China Express 2

A Year Ago Today

2008-08-21T22:21:00.007-04:00

We finalized our adoption of Samuel FangZhou Mason in Chengdu 1 year ago today. It's been a wild ride.

Since we've been home Samuel has been to a Cardiologist, an ENT, Urologists, an occupational therapist. He had tube's placed in his ears, and had one surgery. And will need one more. He's also been seen by a geneticist and an orthopedist. He completed 6 months of kindergarten at the public school, and has seen 3 different speech therapists, He'll start first grade in a couple of weeks and will finally begin speech therapy at school.

But this is not what makes Samuel special, it's not his collection of physical needs but his strengths that are so amazing about our little boy. From the first day we met him he claimed us as his and never looked back. He seems to have no remorse or sense of loss. In fact since he's finally gained the ability to relate some of his memories of China he seems to really grasp that he has so much more with us.

Not to discount his time in China because he obviously had someone very loving to take care of him. He is quite affectionate and hasn't had any trouble attaching to us. His sister is his best friend and she'll have a hard time remembering he ever wasn't there. Though when they fight it can be vicious, they always make up with hugs and extending forgiveness.

The trouble attaching was more for me, the mom. It was difficult, to say the least, to accept this little boy who had a full blown personality with a few behavioral problems and couldn't speak English for months. But over time he has won my heart. We have great conversations now and he is so inquisitive it's a joy to watch him learn new things every day.

He has an amazing personality, he loves people and is so hospitable whenever someone walks in the house. He serves with a smile and loves to ask questions. He wants to know about people places and things. Imaginary play is one of his favorite things to do with his sister. He likes to play daddy. He also likes to build things. Good thing we already had a full supply of legos.

He is a typical boy almost fully americanized but with parts of his 6 year Chinese history that may always remain a mystery. For now that doesn't seem to bother him.

Not everyone understands what we've done. I think some people think we've adopted out of some contrived duty or obligation. But that's not it these children are ours, a gift from God, this is not some "project" I've taken on, some philanthropic endeavor to make the world a better place, we've adopted these children to be a part of our family they are not some anomaly to our family. They are a blessing.

It's not always easy but is anything worthwhile in life in easy? And while there are days I imagine life without them, please don't judge me for that, truly I could never live with out them

a year ago at the orphanage:

And this month with his family except for Ryan:

Mason Family Update

2008-03-16T07:40:00.007-04:00

The Eye... I was going to put this at the end of the post but decided it would make a great opener. This is Michael hiding in a corner after rearranging his room.

March, almost a quarter of the new year has passed. So much has happened. last December we decided to put Samuel in School. He started after Christmas break and is now attending Mountain View Elementary. We have not been involved in public school for 10 years, it is kind of culture shock for me. But the routine of having to get up and out of the house in the morning has been good. And the time to work with Anna one on one with her schooling has been a blessing as well.

Samuel attends ESL in the morning and Afternoon kindergarten. One of the reasons I put him in school was so that he could receive services for speech. This unfortunately is not happening as I would have liked. What I perceive as severe articulation difficulties the school perceives as lack of English proficiency. But they have agreed to evaluate him. I am having him independently evaluated as well.

Samuel is not our only child, though he seems to get the most attention in my conversations of late. The others have been busy as well. Since the new year Ryan has been busy with roadkill and totaled cars. One Saturday in January he hit a hawk it was stuck in the grill of his car. The following Saturday he hit a deer which affectively totaled his car. Thankfully he was able to borrow his grandmothers car for a week and we were able to find him a new one post-haste.

Here is a picture of poor old Grendel...

Michael has been busy with his school work and he also has entered the wonderful world of motor vehicles. He purchased an old VW bug. He is sure to gain a credit in auto mechanics with this one. Dad promises to help. This did prompt him to go get his learners permit as well which he accomplished after taking the test twice.

Michael also rearranged his room this week
before:

After

Now maybe he'll clean his room. Actually it does look better and more open now though it's hard to tell in these pictures.

looking back on 2007 and looking forward to 2008

2008-01-01T09:58:00.002-05:00

I started this post in January of 2008 and here it is the middle of March!! well I'll finish it up then give an update of the past months.

Last January I wrote these words:

This year I hope to embrace the struggles and to count it pure joy whenever I face trials of various kinds as I know this will perfect my faith. I want to learn more of the cross, and the sufferings that Jesus suffered so I can walk with him. I want to take up my cross daily to follow Him. Noble words but when the trials come I will have to choose to either fall on my knees and go to the cross or rely on my spirituality, my ability to figure things out,my plans and ideas. I pray I need knee pads by the end of the year. I'm afraid choosing God's way will itself sometimes be a struggle, pride and self sufficiency rear their ugly head so often.

And I have had struggles like never before, most of which have been related to walking joyfully and faithfully in my appointed trials. I, unfortunately, have relied on my own ability and ideas. But God has been faithful! He has been with us through it all.

I should not discount the miracle of a changed heart and a peace about bringing a young special needs boy into our family. It is still a battle though, I must constantly put aside my desires to care for my family and I don't always succeed, I am impatient at best and angry at my worst. But I hope I am learning to repent, because I will never in this life be without sin though I'd like to think so.

So as I recount God's goodness to us in 2007 I can look forward to more of the same in 2008 though my sin gets in the way I can Trust God to never leave me or forsake me.

Submission of Christ

2007-12-10T06:56:00.000-05:00

http://www.gracecommunity.ws/messagelist

We have started a series on Authority at our church. What an amazing message was given the first week explaining the relationship of the Trinity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It was the gospel message in all it's glory. Christ fully submitted to the plan of the Father for our sake.

The one phrase that continues to stand out in my mind is that "Jesus laid aside His glory" so that he could save us. He became fully human while remaining fully God but came to earth without His glory. But you have to understand what His glory was to feel the impact of that statement and you have to understand what laying aside His glory meant to begin to know the cost Christ paid for our sake. You'll have to listen to the message to get the full exposition.

When He died upon that Cross He was completely separated from God the father. When He suffered for our sake He no longer had supernatural power to bear Him up, He no longer had the mercy of God to get Him through, He didn't possess some kind of protection from the physical pain and even worse, spiritually He bore the full fury of God's righteous wrath that we would not have to. He was completely separated from God the father. We may never completely comprehend what that means.

So this season remember what that baby in a manger represents, Christ coming in full humanity to grow to manhood and die for our sake, so that we could be spared from God's Holy Wrath and be brought into Christs presence as His bride.

Jesse Tree

2007-11-28T19:02:00.000-05:00

We are celebrating advent this year with the Jesse Tree; an everyday devotional to celebrate the coming of Christ. We printed up paper ornaments to hang on the branch of a tulip poplar that I cut and am displaying in an urn in the kitchen. Each day we'll have a bible reading that helps us remember how all of the bible points to the coming of Christ. Hopefully we too will remember what our true hope and joy is in, not the presents and the food and the party's and the shopping but, our salvation in Christ who became frail humanity for our sake.

Todays reading was from Isaiah 11
The Righteous Reign of the Branch

11:1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
9 They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

Apple Picking

2007-10-30T06:54:00.000-04:00

Ok so I lied it's been almost a month since I've posted and I'm posting recent pics not China pics, but I'm sure you'll enjoy them. Sam is doing great I'll try to post an update about him soon.

Guangzhou Folk Art Museum

2007-09-20T18:57:00.000-04:00

I still have lots of pictures from China that I haven't posted I'll be doing that over the next couple weeks time permitting and hope I can keep updating on happenings at home.

These pictures were taken at the Folk Art Museum in Guangzhou. The museum is actually the Chen Family Compound or something like that, where the Chen family for generations would be schooled for public service. The last picture taken from the museum is actually an apartment window outside of the compound.

Rainy Days

2007-09-18T07:58:00.000-04:00

A Miracle Part 2

2007-09-18T06:37:00.000-04:00

I did want to say that Samuel, while he tested his limits quickly, also attached very quickly and was affectionate and sweet a lot of the time. He didn't seem to have any hesitation in claiming us as his family and that was all answer to prayer.
We had asked one of the Sunday School classes at church to pray for our adoption and I am so thankful we did! The whole class of 6 & 7 year olds was very excited to pray for Samuel and I know God hears the prayers of children.
Here are our prayer requests for Sam before we left with notes on how those were answered:

That he will not be afraid of leaving the orphanage: He was all smiles and saying "by by I'm leaving now". I have to tell you that the assistant orphanage director had quite the sincerely surprised look as Samuel was all smiles and excitement upon meeting us and the next day doing paperwork. We were warned repeatedly that he was quiet and shy and did not play much with others. He plays much and with others

That he will be excited about having a family: We could not have asked for a more excited boy. He was so happy to finally meet the his family that he had seen in the pictures we sent.

When we go to China to bring him home

That the Mason’s will have a safe journey to China: We did

That Sam will not be afraid of Mr. and Mrs. Mason: Not in the least

That he will trust Mr. and Mrs. Mason: He did and it was apparent early on that he depended on us to care for him

That he will eat well: Even though the orphanage warned us that he doesn't eat well and has to be encouraged to eat we have had no problems with the amounts that he eats. He still does not drink milk or eat dairy products but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

That he will stay healthy: So far so good

That Mr. and Mrs. Mason will be able to communicate with him: We've been able to get our point across quite easily

That he will not be afraid of airplanes: I've never seen a boy more not afraid

When we get home

That Sam will learn English quickly: He is understanding quickly but will need help speaking it

That he will stay healthy: so far so good

That he will make new friends easily: He has made friends though hasn't had much opportunity in this area yet

That his sister Ruth will not be jealous and will like him: Ruth is jealous when Sam is on my lap or getting more attention than she but she loves her brother. She wants to play with him always asks for him first when she wakes up and has accepted him as part of the family.

That Sam will like all his new brothers and sisters: He loves us all!

That he will not be afraid of the dogs: about 5 minutes the first day he met them, they are now best friends

That he will like American food: He loved meatloaf, broccoli and sweet potatoes! and seems to enjoy most of the American dinners we fix, though he does like hot sauce on almost anything.

That Mr. and Mrs. Mason will be faithful to teach Sam about God and what Jesus did for us: So far so good :-)

God is good and has given us more than we could ask or imagine and I know he will be faithful to carry us through any rough spots ahead.

A Miracle

2007-09-13T10:56:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to write this post for a while because I think it is important for me to let people know how great our GOD is. While in China I struggled with a lot of emotions concerning the adoption of Samuel. In the middle of it, it was hard imagining that my feelings would change. I thought I would be stuck in this struggle of not trusting and being unhappy forever.

Even before we got to the the orphanage I started feeling fearful. "What were we doing?" "How would we care for this child?" "Will we be able to provide for his specific needs?"

When he walked through the door of the conference room with that little shy look that we had come to know so well in the pictures I thought "here we go..." I didn't have time to think much more as he broke out of his shell within minutes and was touching and jabbering and playing and possessing all the new things around him. My next thoughts were, "Oh my he is ADHD and is going to drive me crazy the rest of my life" "I don't think I can do this".

