Catching up....

Whew, finally some time to sit down and process our last few days! We started out Gotcha Day with a run through one of two parks that surround the hotel. Ashley and Aimee watched the kids so we could go and it was awesome! Guangzhou is a tropical area, so there is a lot of green.....banyan trees, plumeria trees, palm trees....its a really beautiful place. The parks are huge and hilly. There were paths up, down, around, everywhere you turn. The one we visited is "famous" they tell us & it deserves to be.....it has an amusement park, an olympic-sized swimming pool, a playground, vintage military equipment, lakes with boats you can rent. Lots of people out walking around the park and doing their exercises.....its interesting, they use the playground equipment, they do dances, they do tai chi and their version of hackysack (which is about 4-5 flat, round pieces of metal bound together with feathers sticking out of the top....we'll have to bring one home!) They also clap their hands and slap their backs as they walk around.....we haven't asked yet, but we think its to get their blood flowing??? It was an adventure navigating through the metro tunnel to get to the park, but at least we didn't have to cross the street. I can't remember if I mentioned it in a previous post, but crossing the street here is crazy! Pedestrians don't have the right of way, and drivers don't always obey the traffic signs/signals, so it is every man for himself. Poor Aimee has had several close calls already and she just about ended up on the handlebars of a bicyclist as we walked out of the civil affairs office! 

 

 

After our park run, we had a quick meeting with Holt where they told us what to expect for the afternoon. Ralph and I had to bring our passports and some gifts for the orphanage staff, then some things for Leah.....it was so fun packing a bag for her! We brought some toys and some snacks that we thought she might like. Time dragged by until it was time to leave for the civil affairs office. The kids were bouncing off the walls, so we had them take a little rest before we went. We were all excited/anxious/happy when it was time to go. The bus ride there was about 10 minutes & we realized how stressful a day it must have been for these babies, who have likely never been in a car or bus before, to take a two, three, four hour drive to come to this place and be handed to someone they didn't know. We waited about 20 minutes before Leah arrived, but while we waited, we got to watch as about 20 other families were united with their children. You're almost speechless as you watch, it is such a beautiful thing. There was a back playroom the kids were playing in while they waited, and they would bring the kids out as each families' paperwork was ready. The kids ranged in ages from infant to about 10.....and the families ranged from those with four kids to this being their first, from the US, Spain, Germany and more. Some of the kids came out pulling a suitcase or carrying a backpack, with big smiles on their faces, others were crying, some screaming in fear. Older children are allowed to make the decision if they want to go with their family, and we have heard that, while it is seldom, there are those who do choose to stay. There was a family who had a child around 12 and were adopting a little boy who looked about 3 or 4.....he was having a really hard time, and bless them, they just kept at it, working with him to get him settled down, trying to comfort him. We have been so blessed that our children have had an easy transition, but we can imagine the difficulty you would have in seeing your child go through such anguish and emotional pain, but knowing that, if you can just get to the other side of it, you are fulfilling what they need and long for.

 

 

As they arrived, the caregivers had to walk through the room we were waiting in to get to the playroom, so I was keeping my eye on the door. With all of the other things to see, I almost missed her, but happened to look just as someone was walking past with a sweet little girl in a headband.....I pointed her out to Ralph and we both said, "that's her!" I lost it at the point.....just seeing her in person after all these years of waiting was, well, emotional. Our escort told us they would give us about 5 minutes heads-up before they brought her out so that we could get cameras and snacks/toys ready.....after waiting about 5 minutes after we initially saw her, Joyce, our escort, said, "she's ready" and there she was! We scrambled to pull things out of our bags....luckily, Aimee & Ashley were ready with cameras and video. It was love at first touch....she was beautiful, and tiny! She is 3 1/2 and is wearing 18 month shorts. She's long, but very petite, about 22 lbs. We spent some time asking the caregiver questions.....her name, Shun Mu Yi, means - Shun (is like her last name and is the name of the province/area she is from), Mu (flower) Yi (elegant, graceful). She had a little cold, so they gave us some herbal medicine as well as a small plastic bag with a few diapers, some cookies, a pair of lace pants and a cute little Pooh bear washcloth. For an orphanage to bring even that is a big deal....they don't have much money to spend on extras, so we were very grateful. 

 

 

Since then, we have been doing a little paperwork and spending some downtime together as a family. Yesterday (Tuesday), we had to go back to the civil affairs office to make it official (they give a 24 period for the parents to make sure that they want to proceed with the adoption). It was a long morning, about 2 hours and the kids were such troopers. We had two interviews where they asked if we were sure we wanted to adopt her and if we were sure we would never abandon or abuse her. We can't imagine answering anything other than "yes, yes, yes!!" Back at the hotel, Leah & I took a nap while Ralph, A & A took the kids to the pool. Papa Johns pizza delivered to the hotel for dinner last night (we haven't been too adventurous with food yet), then out for a walk & some ice cream. Leah has been pretty subdued since we met her & she has attached to me more than Ralph or the kids at this point, but she's warming up very little by very little. Its going to take her time to realize that we are her final stop, that she won't be left again or given to someone else. Continue to pray for her, if you would, that she will begin to feel safe and secure in our family. She still has her cold with an icky cough, so we're guessing she also doesn't feel 100%.

