January 11th: Helping the economy of Guangzhou

Today we started with another wonderful breakfast at the White Swan. One nice thing about this hotel is that they seat adoptive families generally in 1 area so you get to know people and get to visit daily at breakfast.

After breakfast we walked in the rain to the clinic for the reading of the children’s TB Skin Test. It was so messy with all the construction. All 3 kids in our group showed false positive and had to get chest X-Rays to show they are OK. All 3 showed OK on the x-ray. By the time we headed back the rain had stopped.

Next stop was the famous “Red Couch Photos” at the White Swan. These are always a nice take away to remember people in your travel group with. (see photo on the slide show at top)

After the photos we had to go out and do our part to stimulate the economy of Guangzhou. We really did not spend that much but with the exchange rate it seemed like a lot. Interesting tidbit of trivia, the largest bill in the Yuan (Chinese Money) is the 100 which is only $15 US. So you end up with a thick wad of money in your wallet for just routine shopping.

We went to the pearl market to shop for pearls. One of the things we do is to purchase gifts for every year on the anniversary of our girls adoption day and we give them a gift from China. One special one is for 16th birthday they get a nice string of pearls and ear rings. So today we went to purchase those. Very nice pearls at a fraction of the US price. Check out the photo of the pearl shop. Robin also got a nice set of ear rings for herself.

We also hit a few other stores to check out their goods and found a few other items. No trip to China is complete until Robin has her Sea Food Lovers Pizza from Pizza Hut. We had not made it to Pizza Hut this trip yet so today we took our guide Grace out and enjoyed a great lunch.

This afternoon we went to the various shops on the island and made some great purchases toward Maria’s 14 gifts for gotya day. Yesterday we had looked for items and today we went back to make purchases. The shops were slow and haggling was good. We made what we felt like were some good purchases today. We also had to purchase another suit case to get the extra items home, that should be fun on the train Thursday.

Tonight when we were walking back from dinner one of the shop keepers spoke to us and asked Robin “You been here before, I taylor made cloths for you” She described in detail a shirt that she made for Robin 3 years ago when we were here. Amazing as many people as they see that she remembered us. We plan to go back and visit with her tomorrow.

Tomorrow our guide will take our paperwork to the US Consulate and it everything checks out then we go Wednesday for our oath. We do not expect any issues but have to be available in the event there are questions.

One other footnote. Maria is bonding so well and loves her sisters. Today at least twice we saw her piled on top of big sister Shiyan on the floor holding her down. She is coming out of her shell and likes to play. We have also noticed her stamina getting better. She is walking faster and longer. We really watch how much she walks and try not to let her over do it but she is doing amazingly well.

January 10th: A different Sunday

Today we had some tours. We visited the six banyan tree temple. Nothing like our typical Sunday in church. There were many people there offering burnt incense and other offerings to their gods. We saw many statues of their gods. The temple is an interesting structure. We had a lot of attention from Grace our guide since it was just us and our new friend Laura that is here adopting.

The next stop was Chen Academy. This has much local art on display and was very interesting. We had been here on our last trip but they rotate many of the displays so much of it was new.

We then stopped at an upscale store that sold jade, porcelain, carvings etc. It was fun looking around at all the neat stuff.

We then came back to the island and ended up going around to the various shops looking for souvenirs. The shops were slow today so it made for some good bargaining.

For dinner we went out with our guide and Laura and her daughter. The Tai food was out of this world and very reasonably priced. After our 711 lunch this was a welcomed treat.

After dinner the girls went to the play room at the hotel and had so much fun. Maria did not want to leave to come back to the room.

Maria had another wonderful day. She was very loving and playful most of the day and seems to really be enjoying herself. It is fun to see how she is bonding and playing with her sisters.

Tomorrow morning we go back to have her TB Skin test read. If that is good then all our medical stuff is complete. The US will review our paperwork on Tuesday and we should take the oath with Maria on Wednesday. We are to leave here for Hong Kong on Thursday evening arriving back home on Friday evening. We are all ready to get home. Pray that her skin test is clear.

January 9th: Physical and shopping

OK we are back in a more western world now. The White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou is 5 stars and has a wonderful breakfast buffet. Don’t take me wrong our last hotel was nice but the breakfast had a huge Asian flair. The Swan has the best French Toast, Eggs, Dim Sum etc. It is also the home to many American that are adopting so we see many other American couples with Chinese children. We have met some wonderful people from around the US and have enjoyed conversation with them. We met 1 family with 13 adopted children from 5 to adult, we saw our friends we met in ZZ as well as several others.

