Hi all! Sorry for no pix - our daughter was really busy Saturday with ACTs, Christmas play practice and being a "Mom" to the littles - hopefully some pix will show up soon.
Last night we went to a local restaurant ... a stone's throw over the PHF wall .. to celebrate Lushi's 14th bday. We WAY overordered not realizing the portion sizes per order. Beef and onions, kung pao chicken (lightly spicy with nuts and carrots/cukes), braised beef ribs .. mmmm, and cashew chicken .... then the stir fried beans, bok choi and stir fried broccoli - Lushi ordered noodles (mian tiao)- he loves noodles. This time he conversed with the waiter and next thing we know he has a bulb of raw garlic .... peels it and holds a clove of raw garlic in one hand and eats the noodles with the other - like we eat bread with soup ... a slurp of noodles and a bite of garlic ... he ate 2 cloves this way and wow did he stink the rest of the night. Guess he boosted his immune system for the entire trip home!! :P We had a cake and candles with us and we sang to him at the end of the meal - in english and chinese - he was beaming. I did the traditional 1 for the money (for those who know us well) and had to mimic blowing out the candles to show him what to do. Clay and Jewel Floch went with us and Stacey too. The rest of the staff are typically off for the weekend.
Christina slept in a bed by herself in Mary's room last night. She is gradually getting more comfortable with us as the hours go by. A BIG change in her life will come this afternoon when we leave the village and head to the airport. She will be leaving many memories and friends behind as she begins a new stage in her life. We head to Nanchang tonight, where we will sign her adoption papers tomorrow. We will then wait several days for her passport to be released to us before we can go on to Guangzhou.
Have a blessed Lord's Day and keep us in your prayers as we continue our journey.
Mary
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Saturday morning in China!
Christina slept with me (mary) last night in a queen bed - I had started some laundry and was not ready to go to sleep but laid down beside her - she was out within 15min at 8:30. She woke about 2am and seemed confused with me beside her and we were both up for good around 5:30am. John and Lushi stayed in another room in separate beds. We have found that Lushi is not continent at all .... we are not making anything of it, but try to encourage him to wash well ... with hand motion over bottom and peri area .... at which he just laughs and says "okay,okay,okay" .... that's one of his phrases ... along with "no,no,no". Christina and I waited until 6:30 to officially bust into the boys room - they were awake but in bed. The lights went on and I started to check email while Christina bounced and bounced on Lushi's bed. Christina had made John and I a painted 12x12inch canvas with the word "love" in the middle of a large heart that was painted with smaller hearts all the way around - signed and dated on the back - so sweet. She let me open it in the room earlier and then brought it over to show Baba .... she was on the bed with Lushi and said to us "love (pointing to her artwork) .... I love you" .... to which Lushi responded also "I love you,too!" WOW oh wow .... his first official sentence and it's "I love you, too" with a huge smile on his face.
The boys dressed and we headed to the dining hall area for a pick up breakfast of yogurt and peanut butter bread - while we were eating, I looked at Lushi and it hit me .... "Lushi, it's your birthday!!" The four of us, along with Clay and Jewel all sang Happy Birthday to him and then Christina sang it to him in Chinese! It doesn't seem like a birthday - we will go out to eat tonight we - have a cake and candles - perhaps we will do a bit of shopping. We did get him new sneaks yesterday ... size NINE on this smallish 14 yr old and boy do his feet STINK !! I forgot how bad teen boys feet stink ... he is great about washing his hair in the sink around 3 times a day, but I don't think the rest of him sees much water!! :P Mama will have to change that!
We went over to the House of Love to visit - played with the children, saw where Christina slept, took pix with ayis, friends and bedrooms. I snuggled a few of the kids - especially sweet Noel Joy .... yes she grabbed my heart in Feb of 08 - and she is doing much better ... she has CP. What a giggle Noel has - steals your heart!
We skyped with the kids back at home .... first had to call on the phone to find them at the Leckrones - had been there all day sledding. I said to Caitlin, "it's 6:30 ... you better get home and get a good nigh'ts rest ... ACTs tomorrow." She gasped and said she had totally forgotten! The cat's away the mice do play!
We just had lunch and Christina is used to napping with the other kids now ... seems like a good excuse for Mama to rest, too.
We send more pix to Caitlin for her to post.
In HIS strength and mercy alone,
Mary
The boys dressed and we headed to the dining hall area for a pick up breakfast of yogurt and peanut butter bread - while we were eating, I looked at Lushi and it hit me .... "Lushi, it's your birthday!!" The four of us, along with Clay and Jewel all sang Happy Birthday to him and then Christina sang it to him in Chinese! It doesn't seem like a birthday - we will go out to eat tonight we - have a cake and candles - perhaps we will do a bit of shopping. We did get him new sneaks yesterday ... size NINE on this smallish 14 yr old and boy do his feet STINK !! I forgot how bad teen boys feet stink ... he is great about washing his hair in the sink around 3 times a day, but I don't think the rest of him sees much water!! :P Mama will have to change that!
