Two more days...

Well, the countdown is on. Only one more full day here in Guangzhou and then we leave bright and early Friday morning (5:15 from the hotel!!) We're so ready to get home... not so much to TRAVEL home... just to BE home. Gracelynn has been a stinker all day. She does great with PapPap and Daddy in the rooms... playing, horsing around, giggling, coloring, you name it. But bathroom time, shower time, and ANYtime in public... she's Mama's girl. That's good in one sense since she'll be with me most of the day, but she's wearing me out. Just because she prefers being with me doesn't mean she's an easy girl with me! Tonight we went on a dinner cruise along the Pearl River. If you haven't seen photos of the Pearl River, search on youtube.com to find some neat videos of the neon lights. The food was almost awful (first time so far on this trip)... but the sights were beautiful. I was a little shocked to see that they had TV screens playing the entire time, loudly... all in Chinese... and all just the news. It was a little distracting. Once dinner was over, we ventured to the top deck to take in the pretty lights. Chun would go to no one else, and since there was little to prevent her from going overboard, I had to hold her. All 35 pounds of her on a moving boat with no seating up top. So, after about 15 minutes, I took her to the potty (no Western style toilets this time!) and back to our seats. She was a real pistol... just bouncing around, kicking, hitting... after a little while of tolerating it, I finally told her no and held her to prevent her from kicking the nice tables and cabinets. She hated that. Screamed and cried for the last 15 minutes of our cruise. I got her calmed down finally just as we were docking. Whew... I personally couldn't wait to get back on that bus! I think Dad and Mike enjoyed the trip though.

This morning after breakfast, we went to visit Mr. Jordon's shop. Mr. Jordon is a Christian shopkeeper and is very low pressure (unlike most places), so we enjoy visiting him. He talked awhile with Mike and Dad... mostly comparing American visitors to French visitors. Let's just say that his viewpoints are similar to many American's viewpoints on that subject. :-) He was very sweet though. We bought a ton of things. He was careful to even double check every item and re-counted our total to be fair. I'll miss visiting with him. If anyone is able to come to Shamian Island, please stop in and say hello to Mr. Jordon. After that shop, Mike stopped and bought us a new suitcase. Polo... for less than $20 American dollars... LOL. Most people say it should get us home... but may not be usable after that. Ha ha ha. That's fine... it just needs to carry all of our new purchases! You can get nearly anything here... $20 iPods (so we hear), $10 Rolexes, etc. We just needed the suitcase, so that was our only "fake" purchase.

Today we had our Consulate Appointment for the Visa. Our guide does all the legwork with that appointment. We simply needed to stay in the room in case he had any questions. Once our hour of waiting was up, we dressed up Gracelynn in her Chinese silk gown and went downstairs for photos. I was so dreading this. It's traditional to gather the children from your goup and take a photo of them on the nice red couch in the second floor of the White Swan Hotel. Although Grace did love her beautiful blue dress and new shoes (bought this morning... whew... found some!)... I was so afraid of her reaction to sitting on the red couch with the other 4 babies in our group. So far on this trip, she has played with NO kids and usually withdraws when she sees them. However, the Lord was watching over us today and gave her some unexpected patience. :-) She sat on the couch just fine while several of the other babies cried. No smiles from Grace, but it was better than I expected. :-) We then all gathered together for a whole group shot in front of the waterfall. Haven't looked at it yet... hope it turned out well.

After the photos, we ate at the same restaurant, the Black Swan, that we saw the torch from earlier in our trip. This time we added 10 new faces to our dinner, since the other families are now with us. :-) It was nice. This restaurant must specialize in dumplings, because they are fabulous! Lunch was great... better than our dinner, that's for sure!

This afternoon, Mama and Grace crashed for awhile in the room while Daddy finished up some shopping. One of my requests was an Olympic shirt for me. He found it but it was the wrong size. We need to go back sometime tomorrow to exchange it.

Our day on Friday is going to be nuts. Three flights, mid-cabin super-cramped seating, a 3 year old who is feisty and doesn't take to sitting still very well, and about a total of 27 full hours of traveling. OH please..... PRAY FOR US!!!! Especially since Grace will go to no one in public except me... I'm going to go out of my flipping mind. Where is the valium when you need it?