After breakfast today we had to meet for some paperwork along with the other 2 families that met back up with us here. We then all walked down to get the girls Visa photos taken and then off to the medical clinic. Maria did wonderfully with the physical but did not like the TB skin test or the 4 shots she had to get. I will say though that after a few minutes she was back to her lovable self.

We spent the afternoon walking around all the shops on Shamian Island where we are staying. The whole island is under construction this trip and it is not nearly as beautiful as our last 2 trips. The roads and sidewalks are blocked, some shops have been closed for renovations and it is just not the same. Additionally inflation has hit here, with the dollar worth less and the impacts post Olympics we are seeing prices on most items double what they were 3 years ago.

We visited a number of shops and enjoyed the haggling and got what we felt like were some good deals but not great deals. We have a list of items we are looking for to take gifts back to some people that really helped make this adoption possible and the hunt for gifts is always fun.

Maria has had a great day. She rode in the stroller, enjoyed shopping and was the perfect child. She is loving on us and likes to be loved on. It seems like we may have turned a corner with her.

After shopping we were off to Lucy’s for dinner. Lucy’s is a diner that has American food, Asian and even Mexican. So we had a mix of things which were all good.

After dinner the girls wanted to go to the play room in the White Swan. Mattel sponsors the play room here and it is stocked with great toys for kids to enjoy. While the girls enjoyed the play room with mom, dad was able to escape for a wonderful Chinese massage. Talk about relaxing, it was wonderful, always one of the highlights of the trip.

That is a wrap up of today. Tomorrow we visit a Buddhist Temple and art school and some more shopping. We will wrap up with a group dinner at a Tai place. Thanks for your continued prayers we are in the final leg of this journey.

Day 9 Maria’s first airplane ride

Well today was a laid back day for the most part. We hung out at the hotel most of the day and let the girls play. We walked down the street for a Chinese lunch which was wonderful by the way. We also stopped a few local shops to look around but did not buy anything.

Maria was great today. Very lovable, sweet, playful all you could ask for. She had a blast playing with the girls and talking to her brothers on Skype.

At 3 we checked out and met Rita in the lobby. Maria was OK staying with us but Rita held back to help us out. Maria was fine on the van ride to the airport and laughed and played. Once at the airport we checked in and made our way to security. Rita hugged us and we said our good bye’s. Rita did not go to Maria and we know it was so hard for her not to hug Maria good bye. We wanted to cry leaving Rita behind. She was so kind to all of us and our girls all fell in love with her. We are thankful that we got Maria away without any trauma but we all miss Rita.

Once on the airplane Maria was fine she got a bit scared when the engine’s started and was nervous when we took off but she ate some comfort food and was fine. She read the in flight magazine cover to cover about a dozen times on the trip.

We landed in Guangzhou and Grace our new guide met us. We made it to the hotel about 9:30 and got checked in and to the room. The girls have not napped today so quick baths and off to bed. They were all out within a few minutes.

Tomorrow is the Visa physical then some shopping. They have several tours set up for us while we are here. Guangzhou is a fun place and it is nice to be back in warmer weather where we can get out side and enjoy ourselves. Oh and they have Papa Johns Pizza and Starbucks just down the street.

9 days down and 6 to go and then we head home. We are ready to get home and looking forward to being back in our own bed. FYI Chinese beds are best described as plywood covered in cotton cloth they are latterly like sleeping on a board. We miss our memory foam bed.

Day 8: Taxi’s, aquarium and grieving

Today we headed out to the Zhengzhou Aquarium. Maria had a fit when we tried to put gloves on her, then later on decided her hands were cold and wanted gloves. Next thing we learned is that Maria HATES taxi’s. When we get in a cab she comes un-glued, screaming, kicking you name it. She yells Bu Yah. We are not sure why she does not like them, we do know that she calms down if Rita our guide holds her but she has to learn to be with us as Rita will be history tomorrow.

The aquarium was fun, they have some very nice exhibits and even a walk through tunnel under the sea where you see stingray’s, sharks and other marine life. Maria really liked it and calmed down and had fun there. We fed sea turtles and got to see two shows. The first show was a guy swimming and dancing with various creatures from stingray to sharks. The next show was a mermaid swimming and a prince joined her. We could not understand any of the narration but the Chinese people seemed to like it. The girls really enjoyed it.

