Saying Goodbye to China and Hello to Forever

Thursday, March 24, we awoke and had one last breakfast hurrah at our hotel buffet. During both trips to China, breakfast has been our favorite meal to eat. The buffets are gigantic and filled with everything from breakfast pizza to chicken nuggets to noodles to yogurt to pastries to donuts to made-to-order omelets to French Toast to potatoes to cereal to chocolate chip muffins to.....in other words, no one starved and we all gained a few pounds every morning only to lose them in the afternoon when we ate granola bars and fruit sticks for lunch. During our last week in China, we stayed at the White Swan Hotel which is located on the Pearl River. The Pearl River is the third largest river in China. The photo above is one taken from our room. Each morning at breakfast, we sat at a table for SIX that was located beside huge windows overlooking the river. We were always entertained by the "Chinese boats" - this is what MK called every boat on the river - and there you could also see people swimming or the trash brigade cleaning out the river so that the water could be deemed healthy to drink for local citizens - ewww, but whatever.

Just before our departure, we took a moment to snap a few photos inside the hotel. The waterfall is one of our favorite memories. It is beautiful to see, the koi fish are thrilling for the children to look at and it is soothing to listen to - a little loud but soothing all the same.

One last pic of our home away from home. Inside this suite were the hardest beds ever but some sweet memories were made with our family during our stay. During the little time that we did reside in our room, the boys had "contests" that I will not detail but they made us all laugh, MK colored endlessly, we taught Maddox how to wave and do thumbs up and clap, we had dinners together sharing stories about our earlier days in China with MK, we talked with friends at home, and, most importantly, we prayed for our family as well as our friends and family back home.

Some of the kiddos just before departure time.

Colin and our new friend Brooke. Brooke's family traveled to adopt their baby girl, Macy, and we certainly shared many laughs with them to include the "black tongue" story.

Pryce and our new friend Abby. Abby and her parents traveled with us to adopt their new brother and son, Eli. Eli was such a delight to watch. At three years old, I often wondered what was going through this little guy's mind. He was all smiles and to hear him speak Chinese was precious.

Our last leg of our 25 hour journey home. This photo was taken at the Atlanta airport just before boarding our short flight to South Carolina to be reunited with our family and friends.

And these are some of the arms that we were welcomed by! What an awesome testament for adoption to see our friends at the airport who have adopted, who are adopting and who wish to adopt. Their support is endless and we love each and every one of them for their neverending support and kindness during our journey to Maddox. And, to see our family, our parents, our sisters, our brother, our brother-in-law, our sister-in-law, our nephews and nieces....we love that adoption has touched their hearts as well through bringing our girls home. They have all distributed nothing but open arms and love to both of them.

Our newest American citizen. This is Maddox after 25 hours of travel, some sleep, not too many tears and many new faces to take in. She held her own. She got down and played with the best of them at the airport. So long as one was holding a balloon or was willing to give their balloon to her, she was all game. I am most positive we broke every rule in the attachment book upon our arrival in the airport. She was passed around, played with, posed with, and all of it, she took easily to.

This photo is out of order but let's just say that we are all suffering from jet lag. Three years ago, this was really not an issue. This time around, we are all having a hard time adjusting. Everyone went to bed late after our arrival home, the boys were lucky enough to sleep until 11:00am when we had to wake them up. The girls, well Maddox ended up in our bed at 5:00 am. We are not fans of our children in bed with us unless they are sick or frightened. However, I felt like the mother a newborn who was desperately in need of sleep and would do anything to achieve it. Therefore, Maddox settled in comfortably after having some milk and slept another 6 hours. Sometime between 5:00am and 11 am, MK made her way to the couch.....priceless. She has been very comfortably sleeping on the couch in our hotel suite for the past week so we are thinking she felt like she was at home on the couch. She even spread her favorite blanket out to lay on.

Maddox all buckled up for her ride home. She had no problems with the carseat. In fact, everytime she has been placed inside the seat for a ride, she has fallen asleep.

We arrived home to a clean decorated home, mounds of food, a well cared for wild dog and, shall I mention, our long lost soft beds!

A huge thank you to all of our adoption group! We love you all and we are so glad that you are a part of our family! I am not sure who is responsible for what but I am positive we will not be in need of a grocery store for at least a week! And the streamers above the kid's rooms was perfect....they loved it and I am sure it will remain in tact for quite sometime to come!

Ahhhh, ice cream and flowers. After more than two weeks without one of the loves of my life, I was more than pleased to sit down with these two beauties and make up for lost time!

Alas, our journey to Maddox has ended and our life with our sister/daughter has just begun!

