There's No Place Like.... Guangzhou

There were many days last week when I wanted to click my heels and automatically be here. Xi'an was full of Chinese culture and incredible history, but it wasn't a very kid friendly place for a 7 year old. It was such a big, crowded, busy city, that it was hard to really take Mia anywhere. Everywhere we went required crossing multiple lanes of traffic - a huge ordeal in China with no traffic rules.

Guangzhou is the last stop for all American families adopting from China. On Shamian Island most adoptive families stay here at The White Swan Hotel so it feels a little bit like home. Everyone in the restaurants speak English so we are no longer guessing about what we are eating. Their are also western toilets - but that is another story.

Today we had Mia's medical exam. She got six shots, but she was a tough girl. She only cried for the very last one and it was just a few tears. On Monday we will have her TB test read. Sometimes they are false positive here and a chest x-ray is required. Please pray that her test is clear so we have no chest xray to go through. The TB test is the reason that we must stay here a week. It is a new requirement since we were here in 2007 with Lainie.

There is a small park here that we enjoyed today. Mia can run!! She ran from one thing to another and back again and again and again. I think she was just as glad as we were to finally have a place where she could run and play.

Below are some pics of our last day in Xian when we toured the Bell Tower as well as some pics from the city. Please note that it was not a cloudy day. The haziness you see is smog. Yuck. No wonder we are sick. The last pictures are from today in the park. Tomorrow we visit the Chen Family Temple and the Guangzhou Arts and Crafts Fair.








a typical Chinese apartment



Doesn't every girl deserve a daddy to hold her up to the monkey bars?



Guangzhou is fun, but I am still counting the hours until I can wrap my arms around my four kids at home. I love you! Less than a week to go!

Terra Cotta Warriors

Thank you for all of you who are praying for Mia. It has been a tough grieving process, but we are working through it. Tomorrow we fly to Gaungzhou at 6:40pm our time - 5:40am your time. Our time here is half over. We cannot wait to be home. Please do pray for us. I'm not sure how well Mia will do on the plane ride. We've learned this week that she has never ridden in a car before and she gets very car sick.

Yesterday we visited the famous Terra Cotta Warriors. People have told me about seeing this before, but honestly, you really can't appreciate it until you have been.



Here's the history lesson. The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang believed he would have another life after he died. He had these terra cotta soldiers, horses and chariots made to serve as his army in that life. They were buried, standing and ready for service in his tomb. In 1974, a rural Chinese farmer discovered a hat of one of the warriors while trying to dig a well. He kept it in his house for over a year. Eventually, a relative came to visit and encouraged him to dig more. 8,000 terra cotta soldiers have been uncovered to date along with 520 horses and many chariots. The soldiers each stand 6 ft tall. They date back to 210 BC. The emperor demanded that no two soldiers be made alike. It took 700,000 workers to complete the task. As we now know, the soldiers were not helpful to him in the after life.











It is an amazing site to see. Three separate buildings have been built around three excavation pits. All simply amazing. The detail of each soldier is incredible. I'm sure these pictures won't do them justice. As I said, you really have to see it to appreciate it.





This picture is of Mia at the gift shop. Not a kid friendly shop. Too much terra cotta for little hands to reach!!!

We miss you all. Thank you for following along.

Out and About with Mia

Today was our first day of official touring. We saw two historial sites.


The Wild Goose Pagoda


Originally built in 652 during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the pagoda functioned to collect Buddhist materials that were taken from India by the hierarch Xuanzang. It is called Big Wild Goose Pagoda because of a legend.. According to ancient stories of Buddhists, there were two branches, for one of which eating meat was not a taboo. One day, they couldn't find meat to buy. Upon seeing a group of big wild geese flying by, a monk said to himself: 'Today we have no meat. I hope the merciful Bodhisattva will give us some.' At that very moment, the leading wild goose broke its wings and fell to the ground. All the monks were startled and believed that Bodhisattva showed his spirit to order them to be more pious. They established a pagoda where the wild goose fell and stopped eating meat. Hence it got the name 'Big Wild Goose Pagoda'. The tour was full of talk about Buddha and Buddism. It was interesting to hear the origins of it all, but became a little redundant after the 10 buddha statue. I still find it so interesting to see again how differently people across the world think and live.


Xi'an City Wall




When Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), captured Huizhou, a hermit named Zhu Sheng admonished him that he should 'built high walls, store abundant food supplies and take time to be an Emperor,' so that he could fortify the city and unify the other states. After the establishment of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang followed his advice and began to enlarge the wall built initially during the old Tang dynasty (618 -907), creating the modern Xian City Wall. It's the most complete city wall that has survived in China, as well being one of the largest ancient military defensive systems in the world. The wall is decorated for Chinese New Year and Mia loved the flower decorations. She wanted her photo taken with everything.







And yes, I'm copying this info from the internet because I do not remember everything Sherry said and I'm too tired to look back at my notes. Tomorrow we are headed to the Terra Cotta Warriors. We've heard so much about them.

Thanks for all of your prayers. Mia still has a broken heart, but most of the days puts on a brave face. She is beginning to show us much affection and we can't wait for all of you to meet this brave little girl. We've seen God here in the big things and in many, many small details. I can't wait to tell you all about this amazing, amazing story.

Jen

A Big God

Thank you for your prayers for precious Mia. Since lunch time today we have seen a total transformation. When she skipped into the lobby to meet our guide, Sherry, for lunch Sherry looked at me and said, "What did you do?" She couldn't believe how happy she was given her difficult morning. I answered by saying, "I prayed." She looked at Mia and said, " You got BIG God."


Yes I do. Yes I do.

