Waiting in Chicago

We're back in the US! Waiting in the Chicago airport to catch our flight to Tulsa! Yipee! We have a 4hr layover here. Amy slept on most of the flight home. I've had a bad migraine since we were in Shanghi. Brent found a computer port on the airplane so he was good. :-)

Day 14: Last day in Guangzhou!

Unbelievable. I can’t believe we are coming home. No, it has not flown by, Amy is just a joy but I have missed my other babies back home every day and can’t wait to put my arms around them again.

Today we never stopped. We toured the Six Banyan Temple this morning. The temple is 1,000 years old. The six banyans aren’t there any more though.  It was very beautiful and very interesting.
When we got back we had time to each lunch and on the way back Brent and I had to stop into two separate stores so we split up for the first time. Bad idea. We could not find each other again in that mass of people and shops. Brent had both hotel keys and a watch. I had no idea what time it was or how long I had been looking for him but I knew we had to be back at the hotel soon to get to the Swearing In Ceremony at the Consulate. So I walked back to the Hotel with Amy and hoped Brent would think the same thing. We waited outside our hotel room for at least a half hour (no watch so I have no idea) and Brent finally came up. We had about 15 minutes to spare before we had to leave for the appointment.
So we went to the Consulate and swore Amy in as a US citizen. Then we went to Shaiman Island to get our laundry and to take the traditional Red Couch picture at the White Swan hotel with the other babies from our adoption agency.
After that, we met with Lucy, a girl Brent had met on his first trip here and went to dinner with her and another adoptive couple. After Dinner it was about 8pm. I still had a list of souvenirs to buy and most of the shops were closed. I didn’t get the good deals I like to hunt for, I just had to take what I could from the stores still open. It was pouring rain all evening as well. Yuck. We took a cab back to our hotel instead of walking back this time.
Now we are packing and I am finishing my last post from China. It has been amazing and wonderful. Thank you ALL for your prayers and support in helping to make this a reality. Sweet little Amy Peak is coming home and I can’t wait to introduce her to you all. We will be traveling home for the next 26+ hours. Won’t be able to post but please keep us in your prayers as we seem to hit major delays every time we get on a plane and we will have Amy this time as well.

We were in a store and someone wanted to show off their English skills so she said to Brent, "Hi King!" How did she know that is exactly what we call him at home??

This picture is a little blurry because I was laughing so hard. But it's a picture of Brent holding up some men's boxers we found for sale with the Disney Princesses on it. Don't tell him, but I went back and bought them for Father's Day.

We "skped' Karianne and Angie this morning. Amy and the girls played Peekaboo over and over again. So cute!

Cute Amy

Amy really likes to ham it up for a camera now. There's more in Flickr under "day 13".

Split pants BAD!

Day 13 Pearl River Cruise

Today was our Consulate Appointment. The date that the timing of the entire trip was scheduled around. It didn’t really involve us at all. Our guide took all our paperwork to the consulate and we had to wait in our hotel by the phone in case they had any questions. Our guide called us and congratulated us on all of Amy’s paperwork being done on the US side as well as China. We pick up our papers tomorrow and then we can go home with our girl!!!!
We finally met up with the third couple from our agency that was traveling the same time we were. We met for lunch and walked pedestrian street with them. They have a sweet but very shy daughter. Amy liked her because she shared her snack with her. 
In the evening we went on the Pearl River Dinner Cruise. The dinner wasn’t so great but the cruise was very nice.  It was all Chinese food served with chop sticks, no forks. I thought we would just go hungry tonight. I managed to feed myself and Amy rice with the chopsticks. There were some noodles but I took one bite it was very spicy. Amy ate a lot of it. It amazes me that a child that young can eat really hot spicy foods without bating an eye! My eyes were tearing up! There were other foods but I stuck with the rice. After a light dinner we went up top on the observation deck for the rest of the cruise. It was just beautiful. The buildings and roads lining the river were decked out with LED lights that were animated with color and pictures, just amazing and beautiful. One building was flashing pictures of all the Olympic mascots, another had dancing flowers on it. Another looked like psychedelic rainbows swirling around and my favorite looked like a giant tetris game.

On the way home from the cruise we saw yet another store name lost in translation, it was called, “ Polly Bless You Pharmacy”. Not sure if the ‘bless you’ refers to a sneeze or of Polly is blessing you.
Tomorrow is our last day here!!

Chicken man

This poor guy was standing out on pedestrian Street all day long. We say him in the morning after breakfast when we headed out, after lunch. And before and after dinner. He's the saddest rooster I have ever seen. He has a horn and plays it ever now and then, I think it is supposed to sound like a rooster when he blows it. I think he was advertising something but I have no idea what. There was a little vendor booth with rooster merchandise, maybe he was promoting that, but I can't think they were paying him enough to be out that long. Poor chicken man!

I always...

Don't you?

Day 12

Hope "Day 12" is right, starting to lose track and we can't actually see our blog site, we can only post to it. So forgive me if my counting is off.

