Outings in China

Meet Baby Sarah (officially)!

These are a bit unorganized--I apologize. Enjoy the viewing of Miss Sarah. We are loving getting to know Miss Sarah. She is a very content and quiet baby. She is ALWAYS happy to be in her Baba's arms. Right now, Dad and she are sitting in the chair looking out the window. She simply sits there in her Baba's arms playing with her hair quiet and content.

Grace playing peek-a-boo with Sarah after Sarah's bath.

Miss Sarah playing on the floor.

Sarah in her Baba's arms.

ICE CREAM!!!

This is Dad, Sarah and Grace in Tiffanie's today. On our way back from Wal-Mart we found this little store that custom made Chinese dresses. So we ordered matching dresses for Sarah and Grace. We nicknamed the woman holding Sarah her "Chinese grandmother" because Sarah was happy in her arms. In this picture, they are trying jade baby bracelets on Sarah.

Hello. I'm Sarah and I'm pretty much the cutest baby in the world.

China Day 2

Both of the above pictures are from yesterday (May 4), our first day with Sarah.

Computer problems have been stabilized! On Mom's and my adventure today to find RT Mart, we found a rather large computer shop. We went in and asked someone who spoke English and he told us to return with the charger. So we went back to the hotel. Then Dad and I went out. We returned to the shop with the charger and for 165 RMB we were able to get a charger that works with the computer and the Chinese outlets! Praise God! Our communication with those back home shall continue.

We went to Wal-Mart today. That was an experience. It was four stories tall and had a movie theater on the fourth floor! The third floor had clothing and home furnishings. Then you take a cart down on a "ramped" escalator of sorts. They have designed this "ramped" escalator so that the cart locks into place as soon as it hits the track. It was an experience. The second floor contained all the groceries. We bought some suckers, coins, and water bottles along with our bathing suits from the third floor. One more thing about our Wal-Mart experience: I was amazed by how modest the swimsuits were for women. What a relief! All of them have either a skirt or shorts and most of them are one-piece. If one does desire a two-piece, they're available but they're still rather modest. They have the shorts or skirt again. For the top, I did not see any string bikinis. This made shopping and choosing a bathing suit much easier! The first floor was simply random shops unrelated to Wal-Mart.

Also, one more thing. The people here are so nice! Everyone tries to help. Everyone whether they know English or not. There was a point where Mom and I were trying to find the RT Mart and we looked a little bit lost. We had four maybe five people come up and ask what we needed. When buying some ice cream, one lady, Holly, walked up to us and asked us if she could help. We needed to find some groceries. She took us to the exact store we had wanted to go to and stayed with us to translate so that the clerk could get us everything as we wanted. I think each of us are amazed by the propensity with which these people serve us.

Technical Issues

Hey everybody....technical issues continue to plague us. So blog updates are not promised. We'll be on as soon as possible but for right now the computer is not charging.

Thanks,
Lauren

BaBa

Yes, I am BaBa. That is Chinese for Daddy. I finally get to know what it is like to be the favorite parent. Sarah cries whenever her BaBa is out of sight. Grace is doing much better tonight, but keep her in your prayers. The trip was very hard on her. After being up for 28 hours, she slept for about the same amount of time -- maybe more.

Sarah was delivered to us this morning from her foster mother in Fengcheng (pronounced "FungChung") to the hotel lobby. (I will let Cheryl tell you about our day later -- so stay tuned.) She is soooo cute. She took to us right away. She has been crying some, but overall she is very happy and curious. After we got acquainted with our new daughter, we spent the afternoon running around to government offices to finalize the adoption. I have to go now because Sarah wants her BaBa to bounce her--I'll write more later.

----Baba Van Gilst

Pictures of the Journey

4:30 am Albuquerque Airport

These are from the very beginning of our journey and that's how it shall be documented. As most of you know, I tend to overdocument my travels and this trip has not been an exception. So, bear with me as I do my best to choose pictures to share despite my being indecisive. Enjoy :)


Our plane in San Francisco that would take us to China. We flew out of gate 100 on a Boeing 777.

Grace watching some Little Hous on the Prairie to pass the time during the layover.

I sleep to pass the time.

Each seat had a TV screen which would track where we were and how far we had travelled. I was surprised we flew so far north. This as you can see is about halfway through. While we were over the Bering Sea, we looked out the window and were able to see the ocean frozen over. It was beautiful. The sun glinting off of it was so bright.

Mom, Dad, Grace. Grace was so mesmerized by the Disney Channel shows that were on her TV that I couldn't get a picture of her looking at me.

A little taste of China before we arrived. They even gave us chopsticks!

The following pictures provide you, the viewer, a guide of what to do on an eleven hour plane trip:

Watch shows on your little TV. Find humor in them so that you can maintain your sanity.

After laughing, watch Seven Pounds so that you can experience the full spectrum of emotions. Crying after laughing continues to maintain your sanity.

Read a book. I would suggest it have words--Mom's book did it just is washed out because I had to use some funny camera settings so that the pictures would actually show what was going on.

This is in customs waiting for our bags. We have arrived in BEIJING!!!

This is Grace's and my room at the Galactic Peace International Hotel in Nanchang, China. After about twenty two hours of travelling that bed was screaming my name. I slept hard!

And this is the picture you've all been waiting for. This is Baby Sarah! She is so precious. There will be more soon.

Sweet Niblets!

Sweet niblets, we're here! We are in Nanchang, China! I have to make this quick because my laptop battery is going to die and we're not sure about plugging it in to charge.

It is about 8:30 am here making it about 6:30 pm in the States. Fun stuff! The eleven hour flight didn't kill me like I thought it might. I was fine. I get really antsy on the five hour Ecuador flight so I was expecting awful-ness for this flight but I was fine. I think it also helped that we were chasing the sun all night/day/morning that we were on the flight so it never seemed like we were flying at night.

I will have pictures up later this afternoon--for ya'll back home that'd be closer to midnight. We get Baby Sarah today at eleven. Grace isn't feeling so great--probably a lack of familiar environment and a lack of sleep. I'll hang out with her in the room while Mom and Dad get presents together, get ready and go get Sarah!!!!

Please pray that Grace feels better so that she can fully enjoy being here. Please pray that Sarah transitions well. Check back for pictures later.