September 18, 2006 Today was another long, exhausting day.  This morning, we went to pick up the babies’ Chinese passports.  This was a rather uneventful occasion, but it did mark the final official step for the adoption process in Nanchang.  After that, we went back to the hotel and finished our packing so that we could leave in the evening for our flight to Guangzhou. Mary Joyce has had a rough day all day long.  She has been rather cranky, and her naps have been too short.  When she went down for her nap this morning, she was awakened by the phone when Li Ping called our room.  This afternoon, she took forever to go down, and when she finally did, she only stayed asleep for maybe 20 minutes.  She did finally get a decent amount of sleep on the bus trip to the airport and while we were waiting at the airport.  Riding the bus actually seems to make her sleepy.  We have had visions of ourselves being the parents who have to put the baby in the car and drive around the block to get her to go to sleep. She also had her first airplane ride today.  She wavered back and forth between cranky baby and happy baby, but for the most part she did well.  She does like to have her freedom, which she can’t exactly have on the plane.  This could make for a long flight home on Friday. We have finally arrived at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou.  It was an ordeal to get here.  The bus that Li Ping had arranged for us broke down before getting to the airport, so he had to arrange for another bus there.  This ride was something of a site seeing tour. We went across the bridge to the Island, and then we turned around and went back across the bridge to the mainland. We went down the river, and then back up the river. Apparently, China Construction Bank does real well here. People told me that they have this building with this huge TV screen on it. Well, they must have been doing some serious building since the last group came over here, because we passed three of them between here and the airport, all of them identical next to bridges over the waterway. What planning they must have done to pull that off!! After the bus driver figured out where we were going and how to get there, we did manage to make it to the White Swan, where we were checked in. Everyone was assigned a room on the 16th floor. Everyone, that is, except for us. (We were moved the next day to the same level as the rest of the families.)  That is not very convenient when you have team-packed with one of your group members and need the Infant Mylicon at 11 p.m. Mary Joyce has started having serious meltdowns, starting about when we got off the plane in Guangzhou. The only way to get her to calm down has been for Dusty to hold her (Daddy just won’t do.). We think this is a combination of teething in addition to her finally going through the grieving process that can be real tough for kids. Even at this age, children know when they have been moved from one family to another. She is mourning the loss of her foster family. We already knew that Mary Joyce had been very well taken care of by someone. From what we were told, Mary Joyce was kept in a foster home with a loving foster mother. No mention has ever been made of a foster father. Our best guess is that there was no father, and that Mary Joyce is therefore more naturally drawn to Dusty. Hopefully, this will pass in time, and she will return to the happy baby we saw in Nanchang.   I'm Flying!!!     On the Bus to Get Passports   What are those?     Ready to Go to the Airport     Look what I can do!   Crib at the White Swan Hotel               This page hosted by