Home Sweet Home!

We are home after being up for almost 30 hours. It has never been so sweet! Clean water & air is something we will never take for granted again! We were suprised with a meal in the fridge & a welcome home sign! Thank you!! It tasted soooo good!

We are on our way home!

The newest little American citizen is checking out the plane that will take her to LA. She has decided she loves Daddy and Mommie stinks which is normal. A 14 hour flight is not the time to argue the point with her, but unbeknownst to her it will the last time she gets her way. :)

The results of all the orphanage donations.

Many of you may remember the money the boys raised for Grace's orphanage. Here's a picture of what was purchased for a mere $500. A washer & refrigerator for older orphan's needs. It is outside the gates of the Dao orphanage because technically they aren't supposed to take photo's inside. Now they are working on raising money for a commercial dryer because they have no dryer to dry clothes in the winter.

One more day.

Fried pigeon anyone? At least I think it's pigeon. Gracie is out for a stroll and the boys finally found something they can climb on! One more day and we are all anxious to go home!

Feb. 15th - Feb 16th

We are now in Guangzhou, a city of 9 million people! We are staying at the White Swan. All families have to come through Guangzhou to get their American Visa for their child before they can leave and the entire area caters to adoptive families. There are families just like ours everywhere! It is really neat to see and comforting as well. The air is only slightly better here, but the temperature is much warmer. We have discovered Grace HATES doctors and I anticipate much fun in the months to come! Her cleft palate is wide and we jokingly say she is our chipmunk, storing food for later in the cleft. :) The red couch photo is of the other Hunan families from CCAI. One baby has a VSD, one has missing feet and the other is just like Grace, cleft lip & palate, even the same birthdate! The street scene is a spice market with a Holiday Inn in the background! Here we saw dried monkeys, some kind of hairy testicles, tiger feet and tiger teeth for sale!!

Feb. 11th - 14th

These past days are spent waiting to leave Changsha. By far the best day we had was when Daphne agreed to take us to the country. It was so fun. First she took us to a village to walk the streets. From the looks we got, I am sure they do not see many "westerners", especially blond ones! Here local farmers came to buy supplies. There were rice paddies everywhere there was a bit of land. We saw everything from a dog being butchered, to live fish for sale. There was fresh or smoked meat of unknown origin hanging on hooks in front of shops, there was scorpions, sea horses fresh veggies, just about anything you could imagine. The Chinese like their food very fresh. Refrigerated food is not accepted so all restaurants have their food swimming or crawling around in containers of all sorts as you go in to eat. Many places looked much more like a pet store. We then stopped at a local rice farmers home and she graciously allowed us to come in to take a look at her home. She was very gracious and everthing was neat & clean and well orginized, although spartan. This was truely the highlight of our trip. Charlie kept getting comments how he was a lucky father because he had three sons.

And some more sites!

We are still waiting for Gracie's Chinese passport & adoption papers to leave the province. So in the mean time Daphne keeps us busy. Gracie is learing to crawl. She spent so much time in a walker that she can walk with help, but not crawl. We recieved the orphanage photos taken with the disposable camera today. What a rare look into her life before coming to be with us. They are fuzy because I had to retake them to post them but you get the idea. Notice the walkers are tied to the crib & the amount of blankets on the crib. A very dreary place to spend your 1st 16 months. So many things must be going through her mind right now. The other pic is the two proud daddy's in front a Buddhist temple. The temple was mind numbing and made me so sad that so many people think you need to do all this to go to heaven! What a great God we have!! Nathan boldly spoke forth when our non-Buddhist guide was explaining that your have to do good things to have 7 good lives to finally go to heaven after the 7th life. He told her if you believe in Buddha you won't go to heaven anyway! Way to go Nathan! Although we did have a chat about tact. :)

Time to see some sites!

Today we went to Martyrs Park & the river in Changsha. Daphne is our wonderful guide. There was a stage that had a full sized puppet show at night and the river was full of interesting boats of all kinds! We've been to several Chinese resteraunts and the food in Hunan is wonderful. It very hard to find things that aren't spicey. They love hot red peppers in everything!!!! Even the desserts are hot! I could do with out the rat running up the wall at one establishment! Changsha is a huge city with millions of people, but you could still see a bull being butchered on the side of the road! A particularly important site came today when the boys & Charlie came across a street beggar with a huge gaping unrepaired cleft lip. There is no future for those with disabilities in China & I was thankful God allowed the boys to see that! The biggest problem remains the pollution. Between the smog, coal burning, sewer, cars, cooking foods, dead things keeping Donna & Nathan's lungs clear is a problem. We can not stay outside for very long. Visibility remains only a dozen block or so. I have come to the determination that everyone in China smokes! :) And everywhere, in the elevator, in the hotels, in the restaurants, in the bathroom....everywhere. You cannot escape the smells, it is everywhere. Oh do I miss fresh Colorado air! Gracie is doing well, she sleeps like a log and is starting to show some personality. She wants things done her way! They say Hunan babies are "spicey", they aren't kidding!

The BIG day!

We are in the Hunan provincial capitol, Changsha now and staying at the Dolton Hotel. This is the day we get Grace. We have to be at the county adoption affairs building by 8:30 am & we have no trouble getting up. We are told Grace came to town the night before because it is a 5 hour drive from her orphanage, the Dao County orphanage. We are also told they did use the disposable camera we sent but it is against Hunan policy to take any pictures inside any orphanages so they will give it to our guide "quietly". I have heard very few families have had their disposable cameras used in several years and so I am not too hopeful at the outcome of photos. We entered the waiting room and there they we sitting, 2 babies looking very concerned. We had to sit & wait while papers were exchanged etc, us on one side of the room & our daughter on the other. Very surreal! Finally she was handed over & she was very stoic. No crying, just drinking some water. We finished all the formalities and were on the way back to our hotel to rest & recoup for the afternoon. What a day!! The last picture is a view from a window of the county adoption affairs building. No..that's not mist, it's pollution! Clean air is something I have always taken for granted! People living here all their lives have never known anything different!

In Hong Kong

All of us out in front of our hotel in Hong Kong. One more day till Grace! Hong Kong was beautiful and very clean. They washed down the sidewalks and roads every single day! No trash, no graffitti, but the smog was bad, worse than Denver's worst day. Everyone has been very courteous and polite and we feel very safe. We are traveling with a wonderful family, Dave & Michelle Walker from Pennsylvania. And the picture with them is taken at the top of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong. The view was of the harbor and surrounding hills but our guide had to bring a picture of it on a clear day because the smog was so bad!