Good Morning - It is Wednesday morning we just finished our breakfast, sorted the clothes to see what we need washed to get us through 3 more days. Hannah and Leah are laying on the floor doing a puzzle and James is glued to the TV. Luckily this time, all the hotels had at least one American movie channel. We have watched so many 5 yr old "B" movies from Doc Holiday to Mummy Returns, and then lets add in The Epic Movie, but we are thankful, it helped make the evenings enjoyable, specially when we added the carpet picnics.

Last night we went to the Italian resturant. When we got there we saw the family from New Jersey that we had met our first day here. You got the feeling by seeing the smiles on their faces the food was pretty close to the real stuff. We ordered the ravioli and spaghetti along with two salads (our cravings for green leafy things got the best of Hannah and I). Well, let me tell you it sure was worth it and brought big smiles to all of the Ayers family. Leah has proven to be such the little eater. We have found out that just like Hannah and James, anything with noodles is a hit, but like James, without cheese is better.

On the way home from the resturant, Jeff was ahead of the kids and I pushing Leah in the stroller. He started singing a silly song and Leah would echo him with "Babba Blue" and "Babba Cuckcoo" and then she would laugh the truest deepest belly laugh I have ever heard. Smiles would erupted on all the locals faces as they passed by us on the street.

For our tour of the day, we went to a beautiful garden park in the city earlier in the day. It was located on the side of one of the biggest hills in the city. When you were in the garden you lost sight of the fact that you were still smack in the middle of a major metropolitan area. It was a combination of gardens at Disney, Cypress Garden and the Dallas Arboretum. The clock on the side of the hill was actually Mickey Mouse and the glass green house building reminded one of something you would see in the states. James got the chance to be a real Chinese drummer and ace photographer since he was manning the camera.

Well we are off to try and find Leah a Chinese outfit for the infamous red couch picture in the White Swan. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about. There are red velvet couches in the 1st floor lounge area of the hotel. It has become tradition that the children from your adoption group get their pictures taken in traditional Chinese clothing. We have tried to find Leah a dress, but unfortunately her little "Buddha" belly doesn't fit in the slim little girl dresses, so we are going to have to think outside the box.

Tonight it is Dad's turn to blog. Today on our walk to the medical offices to complete one last step in the adoption process we were walking along and came upon a park full of people doing their morning exercises. There was even what looked like adult size playground equipment that they were all using to exercise. A little further down the park we also came upon three groups of people doing badminton, hackey sack, and aerobics to music. The aerobics/Ta Che reminded me of when people do the Cha Cha slide. We also came across middle school kids mingling around their school bus, preschool children taking a morning stroll in the park and a group of young men who appeared to be in "ROTC" learning to do marching drills. They were all wearing what appeared to be one size fits all uniforms that were too big for all of them.

After the medical exam, which Leah passed with flying colors - even the eye exam that took much explaining by the technicians but she finally understood that she was suppose to mimic the hands on the eye chart. We were then off on a walking tour of the market streets that are populated by the locals. One could find many unique items there, including things we at times did not want to know what they were because they were store fronts in the medicinal street. We saw things like scorpians, skinned snakes, lizards on a stick and a variety of roots, dried vegetation, seeds etc... Then we came upon more of a trade day area, where one could buy fish, turtles, puppies, kittens, hamsters, chicks, ducklings and a variety of other stuff dealing with animals. Then we moved onto a open walking mall that was much like the one we walked in Nanchang. At the very end we split from the group for the James was not feeling good and we needed a snack to keep the kids going, luckily the ever present golden arches appeared with fries and drinks.

While the kids were doing homework with Kim, Daddy and Leah went out shopping around the hotel. I took my new little girl shopping to teach her how to barter with the shop keepers. She was happy to come away with kissing pigs and a monkey. I believe her smile truly helped me barter them lower, was not quite sure what she was saying to them in Chinese, but it worked.

