A little about Mississippi, a little about Louisiana, a little about New Orleans and A LOT about our adoption story. This blog and our adoption story is dedicated to Camryn and Matthew Cassreino so that you both will know. Copyright 2021 by Terry R. Cassreino
GUANGZHOU, China (Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008, 1:20 p.m.) – With Camryn, Pam and I celebrated her first birthday in Nanchang the day after we got her.
While Matthew turned 1 on March 16, he did turn 21 months today in Guangzhou. No presents or space walks for Matthewthis time – we’ll save that for his 2nd birthday party.
But he did spend the day with his new parents walking around the neighborhood where our hotel is and attending the swearing-in ceremony this afternoon at the U.S. consulate.
Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.
GUANGZHOU, China (Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008, 11 a.m.) – I thought Shanghai food was supposed to be sweet.
Well, one dish Pam and I ordered at a restaurant that specialized in Shanghai food was very spicy. Good, but spicy despite what I thought was the waitress’ assurance it was mild.
The joy and challenge of communicating with people using broken, minimal, elementary Chinese; seemingly goofy sign language; and smiles. Sometimes it works, more often it doesn’t.
On Monday night, it worked to a degree.
Even though the shredded pork dish was spicy, it was very good – As was the chicken won ton soup (a huge bowl that would work as meal in itself), the fried rice and the fried dumplings.
Matthew, however, didn’t much care for it.
Instead, he was interested in throwing things to the floor – first his chop sticks, then my chop sticks, then Pam’s chop sticks, then a few crackers, then his sippy cup filled with watermelon juice and then some fried rice.
Smoking remains popular
Everyone smokes here – or it seems that way.
No matter where you go or eat, everyone smokes. And they don’t smoke a single cigarette now and then; many Chinese and foreign visitors chain smoke cigarette after cigarette after cigarette.
In Beijing, for example, one American family we met told us they could smell the heavy smokers who were staying in the room on the floor just below them. Smoke from cigarettes in the room below leaked into theirs.
On our final night at the same hotel, the Novotel Peace Hotel, I could have sworn I smelled cigarette smoke entering our room even though it was clearly designated a non-smoking room.
International and in-country flights are about the only place you won’t find smokers.
Chinese apartment buildings
One of the more interesting things you notice as you travel along the elevated roadways in Guangzhou is how close apartment buildings are to the street.
They are so close it looks like you could touch them from the window of your car. And the high-rise apartment buildings are all over the place – probably more popular than traditional homes in the United States.
Consulate appointment
We head to the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou for a swearing-in ceremony with Matthew. We will meet at the tour desk in the White Swan at 2:45 p.m. for a quick bus trip to the consulate.
After that, the next step is returning home.
We hoped to return Wednesday, Dec. 17. But our travel agent couldn’t get us a flight home until Thursday, Dec. 18 – probably because we pulled this trip together at the last minute.
Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.
GUANGZHOU, China (Monday, Dec. 15, 2008, 10 p.m.) – If you think health care is overpriced and out-of-control in the United States, then don’t want to fall sick in a foreign country – medical expenses for foreigners who become ill can mount quickly.
We found that out Monday when we took Matthew to a local doctor after he fell ill with a nasty, wet cough. He wouldn’t stop and we didn’t want to take any chances.
So Holt International Children’s Services arranged an appointment with a doctor in Guangzhou who has treated other adoptees and many Americans. Dr. Ong was nice and helped a lot.
After a 30-minute ride through a maze of streets and elevated expressways (some with one elevated span several feet above a second elevated span, which itself was several feet over street-level traffic), we arrived at Dr. Ong’s office somewhere in this sprawling city.
Dr. Ong spoke perfect English and thoroughly examined Matthew. But by the way our son screamed and cried, you would have thought it was the end of the world.
The diagnosis was simple: Matthew had an upper respiratory infection in which a draining sinus was causing his cough. Dr. Ong prescribed and provided us with an antibiotic, a cough syrup and cold medicine.
The price fr everything: The equivalent of about $153. Ouch.
I’m glad I bought travel insurance before we left Mississippi. For about $600, we have coverage against lost luggage, trip cancelation, delayed flight and medical emergency. Matthew fell under medical emergency.
The only catch: I had to fork over the cash today and then file a claim when we return to the United States. That’s OK because our son will, we hope, be better by the time we get home.
Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.
GUANGZHOU, China (Monday, Dec. 15, 2008, 9:30 p.m.) – Just in case readers of this blog think that our trip to China has been all fun and games, I thought I’d give everyone an update on where we stand with adoption paperwork.
Paperwork required to complete the adoption is mind-boggling, confusing, irritating and, in some cases, repetitive. And it has taken countless hours to prepare, both before we left for China and since we’ve been here.
After we finalized Matthew’s adoption last in Zhengzhou, our trip shifted Friday to completing paperwork to obtain his visa we need for him to enter the United States.
Friday was basically a travel day, with much of the day spent moving from Zhengzhou to Guangzhou. While the flight took about two hours, traveling between cities and hotels took much of the morning and part of the afternoon.
Saturday saw me tied up with adoption paperwork for part of the afternoon. Sunday and Monday were free days for us.
The Holt International Children’s Services staff in Guangzhou, however, spent part of Monday organizing our paperwork and meeting with officials at the U.S. consulate about our case.
Tuesday is a particularly busy day: I have a morning meeting with Holt International Children’s Services, followed by an oath-taking ceremony at the U.S. Consulate office where we’ll receive Matthew’s visa.
The visa and a sealed packet we receive from the consulate is important – once we land in Detroit, our point of entry for the United States, officials will process Matthew’s documents and he will automatically become a U.S. citizen.
A lot of what we are doing now is hurry-up-and-wait. Pam and I also are spending valuable time with Matthew, letting him get to know us while we get to know him.
Oh, by the way, we are flying back on Southwest Flight 2978 and are set to arrive at Jackson-Evers International Airport at 9:21 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 18 – capping nearly 30 hours of travel through the air that day.
Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.
GUANGZHOU, China (Monday, Dec. 15, 2008, 5:50 p.m.) – A trip to the historic Temple of the Six Banyan Trees in the center of Guangzhou highlighted our day – along with a blessing for Chinese children being adopted by Americans..
You can join us on our tour of the temple by visiting our new photo gallery I posted at the end of this blog entry.
We have a few more photos and at least one other post I plan to publish later tonight after dinner. So stop back by our Web site in late-morning for another update.
Until then, I hope you enjoy our latest photo gallery.
Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.
DIRECTIONS:Click photo to enlarge. Toggle photo captions with button in left-hand corner of photo gallery slide show.
