Almost home

We have made it to The Beijing Airport (Starbucks of course)... and we
are ready for the 12 hour flight home.... Almost there!

2 More Days....

I am missing my boys terribly....so ready to come home!

We are having a 'groundhogs day' today....we got all dressed up yesterday, the girls in their matching Chinese outfits (Sadie thought this was really cool) and took the taxi to the White Swan hotel to meet our group (it takes about 1/2 hour from the Navis' house) at 2:00 for our U.S. Consulate appointment.  Only to find out that they forgot to tell us our appointment was the next day (today) since we were added to the group late.  Lovely.  We tried to shop around the island where the White Swan hotel is but all of the power was out so the stores had to close because it was too stifling hot without their air conditioning.  We ended up going to a humongous shopping center that sold everything known to man.  The girls had fun looking around.

When we skyped Cameron yesterday he told us he got a starting position on the 7th grade football team...center.  We thought that was pretty cool!

We're off to the U.S. Consulate again looking not as nice as yesterday:)

Chinese Massage

Okay, so Dave took Troy and I to the infamous Chinese massage place last night!  Joani and Cindy had told us about this place.  I was laughing sooooo hard throughout the whole hour ordeal.  My massage dude must have thought I was a real nut job.  So it's called the traditional Chinese foot massage......Yes, the feet were included as well as the rest of your entire body.  One hour cost about $7.50.  The picture we are posting is the guy sticking his knees in my back and lifting me into the air.  I was crying in pain during half of it.  I must say, they definitely knew what they were doing. 

Once again, we were boiling up yesterday.  We did touring in the morning of a museum then went to a park....both outdoor things you could really not even enjoy since all you could think of was jumping into a swimming pool.  Sadie had her Visa photo and her TB test checked (negative as I posted yesterday) in the afternoon.  The girls then went swimming when we got home.  Sadie was dunking her head and cracking up!  We've figured she gets really wild when she gets tired.....naps are a must!

I forgot to post that she is 35 1/2" tall and 23 lbs.  A lot of people think she is 3 here.  They also ALWAYS think Chloe and Marissa are twins (it is driving them crazy).

Whenever Sadie doesn't want us to do something (often) she says, "Beera".  So funny.  We now tell her Beera.  She doesn't like that so much.  She's repeating a lot of English words we say to her now. 

A big difference between Ethiopia and China adopting a child is that in ET everyone would grab your child from you and love on them.  Here, they are very friendly to your child but don't overstep their boundaries.  Very interesting.

Troy just got home from walking to the store to buy watermelon (Sadie can single handedly eat an entire watermelon by herself each day).  He is absolutely drenched in sweat from a short little walk.  Ugh.  We are going through sooooo much water here!  I never thought I would long to see rain.....

We are having a very nice day hanging out at Dave and Darlene's house this morning doing nothing.  Their I.E. (maid) gets here at noon so we'll head out then.  I'm telling you, I need myself an I.E.!  She makes their dinner, does their laundry and cleans their house.  I just have a twinge of jealousy that I'll need to repent of!

Photos from Today

Guangzhou

Well, I know a lot of you heard but we had an 'exciting' couple of days yesterday and the day before yesterday.  Our simple 1 hour flight from Nanchang to Guangzhou turned into a 20 hour ordeal.  Let's just say lots of sitting around waiting, not understanding people speaking Mandarin, stuck in rooms filled with smoke until midnight with tired children.  The plane couldn't land because of bad weather so we ended up flying to an unknown location and spending the night in a seedy motel after waiting around for 4 hours in a smoke infested airport room.  We flew out the next morning.  We couldn't figure out how to work the A/C so sweat to death in 100 degree plus rooms, sweating to death with only the clothes on our backs.  They did hand out toothbrushes.  The good news....we made it the next morning!  Yeah.  AND, they paid us about $30 each for our troubles.  $200 yuan

The best news....as far as we can tell, Sadie DOES NOT have Tuberculosis because the test she had taken yesterday has not shown a reaction.  She gets it officially checked tomorrow but I definitely know enough about TB tests to read them!  Praise the Lord, thank you to those of you who have been praying.

Sadie got her first pair of squeaker shoes today.  For those of you who don't know, China sells these darling little shoes that squeak when the kids walk for about $5.  She wanted to put them on right away and continued to walk/squeak around for the next half hour.  It's tough to get her out of her stroller (she loves it) but the shoes definitely did the trick!  So cute! 

