Photos coming soon.

I should say more photos coming soon. I did post a couple days... the 24th and 25th. but you will have to go backwards to see them. I have my journaling caught up... but i still have to re-size some pictures in order to load them. Plan to get that finished tonight.

Touring Guangzhou.

CJ 11.28.2010

Touring Guangzhou A Little.

By the way… a note… I have noticed that I have way more pictures of Maria than I do Kimi on here… it is not because I favor Maria… but because she is much more calm and still that Kimi, who moves constantly with arms flailing… It is very hard to get a picture of her in focus at all. And seriously you all don’t really want to see all the pictures I have of her making faces and snot running down her nose… which I am not sure what that is about but, her nose is running most of the time these days… not from sickness, just running. But mostly because she is just so busy, that not only are we chasing her down, thus the camera is in the bag while we chase after her, but she turns and runs off as soon as we let go of her, which means its hard to get a picture of her face anyways… She’ll get better. She has to. She has a photographer crazy mama!

At breakfast we discovered these tough bread rolls that Kimi can eat on her own and it takes her a while to chew on… plus it lets her do all the biting and chewing she could possibly want!! Haha! so we put a couple in our bag for later for her!

We went to a park this morning. It was a beautiful day and the park was beautiful. My favorite part was the rose garden. Hundreds of rose bushes. Along the way I was giving Cordelia a lesson in photography. She said her husband likes to take pictures and they have some nice equipments but she doesn’t really know a lot about how to take GOOD pictures. So we focused on the rule of thirds and composition and a few lighting issues. She is so cute and was having fun learning. She kept wanting to try and take pictures so I could critique them! Heehee! So cute! We had a good time chatting and walking. Then we headed to the Pearl Market. Oh. My. Word. I have never seen soooooooo many pearls in my life… I mean bags and bags and strings and strings of them!!! Very cheap too. I beautiful 14 inch strand of small or medium pearls might be $100, however, I wasn’t willing to pay that much money out right now, so I bought a couple small bracelets for about $20 each. I know I am kind of cheap… but we don’t really wear a lot of jewelry in our family… its better to feed an orphan somewhere in the world for a year than buy pearls that you only wear once in a while. Or send Bibles to China, where only one Bible will bring approximately 25 people to Christ. We can always take the bracelets apart too and make another one or even make a watch band with them later. Its not something the girls will get for a long time either. Anyways it was so much fun looking at the MILLIONS of pearls they have there… there are 5 floors in a rather large mall and all the stores sell either pearls, or glass, or turquoise, or amber. It was so much fun! And so beautiful. Like the store of Amber. Amazing yellows and oranges and even dark reds! I had no idea pearls came in such an amazing range of colors either!! Purples, pinks, yellows, greens so pretty to look at in bulk! There of course was a jade store too, and I am drawn to it too, because of its beautiful green color. Finally, to Jerry’s delight we exited the building. Don’t get me wrong, Jerry likes to shop and he even bought the girls a little something, but he was tired of the pearls and the jewelry! Haha! We stopped into an embroidery shop. Where I picked up some little coin purses for less than $3 a piece. I really love the embroidery art! Especially the ones with the Lotus flowers and leaves, those are my FAVORITE!!!

So we walked along the crazy shopping plaza! Oh my!!! SOOOOOO many people… all with black heads. You would look out over the head tops and it was just all dark! So funny! Plus we are just a little taller than most of the Chinese. We stopped into a department store and looked realy quicka t a few clothes for Kimi, didn’t find anything, but we bought some wipes and I changed Kimi in their bathroom. Its so funny to have to change a 3 year olds diaper while they stand up… not so easy! Then we headed to the street where they sell the pets! Kittens, puppies, birds, turtles mostly. They had these white fluffy kittens there… so cute! Then we went by the street with all the spices and herbs you could possibly ever want! Tons of dried mushrooms and fungus in these huge bags! All kinds of weird things, dried star fish, dried lizards, other things I didn’t even know what they were. We went by the scorpions, they sell for food. We did not see any snakes, though, Alex and Anthony. Maybe they were on another road.

