I don't know where to start. So much has happened since we have returned back home. This pic was taken on 12-29-08, and big sis just can't keep her hands off of her new little sister. But, all in all, Anrea has taken to her new home and her new family very well. We could be more excited to have our forever daughter finally at home with us. She has quite the personality, too!

She doesn't seem to be afraid of anything and will not back down. Very vocal, even though you can't understand a word she says. Not sure if she is trying to say something in Chinese or if it is baby babble yet. But, she has lot to say, none the less.

The pic to the left was taken in March, so you can really tell the difference in her facial features rounding out, and she seems to be trying to show her "sweet" side. Yeah right! She can be quite a hand full at times, but at the same time she is so sweet and loves to cuddle with mommy. Her favorite this to eat is ice cream. Not to fond of strawberry, but loves chocolate, and pineapple milkshakes from Sonic. Who would have ever guessed that one. We have had a time in trying to get her to eat, but she is coming along. Venturing out and trying new things. Loves chicken and dumplings, a girl after my own heart......she also likes chicken noodle soup. Oh, and dill pickles!!!!! Just the juice off of them. Ms. Connie my baby sitter found that one out. You can put a pickle in her mouth to give her the juice and she will say "um". Then wait for more. Does not like mashed potatoes. I thought everyone liked mashed potatoes! I have so many pics that I want to post to show the progress that she made since coming home, so I will post more later.

Ok, so now we have been home for three weeks. Anrea and Ranya are getting along like sisters should be. Ranya seems to just adore her. We dedicated Anrea on Jan. 4th at church, and she would have nothing of the pastor touching her hand or arm. She kept pushing him away and giving him strange looks. But it was a real sweet ceremony. Everyone at church wants to hold her, because she is so small and sweet. Jerry calls her his little pig! Because she can eat so much at one meal. For breakfast she will eat a scrambled egg mixed in with a bowl of grits and then want another bowl of grits, thats about 7:15 or 7:30am, then at 9:45 to 10:00am she wants to eat again, so she will eat two bowls of oatmeal or some rice with chicken and vegetables.

She should start showing some signs of growing here soon. Her belly is huge, but her legs are so tiny. Jerry ask me if her calves looked like they were getting bigger? and I said where. She jabbers all the time. She and Ranya together are quite a hoot. There is laughter all the time in our home now. What a beautiful sound to hear. Thank you Lord, for the wonderful gifts that you have blessed this family with.

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.