Samuel wasted no time in testing his limits and pushing buttons. He would hit, spit, pout and adamantly refuse to hold hands, stay close or accept what he was given without asking for something else. Oh and he was loud, no volume control as someone in our group in Guangzhou mentioned. Our time in Chengdu was difficult, I wanted to go out and do stuff Wayne wanted to stay in and contain Samuel even though he was bouncing off the walls. The city was not exactly friendly to kids, all there was was shopping and smelly streets and nothing familiar to us.

I had been so excited to see another part of China, and still am glad we were able to, though the most comfortable times were when we were with our guide. I wished we had utilized her more to get out and see things. I think the summer humidity didn't help any either.

But back to me and my thoughts and emotions. On Tuesday we finalized all the paperwork and that night it hit me that this is for real and forever and as I lay in bed I cried. All night I cried I couldn't see how I could possibly do this I didn't have the strength, the stamina, the know how or the will to raise this child. I wanted to go home without Samuel and forget we ever started this adoption.

In between crying and reading the book "House of Sixty Fathers" (a children's historical fiction book about a young Chinese boy who was separated from his parents during the Japanese occupation of WWII), I woke Wayne and cried to him and had him hold me. He reminded me it would be different when we got home in our own environment that we just have to get through this time in China. That was what I needed to hear though I didn't receive it well at the time.

I also cried out to God. I just poured out my heart with what I shared above and didn't really know what would happen. I continued to struggle through our days in Chengdu not attaching well to Sam kind of acting like a babysitter more than a mother and letting my mind imagine the worse for our life at home. Finally Friday arrived and we couldn't wait to get to Guangzhou. We had our guide take us an hour early and were very grateful when she managed to get us on a flight that left an hour earlier than our originally scheduled one.

Turned out that most of the flights that day were delayed due to thunder storms that morning and then while we were there more thunder storms came. The airport became more and more crowded with a sea of Chinese faces all seeming to stare at us westerners with an active Chinese boy.

We tried to keep track of our flight but the monitors weren't updated so I had to keep checking with the lady at the gate. At one point one monitor said our flight was boarding at a different gate so we packed up our stuff and moved across the room to another gate. After about 3 hours of waiting Samuel had had enough, he was tired and probably hungry and wanted to get on a plane. He was crying, loudly I might add, and pointing towards the door. I tried to grab people and ask if they spoke english and chinese so they could explain to Samuel what was going on. Samuel didn't care if we got on a plane to Siberia he just wanted to get on. Our first hours without our guide were difficult to say the least.

Finally around 9:30 pm we somehow got in the right line to get on the right shuttle bus to bring us to our plane. Then it started raining again, we walked up the stairs into our plane in the rain. Samuel at last was happy though. Our plane sat on the runway another hour before it could take off and by God's incredible mercy I sat next to a Chinese angel who loved Samuel and played with him and talked to him till we took off at 11pm. I was able to borrow her cell phone( amazing how much you can communicate with gestures) and call our guide so she could call our guide in Guangzhou to let him know we'd be delayed.

We arrived at 1am and finally settled into our rooms at the China Hotel by 2 and were ready to go by 7am. Now onto the medical exam.

Being over tired didn't help, Samuel whined and cried as the doctors poked and pried. The doctor went and got our guide to ask if we thought Samuel was ok mentally. I realized that if I had said no he wasn't ok I could disrupt this adoption and could go home. What an evil thought, but I didn't, I explained he was delayed in his speech and wasn't able to articulate his words well, but that he was ok otherwise. As you can see I was still struggling.

After a good nights sleep and being with other adopting Americans I started to feel a little better. There were about 7 families adopting older special needs children and those with kids 4 and older were struggling with many of the same things we were. The fits and the pouting, the disregard for authority, the possessiveness, the spitting, hitting and kicking , and while I felt bad for us all I also felt a great relief that I wasn't alone.

I still was struggling with anxiety about our life with Samuel. As I read God's word though I started to find hope:

"The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Phillipians 4:5-7

I was able to start thanking God for Samuel and how through him I would grow in humility, dependence on God and love for others.

Then I received this from a friend via e-mail:

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, [2] but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” We are sustained by His mercy and somehow this passage spoke to me of the infinite mercy and compassion God is demonstrating on Samuel's life and your family by allowing us to know Him and give Him all glory. And i am so glad that it is not by our human will or exertion that anything of worth comes to pass! Hope you are abiding in God's peace and that y'all have a safe stay and return to the states. Much love and prayers,

I needed to hear so much that it was not by my will or exertion that anything of worth comes to pass. It is by God working through me. I am a weak vessel in which he can show HIS power in Samuel's life and our life.

So now we have been home a little over 2 weeks, wow is that possible? The first week was difficult his pouts and moods were still there and I was not very patient with him. It was hard for me to be compassionate. And integrating our family back together with Ruth was interesting. Things are smoothing out though and once we get through all the initial doctors visits and evaluations we'll settle in even more.

We hit the ground running coming home the week before labor day. God was gracious and allowed us to get over our jet lag quickly and we were able to get Michael started with his homeschooling classes and clubs without too much difficulty and Anna too is getting into a groove with schooling.

But the miracle is that God has changed my heart, HE and HE alone has changed my fearful, anxiety ridden, ungrateful heart heart to one of love and compassion and acceptance of Samuel. He is ours and with God's help we can raise him as our own.

Just as God has adopted us as sons and joint heirs with Christ so we have adopted Samuel into our family. Just as God has given us a hope and a future so we have given Samuel the same. So you see I am nothing just a tool in the hand of a mighty God to HIM be the glory.

Back Tracking

2007-08-31T23:44:00.000-04:00

These pictures are of the street behind the hotel the restaurant I mention at the end of the post is on this street.

The day before we went to see the Pandas and the day after we first met Sam was one of the most important days of the trip. That was Tuesday, August 21st and that was the day we finalized the adoption of Samuel and he legally became ours. His actual name change won't take place till his paperwork here is processed.

Here are some pictures of that important day.

We didn't have our camera with us that day but our trusty driver Philip took a bunch of pictures and some video of this day and our gotcha day, and put them on a CD for us.

This office building had no AC and it was hot and sticky Anna was bored and Sam was restless. We were in this building about an hour or so and then were off to another office building where we got a little speech from some official guy who said they were thankful that we would take an orphan into our home and believed it was a great thing for Samuel. We also were thanked by the assistant orphanage director who also believed Sam would be well cared for by us it was very sincere.

This wasn't the most enjoyable day but it was significant. I think we spent the afternoon in the hotel checked out the pool then went out to eat at the local restaurant our guide had taken us to the night before.

Pictures of Pandas

2007-08-31T05:25:00.000-04:00

Here are just a few Pictures of the Panda Research and Breeding Center. We didn't get a lot of great pictures. I think Wayne got some good video though so maybe we'll be able to get a short clip of them. They were pretty amazing. Here is the website for the research center:
http://www.panda.org.cn/ they have better picture there.

It's pretty neat that this is where Sam is from. I tried to find the Chinese word for Panda on the web but what I found was so different than what we learned I'll just tell you what Sam calls them. Sam, by the way, seems to speak a Chengdu dialect, but seems to understand Mandarin and the local dialect.

Sam says "show mare" or actually "doe mare" as he can't pronounce the sh sounds. I think the pinyin is something like xiong mao meaning bear cat. I think the phonetic way to say it is more like shao ma. I probably totally butchered it I hope no one Chinese is reading :-)

Tears of Joy

2007-08-31T04:38:00.000-04:00

There really is such a thing as tears of joy. We hit the ground of Dulles International Airport on Wednesday, August 29th at 7:23pm. As soon as I felt the wheels thud to the ground of US soil tears started streaming down my face. I was so happy and relieved to be home I could not help myself.

I know some of you are saying you can't help crying all the time, it's true I'm a cry baby, but these really were tears of joy. Joy knowing I would see your faces soon, joy knowing English would be the first language spoken over every intercom, joy for not having to gesture with the officials. It took over an hour to get through customs and immigration but as soon as we had that final approval I nearly jumped for joy and bolted towards the doors, through one set around a corner through another set thinking I'd see some familiar faces but still there was another corner and another set of doors finally we made it to cheers and camera flashes, families and friends, my little Ruthies face and Ryan's great big grin.

I know I looked travel worn and sickly but I was the happiest I'd been in 2 weeks and really didn't feel that bad at the moment. Considering we left the China Marriott in Guangzhou, China at 10 am Wednesday morning(that would have been 10pm Tuesday evening for those in the US) took a 2.5 hour flight to Beijing, picked up all our luggage rechecked for the flight to Dulles and then spent 13 hours on a plane with Anna's legs and Sam's head both on my lap for about 8 of those hours then landed worked our way through international baggage, immigration and customs making the total about 21 hours of travel and that after being sick for 3 days I think I probably looked pretty good. Anyway that's my excuse not that it really matters.

Stayed tuned I'll be backlogging (? is that the right word) our trip I have our pictures downloaded and do want to journal before I forget the details of our days.

Almost done!!

2007-08-26T22:06:00.001-04:00

We will be arriving in Washington at Dulles International at 7:46 pm on Wednesday August 29th. we should be in baggage by 8:45.
Hope to see a few people there.

I'll update with lots of pictures when we get home.

--
Martha
www.findingruth.blogspot.com

Update

2007-08-23T20:03:00.001-04:00

Hello All!

Sorry for the silence the last couple of days. I've been checking e-mails but haven't updated the blog.

We have been very busy. on Wednesday we visited the Panda Breeding Center. It was kind of like a zoo just for Pandas. They were mostly inside due to the heat. They are used to being in the mountains so the humidity and heat in the summer is not good for them.

Wayne got some great video footage of the adult Pandas. We also saw many red pandas that are smaller and very racoon like except they are red :-). Samuel seemed to enjoy the trip as well.

Yesterday, Thursday, we visited the silk brocade factory and shop. This is an amazing skill that takes years to learn. They have huge looms that are operated by 2 people.

We also visited the place where he was found back in March of 2002. It is near the center of Chengdu at what used to be the railway ticket office. the offices there have since been torn down and it is a construction site. We took many pictures of all of us there. The new city center is very beautiful with many fountains. They are building subways under it all. Emily,our guide, said it is likely he was from a rural family that couldn't afford medical care for Samuel as he was a sickly child when he was found. He was brought to the police station by a man name He Yu and then brought to the orphanage.

Samuel is doing fine. Chengdu and the hotel in particular are not very kid friendly. We are longing to get to a park and playground where we can just let him run. We've been rather confined to our room when we are not out touring or shopping or eating and it has been hard on all of us. He likes to watch us in the pool but doesn't want anything to do with getting in himself. He likes to splash us from the side though. I think Franklin Park Pool will be more to his liking, he'll be able to stand in the water.

Samuel is quite the ladies man. He has made friends with all the young ladies in the hotel;calling them Ayi (auntie) and giving them little gifts like pieces of paper from the panda center. He especially loves our guide and we are very grateful to her and our driver Philip who has played with Samuel while we shopped at the brocade factory.

Emily has made it easier for him to understand us and us him. She says he is trying to speak clearly but he definately has trouble with his speech. I've noticed that words with sh,s, th or other sounds that the tongue on the roof of the mouth are needed are especially difficult for him. He says Samuel "amuel" just like Ruth says Sam "am'. so I guess they'll be getting similar speech therapy.