We crossed the mote to Shaimen Island we are staying on and decided to eat at Lucy’s again. Of course we asked Cordelia to eat with us. Where we ended up talking about GMO foods and the stuff from “Food, Inc.” They also have a problem with GM foods here in China and people know its better and want to eat organically, but it is about 3 times the money to eat that way. And no one in the city can grow their own because they live in condos. Which we learned… when people buy a condo they buy it for 70 years… then it goes back to the government. Weird, huh?

While we ate both girls decided to POOP!!! Oh my word! Both of them just exploded! We left right away and came back to the room, stripped them down and put them in the bath. I rinsed their clothes and Jerry took them immediately to be laundered! He also picked up our laundry from yesterday. It was about $14 for a good size plastic bags of clothes. Not too bad, considering the hotels we have been at charge about 5-6 dollars for a shirt! Once we got them all nice and dressed again, we headed down to the play room again. There were other people in there, so Maria just stood there until I had her come sit on my lap and mess with a toy a little. Then as soon as everyone left she got up and was running around screaming and giggling. Then when a Chinese lady came in with her 11 month old boy, Maria went back to “bump-on-the-log” again! Crazy kid!!! We left a few minutes later.

We came back and put the girls to bed, since they didn’t nap. Well, Maria napped about 15-20 minutes in the van but we were out all day! They were both asleep within minutes! It was before 8pm! Jerry went out to find something to eat I think… I journal-ed and then couldn’t keep my eyes open, so I laid down and fell asleep too. I figured he would wake me up when he came back in. It was just after 10 when he came back in, so excited he could hardly stand it! He said he was walking along this little street and there were a couple of shops there… he stopped for some reason in front of one of them and a llady came out asking him if he was the one she had seen yesterday who had adopted two special needs little girls, he said yes, then she asked him if he was a Christian. He told he was and she said she was too, but she had lots of questions, so Jerry spent all that time talking with her and helping her understand some things without his own Bible, using hers which was a Chinese/English NIV parallel Bible. If any of you know us you know we are King James Version readers, because of all the important things that are missing and changed in the new versions! However I am sure that the Holy Spirit brought everything jerry needed to remember to his memory. She told him he needed to preach these things at her church! Haha! She also asked him if he was a theologian! Hahaha! His answer, no, I am “just” a construction worker, but I study my Bible A LOT. She was rather shocked. She was so excited, and their meeting was 100% God ordained… we have been praying that we would be able to share our belief in God with someone in China. So jerry is going to find a usb drive to give her some info to help her with her studies. Yay!!!

Photos Nov. 28

Heading into the park! It was a beautiful and hot day!!!

Kind of a Botanical Garden.



Alex and Anthony... this picture is for you... Daddy wondered if you would want to climb this tree...


This is Cordelia, isn't she pretty!
Smelling roses. They smelled soooo good.
However, Maria hasn't discovered how wonderful they are, yet.




The pearl Market... this was just one store... there were tons of other stores even!!

Can you even believe there are this many pearls!!! See all the black pearls? Those come from Tahiti.
this is the mote around the island.
Cordelia was practicing the rule of thirds... good job, huh?
People are always out on the weekends getting their pictures taken.
Eating dinner.



Playing in the swan room!
Maria... not happy... there are others in the room.
Kimi doesn't care... the more the merrier!
now everyone had left... she was running like a ninny!

.

Medical Checks - the 27th

CJ 11.27.2010

Medical Checks.

At 10 I alone met Cordelia to fill out some final paperwork. She is amazing and really knows how to do everything just right and most efficiently!! I left Jerry with the girls finishing breakfast. After they finished, they discovered the play room. He said that both girls were just running and laughing and going crazy in there! It’s a huge room, with nice carpet and tons of toys to play with!

After the paperwork was finished we took some of our laundry and went to a shop just outside the white swan. We gave them our laundry to do and they let us borrow 2 strollers for the week! Funny, huh?! It was about 14 dollars to do a good size plastic bag of laundry… puked on laundry. So glad!