Sadie had another new first today....Dave and Darlene have a pool at their apartment complex so the girls were dying to go swimming (you did NOT have to wear a swim cap at their pool).  We decided to put Sadie's swim suit on just in case she decided she wanted to try.  Since she is DEATHLY afraid of the bath tub, we did not think there was any chance she would actually do it.  Well, those big sisters were having so darn much fun, she just couldn't resist.  So daddy got in first then slowly over the course of time, lowered her in inch by inch and before she knew it, she was all the way in, splashing around, kicking her legs, and sticking her mouth in blowing bubbles!!!!!!  We were in awe!  She had sooooooooo much fun! 

We bought a few cheepows (I spelled that all wrong)..the little Chinese outfits for Sadie today.  Joani stressed me out telling me I need one for each year of her entire life....I thought maybe a few would do.  The  bargaining with these people is absolutely exhausting!  The place we shopped was Shaiman Island where the famous 'White Swan' hotel is with the red couch. 

We went with Dave and Darlene to a fun Vietnamese restaurant for lunch.  We had a great time!  It is so nice to be at their house instead of a hotel.  They are so hospitable and gracious to us who they don't even know!

When we talked with Bryce this morning, he told me he threw up at school on Friday and Pop had to come and get him.....my poor liitle guy.  He has his first loose tooth that looks like it will fall out any second!  It looks like mommy has to miss another one of Bryce's firsts!  I told him NOT to wiggle it. 

Photos from Today

Here are some photos from today, along with the "toilet" shot from Tienanmen Square (you'll have to ask Marissa about this). 

Nanchang

Well, we are feeling done with hotel life and are excited to get to stay with the Navis's in Guangzhou starting tomorrow evening; it is a 1 1/2 hour plane ride.  We are tired of buffets (except Marissa), tired of smoke smell, tired of Chinese people pushing past us onto the elevator, tired of doing sink laundry, tired of Chinese men gawking at the girls and tired of concrete for beds!

We went to a place to buy porcelain yesterday since Nanchang (Sadie's province) is most known for their porcelain.  We bought her a beautiful tea set we plan to give her when she's 18.  We are trying to buy her 16 gifts in China to give to her each 'gotcha day' until she's 18.  I'm up to 10....6 more to go. 

Gramma Sandee gave the girls $20 to spend in China so they had fun converting their money to Yuan and buying things here.  They have each bought a Chinese fan and a battery operated fan because we are SOOOO hot all of the time!

We went to the Nanchang zoo today.  It was one of those super inhumane zoos where the animals all looked a bit sick.  What was nice was that there were NO people there!  First place in China we've been that wasn't packed to the gills.  Marissa got to see a panda bear so all was well!  Sadie loooooooved the zoo.  She SQUEALED with excitement at each animal!  When we would get too close to the animals, she would cry.  It was a love hate thing.  We bought her bubbles and she shrieked as she would try to catch them.....she had all the fun for all the kids that went.  The other little girls didn't have so much fun.  They are still very sullen and cry a lot.  The one little girl who is blind moans and cries all day long.  It is absolutely tear jerking to listen to.  All she does at the hotel is wander the halls with her mommy or daddy looking for a way out.  So hard to watch.  Her name is Eva.  Please pray for precious Eva.

Sadie LOVED talking to Lukie on skype!  She thought he was a crack up!  She reminds me of Luke in that she waves at EVERYONE (there are a lot of people to wave at in China). 

The girls and I walked to a grocery store last night to get some batteries and pick up something for dinner.  We found something that looked like chicken so we confirmed about 10 times with the guy who spoke no English 'chicken' (we have been warned that you never know what it might be...aka dog).  Most of the time we eat at fast food or the hotel but we are so bored with both of those.  Sadie is obviously not used to the food she's been eating because she has diarrhea.

I went to go use the treadmill in the hotel gym this morning but someone had decided to use it for a smoking room so the stench made me stop.

We got a scanned copy of the note that Sadie's mom left with her when she abandoned her at the orphanage when she was 8 days old.  I read that at her orphanage, there is a big gate that cars/people go through then there is a tiny little gate for people to leave their abandoned babies at.  When they leave the babies, there is a pad of paper/pen and firecrackers sitting there to light so that someone knows to come and get the baby.  Quite a process, huh?

My parents sent us pictures of the boys' first day of school.  We were cracking up at Luke's because all of his classmates look like his caretakers because they are so tall and he is so short!  Apparently he cried when my dad took him this morning. 

We met a guy yesterday who is here by himself adopting a 3 year old because his wife caught something soon before they were supposed to leave and couldn't travel.  He was telling us that the little girl they adopted (Quinn) was their second referral because 4 weeks before they were supposed to travel to get their first little girl, she got pneumonia and died.  He was getting choked up just talking about it.  Heart breaking.  There just seems to be little value of human life here.   

Day 5 - Recap

Nanchang is SOOOOO hot.  It is suffocating.  We are doing a tour of her province today.  It is known for its porcelain.