We leave for Guangzhou late this afternoon and are very much looking forward to being with the other families and being near a park and finishing up all the paperwork so we can come home. It's been very different in many ways than our trip to bring Ruth home. But it has certainly been memorable.

That's all for now thanks for following our journey. I hope to maybe get some pictures up in the next few days.
--
Martha

It's Official

2007-08-21T08:04:00.001-04:00

Chengdu is the 3rd largest city in China and is full of people riding bikes, electric scooters, driving cars, walking, sitting, begging, hocking wares. We are still not quite adjusted to the time change, we are awake by 4 am and can hardly hold our eyes open by 8pm. On a walk to Starbucks around 5 am The city was quiet and dark. In the door way of a shopping center there were 3 young boys sleeping. I wanted to cry. down the main street in from of the hotel are high end department stores and flashy billboards, if turn down an alley way though you get more of the local flavor with many independent shops and street vendors.

Dinners at one of the local restaurants is a bargain, about 8 USD to feedthe 4 of us. This afternoon we tried sichuan skewered meet and steamed dumplings from the street vendors for about 2 dollars.

We get many funny looks from people they see us westerners and Anna's blonde hair then see Samuel and just stare.

We will be checking out the panda research center and will take lots of pictures.

Our computer issue is still not resolved but hope to have someone look at it tomorrow. I'll keep adding posts to the blog but I know what everyone wants is pictures!!

It is official as of today Samuel Fangzhou is a Mason and is ours to bring home. we will be in Chengdu until Friday then it is off to Guangzhou to receive Samuels exit visa to the US.

Sam has some bad habits, spitting and hitting are a couple, please pray that he will have more of a heart of please us. Pray that we will help him understand the blessings of obedience. He also does have a sweet side, he takes care of all his things by putting them away neatly, and is always looking around to make sure there is no one missing. At dinner he passes out the napkins to be sure we all have one and likes to share the food.

The communication barrier is not easy and it is going to take some time for us each to understand each other. It is good to have our guide around she is able to communicate with him and help him understaned what is going on when. Sam likes our guide alot.

Well my eyes are drooping I better go, Please keep praying for us all.

Martha

not even 24 hours

2007-08-20T19:43:00.001-04:00

A couple prayer requests:

as I noted our computer died!! It's killing me, I hope we can get it resolved. My biggest concern, besides not being able to post pictures and share the way we'd like to on the blog, is that we don't have skype so we can talk to Ruthie. The first time we did it was such a blessing to be able to hear her voice and for her to hear ours. So please pray we will find an alternative or get the computer fixed or just give us all peace according to God's perfect plan.

I also want to praise God for the work he is doing in all of our hearts knitting Sam into our family. It is a little frustrating not being able to communicate with Sam the way we would like but we seem to be getting along ok. When we first met I have to admit I was a little panicky in my heart, but as time goes by, I can feel my affection for him growing. God is truly working on us all.

He is tiny we bought him 4/5 clothes and they hang on him. He seems a little malnourished. They told us he didn't eat well, but he is eating fine with us. He loved the breakfast buffet, fruit eggs congee and sausage and ham. We hope we'll get him fattened up a little.

We were also told that he was very shy and didn't smile much and wasn't very active. HA! From about 2 minutes after we met him he's been nothing but smiles and chatter! He is much different than we expected activity wise. He loves his baba(Daddy). He always wants to run ahead of us and get into things he shouldn't, but he is learning to hold hands and slow down.

It hasn't even been 24 hours and we are starting to feel he is truly part of the family. He was asking for his gugu's(big brothers) and meimei(little sister).He understands, we think, that we have a long journey ahead of us to get home.

We love you and miss you all. If the computer doesn't get resolved I"ll try to find a way to get pictures onto the blog.

On 8/20/07, kbaihly@aol.com <kbaihly@aol.com> wrote:

Hey Guys,

The kids and I were checking out the Mason's blog this morning and were excited and thankful to God for the great news we read about. They have Sam. Praise be to God!

Go on the blog, leave a message of encouragement, and enjoy the great pictures of this precious time the Mason's are experiencing.

Lets continue to pray for them and their children that are still here.

God is sooooooooo good!
Kay

Click on the link below to get to their sight.
http://www.findingruth.blogspot.com/

AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com .

--
Martha
www.findingruth.blogspot.com

Technical Difficulties

2007-08-20T08:18:00.001-04:00

Hi All!

I'm in the business center because our laptop computer died...

We think the battery died. I really wanted to talk to Ruth but we can't get on skype. If we can't get the computer fixed I'll try to get a panda phone or something so I can call.

Sorry everyone, other than computer troubles we are doing great!

--
Martha
www.findingruth.blogspot.com

Introducing Samuel!

2007-08-20T05:19:00.000-04:00

We left Beijing at about 7:45am and arrived in Chengdu by 10:30am. Our guide met us at the airport and got us checked in to the hotel then thankfully we had a couple of hours to get settled I had a horrible headache and a little car sickness. A rest and some advil did wonders and we left the hotel a little after 1 and arrived at the orphanage before 2.

They brought Samuel in and after about 2 minutes of shyness he was all smiles and jabber!! He wanted to touch everything and immediately called us mama and baba. He was not at all afraid of us and in fact was completely ready to leave the orphanage as we toured the rooms he said byby to everybody. He is a busy little boy. Well here are some pics and I'll write more later.

Pictures for Ruth

2007-08-19T08:54:00.000-04:00

A walk around the block in Beijing

2007-08-19T06:33:00.000-04:00

We are staying at the Raddison in Beijing. We took a walk around the block after we checked in and this is what we saw. The construction housing is a bunk house for the construction workersT they all live together during the construction project. There are many of these in Beijing because of all the new construction for the upcoming Olympics.

We Are Here

2007-08-19T04:14:00.000-04:00

A 13 1/2 hour flight is one of those things that seems unbearable about half way through but in hindsight doesn't seem so bad. We are here at the hotel the TV is on and the computer is booted...so much for cultural education. I can't view the blog here in Beijing hopefully we will be able to in Chengdu.

I get the comments in my in box though.
Love all the comments!! please keep them coming. Thank you Ryan I feel much more at ease reading your comment. I hated leaving Ruthie crying but I know she is in good hand.

It's 4pm here 4am there we are going to stay up till at least 10 then hopefully our internal clocks will be somewhat reset and we'll get a good nights sleep.

Joan I'll be skyping my family between 8:30 and 9:00(am Sunday to you) but feel free to give me a buzz around 9:15 or so. or I'll try you.

Well I want to get out and see a little of Beijing so I'm getting the camera and I'll post some pics a little later.
--
Martha

T minus 14 hours

2007-08-17T22:48:00.000-04:00

The bags are packed, the dogs are boarded the house is clean we are ready to go! Wayne picked up a Cubby's ball cap for himself and Sam. Won't they be cute? I'd love to add a picture but it might have to wait; the computer is in high demand tonight.

Please pray for us!
For safe travel
For restful travel
No jet lag
Bright and clear minds the day we meet Sam

Peace for Ruth while we are gone.
Please pray for the Faul's who are watching Ruth.

Pray for Sam:
Our prayers all along have been that God would be preparing Sam to be a part of our family. Don't know exactly how that could have been done but we do hope he is ready for this new chapter in his life; that he won't be afraid of us and that the transition will be smooth please also pray that:

He will be able to communicate with us
He will like us (that always helps)
The attachment process will begin smoothly and that we will be able to intuitively know what he needs.

Next time we post we'll be in China! See you there.

" And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord." Ephesians 2:17-21

Ruthie's Adoption Video

2007-08-10T09:27:00.000-04:00

Here is the video Wayne made while we were in China to meet Ruth. We never really finished it but it is still pretty good.

T minus 222 hours

2007-08-09T07:00:00.001-04:00

9 days till take off!

I making lists, checking them twice, remaking lists and trying to stay calm in the midst of it all.
I'll have to write more later as dear little Ruthie is awake :-)

--
Martha

Confirmed Travel Dates and Travel Itenerary

2007-08-07T15:26:00.001-04:00

Yea! We have our Consulate Appointment set for August 27th, that's my brothers and my fathers birthday!
We'll be leaving Dulles around noon on August 18th and returning on August 29th on United from Beijing.
Arrival time is 7:46. That will be our first stop in the US so we will have to go through customs but please come see us!

I'll remind everyone of the time before we return

--
Martha
www.findingruth.blogspot.com

Of Age

2007-08-07T06:46:00.001-04:00

Ryan that is. 21 yesterday. My, that makes me feel old. Well, not really. His age doesn't make me feel old. But my failing eyes do and my aching back,my swollen feet at the end of the day,my need for a nap in the middle of the afternoon and the wrinkles around my eyes. That's what really makes me feel my advancing years. Though I know some who read this will laugh and say I am still young. It's all relative I guess.

But that is not the point of this. The point was to bring a little attention to my dear son and to give glory to God for the blessing he is to us and to those around him. I constantly receive compliments on what a nice young man he is, engaging, thoughtful great with kids. And good. Now that's an interesting comment isn't it. I've received that comment mostly from my family who know what I was like at that age and what they were like at that age. Good in relation to the sins of our youth, the partying, the promiscuity, the disregard for authority figures. But I know they mean he is good in a moral sense too not just in comparison to our bad.

But Jesus sad no one is good, and I know Ryan would agree. In fact I think he would prefer I point to the one who truly is good, the one who by HIS sacrifice, HIS death on a cross made it possible for us to be "good" in HIS eyes. HE paid for all our bad, all the sins of our youth and all the refined sins of our present, things like conceit, selfish ambition, self righteous anger and bitterness, and the sins of our future.

But this salvation,this atoning for our sins is not just a way to heaven, while that is the ultimate goal, but a way to have joy in this life here on earth. A way to enjoy freedom from sin, freedom to do what is right by the grace poured out on us when we accept Christ in our life. The road is not always easy when you look to glorify God and not yourself but there is an eternal reward that far surpasses anything here on earth.

Dear Ryan,

"But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, 14 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen." 1 Timothy 6:11-16

Love,
Mom

It Worked

2007-08-03T19:26:00.001-04:00

Cool this will make it easier to blog in China. I'll be posting via e-mail for at least part of the trip.

trying again

2007-08-03T19:25:00.001-04:00

Any body out there...

--
Martha
www.findingruth.blogspot.com

TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!!!!!!

2007-08-03T14:00:00.000-04:00

Yes yes yes. We are going to China!! We received our travel approval and if everything falls into place should be able to leave on the 17th or 18th of August!! yes that is just 2 weeks away!

I'm ready though, been ready for a few months now!

So stay tuned, we are going to bring Sam home!

We have been trying to prepare Ruthie for a new brother and she seems just as excited as we are to bring Sam home. She often asks to play with Sam and pray for Sam and wants to give him a blanket and say "Hi Sam"

We also are trying to prepare her to be away from us for 2 weeks. And while I know she isn't old enough to comprehend how long things take I think she understands that mommy, daddy and Anna are going and she isn't. Hopefully she won't lose heart and will know we are coming back.

