Home at last!!!!

We are home, yeah!  We got home on Monday morning about 2:00 am.  It was a long journey but we had not a problem.  Lily did an awesome job and Bob and I did OK.  Our sweet daughter is now a US citizen and it feels so good.  She is fitting right into the family and Ava and Luci just love her and so do we as well as everyone who meets her.  Lily is trying to like Tau Tau our dog but she is still a bit afraid.  She likes to pet him if he is laying down but if her gets up he is right at her level and she is not sure.  So we are guarding her space with him.  We are suffering from jet lag and Bob had to go back to work on Tuesday and out of town till Friday.  So he is probably really tired.  I have been up with Lily we wake up anywhere from 1:30 to 3:00 am and are up from 3:00 am till 5:00 am just like a new baby.  So we are a bit tired but doing OK, Lily better than I.  My parents went home today, many countless thanks for all they did while we were away, we could have never made it without them.  My sister arrived yesterday for a week to help with the transition.  Bob is out of town next week too so she will be helpful.  Ava and Luci are on spring break so they are enjoying their time with Lily before they go back to school, that was perfect timing.

A big thank you to Luci's adoption group for the beautiful flowers to welcome us home, lilly flowers for Lily, bright and sun shinny yellow.  Perfect, what a treat.  You guys are awesome!!! Love you all.

Wow, we feel so blessed by this entire journey to bring our sweet daughter home and we are so glad we acted on the calling of God.  He laid this on my heart and the family agreed and it has been so good.  We were in a group of 15 families who all had a child with a special needs but listen these children had such small needs it was incredible to see just how small the needs were.  It is such a sad situation in China all the children left behind it just breaks your heart.  I would urge you  to look at your heart and see if you have room for one more child, a chance to make a difference that will not only change you but will change the course of a life for all eternity.  Every child deserves a home a place to be loved unconditional and God calls each and everyone of us to take care of the widows and orphans it is clear everywhere in the Bible and it is so easy.  If you don't thing you can grow your family then maybe you could look at sponsoring a child.  Chinese Children Adoption International, Love Without Boundaries and Half the Sky are just a few great organizations that are doing amazing things.  You don't have to go to China to make a difference you can do it in your own home town, wouldn't it warm your heart to know you have made such a huge difference in a child's life forever.  We are so blessed that Lily was cared for by Love Without Boundaries and that a person sponsored her but mostly that a family in China was willing to give her two years of their life to care and love her knowing that they would one day have to give her up.  What a priceless gift.  We just could never thank all the people that have been involved in her life.  God bless and keep them and may they some how know she is loved and always be.  We know she was taught and shown love, I don't think I posted this info but the day we got Lily she had arrived at the  registrar  office first and there were 10 different orphanages involved, when she saw me across the room she can running into my arms and gave me the biggest hug and it broke my heart into a thousand pieces in a good way, a day I will never forget.  A true moment in this thing called life.  It was right up there with the day Ava and Luci were placed in our arms.  We were so worried that Lily would have a difficult time but God had prepared her heart in a might way.  When we got on the bus to go back to the hotel she kissed me on the check and Bob too.  Is that special are what.  Again, I ask you to just look at the orphans in the world and see if you have room in your heart in anyway will make a difference.

Stay tuned and I have more cute photos to post.  Thanks again to all of you for your love and prayers.

On our Way

No photos today, it has been really windy here and so it has been hard to do outside activities.  Shopping, shopping and more shopping.

Love all around. Prayers for our journey we are leaving at 8:00 am and flying to Beijing about a 4 hour flight, lay over then a 13 hour flight into Dulles in DC then to Colorado so it will be a giant journey.  It was the only way to fly on miles so we took it.  We pray for peace and sleep.

We have the VISA and we are free to GO!!!

HI--We got Lily's visa yesterday and hiked to the top of the Baiyun Mountain, it was a big walk and 801 steps .  Bob was the lucky one to carry Lily to the top.  He got a work out even though she only weights 25 pounds it was a challenge.  Lily and I got to pound the Buda bell at the top it made a loud gong and it was heavy and actually hard to gong.  The gong could be heard all over the mountain.  It was fun. At high points in China they put locks on chain to represent good luck, etc... We didn't put a lock on but we did get one as a souvenir of our journey.  The top photos is actually looking out over Guangzhou but the sky is so grey and full of pollution you can not see much of anything.   The word Baiyun Mountain actually means White Cloud Mountain but we think it should be grey cloud.  It was quite a workout but very tropical and green and lush, nothing like Colorado.  But, I would rather have a dry climate any day.

We got the visa and all the paperwork all the groups have left to go home but we have to stay till Sunday to get our miles out of here.  So it feels a bit lonely.  Trying to stay focused on the goal. Live Strong.

Today, we are packing to get all our stuff home and ready to go so we don't have to do it at the last minute.   It was a job to get it all in and hopefully we make it.  We must not do anymore shopping. No photos today we will see what happens latter.  Maybe a photos opt will come about.

Love all around !!!!

Silly Lily

Lily is feeling very comfortable with her new family, she has become SILY Lily, she is your average three year old with a big laugh, lots of funny faces, silly behavior and very busy.   She loves her sunglasses and likes to wear them upside down most of the time like two other Lange sisters, Ava and Luci they just seem to fit better that way.

We had our American Consulate appointment today and took our Oath to love and protect and that all the info was correct so now tomorrow we just wait for our exit visa for Lily and we are ready to go.  The bad thing is our plane tickets back home are not till Sunday, that was all we could get using our miles so we will just have to wait it out.   It has been a long day we were up at 5:30 am left at 7:50 am for our consulate appointment,  hunted and gathered our lunch and dinner.  In between we had play time here at the hotel and shopping at a very upscale mall.  Stores like Dior, Prada, Dunhill, etc...we couldn't afford a thing except a really cool iPhone case from the Apple store with the Beijing Opera on it, and it was pricey but just to cool to pass up.  We ate at Danny's Bagels for all the friends who have been to China.   They no longer deliver, no mac and cheese no chicken but they did have pizza.  Danny the original owner passed away last year suddenly and the business moved, their business has changed since the White Swan is closed for renovations and adoptions have slowed down so they are just a restruant no delivery.  It was good and we went with another family.
Keep the prayers coming!!!!!!!!   We have to stay very busy so we don't miss home too much we have lots of down time here.  We are tired at night, so good night.

comments

Thanks for making all the comments, communication really helps.  We are still here for several more days and this is the slow part of hurry up and wait so keep them coming.  You can email me for no charge the internet is free here just no phone calls.  We have already spent our $25.00 on our one phone call.  Thanks for all your prayers!

We love you Ava and Luci and think you are doing a great job...get ready for a busy sister she is on her way and ready to roll.

Group Photos and departure info

 We started our day with group photos....14 families with 15 adoptions and multiple family members.  Several of the families it was their 10th child, one family it was their 8th and lots of 3rd and 4th's and a couple of first timers, so we had a diverse group for sure.

Then, Bob and I struck out on an adventure to visit Guangzhou City Hall built in 1934 and the People's Park, then to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall built in 1931both had beautiful tropical gardens and grounds, the humidity pays off big time with very lush gardens.  My feet were killing me when we got back to the hotel.

Lily has learned so much, she seems to be a quick study....she is standing on her head and doing  summersaults then of course she is learning all about hair, and how important it is, even if she does pull her bow out every 5 seconds and laughs as big as she can she will get there.

$25.00 phone call

Bob called United to see if we could leave a day early and the business center said he could make the call no problem but about an hour later they called and said that the call would be $25.00.  Live and learn.  By the way United has nothing available so we have to wait it out.  Oh well.