Then off to the medical clinic to get the girls checked. We had to stop and get the girls’ visa photos taken real quick first. At the clinic there were of course lots of families. Its so exciting to see all the little children getting their families! The girls did fine… neither of them cried and they both cooperated completely with the nurses and the doctor. The doctor was so kind and patient, while he observed our crazy Kimi! She is so spastic sometimes! Haha! she grabs anything that is around, including his pen and laser pointer! He thinks her cp is moderate… not sure I agree. I think it appears moderate, because she has not been in a family and acts so crazy from being in the orphanage. I guess we will see what doctors say at home. He said Maria looked healthy… especially after seeing her fat little legs and booty! Heeheehee! He watched her walk and we talked about her little whip-smart mind. He was impressed. That was so nice, because we think she is amazing, too.

Kimi had to have the TB test. I missed that. Jerry took her for that. He said she kind of cried out for only a few seconds, so that was good. Another family gave the girls some puffs while we waited to be released. On the way back Cordelia showed us the Thai restaurant… which jerry made us stop at for lunch. The food was very good. Of course we convinced Cordelia to eat with us. We had such a good chat with her… she is just so sweet and we LOVE her! We talked there for a LONG time. Kimi and Maria chowed! They loved the food, too. Maria didn’t like the spicy curry that Jerry got though… Kimi loved it! She is a Hunan girl. The typical Hunan food is SPICY!!! Too much for this wimpy mama!

On the way back to the hotel Cordelia showed us some of the shops around, if we need anything. We came back and the girls took a nap…

After their nap we took them down to the play room again… Kimi went nuts as usual, Maria fraked out and started to scream. We weren’t sure what the problem was… nothing happened to her, but she was MAD. It was so weird… she was furious… finally Jerry took her around the corner in the room and sat with her in the floor… she was so mad she was kicking her feet and doing that mad screaming thing. We thought she would stop after a little while and join with Kimi who was running around like crazy. Finally we had her put her face down on her knees, like we used to with Anthony, we figured surely she couldn’t keep screaming when she was bent in half, right? Ha! She never did really quit. Finally I just made her get up off the floor and walk… she had to stop… she couldn’t scream and walk at the same time! Goodness! It was so weird. She was just mad! We finally decided to leave and take a walk outside. I told Jerry after we left, that probably all the other parents were saying, oh we’re so glad we didn’t get that little girl! Hahaha! We’re glad nobody else got her, too. :)

It was SOOOO nice outside. Perfect weather for a t-shirt. We went next door to the hotel and bought a drink and a bread roll, and two little ice creams. The girls have now decided that they love ice cream too. We had mango and taro ice cream. Then we walked some more… probably another hour… everybody was outside playing and talking that live in the apartments around. We finally decided to eat at Lucy’s. a little restaurant I have seen mentioned before on other blogs. They had spaghetti Pesto and grilled cheese sandwiches, simple enough. The girls liked everything… they enjoyed their first French fries and they both love cucumbers and tomatoes, which were on the side of the sandwich and the spring rolls. When we left there we were walking back to the hotel… we stopped at the shop where we took our laundry yesterday. They have a ton of tourist-y stuff in there. Not sure on prices, but I will be checking those out tomorrow.

We headed back into the play room to see what Maria would do… again people were there so she was just like a bump on a log. Kimi ran around and played but soon we decided we better go get them to bed… and discovered it was almost 10pm!!! Yikes!!! Just as we were walking out of the shopping area (you have to walk through the shopping area to get to the play room) we heard the fireworks start! Today was the end of the Asia Games – Olympics for the Asian Countries. So we hurried up to our room to watch them. The view was PERFECT!!! We are on the 11^th floor so we were up in the sky with the fireworks! It was so nice! The girls liked them! Kimi got bored about half way through them, but Maria stayed glued to the window watching! Then it was time for BED!!!

Photos Nov. 27

Our View from the White Swan!The Pearl River
breakfast at the White Swan! Little babies and children everywhere!!
At the Medical Clinic.

Watching the Fireworks form our fancy room!





The Girls' Going Home Barbie! Apparently you can buy them in a store called Gordons. They just won't say White Swan on the back.
Isn't that a cute little baby!?

.

November 26th.

CJ 11.26.2010

Leaving for Guangzhou!!!

