Back from the Hospital

Gabe had his angiogram yesterday afternoon. After all day of fasting and it getting set back, it was so good to get it over with. There was good news and bad news. (I am not in the medical profession - so those who are, please forgive me if I mess up terms) Everything that we were expecting (pulmonary atresia, etc) is present. The good news is that he only found one small collateral that is feeding the right lung. If there were many collaterals, which I think they were expecting, it would have been a more difficult repair. He said that the right lung is getting almost no blood from the heart. The bad news is that his pulmonary artery is not continuous, but they believe it was at one time. It is very small, only 3 mm and therefore, they will have to put in a shunt. That will happen on Wednesday, August 5, which means that the repairs will be put off for a few months. The shunt should allow the pulmonary artery to grow, which will make the repairs possible. So instead of one surgery, he will have two. He was such a trooper for this short stay there. Brian and I stayed with him, but I feel very comfortable leaving him overnight when I have to for the big surgeries. They took such good care of us in the PICU. They will make a zipper incision for the shunt and then use that again for the repairs. I am glad that I got his pictures done this week and we managed to get a bathtub picture so we will have a nice one before he gets his "zipper."

It seems that he will likely be in PICU for about a week after the shunt and then hunkered down at home for another 5 or so weeks. The repair will likely be in November or December with a longer stay expected at the hospital. Again, he will have to stay in the house and limited interaction with people for about 6 weeks following that. However, they sound very optimistic abour the outcome, which makes all of these procedures much more tolerable.

Gabe is totally back to himeself today and glad to be home. We still plan to party on Saturday at my parents. Please feel free to stop by betwen 1-5 at 1712 Kingsbury in Washington.

I gotta run. Gabe just feel asleep and I have to take these opportunities while I can! Thanks for the continued prayers and support.

Getting Ready to Celebrate

Gabe had his first road trip this week. We went to visit Aunt "Rera" Maria in Indianapolis and he did pretty well in the car. Maria hadn't seen him for a week and couldn't believe how much bigger he had gotten. (thanks American food) There were so many kids to play with at her house, he was really loving it. His cousin Eli came back with us to spend the week. Gabe thinks that Eli is pretty cool and loves to watch what he does all the time. It is pretty sweet. They were holding hands in the car today.

I mentioned in a previous post that we are having a "Meet Gabe" party on August 1 at 1712 Kingsbury Road in Washington. Please feel free to stop by and meet our little guy. We plan to start around 1:00 and party as long as he will let us. Fortunately, he is quite the social butterfly, so that could be until he falls asleep. We plan to have water toys and such outside for the kids and food as well. If you could please post a comment or email me at ancal1976@yahoo.com to let us know if you plan to come over. We are trying to figure out how many brats and hot dogs to have. Also, I have to sound like a mom here, we have to do our best to keep him from getting sick so close to his surgery. If you aren't feeling well, let me know and we can figure out another time to meet him. I hope you all understand. There have been so many people following the blog and praying for Gabe. He is the most amazing little guy and his smile lights up a room. You can't help but be happy when you see him. Please feel free to share in our joy on Saturday. I hope to hear from you all soon!

Also, keep him in your prayers on Wednesday as he gets his angiogram. Pray for me because it itsn't until 1:00 and I can't feed him all day before. It should be pretty brutal in the house without food. I will post information after the procedure, as we will know a lot more about his surgery and what to expect.

We hope to see you on Saturday!

Ludlums

Updates

We saw Dr. Shah today and I feel much better about the process. He explained things to me and made me feel more comfortable and optimistic about everything. Gabe HATES the doctor's office and wouldn't allow them to get his blood pressure, listen to his heart, or complete the echo. He turns into a bear at a doctor's office. Unfortunately, he will be in many in the future. We have a tentative schedule set up for him. He will have an angiogram on July 29 and hopefully surgery on August 5. There is a chance that he may have to have another surgery before the big one to put in a shunt. That would push the heart repair back a bit. We won't know until after Dr. Shah completes the angiogram. I am just really pleased with the office and how they have explained things to me and treated us. I feel very comfortable with them and I am anxious to get Gabe better. They said that we should be able to expect him to not be blue (under nails and periodically around his eyes and mouth) and he won't get so winded. They also said that his activity level will increase and I am not sure how to handle that one. This kid, and for anyone who has seen him, is the most active kid I have been around. I better start buying Wheaties.

