Twas The Night Before Departure

'Twas the night before departure and all through the room not a creature was stirring, not even a… ‘baboon’ (come on work with me here)… The luggage was stack by the dresser with care, In hopes that tomorrow we will get out of here. The children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of plane rides danced in their heads; And mamma in her night shirt, and I at the desk, Had just settled down looking for rest. But then in my head there arose such a clatter, and I sprung from my desk because this poem couldn’t get ‘badder’…

Sorry

Hey this is it, tomorrow we head HOME! It’s 9:00 pm China time. Mei-Leigh, Jin Tao and Laurie are in bed. I’ll be there very soon. Our wake up call is for 5:30 am. And just a mere 31 hours after we get up our plane will land in Orlando! It should be fun… not. But we are coming home. And yeah, Dorothy was right there really is no place like home.

Today we made the one hour trip to the American Consulate and took the oath for Jin Tao to be a US Citizen. Pretty cool. On the way back we passed the train station in Guangzhou where 600,000 people were stranded because of the snow up north. There were tents and people everywhere. It was a CRAZY scene.

HEY keep us in your prayers for the last leg of this journey. We will spend about 20 hours in the air and another 9 hours waiting in 3 different airports. PRAY the kids SLEEP! PRAY that there will be no delays. PRAY the kids sleep.

How cool we will make our next blog update in America!

See you soon

Yesterday...just waiting to come home!

Hello everyone,

Sorry for missing the post yesterday. There is just not alot going on here in China. We did have our "red coach" pics which are below, but besides that we just hung at the hotel. Today is the final day here in China. It's 1:45 p.m. and in less than an hour, we are heading to the American Consulate for Jin Tao to TAKE THE OATH!!! Yes, that's right, by 5:00p.m., Jin Tao Malone with be a US citizen, HOORAY!!! This is what we've all been waiting for. We are almost all packed, so after the Consulate appointment, we'll go out and purchase a couple more gifts, than back to the room for a bath and early bedtime.

In the morning, we have to be up and ready to leave by 7:45 a.m., which means a early wake-up call for the kids...and a long day travel...but this time, the end is worth it. We'll take some more pics at the Consulate and post one last time before we go to bed, then...the next time you all will hear from us is...WELL...YOU'LL SEE US IN PERSON!!! YEA GOD!

Sleeping/Eating/Playing

Hello Everyone,

Well, Today we were suppose to go to the Zoo, but it is freezing cold, and raining and it was cancelled...so we just hung out at the hotel. We got up at about 7:00 a.m. and headed down to breakfeast, then off to the playroom. It was nice though, cause we got to hang out there for a couple of hours with alot of other people who are adopting and talk. The kids really did good playing with other little ones and by the time we knew it, it was already 12:00. So...we got some to-go lunch from Lucy's and ate in the room then the kids laid down to take a nap. Below are some pics from them sleeping together. Jin Tao is on animal when it comes to sleeping with him, and Mei got the brunt of it!!! I do love his hair though! He looks like Steve and John when they wake up. After nap time, we walked around the hotel and as you can see, Jin Tao and Mei love to walk alone together having a good time. Mei-Leigh is really doing great taking care of him. She makes sure that he's ok and takes her time when walking with him. After some walking, we headed to Lucy's (AGAIN) for dinner and as you can see...Jin Tao loves to eat.

Tomorrow we really do not have much to do. Just our Red Couch pics at 11:45 a.m. then that's it. I'm gonna get on the phone to verify our flights for friday to make sure that they are still ok. Just to let you all know, there are 600,000 people stuck in GZ last weekend....but we should be ok. All we need to do is get to Beijing, then it's HOME FREE!!! I'll post tomorrow with our two little ones in their Traditional Chinese clothes. By the way, we bought Mei-Leigh a beutiful white dress and Jin Tao the COOLEST, TOUGHEST black silk outfit with a dragon on the front. (Steve picked out Jin Tao's). Love and miss you guys so much. Can't wait to get home on friday night!

GOD knows I'm in China and LOVES ME SOOO MUCH!!!

I just wanted to let everyone know that GOD is IN CHINA and he LOVES ME...yes...that is a Starbucks sign below and Yes we can walk there and YES it is heated and YES is has real Starbucks coffee...and That's all I have to say for now!!


