Pictures and Just Killing Time

Here are a few pictures I wanted to post with the last post. The one below is with Eden’s friends and foster brother in her foster home.

This is with Eden’s foster family. They were very sweet and seemed to really care about her. On the left is her wonderful teacher, Liu, a very special woman who cares deeply for the orphans and does so much for them.

We are now officially killing time here in China. There are parts of this process that seem a little inefficient. They could make it so much shorter if they changed the way they do a couple of things. We had to wait 4 days in Changsha for passports. Once we got them, we flew here to Guangzhou where the children had medical exams, had blood drawn for TB tests (for US approval to travel home), and now we wait for our US consulate appointments to get the kids’ visas to travel home. I am getting super homesick. I miss all the other children so much. We have seen them on FaceTime a few times, and my older children are texting us on WhatsApp, so I don’t feel so out of touch with them, but it is really hard being gone so long. I’m really feeling it. If I come back to China, I will skip the touring part to make the trip shorter. We will have been here over two weeks by the time we arrive home. We have to stay a couple of extra days because our consulate appointment is a day later and flights were really expensive unless we waited another day to leave. We will get to spend an extra day exploring Hong Kong, which should be fun, but I would much rather be home with everyone together. The sad news is that we won’t all be together until about mid-August because to of our teens are traveling.

The kids were really excited to fly on the airplane. Eden couldn’t wait. She kept grabbing her backpack and saying “Go!” and I kept having to show her my watch and explain that when the clock said “4:00” we would get ready to leave the hotel. She had fun on the flight, and enjoyed everything about it. Daniel was excited too, but on the way down, he cried a lot and it seemed like his ears hurt. He was OK after we got off the plane.

The medial appointments went ok. Both of our children were really upset about having to have their blood drawn. They wouldn’t let us go into the room with the children, which is probably best so they won’t associate us with that experience, but it was hard watching them be so afraid and not being able to do anything while they were in there. Eden had to have a vaccination done, and she was terrified. It took 4 people to hold her down for the shot. Once she got it, she relaxed and saw it wasn’t so bad, but she cried for several minutes afterwards. She was equally as terrified about getting her blood drawn. Bethany was trying to show her that it wasn’t so bad, and she showed her that Jayson had had his drawn and he was OK, too, but she was still so scared. She cried all the way to the room. She made it through OK, and was fine again once it was all over. I think her arm is a little sore where they gave her the shot for the vaccine. She was a little moody last night, and fell asleep quickly, before story time and prayer. She has been really into listening to the mother-daughter Bible devotional I have been reading to the girls at night, and both kids really love to pray. Daniel asks for it before every meal and before bed. I’m so happy about that.

Today we went to a museum that was kind of touristy and full of expensive souvenirs we weren’t going to buy. The kids were super bored, and wanted to leave the whole time. They kept asking the guide in Mandarin if we were leaving yet. We went to a market place afterwards where we bought chop sticks and other gifts at great prices. They had Legos there that were so inexpensive. We bought several sets for the children and to bring home to the other kids. We spent the afternoon making our creations. Daniel helped a little with his, but he is very easily distracted, so he was happy when the final product emerged. I didn’t get a good picture of him with it because he promptly took it apart. I’ll get one tomorrow to post. I fixed it so he can pose with it later. Eden didn’t want to open her set at first, but after seeing Daniel’s built and Lillah working on hers, she agreed to open it, and we worked on it together. She helped me find pieces and was counting very well in English. She kept saying, “OK!” when we would finish a step. She was thrilled with the end result. The last part was making a bunch of little flowers to put in the “yard,” and she did those all by herself. She was really proud of our work. It was a good bonding time for us.

Tomorrow we will be going to see a safari. Everyone is really excited! I’ll post about that later along with pictures. I’m sure it will be a fun day!