Saturday was mostly a travel day. We got up, ate breakfast, and finished getting our bags ready. The hotel van took us (and Ike) to the Nanchang airport. Our flight to Guangzhou left at 1:30, and Ike's Beijing flight left at 2:00.
We didn't take a lot of pictures today-- just pretty busy getting everything set to go. Ike was great with Sarah at the airport and sat with us until our flight left. He brought a banana for her and gave her a type of Chinese candy to eat while we waited. He also just walked around with her and talked to her to keep her entertained. He entertained her like this the entire time we were in Nanchang. So I was actually able to eat dinner each night because when Sarah would start to fuss, Ike would scoop her up and off they'd go to look around the restaurant. Plus, Sarah is a major "chick magnet" and I think Ike liked showing her off to the waitresses! The two of them (and the four of us together) definitely drew a crowd. :)
Now that we are in Guangzhou and I have food all over my lap again from sitting with Sarah, I say to Dave, "I really miss Ike! Maybe he can come home with us!" (ha ha) I'm actually pretty used to the food in the lap thing, but since we have to send all our clothes out to be laundered, we try to wear things more than once, and that's not been working really well for me! :)
Ike is great with little kids and would make a great father! Maybe he will get married and have a family someday. We gave him our email address and hope he will keep in touch. He said he really wanted pictures of Sarah, so we will send him some soon.
So it was hard to say goodbye to him. As a thank you gift we gave him a Yankees baseball cap, some jelly bellys, and some hand creams/lip balm. He may not be into the hand creams, but we figured he can give them to his mother or maybe even a girlfriend. We did get some really cute video of him talking to Sarah at the airport. So we'll try to post it here on another day.
So it was with mixed emotions that we left Nanchang. About day 3 we were so ready to get out of there, but over time the city "grew on us", so to speak.
The flight to Guangzhou was only about an hour long, but was the most turbulent so far. Not fun for me, for sure! Every single flight we have been on has been packed, both the US flights and the Chinese flights. But we were blessed on the Guangzhou flight that there was an empty seat on our row for Sarah. Hurray!
All I can say about this latest flight is that Sarah was like a flying squirrel!!! Holy moly! She was so good on the Beijing to Nanchang flight, but I think that was because she was still "in shock", so to speak. Yesterday, however, she was in rare form, over stimulated and tired (no good nap), and she was busy, busy, busy, but with no real purpose. So we were all glad it was a short flight. Please pray for us on the longer flights to come. Yikes!
OK, a little bit about Guangzhou and I'll quit for tonight. It is another large city-- according to Morgan (our adoption agency rep/guide), it is the third largest city in China (Shanghai, Beijing, then GZ)and has 23 million people. And I think they were ALL at the mall on Sunday!!! People, people everywhere. But more about that tomorrow!!
We are staying at the Victory hotel here in GZ. The hotel caters to adoptive families and there are many Americans here. There are lots of fun shops to buy souvenirs, shoes, and clothes, restaurants to eat American food, etc. And all these things are within walking distance. So this is really nice! No more taxis for us unless we want to go off to a mall or something. The weather here is fairly warm all year long and there are lots of pretty plants and trees. Some parts of GZ remind me a little of Southern California. So it's a nice change of weather from wet and foggy Nanchang.
And we have consistent, fast internet access! Woo hoo! Ok, more tomorrow!
P.S. Justin, Evan, Logan and Jason-- we are more than half way home now!! We will see you late Friday evening at the airport! We are excited to have you meet Sarah. She will love you all so much-- she walks up to all kids she sees and waves to them. So she will be thrilled to meet all of you! We miss you and love you! Please be nice to each other and helpful to Grandma! Love, Mom and Dad
We are home (late Friday night)! Dave and I look very travel weary-- but Sarah is ready for the party!
Thanks Nicole for the signs! We are so happy to be home!
Jason is a big brother! And he is really BIG compared to Sarah!
Playing the piano with Evan and Logan.
Um, did I mention she likes to climb? The stairs are no problem-- both up and down.
And slid right down! And yes, this seems pretty amazing for a 19 month old! I think we're in for a wild ride with this little cutie! ;)
We drove for about an hour in the taxi through some small villages in the mountains. Then we hop out of the car and get on one of these!! A ski lift! I couldn't believe it. I guess I thought we would just walk up to the wall. I didn't realize the wall was on the mountain tops, which makes sense, of course. We actually took this picture on the way back down, so this is why it's darker than the rest. By the time we left it was getting dark and it was COLD and foggy.
Here is Ike. The man should run marathons! He's not much taller than me, but he can really move FAST. He knew we were pressed for time and wanted to make sure we got some pictures before it got too dark, so he moved even faster than normal. It was a work out, for sure!
How incredible is this? The building behind us is a watch tower, and you can see them spaced out along the wall. The watch towers were where the soldiers lived. I can't imagine how cold those buildings must have been in the winter. The holes along the sides of the wall and on the tops of the towers were for shooting arrows.
It's hard to get a shot that gives you an idea of the vastness of the wall. It just goes on and on and on, all along the mountain tops. It truly is an amazing wonder of the world. It was very foggy, and the mountains were beautiful.
This is one of the little "arrow shooting" holes along the wall.
Just a neat picture of the mountains through an opening in the wall.
