Finally, we are back in Nashville, TN. Can't wait to see my other spice girl. I have missed her so much. She is supposed to be at the airport waiting on us. When we got off that plane it was all I could do not to run to the luggage place. That is were they were supposed to be waiting for us. Boy, did we get a suprise. Alot, of dear friends and family were their to welcome our daughter home, which meant more to us than anything in the world. It really did touch our hearts to know that you would take time out of your day, especially on Christmas Eve, to come see us and our new daughter home. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. May God bless each and everyone of you, the way that we feel he has blessed us.

We have our two spice girls with us now, so what better Christmas could we ever ask for.

So, its time to leave China. We get everything packed. We head to the U.S. Consulates office, that is the last thing that we have to do, to make Anrea officially ours. Take our oath. It is a 40 minute ride from the hotel, since it has moved off the island. But, with the traffic the way it is, it takes us almost an hour to get there. We finally arrive. Us and I think 40 other families with their babies. He talks to us for a few minutes, tell us to raise our right hand, and ask us, "If we promise to take care and love our babies as our own?", we answer, "We will", and it is over. We then head to the airport for a 9pm flight for home. Oh boy!!!! 12 and half hours of flying time. Can't wait with a baby. Fortunately, she was so tired, from not get a nap, that after we took off, about two hours into the plane ride, she went to sleep, and slept until about two hours before we landed. So, you really couldn't ask for anything better than that. Now, we are in L.A. Here we have 6 hour layover. Fun, fun, fun....... She walks around with her squeeker shoes on and keeps everyone entertained, until it is nap time. Then she is screaming, finally she falls asleep on daddy, and sleeps for about an hour. We landed in L.A. at 5:30 pm and don't leave for Atlanta until 12:30 am. Bummer. But it goes by pretty well. Time to load the plane. We are in the 36 row. All the way in the back of the plane. She screams all the way to Atlanta. Jerry and I took turns sitting in the floor back where the stewardesess are just to keep her from bothering the other passengers. We get to Atlanta at 7:30 am, remember all the time zone changes, take a train inside the airport, pretty cool, to our next terminal, and we have 15 minutes until boarding. Jerry goes to Wendys and gets us some gravy and biscuits and I am feeding her some grits. Oh, by the way, did I mention she loves grits! We get about 3 bites of the breakfast and she eats her grits and some of the gravy and biscuits, and they are boarding the plane for home. Well, that was fast. We jumped on that plane fast, no way were we going to miss getting home. So here we goooo..........

Ok, so we are at home now, arrived the morning of the 24th (Christmas Eve). But let me back up a couple of days because I have alot to blog about. We went on a dinner boat ride. It was nice. The people had a feeding frenzy before we could even get our plates. It was buffet style, and they were eating off their plates while going around the buffet line. Jerry and I only ate, fried rice and noodles. They have really good watermelon and oranges over there. Very tasty. So, after the boat ride and we are walking up the street going back to our bus, their is a man, standing on the sidewalk with a small monkey, yes a monkey with a rope around its neck like a dog. We get on the bus and Jerry ask me if I saw the monkey, and I said no, then he showed it to me, and I said, Oooh, get me a picture of it. Bad Idea!!!! Well being the good husband that he is, he takes the camera and proceeds out the bus door and takes a pic of the monkey for me. Only the man sees him and tries to follow him onto the bus with this monkey to make him pay for taking the picture. Our bus driver is pushing the monkey man back out the door, and closing the door in his face. Well, you would think it is over, it is not! The monkey man follows Jerry down the bus looking in the windows and is beating on the window saying pay me for the picture. By that time, we are all rolling on the bus because this man won't leave us alone. So, we give him some paper money that is useless, which is actually half a yuan, it equals to about a nickel in our money, but he seemed happy, he left. Maybe he can buy the monkey some peanuts or something. It was quite exciting at the time, but poor Jerry didn't think so.

Alright, this trip was quite the adventure for Jerry. We were in the lobby of the hotel at Guanzhou, the last place we were at. This was Monday morning I think, we were waiting on the elevator, our room was on the 15th floor-1525. So, this chinese guy, young, approached Jerry and had a red and black backpack on his shoulders and his cell phone was open and he had it held up to about armpit high, and ask Jerry if he like chinese girl! Can you believe it. He just propositioned my Jerry for a prostitute!!!! Well, what did I do, I fell out laughing. You have to know my Jerry. Shy, very shy, won' t talk to anybody. I laughed all morning about that one. So as the day goes by, we are wondering thru the hotel and the same guy approaches Jerry again, and does the same thing. I said, well baby, they must think that you are a lonely westerner here by yourself with no place to go. HEE, HEE! The next day he went to return the stroller that we had borrowed from one of the little stores and a woman approached him and said, "Hey, you want massage, for long time?". He came back and told me that and I fell on the bed laughing so hard. You should have seen the look on his face. It was one of utter disbelief, like how dare she ask me that. It was so funny to me.

