VISA DAY/ THE ZOO

Hi Everyone! Today was our last day in Guangzhou. It will be a bit sad leaving tomorrow but we are ready to come home. We are excited to have Annie meet our family and friends. We had such an amazing time!!!! This morning we went to The Guangzhou Zoo. It was cold out today so only our family and Traci, Craig, Kaitlin and one other grandma went from our travel group. I'm glad we went because it was a great zoo. We didn't even see the majority of it because it was so big. The Chimpanzee and the lion were the highlight. The Chimpanzee was very large and he was doing tricks with his mouth for us. The lion was roaring so loud. You could hear him all over the zoo. I thought it would scare Jack, Annie and Kaitlin but they laughed and even imitated it.

The Giant China Panda

Did you know that Pandas as well as Koalas eat bamboo? They are not very active because bamboo is not very nutritious. This panda was being fed while we were there so he at least stood up.
Annie woke up to the lion roaring!

My favorite- the giraffes

Monkeys were jumping all around in the background of this picture.

The African Elephant

Annie loved the zoo. It will be fun to take her to The Akron Zoo this Spring!

This afternoon we received Annie's Visa, YEAH!! We traveled to the US Consulate, took and oath and received the visa. Before we took the oath we were told that the girls would have duel citizenship. We did not realize this. They told us that they should always travel with their USA Passport ( which we will get in a few months) so they are under US laws and regulations. Tomorrow when we hit USA soil in Chicago ( about 3:30 Ohio time) and go through customs Annie will become a US citizen. Isn't that exciting!!! We were not allowed to take our cameras to The US Consulate so there are no pictures to share.


These four girls, Annie, Alexa, Audrey and Jaiden, were in the same room at the orphanage in Jingdzhen, Jiangxi.

It's time to get packed. Everyone is sleeping. I better get a few hours of sleep. We have to have our bags ready to go at 5:00am and we leave the hotel at 5:50. It is going to be about 28 hours of traveling door to door. We are supposed to arrive in Cleveland around 7:30pm Thurs. night. Isn't it amazing that we leave China on Thursday morning and arrive home Thursday night. We gain 12 hours back coming home. I wonder what that will do to our two peaceful sleepers???? Just when we stopped the midnight buffets and matinees we will start all over again at home. Can't wait to see everyone- don't be afraid to stop out or call. We love visitors. Love, Kari