Now that we have some dates, in true Calliss form, we are planning some celebrations. The support for Gabe has been unreal. One of the nurses yesterday came into the room and said, "Oh this is the boy we have been reading about." Another nurse, on our way out saw him and said, "This is the boy we have been praying for." I have never even met these women before. It is incredible to see how people have rallied around this little guy. We would like to give people the change to meet our little angel. We will have a "Meet Gabe" open house at my mom's house on August 1. Please feel free to stop by and meet our little man and have some fun. We plan to start around 1:00 and we will keep the party going as long as he lets us. My parents live in Washington at 1712 Kingsbury Road. We will have some brats and hot dogs cooking if you are hungry. We will make sure to have games and water toys set up in the yard for kids to play. We would love to give people the opportunity to see him now, because he will likely be hunkered down for awhile after surgery. This is a time to celebrate that fact that he is finally here and he is going to get the treatment he needs to continue to amaze us for a long, long time.

This blog experience has been amazing. I have heard from people I haven't talked to in years through this. I think Gabe has touched many people's lives already and I really want everyone to get to meet him before we start the surgery process.

If that doesn't work for you, we are planning his baptism the following day at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral. I haven't set it up yet, but it will most likely be after the 10:30 mass on August 2. I will have that dated locked down and posted this week.

We just want to show him off to the world, as we are the proudest parents. We look forward to seeing you all and having a good time!

Gabe's 1st Haircut by Nana!

I shot a few photos of Gabe's first haircut from Nana today and thought you all might be interested in seeigng the photos

Enjoy - from Papa

Getting better

I think Gabe and Brian are over their jet lag. Gabe slept through the night the past two nights. I, however, can't sleep for longer than 3 hours at a time. I get up for a couple hours and then go back to my series of naps. Gabe went to his pediatrician on Monday and the doctor was very pleased with how healthy (overall - but he has an ear infection right now) Gabe looked and acted. He admitted that he was expecting something else entirely when we described his diagnosis before we left. It was encouraging. He had to get a chest xray, which I convinced my sister to take him in for me. Then we had to try to get blood for some tests, which was unsuccessful and horribly painful to watch. The nurse said that many factors were making it difficult to get a vain and our other choice was to do a finger prick and fill a vial. She went to my doctor and asked if these were critical at this point because we were getting Gabe so stressed out that he was getting more cyanotic (turning blue) which he already has some signs of in his fingers and toes. However, getting so upset was making his mouth and around his eyes turn blue. He will have to get blood work done before surgery, so we decided all of the less critical tests can be done at the same time. It is so heartbreaking to see a child go through pain and not even be able to explain what is going on to them. I know I am going to have to toughen up here, but it is hard, he is a baby. The good news is that the pediatrician and his surgeon (whom we ran into) both commented on how well he was looking and I am feeling that is a good indication. We see Dr. Shah on Friday and he will be ordering tests for more specific information. I think by the end of next week, we will know a lot more of what we are looking at and have a date for surgery. Again, we will keep you posted. I just wanted everyone to know that on the day to day, things are getting better. I have excepted the fact that my house will never look the same and pretty much nothing will be the same. It is all a good thing! Our families have been SO supportive since we have been back. It is great. I know there are many others who would like to meet our little man, so as soon as we have the date of the surgery, we are going to try to throw a little meet and greet together. We love to show him off . We will keep posting periodically, so keep checking back.

There's No Place Like Home

We are back! I should have posted earlier, but between adjusting to a new home and all of us having jet lag, I haven't gotten to it. Yesterday, I got up at midnight, Gabe was up at 3:00 a.m. and Brian at 4:30 a.m. So naturally, we went to Walmart at 4:30 in the morning. We had the whole place to ourselves! Brian's family all came for a nice visit yesterday, unfortunately, Gabe was so tired that he wasn't the best host. We will get there in the next few days. Gabe sees his doctor tomorrow and we are scheduled to see the cardiologist on Friday. We are hoping that we can move it up a couple days. We are very anxious to get him better and we really want the process to start. I will keep everyone posted as soon as we know about a surgery. Not much to report, I just wanted to let you know that we made it home. It was so nice to sleep (or try to sleep) in my own bed. Yeah!

