Hanging around

Wendi started the long journey home today.  The boys and I took her to the airport to see her off.
She make it through Seoul well and is enroute to the U.S.  This afternoon, the boys and I took off for the park again, despite the "real feel" temperature of 102F.  (I think it was more like 112, but who's counting.)   We had a nice stroll and rented a motor boat with a few thousand other families on the small pond.  Now, if they would have let us play like bumper boats, that would've been more fun, but it was fun dodging the others.   The boys had a good time steering.   Ate pizza in the room and watched movies.  Heavy rain tonight, so no pool tonight.  Levi is participating and helping us get around (since he can read the signs!) He enjoys pizza and watching movies.  He says "zank you" after each meal or drink offered to him.  He is using the translator a bit more to communicate with us, which is nice!

                                               The boys built this together in just a few hours!

                                            I love the signs in China.  Some are really, really funny
                                             What on earth does this mean?  Any ideas?
                                   The quote sounds like a cross between Yoda and that Gollum creature.

A very special day

Next to gotcha day, today was one of the more special days.   We got to travel to his province, Longgang which is in Shenzen.  We had a great visit with two of his foster families.  One is a social worker who housed Levi in his personal home for over 2 years.  It was obvious that he cares for Levi very much and he was happy to see he has a forever family.  We then traveled to the orphanage.  This is the same orphanage where 4 of our children once lived....Sam, Katy, Jasmine and Levi.  We saw a photo of Katy and Jasmine on the wall of the orphanage.  Walking those hallways, I couldn't help but think of all the lonely nights our children had sleeping there until they received news of a family....and while I'm so grateful to have them...my mind quickly went to all the other children who are still living in the orphanage hoping....praying...for their special day to come, too.  Yet, sadly, it doesn't come for all, and many "age out" and become too old to be adopted.  With all the resources in the world, this could be one of the greatest tragedies...a helpless child would live his/her whole life without a family.

Our next stop was with the foster family where he lived most recently.  The foster family who housed Samuel (and where we met Katy) and now Levi.  We had a nice lunch together and told them all about Sam's and Katy's life back in the States.  They were pleased to hear about their accomplishments and that they were happy & healthy.  The mom cried as we left....sad to see Levi go, but I also sensed a feeling of gratitude for the life & medical attention we've been fortunate enough to give these kids that they simply could not.

Levi seemed very proud to show off his new family (us) and was quite happy and talkative the entire time.  It made Wendi and I very happy to see him happy to be with us.

We ended up the evening with another dip in the pool...a nice way to burn off some energy before bed.  I'm sad that Wendi will be starting her journey back home tomorrow morning.  We will miss her greatly, but know the kids back in Denver will be very, VERY happy to see her!

Would you please pray for her safe travel?  Also, would you also pray for all the orphans in the world?  That God would place them in loving families....maybe yours!

A visit to Shamen Island

Levi had his medical check up today.  We thought he was going to have to get 4 shots but thankfully his orphanage had already given him them all .  He was very relieved I know.  We then went to Shamen Island.  It is a great area.  We spent our entire time on the island for our first 3 adoptions.  Most people adopting stayed there because the medical clinic was there as well as the US consulate.  It was a hustling and bustling place.  The hotel that we stayed in shut down for renovation a few years ago and the consulate and clinic moved off the island.  We have great memories of being there.  Today was once again blazing hot so we didn't make it long outdoors.  Most of our time was spent in Starbucks drinking a smoothie.  This is by far the most relaxing trip we have had.  We have these 2 easy going boys and there is no one else in our travel group right now so we are taking advantage of the down time.

The Visa issuing system is up and going again so we just pray that it stays that way.  That is about all I have to report.  Another evening of swimming is on our boys schedule.  Life is tough.  Thank you for all of your prayers.

This is for you Leah

DonLi asked why you couldn't play your trumpet here.  I'm so glad I left mine at home.

We have some hot tired boys

A few photos of our day

Levi enjoyed some English speaking movies.  He laughed right along with them even though he probably didn't understand a word they said.

Off to the pool.  They have the best time in the pool.

It's a hard job adopting a 13 yr old boy but someone has to do it

A VERY hot day

Ok, there is hot and then there is HOT!!!!!  We were in China 5 years ago at this same time.  I haven't forgotten how hot I was the day we visited the zoo here.  I was reminded of that heat today as we tried to enjoy ourselves on a walk through a park.  Scott summed it up well as being short of miserable.  Whew.  We have just about decided to just have a stay cation in our room.  We will come out only when we have to.

Levi has had a very wordless day.  He seems happy but I guess feels words are useless with us.  He has laughed and giggled a few times but other than that not much.

On another note, the visa system that was down all last week keeping many families stuck here unable to go home has once again gone down.  We are still over a week away from Levi's visa needing to be processed but please pray that get this fixed.  It is causing families big expense on top of the already huge expense they have already had.  It took 6 days to fix before.  Hopefully they learned something and get it working quicker this time around.

Tomorrow we go for Levi's medical check up and he will be getting 4 shots.  That is never fun.  Scott and the boys are about to go for an evening swim.  They slept really good last night after swimming for 2 hours.  As a matter of fact they were all sawing logs at 7:30 last night.

We are doing great and the kids at home are doing good.  I know they are ready for us to come home.  We miss them all so much.  Thank you all for your support and prayers.  We are feeling every one of them.

All Chinese children age 12 and over must also give their consent to being adopted.

This very important signature above is Levi's consent to joining our family.

I cannot imagine how much courage it takes to give your life to a total stranger after spending

24 hours with them, but our son does.

Just in case you wanted some fish to cook for yourself at home, the grocery store has plenty.

Squid, too.

While in the U.S. chicken "fingers" are popular, over here in China,

it is chicken "feet" that are popular.

Fortunately, we can have a few snacks that remind us of home.

Around town & shopping

Anyone hungry for fish?  Yum yum.   (we passed.)

Riding the escalator is fun in any country!

Our celebration meal...Chinese, of course!

The shopping mall

Cool escalator without steps so grocery carts can go on it.

And, it is magnetized so the carts won't roll.

Levi was quick to give us all a chop stick tutorial

Hanging around...