I'm not sure how our weeks-to-come are going to go. First we have to fly halfway around the world with Grace, then we need to introduce her to a brand-new home, new pet and the fact that she has three siblings to live with. We've been trying to get her to understand this, but I'm not sure how much of it is sinking in. We show her photos of our other kids and she even repeated their names for me. However, to her they are just photos.

Saturday may be a messy day for us since we won't even arrive at home till very late Friday night. If you live nearby and don't see us, don't be surprised! After that, we need to start falling into a schedule... not sure we'll make it to church on Sunday, but Monday brings us back to a normal schedule. Mike goes to work, I take the 2 older ones to school, and then on Tuesday Tommy goes to school. Grace will be forced into our American life quickly, so who's to know how many dozens of meltdowns we'll be facing in the weeks to come. She's never seen a seatbelt or a carseat; she's ridden in a stroller, but not a double stroller; she's never been in a normal house... only an orphanage and a hotel; she only knows three of us and has never had siblings; she thinks nothing of making tons of noise so church may be a tough situation for awhile... fortunately we have a cry area and I'm no longer working in the kids program; she's never slept in a room alone before; she's now used to a full spread at breakfast... (what will she do with an Eggo?); she's eaten very little American food, but at the rate she's going, she'll eat nearly anything; she's learning a tiny bit of sign language and really isn't communicating well; she doesn't ask to go potty or for water or for food; she's still in pull-ups because of that... the orphanage swore she was potty-trained, but I can't get her to tell us when she needs to go; she has never ridden in a grocery cart or seen a store that large; she doesn't like crowds; ... oh the list of trials yet to face will go on and on and on if I let it. I know God will pull us through. I pray for strength since my nerves are almost shot.

We ask that when you do see us and Gracelynn around the home or in town that you please take care to do a few things. One... do not approach her and attempt to pick her up. I guarantee she will fling her head around and scream and stiffen her body and begin a tantrum. She's going to need time to warm up to people. Two... don't attempt to touch her without expecting her to turn her head on you and grunt. She'll now play with us in a goofy fun way, but only when she's in the mood to do so. Three... don't expect smiles and giggling. We know she's capable of it, but the timing is always when she's in a comfortable place (our hotel room) and when she's wide awake. Four... if you do manage to get her attention and play with her, expect her to take it to extreme. She gets very wound up quickly and can start to do things roughly (throwing things, hitting, etc.) We noticed when she interacted with Connor, another boy from her orphanage, that she instinctively began throwing things and trying to hit him. We figure this behavior must have happened often at her orphanage.

If you'd like to visit, feel free. Just call ahead of time in case we're crashing. Jet lag here took me about a week to recover from... and half of that time was with no children. At home, I'm expecting it'll take awhile longer.

We aren't trying to scare anyone off... just to prepare you for what you may see. Grace is a sweet, beautiful little girl that can be a lot of fun. She's bright (remembers things easily) and meticulous (picks up after herself well). However she has had a tough 3.5 years of life. We know that our family can bring an amazing new outlook to her life, but it's going to take some time for her to bond with us, to trust us, to learn our language and our ways, and to realize that this life is here to stay. Right now, we can't even begin to understand what may be running through her head. So, my longterm outlook is a wonderful, pleasant, easy-going family... but for now, it may be chaos.

Tomorrow we are visiting the bonsai garden in the morning, having pizza delivered for lunch, and then going to pick up Grace's visa/passport and bidding farewell to one of our group families, the Nations. It's a busy day.... somewhere in there we need to pack and try to make sure our bags are all less than 50 pounds apiece. Yikes! I think we're bringing home twice as much as we took with us!

If I do not post again while in Guangzhou, we'll post again in the US. Again, prayers are much appreciated. Everytime you think of us, say a little prayer. Everytime you see a plane in the sky, say a little prayer. Everytime you hear a baby cry, say a little prayer. We'll be needing it!!!

Love, Christy