Sunday

This morning we got to attend church!  We'd never been to church in China before, so I was really glad we got to do this.  It was a Chinese/English service, so most of it was translated for us.  The songs were not, but one of them was "As the Deer."  The rest were in Chinese.  I couldn't understand the words, but it was very beautiful.  The pastor spoke about prayer and how its purpose is not to achieve our own will, but God's.  After that a lady gave her testimony.  It's always neat to see Christianity outside of America and be reminded of how big the Church really is.  It's not confined to our country or our traditions, but encompasses people of every nation.  When we all get to woship the Lord together in heaven, won't it be wonderful?!?! 

For lunch we went to a Thai restaurant.  I'd never had Thai food before.  The noodles were very strange.  Wide, flat and slimy.  But they tasted really good!  This afternoon we rested in the hotel room and then walked around a bit and had dinner.  I don't remember having so much down time when we were here two years ago, but Heath says we did.  I guess I spent most of the time sick in bed, so it's all a blur.  We still have 2 full days here, and the only appointment is the consulate appointment first thing tomorrow morning.  I think we're going to be pretty bored!  And walking around the shops is dangerous because I keep buying stuff! 

Heath's feeling better.  But now I have a sore throat, so I hope I'm not getting sick!  Rayanna continues to develop her personality.  We don't know what she was like before we met her, so it's hard to tell if this is her normal personality that was just suppressed during the first few stressful days of meeting us, or if she never had much expression and is suddenly developing it quickly just from the change in her environment.  Either way, she is super cute!  Today we've had to coerce her to eat again.  Yesterday was the only day she's really been hungry and drinking full bottles.  Today she's uninterested again and cries if we try to make her drink her bottle.  But if she's hungry she doesn't act it--she seems very happy.  She hardly fusses and is pretty content as long as we're holding her.  She's getting much harder to hold though!  She's getting more and more squirmy, climbing all over us.  You'd think she'd want to get down and play around, but she doesn't.  Just loves to be held.  I'm really glad she's feeling secure with us though, so all the holding must be working.  She's actually played on the bed a few times today, sitting next to us instead of on us, so I think we're making progress! 

I'm starting to really miss the big kids.  I've been doing really well being apart (and actually enjoying this "vacation" from them), but it's been long enough, and I'm ready to see them!  I'm very thankful to be able to see them every day on skype though.  It's amazing that we can be completely on the other side of the world and see them in real time, live!  Everything seems to be going well there.  I know Mommom & Granddad are probably very tired, but I think they'll make it!  ;-)  The kids seem to be handling it pretty well too.  But I can't wait until we're all together again.

Well, that's all for today. 

I forgot the pics

These were supposed to go with the last post.

 

 

Saturday Shopping

We've had a very fun afternoon walking around the little island.  It's really nice and peaceful here, compared to the rest of the city.  You can actually cross the street without wondering if you'll make it across alive!  After Rayanna's nap today, we went out to do a little shopping.  I know some people love the shopping experience in foreign countries, but I hate it.  Everywhere you go, a salesperson leeches onto you as soon as you come near.  Not only do they want to show you every little thing you might possibly want to buy, but they follow you around incessantly!  I was trying to make a decision about something, but I couldn't even think because she kept talking to me!  When you finally do decide you then have to argue about the price.  Of course you get some great deals, but I'd rather just go to Target, shop in peaceful solitude and know exactly how much everything costs.  I also hate car shopping for all the same reasons, by the way. 

 

But we did to into two shops that I really enjoyed.  One was run by a husband and wife and their little 2-year-old boy.  The man played the calabash flute for us and made it look so easy!  He also had a CD of him playing, so we bought that.  It's really beautiful, soothing music.  On the way out, the lady gave us a free fan for Rayanna and gave me my choice of a free bracelet.  I chose the one in the picture just because I thought it was pretty, but after I chose it she explained the meaning and I realized it was a fitting choice!  The large bead means "happy family" and the four small ones are for 4 children.  Perfect!

 

The other shop I enjoyed was Jordon's.  I remembered him from last time.  I think it's the only place in the country where you can shop at your leisure and not be pressured to buy anything at all!  He does a free calligraphy of each adopted child's name, and he is very friendly and talkative.  He told us all about his experience in Nanchang and about growing up in the countryside.  When we were ready to go it was pouring down rain and thundering really loud.  He unwrapped one of the umbrellas he had for sale and told us we could borrow it!  Definitely the best place to shop in my opinion!

 

The other picture is a T-shirt that I found quite funny.  The caption means "Serving the People."  But the funniest part was that the lady saw me looking at it and said, "Very popular!"  I'm sure she has no idea why it's popular, which makes it even funnier!  I thought of several people who I'd love to buy it for, but we only have so much suitcase space, so I decided just to take a picture of it. 