Today we visited the Toy market and the Children’s market in the morning. The toy market was streets and streets of toys, it got a little redundant after a while. The Children’s Park was near the Toy Market. It was nice, it’s a small amusement park with kiddie rides for the kids. We walked through but didn’t do any of the rides because it was starting to rain. We did McDonalds for lunch. Amy is getting used to her Chicken Nugget meal with soy sauce.
After lunch Amy had her medical exam. She tried to be patient with the Dr. but he just poked her too much so he wasn’t her friend anymore.
We got our paperwork in order for our consulate appointment tomorrow and we were surprised by some expensive fees that we weren’t expecting. That hurt a little!
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking pedestrian street, no cars allowed. It looks like a mini Los Vegas at night so many lights! We ate dinner at Papa John’s. It was an empty sit down restaurant that was more of an Italian dining than fast food pizza, very expensive. Judging from the empty seats it is not as popular as McDonalds here. Amy liked her first pizza. She watched us dip our crusts in the garlic butter and did the same. She really warmed up to Brent today. We taught her to blow kisses yesterday and she had kisses for everyone.
On the way home from the restaurant we ended up on a small street of food vendors. Fried Squid legs, Chickens with heads still intact, boiled scorpion and bugs! Brent asked to take a picture of the scorpion and while he was doing that they were pushing the beetles on a stick on me because it is “good for the baby”! ewww, no thank you!
Favorite shirt of the day: “I Always Tooseye!” Saw it in a mall next to a store called ‘obese’. Don’t you wish you could tell them that is not a cool name like they think it is? Oh remember the Nightmare before Christmas shorts I saw? Saw the store in the mall today that was actually called, “Nightmare Before Christmas” and they sold all sorts of clothing that just had that logo on it, still not sure why that would be a hot item.

Day 11

Day 11

Shopping. And more shopping, all day long. It was fun.  We walked to Shaiman Island that is targeted at the Adoptive families that come here and complete their adoptions at the US embassy. Got some souvenirs there, went to lunch on the island as well. It was an “American” restaurant, meaning they had figured out how to make some favorite American dishes pretty close to what we are used to. The sodas were very expensive and cost half of the meal! It ended up being the most expensive place we had eaten at so far. Won’t be going there again. We ordered Amy a peanut butter sandwhich. She is getting pretty good at adapting to our diet. Yesterday she had her first McDonalds nugget happy meal. She dipped the nuggets in Sweet and Sour Sauce and loved it! Today she added her own flare to the PB sandwich as well. I think she saw me putting lettuce on my BLT so she opened her sandwich and put a sliced cucumber on it. She seemed to like it. After she ate most of it, she dipped the crust in ketchup and finished it off!
Towards the end of our meal it started pouring down rain. We waited it out for a little while and then decided to go ahead and slush through it. Amy was in a stoller and held an umbrella over her head, I had an umbrella and Brent pushed the stroller and got soaked. Poor Brent. The weather here is like Houston. Unbearably humid and hot, and the rain only makes it worse. It seems like our clothes always feel damp because of the humidity. I have been washing some laundry in the sink to save some money. They usually dry by the end of the day in Lanzhou. Here, at the end of the day, I can still wring some water out of them and they’ve been drying since breakfast!

After lunch we briefly went back to our hotel and then took a cab to the electronics outlet and spent the rest of the day there. We were told it was 9 blocks of Electronic gadgets. We’ll just have to take their word for it. We went to one building took the elevator to the top floor and spent the entire time on just 2 floors. There was so much to look at. Brent had fun bargaining and pitting the different sales booths against each other. Amy and I were pretty bored, but I must say she did fantastic. She said in a good mood the entire time and never whined. She didn’t get a nap, because we thought she’d fall asleep in the stroller but she didn’t, way to much to look at I guess. There is no way my other girls would have sat through that! Sorry babies! Tomorrow is payback and I intend to take Brent to the Children’s Clothes Outlet! 

I forgot to tell you about two things we saw while leaving Lanzhou yesterday that we found amusing. We saw a man on a bike and he was carrying a bucket of open fire on the back! It looked like the flames were going catch the seat of his pants on fire at any minute! Then about a mile down the road there was yet another accident. A truck carrying brick had skid and turned over and scattered bricks across the whole street. All the cars slowed down just a little and drove right over the bricks including our driver! We we’re holding on to Amy and each other (no seatbelts) because THAT was a bumpy ride!

Here’s Amy eating her Cucumber Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich!

Day 10 Arrive in Guangzhou

We got up a little after 5am to catch our flight to Guangzhou. Amy had never even seen a plane before, I wasn’t sure how she would react. She loved it! She laughed when the plane took off. Every time we hit an air pocket, the Stewardess would come on the intercom and tell us that “we are expressing tuberance”. Thank you. Amy loved that too.
The flight was supposed to be a 4 hour flight. We are deep in China now so it was hard to find anyone speaking English. We didn’t realize that the flight stopped once so we were confused that we were in Xi’an and not Guangzhou. We finally figured out we had to get off, wait a few minutes and get back on. When we got to Guanzhou, there was a storm. The airplane almost touched down and then took off again. The stewardess explained to everyone else what was going on but forgot to make the announcement in English. We just watched the ground get further away and then the city started disappearing and I only saw farmland, and then nothing but water. The stewardess then announced that we were landing at X airport right on time but we noticed it wasn’t Guangzhou. It was very confusing to us and took us a long time to figure out what was going on. Apparently the pilot decided the weather was too bad to land so he took off and took us way down passed Hong Kong to a little airport near the South China Sea. There, we sat on the airstrip for 2 hours with no air. Then they made us all get off the plane, stand “inside the square” on the tarmac with all our carry-ons and they unloaded the luggage! We only got to stand outside for a few minutes (it felt much cooler outside) and then they made us all go back inside and sit some more while they loaded all our luggage back in. So it took us and extra 3 hours to get to Guanzhou. Amy had HAD it by then and was crying because she got up so early, no nap and then she was so hot waiting that long while in the plane. Crazy! All things considered I think she did wonderful. As soon as she got off the plane she perked right up again and was ready for adventure.
Our Hotel is awesome. Soft, bigger beds- we so need that right now! Big room, Big bathroom. TV with some English channels- halleluiah!! Our hotel is in a mall so we checked in and settled a little and then went out to look for dinner. We were supposed to get here around noon, instead we just had time for dinner and then to bed. We didn’t have to walk far before we found a McDonalds- hooray!! There is also a Pizza Hut and a KFC. Oh yeah. Tomorrow we have a free day and we’re planning to go to the Electronics Outlet and the Children’s Clothes outlet. Brent already bought a few new release DVDs tonight for around a buck on our way back from McDonalds. 

