Our First Week Home

It is so good to be home! We had a rough start, Leslie got really sick right before landing on the plane and didn't start feeling better until Tuesday. So super dad Mark came to the rescue and didn't get any sleep for 53 hours straight! Myah was up most of the first night home, it was her daytime. But then after that night she has been sleeping about 10 hours each night. She is just an angel. Poor little thing has been to the Dr's office 3 times this week for her physical and then shots. She sure doesn't like going there now! Dayton was glad to be home to and catch up with his buddies. He had 6 games since we have been home so basically our life has been Dr's office and ball games. Myah has met quite a few of the neighbors and our friends and family. Everyone has fallen in love with her just like we have. She is such a blessing to us. She is really adjusting to her surroundings well and has a very happy personality. Today we went to church for the first time and she liked dancing to the music. I had to keep giving her snacks to keep her occupied. Even the lady at Krogers today said that she was so adorable that she had to give her something. One comment that we hear over and over is how much everyone enjoyed this website. I am so glad. I am probably going to keep it up for a while because it is so convenient for me to keep in touch with everyone especially when so many of you live far away. Besides, this journey doesn't end now that China is behind us, it is just beginning. It is so wonderful to finally see her using everything that we have had prepared for her for so long. She is very healthy, our Dr was very happy to see that all of her tests came back great. Yesterday I was able to meet up with a few of the families from our group. It was so nice to see them and the girls again. I really have been missing everyone. We spent so much time with these people and shared so many wonderful moments with them that it makes me sad to not see them every day. Myah has fit in so well and I know that the other families feel the same way. I think we are wearing her out, we are always on the go. I tried this weekend to just let her be at home for a while and it felt good. We have all suffered from a bit of jet lag but are getting better now. It is a whole new world again, but a wonderful one. We have waited so long for a second child and I know that God has answered our prayers with Myah. She is so beautiful inside and out and each day she reveals a bit more of her personality to us because she is trusting us more and more. She said mama today and it was so special. She has been saying da da and has been very attached to Mark. This weekend Mark had to go back to work and she was with me the whole time. She is really warming up to me more now and cries when I leave the room. Baby steps. Thank you all so much for all of your love, it has been wonderful sharing this experience with all of you. May Myah continue to grow in your hearts as well.

Day 13

We made it!!! It is now 10:10pm here and we have been up since 4:00 am yesterday morning. Most of those hours in between were spent in the air. We took a 4 hour flight from Guanzhou to Tokyo, in Japan. There, Myah decided to unload her diaper and made a huge mess. I had to throw her clothes away! There was a nursery in the airport that had a table and a big sink, I had to rinse her off in the sink, Mark a I looked around for a towel and there wasn't even a tissue square, so we grabbed the shower curtain that they had and dried her off on that! We then took an 11 hour flight from Tokyo to Detroit. Myah was perfect and slept almost the whole time. The Bonner's were on our final flight so we got to see Baby Claire one last time. LONG flight! When we arrived we went through customs and Myah became a US citizen right there! We had all of our luggage! We then walked through some doors and there was our family and the Voight family waiting for us with big signs and tshirts made by the Dolans with Myah's pics all over it. What a great sight. We then came into our neighborhood and saw the house decorated and many of our friends and family on our front lawn. I will never forget that sight. Myah did fine with everyone, still clingy to daddy though. I developed really bad stomach pains and have been out of it since we got home. I went a laid down and woke up to everyone gone, Myah in her bed and darkness. I started to cry (crying again), I missed everything that I have been waiting to do for so long. I walked outside and just enjoyed the clean air, my flowers, and just being home. Everyone was so generous and I could hardly stand to open gifts. I hope it is just nerves and not a virus like so many of us had in China. I thought I was out of harms way. We'll see. Myah went right down in her crib Mark said. I peaked in on her and she looks so perfect in there. Mark covered her up with a blanket that Robin and her little girl made for us with ladybugs on it, lucky ladybugs...... I just want to say how happy I am to be home, surrounded by our loved ones. My perspective on life has changed so much in 2 weeks. These 12 little girls have entered into all of our hearts and I pray that as each of them walks into their forever homes tonight that they will always be proud of their native country, but never forget how loved you are here. I miss all of them already, I feel like we are all one big family of sorts, the Tuanfeng and Nanchang babies. Thank you so much for all of you support and loving gestures, life begins for Myah now and we hope that you are all a part of her life as well. God bless you all!