We finished off the evening eating at a Thai resturant. After studying the pictures, we decided on a pot of noodles and chicken that tasted much like chicken noodle soup. It suprisingly hit the spot. Now the actual Thai noodles we ordered was "1" pepper spice on the menu, but we would say it was more like 2+. Leah liked it though and showed us how to add them to the chicken broth to make them a slight degree less spicy. Next we had coconut shrimp rice and an India chicken pizza, which remineded us of spinach pizza. It was more like a quesidilla though since it was dough on each side and pan fried, but again was a pleasant suprise. When we got the bill we were surprised to find out we were charged for our wet wipe napkins. Oh well, maybe by the time we leave we will have learned all the ins and outs of this unique country.

In closing I would like to thank the staff of very caring people at New Day Foster Home, who loved my new daughter like their own, for she truly understands what family is and is becoming an Ayers through and through. It is hard to wake up each morning without a smile on ones face for she is clearly over joyed with life and begins each morning with the energy of the ever ready bunny. She laughs at the silliest things, for example when we were playing in the play room the other day I accidently hit Leah with the ball in bottom and she immediately said with a big grin, what sounded like "Oh no you didn't" and went for a bigger ball to throw at daddy.

Leah's First plane ride actually went well - she did watch each one though when it took off and she was a little unsure of what was happening. But since everyone else stayed calm she decided it was not as bad as it sounded.

Leah and her friend from New Day foster home-Abigail - she is being adopted this week too. So we met up at the White Swan playroom. At first Abigail was not quite sure what to think about it all, then Leah got her to open up and play. But when it came time to leave she was sad again, Leah told her they may see each other again.

A wood carving at the Arts & Craft Museum

A drum that was played in the emperors time

At the Buddhist temple

The performers

Leah and me with a femal foo dog at the Prince of Teng's Pavilion.

This is the Prince of Teng's Pavilion, it was a performance arts hall.

Yeah! We are finally done with the second leg of our journey. We fly out in a few hours to Guangzhou where we will finish up Leah's visa so she can enter the US. Nanchang has been nice but we are ready to start the final process of the trip. What we remember of the White Swan it will be nice to be in a hotel full of parents speaking English and the playroom along with the western food.

Leah is excited about the airplane ride but we are wondering what is going on in her head, for she did ask our guide yesterday when do we get "home", so she is tired of the cramped quarters too. During our shopping excursion yesterday in the rain, by the way it has been raining her for two days straight. We decided Leah is a pastel girl, for we were trying to find one more outfit for her and after we finally decided on the correct size with the help of three nice sales ladies and many hand gestures to signify bigger or smaller we came away with gray leggings a mint green top. I believe her favorite new item to her wardrobe is her black swing jacket I brought from the states, she really wants to wear it each day. I think it is because it has 3/4 sleeves, so it truly fits her in the arms. During our shopping trip w/out guide yesterday, I believe our guide thought we were nuts since we were willing to do it on our own and in the rain. She had a hard time understanding walking in the rain was better than staying put in the cramped hotel room.

Since I only have 3 minutes before the Bellman gets the luggage I will end now and send pictures later when we get checked into the next hotel.

The count down is on - 7 more days!

Top of the temple

Marble Boat at Summer Palace - believed the royal family used it for a relazing place to sit and chat.

Temple at the Summer Palace - This is where the Emperess went each day to pray to her female buddha.

This was the old shopping mall outside the summer palace that was run by the Emperor for his staff to spend their money, i.e. Emperor was pretty smart guy.

On Thursday spent the morning treking down the "Walking Mall" to the end where McDonalds resides. The mall consisted of outdoor shops that were mainly clothing, jewlery and electronics. The sales staff stands at the open doorways of the shops and chants, claps or shouts things to intice you into their shops. As for clothing styles here the shops appeared to mainly be catering to the younger twenty crowds. There were a few women and men shops that sold business attire. The children's shops could have easily fit into NorthPark with their unique cute expensive items. Not quite sure who buys them here for the majority of the children seen on the street appear to be in clothing that we have not seen the corresponding shops for. Hannah even found a dress for 40 rmb.