Oh our favorite Tshirt today: "Salt Choir" and "Rear your Fare"

Taking a break at Waterwheel park.

Day 9: Last Day in Lanzhou

Well, this is our last post from Langzhou and Amy's province, Gansu. We have to check out of our hotel around 5am tomorrow to catch an early flight to Guangzhou to complete the American side of the adoption. Guangzhou is where the American Embassy is.
In the morning we visited an electronics market. Brent had fun looking at all the amazing bargains (hmmm) and he bought a copy of Microsoft Office Professional at a really great price! :-)
We just realized today that we had a map of the city in our room this whole week and we also realized we are within walking distance of the Yellow River and all the nice parks that lined it! We were almost there on a couple of our walks around the city just killing time. So after Amy's nap we walked to the Yellow River. I guessed we walked down cell phone row because there was nothing but cell phone stores on both sides of the street and hoards of vendors selling cell phones, mp3 and mp4s on blankets and cardboard boxes on the sidewalk. Brent had fun looking at all of those as well. I like looking at all the sidewalk vendors selling their wares. A lot of fruit that looks really good to me but I've been wary about buying any since I don't want to get sick. I've bought some local crafts off the sidewalk. Some people just sell socks, wouldn't think that is a booming business. Some sell newspapers, food, hair accessories and toys. I don't know if it was because it was Saturday or not but today we saw several vendors selling turtles and goldfish. I'm just going to believe they were being sold as pets.
Anyway. We got to the Yellow River and found ourselves at another Water Wheel Park that looked like a nice stroll but we had to pay admission to get in. It took us quite a while to figure out how much we were supposed to pay. After we paid, the lady gave us 2 yellow tickets or coupons. not sure what they were, and she made the motion of drinking. So I figured we get a free drink with our tickets so we stopped at every vendor and offered our tickets for a drink! It never worked. They always shook their head, pointed at a cup but wouldn't give it to us. We never did figure out what it was for. At the end of the park, there was an amphitheater where a lot of people were relaxing and drinking hot tea out of one of those cups. We tried to give our 'tickets' for one of the cups and we were again refused and we were told we had to pay for the tea. Oh well, a mystery we will never solve.
The park was very pretty, Amy enjoyed herself and we took lots of pictures. There were huge water wheels throughout the park and statues depicting everyday life that I really liked. There where a lot of fountains, but it got to be kinda funny because every time we'd see one in the distance we'd get to it and the fountain would just be turned off! I started making Brent run ahead to get a picture of fountains that were still on!
After the park we went to our standby, KFC. I usually let Amy just eat part of my meal. But we were all hot and tired from the long walk so I ordered Amy her own drink. She doesn't like carbonated soda so we ordered just an orange drink for her. It was served to her piping hot! We couldn't even touch the cup it was so hot! Our "sprite" was just carbonation, no syrup. It took them a couple tried to figure out that we like our soda with syrup, no ice!
We're slowly working on English with Amy. She can say her name and ours. She mimics me a lot so now she likes to say, "wow" and "yeah". Apparently I say "yeah" when she says something right so she thinks that is how you end the word. "Doll, yeah!" :-)
Today, Amy is wearing an outfit I bought for her here. It's a cute little dress but again the English doesn't make a lot of sense. It is a picture of Monchichi (remember Monchichi?) and it says, "Soul Kiss, CHU CNU" it was harmless enough so I bought it. I've been teaching her to say "Monchichi" all day and she says it so cute!

T-shirts lost in translation

We saw some great shirts today. Unfortunately I can't remember any of them now, but I did take a picture of this one we saw at KFC because it made absolutely no sense and I know I wouldn't be able to remember it. I had to pretend I was taking a picture of Amy and just tilt the camera JUST a little...
It says, "Dobhairl Sexiloye the soecal Rebtion"

Maybe it means something to the Dutch? I just want to walk up to people and say, "Do you know you bought a shirt that says absolutely nothing and those who can read it are laughing at you???

Confucius say, 'Split pants no good!'

This is a statue dedicated to educating parents on why split pants are no good!

Don't know what it is but if you need it, it's that way.

Day 8 Lanzhou University

Today we were on our own. No guided tours scheduled. So we walked down to Lanzhou University and strolled through the gardens there. Amy wasn't in a great mood so we had to keep moving. Nothing more awkward than having your child crying and yelling in a language you can't understand. My big fear is that she is yelling, “these aren't my parents somebody help me!” And we're just smiling and nodding at everyone...

Anyway, She quieted down after a while and we went back to the grocery store that we found last night. They have some pretty cheap clothes and Amy needs clothes. I totally guessed wrong on what size she is and the clothes I brought fall off of her. She has no waist, hips or rear end so nothing stays up, so I bought a few dresses, hopefully she'll be a little more presentable now, poor thing.

Amy got to see Brent's dad, PopPop, on Skype. He was a big hit and she kept saying Ye Ye (grandpa) PopPop for the rest of the day.

After nap time we took a long walk and ate KFC for dinner.

We did get our paperwork back today for the Chinese part of Amy's adoption. She is officially ours now! Hooray!

