Ok... here are pictures for all of you who have not been able to get onto the site since I put in links. Please let me know if this helps. I can see comments now and you are welcome to email me at: jesuspaidmywages@yahoo.com We LOVE hearing from you.

Here are pictures from the Buddhist Temple Visit:

A Visit to a Temple

I just discovered that many of my dear friends can not get on when I link you to my pictures. So from now on, I will put the links on my www.bringinghomeelizabeth.blogspot.com sight. Try there for the extra pics. But I can't officially do it until later this afternoon. I just really want my dear friends to be able to follow us! THanks forunderstanding.

The temple we visited is an active temple. There were people everywhere bowing to the Buddha's and burning incense. It was very, very sad for me to watch. The devotion was real. They truly were sending their prayers to Buddha I learned that there is not one Buddha, but many. There is one great Buddha, but many other Buddha's. I also learned that people burn money to the Buddha's in hopes to make the loved ones who have died, rich. It was all very interesting, but sad. None know Christ and their hopes are not in a living God. The pictures that you see were taken by Emily and Erin. I love their view of things. They try to capture the essence of the country and culture. I hope you can enjoy it.

Ri is opening up a little bit more. He is finally beginning to smile a little more then just when Jacob or Sam are wrestling with him. He was terrified of the bath, but today we put toys in and I made him sit. I pulled out bubbles and he began giggling and splashing. Both the kids had a blast. Ri still is struggling with diarhea. Today he filled a diaper and then some. It was very bad! We can't figure out if it is from the flu or from what he eats or what. Please pray forhim. I have felt your prayers and ask for you to continue on our behalf. Our God is a living God who hears the prayer of His saints.

It is strange to truly experience light and dark.

Before I forget to tell everyone, the smaller pictures are the way that you are able to see all of our pictures. All you have to do is click on the small picture and it will take you to a site that has all the pictures we have taken so far in China. Papaw asked who took some of the pictures... well, the funny views and blurry ones are more then likely Elizabeth. She has been taking pictures like crazy! I am trying to delete most of them, but I ran out of time on one of the series and left them in.

Someone also asked me if Ri has a favorite. Yes ... it is Uncle Paul :).... but here, in China, it is Jacob! Poor Jacob, Ri doesn't really want many of us, just him. It is very funny. Jacob is being a real trooper with it all.

Ok.. now on with my description of China. It is definitely different from last time. I think mainly because we did not see the rural area's much and last time it was all new to us. It fascinated us, now I think we see it differently. Biejing seemed to be much more touristy (not that that is a word). We enjoyed it, but I think since we knew what to expect, our opinions may have been a little formed already. For those who haven't followed our previous journey, the dinners are served family style. We sit at a big table and they bring out several huge dishes of different food. The dishes are on a lazy susan. We turn it and dish out what we want. It is an incredible amount of food. I don't think we are as stunned at the type of food that is served. At one of our dinners, the entire fish...head and tail... was served. We really haven't eaten much Chinese food. We ate as a group in Beijing, but we were only there one day. The first day we were in Fouzou, we just ate the snacks I brought for dinner. We generally skip lunch and eat the food I brought simply to save money. For dinner last night, we ate KFC. So really, we haven't experienced much CHinese. I think we are a little intimidated this time around. Our guide leaves us by 11:30 or so and then we are on our own. It is kind of scary looking for some place to eat all by yourself when you have no clue what anythng is. Our breakfasts have been incredible. I am amazed at what there is available at the buffets. This morning I ate blackened pepper steak and some very incredible snow pea side dish. We were able to have omelets special made with ham, cheese, onions, tomatoes, chives, mushroom. Incredible. There is bacon, beef sausage, pork saugage and chicken sausage. There are noodles of all kinds, cabbage, fish, sushi, congi of all kinds, eggs over easy, eggs any way you want them, fresh watermelon (incredible flavor!), fresh pineapple, fresh cantelope, raisens, nuts, banana chips, normal cereal, milk, tomato juice, papaya juice, orange juice, apple juice, pinapple juice, coffe, tea, steamed eggs, yogurt, banannas, and much more that I really can't figure out what it is. So, as you can see, our breakfast is wonderful. We make a point of eating well so that lunch is not a big deal.

Let me share about Fouzou. It is about an hour from the airport. As we drove in, we were blown away with the beauty of the mountains and country side, but as we drove into the city, we saw many areas that were run down and broke our hearts. It was a strange feeling. We saw rice fields; seeing that in person amazes me. Our guide is from Fouzou and very proud of her city. She talks about it with love. It is very sweet. The people here are wnderful. We certainly do draw attention. Last night we took an hour walk around the city. If you can picture the size of the front of a single car garage, you have now seen the size of most of the stores here. They are side by side all the way down the streets. Unlike the Walmarts and Krogers and stores in the US, these are family owned. That is much the reason why it is difficult for us to trust ourselves to eat the food that is served in these places. I am pretty confident that there is not a Health Department monitoring the standards of cooking :).

