Day 12 - Low Key Hotel Day

Today marks one week since Maelee joined our family!  It is amazing to see how God is already showing her to trust us and receive love.  She is starting to show more of her personality and we love to see her smiles and giggles.  It is safe to say that we are love with our new addition!

Unfortunately, our day did not go as planned.  What do you do as parents when your kids are just plain awful every time you go out in public? ... You begrudgingly stay inside your hotel ... all day.

The day started with a trip to the Orchid Garden which was across the street from our hotel.  We got a nice shot of the whole family there.  Every child (except our newest addition) "lost it" in the 45 minutes we stayed there.  We were so fed up that we took everyone back to the hotel room and told them we were not going to leave until they were ready to start showing better behavior.  The kids are throwing fits, being unkind, and showing disrespect.  As parents, we are struggling to maintain order.  Please pray that God will give us wisdom in our parenting, for all of us to show love and respect to each other, and for God to be glorified!

Back at the hotel room, we ordered Papa John's for lunch.  The kids had time on their Kindles.  Matt got to spend some time playing and laughing with Maelee.  The kids did some school work while Matt, Deanna, and Maelee took a rest.  We even got to watch the Cubs win game 5 of the World Series.

For dinner, we went down the street to check out the famous noodle shop Deanna had heard about.  For about $15 we got 4 big entrees and drinks for 6 people.  Of course this meal was not sufficient for Claire so she got Starbucks on the way.  Nathan held out for McDonald's afterwards.

Tomorrow we have Maelee's US consulate appointment.  LORD willing, her visa will be issued on Wednesday.  This means one thing...our time in China is almost complete!  We fly home on Saturday, November 5.  Airport greeters are welcome!  We will post our flight details soon.  We arrive Saturday night around 9:00 pm.

Blessings from today:
More giggles and laughter from Maelee
Maelee's TB test results came back negative!
Maelee ate dumplings at the noodle restaurant!  Yay, her first "real" food.  She also had some grape juice.
Maelee let us brush her teeth.  Another first for us!

Prayer Requests:
-Please pray that God will give us wisdom in our parenting, for all of us to show love and respect to each other, and for God to be glorified!
-Pray for Maelee to increase her eating and drinking.  She has not had a bowel movement since she joined our family one week ago.  Pray that she will get those bowels moving!
-Pray that Maelee's consulate appointment will go well and there are no delays with her visa.
-Praise that Deanna's knee is doing better with minimal pain.  Also, praise that Deanna's thumb is so far not infected.  Please pray that the cut will continue to heal.

Orchid garden

I'm telling you.  The block on the head routine works really well.

Electronics for the win!

Hannah loving on her little sister

Cubs win Game 5!  It was broadcast live in China.

Nap time

Noodle shop ... Chinese kid paradise

Maelee's first "real" food

Chinese hotel dryer

Day 11 - Church on Shamian Island

One of our favorite spots to visit in Guangzhou is Shamian Island.  We usually visit at least two times during our visits.  We love that the island has a different feel to it.  The architecture is ornate.  There are cobblestone sidewalks with beautiful landscaping.  The shops have fun souvenirs.  It also has a Christian church.  One of the Sunday services is in Mandarin and English.  It is always a treat to visit another country and worship with fellow believers.  It is special to praise Him in multiple languages.  We have yet to make it through a whole service and today was no different.  We were able to hear most of the sermon before the kids lost it.  It was a joy to bring Maelee to her first church service!

We were disappointed to find that our two favorite shops had closed down.  The big hotel on the island had been under construction for so long that their businesses suffered severely.  It was always special to visit their shops with each trip.  We were hoping to gift the owners with pictures from our previous visits.  They always made friends with our kids and took great care with them.  We miss them.  Please join us in praying for them as they work to provide for their families in other ways.

The afternoon was spent moving rooms.  Matt was able to talk to the right staff member to set us up with adjoining rooms.  They do have those here after all!  What a novel idea.  It is frustrating to know that we called several times asking about this situation.  We were told many times that no adjoining rooms existed.  The person who checked us in on Friday was not helpful or accommodating either.  Deanna is especially thankful to be together now.  It was very frustrating to sleep separate and have our stuff in two different places.  It always seemed that the needed items were in the other room.  Thank you God for Paco hooking us up!

Tonight Deanna stayed around the hotel with the girls.  They went shopping for a bit and got a sweet treat.  The boys went out on the town!  They took the subway to a Guangzhou Evergrande soccer game.  Apparently, this is the best team in China and they showed it by winning the game 4-0.  The boys had a great time and got back home around 10:30 PM.

Tomorrow is a free day.  Please pray that Maelee's TB results come back negative.  Please pray that we get our paper we need from the other family.

Maelee's first church service

Claire was inspired to do a fashion shot here

More ice cream!

Claire dropped her ice cream ... sad

What do you do when you don't have a phone to play on ... watch your neighbor play of course

Stylin' in our new jerseys

Tianhe Stadium

The boys had their first Coca-Cola tonight

Gooooooooooool!

