Home at last
Mood:  hug me
We arrived home on Saturday the 28th right on time at 5:51pm.

Anita met us at the gate since she had flown in just a few hours before we arrived. What a feeling to hug her, whew.

There was quite a crowd to greet us which was very nice to see. Everybody of course thought Sydney was beautiful and was very happy for us. We visited for a while, I have no idea how long we were there before we left for home. Mr. Dennis had brought our van to the airport so we loaded all the luggage in their and headed for the house. It was very nice to be driving again, although I had to remember not to drive like they do in China!! Very aggressively and there is no such thing as driving in the lines. It was raining, but it was COOL!! Did I mention is was HOT in China?? More importantly, it was the humidity that was about to kill me.

Jauni had brought us Chic-fil-a to eat and drink, which was wonderful, Love ya Jauni!! I hadn't had DP in 17 days and I thought I was gonna die. That tasted SO good, everybody laughed at me. Oh well, I'm used to that. We stopped at Sonic to grab a tiny bit more food on the way home and Anita needed a drink. Dennis and Corky brought Scout home shortly after we arrived home, it was good to see him. Corky threatened to keep him, but I told her that wasn't possible. Scout is our Dog for those who don't know. Sydney thought Scout was just pretty cool, she just pets him and loves on him. Scout wasn't too sure about Sydney to begin with, but then he realized if he followed her around, he would get snacks all day long! Dennis and Corky stayed a while to visit, then we were on our own.

We put the girls down for bed about 10:30 and we went down about 11pm hoping for a full nights sleep. Did I say Hoping for a full nights sleep? That didn't happen. Sydney woke around 2:30 and was up for the day. NO matter what we tried, she refused to go back to sleep. We could tell she was very tired, but absolutely refused to sleep. She napped for about 3 hours Sunday afternoon and then we kept her awake until around 11pm hoping that she would be so tired she would sleep. Well, that didn't happen again!! She woke up around 2:30 again and again refused to sleep. So basically, she's had about 8 hours sleep since we got home. This is one area that she is much more difficult then Emily was when we brought her home. Emily slept all night long, only one of us had to sleep with her on the floor. We're going to try again today to get her schedule reset so I can sleep tonight, I gotta work in the morning!!

She is doing very very well with most things. She is surprising us more every day with what she can do. She feeds her self some, which she hadn't while in China and is learning some of our rules at home. Bill and Jauni brought us dinner Sunday night and their kids and our kids played their hearts out!! Payden was so cute to watch with Sydney, you'd think she were his little sister.

We just finished breakfast and are hoping to get her down for an early nap this morning, then an early nap this afternoon, then deal with a grumpy girl while keeping her awake late this afternoon. We've been up since about 2:30 - 3am pretty much. I tried to sleep, but that wasn't happening. Even if she wasn't screaming, I would hear her screaming in my head. Head games....geez I gotta sleep.

Anyway....just wanted to post that things are going really well outside of the sleeping schedule thing.

I'll keep posting information now and again to keep our family and friends posted on our progress.

US Citizen
Mood:  happy
It's now 9:40am in LA.

We made it to LAX last night and we managed to get a few hours nap at the hotel before Sydney thought it was time to get up for the day. Obviously our body clocks are still on China time. Sydney was up around 215ish and was ready to play. We watched The Incredibles while she and Emily played, then managed to get about another hour nap.

We are at LAX already since Grammy and Poppa leave in just a little bit and we leave at 12:45pm, returning to Dallas at 5:51 CST today.

Signing off from China
It's now 1:15PM Friday afternoon

We are shutting down from China. We are in the process of finishing up the packing. (had to buy one carrying and one larger suitcase to get everything ready. I only paid about 12-15 for each one though to it's all good.

We will not post again until we get home safe and sound in good ole Cedar Hill, Texas.

Hope everybody has enjoyed our journey, we've enjoyed sharing.

Group Picture Day
It's now 9:15pm, Thursday night in Guangzhou

Our last night in China...HIP HIP HOORAY!!!!