Ryan and Michael will be around to help her out and she'll be with a great family.

Sam's Referral Pictures

2007-07-23T08:43:00.001-04:00

These are the first pictures of Sam I saw on the website of AWAA.

He looks so sad and shy, at first I passed by his picture because I thought I could not handle another shy child. But the Lord brought us back to this little guy and we are so happy He did. Our love for him has grown during this wait, we can't wait to bring him home to be a part of our family.

When? That is the question

2007-07-20T15:03:00.000-04:00

I want to be ready to go at the drop of a hat. I've shopped, we have our Visa's, I've ordered the crisp 100's, all the luggage is out, I have lists, a first aid kit, instruction sheet for Ruth and am just plain ready to go. Getting the dogs boarded quickly might be difficult. It could be wishful thinking, but I have a feeling that we could be leaving in early August.

But I may still have some lessons in patience and trust to learn. So, what am I going to do for 2 -4 weeks while I wait.

Joy Mingled With Sorrow

2007-07-18T05:59:00.000-04:00

We are very excited and happy to announce that we received our Referral Acceptance Letter on Monday morning!! This means we are one step closer to bringing home Samuel.
Unfortunately we don't know how big that step is. The next thing we are waiting for is Travel Approval, we turn in our signed Referral Acceptance Letter then our agency mails it to China then the China Center of Adoption Affairs(CCAA) double checks with the orphanage to make sure Samuel is still available for adoption. Then they issue Travel Approval this could take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks, big window there, so we continue to wait but know that we are a little closer.

The sorrow comes from learning that my dear Uncle George passed away Tuesday morning in Palm Coast, Florida. He had been battling Pancreatic Cancer for a number of months. I just found this out about a month ago. He was, I believe, 83 years old. Father George was a retired Catholic priest who loved the Lord. Here is a fitting testimony of his life from a dear cousin it speaks well of the man he was to all of us:

It is hard thinking of you leaving this earth and not having the opportunity to see you again - nor for my kids to have one more time to hear you talk and laugh (they love your little snorkle when you laugh) and play monopoly - and play the piano.

All of this reminds me of how thoughtful you have been over the years with all of us in your extended family, and how you have so often provided for us in tiny, but impactful ways. You have embraced us all so openly and without exclusivity or prejudice or judgement - and with such empathy. You kind of just show up - through the mail, or a phone call or a package - in small ways to say you were thinking of us and you are hoping all is well. And you always understand how busy we all are - (rather deplorable isn't it - how crazy busy we all are - and how we don't take the time to call or say thank you or respond - many times) But you are always very forgiving and understanding. Thank you for all you have done for me through the years, and for always understanding.

A few times this last week, I have even been envious of you - going on - having lived a full life - now ready to meet - face to face - God - to and for whom you have been betrothed, so to speak. This is cool too. Wow!! I know being with God is going to be wonderful. He is what keeps me going - He is what keeps my heart expanding and what keeps me from being engulfed by my SELF-defeating ways, and frankly, from quitting and going to live my own selfish life. I love God - and my love for HIm keeps growing. And I notice when I concentrate on receiving His love and being satisfied with Him, I can miraculously love everyone around me more; He is indeed my strength, my hope and joy. In Him do I put my full trust! And He provides, and is faithful, and I am learning that He longs to give us our heart's desires - which end up really being HIs heart's desires - cause He knows what is best for us.

Uncle George, I am praying that this last trek of the journey is a peaceful one and that you are already feeling God there with you - close - very close to you. I pray that although, the veil is there - between earth and heaven, and between your face and God's, I pray you feel HIs Grace, HIs peace, HIs love for you and HIs awesome presence and intimacy. This i pray for you now - today. Thank you for your life Uncle George - for your love for God, the Trinity, for your prayers throughout the years, for your faith in the one true God. Thank you for offering for me to buy Aunt Nancy's Home down there. Thank you for being faithful. Thank you for being my uncle and always reaching out. Goodnight Uncle George.

Uncle(Father) George with my niece and nephew Lydia and Charlie in front of his home in Florida.

Ma Fang Zhou Video

2007-07-11T15:00:00.000-04:00

For Ryan

2007-07-11T07:34:00.000-04:00

Auntie and Ruthie

Ruthie the Asian Quaker girl in the whaling museum

Lydia and Anna at Children's beach on Nantucket
in their matching sweatshirts before we washed and shrunk Anna's

The Mason Girls

My dear eldest son wants more pics and an update. Here you go Ryan :-)

These pics are from our getaway to the cape...My sister and I and all the little kids took a whirlwind trip in the middle of June. It was great to be on the cape! I enjoyed the wonderful salt air, the cool nights, a walk on the beach, pizza at Craigville Sub and Pizza, linguine with clam sauce and a trip to Nantucket on a rainy day with a visit to the whaling museum, a great beach day in Sandwich, ice cream at Four Seas, nostalgic drives and a trip to the Country Store. One of these years we'll get to spend an extended time on the cape taking our time to do all of the above. It was a lot of fun and I'm grateful to my sister for including me in the trip.

The update on the adoption is that there is no update, I was hoping to receive our Referral Acceptance letter this week which would mean we are very close to traveling to bring Samuel home. At least a couple of families from our agency received theirs but ours so far is no where in sight.

Independence Day

2007-07-04T07:34:00.000-04:00

When John Adams was elected a representative from Massachusetts to the congress, Which was in session in Philadelphia, it required his first prolonged separation from Abigail, his wife of 10 years. The Adams had four children and lived outside of Boston, in Braintree, from where Abigail wrote the following letter on August 19, 1774

The great distance between us, makes the time appear very long to me. It seems already a month since you left me. The great anxiety I feel for my Country, for you and for our family renders the day tedious, and the night unpleasent. The Rocks and quick Sands appear upon every Side. What course you can or will take is all wrapt in the Bosom of futurity. Uncertainty and expectation leave the mind great Scope. Did ever any Kingdom or State regain their Liberty, when once it was invaded without Blood shed? I cannot think of it without horror.

Yet we are told that all the Misfortunes of Sparta were occasiond by their too great Sollisitude for present tranquility, and by an excessive love of peace they neglected the means of making it sure and lasting. They ought to have reflected says Polibius that as there is nothing more desirable, or advantages than peace, when founded in justice and honour, so there is nothing more shameful and at the same time more pernicious when attained by bad measures, and purchased at the price of liberty.

I want much to hear from you. I long impatiently to have you upon the Stage of action. The first of September or the month of September, perhaps may be of as much importance to Great Britan as the Ides of March were to Ceaser. I wish you every Publick as well, as private blessing, and that wisdom which is profitable both for instruction and edification to conduct you in this difficult day.-The little flock remember Pappa, and kindly wish to see him. So does your most affectionate

Abigail Adams

We would do well in this day and age to take to heart what Publius said about peace. How easy it might be to love peace to the point of neglecting any means to make it lasting and to unknowingly slip into servitude to a government that wishes to take away our precious liberties. Thank God for our founding fathers who being convinced that liberty was our God given right took the steps to make it lasting. How blessed we are to live in a country where our liberty is secure, yet we must still be vigilant to protect that freedom.

The Play House

2007-06-06T08:21:00.001-04:00

Power tools; an initiation into manhood!

Watching the pro

Ruthie thinks it's her own private stage

We hope hours of fun will be had by Anna, Lauren, Ruth and Sam in the play house, and also hope Michael will learn some valuable skills working with dad on this construction project.

Anna's Room

2007-06-06T08:12:00.001-04:00

Anna waited patiently for months to be able to paint her room. Her patience and hard work has paid off what a cool room!

Day 41

2007-06-04T13:54:00.000-04:00

I need to get one of those counters to put at the top of the page.

I'm having a hard time waiting. I've been rather distracted with trying to figure out how long it will be before we are able to travel to China to bring Sam home. I am constantly checking the rumor queen and other adoption groups with any news of SN RA's and TA's. Now that I've confessed my addiction I hope to be able to take steps to conquer it!! There is really nothing I can do about the wait. But there are a few things I can focus on to prepare for Sam. Like learn a little Chinese, buy him clothes(shopping is always fun ;-0), and fix up his room. We can also go ahead and apply for our visas and could pack a few things...though why would I want to do that yet. I'd be packing and re-packing all summer.

I'm now resigned to traveling in early September.

We are busy with different projects around the house. We have painted Anna's room and Wayne is starting on a play house in the back yard, there is always decluttering to do and I've got a little vegetable garden going as well. I'm looking forward to a break from homeschooling for a month or so and hope to work hard on some of these things.

I'll post some pictures of Anna's room and the progress on the play house soon.

LOG IN DATE!

2007-05-11T08:55:00.000-04:00

We received word last week that our paper work was logged in to the system of the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs the day after they received it. April 24th, 2007. That is good news! We can now start counting the days till we receive our Referral Acceptance and Travel Approval.

PENS FOR SAM

2007-05-07T22:08:00.000-04:00

Wayne is back making pens to raise money for our adoption. Go here to see what's available and how you too can get a great looking pen.

More Frontier Museum Pictures

2007-05-07T21:16:00.000-04:00

Frontier Museum

2007-05-07T20:39:00.000-04:00

We spent the day at the Frontier Museum I had some fun taking pictures, chasing Ruth chase chickens and enjoying the beautiful spring day. I love the simplicity of the homes long ago. Clean straight lines, utility of space, nothing wasted, no unneeded clutter. It's inspiring.

The museum is a wonderful field trip for kids of all ages.

Special Delivery

2007-04-28T09:54:00.000-04:00

Our awesome agency in China hand delivering our dossiers!!

Happy Birthday to Samuel Fangzhou

2007-04-27T07:00:00.000-04:00

Today is the birthday the orphanage gave to Sam. We will never know for sure if this is his actual birthday but we will celebrate this day each year. Sam is now 6 years old! We can't wait to bring him home.

We sent a care package to him on Monday. It is doubtful it has arrived yet hopefully next week. We included a blanket and a beanie baby snake and another wooden snake. Samuel was born in the year of the snake. So I thought those gifts would be appropriate. A Photo album was included with pictures of everyone who lives here, our house and Sam's new room. I hope that he will be blessed by these items and that going to a new home is something that he will look forward to with joy not fear.

Ryan helped us get in touch with a professor of Chinese at George Mason to translate the letter I sent with the package. I e-mailed him to thank him for his help then asked him to translate Sam's name as well. It turns out the professor is from an area very close to Chengdu! small world huh? He said, after seeing the characters of his name, that Fangzhou means literally square boat. The neat thing is that this name suggests Noah's Ark...is that cool or what. I really love that name.

Dossier in China!

2007-04-25T15:13:00.000-04:00

We received this from our agency.

Group 308,

Your dossiers arrived safely in China on Sunday, April 22, 2007 and were delivered to the CCAA on Monday, April 23, 2007. Congratulations again! Please do not hesitate to contact your family coordinator with your questions, updates, and concerns.

Grace & Peace,

If we are as fortunate as someone else I know we will be logged in the same week or even the same day!! That would make it very likely that we would travel by summers end.