 

After shopping we had dinner at Lucy's, the American-ish restaurant here.  We were going to have Chinese, but it was pouring rain and that was the closest thing.  We both got hamburgers and french fries, which were really good.  And, wonder of wonders, Rayanna let me give her a piece of a french fry!  At every meal we try to get her to taste something, but she never will (except for the first morning when Heath got her to try a bit of congee).  But this time she actually opened her mouth and ate it!  She almost gagged on it though, and refused to take anymore after that.  But isn't it nice that her first real food was a french fry?!.  She really didn't know how to chew it, so I think we're going to have to go through all the typical baby food stages:  rice cereal, Gerber baby stage 1, 2, 3, etc, before we can get to real food.  She's had two full bottles without coercing today though, so I think she's really making progress.  AND, I was holding her on the bed while we played with some cups, and she actually slid off of me a little at a time until she was sitting on the bed not touching me!  I don't think she realized it, but she was on her own!  Then a little later she'd been sitting/lying on Heath on the bed and ended up standing there pretty much on her own!  As soon as she realizes what she's done she grabs back on for dear life, but she's definitely getting more comfortable.  I'm hoping before we leave for home she can sit comfortably on her own without panicking.  Otherwise that first ride in a car seat is going to be very traumatic!

 

Tomorrow we don't have any official business to do.  We were supposed to go on a tour to the Folk Art Museum, but since we saw that last time we decided to skip that and go to the church here instead.  I'm very excited about visiting a Chinese church, since I've never had the opportunity to do that before!  They have a Mandarin/English service, and I'm not sure if it's mostly local people or tourists that go, but I'm definitely looking forward to it. 

 

I hope everyone is doing well back at home!  Thanks again for the comments and encouragment and prayer!

 

 

 

Guangzhou Day 1

Well, I take back what I said about the weather.  This morning it's very humid and getting hotter.  It's not as bad as Nanchang for sure, but still yucky.  When there's a breeze it feels pretty good though.  We're right on the Pearl River, so there is a bit of a breeze, and it's a pretty area.  We're on Shamian Island which is a part of Guangzhou that is built in European style, so it doesn't feel much like we're in China here.  The US Consulate used to be right on this island, but now it's moved into the city so we'll have to take a bus there when we go on Monday.

 

I did enjoy our delightful breakfast this morning.  And at lunch time today, Rayanna drank her first full bottle!  We've had to coerce her to eat every time, and she usually won't drink more than half a bottle.  But today she guzzled down the whole thing!  She still wants nothing to do with solids, even rice congee, which supposedly she's had.  But at least she's getting an appetite.

 

This morning was her medical evaluation.  They've changed the law so that we can do immunizations at home.  I'm really glad about that because that part was a nightmare for Tabitha!  Even without shots, Rayanna was still quite traumatized by it all.  Remember . . . she just can't bear to be set down.  First we had to set her in a chair for a picture.  I wish I could scan and post the picture--she was NOT happy, to say the least!  Then we had to lay her down for a quick exam, then to be weighed, then to be measured.  Every time she just screamed and screamed.  When we got back we had to change her diaper, so she screamed again.  But she did calm down each time as soon as we picked her up, and she's definitely getting more comfortable with us holding her and passing her back and forth.  The exam went fine.  Her referral had classified her as special needs for "possible hearing or mental abnormality," but this doctor was confused as to why they would've put that (as are we), as everything seems completely normal.  We're going to have her hearing thoroughly checked when we get home, but she seems to respond to sounds just fine.  As far as mental ability, we thinks she's OK too.  She's obviously delayed, but after seeing the orphanage I'm pretty sure her environment is to blame for that; it doesn't seem that she has any real problems at all.  Praise the Lord!

 

Heath's feeling a lot better than yesterday but still not up to par.  Last time I spent most of our Guangzhou time sick in bed...hopefully this time isn't HIS turn to do that! 

 

We don't have a lot of requirements while we're here.  We had the medical check today, tomorrow a little sight seeing, Monday the consulate appointment, Tuesday we just wait for the visa to be delivered, and then Wednesday we head home.  All of those things just take a couple of hours each, so it should be a pretty relaxing week. 

 

We missed the boys on skype this morning, but Tabitha and Granddad were there to talk to us.  Tabitha seems to be doing well, though she's been asking for us to come home.  I must say, I'm very impressed with how involved and hands-on Granddad has been!  He's even been doing a lot of Tabitha's medical stuff!  Heath's parents have been keeping the kids pretty busy, so hopefully the time's going fast for everybody.  It sounds like the kids are most concerned about what presents we're going to bring them when we get back!  =)

 

That's all for now. 

 

note to Kelly and Brief Update

Kelly--Hmmm....I guess I should consider the placement of those pictures!  Yeah, doing it by email I have no clue what the actual post looks like.  So, no . . . she's not blossoming into a water buffalo.  It was just a picture I couldn't resist sharing.  =)

 

Everyone--We are now in Guangzhou at the beautiful White Swan hotel.  We have a king sized bed!!  (I didn't know those existed in China!  This is my 5th trip here, and I've never seen one before tonight.)  AND our room is arcticly cold....it's awesome!!  AND outside there's a breeze--almost like a nice summer's evening rather than the boiling cauldron that was Nanchang.  AND we had no flight troubles.  AND we get to eat the most awesome breakfast ever in about 10 hours.  AND, last but not least, Heath is feeling better and Rayanna's sleeping soundly.  I'm a very happy camper right now!  =)

 

 

Our Blossoming Flower

The above picture is for all the Veggie Tales fans.  =)

Rayanna is doing great today!  She's been so much less panicky!  We still can't set her down, but we can change positions without her crying and even pass her back and forth to each other.  It used to be that whenever we moved she'd cry, so this is definite progress!  She's also gotten rid of the vacant look in her eyes and is getting more inquisitive.  Today while I was talking with someone she just stared intently at my face, never looking away.  I don't know if she was trying to learn my face or figure out what this crazy language was, but it was very precious.  She's also been making cute little noises, saying things likes "ga ga ga ga", blowing bubbles and playing with her spit (which I normally wouldn't encourage but am very happy about for her)!  I think she's starting to come out of her shell and becoming more like a normal baby.  We're very excited to see her progress!

