Electronics and Travel

We have always been pretty determined that our children would not have electronic gadgets that would take time from old fashioned children's play and using imaginations. That is also the reason that the only time we watch TV is as a family in the evenings - usually a kids movie.

I made my first exception last Christmas when I bought leapsters and a didji. I did so with the reasoning that they are educational and if they could learn any simple math or language skills without me having to teach them, it would be worth it. For that reason I brought them for Rosie and Dominic to play with and they have been a huge hit. As you can see, Liu Bo and Isabella are also enamored.

I am having a hard time even admitting the next part, so I am going to give all the rationals first. As you know, Dominic had a very hard first few days with us. When we offered to buy him things he usually said no even to food. The afternoon we had pizza at Chicago Cafe our guide took him for a walk and came back saying that Dominic wanted an MP3 player. My first response was an unequivical 'No!'. (the first thing Rosie asked for was a fake Barbie, I had to say no to that too) I hated to say no to anything at that point so I was really struggling. Fortunately Cheryl came to the rescue again. She offered to buy one for him and download tons of Xiao Ping's Contemporary Chinese Christian music. Dominic was delighted. We decided that all 3 of our eleven year olds could have one so Cheryl bought one for Rosie also and we bought one for Nellie. This meant that Cheryl spent the morning downloading music (for some reason Nellie's didn't work - hers will have songs in English).

While Cheryl was busy Jerry and Xiao Ping took the kids on a paddle boat ride. When I returned from going back to the hotel for the camera, I was pretty horrified to see the two nonswimmers sitting precariously on the front of one of the boats, but they all survived and a grand time was had by all.

Dominic is becoming a happy, helpful young man. He gets up early and goes to run at the fitness center with Jerry and loves being asked to help do anything. He watches Jerry to see how to do things. He seems years older than Rosie, although she is definitely the bossy, talkative one of the two.

It was very hard saying goodbye to Cheryl and the girls. Our flight was thankfully again uneventful. Both children love flying. We are now staying in what is by far, the nicest hotel we have ever stayed in. The downside is that it is not on the island where so many adoptive families stay and it appears to be sorrounded by stores where we couldn't afford to buy anything. We will be here 8 more days. It will feel like forever. But I imagine the breakfast will be to die for.....there is usually an up side to everything..C

Hardship and Suffering

No blog on China is complete without a picture of the toilet facilities. It is known as a squatty potty for reasons that need no explanation. Tissue goes in the wastebasket, not down the drain. This one is relatively clean and even had a door. I will not tell about the one in the shopping area in Beijing with no doors and lines in front of every stall. Use your imagination.


For me 17 days of occassional SPs and eating at places so filthy my husband had to go outside is hardship. But what we saw today and what Cheryl sees everyday she is here goes so far beyond that there is no comparison. It is true suffering.
When we walked out of our 4star hotel this morning past that a new pink arrangement of lilies and rounded the corner a 3 or 4 year old girl approached us holding out a stainless steel bowl. Her mother was teaching her to beg.
Most places we went we were surrounded by crowds of people pushing, moving, motorcycles and bicycles weaving through crowds, crowds weaving through traffic. Everything horribly filthy. As we were pushing toward another group of stores , out of the corner of my eye, I noticed an 8 or 10 year old girl kneeling forward on the edge of the sidewalk with her shirt ripped off her back showing terrible burn scars. There was a bowl to collect money on the ground beside her. Cheryl said it is possible she was deliberately burned so as to collect more money. Hardly anyone gave her a passing glance.
This evening as we waited in front of the church for Xiao Ping this is the scene we were part of. I had the nerve to pull out my camera this time. That is a living human being on the ground beside us.





I often glibbly say "you can't help everyone, but you Can help the ones God puts before you". Easy for me to say, I live in America and I am not tripping over people in abject misery daily.
May God's richest blessings be on those, like Cheryl, who have the courage to choose to follow God's call to minister in places like this. C

My Hero Cheryl W

Cheryl, LiuBo and Isabella arrived in Kunming from the US at one o'clock this morning. After that exhausting flight they slept a little and then spent the rest of the day ministering to Jerry and I and the children. (Background info: Cheryl is the reason we ever came to China at all, see sidebar for more of the story)

We are amazed at Cheryl's ability to negotiate this huge city. She bargained for our purchases and took us to out of the way shops. We had lunch at the coffee shop where Xiao Ping works. It is called Chicago Coffee and is in an area where alot of internationals live. The children ate their first pizza and I drank my first caramel coffee frappe.