We went out to hail a cab and the first 2 cabs stopped and said we had too big of crowd plus stroller and need to wait for larger cab. Finally a guy stopped and took us in his tinny cab.

We stopped at McDonalds for a quick lunch. No we are not eating American fast food all the time but for lunch it is often the best way to go. McDonalds could not sell us Big Mac’s today so we had to settle for double cheese burgers. Hard to imagine McDonalds without Big Mac’s. Maria loved Chicken nuggets and fries.

Once back at the hotel Maria had another melt down and cried for about 45 minutes and finally went to sleep. She is starting to figure out that everything is changed and to a degree is not too happy that we are her parents yet. This is all part of the grieving process and will get better over time. When she is mad at us she will refuse to look at us and trys to just ignore us.

While all the girls napped, daddy went out exploring in the local market. It was fun trying to bargain with vendors who spoke no English. It was fun to get out and see some real China like this. I managed to purchase a very nice neck tie at one of the local shops for a very good price.

After nap time Maria was fine and we went to the play room and the girls had fun playing. We then walked to a local Chinese restaurant for dinner. We had been told that some waiters spoke English but they spoke very little. So Forrest started ordering courses and with the exception of the first course the food was great. The first course was a noodle dish, turns out it was a cold dish and was SO SPICY that it sat our mouths on fire.

That is our day in a nutshell. Tomorrow we pick up Maria’s passport and then hang out at the hotel until about 3:30 then we are off to the airport. We fly to Guangzhou tomorrow evening. We are all ready for warmer weather, Guangzhou is about as far south as Cuba so should be nicer weather than we have seen up here. Hard to do anything outside when it is below 20 degrees during the day time and walking back from dinner at night is very brisk.

Continue to pray that Maria bonds with us and learns that we are her parents and that she has to obey our rules. She is catching on to communication and repeats most words that we say to her. Sometimes when when she can not understand us she will look at us and go (ya oh ya oh ya oh ya) which is just babble. That must be what our words sound like to her.

We know things will get better each day and this is all normal but it is no less difficult when you see your child hurting so bad and they will not allow you to help them.

Day 7: Trip to Luoyang

We headed out to Luoyang today. This is the city where Maria was found and where the orphanage is located. She lived in this orphanage from about 1 month old until about 3.5 years old (February 2009). We had mixed emotions about this trip but really wanted to see the town she was from and to get photos of it. (See the photo link for shots from the day)

The drive up there is about 2.5 hours, 1 hour of which is just getting to the other side of Zhengzhou. Luoyang is about 6 million people and covers a rather large area. The roads were excellent and our driver was excellent but aggressive but that is how they drive.

When we arrived in town we drove directly to the orphanage. When we got there all 3 girls needed to go to the rest room and we ended up going into the orphanage for them to go. (side note today was totally squatty potties If you want to know more about these send me an email.) Maria saw the director that had brought her to us and wanted to go to her. This confused her and she was scared and uncertain about what was going on. She had a major melt down. She did not want us but went to Rita our guide. She loves Rita and prefers her over us at times. It was so hard to see Maria so upset but it did give us the chance to tell her that we will always be her parents and that we will never leave her.

After a few minutes Maria calmed down and was back friendly with us. We drove to a porcelain shop to look for some gifts. Luoyang is famous for their porcelain work. We found some neat things there at good prices. After we left there Maria told Rita that Mommy and Daddy bought her things and that we were OK and she liked us.

We went to a local restaurant and Rita took charge of ordering. I must say that this was likely the best Chinese meal I have ever eaten. We had noodles, rice, mushrooms, beef, dumplings, etc. The flavors were out of this world. We both love Chinese food and both Robin and Forrest agreed that this was a wonderful meal. 7 of us had a wonderful meal for less than $30 US dollars.

After lunch we went to a local park and walked around. Then it was time to head back to Zhengzhou. On the ride back Maria wanted to stand in the middle to be near Rita. She also is very bad about sternly saying Bo Yao (No and I mean it) I threatened to rename her Maria Bo Yao. We kept trying to get her to sit down. Disclaimer vehicles here do not have seat belts and car seats are not used at all so kids stand or just sit in the car. In any case we needed to establish that she has to mind us. We finally had to take her and hold her, she did not like it but in a few minutes settled down and fell asleep. We kept comforting her telling her in Chinese that we will always be her mommy and daddy and that we love her. When we got back to the hotel she woke up and was a new child, she had a great evening and has been so happy. The only other issue with her is she hates bath time and brushing her teeth but we know this will correct itself in a few days.

