Sending Sissy and Greg Back Home

Here they are in front of the garden window at the Majestic Hotel in Nanning. AK and Greg were about to head to the airport. We miss them being here with us so much. They were a lot of help and so much fun to be with.
Kisses and hugs and saying goodbye until next week when we also head home. As you read this please pray for safe travel for them.

The way I travel now, sometimes two arms are just not enough!!!! Especially when they head in opposite directions.
Here we are in front of the zoo. Clara Beth feel asleep on the van. It was only about 350 degrees outside!!! Thankfully it was a quick zoo visit.
Land at the zoo!!! He had an ice cream while he was there, found out it was potato flavored!!! He didn't like it but Emanuiel sure did!!!
We were at the dolphin show us and about 1000 other Chinese people. We had to buy fans to try and keep cool. Didn't seem to bother Emanuiel at all, he laughed through the whole thing. He knew what they were saying and we didn't have a clue. He continues to amaze us. He named all of the animals that we saw today in Chinese!! He is doing very well. He does get sad at rest times though and it just breaks my heart. We know he loved his foster family and we know that he misses them. Please continue to pray for us during this transitional time so much has changed for our children in the last few days. Everyone is having to make adjustments. Janice continues to be a trooper through it all, this would be very hard without her help.
And TA DA! that's all from Nanning for today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Until next time........... We love and miss you all and can't wait to get home!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our Guilin Visit

Let's just say that this was a very emotional visit. We saw how much Emanuiel's foster family loved him it was a very touching visit with them. I'll have to post more about that later. For now here are some more pictures of our train trip.

Sleeping travelers. We are going to miss them sooooo much when they leave. They have been such a big help to us.
View from the train.
Land in the Civil Affairs office.
Emanuiel with the much loved back pack. We bought this for CB while we were in the Chicago Airport. We will be buying another one on our trip home. He has taken this one over and puts all of his things in it. We didn't have the foresight to buy two in the beginning!!!
A tired boy after the orphanage visit. He was a little nervous while we were there.
Typical street in Guilin.
A very special spot, more on this later. Emanuiel was still sleeping.
His favorite food and a special gift he received.
Two brothers horsing around in the hotel room!

Random Pictures From Yesterday

This was a calm bath the second one, Emanuiel splashed around so much CB climbed out. He flopped around and laughed so he soaked us all.
Ready for bed!!
He LOVES watermelon. He spins the table until it gets in front of him.
Table time.
Ready for our adoption day!!!

Back to Wal-Mart, loving the stroller now.
Dinner anyone?????
Enjoying the bus ride.
Visiting a temple.
Feeding the Koi fish, CB was asleep and missed this feeding frenzy. Emanuiel LOVED this.

He's Ours Now

It's amazing how we can move from heart wrenching to happiness in just a short time. That is the only way to describe yesterday. At first Feng Feng, as they call him was just curious about the things around him, until we picked him up. Then the tears began, from all of us. It was so sad to see him struggling to understand what was happening. There he was in a room full of strangers clinging to a photo book that we had sent him. That and the little bag that was with him was all that he had left of his old life. In the picture below you can see our first glimpse of him.

