had to share

We have him!

We have our boy!! He is not too happy right now but he has stopped crying for the time being. We met our guide in the lobby and filled out some paperwork around 4pm. He was brought up to the meeting room around 4:30. He was NOT happy. The two other families there also had crying kiddos. We took his passport picture and then our guide told us to go to our room because the children were just making each other upset.

We went up and it took awhile for him to stop crying. We sang to him and rocked him and he finally fell into an exhausted sleep. He slept for a good hour or so and woke up,went potty (!) and I changed his clothes. He will not eat or take a drink yet.

Tomorrow we meet our guide to go to the notary,civil officials and police station.I pray that he will not be too upset tomorrow. Also maybe some shopping depending on him. Here are a few pictures. I am going to bed, everyone else is already asleep.

walking in the park in Fuzhou

View of part of the hotel (to the left) and the city from a bridge in the park.






Me and Samuel at the park in front of a big wall that has beautiful engravings all over it.

Our hotel from the park across the river.


D and the girls that wanted a picture



D in front of the hotel








After the buffet this am we went to the big park near the hotel.It was very crowded. The park is huge and people everywhere. This is a little video we shot. There was a group of people singing. We could hear them all the way across the water at our hotel when we started out for the park. At the end of the video you can see a woman scolding D for taking the video. I don't know why. I saw some Chinese taking video as well.

After that we just walked around and toward the end went into a little shop. I bought some small items. D saw a little bracelet she wanted that was marked 80rmb. I told her ask the lady if she would take 50, but the lady said "no discount". Well I think next time we'll wait for Katherine our guide to shop with us. While in the shop some young girls started talking to me in broken english. Wanted to know where we were from.I said Texas, they did not understand,so I said US, they understood that. Then they would not leave us alone. They wanted to take a picture with us. So we took a picture with them but by then there were some crowds of people gathering and talking and watching us.I did not feel comfortable. So I told Samuel I wanted to leave so we said bye to the girls and when walking away some teenage boys came and asked to take a picture too. Samuel said no.



We just went swimming at the pool. Now we are relaxing and getting ready to meet Corwin!! We are meeting Katherine in the lobby at 3:45pm. I am expecting to meet up with two other families that are with another agency adopting as well. They arrive this afternoon right before the children are getting here. SO excited and happy!Please enjoy the pics, they are all from today.

Sunday in Fuzhou

Its 6:40Am here are we are going to go to the lobby and have the buffet in awhile.We did not eat dinner so I am very hungry. We all went to sleep early before 9pm and I woke up at around 12,wide awake.I stayed up for about an hour and a half and then to sleep again and had a bad dream.

Today is the day we get to meet our son for the first time! Our guide has been preparing us and telling us all these things. I am excited and very nervous at the same time. I have prepared his backpack full of goodies! She said that we might not be able to meet his foster mom because it would be too hard on Corwin to see her again. I am disappointed but I understand. I am going to ask if maybe I can go alone to the orphanage and Corwin stays here with Samuel? I'm nt sure that is a good idea either.....

Ok from yesterday,what I forgot....at walmart,in the chips section, the bags of chips are only the small snack size bags.Also we wanted Cheetos,but the package was all the Chinese so we asked our guide to get us the cheese flavored ones. Our flavor choices are, chicken,shrimp,beef no cheese.So we got the chicken ones and they are nasty! So don't buy Cheetos here.

The above picture (right)is our hotel taken from the walk we took yesterday. Today after breakfast we will go to the big park across the street.

The picture (left) is at the tea ceremony, the girl is the tea expert.We had four different kinds of tea and learned about them all and the proper way to drink tea, so when I get home I will educate all you tea drinkers (I know who you are) about the proper way!

The flower of Fuzhou is the Jasmin and the tree is the Banyan and Fuzhou is known for its tea.

Until later.......lots of love

Seeing the City

This is the view from our hotel.

Ignore the dates on some of the pics. The date on the camera got messed up.


We just came back from braving the traffic!! We walked all over the shopping area. We got many stares. One old man almost fell over on his bike looking at us. You'd think we're a bunch of foreigners! There are small shops all up and down the streets.People on scooters, walking, playing board games on the sidewalk. We looked at some shops with silk dresses.I am going to wait til we have our guide because I don't know whats a good price or good quality. Its very different from home.

We ate at the restaurant at the hotel for lunch. It was a kindof late lunch so I think we will not be hungry for much of a dinner. So far,doing good not getting sick! Was worried about that. Ok trying to post some pics.Hope they come thru.

Fuzhou...

Ok,I cannot view my blog, can someone email me and let me know if my posts are getting to the blog? If I don't hear from anyone I will assume that its not working.

Thank you all for your prayers!! Please keep praying for grammy and the kids at home and for COrwin tomorrow.

Today,we had the glorious breakfast buffet. It was yummy and saw two Americans there. They said that last week there was a large group of Spanish people staying here that were adopting. Katherine our guide (who is very nice)met us in the lobby at 10am. We went to the Walmart in Fuzhou. If you think parking is bad at home..you should see this. It was very crowded inside, three stories I think. We had to buy a new camera because ours broke. We stocked up on water and basic supplies, baby milk, and juice and some children's videos and music in Chinese. We were the only non-Chinese there. Then we went to a tea ceremony, it was very nice. I think we have the rest of the day to ourselves. Oh and she is trying to teach us some basic Chinese so we can talk to Corwin.

The traffic here is a bit scary.Bikes,cars, scooters and people just go kind of wherever they want. I have not seen any accidents so I guess they all know what they are doing. There is a big park very close and I think we will walk there after lunch. We want to go and look at some shops but I am afraid to cross the street. Maybe I'll be brave.

Tomorrow we get Corwin at 4PM!! We are excited and a little nervous. Its taken so much and so long to be where we are now. We feel so blessed to be here finally! We thank God His provision. While its a long dreamed of moment for us,tomorrow I know will be hard for Corwin. Please keep him in your prayers. Ok thats all for now,I'll update later with pics!

We're here!!!!

We're in Fuzhou!!!! After a looooooog trip. It took us 3 planes, over 10,000 miles, over 24 hours and across at least 6 timezones. Meet our guide Katherine at the Fuzhou airport last night. Our plane got in around 9pm. It was an hour to the hotel.The Lakeside is beautiful. There are mountains here. There are alot of people. It is hot! Today if you can believe we are going to Walmart! We need bottled water and a few other supplies. After that we will have the afternoon to ourselves. We get Corwin at 4pm on Sunday. oh my gosh, is that tomorrow? I can't believe it! Havr to go meet Katherine in the lobby. Will upload some pics later today.