Jin Tao's first Starbuck's experience and he loved the Chocolate Cheese Cake

It's ALL GOOD!

Well, It's 1:30 p.m. on Monday and things are great! After our lovely travel day on Saturday, and a rough night for Jin Tao sleeping due to his coughing, yesterday and today has been great. One of the other mom's traveling with us had some cold medicine for Jin Tao so we gave it to him and he had a great night sleep. Yesterday, we had pretty much of a free day, except that we had to get a passport photo taken for Jin Tao and we did dinner with the other Special Needs mom's which was great. It was good to see everyone finally with there families and our journey of adoption almost done.

I had to go shopping yesterday to buy more warm clothes for the kids, which is ok, because clothes are really cheap here, and to be honest with you, buying little boy clothes is really kinda fun. After the photo and dinner we got back to the hotel room at about 7:00 p.m. and it was just amazing! I am pretty sick, so I was exhausted and was laying on my bed and all of the sudden Jin Tao and Mei Mei just started playing together. And not just playing together, I mean really "getting it". It was the first time that me and Steve didn't have to "watch" to make sure everyone played fair or that if there was a language barrier we could help, they just...had a blast. They were running around, chasing each other, jumping on the beds, falling off and just having a great time. It was then that we realized that Mei Mei really did need someone her own age to have fun with.

This morning, Jin Tao had his physical, which was just fine. It was a little weird though, cause they took a measuring tape and measured his scare from the surgery to remove his kidney. He did not like them touching it at all...but he did just fine and we passed with flying colors. After that breakfeast together and playing downstairs in the play room, then back up to our room for bath time and a nap. I have pics below and we'll be taking more. To say the least, we are really ready to come home. We have missed everyone so much. Well, I'm done for now...Update again soon!

This is the universal language for "I HAVE TO POOP". Steve was watching the kids while I ran down to find some clothes and "thank GOD" Jin Tao waited until I left to give this little blessing to his Baba.

This child can eat and then he can drink...alot. This is the nastiest stuff in the world though, but he loves it.

Here we are at the photo shop getting Jin Tao's pic taken.

This was part of last nights fun times!

After their bath this afternoon, they were eating a snack and as you can see, Jin Tao is looking a little tired!

"Yesterday" According to MaMa

Hello All,
I know that Steve has already posted about our adventure's traveling to GZ yesterday with two toddlers, 4 pieces of luggage, CRAZY people everywhere and more snow that I ever needed to see again on such an important day, but I thought I would add some pics and some more details from MY PERSPECTIVE, which is a little less of a time line and more of a "OH MY LARRY!!! GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!

It all started like normal day (or shall I say Friday night packing, baths and playing) As you can see, Jin Tao and Mei Leigh were all clean and playing on the beds together having a blast. Little did we know...that the next morning our entire world would come to a crashing halt and everything as we know it was INSANE!! (lol, see the difference already in mine and Steve's post:)))

Then, on Saturday, we got up, got dressed looked out the window and thought "AHHHH how nice, Snow for Mei-Mei before we leave Nanjing....but OH MY LARRY...I have never seen so much snow come down in such a short time, nor have I see an entire city go into complete and utter mayhem. The Hotel lobby was filled with people trying to get SOMEONE to drive them to the airport (which was estimated to take over 3 hours) to try and at least get there in case their flight was going to leave, and there we were in the middle of this insanity with two toddlers, 4 pieces of luggage, and CRAZY people everywhere!!!

Finally after a 2 hour wait, our guide decided that we could to the TRAIN STATION (not the airport) take a train to Shanghi which is no where near GZ but suppose to be a better place to try and get a flight to GZ due to the fact that is was not snowing in Shanghi and they have flight running all day long at that airport...so off we went in a VAN in the SNOW with the most insane drivers in the world with two toddlers, 4 pieces of luggage, and CRAZY people everywhere

After arriving at the Train Station along with everyone else in this CITY trying to get home, we waited and got tickets to travel to Shanghi. Below is one of the MANY people we had to PAY to take our luggage off a van, off a train, to a taxi, and to the airport...EVERYTHING COSTS SOMETHING!!!