On the downside she woke up twice last night.  Hopefully that's not a sign of things to come!  Also, Heath has a really bad chest cough and a fever.  Please pray he gets better quick and doesn't share it! 

I just got to meet another family who's adopting from the same orphanage.  She had asked me to take pictures of her daughter there, so we got together to talk about the orphanage and the girls and all.  It was neat to meet their family!  They'll get their daughter on Sunday, and it's their first adoption, so it was fun to be able to share our experiences with them.

This evening we (along with the family who got their baby the same day as us) fly on to Guangzhou and the second half of our trip.  Let's pray we don't get stuck in any airports this time!!!

Another Day

I can't respond to comments on the blog since I don't have access to it here.  (I'm sending these posts by email.)  But I wanted to say thanks to everyone who's commenting!  It's so nice to know people are "with us" on this trip, and your encouragement and prayers are appreciated!  Kelly Hills . . . funny you mentioned the water buffalo song.  Heath was singing it on the drive to/from the orphanage.  Fortunately, not loud enough for anyone but me to hear it.  =)

After we got back from the orphanage yesterday, Rayanna was very crabby.  We discovered that she's getting her molars!  She sucks her thumb a lot, but we noticed her gnawing on it on the side of her mouth, and sure enough . . . there was a tiny tooth poking through!  The other side is swollen too, so I think that's making her miserable.  Not to mention her world being suddenly turned upsidedown.  Tylenol seems to help with the teeth, but only time will help with the other stuff.  She still can't bear to be set down for even an instant.  I hope she's over that by the time Heath goes back to work, or I will have a serious problem!  This isn't the typical whining of a baby who wants to be held, it's a panicked cry.  And even if we just change her position from one arm to the other or from standing to sitting, she cries.  But, like I said, she does sleep well.  So we are VERY thankful that once she falls asleep in our arms we can lay her down for the night and she's fine.  She did wake up once last night, but went back to sleep within 15 minutes of holding her.  She's not wanting to take a nap this afternoon.  She fell asleep while I was holding her this morning, and I think that ruined it for her afternoon nap, even though we were told she takes two naps.  I'm hoping she goes to sleep though or it'll be a long evening! 

She continues to be very serious, but every now and then we'll see a little half-smile or hear a little coo.  It's rare though.  Most of the time she's either silent, or she's crying because we aren't holding her just right.  But those little glimpses of happiness give me hope that she'll be a lot of fun once she's used to her new life! 

We haven't really done anything else since the orphanage trip.  Tonight we might meet up for dinner with two other adoptive families, and then tomorrow we'll fly to Guangzhou.  I'm looking forward to breakfast at The White Swan already!  =)

The Orphanage

Today we got to visit the orphanage where Rayanna has lived her whole life.  It's in Fengxin, about an hour from where we are staying.  Fengxin is a smaller city than this and is known for its production of rice, bamboo, and kiwi.  We saw a lot of rice fields and many water buffalo used for plowing them!  I really enjoy seeing the country side here, and areas where the people still use old methods like water buffalo.  The ride there was an adventure.  We had a different driver and van, with working air condition--woo hoo!  The ride had many of the near death experiences I've come to expect when riding somewhere in China.  In the cities it's crazy, but at least you can't go very fast because of the traffic.  Once you get out on the highway though, it's another story!  That yellow line down the middle of the road is just a decoration I guess.  Heaven forbid you slow down or pass on the right!  Anyway, we made it safely to and from.

Rayanna was found at the gate of the orphanage, so we got to see the precise place.  Then we went inside and we saw the two baby rooms, There are other rooms for the older kids, but they have mostly babies.  Only 30 kids live in the whole orphanage.  There are a few other buildings on the property too, which are charity homes for elderly people.  When we came into the room, the nannies were very excited to see Rayanna.  They were very boisterous and kept saying "Hao De!  Hao De!" and a bunch of stuff in Chinese.  They eagerly wanted to hold her as soon as we walked in.  She was a little reluctant, but didn't cry when I passed her to them.  The nanny set Rayanna down in her former crib, and I was expecting an outburst because she SCREAMS every time we even think about setting her down.  But she didn't cry at all.  I'm not sure what was going through her mind.  Perhaps at the orphanage she has resigned herself to life in a crib, so she went immediately back to that mentality.  I don't know.  They brought out a couple of baby toys for her, but she didn't seem interested.  I didn't see any other toys for any of the kids though.  The babies were all either in cribs or walkers.  Two little boys who shared a crib were very animated and friendly with each other.  But many of the babies just stared at us with imploring little eyes, and some just stared off into space.  The lack of stimulation for them was very sad to see.

