Well, Megan is doing better now from the flu. Unfortunately, the flu is running through the family. Kevin and Janet came down with the flu on the same day. That was miserable. Matt and now Jenna has it. We are waiting for Kyle's turn. It has been a difficult transition back to the States with the jet lag and the nasty flu. It was a circus in our home last night. Kyle was off hiding in hopes not to get the flu. Kevin and Janet were running from Matt to Jenna helping them with the side effects of the flu. All at the same time, Megan is grieving in bed. Her grieving is pretty bad at night time. There is not much that soothes her. It was a crazy time. We are praying that Megan's grieving will become less and less everyday.

It is late on Saturday night. We had a rough day today. Megan woke up today with the flu. The poor thing was sick all day and couldn't keep anything down until about 10pm tonight. We felt so bad for her. She was trying to communicate to us in Chinese but it was difficult. We were able to figure out some words eventually. We had a low key day as the jet lag has hit us all. We are hoping for a good day tomorrow and that Megan wakes up feeling well.

We are home! We are sorry that we didn't post anything for the last few days. When we left Nanning City and flew to Guangzhou. Megan was a hoot on the plane. When the plane took off, she threw her arms up and said, "yoo hoo!". We think that is a sign of her liking roller coasters. In Guangzhou, we stayed at a very nice hotel along a river. The river was beautiful at night. Many building along the river had different colored lights. It was beautiful. It wasn't as beautiful during the day because of the amount of smog. It is sad how much China is effected by the pollution. It is extremely popular to smoke cigarettes in China. Our country has really cleaned up the smoking issue compared to China. The traffic was much better by our hotel in Guangzhou than in Nanning City. We were excited that there was an Italian and American restaurant. There was a Starbucks too. That was a treat. We found out that Megan likes Chocolate Creme Frappacinos. During our time in Guangzhou, Megan had a doctor's appointment. That was interesting and reminded us how grateful we are to have our medical care here in the States. We also had some more appointments to make everything legal. One morning, Janet and two other moms ventured to the inner city of Guangzhou to a clothing market. First of all the taxi ride was quite interesting. The total ride both ways was a total of about six dollars. We were in the cab ride for about 15 - 20 minutes one way. The cab driver came very close to hitting a pedestrian! At the clothing market, we were able to bargain quite a bit on items. Many items were knock offs of American brands. There was a lot of begging on the street. We also witnessed a couple holding their baby that had a large abnormal growth on the back of the head. They were looking for money as well. It is amazing in that culture that if you don't fit the right mold in your looks, you will bring shame. It is quite sad. Oh, yes, we went to another temple while we were in Guangzhou. We had seen several temples by this time. It is very similar to visiting Europe and visiting many Cathedrals. After awhile, they all start looking the same. One thing that has been hard with Megan is the grieving. When we switched hotels from Nanning to Guangzhou, she was very sad. We are pretty sure that she was uncertain if we were going to stay or leave. She is such a brave little girl.
Yesterday, we traveled for about 24 hours. She was a trooper. She did very well considering everything that is going on in her life. Jenna and Janet are still her favorites. We are working on the bonding thing with the males, however it is coming very slowly. It was great to land at O'Hare yesterday! It was fun to see family meet us at the airport. That was so sweet of them to do that! We then came home to a sign out front of our house welcoming us home. Megan then went into our house and found the piano. Wow, does she love that! So we have now been home for one day and we are feeling a bit tired and out of sorts. We are grateful for the dinner that was provided tonight and are looking forward to the others that are scheduled. We just don't have the motivation or energy to tackle full life yet. We did get the dogs today and she thought they were fun. We were expecting her to be very afraid, but she handled it surprisingly well. Thank you so much for your prayers during our trip. Megan has a lot of adjustments now that she is in our home. Please continue to pray for her and for us. We want to reach this little girl's heart. She is a sweet little girl. ( I mean very little. She is 6 years old and is only 30 pounds)