And here we go, into the Train station with two toddlers, 4 pieces of luggage, and CRAZY people everywhere!!! (I swear to you, that China has about 6 more billion people in this Country than 2 years ago)

I thought now was the time to inform everyone that in China...if it's cold outside, it's cold inside. And I'm not talking "Oh, I'm a little cold" I'm talking you keep every piece of clothing that you have on...on. No heat at the Train Station, Airports, Hotels (well, the hotel does have heat, but the doors are opening all the time and so it's about 60 degrees all the time)

1:00 p.m. and finally we are on the train ready to leave for Shanghi (a two hour trip). Jin Tao is just plain "wiped out". He has been drugged around all day long! (Little did I know that up till now, we've actually had a good day, and that just around the corner...more COLD is coming

After arriving at the Train Station, standing outside in the snow getting tickets, Paying more people to move our luggage around (to the wrong place by the way) finally packing into a Taxi (paying for that too) we arrive at the Rainbow Airport, which thank Goodness was heated. We stayed there and waited for our flight to leave...and by the way...Flights is China are a little different then what I'm used to. I'm used to going into the Airport, walking down a tunnel and getting on the plane...but NO NOT IN CHINA..No matter if you are in 32 degrees below zero, to get on your flight, you load onto a bus (cold), get driven to the outside of the plane (cold), stand out side waiting in line to walk up the steepest stairs (with two toddlers, 4 pieces of luggage, and CRAZY people everywhere!!! ) in the cold!

So, here we are finally on the plane heading to GZ. By the way, we did not get seated together on this flight, which meant Me and Jin Tao were together and behind us was Steve and Mei-Leigh. So as you can see from my face and Jin Tao's...it was not going to be a "fun" flight. Keep in mind, this is Jin Tao's first plane ride, which means his first time in a "confided area", first time being restrained in a seat belt, first time not being able to sit with everyone, and to say the least, if was very hard on him. He did not want to sit still or in his belt, his ears hurt on take off and landing and Mama and Jin Tao had a battle of the wills during this whole flight over kicking the seat in front of him and putting the try up and down...so...after about 1 1/2 hours and a lot of craziness, Jin Tao decided he had to go to the bathroom, so...I got up, looked behind me and there was my lovely husband and beautiful daughter, laying together, head to head, sleeping like angels. At this point, I reached down, punched by lovely husband in the arm to "encourage him to wake up" so that he could watch our things while I took OUR wonderful new son to the potty. Needless to say, he awoke and agreed to my request.

Finally, our plan lands in GZ and the 6 billion people on our flight rush to get up to leave.

So, All in All, everything was fine, just a couple of bumps in the road. Jin Tao has a very bad cold and could not sleep very well last night, so please keep praying for him. Mei-Leigh is doing amazing and playing behind me now, Jin Tao taking a nap and finally, we are one step closer to bring him home!

Into Each Life...

A little RAIN must fall.

And on Saturday January 26, 2008 a tsunami FELL on us. To say that yesterday sucked would be a colossal understatement. Now like most disasters we did not see this one coming. I mean the morning started off fine. Kids were relatively happy. The breakfast was descent. The sky was clear blue with no clouds in sight. FIGURATIVELY speaking!

Let me give you the basic time line of our day as you continue your journey with us. Hey are we having fun yet?