We made it to Hong Kong! We arrived via train in Hong Kong. The kids LOVED the ride. The adventure began (as predicted) when we gathered all of our many bags together and departed the train station in Hong Kong. For smaller families, taxis are a great option for transportation. However, when traveling with a larger family and their many bags, taxis are not such a great option. So, we haled two cabs. Two for our large family. In the midst of a bit of confusion, we decided with another family that we could all travel together in two cabs. Four adults, six children....and, their many, many bags all bungy-corded to the trunks of these two cars. I jump into the front seat of cab number 1, four children, a stroller and a few bags in the back seat. The driver asks, "Where you go?" I tell him the name of our hotel. He says, "What is that? What is the name of your hotel?" Again, I tell him and he looks at me as if I have two heads. Meanwhile, Ryan, the two other adults and the two other children are all snuggled into their cab. Lo and behold, there is a bag sitting curbside.....of course, it is OUR bag, imagine. So I jump out as the police officer is yelling at our cab driver to move, the cab driver tells me to get in and that is when I noticed.....Playboy. I am in a cab with four small children and Playboy is the advertisement on the side of this car. Great. We grab the bag, add it to our bungy-corded other bags and speed off. I asked the driver if he figured out where we were going and he says, "Yes, yes, of course, you want to go to the airport." AGH. No, we wanted to go to our hotel. I tell him to follow Ryan's cab. He didn't like this idea until I mentioned to him that he needed to follow the cab with our group because I didn't have any money....aha, now he was listening. So, we follow. The kids in the back are laughing and more than enjoying their harum scarum ride through Hong Kong. About midway, they break out in the discussion of their favorite Bible heros and then they begin to sing Christian radio songs at the top of their lungs. So, our last night in China I spent riding in a Playboy advertising cab with four young children singing Christian songs, witnessing to one soul who could very well be lost. Until later....

It is almost 1:00 pm here and we are all packed and ready to go!  We are awaiting our final Papa John's pizza before heading over to the train station for our trip to Hong Kong.  Then, we will stay in Hong Kong tonight and leave bright and early tomorrow morning for our flight(s) home!  Please pray for our safety, health and well being during our travels home.  We are so glad for all of you who have joined us during our time here in China.  We thank you for your thoughts, prayers and services!  We love that we are bringing home our little girl to meet all of you!  Until later.....

We awoke bright and early this morning, had a great breakfast while overlooking the Pearl River, boarded the bus and traveled across the city to the American Consulate's office.  We went in, waited in line for a moment, took an oath, we were called as a family to go over a few papers - mainly to match passport photos with the real person, and then we were all done!  Hooray!  Following our busy morning, we took an easy going approach to our afternoon.  We finished up a bit of shopping, played in the park overlooking the Pearl River, had a snack at the local Lucy's American-style restaurant and began the task of packing up our many bags!  The day would not have been complete without a group dinner at the Cow and Bridge Thai restaurant - wonderful!  We have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the families in our group.  Each of them has a fabulous story and the children are all so precious.  My boys especially are going to miss the friendships that they have made while in Guangzhou.  In our busy day, with all of the play and relaxing going on, I took not a one picture - amazing!  However, I can share a few tidbits about our little Maddox.  I think I have mentioned she is sooo cute!  Smiles a lot, waves a lot, laughs endlessly, she explores everything - never leaving a stone unturned, she babbles a lot and we think she sounds sort of like a duck quacking, she says "mama," she cries when her teeth get brushed, she is our only child so far to even think about playing in the potty, she wants mommy when she is tired, she is eating a lot now - ham and cheese omelets for breakfast, burgers for dinner, she thinks hitting is a sport though in her defense I do believe it is her way of saying, "Back off already!," she gives high fives, she was so loved by her foster family - we have photos they gave us of when she was just a mere 2 months old and on the back it has their address and phone number, priceless!  MK continues to do really well with her baby sister.  She actually hasn't shown any signs of jealousy or ill feelings towards Maddox. The question that I really dread and will get offended by the most was asked during breakfast the other morning....."Are they sisters?"  An Asian lady, I am assuming Chinese, asked me this.  I hesitated and almost went into the fact that no, they are not biological sisters because essentially that is what the lady was asking.  However, I stopped myself.  I smiled and simply said, "Yes."  She said, "Yes, I thought so.  They look very much alike and have the same eyes."  I just continued to smile because it is true, they are sisters born of the same heart and family through God's will.  

MK has been a trooper - for the most part she has taken the trip well and hung in there with the best of us.  She loves having the older girls around to play with and being allowed to eat with the "big kids" at their table for dinners.  The boys, it goes without saying that they have thoroughly enjoyed their time in China. They have both taken well to Guangzhou, the families, the afternoon tea time, the excursions, the group dinners, the attention from onlookers....they have loved it all!  They adore Maddox and love to carry her around.  They have asked several times when we can come back for another adoption - they are requesting a boy!  Probably not going to happen yet I do love their hearts.  They have seen everything from unilateral club foot, to bilateral club foot, to unrepaired cleft lip/palate, to repaired cleft lip/palate, to older children, to heart babies....they are unphased by the "needs" that these children are labeled with and are so open to loving another child unconditionally.  

With that, I will close.  I have so much more to share about our trip and I promise to do so once we get home and I have a chance to really gather my/our thoughts about our experiences in China.  Until later....