We went over to the House of Love to visit - played with the children, saw where Christina slept, took pix with ayis, friends and bedrooms. I snuggled a few of the kids - especially sweet Noel Joy .... yes she grabbed my heart in Feb of 08 - and she is doing much better ... she has CP. What a giggle Noel has - steals your heart!
We skyped with the kids back at home .... first had to call on the phone to find them at the Leckrones - had been there all day sledding. I said to Caitlin, "it's 6:30 ... you better get home and get a good nigh'ts rest ... ACTs tomorrow." She gasped and said she had totally forgotten! The cat's away the mice do play!
We just had lunch and Christina is used to napping with the other kids now ... seems like a good excuse for Mama to rest, too.
We send more pix to Caitlin for her to post.
In HIS strength and mercy alone,
Mary
Christina pix!!
Sorry for the wait; I (Caitlin) was away with the kids all day. Here are the pictures!
Christina's Gotcha!
After a short 1 hour flight from Taiyuan to Beijing, we were met at the airport by PHF staffers Clay and Jewel Floch. They shuttled us out to Shepherd's Field where we got settled in our rooms at the Inn of Eight Happinesses and met with some of the other staff. They gave us several things, including a portfolio of Christina's schoolwork and a DVD of pictures they've taken of her over the years. After the children's naptime, Christina was brought over to the Inn to meet us. At first, she was shy and wouldn't come to us. She did however, take to Lushi! Eventually, after some talking and teasing, she began to warm up to us and the REAL Christina began to emerge. She is quite the PISTOL! She'll give Juliana and Nathan a run for their money, and she may even rival Jeremy in decibel level. She can be very demanding, several times calling out "Mother!" and is very confident in herself. Her english vocabulary has impressed us so far and she loves talking with Lushi in chinese too. At one point, we could not find them. They had taken off (sans coats) and found their way to the playground!
Little did we know when we invited ourselves a day early to PHF that they had their staff Christmas party scheduled for tonight. They invited us to join them and we had a wonderful time. Several of the children participated by singing carols, and Christina was included in this group. They sang Silent Night, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Jesus Loves Me (in english and chinese). They were very good. After an excellent meal, we brought them both back over to the Inn and showered them. Soon, it was off to bed. The Lord has blessed us tremendously and we are so thankful. I'm so looking forward to getting them home to meet the rest of their new family!
The "Great Firewall of China" does not allow access to blogspot. I've been using a proxy server to submit these posts, but am not able to post pics. For those of you requesting more pics, so sorry! I will forward a few of the pics we took tonight in an e-mail to Caitlin, and hopefully she will get them loaded onto the blog this morning.
Its been a long day and everyone else is fast asleep. I'm off to join them. I hope you all have as great a Friday as we've just had! Good night.
John
Little did we know when we invited ourselves a day early to PHF that they had their staff Christmas party scheduled for tonight. They invited us to join them and we had a wonderful time. Several of the children participated by singing carols, and Christina was included in this group. They sang Silent Night, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Jesus Loves Me (in english and chinese). They were very good. After an excellent meal, we brought them both back over to the Inn and showered them. Soon, it was off to bed. The Lord has blessed us tremendously and we are so thankful. I'm so looking forward to getting them home to meet the rest of their new family!
The "Great Firewall of China" does not allow access to blogspot. I've been using a proxy server to submit these posts, but am not able to post pics. For those of you requesting more pics, so sorry! I will forward a few of the pics we took tonight in an e-mail to Caitlin, and hopefully she will get them loaded onto the blog this morning.
Its been a long day and everyone else is fast asleep. I'm off to join them. I hope you all have as great a Friday as we've just had! Good night.
John
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Heading to Langfang!
Good evening/morning depending on where you are!
The Lord was gracious and we did get the notary papers last night around 8pm - we had resigned ourselves to not getting it last night when it hadn't arrived by 6:30pm. We went to eat at KFC and after dinner we told Angela she had better call Shelby at Shepherd's Field and tell her we would not make it until Sat - Angela took out her phone and squealed "it came, it came"!! There was a message on her phone saying the papers were at the hotel just after 8pm!! Then she softly said God is so good! Yes!
Now Christina's gotcha will not be the same as Lushi's birthday!! We will forever more have such busy celebrations in Dec with 2 gotchas and a bday in the same week! So we fly out at 10am - couldn't get our money back on the other flights for Sat, but the amount of the new plane tickets was about the same as the cost of the 2 rooms at the Shanxi Grande ... we wanted adjoining rooms and had to go to the "business level" to get them - and they are the most expensive hotel rooms for our entire trip.
So we should meet Christina this afternoon sometime and we will get an extra night at the Inn of the Eight Happinesses at Shepherd's Field!
We are hoping Lushi and Christina can understand each other - we will soon find out. And there are some of the older boys at SF that Lushi will be able to meet, too!
Thanks for all your prayers!!
Mary and John
The Lord was gracious and we did get the notary papers last night around 8pm - we had resigned ourselves to not getting it last night when it hadn't arrived by 6:30pm. We went to eat at KFC and after dinner we told Angela she had better call Shelby at Shepherd's Field and tell her we would not make it until Sat - Angela took out her phone and squealed "it came, it came"!! There was a message on her phone saying the papers were at the hotel just after 8pm!! Then she softly said God is so good! Yes!