This is inside one of the watch towers.
Another shot of the different watch towers.
One last great picture! Sarah was a trooper, of course. She really liked the ski lift and laughed and giggled all the way back down the mountain. She is very wiggly when she's excited, so I had a death grip on her and Dave kept saying, "Do you have her? Do you have her?" because she was so wiggly! 
Last picture of Ike helping us at the Beijing airport. The terminal is huge and very cool. Sarah is very photogenic and likes to see the picture in the camera window after it is taken. She is sitting in the luggage cart. It was the perfect size for her. :)
Here we are outside the Italian restaurant where we ate dinner one night. It was very good. So, just in case you were wondering-- it was an Italian restaurant (La Dolce Vita) in a Chinese city with Chinese waitresses who were serving American customers!
Sarah is very agile and flexible. She can climb just about everything. Hmmm. Should be interesting at home. The boys weren't big climbers. 
Can you tell she is full of life and personality? She also folds her arms like this when we tell her "no", except then her expression isn't quite as happy! ;) When the Chinese ask us what province she is from and we say Jiangxi, they say, "Oh, she's a spicy girl!" And she is! Sweet and a little spicy! :)
I see a lot of this side of Sarah as I trail her to keep up! Do you see the little boy on the bench? She kept going up to him to say hello! She's not shy-- which will also be a change for us from the boys!
Running toward the camera.
Playing at the park with the locals. She climbs right up the slide like a pro!
I fed a baby white tiger at the Guangzhou Wild Animal Park. Sarah just wants her bottle back! Ha, ha! :) (Disclaimer: The animal trainer was standing right outside the picture frame and the baby tiger was only interested in his milk!)
Crossing the Pearl River on the way to the wild animal park.
King of the playground! This was an old playground that has been converted into a goat exhibit. Kind of strange, but the goats seemed to enjoy it!
Pandas! There were lots of pandas here! 
Very tired panda. It's tough being a panda!
You could pay 10 yuan to feed the giraffes, so they were quite friendly with the crowds. Sarah loved seeing all the animals! 
The zoo had a really nice Australian animal exhibit. They had lots of albino kangaroos. Who knew? 
Just a great picture of the giraffes!
Today we had Sarah's physical exam as part of the adoption paperwork. To be honest, it wasn't much of an exam, which was OK. They weighed and measured her (she weighed 24 pounds but was fully dressed), looked in her throat and ears (the doc didn't even use an otoscope--sp?-- the little ear instrument with the light), and another doc listened to her breathe with a stethoscope and did a very quick overall exam. The whole thing took less than 10 minutes.
Here they are measuring Sarah's height. She tolerated this OK but wasn't thrilled about it.
A very "cheesy" smile for the camera! Sarah likes her new "squeaky shoes" but I took out the squeakers because they are really loud and she moves pretty fast! 
There is a school near our hotel in Guangzhou, and we snapped this picture of a kindergarten class walking somewhere on a field trip. The kids are all wearing matching red jackets, but not full uniforms.
This is the tail end of the line of kindergartners. They walk in a double line, hold hands, and have a teacher in the front of the line and a teacher in the back of the line. Our guide (Ike) told us that most Chinese kids start learning English in kindergarten or even in preschool. 
Here's one more picture of school kids-- this is a preschool class. They were a little younger and were holding on to a rope. They all like to say "hello" to us! I hope all is going well in kindergarten and that you are all learning a lot and helping each other! :)
"Don't let my sweet face fool you-- I specialize in running Mommy and Daddy ragged!" :) Sarah is by far the most active child in our group. We are thankful for this-- it shows that she has been given lots of love and attention and is not scared of new things. 
At the gardens at the Chen museum.
Beautiful flowers in front of the Chen museum. I'm not sure what kind of animal the bush is supposed to be.
Pronouncing a blessing on an adoptive family at the Buddhist temple.
Very tall pagoda at the Buddhist temple. We were going to climb the stairs to the top but it was closed for renovation.
View from the balcony of the restaurant where we had lunch. Food was Cantonese style and was GREAT! There was a small amusement park on the hillside.
There were lots of aquariums right outside the restaurant where you could pick out your dinner--fish, prawns, and snakes-- all alive!
The huge mall of pearl and other jewelry wholesalers.
The shops look like this-- bags and bags of pearls behind the counters. Many stores had workers stringing pearls on the countertops.
Eating watermelon at breakfast. I try to keep a bow in her hair, but you can tell from the pictures that she is pretty good at pulling them out. I tried to put a cute headband bow on her and she wanted nothing to do with it! Big surprise! :)
Sarah is really warming up to Dave. She likes playing with plastic lids and straws. She is learning how to drink from a straw. She is not a really picky eater, and we are starting to figure out some of her favorite foods. She really likes eggs, rice, watermelon, bananas, bread and steamed buns. Steamed buns are a type of Chinese roll that look like large marshmallows. They are really good and are usually served with a type of sweet butter.
Sarah entertains herself very well when mom and dad are busy packing! She ripped off the plastic covering for the tp and pulled it off one sheet at at time. Pretty good fine motor coordination, huh! 
These guys are about 15 floors up, working on a building just outside our hotel window. My stomach flutters just watching them! Hmmm-- OSHA? Worker's comp? Don't think so! 