Subway back home was a little cramped

Day 10 - Medical Exam Day

Today Deanna, Maelee and Claire went to the medical clinic.  Maelee had her medical exam for her visa.  It consisted of four stations: vital signs, ENT, general exam, and TB blood draw. Maelee was not a fan of the strange doctors and nurses.  She fussed at the stations and cried with the blood draw.  They take your kid behind closed doors for the blood draw and then hand them back to you screaming.  L  Thankfully another mama was able to give Maelee a sucker since Deanna forgot her sucker stash.  It is the worst!  Deanna was so thankful that Maelee found comfort with her mama and her sucker.

One of the nice things about the medical exam is that it gives parents the opportunity to meet other adoptive families.  It is so fun to meet families that we have connected with through this journey.  We also met some new families.  One couple was there to adopt their 22^nd child!  This is their first adoption from China.  It was wonderful to hear their testimony about God’s faithfulness as they continue to minister in their home to children needing homes.  God is so good!  He provides in so many ways!  We serve an awesome God!

After the medical exam, Deanna and the girls headed to Wal-Mart for some groceries.  The Chinese grocery store is always an interesting place with all the sights and smells!  Upon returning to the hotel, Deanna completed some paperwork with our guide for Maelee’s consulate appointment. We discovered that we had the one incorrect paper that belonged to the other family in our travel group.  Our guide reassured us that we should not worry.  He called later in the day to confirm that the other family had our paper.  Praise God!

While the girls were at the medical exam, Matt took Nathan, Micah and Hannah on an adventure to the park next to our hotel.  When we say park, it is more like Central Park; not a local playground.  Highlights included seeing more of the local culture like hackey sack with the weighted feather, dancing, singing, exercise on random exercise equipment.  We also got to visit "Relic of a Square Fortress" and "Pleasure Park" amusement park.  They topped the time off with another visit to McDonald's for chicken nuggets and ice cream.

Later in the afternoon we took the kids swimming at the pool; or as Micah calls it, “his pool.”  We hear about “his pool” often.  It is one of the few memories that he has from China.  Unfortunately, his "friend" from two years ago was not at the pool to play with him.  The weather was a little cool (what a surprise for Guangzhou!), so we didn't stay long.  Our Midwest kids didn't care though and they jumped right in.  This evening we ordered in from the hotel restaurant.  Micah and Hannah wer especially happy to have some Chinese food.  Hannah enjoyed having some "frice".  "Mmmmm, Yummmm, Can I try that, too?" were Micah's favorite comments.

Brrr ... it's cold!

This is the Square Fortress Relic ... anyone see a problem with the picture?

City people have pet turtles and play hackey sack for fun

Striking their best yoga pose

Biggest Chinese "playground" we've seen to date ... where are the slides?

Don't forget to take a photo at the tank relic

Ice cream at Mickey D's.

Day 9 - Travel to Guangzhou

Today was a fairly uneventful travel day.  Deanna went solo with our guide back to the notary office at 9:30AM to get the Adoption Decree and a few other essential documents before we left Chengdu.  Meanwhile, Matt helped referee the 5 kids and tried to get some more packing done.  Packing and repacking for 5 kids with a 20 kg weight limit can take a while.  Our troop left the hotel and was off to the airport by 12:30PM.

The travel experience to Guangzhou was good.  Boarding the airplane was a breeze.  Matt asked if our family could board early, and the gate attendant agreed.  We weren't sure if really understood what we were asking, but it worked out.  There are no boarding groups on China Air, just a cattle call once they decide to start letting people on.

All the kids did great on the plane!  Claire and Nathan sat next to a stranger across the aisle from Matt, Hannah, and Micah.  Deanna and Maelee sat one row back next to another stranger.  Maelee never cried, but a look of concern did cross her face once the engines started roaring and the plane hurtled down the runway.  Deanna even started to look a little frazzled during takeoff due to the turbulence.

Hannah and Micah passed time by playing "I Spy" and Nathan and Claire listened to the in-flight music.  Claire also made friends with the lady sitting next to her.  The gal didn't speak a lick of English, but that didn't stop Claire from trying to communicate.  By the end of the plane right, they were buddies and we even exchanged WeChat ID's.

We finally got to our hotel around 9:30 PM, checked into our guest rooms, and hit the hay.  Tomorrow is Maelee's medical appointment.  Claire is going to go with Deanna and Maelee and Matt is going to take the rest of the kids on a hike in the park across the street.

Blessings for today:
- Getting the Adoption Decree and remaining paperwork without any issue!
- Maelee continuing to open up to us.  Today was filled with a lot of giggling and smiles.
- Maelee really opening up to Deanna.  She even sat by her on the airplane!
- Getting to board the airplane ahead of the long line.
- Play place in Chengdu airport which came in handy when our flight was delayed 50 minutes.
- Safety travelling to our hotel with luggage packed to the ceiling, no seatbelts or luggage restraints, and a driver who had a heavy brake foot.

# Matt's Post

Our family took an entire row of seats in the airport

Playing at the airport

Flight #4, Maelee's first flight ever!

Claire's new friend

Maelee getting comfortable with Deanna.  She wouldn't let Deanna hold her a few days ago.