Saying goodbye

It was a little hard to tell when the night ended and the day began as we pretty much pulled an all nighter. The children were nestled soundly in bed but it was 5am before we got to sleep in attempts to get all the medical supplies safely packed in crates. We ended up with approx. 200 pounds of urgent needs for the orphanage! The generosity of several local pharmacists have overwhelmed us. We have everything from colostomy bags and IV start kits to vitamins and so much more.

It was bittersweet saying goodbye to E'beth as we know she will have so much fun with at her Grandmothers and THE COUSINS! but we will miss her greatly. She might be having so much fun with all the extra attention she might cry when we come home! Thank you Mom and Chris!!



Two of our 11 flights are now behind us and we are snug in our amazing hotel courtesy of priceline.com. At the last moment, we plugged in a ‘name your own price’ for a luxury hotel just for grins near our layover destination, Washington D.C. --and got what would normally be a room going for over $300/ night for $50.00! !(five, zero!!) Love priceline.

A big thank you to Joel Sanders for helping us get all the crates of supplies and our luggage to the airport and safely tucked into the belly of our CRJ900 aircraft, then driving our car home.

We enjoyed a brief layover in Charlotte NC where John enjoyed a ‘last meal’ of Salsaritas with lots of lettuce and tomatoes (that you can’t have in China) then North to Washington DC where we will spend the night in an attempt to rest for our LONG day tomorrow.





Our day will begin at 7:00 am, with breakfast at our swanky 50/300.00/ night priceline hotel then off to the airport. If you are a die hard China adoption junkie follower you can track the flight via http://www.flightview.com/. Its really quite interesting to follow the progress of an international flight (if you know someone on that particular plane) I guess you really have lead a pretty dull life to sit and watch the little screen change miniscule amounts over the course of 14+ hours!

Our flight leaves at 12:16 p.m. Friday and the path will take us North over Canada, up and over the Arctic circle, over Russia, and then finally about 14 hours later land in Beijing China. China is 12 hours ahead of our time at home, so we actually loose part of a day in flight. (and it happens to be Dave’s birthday.. so we will have to celebrate thinking outside the box We land in Beijing at approx. 2:20 in the afternoon Saturday May 1 and then have about 5 ½ hours to deliver all the medical supplies to our precious friends who run the orphanage ‘Morningstar project’. They will meet us at the airport and we are so excited to see their facility! A whirlwind trip to visit them and then back to the Beijing airport for our continuation onto Guilin which will be 3 more hours of flying.

Guilin will be our final destination for the next 6 days and I KNOW we will be happy to see a flat bed instead of barely reclining airline seats!


Swanky hotel :)

Our plane runneth over

I don't even know where to begin. Tonight Dave came home and he looked like he had been crying. I was alarmed at first that something terrible had happened as you know.. men aren't suppost to cry..but then, I just about joined in w/ the tear fest once I heard the reason.

For many weeks we have slowly began to gather some basic medical supplies for an orphanage in Northern China that cares for critically ill and dying babies and children who have been abandoned. They exhaust every avenue in an attempt to save even the most fragile and "hopeless" of cases.

Yesterday and today, just hours before we depart, we were overwhelmed by the generosity of some local pharmacists. The back of our mini van is now full of critical medical needs to deliver to this most special organization. We are in total awe of God's provision. When we spoke with our China friends and told them about these donations, they informed us they were down to the last 2 colostomy bags. (Hope we have a great tailwind!! :) :)

Then, the next incredible development is that United Airlines working w/ us to get it all there and is allowing us to transport it all AT NO COST!! This is Huge!! United could not have been more helpful and we are incredibly grateful for their assistance.

T minus 1.5 days..

Pre-jet lag

It's only days away now and packing is paramount in our daily activities. It seems that streamlined packing is more difficult than taking the works! We hope to pack very lightly for ourselves in an effort to squeeze in as many basic supplies for some special orphanages as possible. We are still hunting colostomy bags in small sizes if anyone has connections with the powers that be in this area!

We will leave the US arriving into Beijing. After a 6 hour layover, we then head to Guilin which is another 3 hour flight South of Beijing. At this point we will take a few days to acclimate to China time, recover from jet lag, etc.. This is where the adventure will begin. A Chinese "local" will be taking us to some of the back roads of the rural Chinese countryside. It is our understanding they speak English and know their stuff... ok. We shall see.

After a few days in the Guilin vicinity we will then fly back to Beijing and meet up with Angie and the rest of the adoption group from the Living Hope adoption agency for "part two" of our journey.. exciting days ahead! Come back to join in!

tic, tic, tic...

it's now under 1 week until takeoff. I have suggested to our Mom to be that we do a beautiful new facebook profile picture of her with her silky hair blowing in the breeze at the Great Wall once in Beijing just before she becomes a new mother for the very first time. Glowing as she is about to embark on this most amazing of life's ventures.. perhaps a flowing skirt to capture the wind beneath her wings...

Then, the next profile picture could be THE moment when Emma is placed in her arms. What emotion!

Followed by, a few hours later allbeit still smiling, the blouse has some stains, puffy eyes from crying, a torn seam or two..but still a great moment in time.

But then, the next day, well, we will skip it give her a break and move on...there is no more clean laundry and everything has something on it that came from a baby opening..

And don't forget day 3..lets just say the hotel door might be locked when we try to update the profile :)...

But alas,, on or about day 4 we traverse the vast continent of Asia once more finding ourselves in the oasis of international adoption ..Shaiman Island. Yes, could it be............ THE red couch?? Yes it is! Perfect!! the newest profile picture can be.... seated on this red couch famous for other peoples babies vomit, tears, pee, a scabie or two hiding out... perfect in every way... yes it is.

Bring it on baby!

Hey!

Ni Hao.. I'm not sure whether I'll password this blog during our trip to China or not due to some sensitive stops, but if I do and you would like to follow along please leave me a comment, or shoot me an e-mail. Please let me know a little about yourself if I don't know you personally and a blog address if you have one. Thanks friends!

Charlotte, D.C. Beijing, Guilin, Longsheng, Yangshuo, Beijing, Xi'an, Guangzhou, Beijing, D.C. Charlotte.

ahhhh so.

Live T.V. debut for John and E'beth!

During the past few Summer's we have enrolled the children in a Kids in the Kitchen class at Miss Melanie's Tea Room here in our community. It's been such fun for the children and someone else gets to hammer "don't talk w/ your mouth full" etc..to them :)

Well, today, John and E'beth were Miss Melanie's guests on Day Time in the Tri Cities which featured the Tea Room and the Kids in the Kitchen cooking classes coming up in June. You just never know what's going to happen on LIVE TV and today was NO exception!! Watch what happened at the end of the clip when co host "Lightnin Charlie" (love the name!) uses his guitar as a table for the quiche!

CLICK HERE for the FUN clip and the YUM!! recipes courtesy of Miss Melanies Tea Room!


We had so much fun seeing the 'behind the scenes' makings of a live television broadcast. What an experience!!