Getting ready to leave

We are just getting packed and ready to head to the airport. We had an interesting experience last night. We asked the staff at the hotel about getting good seafood and they sent us to a place very close by. There are several seafood markets and several restaurants in a cluster. One had a sign that stated the New York Times rated it as one of the top ten restaraunts in Asia. We checked out their menu and another restaurant (but theirs had no English) and we were trying to decide where to go. This place was crazy because all of the fishing boats are working right on the coast by the market and they deliver the live fish to the market. You then go and pick out what you want, take it to the restaraunt you want and they charge you to prepare it. We were at the really nice place and I asked her if we could just pay someone else to pick out our fish and she said no. This was the only way it is done. So, we headed off to the market. Of course, they are fishing for the same things in the South China Sea, so we didn't really recognize much. We fortunately found a woman working there who spoke English. She picked out some type of trout and a lobster. She was moving on to the scallops and I told her that we probably had enough for the two of us. She told us that the really nice place doesn't cook it as good as the other, and she offered to walk us over and talk to the manager about what we wanted. This guy also spoke some English, so it was helpful. Apparently, people who go to these places don't often get side dishes, which is why she was trying to give me so much seafood. Many of the people in the place were only eating seafood and nothing else. We asked the manager for something, rice or noodles or a vegetable. He didn't seem to understand completely, so I told him to surprise me. He did ok, we got spinach and crispy noodles. The dinner was really good, even though they steamed the fish. The Asians can steam anything. Most don't have ovens, so they have mastered the art of steaming. They even make bread this way. The entire experience was very interesting. Brian got a picture of our dinner before we bagged it. The lobster was pulled out and managed to splash us as she was holding it up. Gabe thought that was pretty funny. It was hands down, the freshest seafood that I have ever had!

We also had a scary experience yesterday. We took Gave to the beach and as we were walking out there, I noticed that his eyes were watering. I thought he was crying at first. Brian and I thought it might have been because we had just seen a European man in the skimpiest thong imaginable, which is why we would have been crying. We sat on the sand for about a mintue and his eyes got worse. We went back to the room and they were swelling. Luckily, we brought every medicine under the sun and we gave him some Benedryl and baby Tylenol. We think he was allergic to something out there, maybe the salt from the ocean? He got cranky and finally feel asleep. His eyes looked much better when he woke up. It was the stragest thing. Now we are worried that he is going to have a problem with allergies. We are especially worried that he will be allergic to dogs. Yikes! (cross your fingers on that one)

I better get back up to the room. Gabe will be getting up soon and we will have to get him ready for the big trip. We are so excited to get home. Upon our arrival, we will go through customs and immigration. As soon as they stamp Gabe's passport, he will be considered an American citizen. Yeah!!! This is a big day. Then it is off to Chili's where I can drink the water and practice my freedom of speech. The joys of America!!! See you all in the States!

Happy Anniversary

We are finally in Hong Kong and I think this is the most beautiful city that I have ever seen. The downtown is very modern and cosmopolitan. We are staying in, what the cab driver referred to as, the countryside. Our hotel is on the beach and there is a harbour on one side. We are watching the boats go by in the ocean. We took Gabe to the pool for his first real swimming experience. The very first time we tried was in an indoor pool and he hated it. Today was outdoor and he was indifferent. He mostly wanted to sit in his floaty and watch the kids play. We didn't keep him out long because it is very hot here. Both of my boys are sleeping, so I am going to head back out and lay out for a little bit. Later in the day, we will take Gabe to the beach. I think he will really enjoy playing in the sand. We will be sure to get some pictures of that.

Our last day in Guangzhou was a little bit sad. We have gotten pretty close to some of the families and our goodbye was a little abrupt. We went to the American Consulate to have an "interview" and then we took a group oath. After that, the bus dropped 4 families off at the train station and we were just able to give a shout out goodbye to the families. Fortunately, we have email address and we will be able to keep in touch. It is quite an experience to share with others and it seems weird to not have them around now.

The family that we were to our province with had similar problems getting their visa. They were supposed to come to HK with us last night and they are not able to leave Guangzhou. They are still waiting on their paperwork. We were lucky to have 3 other families with us on the train because once we left, we were completely on our own. No more guides or language assistance. We all got through the train station together and had to change money again. The interesting thing about HK is that is is technically China, but they have their own money. They say "One country, two systems." Also, I am able to blog in Hong Kong. There is a much different feel here. So far, most people speak quite a bit of English, so I am not too worried.