On the other hand, the nannies were very friendly.  They seem happy to be there and amazingly not overwhelmed by so many children!  I think there were 5 or 6 nannies for the 30 kids.  I wish we could've stayed for a couple of days to see how on earth they manage to feed and diaper so many babies!   (They all wear the split pants with cloth diapers--really more like handkerchiefs--which I guess makes diaper chaging quick.  But it can't do a very good job of holding in messes!)  I was very glad to see that the nannies did seem to like the kids and were excited to see Rayanna again.  Hopefully that means they're giving all those other kids the best care they can.  I wish I could do more to help.  Maybe someday our family can come back to China and help in an orphanage.  I would really like to do something like that someday.  A couple of the kids there were about to be adopted within the next couple of weeks.  It's hard to understand why they're not ALL being adopted, with so many people waiting for children!  I don't understand how it all works, but hopefully all of those precious babies will one day have families of their own.

Since we got back Rayanna's been pretty grumpy.  I don't know if she's just tired from not having a realy nap today, or if it upset her to go back there.  She hasn't shown much emotion yet about anything, so it's hard to tell.  She still can't bear for us to set her down (or even change position when we're carrying her), so we've been holding her pretty much all the time, except at night.  Thank goodness she sleeps well!  She still won't try any food but her bottle, and even that takes work.  We're hoping she'll broaden her horizons to at least rice congee or something like that!

We've been able to Skype with the kids and Heath's parents a few times.  It seems like they're doing well and having fun.  I'm doing better than I thought I would being apart from them.  I can't wait to see them though!

Meet Rayanna!

OK, so I shared about our disaster of a trip.  But now onto the good part!  Rayanna Haode Runkles!  When we adopted Tabitha we had her for 24 hours before signing the paperwork to make it official.  Not so here!  As soon as we arrived at the Civil Affairs office (straight from the airport, remember), we were taken to the room where she'd been waiting all day for us.  We spent about 2-3 minutes holding her and being excited before we got down to business!  We signed a bunch of things in Chinese, which Echo promised to explain later.  And then she was ours! 

We were given a summary of her daily schedule, but that's it.  It's hard to know how to take care of a baby that you've never met just from a few notes on a page.  So far she has been very stoic and quiet.  She has a very serious little face.  We've seen a couple smirks, but nothing I'd call a real smile yet.  She hardly makes a peep, though she did make one little babble at lunch today when playing with a toy.  But, heaven forbid we set her down for a moment!  She cries so horribly if she's not being held!  Of course, if that continues it'll become quite annoying, but for now I think it's sweet.  I'm sure she's scared and overwhelmed and just needs a lot of comfort.  I can only imagine how shocking it would be to have lived your whole life in one building, maybe even one room, and then suddenly you have strange looking white people carrying you around, taking you in elevators and in cars (in Chinese traffic nonetheless), you're carted here and there, and you have no understanding of why or what this all means!  It's got to be so overwhelming!

After all the official stuff yesterday, we got to the hotel.  It's VERY nice.  Rayanna just sat quietly looking around.  She wouldn't really play with anything, but seemed content just being held.  We were all so tired that the three of us went to bed at the same time.  She fell asleep on Heath's chest, and he moved her into her crib a little later.  Most amazingly, she stayed asleep and slept for 11 hours without a peep!  I sure hope that continues!  Heath and I were so happy to have a good night's sleep after our long trip here, and we woke up feeling energized and ready to go.

We gave Rayanna a bath this morning.  She cried at first, but then seemed to like it and especially enjoyed splashing.  Still no real smiles though.  It was nice to have her fresh and clean and out of the too-warm baby blue light-weight sweat suit she was in.  Only one layer for her (Tabitha had 3), but still too warm for this weather!  She did NOT like lying down to get a new diaper on, but once she was dressed, she was happy.  She looked and smelled a lot better too!

This morning we went to see a really fancy ancient pavilion, which was a house for a governor of the area during the Tang Dynasty.  It was built it 643 AD I think.  It always amazes me how OLD things are here!  It was really beautiful.  Of course it was like a million degrees outside, so we were all once again soaked with sweat.  Heath had Rayanna in the baby carrier, and all the Chinese people were very intrigued.  Most of them just laughed, but many came over and talked to her and touched her.  I guess the white man carrying the Chinese baby in the baby carrier isn't a sight they see very often!  After that Echo showed us to a fancy restaurant for lunch.  She even got us our own private room because people might be smoking in the main restaurant.  We had a somewhat luxurious lunch there.  I mainly just ate the fried rice because everything else was so spicy.  Then we came back to our rooms for nap time.  Heath and Rayanna are both asleep right now, but for some reason I have a lot of energy!

There's another couple here adopting from our same agency; their names are Clint & Angie.  The baby they're adopting has cleft lip/palate, and is two months younger than Rayanna.  They're not from the same orphanage, but they'll have this trip in common and share the same birth province.  Hopefully we can keep in touch as the girls get older; it's been fun so far having another couple to go through the process with.

Even though Rayanna is 16 months old, she seems more like an 8 or 9 month old.  I can't believe that she's only bottle fed at this age!  They did say she eats soup, but no mention of any solids (unless you count the rice cereal they add to her formula).  So far she hasn't had much appetite.  She has a cold, and I'm sure just the stress of all this has her not feeling her best.  But it takes a lot of encouraging to get her to take her bottle, and she won't even give anything else a try.  I'm hoping she starts to eat more and will eventually try some solid food.  It doesn't seem like she can be getting all she needs from formula at this age.

