You mean they don't live inside our TV?

the chinese acrobats have been a huge part of our family since Rachel was . . . oh, I'd say, 1 1/2 and could ask for specific DVDs to watch . . . she often chose the "Rachel" DVD which was the video of our adoption trip and included the Chinese Acrobats in bits and pieces....when she was about 2 or so, she would then become the acrobats after watching this DVD...while living in Florida, our family night activity often included us all becoming Chinese Acrobats with Daddy laying on his back in the floor and lifting Ra, and then ME over his head while we "balanced" balls and random other toys in our hands. Rachel loves the Acrobats! So while in Beijing to pick up the aunts, we made a visit to the Acrobat theatre....they truly are amazing! The pictures do microscopic justice to the talent and beauty incorporated into this show . . . have a look . . .


Next family night, THIS is what we'll attempt . . .



I'm pretty impressed that Jerry got this shot . . . they're blurry because they are only in that spot for a milisecond!





And OUR little acrobat . . . mesmorized the whole 1.5 hour show.

Daddy Daughter Bonding

Jerry and Ra shared a moment of sweet bonding over scorpion on a stick...mmm mmm.... while we were in Beijing with the aunts. Jerry says it wasn't all that bad...tastes like chicken!

Home Sweet Home

After only a week and a half of searching we found an amazing apartment. Mommy got her kitchen. Rachel got her playground and Daddy is just a walk across the street from his office (behind the huge ball pictured below). We are absolutely thrilled with our new home and look forward to the many relationships that will be built here. This is the view from our back window. It won't last long because they are building a high rise right next to us but for now we have a wonderful view of the Shenyang skyline at night. Rachel insists on seeing "Daddy's office ball" every night before bed. Can't really blame her.

One Tasty Little Girl

So we learned quickly that our new home (population 8 million) is also home to 46 million mosquitoes. During our first week, as we were looking for an apartment, Rachel woke up with FIFTY-SIX mosquito bites, more than half of which were on her face. Don't let the pictures fool you. She was less than thrilled about the whole experience but she did like the polka-dot (calamine) medicine. Poor kid. Since then she has been attacked again with even more bites. She is, by far, the tastiest one in our house.




























Taking it all in stride.

A fine How Do You Do arrival in SY

Well, we have arrived . . . in SY, that is. Thursday evening when we finally landed and were snuggly settled into the LDi guest apartment, Rachel decided it was a good time to make some memories . . . . so her little nose began to bleed . . . and bleed . . . and bleed! She has had bloody nose issues since the day we brought her home, but this was CRAZY! We couldn't get it stopped for at least 20 minutes, which, if you've never had the pleasure, seems like a decade when pints of blood are flowing out of your child's body! It finally stopped, but started up again twice before we were able to call it a night. sigh! But we did learn this: if you have a hysterical child (and mom) and want to keep them calm during a nose bleed trauma, bring out the good ole internet and learn something funny....like how to count to ten in Japanese!

Thanks to all of you who are continuing to remember us during the exhausting search for an apartment. It has proven to be fun, exciting, irritating, scary and just plain funny! Keep those thoughts headed upward, we have some wonderful prospects on the horizon and are excited to see what happens....it seems that finding an apartment is like most other things in China . . . it has more to do with building a relationship than with actually finding an apartment! As cool and exciting as that really is, this homebody is really just wanting to find a place to make into a home. So, if you're talking to Dad and you think about it, ask him for a speedy process along with the beginning of promising relationships . . . thanks!

Oh, sorry no pictures this time....i'm using the Mac that Jerry bought from a friend for me a year ago that we have yet to be able to use with internet access....it's quite exciting for me to have my very own electronic gadget, even if i don't know the first thing about it yet (like how to get my pictures off the PC and onto here....) =-)

Picasso? Could be . . .

Ra is continually amazing us, but recently we have been floored by what she is begining to do by herself. Things we have practiced with her, or shown her how to do, but she has no interest at the time . . . these amazing feats often occur in the wee hours of the morning when we are still asleep, and she wakes us to show her works of art. This part we dont so much love, but her little face beaming with pride at what she has accomplished on her own, she could wake me at 5 am and I'd not complain . . . ok, well, maybe a little.



We have been practicing writing her ABC's, but she's just not taken an interest. She has been able to verbally spell her name since she turned 2, but when she marched in with this masterpiece, I was amazed, not just that she spelled it right, but that it was all in a straight line and I could recognize all the letters, even with blurry eyes.

Ok, these I recognized as people only because of the feet and hands included, but when she pointed out all the parts and explained they were boys because they had short hair . . . it was like . . . duh!

I love this one because it was the beginning of everyone having to be drawn with a belly button . . . and apparently shark teeth (no, this is not a picture of mommy when Rachel woke her to show that she had used the glue to glue ALL the construction paper together to make a . . . um . . . it's a . . . "i don't know what it is mommy"!) but it is a girl because it has eyelashes . . . (boys don't have those, you know)

And this one I love because it is both a boy and a girl says Ra....because it has long hair and short hair!

