Our Boy and His Cricket

How many of you can say you woke up at 7am on a Monday and watched the Superbowl in China and had the privilege to see the Saints win??  Well I know we did and while it was a bit strange and we missed all the commercials, it was pretty darn cool if I do say so myself.  There were quite a few differences though....there were only 2 commercials the entire game, the same two commercials from start to finish.  The entire game was commentated by Chinese guys and they didn’t speak during the plays, it was actually a very quiet game on this end.  All we could understand was the players names and all we could read was the score.  Overall it was a great game no matter what country you watched it in!  Go Saints!!

Our trip here is beginning to wind down and you can feel the air leaving all who have been with us.  We are all tired and ready to go.  Some are looking for earlier flights home and others are sticking close to their hotel rooms just wanting to start a scheduled life and looking for an end the constant running in the hamster ball that we’ve all been doing for what seems like months at this point.  To help with our own sense of exhaustion we went for a reenergizing walk through the park across from our hotel this morning.  The park was in the midst of being decorated for the new year celebrations and the colors were amazing!  Beijing may be dormant but Guangzhou is filled with life!  It was a nice step away from the “box” otherwise known as our room and it kind of reminded me of our long walks on the beach.  The only thing missing is our pups.

Our group then took a fun and overwhelming (for the babies) trip to the famous White Swan hotel for our group pictures with our children dressed up in traditional Chinese dress.  It was pretty comical and the little ones did not like it to say the least!  Looking at the picture I don’t think anyone is smiling.  It gave me another moment of emotion to realize that I was standing in the same place of so many who have done this journey before us.  I have only dreamt of standing there staring at the Pearl River from the red couch in the White Swan and today I actually lived it.  Amazing!

With tired and traumatized little ones we all headed to another famous adoption stop, Lucy’s Bar and Grill for a great dinner and much needed cold drinks for all of us!  It was the perfect way to end the day, one of which many before us have walked and we have watched with anticipation of our own journeys.  So very cool!   Now we can say, “yup!  we went there too!”

Much love and joy!
Mike and Kayce


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Our days started to feel like we were just robots being pushed forward at this point.  We were filling our free time with "everyone's done it" moments.  While it was amazing to experience and think back to all the other people I'd followed over the years do the exact same things, I look at it now and think I could have done without some of it.  I know shocking!  The anticipation to the famous red couch photo was nothing like what I had imagined.  We were rushed.  Not a single child was happy.  It didn't seem normal.  


And speaking of normal....I will NEVER forget watching the Superbowl in China!  That was definitely not normal!  It was actually pretty comical.  Our travel group wanted so badly to all watch the game together but the hotel had nowhere to put us all and didn't understand what the Superbowl was.  We thought about setting up a tailgate party in one of our rooms but with it being so early in the morning that was dismissed.  We all just ended up sitting in our own rooms watching it or watching a sleeping baby.  :)