What a wonderful day we have had on the island.  We started out early for breakfast, played a bit in the hotel playroom, Red Couch photos, lunch and much needed hot chocolate at Starbucks - Maddox slept through this, her first official visit to Starbucks - a visit to Jordon's, a walk through the park where we observed lots of modeling shoots taking place, and then the real fun began.....the herbal medicine market and the pearl market.  We were back in real China.  The herbal medicine market was a long street full of shops selling live snakes, snake skins, an assortment of live scorpions of all sizes (Colin even captured one with chopsticks no doubt!), dead scorpions, dead lizards on sticks, deer feet, dead black ants, dead seahorses, turtles, dogs, cats, fish, eel, shark fins, oh, and a goose, shall I go on?????  Oh, and there was an alligator being skinned for our enjoyment....yep, right on the street!  The people were everywhere.....I kept counting our children, we have FOUR now to keep up with, for those of you who have lost count!  Thankfully, our group has a lot of children and adults who all look out for one another....and have I mentioned our guide?  She is spectacular with the children and with all of us!

Following our herbal medicine market experience, we walked through the pearl market.  It is huge!  I didn't even count the stories, but I took a picture for those of you who are huge jewelry shoppers at home.  Strands and strands of every bead, pearl, pendant, jade pieces.....you name it, they had it.  You could buy in bulk or individually.  Thankfully, MK slept through this part of the tour....other families with other older little girls were not so lucky and their money was well spent!  Our last stop was at a Pandora store.....or, the China version of a Pandora store....the women were all taken with this stop and made some pretty things to bring home! We are off to dinner now and then into bed early.  We have an early morning tomorrow.  We visit the US Consulate to get the official passport and visa for Maddox....and then, drum roll please, we are officially done!  Until later.....
PS....for those of you who are following and wondering if we have been doing schoolwork in China.....the pic of Colin and Pryce reading in the park is for you! :)

We are really enjoying our time in Guangzhou and we are staying very busy!  Today we visited a local garden.  Again, we did this during our last visit to China but it was so much fun to be out and about with other families in our group.  And, the gardens were beautiful!  Ryan described it as Disney without the rides.  It is very colorful, lots of statues and rock formations and a waterfall and lots and lots of flower sculptures.  The last time we were here, it was raining hard during our visit.  Today it was cloudy and warm and the children had a great time running off some energy.  Pryce has especially enjoyed meeting a new friend, Abby.  She is here with her family who adopted a little boy, Eli.  They are a sweet family!  Little Eli just talks and talks - all in Chinese, not much we can do but nod and smile at his adorable little face.  Mason-Kate has slowly warmed up to our group and is allowing them into her world bit by bit.  Today she was taken with our guide, Veronica.  

After our garden tour, we had lunch at a local Chinese restaurant.  Again, very tasty.  The boys ate their usual snacks, the girls tried a bit of what was offered to them from the Chinese table.  Both restaurants we have been to have had lazy susan tables and the food is served family style.  Turn the table, take a bit of what you want and keep on turning.  Both days, I have warned those around us that there is to be no double dipping - if you followed us during our journey to MK, you may remember our experience with the double dipping - EWWW.  

Maddox is ready to come home!  Can you tell by the photos?  She was trying to pack herself up!  She is so cute.  Every store we go into the workers tell me how cute she is, how happy she is and how bright her eyes are.....they also try to tell me that she is from Guizhou and she is a "spicy girl" to which I kindly respond by telling them that we already have our spicy Chongqing girl - there is not room for TWO spicy girls!  

Our days in Guangzhou are being spent doing tours but the most enjoyable part for us is getting to know the families in our GWCA group.  Today we toured the Chen Family Temple.  We have been there before.  It was nice to see, good to be outside and we were thankful to be surrounded by other adoptive families.  Our guide here is fantastic, very thorough.  As usual, the boys were a hit....they are now referred to as the "Hollywood Boys" and they have started offering out their autographs as well. I had to include the pic of the wooden bed that was part of the temple tour.  As one guy in our group put it, "I am pretty sure that is what I am sleeping on every night!".....the beds here are hard.  In Guiyang, they were soooo soft, HK was pretty soft, but here in Guangzhou the hard beds have hit!  There is also a photo of what looks to be a painting.  It is actually an embroidered picture.....the picture does not even begin to do the artwork justice.  Following our temple tour, we went to a local government shop for gifts.  Then, we went to lunch at a local restaurant.  We ate some very tasty items and none of them made us wince.  The corn dish was wonderful - tasted a little like popcorn, but different all the same.  Love that in the group photo, Pryce doesn't even have a plate - that pretty much sums up Pryce's taste for Chinese food.  And MK....she was giving it all she had with the chopsticks and eventually she succeeded.  Colin also was successful with the chopsticks and tried out some noodles Chinese style.  And then we went to Carrefour for grocery needs and now we have arrived back at the hotel. Papa Johns is coming to the rescue :)  Until later.....