The other good news is that Shiyan really had a good day and is doing great with Maria and with us.

We are so thankful to have her as our daughter and believe that she will fit right in with our family.

Day 6 She is our daughter now.

Maria slept all night and got up happy this morning. She loves to eat and is not very picky. After breakfast we had to go back to the Cival Affairs office to sign all the documents and pick up our adoption decree. She is officially our daughter now. We then went to the notary office to get documents sealed. Then off to some shopping.

Maria is a stubborn little girl. She wants to walk on her own and gets mad some times when we pick her up. However we are already seeing improvement and a few times she has reached for us today. She did not like riding in the shopping cart or the stroller but she walks so slow we had to put her in something.

She is doing a good job of repeating English words to us. Her words are getting more clear and communication is getting easier already.

She has not had any melt downs today and is really taking to us all. We spent the afternoon in the room and then out for a simple Chinese dinner. Overall a very good day. The only melt downs have been Shiyan. She is so tired and so jealous. This evening has been better but she is having to adjust to not being the baby any more and has acted out a bit. Pray for her to step into the role of older sister and helper to Maria.

Tomorrow we make the 3 hour drive to Louyang which is Maria’s home town. We had originally said we were not going to make that trip but after more thought we really want to see the town where she spent the first 3.5 years of her life. We pray that she does well on this trip. She does love being out and in the car and wants to be where she can see outside.
That’s all for today. I have added more photos to the link at the top of the page.

Day 5 Gotya Day Finally

Today started early yet again. We had to be up at 4 and ready to leave the hotel at 5 am. We drove to the train station and the roads were terrible. We made it to the station and managed to drag all of our bags inside. Huge thanks to George for his help getting us set up and on the train.

The train was so nice it was a high speed train and very comfortable. We departed at 6:54 and were to arrive before noon. Next time we come to China we may use the train as our primary in country transportation.

On the ride up Shiyan made friends with a lady. The lady gave her a little stuffed doll as a gift. She was very nice and was with a company that does educational training. She and several others were also traveling to Zhengzhou like us.

We got to the train station and our guide was not waiting on the platform like we had been told. Also we had 6 bags to deal with which is difficult. When we got on the platform the group that the nice lady was with wanted to help us with our bags. They took our guides phone number and called her to find out where we should meet her. These 5 business people in their suits each helped carry our bags out to the street and all the way down to our van that was waiting. They would not leave until they knew that we were being taken care of. So nice to see someone step in to help a foreign traveler. We learned that the lady and the main man were two if the key managers of this business.

We made our way to the hotel and got checked in. We had time to grab a quick lunch before heading to the Civil Affairs building to meet Maria. We grabbed a quick lunch at the hotel.

Our appointment to meet Maria was at 2:30. When we walked in we noticed 2 ladies with a little girl but she was not Maria. Turns out another family would be meeting their daughter in the same room at the same time as us. Then the moment we have all been waiting for happened. A lady walked in with Maria. Maria immediately went to Laura and interacted with mom and dad. She had this bag of puffed rice cereal that she would not let go of.

She was a bit apprehensive about everything but overall was good. It was a bit hectic as the other family was receiving their child. Turns out they are from North Carolina and have 3 older Biological and now 3 younger like us. They are at the same hotel as us so we may get a chance to get to know them better.

Back to Maria she did very well and played while we signed papers. She liked playing with the girls. She also kept feeding us the cereal that she had. It came time to leave and we got her coat on and she came to daddy to walk outside. She is so smart she knew what vehicle she had arrived in and did not want to go with me to our van, she wanted to go back to her van. It took some coaxing to get her there. But she did fine. She sat and played with us on the ride back to the hotel. We had expected a melt down. We got back to the hotel and she was fine. She was hugging and kissing on us and very happy. Then after our guide left she looked around and realized that there were no Chinese people left besides Laura and Shiyan. She then started balling with huge tears. We got our guide back up to check on her and she calmed down.

Forrest and the guide had to go take care of some things including banking, Wal Mart etc. So this left Mommy to handle things for a while. There was another melt down during this time.