Tents are popping up around town here as earthquake survivors look for safety. We aren't anywhere near the hard hit areas, I'm not sure how they are making it up here

Update on Earthquake Relief

Please click here to visit SamaritansPurse.org to see a multimedia update on earthquake relief in China. I hope you'll also consider making a donation through their site. We had one Chinese man give us a thumbs-up and tell us that America was "Okay!" because of the money Americans have given for earthquake relief.

Music in the Park

We saw this man singing a Chinese folk song today at Five Springs Mountain Park in Lanzhou.

Lost in Translation

I'm not quite sure I understand what this shirt is trying to say...

Amy at the zoo

Amy doesn't have much hair but she is proud of what she has, I don't think they ever tried to put hairbows in her hair, and as you know, my girls ALWAYS have hair bows. :-) Every day I pull out something else to put in her hair and she gasps in delight and runs to look in the mirror after I put it on. Here she is proudly sporting her flower hair band. Yesterday I put a little ponytail with a bow in her hair. She loved it, but after I took it out, she was dismayed to see that her hair was still sticking straight up and was very vocal about it and kept trying to comb it down. I wet it and got it to lay flat and she had to look in the mirror to make sure it was acceptable before she went to bed. Definitely a Peak girl!

Day 7: Five Springs Mountain Park

Today we went to Five Spring Mountain park. It seems everything scenic and pretty is up in the mountains, away from the city.

Our guide was late meeting us, she said there was another big car accident that tied up traffic for a while.

The park was very pretty nice wide sidewalks that wound up the mountain. We saw a large group of people engaging in a morning dance on the square. It kinda looked like an oriental version of line dancing. There were couples on the side couple dancing that was very pretty to watch as well. Up the path there were 2 old men, one playing a traditional Chinese instrument and the other singing a ballad, It sounded very nice.

You have to pay admission to stroll in the park. Once in the park you can pay another admission and tour the zoo. It wasn't very large, and I felt a little sorry for the animals in their cement cages, they didn't look very healthy. However, it was the first time Amy had seen a zoo or animals and she enjoyed it and was frightened by some of them at the same time. She called the hyenas and kangaroos large dogs. She thought the owl was a cat, and the giraffe she called a big duck. I guess she hasn't been exposed to much in her little life. We were told she could count to 2 and didn't know any of her colors yet.

The park had amusement rides, that played very loud music. The bumper boats played the theme song from Air Wolf, very amusing to us, sometimes it switched to the Star Wars theme. There were also outdoor pool tables lined up for people to play billiards. I've never seen that before!

We fell for a tourist trap. There was a sign pointing to a cave that said it was “Amaze and Terror Cave” it showed a picture of a natural cave. We love going to caves in the US so we wanted to go. The guide didn't want to go. We asked if it was a natural cave, she said she didn't know, she had never been. I suspect she did know what it was and I was a little upset afterwards that she didn't explain it further to us before we wasted our money on it. It was just a series of rooms built underground that was a very cheap funhouse. Garish lights and music, things and sounds jumping out at us. We were not amused, Amy certainly wasn't enjoying it. There's some money we'll never see again! So if you want to tour Lanzhou, don't waste your money on the “Magic Cave”- it isn't. :-)

After Amy's nap, we walked as usual, I found a store that had good prices that I bought some souvenirs at. All of the “supermarkets” are several stories high. Grocery on one floor, clothes and other things on different floors. They are pretty much a mall. This one had a grocery cart we could put Amy in and go to the different floors. A BIG plus for us since we have to carry her everywhere and our muscles are getting pretty sore. It also had a cross between a people mover and an escalator between the floors that you could roll your cart right on and it would take you to the next floor. There's a picture of it on Flickr.

The English we see continues to crack us up. We were reading the shirts for sale that had English writing on them and they just made no sense at all! I took a picture of one, and got in trouble for it but I managed to get the picture anyway. It said, “Dark Creepy Barn safe in This” . Ok, I'm sure it is a cool shirt to wear somewhere...

We saw some jean shorts someone was wearing yesterday that said, “Tim Jurton's Nightmare Before Christmas” on the back pocket. So close, I have no idea why someone would want that on the pocket of their jeans though.

Amy is very good about taking naps and going to bed. I just put her 'jamas on and she crawls into bed and goes to sleep. Right now she is buried under her covers and is singing softly to herself. So cute.

Click here to see more pictures from our day.

Praying for the Chapman family

We are praying for the Steven Curtis Chapman family. We just heard that his youngest daughter was killed when she was run over by their car that their son was driving. This family has poured so much of themselves into the lives of others. Their testimony gave us the desire to go to China in the first place and their adoption grant organization helped us financially bring Amy home.
All we can do now is pray for God to comfort them in this horrific time as they have comforted so many others.

At the exercise park

There are "exercise parks" scattered all around. You can go there and see-saw, lift weights, work on your balance, anything to keep moving. Brent had Amy on his shoulders balancing on one of the equipment pieces and this lady caught him and started to give him an earful. I don't know if she didn't like Amy on his shoulders--we get a lot of stares when he does that--or if she didn't like the way Amy was dressed. :-)

Amy Eats Her First Ice Cream Cone

Here's Amy eating her first ice cream cone at KFC in Lanzhou.



See more of our videos from China by clicking here.

Day 6: White Pagoda Park

This morning we took a cable car up the mountains that surround Lanzhou to the top to visit the White Pagoda. It was built in the Qing Dynasty as a treaty between the Qing emperor and the Tibetan leaders.

