Pr-yers please

we just found out that there is a tropical storm "Goni" that is moving toward China in the next 48 hours.  We will have to fly over it hopefully  - so please pr-y for safe travels!
 
And keep pr-ying for the Scruggs family: http://jayscruggs.livejournal.com/  they are still waiting for a decision on whether or not they will have to leave thier new daughter.

Guangzhou - Aug. 5

Sassyness and tantrum 2's!!!  That was the theme of the day... so, i'm sure you can imagine how ready we are to go home:)  She still prefers Lance over me - but now i think it's more of a "power kick" thing - whatever... her "spoiled world" with dad is about over and her life will be changing yet again when we finally become 1 family again - i cannot wait to see my kiddos:)
 
Today we had a late breakfast (enough to get us by without having lunch) - afterwards, we took the traditional red couch pictures - she did a good job sitting somewhat still and smiling;) I was then anxious to get packing and organized while Lance and Maylynn played in the playroom. We decided to have Maylynn take an early nap - b/c we all know what happens when she doesn't get her sleep!  She's worse!! YIKES!!! we woke her at 2:30 so we could meet the shuttle to go to the US consulate for our FINAL step!  We couldn't take any cameras, cell phones or electronics - don't ask me why??? It's not that big of a deal... we all just submitted our final paperwork and then as a HUGE group took an oath that all of the information that we gave was the truth - they then gave us the "brown envelope"  It has a special seal on it and cannot be open until we go through immigration in Seattle.  As soon as her feet touch the ground she will be a US citizen:)
 
I also took a picture of our favorite "western" restaurant "Lucy's"- we ate there tonight - it was very pleasant - especially b/c Maylynn had a tantrum:) smile:)
 
Anyway, i'm exhausted, emotionally tired, worn out, easily cry and just plain ready to go home!  Please pr-y for our flights (no turbulance) and that we make all of our connections without running through the airports...  We are hoping to be home in Pasco around 5pm but if we can get on an earlier flight WE WILL!! However, we have to go through immigration with the other 500 people that i'm sure are wanting to come to the US tomorrow:)

Guangzhou - Aug. 4

Today was our consulate appt. day - we didn't have to do anything for it, just our guide - he had to turn in some paperwork etc.  We now will go to the consulate tomorrow afternoon to do some swearing in stuff in order to get her visa - then we are coming home!!! woohoo!!! we are soo anxious to get home - we are so tired of being here... ready for some normalcy - our little Maymay is definately a little spoiled here -but that will be a rude awakening to her when we get home!  She can definately throw some good 2 yr. old tantrums! and we've seen some more "sassiness" out of her today (more so when we are with our guide???)- we are trying to nip that in the bud as quick as possible:) 
 
Can't wait to get some good huggins from my kiddos at home!!  I miss them terribly:)
 
We didn't do too much today - just trying to pass the time away... after bkfst - we went swimming - it was a good thing we went when we did b/c it was kind of rainy and dreary later today... she's really liking the kiddie pool:) then we took a nap, played in the playroom and met our guide DAvid for dinner.  Instead of going on the traditional river boat dinner cruise (which we did last time and did not enjoy it) he took us down the street for a very good chinese dinner - it was delicious!!  It was nice and cool after dinner so we took a nice walk - Maylynn really enjoyed watching some people playing badminton in the park - it is very popular here... Now we are back at the hotel for our night time routine.
 
Ps. Sheryl - we were able to find Mtn. Dew in the bottle - i hope that's okay - we don't have access to anyother stores to find a can... see you soon!

I love you...

OH!!! i forgot to share the best news!!!  for the past few days, i have been able to tell her 'I love you - wo ai ni" and she hasn't buried her head into Lance and cried!! Tonight after i said it, she actually let me kiss her on the nose and she smiled!  So sweet:) What a change in the past 7 days!

Guangzhou - Aug. 3

Just the usual -wasting time away so we can go home day...
 
Although, there are a few things to report:)  Last night, it was the cutest thing!  Lance had read Maylynn books etc. tucked her in and layed with her for a few minutes.  Soon after, he "snuck" off the bed and crawled next to me - she kinda peeked over but never whined about it - soon after that, she started singing -she sang for about 20 minutes - it was soooo sooo cute:)  Usually at about 8:30 she is ready for bed and simply falls asleep - we ar thinking that she had some extra energy b/c she ate a Magnum bar (remember those my PHF friends:)) anyway - we didn't taste her's until she was done and found out it was coffee flavored -hmmm...
 
So, she went to bed late and woke up early (had an accident:() and proved to be very tired this morning - so were we.  Breakfast was successful again but then we went shopping agian at the mall to the pearl factory etc.- she was a bit out of hand and a few time was quite a little you know what! She  hit me and screamed very madly at me - i wasn't going to let her get away with it and firmly told her no etc... We bought a few things including an extra suitcase:) Some of the deals aren't too great here though - some things i think that i can get at walmart for the same price:) except for pearls and the chinese essentials;)  After lunch we all took a 2 hr. nap - it was wonderful and my sweet girl has been back!  We went swimming again, dinner at Lucy's again and Magnum bars on the way back to the hotel (Maymay had vanilla icecream though:)) Now we are watching her video that she LOVES!!! and sang last night:)
 
Oh - i almost forgot - her TB test was negative but we just found out about a family here with the postivite TB test nightmare!  You can visit there website at:http://jayscruggs.livejournal.com/  and please pr-y for them - we cannot imagine what they are going through!
 