It was the absolute cutest thing you could ever lay your eyes upon yesterday.....Troy got out the laptop to play a movie for the girls.  He put the laptop on the bed and Sadie jumped up on the bed and started shrieking in excitement.  She got in between the two girls and by her own free will THREW her arms around the girls with the hugest smile on her face.  We took a picture and will attach.  She definitely has her times of grieving as well.  She will cry for periods of time that deep grieving cry.  So sad but so necessary.  You can tell that she spent a large amount of time in those exercausers with wheels.  She doesn't have a lot of muscle tone and falls quite a bit.  She's been eating A LOT!  She uses a spoon perfectly.  To get her to sleep at bed or a nap, I will lay her in the crib and she'll cry for a few minutes then I pat her chest for about 5 minutes and she's out.  Little sweet pea.

Our guide in Beijing talked quite a bit about the Family Plan in China.  We've heard such conflicting things in the past.  They are asked to have only one child.  If they have more than one, they must pay a fine.  Many times the fine is up to more than 10 times their annual salary (obviously impossible to pay).  In many of these cases they will not register the child therefore the child does not receive citizenship.  Without citizenship, you have no access to doctors.  This is why a lot of times kids with special needs are given up.  Apparently they are doing a census this year to try to figure out just how many people live in CHina....they really have no idea because of so many hidden kids.  CRAZY.   We were reading the China Daily newspaper and a teeny tiny article talked about a family who brought their seriously ill child to the hospital, they depleted their savings then had to abandon the child in hopes that the hospital would take care of him.  They returned some time period later to find out the hospital let the child die.  They then got arrested for child abandonment.  Heart wrenching.  So much to pray for. 

One funny thing....Marissa used a squatter toilet!  Most bathrooms have 2 or so normal toilets and the rest squatter toilets (a toilet level with the ground).  At one point, Marissa had to go to the bathroom really bad and the bathroom had no real toilets.  So funny!  I'm a little upset with Joani that she didn't warn me that China is a byotp (bring your own toilet paper) country.  I felt very clueless the first time we went to a bathroom and there was NO toilet paper!  We learned quickly to carry a role with us.

Nanchang is worse than Beijing as far as the roads.  There appears to be no system whatsoever on the roads....massive chaos and confusion.  They don't even drive on a particular side of the street.  The open road is yours to be maneuvered however you like.  SOOOOOOO scary!  We came head on with a bus and had to violently slam on the breaks with a near miss all while not wearing seat belts. 

The girls are refusing to go in the pool in China because you have to wear swim caps.  We went to a Walmart yesterday (wow, what an experience!) but they still didn't want me to get them a swim cap! 

Sadie can't wait to meet you all:)

Day 4 - Continued (From Heather)

Monday

Wow, we are feeling like the luckiest family in China!  Sadie is doing awesome!!!  She cried a little bit yesterday when we got her yesterday and had a deer in the headlights look about her the rest of the day.  Since she woke up this morning, the girls have her laughing, saying words, playing ball.  Her outgoing personality is coming out for sure!  The two other little two year old girls who were adopted are not fairing as well.  They want to borrow Marissa and Chloe:)  She still wants to be held by Mama.  She is an absolute princess!  She is very tall and very skinny.  She just fits in the 2T footed pajamas.  All the shoes we brought are too big (you were right Joani and Cindy!)  We'll definitely be buying some squeaker shoes!  She ate a TON this morning.  She pooped and peed on the potty twice!  If she doesn't want to do something, she violently shakes her head.  She LOVES the stroller and asks to go in that.  She has very dry skin (thank you for the Cetaphil tip Joani!)  Her hair is very fine and thin.  She slept all night but very fitfully (thrashing and moaning).  It's so cute, she's telling people Ni How (hello in Mandarin).  Did I mention she is precious?  We have Skyped our whole family and she loves to watch them on the computer screen. 

I think Troy talked about the Silk Market the other day but it is definitely worth repeating from my perspective.  This place was the most amazing garage sale on steroids you have EVER seen!  We bought North Face coats for the entire family.....and Troy bought suits.  Our suitcases were absolutely busting at the seems!  I have never laughed so hard watching Troy bargain with the people....they all spoke English.  At one point they grabbed Marissa and began trying jeans on her.  Marissa is laughing the whole time telling them "I don't need jeans"  they kept telling her that didn't matter, you buy.  Chloe would have kicked them if they pulled that on her!  They were all beyond fascinated with the girls.  They couldn't stop stroking Marissa's pony tails asking her if they 'natural'?  They wanted to see pictures of our family so we were showing them then we were surrounded with a bunch of them looking at the pics.  They kept insisting all those kids were not ours.  Then we told them we were in China to adopt a little girl.  They nearly hit the ground in astonishment.  They kept saying, "Why you want baby from China?"  I had a chance to share my faith so we told them that we were Christians and felt led by God to adopt.  Then they said they knew we had good heart.  It was fascinating to see their level of shock of a large family.  I will write what we have learned about the China Family Plan in another blog.  I hope the first day of school went well for all!  I was so happy to hear it went well for Bryce, Luke and Cameron!  Whew.   We are off to a Chinese Wall Mart!

