Hefei to Guangzhou

I am beautiful!!!!!!!!!

I have plenty of room to grow.

Jewel, Becky, Ronnie and Hope

I love to brush my teeth but do not like my bath!

Things are happening so fast now that it is hard to post to the blog and be current, so please forgive us if we are a little behind. It helps that we are a day ahead of USA time I guess. On Sat. morning China time we went to the airport in Hefei to head for Guangzhou. It had snowed lightly thought the night and was snowing steadily in the morning. We were concerned that our flight might be delayed or cancelled, but thankfully it was on time.Our guide Yisha was very proficient in helping us get into the terminal and checked in. We were dreading the bus ride out to the plane, ( we were packed in like sardines last week and now we had Hope who only Becky could carry) since Hefei is a somewhat small airport, but were even more thankful when we found that our flight would be pulled up to an enclosed boarding ramp. We arrived early and waited in the departure area for about 45 minutes. Our seats were all in the fifth row, but we decided that we would wait until everyone else had boarded since we were so loaded with carry ons and a little girl.

The call came to board the plane and people massed in front of us. About that time an older Chinese woman began to point to us and say something to the young man beside her. The young man walked over and in broken English said that they wanted to help us board the plane He took two of our bags and parted the way into the crowd to lead us into the ramp and all the way to our seats. He explained to us on the way that he was studying English at school. We were so thankful for him and his Aunt's generosity.

The flight to Guangzhou was just a little under two hours and Hope did fairly well, except for the descent which made her ears uncomfortable. We tried to give her a bottle to suck, but it didn't last long enough. Deboarding in Guangzhou was hectic as usual and we made it OK except for one problem that we discovered after were in our hotel room. In the rush to get out of the airport we had carried away someone else's big blue suitcase almost just like the one that we bought two days before in Hefei, and left ours. We felt terrible about it for the poor soul whose luggage we had stolen. All that was in our lost case was big winter coats and stuff that we didn't need in the warmer conditions in Guangzhou.We called Jason, our guide and he called the airport and made arrangements for us to me to go back on Sunday aft.and exchange bags.

On Sunday morning we had a great breakfast in the hotel amidst about fifty other adoptive families. At 10:45 we walked down the street to the interdenominational Chinese-English Christian Church. It was a very moving experience. They sang one of our favorite worship songs, "Knowing You, Jesus" in English and several in Chinese.The church was packed with the great majority being Chinese, with a dozen or so foreigners like us, most with little Chinese babies. Hope was very good. I think she likes to hear music and singing. Later in the afternoon we had a small breakthrough with Hope. I came in from the airport and she was having a full blown wailing fit because she was tired and needed a nap and Becky was laying beside her on the bed. Becky suggested that I might try holding her and comforting her instead of Becky just giving up and letting her have her way. I picked her up and just hugged her close and walked her around the room doing my best to soothe her. Surprisingly she began to settle down and allowed me to hold her for the first time. Within two or three minutes she was nodding out and I held for a little longer and laid her on the bed. She slept for over an hour while Becky and Jewell went and took care of some adoption details.Since then she has not allowed me to hold her again, but we are willing to be patient, realizing that she still is in the middle of a traumatic experience. We will take whatever progress we can get, even if it is one step forward and two back at times.

Ronnie