Whirlwinds of Exhaustion

Please note, as much as I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to upload pictures right now, I cannot until after Gotcha Day!

Yesterday was unbelievable. We all woke feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day. Breakfast was wonderful filled with fruit, juices, and every kind of food. The fun began when I attempted to ask for bottled water, hmmm, how do you explain that. Finally the young woman asked me to spell & draw it, she said she would "look it up". Oh the wonderful internet, 10 minutes later we were brought 4 bottles of water : )

We then hung around outside with all the familiar smells of China, Carmen commented on how this was the one thing she did not miss. We were then picked up by our new friend and host. It is much different riding with someone who lives here that you know and trust compared to a taxi driver of last year.

Arriving at the foster home and walking in was surreal. It's visiting something and someone you have seen in pictures for months, dreamed about without actually knowing, held pictures and prayed over, but never knew. It was finally here in the flesh, something and someone we could touch, hold, love and love on. Except when they looked at us and shook their head NO and all we could do is crack up laughing. Throughout the morning we were entertained by a certain little one eating rice & Panda Puffs cereal with a spoon, without a spoon, on the couch, on the floor, etc. With many shakes of the head "no". He was quite entertaining and Carmen was on Cloud 9 when he went to her first.

The morning was spent getting to know our hosts. They are such awesome people and the day was filled with laughter as we learned they have similar senses of humor, Carmen was totally the object of their little girl's interest with questions, giggles and conversations of hair! Richie didn't disappoint when they couldn't believe how much he can talk.....we warned them that he doesn't have an OFF button!

There is a young woman volunteering that is from New Zealand with a quick whit and fun accent that was the topic of many laughs. Lunch was wonderful and we were introduced to a sweet potato, or a potato that's sweet (still determining) concoction that resembled jelly fish. It must be an acquired taste because it wasn't ours (even though I wasn't inclined to try it Tim wasn't keen : )

Tim & Richie, it is VERY humid as you can tell from Tim's shirt.

The afternoon brought Carmen and I staying at the foster home and Tim & Richie went with our host to the secluded part of the Great Wall that only locals know and well off the beaten path. You know it's only for locals when the cost is $.30 compared to the touristy part that is $20.  Here are few pictures from Tim & Richie's trip to the Great Wall. Richie explained that it was only a gravel, narrow walkway, hiking through the woods on an ancient dirt path and at the beginning, instead of starting on stairs, their trip began on an old log ladder they climbed to start their journey.

Carmen & I spent the afternoon at the baby house where we met all the little faces we had only seen in photos. Little Rachel, still purple waiting on her heart surgery to give oxygen to her body, little Seth who struggles daily with life, little Sela with her spiky hair because she had her head shaved to accommodate her iv, little Corie with her 3 pigtails and wanting to dance and be held, little Daniel who cannot hear, but with THE biggest hugs and smiles, wanting to be held and played with, little David with his cocked head and hand playing quietly, little Ruth with her beautiful little smile & infectious giggle, little Timothy with his feeding tube but it doesn't stop him, he's full of energy and laughs....

then little Joshua (aka Zander), he is amazing, not wanting to walk, but runs when made to, loving his foster mom and aiys (nannies). They kept trying to get him to come to come to me and Carmen, but we want to watch him in his environment to get to know him and his personality. He has an impish side that I was told he learned from Daniel. He is smart and adorable.

When dinner time for the babies came I gave his nanny an apoplexy! My host planted a stool directly in front of his high chair and I attempted to feed him his spiral noodles with green veggies, chunks of chicken and broth. Thank God he had a large bib on because he immediately began spitting out everything, which I found was common, one of the things he had learned from Daniel : ) The nannies feed all the children out of bowls and I TOTALLY get this. It has to be a small assembly line and feeding them cuts down on any mess and clean-up is much easier. But I was determined to see him eat so what did I do, I gave him control. Handing him his spoon while I held his bowl. What a HUGE smile this brought from him while his nanny stood beside me wringing her hands. Our host and I just laughed as he attempted the spoon, then giving up that, dug in with both hands, feeling the textures and shoveling them in! There was food everywhere, but with the majority ending up in his mouth. Clean-up was more lengthy, but well worth it. Our host laughed because they shooed me away and even broke out the mop! It was so much fun.

The boys arrived back from the Great Wall and Carmen had crashed on the sofa. We attempted to wake her up and she was VERY pale and not feeling well at all. On the walk back to our host's home she became overheated, dizzy, white and almost passed out. Our host went and picked her up in their car and air conditioning. After sitting for a while we were ALL exhausted, our time change and  emotions of the long day had caught up with us. It was time to say goodbye for the evening. They drove us back to our hotel where we promptly collapsed, without dinner, until 3 AM this morning.

Today is another day! We are energized and ready! It's supposed to rain here today, but hopefully we can dodge the raindrops and soak up every aspect of the day.