When we finally reached the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, Leah and I learned the quick rules of bathroom line standing by three older women at McDonalds. Leah had to go potty and when we finally located the restrooms upstairs of McDonalds I automatically tried to walk into the room that I thought held the toilets, disregarding the three women mingling around the sinks. Well all three started shouting at me and by their tones I could tell I had done something totally wrong. So we backed up and waited patiently behind them. But then more came in and I had to do the correct hold your ground body posture or we would of kept falling further and further back in the line. When we finally reached the room, one quickly realizes why the door stays closed, for the women come out half undressed of the stalls and finish dressing in the middle of the room. Well after what seemed like forever, we finally succeed in completing our tasks. Then downstairs we went and ate our lunch. Let me tell you after your trips to China I believe my entire family can tell you we will not be eating at McDonalds or KFC again for at least 6 months when we get back to the States.

Earlier in the day we went out to shop for china, for the province that we are in is the known for their fine made porcelain and china. Jeff was happy to find out the shop owners would barter so we ended up walking away with quite a few things and spent very little US dollars. We even were given a free set of 8 chopsticks since we were such good customers.

Last night we introduced Leah to pizza, at least we think we did. We had heard rumors of a Pizza Hut but after much discussion with the conceirge Jeff had no luck into finding out where it was, all she kept saying was that the resturant downstairs would fix us pizzas. So we relented to our dream of American pizza and ordered it from the hotel resturant. Well the first bit was not what your tastebuds were expecting but after a few more bites it did grow on you. Now Leah at one piece and then like James use to do started not liking it. For some reason, cheese is not a staple in China like it is in the States and even today James is not cheese lover but has gotten use to it on certain items.

All five us us squeezed into the back of a cab and Jeff and James trying to use chopsticks. The resturant kept observing and I guess we were not doing good enough for midway through the meal they brought us forks.

Well we have had Leah Hope for three days now, and even though she is playing possum much of the time we can tell she knows what we are saying to her. We all keep trying to get her to use her words but just like a toddler you can understand very quickly what she is telling us in her Mandarin. She loves to color and is the most neat and tidiest child I have ever known. She truly loves to fold clothes and put them away. She tells Baba each and everytime he comes into the room that he is suppose to take his shoes off and then she places them with all the other shoes she has rounded up into her "shoe parking lot". We had warned Hannah that she now is going to have a little maid in her room that is going to keep her organized whether she wants to or not.

When we were walking out of a very nice resturant yesterday we were approached by a old lady who had a tin cup and was asking for money. Jeff and I both said the Chinese word for no, but she kept following us so Jeff asked Leah for another word in Chinese that meant no and what does our precious daughter do, but walk up to the old lady and scream "NO" to her. Well I guess the "NO" is universal. Yesterday the hotel asked us to change rooms for some maintenance issues. So the Ayers family had to do the fire drill packing up of all our belongings. Leah thought it was all fun so she kept laughing through the whole ordeal, she was only worried when we were packing up her drawer of clothes, she wanted to make sure that we got it all. Then when we arrived into the new room, the laundry was delivered at the same time, Leah made sure that all of her clothes that she had brought with her were accounted for and today she was happy to put her favorite dress on again. As for food she has a unique habit of if she does not recognize the food she sniffs it and then makes her decision. For the most part she is not a picky eater and loves her Chinese cabbage, congee and noodles. So hopefully they have instant congee in the Asian markets that are in Plano now and spagehtti/macaroni & cheese can replace rice noodles.

After our outing to the zoo yesterday, Momma and Babba were ready for a nap, along with Hannah and James, however Leah is like the Eveready Bunny she keeps on going until around 9pm at night when we have been saying it is time for bed, she gets in her bed and withing less than 5 minutes she is out for the night. She now loves to jump into bed with us and the kids when morning comes around. Hannah is worried that she will be jumping into bed with her every morning when we get back home since they are sharing a room. Hopefully Leah will learn quickly that big sister can be very grumpy in the morning if woken up too early and that it is James who is the early riser in our family.

Today we are going to explore around Nanchang and see what we can shop for. Mainly to get our of the room and to make the long trek to McDonalds or KFC - for we are all getting tired of the cuisine and would pay many rmbs for some Mexican or Italian food and I could really use a good cup of coffee.

