Bye-Bye China!

I'm ready to go to meet me other sisters!! Emma and Savannah, I'm on my way!!!

Just Before We Go... The Red Couch Photos

January 1st, 2009

Happy Birthday Kevin! We know that you are so looking forward to turning 40 that you made special arrangements to make your birthday last 36 hours!! Wow! You are a genius!

The Last Sleep in China!!!

We are sleeping now... but if you are reading this around 7:00 on Thursday evening, December 31st... just remember we are waking up for a very long period of travel and think to yourself... "The next time they will be tucked into bed for a long night's sleep will be the evening of Saturday, January 2nd!" We will be traveling for a very long day (36 hours) and another half of a day! Please pray for on-time flights and very flexible & cooperative 3 year olds:) We have no illusions - it will be a grueling trip, but we will get through it happily knowing we will be with all our girls very soon!

Catching Up with Elvin!

The Italian Restaurant and a Great Name for a Shop!!

Playing at the Park

Fun at Lucy's Restaurant

Can We Go Home Yet??

Gingerbread House and the Candy Store

Not sure why this gingerbread house didn't make the display at the Grove Park Inn - Maybe something about size requirements! A funny thing about this candy! Kevin bought it for the girls and when he tasted it - must have been there for quite awhile! The girls didn't care! AND we found out that men don't order strawberry ice cream in China! We learned that AFTER Kevin was eating his pink ice cream!

The Hotel Playroom

The Pearl River Cruise

Done! Finished! We're Over It!!!

On the 29th of December, we finished! Because all of our visa paperwork was approved, our guide was able to move up our Consulate Appointment to today. We crowded into a shuttle and went to the swearing in ceremony with 33 other families! We are glad to be finished with all of the paperwork on China's side of the world.

We also enjoyed a river cruise on the Pearl River this evening. We are exhausted and have had quite enough of sight-seeing for awhile.

But it is only Tuesday evening here and we still have days to hang around before we can leave Friday. Barring the American government sending in a chartered flight for us to leave early, there is no way we will be able to rearrange flights during this holiday season to come home early. So it looks like we will fill our last two days with shopping and napping - preparing for a marathon flight home. Have I mentioned we have a four hour lay-over back in Beijing and an EIGHT HOUR LAY-OVER in Los Angeles??? That adds 12 hours to an already crazy amount of traveling time!

We know that seeing the girls, Emma and Savannah, will be our goal and we will just keep plugging along hour by hour until January 1st - our beginning of the new year with our whole family!

The White Swan... some Photos