Good Bye China

We left Chaoyang early in the morning for a 4 hour trip back to Shenyang city. While in Shenyang we stopped at the local Wal-mart and went shopping. Our goal was to spend $1000 USD in less than 90 minutes. That is about 7,500 Chinese Yuan! Liz divided the team up and gave us each a list of items to buy: toys, shoes, clothing, medicine, books, music. It was so much fun to shop for the kids. Everyone managed to do their shopping and be checked out in 90 minutes!

We then went to the 'Forbidden City' in Shenyang. The Forbidden City in Beijing is modeled after this one. We were only able to spend 30 minutes here so I wasn't able to get too much information about it, but it is amazing.



Saturday in Beijing we had a VERY full day. We started off at the Great Wall. I was only able to get to the 4th tower. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling well that day and could go no further. How frustrating is was for me to travel that far and not be able to get to the top.

While we were at the Wall, there was a group of musicians coming in. They were from the states if I remember correctly. But as I was descending the wall you could here them play...the theme from Star Wars!


After the Wall, we went to a Jade factory, the Friendship store (saw how cloisonne was made) and the Beijing market to do some shopping. It was probably good that I wasn't feeling very well as I wasn't able to spend much money.

After shopping, we went to a 'Kung Fu' show and Peking Duck dinner. The show was good and the dinner, what I could eat of it, was great!

We got back to our hotel around 11:30pm and packed for our early departure in the morning. That really was a full day.

Sunday we left for the airport and found out that our flight leaving Beijing was going to be 3.5 hours late leaving. Actually it ended up being 4 and we missed all of our connecting flights in the states. Long story short...instead of getting home at 3:30 pm, I got home at 11:30pm.

It was wonderful to be met at the airport by my men, roses in hand, happy to be home.

This was an amazing trip.

If you remember, please keep the children of the Chaoyang Orphanage in your prayers. There is so much need there I can't express it totally in words. It brings me to tears when I share or review my pictures. I can only pray that by our team being there we were able to show Jesus' love and compassion to those around us. And that maybe we touched a life or two.

Good Bye Chaoyang

Today was our last day in Chaoyang. It was a very emotional day, but you can read about that at Toni's blog.

We were able to give some of the babies baths today, which was very nice as they were getting pretty smelly. I don't know if they don't bathe them regularly or if we threw them out of their usual schedule.

I will just post pictures. We are leaving for Beijing tomorrow. First a 5 hour drive to Shenyang, shopping at Wal-Mart in Shenyang for toys for the orphanage. I believe we will be seeing a "Forbidden City" Shenyang. I don't think we will be able to post in Beijing. See you on Sunday.

Oh Lucas Look at these beans!!!! They were YUMMY!!

Love you all. See you on Sunday...Tonyia

Day 4

Today we were able to spend the entire day at the orphange. We were able to get soooo much painting finished and it sure did brighten the place up. The interesting thing about the walls is that the bottom half of the wall is painted green and the top half is white....I thought it was painted but it is just dry wall spackle, so when we painted it was almost like painting 'fresco' I felt like Michaelangelo and the Sistine Chapel!!

It did rain today and it felt Wonderful! It cleared the sky out and we finally saw the beautiful mountains and it is so much easier to breath.

Last night we had a great opportunity to mingle with the locals. We met a group of dancers the night before and they invited us to come back and dance with them. We did and it was so much fun. Of course we didn't know the moves, but they invited us back tonight to give us personal lessons. We have been in the newspaper AND on Chinese TV, we are quite the celebrities over here! We may not want to come home

We are painting some of the rooms upstairs where the kids never leave the room. I don't have pictures yet of them but I will get some today.

Please keep thinking about us today. This will be our last day and it will be difficult to keep dry eyes in front of the kids.

Lucas I want to get a picture of some wonderful green beans for you! These things are delicious and huge. About the size of jump ropes. Yum, Yum!

What Day is it and...

we are eating again? Sorry if the blog is unorganized, I try to post in the morning before we head out to the orphanage so things are rushed. It seems that we are always eating and the food is yummy...Morgan you would LOVE it!!

We took the kids to a small 'amusement' park yesterday (tuesday). They had a great time and of course we were the show of the day. People gathered all around us and loved to take our pictures. News reporters followed us around the park and then back to the orphange.

Today we get to spend the entire day at the orphanage. The teens are painting some scenes on the walls to brightening things up and we will do some more today.

Day 2-Orphange

I will try not to post the same thing as Toni, but I may...Be sure to check out her link and also the Chaoyang site that Liz is posting to. Both have links on this page.





The kids were very excited to see us today. Being outside was nice, but it was sooo hot and humid. Toni's passport was warped from being so wet! as are our money belts...yuck. We played outside with the parachutes and swings. The kids had a blast!





We came back to the hotel for lunch and had hot pots...boiling water and we each made our own 'soup'. it was ok...but bland. the other table had all of the spices.

Driving on the right is optional...as is the lines!

We went back to the Orphanage in the afternoon played more had ice cream which was a real treat for the kids. It was too sweet for us and it had sesame in it...don't really know what other flavors were in it.

First Day in Chaoyang

After several days of travel and a 5 hour bus ride we finally made it to Chaoyang. We were able to visit the orphanage today. It was pretty emotional for me the first visit. Especially to see the babies in the cribs just craving some sort of attention. We had to leave for lunch and was able to come back for about 3 hours more. It was much easier this time, as we were allowed to bring the kids out of their cribs down to the play room and play with them there.

I will post some pictures, but forgive me if they turn out funny... we can't see how the blog looks from here.

I will be leaving tomorrow afternoon for China. I thought I would leave a slide-show up of pictures that Morgan took from around the house. Especially since all of the flowers might be dead by the time I return!

Love a man in uniform

Especially a baseball uniform, especially when he's my man...
Pat, umpiring the District 6, 9 & 10 year old Little League All Star Tournament in Medford this weekend.

Next weekend is the 12 year old Tournament. I wonder if he will ever make MLB?