Our Guide Rita came back to the room and Maria was fine. She is very strong willed and will clearly tell you Bo Yah ( no and I mean it) if you ask her to do something she does not want. When we asked if she wanted to go eat she clearly said no. She finally agreed to go with our guide but was very nervous. She is so scared right now and does not know what to believe or who to trust. We have to work to build trust and show her we are here to meet her needs. We are learning how to understand her needs and she is getting better at making hand motions to show what she needs.

At dinner she really warmed up to us and was fine. She ate well and had fun playing with daddy. Then we got back to the hotel, she was fine until we asked to take her shoes off. Then the major melt down happened. She cried so hard and was so upset. We went ahead and bathed her since she was already upset and after bath time she was back to being fine and watching TV. She went to bed and laid down and looked at a book and drifted off to sleep.

She is so beautiful and smart. We know the next few days will be rough but everything is going to be fine.

Day 4 The Great Snow Storm

Sunday started off normally enough well sort of. Forrest awoke at 2:42 am to doors slamming and fighting in Chinese in the next room. The people must have been drunk and fought for about 30 minutes. Everyone else slept through it. Then at 4 Robin was wide awake so we got up to start getting ready to leave.

When we looked out we saw a beautiful snow was falling. We had breakfast and notice the snow getting harder. We met George and the others at 7:30 to head to the airport. Then we noticed it was quite a lot of snow maybe 3 or 4 inches by now. It took about 1.5 hours to get to the airport in the snow slickened roads but our flight was still scheduled for a 10:25 departure.

Airports in China are very different. We checked in and our baggage was slightly over weight so you go to another line to pay for that then back to the first line to get your tickets. We had to go to a third line to check in our baby carrier then to security. We made it to the gate and our flight still said on time. I checked as it got closer to time and the lady said maybe 1 moment late. Well by 11 we realized maybe a long moment and the snow was piling up and no snow plows in sight. We found monitors and they showed many flights delayed though out counter still showed us on schedule even though it is noon and we show an on time departure of 10:25. We realized things were getting worse. We called our guide and begged him to get us train tickets, he said no just wait a little while the trains are delayed too.

Well we waited and waited some more. By about 3 Forrest demanded to speak with a manager that spoke English. The lady was very nice and came out to our gate to visit with us. She stated that they did not know what would happen and we could rebook or keep waiting. She did offer to refund our tickets so we could find another way. By 6:30 the lady called back and said you should rebook flight snow getting very bad. All this time the girls at the counter kept saying “no time or wait 1 moment” Chinenglish is difficult and my Mandarin is bad.

During the wait the girls met 3 children 2 girls and 1 boy all about 6 years old. They became friends in spite of the language barrier. Laura gave them some candy bracelets and then the Chinese kids gave our girls some large pencils with flags on them. These kids played together for hours exchanging candy, trinkets and having a fun time. When we had to leave the girls were broken hearted to leave their new friends behind. I will post aphoto of them together when time permits.

We called George our guide and told him what we were doing. We could not find him so we went to the counter to change our tickets. George got there and had a huge argument with the guy in Chinese. The whole group of people stopped talking to watch us. Finally the airline guy who spoke some English asked what we wanted to do. I thought George may know something I did not so we said keep tickets. OK about 20 minutes later George says “now we go exchange tickets and sleep at hotel” By this time about 400 flights have been cancelled and we go to another line to exchange tickets. Forrest stood in this line for 1.5 hours while Robin and the girls had no idea where we were. We get up there and exchange our tickets for a flight the next day. All the while Forrest is pushing George to get someone working on train tickets. The lines were huge we saw some Chinese people get so upset that a bit of a fight broke out and the police took a man and a woman away.

During this time we learned that Maria would be boarding a train to Zhengzhou at 10:30 that night. The girls were so tired that they both fell asleep on a bench in the airport. Several nice Chinese people helped Robin with the girls as we waited.

Another funny thing is now we have waited so long there are no hotel rooms near the airport so we finally get out of the airport about 9 and finally find a driver and van to take us back to Beijing. We ride for 1.5 hours on horrible roads back to the same hotel we had left that morning.

Our new room had a wonderful view of the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. After lots of phone calls we finally get to bed around midnight not knowing the plan for Monday. OK about 1 am George called and told us he had train tickets and we had to meet him at 5 am in the lobby. So we change our wake up call to 4 am and try to sleep a little more.

