Our trip to China

DS facts today:

4.  Down syndrome is not a disease and people do not suffer from it. They are born with Down syndrome and will have it their whole life.   They cannot give it to someone else and they cannot be cured of it.

5.  Common physical traits of Down syndrome include low muscle tone, small stature, almond shaped eyes, and a single deep crease across the center of the palm. Every person with Down syndrome is a unique individual and may possess these characteristics to different degrees or not at all.



A day late but here we go!!

May 7, 2012

Oh my!!!!!  We leave tomorrow and I don't have any of my official gifts!!!!

Abby and I ran to the mall to purchase some small tokens of appreciation for all those involved with our adoption in China.  We started out at Bath and Body Works.  Thanks to a point savings plan at Walgreens, I had four gift cards that valued 40 dollars.  I LOVE this store, so I had to work extra hard to keep my mind on the task at hand.  We went through all the sample bottles and found what we wanted.  Thankfully the samples were all on sale 3 for $10.00.  So, we headed to the counter and placed our items there.  The clerk asked why we were getting so many, so I went on to explain that we were leaving for China tomorrow to get our new daughter/sister.  She starts asking more questions and I answer.  She finishes ringing up all our goodies and says, "My sister was adopted from Korea and she is amazing!!!"  Your total is 85.26.  I look at her and say I spent more than that and she said, I gave you my employee discount!!!!!  So, I gave her all my gift cards and we were out of there.  Cool, only took 1 1/2 hours, about an hour longer than I had wanted.

Off to Wal-mart to find some sports memorabilia for the men in China.  We looked around for awhile and I finally decided to get something Royals or Chiefs.  Who would have guessed, everything was made in China, a big NO NO for us.  So, off we start looking, all over the store.  Finally we decide we are hungry, so we go up front and eat at Subway and try to come up with more ideas.  Abby has managed to find everything (plus) what we need for ourselves to be fully packed.  So after lunch/dinner, I am not sure of the time anymore, we are back to shopping.  I finally get a call from home asking if we were coming back.  I said yes, but we are not finished and asked for suggestions of gifts.  Than Dewey says, you know it is 7:30 and I started to cry, right there in the middle of Wal-mart.  I was tired and wanted to be home with my babies that I was leaving for 3 weeks.  It was awful!!!

I finally decided everyone left was getting Russel Stover Candy, so we left and headed to the candy store.  When we got there, they were of course closed.  We finally got home and got everything packed and the babies were getting very tired.  Got them ready for bed, rocked them, kissed them goodnight and put them in bed, once they fell asleep.  I went to bed a little later.


May 8, 2012

We are leaving for China in 6 hours!!!!!

We got up and got ready to head to the airport.  We left early enough to stop by the candy store and pick up some goodies and than we ran by McDonald's.  I let Aaron skip school.  There is noway on this earth I could have gotten on a plane while he was at school.  We managed to get everything into the terminal and I tried to use the self check in station and it said it was unable to check us in for this flight.  So, Abby and I got in line and the babies ran back and forth between Dewey, Daniel, Abby and I.  It took forever to get through the line.  We were finally checked in and all our bags made it under the 50 pound limit!!!  We had way too many bags!!!  We each had to checked bags and two carrry-ons!! 

We were standing around waiting to get in the boarding line when they started calling my name overhead.  So, I got back into line and asked what was wrong and she said I was at the wrong spot, we needed to go to the boarding line.  Off we went.  Once in the line the babies were getting tired of being good, so we said our goodbyes and they went to watch planes take off.  All of a sudden someone was coming to us and telling us people on the outside were trying to get our attention.  Dewey was standing there holding Abby's glasses.  I went and asked a security guard if they could get her glasses for us and a nice, older man went and got them for us.  This whole time they keep calling my name overhead, so I go to the counter and the lady just wanted to let me know they got us two seats together. 

Talk about nerve wracking.  I don't travel much and I don't care too.  All of this was such a huge step for me.  I hadn't been on a plane since 1997 and the time before that was 1986.  I am not scared of flying, I am just very content to stay home.  We got to Chicago without any problems.  Found the terminal we would board the next plane at and went to eat at McDonald's.  I know pretty gross to have it twice in one day, but I had been warned how expensive it was to eat at the airport and we only had so much money.  Dinner we seventeen dollars!!!!!  We went and exchange $350.00 for $1850.00 RMBs.

We finally boarded our International flight to Beijing.  This is were all the trouble started.  As soon as we got in the air they were feeding us a snack.  About a half hour later, they were shoving a late night dinner down us and than lights out.  I couldn't fall to sleep.  All I could think about was what was she going to be like??  Would she smell funny??  Would I not like the way she looked??  What if she was mean??  Why am I doing this??  I want to go home!!!  I don't want to go anymore!!  What if her poop smells so bad, I can't stand to change her??  Yes, I have issues with smells, started during my first pregnancy and has gotten a little better but still there.  I finally fell asleep.

I woke up several times, but the final time was to them serving us breakfast.  I had my final REAL diet coke with ICE.  We arrived in Beijing at 1030 pm.  The airport is huge and empty.  We got our bags, got on a tram that took us to another terminal and we went through customs.  I went to a counter and asked for help to get to our hotel and they told me to use the phone and call the number on the paper.  I did this only to figure out the workers at the hotel spoke very little English.  They told us we would have to get a taxi because the shuttle was done for the night.

