Home Sweet Home!

We made it back safe and sound! We were supposed to fly into Minneapolis Saturday night, but we missed our connecting flight when we got to New Jersey. Our flight from Guangzhou to Beijing went well then when we got to Beijing, I thought we had a long 3 hour wait to for our flight to New Jersey, but after getting through the string of customs, baggage claim, baggage check, and security our wait was only a half an hour. We sat on the plane in Beijing for almost 2 hours waiting to take off and were a half hour late leaving. Our connecting flight in NJ didn't leave any extra time so when we finally landed 13 hours later in NJ our flight was already boarding. We still needed to get through customs, which Katherine became an instant US Citizen - so cool! - go to baggage claims, and check our baggage again. We missed our flight by a long shot. So they put us up at a Holiday Inn for the night along with $200 in vouchers for food. We were all so tired but we managed to get some snacks with the vouchers. Then we all went to bed and got up very early (3 am for Mike and I). We just couldn't sleep. I wanted to just get home, I'm soooo tired of flying (we had 7 flights in 2 weeks), but we knew we had one more trek. We touched down in Minneapolis at 11:15 am on Sunday morning.

I can't explain in words just how wonderful it is to be home. I wonder when the tired foggy feeling will subside? Katherine seems to like her new home and loves her new bedroom, however, she is terrified of our three dogs. It will take time, I'm sure she will one day love them.

Thank you so much for following our incredible journey to the other side of the world to bring home our daughter. You all have a very special place in our hearts. As we begin a new year, I can't help but be in awe at the wonderful miraculous things that have happened in our lives. We are so blessed and we give all the glory to our loving Heavenly Father. Bless you and your family in the new year ahead - may you find peace, joy, love, and happiness in your journey.

The Road Home

Today was our last full day here in Guangzhou, China. The big event of the day is our trip to the American Consolate here in Guangzhou. We had our swearing in and received Katherine's (JiangTing) visa to let her enter the US. She'll have the privelidge of becoming an US citizen as soon as she is admited into the US at the airport.

It's just after midnight here and in 8 hours we leave the hotel and get started on our marathon of airplane rides. Four airports, three airplanes and one big trip back over the north pole. It's kinda sad to think that even if we watched all three Lord of the Rings movies, we'd only be about half way done with the trip. I guess it's like we've told our kids; the long plane ride sure beats traveling by boat.

For anyone interested, you can watch our flight progress at http://www.flightview.com we're on Continental, which is code CO and we have two flight numbers. From Beijing to Newark it's flight number 88 and then from Newark to Minneapolis it's flight 370.

So, we're signing out from Guangzhou and will resume after we're back home. Oh, by the way, whoever ordered all the snow and cold in Minnesota....really...you didn't have to do that for us :-)

A Short Update

It is now the end of day 13. Only one more full day here in China and then we leave for home! We all are so excited. We have been warned about the cold and the snow that will greet us at home, but even I don't care...I can't wait to see it! I'll probably change my mind after a week or so though!

Yesterday, we had a nice relaxing day and then had a river boat cruise at night. It was breathtaking on the Pearl River. The weather was mild and we had a wonderful breeze. We had dinner on the cruise, more Chinese of course. Some scary stuff too. Mike and Katherine were fine with the selections but the rest of us are missing our western cuisines!

Most of the families, except two us, are leaving for home tomorrow. This morning we had some group photos taken of all of us, since this will be the last day that we'll all be together. They all fly out very early in the morning and we leave on Saturday. I didn't think I would care, but I'm feeling jealous that they'll be home on Friday night. I miss home and everyone so much!

Today we had our Consulate appointment. We didn't actually have to go. Our guides went for us and then tomorrow we go there to finish up. It's the day that we get Katherine's Visa too. This is the reason that we have to stay so long. The first week was waiting for her Passport and this week was waiting for her Visa. So after tomorrow we are home free. Our fingerprints cleared at home too, so it's nice to know that we can go home in a couple of days. I can't wait to show Kat her new home and very own bedroom. She has been sharing a room with Mike and I. We are so glad that we booked two rooms at each hotel. We would have went stir crazy for sure.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Today was a very unique Christmas for us. We started off the day with the breakfast buffet at the hotel and then headed off to a Chinese tea house with our group. We got to sit and sample various types of Chinese tea including Oolong, Jasmine, Rose, Ginsing and Green teas.

