An assortment of Pictures

Picture 1 - Laura finds her belly button!

Picture 2 - an interesting building in Lanzhou.

Picture 3 - Luke leaving Lanzhou.

Picture 4 - Tonya, Laura and Stefani (CHI Waiting Children Director) in Guangzhou.

Picture 5 - Laura finds the goldfish!

Saturday in Civilization!

Okay. So Lanzhou was stressful but interesting.....Guanzhou is beautiful. Shops all around the hotel have anything you could want to buy. I bought Laura some shoes and 2 dresses. I just couldn't resist! I better not see another dress like it in Texas!! We also had to buy some shoes for Luke because his Lightning McQueen shoes kept coming off. Everywhere we went we would have to carry them because he kept losing them.

We had hamburgers and french fries for lunch at Lucy's and boy her french fried can beat anywhere in America. Well, except for the homemade ones!!

We went to Jordan's Place and got kites for the boys. Sorry, our hands were full of children. We didn't get many pictures. We will send more soon.

Meredith, Dad, John, and William went to a multilevel grocery store shopping for food. We eat one meal a day in our room. Breakfast is included with our room so we get a big meal every morning. They were trying to find some shoes for Luke too and had to go to the 3rd floor. The 3rd floor people told them to go to the 4th floor. The 4th floor people told them to go back to the 3rd floor! Can you imagine Meredith and Dad going up and down and up and down to find shoes for a kid?!?!?! And Dad said that there was 3 million people in the store with 3 million shopping carts that they drive just like they drive their cars!!! Needless to say, Dad thinks that Brookshires it frustrating and he's trying to shop with Meredith (need I say more) and 2 restless kids!! I wish I had gone just to take pictures!!!! Chaos city!!!! But, they came back with lots of good food AND shoes for Luke (that are too big)! Meredith even bought me some of those Danish shortbread cookies. He's a sweetie.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that he hit his head on the taxi and hurt his neck. He really is in pain. Please pray for him. He's hurting.

Tomorrow we go to the Safari Park and the Cow and Bridge for dinner. We are just relaxing this afternoon and watching TV. Luke is being good and Laura is putting her necklace in Daddy's shoe. It's usually bb's or hot wheels so now he has something new to guess what is hurting his foot when he puts his shoes on!!!

God bless you guys.

Leaving Lanzhou 2-22-2008

We got Laura's passport at 10 am. Luke decided to redecorate the hotel room and stripped some of the wall paper off the wall. We called the hotel manager. They came and looked at the wall with our guide, Sally. They told her that they were going to charge us 800 rbm. She scolded the manager and told him that we would pay 200rbm. That is about $30. He agreed and told Meredith it would be 200. Meredith bowed up to them and said that 200 was way too much. Sally looked at him very puzzled, wrinkled her forehead, and said nothing. She was thinking that she had just got the manager to come down 600rbm and Meredith still wasn't going for it. He said, "Sally, 200 dollars is way too much for that wall." She laughed and said, "No Meredis. 200rbm!" We readily agreed to pay $30 for the wall. We all had a good laugh over it. Even the manager.

We then left for Guangzhou. It was a 3 hour plane ride with 2 babies. The snack they served was way too much for me and Dad but Meredith and the boys wolfed it down! They really can tolerate much more than me and Dad. (I must say that while I am posting this we Laura just began crawling around the room!!!!!)

We landed in Guangzhou at 4:05 pm Friday. Our guide was no where to be found!! So, I called her. Thank goodness I had printed her phone number before I left Texas. She thought that we were coming in Saturday. We were able to get a van to the hotel and our guide, Connie, came and visited us and was very apologetic about the mix up. We checked into the hotel and the rooms were about 1 sq ft big so we changed to new rooms. We finally went to dinner about 8 pm. AND THEN, as we were eating, Luke moved him place mat and crash, a broken glass. We just had to laugh. What a way to end the evening.

We got back to our room and guess what?!?!?!? It has an airconditioner!!! Praise God in heaven!!! Cool air. We have it set on 16 degrees Celsuis, the low 60's, and we are in HOG heaven!! Really. AND, they have purified water from the sink. No more buying cases of water and hauling them to our room and stumbling over them!!

We got settled in on Friday night and had a good nights sleep. Both babies slept all night long. Actually, Luke slept in until about 9am! God is so good!

February 21, 2008

Our last day in Lanzhou was spent packing for the flight to Guangzhou. Meredith, Dad, William and John galavanted about the city. Meredith took lots of pictures but on the wrong setting and the pics were not good! Sorry!!!! Meredith and John went back out and were able to see the back streets of the city. The vendors selling produce and food were very interested in seeing Americans.

Thursday night was the last night for the Spring Festival Celebration. It's equivalent to Christmas Day for us. There were fireworks going off all over the city. People built bonfires and jumped over them. It is the custom to prevent the crops from being consumed by fire. They celebrated late into the night as we watched from our 17th story hotel room.

It was really neat to see their celebration as it was our last night in Lanzhou.

The Yellow River Oasis Restaurant

After touring Lanzhou, we had dinner at the Yellow River Oasis Restaurant. It is a huge greenhouse built with beautiful tropical foliage, a playground for the children, and a pool with a seal in it. There are waterways that you walk across over small bridges. It is lovely.

Sally ordered our dinner. She ordered fried rice, lilly root and celery stirfry, beef and veggies, baked chicken, and mutton dumplings. The food was very good and we enjoyed our meal. The boys asked if they could take the chopsticks home. I explained to them that it would be like asking to take your fork home in America! They were very puzzled by this.

Laura want solid foods so bad. I gave her fried rice with egg and she was able to chew and swallow! I am so happy about that. She is loving on us, playing with my hair, and rubbing my skin. She wants to touch our teeth and look in our mouth. She is truly discovering what it like to have parents and brothers. I can't wait for her to meet her grown sister and brother back home. We are enjoying her very much. Once again, I am so humbled to be able to have her in our family.

Tour of Lanzhou

Today Sally took us to see the Water Wheel. It is a large wooden wheel built on the Yellow River and it was used to irrigate the farm lands. It turned and lifted water into wooden runners that were fed into the crop areas.

The second picture is of Meredith and the boys at the Mother and Child Statue. I failed to get a picture of the statue but it is very special to the Chinese people. The mother represents the Yellow River giving birth to the child, Lanzhou. You see, the Silk Road ran along the Yellow River and thus the city of Lanzhou was established. Lanzhou is the capital city of Gansu Province and it is also the only capital city in China in which the Yellow River runs.

The 3rd picture is of our family at the Ganzu Provincial Museum. The museum contains ancient artifacts. The pottery dates back to 5000 BC. It is beautiful. The museum also tells the story of the Silk Road. It also has a dinosaur exhibit. Many fossilized dinosaur bones have been found in Gansu Province.

Anita's Cowboy is in China

Check this cowboy out. He's a looker isn't he? He is Anita's cowboy. Has been for 44 years!

Hi Mom, just wanted to give you some good pictures of Dad. Don't worry. We won't leave him here. He'll be home in 9 days. He said today that as soon as he get home, he's gonna saddle his horse and rope some cows! He sure does miss Texas! But he misses Anita (mom) more.

Sally, our guide, told us that YaYa (short a, emphasis on first syllable) is grandfather in Chinese.
NaNa (short a, emphasis on second syllable) is Grandmother. So, this tough old cowboy toured China this afternoon singing, "YaYa loves NaNa". I almost got him a plane ticket home I felt so sorry for him.

Boy, am I blessed to have 2 parents so much in love after 44 years of marraige! God is good.