Here he is. So precious. There were also other families there waiting on their children.
Here he is holding a picture of him with his foster family. We will forever cherish it and the special care they gave our Emanuiel.
So many tears. You can see him holding onto his bag. It was heavy for his little arms but he could not put it down.
After a quick trip to Wal-Mart(yes, a real one) to pick up a few supplies we went back to the room and quickly broke out the bubbles!!!! This helped sooooooooo much. Not only did he smile but he laughed out loud and tried to catch them. He would not let me put him down, my friends know how clingy Clara Beth still is, so on the bus ride back both of them were hanging on to me for dear life. Anyone coming to China for an older child MUST bring bubbles!!!!
Here's my little trooper. She has been so wonderful and understanding. She was so worried when he was crying, she kept telling me to wipe his nose. Right now they copy whatever the other one is doing. It is so cute. Last night they were running around the hotel lobby having a grand time. I don't see me leaving the house with them alone for quite some time. I have to build up more stamina!!!
Watching him eat was a treat. He's very serious about his food. He eats very well and then tries to clean up! He can screw and unscrew the top on his sippy cup. He can also take the top off of a water bottle and drink, he showed us this last night!!! Oh and he can open and close ALL of the doors in our room including the door outside, which by the way he can also unlatch!! He is very smart. He watches everything we do and then does it himself.
Happy eating time!!! He also entertained us with some Kung Fu moves. Land better watch out. Greg caught those on video, so cute. Since we had been blowing bubbles in the room, at dinner time, Emanuiel put his little green spoon in his sippy cup, pulled it out and pretended to blow them!!
This picture was walking to the Wal-Mart when he wouldn't let me put him down, he did let go of his bag but he held onto his picture book and a football and a soccer ball!! He and Clara Beth are the same height but he outweighs her by about 5 lbs. We had quite a long walk and he would have no part of a stroller or buggy, in this picture I am praying for strength to keep carrying him. I made it, once again God has showed us his greatness!! They both slept well last night and woke up happy this morning. He called Clara Beth Mei Mei(means little sister) it was so very sweet, he did this on his own(told you he was smart) and he couldn't wait to ride in his new stroller, he climbed in on his own!!! God is sooooooooo good!!!! Until next time, we are off to sight see!!! Pray for Janice, she is having a very hard time with the food,everyone else is doing great. AK, Greg and Land have even ventured out on their own!!

Beijing, Here We Are

Here we are leaving Greenville. The short flight to the very looooong one!!!! Janice took this picture.
Here we are in our hotel right before breakfast. Once again Janice took this picture. We had a great breakfast before we were off to the Forbidden City,Tienanmen Square and the Great Wall.
Tom, our guide is in this picture with us, by now the humidity had gotten the best of my hair and it was curling!! We did have some cool breezes. Before we left one of my prayers(because we had been warned about the heat) was for God to blow cool breezes on us while we were here and He has!!! God is soooooooo good, He even takes care of the little details.
This is Clara Beth's favorite ride!!! We got lots of stares from curious people. She has been a real trooper. Several people have ask to have their pictures taken with us.
My very sweaty big girl and boy(I can't believe TOMORROW we will have a little boy!!!!!) after climbing very close to the top of the Great Wall!! The rest of us didn't go very far this time, just didn't feel the need. We sat and ate ice cream instead!!!
This was us right after we arrived at the wall, Clara Beth was just waking from a nap. She and the rest of us had been up since 4:30 this morning!!!! Our bodies are still on U.S. time!! Finally we have Janice in a picture!!! Please keep praying!!! We love reading the comments too!! We can feel you lifting us up. Tomorrow is our big day. Pray for safe travel for us tomorrow morning. Our plane leaves at 10:30 your Sunday night(our Monday morning). We can't post pictures of him until Tuesday(adoption day). We will post about how we are all doing though. I still can not believe it is TOMORROW!! We miss everyone(we especially miss all of our traveling buddies from our last trip)!! It is amazing to see how much has changed for the Olympics. We drove by the main part today where the opening ceremonies will take place. People were everywhere!! Next post from Nanning!!! Keep those prayers coming!!!!

We made it once again.

We arrived in China around 3:00pm. The Plane ride was uneventful and very long. Clara Beth did ok considering we were on the plane for 13 hours, there were only 160 passengers so we had plenty of room to move around. We checked into our room and met guide at 6:30 for dinner.
It's 8:00pm here and were going to bed, we have a long day tomorrow.

Thankful Thursday Countdown

It has begun!! No pictures right now just a quick post. The countdown is on. This time tomorrow we will be on our way to China!!!!!!!!!!!!! We will bring home our precious little boy. We are so thankful!!!!!!!!

