Homecoming Pictures

Here are a few pictures of our arrival in Peoria, with thanks to our dear friend Lisa S!

Family and friends waiting to meet us!

It was so nice to be so warmly welcomed home!

Our new American citizen, taking it all in.

Elizabeth wore a shirt that said "jie jie" (big sister) and Evan's said "ge ge" (big brother). Amelia's shirt said "Made in China."

Our sweet girl!

It's good to be home!

on the train to Hong Kong

the LONG flight to Chicago

only 7779 miles to go!

It is so nice to be home again! We are settling in and beginning to figure our days and nights out. It's wonderful to be able to drink water from the tap, to eat fruits and vegetables, and to sleep in our own beds. Our wonderful care group from church had stocked our fridge for us with lots of yummy things, and we have been receiving meals from our Sunday school class. We are very blessed to have such a wonderful church family!

It seems as though many people have the same questions, so in case you're wondering, I'll answer some of them here.

1. How is Amelia adjusting?

She is doing very well overall. She had a horrible night Friday night -- she was up for the better part of the night crying inconsolably. We think she figured out that this is the last stop and that she's not going back to her orphanage. It didn't seem to matter what we did or even if we were in the room with her. We tried everything; she just didn't want us. It was miserable for all of us. We have been trying to stay awake during the day to recover from jet lag, but when you can't sleep at night either it's pretty rough! Thankfully, that seems to have been her one bad night. Since then she has been sleeping really well. She is playful and active and smiley during the days, especially here at home. She gets shy and won't smile when we're in new situations or around new people. She also doesn't like to smile when we have the camera out! Developmentally she seems to be doing well. She babbles a lot and has said mama, dada, and Amelia. She can go up the stairs easily but doesn't know how to go down. We can tell that she hasn't been read to. She doesn't know what to do with books and pushes them shut when we try to read to her. We'll keep working on that!

2. How are the other kids doing?

It seems that our immune systems may be a bit compromised due to all the travel, as Evan and Elizabeth have both been sick in the last couple of days. Evan woke up with a fever and sore throat over the weekend, and Elizabeth has been feeling poorly and sleeping all day today. It took Amelia a few days to warm up to them, which was especially hard on Elizabeth. She felt a little rejected and thought she wasn't being a good sister. Now that Amelia enjoys them more, things are going better. Elizabeth likes sharing her room so far.

3. What about Amelia's special need?

She was born with clubbed feet, which have already been corrected. She looks a little bow-legged, which we will ask her doctor about next week, but she walks fine and doesn't seem to have any trouble. We are thankful that her need seems to be so very minor!

Overall, things are going very well, and we are so thankful! I think the most challenging thing now is knowing how to balance meeting Amelia's need for bonding and attachment with our need not to let a toddler dominate our home. We are teaching her what "no" means while making sure she feels loved and safe. It's impossible to know whether some of her behaviors are adoption related or just stem from being a toddler! Please pray for wisdom for us as we set boundaries for her while helping her feel secure and loved.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. And a boat.

Well, we're home! I'm feeling the effects of jet lag tonight, but here's a quick update. I hope it makes sense! Our last evening in Guangzhou we went on a dragon boat cruise of the Pearl River with some other Holt families. It was amazing and one of the highlights of our trip. The boat was beautiful, and our guide made arrangements so that we could sit on the top deck. The buildings and bridges are all lit up, and we cruised past Guangzhou Tower, which is the tallest building in China. The lights on the tower change color and it is so cool to watch!

Wednesday morning we packed everything (again), spent the last of our Chinese money, and ate lunch at the Deli Shop near the White Swan hotel. They have amazing ham and cheese buns -- we ate them two days in a row! We met our guide at 3:00 and drove by the US Consulate to pick up Amelia's passport with visa on the way to the train station. Praise the Lord that it was ready on time with no problems. We got to the train station plenty early and waited with our guide. She was very helpful with buying our tickets, arranging for a porter to help with our luggage, and telling us what to do when it was time to board the train. We had to go through customs and immigration since we were leaving mainland China for Hong Kong. The train ride was pleasant, and we arrived in Hong Kong around 8:00. Another guide met us at the station, helped us with our bags, and had a van to take us to the Regal Airport Hotel. Wow! This was by far the nicest hotel we stayed in; too bad we were only there for twelve hours. The rooms were huge and it smelled fresh and clean -- a nice change after the musty feeling of our hotel in Guangzhou.

Thursday morning we walked from the hotel through an enclosed walkway to the airport. We had decided a couple of days before to purchase a ticket for Amelia, and the very helpful United agent moved all of our seats so we could all sit together. We are so glad we had that extra seat, because Amelia slept about half of the fourteen-hour flight in it! Once again, it was L-O-N-G, but everyone traveled well, and we made it to Chicago! As soon as the plane landed, Amelia became a US citizen. We had to go through immigration, customs, hand over her visa packet, go through security, and Mark had to check in for the last flight because of some computer error in Hong Kong that wouldn't let him check in for both flights at once. We made it to our gate with just enough time to grab some dinner. All three kids slept on the flight to Peoria.

What a welcome sight it was to see many family and friends there to greet us! We are so thankful for our church's orphan ministry and for the support we have had all along this journey! It was a blessing to be met with signs, balloons, hugs, and smiles from so many people! We got to our own sweet home around 7:30, approximately 24 hours after beginning the trip. Amelia loved exploring the house and even climbed our whole staircase by herself. She evidently had not seen grass before, as she resolutely refused to walk on it and cried when we tried to set her down in it!