Today was our last day in Nanning City. We went on a tour to a mountain with a look out tower which was 9 floors high. Then we fed Koi fish. There were hundreds of them in the water. It was a lot of fun. Then we went to a temple. Very interesting.... It is interesting watching others bow down and worship at the temple. After the tour, we bought some lunch. As you can see on the picture, we bought pig brains. Kyle, Matt and Kevin actually ate it. We girls chose to take a pass. They said it was similar to slimy tofu. Anyway.........We spent the afternoon wandering around Nanning City. We came across a market. Wow, that caught our attention. They had the live chickens ready to butcher and they had fresh pig feet. Oh my! Jenna wanted to get out there very quickly. Everyone is very nice but Jenna is tired of everyone staring at her and Matt. The highlight for the day was that Megan allowed Kevin to rub her back to help her during her grieving time today. She also allowed him to put her on his shoulders. That was a big deal. He is far from a favorite but that was a step in the right direction. Megan also allowed Kyle to put her on his shoulders. That was also a big deal. We are sure that over time, it will get better and better. Thanks again for your prayers. We are currently doing pretty well. I am at the tail end of my nasty cold (Janet) and Matt is doing okay with his. Everyone else is healthy. Well, we must go to bed, we must leave the hotel at 5:45am for the airport. Tomorrow, we head for Guangzhou. It will be nice to have a change of pace. Even though Megan doesn't understand, I am sad for her that we are leaving the only place that she has ever known. This will close a chapter in her life. We must trust and know that God has big plans for this little sweetheart.

Today is Friday. We are doing well. We have spent time at the local park that is more like a park/carnival with a big pond. It is actually very nice. We also have spent a couple of days in the pool. Their outdoor pool is huge. It is a little bit bigger than olympic size. It is funny because we go to play in the water but the Chinese are very serious about their exercise. Yesterday there were about 20 people in the pool swimming for their daily exercise. Megan is doing well. We are calling her Xiang (Shang) for right now. This little girl has gone through so much change in the last few months. We did find out that she spent 4 years with the same foster family. They were very good to her and have taught her alot. She seems to have some manners. She sits well at the table. She also interacts well with other children. Jenna is so far her favorite sibling. She has an attachment to Jenna and Janet right now. She has been a joy to our family! Everyday, we are feeling more like a family of six! Megan is a singer, dancer and a big talker! She loves looking at herself in the mirror. She is also getting used to the Western toilet too. Yeah! We have a free day today, so we are going to walk the streets and explore Nanning City. It is pretty safe here. Everyone is happy to see us. (Especially our blond hair and blue eyed kids) We are so grateful for the prayers from all of you. Thank you for remembering us. Thanks for all of you that have responded to our blog. It has been encouraging to read those. Our intention was to update our blog everyday, but with four kids here, we have been quite busy. Hope all is going well at home. Be grateful for the sunshine at home and the clean air. The pollution is horrible here and the sun rarely comes out due to the heavy layer of smog. We are so blessed to live in the country that we live in!

Megan is here! It all went well yesterday. We met her in a room with many other parents. She walked in the room and knew right away who we were. She came to Janet and called her MaMa and Kevin-BaBa and the boys - GuGu(big brother) and Jenna - TseTse. She was very excited and playful. She was playing on a rocking horse for a long time. She interacted well with everyone. Surprisingly, there were no tears for Megan. In fact, she was quite the fire cracker. She enjoyed being the center of attention and very outgoing. Wow! When the orphanage people said goodbye, Megan was completely fine with them going. After meeting Megan, we came back to the hotel room. It was a big party. We were dancing and singing and playing all kinds of games. She was so happy. She was a chatter box too. She slept well through the night.
Tuesday, Oct. 14th
Megan is officially a George. We went through all of the paperwork with the Chinese officials. They interviewed us and and we signed the papers. Today has gone well for the most part. Megan has started the grieving process for her past. So far, she has had three difficult times during the day. She would just start crying out of no where. It is hard to watch. Many times we end up crying with her. This is very normal for orphaned kids and actually healthy for them to express it. We have been calling Megan by her Chinese name for right now. We will gradually call her by her American name when the time is right. This girl has gone through so many changes. Even though she is six years old, she is probably equivalent to a 4 or 5 year old in size. We get to go shopping for her tomorrow at the Wal-Mart. That should be interesting. We are anxious to buy her a swim suit. This girl loves water! She isn't too crazy about getting shampoo out of her hair in the bathtub and have the water run down her face. Every fountain or pond we pass, she wants to get right by it. She has a healthy appetite. Last night she had 2 fairly large pieces of pizza. This morning she ate 2 bowls of congee (rice, milk, meat or vegies) and a whole plate of scrambled eggs.

