Our China Journey: The Next Leg Of The Journey

We're finally on our last leg of the journey. On Friday, we flew from Guiyang to Guangzhou, which was quite an adventure in wrestling luggage and children. We had a little mixup in our rooms in Guiyang; they had the two families switched. So checkout took a bit longer than we expected, which made it a little tight on our time getting to the airport. Between shuffling kids and luggage, going thru security and then getting on the shuttle to the plane, we were all exhausted. I am so grateful that Lynné was with us - I am not sure how we would have made it without her. She sure earned her keep on that trip :). After we got our tickets, we realized that we were not all sitting together. Andrew, Ella, and I were in the front of the plane with Ethan. Chris, and Lynné were about 20 rows behind us with William. I'm still trying to to figure out how they had 2 adults to 1 kid, and I had 1 adult to 3 kids. Hum. But it worked out ok. Ella was very excited to take her first plane ride. Her eyes got real big as the plane took off and she was so interested in looking out the window. We were pleased that all four kids did great on the short plane ride - it was only 1.5 hours. Hopefully that's a good sign for our next two flights. From Hong Kong to Tokyo and then from Tokyo to Chicago.
So we are now in Guangzhou and on the last leg of the trip. The kids had their medical exams this morning. Lynné and Andrew stayed back at the hotel - we were afraid all the crying babies would be too much for him. After we got there, we realized we could have used the extra hands. They took each child thru a few stations - checking weight, height, vision, hearing, and going over the original medical records. It was quite a challenge to do three kids with only 2 parents :) but we managed. I stayed with Ella and then Chris and I juggled William and Ethan depending on what station we were at. Neither of the boys were happy with the exams, but did pretty well. Ella's exam was a bit more intrusive and she was obviously uncomfortable, but she is a trooper. My heart was breaking though when they told me that Ella had to get 4 shots and the TB test. But again, she toughed it out, and didn't have tear one. My girl is tough.

Little William is finally getting more comfortable with us and we are seei g more of his personality sneak out. Ethan has been a little whiny - we think he might be cutting another tooth - may make that trip home even tougher.

We're staying on Shamian Island here in Guangzhou, and spent a little time exploring. We certainly love the weather here - a nice change from the bitter cold of Beijing. We have a short sightseeing tour of a temple tomorrow, and the rest of the day free, so plenty of time to get in some more exploring time and shopping.