Now it is James’ turn for a blog. Today is Tuesday March 24th. First of all I want to say hello to my classmates in Mrs. Simon’s third grade class. My mom showed me the e-mail from Mrs. Simon that said you had all seen the blog and wanted to tell your parents about. That’s neat. We went to the Nanchang City zoo today. We say many Chinese animals that I have never seen before. They even had a leopard which I took a picture of. My favorite animal was the tiger that was lying in his cage. While we were in Beijing we went to the Panda House part of that zoo, and saw many panda bears. They liked to climb up on their fort and walked around outside in front of us while we were waiting for our group to rejoin us.

When we were in Lanfang to see my friend Paul, who I grew up with in my old foster home we rented a house which thought was neat and I told my parents someday I would like to live there. Paul and I played on the trampoline, went to the park and played like we were in Narnia which is Paul’s favorite story right now. We also went out to eat at a restaurant right next door to the police station. My mom took a picture of me there.

Yesterday when we were visiting all the government offices to process Leah paperwork, we even had to visit another police station and everyone was saying they were taking me there, but it was just for Leah’s pictures. At first Leah was shy but now she is starting to like me. I am teaching her how to play computer games on the internet. We are lucky to have internet in the hotel, so we play it a lot. We are also very lucky that I now have a special little sister named Leah.

Zàijiàn (再见) - Goodbye

After a filling breakfast, with many other parents and chinese babies.

Sunday, March 22, 2009, We arrived in Nanchang City after what the kids thought was only a 40 minute flight. I guess, after 17 hours of flying 2 hours now seems like a breeze. Nanchang reminds me of Tianjin, the city where James was from. Much, much different than Beijing, by being more of an industrial city with many buildings but in what looks like a hodge podge order. We passed a beautiful golf course compound with condos, but it appeared no one can afford them for they looked not lived in. Then right down the road is apartment buildings that appear they should be condemned but are very much occupied. In fact, right outside our hotel window is what appears to be about a 30 story office/hotel building that is being built but now appears to be on hold. Thus it looks like a skeleton since it has not windows but a shell of a cement framework. It looks like families have brought in their own brick and started to brick off interior rooms to live in. There are visible appearances of family life, clothes lines, bikes, garbage etc.

We were suppose to have a few hours of downtime before Leah was brought to our room at the hotel, but no sooner did we sit down on the bed did we get a call that she would be here in fifteen minutes. So down we trek to the lobby to begin a new path in the Ayers family tree. In the lobby we meet Wanda our guide during our time in Nanchang. Then a car arrives with Leah, her Ayi and the workers from the Nanchang orphanage. Leah looks at us and smiles a little but you can see the fear and turmoil that is about to erupt inside of her. After about 45 minutes we all come up to our room and the turmoil is now coming to the surface. The Ayi leaves and the tears began to fall, uncontrollable, wailing cry outs for the one of the people that in Leah’s view has been one of her many Mommas. The door finally closes on that chapter of Leah’s life and the new chapters begin. What seemed like hours but we know was less than 20 minutes the wailing cuts through our bones. Hannah escapes to the bathroom to hide her fears and how she is now grieving for her new sister. James becomes stone and has a look on his face like he can somehow remember inside of his heart the same pain she is feeling inside. I finally get her to sit inside my lap and wrap my arms around her. I whispered I am your momma now, I am your momma now, and all of a sudden the crying stops, just like turning off a faucet. She looks around, Hannah and James comeback, Jeff gets’s Leah to laugh and we are now the Ayers Family of 5. The rest of the night went by like we were just in hotel room on vacation. We learned very quickly that Leah likes organization, so we gave her a drawer and she has now organized all her clothes, books, toys into it. She then moved onto our shoes, which are now neatly arranged in a special place under her bed. When we come into the room, she makes sure each of us take-off our shoes so she can place them where they belong.

