Ladybug Adventures

Originally posted on Saturday, September 6, 2003 2:34 AM CDT

GOD IS GOOD!!!!!!


The last 24 hours have shown such a tremendous change in our daughter that I know it was your prayers and God's goodness that have helped bring about the change in her we have seen.

Emilie has started to show us the sweet little girl we knew she was. She laughs, smiles and plays with her toys some now, where all she did before was cry. Lisa and I have been taking steps to break the bungee chord that she has attached to Lisa and she even will let daddy hold her for a few minutes now. (but only when Lisa is in the room.) Small victorys, but we are getting there.



Today our guide took us out into the countryside where we visited a farmming village. We got to go into a farmers house and meet his family. The people in the village were wonderful, but let me tell you we all have a real appreciation for what we have in America because most of these people here have so little.



This afternoon after Lisa and Emilie wake up from their naps, we plan to go explore the streets around the hotel a little bit. That should be an experiance. Let me tell you, the traffic in China is organized chaos. We are all amazed that not more people are killed around here. Our bus drivers have been the best.We have all agreed that they could put Nascars's best to shame with their ability to drive fast and in traffic.

Thank you for all your prayers, please keep them coming. We have crested the hill with Emilie but still have the long road down the other side to go.

Steve and Lisa
Nanning China

Originally posted on Friday, September 5, 2003 1:55 AM CDT

Hello from Nanning,

Well things with Emilie have improved a little bit in the 3 days we have had her. She is eating, but only when Lisa feeds her. She will basically have nothing to do with me at all. She cries and throws a fit whenever I try to hold her and pulls away when I touch her. I know it is normal for an adopted child to attach to one parent,but it still hurts after waiting and dreaming all this time to find out that your daughter does not like you. I know she will come around and hopefully soon.

Emilie will not let Lisa put her down at all. And with all the crying and screaming Lisa's nerves are getting very fraid also. We have discovered that she was a very stubborn and spoiled little girl and we are both working hard to change that.Basically Lisa and I are ready to come home, neither of us has enjoyed this trip at all since Wendsday morning. We are definitley thinking twice about starting this adoption process over again in a year.

Yesterday we got to visit the Nanning SWI and Mothers Love orpanage. At mothers love we actually got to go inside the baby room. Let me tell you it broke our hearts to go inside and see all of the beautiful little girls laying in cribs and on straw mats. What was really sad was the one little boy of about seven who had no eyes and was just sitting on a straw mat weeping. I know I was in tears when we left that room. I had to leave early because I was holding Emilie and she started throwing a fit.

I forgot to mention that Jane, CWA China program director joined us in Nanning Wendsday night and went to the orphanage with us and took clothes and toys.

We then went to the Nanning SWI where we got to meet the director again and a doctor looked at Emilie to see if she had any physical problems. The doctor gave her a suppository because she had been constipated and that seemed to help some.

We were able to drop off two gifts that we had bought over for CWA families to the orpanages were the children were. We gave the Thompsons gift to the director of Mothers Love. We did not get to meet thier son though. At Nanning we dropped off a gift for Rob and Debbie Hard. We have some very good news for Rob and Debbie if I ever can get hotmail to work here.

Please continue to pray for Lisa, Emilie and I, We really need all the prayers you can send our way.

Tommorow is one day closer to home!!!

God Bless

Steve

Originally posted on Wednesday, September 3, 2003 3:37 AM CDT

Hello from Nanning


We arrived here after a 3 hour flight on China Southern airways from Beijing. The flight was very interesting as people were standing and talking during taxi, and I think the pilot spent more time in the back of the plane than the cockpit.



We arrived in Nanning around 4:30 PM local time and met our guide Alice. Alice took us here to the majestic hotel where we checked into room 1105. After dinner(let me tell you we are all very tired of Chinese food already), we took our bus to the civil affairs building where we were to meet the girls.(around a 20 minute drive from the hotel).



At civil affairs we were taken to the 9th floor and all waited in a room with the Chinese and american flags for the babies to come in.

The first baby through the door was our Emilie!!!!. She was wearing the same orange dress that she was wearing in the pictures of her and her foster parents. The foster parents were not there, so it was the director of the Nanning SWI who handed her to Lisa along with a bag of snacks,toys, and pictures that her foster parents sent along.

Emilie was as beautiful in person as she was in all the pictures. She was not crying until the other to babies in the group started to, but that ended on the bus ride to the hotel when she fell asleep in my (steves) arms.

We went to the rooms when we returned and took our family picture for our adoption certificate. Before that we played with Emilie and received some wonderful smiles. That changed when Lisa went downstairs to do paperwork and I tried to get her ready for bed. Emilie went ballistic.(I will probably be deaf in my left ear before we get home) We then paced the hall untill Lisa returned and we went back to the room and rocked her to sleep. She woke up twice during the night but nothing major.

We woke up this morning and let me tell you this has been a difficult day for all three of us. Emilie will not eat, and pretty much goes ballistic when we try to do anything but hold her. The other two babies in the group seem to be adjusting very well, but our little Emilie is having quite a rough time of it. Lisa and I would like to ask for your prayers that her adjustment to us and her new life be short. We have seen flashes of what is to come with her, but would like your prayers for her to get over her grieving her foster family.

After the paperwork we did today, she is officially ours in China's eyes, now we wait for passport for her and then off to guangzhou and then home.

God Bless

Steve and Lisa