Home, Sweet Home

Yes!  We are home!

The jetlag is finally starting to loosen its nasty grip on us

and we are starting to feel like we might someday 

get into a real routine.

I have intended to update the blog

but with rotating sleep schedules it has been 

hard to get anything done. 

But, now I feel like I have a few minutes to fill you in.

Here are some pictures from our last couple of days in China. 

We visited the "Six Banyan Tree Temple".

The "happy Buddha" (statue) greets people at the gate, 

but on the back side of the happy guy is the

"angry Buddha".  It was sad to see so many people

praying to statues and not knowing the True God. 

 We visited the Chen Family Academy that we had visited

3 1/2 years ago when we got Guille.  This guy was STILL 

fingerpainting.  His paintings are very impressive and Guille

 was quite intrigued.  He has tried to imitate this style but

needs some different paint to do it.  We'll try it for an art

project one of these days.  

Back at the hotel we looked for anything for entertainment.

One day Guille and Isaac decided to have 

bottle races with their water bottles.  They raced them

across this table in the courtyard/playground area. 

It kept them busy for a while.

And then... they started climbing the walls!

 I took these "sleep masks" for the plane ride

but Isaac decided to play with them in the hotel. 

I have a picture of him wearing this particular mask

like a bikini top.  It's one of those pictures

that will be saved for blackmail some day. 

 This statue is the "Five Rams" at YueXiu Park,

which was very close to our hotel.  

 There were ramps MOST of the way up to the statue,

but as we got closer to the top we had to take steps...

lots of steps!

 In YueXiu Park there is also a portion of the 

ancient wall of Guangzhou City.  

The workers were clearing brush that was 

growing between the bricks.

 This shows the thickness of the wall.

 We saw signs for the "waterfall" and walked and walked 

looking for it.  When we went back to the park a few days later

we looked "one more time" for the waterfall and found it. 

It was right across the path from where we had our 

picnic lunch.  They had been cleaning it and had all

the water drained out... so we didn't know that THAT

was THE waterfall.

 Back at the hotel, the boys had fun making 

pillow piles then jumping in them.  

Jennai wanted to join in the fun so

we let the boys pile the pillows on us.

They all giggled and laughed having such fun.

 FINALLY, time to head home!  

Aaah, comfy airplane seats.

 OK, so maybe NOT so comfy!

The flight from Hong Kong to Newark was 

14 hours 58 minutes.

The kids actually did very well on the flight

but we were ALL very happy to get off the plane!

When the plane touched down, at 1:38PM 

on December 21, 2012

Jennai and Isaac became US citizens.

We got through immigration and picked up our suitcases

to go through customs when we realized we didn't have 

the kids' coats.  We had left them on the plane!

We had an agent try to get ahold of the cleaning crew but the plane

had already been moved so we had to go to baggage services.

After several calls, they found the coats and an agent went to

collect them for us.  She got them to us and we headed to our gate.

We would have arrived just in time for boarding, but...

the flight was delayed.  So we got to watch planes for 

2 more hours.  

 Isaac was very excited to watch all the activity out the window.

When we got back to our home airport it was snowing.

We had booked a room at a hotel that does 

Park, Sleep, Fly.  So we stayed the night there. 

Jennai and Isaac woke up at 1:30 and were pretty quiet

for a while, but at 2:00 I decided to take them out

to the lobby so Guillermo and Guille could sleep.

There is NOT a lot for a 2 & 3 year old to do in a hotel lobby!

We rearranged the brochures, looked at books (with no pictures), 

ran back and forth, learned the word "NO"....

The receptionist finally offered Isaac and Jennai

some milk and cookies.  They liked that!

At 5:30 we went back to the room, got a bath and

got ready for the day.  

After a nice breakfast we headed HOME!

Guille wanted to go visit Elizabeth even before he came home.

So we dropped him off at her house.

Long, lost friends... reunited!  

It was sweet!

When we got to the house,

Isaac was SOOOO excited to see all the toys

and even MORE excited to see 

pictures of Guille on the walls.

He giggled and laughed and talked a mile a minute

(in Chinese, of course). 

He liked that there were pictures of him and Jennai, too.

 Jennai took quickly to the phone.

 Happy to be home!

 We were blessed to come home to fresh bread,

milk, eggs, bananas, grapes, apples, orange juice, yogurt,

cottage cheese, LOTS of lunch meat, Christmas presents,

and a welcome home cake.

Thanks, Michelle, Tom & Elizabeth! 

 Isaac surprised us when he decided he wanted 

an apple instead of cake.

 Jennai LOVED the cake.

 Exhausted!  Jennai and Mickey took a nap together.

Jet lag continued...

Christmas morning:

Jennai woke up at 2:30.

Guille and Isaac got up at 4:30.

We had breakfast at 5:00.

Jennai went back to sleep around 6:00.

Guille and Isaac took naps around 8:30.

ETC.

I think we figured we were all awake at the same time

for about 4 hours on Christmas day.

And, those 4 hours were not consecutive!

We read the Christmas story and sang

Away in a Manger before opening presents.

 It was a fun time watching them open gifts.

The BEST gifts are the three little ones

pictured above. 

We are SO blessed to have them in our lives. 

 Guille was SO excited to have snow again.

He is back in his element.

 He loves the snow.

 Snowball fights and all.

 Reminds me of the song, 

"Bessy, Bessy, I'm a little messy."

 Game time!

 Fashion at its finest.