 

The most we've seen her open up is when we are out and about, especially shopping. A & A were thrilled to see how much she enjoyed the mall and were promising lots of shopping trips when we get home :) We found a little place with several shops and bought her some new tennis shoes. She was so excited to put them on! She started pointing to all of the different things they had...the little cats with the swinging paw, bracelets, sunglasses, chopsticks, anything and everything she wanted to hold, touch, feel.....and the ladies in the shop were happily handing them to her in hopes that we would realize how much she loved it all and would buy it for her! Ralph was excited to do his bargaining....its only just begun....and we bought swim goggles for him, Makena & Josh and Leah's shoes for 180Yuan, which is about $30 US, not too bad, but he says he just getting warmed up :). The exchange rate is something like 6.24Y per $1 US.

 

Not great sleep last night, Leah was awake again at 3am, not crying, just looking around. At some point during the night, her and Josh had switched spots so she was next to Ralph. We could tell she was nervous, so we moved her back to next to me and she fell asleep again. Then it was off and on again for all of us.

Finally, to today....we slept in since we didn't have anywhere to be and had breakfast later than normal. We found an indoor/outdoor kiddyland (as they call it in the hotel) that the kids had fun with. Just finished up a nap (we were all being lazy, Ashley was the only one to hit the gym) and in a little while, we head to a local place to get Leah's visa picture taken. Tomorrow is a free day, so we're headed to Shamian Island, a place we LOVE, for laundry and more shopping and wandering around. Shamian Island is a cool area where the White Swan hotel is located. The White Swan is typically where adoptive families stay, but it is under complete renovation. Everything is in walking distance from the White Swan, so it was always so nice. We like the hotel we're in, but there is something special about the White Swan. At least Holt borrowed one of the red couches for the red couch photo......The WS had these couches that all adoptive families would sit their kids on to take photos. We thought we'd have to miss out on it this time, but our Holt staff showed us the couch in their office...Yay!! Nothing like tradition!!

I'm sending lots of pics to post this time, as everyone requested!! We can read our emails, so if you have anything specific you want to see, or have any questions you've been wondering about, let me know! Thank you so much for your words of encouragement and support! We miss everyone and can't wait for Leah to meet you!

Oh, and one fact that I forgot to post from when we were in Beijing....Beijing is a big city, 140km by 160km, but the amazing part to me was that its population is about that of all of Canada. What!?!

Oh, and we forgot to wish a happy birthday to Uncle Dennis last week......sorry Dennis! And thanks again for taking us to the airport!!

 

As our new daughter sleeps....

 

 

I'm having a hard time thinking of what to write tonight as I look over and see our little Leah sleeping soundly on our bed....there are no words to adequately describe our day. It may be because I'm tired and my brain just isn't working right, but more likely, its that there really isn't anything I could say that could convey how incredible our day has been. And I couldn't head to bed without sending out our sincerest, deepest thanks for your prayers. Our God is an awesome God and we know that through all of our requests, He has prepared this beautiful little child to join our family. Thank you for your fb post, Cathy....just knowing that you and others were holding her up at the time we met her is just amazing.

I'll send more to post tomorrow, but just to let you all know, Leah is doing great! We headed over to the Civil Affairs office this afternoon....our escort let us know it would be a busy place - sure enough, there were a total of 40 families meeting their children today. It was a chaotic mix of crying children, parents trying to comfort them, flashing cameras and signing papers. When we met her, she was calm and there were no tears. She was unsure, a little tentative, but she latched on to one of the toys we brought and once we offered her some little crackers, she warmed up and was ok being held. Back at the hotel, her eyes were everywhere, taking it all in. Within minutes of coming into the room, she spied the Polly Pocket set that Mrs. Meier had sent along, grabbed my hand to take me over to where it was and once we pulled it out for her, she was hooked for the next hour. Will someone let Mrs. Meier know that Polly Pocket is her favorite thing? I'm not sure she's reading this and we would love to pass on our thanks again!

At dinner, she ate everything we gave her....pasta, noodle soup, shrimp dumplings, watermelon. She's a good little eater, at least for now! After dinner, back to the room and we got the kids in jammies and settled in to read. She fell asleep easily in my lap and is still out. I still can't believe she's finally here with us.....another enormous blessing that we are humbled to receive.

