Goodbye Guangzhou!

Merry Christmas from Guangzhou, China! It isn't beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but there are Santa Clauses everywhere here. Large signs everywhere announce "Marry Christmas, Marrow Christmas, or Merry Christmas!" Store clerks wear Santa clause hats, Rudolph antlers, and Mrs. Clause outfits! There are Christmas trees all over the place though! We have yet to walk into a shop where there aren't English Christmas carols playing. We even happened to hear a Chinese version of Jingle bell rock. Some of you are wondering if they celebrate Christmas here and to answer your question. Yes, they do recognize this holiday, but they don't celebrate it exactly how Americans do. The weather here certainly doesn't cooperate for a White Christmas. It's so warm here, it feels like summer!

Grandma is returning to the states tomorrow an she will be sorely missed when we view the Great Wall, Tienanmen Square, and the Forbidden City. It has been a pleasure to be with her this trip and we are thrilled that she was able to be part of Cory entering our family! We have made some memories that will last a lifetime and look forward to sharing our stories with you! Cory is doing well. He still isn't acting quite like himself since he does have a bit of a cold! My dad has already pulled a back muscle from lifting the little tank! My dad says, "he weighs more than an artillery round." The first words out of his mouth when he wakes up in the morning are, "momma, gir-gir, me-me, milk, and MEAT!!!" Bath time is his favorite part of the whole day except for when he is eating his meat! Merriella and Cory have turned out to be best buds and they hold hands everywhere they go and Cory gets very upset when Merriella leaves the room without telling him where she is going. Merriella is quite the big sister and loves to play the role of mommy. In fact, she now calls herself a "big girl" and calls Cory a "baby!"

Tomorrow, we head for colder waters as we board a flight to Beijing! It's time for all of us to pull out our winter coats again! I'm sure we'll have adventures from the plane. We usually do! Especially when you have to take a 3 year old to a bathroom on the airplane. Talk about crowded! The easiest part is getting in, the hard part is how to get back out!

We enjoyed our last day here in Guangzhou and spent the last portion of the day packing suitcases. My mom has been so patient this trip and hasn't lost it once. My dad, Hannah, and I yet again went out into the city streets at night and had a blast just looking around. We had amazing daughter and dad bonding time! We made a special trip to a Chinese restaurant to order Cory chicken fried rice! Wow! That must have been amusing for the Chinese people to watch! Did I mention how hard it is to convey what is desired when one person only speaks Chinese and the other only speaks English? It is demonstrated how disastrously it goes by how well our food order turned out at McDonalds! Our "chicken" tonight turned out to be tofu and the "fried rice" was steamed instead. Oh well. Cory loved it anyway!

For those of you who were wondering, all of our paperwork is completely done and the last 4 days that we have here in China are going to be spent touring the country! Cory received his formal visa and passport that grant him permission to leave the country! My parents took the oath that all the information they have given is truthful and received the packet with all of his papers that finalized his adoption! The Consulate appointment went very well today from what I heard. The 4 oldest stayed at the hotel and we also did some touring while Cory, Mom, and Dad finalized the process with our guide! We are so excited and blessed to have this little boy in our family! He truly is a walking sunshine wherever he goes! Well, until next time!