Dossier to China

2007-04-21T15:14:00.000-04:00

We are happy to announce that our dossier is on it's way to China. AWAA is hand delivering a package of dossiers directly to the China Center of Adoption Affairs so that we are sure to make the May 1st deadline. I love our agency! They are the best!

I've added a picture of Samuel in the side bar and the slide show above is a collection of pictures we will be sending to Sam for his birthday. He'll be 6 years old on April 27th.

An Adoption Dossier

2007-04-05T07:46:00.000-04:00

On Saturday we received the last piece of paper needed to complete our Adoption Dossier. As I was sharing this news via e-mail with friends from church someone asked, "What is the dossier?" Well this is what I answered her:

An Adoption Dossier is the collection of paperwork that you send to China it includes the Homestudy report done by a social worker, birth certificates, financial statements, police checks, family photos(and more) and the all important I-171-H issued by the US Center of Immigration Services(USCIS) deeming us "suitable" parents and giving permission to bring an orphan child into the country. That last one was the piece of paper we received on Saturday. All these papers have to be notarized then authenticated by the state department of the state they originated in and then Authenticated by the US State Department and finally Authenticated by the Chinese Embassy before it can be sent to China. We had 20 separate documents that each had to go through the process above. We are now waiting for the 171 to come back from Richmond so I can bring it down town to walk it through the last two steps.

Then I will turn it into our Adoption Agency in McLean who has the rest of our dossier ready to go.(it has taken us about 4 months to pull all that together) It will then be sent to China, translated and brought to the Special Needs Department of the China Center of Adoption Affairs for them to scrutinize. They have already issued us "pre-approval" but until they review our entire dossier they won't issue our final Travel Approval. We expect that about the middle of July, I think. Then we'll travel 3-4 weeks after that so we are looking at late August or early September to go to China to bring home Samuel (aka Ma Fang Zhou).

We are rejoicing that this step of the process is coming to a close it is the most arduous part of it all. We then wait and prepare for the trip to China and continue to pray for our Sammy half a world away. Pray that some how God will prepare him for the changes he's to face.

Paper Chase and Play Dates

2007-03-04T16:44:00.000-05:00

Play Date with Friends:

We are almost done with our paper work. We turned in everything but the 171 to our Agency Yesterday. Yipee can't wait!
Martha

Notice

2007-01-21T13:44:00.000-05:00

Through the examination of the basic condition of the adoptive family Wayne and Martha Mason and plan of treatment and rehabilitation for the child Ma Fang Zhou from Chengdu Children's Welfare Institute, Sichuan welfare institute, it is agreed that the adoption will be carried out through the procedure for adopting children of special needs after the submission of application documents of the adopters according to their wish.

This is the translated wording of our pre-approval to adopt Samuel. YIPEE!! I guess they like the plans we have for Sam. I am so grateful to our agency for advocating on our behalf, our family coordinator pours her heart into her work, and prayerfully put together a letter to send with our Letter of Intent and rehabilitation plan to promote us as the best candidate for Ma Fang Zhou.

After submission of our dossier they will review our complete file and then by God's grace issue Travel Approval. We hope to have our dossier complete by mid April and hope TA will come 3-4 months after that. Traveling mid to late summer looks possible. Crazy!

We are so grateful to all those who have been praying for us during this time. Please don't stop! I need constant patience and peace during this process. I need perseverance to keep up with the rest of life, homeschooling, training the little 2 year old chinese beauty, discipline to meet with God on a regular basis and to not spend too much time dwelling on the adoption.

God has been showing me so much lately how much he cares for me and my family. He is so faithful to meet us where we are and give us everything we need. All Glory to Him!

What The New Year Will Bring

2007-01-02T14:25:00.000-05:00

We hope against hope that 2007 will be the year we add Samuel to our family. We will be sending our Letter of Intent to the CCAA this week and will be praying fervently that they will have favor on us.

I do hope to dig deeper into the Word this year.I began reading the book Simplify Your Spiritual Life by Donald Whitney. In the section titled 'Take Up Your Cross Daily and Follow Jesus" he explains "the theology of the cross" it was put in a way I hadn't thought of before, or perhaps didn't have ears to hear before.

The theology of the cross means that we get to know God and fellowship with him through our humanity, all our sufferings and struggles, all the tragedy and grief, all the things that so many people want to deny are there. The every day sufferings of broken relationships, physical pain, emotional pain, our sorrows over another's sin or our own patterns of sinfulness. All these things can bring us into fellowship with our Savior. So often we want to live for the next victory, the next blessing, because we feel that will be evidence of God in our lives and that will increase our faith. I want to find God in the opposite, in my failures, in my trials, in my inadequacies, I want to feel close to Jesus in my weaknesses.

This year I hope to embrace the struggles and to count it pure joy whenever I face trials of various kinds as I know this will perfect my faith. I want to learn more of the cross, and the sufferings that Jesus suffered so I can walk with him. I want to take up my cross daily to follow Him.

Noble words but when the trials come I will have to choose to either fall on my knees and go to the cross or rely on my spirituality, my ability to figure things out,my plans and ideas. I pray I need knee pads by the end of the year. I'm afraid choosing God's way will itself sometimes be a struggle, pride and self sufficiency rear their ugly head so often.

My first goal though is to read through the gospels. Sticking close to the word and seeking Jesus on every page and applying it to my days I hope will be a good start to staying God sufficient.
I started this morning reading Matthew Chapters 1-5.

I was struck by the faithfulness of Joseph to do exactly as he was told. God chose Joseph to be Jesus' earthly father. What an honor and privilege and he apparently carried out this roll faithfully; leading and protecting his wife and child through dangerous times.

I was also reminded of how Jesus passed the tests of temptation in the wilderness. He passed the tests that I and everyone have failed. How often do I put food or other pleasures before the word of God, how often do I tempt God by doing what I shouldn't hoping that God will save me, and how often do I desire glory for myself and idolize the things of the world rather than the creator of them.

I hope I can remember these lessons and look to Jesus when I am tempted, because HE is strong when I am weak.

Ruthie is "DOO!!"

2006-11-18T08:36:00.000-05:00

Yes Ruthie is now "DOO!!" as she says :-) that's 2 in case you didn't guess.

Boy does she love chocolate cake with whipped cream...she had a little
sugar overload yesterday was up till 9pm, very late for her, then woke
at 3:30 am...

As I was laying in bed with her at that early hour I realized that
today is the day she was found outside the Yang Dong County Hospital.
It brought tears in my eyes to think that she had to be left so that
she could be found and brought into our family a little over a year
later. I realized it probably wasn't as cold there as it is here and
was grateful for that. I wondered what she was left in I don't know if
she was in a basket or a box or who found her and brought her to the
orphanage that day.

I wondered what her biological mother looked like and wondered if she
was as feisty as Ruth and wondered then if maybe it was her father who
was the feisty one, then I wondered if they too are remembering that
day 2 years ago when they had to leave their baby.

I wonder if they left her because they needed a boy and if perhaps
they tried again and got their boy. Which would mean Ruthie has a
brother. Or maybe her mother was unwed and had needed to leave little
Ruthie because she just couldn't bear the shame or the expense of
raising a fatherless girl.

Then I prayed that her parents would hear the gospel and that someday
I will be able to thank them for giving us their little girl.

Off Again On Again

2006-11-14T09:40:00.000-05:00

I got a new camera and am still experimenting with it these are a few pics though I thought were fun.

The past few weeks have been a roller coaster on the adoption front. We have gone through so many emotions it is hard to know where to begin. In our e-mail to friends and family towards the end of October we told you all how Ma Fang Zhou was no longer available for adoption because

“They have found he has numerous and severe intellectual and physical delays and want to continue to observe him and care for him at the orphanage.”

Our family coordinator at our agency was preparing to send Ma Fang Zhou’s file back to the China Center for Adoption Affairs when she decided to double check one more time that that is what they wanted her to do. Her contact in China told her to go ahead then apparently after the contact said that decided to double check her self. They then found out that there was new information received from the orphanage and that what they thought were intellectual delays was actually an inability to understand the caretakers at the orphanage. You see Ma Fang Zhou had been living in foster care for about 4 years, they had recently brought him back to the orphanage but didn’t know that at his foster home a different dialect/language was spoken. That coupled with the fact that Ma Fang Zhou is “tongue-tied”(not the medical term but means his tongue is too connected to the bottom of his mouth) and is impeded in his speech made him seem “slow”. They said he was still a good candidate for adoption.

When our family coordinator called to tell us that I hope you can understand how confused I was…It had been less than a week since we had thought we were not going to be able to adopt this little boy but I am not one to dwell on things and the Lord had provided much grace to “move on” so at first I wasn’t sure how to feel.

So I asked a bunch of questions, especially about the physical delays they had reported. Our agency relay our questions and reported back that he was doing much better, he seemed weaker on one side and had trouble going down stairs, apparently runs slower than normal. Things like that. It’s hard to tell what all that means but the orphanage volunteered to make a video for us, which is highly unusual.

By this time we were back on board, and Wayne was reciting his mantra “All he needs is a family, lets bring him home!”. The promise of video was very exciting to us! Our agency asked us to wait to view the video to send in our Letter of Intent so we were eagerly awaiting the video.

In China I believe they have a different way of communicating and relating and I think many things get lost in the translation of the language and the culture. Also our agency is getting everything second hand. It was just a couple more days that we received the report that it was the orphanage staff that had promised a video without going through the director of the orphanage. The director was very hesitant to do this out of the ordinary thing and basically said no they would not be doing that. He (I am assuming it was a he) didn’t want to do anything behind the CCAA’s back. We received that report and I was on the verge of becoming very frustrated and asked “What do they want us to do then???!!!” We were convinced by now that this little boy is the one we are to add to our family but no one else seemed to be convinced. We have been ready to send our LOI since early October.

Our agency decided to get a final answer from the CCAA before saying we could send our initial paperwork. I was hoping we could go ahead and send it this week. When she called she could have either said that forget it he’s not available or yes go ahead and send the paperwork. I wasn’t counting on the 3^rd possibility. It turns out that the orphanage checked with the CCAA about doing a video and they said it would be ok!! A video has been made; it is on its way to Beijing (where the CCAA is) and will then be sent to our agency. It will probably take 2 weeks to get that.

So many things are still uncertain, but we hang on to what is certain. God’s love for us! His complete sovereignty over ever detail of this adoption, His faithfulness to do what is good for us and best for HIS glory.

It does seem certain that we will be receiving a video which is an exciting prospect. I will let you all know about that. In the mean time I covet all your prayers for this adoption. We are trying to live life as usual, stick to a routine, and keep Ruth from killing herself. She ripped down the curtains in her bedroom yesterday and needs to be under constant supervision. We are working hard to train her to obey us.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures.

Ma Fang Zhou

2006-09-27T14:45:00.000-04:00

Hello!

There is a little boy in the Sichuan Province of China who we hope to add to our family in less than a year. His name is Ma Fang Zhou and he is 5 years old and will be 6 on April 27th. He is alittle older than we previously thought we would adopt but he will fit nicely into our family. I wish I could share pictures with you now but until we receive Pre-Approval from China we are not allowed. That of course only makes sense. He has a minor heart defect and a couple of other issues but is generally healthy. Ma means horse and is his surname because he was enrolled in the orphanage in 2002. Fang Zhou as far as I can tell means 2 ships.