I have pouted, grumbled, whined and complained alot during this past year about all of the delays. Tonight it was perfectly clear that there was not a minutia of accident in any of the timing of this trip. For on the very day that Cheryl's family and ours crossed paths in the far reaches of China, the young people at one of China's officially recognized churches met to raise their voices and their hands to worship the One True God and listen to a message from Acts1:8 (when the Holy Spirit comes on you, .......you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth) and my son and daughter heard the gospel in their own language and joined in the singing. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit...from China ! c

Gotcha Day Number Two

Of our three Chinese adoptions, this was our first difficult one. Not as difficult perhaps, as the one we observed after we got Rosie in Nanning where we wandered into a room full of families getting crying babies, but in it's way just as heart rending. Dominic Lu Min has been in tears off and on from our first meeting. The thought of how hard it must be to leave everything and go with people who aren't even smart enough to speak Chinese has brought me to tears as well. David, our guide has been wonderful and soon after we returned to our hotel Xiao Ping (Cheryl's young helper who now lives in Kunming). Dominic knows her, which helped, but also she was loving and funny and affectionate with both children so we totally enjoyed our time with her. Tomorrow we will visit her at the coffee shop where she works.

As you can see from the pictures, Dominic is tall! So although Rosie is two months older she seems like a little girl and Dominic feels almost like a teenager and I don't quite know how to treat him. I think he may already feel rather confined being part of a family. Please pray for us all as we learn to be one.

On the plus side, since he can write pinyin he can type things on the translator to communicate with us a little. On the negative side, he asked to watch TV and when I said he could watch sports he wanted to watch some music TV . Uh, no.

Just got a note that this may not post so I am going to quit here. Keep praying. c

Nanning/Kunming

We began the day with Rosie's first introduction to a lavish hotel breakfast. We skipped the pigs ear and chicken paw but found plenty of other more palatable things to try. Jerry liked the sour spicy potatoes but he said there wasn't much sour to them. I am about the least adventurous eater in the world but yesterday but I actually tried a frog casserole. It was a little chewy. As we have one interesting eating opportunity after another I think often of a young couple who are friends of mine, who ate their way through their first year of marriage and I can't help but think that they may enjoy this same experience one day.

After breakfast we spent about three hours at a huge bookstore. Rosie picked out some books for herself - I insisted on a math book or two and we also got nine Disney movies in Chinese. I am afraid when Rosie finds out that Jerry's computer will play them our time on here will be limited.
Can you see the man on the bike beside this bus? The drivers here have to be the most aggressive in the world.

Rosie adored the plane ride. I am so grateful that our guide David sat beside her because she never stopped exclaiming about all the things she saw out the window. I want to pretend that there are no windows and if possible that I am not on a plane.

Actually, although we arrived an hour or so late or flight was uneventful and the food as usual was great.

I think Kunming must be one of the nicest cities in China. The lilies that Rosie is smelling in our hotel lobby are real and filled the air with an amazing fragrance. We expect to do a little shopping in the morning and meet Dominic around two . He will be making a 4 hour drive leaving all his friends behind. The great part is that Cheryl, who he knows will soon be on her way here and I hope he will find it comforting to meet with her and LiuBo after he has been with us for a day.

Now that Rosie is getting more chatty she seems to find it hard to believe that not only can I not understand Chinese, I am unable to read it when she writes it down. So far, I can write things to her on our translator and it will say them to her but since she does not know pinyin well enough to use a keyboard she cannot talk to me unless David is around. I am so glad that she and Dominic will have each other to talk to tomorrow. I know it will probably slow down their English language acquisition but I think it will be very comforting for them.

Time to break out the Disney movies.

Gotcha Day Number One - Perfect

This morning we arrived at the Civil Affairs office a few minutes ahead of the orphanage officials who escorted Rosie. I was worried that she would be reluctant or afraid. As you can see from the pictures, she was a little nervous (as were we !) but she quickly recovered and enjoyed having her picture taken and being in the spotlight all day. We signed our names dozens of times - in hotel rooms, notary offices, civil affairs offices; added our red fingerprints, and Rosie even gave a red footprint. We gave statements about why we wanted to adopt her and promised never to abandon her. Since she is over 10, Rosie was asked privately whether she really wanted to be adopted by us. By the end of the day we got the official red document saying that as far as China is concerned, Rosie is now ours! It will be 11 more days before the American consulate agrees.

When we stopped by the hotel in the middle of the day and I showed Rosie the clothes I had brought for her, she asked if she could change into something. She loves pink! hooray, my favorite color! She wanted to do her nails immediately but I told her that would have to wait until after dinner.

She also loves bling. I wanted to buy her some cute, comfortable sandals (her feet are 2 very different sizes but she walks much better than I expected) and it was almost impossible to persuade her to try anything that wasn't shiny pink plastic. I finally gave her the choice of anything from a certain rack but she still managed to pick some that could not possibly be called comfortable. They do match her dress perfectly, so I'll give her points for that :). She is now playing with Ric's leapster - electronic things seem to cross all langauge barriers.

Thank you for all your prayers! Keep them coming! The support is SOO encouraging.

Rosemary's backpack

Rosemary's Backpack________________________________________________________________
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