China Day 2

Today was long - for poor Faith (and David) it started at 2 am as she was up and unable to go back to sleep. We loaded the bus at precisely 9:15 and went to church at the Beijing International Fellowship. The worship service itself was a lot like church at home, but we only lasted through a few songs and the first few prayers as both kids were too restless. We took them for a walk instead. After the service we went to a jade factory and then to lunch. After lunch - the Great Wall. Amazing to see. Amazing to walk on for approximately five minutes and then amazing perfect storm of meltdowns from both kids screaming at once. Wow. We did get some cute video of Davis counting stairs as he climbed them on his hands and knees. No video of the screaming so guess which part will get remembered! Yay happy memories!
They calmed down pretty soon and fell asleep immediately after we got on the bus to go to supper. They slept through supper and then all the way back to the hotel. We got here at six, woke up the poor babies and revitalized them with goldfish and trotted them back out to the bus to go to an acrobatics show.
Overall, things really have gone pretty well, and tomorrow we'll board a plane early in the morning for Hunan and Pearl! Sorry for the lack of detail here, but we are flat out tired. I do appreciate anyone who is checking in and I am hoping for an answer to our picture problem tomorrow so I can share photos of Gotcha!

China - Day 1

Well, last night(?) was interesting. Davis slept about 3 hours. Faith did a little better. No matter! We were all up before 6 (a few of us way before 6.) We had breakfast at the buffet downstairs and left with our group to tour Tiananmen Square.

Everything we saw today was immense. And crowded with people. I wish I could show you our pictures right now, but in a move that is kind of typical for us, we neglected to get a laptop which will read our SD card. Cripes. We will try to upload some at another computer sometime so we can post some later.

After we toured the square we saw the massive Forbidden City. And when I say "toured" I mean walked very briskly through with periodic stops for our guide to count heads and tell us a little information about what we were looking at. It was a challenge for us to get Davis through these crowds in his stroller. We also got a great deal of attention today for both the kids. I knew this would happen, but it is a very odd experience. People stop and point and stare at the kids - particularly Davis. They want to get pictures of their kids and themselves with him. One lady moved me out of the way today so she could see him better. It has made me a little nervous at times, but there is nothing but fascination in the attitudes of these folks. They are super friendly and just curious. Davis has done really well and even hammed it up at times. Faith has her limits. It was very odd at one point today when I was taking a picture of Faith and there was a man next to me with his camera taking pictures of her, too.

After the brisk walks we went to lunch, toured the beautiful summer palace garden, and shopped at government run pearl and silk factories, got pictures of the Bird's nest and swimming facilities of the Beijing Olympics and were on our way to a tea ceremony when Faith got sick on the bus so we got a taxi and came back to our room. Game over for today, but there are big plans for tomorrow, too, so hopefully some rest will help everyone get some energy back.

Greetings from Beijing!

We are here! Everything went really well on the flights. David and I were flying cheerleaders for the kids [i.e. "Look! There is another airplane! So awesome! Hey, we're moving now! Yippee!" The kids got right into that spirit and really seemed to enjoy themselves. We flew out of Columbia to Atlanta. When we got off the plane at Hartsfield Davis cried out "Yay, China!" He was a little disappointed to find we were not already there.

Our second flight - Atlanta to Seattle - left about 20 minutes late. With only an hour between our planned arrival and departure there for Beijing, we knew that a delay of any kind could be major for us. Fortunately the gates we were using were right next to each other. Unfortunately, it meant that we went virtually 17 hours straight on planes. Those of you who prayed for my kids' traveling dispositions, thank you and most of all thank God who granted those requests! They were both super sweet.

We have about 11 families traveling in a group with our agency at this point. We will all spend a very busy day together tomorrow and Sunday sightseeing and shopping before we split up to GO GET OUR BABIES on Monday.

And more from today in China:
The customs man said "Ni-Hao" to Davis. He responded back with an enthusiastic "Hee haw!" that got lots of laughs. A few ladies at the Beijing airport were fascinated by Faith's hair. One of them even ran her fingers through the length of it.

Also, we have some friends here! The Digsby family are here with another agency getting their baby girl. You can follow them here: http://digsbyland.blogspot.com/.

Travel!

Packing for China has been a challenge. We have to consider baggage weight limits, diverse climate conditions of the three cities we'll be visiting, the needs of a child we don't know yet, and the needs of the two children we do know.

Further travel considerations:
Faith finds it difficult to carry her backpack, which normally contains one folder and a lunchbox, down the short hallway of her school.

Davis nearly always wants to be held by mama. And he weighs 33lbs. How much luggage can be carried and/or dragged by two adults who are also juggling [by travel leg #3] three kids?

It is customary to purchase gifts to take to the orphanage workers and people who will help us with our adoption process. We've bought chocolate, but there is the challenge of finding a place to store it. Right now our diaper bag is lined with bars of Godiva.

Packing for China has been a joy -
So many tiny socks, diapers, dresses, onesies packed in happy anticipation of the one that is soon to be wearing them!

We are on our marks. And set. Tomorrow we GO!

Ten-Months-Old

Pearl is ten-months-old. To remind myself what ten-months-old looks like I found these babies:

Faith at ten months. One of my favorite photos -

Davis at ten months -

And another favorite of that time -

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Larry

We've been so careful not to mislead the child. But today, what I thought would be a cute instantly-understood-joke totally convinced Faith that leprechauns do exist. And this serves as evidence for fairies as well because, as I learned this morning, "leprechauns make fairies' shoes."

Oh, well.

Her Lucky Day. . .and other pictures

Look what Faith found after, I'd say, two minutes of looking around in our weedy backyard's one tiny clover patch. She was hunting for bait for her leprechaun trap.



Davis wanted his picture made with a "find" as well, so he showed me this.



The Cherry Blossom trees are growing in the GIRLS' room:

Stage One


Stage Two


And Pearl's getting quite the shoe collection.