I prayed for this child, and the Lord has

granted me what I ask of Him.

1 Samuel 1:27

We are so excited!! We haven't been able to post anything about him because of new rules. We hope to blog from China like we did before. We still have lots to do to get ready but right now this is how we feel.....................

Praise the Lord,

Praise the Lord from the heavens,

praise Him in the heights above.

Praise Him all His angels,

praise Him all His heavenly hosts.

Psalm 148:1-2

We get Emanuiel on Monday!!!!!! Oh happy day. If you read this please pray for safe travel and easy transitions for all of us, especially the little ones.

Sweet Summer Time

School's out and we are ready to party.......POOL PARTY that is!!!! A bathing beauty can never have too many swim suits!!!
These are just two of her cute little suits all ready for the pool. They were such a great deal I couldn't pass them up.
Here's my favorite big boy playing a little golf. He's already been busy with football and baseball camps. He's our resident sports nut!!!!
Here we are splashing around with Bekah Grace and her family!! Great friends and great fun!!
Here's Missy Prissy about to jump in and make a big splash. She wore our arms out doing this over and over!!! We love summer!!!! Bring on the fun......................

A Night of Firsts

Last night we had the honor of watching Land in his final Honors Chorus performance. Clara Beth had a most wonderful time singing and dancing along with all the others. Afterwards we celebrated with ice cream. Clara Beth has had ice cream before but never has she had her own cone. She loved it!!! She loves to sing and she loves to dance and then to top it off with delicious ice cream with sprinkles on top..............It was so good she even shared it with her Bubbie. (Is it just me or has that boy grown??? Where does the time go???)

Here Bubbie just a little since you didn't get yours in a cone.

Just a little taste, not too much I want this delicious stuff for myself.

Oh boy, now Bubbie is sharing his with me........Yum there are even different flavors!!!

I know she didn't think it could get any better until she discovered she could also eat the cone!!!

What a wonderful night spent with two of my sweeties!!!!!

Then and Now

It's so hard to believe that it has been a year since this picture was taken in China. We had only had the girls for a little while. Can you believe how much they have all grown! Here are the little sweeties: Barbee Ruth, Clara Beth, Rebekah Grace and Geordyn. That is Cooper's foot to the left of the picture she would not sit on the couch with the other girls because at that particular time she was attached to her daddy.

And here are four of them one year later: Rebekah Grace, Clara Beth, Geordyn and Barbee Ruth, this time Cooper is not in the picture because she was so busy chasing the big boys and girls around we couldn't catch her long enough to get her picture!!

This is one of my favorite pictures from China because I just know Clara Beth was saying " I can't believe you are photographing me without my hairbow!!" I'm not sure what Rebekah Grace and Geordyn were contemplating in this picture they probably were wondering why we kept staring at them and crying!!!!

Our sweet girls now always so happy when they are able to get together. What fun this past year has been and so much more joy to come...............

Praise the Lord

Praise the Lord from the heavens,

praise Him in the heights above.

praise Him, all His angles,

praise Him, all His heavenly hosts.

Psalm 148:1-2

We are praising God for the wonderful gifts of all of our children. He has blessed us in so many ways.

Rosie Toes

Pretty painted Toe Nails



Since sandal season is upon us Little Miss Clara Beth has intently been checking out every one's painted toe nails. This is almost to the point of embarrassment. At several of Land's baseball games she has stopped and just stared at every woman's and girl's toes. I found myself constantly saying , oh don't mind her she just loves painted toe nails. So after searching this house high and low I finally found a bottle of BRIGHT RED nail polish. So I gave her quite the pedicure. She sat as still as a stone. I mean she barely even breathed. When I finished she looked at me with that sweet smile and said, and I quote........"I YIKE!" for those of you that don't understand Clara Bethese that means I Like!!! What a girlie girl she is. Boy, do "I YIKE" this girl!!!!!!