Day 12

Today I will only write a bit because we have been up late packing and we really need our rest before making the big flights with a baby. Today we went to a folk art museum, it was so neat, I was glad that our last tour was to a beautiful place. This island is so beautiful and my only regret is that we just did not have enough time to spend more here. We also went to the US Embassy and officially made Myah ours for good. We will have to go through customs in Detroit and she will be a US citizen right then. We took an oath with a whole group of people and that was it. Pretty much the most simplest part of this whole ordeal. We were very excited and grateful that this is over and we can move on with our lives with Myah at home. I know it will be a huge transition for all of us. We did a bit more shopping here, it is just so overwhelming and the chinese people are right on you when you are looking, you really feel bad for them but you feel like you make a friend too. These people are very sweet and we will miss them all, everyone who we encountered was as polite as they could be. They go out of their way to open doors, help you up steps with your stroller, fan you when you are hot, and walk you to the hotel with their umbrella, even if you did not buy something from them. We will be bringing home a precious gift in Myah but our memories of this trip will always be a special treasure in our hearts. I am ready for a diet coke and ice!!!! And some meat!! I just didn't trust it here! We are going to really miss seeing all of these families as well, they were Myahs first friends and neighbors. I know that we will always share a special bond with all of them. We have been through soooo much together! We are anxious to get tomorrow over with! What a sight it will be to see Metro airport! Thanks for all of your support and prayers while we were here, you kept us going!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!! See you soon!

Day 11

Day 11 · June 14, 2006
Shop till you drop! That is the name of the game here in Guanzhou! This town is just amazing! First of all, the hotel is magnificent. The shops in here are nice, the breakfast buffet is beautiful, the staff is very efficient. I can even turn on the music in my bathroom to beautiful piano music. Let's just say this is a nice place. Then, you literally walk outside the door and the shops and shopkeepers are awaiting your arrival. This town was settled by the British so the buildings are very victorian and European looking with a splash of Florida with the palm trees. The weather is HOT and muggy, we are just messes. My Hubei Hair was bad but Guanzhou hair is worse! Plus while we were shopping we had huge down pours and Mark and the kids came back to the hotel while me and my friend Sherry still shopped in the rain with no umbrella. Lovely. I spent $100 dollars today and filled up our bed with stuff. We also had Myah's physical this morning and she is fine. We are making up time now from what we lost yesterday. Today we took the traditional red couch pictures at the White Swan.. Every group comes through here and has this picture taken. Myah cried again through the whole thing but she looked so cute in her pink chinese outifit with tutu! I bought her some sqeaky shoes today, they are so cute, little leather shoes with squeakers in the soles for $3. a pair. We then went to a Cantonese traditional dinner tonight. I have not been very adventurous since that night in Wuhan when I was sick. Mark has explored much more than I had. He ate eel the other night, he said he could feel the tentacles!! YUK! No thanks! The chinese people eat everything. A man named Jordan was telling us today that he likes cat better with beer! Double Yuk! At dinner tonight I had ordered a cake from the hotel to celebrate Myah's first birthday, we missed it by a few days upon getting her so I wanted to celebrate while we were still in China. She cried through that too. But she looked cute in her birthday hat! It was so nice to see all of our friends from the Nanchang group finally, their babies are so sweet. My friend Robin has been sick for the last few days, I really feel so bad for her. It was great to see all of the babies together for the first time on the red couch. We also received our official Barbie Doll today from the White Swan. This is definately the baby hotel, there are American's everywhere and babies too! This is everyone.'s last stop before going home. The US Consulate is here. We have our appointment tomorrow afternoon. Both Dayton and Myah are doing great. Dayton is a great Ge Ge (big brother) and Myah is a sweet Mei Mei (little sister) to him. She sat in her stroller alot today while we were shopping and she did wonderful! Yeah!!! She was pullling stuff down off of shelves, siome of these stores are so narrow. The people here are sweet too, one lady was actually fanning me while I was looking around her store. I am not used to this kind of treatment. Myah is really getting attached to us now and I really feel like she is trusting us. She reaches for us to comfort her and she needs us. She can stand up and walk with us holding her, it won't be long and she will be doing it on her own. She is a sweetheart. You will all love her, she melts you with her smile! I am sad that tomorrow is our last day here, we have to pack up for the big trip home, we need to be up by 5:30 to leave on Friday. We are going to cram everything in again tomorrow, maybe a 12 hour flight might not be so bad. Yeah right! Thank you all for your messages, it has help the time pass quickly. See you all very soon!