We had planned to go to Ocean Park today and see some of the animals and sights, but I think we are going to stay around the resort. It is our 4th anniversary and we thought just bumming around would be a great day. For the last 15 days it has been pretty scheduled and busy, so relaxing will be nice. I am also glad that we took a day before we make our big flight. It will be good to get rested up. We are dreading the 14.5 hours with a baby that doesn't like to sit still. After the in country flight, we aren't as worried about the heart condition on the flight. He did so well on the other one. We are more concerned with keeping him entertained and hopefully getting him to sleep. Luckily we are on business class and we will have some room for him to play in front of us. I am sure the people around us tomorrow will be wishing they were sitting somewhere else!

The train ride to HK was interesting. So far it seems that there isn't much to the middle class in China. It is mostly both extremes. We saw some shacks on rice fields yesterday that were shocking. People were living in these fields. It was very sad. I have gained a great appreciation for my home, family and my country during this process. I think some of these kids in our group, especially the older children, are not going to believe their new lives. Apparently, in GZ, the apartments are all about 1000 sq feet max and they cost around 300, 000 US dollars. We went to many parks and they are always packed with people because that is the only place that people can have space. Can you imagine?!? There are no houses, only apartments. I can't wait to have Gabe experience his own yard and all the space in our house.

I am rambling now, I will will sign off. I am going to lay out and enjoy some quiet time. We are so looking forward to getting back home. We will post when we return to let everyone know that we got back safely. Gabe will see his pediatrician on Monday and his cardiologist on Friday. I suspect that the cardiologist will go ahead and schedule the open heart surgery for the next week or two. We plan to blog through that process as well to keep everyone informed.

We have so appreciated the support and love from everyone during this process. It has been quite a journey and knowing that people are checking in on us and sending messages really helped. We will plan to have a "Meet Gabe" party at some point, hopefully before his surgery. Anyone is welcome to stop by and say hello. I will keep everyone posted on that date. Thanks again and we will post in two days!!!

Last day in China!!!

After a couple hours of back and forth emails late last night, we got the paperwork we needed to leave today! Gabe will get his visa and we take our oath at 3:00 today. Our train for Hong Kong leaves at 6:15 and we should be there around 8:00 tonight. We will have a couple days of r & r on the beach. I went to put a post on Facebook today and they have now banned it. We think it is because of the political unrest going on in part of the country. None of us have been able to access FB since yesterday. It will be nice to be back in a country where we can use our freedom of speech! Thanks for all of the prayers and support. We are getting ready to go to the park and then for dim sum for lunch. Last night's restaurant had a live market of any kind of sea food or fish that you would want. They even had large, live alligators (mouths taped shut) that you could pick out the one that you wanted. It was bizarre. Gotta run. I will post again in Hong Kong! Love you all!

Ang, Brian, & Gabe

Visa Problems Resolved!

Apparently Angela contacted someone in the US who was able to fax the consulate in China all the necessary paperwork and, for now, all is good. I think they have it resolved in time that all their previously made connections will be intact. We still expect to meet them at O'hare on Friday 7/10.

Bill Calliss (Angela's Dad)

Visa Problems

We are having problems today with our visa application. We have to try to settle something in Chicago in order to be able to leave. Unfortunately, it is about 10:00 p.m. in Chicago right now and we can't contact anyone until later tonight here. Pray that this gets settled, otherwise our stay will be extended. I will post more tomorrow.

Ang, Brian, & Gabe

Another day....

This is going to be a quick one. We are getting ready to go back to Shaiman Island for some shopping today. We went to the Pearl Market yesterday and got some things very cheap. You wouldn't believe all of the dozens of jewelry stores. It is a wonder that they can all stay open. We went to an Italian restaurant last night on the island, the chef was actually from Italy. It was a nice change from Chinese or McDonalds. I ordered gnocchi and Gabe ate about 1/3 of my meal. He loved them! We completed the visa paperwork today, so that is going well. As soon as we take our oath at the consulate on Wednesday, we will be catching the train for Hong Kong. Guangzhou has been the best of all the cities we have seen yet, but we are still really anxious to leave. This is a long time to be away from home. Fortunately, we are meeting a lot of great people. Gabe already has a girlfriend named Harbour. I will have Brian attach that picture tomorrow. They play together very well. Not much to report, but I will have more tomorrow. Love to all! We still are blocked from the blog, so keep the emails coming to ancal1976@yahoo.com. We love to hear from home!