Day 4 - Nanchung - Hello Sadie! - GOTCHA DAY!

Well, today was an amazing day.  It started with an early morning flight to Nanchung from Beijing (about a 2 hour flight).  After landing in Nanchung, our adoption agency picked us up and took us to the Galactic Hotel in downtown Nanchung (about a 1 hour drive).  Sadie (and other adopted kids in our group) was already at the hotel waiting for us.  We put our bags in our room and within 5 minutes we met her for the first time.   What an amazing day that cannot be put into words.  She is more precious than we could have ever imagined.  She cried for the first two minutes of our initial meeting and then the confusion of what was happening sunk in.   She is still a little unsure of mom and dad, however.   After processing some paperwork with the China officials, we headed off to dinner at the hotel (Chinese buffet of course).  Just before dinner, Chloe & Marissa had her laughing, giving "hi-fives", and speaking several words (her first English word was "mama"... utterly amazing.  The girls push her around in her stroller endlessly and she does not want to get out.  Heather put her down to sleep with out much fussing.  I will quote Marissa:  "This is the most amazing day of my life."   Enough from me... I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

The Beijing "silk shop"

We had to make one more post of the rent "purchases" from the Beijing Silk shop (the ultimate Chinese bargain Betty's).   This place is several story's of hundreds and hundreds of vendors selling everything we buy in the US for a fraction of the price.  Heather put her negotiating skills to the limit.  But I think the Chinese have mastered negotiation. 

We are off to Nanchang early in the AM to meet Sadie. 

Days 1, 2 and 3

This is Heather's first post....not sure what Troy has written!  We showed up at the airport at 2:00 since our flight was leaving at 4pm and went to our airline (Hainan) only to find out there was NO ONE in line!  We found out the flight was LEAVING at 2pm...we freaked.  God was in control however and the flight was delayed by 45 minutes....just enough time for us to RUN and make the flight.  Poor Chloe was crying (actually, I was too).  We are staying in a nice hotel in Beijing in kind of a funky part of town.  The traffic here is OUT OF THIS WORLD.  The number of people living in one city is mind boggling henceforth it is a very dirty city.  Marissa's favorite part so far is the big breakfast buffet we have gotten each morning:)  She is sad we are leaving tomorrow for Sadie's province and therefore leaving our breakfast buffet.  The girls have been GREAT!  Real troopers.  We went to the Great Wall yesterday....it was very hot but we climbed up a huge amount of steps and they did great!  These steps were so weird because one step would be a few inches tall and the next would be over 3 feet tall!  It really tripped you up!  It was an amazing experience.  The girls and I checked out a Beijing supermarket....the stench was overwhelming and once again the number of people in one location was over the top.  We had NO idea what we were buying but tried to buy a few snacks.  We went to a fun acrobatic show the girls really liked.  Troy's MAC power cord busted so he decided we would locate a Beijing MAC store so he could buy a new one....he was on a definite mission.  Marissa took her first taxi ride and thought that was 'a hoot'.  She told me Mimi taught her that word.  We went to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City today.  I was wishing they would have forbidden me to go to the Forbidden City.  It was SOOOOOOOOOO hot!  The girls and I were dying!  I have never seen so many people in one location in my life.  The girls have been like rock stars wherever we go.  People keep asking if they can get their picture taken with them.  Chloe FREAKED out the first time but is now getting used to it.  Marissa just keeps smiling for the pictures:)  The Chinese guide today told me....your daughters so lovely.  It's hilarious.  In our group there are 2 other little girls the same ages as our girls....very fun for them since we are with these people most of the trip.  The girls are trying to squeeze homework in when they can.  We get Sadie tomorrow at noon!!!  Which would be 9pm Sunday night your time!  We have a 2 and a half our flight to her province and will be traveling with 2 other families from our group.  One last funny thing, we were buying a couple of souvenir books outside of the Forbidden City and later when we looked at the change the woman gave us back, it was Russian money!  She totally scammed us!  At least it was only for about $8 US!

The Great Wall

We have arrived in China and made it to the Great Wall!

Shopping in Beijing

The girls are loving the "shopping" in Beijing.  Somehow, I think the venders have gotten the best of us!

Beijing

After almost missing our flight (Heather will tell the full story
later) we are in Beijing!

Adoption Round 2 - Sadie Zhi Xia