Bees!

Here's what we've had to deal with when we got home on Saturday, August 11.

We arrived home to a house full of bees! Right before we left, bees had wormed a hole into our playroom. We'd see about 2 or 3 a day, and DH thought something along the lines of "I'll have to fix that sometime." It really wasn't bad, the bees were easily either caught and taken outside or killed. No big deal, right? Wrong!

By the end of the first week we were gone, it became apparent that we had a problem. DD1 stayed at a neighbor's down the street while we were gone, and had the responsibility of bringing in the mail each day, watering the flowers, mowing the lawn, and generally looking after the house. For a 13 year old that turned out to be too much responsibility. She did the best she could, but she really was not ready to handle it even under the best of circumstances. Add to that this bee issue, and she was overwhelmed.

We talked to her about checking on the house, and she said there were bees everywhere. She was afraid to water the plants, afraid to bring in the mail, and well, afraid to be in the house. Now here's where DH and I had a difference of opinion. I wanted to call an exterminator to have this taken care of while we were away. We could've asked one of our neighbors to help out and talk with the exterminator to get things taken care of. DH wanted to wait until we got back.

In my opinion this was a mistake. I don't know that he'd agree though. What we came home to was a BIG mess. The bees had essentially taken over the playroom and the livingroom. There were dead bees everywhere and swarming bees in both rooms. DD1 did a lousy job of watering the plants because she was afraid the bees would get her, and she wasn't able to vacuum up the dead bees because she said the live ones swarmed her when she tried.

There were hundreds of bees everywhere in our house. So DH tried to figure out where they were coming from, plug the hole, and get rid of the remaining live bees in the house. He ended up chasing and catching them with DD2's butterfly net. I know this sounds funny, but at the time it was anything but. I was afraid to take Gracie out to the playroom for fear she'd get stung, nevermind fear that the rest of us would too! So we essentially stayed upstairs until DH got things somewhat under control.

This post is getting too long, so I'll continue later....More to come!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

After we got to LA on Friday, here's what happened. We spent the night at an overpriced Mariott by the LA airport because we couldn't find any other hotels that had rooms available. It was getting very late, so we finally sucked it up and paid $249 for a hotel room that was no better than a Days Inn (my opinon only, of course)! Gracie was wide awake at 3 a.m., so DH went ahead and went to bed, and I let Gracie play quietly on the floor in front of the bathroom, so as not disturb DH. Gracie finally settled down to sleep at about 4:30 a.m., and all 3 of us slept until about 6. DH got up and went to the airport to see what we could take to get us home. Gracie and I slept until about 7 a.m.

DH came back from the airport feeling not very optomistic about us getting out of LA to anywhere that would take us to Indianapolis. But we decided to give it a try, so we all headed over to the airport at about 8:30 a.m. to try to get on any flight we could. We tried to get to Chicago on 3 different flights, and then to Kansas City with no success. DH was exhausted, and said that we would try one more flight that was scheduled to leave for Chicago at 6:55. By the grace of God, we made it on that flight, although we weren't able to sit together. DH sat in a middle seat with Gracie and I sitting in the middle seat in the row behind him. We arrived into Chicago at 11:30 p.m., and of course had to see about getting another hotel for the night before flying home on Saturday.

DH's usual stayover hotel in Chicago, La Quinta, where we could've gotten a room for $89, was full. So we opted to stay right at the airport in the Hilton for a "cheap" $169. We also decided that we wouldn't rush to catch the 6 a.m. flight the next morning to Indianapolis, and instead get as much sleep as we could. You could imagine how tired we were! So we got up and walked over to the United terminal and easily got on the 12:55 p.m. flight home. We landed in Indianapolis at about 2 p.m., took a van to our car, and put Gracie in her brand new carseat to head home!

So to sum up, here's how we ended up getting from China to Indianapolis:

Train from Guangzhou, China to Hong Kong train station; a bus from Hong Kong train station to the Novatel Hotel; a van from the Novatel to the Hong Kong Airport; a plane from Hong Kong to LA, a plane from LA to Chicago, a plan from Chicago to the Indianapolis airport, and a car ride home from there.

That's our version of "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles!"

A miracle right here in the 21st Century!

First off, I want to thank all of you that have been praying for us to be able to get back home from China. Your prayers and mine have been answered in a big way! This post is about how DH and I got back into the USA with Gracie to proclaim her a US citizen.

It starts back on Thursday, August 9 at about 3:30. All the families in our group took an oath at the US Consulate in Guangzhou that everything that we'd provided the US government with regards to adopting a Chinese baby was indeed truthful. The oath took about 2 minutes. We were given a sealed brown envelope and told not to open it, but rather to give it to immigration at our port of entry into the USA. Shortly after our oath we all said our quick goodbyes to the families that were leaving Guangzhou for Tokyo on Friday morning and to Alison, our guide. There were tears and excitement as our time with all the families came to a close. DH and I also said goodbye to my dad. We'll see him again in the states after he arrives.

Alison had hired a guide in Guangzhou, Elvin (he called himself "Almost Elvis". Isn't that cute?!), to take us to the Guangzhou train station, get our Hong Kong tickets changed to an earlier train, if possible, and get on our the train. Elvin successfully got our earlier train tickets, and we were on the 5:05 train without incident. The train ride was about 2 hours. We travelled with 3 other families, and 2 grandmas that had come with one of the families to China. Once we got to Hong Kong, there was a woman that met us to get us on a bus that was to take us to the Novatel Hotel in Hong Kong where the other 3 families were spending the night before flying out on Friday morning back to their homes in the USA.

