tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69810964848691587232024-03-05T20:16:52.264-08:00A Missing PieceFollow the Henningfeld family's journey to China, where our missing piece is waiting for us!Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-51041980203482112042016-01-01T16:27:00.004-08:002016-01-01T18:51:29.450-08:00Catching Up- December 2015I've been meaning to do another post for awhile now and I'm finally getting around to it. A lot has happened since my last one...so be warned- there are going to be a whole LOT of pictures in this one!<br />
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We went the the annual pizza with Santa at the high school. The kids got to meet Santa and tell them what they wanted for Christmas while waiting for the pizzas they created to cook. Macie was not so sure about this guy. We also learned that trying to get a nice picture of all of the kids together is going to be pretty tricky from here on out because someone is either covering their face, making a silly face, or not looking.</div>
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We celebrated Lena's 6th Birthday and our elf, Jolly Mon made an appearance in her stocking that morning. We can't believe she is already SIX! She's a ray of sunshine in our lives.</div>
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We had a birthday party for Lena and Jayce at one of our favorite kid places. They each got to bring a couple friends. Between their few friends and our family, we filled up both vans! Our theme was Mickey and Minnie, which was perfect. I had to include the picture of Maeleigh below because she just might be our messiest kid. I never thought we'd have a child messier than Landyn, Rowan, and Elijah, but I think we just might have found the one. ;) She had so much stickiness on her that her bangs stood straight up!</div>
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The kids loved all the play rooms and different things they got to play with, but the dinosaur dig room was a favorite....it even got Little Miss So Serious (aka Macie) smiling! :)</div>
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The next day we celebrated Jayce's fifth birthday! </div>
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Jayce's birthday was on a Sunday and the kids had to sing at both services at church that morning so we started our day with that. They were so cute. Lena had an interpreter during the 2nd service so she signed a bit. That was nice to see and reinforced just how thankful we are for the three interpreters we had during the fall semester working with Lena at church and AWANA.</div>
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The girls wore new outfits a friend at church had given them...SO cute!</div>
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After church, we went to visit Rick's parents for lunch and his mom had made Jayce a cake.</div>
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This girl has been a bit accident prone since coming home. On the way to the bathroom to brush teeth before bedtime one night, she ran into a door jam and split her forehead open...yep, you guessed it- Maeleigh had her first trip to the ER! The cut was almost identical to the one Jayce got this past summer when Jonah's knee hit his eyebrow...just in a different location. They glued it shut and though it's taking a long time to heal, it is healing pretty well. We're thankful for her sake that it's in a spot that her hair will cover too. Rick said she handled the ER very well! </div>
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At our eye doctor appointment on the 18th, we found out that both girls will need glasses. That may play a part of why they've been running into lots of things. Maeleigh has esotropia (eyes turn inwards) as we expected and Macie has exotropia (eyes turn outwards). The eye doctor said they are opposites in every way- eye condition, numbers, etc. He said that we'll monitor them and see how glasses help for now, but that Macie would actually be more likely than Maeleigh to need an eye surgery in the future. That was a total surprise to us. We'll just see what happens. For now we need to get some glasses ordered.</div>
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There's the silly side we see every once in awhile!</div>
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One day I was trying to get pictures of the girls together- this just shows how hard it is to get a nice picture of the two of them together!! But look at Macie- there is that happy and silly side! Oh how we can't wait to see that on a more regular basis!!</div>
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On the 17th, we went to Lena's school for their winter program. Lena's class presented the story, "The Mitten" and Lena was the little girl who lost one of her mittens. It was SO cute! We had to practice finger-spelling 'white' and 'mitten' with her at home because she had to sign them during the program. She got all shy, but did pretty well.</div>
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After changing, she was all excited to hang out with her friends and wait in line to see the signing Santa! </div>
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Lena really gravitates to the older kids at her school and has a special relationship with a few of them...it's so cute!</div>
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This is Lena's new thinking pose. She was having the hardest time thinking of what she wanted to tell Santa that she wanted for Christmas.</div>
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Lena with Santa at her school.</div>
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The kids helped Rick with one of his annual traditions of making candies.</div>
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This kid! He LOVES candy if you can't tell. His face was covered in chocolate and he had a marshmallow stuffed in his mouth...little stinker!</div>
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We had a special visitor! Rick's younger brother and our God-daughter, Rayla, came by. We got to see Rayla walking, dancing, and doing all of her new tricks. We just love her so much!!</div>
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On the 21st, we went to Jayce's Christmas program for the pre-school he attends. Keeping a pew of kiddos still and quiet proved to be challenging, but we thoroughly enjoyed the program.</div>
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Jayce entering the church for the program.</div>
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The two pre-school classes during their performance. They did a very good job!</div>
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I got to help with Jayce's Christmas party at his pre-school and I didn't even have to take any other kids with me. That was nice! </div>
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Christmas Eve at the Henningfeld's</div>
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We got to watch a band performance put on by a handful of our nieces.</div>
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All the grand-kids with grandma and grandpa Henningfeld...we're up to 21 and of course our kids make up half of that! </div>
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Megan with Macie and Lena</div>
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Emma and Maeleigh</div>
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Maeleigh opening up her first Christmas present during the cousin exchange!</div>
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Macie opening her first Christmas present!</div>
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This was one of my favorite moments that day. The kids took the doctor set Maeleigh had gotten and were doing a complete check-up with shots on Uncle Jason. He was such a good sport about it and is so good with the little ones.</div>
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We also celebrated two of our God-daughters birthdays! Megan was celebrating her 12th birthday that day and Rayla would be turning one about six days later so we had a little celebration for her too.</div>
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Christmas morning!</div>
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Macie may have been quite serious on Christmas Eve, but she woke up very happy and excited on Christmas morning...it was awesome!</div>
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Every stuffed animal she has gotten she loves on like this- kissing it and rubbing noses..it's so precious!</div>
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She was ready to start practicing the signs for the ABCs by copying the puzzle Santa got her. She amazes us! She loved her gifts and actually spent time with them. Maeleigh just threw everything at us and ran off to do something else. </div>
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Elijah with an old-school toy the kids got and love.</div>
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Reid was very excited to get his own Lego set this year!</div>
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Maeleigh likes to put socks on her hands for some reason. We love this smile!</div>
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Elijah and Jonah sporting their new watches. They are our kids most into clothes, shoes, and accessories.</div>
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Lena was SO excited Santa brought her, her very first GIRL Lego set!</div>
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Jonah with a race track he had asked Santa for.</div>
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Landyn was busy coloring away with his new Minion coloring set from Santa.</div>
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This was one of my favorite moments from Christmas morning. Evan has been questioning us a lot this year about Santa because of things he is hearing at school. He got a Lego set from Santa that he has wanted for a very long time. He must have jumped up and down and said, "I LOVE SANTA!" three times. It was a very memorable and sweet moment. </div>
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This picture sums Rowan up perfectly- he could care less about the presents and more about the candy/treats!</div>
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Jayce is in a stage where it's hard to get a good picture of his nice smile, which is unfortunate because he has a great one!</div>
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We tried to get a picture of all the kids together and that was proving to be VERY difficult...LOL!</div>
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These might have been the best we could get.</div>
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After opening our gifts and spending time together as a family, we headed to my mom and step-dad's for lunch and Christmas. My two cousins and their two children were there. They got to meet Macie and Maeleigh for the first time and loved them!</div>
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Who's that minion?</div>
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Jayce got a monkey that hangs around his neck because it reminded nana of him- he likes to hang on and snuggle us all the time. :)</div>
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The day after Christmas, my dad came up for a quick visit to meet Macie and Maeleigh and see all the kids again. The girls sure love their grandpas!!!</div>
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I'm so glad I thought of taking a picture of our four bio boys with my dad...neat picture.</div>
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All the kids with grandpa! We can't really all fit on one couch anymore...</div>
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This picture sums up their silliness.</div>
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Later that day, I started to feel sick and ended up with the flu, unfortunately. Evan came down with it hours later and then Rowan. My dad took a day off from hanging around with us, but then came back over on the 28th. He ended up getting it the following night. Thankfully no one else here has been sick since. That was so NOT fun and it took me a few days to really feel like myself again. I didn't get out of the house for days. Poor Evan took a long time to recover and we were worried we were going to have to take him in since he wasn't keeping fluids down. Thankfully he came around before we had to take him anywhere. </div>
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Lena spent some time one day dressing up. I think she had been waiting for a few years to have some girls in the house to play dress-up with! She was getting her sisters all dressed up and parading them around and waving at us. It was too cute and we love that she has sisters now!</div>
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New Year's Eve 2015!</div>
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We don't have soda in our house too often so we made it a tradition for each kid to get their own bottle of Sprecher's soda on New Year's Eve. They were excited and clanking their bottles together. Instead of saying 'cheers' Rowan was saying 'bump!' </div>
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Rick had a genius idea- labeling the kids' bottles.</div>
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She was pretty happy again! She even was sporting a root beer beard. ;)</div>
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2015 was a great year- we can't wait to see what 2016 has in store for us!</div>
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Thanks for all your support and love for our family this year!</div>
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Happy New Year to you and your family!</div>
Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-7670345511561184472015-12-10T16:05:00.001-08:002015-12-10T17:13:23.421-08:00Three Weeks Home and One Month Together!Yesterday marked 3 weeks home from China and one month from the day we met the girls for the first time in Nanning. Time sure flies! We have seen more growth this week. <br />
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We took a picture of the girls at church last Sunday- they were both wearing dresses my aunt had bought for me when I was a little girl. :) </div>
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Macie wouldn't crack a smile no matter what we tried to do!</div>
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Macie is actually really enjoying the bath now. I've even seen her float around in there like a fish/mermaid, like her other two sisters do. That's HUGE! I've come to realize that there may be more than one reason we are seeing so much seriousness from Macie. Of course the changes have been huge and this may be a part of how she grieves, but I think there is more. I started thinking about when we'd see her come out of her shell and see that silly side when we were in China and it was almost always when we were out and about on an adventure. For more than one reason (bonding, weather, etc) we haven't been out and about and adventuring a whole lot. It's been good for us to stay in our little cozy house together as much as possible- kind of a theme of what's to come for the next 3-4 months of winter, but I think it's part of why we are seeing this serious side and not the fun-loving side to Macie's personality. She gets pretty excited when we get her coat to go drop off or pick up kids or go to church. I think our girl likes to be out and about and go on adventures. I really don't think she did that much in her foster family. And Macie's signing is amazing. She is SO eager to learn, bringing her photo album or a book she's pulled off one of our many books shelves over to us. She's watching her hands as she signs and is really meticulous. We are still working on matching what sign goes to what object, but that will come. The fact that she is wanting to learn, copying, and remembering signs we have taught her is awesome! We also started working on potty training a little bit the past couple days. We've had some accidents, but she's doing pretty good overall. I think she'll be able to be trained pretty quickly and I think her pre-school teacher will be happy to have one child in the class come in already potty-trained. :)</div>
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She's got Rick's glasses on. Our little serious smarty with her laptop and backpack. ;) </div>
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I am curious if she is going to end up in glasses or needing an eye surgery. We definitely know that her eye issue is what is affecting her delay in gross motor skills and her balance, causing her to fall down easily and run into things constantly. We are anxious to find out on the 18th what it is and what we need to do about it.</div>
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Checking out what they got in their stocking for St. Nick's, a tradition passed on from Rick's side of the family.</div>
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These girls' favorite snacks seem to be cuties/Halos and Goldfish crackers. :)</div>
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Maeleigh (by the way...it sounds like MAY-LEE....we've heard a lot of interesting pronunciations the past week or so, so I figured I'd get that out there) is continuing to do very well adjusting. The hardest part is getting her and Rowan to get along. One minute they are laughing and loving on each other and the next they are in a battle. And they sure are a lot a like- we are seeing a lot of monkey see, monkey do here in this house! ;) <br />
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Caught her! She likes to turn her face when I try to take her picture! :)</div>
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Now Rowan is doing it too.</div>
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See!!! Monkey see...monkey do!</div>
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I forgot to mention in my last update that we really appreciated your prayers last week for the girls' first doctor and dentist appointments. The doctor appointments went way better than I expected. Both girls did great there (no shots might have helped). The next day we visited the dentist and I was prepared for worst case scenario in how they'd do and in the report we might get. Maeleigh went first and I was surprised that she actually screamed and was a bit terrified for a good part of the cleaning. She had some orange stuff on her teeth that I had not noticed before. It was hard to get off, but the hygienist did get most of it off. She had no cavities...yay! Then it was Macie's turn. I thought she'd have a very hard time and she surprised me. She did great for the most part- only got a little scared once. They hygienist got most of the black/brown spots off her teeth---they look so clean and nice now. And get this...she had NO cavities! I was completely blown away and shocked. They said that sometimes that stuff actually protects the teeth in a weird way and that it can come from eating soft foods and not a lot of hard foods like we might here. I cannot tell you how awesome it was to hear that both girls had no cavities at this time. SUCH a surprise and a relief! Thank you to all who prayed...we felt it!<br />
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We haven't had as much going on this week, but we are very busy preparing for Christmas and a crazy week of birthdays. Lena and Jayce have birthdays this weekend and then mine is next week. I'm glad I'm the last one because I tend to get the leftovers of one or both of the cakes combined. ;) <br />
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Happy one month girls!! You are so loved!!</div>
Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-61165668445434293212015-12-05T20:46:00.000-08:002015-12-05T20:48:06.798-08:00Two Weeks Home!Well time is certainly not slowing down! Another week has gone by and it may have been busier than our first week home. This time of year is full of events and activities, but full of memories being made with family...so it's extra special this year.<br />
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These two have a love hate relationship. They can really get at each other, but other times are loving on each other-like during this bath. :)</div>
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Proof that she does sometimes look happy and that she is now enjoying baths! Progress! :)</div>
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We finally got to having that cake we were supposed to have on Thanksgiving. Yeah it was three days later and it may have had a lot of chunks of frosting missing from it. ;) It was the birthday boy who was sneaking the frosting during those three days. ;)</div>
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We had a lot of school events this week. Thursday night was the 1st-4th grade holiday concerts. We had four boys in the 1st/2nd grade show- pieces from the Nutcracker. They did such a great job!</div>
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Reid is in the dead center in the above picture- he was a toy soldier.</div>
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Landyn was a mouse (far right above). He looked so cute in his mouse hat and he got to walk the flowers over to the most wonderful music teacher at the end- so precious.</div>
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Jonah (blue sweater; green hat) was a Chinese dancer. </div>
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We got a kick out of the fact that he chose this role and Reid, our Chinese child, did not.</div>
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Elijah was also a toy soldier.</div>
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Next, it was time for the 3rd/4th grade concert. Between shows we did homework since there wasn't really time before/after. Evan was our only kiddo in this show. He was so excited- he spotted us right away. It is amazing how kids can change. He was the kid in 4K and Kindergarten who pretty much just stood there because he was so shy and quiet. In this concert, Jingle Bell Jukebox, he was so into it, so animated, and singing and dancing his heart out. </div>
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We all loved it, including Macie and Maeleigh! ;)</div>
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Today we took the girls to their first Christmas parade with my mom and her wonderful neighbors.</div>
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Rowan with one the neighbor kids.</div>
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We tried to take a group picture, but someone wasn't looking or was doing something silly every single time...I think this is our new normal! ;)</div>
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They are definitely loved by these siblings of theirs!</div>
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This girl- she is still being quite serious most of the time, but she is amazing us too. She is SO interested in sign language and learning a language. She brings her family photo album we sent her over to us all the time, wanting to know the signs for each person. She has been practicing colors and her ABC's too. She's having trouble remembering which sign goes with which word, but she certainly is remembering all the signs we're working on and is interested and that is HUGE. We are so proud of her and so excited to watch her grow!</div>
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Maeleigh and nana. :)</div>
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Rowan and daddy.</div>
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The kids are always excited to see Mr. and Mrs. Claus at the end of the parade!</div>