So we went to Martyrs Park this morning… It is a beautiful park! We borrowed strollers from the hotel, so that helped get the girls around! We went by the Koi Pond. We even fed the Koi little fish food pellets. Kimi almost lost her shoe in the pond… not sure what she was doing, but suddenly Jerry was grabbing like lightning… and he had saved the shoe!! Haha! The girls liked the fish… we showed them the sign for fish, Kimi really doesn’t care, but Maria was watching. The fish were fun, anyways. So we just strolled thru the park and saw some pretty bridges. Wouldn’t you know it, Jerry found a lady making and selling cotton candy. Jerry just had to get some for the girls to try. Amy kept saying no no it will be too messy… apparently all the kids she has seen eat it all allowed the whole stick and then of course they just stick the whole big thing to their face and chow… so they always are covered in Cotton Candy… We assured her that we don’t let our kids eat cotton candy like that, and it would be no problem! I am sure she thinks we are crazy! :) haha! Then she and Jerry played a funny bowling ball thing… they had to roll the ball and knock down as many sand-filled cans as they could. If you knocked down 5 or more you get 5 yuan back. Jerry did once… sillies! Amy had a great time though playing. She thought it was sooo funny! We walked part way around the lake. There was a fishing section and a lotus pond. The lotus had been frozen so they were just all brown… but I bet it is so pretty in the summer!

Back at the hotel, I decided that I need take pictures of the front of the hotel. So Jerry and the girls had to pose for me in front of the waterfall. Then we headed to our room for some more room service and naps for the girlies! We packed up everything again… Jerry went and got one more massage… crazy guy. He said the massages weren’t really worthy of a whole post themselves. He did say that they really don’t know how to making it relaxing… they believe that they need to get every knot worked out of you immediately. Haha! Jerry asked them if they played music during the massage, like they do at home, you know, and they turned on the tv to the mtv channel! Hahaha! Now, thaaaaaat’s relaxing. Heeheehee. They didn’t speak English at all… but Jerry managed to get a little bit of relaxation out of it. It was 128 yuan for 80 minutes. So about seventeen bucks!!! They give you water and about 45 minutes of foot tickling – errr - I mean massage. Jerry is ticklish on his feet, so he is not a fan of the foot massage.

At 4 pm we checked out of the hotel and by 4:45 we were loaded and off to the airport for our flight to Guangzhou! Amy went with us into the airport and waited with us until we could check in and go into the waiting room. Amy is so funny. We love her, she is so matter of fact and open! She is patient and kind to the kids. As we were checking in our new friends who adopted the nine year old girl came in. Their daughter bee-lined for Maria... the baby. She gave Maria her pooh bear to hold while we waited. Then we had to say goodbye to Amy… it was sad to leave her there and to think that maybe we will never see her again. We pray that we were a positive witness to her for Christ.

We chatted with our friends until it was time to board… when it is time to board you hand them your ticket, they tear off the first stub and send you out to the bus… then they take you to the plane, you get on the plane and I barely got set down and buckled in and Maria on my lap and we were ready to take off already!!! Kimi and Maria didn’t even know what was going on… we fed them cheerios and Shasha, the nine year old also gave us gold fish crackers and m&ms! She is such a sweet girl! Just precious!!! So kind and gentle and loving with the little kids. It was fun watching Shasha experience her first flight! She looked out the window and took in everything with such enthusiasm. I can’t help but wonder if she was a little sad to leave everything behind, even though she knows a family is the best thing for her. Everything is new.

We actually took off ten minutes early!!! Then we arrived 10 more minutes early… so our flight got in 20 minutes earlier than listed… So we actually had to wait for Cordelia a few minutes. She was trying to get us the lap ticket for Maria for our flight from Guangzhou to Shanghai. They told her that we couldn’t buy it until the day of the flight.

Kimi and Maria did great. They really go with the flow good. By the time we got to the hotel it was about 10:40 pm!!! Maria fell asleep on the 40 minute ride to the White Swan Hotel! We got checked in and Cordelia made plans with us for the morning. She brought us to our room… she ordered a second crib for us. Our room is great and has the view of the river!! We got settled in a bit and finally went to bed… we were all so tired!!

Goodbye Hunan.