Morning has arrived and our little Princess awoke a happy girl, she unfortunately has James’ early rising powers but she awoke with a smile which I was not expecting. Everyone got into the king size bed and it felt so right that we all fit nice a snug under the covers. Each minute that ticks by we are all learning little nuggets about Leah. She put on jeans and a sweater today and you can tell she has not wore many jeans/pants, for she keeps tugging at them like they are falling down. Breakfast has now been finished and we are awaiting our guide so we can make it to another Walmart to get supplies to last the week in this hotel room.

We did it! The Ayers family conquered the Great Wall of China. Unlike the previous time when Jeff and I had made the same trek, when it was hot and muggy this time it was cold and windy. Even the aerobic workout of the climb did not get one nice and toasty warm. Within the first ten minutes of the climb Jeff and I were showing our age, when we got to the steepest part which is actually almost vertical, the kids were still going strong so it pushed Jeff and me on. James did not let his fear of heights conquer his emotions and plodded on like a trooper. It still was an invigorating feeling knowing that not again we had done something not many people will ever be able to have the chance to do. Unfortunately there was much more smog than I remembered last time so the panoramic views were not as spectacular as before but still took your breath away when you thought about the history of what this wall stood for 500 years ago to the Chinese People. On the way back from the Great Wall into Beijing we went pass the Olympic stadiums (The Cube, Birds Nest, and Olympic Village). There were many tour buses and Chinese people, but all one could do was get out and walk around the Birds Nest, in fact they are in the midst of tearing it down to be replaced by a shopping mall, which is actually quite depressing that they don’t want to relish in the beautiful event that took place in the stadium that brought many eyes upon the spectacular beauty of China, but instead want to move on to the next thing. You see that much around China, they are in rapid building modes but then nothing moves in so the building remains empty and starts to fall apart after 5 or so years. This was especially apparent in Lanfang – it actually was quite a depressing area and looked more like ghost town at times than a growing city

Now it is my turn to blog on our day at New Day Foster Home. The morning started by trying to figure out how to make us and our luggage fit into a car the size of my Corolla for the drive over from Langfang. Needless to say we figured out a way to make it all fit, Elisa & Mike started commenting it was like when we were younger and were trying to figure out how many people we could fit into a Pinto or VW bug. The trip there was actually through villages and the driver took many of the “back” roads. So we were able to see who the majority of the Chinese people live. You see very proud people doing mundane tasks that we could not image having to do each and every day. There are people whose job is to sweep a given section of roadway with a handmade broom or shovel dirt from one place to another. The majority of the time they are in the fields preparing them for the spring planting. They plant trees everywhere and we were told that is to try to hide the common people from views from the major roadways.
When we finally arrived at New Day, it is in the middle of a small village. However, once you are inside the walls you begin to feel as if you are not in China anymore. We were greeted by smiling faces of people (Karen, Grace, Doug and Carrie) who I have been e-mailing or had seen pictures of. It was nice to be able to finally be able to give them a great big personally hug of a greeting. It was like seeing old friends not strangers. Once all our items were stowed away in the guest house we proceeded to the pre-school were all the kids were awaiting our arrival. Needless to say there was great trepidation on my part to see our new daughter for the first time face to face. Like we had expected she peaked around the corner to one look, saw the wheels turning and then retreated to the comfort of arms that she knew. It was all the other kids who greeted us open arms, they immediately wanted to reach out and touch us to feel the people they had seen in Leah’s picture book. As the morning progressed Leah was doing her best to keep some separation between us but at the same time keeping her eyes on our every move. After we went outside to play, she warmed up to Hannah and James and played with them. Then she gave me a moment I will never forget, they had gotten out the baby bunnies to show Hannah and James and Leah was trying her best to figure out a way to hold it but was scared of it at the same time. She allowed me to show her how to hold the bunny like a baby cradled in your arms and rock it back and forth. The light bulb went off, she understood “baby, rocking” at first she still did not want to but the urge finally overtook the fear, she began to hold it and rock the bunny. Her smile of conquering her fear was overwhelming then, she said “Momma” and motioned for me to follow her, so she could show me the other bunnies and the goat. That was it a brief moment but it was a great glimpse of the beginning of our journey to Momma and daughter.
It was then lunch time and we were showed the dining hall where Leah at first sat down with the kids but then was asked to sit with her new family, she did not hesitate and was thrilled that our food was different that on the kids table and her eyes grew real big when Hannah brought her an orange drink from the store. Of course it took us awhile to realize that she needed a cup and had no idea how to drink out of the bottle. After lunch it was Jeff’s turn to have his moment, the kids were playing in the courtyard a game and Jeff joined in, when you fell off the rope you had to perform in the center of the circle so Jeff fell off and he persuaded Leah to help him sing the “Monkeys on the Bed song”.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with some quite time with Leah and her Ayis and us alone in the family room. Being the girlie girl Leah is she found Hannah’s high heel shoes and immediately was enamored with the noise they made on the wood floors. Then we were given another gift, New Day had just had a new baby boy brought to the center and they said Jeff and I could be the ones to name him his English name he will be known by while he lives at New Day – so we named him Jameson. We were expected to see a small petite little boy since his difference was a heart defect, for we had just been holding the most beautiful little 18 month old little girl who is also a heart baby. She was so light and petite but full of smiles. However, Jameson was a Buddha boy – chubby cheeks and big crocodile tears. Since we were given the gift of giving him a name, we are now responsible for praying for him each day and ask all who are reading this blog to please put Jameson on your prayer lists along with all the other children at New Day who are trying to get stronger so they can receive their first or second or third surgeries.

