Friday, November 14, 2008

Last Day in China!!!



Everyone left accept for the Newsome and Grows family. We are going to do some last minute shopping today and just relax before going home tomorrow! We are so excited. It feels like it's been an eternity sense we have seen everyone and can't wait for everyone to meet Faith. It's truly been an rewarding and unique experience of a lifetime. There is no greater sense of accomplishment and reward than knowing that you've given one of God's children a new life and have made room in the orphanage for another to find their forever family. We love you all and can't wait to be home! See you soon!!!!!


Thursday, November 13, 2008

Visa Day!!!- Nov.13th


This morning we slept in late, did some more shopping, and ate at Lucie's for lunch. On the way to lunch, Faith spied Lucie's in the distance, and began to pull at me while speaking Chinese. I finally figured it out when I noticed her using the sign language for eat. Boy Can She Eat! An entire adult size meal is no problem for her. Her favor food is definitely french fries and shes becoming quite fond of soda too. After lunch we headed back to the hotel and prepared to go to the U.S. Consulate. Alissa stayed behind with Kate. She is the daughter of a family we met well ice skating in the U.S. who were instrumental in bringing Faith into our life. Believe it or not they are here adopting also! The Consulate was amazing! 40 families representing 26 different states. There were kids everywhere! We were asked to stand, put our right hand up and vow that all we had said in our adoption paper work was true.Also, they looked at us & compared our passport photos to our faces. That was it. Faith had three melt downs today because she couldn't have things that weren't hers. It didn't last long but she hides her face , not wanting any one to see her cry & she is very quiet about it. I was a little concerned about her reactions to me but I new that I couldn't let her get by with what she was doing. About a half hour later, after all the crying ended, she looked up at me, gave me a kiss, & said, "I love you" It was sooo... sweet. Then I knew for sure I had done the right thing. She's becoming extremely comfortable with Daddy. She loves to craw all over him when he's lying down watching T.V. Believe it or not she sleeps through his snoring too which has become a joke to her. They were lying down together & she was pretending to sleep with him & then began to imitate his snoring. It was a Kodak moment. Our good by dinner followed which I wish I could have taped more of, but we were so busy saying our goodbyes to families we've grown quiet close to. Alissa ate pigeon until we told her what it was and she got grossed out. It still doesn't beat the carp I ate though! One of the highlights of the dinner was our table mascot, which Richard created out of the pigeons head attached to a chopstick sitting in a empty sprite bottle.It was fun until the waiter took it away. He thought it was as funny as we did though. Morgan, our group leader, explained to Faith & Quin that they were going to their own homes. There faces looked quiet sorrowful & a bit questioning at the same time. It made us all sad. We vowed to do our best to keep them in touch with each other. They live in Atlanta, Georgia right along our travel route to Florida every spring. They've invited us to stay in their guest house when we travel through. We are also hoping to make a trip to Colorado, the home of A.A.C., our agency (the BEST), and the home of the Bandimere family. Their daughter Grace was also in Faith's orphanage. She is much more quiet spoken like the rest of their family. These are awesome families & now our friends. We are anxious to come home, but this has definitely been an experience of a lifetime. I'm grateful to be an American!

Faith kissing the pigeon head!



Our table's mascot







The Bandimere Family- except Adam(there son)and David (the husband) they were both sick. Schifilliti Family from Georgia (Quin's family)


Quin

Faith and Quin's goodbye. Awww... they look so sad.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Free Day- Nov.12th


A rough night! Faith woke up crying, so she got to sleep with mommy, followed by Alissa'a awakening with a high fever.(102) Tuesday she woke up with cold symptoms and a sore throat. Loud music and someones computer kept us up all night, so we watched movies in our room all day and were just lazy. Dad took a long walk around the the island with the Newsome family and went to a food market where they saw the slaughtering of animals, the skinning process, and then saw them being hung.Then we all met at Lucy's for lunch. We rested a little and then headed back to the motel to see the night lights. We had dinner at Pizza Hut and it tasted just like home, but they didn't use enough sauce.


Zoo Safari- Nov. 11th


9:00 am and we aboard the bus for a 50 min. ride to an awesome Zoo Safari.First we took The Safari. We saw bears, lions, cheetahs, white tigers, elephants, giraffes, and ostriches wandering around in the wild. And the only thing separating us from the dangerous animals was a small wire and a nearby guard who was placed at each location to guard us if anything were to go wrong. Pretty scary, but cool. The remainder of the zoo was walked and was much like home, but much larger! No reptiles because they eat them.The best parts were seeing the pandas and watching Alissa feed a baby white tiger a bottle! Yes I said she fed a tiger!!! Their were 10 pandas very close up and personal. We watched them be fed and two were fighting over the food. We also saw a school girl almost get knocked to the ground as a giraffe pushed her with it's strong neck as she was feeding it. Our zoo would never allow you to get this close and personal with the animals. Elephants stood with mouths open waiting for you to throw them bananas. We also got to see the baby nursery where many cute babys were either in small pins or in little incubators. It was a pretty exciting day! Sense we didn't really snack to much at the zoo because of the food. We ate an early dinner at at an new Italian restaurant a couple of blocks away from the hotel. We had Cesar Salad, pizza, and spinach filled ravioli, which faith pretty much inhaled. Its amazing how much this little girl eats. I think it's because they didn't have much to eat at the orphanage. This was definitely the closest we've come to ''real food'' sense we've been here. We can't wait to go home!!!

Medical Exam and Visa- Nov.10th






After our typical Chinese breakfast on Congee (like cream of wheat), toast, fruit, bacon, rice, and noodles. The group of 6 families now, headed off for the girls medical exams. Everyone cried, but not Faith. She was extremely when Quin, her orphanage bed mate, was crying. She wanted to go in and comfort her. How Sweet!!
Next we were off for visa photos, again a breeze for us. Free time entailed visiting all the shops on the island. We walked allot to find the best deals. A Chinese blanket for Faith, Chinese dresses for the girls, and other gifts that were part of our list. In the afternoon, Faith and Alissa watched a movie while Richard and I did very meticulous paper work for Faith's visa. After she awoke from her nap, it was time for a group dinner and a local Chinese restaurant very close to our motel. The rice and noodles were excellent, but the rest was questionable, one in particular containing the foot of a black chicken, Yeah!!! It was 7:45 p.m. when we left and school was still in session as we heard the children learning the American alphabet. Their Schooling if from 8a.m.-8p.m. No wonder they are so smart!