We were told she can sit and crawl, though not stand yet.  It's been hard to try out any of that since she cries if she's anywhere other than our laps.  But it'll come.  Right now we just want her to know she's loved and safe.  We're trying to get her interested in toys too.  It seems she didn't really have toys before.  She spends a lot of time examing her hands and scratching at things, but doesn't really play with them.  She did play a little with some toy cups today, but mainly she just wants to look around at everything.  Fortunately she seems to like both of us and is comfortable if either of us holds her.  She's been very easy to take care of so far.  I'm curious to see what will happen after a few days.  Tabitha started out the same way but totally came out of her shell.  So I don't know if that will happen with Rayanna too, or if this is her real personality.  I just love how sweet and snuggly she is right now!

News flash....she just woke up, and didn't cry that we weren't holding her!  She's actually up on her hands and knees right now . . . so maybe crawling will be next.  I'll try to post again tomorrow, after we visit her orphanage.  I'm really looking foward to that and finding out more about her first 16 months.  That's all for now!

Our Adventurous Journey

Well, I've had a great night's sleep, and am now ready to update you all on our first few days.  We left home Friday evening and went to Heath's parents' house.  We got the kids all settled in and moved in their truckloads of stuff.  Putting them to bed was a little sad, knowing that we wouldn't see them again for almost 2 weeks.  They handled it OK, and I did too.  :)  We went to bed about 9:30 and left for the airport at 3:30.  (Night #1 of not enough sleep).  The plan was to fly to Beijing (with a layover in San Francisco), and then fly to Nanchang, check into the hotel and get rested before meeting Rayanna.  That's not quite what happened.

The flight to San Francisco was fine.  The skies were clear, and we were low enough to see a lot of amazing scenery.  It was gorgeous!  We had a very short layover there, and boarded the plane for Beijing.  It was a long and boring, but non-eventful flight.  It felt very good to get out, and we were looking forward to a few hours to stretch our legs before the final flight.  It was supposed to leave at 7:30pm, so we would have 4 hours at the airport.  We successfully got our luggage and went to the domestic flights to check in for that.  The lady there told us the flight had been delayed so we couldn't check in yet.  This was the first of many non-informative things we'd be told.  For the next few hours we attempted to get more information, but no one could tell us anything except to wait.  As more and more flights were cancelled, the swarms of people grew.  Lines don't mean much in China, and we aren't very pushy people in America (let alone compared to here), and we don't speak Chinese so it was futile for us to get any real help.  We weren't supposed to have a guide meeting us since it was just a layover, but we ended up getting in touch with Lisa, our Beijing guide from the last adoption.  She came to the airport to help us out.  After lots of waiting we finally were given a flight for 7:40 the next morning.  That would get us to Nanchang just in time to meet Rayanna at 11:00.  By this time it was really late, and the nearby hotels were booked.  So we decided just to stay at the airport.  Lisa left, (and refused to take any money for her trouble and transportation.  I'm still trying to scheme up a way to get it to her!) 

The reason for the cancellations was a very severe storm.  The whole airport lit up with each lightning flash, and we could hear the rain pouring down like crazy.  The thunder was very powerful, and I have to admit I'm glad we weren't flying through that!  However, I was none too happy about the situation.  We had talked to our Nanchang guide Echo to let her know we wouldn't make it, but I was worried we wouldn't get a flight even in time to do the paperwork at 3:00 the next day.  Because so many flights were cancelled, the airport was filled with people camping out.  Every booth seat in restaurants, every bench, chair, or other surface had someone sleeping on it.  We found a quiet hallway, and just lay down at the edge of it, using our bags as pillows.  Wow.  As a kid I thought sleeping on the floor was fun.  It certainly is not fun anymore!  Especially when it's not even carpeted!  We moved around a few times, basically out of boredom and frustration, but never found any good place to sleep.  Around 4 am, I was glad we had our suitcases because I was able to change clothes and brush my teeth, and that helped.  Despite the set back I was ready to face the new day and go get our daughter!

