Franklin Panthers in China

Today was a shopping day, in a huge mall - not, perhaps, Jerry, Ric and Andy's idea of a great day : but we borrowed a stroller for Ric from a store where we had some laundry done yesterday so at least they got a good stroll. We didn't buy any spores from outlets or inlets. The boys hats say di di (little brother) and ge ge ( big brother) but when Andy points to the Chinese letters on his he says An-dee. This morning we took the famous Red Couch picture of the adopted children in our group - the girl in blue is 4 the boy is 3, the girls in red are 1 and 2. Tonight all the families went out to dinner together but since we had to sit at seperate tables we didn't get to fellowship as much as I would have liked. We are back in the room watching the Olympic closing ceremonies, which you guys won't get to see for 12 more hours. But at least you will have English commentary. Our Olympic viewing on TV here has been pretty much limited to events the Chinese are good at. We are feeling rather sorry for London, having to follow this Olympics.

Andy had his first meltdowns today ( that is adoption speak for crying when you haven't been hurt). The first time was in a restaurant, probably because he was hungry, the second time was because he wanted Ric's trucks as well as his own. When you are 7 years old and have things of your very own for the first time in your life, I am sure it is very hard to share . In the orphanage he probably did not even have his own clothes, but shared with everyone who was his size. We are really amazed at how well he is doing in spite of the overwhelming changes in his life. He just came up to me and gave me a kiss - how sweet is that!!!

We certainly don't want to be amerced!!!

The White Swan has it all - Chef's from Ratatouille to fix your eggs, a waterfall to eat breakfast beside, and a playroom with a kitchen!!! No to mention a pretty cool sleeping arrangement for little ones, where the boys play or eat ring pops, or whatever.

This morning I took Andy to his medical checkup. He was not nervous and was very well behaved. His eyesight was pretty bad, but the nurses tried to make him guess so he'd look better on paper , I think. At the end, the doctor took him in to talk to 3 other doctors at computers. They all felt his head, talked to each other in Chinese and signed his form. (Did they say 'oh well , they'll fix it in America' or ' too late to do anything now' - I would love to know- but I don't suppose it matters.)

We ate lunch at a small restaurant down the street. The boys split an order of sweet and sour chicken and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich - Andy's first American food!!! After doing some shopping, I spent 3 hours with our guide and 4 other adoptive mothers filling out paperwork for the consulate. It was fun to be with the other mom's although they are adopting kids 3 and under, which actually doesn't make me feel as jealous as I thought it would. Hmmm.

Getting ready for bed

Travel to Guangzhou

We arrived safely in Guangzhou. The rain had not yet begun but the wind was already very strong. The White Swan is a lovely hotel with little shops all around it. We went to a local takeout place to get dinner for the room that had amazing dessert pasteries, the likes of which I have never seen in China. The most interesting news of the day came from Lily, the woman who helped so much with our paperwork. She told us that she believes that the paperwork of one of the boys we have been trying to adopt for the last two years has at last made it to the CCAA. She also thinks we might get another age waiver, as he is older, and there are apparently alot of older boys on the list......Jerry seems open to this....hmmmm....thanks for praying....

please pray

The first call you want to get in the morning is not the one that says..Please pack in a hurry we are trying to get you on a flight to arrive before the typhoon hits (why not wait until after the typhoon hits, is my thought?)...packing..

BEIJING

Today we went to Beijing - ostensibly to see the Olympics. I went to the Atlanta Olympics with Katrina (the day of the bombing). We saw a diving competition, but the most fun we had was walking around the Olympic center, buying pins, seeing entertainment and just being part of the festivities. Apparently the Olympics have changed greatly since then. All the festivities are contained behind wire fences. Only event ticket holders are allowed in. So we stood outside taking pictures through the gate with the other regular Chinese folk. Of course, we also occassionally became the subjects of pictures - see the family that asked to take a picture of their little girl with Ric (and later wanted a pix with the little girl, her mother and Ric). This has happened several times since we have been here. I don't get it at all. What could they possibly write as the caption -Chinese looking boy with American parents? or American boy, looks like us?...We smile and co-operate. As you can see, Jerry managed to track down a fellow worshipper of Manchester United. Thats Andy standing in front of a church where they were taking Chinese wedding pictures (thats when they dress in rented western looking wedding garb just for pictures, the day before the actual Chinese wedding). Ric is poseing beside the different official Chinese Olympic uniforms since 1996. If you look closely in the picture of the four of us you might see the Olympic flame in the background.
The very first picture is of the boys on the highspeed train (217 miles per hour) we took from Tianjin. It was amazing! The inside was like a plush airplane with assigned seats that reclined and stewardesses who brought a cart with water. There is also a restaurant and an internet bar - all this for a 27 minute train ride !! And the ride was as smooth as silk, with never a sense of the real speed you are traveling. It took longer to buy the tickets and get to the train than it did to get to Beijing.
Tomorrow we pack up and fly to Guangzhou. I am more and more certain as I search the internet that Andy has some kind of syndrome, but he is a sweet, loveable guy. As I was stressing about it again this morning, I read this :"Don't put conditions on God. Don't say, Lord I am willing to do this and that, but I refuse to cooperate if you want me to do anything outside this criteria. .........Does your life really belong to God or to yourself?.....God knows how to best use your life to glorify Him. He knows the special gifts he has given you and where you can be most effective for his kingdom. Will you obey our Lord and go where he sends you, do as He asks?........There is no time to waste. Your days on earth are few.....ask the Lord of the Harvest to show you how to proceed, and he surely will."- Brother Yun

Purple Ice Cream

After breakfast this morning we made another visit to the notary and then per our request (okay, my request) Helen took us shopping. First we stopped at a small shoe store and bought some addidas to replace Andy's ill-fitting canvas shoes as well as a matching pair for Ric and sandals for Andy. For anyone looking for stock to invest in I would recommend addidas - they now have a big presence here in China. It appears they designed China's beautiful Olympic outfits. We also ran in an addidas store but the jackets alone were almost 100 dollars! Then we went to Chinese cultural street which you see in the pictures and bought outfits for the boys to wear to our next party at the Chinese restaurant. We kept trying to find Olympic things but were told that everything was already sold out.
We had lunch at a Chinese food court where we got a mountain of food as usual although Jerry and I are eating very little the past couple of days because our bodies have begun to react to the change in diet. That was the reason we didn't join Ric and Andy eating purple ice cream covered with fabulous dark chocolate (I did take a bite, the ice cream was an unidentifiable fruit flavor).
We spent the afternoon in the hotel room where Ric and Andy have a blast - in fact , Andy isn't always the little soft-spoken compliant thing we met the first day.
On the subject of his name - We thought at first we would call him Wei Wei and then Andy Wei and then Andy so that there would be an easy transition. However, I noticed at the orphanage that everyone seemed to call him by his full name Zheng Li Wei. Since we can't really do the tones when we try and say that he pays absolutely no attention. (Helen told us that the Wei in his name means fort, unlike the Wei in the orphanage director's name which means flower....we might be calling him flower for all we know)...consequently we call him Andy, although he doesn't really respond to that either, at least Ric knows who we are talking to. :-)
I didn't mention yesterday that we had a great lunch and visit with Robert and Amy Moore. Robert has been voluteering at the orphanage for 8 years so he knows Andy. We are grateful to have been able to meet them before they move to work with another orphanage. Robert's family used the ATI curriculum as we did, in fact his brother was in an Alert unit about 10 before Jay. Robert first worked with ATI's orphan program in Russia. Amy's dad is Little Bear Wheeler, who is very famous in homeschool circles.