Day 10

We made it to the White Swan in Guanzhou! Sorry I didn't get anything up yesterday, we were supposed to be on a 1 1/2 hour flight here and we ended up with an initial 1/2hour delay and then the weather was so bad in Guanzhou that we had to circle in the air and finally land in another airport a few hours from here and we sat on the runway until we could fly into here. 6 hours later we made it, hungry, tired and with 7 upset babies. We had to go get her Visa pictures taken and Mark had to fill out a lot of paperwork to get us caught up. Mark took Myah for her physical this morning because we missed our appt. yesterday and if we didn't hurry and get all of this done to catch up to the other group we would have to stay here another week! Thank God we were able to make it! So we really lost our whole day here. This place is incredible! I have never stayed anywhere quite this nice. President Bush and Queen Elilzabeth have stayed here. There have been bathrobes and slippers at every hotel we have been in here. We have a beautiful view of the Pearl River. Mark just walked in and said Myah is healthy! 21 pounds and 77 centimeters. He said she screamed the whole time! Poor baby! We are going to breakfast right now so I will stop for now, I will have to post pictures later. I am going to shop till I drop today!

Day 9

Today was very exciting around here, we had a new batch of babies coming in! My cousin Steve and Trudi and their group arrived last night and got their babies today. It was so fun for all of us to see their before and afters! The babies are so adorable and the parents are all doing well. We had an appointment at Civil Affairs this morning but it got pushed back due to their appointement. So to kill time our guide took us parents and babies to a Buddist Temple. It was very interesting. We then went to the Civil Affairs and got our certificate making Myah officially ours! Yeah! We all clapped for ourselves. We also received her passport today. Life here has not been easy at all but we have really made the most of it and are sad that this is our last night in Wuhan. We all went to a very nice dinner and celebrated one of the babies first birthdays. This group of people have become a family of their own and it makes me teary to think that after today who knows if these babies will ever return to their homeland. We are so thankful that we made this trip. I could have never explained to Myah all of the cultural ways that we have experienced first hand. Dayton has learned so much also , I can't believe how he has changed and grown. This is something that he will never forget. We went for our last walk in the park tonight, all of the women are dancing, the men are doing Tai Chi and there was an older man painting caligraphy with water on the sidewalk. We have learned to cross the streets pretty well I must say, it is literally taking your life into your own hands. We leave in the morning for Guanzhou!!!! White Swan Hotel here we come! The staff here at the White Rose have been so wonderful, they are so sweet and helpful.We see the same people working here day and night, they put in very long hours. Tomorrow we have more paperwork to do, and more appointments. We look forward to meeting up with the rest of our group, I can't wait to see their babies! We leave on Friday and we all can't believe how fast this has gone. Maybe we are just too busy to get bored! Our guide Rosilyn is the best! We fly for the first time tomorrow with Myah! Cross your fingers, it is just an hour and a half ride, gearing her up for the long flight home!