Brian, Ang, and Gabe

Second day in Guangzhou

I have to type this fast, as time really is money in Guangzhou. We went from having the internet in our room for 20 Yuan a day (around $3) to having to pay 50 yuan for 15 minutes. I guess that is the price you pay when you go from chickens running in the sidewalks to having a Maserati showroom in your lobby. Things are going well. We are going to a Buddist temple today and Gabe will get a blessing from a monk. (We will take all of the blessings we can get!) Then we will go to the Pearl Market. Miao, one of the Mandarin teachers who taught in the district, stopped by with her husband and her friend last night. It was SO nice to see a familiar face. One of the other Mandarin teachers who taught at Von Steuben, Sun Junfang, has called us several times to check on us. Miao was able to tell us some good places to eat and shop. They also gave us much information regarding things to do in Hong Kong. She wanted to hold Gabe, but hasn't had much experience holding babies. She was worried she was going to hurt him and said he felt like a "soft meatball" which is a name that has now become a running joke. Speaking of names, Gabe is really starting to respond to his name. His Chinese name is Jian and they called him Jin Jin at the orphanage. We started off called him Jin Jin and then we went to Jin Jin Gabe. I think now he responds to Gabe as well as anything else.

We had the medical exam yesterday and we are very pleased to say that we have put a little more than 2 pounds on him. This kid is a great eater. I really think that he wasn't getting enough just getting rice cereal, formula and a little white rice everyday at the orphanage. He is really taking to foods and hopefully, we will get him off the formula completely when we get back home.

Tomorrow we complete all of the paperwork for his visa. Once we have that, our business in GZ will be complete. Until then, there is a very large, beautiful park across the street and many things to do here. We will be relaxing and waiting for the next leg of our trip. I am so excited that we will get to be home at the end of the week. We will write more tomorrow.

Brian, Ang, and Gabe

ps:
Since we are still not able to access our blog, anyone can email us at ancal1976@yahoo.com. We should be able to ready the blog in Hong Kong, but we would love to hear from people in the mean time. Thanks!

First day in Guangzhou

We made it to Guangzhou and we are so happy to be here. We are now one step closer to coming home. GZ is MUCH nicer, cleaner, better, than Nanchang. Our hotel is incredible. There is a Lexus and another luxury car show room in the hotel. It is a completely different world than Nanchang. Not to mention, there is a Starbucks right next door! Real coffee!!!! People speak much more English here and the city is very westernized. Not to mention, the driving is civilized. I need for everyone to get an idea of the driving in Nanchang. The city has over 4 million people and I only saw 2 stop lights. There are more bikes or scooters on the road than cars and nobody uses a crosswalk. Lanes are optional and using the other lane is not just for passing, it is for driving when no other cars are coming at you. So cars will just drive in the opposite lane and when a bus or car starts coming at you, you just squeeze back in the same going that directions. Signal use is rare and sidewalk use for scooters is apparently acceptable. So basically, it is a free for all of pedestrians, scooters, bikes, and automobiles and there isn't a seat belt or child restraint to be found. It is a complete nightmare. We only saw one accident and it was between two scooters. They were arguing in the street and we thought they were going to break out kung fu fighting. If I never go back to Nanchang or Jiangxi province again, that will be ok.
We completed the medical exam today and he got his picture for his visa. We got in late last night and he missed his morning nap today, so I am sure we will have a less than pleasant afternoon and evening. I am hoping to meet my friend Miao (one of the District 150 Mandarin teachers) and her family, as they are visiting GZ as well. We plan to take Gabe to the zoo/aquarium tomorrow. It was so nice to be reunited with our original big group today. The kids are all great. I am really glad that our entire group has special needs kids. We have really bonded with some of these people. It has been quite an experience and it is great to have others to go through it with.

I gotta run. We have to figure out what our adventure will be for today. We don't have a computer in our room at this hotel, so we may not be able to post as often. We will do the best we can. It is so nice to still be able to feel connected from so far away. Keep the prayers coming!

