly riding the bus and the other is all of the families luggage waiting to be checked at the airport. Dennis makes something that could be a nightmare into such a lesson in patience and trust. We all wait together in the lines with these babies, our luggage, our hungry bellies and we are all in a good mood and treat each other so kindly. It is really something to see and we create quite a stir wherever we go. We tend to move in a herd like fashion. Imagine the stares we get. It is pretty funny. I wanted to let you know that for some reason I am unable to check the blog over here so I may repeat myself on some things or post duplicate pictures. I have no idea if the text is lined up right or if it gets mixed up with the pictures. I hope it is coming out okay. I am also unable to read any posts so if you want to email me you can do that at kimberlyannholmes@gmail.com. It is sometimes hard to remember everything I said. I also wanted to tell you that yesterday I posted twice so if you just saw the pictures with a short entry make sure you scroll down and check out the earlier post that is a little more detailed. My eyes are starting to get very heavy so I will sign off and update you again tomorrow. It means so much to us that you are following our journey by reading this blog. Thank you so much.

Kimberly