So we are busy collecting documents and writing our Letter of Intent so we can move forward with the rest of the paperwork. Our Yard Sale is Saturday October 7th and we have been overwhelmed with generous donations of stuff to sell at it.

Wayne's pen business is taking off as well. He is so creative and is making about a pen a day and selling them just as fast. Oh and our coffee, we will be selling whole bean French Roast coffee by the 1/2 lb and lb. at the yardsale and will be taking orders for more if anyone is interested.

So we're off...I can't wait till we get the paperwork done, I really don't prefer it at all but will suffer through it because our little guy is sooo worth it.

God Bless,
M

Here We Go Again!

2006-09-17T17:48:00.001-04:00

I guess I should rename the blog? We found Ruth, although sometimes she still needs finding as she likes to explore and more than once in the blink of an eye she was gone. After about 2 minutes of frantic searching during one disappearance I found her in the garage with the dog. Other times she hides in "her cabinet" in the kitchen, or behind the big chair in the family room.

But I'm getting off topic or am I? We are in search of another child to add to our family. Yes it is true we are adopting again from China again... Are we crazy? Maybe, but we believe that this is from the Lord. He put the idea in our head and the desire in our heart.

Just this week we filed our application with AWAA and received, after a few days of touch and go, their approval. If you were with us for our first adoption you may remember we had a little difficulty with our(mostly Wayne's) past criminal record. Well China is getting stricter with past criminal records so our agency was a little hesitant but did decide to adovcate on our behalf. We are however only approved for a special needs child. But that is the avenue we were headed anyway. We hope to find Ruthie a big brother 1-3 yrs older than she is, so that would make him 3-5 yrs old.

With a special needs child the process is a little different. We don't proceed until we have found the child we would like to adopt from AWAA's special needs referrals. After that things are somewhat expedited. A letter of intent(LOI) is sent with our medical forms and references to China, we then begin collecting the rest of the documents for our dossier. In the meantime we hope we will receive pre approval(PA) for our son. Then, once our dossier is logged in in China we wait for travel approval(TA) which would be 2-3 months after our dossier is sent to China. Then we go!!

So our time line could look like this. As we haven't yet begun to pursue the adoption of a specific child we may have to wait until AWAA receives more special needs referrals, this could be November. So Nov. send LOI wait for PA and begin paperchase. Receive PA finish gathering dossier documents and hopefully be DTC(dossier to China) by early February.
Receive TA by May, travel by early June.

Much quicker than our adoption of Ruth which took 16 months from start to finish. If the following timeline works as I laid it out that will be 9 months total from start to finish.

We are hoping to fund this adoption debt free and are coming up with various ideas for fundraisers. Our first fundraiser is a yard sale selling lots of our own stuff along with donations from the community. We will also be selling Wayne's hand crafted woodpens. I'll post pictures of those soon. We have a few other ideas up our sleeves as well so stay tuned.

Once we have our homestudy complete we can apply for lots of grants. There are so many organizations out there I'm sure at least a couple will be able tot help us out. We are trusting that God will provide in miraculous ways so that no one will doubt that HE is an ever ready help and abundant provider of all you could ask or conceive.

That's all for now, I'll post some pictures soon of our trip to the beach.

~M

Ruthie and Anna in the Rain

2006-05-16T19:17:00.000-04:00

Ruthie in the Rain

Four Months Later

2006-05-16T16:19:00.000-04:00

I can't beleive I haven't updated this for almost 4 months! I've kept thinking "I need to start posting to the blog" but somehow the time has gotten away from me... I visited another families blog today and they inspired me.

We have all settled into a new routine with Ruth in our lives. Ruth too has adjusted well and has brought much joy in our lives. It's like we've had her since she was born. She has become more assertive in the last month or so testing her limits and letting us know what she does and doesn't like. The tentativeness she had when we first met is gone.

In four months she has gone from only crawling to walking, running, climbing steps, spinning and opening doors. She has also gone from being only bottle fed to eating just about anything we put in front of her except rice of all things. She has gone from blank, stoneface stares to hysterical laughing at her own private jokes, defiant glares when told no and peek a boo with her hands. While her words are very few her understanding is comprehensive. she says Mama but I think it only means "I want", imagine that, she says "Dada" and it really means Dada. She almost says thank you and has some kind of noise for the dogs, She seems to be alittle behind in this area compared to some of the other adopted girls of about the same age, but we are sure it won't be long. She has started babbling more with more varied syllables.

She loves music, she sways and moves her head then raises her hands and makes her fingers move to the music. Many of the sounds she makes sound almost like notes. She loves to sit on Ryan's lap while he is playing piano and watch his hands move across the keys while sometimes trying to make her own songs hitting a few keys.

Water is another passion. We took her to a pool a month or so ago when Aunt Maggie was visiting and I was amazed. She would lay back and float almost on her own she only held my fingers. She goes under water with no problem but did seem to swallow a little too much water.

The dogs are her best friends, she feeds them and plays with them and steals their toys. She lays on them like they are her own personal pillow. We beleive we have an olympic swimmer, concert pianist, dog enthusiast on our hands. Ah the dreams and hopes for an 18 month old. They can be anything we conceive of at this point.

That is all for now Ruth has awoken from her nap and is probably ready for a little snack.

The Fog Has Lifted and We Are Home

2006-01-27T19:57:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

If there is anyone out there still tuning in...all the excitement has passed and we are back in the US. back to real life plus a baby! What a long strange trip it's been, but a joyful exciting trip! Ruth is doing great more on her later with pictures of course... The picture to the left is an updated picture we received of Ruth the day before we met her.

I wanted to back track a little and go back to China and share some things I didn't while we were there. This is probably mostly for me as one morning I wrote down some of the things I didn't want to forget about our trip.

I wanted to document our official adoption day, January 4th, 2006. WE returned to the Civil affairs office where we had been the day before to meet our babies and had two interviews with tow different officials. They were very short interviews in a room with 4 desks, one with a young near sighted women and the other an older gentleman. I'm not sure now what exactly each interview was for. We handed them each a box of chocolate for the customary gift. The women held them close to her eyes to try to read what it was. The gentleman asked us why we wanted another child and what plans we had for her. We answered that we wanted to give a home to a child who othewise wouldn't have one and that she would have every opportunity for a good education and a bright future. We then had our pictures taken, Wayne, Ruth and I together to put on the offical adoption decree. All this took place in the morning, we wer fortunate that our guides arranged for our gourp to be the first of the day. And our babies the first adoptions of 2006 in the Guangdng Province and maybe in all of China.

January10th was our official consulate appointment but we didn't have to do anything, our guides took all the paperwork to the consulate and did it for us...pretty cool. THe next day however we all went to the consulate to pick up our daughters Visa's so we could bring them home. That was an emotional time, as we knew this was it we were on our way home to resume our lives with our new children. It was the final step to bring our girls home So much had happened to bring us to this point months of paperwork and waiting and paper work and more waiting...(and now that we are home there is still more paper work...) God used that time to prepare our hearts and homes for Ruth. and we now know(if we didn't already) with out a shadow of a doubt that HIS timing is perfect, HIS plans never fail.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the consulate, I wish I had taken some pictures outhside though. I thought the cosulate was on Sha Mian island but I was mistaken. We all filed in went through security and sat in a DMV style room. Our guides once again took care of all the details. We then were led as a group through an oath on behalf of our daughters to be good citizens of the US...I think...Unfortunately I can't remember a word of the oath.

Sitting in the waiting area at the consulate Wayne said" I could do this again" I want to be sure I have that in writing, my mouth dropped open and said "great"...so stay tuned...;-)

Wayne, by the way, is great. He is totally in love with our Ruth and the whole 2 weeks in China was such a wonderful servant to me and the rest of the family. He got up in the middle of the night, made bottles changed diapers...he is a wonderful dad. He let me sneak away lots of times to get coffee or get online at Starbucks...

Our pastor once described our trip to China as a resuce mission. Wayne and I see his perspective of saving a baby from a bleak future without a family and without perhaps ever hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is true but it is also a misson, as Wayne said, " to save us from ourselves and our selfishness" We are truly learning what it means to "die to self"

The day at the consulate was our last day, after that it was back to the hotel for packing and more packing. Did I mention all the shopping I did? WE bought 2 new suitcases to paxk the extra stuff and to give us alittle breathing room. I had packed everything so tight on the way over and had too many carryons. We wante d to check as much baggage as possible. We were a little worried about the full size replica sword of Aragorn packed in the golf bag...we weren't sure it would make it through security, we kept hearing stories of stuff like that being confiscated but somehow we made it home with all of our weaponry. There were other swords, num chucks, brass knuckes and more packed in our suitcases.

We had to get up early early on the 12th to get to the airport by 6:30 to catch the 8:30 flight to Tokyo.

Back at Dulles 24 hours later...it was 7pm on the 12th. Come on guys we are almost there don't stop now!!

We had an incredible welcoming home committee, My mom, sister andbrothers with their families and The Higgins, Fauls, Mercados, Tata and Arianna, The Dudziaks, and our dear friends The Koleszars all came to greet us at the airport, what a wonderful gift. I'm waiting to recieve more pictures of that scene, but here are Kaylin Mercado and Jocelyn Faul having fun at the Airport.

And here we are at home Ruth is happy with her bottle. She is now on whole milk and real food. No more cereal mixed with formula. I have no doubt she will jump from the 5th percentile in weight to at least match her 10th percentile height. She loves to eat :-) We are still working on getting her to pick up food and feed herself though. She has never had to do that before so it may take a while.

I have more pictures but haven't downloaded them from the camera yet. It's getting late so I'll get to that tommorrow. God Bless

Anna's Scrapbook

2006-01-25T11:20:00.000-05:00

coming home

2006-01-10T19:48:00.000-05:00

We are almost done, one more appointment today to pick up Ruthie's visa then we leave bright and early tomorrow morning for the long flight home.
We leave the hotel at 5:45 am and arrive at Dulles on NW 1404 at 6:55 pm on Jan. 12. you can meet us in the baggage claim. That will be a domestic flight as our first port of entry is Detroit.

Pray for us it was hard coming over and coming home we'll have a baby!
If I have a chance I'll post more pictures and a more thorough update but this might be it. Thank you all for following our trek half way around the world to pick up the cutest baby in the world.
Can't wait to see you all
Love,
Martha (and family :-))

Babies, Babies Everywhere

2006-01-10T07:29:00.000-05:00

Just lot's of pictures for now, I tried to organize a photo op but we weren't all there and then I found out there is actually one scheduled for tomorrow morning. but I won't be updating again till we get home so these are the gorup shots for now and some views from out 13th floor room.

Shopping on Shamian Island

2006-01-09T07:23:00.000-05:00

In honor of shopping on Shamian I give you two posts in one day ;-)

most of the people in these pictures are in our travel group.

The older girl with her new mom is 12 year old Jaime. She is legally blind(cataracts it seems), she is a beautiful girl who has a wonderful new family who loves her very much.

