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!