Sights from our first week home

Abby "playing" piano

Neighborhood kids playing Legos with new kid on the block

Madison and Abby playing with bubbles

Family at local gardens

They love their bathrobes!

A ride with Grandpa

Abby and Grandma

Kids with our puppy Maris

Day 15 in Michigan - WE ARE HOME!!!

Sorry for the 1-week delay. The combintation of getting our family settled, Kirsten coming down with a respiratory virus, and some technical difficulties left us quite deliquent in giving folks an update on our adventures.

After 30 hours and many flights (Hong Kong to Japan to Salt Lake City to Minneapolis to Michigan), we made it back to Midland on August 13th safe and sound. We were so happy and excited to be home! It was great to see Madison, Micah and Brian’s parents. The kids were so anxious to see us and meet their sister. It was a great reunion and a late night as our plane landed at 10:30pm.

Our first family picture - at 1AM after traveling 30-hrs!

Abby loves her brother and sister and they love her. They do a great job playing with her and taking care of her. We are glad to be home all together.






It was so great to be back in our own bed again even tho’ we were up earlier than we would have liked.

Our first full day home, we went swimming, but Michigan is a much different climate than Southern China. Abby loved it, but thought it was too cold to stay very long.

We went out for a Chinese dinner which was very good – but the pepper and beef dish was much spicier than the one we had in China – whew! We met a local man from Hong Kong who speaks Cantonese and was very excited to meet Abby and talk with her. She is usually shy, but did speak with a him.

Day 14 in Hong Kong

Ok, this is really from then ending of Day 13, but I thought it was too cute not to post. We had our final dinner at Lucy's, and Brian and Abby shared a banana split. Abby loves ice cream.

4:45a.m. came way too early today, but it was ok as we were starting our journey home. There were 8 families I think leaving today and 4 of us headed through Hong Kong with an overnight stay.

Here's a cute photo of Abby getting ready for her first airplane ride. We had tears in our eyes as we left her native country of China. She did really well on the plane once the flight attendant told her in Cantonese that you cannot stand up and must sit and be buckled in. That flight attendant was very special and loving on Abby during the flight. Abby even got a toy bag to keep. Abby liked her a little too much, and she kept pushing the flight attendant button {the lady had told her to do it anytime she wanted her - so it was her own fault :o) }

We got to Hong Kong by noon, settled into our room, and grabbed some lunch - Burger King never looked this good before. I was excited to finally get a Diet Coke, but it just wasn't quite a real Diet Coke yet. Ugh! We went swimming and then headed out to explore Hong Kong a bit.

We are really thankful for a king-size bed that does not feel like just a piece of plywood! We've had enough of sharing a twin sized bed. They had a crib in our room when we got here, but that wasn't going to do it, so they brought in a roll-away for Abby.

Hong Kong is quite the impressive city. We took a a double-decker bus ride up to The Peak that overlooks the city. What an incredible view. I wish we would have a night photo to show you the city all lit up. Beautiful. We were a little worried that Abby was getting car sick on the way down, but she ended up being fine.

We are tired, but excited to finish our journey tomorrow. We will be travelling over 26 hours on the way home and are really excited to get there. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers!

Day 13 in China

Abby's last day in China is a bittersweet one for us. We are so glad to bring her home, yet sad for her to leave her homeland of China.

Today was Red Couch photo day! Red Couch photos are famous for Chinese adoptive families. Chinese adoptions need to finalize here in Guangzhou and most families stay here at the White Swan hotel where there are red couches on the 2nd floor. So, families get their photos on these nice red couches.

Here's a great one of Abby on the red couch. She's actually smiling for a photo. We are realizing how sensitive she is about her cleft and that is why she does not smile for photos.

Unfortunately our family photo does not show the red couch we are sitting on! Oh well, we'll see if anyone else snapped one they can send us.

Here is a photo of all the moms and kids. What a great group! We only took a photo of the whole group on one guys camera, so we'll post that one another time.

This is Abby and her friend Stella. Stella is from the Guandong province also, but not from the same city. It's fun to hear them chatter back and forth.

Bethany families will recognize our wonderful guide Shiyan. We are so thankful and grateful to her and Bethany for the wonderful job they have done for us in China - and preceeding our trip as well. We have heard marvelous things about Shiyan for years and she even exceeded our expectations.

The White Swan also has this beautiful waterfall and we finally got our photo taken by it.

We leave our hotel at 5:30 tomorrow morning and head to Hong Kong for the night. Please pray for our long journey home. We can't wait to get there and be reunited with the rest of our family!