Love Now it is my turn to blog on our day at New Day Foster Home. The morning started by trying to figure out how to make us and our luggage fit into a car the size of my Corolla for the drive over from Langfang. Needless to say we figured out a way to make it all fit, Elisa & Mike started commenting it was like when we were younger and were trying to figure out how many people we could fit into a Pinto or VW bug. The trip there was actually through villages and the driver took many of the “back” roads. So we were able to see who the majority of the Chinese people live. You see very proud people doing mundane tasks that we could not image having to do each and every day. There are people whose job is to sweep a given section of roadway with a handmade broom or shovel dirt from one place to another. The majority of the time they are in the fields preparing them for the spring planting. They plant trees everywhere and we were told that is to try to hide the common people from views from the major roadways.
When we finally arrived at New Day, it is in the middle of a small village. However, once you are inside the walls you begin to feel as if you are not in China anymore. We were greeted by smiling faces of people (Karen, Grace, Doug and Carrie) who I have been e-mailing or had seen pictures of. It was nice to be able to finally be able to give them a great big personally hug of a greeting. It was like seeing old friends not strangers. Once all our items were stowed away in the guest house we proceeded to the pre-school were all the kids were awaiting our arrival. Needless to say there was great trepidation on my part to see our new daughter for the first time face to face. Like we had expected she peaked around the corner to one look, saw the wheels turning and then retreated to the comfort of arms that she knew. It was all the other kids who greeted us open arms, they immediately wanted to reach out and touch us to feel the people they had seen in Leah’s picture book. As the morning progressed Leah was doing her best to keep some separation between us but at the same time keeping her eyes on our every move. After we went outside to play, she warmed up to Hannah and James and played with them. Then she gave me a moment I will never forget, they had gotten out the baby bunnies to show Hannah and James and Leah was trying her best to figure out a way to hold it but was scared of it at the same time. She allowed me to show her how to hold the bunny like a baby cradled in your arms and rock it back and forth. The light bulb went off, she understood “baby, rocking” at first she still did not want to but the urge finally overtook the fear, she began to hold it and rock the bunny. Her smile of conquering her fear was overwhelming then, she said “Momma” and motioned for me to follow her, so she could show me the other bunnies and the goat. That was it a brief moment but it was a great glimpse of the beginning of our journey to Momma and daughter.
It was then lunch time and we were showed the dining hall where Leah at first sat down with the kids but then was asked to sit with her new family, she did not hesitate and was thrilled that our food was different that on the kids table and her eyes grew real big when Hannah brought her an orange drink from the store. Of course it took us awhile to realize that she needed a cup and had no idea how to drink out of the bottle. After lunch it was Jeff’s turn to have his moment, the kids were playing in the courtyard a game and Jeff joined in, when you fell off the rope you had to perform in the center of the circle so Jeff fell off and he persuaded Leah to help him sing the “Monkeys on the Bed song”.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with some quite time with Leah and her Ayis and us alone in the family room. Being the girlie girl Leah is she found Hannah’s high heel shoes and immediately was enamored with the noise they made on the wood floors. Then we were given another gift, New Day had just had a new baby boy brought to the center and they said Jeff and I could be the ones to name him his English name he will be known by while he lives at New Day – so we named him Jameson. We were expected to see a small petite little boy since his difference was a heart defect, for we had just been holding the most beautiful little 18 month old little girl named who is also a heart baby. She was so light and petite but full of smiles. However, Jameson was a Buddha boy – chubby cheeks and big crocodile tears. Since we were given the gift of giving him a name, we are now responsible for praying for him each day and ask all who are reading this blog to please put Jameson on your prayer lists along with all the other children at New Day who are trying to get stronger so they can receive their first or second or third surgeries.