I ask you, how cute is she?!?

Something to Wonder About

OK, there are alot of reasons that I love living in China . . . not the least of which is the wonderful concept they have of "song"ing things when you buy something. "song" is the word for "free", but its a verb . . . sometimes. (ex: I "song" you this thing) For example, last winter I bought a sweater, when I went to pay, they asked me to choose a scarf from a small selection they had at the counter. Granted, none of them went with my sweater, but hey! If you know me, you know that I'm all about free stuff!

So it has now become our mission to find the strangest combination of "song"ed things...this is not even close to some of the really strange matches, but we found it particularly interesting because it came packaged this way, unlike most "song"ed things in a store. Usually they are random items (ex: a bag of potato chips and a bottle of shampoo) bound together with packaging tape, but not so this time...the battery people actually thought about this and decided that song-ing toothpaste with AA batteries was a grand idea. Hmmm....we decided that maybe they were pushing for people to use those electric toothbrushes. In that case, way to go...but with the track record I've seen so far, I'm thinking that's probably not the case.

Gottcha Day 2007 continues

building sand cities is serious business

Yay! Subway for lunch . . . mommy and daddy's special Gottcha Day treat!

Ra loves to go to walking street because it is full of fun statues and "the water ball" so we walked off Subway before we headed home for rest time.

Gottcha Day 2007

It's hard to believe we've had this little piece of joy in our lives for three years now...you hear your friends say over and over how "time flies" and "they grow up so fast", and then you live it...thank you to all of you who have counseled me to cherish the moments, I do remember your counsel (most days) and when I find myself forgetting, she usually does something so stinking funny I can't help but cherish the moment!

We also want to say, again, THANK YOU!! to all of you who made our dream of being a family a reality! Your love, generosity, shoulders to lean on, and your prayers have all become a part of the oh-so-popular bedtime "Precious Baby Girl" story. As we continue to hear the stories of other families who have gone through this same process, we are deeply moved at the true miracle we were all a part of in bringing Rachel home so quickly and without incident!

Praise to Him who (not only) can (but does) do more than we could ever ask or imagine!





The requested Gottcha Day breakfast? DONUTS and COFFEE!
(that's my girl!)
don't worry, it's decaf coffee loaded down with LOTS of nutritious milk!

Gottcha Day surprise was a trip to the sand pit at the riverside with brand new sand toys

Awww . . . isn't that just adorable?
(even more so if you could see the front of Ra's shirt . . . they match!)

Ra loved that the camera would take the picture by itself . . . and that mommy had to RUN like crazy to get in the picture!

We found it! The Warehouse to the World

I wonder if this country will ever cease to amaze us? I think not . . . You gotta come on over and check it out! We'd love to go exploring with you!




As we were going back to our hotel we drove past this street. I couldn't help myself. It looked far too much like a bargain lovers paradise! And what we found was AMAZING! This had to be the market where places like Wal-mart and Target, possibly even Pier 1 shop! It was shop after shop after endless shop of STUFF. For our white skinned faces, however, there was not a bargain to be found, well, until I shamed a woman who was flaunting a bubble blower toy in front of Rachel into giving it to us for half the price she started with. Hey, she only had 10 rmb / day to do business with, ya know? (see posts below for that story)

One of the many halls in this enormous place!

And then there was the upstairs where there was all kinds of home decor . . .

A very weak attempt at showing the hugeness of this place, I feel like the apostle John trying to describe his revelation (ok, that's kind of reaching, but seriously!)

The Warehouse for the World . . . continued

Here i found coffee mugs with scripture on them . . . hmmm? As my friend Tracy said, "impossible!"

And then there were a few places that made me feel like I was back in America . . . yes, I still have a dish fettish, to Jerry's great displeasure!

Rows and rows and rows of the same . . . seriously, 12 football fields square, at least! and two floors!

OK, you have to understand that candles in China are functional only. They either provide light when the electricity is out or they keep food and tea hot. They are not yummy smelling, they are not the finishing touch for home decor . . . but this . . . this little oasis of joy was filled with yummy smelling candles of every kind . . . sigh. . .

Family Memories in Guang Zhou

Our wonderful little hotel had a "roof top garden" which consisted of four plots of green, green grass looking out over the Guang Zhou skyline. Rachel thought we needed family night with our left over pizza hut from lunch, so we rounded ourselves up and had a little family picnic. One of the housekeeping staff watched over us closely . . . assuredly wondering what these crazy foreigners might be doing! (yes, i was already in my PJ's when Ra made this great decision, so on went one of Jerry's big shirts over them...lest you think my fashion sense has gone up in smoke in the last 10 months =-)

Friday was "Children's Day" in China. All the kids were out of school and many were out playing in this little park area. Ra was thrilled to have some friends to play with!

