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.