Ok, where do I begin. It is Sunday night here, and only 2 more days left. At breakfast we put scrambled egg and diced up ham in Anrea's congee, and she eat a huge bowl of it. As long as she does not see it, she will eat it, but if she sees that it is a different color than white she will clamp her mouth shut and won't eat. Rotten child! Can't wait to come home. Get her some beans and some potatoes and fatten her up some.

We went shopping today, and oh the people. It was like Times Square. The smell. Whew! The prices were pretty good. Bought her a pair of shoes and Ranya a pair of red boots to match baby sisters. Also, went to the DVD store and got them for 16 Yuan, which translates to about $2.oo in American money. Not sleeping very good here, the beds are like sleeping on the ground, hard beds..........

Ok, so now it is Saturday here, sorry I didn't blog any for Friday but as you will see from the pic, the plane ride from Nanjing to Guangzhou was not fun. She cried, no screamed most of the way. Boy, what a tempature difference a two hour plane ride can make. It was in the mid 50's in Nanjing and the 70's here. Love the weather here. Well, today was the visit to the the Health Care Center of Guandong Province. She has had her medical visit and was not happy from the time we walked into the place. The doctor who examined her said she was too skinny and small. Our guide Rebecca, had to explain to him why. Not sure exactly what she told him. It was all that I could do to keep it together while he examined her. Then we had to see the ENT doctor and she looked in her ears and throat. Said her right ear was red and had infection in it, also her throat was too! She ask if we had antibiotics, and we told them yes, she said to start them now. Thank the Lord, she did not have a fever, or they would not let us bring her home until it was resolved.

For lunch we had vegetable rice and chicken congee, which is quiet tasty. Anrea eat will rice until she looks like she is going to blow up, but nothing else. You will never guess what we had for dinner tonight......Papa John's Pizza!!!!!! yes that is right, there is a Papa John's here in China. Boy, was it good, too! Oh, yeah, and we had a small snickers for dessert, what could be better than that.......being at home, and eating it. The White Swan is the name of the hotel that we are staying in, and it is on an island named, Shamian Island. At one time the french owned the island and the buildings has alot of french design to them. Tomorrow we go shopping. Again, thank you to everyone who are praying for us on safe travel and for Ranya, cause we miss her so much, even though we talk to her everyday through skype. Still miss them hugs and kisses.

It is now Thursday afternoon about 4:52 pm. We leave tomorrow for Guanzhou at 2:00 pm. Not real sure on how Anrea is going to do on the plane ride. She still won't drink from the sippy cup, but we are still trying. Jerry went to the local market today, and he had a short sleeve shirt on and the people laughed at him and pointed. You need to understand that they wear quilted clothing and two layers here, and it is only in the mid 50's, boy what would they do if it really got cold here. She is starting to let us hug her, and opening up alot. Went to the wall that was built around the city to protect it, when the Japanese attack China. For you home school moms and history buffs, google this and read up on it. It is interesting. Our guide Denise, said that about 300,000 Chinese people was massacred by the Japanese during this attack. I have attached some pics of it, also the bricks have the names of the people who made the bricks, so that you cared about the quality of the brick that you made. 200,000 people built the wall, but most of them did not see it finished because it took so long to complete.

Yesterday when we went and visited the orphanage, I forgot to mention that we got to take a pic of the hotel and restuarnt where Anrea was found. This child is never still......we can tell that she is getting stronger already. We went to the local museum also. There we had a history lesson on jade, the two types, and where it comes from. One from the mountain and one from the river. Didn't know that.

What an adventure today! We went to the orphanage where Anrea has spent her first two years of her life. She seemed very happy there in her own enviroment, with the nannies. The orphanage seemed very clean, and there was 5 or 6 nannies to the babies in this room. If you haven't guessed yet, the empty crib was Anrea's. I will attach pics of some of the babies that we got to see. There were 18 babies in her room alone, but 300 in the whole orphanage. The director told us that some are very mentally retarded, and disfigured. Very sad. We got to interact with the babies there, it was nap time, and most of them was asleep, but some were awake. The old folks home is there also, but we didn't get to go inside it. Anrea seems to be teething some, she has a runny nose, which is clear and wants to chew on stuff. It is Wednesday evening here about 5:30pm. Anrea is becoming a toddler, into everything. It just stinks all the time over here. No grass any where. No animals either. Well, better go and feed the bottomless pit........

