China trip

We had a wonderful trip to China to adopt Rachel.  Luke and Anna went with us.  Joshua, Caleb, and Thomas stayed with my mom.  We documented it fully on Rachel's adoption blog, but here is a recap.  We flew Korean Air from Atlanta to Seoul to Shanghai.  We overnight in Shanghai and then took the bullet train to Hangzhou.  We spent the week in Hangzhou where we finalized Rachel's adoption. We visited her orphanage and walked around West Lake.  We were fortunate to stay near the lake where we could walk there everyday.  The weather was cool, but not too bad.  They had already turned the AC off for winter, so we aired out the room by opening the windows, on the 5th floor!  We could hear the traffic on the busy streets below, but it was better than a stuffy room.  We flew to Guangzhou on Friday of that week to apply for Rachel's immigrant visa.  We stayed within walking distance to Shamian Island and walked there almost everyday to shop.  We had to walk through the pet and spice market to get to the island, so that was interesting!  We ventured out to the safari park on our own one day and had a great time seeing the animals.  We found out Rachel loves the stroller, and we can tell from pictures from her orphanage that she must have ridden in one when they went on walks.  She wanted to be held almost all the time, so we had lots of cuddle time.  It wasn't until we got home and she got comfortable that she showed us that she can walk on her little foot.  Even though one leg is longer than the other, she manages to get around quite well!

First Meeting

Feeding the giraffes

One of the cub triplets with mama panda