Anyways, we enjoyed our walk. It was pretty warm out. We saw a vendor for ice cream. Mark bought 6 drumsticks / ice cream for 11 yuan. THat works out to be approximate $1.50. Crazy! Now, the taste? Well, it tasted more like cool whip or whip cream then ice cream, but all the kids seemed to enjoy it. While we were waiting for Mark, a woman began talking to Emily about Elizabeth. She spoke Chinese and a few words in English. She told us she had a baby boy. She kept saying over and over that she had a boy baby and asked us to come to her home. We think what she was saying is that 8 years ago, she had a boy and abandonned it. The reason I think so is because she kept saying that she had a baby for Americans. She was very sweet and very interested in our family. But, Mark wisely said no thank you to her invitation. We can't speak anything and really have no idea what she was asking of us. Just then, an older man came up to us and started talking to us very intensely. He kept pointing at Ri and Elizabeth and saying something. Then he followed us for about 2 blocks trying to communicate something to us. I felt horrible. I wanted desparately to answer him, but didn't know how. I think that is the hardest part, not knowing what they are saying to us and not knowing how to communicate to them.

Mark was told that he had very white eyebrows. I was told that Elizabeth is spoiled. And we have been told over and over what a big family we have. Many times we have been told that in China, they can only have one child. Mostly, the Chinese are so thankful to our family and comment on how lucky we are to have more children.

I have a couple of minutes before our guide comes to takes us to a temple (should be interesting), so I thought I would try to continue my last post on China.

This trip is so different from our last trip. In EVERY aspect. well, the guide is here. I have to go. I will update when we get back. Love to all of you!

I realize that I haven't shared much about China with you. Part of the reason is I seem to be constantly trying to work my time on the computer around 3 other children who are dying to talk to their friends through IM. Erin needs the computer for school work and then I have 2 little ones and a husband who need me. So, after the kids have typed, I finally am getting the computer. I will try to fill you in on some of the things.

Ri sleeps well. He falls asleep in his crib around 8:30 and sleeps until 2:30. He seems to be walking better then when we first got him. He now bends his knees. Mark calls him the Duke because his gate is very similar. He loves food. He eats anything, so we have to be very careful. He still has diarrhea. Yesterday, I think the change in eating and schedule cause havoc for him. He is quite the trooper, though.

When we went to sign the paperwork, the woman who was holding him when we got him was there. She tried very hard to get him to pay attention to her. She rubbed his face and arms and talked to him and tried interacting. He was sitting on my lap at the time. But no matter how hard she tried, he didn't budge and barely looked at her I was thrilled. I figured that was great progress. I can't imagine the trauma this little guy has gone through. He had no clue of anything that was going to happen to him. Wow, can you imagine? God has answered so many prayers. One specific prayer is that he was not terrified. He was scared and very, very sad, but not terrified. He would cry for just a few minutes, then he would stop. And Elizabeth has been incredible. Very little jealousy. That is amazing to me. She does want to be held by whoever is holding Ri, but she is not screaming or hitting or anything.

It is 5:04 am and both our little ones are still sleeping. I thought I would share a bit with everyone. But before I do, if you are following and get a chance... please email me! My heart aches to hear from "home". My email address is: jesuspaidmywages@yahoo.

First of all, I will share about little Paul Liu Ri Chen. He is a sweetheart. He is not as small as I expected. In fact, at times I think he seems much bigger in size then Elizabeth. When I pick him up, he ssems to be more dense and heavier. But, he is definitely shorter! He has many spots on his feet that appear to itch him. I think they may be bug bites, but I am not so sure. He still has diarhea, but it is not frequent. We were told to be very careful of what we feed him. I still have not figured out if they mean because of his "flu" or because of him in general. Unfortunately, though our guide is very, very sweet, English does not seem to come very easy for her. We have mixed up what eachother are saying very often. So I am not sure that she quite understands some of our questions. That is ok though, God has all those answers and in time, we will know them.

I was very surprised at his scar on his chest. I was expecting something pretty severe, but it is so much better! I was thrilled for him. Not quite sure what I was expecting, but I was happy to see how mild it was compared to that. He has adorable eyes. The paperwork that the gave me with his finding ad on it states that he has double eyelids. I have no clue what that means and frankly can't see it if he still does. He seems to have calmed down quite a bit and feels pretty ok with his family. We have allowed all the kids to hold him. He screamed on everyone, but after a minute, he would calm down. Mark was he first to get him to feel comforatable. But.. then Mark had to do paperwork and I became the chief caregiver. After that, he was broken to go to Marks arms. I was holding to babies and Mark just simply felt bad for me. I felt bad for Mark since I know that Ri felt most comfortable with him first. So I told him to just take Ri anyways. He did and then took him on a walk. It was no time that he stopped screaming. I decided that he just needs to feel comfortable with both of us.