Hey,gang it is so great to read all of your comments on the blog. It really warms our hearts to know that you guys are kinda sorta going thru this with us. It has been a real bitter sweet journey of love. Leaving Ranya and getting Anrea. With her being with us for the first twenty four hours now we have learned alot about her. Oh, first it is 5:54pm tuesday evening here and that makes it 3:53am tuesday morning at home. Boy, what a time warp! The first thing that we have discovered about her is that she does not know how to chew food. So any advice, please send our way. She will not drink from a bottle, so we have been giving liquids to her from a spoon every chance we get.....we went to the market and got her a sippy cup with a soft tip but she doesn't know how to suck on it to get the fluid out either, so we kinda squish the tip on her teeth or tell her to bite so the water will come out. She begs for food, it just breaks our heart. She is really a happy baby, but just so small. I truly wish she would take the bottle then we would know she was getting enough fluids. Last night she slept from 6:45pm until 6:45am this morning, she was tired, but she didn't get a nap yesterday. Today she got a nap and slept for 2 hours, so we will see how she sleeps tonight. The temp here in the day is somewhere in the high 50's but the people dress with quilted clothing and two layers, unbelievable. Everywhere you look there are either bicycles or motorscooters. They will go right in front of the cars and everything. CRAZY drivers!!!!! It stinks here too. Oh, she does not like a bath, and she does not like to have her diaper changed. The back of her head is really flat, like she has laid in her crib alot. All she does is walk around and touches things and is very curious. She likes to look at her self in the mirror also. She is very ticklish on her tummy and the back of neck. Likes to turn flips on the bed also.

Ok, so where do I begin to tell the story of our trip! We are really missing our Ranran. Not being able to put her to bed is really hard and missing those good night kisses. We love and miss her so much already. When we left Nashville, we thought everything was going to go smoothly. We flew into Atlanta with 55 minutes to connect to our flight into to Los Angelas. We ran through the airport to get to the gate, that is one big airport, but we made it. Only to find out that we were delayed. So, we load the plane and wait, and wait. An hour later we finally, take off to Los Angelas. When we land in L.A. we have to go get our luggage and go to ChinaSouthern Airlines to check in only to find out that we have 20 minutes to get to the gate for loading………so they have moved the check in to a different building and we are outside running up the sidewalk pulling our VERY large luggage trying to get to the terminals to check in. We make it, now we have 10 minutes to go…….so the airport workers expedite our luggage thru the check point and take it to the plane for loading, we are put in the business class line and put thru quickly, and run thru the airport to get to the gate. It is time for boarding, as we are waiting, it is now 1 am at home and 11 pm here in L.A. They tell us the flight has been delayed for a few hours, ok, not so bad, we can work with that. A storm or something has come up. Then at 1 am here which is 3 am at home, the flight is canceled, NO WAY! You have got to be kidding me. Ok, for some reason, the Lord did not want us to fly tonight. So, the airlines took us all (about 150) people to the Hilton (yes Hilton) to stay the rest of the morning. So, at 6 am, we got a wake up call, got ready, had a free breakfast and was shuttled back to the airport, only to find out that this flight was delayed also. We called Ms. Connie to call in the prayer warriors, because we have to fly today, because Chinasouthern doesn’t fly on Sunday. So, after all that we finally got to leave at 10 am, L.A., time. Which is almost 12 hours later than our original departure time. Whew! After being on the plane, they told the reason for the cancelation was from volcanic ash. Airplanes don’t like that stuff.
So, with all that said we are now on the plane with 15.5 hours of flight ahead of us, and yes I am typing this while we are on the plane so I won’t forget any of it. Putting it in word then, over to my blog. So our cruising altitude is 35000 feet, and ground speed is 529 mph, it is -53 degrees and we are flying over Alaska. We have seen Mt. McKinley with snow on it. We have seen the Alaskan ocean, now our butts are tired of sitting and are ready to get off this flight. We had chicken and rice for lunch, and something else that the stewardess didn’t even know what it was, so we didn’t eat that. While we were waiting in line at the airport, we met a Chinese lady and her husband and 17 month old daughter, who had a host family in Maryville, TN. She seemed so excited to meet someone from where she went to high school. She was really nice. Sweet Chinese babies every where, really hard not to get them and hold and love on them. Will try and rest for now, will post pics later. Thanks everyone for your prayers, keep them coming, because I know God has heard them!