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After the parade, we headed to my mom's for a bit to play on the trampoline and hang out.</div>
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The girls LOVED it!</div>
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Rowan was so ready for a nap. Maeleigh's trying to console him. :)</div>
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Here it is...the moment we live for..that smile! :) It's worth the wait!</div>
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After that, we headed home to finish putting the lights on our tree and to put the ornaments on too.</div>
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I couldn't believe how fast it was going- many hands make light work. Then I realized we had another container of ornaments. ;) </div>
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Probably way too many ornaments for our small tree, but we found a spot for almost all of them.</div>
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We hope to get some pictures of all the kids by the tree tomorrow, but Jonah snuck in one. :)</div>
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Relaxing after all the work was done!</div>
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Another great week!!</div>
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<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-19643987107399089532015-11-28T07:00:00.003-08:002015-11-28T07:00:52.441-08:00Our First Week Home Together!It's hard to believe we've been home together as a family of twelve for just over a week now. A lot has happened in one week though too. Last Sunday, we took the girls to church for the first time. They did a great job sitting with us through the service and were lovingly welcomed by their new church family. We got to give our friends, the Curry's, a big hug goodbye. Tonight while we sleep, they will meet their 10 year old daughter, Gwen, in China! <br />
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We've seen a whole lot of serious from this girl this week, but definitely some moments of opening up and that happy/silly personality showing again too- we live for those moments.</div>
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This bed is just too much fun- like a fort!</div>
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Ha- noticed the button was un-done after I took this picture. She is very independent, but needs a little help with this part. :)</div>
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Monday was Rowan's 2nd Birthday! He was a bit in awe by all the attention, but quickly learned how to sing the Happy Birthday song!</div>
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On Tuesday morning, we headed to Jayce's school while Rick was with Reid at Children's Hospital for transfusion day. Jayce's pre-school class sang us a few Thanksgiving songs. The turkey hats are a tradition. ;)</div>
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The girls and Rowan loved playing at the pre-school and did a good job watching the songs too!</div>
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Coloring- that didn't last long! These three have pretty short attention spans and prefer to color on anything but the coloring books. ;)</div>
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Wednesday night we had our first movie night! The girls loved it! </div>
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Thank you,Vivayic for the popcorn! It was a hit!</div>
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Maeleigh and Macie's First Thanksgiving!</div>
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It's not the first one for these two, but they sure were excited for it!</div>
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The girls dressed for Thanksgiving, but the rest of us had our Badger/Packer gear on.</div>
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Fun times getting to know our cousins.</div>
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Games- this one got a lot of laughs!</div>
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Since Rowan didn't have a party, we had a couple extra celebrations for him with family. </div>
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She really wanted to make sure she was going to get a piece of that cookie!</div>
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Yum!</div>
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After time at the Henningfeld's we headed to my mom and step-dad's for our 2nd Thanksgiving. Macie enjoyed watching some football with dad. </div>
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The food at both houses was excellent and we were stuffed!</div>
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Coloring</div>
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I got a kick out of her cup- my mom wrote Maeleigh and then 'He Lin' since she is responding to both names right now. :)</div>
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Too cute in their new cow pj's!</div>
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We had a cake for nana and grandpa's house too, but we ran out of time and room in our stomachs! We're saving it for this weekend. ;) Rowan had room to scrape off some frosting though. I caught him in the act and he was singing Happy Birthday to himself too. ;)</div>
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Fun times had by all- a very success Thanksgiving! We were for sure counting our many blessings and are ever so thankful for all that God has given us!</div>
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Thursday night was a bit too late of a night for us, as we watched the game before heading home. The outcome was a big disappointing ending to our Thanksgiving, but such is life. </div>
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We'll get over it in time. ;)</div>
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Friday we just laid low and took Rowan to the doctor for his well-child appointment. Last night, good friends invited us over for dinner and we all had a great time! So thankful for good friends who are brave enough to have all of us over- the kids did great and Rick and I had some fun adult conversation and game time too..we haven't done something like that in quite some time. </div>
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Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-63903489819318021582015-11-21T18:24:00.002-08:002015-11-21T18:24:29.824-08:00First Snow!Being home less than two days, we really weren't prepared for our first snow...let alone this much snow! We got about 10 inches! It's not going to last too long because it's going to warm up a bit next week and will all melt, but it does mean we had to dig out ten plus pairs of snow pants, boots, thicker gloves, etc. I have to be honest- I'm not a huge winter fan. The snow looks pretty on the trees and I can live with it until about the end of the year and then I'm done with winter. But winter always lasts until March or April, sometimes longer. The winter gear really stresses me out- so much to keep track of, keep organized, find a place for, etc. Everything gets wet and we have such a small entry way to begin with..it's really a bit of a nightmare here..lol. I do wish I hadn't lost that child like wonder and sense of excitement every time it snows. It is always a special moment when that first snow comes and the kids wake up and rush to the windows and are anxious to get outside and get in it. It's almost like Christmas morning. So while I can't stand winter and look forward to it being over, I'll try to just be in the moment and focus on the fact that our kids really enjoy every minute of it. :)<br />
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Last night Rowan cracked me up. I had just emptied this suitcase and he got inside and put the lid down and then popped out. Too cute!</div>
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Waking up to check-out our first snow! Yes, that looks like one loaded diaper, but I think it was just sitting funny. ;)</div>
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Getting loved on by their siblings!</div>
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WOW- look at all that snow! Seeing snow for the first time is an extra special moment!</div>
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Loving the smiles from these two! :) Maeleigh has a terrific evil eye so every time she smiles, it just makes our day!</div>
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There's that smile!</div>
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The vans...and this was before the snow was done.</div>
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The big kids spent some fun time outside today! They really needed to burn off some energy too...lol.</div>
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Looking forward to the start of the holiday season and trying not to get too overwhelmed. ;)</div>
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On a happy note, the girls had a great night of sleep last night. I hope I'm not jinxing it for tonight. Rick and I got a good night of sleep too, though I am still feeling pretty tired in the afternoons and Rick is crashing very early. </div>
<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-64714094938125322132015-11-20T09:13:00.003-08:002015-11-20T09:30:16.883-08:00HOME!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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More from the Hong Kong Airport- waiting to leave!</div>
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On the plane and ready to go! Macie was LOVING looking outside and seeing all the airplanes and she got super excited during take off too.</div>
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Before Evan started not feeling well again...poor guy!</div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">Well, we made it home safely! We did have some rough moments getting there, but we're here and well now. Our flight went fine. Thankfully Evan and the kids slept a fair amount. Rick slept a little bit and I was only able to sleep maybe an hour. The kids all did really well on the plane. Evan didn't fare so well with the motion sickness/jet lag combo, but we were prepared this time. Sadly for him, unlike in the past when he got sick during the landing, he was sick every single time he woke up. I think he had to be dehydrated by the time we landed- he couldn't keep anything down and was so pale. We ended up landing about 25 minutes early. We quickly went through immigration and then were headed to use the bathroom and get our bags. The one bathroom in that area was flooding and I mean totally flooding- water was pouring out of the toilets and onto the floor and eventually it made it's way out by the area where we were waiting for our baggage. It was absolutely disgusting and poor Lena had an accident because she was not able to use the bathroom. Luckily we were able to change her before heading home. After we got all our bags, we headed over to turn in our adoption paperwork. Once they were finished and our luggage went through the security, we were on our way out. My mom, stepdad, Jayce, and Rowan were not there yet because we were earlier than expected. That gave us time to get Lena cleaned up. We ended up meeting them outside as the van pulled up, so they didn't get to come in with their sign and balloons, but we were fine with that. We were just so ready to get home. It was so nice to see Jayce and Rowan again! The baby of the family always looks so much bigger when you've been gone for a couple weeks. He's really not all that much smaller than the girls! We beat the other boys home and even had time to go through our backpacks and get Evan and Lena a bath. Evan was feeling much better with fresh air, a bath, and some rest on the couch. So thankful for that! We said goodbye and thank you to nana and Grandpa JP right about the time Grandpa and Grandma Henningfeld arrived home from school with the four big boys. Reid, Elijah, Jonah, and Landyn didn't act too excited to see Rick and I, but they were SUPER anxious and excited to see and meet their new sisters! </span></div>
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HOME! They wanted to start coloring the back of our welcome home sign right away. I think we're going to have to keep markers out of reach- these two like to use them to color on their clothes and many other places where they shouldn't be used...</div>
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Lots of balloons were waiting for us!</div>
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There were even some on their beds. This is a new bed Rick made for Lena and Macie right before we left. We have some finishing touches to do yet, but he did such a great job!</div>
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They were loving checking out all the toys we have and definitely gravitated to the toys that Rowan likes.</div>
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Saying goodbye and a BIG thank you to Nana and Grandpa JP.</div>
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These boys couldn't wait to see and hug their new sisters. Their sisters weren't so sure at first- there was a lot of noise and a lot going on, but they quickly warmed up to them!</div>
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This girl! She is always doing stuff like this. I'm not much of a sports person, but I think I think we may need to get her signed up for gymnastics.</div>
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All the kids with grandma and grandpa Henningfeld. That is one FULL couch!</div>
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After everyone left, Rick and I were wondering if we could even make it up til the kids' bedtime. We were really starting to feel the jet lag and exhaustion. We had tacos for dinner- thank you so much to the Johnson family from AWANA for that...such a blessing! Then we went through backpacks and got homework done and studied for spelling and reading tests with our first and second graders. We actually had everything finished by about 6:30 p.m. and started bedtime a little early. Macie fell asleep on Landyn while playing in her bed. SO sweet! The girls were all out very quickly. The boys...not so much. Rick and I were out pretty quickly too, but it was only a couple hours later and we had someone crying. Evan came down many times, not able to sleep. We were up a lot on and off between about 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. and I was in and out of rooms and beds all night. I am feeling it today! </div>
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Evan and Lena both decided they wanted to go to school today- Friday. It's a short day for Lena so that shouldn't be too bad. Hoping Evan makes it through the day! We've gone through the mail and the school work that came home while we were gone. We've had some phone calls that needed to be made and Rick's been outside trying to get our lawn cleaned up and garage re-organized for winter. That was the biggest shock to our systems- the weather change! We went from 70s and 80s to 30s and 40s! We are so not ready for winter! I've heard it's supposed to snow tonight too. Yikes! The girls may wake up to their first snow tomorrow....crazy! Tonight we plan to take it easy and have a movie night- a big thank you Rick's Vivayic team for the packages to make it a fun one tonight! I am thinking I'll be sleeping during the movies. I'm definitely dragging. We are hoping that each night gets a little easier. We will get through this, but these are definitely the hard days- getting used to our new normal and recovering from jet lag.</div>
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So glad to be home!</div>
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<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-27832179684628060062015-11-18T18:53:00.000-08:002015-11-18T19:05:36.303-08:00A Night in Hong Kong and Home Bound!Yesterday afternoon, Wednesday, we checked out of the Garden Hotel and said goodbye to our guide, Lucia. We took a van from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. When the van pulled up, I knew I recognized the driver. It was the same driver Michelle and I had from Shenzhen to Hong Kong when I traveled to China in September for advocacy work. Small world! I've said it before, but God is in the details. It took us about 3 hours to get from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. We had to stop and get out at one point, but thankfully didn't have to take all our bags through that area- just us and our passports. Evan had mentioned that he needed some fresh air at one point- I thought getting out would help him. The van was nice and cool too. That was apparently not enough. Literally about a minute before we are to get out of the van, Evan starts throwing up. Thankfully he caught a lot in his hands and shirt and I caught a lot in my hands and then in a pair of pajama pants I'd later just throw out. Glad we had a bag of baby wipes on hand too. We had minimal clean-up in the van, but I think we shocked our driver, Joe. I felt so bad. I never did get to say goodbye to him. Evan felt bad too, but there's not much you can do. He definitely didn't have the flu and he never gets car sick so I think it's just a combo of things. This almost always happens to him when we are about to land in Chicago or when we are in the car on the way home and I attribute it to lack of sleep and jet lag. We're hoping he got it out of his system, but we'll be prepared with a bag on the plane and in the car on the way home, just in case. <br />
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Getting ready to leave the Garden Hotel in Guangzhou. Some of these are blurry because a little person changed my camera from auto to manual focus...</div>
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Macie does smile. She's just got a serious face about 50% of the time and she had just woke up from a nap before we headed down to the lobby.</div>
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Saying goodbye to our wonderful and kind guide, Lucia.</div>
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Van ride back to Hong Kong.</div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">We got checked in and to our room. It was time for quick baths/showers and a good night of rest. It was the first night Macie didn't cry before bed- maybe because we were all in the same room together. </span></div>
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There were 3 in the bed and the little one said...</div>
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In the morning (Thursday, November 19th), we woke up and got ready and then headed straight into the airport. Our hotel was connected to the airport, which was very convenient. We had one little melt down waiting in line for immigration and a lot of stares, but other than that, it was fairly easy and uneventful. We are currently sitting at the gate waiting to board our flight back to Chicago! We're getting very excited to be home, see our boys back at home, and to sleep in our own beds.</div>
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Our plane.</div>
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The kids waiting. Macie is in awe of the airplanes.</div>
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Lena has adopted the traditional Chinese pose that children here do for photos. </div>
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We LOVE our shirts, Fannie!</div>
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She likes to try and turn her head every time I take a picture. :) She may be precious, but she's got some stinker in her too. She can be really stubborn and is an amazing tattle tale. ;)</div>
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Evan and I have our matching shirts on. I originally bought two kid sized shirts like these for Lena and Macie but the smallest size they came in was child medium so they fit Evan and Reid a lot better than they fit the girls. :)</div>
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Pretty soon the US will have two pretty darn adorable new US citizens! :)</div>
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We are anxious for everyone to meet them, but we also want to work on continuing our journey to building attachment. We have learned from past mistakes. This article sums up what I'd want to say pretty well. I'd love it if our local friends and family took the time to read it.</div>
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<a href="http://www.nohandsbutours.com/2015/10/13/it-takes-a-village-a-letter-from-a-newly-home-family/">http://www.nohandsbutours.com/2015/10/13/it-takes-a-village-a-letter-from-a-newly-home-family/</a></div>
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We won't be in totally hiding, but we do plan to cocoon some and want our family and friends to know that at this time it is very important that Rick and I be the ones to hold the girls, feed the girls, meet their needs, etc. We don't mind our family talking to and interacting with the girls, but we really do need to be the ones who hold them, help them, etc. We've read enough books about this and have adopted enough children now to know why it is so very important. Thank you for understanding and for all your support and prayers. We cannot thank you enough!</div>
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Wisconsin, here we come!!!</div>
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Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-3544746593926882412015-11-17T22:35:00.006-08:002015-11-17T22:35:58.391-08:00Our Last Day in China!Today, Wednesday November 18th, was our last day in Guangzhou, China. We had our last breakfast at the Garden Hotel and spent some time wandering around the hotel. We then went back to the room and Rick and Evan took one last cab ride to One Link plaza to get some gifts for the boys at home and some Christmas presents. The girls stayed here with me and we got everything packed up. We took our air mattress back down to the concierge and picked up a package of a couple little things we had ordered from a shop on the island that weren't ready yesterday. From there we headed to McDonald's to get a late lunch. They have these ordering screens now (different than the last times we've been here). You take your receipt/order to the counter to pay if you didn't choose the credit card option. Then you wait for your order to be up. Rick said it was pretty efficient when him and Evan went there for something a different day, but we didn't have as good of luck. In just a couple hours, we will be checking out of the hotel and getting our visas for the girls. Then we will be headed in a van to Hong Kong with a flight out tomorrow morning, Thursday, November 19th. Please pray for safe travels home! We are excited to see the rest of our family and for the boys at home to meet the girls and vice versa. Thank you to everyone who followed our journey and for everyone who supported us in one way or another- we are blessed and we have felt covered in prayer, which is awesome!<br />
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The small playground outside the hotel near the pool.</div>
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A little waterfall near the pool area. The kids were all sweating from playing on the playground. :)</div>
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The McDonald's ordering system....I'm wondering if we will see these in our McDonald's in the future!?!?</div>
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More from Hong Kong later!</div>
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<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-75035975791981604192015-11-17T05:46:00.003-08:002015-11-17T06:04:12.931-08:00Consulate Appointment, Shamian Island and Last Night with Friends<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Today was our last full day here in Guangzhou- I can hardly believe it! The first part of our trip felt long, but this part has just flown by! We started our day off with a very early breakfast- the restaurant was pretty empty. We then met our guide, Lucia, at 7:40 a.m. to head to our consulate appointment- part of the process in getting the girls a visa in their Chinese passports so they can come home. We were super thankful that Lucia had us leave early- we were the 2nd family out of 12 to arrive to the consulate so we were able to get through all of that fairly quickly. Answered prayers- the family that got held up a bit yesterday had everything resolved shortly after 1 p.m. and were able to visit the Safari Park today. Our process went very smoothly..praise God!</div>
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Lucia has been a great guide- she is super sweet.</div>
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Here we are at the US consulate. I forget when this was built, but it was sometime after we adopted Reid because it was the first time we had been to this building. It was very nice and much more spacious. The lines outside were SO long. I was thankful we were citizens and got to go to a much shorter line. I got to personally thank the man who expedited Maeleigh's article 5 to help us avoid an expired travel approval for Macie. I did have a bit of an emotional moment in the consulate. I was happy to see both boys and girls being adopted, but sad to see that there were no children over about five. There are some here being adopted that are over five- I've seen them and know they had consulate appointments at a different time. But there are not many. I was thinking of Reid and realizing just how small the odds are for children six and older to be adopted. My heart breaks for these kids. I've now met some really great older kids, especially on my trip to China in September. Most of them are still waiting for families to see them and choose them. I pray more hearts will find themselves open to adoption and that more families will consider these kids six to thirteen. </div>
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They are worthy.</div>
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After our consulate appointment, we went to the China Hotel and picked up our friends Kristin and Russ and headed to the Chen Clan temple. This temple was built between 1890 and 1894 for the Chen family. Chen is one of the top five surnames in this province. This place was built for their families to have a place to study so they could pass a certain test. The architecture is gorgeous. Evan, Reid, and I were able to visit this place when here for Reid's adoption, but this was a first time for Rick, Lena, and the girls of course.</div>
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Outside the temple there are two lion statues, one male and one female. There are also two drums near the doors. These things are said to be protection for this temple.</div>
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They have a bunch of amazing things carved out of bone.</div>
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The colorful parts are so pretty- the highest parts were made out of something different than the rest, which was made out of limestone. The limestone part has to be re-painted yearly due to the weather.</div>
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A local artist who is famous for painting Chinese characters inside of glass. Incredible really. We had him paint the Chinese characters for Reid, Lena, Macie, and Maeleigh's names on the inside of this small ornament.</div>
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After our visit to Chen Clan, we had the driver drop us off at Shamian Island because we had some things we needed to pick up and we wanted to get the girls' pictures by some of the famous statues.</div>
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This was the first time we had TWO happy kids. Reid and Lena both cried and were unhappy the day we visited the island on their adoption trips.</div>
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So it seemed it used to be a tradition for families to wear red, white, and/or blue for the consulate appointment day...but I think that tradition is fading away. We might have gone a bit overboard and stood out just a little bit. ;) </div>
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The island is so beautiful and has so many neat statues.</div>
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The girls hanging out while I ran in a shop to pick something up.</div>
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Heading to check out the Pearl River.</div>
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Mama and Macie.</div>
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Daddy and Maeleigh.</div>
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SISTERS! </div>
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They were so silly posing. Rick said we looked like we were heading to the fourth of July parade.</div>
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More wedding pictures...this dress was so beautiful!</div>
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Bye bye, Shamian Island! We will miss you!</div>
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After we got back, I painted the girls' toenails- they were all pretty excited about it. I wish I had taken a picture. After that, we visited with some friends we've met here for the last time and then went to dinner at Oggy's- one of my favorite Italian places here in Guangzhou.</div>
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Visiting with and saying goodbye to Kristin, Russ, and their beautiful little girl, Elliott.</div>
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It was an honor to meet and get to know this little cutie who I once had advocated for.</div>
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Maeleigh and our friend's new son, Vallen- they are both just too cute!<br />
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Evan and his new friend, Baron, hanging out for the last time here at the hotel.</div>
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Dinner at Oggy's with our friends. Andrea and Jody and their daughter, Yvonne, and Heidi and Adam and their six awesome kids, Taylor, Isaiah, Baron, Lily, MeiLin, and Vallen.</div>
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We had another great day! Tomorrow Rick and Evan are going to take one last run to One Link Plaza to look for some gifts for the boys back at home and the girls and I are going to hang out and pack. We check out at 4 p.m. and get our visas for the girls shortly after and then head to Hong Kong by van. We will sleep one night there and fly out the following morning. Getting closer and closer! Bittersweet, that's for sure!</div>
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<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-21467274438970882562015-11-16T05:08:00.001-08:002015-11-16T05:08:06.156-08:00Safari Park<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today we woke up and got ready for the day and then headed down to breakfast. We met another family who had gotcha day today. I know what child they are adopting and I am super excited for them and for her! After eating, we headed outside to the little pond area they have outside the restaurant. We got some pictures of the kids on the bridge and with the fish and then headed in to chat with the kids back at home before getting ready to head out for the day. <br />
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More cute outfits from my sweet friend, Fannie. :)</div>
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We were supposed to meet our guide in the lobby at 10 a.m. to head to the Safari Park, but we got a call saying she was still at the consulate and it would be 10:15. Then another call that it would be 10:30 a.m. and then finally a call that said she'd call when she was in the lobby. We found out that one of the two families who had their consulate appointment today had their fingerprints locked up in the system and had to stay many hours extra, waiting for it to get resolved. They ended up not being able to go to the Safari Park with us. Sending some prayers for them- they've had a hard trip with illness and random things like this that are out of their control. Also praying we have no issues with our consulate appointment in the morning.</div>
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We picked up the two families at the China Hotel and then headed to the Safari Park while our guide stayed with the family at the consulate.</div>
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The weather was pretty perfect and the park was not very crowded at all- it was awesome!</div>
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One of the first things we did was take the Safari train ride. One side of the road is reserved for the train we were one and the other side for cars driving through. Most of the cars have their van doors and sunroofs open, with people hanging out.</div>
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We saw a lot of animals from the train, including kangaroos and beautiful birds.</div>
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Camels</div>
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Elephants</div>
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Rhinos</div>
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Giraffes, wildebeests, gazelle, and so many more. Sometimes the animals cross the road you are on right in front of or next to you and all of them are fairly close.</div>
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After we got off the Safari train, we went through the dinosaur area. All of these were electronic, yet looked so real. They did a great job!</div>
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This area is quite loud and scary- two dinosaurs about to attack each other. I remember Reid being very scared when we went through this area.</div>
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But not these two girls...</div>
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They just watched, laughed, and roared back!</div>
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Lemurs- we were reminded of the Madagascar movies.</div>
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Beautiful birds!</div>
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Silly faces!</div>
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I think Maeleigh taught Macie how to make this one! They are going to fit right in at our house.</div>
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Ice cream...YUM!</div>
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Orangutans- my favorite and so close too!</div>
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Watching the monkeys.</div>
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They had these neat screens that did all sorts of cool things- they were a bit like gigantic Ipads.</div>
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The snake area. We saw a lot of different kinds of snakes and some HUGE ones too.</div>
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Evan has made a new friend here in Guangzhou- Baron, my friend Heidi's son, from Virginia. We have very much enjoyed spending time with and getting to know their family!</div>
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We saw a lot of white tigers and some Bengal tigers too. The first group of white tigers we saw were being fed- meat was dangled to them and they'd jump off rocks to get it and land in water. It was pretty entertaining.</div>
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Evan got to throw meat to the white tigers.</div>
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Baby cubs...too cute!</div>
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Feeding the giraffes- one of our favorite things!</div>
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I love this picture- they had so much fun!</div>
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Time for the girls to try!</div>
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We then moved on to the kangaroo and koala area.</div>
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We saw some albino kangaroos.</div>
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This area made me wish I could go back to Australia!</div>
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Too cute!</div>
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Time for the pandas!</div>
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This one was hanging out on some ice and was looking very comfortable there.</div>
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There were signs everywhere about the 3 baby pandas that were born here in July.</div>
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Here's one of them sleeping. They were already pretty big for just under 4 months old.</div>
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Four of of sweet children!</div>
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Last stop- elephants. Loved this baby elephant!</div>
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Views of Guangzhou on the van ride back to the hotel.</div>
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The famous Canton tower.</div>
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Christmas lights are up in some places!</div>
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We went to Cow and Bridge Thai restaurant for dinner since we had skipped lunch. It wasn't the same one we remember going to when here adopting Lena. We were not impressed with our food and would not recommend this place unfortunately.</div>
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We had a very fun day today! </div>
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Tomorrow is our consulate appointment. We are waking up at 6 to head to breakfast. We have to be in the hotel lobby by 7:40 a.m. for our 8:30 a.m. consulate appointment. We are the only Madison family with a CA tomorrow. After our consulate appointment, we are going to pick up one family and head to a place I went to when I was here with Reid. After we get back to the hotel, we plan to get some lunch and take a cab back to Shamian Island to pick up some things we ordered for the girls and then possibly to One Link Plaza to spend a little more time there. Wednesday will be our last day here in Guanghzhou. We'll get our visas that afternoon and then head to Hong Kong that evening. We spend Wednesday night in Hong Kong at the hotel connected to the airport and then fly home on Thursday morning, arriving Thursday afternoon due to the time change. Soon we will be home and together with the rest of our family, a family of twelve!</div>
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<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-33702619992769746142015-11-15T07:18:00.001-08:002015-11-15T07:19:42.636-08:00Shopping AdventuresToday was a shopping day with all the families here with our agency. There are five of us and we represent Wisconsin, Virginia, Michigan, Kentucky, and Texas. :) At breakfast we got to talk with a few friends we have met here and also with a family I knew from Facebook that will have their gotcha day here in Guangzhou tomorrow afternoon. After breakfast, we met our guide and two of the other families in the lobby. That's when I got to meet another little girl I advocated for and got a big hug from her mama! MeiLin has thalassemia, just like Reid. Her family is here adopting another little boy with thalassemia from the same orphanage as their daughter, an orphanage here in Guangdong province that our agency, Madison Adoption Associates, partners with. We just adore their family and our kids are hitting it off great too! We've said it before, but God is in the details.<br />
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The lobby of the Garden Hotel.</div>
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Liwan Plaza- first stop: silk shop. Our guide told us about these hand embroidered little silk purses this shop sells. Evan and Lena got their picture taken with gigantic wooden Buddha, rubbing his belly for good luck as the guide told them to do.</div>
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In this place is store after store of different gemstones and other jewelry, from pearls to jade and other precious gems.</div>
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This is the pearl shop that every agency seems to take their people to- I guess they give a good deal here. It is amazing how many pearls they have in the shop and then in their back rooms and warehouses. Crazy! Pearls are very famous in China. We were told about the different qualities- they grade them as A, AA, AAA, AAAA, or AAAAA based on color, shape, and uniformity. We got Macie and Maeleigh something special to give them to wear on their wedding day...sometime a long time from now. ;)</div>
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Lena was a trooper in the store, helping me keep Macie entertained. Our guide absolutely adores Lena. She has told me time after time how beautiful she is and she even asked me if she could take her picture today. :) She said she has the most beautiful face and eyes. Needless to say: we agree!</div>
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In the store we ran into a few Lifeline families and their guide, Meko. We had Meko when we adopted Lena. She remembered me and came over and gave me a big hug and told me it was nice to see me. I thought that was very sweet!</div>
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Macie was keeping occupied with the store calculators. :)</div>
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The workers stringing the pearls.</div>
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This doesn't show it too well, but Macie had her dress wrapped over the top of the chair and then was standing up next to the chair. It was pretty funny.</div>
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From Liwan Plaza, we headed to the famous Shamian Island for a couple hours of shopping. Rick didn't want much to do with that so he headed to the Pet Market with Maeleigh while I shopped with Evan, Lena, and Macie for some gifts for the girls' future gotcha days, so they could have some special things from their home country. We went to our favorite place, Michael's. I tried to go to a couple others, but they were either closed for lunch or permanently gone. The island had changed so much by 2012 and 2013 with adoptive families staying in hotels off the island by that time, but now it is even more different. :( We did find Judy's store, which is off the beaten path a bit. That was Evan's favorite shop when we were there to adopt Reid. Judy wasn't there, but we did get a few things and the guy gave each of the kids a small trinket for 'free.' I personally felt that the prices for the things we normally get on the island were higher than usual and the shop keepers were less likely to bargain like they once did because they don't have as many customers and are just trying to keep afloat. It's too bad.</div>
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The island is a beautiful place where a lot of people go to take pictures for weddings, modeling, etc. It is peaceful and beautiful, with a lot of neat statues and buildings. Today is was busier than I've seen it in a long time..I guess that's a good thing! </div>
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More modeling. Lena pointed out the ladies' hair colors. Definitely different.</div>
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This is one of our favorite statues and a 'must stop' spot for adoptive families. We plan to go back to the island to pick up a few things we ordered another day. We'll take Macie and Maeleigh's pictures with these statues then because Rick was off on an adventure and had Maeleigh with him.</div>
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Sometimes the models are Asian and sometimes they are Caucasian. This was one tall and thin lady!</div>
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The famous Lucy's- a definite lunch or dinner spot for tourists. It used to be huge when families stayed in a hotel on the island back in the day, but is still frequented by adoptive families visiting the island.</div>
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Lena pointed out this cute couple and the pretty dress this girl had on.</div>
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Back at the hotel. Rick was holding Macie up in the window and this looked like a neat photo op. ;)</div>
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This girl is SO flexible!! She can seriously put her legs behind her head and wrap them around her neck...it's CRAZY! And she thinks it's fun AND funny!</div>
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The many faces and poses of Miss Macie! This was her free toy from one of the shops on the island.</div>
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She gets me with that smile...every single time! </div>
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Don't mind our messy hair- Macie lost one of my favorite bows today- I should have known that was going to happen. She's just like Lena in so many ways (especially when we got Lena/when she first came home). And nothing stays in this girl's SUPER fine hair too well.</div>
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These are in the hotel lobby. You walk up to each picture and they dance. Kind of neat!</div>
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There seems to be a wedding in our hotel almost daily.</div>
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There is also a small stage in the lobby and there have been daily dance performances. This was one of the groups performing tonight. They came walking off the escalators from the 2nd floor and onto the dance floor. Very different.</div>
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We went to dinner at the Paddy's Irish Pub with two families who are with our agency and at our hotel. I led them there. I love that I know where things are here. I kind of feel like I could be a tour guide after having been here three times..haha. The little girl above was adopted from one of Madison's orphanage partnerships here in this province. She was loving her spaghetti! :) Her family lives just across the lake from us in Michigan. The family in the background is a family we met while there. They are with another agency and from Seattle. We enjoyed talking to them, getting to know them, and meeting their new adorable son. They are also first time adopters!</div>
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The kids!</div>
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The girls!</div>
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The boys!</div>
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Me with MeiLin- the little girl who I advocated for and helped find a family. Makes my heart so happy to meet these kids in person!!! Below is her advocacy photo I created (not sure where her advocacy name came from). Look at the changes. This is what love and a family does!</div>
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Leaving the Irish Pub and headed back to the hotel.</div>
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We're all clean and brushing our teeth! These pajamas are size 3 but were a bit too big for Miss Maeleigh- the pants slid right down so I had to roll them. :)</div>
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She's starting to allow us to brush her teeth without crying...progress!</div>
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Another excellent day here in Guangzhou! </div>
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Tomorrow we will have breakfast and hang out for a bit in the morning while two of the families have their consulate appointments. After they are done, we will meet in the lobby to head to the Safari Park...another one of our favorite things. Rick and Lena have yet to see it. Evan and I went there when we adopted Reid and it was very cool! Rick and Evan are wanting to go back to One Link Plaza tomorrow when we get back because we didn't get too much time there the other day.</div>
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Thank you so much for following our journey and for your thoughts and prayers too...we feel them and appreciate them!</div>
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We dressed the girls in their Packer dresses today. We will miss the game while we're sleeping here in just a few short hours. GO PACK GO! :)</div>
<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-49676942504441473162015-11-15T06:15:00.002-08:002015-11-15T06:15:48.820-08:00Saturday, November 14th- Medical ExamSaturday morning we woke up and had our first breakfast at the Garden Hotel. They've changed the breakfast area a bit since we were here last. The flow isn't as convenient, but it looks like they needed more seating. The girls ate well and we started to see a lot of other adoptive families, which is always pretty cool. After breakfast, we met our guide, Lucia, in the hotel lobby at 9:30 a.m. to head to the medical exam with two of the other families that are here with our agency. The other two out of the five had already done the medical exam since their children are from this province and they have been here longer than us. That was our first time meeting Kristin and Russ from Houston and their precious daughter, Elliott as well as Tammy and Jordan from Kentucky and their sweet daughter, Mya. Both families are here for their first adoption and Tammy and Jordan are first time parents too! We are super excited for both of them and have loved getting to know them a little better.<br />
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The girls ready for the day- they had no idea what was in store for them this morning. A huge thank you to my good friend, Fannie for the adorable outfits...they were perfect for this day!</div>
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She's 50% serious as can be and 50% total goof ball! :)</div>
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At the medical exam building they have this vending machine...only in China! </div>
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This is the room where we had pictures taken for the girl's medical exam. I believe these are the pictures they use for their visas and certificates of citizenship as well.</div>
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Getting ready to head upstairs for the medical appointment.</div>
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Waiting to be seen.</div>
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A little apprehensive.</div>
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Still smiling...</div>
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There were many adoptive families there for the very same thing as us. We had to visit three rooms- 1)general check-up</div>
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2) height and weight</div>
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3) ENT</div>
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We then had to have the girls get a TB test done- they did a blood draw for any child 2 and older. They wouldn't let you in the room- they just took the child and brought them back out when done.</div>
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Kristin and Russ and their beautiful daughter, Elliott. I think she looks like an angel!</div>
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In the ENT office. We had this guy for Lena's medical exam too and he just cracks us up because when you tell him the child is deaf- he takes this squeaky toy and squeaks it by each ear and then thinks they can hear because they turn their head. He clearly doesn't realize how observant deaf children are and the fact that once he squeaked it one time, Macie realized he had something in his hand...so when he moved it to the other hand, she knew there was something over there. ;)</div>
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We were surprised that Macie did so well and that Maeleigh was not doing so well. She does not care to go to the doctor apparently.</div>
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Just checking height and weight. Macie was staying cool and Maeleigh was a mess.</div>
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The general check-up. He asked something about her mental development. I just said- she's deaf..she can't hear, but she is otherwise healthy and like any other child.</div>
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Maeleigh's general check-up.</div>
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I don't have a picture of the girls coming out of the TB test. Both were crying, but Maeleigh screamed SO loud while in there. I bet those poor nurses get beat up with all the kids they see. Maeleigh was one very mad little girl!</div>
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While waiting for all the families to finish up, I had the pleasure of meeting some more adoptive families. These two I was so anxious to meet because I had advocated for these two boys, both who happen to be deaf too! God is showing off here this week- there are 6-8 kids we know about in Guangzhou this week who have been adopted who are deaf or have hearing loss. That is incredible!</div>
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The above boy is Anthony with his sweet mom, Nicole and they are from Michigan- we hope to connect again with them in the future. The boy below is Max and his lovely mom, Kristen. Kristen and her husband adopted two adorable little deaf boys and they are also first time parents. All three boys were in a care home together. I love how God brought them to their families at the same time and also at the same time we would be in China. Max has quite a story- his file had randomly hit many agency lists at one time. That rarely happens- it was some sort of glitch. I had advocated for him and a family with our agency locked his file. This mom had contacted me- she was with another agency and was adopting his best friend and hoping to adopt him too. The family that had locked him released his file and are now matched with another little boy. The rest is history. God knew that two boys would come home because of this and which boy was to be in which family. His plans are best and always amaze me.</div>
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It didn't take too long for the smiles to return! SO tough! They were having fun with dad, Evan, and Lena while waiting for me to do paperwork with our guide and the other moms.</div>
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All their paperwork is ready for Tuesday's consulate appointment!</div>
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So proud of Evan and Lena- they are doing such a great job in their roles as big brother and big sister!</div>
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Lena is really bonding well with Maeleigh- it's so cute. And Evan adores them both for different reasons.</div>
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Later that afternoon we took a cab and went to one of our favorite places in Guangzhou- One Link Plaza. It's a huge shopping center where they have store after store and floor after floor of shops that each sell a specific type of item. </div>
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They have shops all along the outside of the building too. There was a costume shop and a shop with all Christmas decorations and another with little motorized vehicles for kids.</div>
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These people were pulling these motorized vehicles out of the boxes and assembling them right there.</div>
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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...sort of.</div>
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We've heard Christmas music in the park in Nanning and now this! </div>
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When we adopted Lena we had found a shop that sold knock-off Legos for SUPER cheap. They weren't exactly the same, but they were of just as good quality (not like the drug store Legos at home). Well we found another shop like it this time and Evan was so excited to spend some of his spending money his grandpa had sent him. He got so many Legos for so cheap! We will take them and the directions out of the boxes to bring them home and just toss the boxes to save space. What a score! We got a kick out of how they called Star Wars Space Wars and changed Chima to Ghima to avoid trademark infringement. </div>
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Saturday night we went to dinner at a favorite Mexican restaurant here in Guangzhou (a little taste of home) called Tekila's. We went with Kristin and Russ and enjoyed getting to know them better!</div>
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After that, it was time for baths and bedtime. Macie has been having a hard time with bath time and bedtime, but it is at least pretty short lived. She is getting better with teeth brushing at least. Sometimes her getting upset at bed time makes it a bit hard for Maeleigh, but all in all she is doing great! Please keep praying for both girls' hearts, their transition, and for their TB tests to come back clear and for us to get our visas on time on Wednesday afternoon so we can head to Hong Kong that evening. Overall we had a great first day in Guangzhou! We really love it here in Guangzhou!</div>
<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-39171813152499950372015-11-15T00:56:00.000-08:002015-11-15T00:56:19.800-08:00Friday, November 13th- Travel Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
On Friday, after heading to breakfast, we spent most of the rest of the morning packing up our stuff because this was the day we would leave Nanning, Guangxi province and head to Guangzhou, Guangdong province- home of the United States Consulate. After checking out of the hotel around 1 p.m. we headed to the People's Park with our guide, Miko. This is one of the oldest and most famous parks in Nanning.</div>
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We saw some beautiful bridges, landscaping, and architecture. There were also some boats, a bunch of rides, and a roller skating rink inside the park as well.</div>
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Gorgeous!</div>
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People can apparently pay to go inside one of these blow up tubes and roll around on the pond.</div>
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I'm so excited to watch the relationship between these two grow as Macie learns sign language.</div>
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This is a piece of art that is supposed to represent a folk tale that said it was good luck if you could jump through the hole of the fish.</div>
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This was the back side.</div>
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I love these bridges that are found all over parks in China.</div>
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Such beautiful landscape and architecture.</div>
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This was one of the girl's ideas. :)</div>
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After leaving the park, we headed to the old Nanning train station and got some noodles for lunch. Our guide said this is the equivalent of Chinese fast food.</div>
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We were so thankful our guide was able to get a pass to come into the train station and pretty much walk us on to the train before leaving! We loved getting to know Miko and spending time with her. We are so thankful for all that she showed us and taught us about the city of Nanning and Guangxi province. Our train left Nanning at about 5 p.m.</div>
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On the train- leaving Nanning and headed towards Guangzhou- about a 4 hour and 20 minute train ride. We have really enjoyed taking the train to and from places. It was bittersweet leaving Guangxi province, the birth province of our two newest family members. We hope to be able to go back some day!</div>
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We<span style="font-family: inherit;"> arrived to Guangzhounan (Guangzhou south) train station at approximately 9:30 p.m. We have learned that at the train stations, they say the city and then either <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18.72px;">east (dong), south (nan), west (xi), or north bei). We realized this might be the biggest train station we've been to yet! When we got to the arrival area, we didn't see any guide waiting for us. We weren't sure if we should walk around or stay in one spot. Rick stayed with the kids and I decided to walk just a bit. Eventually I see Richard walking towards Rick and the kids. Him and the driver were looking for us because they don't necessarily share the arrival area with people picking up. It was good to see Richard again! We had a lot of good chats about kids and advocacy on the van ride to the Garden. He helped us get checked in and we're not sure if we will see him again on this trip. He just recently got back from visiting many places with Madison Adoption Associates, our agency, and now he will be going on a trip on Monday with the China director for Agape Adoptions. He is one busy guy! I asked him if he ever slept and he just laughed. By the time we got in our room, got everyone bathed, and in bed it was just after midnight by the time Rick and I laid down. We loved seeing a new province and new scenery, but are now looking forward to a place we are familiar with. We know where to eat, where to shop, and tourist attractions here as well. We're excited to meet a bunch of adoptive families (all adoptive families have to go to Guangzhou for the 2nd week of the adoption because that is where the US Consulate is) and to being one step closer to home!</span></span></div>
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<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-65259996797739704532015-11-14T15:13:00.000-08:002015-11-14T15:13:28.821-08:00Thursday, November 12th- Visit to LiuzhouFriday morning we woke up really early and met our guide in the hotel lobby at 7 a.m. We headed to Nanningdong train station, a new station built about two years ago. Before loading, we took a bathroom break. This was the first time we've seen this system I got to see for the first time when I was on my trip in Anhui province. There is basically an opening in the floor that is about 8 inches wide. It goes through each of the stalls. You squat over it and water flushes through the whole system every so many seconds. Lena was very unsure about this. To make it worse, there were no doors- just a bit of a partial wall with a major opening so you basically are watching everyone in the room go to the bathroom. We loaded the train and headed towards Liuzhou. It was about an hour and a half ride with a couple stops along the way. <br />
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The beautiful countryside!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAvIlnCSypSk5z8wA8RaaA-YMfV1XZfV5UIchHJCSMYEX7cbFz4HEX-Znv6idP9VrH1ieRe6td7SgyMq2IcYJ3WFuJnxiSMsO09M_jYbWUXhNBWPe_nNx_Un0dYdzXlCVB3G6VlB-kpoo/s1600/China+Trip+2015+028.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAvIlnCSypSk5z8wA8RaaA-YMfV1XZfV5UIchHJCSMYEX7cbFz4HEX-Znv6idP9VrH1ieRe6td7SgyMq2IcYJ3WFuJnxiSMsO09M_jYbWUXhNBWPe_nNx_Un0dYdzXlCVB3G6VlB-kpoo/s320/China+Trip+2015+028.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Lena and Macie were having fun interacting with a couple of the little kids on the train sitting behind us. </div>
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Almost there!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWEv4E0DV49_ngMTTOLaDaHgFkW6skDEbn-90xHEw8JobW0I6LWnw86zRU-LZWyXY9xK26kYgWE-GJP2p2anaGbLW2NM3jOosIkH0Kt7pp7lbeAkDKdbXxPZmY1zYq4XnMrA2rMuIpGtM/s1600/China+Trip+2015+038.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWEv4E0DV49_ngMTTOLaDaHgFkW6skDEbn-90xHEw8JobW0I6LWnw86zRU-LZWyXY9xK26kYgWE-GJP2p2anaGbLW2NM3jOosIkH0Kt7pp7lbeAkDKdbXxPZmY1zYq4XnMrA2rMuIpGtM/s320/China+Trip+2015+038.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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We made it to Liuzhou!</div>
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We got off the train shortly after 9:30 a.m. When we walked out of the train station, a woman who works in the office was waiting for us with a driver. We took a short drive to the orphanage. I had seen pictures before, but I didn't realize that the gate was so close to a main road that's pretty busy.</div>
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This is the view from the orphanage looking at the gate and road in front of it.</div>
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The orphanage. Our guide thinks about 200 kids live here and that more are in foster care. It does seem like there are a fair amount of kids in foster care.</div>
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When we pulled into the orphanage our guide told us that the orphanage felt like it would be a good idea to have the kids in the same room as the foster parents. Not our original plan, but we kind od saw that coming. Just like gotcha day- no time to really prepare for what's about to happen..you just do it! Most family's don't make it past the front door. We didn't make it too far past that either- basically in the door and into an office that is to the right and then to a bathroom a bit down the hall where we got a peak at an open air courtyard that was in the middle of the orphanage. That's about all we saw. As we were walking into the orphanage, I could see three women sitting on a couch inside the office. I recognized one right way- Maeleigh's foster mom. There were two other foster moms and once in the office, I knew it was two of the three kids I was hoping to meet who have families in process. I had a package for the two on the couch sitting with their foster moms. I wasn't sure what to do first. We just let Maeleigh spend some time with her foster mom and dad and them with her since this would be the last time they see her for a very long time/possibly forever. All the girls had crazy hair after the train ride. The first thing her foster mom did after giving her a warm embrace and shedding a few tears was ask for a brush and she re-did her hair. ;) She sure was treated like a little princess. Rick took some pictures and video and I started unloading my packages for two of the three kids I'd meet. </div>
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I got to give packages to these two sweeties from their forever families. I got a lot of great pictures of them and some video too to share with their families who hope to travel in December and March/April.</div>
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I then met this little guy who has a family who hopes to come for him after Chinese New Year!</div>
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I am sad to report- I was not able to meet any waiting kids. Definitely one of two disappointments that day. Most were in school or in foster families and there was just so much going on too. I understood, but felt a bit of disappointment. The other reason I couldn't meet any was because our agency just had representatives go visit the orphanage days before.</div>
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Maeleigh's first embrace with her foster mom.</div>
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Getting her hair re-done.</div>
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Maeleigh's foster father.</div>
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Us with Maeleigh's foster parents outside the orphanage.</div>
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I had to give this incredible lady a big hug. </div>
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Our families with a couple of the orphanage staff.</div>
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A picture with Maeleigh and her foster mother. I was sure to tell her that as much as Maeleigh will always be in her heart, a piece of her will also be in Maeleigh's hearts, as well as ours. </div>
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And if things weren't emotional enough by this point, up pulls a police care and about four or five police officers with a little boy about 2-3 years old who was abandoned on this day and found and brought to the orphanage. Oh my heart. Our guide had never seen this before and obviously this was a first for us as well. The boy was terrified and of course crying. I had already had tears in my eyes from seeing Maeleigh's foster mother re-unite with her and her emotional state and now this. I did all I could do to keep it together and not lose it. Tears were flowing. I think the orphanage staff was quite overwhelmed with all that was going on as well. But talk about putting it into perspective. We finally have our girls and then witness the beginning of the process of a child being orphaned. My heart goes out to that little boy and the parents who had to make the decision to abandon him for whatever reason...and to the millions of other children and parents who have been in their shoes.</div>
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Shortly after that, Macie's foster mother and foster sister, came to the orphanage.</div>
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This is Macie's foster sister. Her only special need is a repaired cleft lip and she is considered healthy now so the orphanage will wait to see if a family will adopt her domestically before preparing her file for international adoption. That would be wonderful if she could remain in her home country. Praying for her!</div>
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Macie and her foster mother's first embrace. The emotions she displayed surprised me a bit after having seen her in video. Meeting the foster families was such an amazing experience, despite how hard it was, because it allowed us to learn more about them and to see how our daughters interacted with them and how they interacted with our daughters. It also allowed us to see where parts of their personality and behaviors came from.</div>
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Macie and her traditional pose, which I believe she learned from her foster mother.</div>
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Macie's foster mother and I embracing. Another woman who will forever be in our hearts and a part of Macie.</div>
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I told you she's pretty good with sharing- she was totally okay with letting her foster sister share her sippy cup.</div>
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As we were walking out, some kids a level above us were watching us and waving at us. How I wish I could have spent some time with them.</div>
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Group picture with Macie's foster mom and sister, Maeleigh's foster mother and father, and two of the orphanage staff members.</div>
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Our half a family that's here in China....soon to be a family of twelve.</div>
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A view from outside the orphanage gate.</div>
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This is where Macie and Maeleigh were found abandoned. It's always a bit somber to stand in/near the place where your adopted child was found, but it is a part of their story and something that you will share with them when they are ready. I'm sure it was the most difficult decision their parents ever had to face, especially their mothers. I am thankful that they left them so close to the orphanage- they were taking a risk doing so, but likely knew they would be found quickly and taken into a safe place.</div>
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We were told before leaving the orphanage that we would be able to visit Macie's foster family's home, but not Maeleigh's because they were too far apart and there was not enough time. That was our 2nd disappointment for the day, but we were thankful to be able to visit Macie's foster home at least and hope that maybe Maeleigh's foster parents can send us some pictures of the outside and inside of their home so we have them for her future. We know she'd appreciate that.</div>
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From the orphanage, we took a city bus with our guide who happens to be from Liuzhou. We rode it for quite awhile. We had many women asking our guide about us and all were very positive and kind. One gave us many thumbs up. They were in awe that we had four children and said how we must love children. Little do they know that we have ten children. I don't think they would have believed out guide. ;)</div>
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At one point both girls fell asleep. </div>
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Our guide, Miko, took us to the mall in Liuzhou for lunch. There were paper umbrellas hanging from the ceiling on every floor- it was really pretty.</div>
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We went to a restaurant she recommended for a hot pot. She asked us what we wanted to put inside- I let Rick decide.</div>
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One of the staff preparing the long noodles that would eventually go inside. You eat part of the meal and then they add some of these noodles and then they add something to make it more of a soup and finally some more vegetables are added. The meal changes as you go.</div>
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After we finished lunch, we decided that Rick would stay at the mall with Lena, Macie, and Maeleigh while Miko, Evan, and I paid a quick visit to Macie's foster home. Macie's foster mother said it would be best if we didn't bring her back because she already grieved heavily that day when she saw the mother. The mother knew she'd grieve much more when she'd see the father, who she was very close with. We took a cab to their apartment. It was raining pretty heavily. The foster father was waiting for us at the entrance to the apartment complex with umbrellas.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxLPTCXi67tas8n_62h3B5MBJTqhlZ-nF2dEDilB6ZcxgcCefK4MYSOfu0kTXxoPBF2qqjVTIxc3rNppHOXL8ZQ7czJHNaOqcBWLCHO6ZsJC8bryG23PMi4OowK8Ob8GMH-A5waVgXEb8/s1600/China+Trip+2015+197.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxLPTCXi67tas8n_62h3B5MBJTqhlZ-nF2dEDilB6ZcxgcCefK4MYSOfu0kTXxoPBF2qqjVTIxc3rNppHOXL8ZQ7czJHNaOqcBWLCHO6ZsJC8bryG23PMi4OowK8Ob8GMH-A5waVgXEb8/s320/China+Trip+2015+197.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
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We followed him through the complex area until we go to their building.</div>
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This is their building. We went in the main door and up one short flight of stairs and they were the first apartment on the left- 101.</div>
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Macie's foster mother let us in and then we took off our shoes and put on some slippers.</div>
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We got to see Macie's foster sister again. :)</div>
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Within days of Macie leaving the home, the foster family had a new child to care for. I thought this baby was a boy at first, but learned that it is a one year old girl with down syndrome. This is the family's 11th foster child. Ten of their foster children have been girls and only one boy, who happened to be Macie's foster brother. He has been home for quite some time now and we are friends with his family and hope to re-unite the kids at some point. We were told they were very close. We were also told we were the first family to visit the home.</div>
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Views from inside the home. This is looking out from the living room out to the patio.</div>
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A large picture on the wall of the family's son and his wife who recently got married. They had their own home, but the son decided he wanted to stay at home so the couple has their own room inside the family's two bedroom apartment. The wife has a job with the government and we're told she speaks good English. The son works at night so he was sleeping while we were there. She did open his door and show us his room.;)</div>
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The couch and chairs in the living room. </div>
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A view from the couch.</div>
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They had a small fish tank.</div>
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The kitchen. The mom loves to cook and we were told she is a very good cook.</div>
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The foster father and the foster sister getting bags of snacks and seeds they had purchased for our visit.</div>
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The dining room table. That bottle on the table was the one Macie used to drink out of, but it is now the foster sister's. They had various fruit on the table and offered us each one when we arrived.</div>
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The parents' bedroom. They had one large bed in the room and we were told that both girls slept with the foster parents in the bed. I can't even imagine how that would be comfortable and how they'd get any sleep, especially after seeing how Macie sleeps.</div>
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This mat was at the foot of the bed, between the bed and windows. We had seen this room in the video we had received in October. This is where Macie took her naps. She'd lay on the mat and watch the computer- maybe a movie or something until she fell asleep. Now we know why she doesn't like to go to bed at night. Her foster mother said Macie is the one who pulled the pieces off this mat.</div>
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She pointed out the computer that she'd watch until she fell asleep.</div>
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The bathroom. They had a squatty potty and a western toilet. The squatty potty likely also served as a drain. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicvPTkFk9eZsAnbYJLmmnLO1WuUf2xC_qkPVshL1NBowoOavNIecuFexDom7e-OKj8TlpS1C7Llw9NyxemP6TWOpwmxrofMfTh1aiugeMD_fXJDupBN0xEGxCX-lPSumGzCj-BiIGAlmU/s1600/China+Trip+2015+219.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicvPTkFk9eZsAnbYJLmmnLO1WuUf2xC_qkPVshL1NBowoOavNIecuFexDom7e-OKj8TlpS1C7Llw9NyxemP6TWOpwmxrofMfTh1aiugeMD_fXJDupBN0xEGxCX-lPSumGzCj-BiIGAlmU/s320/China+Trip+2015+219.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
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There was no bathtub, but there was a shower. The girls would stand in the red basin and possibly be hand washed. That also explained why Macie does not care for the bathtub.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4www-iP8N2E7OCLExop-wqbSijWJwa9a3zxA1PjOXSoNe9roQeDVhztO5ruxJQqAt5aCghxT0W8DM4ivnryCED8Q90vfryq4tdWTCfeHBv17A3FTOlMFItLCILS49nnetOt_DHS0HI9Q/s1600/China+Trip+2015+220.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4www-iP8N2E7OCLExop-wqbSijWJwa9a3zxA1PjOXSoNe9roQeDVhztO5ruxJQqAt5aCghxT0W8DM4ivnryCED8Q90vfryq4tdWTCfeHBv17A3FTOlMFItLCILS49nnetOt_DHS0HI9Q/s320/China+Trip+2015+220.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Part of the kitchen.</div>
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They then got out a bunch of pictures they had received of former foster children. We saw a bunch of this little girl who was adopted by a family in the Netherlands.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGa3roSkVM70ua8Za1aSlps4Q9h7aNFPxsG27-K_DGW98K7XSAXb0IIJ2EdGF_1MvTkI4FM5jLK06RYGW3uZlxsJ8fGp1caISHyrgqcV4DGB60ZqSKLYAm54ig1zJy4v7UO-bI0jiKnck/s1600/China+Trip+2015+224.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGa3roSkVM70ua8Za1aSlps4Q9h7aNFPxsG27-K_DGW98K7XSAXb0IIJ2EdGF_1MvTkI4FM5jLK06RYGW3uZlxsJ8fGp1caISHyrgqcV4DGB60ZqSKLYAm54ig1zJy4v7UO-bI0jiKnck/s320/China+Trip+2015+224.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
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There was an older lady who lived in the apartment across from the patio who likes to spend a lot of time at the family's home, helping take care of the babies. She is like a grandma to them. We got to meet her too.</div>
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A sign and clock hanging on the wall.</div>
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The snacks, candy, and pumpkin seeds.</div>
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Trying some seeds. Macie's foster mother imitated how Macie would put seeds in her pocket and how she'd eat them. It was PRICELESS! She was so animated and it made me see exactly where Macie's two personalities come from...her mellow side from the father and her animated and crazy side from the mother. I loved it!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjkeWwBE7xJvqEEwajedqU7MBKMC5RRoOdH_racKyOO-tx0IbPH8XJdET6J6eneI5GnyPy1lqtn6goIcRXfasgWHCWzV_1csGUt5KG1nFZz2xzdStztErHZPAo3eQLNs5h0oQuQZh-piE/s1600/China+Trip+2015+229.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjkeWwBE7xJvqEEwajedqU7MBKMC5RRoOdH_racKyOO-tx0IbPH8XJdET6J6eneI5GnyPy1lqtn6goIcRXfasgWHCWzV_1csGUt5KG1nFZz2xzdStztErHZPAo3eQLNs5h0oQuQZh-piE/s320/China+Trip+2015+229.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi24G5JjFR3mYbMIfE0gMEqDDqgUyfRVV09TIU6_8QrPS6BkswRp0KUHON_s02Bv69bf1aK0et-t8RGODXN16p38c2sh1YionCV7W_deZm3n3miBTZcxe6XPCPE9lNHvoHcxUH5oJInjmk/s1600/China+Trip+2015+230.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi24G5JjFR3mYbMIfE0gMEqDDqgUyfRVV09TIU6_8QrPS6BkswRp0KUHON_s02Bv69bf1aK0et-t8RGODXN16p38c2sh1YionCV7W_deZm3n3miBTZcxe6XPCPE9lNHvoHcxUH5oJInjmk/s320/China+Trip+2015+230.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
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There you can see the 'grandmother' in the background.</div>
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She also imitated how Macie would squat and poop and then pinch her nose and wave her hand for stinky. It was HILARIOUS and again, one of those moments I will never forget because I very much see this woman in who my daughter is at various points in the day.</div>
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The grandmother feeding the new baby a bottle.</div>
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The foster father made some tea for us. The little girl tried to touch the pot and got her hand swatted. She cried, but soon stopped. She was very attached to the foster father too- when he left to take us to get a cab she cried very hard.</div>
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This was a special dish the foster mother made for us. Inside was sticky rice (and let me tell you- it is VERY sticky) with meat. You unwrap the shell and eat what is inside. It's a lot like a Mexican tamale in that sense. These are made special for holidays like Tomb Sweeping Day and Dragon Boat Festival. The foster mother said we could take them with us since we had already eaten lunch and really didn't have time to stay for a meal- we'd miss our train back to Nanning if we did.</div>
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She also packed up a bag of snacks, candy, and seeds for Macie.</div>
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So cute!</div>
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We saw a picture of our friends who adopted Macie's foster brother. I love this picture.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoe3ONgpKXfuZiDecZW52H0dr2FIWbPfAbf5LwFREbhTbdO8L8_1D9xuFibz9uhF42bYOYK_whqE5tUsiUxBLy6SQ10dGc2DAYjrtNu0IXwWNuahyblWsvL7yMLG3cbUQt8NO0x2GbiHI/s1600/China+Trip+2015+242.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoe3ONgpKXfuZiDecZW52H0dr2FIWbPfAbf5LwFREbhTbdO8L8_1D9xuFibz9uhF42bYOYK_whqE5tUsiUxBLy6SQ10dGc2DAYjrtNu0IXwWNuahyblWsvL7yMLG3cbUQt8NO0x2GbiHI/s320/China+Trip+2015+242.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
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More kids' pictures. They really treasure the pictures they receive.</div>
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Group picture! It was time to say goodbye. We thanked them for the love and care they gave to our daughter and to so many others and thanked them for allowing us to come into their home. We now have their address and their email and can send them some updated pictures of Macie. They took our flash drive and put a folder of pictures they had of Macie on their computer onto our flash drive. Such a gift! I am SO glad I had the opportunity to visit them in their home. I learned so much and it is a memory I will never forget. I now have so much great stuff to share with Macie some day too. I wish we had the same opportunity for Maeleigh, but understand why it did not work out. I hope we can at least get some pictures from them at some point.</div>
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After saying our goodbyes, the foster father walked us out. We quickly realized catching a cab may be an issue. It was pouring rain too! We walked many blocks to a place where we'd have better luck finding a cab. We saw a bunch of shops along the way, including ones where meat had just been freshly cut and laid in slabs on the tables for people to buy. We even saw the heads of birds on the table as well and one bird being drowned before it was going to get it's head cut off. We finally got to a place where we'd have better luck being able to get a cab. Despite having umbrellas, we were all pretty wet- our shoes were soaked! That's the most rain I've seen in a long time. We we running about 15 minutes late for picking Rick and the girls up from the mall. We told them a time and place to meet us. We finally got a cab and said our goodbyes to the foster father. We got a cab to the mall and walked in. As we were getting ready to go up the escalator to go to our meeting spot, we spotted Rick with the girls near the top of the escalator and waved for them to come down. This was too cute of a moment not to capture! </div>
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Rick said they had taken laps on each level multiple times- he knew the mall pretty well and thinks everyone in there knew them too...haha.</div>
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We made it to the train station in plenty of time..whew! We had to take two cabs to get there and were a bit nervous when Rick, Macie, and Maeleigh's cab was not arriving. We aren't sure if our cab just was really fast or took a short cut or what. Finally they showed up- thank God! I think our guide was even starting to get a bit nervous. Our train ended up being delayed out of Liuzhou. It was supposed to leave around 4:30 but got out at about 5:10 or so. We got back around 6:30 p.m. and waited for our driver. They drove past the famous 'night market' and asked if we wanted to stop. Of course we did! The night market opens at 6 p.m. and closes around 2 or 3 a.m. Our guide told us that by morning every stand was cleaned up and gone and that it was just an empty walkway during the daytime hours. I asked her what time people typically work here and she said from 8 to 12 and then again from 2 to 6 p.m.</div>
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We walked down the path, past all the food stands. There was fruit, breads, and just about any meat or seafood on a stick that you could imagine.</div>
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There were some shops too. I LOVED the lanterns hanging in this shop. I was told that they were kind of traditional to a nearby province, Yunnan. I didn't care because I liked them so much. I let Lena pick out the color she wanted and we got one for the girls' room. Evan found something he really liked in this shop too.</div>
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Evan wanted to buy some watermelon and he shared it with the girls on the way back.</div>
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We have seen things like this before in China- metal twisted to make different shapes. </div>
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We got one of those cool bikes for a little over a dollar.</div>
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Heading back to our hotel, we got to see a lot of the city lit up at night. </div>
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Nanning really is a very cool city! The big building across the road is our hotel.</div>
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Every day and night the hotel has a lady dressed in a traditional outfit like this waiting near the elevators.</div>
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When we got back to the room, we got out the few things we had purchased at the night market and the special dish Macie's foster mother had made. Both girls liked it, but Maeleigh REALLY liked it. She almost ate a full one herself. I was spoon feeding it to Macie and Maeleigh started helping me...too cute.</div>
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This was a very long and exhausting day, but it was one we will never forget!</div>
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<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-56068670160863058032015-11-11T05:54:00.001-08:002015-11-11T05:54:50.009-08:00Hotel Happenings and Getting to know Macie and MaeleighThis is what happens when you spend a lot of time in a hotel room. :) You have to get creative about finding ways to make it fun. Someone started making play dough mustaches and we all got a little silly. Macie really didn't want anything to do with it though.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj47TEq76LGnQSmEonu6KCGKUjn_7iuwM_JnvuoHFQJMvtOWQmQIkRk9tRIyKFzXLSRssTJjUm9ZlN_7jDyaDD_9grCkUwjj_9aYbmWa0iLj_hGZKxY7XmwY7MVFXeZ6W541EEoyzd-PbU/s1600/China+Trip+2015+186.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj47TEq76LGnQSmEonu6KCGKUjn_7iuwM_JnvuoHFQJMvtOWQmQIkRk9tRIyKFzXLSRssTJjUm9ZlN_7jDyaDD_9grCkUwjj_9aYbmWa0iLj_hGZKxY7XmwY7MVFXeZ6W541EEoyzd-PbU/s320/China+Trip+2015+186.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
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What we've learned about Macie:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqqAhgiblXJuRyWPVuv2-Ymifql6P85JNc5GVIapya3tFqgBXyqqifB5Yq_X-YPerSHNAKabPIeKIVIfCip1LGdpVOn94UiRZ8M8d_RGOyRuJuMMNyFlBhhT2hjZ930Ng89Xl_KBtYVDE/s1600/China+Trip+2015+180.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqqAhgiblXJuRyWPVuv2-Ymifql6P85JNc5GVIapya3tFqgBXyqqifB5Yq_X-YPerSHNAKabPIeKIVIfCip1LGdpVOn94UiRZ8M8d_RGOyRuJuMMNyFlBhhT2hjZ930Ng89Xl_KBtYVDE/s320/China+Trip+2015+180.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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*She can't seem to hear much from what we can tell.</div>
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*She is pretty serious most of the time, but has a silly side too.</div>
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*When she gets excited or wants to tell someone something, she uses a noise that sounds a lot like Donald Duck. She just might have a nickname already. :)</div>
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*She has excellent facial expressions that will be perfect for when she learns ASL! </div>
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*She cries quietly and it sounds like a cat meowing. She cries easily and can stop crying easily if you just give her something- a cup of water, a snack, etc. When she gets upset, she bounces/or pushes her hands and feet up and down. </div>
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*She LOVES to jump, climb, and run. She's a bruiser..literally! We plan to ask about the major bumps and bruises on her forehead, but after a couple days with her we think we know how she got them. She is not really steady on her feet and runs into things easily and falls down more easily. </div>
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*She's very brave and adventurous and not afraid of much, except going to bed and the dark..at least right now.</div>
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*She snores.</div>
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*She is starting to like taking baths, but it doesn't appear that she has taken baths much and if she did, it was possibly very different than the way a child in the US would take a bath. She does not like her hair to be washed- water on her head/face.</div>
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*She does not enjoy having her teeth brushed and it appears she rarely had them brushed. She's likely going to need a very LONG first teeth cleaning appointment, possibly sedated, and it's likely she's going to have quite a few cavities. Her actual teeth positioning looks pretty good though.</div>
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*She is very sweet and kind. </div>
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*She shares well. </div>
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*She's mellow and easy-going. </div>
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*When inside, she's pretty passive and doesn't do a whole lot of anything. </div>
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*When outside, it's like she comes alive!</div>
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*She makes Evan laugh very hard and he just adores her already.</div>
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*She doesn't care to have her hair done. She pulls out hair bands and bows.</div>
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*She is bonding with both of us, but seems to prefer mom a little bit more.</div>
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*She seems quite smart and will probably pick up sign language and other concepts fairly quickly. She's already picked up a handful of signs: mom, dad, and car. We're working on a bunch more, but she doesn't have them down quite yet. She'll soon learn that everything has a sign.</div>
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*She's much younger acting in many ways.</div>
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*She's the younger of the two girls by five months, but she is taller, heavier, and has bigger feet.</div>
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*She is loving having her picture taken and now poses all the time. She puts her hand out and that's her signal: "Mom, take a picture of me!"</div>
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*She likes to eat and will eat most things. If she doesn't want it or like it, she'll shake her head no. She likes to be hand fed, but can eat independently too.</div>
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*She is not yet potty trained- wearing pull-ups for the time being. She did go on the toilet once for us. She likely just needed someone to teach her.</div>
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*She does not like to be tickled, but does like to have her back rubbed.</div>
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*She will scratch my back or pat my back when I hold her, especially when she's upset. So cute!</div>
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*She has a dimple when she smiles. :)</div>
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What we've Learned about Maeleigh:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikMw0eEAe4hjajB5ldCSqZ18_ee8NC9ddVnrNyI8i9e6v-s2A3x5hDy0gTrEn5Ivek2OLHs1xy6oSDN3c41vIsrmBbG7priAYjTXxmv_IKG4c2s5ctGBLvWdh70FF72tWAb4Ehq6ogaWI/s1600/China+Trip+2015+182.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikMw0eEAe4hjajB5ldCSqZ18_ee8NC9ddVnrNyI8i9e6v-s2A3x5hDy0gTrEn5Ivek2OLHs1xy6oSDN3c41vIsrmBbG7priAYjTXxmv_IKG4c2s5ctGBLvWdh70FF72tWAb4Ehq6ogaWI/s320/China+Trip+2015+182.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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*She's a charmer! Anyone who sees that smile is going to fall in love with her. :)</div>
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*She's smart.</div>
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*She's definitely been taught how to do things and be independent. She likes to get her own clothes on, brush her own teeth, brush her own hair, etc. </div>
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*She is quiet most of the time and has the cutest little voice when she does say something.</div>
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*She has an adorable laugh.</div>
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*She doesn't say a whole lot- may have a language delay. </div>
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*She's trying to repeat some words in English- says mama, dada, and Evan pretty well.</div>
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*She's bossy and a bit of a stinker.</div>
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*She knows how to work people.</div>
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*She can be pretty rough. She sometimes grunts and then puts her hand in a fist and hits. We're working on breaking that habit. ;)</div>
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*She likes to do things the way she wants to do them and to take charge of a situation.</div>
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*She is not good at sharing at all.</div>
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*She loves taking baths and seems to know what you do in the bathtub and likes to do it herself.</div>
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*She likes brushing her teeth and seems to know how/has done it before. She has nice looking teeth.</div>
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*She has the thinnest hair I've ever seen. It's so long too! She likes to brush her own hair and often uses her hands to clear her face of any hair- it's so cute when she does it.</div>
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*She is bonding to both of us, but seems to prefer Rick a little more. It is clear she adores him. She likes being held by him, holding his hand, and loves to rub and pull on his arm hair. ;)</div>
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*She LOVES to jump. If we have neighbors below us, they may not like us because she likes to jump and plop on her butt on the floor and on the bed and off of the bed even. </div>
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*She is SUPER flexible and has good balance. She can do the splits, put her foot in her mouth, put her legs up over her head. Future gymnast?!?!? We were told Liuzhou is known for gymnastics.</div>
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*She is the older of the two girls by five months, but she is shorter, lighter, and has smaller feet. </div>
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*She is potty trained, but needs help on the toilet. She likes to just pull her pants down when she needs to go- that's her signal for now!</div>
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*She is a good eater and will eat most things. She loves meat and noodles.</div>
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*She loves to be tickled!</div>
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Both girls LOVE bubbles, playing with play dough, coloring, going outside, being held, and getting flipped by dad. We love our girls and we can't wait to learn so much more about them over the next coming days, weeks, months, and years. :)</div>
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Tomorrow we are getting up early to meet our guide at 7 a.m. in the lobby to catch a 8:00 train to Liuzhou. We are all going to go back to the orphanage and get some pictures of where the girls were found- outside the orphanage gate. We plan to try to meet a few kids who have families in process for them. We have two packages from two of the families. We are hoping to meet a few waiting kids, but not sure if that will happen or not because agency staff were just visiting the orphanage a couple of days ago. We plan to have the girls and Evan and Lena hang out with our guide in a separate room while we meet the foster parents to ask them some questions. We'll do lunch on our own and then potentially go to the foster families' homes to see where the girls spent their first couple of years. One of us will likely stay with the girls and go to a park or something. We're just not sure we want them to have to go through the leaving all over again and go backwards in our attachment. It's so hard to know what is best/right sometimes. I have this feeling something is not going to go as planned tomorrow and they are going to see each other. </div>
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Please pray that we have a safe train ride to Liuzhou and then back to Nanning. Pray that we are able to meet the matched children for their families and that we might get to meet even a few of the waiting kids. Please pray for our meeting with the foster families and that we learn a lot from them and that we will hopefully be able to visit their homes. We will learn so much from that experience.</div>
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Tomorrow will be a special, but long day.</div>
<span id="goog_1497024077"></span><span id="goog_1497024078"></span><br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-47132809451740356512015-11-11T01:31:00.003-08:002015-11-11T01:39:51.112-08:00November 11th- Day 3- Qingxiu MountainWe finally got a decent night of sleep! Rick and I woke up at about 6:30 a.m. and Evan and Lena were pretty much waking up at the same time. We had to wake the girls up and they both woke up happy again! YAY! After getting ready, we headed to the breakfast buffet. It was another gloomy day, but the rain held off...whew! We got to talk with the kids as they were getting ready to head to bed. Landyn seems to be having the most hard time out of all the boys at home. I didn't see that coming. I thought it would be Jayce or Rowan. Rowan is finally saying mama and dada and smiling at us. He seemed mad at us the first few days. That kind of stuff is hard- makes you homesick. <br />
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We met our guide in the lobby at 9:30 a.m. and headed to Qingxiu Mountain. What a beautiful place! So many pretty flowers, trees, and landscaping. Seriously gorgeous. We rode on one of those trams you see in this first photo below and stopped at a few places to get out and explore.<br />
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Such a good big brother to his little sisters!</div>
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The flowers were stunning! The pink flower below is the flower of Nanning.</div>
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Tram ride!</div>
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She loves him and he loves her! She loves to get down and run.</div>
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A beautiful scene.</div>
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Macie is very good at posing for photos when out in public!</div>
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Feeding the koi. There were so many of them and they went crazy to get that food!</div>
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Mama helping Macie.</div>
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This is just a small group of them!</div>
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Macie and mama.</div>
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Lena </div>
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Getting ready to head up to the pagoda.</div>
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There was a pagoda just like this one that was destroyed during World War II because it was so tall that they were worried people would find it. In 1985 they made a new pagoda that looked just like the old one. It was 9 stories high and 97 meters tall. We did go all the way up to the top. The girls LOVED going up and down and looking out all of the windows! It was a good workout too. :)</div>
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View from the top!</div>
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We were all running down the hill. I had to get in front of them because I knew it would be a cute picture.</div>
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This area was the highlight of our day! It was a ropes course different companies use to promote team building. We did the whole thing with all our kids. Our guide took a lot of pictures and stood and watched us in amazement. She said she never had a family do this before. It was so good for bonding and building trust and we all had a blast!</div>
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She LOVES her daddy!</div>
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Evan climbing the wall!</div>
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She is great on the balance beam.</div>
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She cracked me up here. She first laid down on this board and then went down it like a slide.</div>
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They had to go under these ropes. Look at those smiles!</div>
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Evan just LOVED this course that had like 15 different obstacles.</div>
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Then we went and checked out a bunch of cool statues.</div>
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So cute!</div>
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She got down and started posing, waiting for me to take this picture. :)</div>
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Lena looked like this statue today with her pigtails.</div>
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Another cool building.</div>
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Potty time! She almost pulled down her pants in public. We found a family bathroom with this tiny potty- it was too cute not to take a picture. ;) She jumped up and started opening the door while poor Lena was trying to pull her pants back up.</div>
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These trees were so cool!</div>
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Daddy is so in love and happy, as I'm sure you can tell!</div>
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After leaving the mountain, we headed to the other side of town to visit a shop that had a few traditional Guangxi items. We bought each of the girls a tapestry hand bag (tapestries are big in this province) and a xiuqiu or love ball for the future, one for their room, and a few for gifts. I borrowed this picture and description of them from the internet: <b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> A <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 21px;">Xiuqiu is a ball made of colored cloth or silk as big as a fist, with colored flowers and birds embroidered on it, and also connected to several colored strips. Stuffed with chaff or cottonseeds, the ball will generally be less than 0.5kg in weight with some color band and a hank of colorful silk tassel attached. Its shape symbolizes the twelve months in a year: 12 pieces of petal-like cloth are knitted together, showing that happiness and love stay with every month and every year.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 21px;"> </span></span></b></div>
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After that we headed back to the room and had lunch in the room and then got the girls down for a nap. They were exhausted after all that walking, climbing, running, and after that obstacle course adventure! It was a great start to the day!</div>
<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-40703051135352621002015-11-10T17:35:00.000-08:002015-11-10T22:16:27.790-08:00Day Two- Our First Full Day with the Girls and Adoption Day!All of the kids woke up early this morning...way too early. Evan and Lena were up sometime between 3:30 and 4:00 a.m. (jet lag is really messing with Lena and I this trip) and then Macie and Maeleigh were up around 5:30 a.m. We were told that they both usually go to bed around 10 p.m. (not happening at our house) and that Macie doesn't get up until 10 a.m. and Maeleigh gets up at 7 a.m. They did go to bed earlier last night than they are used to, but they also hadn't napped yesterday and had quite the emotional day. I was surprised that they were up so early! But the best news of all...they both woke up very happy! :)<br />
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Macie was the last kiddo to wake up.</div>
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She woke up happy!</div>
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This was such a sweet moment. Macie was sitting on my lap and then she reached out to Maeleigh as if to tell her- come sit on my lap! It was super cute. Macie really is a sweetie and so kind to Maeleigh. Maeleigh can be kind to Macie sometimes too, but not always. </div>
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We got to the breakfast buffet pretty early this morning. The girls ate very well! Macie is an eater! She will pretty much eat anything you hand feed her or put in her mouth. If she doesn't like it, she'll shake her head no. Maeleigh ate great too. She'll feed herself with a spoon or chopsticks. She loves meat, especially pork. </div>
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Love this one!</div>
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At 9:00 a.m. we met Miko in the lobby with all of our paperwork. Today was our official adoption day. We got all the paperwork ready in the hotel lobby- signatures and red thumb prints on many documents. We then got in the van and headed to the notary. We were asked a bunch of questions there about our jobs, the number of kids we had, etc. This is where the gift giving starts. We passed out our first red bag full of goodies to the notary. Then we headed back to the Civil Affairs office. We arrived about 15 minutes before our appointment time of 10:40 a.m. so the kids played in the playroom where the girls were when they came out to meet us. We saw the orphanage staff again at that point and we were wondering how the girls would do around them. Answered prayers! They wanted nothing to do with them really and acted a bit shy and cautious. They stayed by us and never cried. At 10:40 we were called into the civil affairs office. The woman in charge was SO kind. She truly loves her job and the kids- it was great to see that. She asked us if we wanted to adopt both girls, if we were satisfied with them, and asked us about our family, why we wanted to adopt from China, and more. We then paid a bunch of fees. After that we had a quick ceremony where she wished us well and held each child, giving them a hug. Both girls reached out to us after their hug...a good sign. We gave a gift bag to her and one each to the four orphanage staff. We discussed our plans for our visit to the orphanage on Thursday and also shared some photos of children from Liuzhou who had already been adopted. Then we were on our way back to the hotel, with a quick stop to pick up some Gatorade and other drinks.</div>
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The notary's office.</div>
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Heading back to the Civil Affair's office to finalize the girls' adoptions!</div>
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The playroom at the Civil Affair's office. This is where the girls were waiting for us to arrive yesterday.</div>
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Even the big kids had fun!</div>
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Macie is a tough little girl- maybe that's where the bumps and bruises on her forehead came from (we can hope). She would pick up all of these toys, which are heavy for a 3 year old and carry them around or try to throw those balls (they are not as light as they look).</div>
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Time to make it official!</div>
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The girls had to put their hand print on the papers in red ink.</div>
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Lena and Macie. I can't wait to watch Macie learn from Lena!</div>
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The Civil Affairs Director giving us our adoption certificates.</div>
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We'd like to OFFICIALLY introduce you to Maeleigh Jade HeLin Henningfeld and Macie Brynn MeiHua Henningfeld, our forever daughters! Welcome to the Henningfeld family girls!</div>
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The director held each girl and spun them around- she was such a sweet lady! Both girls reached back out to us though, which was a great sign.</div>
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The orphanage staff were getting some gifts that they had for us and the girls ready. We got an apple that was made by some of the older kids with special needs in the orphanage. They also gave us a photo album of each girl full of photos of the girls over the years. Not too many baby pictures, but way more pictures than we have of Reid and Lena, especially. They also gave us a camera we had sent and a flash drive we had sent too. All the pictures on the flash drive appeared to be ones that were in the photo albums. Maybe when we visit Thursday, we'll see if they have any baby pictures of the girls from around the time they came into care.</div>
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Giving our gifts to the orphanage staff.</div>
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And a gift for this nice lady.</div>
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The orphanage staff.</div>
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All of us with the four orphanage staff members who brought our girls on the train from Liuzhou to Nanning. I remember the men's names- Mr. Huang and Mr. Long. </div>
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After we got back, we Face Timed with my mom for a bit and then just hung out and played in our hotel for a few hours. We needed a break, so we left our room and headed to Wal-Mart to get Macie a new pair of shoes and to get some more diapers. When we were leaving Wal-Mart, a lady stopped a few times- she was just in awe of us. She was on the escalator talking to Lena. I tried to point to my ear and tell her that she can't hear. She understood. She stopped us a few times on the way out. We told her two of the girls are deaf and she was then wondering about Maeleigh. I knew I wouldn't be able to convey everything about her needs, so I just focused on her cross eyes. She understood. At one point she gave us a thumbs up and smiled. She had to stop and turn around a few times. She also wanted a picture of us. You usually get stared at and talked about a lot, but it is nice to see a situation like this where someone is happy that you are giving a child with special needs love and a family. From there, we headed out for dinner and walked around the block 1.5 times before deciding on a place. It was a good choice- Rick was able to try something new and most of us had some fried rice and a few french fries too. The ladies in the restaurant were obsessed with Evan and his blonde hair. He probably had six or more girls come and take their picture with him. Blonde haired kids are like celebrities here. He's had his picture taken many times. This wasn't the first time either. We finished off the night by walking around the mall. Here are some of the shops and things we saw in the mall. So different than the malls back at home, but so neat too!</div>
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They love to pull out and look at the photo albums we had sent them.</div>
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They are pretty attached to their backpacks they came with too.</div>
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Rick was tricking her and she was trying to 'wake him up.'</div>
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She loves her daddy!</div>
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Wal-Mart in China</div>
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You can buy live turtles and I'm pretty sure they are not for pets. ;)</div>
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Fish tanks- also not for pets.</div>
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Walking around the block.</div>
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The kids back at home would love this place! We have just looked at it all for the time being.</div>
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There are weddings here every day and the cars are all decked out in bows.</div>
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We think this bar called 'Uncle' has a cool name.</div>
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This lady had cages with little bunnies for sale on her back.</div>
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We got our diapers and new shoes for Macie.</div>
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Lots of little bars and restaurants around here.</div>
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We finally settled on eating at this place called Cactus something or another.</div>
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Yum! Macie surprised us and showed us she can eat independently and with chopsticks too!</div>
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The lights at night are pretty neat around here.</div>
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Shops inside the mall connected to our hotel. LOVE them!</div>
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You can get your hair cut in this little shop and sit in these little cars inside..how fun!</div>
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At this place above people bring their babies for a bath and a good cleaning. It was too funny! The day before Evan saw a naked baby in the bath right there in the front window. :)</div>
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Little fish. It was hard to get Maeleigh to leave this place.</div>
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You can try on rollerblades and actually skate around in this store.</div>
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Once we got back, it was time to start winding everyone down. We got the girls a bath. Same story as last night. Maeleigh loved it and was kind of bossy with Lena and Macie hated it. Hopefully it will get better with time. Lena hated the bath at first too and grew to love it. Bedtime was fairly similar too. Macie just dreads it. She made Maeleigh a little scared and teary tonight too. I think she would have done fine if Macie hadn't gotten upset. Rick was on calming down duty tonight. Hopefully each night will get a little easier. Please continue to pray for that- especially for Macie to feel a peace and to get good sleep.</div>
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They thought it was funny to try on Evan's swim goggles before going to bed.</div>
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Good night to you! We're now up for another day and will post more about our adventures tonight!</div>
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Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-88655443798472131182015-11-10T04:10:00.000-08:002015-11-10T04:10:04.081-08:00Our First Night Together<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Once we got back to our hotel room and broke open those backpacks we had wanted to take to our gotcha moment, we had a turn around in emotions quite quickly!</div>
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A couple suckers. A new doll and blanket...</div>
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Some playdough- Lena was loving making cool things for them!</div>
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Bring on the smiles!</div>
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I had given them each a cup. This is when we started to see just how opinionated little Miss Maeleigh is. She decided the one Macie got was the one she really wanted and so she handed her the one she had gotten.</div>
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Bubbles were magical! They brought out a lot of smiles and laughter too! It was wonderful!</div>
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And they loved their sunglasses.</div>
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After playing for quite awhile, it was time for a bath! We brought some color tablets to make the water a different color. Maeleigh LOVED the bath! She knew just what to do and she is quite independent and strong willed at times. She wanted to wash her own hair and use the wash cloth herself.</div>
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Macie on the other hand- she did not like the bath one bit. It was almost as if she didn't know what it was or hadn't really been bathed much before.</div>
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Sisters!</div>
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A warm towel, some mama love, and some lotion and jammies and she was back to being a happy camper!</div>
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I think we have a daddy's girl here! ;) Actually, both girls like both of us pretty equally, which is a first. It's really nice and we're secretly hoping it stays that way! But I do have to say that Rick is just loving this because it is the first time in awhile one of our adopted children just loved on Rick right from the start. It makes me so happy for him- he really needed this! </div>
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Bed time! We started with all of the kids in the big bed, but ended up with Macie and Lena together in a bed and Evan and Maeleigh together in another bed. We read a few books and eased into it, but the minute the lights went out and it was time to go to sleep the grieving returned. We figured it would from experience. Night time is hard. It's a quiet time and time to think about all that is going on and what they have left behind. We couldn't help but think of how hard this night might have also been for their foster families who were so used to putting them to bed and now had an empty place. I stayed in between the beds for quite some time rubbing the girls hands and backs. Macie went to sleep first and then Maeleigh started crying and putting her face in the blankets. I got in bed and laid with her and comforted her until she was asleep. I headed back to go to bed myself and not long after Macie was up again crying. She had a lot of on and off crying for quite awhile and ended up in bed with me. It didn't make for a good night sleep- I had a very small spot on the bed. But it was what she needed and I'll do whatever it takes at this point to make her feel safe, secure, and loved.<br />
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<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-86930838920119131832015-11-10T00:51:00.001-08:002015-11-10T00:51:43.786-08:00November 9th, 2015: Gotcha Day Times Two<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We woke up and headed to the breakfast buffet in the hotel for the first time.</div>
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Evan was super excited about the doughnuts!</div>
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Lena took more than she normally would, but she did eat pretty much all of it, </div>
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which surprised me.</div>
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Evan and Lena talking to everyone back home via Face Time.</div>
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A view out the window of the breakfast buffet.</div>
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Lena holding up the little backpacks we had for the girls...there's a story with these I'll share more about below.</div>
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We had to meet our guide, Miko, in the lobby at 1:00 p.m. to exchange money and prepare for gotcha day. We had a little time to kill so we went for a short walk. This is a shopping area right outside of our hotel. There is a mall, many restaurants, and a Wal-Mart. You don't even have to leave the hotel to get to the mall and the Wal-Mart.</div>
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More views of parts of the city of Nanning.</div>
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We wanted to check out another mall that's about a 10 minute walk away because we had heard there were some good restaurants there, despite most of the stores being high end stores we'd never be able to shop at back home. We had to share this sidewalk path with all the scooters. </div>
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In the mall we saw this bakery called Momo's. I had to take a picture because we call our Rowan Momo. :)<br />
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We found the restaurant we were looking for in the MIXC mall. We'll come back to it another night when we have more time. This was the view on our 10 minute walk back to the hotel.</div>
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The outside of our hotel.</div>
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1:00 came and we headed down to the lobby to go change money. We were under the impression we would be coming back to the hotel after changing money so we could get everything we needed for gotcha day. We were wrong. The trip to the bank took way longer than expected because there was only one window open and a long line. By the time we got our money exchanged, it was time to go right to the Civil Affairs office. I learned that I really need to appreciate our bank back home. Thankfully we had our camera and phone for video- the two most important things. We did not have those little backpacks we prepared for the girls, with some tricks to try to make them happier. We figured we'd survive the time and the tears and just give them the backpacks when we got back to the room. You have to be flexible when adopting. We were also supposed to have our travel approval notice with us and that was in my backpack back in the room. Thankfully the official was super understanding and said we could bring that back in the morning when we went to finalize the adoption.<br />
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We had arrived at the Guangxi Civil Affairs office. It was lightly raining all day.</div>
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The outside of the Civil Affairs office.</div>
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Very shortly after we walked in, the four staff members who came with the girls on the train from Liuzhou were walking the girls out. We didn't really have a minute to prepare or think about anything. There were two men and two women. I think they were office workers. I couldn't believe they brought FOUR people with! The director stayed back because our adoption agency staff were visiting the orphanage that same day! We had to have just missed each other here in Guangxi.</div>
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Macie was wearing a panda shirt I had sent for her last winter, the white coat we had seen her wear in previous pictures, a random pair of pants, and some shoes that are way too tight. It's on our list to go buy her a new pair of tennis shoes that actually fit well. Macie is still in diapers and she had a diaper on, but no others with her. They let us know that right away.</div>
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Maeleigh had her hair braided so cute and was wearing a red sweater with a dog I think I had seen in photos before, a pink pair of pants, and some cute brown and orange comfy looking tennis shoes. She already had a sucker in her mouth when we showed up. We knew she was potty trained already and would later learn that she came to us commando- no undies. We'd also later find out that her way of telling us she has to go to the bathroom is to just pull down her pants. That's how we found out she came to us commando. ;) We may have to work with her on another signal or we may find ourselves embarrassed in public a fair amount of times. Don't say I didn't warn you! Hey..at least she doesn't just pull down her pants and start peeing. I have seen that before in China. </div>
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Our first group shots...with an orphanage staff member included.</div>
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This is about when Maeleigh decided she wasn't too happy with this moment.</div>
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Macie was pretty easy-going most of the time. Occasionally she would cry, but it almost seemed like it wasn't really a real cry or that you could give her something and she'd stop instantly.</div>
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Maeleigh and Lena embracing for the first time.</div>
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Evan and Macie embracing for the first time. Evan just loves Macie! </div>
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And when it was my turn, I knew this was coming and that she'd get worse. I knew because she had a wonderful foster mother and today..I was the bad guy. Rick said he can't wait to show her these pictures some day. But all joking aside, this is part of adoption. There are some really hard moments and our hearts broke over and over again this afternoon and evening for our girls and for all that they just lost and had to leave behind. I cannot even begin to imagine all that goes through their minds and how it must feel to have strangers pick you up and take you to a hotel and to really not know what is going to happen next or tomorrow. We prayed many times for God to give them peace and for them to know we were safe.</div>
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They had the kids sit with the orphanage staff when we signed the first of many forms we'd fill out over the next couple of days.</div>
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She cried so much and so hard that she worked herself up into quite a sweat!</div>
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Our pictures for the famous 'red book' you receive on adoption day.</div>
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The kids together. Maeleigh was coming around now.</div>
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There's a partial smile and a dimple!</div>
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She wasn't too sure about Evan at first. The orphanage staff thought she maybe wasn't fond of Evan and I due to our blonde hair and her not really seeing that before.</div>
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A glimpse of what was to come.</div>
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Lena loving up on Macie!</div>
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The BIG sister now! She's going to be great at it!</div>
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Within less than an hour, we were back in the van and off to the hotel.</div>
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Precious moments and bonding time were beginning.</div>
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Exhaustion has definitely set in for me at this point. I told Rick I could see major bags under my eyes today- I was beat. </div>
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L-O-V-E</div>
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<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-34899686301886003632015-11-08T06:24:00.001-08:002015-11-08T07:09:47.122-08:00Travel Day to Nanning, GuangxiToday, Sunday November 8th, we woke up way too early and headed to the hotel lobby to let Rick rest since we were wide awake and he was still pretty tired. We've been able to Face Time with our kids back home a few times, which has been nice. They are enjoying seeing us and seeing the hotels we are in and the city views. We are just loving seeing their faces and hearing their voices!<br />
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A little before 9 a.m. our driver picked us up and took us to the Shenzhen train station. We stopped for some water and Gatorade before leaving Hong Kong. <br />
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Bye bye Hong Kong! Our stay was quite brief, but it was nice to be back to this beautiful place, even if for just a very short time!<br />
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We arrived to the train station a little after 10 a.m. so we had almost 3 hours to hang out before the train departed at 1:00 p.m. We enjoyed people watching and we also got some reading in and some homework done. I think people enjoyed watching us too. We really stand out with a little blonde hair blue eyed boy and a little Chinese girl who doesn't speak Chinese or English. People have been fascinated by watching us sign to her and her to us. One lady even came up to her and started talking to her. We pointed to her ears and said- she can't hear. The lady seemed to act like she understood, but still kept talking to her, thinking maybe she'd speak Chinese to her.<br />
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Rick pointed out two ladies sitting directly across from us who were signing. He said, "I think one or both of those ladies are deaf." Sure enough they were! Now that's not something you see every day in China! We noticed them and also noticed that their signing seemed to be not that different from ours. They noticed us too and they definitely were excited to see us signing to Lena and her signing to us. Very cool! <br />
<span style="text-align: center;">Now to a funny. While waiting for our train, we had to use the bathroom once or twice. Lena was 2.5 and not potty trained when she came to us, so she clearly does not remember squatty potties. So we get in the bathroom and she takes one look at it and shakes her head no to me, like oh no I am not going to do that! It was too funny, but she did use it. We really had no other choice. They are truly disgusting, but one of those 'China' things. ;)</span><br />
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Killing time in the Shenzhen train station!</div>
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A little before 1 p.m. we boarded the train. We had assigned seats. They were very nice. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery as we passed through and stopped at various towns and cities in Guangdong and Guangxi province. I believe the train went up to a little over 305 km at its fastest. It took about 4.5 hours to get from Shenzhen to Nanning. About half way in, Lena started to get very tired. We decided we'd let her nap, but when it was time to wake her up when we got closer to Nanning she was out of it and not so happy about waking up as you can see in this picture.<br />
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All aboard!</div>
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It was fun to watch the board to watch the speed of the train and read the names of the various towns and cities we'd be stopping at along the way.</div>
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And the scenery was incredible! These are just a couple of many that I took. Guangxi is absolutely gorgeous!</div>
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I told you she was tired!</div>
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Welcome to Nanning!</div>
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When we got to the train station, Amby was waiting for us. I've heard nothing but great things about him so I was excited that he was going to be our guide...until he said that he had some other work to do this week and we are going to have Miko instead. I have heard someone had her, but don't know of many who have. I hope she's decent. Amby helped us get to the van and then took us to our hotel, the Marriott in Nanning. It is a very nice hotel in the new part of the city. Amby told us that Nanning has 3 million people and that this area was once a sugar cane field until maybe the last ten or so years. Everything around this part is modern. There is a lot going on and a lot of lights. After getting our bags in our room, we went out for a walk and grabbed some food since we really didn't eat breakfast or lunch- just some of our snacks we had brought from home. We checked out the mall that is right next to our hotel and went into the Wal-Mart that is in the basement of the hotel. Wal-Mart is always an interesting experience in China. I wished we had took the camera out tonight, but we left it in the room. One kid said hello to us and tried to tell us something more, but we had no idea what he was trying to say. Evan definitely stood out and I swear, people seem to look at us like we took Lena or maybe they think we just adopted her. It's awkward. I told Rick that we might have to have one person run out for some errands if we need something because I can't imagine the looks we are going to get with 3 Chinese girls and Evan!!! <br />
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Speaking of...we are about to head to bed as it's after 10 p.m. here. Rick is already sleeping. <br />
Tomorrow morning we have some down time to prepare for the day. We meet our guide in the lobby at 1 p.m. to exchange some money and then head to the civil affairs office around 2:30 p.m. It sounds like gotcha will be around 3 p.m. which is 1 a.m. Monday morning at home. Say some prayers for the girls, their foster families, and for us before you go to bed tonight! We're excited, but getting nervous too- this is a big change and as much as it's such a cool thing, it's hard too. It's been awhile since we've been through this with two at once. We're trying to gear up for that!<br />
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Good night from this end of the world and HAPPY ORPHAN SUNDAY! By the end of Orphan Sunday, there will be two less orphans and soon to be two more Henningfelds! Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-38642693521163459782015-11-07T14:39:00.001-08:002015-11-07T15:00:45.629-08:00We Made it to Hong Kong!We woke up Friday morning, November 6th...after very little sleep (for Rick and I). Our bags were packed!<br />
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We got the kids ready for school and got our bags in the car by 7:30 a.m. We said our goodbyes to Jayce and Rowan- Rick's mom stayed with them at the house. Then we headed to drop the four bigger boys off at school and said our goodbyes to them and Rick's dad there. Rick's sister, Renee, came down with us to the airport so we had someone to drive our van back home. Believe it or not, we got there too early! That's a first! We got there at about 9:30 a.m. and couldn't really check in until 10:30 a.m. for our 2:05 p.m. flight.</div>
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The staff at check in were great though. After a quick line through security (again, that NEVER happens and is SO very different than my experience with the trip to China I took in September) we found our gate and got some lunch. We were hoping we could see a local family coming in with two boys they just adopted from China. There is a chance they were even on the plane we took to China. But we couldn't see them because they came off the plane and headed straight down a hallway to immigration. I hope they are now safe and sound at home and doing well!<br />
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Our plane just came in!</div>
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Can you tell that they are just a little excited?</div>
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Time to get on the plane!</div>
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Got our neck pillows and headsets...we are set to go!</div>
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Rick sat right across the isle from us.</div>
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Time to land. We are officially 14 hours ahead of those of you on central time.</div>
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Our flight was long- over 15 hours, but pretty uneventful! The staff was nice and the service was good. We had a very good experience! We even had no line at customs/immigration when we got into Hong Kong- another first! We got our bags and went and waited for the airport shuttle.</div>
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In the hotel shuttle heading to the hotel we'd stay at one night in Hong Kong.</div>
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All ready for bed! We put Vicks on them both because Evan seems to have a cold and a cough that we are hoping will go away and not go around to everyone else. We'd love prayers for that- he coughed a lot on the plane and last night.</div>
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They were up and ready to go by 4 a.m. so shortly after five, the three of us got dressed and headed down to the lobby to give Rick a little quiet time. We slept a bit on the plane and he really hadn't.</div>
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Views from the hotel lobby window as the sun was coming up.</div>
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Today, Sunday November 8th, we will be picked up at 9 a.m. and taken to the train station in Shenzhen, China- not far from here...also the birth city of our son, Reid! We will take a high speed train from there to Nanning, Guangxi- the capital of the province where our girls are from and where we will stay from Sunday night through Friday afternoon.</div>
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More from Nanning...SOON! We're so close now! Thank you for your prayers and for following our journey!</div>
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Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-4399420295937963542015-11-05T12:19:00.001-08:002015-11-05T12:30:42.384-08:00T Minus 24 HOURS!I can hardly believe it's here, but in about 24 hours we will be taking off from Chicago headed to Hong Kong to go get our girls!!<br />
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Here is our itinerary:<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nov.7, Saturday<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Arrive in Hong Kong at 7:55 p.m. Check into the Sky City Marriott<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nov.8,Sunday<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Meet driver in hotel lobby at 9 a.m. -He will take us to the Shenzhen Train Station.
Take the train to Nanning, Guangxi. Guide in Nanning will meet us at the train station and take us to the Marriott Hotel- Nanning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nov.9: MONDAY <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Gotcha Day! We will meet Macie and Maeleigh at the Guangxi Civil Affairs office that afternoon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nov.
10: TUESDAY <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Complete
adoption registration in Guangxi Civil Affairs. Finish notary process in
Guangxi Notary Office. (9:00am to 12:30).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nov. 11:
WEDNESDAY
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Tourist Day<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nov. 12
: THURSDAY <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Take the train to Liuzhou to visit Liuzhou orphanage and possibly meet the foster families. We are also hoping to meet some waiting children as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nov. 13:
FRIDAY <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Pick up the girls' passports and take the bullet train to Guangzhou. Our guide will meet us at the train station and take us to the Garden hotel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nov. 14 :
SATURDAY
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Medical
exam and TB test.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Prepare consulate paperwork. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nov. 15:
SUNDAY<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Touring: Pearl
Market and Shamian Island.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nov. 16:
MONDAY<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Touring: Safari Park<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nov.
17: TUESDAY <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Consulate
appointment at 8:30 a.m.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nov. </span><span style="font-size: 15.0pt;">18</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> WEDNESDAY<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Pick up
visa in the afternoon. Take van to Hong Kong. Check in at the Regal Airport Hotel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Nov.19
THURSDAY<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Fly home!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Our flight leaves Hong Kong at 11:50 a.m. and returns to Chicago at 12:25 p.m. that same day. Gotta love time changes! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">If you pray, please pray for the following:</span></div>
<div class="A">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">*Safe travels (flights and train rides) for Rick, Brooke, Evan, and Lena and then all of us plus Macie and Maeleigh on the way home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">*For our parents who are watching our children- for patience and for all to go well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">*For our children back home while we are gone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">*For our health while in country and for Evan, Lena, Macie, and Maeleigh's health as well while in country and traveling home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">*For Macie and Maeleigh- that God would be preparing their hearts the best He can and that their foster families would be preparing them as best as they can as well. Prayers that they will quickly realize that we are safe and loving and for them to be able to trust us and start bonding and attaching with us.</span></div>
<div class="A">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">*For Macie and Maeleigh's foster families hearts- we can't imagine how hard it would be to have children in your care for a significant amount of time and then to have to say goodbye to them, possibly forever. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">*For all appointments and paperwork in country to go smoothly and as expected.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">*For our family's adjustment to a family of 12!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We would like to thank:</span></div>
<div class="A">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">*Everyone who participated in any of our fundraisers/matching grants in any shape or form- donating an item/items, purchasing an item/items, donating to a matching grant or directly to us, etc. You guys are a huge piece of this puzzle!</span></div>
<div class="A">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">*All the grant organizations out there, but especially those we received grants from- we could not have adopted two children without the help of these wonderful people.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">*Madison Adoption Associates and especially our spunky caseworker, Amanda. :) </span></div>
<div class="A">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">*Rick's sister, Renee, for taking us to the airport.</span></div>
<div class="A">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">*Our friend, Carrie, at church for setting up a meal train while we're gone to help our parents and then for once we return home to help us when we're trying to get into a new normal and dealing with jet lag. Thank you to everyone who has signed up already and who plan to do so. Such a blessing! We'd also like to thank Carrie for helping find people to cover the Operation Christmas Child table for me at church two weekends in a row.</span></div>
<div class="A">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">*And most importantly: Our parents, especially my mom and Rick's mom for watching our 6 children back at home for the whole trip! A huge thank you to my mom for using vacation days and for being willing to spend the night each night with our kids as well. We cannot thank you both enough!!! Thank you to my mom and step-dad for being willing to come and pick us up at the Chicago airport on the 19th as well. It's always nice to have someone waiting for your arrival and to greet your newest family members!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="A">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Less than 24 hours now til go time! </span></div>
Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-76203030402303386752015-10-30T08:29:00.002-07:002015-10-30T08:32:30.184-07:00T Minus One Week!I can hardly believe it, but one week from today, we will have dropped the kids off at school and will be at the Chicago O'Hare airport to get on our flight to China! We still have so much to do, but things are getting done too. You know how it is though..every time I cross something off the list, something else gets added!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv013QfmT06xdabvtmIFjCVReSwjYHwYK9HMPTKzIcfQCfIha6EFEpKhKJYvUklGZLmy8qrv56F0HW6y7MuTIxH7SuqtX1j70oz1hmxVALhdHor74lzEIHmeh15EpoIzNUxAYDkK5hEBY/s1600/October+2015+061.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv013QfmT06xdabvtmIFjCVReSwjYHwYK9HMPTKzIcfQCfIha6EFEpKhKJYvUklGZLmy8qrv56F0HW6y7MuTIxH7SuqtX1j70oz1hmxVALhdHor74lzEIHmeh15EpoIzNUxAYDkK5hEBY/s320/October+2015+061.JPG" width="213" /></a>We'd like to share some praises! This week we received a wonderful grant from Gift of Adoption! Such a blessing and perfect timing! God always provides!! I'd like to give a shout out to Gift of Adoption though because we have gotten to know them on a more personal level, having attended a couple of their fundraising events and written an article for them for the Racine newspaper. Their hearts are for orphans all around the world and for helping families at the end of the adoption process by removing some of the financial burden so that they can get their child/children home! They are very good people and they do some incredible fundraisers to raise money in order to give grants to families like ours. In fact, this is the 2nd grant we have received from them. Reid was granted their 1,000th grant in 2013 and they have now given over 1,500 grants! They will be celebrating their 20th year of grant giving soon and Reid will be featured due to him having been a milestone grant. :) If you are ever looking for an organization to donate to or support, I'd highly recommend giving to Gift of Adoption: <a href="http://www.giftofadoption.org/donate/waysToGive.html"> http://www.giftofadoption.org/donate/waysToGive.html</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdx3EtPUOcnj5oaavVjBGi8YYS2_GBmMbXrqlNs6rglNE41kwkWVauZgtl86c6D7qRi-Tu4wcSxOecwWKFVWEBbyIOkGA1t_diaIzSAwvmnpvkhBhED6zAOt1ho1u0tp9YGPR3xK4QH_g/s1600/Gift+of+Adoption+logo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdx3EtPUOcnj5oaavVjBGi8YYS2_GBmMbXrqlNs6rglNE41kwkWVauZgtl86c6D7qRi-Tu4wcSxOecwWKFVWEBbyIOkGA1t_diaIzSAwvmnpvkhBhED6zAOt1ho1u0tp9YGPR3xK4QH_g/s1600/Gift+of+Adoption+logo.gif" /></a></div>
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Another praise! A few days after we booked our flights, I had printed the itinerary to put in a folder to take with and realized the travel agent had spelled our last name wrong. He corrected it right away and told us that re-booking with the new spelling saved us $274! AWESOME!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRGa8urEgjPJ4bCBdKRrP6VhokqYOJPhTuKd86scTzfgbrVwpNkygKhmJIIgTtCUaCJPydygQYgx-bfyAwXSXIUuJcsf6ojCoxGEZ_-zU7_4A0Zu3pMjqePTRFZXsvdwgJUueWMjhbRAg/s1600/October+2015+019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRGa8urEgjPJ4bCBdKRrP6VhokqYOJPhTuKd86scTzfgbrVwpNkygKhmJIIgTtCUaCJPydygQYgx-bfyAwXSXIUuJcsf6ojCoxGEZ_-zU7_4A0Zu3pMjqePTRFZXsvdwgJUueWMjhbRAg/s320/October+2015+019.JPG" width="320" /></a>Yet another praise!! Evan finished up his cookie jar fundraiser to help raise money for his ticket. He sold 73 jars and got a couple donations. He raised approximately $540! With the money he made during his Easter fundraiser, he is pretty close to raising the money for his whole flight. We are so proud of him! <br />
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A couple people asked if Lena had a fundraiser. I'm not sure she understands that concept and we've just been busier than you can even imagine so we didn't have two fundraisers going on. But a few kind souls did want to give her some donations and she raised about $60 for her trip. :) She's just so darn excited, I can't even tell you!<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNPC43_jQQB3I3tPyoOIHshCvsd5Qoj6Ssks2zgcgEauF_lMbQ4U8D625z-S-euB_rWtLwxviaV9EtjzLZWCVNT7qbJR9TDE7nrGg7UgJucmi1sx0ZB89xa3GwujzRtbFzskHNWhCgq_g/s1600/Lena.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNPC43_jQQB3I3tPyoOIHshCvsd5Qoj6Ssks2zgcgEauF_lMbQ4U8D625z-S-euB_rWtLwxviaV9EtjzLZWCVNT7qbJR9TDE7nrGg7UgJucmi1sx0ZB89xa3GwujzRtbFzskHNWhCgq_g/s320/Lena.jpg" width="259" /></a><br />
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And the last one for now- a shout out to my dad for donating a bunch of his Marriott points to us for one of our nights in Hong Kong on the way in and for our five nights in Nanning, Guangxi! It worked out perfectly that the 5th night ended up being free with 4 nights worth of rooms booked with points. That was such a great gift and so very helpful! <br />
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I'll be posting more about our itinerary and our upcoming prayer needs soon, but for now- back to the to do list! ;) <br />
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When you step out in faith and trust in our God, you can expect miracles! Anything is possible because we serve an awesome God and He is faithful. He always provides for us and we are blessed to be His children.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWxi8xlsr8MwHRoPQksDaovaSXC_XdiPEhPA_D41hCclKxhNZUYO_Fj6hADf3V4oY_CPd3paJUalBpzMl7oSCNCml8ZKIr4oHDoLNjlhCmcrNxL0-U9g0EM4u8CfRUNIHXWPxqiwHlpg/s1600/Maeleigh+October+2015+update.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWxi8xlsr8MwHRoPQksDaovaSXC_XdiPEhPA_D41hCclKxhNZUYO_Fj6hADf3V4oY_CPd3paJUalBpzMl7oSCNCml8ZKIr4oHDoLNjlhCmcrNxL0-U9g0EM4u8CfRUNIHXWPxqiwHlpg/s320/Maeleigh+October+2015+update.jpg" width="246" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVCO61ngYlrA6X1eABle4LBbux6neGJocF2zExyVMBoeTDS5Py_5qu-VZFD9qTbbQe0sg0RsZemTx2LW5epmt7vsu-5_kjEZsxZv0XyN1pOUCCmOn-y1KpSOePkpcPbQ4Y_owVe0vgwGk/s1600/Macie+October+update.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVCO61ngYlrA6X1eABle4LBbux6neGJocF2zExyVMBoeTDS5Py_5qu-VZFD9qTbbQe0sg0RsZemTx2LW5epmt7vsu-5_kjEZsxZv0XyN1pOUCCmOn-y1KpSOePkpcPbQ4Y_owVe0vgwGk/s320/Macie+October+update.jpg" width="237" /></a></div>
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We are so excited to have Macie and Maeleigh officially part of our family soon!</div>
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<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-6380097015621175742015-10-20T19:09:00.000-07:002015-10-20T19:22:40.482-07:00Flights are Booked and We Have VIDEOS!I crossed one thing off my mighty long list that is currently in my head (mental note to self: it's time to put the list on paper). Our flights are booked. We will be leaving on Friday, November 6th from Chicago direct to Hong Kong (same flight we've done for Lena and Reid). We'll get in Saturday night, November 7th due to the time change and long flight (16 hours). We are unsure if we will stay the night in Hong Kong and take a van to Guangzhou on Sunday morning or if we'll take a van right from the airport to Guangzhou. If we do that, we'll stay one night at a hotel in Guangzhou. Leaning towards the 2nd option. We plan to take the bullet train mid-day from Guangzhou to Nanning, Guangxi. Nanning is the provincial capital of Guangxi province, which is the province our girls are from. We'll arrive in Nanning late in the afternoon on Sunday, November 8th. Monday afternoon, November 9th will be gotcha day! Friday late afternoon we'll head from Nanning to Guangzhou via the bullet train again. Saturday the 14th we'll have our medical appointments. Tuesday morning the 17th is our consulate appointment. Wednesday evening the 18th we'll head back to Hong Kong by van. Thursday, the 19th we'll fly home from Hong Kong to Chicago non-stop (a bit shorter on the way home than the way there). We'll get home mid-day on Thursday, November 19th due to the time change. Now it's time to plan out all the details of our trip and get the things we'll need to take with us on our trip. One thing at a time- I may need to remind myself to breathe!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqx9DmWtfrG4Vi9hCK6gV69J9-TCJQB5GBkDJL4PPgRO-HuU2ipSnFqV-WOqQGcxeSeDdOC7eqlQsbMtXTiOGNFXzJXxJ3a21VMB0C3R7LY6aQo34jzGzHGaeokEA9in1DmECErq_ddjE/s1600/China+Province+Map.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqx9DmWtfrG4Vi9hCK6gV69J9-TCJQB5GBkDJL4PPgRO-HuU2ipSnFqV-WOqQGcxeSeDdOC7eqlQsbMtXTiOGNFXzJXxJ3a21VMB0C3R7LY6aQo34jzGzHGaeokEA9in1DmECErq_ddjE/s320/China+Province+Map.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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Map of China</div>
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All our kids are from the southern provinces. Reid is from Guangdong, Lena is from Fujian, and Maeleigh and Macie are from Guangxi. This will be our first time to Guangxi and we are looking forward to it!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXAu8URIJuqtbTFpsJTsXw1vHMNJm8QDWfHNbwl0tbHmMkrM3a_8d4vNLPamyZ-M29j5vNmVkGknZ3kylELLUjH-DCseTj1kpEEXO0jIDQ5a5M0b8HCM4-BaaPnPaUTAZebyILf9NdWTI/s1600/Guangxi+map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXAu8URIJuqtbTFpsJTsXw1vHMNJm8QDWfHNbwl0tbHmMkrM3a_8d4vNLPamyZ-M29j5vNmVkGknZ3kylELLUjH-DCseTj1kpEEXO0jIDQ5a5M0b8HCM4-BaaPnPaUTAZebyILf9NdWTI/s320/Guangxi+map.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Map of Guangxi Province</div>
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We will be taking the train in and out of Nanning and staying there. Our girls are from Liuzhou, slightly northeast of Nanning. We hope to take a bullet train there one day and visit and maybe meet the foster families. </div>
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And now for what you really came here to see- the VIDEOS we got today! Oh my heart- it was just what I needed. I'm so in love and preparing for some heavy grieving from these girls too. We've been told that Maeleigh is very close to her foster mother. That is clear from the video and what a good one she is! Such a blessing for the long run. Macie is closer to her foster father. We're curious if that will mean Macie wants more to do with me and nothing to do with Rick and if Maeleigh will want more to do with Rick and nothing to do with me. We shall see! The girls are absolutely beautiful and so very precious. The thing I couldn't get over is how much Macie looks like Reid and how much Maeleigh looks like Lena! The way God knits families together is simply amazing. His plans are always the best plans.<br />
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Maeleigh's video: <a href="https://vimeo.com/143069676">https://vimeo.com/143069676</a><br />
Password: Adoptmaa<br />
*She is 3.5 and is hearing.<br />
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Macie's video: <a href="https://vimeo.com/143069593">https://vimeo.com/143069593</a><br />
Password: Adoptmaa<br />
*She recently turned 3 and she is deaf. <br />
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We're so in love and cannot wait to hold them in our arms SOON!Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981096484869158723.post-71734752774071298452015-10-19T18:58:00.003-07:002015-10-19T18:58:50.344-07:00It's All Led up to This!We received our Travel Approval (TA) for Maeleigh today!! And tonight we got the email that our consulate appointment has been confirmed. They are fitting Maeleigh in with Macie on the same day and time- November 17th at 8:30 a.m. What does that mean? That means we backwards plan. Our gotcha day (the day we get the girls) will be Monday, November 9th, 2015 (while most of you are sleeping here in the states Sunday night). We will leave either on Friday, November 6th or Thursday, November 5th. We have to decide that tonight and book our flights! YES, it's time to book the flights. This part stresses me out a bit, but I'll be so glad when we have a decision made and flights booked! We have so much to do between now and when we leave!! We could use prayers that we make a good decision on flights and that we get everything done between now and then. I can hardly believe it, but ONE MONTH from tonight, we will likely be back home with our two newest daughters, a family of TWELVE! <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ2MgiROW7gJ8vtW00xlClDDTiR0hVZKvvRReCIepVgnYfdbUWfUjEUVV85f4DhGnGtfoNJgk_wlkchHtxl7GBg7JX6dZZPi8e8PaZ1ozPCxbgIqGHNb1tTe9skALFjCLNbJRFu7kYoNs/s1600/our+girls2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ2MgiROW7gJ8vtW00xlClDDTiR0hVZKvvRReCIepVgnYfdbUWfUjEUVV85f4DhGnGtfoNJgk_wlkchHtxl7GBg7JX6dZZPi8e8PaZ1ozPCxbgIqGHNb1tTe9skALFjCLNbJRFu7kYoNs/s400/our+girls2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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It's getting real now!</div>
<br />Brookehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04309811855465985266noreply@blogger.com1