Rain Forest Cafe

September 28

Just thought I'd share a few pictures of the boys having fun!

Home!

WeiLong is a wonderful boy. He has fit into our family much, much more quickly than we ever dreamed. His personality sparkles and has added so much fun and laughter to our home. What a precious little gift from God he is.

School started about 10 days after we got home. We have WeiLong in kindergarten for now, and he is the smallest boy in his class even though he says he is 7 yrs old. He loves school and is doing well. I will try to go to school soon and take a few pictures of him there.

WeiLong seems to feel right at home here. He is enjoying lots of new experiences and loves each one. He teases his sisters, but they tease him right back and there are no problems with them. I took him for a check up and he had to get shots before he could start school. That was the first time I have seen him cry and it nearly broke my heart. I had to hold him down for the shots.

He is so small. I had to buy size 4T clothes for him, and they're even kind of big. He weighed 37 lbs when we got home, and has gained at nearly 2 lbs. He eats my southern cooking, but prefers Chinese food. I try to cook it at least once a week. He tastes each new dish and pronounces it either "hao" or "bu hao". I love the "hao chi" which comes with a thumbs up and sometimes even a hug. If the dish is "bu hao chi", he doesn't complain, but doesn't eat much of it either. The food at school is usually "bu hao chi".

WeiLong greets me with a hug and kiss each afternoon when I pick the children up from school. And he chatters away, telling me about his day. Somehow he is able to make himself understood. At first his teacher was "bu hao", but now she is "hao" and he gives her a hug and kiss each afternoon when he leaves. She's wonderful, I love her too. What a blessing to have good teachers, what a difference they make in the lives of our children.

WeiLong told me he has had one year of school. He can add and subtract. And he can even sound out the pinyin of a Chinese word if I show it to him in my dictionary. He talks on the phone sometimes with WeiFu and with a couple of other Chinese friends. He told me no one else at school speaks Mandarin but him. He is learning English pretty quickly. He understands more than he speaks. But his skills at acting things out are unsurpassed. He keeps me laughing all the time. What a character he is.

He loves superheroes. We got him a red superhero outfit and he loves it. Last weekend I took them to the mall and had to ride the merry-go-round 6 times. I thought I was going to be sick! I had to close my eyes and just hold on.

Life is sweet at our house. And there is never a dull moment. But there are lots of messes to clean and clothes to wash and baths to give and dishes to wash. I'm busy, but very very happy.

Guangzhou

Sorry, we were so busy in Guangzhou that I didn't get time to post. So, I'll just put up some pictures here. It was the normal GZ experience. Visa photos, physical exam, and consulatge appointment.

The boys loved our guide, Elvin. He was wonderful with them.

He translated some of WeiLong's comments to me and they are hilarious. The boys were so excited about their first flight. When we were finally in the van on the way to our hotel in GZ, they kept pointing out the window at the airplanes coming in for a landing. WeiLong insisted that the planes were so tiny, no way people could get on them! Then he asked why they were standing still in the air, not moving. We tried to tell him that they were moving, but so far away it was hard to tell. He would never believe us. We had to laugh at his insistence.

During the whole time we were in GZ, he insisted on sitting in the seat right behind the driver. And he kept talking to him. Elvin told us he was urging the driver to overtake every car on the road. He would say "You're no good. Go faster. Overtake that car. Faster, Faster". The poor driver. When we stopped at a traffic light, WeiLong couldn't understand why everyone was stopped. When the driver explained that we must all stop when the light was red, WEiLong said he was telling a lie! He told the driver "Bump that car in front of us, he'll move. If he doesn't, just bump him again, harder!". We laughed and laughed, even the good natured driver had to laugh.

WeiLong was so excited when we were finally going to get on our plane to go home. He couldn't wait to see his new Baba. I have never seen such excited little boys in my life. They made the long flight much more fun than it would have been otherwise.

I sat next to WeiLong and the girls sat just in front of us. I will admit that the long flight completely wore me out. I was very tired when we got to LAX. We passed through customs without any problems, but it was difficult getting everyone out of the international terminal and into the domestic departure area. We were so glad to see Jeri's husband, John. What a relief to have another adult to help guide us through the crowds and to take the little boys to the potty! We had a rather long layover in LA, and by the time our flight to Dallas was called I was totally exhausted.

That flight seemed to last forever! But we were so thankful it was our last one. The poor Riddicks had to rush off once we landed to catch their Austin flight.

I was so glad to see Gary! It is so good to come home after a long journey. To see you home and loved ones. To rest and talk with them. Just like Heaven, I think. Honestly, I think it will be like that when we finally enter the Pearly Gates. We will meet our loved ones who have gone on before us and have a wonderful time with them.

Guess you can tell we were all glad to be home! And it was made even sweeter by having our little WeiLong with us. What a precious little boy.