We are here! We are so sorry that we haven't been able to update our blog since we have left. We were having computer problems in Beijing. We just flew to Nanning City today. This is the city that we will meet Megan. First, we will share with you about our travels. We are doing well except for some yucky colds. Our flight on Wednesday from Chicago to Shangai went well. It was about 14 hours in the plane. Everyone kept busy with movies, games and reading. Once we arrived in Shangai, we had a 7 hour lay over. We had a little snag in our plans. The airline did not have a ticket for Matt or Jenna. It was interesting watching Kevin communicate with the men there. This was our first experience of "sticking out" in a crowd. Kevin and Kyle towered over so many people. Matt and Jenna brought so much attention with their very blond hair. Jenna was becoming offended because of their pointing. It is so different here. Well, after the lay over and then a 2 hour flight to Beijing, we made it finally. Of course we couldn't find our guide at first, but we knew that she would be able to find us more quickly than us finding her. We arrived at our hotel at 1am on Friday. (China's time is 13 hours ahead of Chicago)

The next morning, we had a guide and driver waiting for us at 8:30 am to go on a tour in Beijing. It was an excellent day. We went to the dragon lady's summer palace. It was beautiful! We also visited the Giant Pandas at the Beijing zoo. How fun to watch them!


Our hotel was very nice except, there was no air conditioning in the rooms. It is the "off season" so they decided to turn off the air conditioning. It was quite warm.

On Saturday we had another tour of Beijing. This time we saw Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and we climbed on the Great Wall. There were people everywhere. Jenna and Matt were asked several times to pose for pictures with various locals. One local pumped up Kevin by asking for a photo with him.

We are all still adjusting to the time difference. We thought it would be hard to be up to leave the hotel at 5:30 am but we were up by 3:00 AM anyway. We should be well adjusted right when it is time to head back home.

We are in Nanning now and preparing to meet Megan tomorrow afternoon. What an exciting day that will be. We just arrived back to the hotel after a trip to the grocery store. It was interesting trying to cross the street with all of the motorbikes, bicycles and cars. Pedestrians do have the right away however that doesn't always appear to be true. The city of Nanning is about the population size of Chicago. It is fairly quiet here in the city. There are no sirens anywhere. You hear an occasional honk of the horn. Many people are on their bikes. Many times there would be two or more on a one person bike. It is nice here today. It is about 85 degrees and not too humid.

Prayer Requests!
So many of you have asked what you could pray for and these are some of the prayers.
1. Pray for our safety not only getting to China but also while we are there.
2. Pray for all of us to have good health for the entire trip.
3. Pray for this little brave girl, Megan that she will feel loved and accepted. We pray that she will feel very comforted and it will help ease her fears.
4. Pray for our all of our hearts and attitudes in China. We will all be very tired during the trip.
5. Pray for minimal "bumps in the road" regarding the trip and the finalizing of the adoption.
6. Pray for the communication needed while we are there with Megan.

There are so many different things to pray for especially the big ones. There are also all of the little things to pray for as well. So here is a partial list of needed prayers. We hope to be updating this in China. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers!