Another Day in China

Things are quiet in the room now as I write this post. Jody, Mitchell, and Jamae are asleep. Madison, Jay, and Jesse are watching a show on the television about spoiled Chinese children and Ming is watching one of his DVD's in chinese that we bought for him.

We are surprised how it is cooler here. Since we have traveled south, I thought it would be hotter, but the heat is actually bearable. Unfortunately, our hotel here in Guangzhou is downtown, so there is not any nice parks to walk around in. When we leave the hotel, it is just congested downtown. Jay and Jesse have enjoyed exploring the little shops around here looking for inexpensive video games.

We have all adjusted to the time here, so now getting the kids to bed and getting them up has been harder. We opted for a suite instead of two rooms (they don't have connecting rooms here) . The suite has one full bath and one half bath, so getting 8 through one shower has been a challenge. Thankfully the next two mornings we don't need to be anywhere early.

I've included a few pictures from our shopping today and the promised swimming cap pictures. Enjoy the pictures!

Kung Fu Shung Mow

We started our day having breakfast on the very top of our hotel, the Asia International, in a revolving restaurant. Not a bad way to eat breakfast. The views out the window were amazing or Tie Bang La as Ming would say. The best thing about breakfast was that they had maple syrup! We did not find syrup in Fuzhou.

We spent the morning getting Ming's visa picture taken and having his physical done that the USA requires. He had the same doctor that Jamae had back in 2004 when we were here.


We then got the bad news that since Ming is over 10 and does not have a vaccination card, the United States requires he have certain vaccinations before he can enter the US. I tried my best to talk them out of it, but you can't change the law. Ming ended up getting 3 shots and 1 oral vaccination. It was not fun for him at all, but at least he will have to get fewer shots when we get him home.

We then went over to the local Carrefour for a little shopping. For you Moses Lakers reading this, that is the China's version of Target. I figure if I can't shop there at home, I might as well shop there at China. The best thing was that there was a Starbucks. Yeah! First Starbucks we have had this trip. I (Caryn) got the best Dark Chocolate Frappachino. We were also able to get Ming many Disney and Pixar DVD's in Chinese. That was one of my goals on this trip.

We went back to the hotel this afternoon to swim and found out that our hotel just redid their pool and is now requiring swim caps for all who swim. At first we resisted the thought and then realized 'when in China do as the Chinese'. We broke down and bought swim caps. Everyone looked very cute. :) I'll have to take a picture tomorrow and post it.

The day ended great as on our way to McDonalds for dinner, we came across someone selling DVD's on the street. We ended up buying a number of movies including, Kung Fu Panda or Kung Fu Shung Mow as we say in China. It was fun to end the day watching the movie in our room.


Thanks for your continued prayers and comments. We feel the prayers and enjoy the comments.
Ming is doing great. He has transitioned well from leaving Fuzhou and being in Guangzhou. I feel like he understands almost everything we say, although he doesn't speak much English back to us. He has learned that basics like "Time to go!" and "Jamae is a baby". I know many of you asked us before we left if he knew any English. We didn't know the answer than. Now we do. Ming had a few years of English classes in school, so he has been exposed to it. I compare it to having 2 years of Spanish in school in the states and then going to Mexico and trying to talk with the natives. Most of us probably wouldn't do very good. What we learned in the classroom would be hard to remember if we were immersed in the spanish language.
He is doing great though and doesn't seem frustrated by the language barrier. I can't wait for you all to meet him. You are going to love him!
We'll write more later.

A Loooong Day

It is now just before 1am, and we have finally landed in our hotel room in Guangzhou. As I say in the title, this has been a very long day for us...but praise be to God we are safe and sound and ready to begin the next chapter of our journey.

We began this morning by going down to the park at around 7:30am. One of the amazing things about traveling to a different place is the huge cultural differences. Imagine, if you will, hundreds and hundreds of people out in the park between 6am and 8am...BALLROOM DANCING!. That's precisely what happens in Fuzhou every morning. Here's proof...


We managed to remain relatively anonymous for a few minutes, but it wasn't long before we attracted a crowd. They were fascinated by Jamae who was on my (Jody) shoulders...and also began to press in on Ming. I snapped this photo before we decided it was time to head back to the hotel for breakfast.


After taking the kids for a swim, Caryn and I spent the balance of the morning with our guide translating all of Ming's school records into English. It is a real gift to leave Fuzhou with as much information as we do, and consider it a major answer to prayer. We ordered room service pizza for lunch, and took a couple hours to pack up the room...all while Ming soaked in what will be his last few days of Chinese TV...


The rest of the day was spent getting to the airport, sitting in the airport, sitting some more in the airport, and then riding in an airplane. We took one last picture with Katherine our guide. She was a God-send, and we deeply appreciate the way she served us during these very critical days.


Here is Ming's last sunset in Fuzhou for a while...


Our flight was delayed an hour...we heard through the grapevine that it was due to some storms in wherever the plane came from. This meant that instead of leaving around 7:30pm, we ended up not leaving until 9:00pm or so. But this didn't dampen Ming's spirits, as he was bouncing off the walls getting to take his first plane trip...


Our hour plus flight was uneventful, and our new guide Rosa was waiting for us as we walked out of the terminal. We arrived at our hotel, the Asia International, at midnight. Following some maneuvering, we finally decided to squeeze into a suite with three additional cots, as opposed to two separate non-adjoining rooms. It's now 1:15am, and it is most definitely time to get some sleep. Tomorrow is the day we get Ming's medical examination...as well as getting visa pictures taken for Ming. Beyond that...I'm not sure. We'll take it as it comes. God bless, and thanks so very much for your love and prayers.

Ming's Last Full Day In Fuzhou

We will be flying out of Fuzhou (which is most typically pronounced "Foo-Joe") tomorrow evening, the 4th of July, at around 7pm. This means that today was Ming's last full day in the city he has lived in and never left for more than 12 years. Our guide wanted us to experience a number of important places. She first took us to the largest of 77 registered churches in the city...

We learned that this church averages nine thousand people in their three services on Sunday, utilizing two overflow spaces as well as the courtyard around the church. It was great to visit...and they allowed Ming to take a Bible with him as his very own. He has a New Testament, but this is his first complete Bible.

We then visited the provincial museum.

It was good to learn more about Ming's hometown, as well as to give him a last glimpse at his heritage before leaving. The most interesting display was that of a couple of mummies that died and were buried nearly 800 years ago. The were unearthed 20 years ago, and are amazingly well-preserved. They are displayed in some type of fluid...I suppose formaldehyde. I would show you a picture, but they wouldn't allow us to take any. Probably just a well...it was quite odd.

Next, we visited a shop that made Ming a "chop"...it's a stamp that has both his Chinese and English names.

Ming was very pleased with this gift...said it made him feel like a king!

We then went shopping at a Carefore (very similar to WalMart) for some books and a few other things we needed. On our way out we stopped at a McDonalds that was next door, and grabbed some food to go...which we ate back at the hotel. Following a nutritious dinner, we went down to the bowling alley attached to the hotel and each bowled a line.



It was a great day, and we are once again pretty wasted. The heat here really takes it out of you. Our sense is that Ming is really settling into our family...and is as ready as ever to move on into the new adventure that is now his life. Thanks for checking in on us, and please hold us in your prayers.

A Walk In The Park

Since we have a few minutes here in the room before heading out with our guide (Catharine) this afternoon for a bit more sightseeing and shopping, I (Jody) thought I would go ahead and document our past few hours. We decided to go for a walk in West Lake Park, which is on an island almost directly across the lake from our hotel. We probably had to walk a little less than a mile to get over there, and it was great to do. The only challenge was the heat and humidity (I'm guessing in the high nineties with 100% humidity)...but that's just China in July.

Here is a look back at the Lakeside Hotel from the island...it was a very nice vantage point.


Here is Mom with her new boy...


It's great to finally see our 6 children in one place.


The park had some beautiful little enclaves with waterfalls and chinese structures...



And on the backside of the park, we discovered a little kiddie amusement park area with very old rides, and a "Sea World" type seal show. We couldn't read the sign to figure out how much it was, but Ming seemed to want to go in, so we paid our money (which turned out to be around $23...more than we thought, but not bad) and went in. It was really quite comical, but well worth the experience. There was one seal (which I have since named Uncle Bud the Lonely Seal) and the trainer showed off his 10 tricks or so for around 15 minutes...and that was it. Here's a glimpse at the "through the hoop" trick, and the roaring crowd...



As we were walking out, one of the families singled Madison out and wanted two of the little girls in a picture with her. This is exactly what happened when we were here three and half years ago, and it's nice to know Maddie is still a star!


We're now off for the afternoon. We'll publish one more post tonight before we crash into bed. It's been very encouraging to read your comments...so please keep that up. And thanks for your prayers. They are blessing us more than we'll ever know.

Some Random Thoughts

I (Caryn) thought that I would post this morning (while I am awake) some random thoughts about our trip.

*This morning is the first morning since we got here that we all didn't wake up between 4-6. We slept until 8-9, although Jody & Madison did just tell me that they both woke up around 5-6, got up for a while and then went back to bed.
*The funny thing is that because we have been getting up so early, last night we had planned to go to the local park around 6:30 this morning to see the locals. The park is filled with thousands of people exercising, sword fighting, and ball room dancing. We slept through that this morning. I guess we will have to set our alarm tomorrow.
*The breakfast buffet at the hotel is very large and plentiful. The first morning, Ming filled his plate up high with western food and ate it all. I doubt he had ever seen that much food at one time before. The next morning, I showed him where the congee (chinese rice oatmeal) was, thinking he might want that since it is what he is used to eating. He told me he did not want that! I don't blame him at all. That stuff looks awful. I remember when we were in China with Jamae, I took her off of congee the first day because the stuff looks nasty.
* So far we have eaten two chinese dinners. They were excellent. The funny thing is that Madison liked the food (she claims to not like chinese food) and Jamae didn't like the food (she claims to love chinese food. She's chinese after all, as she would say).
*We have also eaten at KFC, Papa John's, and Dico's ( a chinese fast food place). Ming had been to a McDonald's before, but never the others. He liked the food. That is good news since I don't really know how to cook chinese.
*We learned that on special days, like American New Year, the children in his group home would be taken to McDonald's for a special treat.
*So far we all feel good. That has been a blessing.
*To say that Ming loves his Nintendo DS we bought for him would be an understatement. We have a hard time getting him away from it. We do see it as a blessing though. It allows him a way to pull into himself. Being with all english speakers must be very difficult.
*Ming came to us with a backpack filled with school books, a bag with stuffed animals, a bag of clothes, and a box of treasures. We still haven't seen all the treasures yet.
*It is very, very hot and humid here. Being from dry Moses Lake, we are suffering and sweating.
*We have 2 connecting rooms which has been wonderful. When we were here with Jamae, we were not able to get connecting rooms until the end of the trip. We have one room with a queen bed, a roll away and a couch that Jamae is sleeping on. The other room has 2 twin beds and a roll away.
*The beds are HARD! They make me wake up with a backache. I think Ming must think they are very soft, because when we saw his bed yesterday, it is a piece of plywood with a bamboo mat on it.

The family is ready for breakfast. We will write again soon.

A Very Full Day!

It is probably not possible for a day to be any more emotional or full than today was for us.

Even though we only had two "outings", they were both extremely emotional and significant. This morning, we visited Ming's orphanage, the Living Hope Children's Home. And this afternoon, we drove 45 minutes or so to visit the Hidden Treasures Orphanage. It would fill several pages to document all that we experienced...and we're frankly too tired for that this evening. I think the best move right now is simply to allow some pictures do the talking. The summary would be to tell you that it was a VERY BLESSED DAY, and one that we will never forget.

Here is a glimpse into our morning at Living Hope...








And here are a couple of pictures from our visit to Hidden Treasures. The couple you see is Mike & Deena. We met them at the swimming pool yesterday afternoon, and decided to take a trip out to visit them. We can tell you the whole story after we return, but for now let's just say it was more than mere coincidence that we met them.



And here's a glimpse at what our drive home looked like. This is a view from one of the many bridges over the Min River that we crossed...

July 1

Today was a great day as we tried to take in some of the sights of Fuzhou. We did this for us and for Ming. We certainly want to visit some of the highlights of Fuzhou, but we especially want Ming to have memories of Fuzhou, his home city. After a wonderful breakfast at the hotel buffet, we went to the Panda Zoo here in town. They have 7 of the 100 pandas left in the world. A few of the pandas from the earthquake area have been brought here. We saw one of these pandas - he has lost a leg and eyesight in one eye because of the earthquake. The zoo director was very glad to have us visiting his zoo and really went out of his way to accommadate us. Our guide told us that he was treating us like he would royalty. Here is a picture of the zoo director with Jody, Jay and Ming.

We really enjoyed spending time seeing the pandas. The director even brought us to a place where we could see them up close.



Ming had never had the opportunity to see the pandas, so I was so glad that we were able to see them with him. He seemed to really enjoy it. We also had our guide tell him that on the way home, we are going to Disneyland. How fun to see his reaction. He gave me (Caryn) a huge hug. He said that he has always dreamed of going to Disneyland. I am so thankful we put that in our trip.
We then went to see the "hero" of Fuzhou's home and went to a tea ceremony. It was very interesting. Jesse and Mitchell did not seem to see it as fun, but Ming enjoyed it. He likes tea, so we bought some dragon tea (the tea of Fuzhou) so we can make him some tea at home that he is used to.
After a lunch of KFC, we came back to the hotel to swim. Ming had told us that he knows how to swim. I believe that he has been in a swimming pool before, but he doesn't know how to swim. I only had to rescue him one time and then he learned his boundaries. We had a wonderful time relaxing in the pool.

We decided to take Ming down to the rec area and see if he really knows how to play ping pong like we had been told. Wow! he is really good. Jody did manage to beat him, but he gave him a run for his money. Ming also wanted to try pool although he had never played it before. He caught on really fast.

It has been such a day full of blessings. Ming is such a wonderful boy. So full of life. I know that this change must be very hard for him, but he is so brave. I feel like he is completely embracing us as his family. He understands what is happenning and seems to be okay with it. The language barrier does make things hard as we can't talk to him like we would if we both spoke the same language, but we are getting by with our limited chinese and gestures. A smile goes a long way. He is getting along wonderfully with the kids, in fact he is playing on his DS with the boys right now.

Please think of him tomorrow as we go to visit his orphanage. We have come to learn that he has been living in a wonderful group home these last 3 years, who have become his family. I know he is excited to show us where he has been living, but it will be a very sad day for his as he says his final goodbyes. Yesterday, after we came into the hotel room after receiving him, he immediantly tried to call someone on the telephone. He could not get the number to work. Through our guide, we found out that he was trying to call one of his caretakers at the orphanage to tell him that he was ok. Thankfully, today he was able to call them and connect with the caregiver. I am so thankful that he feels loved and cared for by the workers at his orphanage. I am fully confident that he will be able to also love us, his new family.