The mountains that surround Lanzhou are naturally bare, no vegetation, just mountains of dirt. When sand storms blow through here from the Gobi Desert to the north it is just brutal. So in a masterful plan, the government starting planting trees in the mountains in the 1970's and bringing water up into the mountains from the Yellow River to water them. The rainfall here is very low so the trees are watered every day with a sprinkler system that pipes the river water. You can see from the pictures how lush the mountains look now and there are birds singing in all the trees. The climb back down the mountain was very pleasant because of the shade. Just amazing.

We saw 3 car accidents happen in front of us on the way back to the hotel. One was the bus right in front of us slamming a car. Our driver slammed on the breaks and sent Brent with Amy in his lap into the front of the van. Amy was ok but cried because she was scared. I think Brent will have some nice bruises on his shins.

After her nap, Amy was a charming little sprite for the rest of the day. I finally got to see that bubbly personality I had heard she had but hadn't gotten to experience yet. She charmed us all afternoon and evening by singing and laughing and playing with us. We taught her “high five” and she says "momma daddy" now and she says “fee fee” instead of “pee pee” but that's close enough. We did buy some diapers and put her in them instead after 2 poop accidents today. All the babies and toddlers here wear split pants. I can't get over all the little bottoms hanging out every where I go! I didn't want Amy playing on the slide at KFC. ;-) I don't really like the high chairs either for the same reason!

Our dinner spot is KFC. 2 nights ago we offered Amy ice cream she hated it and made faces. It's only took 2 nights for her to go from hating ice cream to loving it! She has been eating our cones, she likes them but she doesn't want any ice cream on it so we have to clean if off really good. Tonight, Brent ordered one for me and one for him. She wanted some of mine and took a few licks, then she just took the whole cone from me and ate the whole thing! She kept laughing and shivering because she was so cold from eating it, but it didn't stop her. :-)

Instead of saying “momma momma” all day she started saying “Xie Xie (shey shey) momma” which means “thank you momma” don't know why but it's cute. Towards the end of the day she'd say “xie xie daddy” and even “xie xie Amy”. First night she went to sleep without crying herself to sleep, she actually sang herself to sleep. So thankful, I hope we've turned a corner.

Happy Amy

Here a few cute pictures of Amy being silly for the camera.

Day 5

Today Amy clung to me all day and said "momma momma momma" all day long, which I am used to. She also never followed it up with anything, just "momma" which I am also used to. I am not used to having to carry my 3year olds around everywhere, that was exhausting.

Our guide took showed us the sites along the Yellow River. The chinese consider it their mother and everyone Chinese was birthed from the river. There is a statue along the river commemerating it, we have a picture of it in our flickr photos. The Chinese lover their legends. There are statues and stories behind them everywhere. It's fun to here the lore behind everything.
We have pictures of the Waterwheel park, a reproduction waterwheel that shows how people used to get their power from the river.
we walked along the first "iron" bridge built in China. Its a landmark and tourist come and get their picture taken in front of it, to us it looks like a normal bridge that we see everywhere in America. There are padlocks attached to the bridge, we saw it on the great wall as well, with red ribbon tied to them. We asked our guide what it meant and she said eternal love that can't be undone. Awwww.
There are LOTS of people walking around. It doesn't seem to matter if it is a weekday or not. I commented to the guide about it and she said that the Chemical Plant in Lanzhou (China's first Chemical Plant- also a source of pride) is so toxic that people can't work there for very long so they can retire after working there for 8 years.
When we were walking along the river a woman came up to us to poke at Amy, which we are trying to get used to, soon there was a crowd all commenting and poking at her. We usually gather a small crowd everywhere we go, I have no idea why, but this was the largest almost 20 people, a little overwhelming. Brent started filming it, when the kids noticed Brent had a camera they left Amy and I alone and started smiling for the camera. Here's a link to the video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TQaGJrHT9nQ

This would never happen in America!

We went to a restaurant after the River. Amy finally ate a good meal and was in a good mood and we got some cute pictures of her. Here. instead of free refills, you order a Sprite and you get a liter which everyone shares. When it's gone that's it. I had my cup filled, drank about half of it and they topped it off with me- with hot water! I told them there was a misake, I had Sprite so they threw it out and took my 1 liter and poured a new cup. I took a swallow, within a couple minutes they topped it off with hot water again!! No! The waiter dumped it out and gave me what was left of the liter, about a half a cup- which they again tried to put hot water in but I was vigilant this time and saved my half a glass of Sprite! We asked the guide if the waiter was going to make it right, she shrugged and didn't seem too bothered. Apparently the chinese drink hot water. She poured some in a bowl and gave Amy a spoon and she drank it. I guess that is how they know it is sterilized.
Oh, for dessert they brought out turtle shell. It had been boiled for a "long time" , so long it was gelatinous. We each had a bite, Brent actually had 3 bites I think before he gave in. It was pretty awful, and definately not sweet like a dessert should be. :-)

No Smoking Please!
Everyone smokes in China. It is one thing that sends me running and gives me an instant Headache, I can't stand the smell. I cannot get away from it here. People smoke in stores, restuarants, airports, bathrooms, elevators. and the hotel rooms. I can tell whenever the people next door light a cigarette, I feel like I am smoking it too, I'm smoking one now! blah!


Amy doesn't like being in the room, she cries whenever we head back to it, so as much as we can we walk, and walk.

The most interesting find of the day...

We saw these rafts along the yellow river. The big things tied to the bamboo are sheepskin that has been inflated and dried. The guide said before there was a bridge across the river people would take these across the river- and still do. She said they cut off the head, and three legs. they keep the forth leg to blow into to inflate the skin. Good to know.

Lanzhou Children

Here are some beautiful children we met today in Lanzhou.

Old Man in the Park

This is talent! We saw this today in a park along the Yellow River in Lanzhou.