China pants, stained shirt, and a "slinky" belt.

 This scene made this mama's heart happy.

All three of my children were playing together,

finally home.

We have already had appointments with the pediatrician,

Isaac has had an ultrasound of his kidneys and will need to see 

a pediatric urologist.  That is scheduled for Jan. 8.

Jennai will see a cardiologist on Jan. 2 to make sure that 

her heart is doing fine after her surgery in July to repair 

the hole in her heart.  Then on the 28th she will see the cleft

team to see if there are any issues with her palate.  It doesn't 

appear to be an issue, but they said that the way her front teeth

are, there is a possibility of a small cleft in her palate. 

She was supposed to go to a prosthetics clinic in January but 

that got changed to February.  

Mix all that in with Guille's schedule and we will be 

keeping rather busy.  

Thank you for all your prayers, past, present and future.

We are thankful for each of you and pray that you 

will have a very happy  and healthy 2013.

Until the next update... God bless you!

WE are blessed!

And Then There Were Three

Last Post From China!

One last post from China

December 19:  It was 4:20 yesterday afternoon (Eastern time) that we got up, got ready for the day, headed down to the breakfast buffet and were ready to leave the hotel at 6:40.  OK, so HERE, we got up at 5:20AM and were ready to leave the hotel by 7:40 for our appointment at the US consulate.  We were the first family to arrive but had to wait for a group of about 10 families for our “oath taking ceremony” then wait for our turn to show all our paperwork and do the final steps in applying for visas for Jennai and Isaac.  We were the next-to-last family in that group to be called for the paperwork portion.  That’s OK though.  It’s done, their visas should be ready to be picked up at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon.  Our guide will meet us there, hand us the passports with the visas and bid us farewell.  Then we are off to Hong Kong. 

After getting back to the hotel this morning the kids all took naps and I worked on packing a little bit.  This afternoon we headed over to one of the nearby parks and walked… and walked… and walked… for about 2 hours!  Good exercise, huh?  It was a pretty day, though a bit chilly.  Jennai’s poor little legs are going to need some extra warmth this winter!  Bring out the snowsuit! 

We had our last supper at the Japanese restaurant here at the hotel tonight.  One of the chefs took a liking to Isaac and whenever he made food for other customers he would scoop a little into a bowl for Isaac.  That child got some pretty tasty looking stuff!!  We have enjoyed eating there and watching the chefs prepare the food in front of us.  I usually think of Japanese restaurants as being quite expensive, but ALL the restaurants around here are quite expensive but this one was “fairly reasonable” (in comparison) and we liked the food.  Besides, they give you ice cream when you are finished.

I’ll send a few pictures from the last couple of days and save the rest until I can get them posted when we get home.  I want to thank my friend Ashley for posting all the pictures and updates for us while we’ve been in China.  I’m sure she has done a great job.  While thanking her, I’d like to ask all you readers to pray for Ashley and her family.  They are seeking to adopt THREE precious little ones from Russia and they are up against some deadlines.  They are trusting Jesus for the finances they need each step of the way. 

Thanks for following our journey to China to get our two “souvenirs”.  They are incredible and I can’t wait to introduce them to you in person.  You are gonna love them!! 

It has been fun… but it’s time to go home!  Living in a hotel room for three weeks has been hard, though it could be worse.  Next post will be from…. the good ol’ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!! 

More Pictures!!!

Walks in the Parks

December 15

The past couple of days have not been so busy with appointments and such so we have had time to enjoy the parks that are near the hotel.  I took Jennai to her medical appointment on Wednesday and the boys stayed at the hotel to play instead of having to wait at the medical building.  Since she is 2 years old she had to have a TB test so I took her back to get that checked this morning (Saturday).  Of course, it all went well. 

Isaac and his friend from the orphanage have seen each other a couple more times.  They are such buddies!  One night we went out for Italian food with the group his family is with.  It was nice they included us.  This morning was the last morning that his friend’s family was here.  At breakfast, Micah came over to our table and the boys immediately started sharing Isaacs drink and food.  I figured it wasn’t’ the first time they had shared.  I hope we can maintain contact with his family.  They don’t live toooooo far from us, so it could happen. 

When we go for walks in the park we are quite the spectacle.  First people look at us because we have THREE children.  Wow, amazing.  We must be rich! (??????  I don’t think so!)  Then they start inspecting the kids.  When they see Jennai with her missing limbs they are quite astonished.  Since we don’t understand what they are saying, I just smile and kiss Jennai on the head.  One lady kept saying what a good heart I have.  I remembered enough Chinese to tell her “Jesus loves us”, then she smiled and kept repeating “Jesus” (in Chinese, of course).  It was pretty cool.

The signs at the park are so funny.  We need to take pictures of more of them when we go back.  There are a few in the following pictures that we thought were pretty funny.  I hope you can read them. 

Tonight Guille made a pillow pile on the floor and he and Isaac had a great time jumping into them.  I took some video of their laughter.  When we get home and I can “shrink” it down to a loadable size I will put it on the blog.  Jennai just watched and giggled.  When I put her down on the pillows she giggled while waiting for the boys to jump on.  I think she might have been disappointed that they didn’t, but Guille was the first to say he didn’t want to accidentally hurt her. 

Well, there are quite a few pictures from the past couple of days, so I’ll send this to my friend Ashley, who has been so kind to post while we are in China.  We have some sightseeing to do in the next couple of days, then on Thursday… we start our trip home.  Ah, home……………..

Pictures!