He fell asleep in his crib with me rubbing his head. He is a thumb sucker, my first one! Erin really got him to smile and then belly laugh. Erin thinks his laugh is an evil sounding laugh. We crack up at it. When he walks, at least yesterday, his legs do not bend. We finally figured out that we think it is because his pants are so big that that was the only way to keep them from falling off. :) I saw him try to run for something and it appeared that his legs bent just fine. We will see today.

Well everyone is waking up, so I need to get going. I can't wait to tell you more and share with you about the city. It appears to be much more rural... though the view from our hotel is incredible!!! I will post a picture of it as soon as I can. I am serious, I have never had a better view from a hotel room.

For those wondering... Elizabeth seems to really like her new brother. But, last night she woke up whining to go home. :(

I'm with Renee.... There is something so special about traveling with others. We really built such a great bond with you guys! I miss you guys! Please keep writing. I long to hear from everyone.

Introducing our newest son.. Paul Liu Ri Chen Miller

We took off for the airport this morning at 9:30. As we arrived atthe airport, Emily realized that she had left her pillow and her kite and something else she needed. We had to have a bell hop bring it to us. 200 yuan later, she had it in hand. I gave benedryl to Elizabeth in hopes that she would be able to handle the flight. She slept through almost all of it. That truly was a gift. I can safely say that I had been a crazy lunatic this morning. I lost my temper way to often. As I sat on the plane, trying to calm my nerves, I spent the time praying. I realized that I was nervous / scared about our 6th child. It must have all come to a head this morning for me.

We landed in Fouzou at 2:14 only to not be able to locate our guide. We waited until all the luggage was picked up and then stood looking around, not knowing what to do. Well, Mark headed to try to figure out how to use a phone. Em noticed someoone running into the airport. It was our guide. We were quite relieved to see her. We then drove an hour to the hotel. We were told on the way that Ri would be at the hotel when we got there. We certainly were not prepared for that. But nothing has gone how we thought so far, why would today be any different?

Once we got here, we put our luggage in the room, grabbed paperwork and headed to meet our son. He was on the 3rd floor (we are on the 6th). We walked in and there he sat on the lap of his ayi. I think he looked at us and had no clue what to think, but the closer we got, the more upset he got. He cried his little heart during the time we were in the room. Thanks to the efforts of all the kids, he has since settled down and even gave us a couple of smiles. Well, I am exhausted, but praising God.

I will fill you in later on how he is doing. He is wonderful and much bigger then I expected. For all of you who are wondering how Elizabeth is.... she loves him. She wants to do everything he does and even climbed up beside him in bed to watch tv.

These are pictures from our touring yesterday. Hey, Becky, ifyou are reading this, can you have a rose for Ri? His name is: Paul Liu Ri Chen Miller

thanks!

Click on the picture to go to a bunch from the Great Wall

When we travel, we travel on a bus. It is funny because it is a big bus with only 10 of in it. We are traveling with one other family. They are very sweet and will be adopting a son who is 3 1/2 years old. We go our separate ways today but will meet back up in Guangzhou. These pictures are from the Great Wall and from the bus ride to and from it.

A few quick thoughts. First, I love the people of China. They are so sweet and kind. We do draw a lot of attention. Jacob seems to be loved by many of the women. Yesterday, on the Wall, Sam was pulled over by 2 Chinese men and they took a picture with him. He cracked up. Everyone loves Elizabeth. Many women just come right up to her and pick her up. She is a bit overwhelmed. At Tianamen Square, she locked up and was in a daze for most of the walk. We were approached by so many people who wanted to sell us things. Ithink it just got to her. We would say no thank you over and over, yet they would follow us, changing their price all the time. Emily did buy a very cool kite, but after that, we had tens of people selling kites trying to sell us more! It was amazing how low they would go! (that made Em sad since she paid much more for hers). I did learn how to so "no thank you" in Chinese and got very, very good at it. :)

I forgot to tell you about the airport. While I was trying to work out the luggage issue (by the way... we got the luggage last night at midnight!!! Yippee) the kids were all sitting by themselves waiting for me. A man came up to them, started pointing at them, and then laughing. They just laughed. Then he was smiling ear to ear and poiting and counting on his fingers. He put up the number 4 and then smiled and then the thumbs up. They finally figured out that he was smiling about having 4kids in the family. Then they told him they had 5... then changed it to 6. He laughed out loud and smiled and put the thumbs up sign. Then when I came out holding Elizabeth, he gave me the biggest smile, counted the kids, then just grinned and gave us the thumbs up. It was very sweet.

Well, enjoy the pictures. We get Ri today!!!!!