Long story short after 12 hours stuck in the airport, a long drive back to the hotel a ton of prayers from our friends, a little sleep now we have train tickets and manage to get on the train to Zhengzhou at 6:50 Monday morning. This will put us in Zhengzhou by noon the same time we should have landed the previous day, only 24 hours late. This entry was typed up on a very nice high speed train as we went through the Chinese country side.

God is good and has provided a way for us to get there though it was not our plan at all. We appreciate George and our adoption agency that have worked with us throughout the evening and night to try and keep us on track.

Stuck in Beijing (Snow Storm)

Hey we have been stuck in the Beijing airport since early Sunday morning Beijing time. They have a big snow storm and the airport was basically shut down. We had to set all day until 7 tonight and they still had not cancelled our flight. We finally convinced our guide to get us a hotel and try for tomorrow. We stood in line for 1.5 hours to rebook flights and we had to make a 1.5 hour drive back to down town Beijing in the snow to our hotel. We are also trying to get train tickets so we can get to Zhengzhou to meet Maria. All indications are that she is on the way there by train tonight. We are waiting to see if we can get seats. Flying on Monday does not look good as more snow is expected.

Please pray that we can find a way to Zhengzhou to receive Maria and that the delays will not have negative impact on our trip.

Thanks

Great Wall

We awoke to snow this morning. Not a huge snow but around 1 inch on everything. They quickly cleared the streets of Beijing but the outer areas not so quick.

We headed out on the long drive to the Great Wall of China. The girls were so excited. On the way to the wall we stopped at the Jade Factory to see how Jade sculptures are made and of course to check out their shops. Robin had been promised a Christmas gift from China and she found a beautiful Jade Bracelet at the factory.

When arrived at the wall we were shocked to see how steep the climb would be. This was a different place than we had been before. We started the climb up the mountain and it was very slick in places. Laura was such a trooper moving quickly up the steps. Shiyan did great too but struggled on the bigger steps having to pull herself up. See the pictures on the photo link and you will understand how steep. We made it to the third guard house from the top and had to turn back to get down in time to meet our group. Shiyan only had to be carried for a few minutes on the way up and made it down on her own.

After the Great Wall we went to the Cloisonné factory and had lunch in their restaurant. The food was again out of this world we were able to sample about 10 dishes.

Next stop was the Ming Tombs. We walked around and checked out some of the history. There are 13 tombs at this area but we only visited 1.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Olympic area to take pictures of the “Birds Nest” and the “Water Cube” where the swimming events were held during the games. Nice to see this up close and good for the girls to experience more Chinese culture. Hosting the games was a really big deal to the people of China..

When we got back to the hotel we were blessed with a visit with our friend Shiyan. Our little girl is named after her. We had not seen her in 5 years but try to keep in touch. We had a wonderful visit with her and really enjoyed catching up.

Tomorrow we fly to Zhengzhou and have a fairly slow day. We probably will not have much to report until Monday. That will be a big day when Maria becomes our child.

Busy day of touring Beijing

We woke up at about 4:30 this morning and could not get back to sleep. The girls were up by 5 laughing so we got up and started getting ready. We had 5 other people join us for the tours today. They are here helping the dad with his adoption as the mom had to stay back home.

We headed to Tiananmen Square and walked around, it was so cold. We were thankful that we dressed in layers and I was so thankful for the scarf that my mother got me for Christmas.

We then went to the Forbidden City and walked through there. George took us in some areas we had not previously seen. To see photos from today click on the picture link at the top and then click on the Beijing tours folder for todays pics.

On the way out of the Forbidden City the street vendors were everywhere. This one guy latched on to us wanting to sell us books on the area. He started out at 100 Yuan for 1 book. I offered 20 Yuan. He followed me a city block haggling as we walked. I finally got 2 different books for 40 Yuan ( less than $6.00). We then were swarmed by beggars wanting money. Including mothers putting little children in our path with cups and hands out for what ever you would give. It was difficult to see all this and wonder who had real needs and who was just panhandling.

George took our group to a local Chinese restaurant and they served a large variety of foods to us. It was a wonderful meal and a nice break from the day.

Next stop was the silk factory. They showed us how silk is made from the eggs for the worms through the process to the cocoon and how that was turned into thread and woven into various things. They made these beautiful silk quilts by hand. It was tempting to purchase one but we choose not to do it. We also looked at other wonderful silk products that they sell in their store.

