Journey to China: White Swan Hotel

Hello from the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, China. I have a couple bits of good news - 1) We fixed the blog and 2) we can now access our blog directly, so hopefully the posts will look better from your perspective; though we "lost" Robin's fancy wallpaper in the process.
We did get some much-needed rest since last blogging. I'm sure we could use some more, so again, I'll keep this brief and hope to post more pictures later in the week.
Today was Sunday for us. The hotel's breakfast buffet is very impressive (and included in the price of our room!). After our meal, our guide (Jason) met us and took us down the street to have Noah's visa photo taken. We then returned to the hotel and let the kids play in the hotel's play room (very nice) while we reviewed paperwork for the visa application. We then took a nap (Noah normally sleeps from 12:30-2:30pm), and went swimming. We met several other American's for dinner at a restaurant down the block (Lucy's), and finished the night off with an exploratory walk around the hotel. Robin and I were approached by a Chinese man (a translator) who asked us to speak to his son and let him practice his English. The father was rather verbose (part of being a translator?) and anchored Robin for over an hour! I was sure the entire thing might end with a sales pitch for a fake Rolex -but that never actually surfaced. (We did get the Rolex pitch on the street, earlier; check that square.)

Noah has been accustomed to eating 5 small meals everyday. Although that's rather healthy, it's not "very American" - and after our big dinner out tonight, we were about to head to the bed when he started asking me, "When are we going to dinner?!" Fortunately, we stocked up on his favorite "comfort foods" (bread, milk, and a spam-like ham sausage) - and that's what he got for his final meal for the day. We watched couple episodes of the "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" cartoon (his favorite), and off to bed. Tonight's crying lasted about 40 minutes - Robin rocking him the entire time. Robin thinks things are improving...but we both forsee a long road of grieving ahead for our little boy. We are happy that he had such a great foster family, but that only makes the departure more painful for him, now. Thanks again for your prayers on his behalf.

We need to go. I'll post a few pictures from the day of the train ride. Ahh, the train ride - catch me on a good day and perhaps I'll share that story with you. For now - I think I'd simply like to erase those 30 hours from my brain...

Before the train - killing some time at Nanning's Peoples' Park - waiting for Noah's passport to be delivered. This is a typical scene - 40 lb pack and 40 pound boy. Noah's foster gma apparently carried him everywhere.

Here are the kids on one of the 2 top bunks in our train compartment. The beds were pretty comfortable; the quarters close; the air sometimes stuffy; the washroom - no comment. I am so proud of the girls. They have a new appreciation for the comforts and conveniences they had back home!

A picture of Olivia standing between the beds and across the door / mirror to our compartment. Our bags went up on the ledge over her head. I don't quite remember how I hoisted them up there at 4am when we boarded. Oh yeah - I said I'd try to forget that part of the journey...