So about 6:00 am we went to the other terminal to check in for our new flight.  And we heard once again those terrible words, "You cannot check in now; this flight has been delayed.  Come back in 30 minutes."  Now, I thought I'd been handling our misfortune pretty well all night.  After all, I slept on a cold hard tile floor and didn't complain (that much).  But this was my breaking point.  I was so done with this trip and ready to just give up and go home.  Anything to get out of the airport!  There was no way we'd get to Nanchang in time now, and if we missed our paperwork appointment it would probably get us stuck in China for several extra days, as each step of the adoption process depends on the things before it.  But the worst part was that no one would give us any explanation.  It's bad enough in your own country when you can't get help, but in a foreign country with the language barriers, we had no idea why or for how long or what.  I just sat despondently in a hallway watching some kids play.  Heath kept going back to check on the status every 20-30 minutes.  Of course, they dont' put any information on the computer.  You have to actually wait in line, get to the counter and ask, only to be sent away again and again, still with no explanation.  Finally, at one point he came back saying that she had said we could check in!  I think that was about quarter to 9.  So we waited in line yet again.  When we got to the front she said they'd had to put us in first class because economy was booked.  (Aw, shucks.)  She printed our boarding passes and put tags on our luggage, and I was finally ready to breathe a sigh of relief.  But then she said she couldn't give us our boarding passes yet; we needed to take our luggage and come back at 9:10.  What/?!?!  That got me to thinking maybe this was just a stand-by ticket, and she was waiting to see if there was room.  We left again, and got back in line again at 9:05, got to the front, and she tells us to please wait.  So we step aside while person after person goes through the line, and we are forgotten (or so I thought).  I finally just sat down on the floor, thinking all kinds of horrible thoughts about the airport, the country, and the way things are done.  Then, about 20 minutes later she says, "OK, here you go."  She handed us our boarding passes and told us to take our luggage to this other place.  We did that and then hurried to our gate, since we didn't even know what time it was leaving.  The boarding pass said boarding time had started 25 minutes ago (while we were sitting there waiting), so we were panicked that after all this we'd miss our flight!  So we got our exercise getting to the gate, only to find a sign that the flight had been moved to the other end of the terminal.  YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!  So we rushed back the way we came, finally made it to the gate, and waited in a mob to get onto the bus that drove to the other side of the tarmac to take us to our plane.  We got on board and were indeed in first class.  Heath asked if that made up for all the trouble, and I said that it certainly did not--it's only a 2-hour flight!  However, if we get bumped to first class for the 13-hour flight home, I'll call it even.  :)

We got all buckled in and were served breakfast on fine China while still at the gate.  We could stretch our legs out all the way straight, and had SO much room!  I felt like quite spoiled!  The pilot made some announcement in Chinese, which I didn't even try to understand.  Then it came on in English, and I started to ignore it as the usual pre-flight jabber, until I heard the words "the Beijing airport is currently shut down."  NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Because of weather again, all flights were frozen for at least an hour.  Well, at least we were on the plane.  I went to sleep, and it's good I did, because while I slept Heath saw other planes de-boarding!  If I had seen that it wouldn't have been pretty!  But I slept through it all, and soon we were on our way.  We both slept through the entire flight until we were awaken to put our seats up straight.  And we finally landed in Nanchang....only about 16 hours late.  Our guide sent someone else to pick us up (who'd been waiting for us for 4 hours), and we were taken directly to the Civil Affairs Office, where Rayanna was waiting for us!  Nothing like meeting your new child after 2 days of travelling with little sleep and no showers and extreme exhaustion!

But, nonetheless, we were very excited to see her!  It was a whirlwind.  We met her, signed a bunch of papers, got some official pictures taken, met the other family travelling with us and their new daughter, went to the police station for another picture, went to a notary's office, and finally to our hotel.   It's over 100 degrees here, and the air conditioning in our van is useless.  I was holding Rayanna and was literally dripping sweat from riding in there.  Yuck.  But we did finally get to the fancy hotel with a shower and two beds.  (I was worried we'd be sharing one full-size bed, which would've been almost as bad as the airport floor!)  After a good night's sleep we are all feeling good and ready to enjoy the day. 

Next post....all about Rayanna!

We're Here At Last!

We are here, and we have Rayanna!!! 

More details to come, but I'm too tired to post more right now.  Let's just say I have some things to add to my "Never-Want-To-Do-Again" list, one of them being spending 19 hours in a Chinese airport as just one small part of a 48-hour journey.  SO not fun.

But Rayanna is with us, and we have beds to sleep in tonight.  And that's where I'm headed . . .

Good night.  :)

Provision!

OK, I know I said I wasn't going to post anymore until China, but this is important.  =)  I have been amazed at God's financial provision for this adoption!  When we started the process I questioned how on earth we were ever going to come up with the money.  We'd used up all our savings on the last adoption (and still needed help), Heath had been laid off for awhile, and we still hadn't sold our house.  But nonetheless, we applied.  As we went through the process we have had SO many people helping us financially.  Just this week we received two more substantial gifts!  Not only do we have enough to complete the adoption, but we also have spending money and enough to pay all our bills while we're gone!  God is so good, and the $30,000 that terrified me is NOTHING to the God of the universe!  He must laugh at my silly worries!  A BIG thanks goes to all of you who have helped us out; God has used you to be a great blessing to us, as well as to Rayanna.  Thank you so much.

Please pray for me in this last day or so with my kids.  It has been a rough week.  My hope was to spend this week making fond memories and enjoying a lot of time with the kids before our lives are once again changed forever.  Instead, all we've been doing is fighting!  It's terrible!  I guess everyone's feeling the stress, whether consciously or not, and taking it out on each other.  (Well...the kids and me, that is.  Heath's been at work missing all the "fun.")  I know I'm the adult here and need to set the tone, but I'm really struggling.  I feel like crisis after crisis keeps knocking me down:  for example we've had three leaks in a row of Tabitha's ostomy bag, major behavior and emotional drama with one of the boys (who shall remain nameless), and SO much bickering and fighting I can't stand it.  Instead of spending quality time with my kids, I keep finding myself hiding from them!  Please pray for me to rise above these challenges and for us to have a peaceful, enjoyable last day together.  And pray like crazy for our adjustment period!  Thanks.