Day 8

Today we woke up and had slept in to 8:00am, it felt so good! Myah sleeps all night long, she is such a good little girl. She is really blossoming today. Every day she opens up more and more to us.. She is actually very happy, only crying when she is hungry. She is so precious, we are so thankful to have her in our family. She has just fit in perfectly. We have found her to be ticklish and she giggles so hard. She is going to be a bruiser I think, she likes to hit! I think it is just because that is all that her arm muscles can do so we let her get away with it right now. Good news, my cousin Steve and Trudi arrived today! We were so excited, I can't tell you how cool it was to be in the lobby and at first see an American and then have it be your family! Wow! Their room is right across the hall from us on the baby floor. We met the families in their group. They all are pretty tired after that long flight. Our group was glad to see them arrive, they get their babies in the morning. We have an appt. at Civil Affairs in the morning at 9 and theirs is at 9:30, we might see their babies there. Today we woke up and went to the East Lake Park, it was just beautiful, and huge. We all loved it there. I had to laugh as we had stopped for ice cream and drinks for a minute and I pushed the stroller away from everyone so they could have their turn, then Mark walked up to me and I looked down at his stroller and Myah was looking at me, it took me a minute to realize I had walked off with someone elses stroller and baby! We all laughed, the funny thing was, her parents hadn't even noticed she was missing! Thankfully it was someone in our group! We then went to a Turquoise factory. In Hubei it is the only place in China were this gem is found. The craftmanship and detail that goes into everything over here is unreal. Tonight we went for another walk in the huge park across the street. There is a beautiful fountain show everynight and crowds gather there. People just like to hang out together. Little kids play in the middle, riding bikes, babies walking, people fly kites and some just stroll together arm in arm. The best part is the ladies dancing to music, it is kind of line dancing, tai chi, aerobics. It is so cool! Old ladies and young gathering and just dancing. We are quite the site when we are in public, tonight we had a huge crowd gather around us, a young man knew some English and was trying to talk to Dr. John. People are so sweet. Everyone wants us to see their children, I have learned to say hello and a few other things, I so love interacting with the locals. I guess I am a Chinese social butterfly too. Dayton on the other hand freaks out. He gets worried, I am trying to help him understand that many people have never seen Americans before. Seriously, there is one other man here that is American and that is all that we have seen. We have to pack tomorrow for Guanzhou, it is going to be quite the chore. I have really settled into this place. Our first home with Myah. I love the people that we are here with so much and our little girls have shared so much together already. We have so enjoyed your messages, it is the first thing we do in the morning and the last thing we do at night. Sounds like Dayton's team is doing so good! He can't wait to play again. He is the hit here, all of the little brothers really look up to him. He went on a roller coaster today at the park with Grady and Cameron, he thought that the cars were hooked together until Grady's car took off and Dayton was left in the next car alone! We laughed! Our Chinese outfits came today, they are so beautiful! The ladies are so shy when you try to compliment them. Tomorrow we go and get more paperwork signed and get her passport before we have to leave Wuhan. We are also going to have our last dinner here as a group, we are going to celebrate one of the babies birthday's also. We are going to go put this little girl down to bed, she doesn't need her beauty sleep but we do ( have you seen my hair? I need a major conditioning Cindy!!!) This water and humidity have turned me into a Dolly Parton, Shirly Temple want-a-be! Goodnight!

Day 7

Today we visited the Yellow Crane Tower. It was a traditional Chinese looking building that we can see from outside of our hotel room. It was originally built in 223 A.D. and it burned and was rebuilt in the 1980's. It had earned the fame of the No. 1 Tower among all of the landscapes. Many men had climbed the tower to write poetry. There are over one thousand pieces of poetry at the tower. It was just beautiful. We got to ring a bell called the Millenium bell and you ring it 3 times. Each time has a meaning behind it and the last time is for family prosperity. Dayton rang it for us. We also bought Myah a beautiful silk fan inside with the tower painted on it with peony's and a man wrote her name in english and chinese. We are going to go to the spa in the hotel in a few minutes to get foot massages. We aren't sure what this will entail. The menu on the spa is quite different than what we are used to. The little girls are so cute and doing so well. Myah has really started giggling and eating for us. She loves Dayton and loves beating him up. We are going to try and go shopping tonight. My cousin Steve and his wife Trudi are arriving tomorrow night to get their little girl Sophie, miraculously, they are staying in the same hotel as we are. What a small world. It will be great to see them and it will really break our trip up for us. The time is flying! We will be home in less than a week. I haven't really ate much, since getting sick the other night I am just playing it safe. Sounds like my buddy Laura is very ill in the other Province. Poor girl! I can't wait till we meet up again. The weather is sunny here, the pollution is very bad here and the sky always looks hazy. This is a very industrial area and they make cars here. French cars. All of the taxis are the same French car. Isn't that funny. I heard from my parents this morning and it seemed so nice to hear their voices. We haven't gotten homesick at all yet, too busy to , but we do miss the comforts of home. I told Sheri today that if we can do this here, we can do it anywhere! The ball games will be a piece of cake compared to this! We are mixing bottles at museums, chaning diapers on the bus, carrying the babies on our sides, while sweating up a storm! Times by 7! I guess it is time to go get our massages, I will write more later.