Soon after this we were back in a taxi on our way back to Shamian Island for round two of our shopping and to pick up some items we purchased the day before. For lunch, we ate at a restaurant called Lucy's which served a wide variety of Asian and Western styles of foods. Between the Eggs & Bacon, Cheeseburgers and Grilled Cheese, our kids were happy for something they haven't had since home. (that is except for the two visits to McDonald's so far) It was a beautiful day here in Guangzhou so while at Shamian Island we walked around the garden areas enjoying the sunshine.

Later this evening we met up with many families in our group for dinner at A Thousand and One Nights restaurant. You may have already guessed that we didn't have turkey, ham, stuffing or cranberries. It was a diverse evening eating Arabian food in China for Christmas. We hope your Christmas is as enjoyable as our was today.

It's Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas - Eve! Today Katherine (Jiang Ting) got her medical exam done along with a hundred other babies. She refused to have a male doctor and ordered that a female doctor be brought in before she would cooperate. After that things went much smoother. We were told that she needed 2 shots and it turned out she needed 4. She took every shot without flinching or even wincing and watched the whole thing without one tear. I was amazed. The doctor was concerned about her vision in her blue eye and asked if we knew if she had trouble seeing with it. We told them no she is only deaf, and her eye sight is fine. They didn't believe us so they first tested her for color blindness - she passed right away with no trouble and then they made her take an eye exam using the eye chart - she passed that with no trouble too and I think she amazed the doctor. I was so proud of her!

After that we went to Shamian Island for some shopping. We have quite the bargainer in our family now. Every time we were in a store she would take the calculator (which every shop owner has to show the price and negotiated price) and ask how much. When they would tell her she would either say yes or no or punch in a new price on the calculator to see if they would take it. She always told us when we paid too much. Sometimes she gets a little bossy and we have to remind her who the parents are. Yes, she's definitely getting comfortable with us!

Thank you Carolynn for the great tips! We did get some chops ordered (chinese stamps with our names engraved in American and Chinese) and went and ate at the Bridge and Cow Restaurant. They serve delicious Thai food there. The weirdest thing that happened to us today is I was asked if I was Chinese by one of the shop owners. She said "you have Chinese hair and eyes, are you American"? She also thought I was much younger that Mike. She said "oh, you have a much younger wife" then she turned and looked at me and said "how old are you?" you should have seen her face when I told her I was older than Mike! I loved every minute of it of course. Then another lady came around the corner and said the same thing - "you have Chinese hair!" Meanwhile Jayde was shopping for a ring for himself and the shop owner there thought he was buying it for his girlfriend - they thought I was his girlfriend! He told me he can't even take me to China without people thinking I'm his girlfriend. Poor kid! But everyone commented on our large family and how very tall Jayde is. He has them all amazed.

Tomorrow we are touring a Chinese Tea House for Christmas after that more shopping on Shamian Island.

I would post pictures, but Mike is the one that does that and right now he's snoozing, so we will post them tomorrow.

We hope you enjoy our video we made just for you! Wishing every one a very Safe and Happy Christmas Eve!

Holiday Cheer in China

So you'd think that you could escape the power of the Christmas songs that always get stuck in your head by traveling to China, right? Well, as it turns out no. American Christmas songs are everywhere in China. The lobby in the hotel, the music in the stores, even the music in the streets; there is no safe haven. The funny thing is that all the Christmas songs are in English. (Including the song with the kid singing to Santa in a bad fake Mexican accent talking about mommacita and a reindeer named poncho) So how fair is that?!? So here I am in China and we still get Frosty the Snowman in our heads. I kinda feel bad for any Chinese people that don't know English. They have a song in their head and they don't even know the words. Maybe we have it easier, at least we know what tune is in our heads. So in honor of the Christmas tune, here is a video we made for you.