Well, this really should be my last post now.  Next time I'll be writing from China!

Itinerary

Just a quick post for anyone wanting to know our itinerary.  Remember, China is 12 hours ahead of here (EST), so most of this will happen while you're sleeping.  =)

Friday, July 22--get kids settled at Heath's parents' house; spend the night there

Saturday, July 23--arrive at BWI at 5:00 am; layover in San Francisco, layover in Beijing, then onto Nanchang.  By the time we get to Beijing it will be Sunday there.

Sunday, July 24--arrive in Nanchang 9:40 pm, go to hotel

MONDAY, JULY 25--MEET AND ADOPT RAYANNA!  (Babies are scheduled to be brought to our hotel room at 11:00 am, paperwork to be done at the Civil Affairs Office at 3:00 pm.  But all times are subject to change.)

Tuesday, July 26--Tour Nanchang

Wednesday, July 27--Visit Orphanage!

Thursday, July 28--Tour more of Nanchang (but I'm thinking we might choose to rest instead)

Friday, July 29--Paperwork finished; fly to Guangzhou 2:00-3:25 pm.  Go to hotel.

Saturday, July 30--Rayanna's medical exam (no shots this time, we do them once we get home); photo and paperwork

Sunday, July 31--Tour Guangzhou

Monday, August 1--Consulate appointment

Tuesday, August 2--Rayanna's visa ready

Wednesday, August 3--fly to Beijing at 11:00; fly to Newark; fly to Baltimore

Wee Hours of the Morning Thursday, August 4--go through customs; come home!!!

One Week From Now!

One week from now Heath and I will be on our way to China!  I'm sure I'll be feeling a lot of things at this moment....exhaustion (because I'm sure I won't sleep much the night before), sadness at leaving the kids behind, gratitude for my in-laws and the fact that for 12 days I don't have to empty any ostomy bags or break up any fights, excitement and nervousness at meeting our new daughter!

Although this trip will be very similar to the last one (pictured here), there are some big differences too.

Obviously, since it's just Heath and me going this time the dynamics will be very different.  Probably easier than last time, but also lonelier.  It was very special to have our whole family together to welcome Tabitha into it, and to have Stephanie (Heath's mom) and Amy (Heath's cousin) sharing that with us.  This time it'll just be us, and we won't be able to take a "new family" picture until we get home.  On the other hand, we'll have plenty of time to focus on Rayanna, and I imagine the whole 12 days will be a lot more peaceful than it was last time.  =)  

I know we have so many people praying for us, and we are so thankful for each one of you!  Please also remember to pray for the kids, that they'd do OK being away from us for so long.  (The longest we've left them before is 3 days.)  And pray for Bob & Stephanie a lot!  They're about to be suddenly back to the stage of life they were in 20-30 years ago, parenting young children!  Pray especially for Stephanie, since she'll be handling Tabitha's medical care.  Just pray that no complications come up while we're gone.  And of course, pray that our kids behave like the perfect little angels they are (ha ha ha), and Mommom and Granddad aren't done-in by this adventure! 

We're still waiting on our itinerary.  We don't even know which day we're meeting Rayanna, or any of our in-country travel times.  Our agency promised to have it to us next Monday at the latest, but I'm going crazy!  If this were a normal vacation trip, I would've had every day planned out months ago.  So having to wait until 5 days before we leave to know what we're actually doing is killing me!!  Not to mention, we only have a "cost estimate" and don't know the actual price until then either!  Oh well, I guess it's good for me to just go with the flow and learn to relax.  I'm sure they'll get it all figured out and we'll have a great time.  =)

I still have some shopping to do, and lots of packing, but I'm getting there.  We should be ready on time, and hopefully without forgetting anything important.  On Friday evening we'll bring the kids to Heath's parents, and we'll spend the night there too since we'll have to leave for the airport at 3 am or something like that!  So my goal is to have everything ready by Thursday, so that Friday we just throw in the last-minute items and can relax and have fun together before we go.  

I doubt I'll be blogging again before we leave, so plan on my next post being from the land of Zhong Guo!!  Zai jian for now!  =)

Test

I'm testing posting by email since I can't access blogger in China.  Just seeing if this works. 

And a bonus picture of Rayanna  =)

Taylor Family Reunion

This week we had the wonderful privilege to get together with my mom's side of the family.  My grandparents are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this year!  (Congratulations Grandmom & Grandpop!)  To celebrate, they treated us to a vacation!

There were about 20 of us who came, and we all stayed at the Canna Inn.  It was really neat!  It used to be a barn, but it was converted into a large house.  The owners kept a lot of the original look to it, so it's a very unique place to stay, full of character.  (I failed to take any pictures of it though, so sorry I can't post it here!)

We arrived on Sunday afternoon and had a chance to get reacquainted with some relatives we hadn't seen in a long time.  My little cousins had grown up into teenagers!  And I finally got to meet my aunt's husband for the first time!  :)

On Monday we had a professional family photo taken outside the Inn.  They turned out really nice and will make a nice memory of our time together.  My favorite is the one we had taken of my grandmom, my mom, me, and Tabitha:  four generations of mother/daughter relationships.  After the photography we went to the nearby State Park to swim and relax and enjoy the 4th of July.