Josh and Makena have been loving on her from the first moment. We are so, so proud of them. They both got to have her on their lap for a few minutes and Makena just wants to carry her around. She keeps saying how precious Leah is. Josh has been sharing his cars and planes with her and he is so happy to be a big brother. And thank God for Ashley and Aimee....they have been amazing on this trip, knowing just when to jump in and help when we need it and having fun the entire time. They captured some great pics and video today!

We were told we will get to visit the orphanage, though I don't think they've scheduled the day yet. Can't wait to see where Leah spent the first few years of her life and especially to pass on the photos that we've brought from other families.

Before I sign off, we want to wish a very, very happy birthday to Diana! Hope you have a fun day!

This just doesn't get old....

Always a fun and exciting day, we had our Holt orientation this morning and received Leah's red folder.....it has information about her schedule, her personality, her likes and dislikes as well as our itinerary for the next 10 days. We also received one new picture of her. We are told she is quiet and shy with strangers, she loves riding wooden horse and driving toy cars (her and Josh will get along just fine!), she likes stuffed animals and playing ball. She is fond of fruits and milk and she eats steamed rice with meat and vegetables often. It goes on to give her sleep schedule and her height and weight. All of this information is helpful in not only knowing some of what to expect when we meet her, but also in ways of helping her transition. We meet her at 2pm on Monday, China time, which is 11pm Sunday night back home, so if you're awake and you think about it, if you would lift her up in prayer about that time, that would be awesome!

 

 

After the orientation, we had lunch at the hotel then headed to Tiananmenn Square and Forbidden City. It was another hot day, so we had a bit of a rushed tour, but it is an area we never tire of seeing. Again, the history behind these places is absolutely incredible! We took a lot of pics & will send them to post tomorrow. Built in the early 1400's, the Forbidden City housed the Emperor, his family, dignitaries and the Emporer's concubines. It has 9,999 1/2 rooms......just under the 10,000 they believe that the heaven's held and it would be unacceptable to have more that what the heaven's held! Not sure how they did 1/2 a room, but it sounds good. There is a giant picture of Chairman Mao at the entrance to the Forbidden City.....its actually a painting, and they replace it every year just before a certain date (I can't remember if its his birthday, or the day he passed away, something like that). They have a great respect for this man and how he ushered in "New China", as they call it. The city is HUGE and it is hard to imagine someone living there. We saw rooms where the Emporer took a break from his Emperor duties, his living quarters and his wife's living quarters, his office, a huge, beautiful hall that was used only 10 times per year for parties, and the famous, "the power behind the curtain" room, where the mother of the 4-year-old Emporer sat in a throne behind the little Emperor with a curtain separating them, and told her son what to do, what decisions to make, etc. At that time, women were not allowed to be involved in or see state affairs, hence the curtain. She essentially ran the country for 40 years until her death, but she ran it from behind the scenes.

After leaving Forbidden City, we went to a silk factory where they showed us how they pull silk from the cocoon of a silkworm......incredibly intricate and tedious work, but it makes for some really, really soft material. We had bought a comforter for Makena when we were here in 2005 and missed the tour in 2008, so we bought one for Josh and Leah this time. The duvet covers were BEAUTIFUL, but very expensive, so we opted for just the comforter and will give them to the kids when they are older. Then we were sent upstairs where they was a whole floor of silk attire.....Makena and Leah now have matching dresses and Josh has a cool little Chinese outfit, as well as some angry birds chopsticks. These people really know how to make a sale to tourists :) And we are suckers for things that remind us of where our kids came from.

Back to the hotel just in time for dinner. We joined two other families and thought we'd be adventurous....we heard of a great hot pot restaurant, but when we got there and were ushered to our own private back room, we realized that it was basically like fondue but with meats and vegetables. Our first thought was that the kids would all burn themselves, our second thought was that seeing as the staff spoke no english and we speak very very little mandarin, we may end up with something that would leave us not feeling so well and that is not a great idea the night before we board a plane. We ended up at Pizza Hut and had some pretty awesome pizza.

Well, off to bed, as we have an early morning and long day ahead. We'll post (or send Kami to post) pictures once we get to our next hotel and get all settled. Praying that everyone is doing well back home!

Having a great time, wish you were here!

We did arrive safe and sound in Beijing on Wednesday and have been trying to access our blog with no luck. We are hearing that it is because Hilary is in town and they shut everything down while she's visiting......we'll see if it works when she heads for home. Until then, we are very grateful to have a friend posting for us - thanks Kami!

Beijing has been amazing! We are staying at the same hotel that we were in for our last trip here & it is beautiful and within walking distance of a lot of shopping and restaurants. We arrived to the hotel at around noon and relaxed for a bit in our rooms. We have connecting rooms, which is great for the kids....they're having fun going back and forth. Not so sure how well Ash & Aimee like it :).....the kids end up spending more time in their room then in ours. We realized pretty quick that we needed to keep moving otherwise we'd all fall asleep, so we hit the pool and then did some shopping and had dinner. We were out by about 7 and up at 2:30....that was fun. We're getting closer to China's schedule after last night, though.....out at 9 and up at 5. 