Ok, since then lots more has happened, we landed in Guanzhou, China only to find that there was not another flight to Nanjing until Monday morning. So, once again we were put up in a hotel by the airlines. This hotel was the XinPeng Hotel, oh my gosh!!!! It was a nightmare. We wanted a bath so bad, but would not take one. The sink ran right into the sewer. The smell was horrendous, no trap, just straight pipes. It was awful. The beds was a sheet of plywood with a sheet over them. You talking about a back ache. Our backs and hips are still hurting cause the beds here are not any better. So, then out on the street they are having a block party until about 11 or 12 at night so the noise is very loud. But, what do you do? Put ear plugs in and pray for sleep. So we got up at 5:3oam on Monday here and was given some sweet bread and a box of soy milk for breakfast. Oh, by the way did I mention that we are starving over here, just thought I would throw that in. Then once again, we are shuttled back to the airport to fly to Nanjing. But, during this trip we met a really nice guy from San Diego. His name is Alex, he is Chinese, and was coming to visit his family here. He helped us out alot. So funny and very nice. Going to University of San Diego in engineering. The masters program. So sweet.

We have also met a family here from Holland, that has adopted a little boy. They were told he was 15 months old, but he only has 2 teeth and can just barely crawl, sounds more like a year old. Oh, praise the Lord, Jerry just found a Burger King that has western food like at home. Whew, does that taste good. Well, I guess that is about all for now, will post more later.

Hey gang, sorry for taking so long to blog but the internet is not free here. So this is short and sweet. It is 3 am Tuesday morning here and we can't sleep, she on the other hand is sleeping like a rock. The room is so hot, can't get it cool, we have to open the window. We have had one more of an adventure in trying to get here. We only arrived Monday morning to our destination. Our flights was all messed up, but will blog about that later. We finally got baby sister. She is really small, but she is so pretty. Her eyes are really crossed, and sometimes hangs up in the crossed position, but God put her with us to be loved and spoiled and believe me she is definitely getting alot of that right now. When she is happy, she likes to clap your hands and tickle them. She dances and sings alot, too! She has sixteen teeth, a mouth full. She will probably wear 12 month clothes. Very tiny. She seems to be long waisted and short legged. She is already going to be a daddys girl, I can tell. She has the most beautiful smile. So sweet and serene. She has been very good. Does not drink from the bottle any more. Big girl. The town is very dirty and old. Today we go and finish up the paper work at the official office. So I will attach a pic and blog later. Keep the prayers coming.........at least until we get safely home.......

Well, today is Thursday. One day before we leave, and we are starting to get a little frantic. Ran is excited about the BIG sleep over at ConCon's and Hannah's. We celebrated Ran's 5th birthday on Sunday, and boy does she think she is a big girl now. She wants baby sister to sleep with her also. So, we will see how that goes when we return. If, it works out that would be great....... She has her big ballet recital Sunday that we are going to miss. It is "A Mini Nutcracker" production. How sweet she will be in it. We are just about packed and ready to go. I think Jerry has bought the grocery store to go with us on this trip. Any and every dry good that will travel, he has bought it, and I have packed it....somewhere. Not sure what to take for babysister, since we are not getting a update before we leave. So, we are just kinda of winging it, on that part of it. If she needs something, that we don't have, we can always buy it in China. Well the wondering part of what she looks like now is just about over........come Monday we will finally have our forever daughter in our arms, finally. After waiting for 27 months, that is long enough! But, the Lord knows what He is doing, not us. Again I want to give him the thanks and glory for letting this happen for us. Thank you Lord!!!!! We love and bless you with our lives, may we be a living sacrifice for you. Just received the hotel info on where we will be staying in Nanjing, check it out at
http://mandaringardenhotel.sinotour.com/ real nice.......enjoy our trip with us.

Join us as we embark on the journey of a life time to bring our second daughter, Hui Lan home from Nanjing, China. First, and foremost, we want to thank God for the two wonderful angels that He has given us, that we get to call our daughters. We began this journey 5 years ago when we went get our first daughter, Ranya. She has been the apple of our eye, as they say, but there is that motherly need that tells you when you need another child. Sooooo, in September 2006 we began the journey again for baby sister. The time has finally arrived! We leave December 12, 2008 to travel to China to meet little Anrea for the first time and bring her home on Christmas eve!! What a Christmas present to be given.....thank you Jesus for your love, mercy and faithfullness!!!! HE still answers prayers..........cause ours was just answered!!!!!!!! So, come along with us as we go to bring baby sister home.