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.