Yesterday was the Great Wall tour, lunch at a jade factory and a Hutong tour. The weather was in the 90's, but its not as humid as it has been our past two trips. Our guide says the heat is about a month early, as it should be in the 70's in early May. The heat made for a tough climb on the Great Wall, but we did it......we made it to the top, or the end of one section of the Badaling portion of the wall.

I think we took a different route than we did last time we did the tour, because we didn't remember the steep, really steep, uneven and often narrow steps we were met with on this route. It was crazy, beautiful and amazing to realize how long ago the wall was built. It wasn't very crowded when we arrived, so the trek up was nice, but as we were coming down, there were a lot more people and that made for some tight squeezes. The kids did so great....I can't believe their little legs made it the whole way. Some of the steps were so high that if they sat on them, their legs wouldn't reach the next step down. There was a little ice cream cart at about the halfway point (really? how did they get that up there?) so the kids got a treat on the way down. Oh, and one group of boys thought that Aimee was Lady Gaga :).

On the bus ride from the wall to the jade factory, the a/c broke & we were all about to melt, so walking into the air conditioned factory where we were served an amazing lunch was heavenly. After lunch, they gave us a tour and told us all about jade and how they carve these giant, yet intricate pieces that were on display. One was a ship that weighed 4,000 lbs.....it was so detailed and beautiful...and all one piece. It took 5 masters (as they call the carvers) 2 years to complete.

After the factory, we headed for the Hutong, which is an old village originally built by the Monguls (Mongolians) for the common people when they chose Beijing as the capitol. We all hopped in rickshaws (instead of them being pulled on foot as they did in the early days, they are pulled by bicycles) and it was fascinating, again, to wander through this little village and see how the middle class people of China live.

The homes are very small, but very expensive. We were welcomed into one home by a very hospitable family.....they served us tea and told us about their lives. The father and his two sons are KungFu masters and the father said his wife stays home and practices KungFu in the kitchen :) He had a wonderful sense of humor. He spoke so proudly of his sons, his eldest who now lives in Houston and teaches at a prominent KungFu school. Their home consisted of one very small kitchen, a dining area that was about 10x10, a sitting area (like our living rooms) that was about 10x20, a small bathroom (which they are fortunate to have, because they live close to the main road), and an upstairs sleeping are that we weren't able to see. Their home had been in their family for 150 years and we were told that if the government wanted to buy it, to get an idea of how much they would have to pay, one meter square would cost them $35,000US. Many of the homes in the village don't have a wash room, as they call it, so the government put in many community ones throughout. Makena & the girls got to experience their first "squattie potties".....Makena is not a fan :)

Traveling throughout the Hutong, it struck us how many of the people were just hanging outside, many playing games, many just sitting and talking. There was a common area, like a small park, that there were some playing their version of hackysack, and doing exercises. We thought, wow, if we all took the time to just sit outside and visit with our neighbors and family, we'd probably lead much less stressful lives! They live so simply, so un-extravagantly, and they are happy....it reminds us how much we could live without and how much we take for granted.

We were exhausted by the time our day was done, and we ended up having McDonalds for dinner....a Chinese cheeseburger tastes pretty much the same.

Today we have our orientation where we should get the coveted red folder that has updated information about Leah. After that, we tour the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square. We are traveling with 4 other families from across the US (FL, AL and TX), so it has been fun meeting and getting to know them. The kids have become fast friends with the kids of the other families. Tomorrow we fly out to Guangzhou and the next day we meet Leah!! We'll send more to post later today! Miss everyone back home!

The longest leg of our trip is over!!

We made it to Korea! We were all so glad to land.....it was a reallllly long flight this time. Lots of turbulence which made it hard to sleep. Great news is Josh did amazing.....no fear, just total excitement. He wasn't sure about the whole landing thing, but he was fascinated and looking out the window as much as possible. Kids didn't fall asleep until around 1:30am & Makena was so tired, she had night terrors. It was warm on the plane & hard for her to get comfortable, but after awhile she found a good position and was out. Airport here is really clean and there is hardly anyone here since its 6am. The kids are expending some pent-up energy by playing in the indoor playground they have here. Ralph, Ashley & Aimee have already found the Starbucks and, even though the meals on the plane were great, we're being tempted by some udon for breakfast. We board in another hour for the two-hour flight to Beijing....then hopefully we can all get some sleep! We'll post some pics later once we get to the hotel and get all hooked up :) And we wanted to say thank you, though thank you does not seem enough, for all of your prayers and support! We have truly felt God's peace and protection and we are so thankful and so blessed that Leah gets to come home to an amazing groups of family and friends :)