Getting taxis in China isn't fun.  I had read about all the fake taxis, don't take black ones, make sure they have a letter C on the license plate.  We were deciding where we should go and these drivers came up to us and wanted to take us to the hotel.  We hesitated for awhile but finally went with them, because we didn't know what else to do.  He started driving us and kept going and going.  It was dark, the roads were empty, there were cars parked between trees all over the place.  We were getting nervous, when he got on his phone and started talking to someone.  He up and stopped in the middle of the street and started to back up.  He stopped again and than went into this empty parking lot and stopped.  I was noticing all the black cars sitting around in the trees.  We were both getting pretty scared when he turned around again and started driving around again.  He slammed on his brakes and backed up some more and finally turned down a street and pulled into the hotel.  YAY!!!!!  I was really starting to think we were going to be robbed or worse!

Once in the hotel it took about a half hour for them to get us checked in and we were the only people in the lobby.  We got to our room and tried to get Internet.  We tried to watch the "American" stations, but couldn't find them, so we went to bed.  This all happened over 24 hours.  It is now May 9, 2012.

May 10, 2012

Our first morning in Beijing!!!!

We got up and got dressed.  We tried to get Internet, again.  I finally texted my sister, in Missouri and asked her to get on my email and see if Serena had messaged us and given us a phone number.  I than had her email her and tell her we were there.  We went to the lobby to see if we could get Internet down there.  While we were sitting there, in walks an American and she comes over to us and says, you have to be Suzanne, I'm Serena.  I was so happy.  We collected our stuff and headed off to Little Flower. 

By the time I got there I was so sick to my stomach.  Everything I had thought about on the plane came rushing back.  We got out of the car with our donations, one entire suite case, of supplies.  We took lotion, candy and 7 different types of hot chocolate for the nannies and some bandages and clothing for the kiddos.  As we walked around the corner I scanned all the babies faces and found my sweet Mei Mei.  I walked over to her and the nanny told her to go meet her new momma.  She came over to me and gave me a hug and sat on my lap.  All of the devils attempts to ruin this bonding failed.  I was SO IN LOVE!!!!!!  I played with her for awhile and than she wonder off.  It was close to lunch time so I attempted to feed her and that was a terrible mistake!!!!  She screamed, kicked and flung her arms, so I gave the food back to the nanny and she just smiled and ate her lunch. 

We got a tour of Little Flower and had our first REAL Chinese meal!!  Believe it or not, I loved the food.  I am usually the pickiest eater, but I really enjoyed the food.  Now the luke warm water is a whole different story.  In fact the water is often served warmed, just gross!!   Diet coke in China is coke zero here.  Coke zero in China is also coke zero, so I am not sure why they sell both.  I was able to drink the coke zero and obtained my required caffeine that way, but I also drank a lot of bottle water and sprite.

It was time to say goodbye to Mei Mei for the day and Lynsay, from Morning Star, came and picked us up for some sight seeing.  Off to the portion of the Great Wall called Yellow Flower.  It was an hour away and in up in the mountains.  It was a very interesting drive.  In China for less than 24 hours and got to see our first week and first dead body just laying there at the scene.  Apparently that was a very common spot for wrecks.  We were told we were lucky that they had at least thrown a cardboard box partially on the body.  I was thinking, wow I brought my 14 year old daughter all the way to China, so she could see her first dead body on the road. 

The day got better and we drove up the mountain and through some villages.  We learned about how the people live and how they used everything to its fullest potential.   We hiked up part of the mountain side and than climbed a ladder made of tree limbs up onto the wall.  This is a part of the wall that most tourist will never see.  It was in its full natural state.  It was deteriorating and just amazing.  I thought the hiking up the mountain was bad, but it didn't get any better once we were on the wall.  I went as far as I could and Abby went further.  I was beautiful up there.  But at the same time it was sad how smoggy it was.  There is a constant haze all the time in Beijing.  From the wall I watched some villagers work in their fields, studied their houses and looked at all the trees and flowers.  It was very peaceful up there.  We discussed how amazing it was that people built this wall with out all the machinery of today.  It was a wonderful day and I sat there, prayed and thanked God for taking us this far.

Lynsay took us to a wonderful restaurant and we ate till we were full.  She took us to a grocery store for some supplies and we went home, showered and fell asleep.




Okay, we aren't going to make it through the whole first week there in one post.  I will continue with the rest of our time in Beijing, tomorrow.  I will also add pictures tomorrow, because I can't find the cord to my external hard drive right now and I am so ready for bed.


We are hitting the fundraising trail hard now.  We are not able to reuse our original dossier, so we need to raise $1400.00 for a new one. We are hoping to earn enough in the next month to start our new home study.

We are currently running a Scentsy party, that will run through the 23rd of this month.  This is a great time to pick up some really nice Christmas presents and help save some orphans!!!   Here is the link to it: https://ctaylor5477.scentsy.us/Scentsy/Buy?partyId=107903430
I am collecting Pamper points. These are located on the inside of the diaper packages and on the underneath of the wipes packages.  I would be very grateful if you are not collecting them, if you would send them my direction and I would put them to good use.
I also started collecting Huggie points.  These are also located on the inside of the diaper packages
I collect coke rewards too.  Inside coke product boxes and under the cap of bottles.
I am working hard to earn as many prizes as I can for our auction/giveaway.

Even one code is helpful. You can just pm them to me or pm and I will give you my address or send you a SASE.

Please, Please, Please share this with everyone you know. We are hoping to expedite this adoption, as soon as the girls files are ready, which we were told should be by the end of November.
Thank you in advance for everyone's help.

Suzanne