Wayne was kind enough to agree to go through the medical exams with Ruth while I shopped. I think I'm done! This bargaining stuff is exhausting, I always walk away wondering if they ripped me off or if I really got a good deal.

Here is my new friend Hebe, I bought a beautiful black velvet jacket from her along with a jade bracelet and a few other trinkets. The other day she gave Anna a hacky sack and gum. She's very nice but like all the others drives a hard bargain.

These are the Anhui Babies, Ruthie is not there. We need to get it together to get our group shots done.

3 Days Left

2006-01-08T22:35:00.000-05:00

Hello, sorry we have not updated for a couple of days, there really hasn't been much going on though. But I remember following others journey's and wishing they hadn't skipped any days, so again, sorry :-0

Let's see, last night we had a paper work party, we are now preparing to get Ruth's visa from the US consulate. We have a medical exam this afternoon then more shopping on Shamian Island. It's fun over there everyone speaks chinglish and I'm getting the hang of this bargaining stuff, though I've made a few blunders especially when it comes to squeaky shoes. I'm gonna get it right today though, no more than 3 USD.

We have all of our groups together now, there are about 14 other families adopting babies from other provinces. We all have to get our babies visas from the US Consulate here in Guangzhou. It's been a wonderful experience being able to do this with so many other families. There are many new friendships being made that will last a lifetime, I hope we can all keep in touch even though we are from all over the country. We have families from California, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Minnesota, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, Florida, New York and more.

This morning after breakfast we went to another park, Guang Zhou Yue Xiu Park it's huge, and there are people everywhere. We walked about 45 minutes and only covered about 1/5th of the park. There were people playing badmitton, doing Tai Chi, singing, and playing ping pong. It's amazing that on a weekday morning there were so many people there. This park was just across the street so it was nice to beable to walk over and "mingle". I've felt like we are in a plastic bubble very insulated from the culture going to all the tourist spots, being guided from place to place in a big bus. I'm not really complaining just making an observation. Our guides have been wonderful they are very professional yet friendly and take care of our every need. Here are a bunch of pictures from the park, our home away from home and from Shamian Island.

Do you see Wayne? He's one of the tallest LOL!

Just waiting to come home

2006-01-06T04:15:00.000-05:00

I am taking advantage of having a full time dad around and snuck back down to starbucks to post more here. We have a few appointments left; a medical exam and visa appt. for Ruth so we can bring her home. And then we just need to pick up her passport next week. I might skip a day posting but don't worry I'll be back;-)

The temperature dropped about 20 degrees overnight, good thing we have some winter clothes with us!

Today we visited Banyun Park( I think that is the right name, if you have been here please correct me if I am wrong) the "most beautiful park in Guangzhou" it is quite beautiful and sits at the bottom Banyun Mountain(again not sure if I got the name right). It is beautifully manicured landscaping with stone and brick walkways and waterfalls. Through out the park there are a number of gifts from other cities to thank Guangzhou for the trade relationship they have.

There was also a spot where you could dress up in traditional chinese clothes and have your picture taken, as you can see we have some fun guys in our group. And Anna was very adventurous with a new friend. She still couldn't pass for chinese though could she?

We ate at Pizza Hut after the park, they had a one visit salad bar. I wish I had a picture of some of the ladies making the most of their "one visit". they made works of art piling as much stuff as they could in one little bowl. they would layer squares of watermelon with slices of cucumber on top of a bed of lettuce. I am not exaggerating when I say they piled it 8"high. It was amazing!

Tomorrow we have a free day and think we will visit Shamian Island, the shopping district that caters to the Chinese adoption community. Hopefully it will be a little warmer!

Yang Dong Ruthie's hometown

2006-01-05T05:07:00.000-05:00

This is the orphanage that Ruth lived in for the first year of her life. The first is the outside entrance the second is from inside the courtyard. Yang Dong SWI is in the county of Yang Dong in the city of Yangjiang. Yang means sunshine and Dong means east, it is in the south eastern part of the Guangdong province. The orphanage was very clean, smaller than I thought, it was all very open and airy I guess because of the tropical climate. The workers there knew all our babies by name. Ruth's chinese name was Chen Ni, and was called Chen Chen as a nick name.

We were also able to go to Ruth's finding spot, which was outside the Yang Dong County People's Hospital. We have the whole family pictured there, some day I'll have to explain to our little girl that she was left to be found, we don't know why she was left, but we know that somehow it was all part of God's plan that she was found so she could be part of our family.

This is a view of the courtyard from the second floor where some of the baby rooms are, they would not let us take pictures of the babies.

This is a view from the orphanage entrance looking to the right. Notice the "free range" chickens.

Ruth on the bus ride home, it was a 3 hour drive from Guangzhou.

Yangjiang is known for knives and scissors, we were brought to a local store that sells all kinds of swords, knives, scissors etc... The boys found some pretty cool swords. Ryan found some great things for some friends.

We are very glad we could make the trek to the SWI, but it made for a long day, we hope to have some quieter days ahead. Our trip is only half over we still have 7 days to go.

Daddy and Ruth

2006-01-04T17:28:00.000-05:00

Ok I think I'm a little behind ;-) here are pictures of Ruth and Wayne like everyone has been asking for. She seems to not prefer any of us over anyone, she in fact probably likes Daddy the best because he is the hero! He figured out the correct ratio of cereal to formula to water, he should truly win a prize. After the first bottle the first night she didn't eat another until mid afternoon yesterday. Not because we didn't offer mind you, she would not take what we made, to hot, too cold, not thick enough who know but she would not eat what we offered.(we ended up throwing out the contents of about 5 bottles)Until, da da da da, daddy figured out the perfect formula and temperature(or maybe she was just soo hungry she finally gave in). So the visions of hospitals in China with Ruth hooked up toIVs to rehydrate her have faded.

She really is doing great, she is starting to smile a little more, though not in public. And is generally a content baby, though it's only been one day. I'm sure the more she gets used to us all the more her true personality will come out.

We found a little shopping mall near the hotel, Wayne got golf clubs, Ruth got squeaky shoes. There is a great park nearby too that we hope to spend more time at.

Today we are off to the orphanage, so when you wake up tomorrow you should see lots of pictures of China's country side, and the place where Ruth came from.
See you all soon,
Martha

First Morning With Ruth

2006-01-03T17:11:00.000-05:00

Hi all,
Just a quick note to let you know I have my comments set to be moderated so if you try to post a comment it won't show up right away because I have to approve it.

Love hearing from all of you!!
we'll post more pictures later :-)

I'm trying to get her bottle just the way she is used to.
Martha

We Have Her

2006-01-03T04:15:00.000-05:00

We have her, She fell asleep before we got back to the hotel so I have time to put this all up here. It is amazing! She is amazing! God is amazing! We have a great video clip as well that I am going to try to put somewhere so you can see her being handed to us.

We got to the civil affairs office about 1:45 and since it was a holiday had to wait for someone to come open the door to the office for us. Then all the families filed into one of the rooms. There are 10 families here in Gaungzhou with babies in the Guangdong Province. 4 of the families babies are from the La Chang SWI and 6 from the Yangdong SWI. That is where Ruth is from. Yangdong is a closer orphanage, the babies seemed pretty calm. We were the 4th family to receive our baby. Ruth hasn't made a peep, I started calling her stone face, she just looked around checked us out and everyone else out. It is kind of a blur. Anna has been the most emotional of us all, God has given me incredible peace. She really liked the red rattle we brought, I got it from Sharon's and thought it would be a good toy for Ruth. Anna got the first smile out of her on the bus.

They brought us directly to the friendship store, a 6 story department store complete with groceries, it is a government store with a million workers. I didn't buy any clothes or a stroller, just groceries.

I haven't even changed her diaper, or taken her clothes off, she is sound asleep. I may wake her up to try to feed her soon don't want her to sleep too much now. Enjoy the pictures I'll post more later, we are happy beyond words. God Bless you all.

Love,
Martha

Monday Night Date Night at Starbucks

2006-01-02T08:08:00.000-05:00

Hi!
don't have any pictures for this update, but I'll tell you about our day :-)

We left Beijing about 12:30 and arrived in Guangzhou by 3pm, the weather is beautiful and everyone is so relieved that we can put the winter clothes away and break out the t-shirts!

We received updated information about our babies, I'm a little nervous about Ruth, the first sentence in her update stated she is "lively but stubborn" what are we in for? She is 20lbs and now has 13 teeth, is crawling. I'm not really nervous but it will be interesting to see how that sentence plays out...it also said she likes adults and to be held alot, that's probably a good sign.

We tried the cantonese restaurant in the hotel tonight, it was very good, though it was a little difficult communicating with the wait staff, once they understood though they took exceptional care of us. re pouring tea after every sip, bringing us whatever we needed very promptly, there were about 5 of them around constantly. Takes a little getting used to. The food was great though.

We will meet our babies at 2pm tomorrow, about 1 am for those back in VA. I will try to update with pictures and everything as soon as possible after that, we no longer have free internet access in the rooms though so we'll see how Ruth likes starbucks:-) so hopefully when you wake up on Tuesday morning look for pictures of gotcha day.

That's all for now, if I get a chance I'll add a few pics before gotcha day,
Love,
Wayne and Martha

Off to Guangzhou

2006-01-01T15:55:00.000-05:00

Ni Hao!
(Knee How) Hello how are you! I've taken to updating in the mornings so I'm sorry if you have been waking up to no new news, but we are so exhausted in the evening, so we've all been waking up around 4 am and that is the best time for me...still a morning person half a world away.

We went to a church service for internationals in the morning it was a wonderful experience to be worshiping God in China with people from all over the world. A great way to start the New Year. On the way out we started talking to an American who was teaching English in China at a University, he was so excited for us and our adoption and asked a million questions I loved being able to share about it but we had to cut it off short because we were keeping everyone on our bus waiting!

We then went to the Jade factory, they had some incredible carved pieces of Jade. It is very interesting how the Chinese culture has so many symbols for longevity, long life, peace and happiness, the things all people hope for in this life. They try to obtain these ideals though through hope in figures of things such as peaches(long life) or turtles, one horse happines two horses double happiness, and so many others, there is alot of supertition though it seems the younger generation does not beleive in these things but hold on to them for traditions sake.

We had lunch after that in a restaurant that adjoined a cloisone shop very pretty stuff, we are holding out for Guangzhou to do any more shopping though.

The weather greatly improved for our trip to the great wall!! It was a clear day in the high 30's with little wind. It was the weather I expected for the day before LOL.The Wall is an incredible sight and it was hard to believe we were really there. Anna and I went to the first tower but the boys went to the 4th. I don't know that the pictures do it justice but here are a few:

We are off to Guangzhou today! hard to believe but tomorrow is the day we meet Ruth!!
I may be able to post more this evening so you can wake up to new news but it won't be very interesting because not much is happening :-] but we will keep you posted.

Love,
Martha

Happy New Year!!

2005-12-31T16:46:00.000-05:00

It's been 2006 for almost 6 hours here in Beijing!