Day 6

What a difference a day made, Myah is really warming up to us today.. All of the mommies stayed back while the daddies and family members went to visit the orphanage where Myah lived in Tuanfeng. From what I hear it was quite the emotional journey. The orphanage director Mrs. Li greated them and served them lunch, they were able to ask a few questions and they took us to the babies finding place. We are very fortunate to have went on this journey to the orphanage, many times couples are not allowed to go. They didn't want the babies to come back so the mommies all got together and played with the girls. Myah started dancing with me to the song on our web page, Slow Boat to China. All of us were dancing with the girls in Sherry's room and Myah started squealing and smiling up a storm. She is much happier and we are starting to see her personality shine through. We also were sitting at lunch and little Sarah started eating and smiling at her mommy Sherry, something she hasn't done yet, we all started crying. She also started winking at us, it was so funny! We are getting through!!!!!! The agency always said give it 2-3 days and you will see a big difference in the girls. This little girl loves her big brother, right now she is pulling the blanket off of his head and then smaking him with her little tamborine! She started blinking at us too. We laugh at her so much, what a blessing she is to us! The five mommies went for a walk to the park, we literally felt like Frogger, we must have been a sight with our parade of strollers! I am sorry that no pics were posted yesterday, the computer was acting up a bit and I was too tired to mess with it. I posted some today for yesterday so you will have to go back to day 5 and check them out.

Day 5

Last night around 11:00 I got sick, chills etc. I was very worried that this would last a while. Phyllis is still a bit sick to her stomach. I was relieved to wake up this morning much better. Thank God for Pepto Bismol! Mark was my rock as usual and helped me through the night, I may have been dehydrated, I started getting a little loopy, ( I know it is hard to tell). Your messages have kept us going, we look so forward to logging on, especially because the phone calls aren't working. We will try to get that fixed. Everything gets lost in translation. We went to the Hubei Museum and saw some ancient bells that were found in an ancient tomb from 425 BC. We got to see a concert with some replicas, very beautiful. We then went to a carpet factory. We drove into a neighborhood that barely fit our huge bus and we went into the upstairs of this building and there hung some of the most beautiful Chinese rugs I have ever seen. These people work tediously on one rug only getting about 2-3 inches in a row a day. They tie individual knots on the whole piece. Just incredible. We were able to mingle with the locals before boarding the bus. We attract many people, they are so kind and happy, we need more of this back home. I have never seen so many people working so hard to please us. It brings tears to my eyes that they are treating us like royalty, who are we. The housing is so different than ours, many apartment buildings with their laundry hanging to dry , they call it the land of 1.00 flags because of the clothes hanging everywhere. We are learning so much about the culture just by being here. I will never take clean tap water for granted again, or ice cubes, we are getting used to warm drinks. I simply gave a young girl one of Myah's pictures yesterday and she said that she would treasure it forever. Simple acts. I so enjoy waving to people while we are on our bus, they always smile and wave back. Many of the women come up to Myah and comment on her looks. Her hair is very special evidently. She is so precious. We are peeling away the layers of her personality one at a time. A snails pace. Many of the babies are laughing all of the time and playing very actively. That is not our little girl. She is taking her time, making sure that we can be trusted. We earn every smile, trust me! She is just very content. Quiet and peaceful. Not like our family at all!!!! We will bring her out of her shell eventually. I can't imagine what these little girls are going through. You can always hear someone crying at one time or another. They are all doing so well though considering. They are all Spicy girls. That is a nickname given to girls of this area. They like things hot so evidently they are to be spirited and strong willed. I do see that in many of the girls. They are just as precious as can be. Sisters of a sort. Most of them had their first poopy today and we were all so glad, I know gross but with adopted babies that is a huge milestone! We had to say goodbye today to our China coordinators from the agency , Ming and Mary. They are going on to Hubei on a 13 hour train ride to set up an orphanage rebuild that our agency is going to fund/build. We will miss both of them. They have brought us together with our daughters and shared tears with all of us. They are our girls fairy godmothers. Miss Myah is sleeping now, she has to be exhausted, we just get very little down time and these girls are paying for it. Tomorrow Mark gets to go to the orphanage. Our group pitched in and are buying 2 air conditioners for them and we went tonight and bought some outifits and blankets. I am wore out so now I am going nightie night!