We slept in this morning and took our time getting around for the day. We didn't really have anything planned to do, except sit in the room to answer questions from the Consulate between 10-12ish. Li took our stuff to them today and would call if there was a problem. The phone didn't ring and Li brought our Red Book back, so we're good to go.

My neck is hurting today so I took some drugs this morning that knocked me out for a while. We all went to Lucy's again for lunch then a quick nap, of which nobody really slept except Chelle for about 30 minutes. We met our group at 4:30 for the red couch pictures and group pictures with the water fall. All went fairly well and naturally one of the babies had to scream during the photos, wouldn't be the same without it. We took lots of photos of the girls in their matching Chinese dresses. Absolutely beautiful, I've never seen a pair of more beautiful girls.

then we all walked to the Cow and Bridge for Thai food. Now I understand why people talk about this place so much, very yummy stuff. Very loud place though, couldn't hardly talk to the person across the table from me, oh well...good food!!

We picked up a couple things tonight that Chelle and I had made just for us, and No I'm Not tellin what they are. Everybody is in bed now so I'd better sign off for the night. I will make a quick post tomorrow before we leave for the airport, then nothing until we get back to Dallas more then likely.

Wish us safe and happy travels

Blessing from a Buddhist Monk
It's now 9:10pm on Wednesday the 25th.

Finally a real breakfast bar!!! Chelle and I have been looking forward to this day for quite some time. The breakfast here at The White Swan has just about everything you want and it's all delicious. The Majestic just didn't have much variety in what they offered us in Nanning. 8 days of omelets and toast were getting OLD!!

We left the hotel again at 9:30 headed for the Buddhist Temple. The temple as very pretty with a huge pagoda that was beautiful. We all tossed coins in the big black incense buying thingy, this was for good luck we were told.

Li told one of the Monks that we would like to receive a blessing for the babies. We took off our shoes and entered the Temple for the Budda for Mercy to receive the blessing. The Monk stood near the alter and while keeping beat on a wood block looking thing, he said a chant. Couldn't understand one thing he said, but it was beautiful. I have digital video, but it's too large to put on my website right now. We decided to have Emily participate in the blessing also since she never received one before.

We spent about an hour walking around the grounds taking pictures. There was one room with several monks walking around chanting at a very slow tempo, it was awesome to hear them.

After this we went to the Chen Family Temple, that is now a folk art museum. Chelle and I saw this place on our last trip but still enjoyed the bone carvings very much. We even bought a few pieces to display at home. I also bought a few pieces to give Emily and Sydney when they get older. Of course it's hot and humid so we didn't stay that long.

Next we went to a Jade market place. These people are like vultures on roadkill!!! They had some beautiful China to ship home, but if you stopped to even look at a piece, they were trying to put it in a box for you, good grief calm down people. The jade was out of our price range big time. We did however buy Emily a pearl bracelet and necklace that match, her first pearls. We also bought beautiful matching pink Empresses dress for the girls to have their picture taken in tomorrow afternoon. The hotel water fall will be the back ground, should be very nice. I also bought a painting that is totally done with every part of the hand, palm, finger, finger nail...it's awesome. I bought one that is of The Great Wall, since after all, I have climbed part of the wall.

After that we came back to the hotel to relax for the afternoon. Sydney, Emily and I took a well deserved nap. We ordered dinner from Danny's Bagel's....oh my gosh, good stuff. Check out the menu at http://www.dannysbagel.com They deliver to the hotel and it was yummy stuff. I had a meatlovers pizza that was almost as good as Sam's in Cedar Hill, THAT is saying something.

Tomorrow is a slow day for us. One of us has to be available in the room from 10-12am to answer any questions that the American Consulate might have for Li when she takes paper work over there in the morning. We will finish up our shopping and just hang out tomorrow. We have group pictures at 5:30 and a group dinner at 6pm. Friday we go to the Consulate around 10am to take a vow of some sort. This is completely different from when our first trip. Li will pick up our VISA for Sydney at 3pm on Friday and we leave at 9pm, Thank You Lord!!

Hope everybody is enjoying this journey.