We then went to the Hutong area. This is a very old part of Beijing where all the homes are in courtyard configurations. You are taken around on a rickshaw and see the area. Hutong is a word for alley, the streets are very narrow alleyways. We saw a huge ice skating area on a frozen lake, many shops and other local places. We went to a home and were hosted by a wonderful older lady. She served tea, oranges, peanuts etc. to us. She answered many questions about the area. Her house was over 100 years old.

Believe it or not we were not done yet. We went to the Beijing Acrobat show from here, the show started at 5:15 pm but was a great show. They had a magnificent light show and the acrobats were great as usual. Laura fell asleep on the way to the show but woke up to watch the show. Shiyan tried to stay up but did not make it and slept through most of the show. We made it back to the hotel about 6:45 and we were all exhausted. Robin bathed the girls while dad walked down the street to McDonalds to grab some food for us.

Wow what a day we are so tired. Tomorrow is the Great Wall and Ming Tombs so another busy day. Only 2 more days until we meet Maria. That is our goal and reason for being here.

So long for now.

Happy New Years from Beijing

We had a great breakfast at the hotel. We are at a very nice hotel and it is plush. They say heads of state stay here when in town. We then packed gift bags and met our driver for the ride to New Day. It is about a 1 hour ride from the hotel to New Day. We saw some beautiful countryside on the way.

When we arrived at New Day we were greeted by Carrie. She was a wonderful hostess to us. We were taken up to the healing home to meet Maria and her friends. Maria was scared at first as she thought we would be taking her today. Once they explained this was just a visit she got down and played some with the girls. She was a bit skeptical about us at first. After about 30 minutes she was warming up to us. We kept getting closer to her and talking to her and soon she let us hold her hand and play with her. She finally let me pick her up and upon prompting by her caregiver she kissed daddy’s cheek and then mama. Did I tell you how beautiful and smart she is!!!!!!!! She is one of the most beautiful little girls I have ever met and very smart. Her care givers commented about how smart she is. We played with other kids at the healing home and saw the wonderful work they are doing.

We learned today that she broke her leg about 8 weeks ago after falling on the ice. Her cast was taken off about 2 weeks ago and she is doing great. We will have to give her some physical therapy at home for a few weeks but no big deal. Her heart seems to be doing great and she plays like any normal child.

When nap time came we left to tour the New Day facilities and meet more people. They served us a great Chinese lunch and then let us meet with her care givers, doctors etc. We were able to learn so much about her condition and how well she is doing.

We then went back to the healing home after nap time and Maria was glad to see us. We played some more and the girls shared in snack time with Maria and her friends. When it came time to leave, they explained to her that we would meet her on Monday to become her parents. She hugged and kissed all of us and we said good bye for now. That was difficult to leave her behind but we are very thankful for the day. Words can not express what this day felt like for us. We are so thankful that Maria is doing so well and for the love and care she has been receiving. We know that Monday will be a difficult day for her when she is given to us but we also know that the way is being paved for that day to go smoothly.

We talked a lot on the hour long drive back since our driver spoke no English. After that long day we went out in search of a Pizza Hut that was supposed to be up the street, we never could find it but did find Mr. Pizza so ate there. The pizza was good in any case.

We are all wiped out and ready to get some sleep. Tomorrow is a very busy day so better sign off for now. We will post more tomorrow.

Thanks for your prayers.

Check out the photo link at the top for pictures from the day

Tuesday is the day

Well we leave for China on VERY EARLY Tuesday morning. We are prepared, packed and ready. We are all anxious to meet Maria and to become her family. We will be in the air Tuesday and Wednesday and will try to post Thursday evening China time (CST +14 hours). Thursday we are visiting New Day.

We will do our best to post on a regular basis while in China.

Happy New Years, we plan to have an exciting New Years holiday. Friday if all goes according to plans we will be on the Great Wall of China. Saturday is a visit to the Forbidden City, Sunday we travel to Maria's home province and on Monday we become her parents. We will stay in Zhengzhou until Friday and then will head down to Guangzhou for the final parts of the adoption trip. We return to the US on January 15th. Additional details are in a previous post.

Thanks for all of your prayers for us.

Merry Christmas

We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and blessed New Year.

We received a few pictures of Maria today. She looks great and we have been assurred that she is doing great and having a wonderful time. Just a week until we get to see her.