8:15 am – we arrived in hotel lobby in anticipation of leaving for our 11 am flight to Guangzhou. Found out it had been snowing.
8:15-10:30 am – trying to figure out what we should do. The airport in Nanjing was closed. The weather was expected only to get worse. Should we sit in an ‘unheated’ airport for hours with 2 small kids and hope for a flight? Should we take a train to Shanghai and hope to get a flight from there? (Note: if we did not get to Guangzhou by Sunday we would miss our Consulate physical, and our appointment. It would take 2 weeks to get a new one. Apparently the word ‘grace’ is not in the American Consulate dictionary). We decide to go to Shanghai.
10:45 – we begin our bus ride to the airport. The snow is heavy, it is freezing and the traffic is bumper to bumper.
11:30 – arrive at train station. It is COLD. It is snowing. Our kids are outside freezing. We are trying to keep them warm. Jin Tao has been sick and is getting sicker. And the rest of us are sick as well.
12:10 – I take Mei-Leigh and Jin Tao to the most disgusting potty I have ever been in. And I’ve been in some bad ones. We are STILL outside and we are STILL wet and freezing. (There is definitely a pattern developing here).
12:20 – we get our tickets and go inside. STILL no heat.
12:45 – we board our train and leave the train station, headed to Shanghai. It was a good ride. We had heat. Nice seats.
3:15 – we arrived in Shanghai. It is cold and wet. Snow is coming down. We are waiting on the train platform for a porter to help with our bags. Kids are FREEZING and WET. We try to keep them covered with blankets.
3:45 – we leave the platform to try to get tickets to Shanghai. STILL outside. STILL wet and cold. (Seen this before).
5:00 – Finally LEAVE the cold and snow with tickets in hand to Guangzhou (an unexpected $ 700 cost. Thank God for American Express!) in a taxi.
5:45 – we arrived at the airport in Shanghai. We check our bags and then grab a little food for the first time since breakfast. And then wait for our 7:15 flight to Guangzhou.
7:00 – we board the bus to get on our plane to Shanghai. The plane boarding takes place outside. We have our LAST prolonged experience of cold and wet for the day.
7:15 – we have LIFTOFF!
7:15 – 9:30 – plane ride to Guangzhou. Mei-Leigh sleeps. Jin Tao stays up. (I luck out and had the seat next to Mei-Leigh).
9:30 – we ARRIVE in Guangzhou!
9:45 – we pick up ALL of our baggage!
10:00 – we meet our driver and guide, ‘Bobby,’ he is AWESOME!
11:00 – we arrive at our hotel (The White Swan) in Guangzhou.
11:15 – we make it to our room 1205! We are dry and warm. We are all TOGETHER!

YEAH – it was a pretty lousy day - but it was worth it.

• Mei-Leigh got to play in snow for the first time. During the great ‘Shanghai debate’ I took her outside of the hotel in Nanjing. We threw snowballs, made a very little snow man and Mei-Leigh did 2 snow angels on the ground. The first thing she said when got on our plane at 7:15 after 11 hours of ‘wet insanity’ (with a HUGE smile on her face) was “baba, I’m really glad I got to see snow today!”
• Mei-Leigh and Jin-Tao showed what awesome kids they are! They handled all of this BETTER than most adults would.
• Seeing Me-Leigh and Jin Tao pull one of our small carry-ons TOGETHER to our gate.
• Laurie and I once again showed that TOGETHER we can get through anything. I REALLY love that lady! (Almost as much as she loves me, lol). God has really blessed me with the perfect lady for me. (Man, I sure hope she reads this…)
• And we are one step closer to bringing our son home!
  

I kept telling Laurie in the midst of the cold and wet, “someday this will make a story, but right now it just sucks!” I’m glad we have moved on to the GREAT story phase.

Thanks for your ‘continued’ prayers. Thanks for journeying with us. Thanks for your comments. Though we can’t read them we have a friend who forwards all comments to us (Thanks Lisa!).

We’ll check in later (it’s 6 am China time 1/27)

Hey pray for Jin Tao severe cold and Monday US physical.

And always when reading a post from me -Sorry for the lenght and hey you should expect tyops

2 Days of Sight Seeing/2 bored kids

Hello All,
First off, sorry for missing the update yesterday, but as you can see from the expression of the kids below, we did a lot of sightseeing and had two kids that could have done without it (lol). It's always fun to put a 2 and 4 year old in a van in freezing weather to go to a MUSEUM and an outside park! But you can only do what you can do. Actually, it wasn't that bad, just no running, playing and being a kids. After we got home last night, we ALL got in bed at 7:00 p.m. together, which was really nice. The kids were worn out and I think we all feel asleep immediately. Then, like Cinderella at the ball, everyone woke up at 12:00 a.m. until 3:00 a.m., and then back to bed again. (lol) All in all we got about 8 hours sleep, so it was all good. It's 8:30 p.m. right now, we have finished packing all our things, because we leave here tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. for the airport. We are finally going to GZ (and no that's not the college group). We should be at the White Swan by 3:00 and settling in to our new home for the next week. We are looking forward to being there, but have been watching the weather and it's not as warm as we wanted it to be, but definitely warmer than here!!!

