Home!

We had an amazing trip home. The boys did great. We got a laugh out of Ben. Scurrying through the second of the four airports of the trip he said, "We sure are having a rough day!"

We got home around 10 PM and the boys were rested and ready to roll! Our friends Lauren and Paige delivered us some home baked munches to get us through our midnight snacking! We got Ben to sleep around 1 AM. I walked to the grocery store and Micah showed no signs of sleepiness. So we walked back and I let him walk through the store as well as part way home. Shopping at 3 AM beats the morning rush! Finally at 4 he went down after I put him in the car and we went for a ride!

Today we are unpacking settling in!

Farewell China

Our bags are packed - we leave the White Swan at 5:30 AM today to begin the last part of our journey - to home! Ben said, “Micah won't believe his eyes when he sees our house!”

We sent our luggage out last evening and the bell hop commented about the happy babies he heard splashing in the tub. We really are blessed!

We will be excited to see our house after crossing 12 time zones with two toddlers! Ben did really well on the flights here. Micah will enjoy some parts of it, too. It's a matter of how much.

Happy Birthday Micah!

Micah celebrated his second birthday yesterday!

We had a trip to the city zoo this morning where we got to see a panda. He looked hot, too! It was around 100 degrees. Bennett was pleased with the trip. He wanted to see a giraffe. He saw several and got to feed them!

We were happy to get back to our hotel for noodles and a shower before heading to our US Consulate appointment at 3:00 PM. This ends our adoption processes here in China. We simply present our paperwork when we arrive at customs at the Newark airport Friday!

Micah has beautiful fair skin, which is common in northern China. Like Bennett at this stage he loves being outside, watching traffic and seeing the sights around town. I look forward to posting more photos when we get home.

Countdown

We are becoming a family! We are getting time together with each other as well as time with our travel group friends of 17 other families from various states. We visited a folk art museum in the morning and then saw the huge goat statue that is the emblem of this city. Last evening we took a tour on the Pearl River on a dinner cruise. we brought our own pizza and drinks and then enjoyed the lights along the river at night. Micah wasn't real crazy about the whole things so we took turns walking him around the deck. He eventually fell asleep in the stoller. (which means I walked him a long time before he feel asleep last night!)
One small glitch in our paperwork is we have a missing immunization records. Our attorney Shiyan here should be able to take of it with out too much problem.
Firday morning we get up early and head for the airport. And we get to wake up Saturday morning with the rest of Lancaster County. Yeah!

Orphanage Visit

Today is our first warm, rainy day. Bananas grow locally, so that should give you an idea of the climate around here! We are south of Florida! There is a large Audio/Video convention going on at our hotel. Brad thinks that may be what is the problem with the Internet – overload. Hopefully photos soon!!

We did get to see Micah's orphanage. Our guide went with us with our usual driver. Lots of people here know a little English. It's nice to have someone with you who knows a lot of it! The orphanage is a pleasant, bright one. They have 18 kids per household group with five caregivers. They also have university students and other volunteers who come in to spend time with the children. Several other children in the group are matched and going to be adopted soon. The children did seem very normal. We saw where the referral photos and the updates were taken. We are not sure why they needed guards around the building. But everyone was friendly and interacted very freely with the children. They let us take photos of whatever I wanted. Many orphanages have a lot restrictions. Our guide said the caregivers were very happy to meet us and know Micah is going to be cared for. It was hard not to cry looking around.

The city is beautiful with lots of trees and the highway running along the sea. It is known for it's gardens.

Had a few meltdowns from both Ben and Micah today. Ben is getting good at saying, “NO, Micah!” Steam comes out his ears from time to time when Micah bumps him or grabs a car. They continue to have good giggle moments together though.

It is wonderful to be on the other side of the Chinese required paperwork, doing the final processing with the American side next week before flying home Friday. Light at the end of the tunnel! I am sleeping pretty well by now. While our beds here are hard, they are not as bad as the ones in our Beijing hotel. We are grateful for everyone's prayers for this challenging process.

Another Day

Ok, I was going to simply post some photos but I can't seem to do that tonight. So I will say things are moving along well. Micah tries to imitate Ben and has a sense of humor on his own. One of the shop keepers commented he said, "happy goats." That's the popular cartoon here - goats and a wolf - think Tom and Jerry style.
I had to walk him in the stoller to get him to go to sleep tonight. (They said he goes to bed at 10! I guess that is the truth) We did end up buying another stroller because we do a lot of walking around the area (life without a car) Ben says he misses home. We all do. It's amazing that we leave in just one week! the other 16 families arrive in the hotel tomorrow to join us in completing the American side of the paperwork to bring our children home. It will be exciting to meet all the children and hear the stories!

First Day

Our first day together began with Micah waking up crying. He was soothed by cuddles and some goldfish crackers.

Breakfast was a little less amusing to watch. Micah was spoon feed at the orphanage so we are working at figuring out which foods he likes and how it works best to get him to eat it.

In the morning we went back to the Civil Affairs office for our interviews. Our busy two-year old did not like sitting through meetings, however short they are. Then we stopped by the Medical office and got his exam taken care of before the crowds on saturday, including the rest of our travel group.`Micah needed four immunizations (Wow!) for our 1800 paper work standards. He seems fine today thankfully.

After lunch at Lucy's, a pub with American fare, Ben jumped up and rushed around the table because he wanted to see the mess Micah made.

We rested in our room all afternoon. Of course Micah howeled when we put him in the crib to nap. So the old trick of going for walk got him dozing.

Gotta head to the police station right now - more later!