While we realize the days ahead will be full of steps forward and steps backward, we are thankful to see a glimpse of Mia's true personality today. Enjoy the pics.

Jen









She wrote these math problems on her own. She even made the little boxes for the answers. When she is done she puts a check mark for each one. Mrs. Upright, I think she'll have no problem with kindergarten math!!!

More About Mia

It is now 4am here and Mia has slept peacefully through the night. I, on the other hand, have been wide awake. I thought I should take this chance while she is sleeping to tell you more about what we've learned so far about this precious girl.

First, she is incredibly brave. She could be kicking and screaming and refusing to be with us, but while she cries, she still does what we asks and holds our hand. So far that is.

She is also beautiful. Her pictures do not do her justice. Her hair has grown alot since the last pics we had. She puts her bangs in a little clip to the side. She knows exactly how to do it herself. Her lip repair looks great as we suspected from her pictures. I haven't gotten to look at her palate. Our guide says her Chinese is very clear, so it is not hampering her speech.

She is very smart. When I wrote the numbers 1,2,3, she knew how to write 4,5,6,etc. She repeats every English word we say. She likes to color with markers. Tonight we drew pictures together. She is very precise about putting the tops on the markers just right when she finishes. (My kids take note.)

We could not get her to take a bath tonight and we didn't push it. We did fill the tub with bubbles and water and she and I played over the side with stacking cups that I had brought. I think she's washed dishes before because she would fill them up with soap, wash it with her hand and rinse the bubbles out. We also had fun blowing the bubbles across the bathroom. We got the biggest smiles then.

I painted her fingernails and that was obviously not the first time she's had that done. She would roll her finger to the side so I could get her whole nail and she knew to blow them when we were done.

She brought all of the items that I sent in the care package with her. She wants all of her stuff put right back in her little bag. Except for the phone number. She won't put that down still.

Today we go back to the civil affairs office to sign papers and then she is officially ours in the eyes of China. Be in prayer for that meeting (8pm Sunday your time). I imagine we are going to have lots of talk about the grandmother's phone number again. Please pray that we have wisdom how to handle this particular situation. Thank you for all of your sweet comments. Knowing you are praying for us makes us feel brave too. Our prayer for sweet Mia is that God will quiet her anxious heart with His love as only He can do.

We love you all!



She has 3 layers of clothes on, so she's really not quite as big as she appears.

Meeting Mia...

Mia was brave today. As soon as she walked in the door and saw us, she wanted to cry, but she held it back to a quiet wimper. She talked the entire time about the phone number of her foster grandmother. They had given her the number on a piece of paper and she begged and begged for someone to call her. She has cried on and off about wanting someone to call her grandmother. It is very sad. I wish they had handled it differently, but that was their choice. We have had happy moments of playing. She likes to look at the flashcards I brought and repeat the words in English. She is very, very, smart. She told our guide that first she is going to a hotel, then an airplane and then to America. Someone had prepared her that much. She is a beautiful, beautiful girl who has a broken heart right now. She is allowing us to comfort her by holding her and wiping her tears. We will be fine. It will just take time. Pray that God would calm her heart and help mend the sadness she feels over having left her foster grandmother. I need to go take care of her. More details later....


Our guide Sherry and I waiting for Mia to arrive




In the Civil Affairs office






Back in the hotel with Bobby and I

What did we do today?

((Notice the correction on the last post! We get Mia 4pm Sunday China time which is 3am Sunday your time while you all are sleeping! The time difference gets confusing...not enough sleep, sorry!))

It has been a great day and we are glad we had this day to relax and settle in before meeting Mia tomorrow. Our guide is a perfect match for us. Sherry is a 27 year old fun girl that I know will be great at helping Mia transition. She has known exactly what kind of stores to point out to us and we've had some great conversations about Chinese culture with her. Today we met her at 11:30 and went out for some "shopping". The purpose of our time with her was to give us a "walking tour" of our surroundings so we know how to get snacks, meals and do a little shopping when she isn't with us. We spent about 2 hours walking the area. We went to the Muslim Quarter where I picked up a few things for Mia as keepsakes and then we found Starbucks.


The most hilarious thing happened while we were shopping at a silk vendor's storefront. She and several of the other shop tenders kept pointing at Bobby and giggling. We asked Sherry what they were saying and she reluctantly told us that they were saying Bobby looked like Buddha. Sherry was afraid we would be offended, but I thought it was hilarious. Since we've gotten back to the hotel Bobby has gone to the workout room. He's trying to ditch the Buddha figure. Too funny.

Tomorrow we will be on our own until we meet Sherry at 3. We will go to the bank and exchange the necessary money and then walk to meet Mia at 4:00. The Civil Affairs Office where our meeting would normally take place is being remodeled so we will meet her in a hotel just down the street from us. We will walk there, but Sherry will call a car to drive us back to the hotel. Crossing the street here is quite an adventure and I can't imagine trying to do it with a traumatized 7 year old.

We know that you are praying for all of us tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.


Leaving Charlotte... the first leg of our journey.


Bobby and I had a funny conversation on the plane. We talked about the places other couples fly on planes together. We talked about places we dreamed we'd visit early in our marriage. China wasn't on either list. God's plans are certainly different than ours. But, despite the enticement of luxurious vacations, there's no where I'd rather be than right now than in the middle of HIS will. Although I hope one day he'll send me somewhere with sun and sandy beaches.

See kids, we saw snow too while we were in Newark. We can't wait to hear about the fun things you did in the snow at home. You can barely see my face here, but it is filled with terror as I realize that the plane is going to have to be de-iced.

Our hotel... The Grand Mercure

Muslim Quarter