Well, tonite is our last night in Nanchang and the Jiangxi Province. It is a little sad to leave the province our daughter is from but we are ready to move on to the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. Nanchang is NOT a tourist city so not much at all to do and you take your life in your hands if you venture out onto the sidewalks or streets.They would mow you over in a heart beat! We leave Nanchang around 5:15 tomorrow evening and arrive in Guangzhou about 7:30. This flight should be interesting with 9 babies on it but hey a piece of cake compared to the 3 we have to take next week. Today we went to a garden and temple type area surrounded by water on 3 sides and one would expect there to be a cool breeze off the water but no such luck. The heat index was 108! Jaida was a trooper though and really likes to be out and about. She is just like the rest of us, we go stir crazy in that little hotel room. Poppy, my Dad, was sick today so he remained behind as did some others who had sick babies. Poppy is on Cipro now so hopefully he will start to feel better. We can not tell you all enough how perfectly Jaida fits our family. She loves the kids and tries to do what they do - dance, sing, clap, laugh - but she does not like them to hold her. Will and I have built up some arm muscles on the trip. The child ate an entire bowl of cream chicken soup with 1/2 cup of rice in it followed by a 7 oz bottle. And that was just dinner!!!! Please pray for one of the babies, Madison, she is sick and had to go to the hospital today. Also, pray for my Dad to get better. We really miss everyone and can't wait for you to meet our sweet baby girl. Talk to you tomorrow from Guangzhou-if we get time! Love to All-Amy
We want to thank everyone for the prayers! We can feel them and they are working. Jaida is such a happy baby and is bonding beautifully and everyone is safe and well and we feel so blessed to have been given this wonderful gift. This sweet little soul has come into our lives and touched our hearts and we thank our Almighty Lord and Savior for placing us together. Today we went to the TengWang Pavilion. I'm not sure I got all the history behind it but I think the man who had it built was a famous poet and built it because he had alot of children and wanted room for all of them... It was beautiful and we saw a singing and dancing and musical instrument show inside. I hope the pics do it justice. Jaida continues to flourish and even cried and reached for me when a group of Chinese women came up to her. She loves her daddy too! Julia is a big help and Sam is missing the USA. Nana and Poppy are enjoying themselves and we are grateful for their help. All for now! Much Love, Amy
First I want to say what an amazing orchestrator our God is! We have 6 grandparents and 4 kids in our group which makes it really fun for everyone. Julia and Sam have really liked having some pals! And the babies..... they all seem to fit so perfectly with their respective families. Well, Jaida just gets cuter and cuter everyday and her personality is really blossoming. She cracks us up!!! She fits our family perfectly. We got her to laugh today for the first time and it was precious. She is really sharp and can clap, shake her head like for "no", she waves at everyone and lifts her arms up when she wants you to hold her---which is ALWAYS!!!! We think it is because she is afraid if we put her down then we will go away and not come back. All of the babies seem to be doing this. She is quite long and has thin little arms and legs but is NOT underfed. Again, she was well cared for and loved! She fits perfectly into the 6-9 months sizes I brouht. She had her first bath and just loved it. She has no teeth but eats anything you stick in her mouth. Definitely a Hatcher!!!! We went to Wal -Mart today and that was very interesting. We saw some familiar stuff and some stuff we had no idea what it was. Our favorite thing to do when we aren't watching Jaida is to watch the traffic and the street scene down below our hotel. I don't know how there aren't a thousand casulaties daily. It is so different here and we are really enjoying the cultural differences.Well, All for today and as Sam is counting down 9 more days untile we are home. We miss everyone. Blessings to all from the far east! Amy
OK, we are officially her parents as of today at 11:00! We are having a much better day and Jaida is just adorable!!! Her little personality is so fitting and they could not have picked a more perfect baby for our family! She has a VERY flat head in the back so it is a little worrisome for us but the Chinese think it is a symbol of beauty. Anybody out there know anything about this. Someone told us it does subside so we have put her on her tummy to sleep. Her fine motor skills are awesome but her gross motor skills are lacking. She is a long baby and LOVES to be held. If you put her down she cries. She loves the kids and they really have taken to her. She certainly has some spunk and was well loved and all of yesterday, as trying as it was, is a good sign that she bonded with her caretaker and will also with us. She does not miss a trick and is very sharp! She is still very much a baby as she does not roll over or hold herself up when on her tummy. She is really warming up to us. Will is going to add some photos of today so check those out. We just love her to pieces! We finally have some down time this afternoon and then we are going out to eat as a group tonite. All for now. Keep the prayers coming we can feel them! Love ya Amy
We will just skip all the not so good details of this day and just say it was NOT the vision we had in our heads and Jaida was NOT the happy camper! I don't even think we got any good pics because she was so out of control and then I came back to the room and lost it. Every emotion you can think of ran through us and we were not expecting that. So we will skip ahead to today- Day 4! See new entry. Amy