May God bless your Christmas.

Final week and Merry Christmas

Wow hard to believe that we are in the final week of our wait for the trip to China. Next Tuesday we will be leaving very early to fly to Atlanta and then on to China. All details are coming together we are mostly packed and ready to go.

We have added a photo link at the top of the page so you can easily see photos as we post them from China. You can scroll through the slide show to see the latest.

Merry Christmas everyone. We are blessed beyond belief and praise God for the gift of his Son.

Finally we have details

The time is drawing near for us to leave for China to receive Maria. We wanted to get our travel schedule out there and remind you to pray for our trip to China.

Pray for us as we travel. Pray for the boys who are staying in the US due to school schedules. Pray for Maria to have a smooth transition to us. This will be a traumatic time for her as she is leaving her friends and care givers that she has come to love. Pray that her heart condition is not too serious, every indication we get is that she is doing wonderfully, we pray that she does not get any colds or bugs during the trip.

We depart on Tuesday December 29^th. We arrive in Beijing at 11:05 pm on Wednesday 30^th January. We loose 2 full days to travel (really only about 28 hours + 14 time difference)

On January 1^st we do some touring including Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City etc. Then on the 2^nd we go to the Great Wall and Ming Tombs. The Great Wall is the most magnificent man made object we have ever seen.

January 3^rd we fly to Zhengzhou which is the capital of Maria’s home province. On January 4^th we receive Maria. After this point she will remain with us. The rest of that week we take care of Chinese adoption stuff in Zhengzhou and have some down time for rest and bonding. On Friday we fly to Guangzhou. (Warm weather again)

While in Guangzhou we will get her US Visa physical, and do all the US required paperwork. We will have some free time for shopping etc.

On the evening of January 14^th we travel by train to Hong Kong. We will spend the night there and then fly out on Friday morning. We go back through Tokyo then to Detroit and finally back home on Friday evening another long day but home at last.

We truly appreciate your prayers for us during the time of this adoption. The China trip is stressful and tiring in many ways. With Maria being 4.5 years old the bonding will be more difficult. She speaks Mandarin and some English. Pray that our Chinese is good enough to communicate with her and that her English kicks in quickly.

Thanks for your prayers. We pray that all of you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Anniversary and getting close

Today is the 5th anniversary of meeting beautiful little Laura in China. Hard to believe that it has been 5 years. She has grown and changed so much. We will do our traditional gotya day dinner after she gets finished at Chinese Cultural School today. Laura wanted Japanese food as she loves Meso soup and sushi so that is what we are having. We are so blessed to be her parents.

On another front hard to believe that in about 2 weeks we will be headed to China. We do leave on Tuesday December 29th. I will post our full schedule in the next few days.

Thanks for all of your prayers as we have gone through this process. We are thankful that we are almost there.

We wish everyone a blessed Christmas season.

Finally progress and photos

It has been a busy week in a lot of ways. On Monday we received our travel approval. We had limited choices on travel either leave next Monday or wait until after Christmas. Flights are very full and tickets very expensive. We opted to wait and leave on December 29th, tickets much cheaper and easier to book.

We should receive Maria on January 4th. We will first tour in Beijing and we get to see the place Maria has been living and meet her care givers. We then go to Zhangzhou to receive Maria. Next stop after that Guanzhou for the US portion and last stop Hong Kong to fly home on January 15th.

Above are some pictures of Maria at a reunion of kids from the healing home and a bit of a going away for the director who is moving on to start a new facility in Southern China. So great to see her having fun with her friends. In a way we are thankful that she will get to spend Christmas with her friends in China. We will get to have many more Christmas mornings with her.

We will update you as we get firm travel plans in the next day or two.

Maria December Update

We received another update on Maria today. See below from the Nannie at the healing home. Also got this photo, she could not decide if she was a fairy or a pirate so she did both.

Maria is doing well, growing into a beautiful lovely young lady! She continues to be excited about her new parents, often showing off her photo album of them. It is wonderful to see her excitement and anticipation of meeting her new forever family!

Maria continues to enjoy playing the big sister to all those younger living in the Healing Home. She also enjoys helping the nannies in many ways as well. She will help take the children’s bowls to the kitchen, take her clothes to her room and put them away, and anything else that she is able to do. We love to watch her and are so proud that she has a heart to be such a servant to others. We truly enjoy caring for this special little girl!