HELLO, CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW!!! :)

Whew! I feel like my normal self now! Somewhat rested and I CAN POST ON OUR BLOG!!! Praise God! As you can see, today Kennedi is full of smiles! I still cannot see our blog so I'm not sure what exactly Tonya posted for me so let me catch you up to date! Thanks Tonya by the way for all you did for us!!!!

Okay, our flight over on Saturday. First of all, who in their right mind would want to fly like that all the time? That was the longest flight ever! We left home around 4:30 Saturday morning for our drive to San Francisco with my mom and Charlie. We stopped at Mimi's by the airport and had a nice breakfast then we headed over to the airport. We checked our bags and headed for security and a lot of tears (especially with Katelyn-Nana's girl). We then waited for our 11:15 flight which was over booked so they were trying to find people to travel the next day. The majority of the people on our flight were American and a lot were Olympic Committee Members which was neat. The guy next to me has been in the olympics twice for Kyacking (guess that's how you spell it) and is now coaching this olympic team and on the committee. He has even raced Dragon Boats in China! Did you know when traveling to China you don't just fly directly over the ocean? Who knew? We flew all the way up the west coast accross Alaska, Siberia and then down to China. When we were over Alaska and Siberia Katelyn could see all the ice out the window and we had quite a bit of turbulance and of course I got sick. Did not expect that. So the rest of the flight I tried my hardest to sleep (no such luck) and while we were landing I got sick again! Eeewwww! We landed at around 3:30 on Sunday, went through customs which was interesting trying to figure that out (you really just have to follow everyone else) and then to find our guide. We then waited for the other 2 families to arrive about an hour later and then headed to the hotel. As soon as we got our room we all went in and rested. We were up for 25 hours so the bed never felt so good!

Yesterday, Monday, we woke up early and had to be down to the lobby at 5:45 for the bus to the airport with the other 15 families in our group. Once at the airport the guide gave us our flight tickets and we went on our way to wait for our flight. Since everyone was going different places the first flight left at 6:45 and ours was the third flight out at 8:45. So we waited and watched. They are very unorganized. They have buses to take you to the tar mack to load your plane and a gate for each flight. We were gate 41. 8:15 came and no call for us to board the bus, 8:25 no call, 8:45 the time we were supposed to be taking off, still no call to load the bus. Maybe around 9:15 when we were already in line with a bunch of other Chinese people they announced that we were loading out of gate 43. So I was trying to make sure we had all of our stuff and the two kids while many people were pushing and crowding. Whew. Finally we loaded the bus, got over to the plane, loaded the plane, and waited some more. It's like everyone here is always late so they waited for people to keep coming. Finally around 10:30 maybe we took off for a 3 hour flight. This plane was nice. The kids were very impressed with the individual TV screens they got which allowed them to pick whatever movie they wanted to watch and even play video games. Impressive!

We finally got out of Guangzhou airport and found Amy our guide at around 1:15 or so and she said no hotel we're going straight to get Kennedi! WHAT! Okay, this is it. We got to the Civil Affairs office and Kennedi was still on her way so we waited maybe 20 minutes or so. When she walked in with 2 caretakers she was wearing that beautiful dress you saw her in. The caretakers told her who we were and she began crying. Man, that is the hardest thing ever. You don't know what to do or say to them. So our guide was so great. She talked to her and then took me to buy her a soda from the "vending machine". She then sat her between Amy and myself and she eventually warmed up a little though she was still wimpering and not happy. The caretakers brought us many gifts and pictures of Kennedi at the orphanage and some from when she was with her foster family. I guess Amy told me that she lived with another little girl, GiGi, at the foster family and they became best friends. GiGi is being adopted from the States too so I am hoping Judene may know who she is and where she's going. So of course Kennedi was sad to leave her and her family that Amy said treated her so well. So we left there and on the way to the hotel she still wimpered the whole way but as soon as we arrived she was like a new girl instantly! We were checking in and she needed to go to the bathroom so Katelyn and I took her and that was all she needed, to see we'd take care of her I guess. From then on she has been perfect (though full of energy!). She knows much more English than I thought she would. We brought with us a stack of flash cards (50 of them or so) with pictures of things on them with the English words and she knows the majority of them! You can ask her if she's hungry, tired, bathroom, and she'll answer yes or no. We were looking out the window today and Mark said "what do you see" and she said "I see trees, cars, houses"! Is God good to us or what! Amy said she is amazed at how much English she knows. She said kids being adopted never know that much English. Kennedi went to a international preschool and so she learned English there. Amy also said this schooling is very expensive, like $400 US dollars a month, so she was very lucky to go there! We are so blessed! Last night she put on her new pajamas and watched Kai Lan and went to bed, no problems.

Today has been much of the same. We went back to the Civil Affairs office at 8:30 (after a delicious breakfast buffet we get every morning which has pancakes, muffins, omlets, cereal-the kids were in heaven!). At the Civil Affairs office everything became offical in China's eyes. We had interviews with 2 different people and had to sign that we wanted to adopt her, then we took a family picture. Then we went to the friendship store. Amazing! This is a huge mall (need to spend more time there!) and on the 4th floor is a grocery store-what a concept! We bought some Ritz crackers, Chips Ahoy, and water (I'll take some pictures of them and post them later). Then we headed back here for some down time. Kennedi and Bradley are coloring and watching Tom and Jerry and Katelyn and Mark ran to McDonald's to pick us up some lunch.

Oh, and I must mention the traffic! For those of you who are preparing to travel next week, prepare yourselves! I had heard all about the traffic but until you're in it, WOW! They do not stay in their lanes, will not stop unless they absolutely have to, bikes and people jay walking everywhere, chaiotic mess but they know what they're doing. They come within inches (no joke) of one another. Also, the air here is horrible. Hard to breathe and smokey (eveyone smokes so everything smells like smoke). Those leaving next week, bring alergy meds!

Okay, I guess that is all for now. Sorry this was so long just wanted to catch you all up on things. Tomorrow we have the morning free (yes! Get to sleep in!) so we are going to go to a park next door that has petal boats and things for the kids to do. Oh, and I'll probably get my Starbucks tomorrow morning! There's one right in our hotel and I went to look this morning but had no time to stand in line and order, so TOMORROW! :) Then in the afternoon we go to the police station to apply for Kennedi's passport. Hope all is well with everyone at home! Will post again tomorrow now that I figured out how!