Love to Now it is my turn to blog on our day at New Day Foster Home. The morning started by trying to figure out how to make us and our luggage fit into a car the size of my Corolla for the drive over from Langfang. Needless to say we figured out a way to make it all fit, Elisa & Mike started commenting it was like when we were younger and were trying to figure out how many people we could fit into a Pinto or VW bug. The trip there was actually through villages and the driver took many of the “back” roads. So we were able to see who the majority of the Chinese people live. You see very proud people doing mundane tasks that we could not image having to do each and every day. There are people whose job is to sweep a given section of roadway with a handmade broom or shovel dirt from one place to another. The majority of the time they are in the fields preparing them for the spring planting. They plant trees everywhere and we were told that is to try to hide the common people from views from the major roadways.
When we finally arrived at New Day, it is in the middle of a small village. However, once you are inside the walls you begin to feel as if you are not in China anymore. We were greeted by smiling faces of people (Karen, Grace, Doug and Carrie) who I have been e-mailing or had seen pictures of. It was nice to be able to finally be able to give them a great big personally hug of a greeting. It was like seeing old friends not strangers. Once all our items were stowed away in the guest house we proceeded to the pre-school were all the kids were awaiting our arrival. Needless to say there was great trepidation on my part to see our new daughter for the first time face to face. Like we had expected she peaked around the corner to one look, saw the wheels turning and then retreated to the comfort of arms that she knew. It was all the other kids who greeted us open arms, they immediately wanted to reach out and touch us to feel the people they had seen in Leah’s picture book. As the morning progressed Leah was doing her best to keep some separation between us but at the same time keeping her eyes on our every move. After we went outside to play, she warmed up to Hannah and James and played with them. Then she gave me a moment I will never forget, they had gotten out the baby bunnies to show Hannah and James and Leah was trying her best to figure out a way to hold it but was scared of it at the same time. She allowed me to show her how to hold the bunny like a baby cradled in your arms and rock it back and forth. The light bulb went off, she understood “baby, rocking” at first she still did not want to but the urge finally overtook the fear, she began to hold it and rock the bunny. Her smile of conquering her fear was overwhelming then, she said “Momma” and motioned for me to follow her, so she could show me the other bunnies and the goat. That was it a brief moment but it was a great glimpse of the beginning of our journey to Momma and daughter.
It was then lunch time and we were showed the dining hall where Leah at first sat down with the kids but then was asked to sit with her new family, she did not hesitate and was thrilled that our food was different that on the kids table and her eyes grew real big when Hannah brought her an orange drink from the store. Of course it took us awhile to realize that she needed a cup and had no idea how to drink out of the bottle. After lunch it was Jeff’s turn to have his moment, the kids were playing in the courtyard a game and Jeff joined in, when you fell off the rope you had to perform in the center of the circle so Jeff fell off and he persuaded Leah to help him sing the “Monkeys on the Bed song”.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with some quite time with Leah and her Ayis and us alone in the family room. Being the girlie girl Leah is she found Hannah’s high heel shoes and immediately was enamored with the noise they made on the wood floors. Then we were given another gift, New Day had just had a new baby boy brought to the center and they said Jeff and I could be the ones to name him his English name he will be known by while he lives at New Day – so we named him Jameson. We were expected to see a small petite little boy since his difference was a heart defect, for we had just been holding the most beautiful little 18 month old little girl named who is also a heart baby. She was so light and petite but full of smiles. However, Jameson was a Buddha boy – chubby cheeks and big crocodile tears. Since we were given the gift of giving him a name, we are now responsible for praying for him each day and ask all who are reading this blog to please put Jameson on your prayer lists along with all the other children at New Day who are trying to get stronger so they can receive their first or second or third surgeries.