Now Christina's gotcha will not be the same as Lushi's birthday!! We will forever more have such busy celebrations in Dec with 2 gotchas and a bday in the same week! So we fly out at 10am - couldn't get our money back on the other flights for Sat, but the amount of the new plane tickets was about the same as the cost of the 2 rooms at the Shanxi Grande ... we wanted adjoining rooms and had to go to the "business level" to get them - and they are the most expensive hotel rooms for our entire trip.
So we should meet Christina this afternoon sometime and we will get an extra night at the Inn of the Eight Happinesses at Shepherd's Field!
We are hoping Lushi and Christina can understand each other - we will soon find out. And there are some of the older boys at SF that Lushi will be able to meet, too!
Thanks for all your prayers!!
Mary and John
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
adoption paperwork nearly done!!
It is now Thursday afternoon - we are only waiting for the notary paperwork to be delivered - tonight hopefully!! We have only been here two days - sorry we are doing this so fast - I know so very many of you are waiting and waiting. I am not sure why God chose for us to do these adoptions like this but it is certainly all Him! The workers at the civil affairs office were asking our guide, Angela (my angel), why is everyone pushing this along so fast - what is so special about this boy?? Why him? She was without response - I told her I would have simply said - this is how God has chosen to place Lushi in a family - all the children come via their own path .... Lushi has waited nearly 14 years and he has certainly waited long enough!! He is opening up and laughs at Mama's attempts to use chopsticks ... and speak chinese!! He jokes with the civil affairs officers and is smiling lots and lots! And Mama has found out he is VERY ticklish! His only request before we came was for a translator ... electronic. We went today to look at some ... in a FREEZING cold building - he was so stubborn, so 14!! He wanted this one and ONLY this one that he obviously has seen someone else using. It was so confusing to use and finally I told him this translator would be like his didi's (little brother's) prosthetic arm - fine to look at but quite useless for everyday functioning. He then agreed .... my nearly 14 yr old son agreed and said he didn't want it!
He opens doors, pours our tea, passes the first coke to me - he actually has some manners! We had a very nice lunch at a local cantonese restaurant .... mmm,mmm very good (sorry Cait and Grace :P )- the orphanage adoption worker that brought him finally agreed to join us and he shared some about Lushi and how he has a very sensitive heart. I simply can't WAIT to be able to converse with him and joke with him. When Angela leaves us and we head home, he asked who will help translate -this will be his biggest adjustment, but hopefully he will tackle it head on and work hard at it. I told him it will take many months but it will finally happen and he will be able to talk with us and we will all understand each other.
Since our work is all done we are going to try to fly off to Langfang tomorrow and spend a bit more time at Shepherd's Field. I will miss out on going there in the spring for the planned mission's trip and will cherish sharing with the children and meeting up with Christina!! I'm sure she will totally enjoy leading us around to show us all the babies and loving on them with us!!
For all of you not in the midwest area, please pray for our teen daughters and younger kids - they got 14inches of snow yesterday and everything is still closed around the area. Caitlin was the "man of the house" and conquered snow blowing the driveway with much effort ... said there were 5 foot drifts from the 40 mile/hour winds. They stayed in most of the day Wed and made cookies ... eating most of the dough before it could even be cooked! Sounds like MY daughters!! Raw dough is so very yummy!!
Can't wait for all our family and friends at home to meet Lushi - watch out James S - he can put some spin on a pingpong ball!!
In HIS strength and mercy alone,
MaryK
He opens doors, pours our tea, passes the first coke to me - he actually has some manners! We had a very nice lunch at a local cantonese restaurant .... mmm,mmm very good (sorry Cait and Grace :P )- the orphanage adoption worker that brought him finally agreed to join us and he shared some about Lushi and how he has a very sensitive heart. I simply can't WAIT to be able to converse with him and joke with him. When Angela leaves us and we head home, he asked who will help translate -this will be his biggest adjustment, but hopefully he will tackle it head on and work hard at it. I told him it will take many months but it will finally happen and he will be able to talk with us and we will all understand each other.
Since our work is all done we are going to try to fly off to Langfang tomorrow and spend a bit more time at Shepherd's Field. I will miss out on going there in the spring for the planned mission's trip and will cherish sharing with the children and meeting up with Christina!! I'm sure she will totally enjoy leading us around to show us all the babies and loving on them with us!!
For all of you not in the midwest area, please pray for our teen daughters and younger kids - they got 14inches of snow yesterday and everything is still closed around the area. Caitlin was the "man of the house" and conquered snow blowing the driveway with much effort ... said there were 5 foot drifts from the 40 mile/hour winds. They stayed in most of the day Wed and made cookies ... eating most of the dough before it could even be cooked! Sounds like MY daughters!! Raw dough is so very yummy!!
Can't wait for all our family and friends at home to meet Lushi - watch out James S - he can put some spin on a pingpong ball!!
In HIS strength and mercy alone,
MaryK
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