Please pray for us, for tomorrow in Jin Tao's first airplane ride...which will provide us with a glimpse of our trip home. I'm sure he'll do good, but you never know. Once we get to GZ we will definitely be taking more pics and having MORE fun! Well, room service just arrived. I'm gonna feed the babies and head to bed!!

LOVE AND MISS EVERYONE SO MUCH! Can't wait to come home!

I Was Thinking...

It’s 4 am Wednesday morning (China time). Jin Tao is in bed asleep across the room. Mei-Leigh and Laurie are on the other side of the bed watching Shrek. No, they still have not adjusted to China time. Yeah, you’re right, they probably will the day that we leave to come home. Isn’t life funny.

The sounds of Shrek, Jin Tao’s breathing and Mei-Leigh eating rainbow chocolate chip cookies fill the air…

Okay, I’m back…

My reflecting on the computer and my poetic flow of words, were interrupted by Jin Tao waking up crying. I got up and along with Laurie we told him it was okay, held his hand until he closed his eyes and went back to sleep. From now on when he cries there will be a momma and baba there to comfort him, how cool.

So, once again the room is filled with those same three sounds.

Now I won’t keep you long but as I laid in bed at 4 am looking at my new son and seeing my 4 year old daughter Mei-Leigh eating cookies I could not help but think about the power of a moment. I mean most seem so ordinary, but yet each one is packed with incredible power.

It was almost 4 years ago (January 30, 2004) when I heard the voice of God more clearly then I ever have, before or since (I don’t think I’m a very good listener). It was just a moment, yet it changed my life forever.

I was just sitting in the back of the auditorium of our church listening to a Christ In Youth speaker. I had slipped in during the final moments of his talk. He was telling the students gathered about how little girls were bought, sold and abused all around the world. It was in that moment that I heard God tell me, “Steve I want you to rescue a little girl from an orphanage in another country.”

Little did I know that at that very moment a 5 month old little girl that God had set apart for us, lay in a crib in a Chinese orphanage, her very life waiting for my response.

I am so glad…

Man, that word falls woefully short. And unfortunately I can’t think of a better one. But that’s okay. I think you know what I am trying to say. “I sooo thank God that I said yes when that moment came!” I am so glad that when THIS ‘God moment’ came, that I let nothing stand in my way. Not money. Not paperwork. Not fear. Not doubt. Not the unknown. Not the fact that I will be 65 when Jin Tao graduates from High School (now that’s crazy I don’t care who you are).

(I’m sorry for keeping you so long. I will try to wrap this thing up so you can take it home. Forgive me, I am preacher at heart).

Bottom line our God is alive and active. And because of this ‘God moments’ – moments packed with adventure, life and unimaginable possibility surround us every day. But too many times, we miss those moments. Too many times, we say no to the voice of God. Too many times, we let money, paperwork, fear, doubt, the unknown, and being 65 when your son graduates high school (or their equivalents) keep us from saying yes.

When I think of all of the life, adventure, wonder, power and love that God packed into one moment nearly 4 years ago. When I think of all it has brought me. When I think of the other lives it has and will continue to change… All I can say is that I want to say yes to that voice MORE!

What an adventure with God awaits to be lived by each of us! Think of the countless lives that are waiting for our response to the voice of God.

Well, that is all I have to say about that…

I think I’ll crawl back in bed for a few more hours with the family, before we start another new day.

We love you all.

See you soon.

One more before Bedtime

I've HIT THE WALL!!!

Well, Mei Leigh has finally hit her wall. We all layed down for a nap at about 1:00 today. Jin Tao, Me and Steve all woke up at about 3:30...and it's 7:00 p.m. and Mei is still crashed out. Hopefully, she'll sleep through the night and get caught up...One down..One to go...I will SLEEP.

On another note, Steve went off to get dinner, KFC!!! Yes, KFC and boy was is good, anyway while he was gone and Mei was sleeping I decided to try a bath with our Little "BIG" man...so check out these pics and some others during dinner.