We are so grateful to the Lord for how smoothly everything went during our trip. We had NO problems at all with travel, connections, finding our various guides, any paperwork, or sickness. Praise God, and THANK YOU to all who prayed for us so faithfully! It was a great experience, and now we are happy to be home again!

Consulate appointment

This morning Mark, Amelia, and I got up bright and early for our appointment at the US Consulate. We had to apply for Amelia's visa, which will be issued tomorrow, and then we can come home! Because we are staying at the Victory Hotel, we were on our own for transportation to the consulate, so our agency helped us book a car through the hotel. Everything was going smoothly and I was just feeling thankful that we were in a private car with Amelia sleeping on my shoulder. And then, about five minutes before we arrived at the consulate, she threw up. All over me and herself. And just as we got our wits about us and realized what was going on, the second wave came. We tried to mop ourselves off with baby wipes and got a little panicked as we saw she had blessed the inside of the rented car as well. We think she was just car sick, as she has seemed fine ever since. But just let me say that there will be no more strawberry milk around here anytime soon! So feeling yucky and wet, we made it to the consulate appointment. There were twelve families at the 8:30 appointment. We took an oath as a group saying that all our paperwork was true and then they called each family up to a window to sign one last form. That was it! We rode back to the hotel in the same car, which thankfully the driver had cleaned up while we were gone, tipped the poor man, and showered immediately.

We did a bit more shopping, and I think we are all done now. The question has become whether or not we need to buy an extra suitcase to get it all home! Amelia is napping right now, and I have an "exit meeting" to go to soon. Tonight we are planning on taking a cruise on the Pearl River with our Holt group, and tomorrow we prepare to come home.

sleepy girl

beautiful Shamian island

one of many bridal couples we have seen getting their pictures taken

some of the many shops on the island

Safari Park

We spent the day today at the safari park here is Guangzhou.  It was great!  The park is so big -- we didn't have time to see all the animals in the five or six hours we were there.  We started by taking a trolley ride through part of the park.  The animals are very close to the trolley and easy to see.  The funniest thing was the camels; there were six or eight of them chasing each other around in circles!  I'd never seen camels running before, but it was worth the trip!  After the trolley ride we walked through the other part of the park and saw the elephant and tiger shows.  The kids all enjoyed the park, and it was a great way to spend the day.

The weather has really been pretty nice.  It's not as hot as we had feared since there has been some rain, but it is SO humid here.  The sheets on the bed feel damp all the time, even with the AC on.  There is a somewhat musty smell everywhere, and our allergies are beginning to act up.  

Amelia is still doing well.  She does great all day and doesn't like it when either of us are out of her sight, which is a good sign that she is bonding with us.  She will even let me hold her when Mark is around, which is a big change from a couple of days ago.  The last two nights she has had a harder time falling asleep and has woken up in the night crying.  We think that as she is beginning to attach to us she is more afraid of us not being there when she wakes.  We're trying to help her through this however we can.  We have to remember that she has only been with us for six days, and she really is doing amazingly well.  During the day she is happy, giggly, and fun.  And she is SMART.  Twice now she has followed directions we have given her in English, and she has said "Amelia" a couple of times.  She has a couple of orphanage behaviors that we need to work on (hitting, for one) but overall she is very well-behaved.  She can sit patiently in a high chair with nothing to entertain her for an impressively long time!

We are still having some internet trouble, but I'm going to try to attach a few pictures from today.  We are ready to come home!

Pearl market pictures

Here are some pictures from yesterday.  Two are from our trip to the pearl market, and the other two are just too cute not to share!

Jade and Pearl markets

This will be a short post today.  We have been having trouble accessing the internet at all from our laptop, so I am using the computer that came with the hotel room. (?!)  I can't upload pictures to this computer, but hopefully we'll be able to figure something out tomorrow.  Maybe our laptop will work from Starbucks? 

 

We went to the jade market and pearl market this afternoon with our Holt group.  It was crazy.  We found some beautiful things and were able to do pretty well bargaining on the prices.  But I've never seen anything like it before.  The jade market was like a huge flea market, only everyone was selling the same things.  It was hot and smoky, but worth a trip anyway.  The pearl market is basically a six-story shopping mall filled with only jewelry stores -- pearls, silver, colored beads, etc.  We bought Elizabeth and Amelia each a strand of pearls for when they are older.  We chose the pearls we liked, and the girls in the store strung them while we waited. 

 

We went to a Thai restaurant for dinner called Cow and Bridge.  We waited a long time (which seems to be the norm here) but the food was excellent.  Again, there were many things on the menu that in my opinion shouldn't be classified as food, but we all found something that was tasty and not scary.

 

Tomorrow if the weather is nice we are going to go with the other Holt families to the Safari park.  This is something our kids have been looking forward to, so I hope we are able to go.  We are all getting ready to be home.  We miss the food, especially fruits and vegetables.  I am very tired of not knowing where anything is and trying to live out of five suitcases and seven carry-on bags.  Please pray that we will finish our time here well and with good attitudes.  Please pray also for our flight home.  We didn't buy a seat for Amelia, and it's going to be a LONG ride home.  Right now there is a seat next to our five that is open.  We would be so thankful if it stayed that way so we would have a little room to spread out.  Good night from Guangzhou!