Brian, Ang and Gabe

Last day in Nanchang

Disclaimer: We have had to use a portable keyboard, which is really nice, however it is very fickle. It will miss keys and sometimes jump to other lines in your text. If is looks like we are losing our English skills, it is probably just this keyboard. If my middle school English teacher is reading this, I know I should be proofing, but with a sleeping baby, time is money.Today, we will get Gabe's passport and the rest of the paperwork here. We fly to Guangzhou (thank goodness) this evening. GZ is more westernized, but not as much as Beijing. I am just praying for a cup of coffee that has been brewed. Even Gabe is getting bored of this room. It is hard to get any kind of schedule or routine when we are all on top of each other like this. My bed (we are living like Lucy and Desi here) is pushed against a wall and we line it with pillows. This has become the play area. It was a huge upgrade from a crib, but I think Gabe has outgrown it. He can see himself in the mirror at the end of the bed and it has become his favorite thing. This kid cracks himself up. As soon as we hit the mirror, it starts with the tongue and it goes from there. (Dad- kind of like me with the microwave...remember???) We went to the People's Park yesterday, which was a lot like Central Park in NYC. It was raining, which was a bummer. I was trying to stay under trees so we would stay dry. Brian went off to take some pictures and I was by myself and about 10 Chinese people gathered around me, which has happened often. They were making over Gabe and trying to ask me questions, which I couldn't understand. The guide came over and was talking to them. She was telling me some of what they were saying, which proved my theory about the looks we were getting. They mentioned that there are so many girls to be adopted out in the country, which translates to, "why are you taking one of our boys?" We have had several younger people (always female) stop us and tell us that he is lucky. The older people and men give us dirty looks. It ticks me off, but I try to be polite, which is not something that I see much of here. People are very pushy and they cut in line and they are down right rude. The good news is that when the Chinese people approach us and they want to pinch Gabe's cheeks or play with him, he usually reaches for us. I think he is really favoring us to everyone at this point, which is awesome. We won't leave the hotel today until around 3 and the word on the street is that they have a Pizza Hut. Another American told us that the salad bar stinks, but the pizza is as good or better than ours at home. I am so excited to go today. I miss pizza, cheddar cheese, and real coffee the most! We found oreos here, but they taste a little off. Brian did get some food poisoning, but it wasn't from the 1000 year old eggs. He got sick right before he was going to try one. He is finally feeling better. We took Gabe to the playroom last night and there were many other families there. He is the only boy in the group we are with now. It was funny to see the difference between little boys and little girls. The girls were just sitting quietly on their parent's laps watching everything and Gabe is squealing and tearing around in his saucer, while Brian and I are on the floor and chasing after him. I thought he would be this little timid thing, but he is all boy. I think he may even give my nephew Dylan a run for his money. All of the people familar with his heart condition tell us that these kids will self regulate because they tire quickly. We are still trying to set some limits on him, but that is really hard with a toddler. Last night, Brian and I sat on the floor and would help him walk between the two of us. He can get a couple steps in. I really think he will be walking by the time we get home. He thinks it is a blast. This has been a long one, but I am up in the middle of the night and can't sleep. I think I am going to start packing. I better go check on Gabe. I am just as paranoid a mother as I ever thought I would be! We will post more tomorrow.

Brian, Ang and Gabe

A Few More Pics

Going well

Things are still going well here. Gabe is doing great. We are very lucky because many of the other families are not having it so easy. One family that we have spent quite a bit of time with is really struggling. Their daughter is 4 and lived in a foster home. She will often not allow her parents to go near her or touch her. The guides have a hard time understanding what she wants because she speaks a different dialect. They finally figured out yesterday and she keeps repeating that she wants her foster grandmother. It is really sad because this family is trying so hard. Even some of the kids closer to Gabe's age are grieving as well. The parents are all discussing at breakfast how little sleep they have been getting and I feel bad. I won't tell them that Gabe sleeps about 10 - 11 hours at night and about 1-2 hours each of his two naps. We are really lucky because Gabe really is a good little guy. We took him to Walmart again yesterday and I bent down and put my face in his and he grabbed it with both hands and gave me a kiss. You guys are just going to love him when you meet him. His favorite thing is a mirror. As soon as he sees one, his tongue immediately sticks out. (Maria - you will love that) He realy loves to look at himself in the mirror, it is pretty funny. We are getting ready to go to a people's park today. This is where we will likely see people practicing Tai Chi and playing chess in the park. Then we will go to do a little shopping. Tomorrow, we fly to Guangzhou and we are really looking forward to it. It is supposed to be more westernized and we are dying for a cup of decent coffee. they serve burned instant coffee here. Brian can't even choke it down, so you know it is bad. Gotta run, we will post again tomorrow.

LoveBrian, Angela and Gabe