China Day 8 - We're in Guangzhou

Today we made the flight to Guangzhou, which is in the Gangdong Province.  This is where the US Consulate office is and where all US adoptions are finalized. We are actually staying on Shaming Island. I have to say, it is a nice area and after being in huge cities and having to dodge cars even on sidewalks, it is a nice change to be here. Being on the island insulates us  a  bit from the city, which is made up of about 9 million people. But here on Shamien Island, it has a very relaxed feel. The buildings are very old and are Colonial style , and it is situated on the Pearl River. It is a lot like Savannah , Georgia in some ways. Again - a nice change. After we got here today we checked into our hotel and went to lunch at Lucy's. We were all pretty excited because after a week of Chinese food we were all ready for some comfort food – American style. Lucy's is known for its western food – and we were not disappointed. I had a chicken quesadilla and Chris had a cheeseburger and fries. He also had a sweet tea and apple pie - with vanilla ice cream.  Yep, we did it right. And it was all delicious. Lia had her first taste of French fries and loved them. I told her not to get too attached to them. J We also walked around the area a bit to explore. There are tons of shops and places to walk. We are hoping for good weather this week because we plan to get out as much as we can. Again - a welcome change.  Our hotel is only 4 stories high. It's really old but the rooms are very big with lots of windows and we have a ton of space. We also have lots of windows so it is bright – and our room overlooks a cute courtyard. Better yet, it's the courtyard at Starbucks! That is where I'll be in the morning for sure. Yet one more taste of home. J Lia did great on her first plane ride. She was quite a trooper. Cheerios can get you pretty far with her. We are all still getting to know each other and each day we see progress. She is recognizing us more and more and over all we have a very happy girl. She is doing so much more than she was doing just 5 days ago when we met her. She has a long way to go but is making progress at an amazing rate. It's so neat to watch her as well as the other girls as their personalities continue to emerge.   The location change to Guangzhou is good but we are all kind of hitting our wall. We only have 5 full days of China left and each day we are trying to take advantage of all that there is to see and experience. So we are hoping for a good week but one that goes by quckly. We are all ready to get home. I will attempt to post some pictures, but our internet connection here is SO slow I'm not sure how that is going to work out. If they don't show up, check back and I'll post them separately as I can. Until later!