For the record...

The beds here are like sleeping on a park bench with a blanket wrapped around you! I had heard the beds were hard, I hadn't really noticed it in the first 2 hotels, this one, yeah. I think it is cement wrapped with a thin layer of foam. You know those old commercials where someone jumps on a bed without spilling the drink sitting on the bed? No problem here although I wouldn't recommend jumping on the bed, you may break your foot!

China mourns

We were walking back to the hotel today when we noticed people were just coming out of the buildings and lining up. We had no idea what was going on since we can't read the papers or watch the news. At first we thought maybe people came out to exercise. But as people lined the streets, we saw military line up and fire trucks come out, then we thought pehaps a parade. We kept walking, and then noticed everyone was quiet and there where no cars on the street, unheard of! then all at once every car laid on their horns and the fire truck sirens went off. It still took us a minute, but we figured out that it was a week ago today that the earthquake struck.

Day 4 Getting to know each other

Today went well. The morning was very busy and Amy just went along with everything without minding too much. We went to the Civil Affairs Office today to sign papers and make Amy officially ours. She was clinging to me and I didn't know what she would do when she saw all the orphanage workers again who obviously love her. She didn't respond to them at first but as soon as I put her down they started talking to her- something I can't do, and quickly drew her over to them. I felt like I was on trail to see how I responded to her and everyone else. She hasn't eaten much, at the office she drank some water, started coughing and threw up. They jumped to her assistance and I felt sidelined at the same time wondering if I was supposed to push them out of the way and be the mother. Anyway, glad when that was over. But I must say I know they took good care of her, and she was loved and for that I am so greatful. Oh, at one point they we're laughing and pointing at Brent. Our guide told us they all thought Amy looked like Brent!

Hotels

We really didn't like the hotel the travel agency sent us too, after spending the night we were pretty firm about wanting to move. So we moved to a new hotel right after the Civil Affairs office. Amy was happy and talkative even though she must be getting bored with us not understanding her. We took a walk down to the public square, a large open area where you can feed the pidgeons – Amy didn't like that, and shops open up towards the square. Luckily for us there is a KFC there! We went in and ordered a bucket of chicken and tried to take it outside and eat it. We were told we couldn't do that and they told a lady to move so we could eat at her table! That was embarassing.

Laundry

We did a lot of walking around today. We were looking for a laundry place and couldn't find one. Brent told me to pack light because they will wash our clothes for a few dollars. We were down to our last change of clothes, couldn't find a place to do our laundry. We finally broke down and asked the hotel to do it and we needed it today. When we got it back today it came with a bill for $50!! Yikes! I think I will start wearing outfits a couple times before I wash again!

Cultural experiences

I don't know why, but no one uses handrails on stairs, Escalators, anything. I don't understand but I know I should probably do as the natives do, there must be a very good reason. :-) Another thing we have had to just follow by example is when we take out lives in our hands to cross the road. There must be traffic laws, but I haven't figured out what they are yet. People, bikes, mopeds and cars all mingle in the street in the greatest game of chicken I have ever seen. Riding in a car is scary enough, walking is REALLY scary! Even though the pedestrian crossing is lit up it seems to be only a suggestion for cars as the people try to cross the street between cars like frogger. We try to just stay with the masses, they can't hit all of us right? They have to slow down if there are 50 of us crossing at the same time right? Walking is a pretty normal mode of transportation here. There are very wide sidewalks, but they aren't necessarily safe either. Today a car decided traffic was going too slow so he went up on the side walk and drove on it a while, honking at all of us to get out of the way!

Brent has been stuffy with allergies here. He ran out of his medicine he brought so he went to a pharmacy and mimicked sniffing and they handed him some medicine. I talked him out of taking something based on a diagnosis of sniffing. They could be handing him cocoaine for all we know! We finally found some medicine with some words on it we recognized.

Amy

We got Amy to say some English words today. She likes the Pringles Brent brought from home so she learned to say “chip” over and over. We need to buy some more. She still isn't eating very well. She seems to like us although she thinks we're pretty dumb. She wanted to be held all day. She can walk, but I don't think she likes to for very long. Amy loves her doll we gave her and takes it everywhere. I think the family that raised her taught her well, she knows to wash her hands. She cleans herself in the bath and uses a napkin. Our guide confirmed today that she had never seen a toilet before, the houses here have the "squatty potties" a basin in the floor that has to be squatted over. Still working on the bathroom thing but we'll ge there. :-)
She was in a good mood all day but around bedtime she got pretty sad and kept telling us something over and over that we can't understand and finally cried herself to sleep. So sad to watch. We had our little dictionary out but couldn't figure out what she wanted. She scratches a lot around her shoulders and back and has some scabs from doing so. I gave her a cool bath, but I don't think it helped much. We hope to find some benadryl or something tomorrow.

Day 3 Suprise!

Flew to Amy's province today. About 15 minutes after we arrived at our hotel our guide told us to come downstairs because Amy was here! We were scheduled to get her tomorrow but we had a feeling we might get her today, because previous adoptees had told us that we may get her sooner.

She is just as cute as can be. We've had her for about 4hrs now. She is sad and confused and very tired. I guess she must think we are idiots because we don't seem to understand a word she is saying!. She won't eat, and she pee'd on the floor because we couldn't understand what she needed. Poor baby.

She has played a little, She likes talking on my cell phone and playing with my camera and the computer, very eletronic savy little girl! :-) She's trying to go to sleep now after a long day for her. Pray that we'll start understanding each other soon.

Day 2 Pictures

Click here to see pictures from Day 2.

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Signs that make me laugh, again

Don't say it!

