Life In Yi Ling Village

We rode out of Nanning City for about an hour to get to Yi Ling Village. It was as if we had traveled back in time. We turned down a dirt road that led to the village. All around us there were people walking and traveling by scooters to the fields to work. They were tending crops of pumpkins, leeks, tomatoes, and other vegetables, farther back there were rice paddies flooded with water. This man smiled and made motions to the children as he passed. His face was weathered and worn from long hours in the fields. Mary told us that even though they work very hard they are free from the stress that city life brings.
This woman was busy picking baskets full of leeks. Each section grew different things. The Chinese people keep themselves covered as much as possible because they want their skin to stay light because this is beautiful to them.
I am not sure what kind of machine this was that passed us pulling this man. He was very friendly and smiled and waved to us.
This man is in a reservoir of water. He is washing his clothes by hand. It really makes me appreciate my washer and dryer at home, no more complaining about doing laundry!!!! He sprinkled powder on his clothes and then brushed them and rinsed them. How time consuming!!
An ox driven cart. What a way to travel. She was also headed to the fields.

Hanging out with a Water Buffalo while he had lunch!! They use them for so many things. They were everywhere in the village. We walked by pigs, dogs, ducks and chickens. The roads were dusty and the air was thick with the smells of different animals. We felt like we were in a documentary from National Geographic. It was truly amazing to see that people still live like this. We are so spoiled with all that we have.
These sweet women and little girl came along and gave us a handful of peanuts still on the plant and fresh from the ground for us to snack on. We thought it was such a kind gesture for them to share what they had with us. Then they rested in the shade of the trees.
Sweet baby and more kind faces from Yi Ling Village.
While we were snacking on peanuts these three boys came up smiling and laughing. We gave them gum, I wish we had thought ahead to take candy to give away. I couldn't resist having my picture made with them.
Typical street in the village the buildings along the sides house people and animals. Such a special place. We are so grateful to have been able to visit there.

Now about our little Emanuiel, Feng Feng. There are things I must tell you about his personality. He loves music. When Clara Beth and I sing he sings right along and does the motions. He is very observant and very smart. He lets us know when he has to go to the bathroom because he immediately starts to take off his shoes, next come the pants so you better be ready to find a place to go! He is used to a squatty potty so we have to hold him over the toilet(so hard on my back, this little guy is heavy)when he's done he shakes his little feet up and down, all through!! Last night in Wal-Mart(yes, we went again) he had to go, he's in the stroller and off come the shoes, oh my, Paul hurried him to the restroom. It was a squatty,Paul tried to hold him over it, he had a fit, he had to get down and do it by himself!!! Then he was happy again. He will eat anything!! Put it in his bowl and it's gone. He loves to have his food in one bowl( I don't even want my food to touch)then he eats it. When he's ready for more he points and talks. He doesn't like a mess around his bowl, he rakes it all up and tries to clean up when we are finished. He is really getting comfortable with us now. He woke up this morning very happy. Last night he climbed in his crib by himself and went to sleep(I hope he teaches CB how to do this)and climbed out this morning and came into the bathroom where I was and smiled at me!! So sweet. If I get out of his sight I hear him yell MaMa. Then he's fine once he sees me. If we talk to other Chinese People or they get on the elevator with us he squats down and hides behind Paul. I don't know if he thinks they might take him from us or if he is hiding for some other reason. It is so different with an older child. We have learned so much during this process. We have been shown once again about God's perfect plan. I know without a doubt that this child, like my others was chosen especially for our family. We are praising God for His wonder!! Tomorrow we leave Nanning for Guangzhou. Please pray for safe travel, this will be Emanuiel's first flight. Thankfully it is a short one. Until next time..................We love and miss you all!!!

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.