Ok,I am sorry for the pictures being out of order, but I dont have time right now to put them in order. LEt me tell you a little bit about them. The scenery pictres are of the trip to Xaimen. At least the countryside ones are, the city pictures are in Xaimen. The one close up of a building with red letters is the actual orphanage. It is in a very nice area of town. Nothing seems run down at all. I think it must be an excellent orphanage. I do know the kids seemed loved. The woman in black who is holding Ri (there are 2 of them) is the one/ones who brought him to us on Sunday. They were thrilled to see him and he definiely wanted them! The pink cribs are where the babies are. Like I said earlier, there are alot of cribs. This room was mostly for the kids who are special needs. I think there were at least 30 or more babies in here. They were all precious. And, yes Christy, it makes me long for more. Don't worry, Mamaw and Mom.... we are done unless God shows us differently! There were several older kids that I wanted to just grab and take home. My heart ached for them the most. There was one little girl that just grabbed my heart. Oh how i wanted her. Anyways... Lynn -- the little boy I am knealing with is your son! I have more pics.

Gt to go. write more later - I am back. The one pic I want you to know about is the one with Ri crying so hard. We are actually leaving the orphanage at this point. It breaks our heart. This is the only home he has ever known. He wanted to go "home". Soon, Ihope he understands what his "home" is! We love him and hopefully he will soon not want to go back.

Just a reminder to those of you who are able to see all the pictures, please go to Ri's sisters site at: www.bringinghomeelizabeth.blogspot.com

Some people get blocked on our site if I put the link on this one, so I opted to just post pictures here and journal here then have the link for all the pictures on our other site.

Paul - please let me know if that is helping any! Libby - I miss you and Bonnie. I am really hoping you guys can get on now! THose of you who know them, please let them know it is fixed.

Now, onto to yesterday's adventures. I will be posting pictures, but I have a feeling that right now I will only have time for a blog. It is 5:00 am and my kids are really wanting to IM.

Yesterday .. well ever since we have had Ri... was very emotional. I am finding out so much about myself, much of what I do not like. This little guy is very, very special. I think it came to a head for my yesterday when I arrived at his orphanage. I realized, as much as I possibly can realize, what he has missed out on. I have been so concerened about his developement, and really hadn't put into account the life that he has had for 2 1/2 years. I am blown away at how wonderful he is!

The orphanage was very nice. It is very clean and the nannies/ayi's were very loving. They all were so excited to see Ri. All of them grabbed him and held him. They told me lots about him. They said that he is a very big eater. We already knew this! He is an incredible eater!!!!! They said that he is completely potty trained and very independent. We have not seen that at all, but we have no idea how to ask him or how to figure it out. Poor little guy, we will have to retrain him. One thing I have been wondering about is his waking up time. Just before he wakes up, he flings his upper body back and forth for several seconds and then he opens his eyes. They told me he does that every time he wakes up. They say he is lazy and does not want to wake up. They laughed and laughed about it. I also learned that the government and a foundation split the cost of his surgery. I am so thankful to both! Praise God that someone cared about his life enough to pay the cost.

We were able to tour his "living" area. It consisted of 3 rooms. There was a room with pink cribs in it full of babies. Most were disabled. It broke my heart. They were all laying in the cribs, only one cried during the whole time we were there. They were precious.

hang on... Elizabethneeds me and the kids want to im. More to come.

Today was a very hard day, both physically and emotionally. It took 4 hours to arrive at the orphanage, we had a brief visit, and then visited an island located on Xaimen City. Then a very hard 4 hours home. I will post more tomorrow.

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.