7/30/06 (Sunday)

Today we had a day to do whatever we wanted. So, we slept in til nearly 8. Poor Jeri still wasn't feeling very well, so I took all the kids swimming. Oh, my goodness, what a stir I made. One woman with 4 little Chinese kids and a little white boy. I could see everyone talking behind their hands. The new boys splashed in the hot tub and the older ones swam in the real pool. I just sat back and let the boys squabble all they wanted, ddidn't even try to shout across the room at them. They didn't do much more than splash each other in the face, so no harm done anyway. It's Sunday here and the pool was crowded, lots of families but none with more than one child (except me of course).

After all that swimming the kids were hungry so I took them to lunch, then back to our rooms for a rest.

The rest of the day was spent in just lounging around and packing stuff up. Wei Long seems to be at home with us, insisting on controlling the tvaa(like all men), and he always has to be the one to use the room key to open the door.

There's so much junk in the room, I'm afraid I'll forget something. We're supposed to have our bags picked up in the morning at 8am. So, I'm getting to bed early and will need to be up and showered with everyone dressed and the final packing done.

Wei Long is counting on his fingers now the days until he meets Baba. Gary, hope you're ready for this little fellow, he sure thinks a lot of you. He is known by name by all the hotel staff and has showed them on his fingers the number of days in Guanghou and then the day he will meet Baba. He's anxious to get home now, and so are the girls and I.

I'm thankful that no one else has gotten sick. I think Jeri must have gotten food poinening somehow.

Well, my next update will be from the White Swan! Can't believe we spent all this time planning and looking forward to this trip, and now we're just as anxiously looking forward to getting home.

7/29/06 (Saturday)- a hard day

I think today is the hardest day I've had so far. Poor Jeri has been sick in bed. I won't go into the gorey details but she cannot keep anything on her stomach.

The kids slept well last night and we were up bright and earlly to meet our guide. We went to the museum, but mostly to shop! We got the famous Pine Tree artwork made of iron. I also got a couple of rather large paintings on scrolls. Hope I can get them home in one piece.

We came back to the hotel to check on Jeri and I decided to take the kids swimming. Let me just say it was a less than enjoyable experience. Wei Fu and Wei Long whined the whole time. They whined if anyone came within 5 feet of them and pointed like they had been hit with an axe or something. They would splash each other fiercely in the face with water, then cry when they got splashed back. I finally resorted to making the splasher sit out for 5 minutes. That worked! No more splashing, but plenty of very very loud whining. I ignored it to the best of my ability.

The other three had a great time playing in the water like they usually do. Towards the end our new boys kind of got the hang of it and had a good time too. I think we (especially dear Jeri) have a lot of hard work ahead of us. But I'm praying that I'm wrong and that social skills are quickly learned.

After a couple of hours in the pool the children were very hungry, and very vocal about it. Cathy, our guide, and I took the 5 of them to a nearby restaurant and they had a good lunch. I had Cathy tell them that I wanted them to rest for a while after lunch, and they were really good about it. I had two portable dvd players, ours and Jeri's and one was playing Automan in Chinese and the other was playing the Lion King in English. I propped up my poor achey brakey legs and rested for a relatively quiet hour.

Then followed lots of playing with loud toys, gameboys, cars, barbies, and cards. The two new boys are having a hard time sharing today. Much whining again and pointing and tattling and pouting. Again I ignored as much as possible, and put away toys that they couldn't come to agreement about.

Poor Jeri couldn't make it to supper so I took all 5 up for a quick bite. I wouldn't let them eat much because I'm determined no one else is going to get sick if I can help it. Again we had bickering in Chinese, and some sly kicks under the table. It's hard to call them down when they don't understand what I'm saying. I would like to explain to them why such behavior is unacceptable, but can only say "bu" and "bu hao" for now. Finally the short meal was over, and we're back in our room. Adam will stay with his mom again tonight and I will have the others.

Poor little Wei Fu got out his picture album of the orphanage and his friends and cried a little. I comforted him the best I can and asked Jesus to bring comfort to his little heart. He's watching TV right now, so I hope he is settling down and will be calm for the rest of the night.

To be perfectly honest, I wanta go home! I know you aren't surprised by this statement after I just described my day. I want to make the best our of the one day we have left in this province, but we don't have any plans for tomorrow. I hope Jeri is feeling better and that no one else is sick. I have a terrible head ache, but I think it's just stress. A good night's sleep should cure it!

Did I mention that Wei Fu loves to play dolls with the girls? He had an older girl who he really cared for at the orphanage and he really misses her. Wei Long makes his Automan beat up on the girls dolls and tries to take their heads off. They squeal and quickly take them away from him.

I'm going to upload a few pictures of the kids, don't be shocked at the sad state of this room. I challenge any one of you to keep a cleaner room when you have all these children and suitcases in tow.

PS: Even with the whining I still squeeze my sweet little boy every chance I get. He's a doll, and this is so unsettling for him. He is going to fit perfectly into our family.

And my sweet little girls are singing softly together right now. The most beautiful sound on earth. How blessed I am to have them. They are so sweet through all the tough times. We miss you so much, dear husband. I wish you could hear the girls singing right now.