Tomorrow we have a lazy day - our guide goes to our consulate appt. tomorrow and will meet up with us later to take us to dinner.  We were supposed to go onthe river cruise but we did that last time and do not want to do it again:)  So glad that we have an option to not do it!
 
sorry no pics today:(

Guangzhou - Aug. 2

Today was fairly uneventful... We met our guide at 9:30 and he took us to the ChenTemple.  We had gone there 4 yrs. ago but this time David (our guide) explained more to us - last time we were just let loose to figure it out on our own.  It was interesting... Afterwards, we went to the toy market to do some shopping for our precious gems back home:)  This was a "wholesale" market and no bartering there - We were fairly successful:) Tomorrow after we get Maylynn's tb test read (which looks good to us) we will go to the Pearl/Jade Market.

 

This afternoon we had a fairly successful time taking her swimming - there is a baby pool that we hung out in - i wanted to take some pics but they wouldn't allow it around the pool area...

 

She is such a good player - it is so much fun playing with her during our little "play therapy" sessions:)  She loves to copy my marks when coloring and whenever we are done playing with anything - she is SO good about cleaning up and putting her things away!  Oh and she loves the stacking cups - i've never seen any child play with them as long as she does - they've been a hit too:)

 

Maylynn is doing better - we are starting to think that her little crying/whining fits are out of habit now.  I've been able to do pretty much everything for her/with her -she'll cry a little bit but it's kind of a dramatic cry and she easily stops when we are done getting her dressed or help her go potty etc...  we try not to make a big deal out of it - we'll console her and tell her it's okay etc... but then we move on.  Like i said in an early post - we pick and choose our battles...

 

We've begun the countdown until we go home :)

Guangzhou - Aug. 1

Yesterday was actually a really bad day - i had my break down moment last night and just let it all out -it felt good, my heart was so broken... Maylynn definately went backwards yesterday but today was an exceptionally NEW day!  We saw so much more of her personality today and it is precious!  We thought for sure she'd be whinny and crying miserable all day b/c of her shots but that was not the case.  She kind of sat by herself for breakfast, smiles, playing with me, blowing me kisses, playing peek a boo, playing ball, dancing, singing - granted there were a few times when she'd try to resist me... we are now keen on when she is just being dramatic or a power struggle:)  So, we pick and choose the battles;)

 

I gave her bath this morning and was able to do pony tails today - so darn cute!! We had a wonderful breakfast here - i think that the 4 lbs. that i lost last week i will be gaining this week - although, we are still sweating about 2 lbs a day - no need to work out to break a sweat here! It was wonderful to see so many Americans at breakfast - some familiar faces from Nanning too... We met Rebecca (guide) at 9:30 for Maylynn's medical exam.  Before the exam we had her passport/visa picture taken - i was able to get a cute smiling picture - then we headed to the medical exam.  The examiners were very good with her and understanding (better than when we were there 4 yrs ago) The last stop was the shots and TB test - we thought she was going to have 6 shots but only ended up with 4.  We had quickly said a pr-yer before this step and we were so pleased to hear that she only needed 4 shots -still that is 4 too many that we wanted to do here but unfortunately it is mandatory and we cannot opt out of it - it had to be done to complete the adoption and get her visa.  The CDC and NVC require this for Hague families;( Hopefully, they will change this for others int he future.  She didn't cry with the TB test but there were tears flowing for the shots - we had to wait there for about 20 minutes before we could leave.  So far she has not had any reaction to anything - we did give her tylenol this afternoon and evening just in case:)  We have to go back Mon. morning to look at the TB test spot.

 

Lance and Maylynn found the playroom and had a great time playing while Rebecca and i finished organizing paperwork.  After lunch Maylynn and Daddy napped while i took the laundry down to get done and did more shopping:) After naps, we treated ourselves to Starbucks! - very expensive though and probably won't do it again... Then we headed back to the playroom - it was fun watching Maymay play with the other kids - she was so good with them.  It's funny to see people's reactions when we tell them her age - she looks more like 3 to us and this is what everyone else thinks too... In the playroom, there is a picture of her playing with another 2 yr. old girl and Maymay is about 1 head taller than her:)  But Maymay's speech is more like a 2 yr. old  - so who knows??? When Maylynn told us she was done playing we headed back to the room and played some more - coloring, stickers, ball, and with her new musical toy - i got some very cute video of her dancing:)  We had a nice dinner at an italian restaurant at the other end of the island and now we are back at the hotel for our night time routine.  Like i said, today was a great day:) We are looking forward to more fun times tomorrow - we think we are doing some touring with our guide.

 

Thanks so much for all of the pr-yers and comments - they are so encouraging:)

 

ps. don't forget to check out the pictures on the shutterfly website:)