American Visa

We have little Hu's American Visa!  WOOOHOOOO! Now it is time to take this boy home and meet all those sisters and his brother!

After one week in Zhengzhou we all flew south to Guangzhou.  Kyle and I both love Zhengzhou, it is closer to what was our home here and it seems much more familiar.  Guangzhou is way south and is always super humid and hot.  Guangzhou is huge.  It is the 3rd largest city in China with around 13 million people.  On the first day here we decided to do the city tour... which included a tour of a temple and an old house that used to belong to a wealthy family in China.  It is called the Chen house.

 They used to let you climb to the top but now the tower is leaning so it is evidently no longer safe.

This guy was sweating like crazy, but still enjoyed some hot tea.  Hahahaha!

 Chen House

 Westin was unimpressed.  Just hungry.  Not hungry really, just obsessed with food.

 Inside was a store where you could have them paint your name or a saying in the traditional Chinese on a painting.  It is always fun to watch them paint, they are amazing!

I wish I would have taken more pictures.  The house was amazing.  The detail was incredible! 

 This boy eats all the time, loves to be held constantly, and is super happy.

 Until mama leaves.  I had to go to the bathroom and he fell apart.  Sometimes it is easy to forget how fragile the trust bond is right now... and sometimes it is hard to know how he is really doing because so far he seems to be adjusting so well.

 A hug and kisses and everything is all better.

We start the long journey home tomorrow morning at 5am.  Looking forward to holding the rest of my kiddos and sleeping in my own bed!

Zhengzhou

It has been quite the journey.  We only have 3 days left in China, which is so crazy.  We have seen so many friends and we have eaten so much good food and we have met the most amazing little man, but we are ready to go home!!!  I have been terrible at keeping up with this during our trip so I'm going to go backwards.  While we were in Zhengzhou our friend Sean came to the city and stayed the whole week to hang out with us.  We had so much fun with him.  We were able to meet some of his family and have dinner with some of them.  He also took us to Yuntai Mountain which was about an hour by train outside the city.  It was AMAZING!  It was raining most of the time and very foggy which was unfortunate.  I can only imagine the views when there are clear skies.  Our first stop was a hike through a canyon with waterfalls.  It was so beautiful!

 Shops selling trinkets

 Westin was eating corn with daddy.  Daddy was his person on this trip.  Daddy walked away to throw something away...

 It was devastating to the little man!  He watched his daddy walk away and his little face crumpled and he cried and cried!

 After the canyon we got on a bus and drove up through the mountains to the other side.

 We went through several crazy one lane tunnels.  The switch backs were in the tunnels which was nuts because you had buses coming from both directions.  It made for an interesting ride!

The pictures cannot do this place justice.  It was gorgeous and I can't even imagine how beautiful it is on a clear day.  Bonus on a rainy day there aren't many people!  

When we got to the other side and a lot higher they let us out so we could climb to the top.  Kyle somehow lost his ticket so he stayed behind with Westin and Sean and I climbed.  It is a good thing we didn't take the baby up.  He is a chunk and I don't know how we would have managed to get him to the top!

Oh the stairs stairs stairs!

There was a cave, inside the cave was a couple monks and some Buddhist prayer incense along with some statues that had been destroyed during the cultural revolution.

The stairs were crazy and non ending!

 Almost to the top.  Couples climb this mountain and put gold heart locks everywhere with their initials on them.

 Temple

 Last set of stairs to the next peak.  I was so sad that we couldn't see anything when we got there

 Temple at the top

 Stairs down.  These stairs were ok, but the rock steps were incredibly slick.  Luckily I only fell once on the way down! hahaha!!

 Back to the train station.  Little man was getting really grumpy and we had an afternoon meeting.  We only saw 2 of the 7 stops so I hope one day we can go back.

 Littles making friends

 Back to the hotel.