After a very long cold day we came back to the room and crashed at about 7:30pm. The day started with a ride to Tianemen Square and the Forbidden City.
The forcast, I thought, was for 35-40 degree weather, I therefore wasn't as
concerned about having as many layers as I thought I would need if it had been below freezing, big mistake, I don't know what the actual temperature was but I should have worn my long johns and been sure everyone had many layers and and warmer socks on. It was cold!

The hardest part was the Forbidden City. It is an amazing place with an incredible history and we got some great pictures but after walking for 2hours in the cold, we were ready to go home for the day.
They kept us going though, the pearl factory was next, we were glad it was indoors. I wasn't planning on buying anything in Beijing but having the opportunity to shop without a baby won over, and we decided to purchase some strands of pink pearls which we had made into little bracelets for all the little girls in our family. I got some black pearl earrings for myself. I think they were ok prices.

Next stop lunch, everything was very good. They served a variety of dishes family style on a huge lazy susan. It was very strange though our plates were the size of a tea saucer so you just eat a little at a time, and most of us used chop sticks.

After that it was back out into the cold to the Summer Palace. The tour wasn't nearly as long as the Forbidden City so it wasn't too bad. It was a beautiful place. The Summer Palace was built so that the emperor could have a place to come on vacations where he could enjoy views of various places from all over China which were built to scale on these grounds. There is a huge manmade lake which was frozen over, people were walking out on the ice and many were iceskating in the distance. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of it because all our batteries were dead. Many in our group did though so I am sure they will share.

We then went to the silk factory/museum/store. They showed us how the silk is extracted from the cocoons of the silk worm, and how they use the twin cocoons for the manufacture of quilts. We then again had the opportunity to buy :-) I bought 3 silk girl's dresses.

Because it was New Years Eve they gave us our Peking Duck dinner last night instead of tonight. I wish I had some pictures of this place it was pretty cool. As we were having dinner it still seemed unreal that we were actually in China for the purpose of bringing home Ruth. All this touring was great and will become a wonderful expereince with many memories, but we are anxious to get to Gaungzhou and meet our little girls.

I haven't been able to view the blog and can't seem to get the pictures to line up so forgive the randomness of it all. We ThankGod for all of you it's such a blessing to know you are all watching us and praying for us!! speaking of prayer, Anna has a cough that doesn't seem to be acompanied by a fever but please pray it doesn't get any worse and that all of us would be spared from any sickness. Thanks!

Here are some pictures of Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City:

Beijing and we didn't Bust

2005-12-30T10:04:00.000-05:00

My computer says it is 10:07 am but my china time watch says 11:11pm...

We just got in and being the computer junkies we are we hooked up the laptop before unpacking :-)

Looking back it wasn't too bad but it has been long! The flight from Detroit to Tokyo was 14 hours, And it was never dark we were following the sun. They fed us often but it was tough on us all, my legs were cramping pretty bad by the end of that flight. I think we all were able to catch a few z's.

A highlight of the long flight that helped to make the time go by was talking with a Chinese man from Beijing who was on the way back from America. He had just given his life to Christ while in Texas and was very excited about it. Wayne talked with him for hours on and off about the bible and his conversion, we were playing musical chairs quite abit so Ryan, Wayne and I all got to talk to him. Please pray for him as he was communist before he left China and he is going back as a new creation, pray his faith will not waver. He met lots of christians while in America who he obviously grew very fond of, and we were able to share the sovereigngraceministries website with him so he can continue to hear good preaching.

The next flight didn't start off real well, they singled out Ryan to search, and was she thourough! He happened to be carrying my bag and his back pack, she opened every bottle of lotion looked through every pocket, we were the last on that plane, I was tempted to cojplain but it all worked out, and that flight turned out to be the best, Praise God!

They had personal movie screens for every seat, and I was so tired by then I really slept.
We have a busy day tomorrow so I won't say much more, but here are a few pictures of new friends from our travel group and some of the airports we were in today.

This is the Detroit Airport they have an indoor train that we hope to have a chance to ride on the way home.

Bill and Tiffaney Shields in Detroit, We'll be with them alot the next couple of weeks. Our babies are from the same province but not the same orphanage.

Brandon and Steve Scarbel from NC, on the way to Tokyo.
They made it Lori;-)

Carrie and Dennis Crossen the other half of the NC crew.

12 hours to go

2005-12-28T18:56:00.000-05:00

We are ready to go...this is it signing off till we get to Beijing, if there is any way possible I will post before we get there, just cause it will give me something to do.

Love you all, Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes!!

Martha

Count Down to Take Off

2005-12-28T06:47:00.000-05:00

24 hours and we will be on our way to the airport for the first leg of our journey to China.
The packing is done, the house is almost clean and our bills are paid :-)

Pippin the puppy is going to our friends this morning(God Bless them) doesn't he look sad?

Gertie will be staying home enjoying a break from Pippin! Uncle Mike will be home with Gertie.
Doesn't she look happy?

I will be running some last minute errands, Wayne will be collecting our Travelers Checks, etc...

I had a dream last night that we had Ruth we were in China, she was holding a bottle by herself and just looking at us, I think she was laying on a bean bag chair similar to the one Pippin is on in the picture. She looked different than her referral pictures.

We been dreaming and waiting and thinking about this so long it is hard to beleive it is truly about to happen. I find myself with a mixture of gleeful anticipation and anxious dread, what are we getting ourselves into?? but what a joy to have a little one!! The age she is has always been my favorite age to be around, they are oh so cute and need you oh so much. It is a good age to adopt because she will need us and that will help encourage our attachment to one another.

That is often a concern when adopting especially when they have been in an orphanage with many caretakers, they haven't learned to make attachments to one or two people and may have to start from the beginning with us. This may mean digressing to lots of holding while feeding at an age when they are usually becoming more independent. It is important also that we limit her care and holding to only the immediate family so she can make her attachments with us.

I hope to add more pictures to our posts as we get closer to China, we are looking forward to meeting those in our travel group. Alot of them will be on the long flight from Detroit to Tokyo.

We'd love to hear from you all so please post comments.
Martha

Our Travel Intinerary and Prayer List

2005-12-26T13:04:00.000-05:00

December 29th – January 12th

Thursday, Dec. 29 Depart for China
Flight: NW 1401 at 9:24am

Friday, Dec. 30 Arrive in Beijing
Flight: NW 11 at 9:15pm

Saturday, Dec. 31 Beijing Sight-Seeing: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden
City, & Summer Palace (Lunch & Dinner Included)

Sunday, Jan 1 Church service & Great Wall (Lunch & Beijing Duck
Dinner Included)

Monday, Jan 2 Morning flight to Guangzhou

Tuesday, Jan 3 Meet Ruth Kay ChenNi!

January 4-8 Paperwork, Sight-seeing, Shopping & Downtime

Monday, Jan. 9 Ruth Kay’s Medical Exam.
Filling out Consulate Forms

Tuesday, Jan 10 Consulate Appointment at 9:00am

Wednesday, Jan 11 Pick up Ruth Kay’s Visa at 4:00pm

Thursday, Jan 12 Depart from Guangzhou
Flight: NW 10 at 8:30am

Someone who has been there and done that put together this prayer list for us

1. Safety as they travel.
2. Good Health - Many people get sick when they travel and eat different foods. They will also be going to very cold weather, but still want to be outside touring the sights of China (such as the Great Wall, Summer Palace, Tinneman Square, etc.). Also, many of the babies are sick with colds, coughs and ear infections, so pray for good health for Ruth, too. Pray that any medicines they may need would be readily available.
3. Paperwork - Pray that the paperwork required in China to complete their adoption would go smoothly with no glitches, as well as the paperwork to get Ruth's visa to allow her into the US.
4. Bonding - Pray that Ruth would bond quickly to Wayne and Martha. Many babies are scared initally, so also pray for sustaining grace and peace during this adjustment period.
5. Home - That their dogs left at home would be well cared for and that no problems would arise while Wayne and Martha are half way around the world.( she originally had children in there but they are coming with us) We are leaving our two dogs though in two different places so we do hope their caretakers will not get weary...
6. Return - That Ruth would do well on the 24-hour trek home on the long plane trip. The first week home is the most physically draining part of the adoption journey. Pray that "re-entry" would not be too difficult. Wayne and Martha will be exhausted when they return and their body clocks will be 1/2 day off (opposite of US time). They will make themselves adjust back to US time out of necessity to care for their family, work, etc., but Ruth will be wanting to sleep during the day and be awake at night. So on top of being exhausted from their trip, there can be many sleepness nights as well. So pray that Ruth will quickly transition to US time.
7. Ruth - Pray that God will be preparing Ruth's heart for the family that He created her for; that she will feel her family's love for her and will feel secure with them; and that she will learn of her heavenly Father's love for her through them.

Merry Chirstmas!!

2005-12-25T11:11:00.000-05:00

At our Christmas service on Christmas Eve we celebrated the birth of Jesus and His gift of salvation to us! It was an incredible reminder of His goodness towards us not just through the planned events of the evening(which were wonderful in themselves) but through fellowship with our dearest friends on earth.

And now we are 3 days away from hoping on a plane to China. I have a list a mile long and am slowly but surely working through it. Our washing machine broke last week, so it will be off to the laundry mat tomorrow to get all the laundry done so I can finish packing. I'm so close...

We had a wonderful Christmas Day, I am blessed by wonderful children who were all very grateful for everything they got. They are a treasure to me, and we can't wait to add Ruth to the bunch.

I will post our intenerary in a separate post.
~Martha

I'm Ready

2005-12-22T12:56:00.000-05:00

I could finish packing tonight and leave tomorrow. We got our last Hep AB shots, got my hair cut, I don't have anything left to do, well except the laundry but that will be there always right?

Ah but Christmas, we still have Christmas, and while that day is usually the pinnacle of the season this year it is different. We won't forget the true meaning of Christmas, how God humbled himself to come to earth in the form of an infant to conquer sin and death by bearing the penalty of our sin upon himself, that is something we remember every day, and especially at Christmas as it is a time of extra celebration of this fact. This year however, we do have something other than the one day of celebration with presents and meals and time with family to look forward to.

China: where Ruth is waiting for us, more accurately where we are waiting to go. Ruth has no expectation of being united with a new family, all she has ever known and probably expects to know are her present surroundings, with the familiar routine of bottles and naps and playtimes and diaper changes. We have been praying though that some how in that one year old mind and heart God is preparing her for change...and preparing her heart to one day receive the good news of Christmas. The gospel message.

So this year Christmas has a different feel, it won't end with a meal at my sisters, that is just the beginning of our celebration, because 4 days later we'll be on a plane to China to bring Ruth into our family and one day into God's family.
Martha

Ruth Kay

2005-12-19T10:36:00.000-05:00

Here she is the little girl we've been working for 16 months to bring home. In less than a month we'll have her home at last

Going to China

2005-12-19T10:24:00.000-05:00

We are in the process of packing for China, buying for Christmas, cleaning the house, packing for China...
We are the Mason's and we are going to China to pick up our little girl, Ruth Kay ChenNi,
you can read about our journey to this point at www.findingruth.com

We can't think of a better Christmas present or a better way to start the year 2006. We leave on December, 29th 2005 and will return January 12th, 2006

This is the place to come to watch our journey...