Day 2

Today we had no guide and went for a LONG walk -in the rain, to the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square. They are across the street from each other and it took about a half hour to get there from our hotel. It was like visiting Disney World, SO many people! Just a mass of humanity visiting these sites. It was so crowded in both places even though it was raining. Nonetheless, we managed to somehow get big bullseyes on our backs that said, Foreigners, lost and have money!" We were approached every few steps we took at the Forbidden City with people trying to sell us stuff or offer to be our guide. We did break down and buy a few Olympic Souvenirs and 2 umbrellas. The Forbidden City is huge and we kept walking through huge courtyards with the palace built on the walls all around it. We didn't pay to go through any of the museum parts becuase it seemed to be all in Chinese and we wouldn't understand it anyway. On the outside of the City is a huge picture of Mao ZeDong. It was kinda like seeing a huge picture of George Bush over the front of Washington's Mount Vernon home.
Across the street at Tienanmen Square there were also throngs of people on just a large expanse of concrete, not sure why people gather there, there is no place to sit, it is heavily guarded and patrolled. It doesn't seem like the government encourages "hanging out" there yet people do. It was also a tribute to Communism and Mao ZeDong. There was a huge monument in the middle of the square that was a tribute to the common man. Here's a picture of Brent in Tienanmen Square with the monument in the background.

We walked back to the hotel in the rain, stopped at the mall we found last night and ate KFC for lunch. We'll probably go back there for dinner, not feeling brave on the cuisine yet. :-)

Why is Brent Laughing?

Because the guy behind him in the picture would not leave us alone! He got us as soon as we walked into the garden and followed us all through it hawking all these different things he was trying to sell to us that he would pull out of his backpack. The garden didn't feel very serene with this guy following us around who would not take no for an answer. Brent was a very good sport though and thought it was funny. He took it better than I did.

Freedom Church in China

Wow, look at this, Freedom Church and Boost being represented on the Great Wall of China! If I had known Brent was going to bring his Boost shirt I would have packed my Kiki's Treehouse shirt!!

Day 1: being caught in a thunderstorm on the Great Wall of China- Priceless

“I have climbed the Great Wall of China”
We went to the great wall today, it was amazing, so majestic, and not what I expected! It was like climbing straight up a mountain with steps built in so you don't need a pick axe and a rope- but they would have helped! I had always pictured the Great Wall as long stretches of wall, this part was nothing but very steep steps, most of them were at least a foot high. Brent and I went up, We had climbed the first part and almost made it to the first tower, and we were just dying and panting. Two old ladies from China were sitting at the top and were just laughing at us, I was amazed, they climbed even higher after that as well. I'll be nice and just say that Brent sat down and rested after a bit and I went on without him. :-) I passed 2 lookout towers, and I was heading to the third one when it started raining so I reluctantly turned back. The wind in a storm at that height was fantastic! I met Brent back at the first tower and we waited out the storm inside. When I went on by myself, a guy started hiking with me for some reason. I think he was taking pictures of me, so I decided to face him head on and offered to take his picture. From there on he acted like my best friend and kept stopping me at every turn and asking me to take his picture. He didn't speak any English. He was from Russia and his name was Misha, that's all I could understand. When it started raining, I turned around to go back and he wanted me to keep climbing. I didn't want to so he turned around and headed back with me. When I finally saw Brent again I called him and Misha was gone like a flash, took off running down the steps. Hehe. While Brent and I waited in the tower for the rain to pass I climbed up on top of the tower- again without Brent. Two guys were up there. I offered to take their picture as well and instead they both wanted to take turns having a picture taken with me! So weird! When the rain finally let up enough to go down, we saw a European couple. The woman grabbed Brent and put her arm around him and the guy started taking the picture. I was still standing next to Brent and the man asked me to move out of the way because they only wanted a picture of my husband!! Still can't quite understand why people want pictures of strangers! Brent caught the bug though and kept trying to get a picture of himself and some soldiers that were also touring the great wall. It was so funny they would scatter every time he would run up to them and ask for their picture. He finally got a picture of himself with them in the background, that is as close as we got. At the end, I bought a T-shirt that said in perfect English, “I have climbed the Great Wall”. It gives a history of the great wall on the back that isn't translated as well, it's sort of a jumble of words. Brent got a “hero” plaque saying he climbed the Great Wall. There is an inspiring quote on it that says. “If we do not reach the Great Wall, we are no heroes” Brent kept trying to ask who said it, and the vendors couldn't tell us. When we got back in the car with our translator she told us Mao Zedong said it, the one who brought communism to China. We could have bought a T-shirt with all the communist “heroes” pictured on the shirt, Stalin, Lenin, Marx, and Chairman Mao. Nothing about the dynasties that built the wall but plenty of Communist Pride.

6 degrees of separation
Our translator asked what Brent did for a living, he told her he was a minister, She understood enough to guess that it was religous so she said, “Do you know uh,Steven... Steven” Brent said, “Steven Curtis Chapman?” Yes! She told us she was his guide not too long ago. We asked if it was his second adoption, she said no, he was there with his friend who was adopting. Brent said, Geoff Moore?!! Yes, that was his name. Cool we had the same guide. :-) She said he gave her a CD but he didn't sing for her. Hehe

Touring
We toured a cloisine (sp) factory and a jade factory. The vendors at the end were pretty pushy. I had to use my first “squatty potty” ewwww! Not fun. I can't imagine trying to take a child to use one of those.

At the jade factory the guide giving us a tour kept telling us Brent had a belly like Buddha so he must have a happy family. No sense that that might be a rude thing to say!

