JULY 2nd...WE ARE HOME!!!!

We got to the airport and told Simon farewell. He helped us get to the luggage check-in. The funny thing is we had to go through a process where they banded your luggage (for a small fee). Then you could take your luggage and check in for your flight!

We left around 7:30 am and we were happy to be on a plane headed home! The flights were good except for the long layover in Tokyo, Japan. They had a guard that wouldn't let people on the bus to go over to the next terminal...he kept saying it was the wrong bus! We waited for 1 1/2 hours to get to the correct terminal. Once we got there, the lady that worked with American Airlines was wonderful!!! She said that she had some better seats in the bulkhead that would give us more room for the flight home! She said that she would also make sure that Hope would have a bed for the flight! Well the bed was a little cardboard tote with a little cushion in it. Hope slept in that for just a little bit, but she was a little long for the box so her legs hung over the side.

The next leg of our flight took us to Chicago where Hope became a US citizen!!! We went through immigration and the processed us very quickly! I heard the one worker tell the other to please hurry, that they had a small child with them. I was forever grateful, because we were sitting on a bench with a LONG line of people trying to come into the US! They had us to the luggage claim area in about 10 minutes! We then went and grabbed our luggage and made the transfer from international flights to domestic flights! They guy laughed when he saw the bright yellow banding and didn't even want to search our luggage. He said no one would have been able to mess with it anyway, so he took our luggage and sent us through! By this time, we were hungry and had spent most of our extra money on the two extra days in China, so we found a hot dog stand, got one hot dog and 2 cokes with ice!!!! It was I do believe the best coke that I had ever had!!!! We then headed down to our gate and waited for our flight back to Springfield!!!!

The best part was seeing everyone once we landed and made our way around the corner at the airport!!! It was awesome to see their faces with big smiles on them! This group was the group that prayed us through and encouraged us the entire way!!!!

God has truly been faithful to us through it all! He has provided in many ways that we can never imagine! The most treasured thing to me is my friends and family!!! That's what makes my life complete....everything else is an added bonus!!!!!

July 1st...our last full day!!!

Well today is our LAST full day in China! We slept in a little, it was nice! We went down for breakfast and then we decided to go to the mall to get more goodies to bring home for everyone! Fred even managed to find a few shirts for himself! We were able to get some DVD's of some movies that we were wanting. Phillip will be thrilled to know that we got the new STAR WARS movie!!!! We had a good time just walking around! But I'm ready to go home!!!

After we came back to drop off our finds, we headed back to Lucy's (it became our favorite place to eat there!). We then went to the Carrefor and got a few things for the trip back home. We decided to get some sandwhiches from the deli at the back of the White Swan for dinner. We had to go back upstairs and try to pack and have everything ready for a 5:45 AM departure!!!!

Are we any closer to going home??? June 30...

Well the consulate got visa's to us late this morning...about an hour after our original flight left!!! Fred also talked to them about helping us find tickets for earlier than the 4th!

They put their travel person on it! It worked...we had tickets for July 2nd! It was an answer to prayer! We were on our way to walk down and pay for the new tickets when we heard someone call our name...it was Cedra from the consulates office. She came over to bring us the tickets. She was the sweetest thing! She kept telling us how sorry she was that this happened to us. Hope and I went upstairs to take a nap and Fred went with Cedra to pay for the tickets. When he got back, we went to dinner at Lucy's! We went strolling around and went to pick up our laundry at Jennifers! It is a very neat place right near the White Swan. They have all kinds of things. They let you borrow strollers if you don't have one...they have medications that other parents have left behind that haven't been opened so that someone else can have them. They do your laundry for practically nothing. The shops right by the White Swan are wonderful!!! You can find all kinds of wonderful things to get. I wish that we would have gotten more!!! After that, we met up with Kimberli and Scott and Mia, it was nice to still have them there with us. Scott said that we needed another massage, so he told Kimberli and I that he would pay for it because he thought we got jipped out of our last one!!! It was wonderful...it was a wonderful way to get rid of some stress!!!!

Even more pictures...

hope falling asleep in her mashed potatoes at Lucy's!!!
Hope taking a picture of Daddy after we were done with the medical exam
Autumn Moon Garden....Hope's finding place...She was left here when she was 9 days old!
Matt, Lisa and Emme our friends from Kansas City
Mike and Leighann one of our familes from CA.

more pictures!!!!

All of the "spicy girls" together with the moms on the famous White Swan Red couch! Every group takes pictures on these couches! It usually turns into a crying party!!
Hey Mia and Emme, do you think we can get them to stop taking soooo many pictures????? I guess we will just have to smile and get it over with!
CHEESE...well this is about as good as you are getting today folks!!!







This is Simon, our Guangzhou guide and our AWESOME guide Lina! She is a wonderful girl and we were truly blessed to have her with us for this journey!
This has been a wonderful journey even though we are going through the rough few days with the US Consulates office. We have had a wonderful time exploring our daughters beautiful homeland! I hope to someday soon bring her back to beautiful China along with her brothers so that they too may enjoy the amazing Chinese heritage that is now a part of our family!

To go home or not...that's the question!!!

People playing hackie sack in the park near Lucy's!

Well we thought we were going home in the morning!!! NOT!!

Lisa, Kimberlee and I went to have a foot massage done. I don't normally like people messing with my feet, but I decided that these gals will probably not ever see me again, so I will give it a try. It was great!!!

They took the three of us up to this room. They bring in these big buckets of hot water and they pour in some type of herb or somthing...the little we knew probably the better! You put your feet in the water. While we you are soaking your feet, they massage your back and your arms! After all of that, then they do your feet and calves. It was AWESOME!!!! We did have to laugh though. The girls that were doing our massage were talking and none of us knew what they were saying. So Kimberlee decided that she would translate for us! We were giggling. It was great!!!

After we were done, we were walking out and we see Simon, our Guangzhou tour guide. He said that he was on his way to the consulate and that there was a problem with some of the visas! So we came back to the hotel and found out that there were 10 families that the computer went down on and those visas couldn't be finished. One was ours and the other three from our group were supposed to be leaving tonight. I don't know who the rest were. It was HARD news to take. We would just have to wait and see.

We had a little farewell meeting for those in our group that were leaving. I had to leave the room. I just came back to our room and cried!!!

Well Fred and our guides were trying to work on flights back home because American Airlines said that they could only get us on a July 4th flight back home!!!

This was rough way to end a wonderful day with friends!!!

Tuesday June 28...

Hope thinks she is going home in the new suitcase!!! :o)
Hope in the lobby of the White Swan!
The fish pond in the lobby!!!


Well let's see...today we had to be close to the phone for a little while this morning because the US consulate was working on our visa's. Fred waited in the room and I took Hope with me and we went shopping with friends! It was a fun time!

Everything went well for the visas so tomorrow everyone should have their daughters visas!

Tonight CHI was having a farwell celebration for all of the families that were in the main travel group...all 57 families! We had it at a place right down the street from the White Swan. We went up to the 2nd floor. It was very crowded! They showed all of the power points that the travel coordinators created for each province. I think our's was the best!!! Lina did a really good job!

Then came the meal! The brought out several things and put them on a lazy susan. Some we knew, some we didn't, some things we left alone. They didn't have enough high chairs...but who would have at least 57 highchairs!! :o). After dinner we did a little more ...you guessed it...shopping! We have to now buy another suitcase to be able to get everything back home!





After a full day, we are now ready to go to bed!!!!