Day 4

This morning we woke up around 5:30 (just because we can't get adjusted yet) and Myah was still sleeping, she slept all night without making a peep. This little girl is very low key, somewhat mysterious, and content. She stares at us with those huge dark eyes and you just don't know what she is thinking! Today we went to the Civil Affairs office again and filled out paperwork for 3 hours, wasn't bad at all. We had our first photo taken with her. We also met her orphanage director Ms. Li. Ming was able to come on the trip so she was interpreting for us. Everyone is intrigued by all of her hair. I have asked why the fascination and Ming said that it is very unusual for girls to have long think hair and it is very pretty. We draw a crowd everywhere we go and people are very sweet. This culture is very gentle and caring. An older couple walked up to us outside of the office and they spoke very good English, they loved Myah and told me that she is very lucky. I said we were the lucky ones. We had the rest of the day to just hang out which was so needed. We have been going non stop since Saturday and it was time to settle in and settle down. We went to a nice store called Careforrs and it is a huge department store. We were able to pick up some items that we needed. We went with out guide Rosaline and a few dads. Our group is so sweet and we love all of the people so much. We also found a KFC and it was good! A bit different (spicer) than at home but good. At the dept. store we stopped by the fish section and saw turtles, eels, huge fish shrimp, all alive, soon to be eaten! Yikes! We then came back to the hotel and have just enjoyed being here. Miss Myah likes to go out and see people, she giggles and smiles when we leave this room. Bring her back in and she is very quiet. Very strange! We are uncovering all of her mystery bit by bit. A young girl today named Echo told us that she thinks Myah will be outgoing because she had connected with us so quickly. Another woman said that it is fate that we got these girls because they all seem to be adjusting so quickly. We said it was the red thread and she was pleased that we knew about that tradition. Dayton is down in the pool right now and Mark is on his way to buy a new video camera, ours has been acting up and we were only able to capture our gotcha moment by the grace of God! I think I better go, Myah is crying and I am not sure why. She hasn't had any yucky diapers yet, I am sure she needs to go! Grandma Schultz has been down today too. Feeling a bit better now and her luggage just arrived too. We are loving all of your sweet messages, it really makes this world seem so much smaller! She is really taking a liking to Mark, he loves it, doesn't surprise me one bit, he always makes kids smile! We are doing well but missing home, this group does feel like a family though so we really don't feel lonesome. Our buddies get their babies today and I can't wait to see their pictures, wish we were all together.

Day 3 Gotcha Day

Day 3 Gotcha!!! · June 06, 2006

Today we received our little girl! We got on the plane at 10:45 and arrived in Wuhan. Phyllis' luggage was put on the wrong bus that went to the airport so it is going to be shipped tomorrow along with another couples luggage. Then once we arrived here we had 25 min. to get ready and go to the Civil Affairs Bldg. at 3:30, we could hear babies crying from outside, I didn't think that they would be ours. As we walked upstairs we had to walk through all of our daughters to get to the room. What a moment as we all were trying to recognize our little girl. There was a little girl with tons of hair and 3 pigtails who was just beautiful and I thought it might be Myah. It was! She was so pretty! Then we had to sit through a few announcements and sign a few papers before they started bringing in the babies! One by one in they came, the first one was crying her head off. After a while the whole room was full of crying! Adults included! Myah came to me pretty easily and after a few minutes started to cry. She is so cute! Tons of hair and very thick! She is chubby! But still weighs around 18 pounds. We then hopped back on the bus and she fell asleep on me. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at each other, she just stares at us. No emoitions except for a little crying every now and then.. She started playing with the buttons on Mark's shirt and started babbling a little bit. She then started hitting Dayton in the face, he enjoyed that! We went to the hotel restaurant tonight and had pizza. She liked french fries. When we got ready to go out of no where she starts waving bye bye and smiling! This little girl is saving the tricks up her sleeve for just the right moment! Both of my babies are sleeping and I hope I can too soon. Our exhaustion is really setting in. We are in a different hotel than originally planned, we are now staying at the White Rose Hotel. This day was incredible, I really hope tomorrow we can start fresh, (after 3 hours of paperwork) and this will all sink in! My curling iron blew up so my hair has been a disaster! My other buddies who are in the other province are leaving tonight. I will try to write more later when I can think more clearly.