A Sad Goodbye and New Adventures

Well on Saturday we had to say goodbye to Nanjing, the birthplace of our daughter. We miss the beautiful hotel we stayed in but we mostly miss our Guide, John who became a good friend to all of us. It was very hard to say goodbye knowing that we may never see him again. We were also blessed with a great driver named Lee - without him we wouldn't have made it anywhere around Nanjing. We had a safe flight to Guangzhou and Jiang Ting did very well on her first plane ride. She did say a few times that it hurt her ears but our guide John had already let her know that it would happen, so it wasn't a surprise to her. He helped us so much to communicate with her. He would write to her in Chinese and tell us what she said. While we were in Nanjing, we had our guide all to our self. Here in Guangzhou we have to share our two guides Lenneker and his wife Amy, between 22 of us.

Our guide John (left) and driver Lee (right)
Ting's first trip on an airplane

One of Ting's many "above the clouds" pictures

When we got to Guangzhou we were very pleased with the mild weather. We met up with the other families and received a nice welcome back. Jiang Ting was overwhelmed with all the Americans and she thought that everyone lived in Minnesota and they were all our good friends. Luckily, we printed off maps of China and the USA so we could point out to her that the families are from all over the US. When we got to the hotel all the babies along with her needed their picture taken for the Visa's that we're applying for. She didn't understand why she needed to take a picture when it was only babies getting theirs taken. I had to explain that she needed it to go home. She wasn't happy about it but she did it. We were so excited to find out that our hotel has a Starbucks connected to it and a McDonald's across the street. But when we went to our rooms our excited anticipation quickly faded. The rooms are much smaller as are the beds. The room smells very old and musty and we realized that we were very spoiled in Nanjing. Did I mention we miss it there? I am happy that it's warmer here though! I can't believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve. The weather looks to be improving. We haven't seen the sun since we've been in China except when we were in the air above the clouds. Tomorrow (dec. 24) it's supposed to be clearing up in the afternoon and we should see sun and a high of 68 degrees! That kind of makes up for our sleeping situation.

Today we went to a Folklore Museum that was created for the Chen Family. They were the largest family in China and the beautiful place was made just for them. It seems weird that something that was so private is now a tourist attraction. We bought a beautiful print that a man made with the side of his pinky finger using black ink. It was amazing. Then we went shopping for more snacks. Jiang Ting is getting more used to us and is not so shy about asking for us to buy her things. We have no problem telling her no to a pair of shoes that are 500 yuan (about $70 US dollars). So it begins!

Our Kids with the crysanthimum dragons

Pinky Art

A piece done by "pinky art"

The outside wall of the museum

Mike and Shelly in one of the gardens at the Museum

When we were leaving the museum we were approached by a young man who said "excuse me, she would like to take a picture with you." He was talking about a teenage girl. I thought she wanted a picture with the American family, but she was only looking at Jayde. Jayde said, "me?" And the young man and the girl said "yes". I thought it was so cute. So the young man took the picture of her and Jayde with her camera and I quick shot one too! Then when Jayde was done another girl came up but thought she missed her chance and was upset, but when I told her it was okay for her to get one too she was so excited. So I snuck a picture of that too! The girls looked at Jayde with big puppy dog eyes and said "thank you" with very big smiles on their faces. You would think Jayde was a huge celebrity there! I think it made him feel pretty good too.

Tomorrow is her medical exam and she needs 2 shots. Mike had our guide write down that this is going to happen tomorrow so she won't be surprised. When she read it, she was a little nervous but I think she'll do just fine. After that Shamian Island! Carolynn, I know you've been waiting for this! We just found out today and I couldn't help but think of you! I will take lots of pictures and hope to make some good purchases while we're there.

Jayde's fans in China

We're hoping the rest of the week will go quickly. We are having a great time, but we're all ready to come home!

Shopping for groceries in Guangzhou