Guang Zhou was the last stop on our adoption trip nearly three years ago. Rachel loves to hear the "precious baby girl" story, which includes a visit to the doctor in Guang Zhou, Shaiman Island where he checked out her " head and her toes, her fingers and her nose" to make sure she was ready for the long flight back to America. We went back there to do some shopping (they cater greatly to adoptive parents). This store was there three years ago, the owner was from the same province as Rachel and gave her a beautiful silver bracelet. We have a picture of me with them from three years ago in Rachel's first year scrapbook, so we thought we'd take another with these girls, one of which just moved to Guang Zhou from Changsha! crazy.

The riverboat. Remember this AHH families? Our last night in China, I think, and we took the riverboat cruise. All the girls (and parents, I believe) were dead tired...we decided that since we don't get to see you all this month at the reunion, we would just take a little trip down memory lane and share it with you! OH! how we wish we could come to the reunion! Please send pictures!!

We didn't take a picture of it, cuz it's kind of a gross story, but we even went down the street on Shaiman Island with all the bronze statues (do you remember that John and Rita) where we first were able to "clean out" Rachel's nose! She has always had a dry nose issue, nose bleeds and the like, and those first days I thought she had some kind of breathing issue . . . but walking down that street, Daddy finally got a huge hunk of dried mucos out of her and she could breath without sounding like darth vador . . . ahhh, the memories!

More of Guang Zhou

Rachel got a 10RMB / day vacation allowance . . .
(yeah, I know, big spenders that we are! about $1.50 US, hey, it was a bargin trip after all!)
these fun colorful rubber bands were her first purchase of the trip
and we decided to do her up in true Chinese-girl fashion.
How cute is she?!?



Ra was thrilled to find this arcade where she and Daddy spent his vacation allowance
but we found it humorous to spend money on a "crazy taxi" video game . . . we do that
nearly everyday here in China!

And then we found the street in China where all the world's neon signs are made . . .
maybe this one was headed back to good-ole Illinois?

Just call me "MIss Spontaneity" . . . if you believe that . . .

Well, miracles CAN happen, you know, and this past week was the very proof of that! This highly organized, think things through completely so as to avoid the slightest margin of error girl, found herself surfing the internet last week and looking at airline tickets to random places in China while Jerry was testing the English level of some students for next year's classes. Let me first say that the one thing that surprised me the most when moving to this wonderful country was the extremely high cost of flying to destinations within the country. It nearly gives me, the extreme bargain hunter, a heart attack anytime we have had to fly in country this past year, to the point that I try not to even ask Jerry how much it cost until we arrive back home. . . so for me to be randomly searching prices of plane tickets was a strange fact in itself . . . but even stranger still?

I found tickets to a southern port city about an hour flight from here for $35 US each . . . one way. "Wow!" I thought, "I bet getting back home will cost a fortune!", so I checked and found that tickets home would be even cheaper . . . hold on to your hats folks . . . less than $18 US each to fly home! I thought for sure there would be no way to find a place to stay (well, to meet my hotel standards, which, yes, girlfriends, has not changed in the least!) would be impossible putting this ridiculous little pea-sized idea to rest at last . . . however . . . I found a wonderful web-site for discounted last minute hotel reservations in China and there, as if the heavens had opened up and the angels were singing the hallelujah chorus, was listed the newly opened in 2006 (read: assuredly meets LaWanda's hotel standard) Ramada Plaza (double confirmation of the standard being met) of Guang Zhou, China for $50 per night (read: gift from Dad cuz he knew it was time for the Joneses is get away for some family time by themselves!).

So . . . off we went for a few wonderful days in the even hotter, even more humid city of Guang Zhou, China! Here are a few pictures, i will post a few more shortly (we are having to get into our blog through the back door once again, so the process is a little time consuming and I can only post four or five pictures/post). We are so very thankful for the time away . . . as many of you know, sometimes you just don't know how convoluted life is until you step away from it for a few days to get some perspective. . . thank goodness Dad knows what it will take to get me to take those steps back . . . and he came through with flying colors! His little bargain-loving girl was quite pleased . . . and her husband? Floored by the spontaneity of it all!



Rachel enjoying the great pool with her new floaties

I love coffee as much as the next guy (well, maybe not you, DK . . . )
but I just couldn't make myself go in and check this one out.
I'm going with "the cat likes to eat coffee" shop, not the many
alternatives to the interpretation of this sign.

And here we found "rubber band street"
store after store after store of these bags of rubber bands.
Amazing.

Rachel finally figured out a way to keep everyone at bay . . .
if they can't see me, they can't poke at my cheeks and say the
same thing over and over to me in Chinese while I stare blankly
at the spot directly behind them and to the left!
She's brilliant, I tell ya!