Day 2

Our first day in China and we are absolutely exhausted beyond belief! We woke up at 4:30 because we asked for a 6:30 wake up call and they called us at 4:30 instead! We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and were able to see all of the couples in our group, it was great to see them finally in China! We have packed about a weeks worth of touring into one day. We went to the Jade Factory, climbed the Great Wall ( awesome and exhausting at the same time!), ate an authentic Chinese meal went to the closionne factory, pearl factory, Temple of Heaven, another Chinese restaurant and then onto and acrobatic show. We were falling asleep in the end. We leave in the morning for Wuhan so this was actually our only day in Beijing. Dayton is a trooper, he climbed farther than any of us on the Great Wall. I was dying! I actually told an old man to go around me! My legs were jelly from the long flights and then to climb those steep stairs was very difficult but I got up pretty far. The guys all went higher than the girls! China is very neat! People everywhere, riding bikes, on buses, and walking. The driving is really scary! We had a guide today named Coco. She knew so much about the history and culture. We have 38 people in our group, very big! We ride around in a big bus and everyone waves at us. Dayton is a hit and they like waving to him. Phyllis is hanging in there, it was a long day for her too. She opted to stay near the bottom of the Great Wall, smart lady! Tomorrow is Gotcha Day for us, we get Myah! I am hoping to sleep tonight and get rested up for the big event!

Day 1

Day #1 · June 3rd/4th, 2006

We are here! What a long flight, we held up pretty well but I have been up a total of 30 hours with a one hour nap! The plane was packed and crammed but we survived! We chase daylight the whole way so we never saw night until now. We flew over Canada and Alaska and then the Pacific Ocean to Tokyo, Japan, our flight was delayed and extra hour there so we were delayed a bit getting to Beijing, China. All went well though. The mountain range over Alaska was breathtaking, the whole ride we didn't see any civilization until Tokyo. We are a little shaky and dizzy right now just from sitting so long!! Dayton only slept about a few hours too. Our hotel is beautiful called the Riverview Hotel, maybe in the morning we will see the river. We are going to be up by 6:30 am and will be at the Great Wall!! Tuesday we get her!! That is one more sleep and she will be with us! I really need to get to bed but wanted to send this out before shutting down for the night!! We had four families on our plane and I haven't seen everyone else who came earlier yet. I know everyone arrived safely. Miss you!

We Leave Today

It is 6:30 and I am wide awake, not that I slept much last night! I didn't think I was very nervous but my body must know better. I cannont believe that after 18 months of paperwork, planning and waiting that today is actually here. This week has been a celebration and every day we have said goodbye to people, I have to keep reminding them that we aren't going away to war, (well, maybe we are!!! Ha!) but that we will return in 2 weeks! I do feel a sense of sadness this morning honestly, I went into Dayton's room and watched him sleep. This will be my last morning with just one child. He has been such a blessing in our lives and in so many others lives as well and I can't help but feel a bit sad for him, knowing that his world is going to completely change, for the better I am confident, but still it will change! I pray that I can continue to be a good mom to him and give him the attention that he deserves. Last night our good friends surprised us with pizza after their ball game and we were so excited to see them! We have shared so much with all of them and it was a great send off for us. The neighbors stopped by to wish us luck also. We had rain for a few minutes while the sun was shining when I was saying goodbye to my parents on the phone and a huge full rainbow appeared over our house, is was a partial double too! I took a picture of it because it looked like the end was on our house at one point. God's miracles are all around us! He was giving us a proper send off too! My friend Laura and Jay left yesterday, I can't belive that I won't see my buddies again until Beijing! What a celebration we will have when we finally meet up! I should get going I have so much to do yet! We are so grateful to everyone for their support and prayers, we really have felt the love! Myah's first birthday was on Thursday and it felt very strange knowing that we weren't able to celebrate her life with her. We will surely be celebrating soon! I pray that she accepts us and will feel our love for her. I am not expecting her to welcome us right away but I hope that within a few days she will enjoy our company. LIfe is about to change for the Schultz's! It is about time!!!! China here we come!!