On Tuesday most of us went to Hershey Park.  Although I'd been to the Hershey Chocolate Museum there twice I'd never been to the park before.  It was a lot of fun.  My mom and I spent the day mainly at the kiddie rides.  My mom even did the bumper cars!  The boys and Heath and I enjoyed the wave pool for a little while.  That felt awesome on such a hot day!  My brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins did some of the bigger rides or spent the day at the water park.  We finally made it home about 8 pm.  We were truly exhausted, but glad we'd had such a fun day.

On Wednesday some of us went to the Harley Davidson factory.  We got to take a tour around the actual factory.  It was pretty amazing to see how they make the various parts of the bikes!  Heath was disappointed that we didn't get a free bike as a souvenir, but it was really interesting to see how they're made.  Afterward, Mom kept the kids so Heath and I could have a lunch date at Friendly's.

In the evenings, we played games, talked, and relaxed at the house.  My grandparents planned all of this for us and made it a very special time for each one of us!  Grandpop also spent time sharing from his heart about his and Grandmom's love and care for all the family, and their desire for us to walk with the Lord.  They are a very special couple, and we love and appreciate them so much!  Happy Anniversary, Grandmom & Grandpop!

Travel Approval!

We have our Travel Approval!  In Chinglish its official translated title is, "Notice of Traveling to China for Adoption."  It means that we're allowed to go get Rayanna!!

The adoption process has seemed to go amazingly fast for me this time.  And now we're leaving in just over two weeks!!!  That is really hard to believe!  We will be going to China July 23rd and returning August 3rd.  That is so soon!

I feel a little overwhelmed.  I had all these plans for what I was going to accomplish this summer after we finished school, and now it seems I have only 2 weeks of summer left, since August will definitely not be a month with much free time!  Within those two weeks I need to go through Rayanna's clothes and see what we still need (after hopefully getting the latest update on her sizes), finish setting up her room, shop for the "required gifts" we need to bring with us, pack the three kids to go to the grandparents', pack for Rayanna, pack for Heath and me, take care of a few doctor appointments, and of course get all the adoption documents gathered and the fees paid for travel.  But I was also hoping to get next year's school planning done before we leave, as well as get a bunch of cleaning and household projects taken care of.  Oh well, I think some of those will have to be skipped.  BECAUSE WE LEAVE IN 16 days!!!!!!  I can't believe it!!  So exciting!!!

Thanks for following along on our journey.  I do hope to update this blog while we're there, so check back frequently if you'd like to see how things are going!

Medical Update

Well, our summer of "fun" continues.  The ostomy and catheters continue to cause mishaps at times, but I only have an occasional meltdown, so I guess that's progress.  :)

Last night we had a bit of an adventure.  Tabitha woke up from her nap acting sick and feeling really hot.  She often has a very high body temperature, so I didn't worry too much about it.  But she just lay on the couch acting miserable until about 5:00 when she threw up all over herself and the couch.  (Yay!  Now we can add vomit to the list of bodily fluids I get to clean up this summer.  So fun.)  Anyway, I asked Heath to pick up a thermometer on his way home since ours had broken.  He got one of the super-accurate fancy-schmancy ones that you just run across the forehead.  SO NICE!  (Anyone else remember sticking the mercury-filled glass tube under your tongue and holding it there for what seemed like hours?)  Anyway....her temperature read 105!  We tried it on ourselves and the boys, and we all got readings around 98 or 99.  So we gave her some tylenol and called her doctor in Cincinnati.  Normally we are not the type to bother with a doctor for a little stomach bug, but we'd been warned to watch for fevers because she's at high risk for infection with all her tubes and what not, and infection could be really bad because of her kidney problems.  So the on-call doctor Heath talked to said to go ahead and take her to the emergency room.  By now the temperature read 106, and we were getting worried.

We decided that Heath would take her to Johns Hopkins ER, which isn't too much further than the Frederick one but would definitely be more helpful if it was something serious.  The two of them left, and despite Heath's hurried driving and flying over bumps, Tabitha didn't even wake up.  Heath was getting worried about her lack of response.  But when they got to the hospital, she woke up and was acting totally normal, plenty of energy, happy, and even talking to the nurses!  When they took her temperature it was only 101.  So of course they probably thought we're the type of parents who freak out and bring our kids to the ER for every little illness or injury.  After looking at her long medical history the doctor did assure Heath that we did need to be very careful in her case, and it was good to bring her in.  But I still don't think they believed her temperature had been that high.  Oh well.

They ran blood and urine tests, which showed she'd been fighting something, but didn't show anything serious.  So, it seems like it was just her body way over-reacting to a stomach virus, and nothing more.  Either that or it WAS something more, and God answered prayer and quickly zapped whatever it was and made it go away! Either way, we're very thankful that she's OK and was able to come right back home instead of having another hospital stay.

In related news, we have her surgery date set for August 30th.  We couldn't get in soon enough to have it done before we go to China, unfortunately.  So a few weeks after we bring Rayanna home we'll get to go back to Cincinnati for surgery.  Hooray.  But, at least we can start counting down the days!  (Notice my latest "ticker" at the bottom of the left side of the page.)  =)  She (and I) will be SO happy to get rid of all the bags and tubes.  We survived June....just July and August to go!