We drove past several Olympic Venues, the Bird's Nest, the Swimming Cube. They buildings themselves are just fantastic. They planted Roses that line the streets all over Beijing for the Olympics, they are just beautiful. Around 5pm our bodies told us it was time for bed or there would be consequences. We still had to walk out and find something to eat. Found a shopping mall not far from our hotel and there was actually a Dairy Queen inside! So I had a blizzard for dinner and Brent had a hot dog. I could have had a green tea blizzard, but I opted for chocolate, it did taste a little strange though. Brent said his hot dog tasted great, probably because he had never had a genuine hot 'dog' before. Hehe

Here are some pictures of our day. Click on any of them to see more on Flickr.

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Signs that make me laugh

you could be the winner!



run Forrest run!


love the pictures on this one

Travel Day (by Karin)

Literally the longest day of my life, it took 32 hours of airports and flights but we have finally arrived in Beijing. I just thought once we conquered the almost 14hr flight to China we would be done, but in fact it made the 10hr wait at the Shanghai airport all the more unbearable because we were so tired already.

We got up at 3 am in Little Rock caught our flight to Chicago and waited a couple hours for our next flight- the big one to China. That flight was actually the nicest we've had so far. The seats were big and we got to spread out. I had 3 seats to myself so I laid down across all of them for part of the journey. Each seat had it's own TV loaded with newly released movies, music and games. One cool part was that we could watch the flight path to check our progress and count down the hours. We were both surprised that we did not fly west to China, we flew North! Over the north Pole, over the Bering Sea and Siberia. Never thought about getting to China that way! Anyway, I highly recommend American Airlines for your overseas journeys.

When we got to Shanghai airport, there was absolutely nothing to do, it was the most boring airport I have ever been in. Very empty and vast, nothing to look at, the airport itself was way away from anything else so we couldn't even look at the city skyline. We waited our 7 hours trying to catch some sleep on the benches. I can't believe there was only one flight to Beijing all day! When the 7 hours was up they announced that our flight was delayed with no time given on when if might arrive. I wanted to cry! It did finally arrive over an hour later, we boarded and waited another hour on the plane before we were allowed to take off. I was so tired I felt dizzy and sick to my stomach. Very small cramped seats, not much sleep on that plane.

We finally arrived in Beijing at 2:30 in the morning instead of the original 11:20pm. The flight did not pull up to a gate. It parked in a big airplane parking lot and we unloaded onto the tarmac with buses waiting to take us to the airport. Very strange, there were no other flights arriving at that time of night, I sure would have appreciated the privilege of a gate! Fortunately our guide that was supposed to meet us at the airport was still there, she had been waiting for 3 hours, and took us to our hotel.

We are on the 7^th floor in a very nice room. We could not figure out how to turn the lights on in our room! We felt all over the walls and felt switches that didn't work. Somehow Brent figured out that there was a slot in the wall to put our key in and then the lights came on when he slid our key in and out again. We made it to the middle of the room and the lights went out. Fumbled over suitcases and slid the key again. Again we got a few steps in and the lights went out again. It took us a few times to figure out that we had to keep our key in the slot if we wanted lights and air. Very industrious Hotel!

It is 8am here, I got a few hours of sleep now we are off to see the Great Wall this morning.

On our way!

We were told it would be ok to travel so we are off. It will take 27hours to get there with all the switching planes and layovers. If you included the 5 hours it took today to get to my sister's house in Arkansas, then 32 hours, pray for us!

Brent added a twitter feature to our website so you can always see what we are up to, if you must know! :-)

Here's a picture of our favorite truck stop we saw on the way to my sister's house today. ;-)

China's Earthquake

We are still waiting to hear how the Earthquake in China may affect our travels. Amy should be safe because she is in a far northwest province, but we haven't gotten confirmation on anything yet. For now, we are still planning on flying to China on Wednesday. Please keep the Chinese people in your prayers.

very soon now!

We have a Consulate Appointment for May 28th so we will be flying out of the States next wednesday to go to China. We are scheduled to finally get Amy on Monday, May 19th. Stay tuned....

It took a year...

It was a year ago, last may almost to the day that I saw these pictures of Amy, back then she was known as "Wendy". She had surgery on her back a year ago funded by Shepherd's Crook and Love without Boundaries. Alison from Shepherd's Crook sent me pictures of Amy every day that she was in the hospital. I finally couldn't stand it any more and I had to have that child as my own. It has been a long process and we as a family have been through much. We are so greatful that the end of the wait is near and we will finally be able to hold that sweet child, whose pictures we have stared at for so long- in 2 weeks!!!

A little more excitement

We had yet another big storm blow through here last night. The winds did some damage. When we woke up this morning the awning was ripped off our swing in the back yard. I showed it to the girls and said, "look what that storm did last night, it ripped our swing". The girls have a Little Tykes plastic slide that was tipped over and Angie yelled, "Oh no, look at our slide!" Sheesh!
I heard on the radio that a hotel that was almost finished being built was leveled last night so Brent and the girls drove by to look at it, along with everyone else in town, he said it was like a Chistmas light tour, all these cars driving by slowly to look. :-)
Karianne calls Tornadoes "tortillas". It's weird because she calls tortillas the same thing and doesn't seem to notcie that she is using the same word. Anyway, it's funny to hear her talk about hiding from the tortilla, people getting hurt and buildings getting knocked down from giant tortillas. She saw a lady on the news who had bandaids on who had rode through the storm and she prayed for the 'grandma who was hurt by the tortilla and had bandaids on her face'.

BTW, we did get our Travel Approval today. Our agency is going to try to request a May 28th Consulate Appointment in China!