Day 12 in China

Today we were at the US Consulate offices with some paperwork and taking our adoption oath. The USA now officially recognizes our adoption! Abby will become a US citizen as soon as we land in the US on Friday. We were fortunate to get this photo as they quickly confiscated the camera after us and made them delete their photo...guess we weren't supposed to take any photos in this area!

Abby does really well with younger children. She is like a little mother. We wonder if she helped take care of the younger ones in the orphanage. Here she is with her buddy Dylan who is 2. Like Abby, he has was born with a cleft lip/palete, though he has not had any surgeries yet to make the repairs.

Not only does Abby love french fries, she also loves ketchup. Here she was licking her plate clean.

We went to the Pearl Market today. Wow - a 5-story mall filled with stores and stores full of bags and bags of pearls. Amazing. We learned a lot...and bought a bit too!

Some of you may not know too much of Abby or our adoption. We started the adoption process over 5 years ago for a little girl from China. Originally we were going to adopt an infant. Earlier this year we decided to file paperwork for an older waiting child with special needs. We got our referral for Abigail just 3 weeks later. Abby will turn 6 on September 11. She is post-op for cleft lip and palette. She will be needing more surgery in the future. She graduated kindergarten here this June. She is very smart and spunky.

Day 11 in China

It's another beautiful and not too busy day in Guangzhou City. Our guide Shiyan took all our papers to the Consulate today for us.

So, we did some shopping and got Abby some traditional Chinese outfits. Here's a couple that she tried on with the help of the shop owner.

We all really enjoyed watching a local artist do fingerpaintings - they are beautiful. We bought one to bring home.

Tonight our group enjoyed a Cantonese dinner together. We all pretty much follow Abby's lead on how to dish up and eat things ;o). She's a pro, especially with the chop sticks!

Then it was another fun night at the pool. This girl loves the water!

Day 10 in China

We, and a few other couples from our group, skipped out on the museum tour and park today to attend church. It was wonderful to worship with Asian believers in both their language and ours.

Kirsten painted her toenails this morning and Abby wanted them done too. She was frustrated later when it wouldn't just wash off.

Day 9 in China

While in Guangzhou City, we are staying on a nice little island by the US Consulate offices. It is very touristy. Since we had a free morning, we headed off the island with another family to a shopping district. The Asian Games will be held here this fall, so the whole city is under reconstruction. It was fun to immerse in the culture.

While in the shopping district, we grabbed our first dose of Western food since being here - Pizza Hut! It was good. We didn't try the salmon or oyster pizza though. Abby looked pretty cute sipping through her straw. She still needs some reconstruction for her cleft palette, so straws are not always that easy for her.

We enjoyed meeting up with all the families in our group today. So fun to see everyone with their children. Went to dinner with all 19-families at a local restaurant. There was almost 70 of us! Abby got to pick her favorite off the menu again...french fries!

Kirsten taught Abby to play Old Maid today. She is very competitive and doesn't mind looking at her opponents cards!

We also were able to get to the pool twice. Abby had a great time playing with some older boys earlier in the day and then tonight, many from our group were down at the pool, so that was really fun.

Right now, God is putting on quite the light and sound show...so glad we are about ready for bed and not having to be outside in the rain.

Day 8 in China

Today was a much slower day for us than usual. The only scheduled activity was going back to the medical clinic to have the girls' TB tests checked. All 4 girls in our group were fine! It can be up to 50 percent that come back positive which then require chest x-rays.

Since we didn't have much else going on, we spent some time at the pool this morning and again this evening. It's always fun at the pool. We also were able to do a little shopping and visit more with some shopkeepers we have gotten to know.

Abby also did some homework today. She has a book from school to learn the Chinese characters. So she spent quite a while working on tracing the characters.

Abby sweet talked her dad into buying her a little car with tracks.

Tonight we went to dinner with the 2 other couples from our agency that have been here at Guangzhou with us the whole time. We were thankful that Abby did not pick pigeon from the menu tonight and thought we were safe with getting 1/2 a chicken. I guess we got the 1/2 with the head and the bones ;o)

The rest of the 18 families from our agency fly here tonight or tomorrow from their provinces; it will be fun to all get back together and see all the children!

Day 7 in China

It was a great day in China today! We had fun at the local zoo and saw many wonderful animals.

It was a hot one! So, we ended the time with an ice cream.

We couldn’t resist getting Abby this cute visor with a solar powered fan and slide down sunglasses. It was a steal for only $2!

We also had a fun day skyping with Madison and Micah, shopping, reading, coloring and playing with stickers. Abby’s personality continues to be so fun – she is a jokester and also very affectionate. She is certainly a perfect addition to our family!

We also have met a couple of Chinese Christians…both are shop owners near our hotel. It’s great talking with them and seeing their excitement in their faith.