DH and I got off of the hotel bus,said our goodbyes to t rest of our travel group, and jumped on the hotel airport shuttle bus without problem. It was about this tiime that we started to feel God's hand in all of our travel. So we got to the Hong Kong airport (which is HUGE, by the way), and DH went to Cathay Pacific to see if we'd be able to get on a flight to LA that was scheduled to leave at 11:35 p.m. It did not look good, as Economy was oversold by 50 seats. And we didn't know how many other SAs (Space Available fliers) were trying to get on the flight too. On top of that United had told DH back in Chicago that when he bought his ID90 tickets on Cathay Pacific that we didn't need a ticket for Grace. Cathay Pacific told him we did, so we had to buy her a full-fair lap baby ticket (only $237, but still United messed up!). The lap baby ticket had a $33 refund fee if we didn't us it because we couldn't get on the flight. After deliberating for about 5 minutes, DH decided to go ahead and buy that ticket, as we really didn't have that much to lose. But it did NOT look good for us to go.

The way Cathay Pacific (CP) doles out their SA tickets is to have everyone waiting for seats on their flights come to a special desk and wait to see if their called for tickets. They told DH to return to the ticket counter at 10:45 p.m. to see if we got on the 11:35 p.m. flight out to LA. We returned with no real hope of getting on, but alot of prayer.

Here's the miracle, so play close attention! At about 11 p.m. the guy at the CP desk told everyone there was a 10 minute delay in the flight and that there would be a 10 minute delay in giving out SA tickets. So we waited. Other SA passengers were being called for other CP flights, Johannasburg, London, and then they started calling for LA tickets. We were the 3rd persons called! We couldn't believe it! We were on the flight that was oversold by 51 seats, and had at least a dozen more SAs waiting to be called for tickets. We found out that the reason we got on the flight at all, was because there was a last minute equipment change to a much bigger plane! What a miracle God performed yesterday! Praise and Thank Him!!!

From there on we were treated very well because we were traveling with a baby. Everyone was very helpful, and we arrived in LA at about 10:15 p.m on Thursday, August 9. We're still not home yet, as we have to figure out how to get from LA to Indianapolis, but we're in a hotel where we can drink the water, and most people speak English! Ahhh, it's good to be home! Thank you God for your miracle of getting us back into the US!

Oh, and by the way, Gracie became a US citizen the minute we touched down in LA. So she's an all American Girl now!!!

The Legendary White Swan Red Couch

There is a tradition among adoptive families that stay at the White Swan Hotel on Shamian Island, Guangzhou, to have a photo taken of all the adopted children on this big red couch in one of the lobbies of the White Swan Hotel. Our turn came today. All of the girls were decked out in their traditional Chinese clothes for the photo. Some of them wore dresses, some of them wore shirts and pants, but all of them looked very beautiful! I don't know where this tradition came from, but it is a lovely one! Oh, and check out the photo of Gracie trying out walking in her squeaky shoes! When we first got her last week, so wasn't able to put much weight on her legs for any length of time. Now she's trying to walk! What a difference a week makes.

Ahhh, Starbucks!

One of the things that I've missed since being in China is Starbucks. I don't have Starbucks everyday back in the states, but if you ask anyone that knows me well, they'll tell you I do like Starbucks! In the heat of a summer day, I usually stick with Frappacinos, instead of the standard mocha cafe I get in the cooler months.

So imagine my delight when we went out walking yesterday after Gracie's medical appointment, and saw this Starbucks. It's a beautiful one too. The architecture of the outside of the building is very french in nature. They say that Shamian Island was heavily influenced by french and english architecture. That's evident from walking down the streets. Most of the buildings were built in the 1800's. DH says that this place reminds him of New Orleans, and I'd have to agree. It really is lovely, and the people here are so friendly. Many of them speak English, or at least some English, and are anxious to talk with you. Back at Starbucks: I had a Mocha Frappacino, and DH had a mango juice slushy thing. Both were VERY good!

Gracie's Medical Exam on Shamian Island, Guangzhou

In preparation for the US Consulate swearing in ceremony on Thursday, Gracie had to undergo a Chinese medical exam at the local clinic. The clinic was a very clean place and very busy. Grace was a trooper and didn't cry once (oops! I just looked at the photos and saw that she cried most of the time! I guess I blocked that part out.). She really was more curious than scared. First the doctor examined her by measuring her head size, and pressing on her tummy. Then the nurse took her weight and height. She told us that Grace weighed 19 lbs. I don't know how accurate the scale was, but I was guessing she was about 18 lbs. So she's pretty close to what we expected. Following the weigh-in the nurse checked her hearing, looked in her ears and her throat. Everything looked good. Alison told us that the doctor had written down that Grace had heat rash. Of course, we knew that already. Anyway, we left there and were on our own for shopping.

Why we are in Chongqing so long

Several people have posted comments asking why we're in Chongqing so long after getting Grace. So I thought I'd post a quick entry explaining. Just before we left the USA, we received an email from our adoption agency explaining that there was a new rule in Chongqing that the local police department had to do something with processing the adoptive child's passport. So we had to stay an extra 4 days in Chongqing, and now we are waiting for that to take place, although we haven't heard anything from them.

I suppose that our guides would hear something and let us know if there were questions. It appears though that we're still on tap to leave here tomorrow afternoon for Guangzhou.

Today we had a worship service in the hotel business center that was led by one of the adoptive fathers. I don't know if he is a pastor of what his "qualifications" are for leading the service, but I have heard him talk about staying in contact with his pastor back home. So I think he may have volunteered to lead the service. Later we are headed out to Walmart on own in a taxi to see about getting a suitcase to pack all of our purchases from China in. Before we left, we expected to have to buy a suitcase, so this was part of the plan all along.