Day 4 and 5

Hello Everyone,

We're still in Hohhot, waiting patiently for our paperwork to be processed. It's Max's Chinese passport that we are waiting for to be done on Friday, then we will fly out to Guanghou. Then once in Guangzhou we can apply for his U.S. Visa at the consulate there. Hooray! Closer to coming home!

Our first breakfast with Max at the hotel restaurant was fun. We were told he likes plain rice congee (google it), he devoured it and tipped the bowl for every last drop. Little did he know this was his first buffet. Yep, all you can eat, needless to say we fed him as much congee as he could handle. He tried many things, our guide ate breakfast with us to help show us his favorites. We love you Jessie!

We spent Tuesday morning, signing more paperwork in the lobby of the hotel, with the kids along. We were happy we didn't have to go to far. Different little casual stations were set up for us to sit at, civil affairs, notary etc. We noticed another family walk in with a beautiful chinese daughter who looked about Juliette's age, and a little boy about Max & Sean's (O'ree & Maria's son's) age. They immediately came over to us, and introduced themselves. The have the 3rd "Pan" baby! And they are from Holland! How cool. So, to recap Max is Pan Bin, Sean is Pan Hang, and this little boy is Pan Ywan, and they named him Sam. They brought with them their daughter who they adopted 4 years ago from the Guangdong province, where Guangzhou is. What a trip for them. We won't see them again in Guangzhou as Holland's consulate is in Beijing, ours is in Guangzhou.

We then retreated back to our respective rooms, for some down time, before our trip out to get more water and supplies. Most chinese people go to the store every day, unlike us who go once a week. While at the store, we stock up on Hawthorne Berry (google it) fruit rolls. This is something that we were told our boys LOVE. The are little rolls of dried fruit, individually wrapped. Perfect healthy snack. Walking down the street we see many children eating candied Hawthorne Berries on sticks. I can't wait to try one. I love anything candied, or on a stick for that matter.

Needless to say more stares at the grocery store again, people are making a wide berth for us, moving carts out of our way, stopping mid-conversation, staring almost owl-like at us, I haven't experienced anything like this before. My chinese consists of "thank you" and "hello", and so that only goes so far, but, I enjoy saying hello in english, because it puts a big smile on their faces to use their english to say hello back. I can tell they are tickled to see us, and speak to us, even if it is just "hello"

We also stopped at a pharmacy. Chinese pharmacies are not the same as ours. Max has a little congestion, so I asked if we could get him some decongestant. Jessie told us they sell this at pharmacies, not the grocery store. Upon walking into the pharmacy the scent of eastern medicinal herbs overtook us. The pharmacists sat waiting for us to ask what we needed, and then directed us to the right box. Walls, and shelves of little boxes filled the store. Everything is over-the-counter. Herbal and naturapathic remedies are first and foremost used here, rarely are Rx's given unless you go to the hospital our guide told us. How refreshing indeed. (p.s. the box was only 18 RMB, less than $3, amazing right?)

Wednesday, our guide has made plans for us to go to the big, new local museum. We get the babies ready, bundle them up. Sidenote, grandmotherly types of people may come up to us if we don't bundle the babies. They will pull on their clothes, and shout for us to bundle them, even if they are overheated. We brought extra layers, I don't want shouting. We arrive at this museum, which is surreal looking in architecture, juxtaposed with the older buildings, storefronts, of the town. This monster of a museum is all metal, glass, and is right out of an Architectural Digest magazine. We find that we have a personal tour of certain floors of the museum from a man who speaks relatively good english. The floors we are shown consist of Palaeontology & Inner Mongolian culture and history. It was interesting, and nicely displayed. The kids loved the dinosaurs, because when the tour guide hit a remote they came to life, sounds, light show, fun stuff.

I couldn't help but hear a gaggle of giggles behind our small little group. I asked Jessie why these girls were following us so closely. She told me that they want to take their picture with me. HOLD ON. Me? Really? I dropped everything and tried to find my best angle. (chin down of course, hi holly!) I ate this up, spoke some english to them (they were 14) which made them giggle more, and showed them photos of Juliette. I didn't just get to have all the fun, our group after finishing the tour, sat down with the kiddos in the main foyer, to give them snacks and drinks. This caused quite a stir. We decided that we were more of an exhibit sitting there, perfect setting right? Lots of stares, Jessie was busy translating the questions people had for us. Mostly, why do we have chinese babies, where are we from, etc. One little boy ran up and I think he said all the english words he knew in one big sentence, and then ran away. It was so cute.

We moved on, back to our little van, awaiting to take us back to our hotel, for lunch, and rest. Maria had the idea to stop for McDonald's for lunch today. We all caved, and gave in to our need for comfort food. John said, "I'll try to get you something healthy" how sweet, right? Jessie, John and Maria came back with what appeared to be McDonald's but with a Chinese twist. Thank heaven the fries tasted the same, we wouldn't want Max's McD's fry debut, to be anything less than perfect.

So off we go again for another venture out to the grocery store. It's just refreshing to be outside (which is unseasonably warmer here) and get out of our hotel rooms.

More to come soon!

Beth, John & Max

Exciting Max Fact #1: He's almost potty-trained. What? 20 months old? In orphanage settings, we are told that the nannies do this because they don't have time to keep changing the babies, and/or the resources of diapers. So, Max, let's us know with body language that he needs to go. We put him on the potty, and he does. He is still in a diaper just in case, but isn't that amazing?