Evelyn is home! Happy Easter!

Our sweet little Easter Egg Evelyn.

Evelyn Grace Weller, 17 months old
Our four great kids. Cameron, Evelyn, Ava and Benjamin. We are very blessed!

Sisters, Ava and Evelyn.

Guangzhou, China. Our last week in China.

These are the families from Faith International Adoptions whom we met up with the last week. We all went to the US consulate together and finished the paperwork to be able to bring our kids home. Yeah! Alex & Melina with Mei-Mei; Jennie & Kevin with Hailee; Tas & Chris with Ethan; Lori and Evelyn. We stayed in the White Swan Hotel. If you ever find yourself in Guangzhou, China I highly recommed this hotel. It's gorgeous! This is the lobby.

We ate breakfast across the bridge.The Koi fish were always ready for breakfast too.
The hotel looks out over the Pearl River.

This jade dragon boat picture is for my kids. They think dragons are very cool. Mei-Mei posed for me. Evelyn is afraid of flowers and wouldn't get near them. I don't think she saw a lot of flowers or foliage in Beijing city.

An ivory dragon. Amazing detail.

The White Swan also has a playroom! Let the good times roll!
We have another pianist (just like big sister Ava).

And another climber (just like her brothers). This little girl loves to go fast & crazy in her stroller and loves to be thrown high in the air. She's a bit of a dardevil...except when there are any plants, grass or flowers around :).

Evelyn started really walking in the playroom. I think the padded carpet gave her confidence.

Ethan (Tao-Tao) was such a sweetheart, and a little bit of a flirt. Too cute!

Out to lunch. The dish in the middle is "Dragon Fire Fish" and it comes literally on fire to your table. There are also yummy Chinese pancakes and the best dim-sum (dumplings) I'd had in China.

Mei-Mei is demonstrating how a 2 1/2 year old can use chopsticks better than I can.
Sorry, forgot the name of this park. It's in Guangzhou and it's beautiful! Beijing had been sunny, but dry and brown. It was a relief to come south to all this green and humidity.

Seven Bayan Tree Buddhist Temple. There are actually only 2 of the 7 bayan trees left, but it was interesting.

The White Swan Hotel is on Shamian "island." It's an island because someone dug a canal around it at some point in history. It is a little Oasis, kind of set-up for tourists. It has a beautiful park along the waterfront to enjoy. If you enlarge this picture you can see our hotel behind the tree. Guangzhou constantly had a hazy sky, some sort of humid, cloud coverage.

I had to get a picture of people doing Tai-Chi. They were out at the park every morning.

Again, I wanted to pose Evelyn in the flowers but she would have nothing to do with it. Note the worried look on her face.

Lots of very detailed statues.

View of Shamian island from my hotel window. Some of the buildings had a colonial look to them.

The island had wide walk-ways and lots of trees. Also, a lot of stores. I bought a few "squeaky shoes" for Evy. When she walks they squeak like a baby duck.

At the Guangzhou (Canton) Airport getting ready to fly to Japan and then on to Seattle and home!

"Let's Go!!!!!! We're ready!

Last Days in Beijing

Evelyn and I had to say good-bye to David, Cameron, Ava, Benjamin and thier Aunt Debbie. They were in Beijing with us for 2 weeks but had to get back to school and work. Evelyn & I did a little more sightseeing in Beijing, enjoying the cherry blossoms and magnolia trees which had just bloomed. Bamboo

At a city park: An elderly Chinese gentleman had been practicing calligraphy w/ brush and water. When he saw Evy and I, he smiled and waved us over. Then he wrote "Welcome to China. One world. One dream." He was so friendly as were most of the people we met in China.

Evelyn's first plane ride. We're leaving Beijing and flying to Guangzhou, China (southeast) where we need to go to the US consulate and get Evy's Visa for traveling to the US. She's excited!

Imperial Summer Palace and Bei Hai Park

These are two of my favorite places that we saw in China. The Imperial Summer Palace is a huge area with a beautiful lake in the middle. We walked halfway around and then took a ferry boat back. I could have spent all day here but unfortunately we'd already been sightseeing most of the day, the kids were tired and it was cold and windy. You should Google Imperial Summer Palace Beijing for better pictures.

Practicing Chinese calligraphy on the sidewalk with water. They usually write poems.

Bei Hai Park was about a 30 minute walk from our hotel. These lions stand at the entrance of almost every major gateway. The lion on the left is male and has a ball under his paw. The lion on the right is female and has a baby cub under her paw. We were told this signifies the female take care of the young. So, what? The men just play with their toys? :)

male and female lion. Google Bei Hai Park for good pictures.

Beijing Tidbits

The paparazzi followed Debbie around. We couldn't go anywhere in China without someone wanting a picture with this beautiful, blonde American (usually it was teenage boys--good thing Kellen wasn't there).
It seems that "back in the day" when all these pagodas and Buddist Shrines were built, people were very paranoid about being attacked because they are all built on BIG hills. Thankfully we had good hikers and good helping hands.

Debbie at the top of the shrine over looking the Forbidden City.The canal or moat around the Forbidden City.

INTERESTING FOODS: Chicken feet at he grocery store. They are "chewy and crunchy" according to our Chinese guide.
Cameron was our photographer at the Open Market in Beijing. Apparently you can eat ANYTHING on a stick.

...including sharks.

Almost makes you want to be a vegetarian.

There are no seatbelt or carseat laws in China. Benjamin was loving his freedom in the van.
Beijing has a very efficient and clean subway system. It does get crowded but after seeing the way people drive on the roads I'm of the opinion that the subway has to be the safest form of transportation in China. David and Debbie rode the subway to get to church on Sunday.

The Beijing Zoo: Apparently it's huge. You pay to get into each different section of the zoo. We were there specifically to see the pandas. This one was cute, eating some bamboo.

We took a rickshaw (sp?) tour through one of the older villages of Beijing. Ava really enjoyed it, snuggling with Mom and Evelyn and NOT having to walk "forever just to see 'stuff'."

This is a high-tech rickshaw. It keeps you out of the cold wind and dust.


There is quite a contrast between the older parts of Beijing and all the new construction (it's almost all new now). For example this is the CCTV building--one of the main Chinese TV broadcasting stations.

Walking through one of the older parts of town. Our Beijing native guide Cathy knew all of the shortcuts.


Cameron boldly took this picture for the benefit of anyone who has never seen a "squat potty." Since Beijing hosted the 2008 Olympics more public restrooms include both "Western toilets" (with a seat) and "Chinese toilets."

The reason we were in Beijing 2 weeks was to acquire Evelyn's passport. This meant riding around with our guide to several different office buildings on 4 different days filling out paperwork, taking passport pictures ect... The Notary Office was the last of the paperwork run-around for Beijing so I had to include a picture. This is Cathy (the1st of 3 different guides). She was great. Very patient with the paperwork process, and with our kids :). We couldn't have done it without her.

Evelyn was playful and quick to figure things out from the beginning. She plays peek-a-boo, blows "rasberries," and shakes her little shoulders to dance to music. She also gives kisses Chinese baby style--leaning in and touching foreheads gently. She was able to crawl and stand when we first got her, but not walk. By day 3 she was talking several steps...and quite proud of herself.

Mural of the Forbidden city at our hotel.