Love to all - Kim and Jeff

James and Leah getting to know each other

James, Paul and Me

Our first walk

This is Hannah , Today we said good bye to Paul and all are friends. We took lots of pictures and got into the waiting taxi. We stuffed all are big suitcases in and off we went. Soon we got to Leah's orphanage and talked with the owners. We walked in to a screaming room of kids. But it's so funny because a little boy ran to us saying hey and so excited. Leah was very shy at first she stayed by the nannys. We sang different songs and a little boy named Brett came to me and sat in my lap. He played with my hair and necklace. One of the nannys tried to get Leah to dance with me to got her out of her shell. So I sat Brett into my moms lap and went to go dance. She danced for a little bit then got scared. Right when she got scared Brett crawed to me and want to be picked up. So I danced with him and then we walked back to are seat. All of the kids went outside to play and blow bubbles. I blew bubbles with Julia and every time a bubble popped she laugh. Leah soon got out of her shell and handed people little baby bunnies. They have a goat and over 10 adult and 30 baby rabbits. All of us had fun outside. A lot of the kids have foster familys so they left before lunch. We were all hungry so we went to go eat lunch. Leah sat buy use and was out of her shell. She asked for the food she wanted and gave use some dumplings. We were going to there factory were they my models out of clay. Leah held me and James hand on the way there. She was very fasinated in the models and it was very funny. We played outside for one last time and then sayed are goodbyes.

Wed March 18th

WE MADE IT!

We are happy to say after an exhausting flight we are now in China - infact we have been here for two days. Currently we are in Langfang staying at a house two houses from where James spend 1-1/2 years of his life. He linked up again with Paul, a boy Mike and Elisa his house parents adopted. Paul and James were in foster care together and at first just stared at each other then they finally spoke and now they are best friends exchanging toys so they can remember each other as the years pass. Hannah has even joined into make it three.

Yesterday we had lunch in the same private dinning room of a place we ate at 7 years ago when we first came to Langfang. It seemed like yesterday, except that Hannah and James were enjoying the delicious food and managing to eat with chopsticks like pros. That same afternoon of all things we visited the somewhat new Walmart and had fun trying to find the Frito Lay product and the other recognizable items. We came away with Oreos, Cheetos, Cheerios and Frosted Flakes!

Last night we enjoyed a new dinning experience called "Hot Pots". Literally you cook your own meal in a small boiling pot that is placed in front. You then add your own meat, vegetables, seasonings and noodles. It was quite delecious and even the kids ate without any comments as to what am I eating. James however, was experiencing so much jet lag that by about 30 minutes he was asleep in his chair.

Today we are having dumplings for lunch that we are actually going to help the Ayi (nannies) make.

Tommorrow we get to travel to New Day and meet Leah for the first time, I believe we are all excited and nervous at the same time. Hopefully tommorrow night when we reach Beijing we will be able to share with you all how it goes.

Welcome

Well this is it, our first post on our brand new blog. We are 2 days from embarking on our journey to bring Leah home from China. The excitement was overflowing tonight when we were at open house at Hart Elementary which is where James is a fun loving 3rd grader and will soon be Leah's new stomping grounds. The teachers and students were bubbling over with joy and anticipation just as much as we are.

So shall we start by introducing everyone to Leah Hope. Leah is 7 years old, she lives at a wonderful place called New Day Foster Home in China. She loves monkeys and her favorite color is purple. Leah is also a girlie girl who loves hair accessories, nail polish and makeup. We have had her serenade us to many wonderful songs on our weekly phone calls.