Goodbye, China!

The Winders (6) are leaving China in about 6 hours and I can't wait to get home!! See you guys soon!!

Ahhh, Starbucks - Sweet Escape

Why we haven't gone to this Starbucks more often I'm not sure, but tonight it was wonderful. It's only a block away, behind our hotel, and away from the crowded streets and busy shops. Other than the order being lost in translation, it was relaxing and provided some peace away from the hotel.

The rest of today was filled with more shopping, lunch from 7-11 and more Pizza from Papa John's. It's been a lazy past couple days and I can't wait to get home. Tomorrow we have our Consulate Appointment and then we swear Teddi in as a citizen of the US. Then we wake up Friday morning at 4am and get on our way to Home Sweet Home.

Thank you God for our time here and our sweet little Teddi; please bless our last day, and help us get home safely! :D

Taylor

OH, YES!!!!!! THRILLS OF EXCITEMENT!!!!!! 16 Blocks is coming on next on Star Movies!!!
I'm Out!

Update: movie was fantastic!! And we just went to 7-11 (great trip-ask me about it later) and I got some Mochi Ice , Ube flavor!! It was ube-delicious!! ha, ha!!

(It's sweet potato ice cream wrapped in some kind of gummi-dough.)

These are a few of my favorite things...

"Olympic Mascots"
I am so intrigued by these little guys and the significance behind them.

"Playing Cards"

The ease of life here- playing hackeysack, shuttlecock, and cards- its so relaxed.

"Rain in GuangZhou"

Even though it poured while we were walking and we had no umbrella, it was beautiful. :)

"Kids on A Rope"

They make sure all of the school children get their daily exercise.

"Me by Brogan"

Not just me, but Brogan's photography. : )

"Christian Fellowship"

We went to Jordan's place today, and as my mom, shopped Brady and I talked to Jordan about Chinese language and grammer, different cities around the area, and different cultural customs. Just simple conversation between a nice Chinese man and two American kids. He told my mom that he liked talking to her kids, "they are very cool"! My mom asked if he was a Christian (which she knew he was from what other people had told her), and after he said yes, my mom said the that she was also, and you should have seen his face light up! He quickly shook her hand and then hugged her. He turned to me and asked if I was also, and as I said yes, he quickly shook my hand, too! He asked Brady, also and gave the same response. This man was more excited about Christ than I have seen anyone in a long time. He told us his testimony in as best English as he could- he was ten, went to his math tutors house, and liked the music that was playing. His math teacher invited him to church where the sister there would play a lot of music for him on piano. It was great fellowship!

These are a few of my favorite things in China!

~

A quick update of our third to last day in China-

Teddi had her medical exam today, got her passport, and we finished up some more paperwork. She is doing great!

We shopped a lot more today finishing off our Yuan before we head home, and trying to hit every shop around. I love all the little shops here and all the shopkeepers are so excited to talk to the adoptive families (and so excited to sell us their stuff which is not my favorite.) We also, had more tea at Dong's but this time my dad made it - he is a "master" now!

We ate at a really nice Italian restaurant tonight. They had napkins and ice- rare items in China! The food was delicious, the setting calm, and best of all Teddi was calm (-er than she has been).

I can't wait to get home. I miss you people over there! Only two more days left in China!

See you soon!

Taylor

LONG DAY!

Long day.

Very tired.

Quick post:

Rode Subway.

Shopped Carrefour:

Ikea-type mall.

Heavy Shopping.

Pouring Rain.

Ate KFC.

Long walk.

Delicious dinner-

Cow & Bridge:

"Rice with Seafood in Pineapple"

-yucky tentacles. :P

More shopping. :)

Olympic Mascots!

Facebook chat,

Blog post,

Goodnight!!

Three pics:

Dinner with Dong

Dinner was amazing tonight! Probably the best food we’ve had the whole time we’ve been here! Dong and his gang cooked for us and the Johnson family and we all ate in his shop. They told us it was ordinary Chinese food, nothing special, just foods that they eat often. We had noodles, spicy noodles with beef, rice, sweet potato leaves, and potatoes with chicken. It was good to have some simple Chinese food that tasted good, and to be in a calm, friendly setting. The only down part about dinner was the chicken in the potatoes- not only were their pieces of chicken, but also a whole chicken foot, toenails and all! Aaaah!

It was quite daring of me to even eat from the same dish (I only ate the potatoes), but I wouldn’t even think of eating the chicken foot, all though they are quite popular here. Dong said that pig feet are even better.

After dinner we had more tea- so delightful! -flower tea-

The rest of the day was good too. As Dong said, we had a “lazy day”. We actually went to church this morning at Shamian Christ Church. They have a Chinese-English service
at 11.It was a different kind of church experience… a very small building with too many people, some very loud Chinese then English singing, constant Chinese chatter in the few pews behind us, a very hyper little boy eating seaweed in front of us, and Teddi beside me who couldn’t sit still for even a second. It was actually kind of fun to watch the little boy open his seaweed snacks and shove the whole thing into his mouth, over and over again. Teddi had a sticker book and within a couple minutes, my entire left hand was covered in Disney princess stickers. We did sing Here I Am to Worship which was good, and I picked up part of the very long sermon about the Holy Spirit. Oh, and it stormed like crazy through the service, too. We were reading John 16:8 and there was a huge boom of thunder as they read it out loud.

Mmmm, only 5 days left! I’m going to be happy to go home, but I am certainly going to miss some things here, like hangin out at Dong’s drinking great Chinese tea!

Looking forward to another lazy day tomorrow!

Love, peace, and chicken grease,

Taylor

Picture Day

Saturday= mmmmm, lovely : )

We had a late breakfast- today's music was JT and Britney Spears.

We went to the park today and there was a massive group of people taking pictures. Some were taking casual pictures of people and kids at the park and some were dressed up and modeling in front of very large cameras. It seemed like what might be a photography club's park photo day or something. It was very interesting. A lot of girls were also taking pictures of Brogan. They thought he was quite adorable! Brogan was incredibly shy and did his best to ignore them.

-all these people were taking pictures of Brogan, and that was just one occassion-

- some girls dressed up -

Not much else happened- which is a good thing, just took a lot of pictures.

We had Lucy's again for dinner. I had sweet and sour chicken again, but mixed it up with a Shirly Temple instead of the usual Sprite.

I'm super excited about tomorrow- we get to go to church! Yay God! I miss church a lot. I'll let you know how it is tomorrow.

Until then, goodnight!

Taylor

Oh yeah- and I watched the Spurs lose in Chinese after breakfast.

and Brady and I are playing a game that lasts the entire trip, the score is 8-7, my lead.

An assortment of pictures from today:

-another wedding car decorated in a bazillion fresh roses-

-the school, it's my favorite-

-Brady chillaxin at dinner-

PJs + Music + Pizza = Good : )

I have spent the last couple of hours in the hotel room lying under the covers, closing my ears with Colbie Caillat, and eating Papa John's pizza. Sweet relief!

-trip to ZhuHai, Ms. Zhong and Xiao Xiao-

Today was long, as I expected, but seemed pretty smooth. The car ride was peaceful (I actually slept for about half of it). When we got to the orphanage Teddi stayed very calm, but very attached to my mom and I- a good thing, but the caretakers wanted to hold her and hug her, too. Eventually, she loosened up once she realized that we weren't going to leave her there. We hung out in a room for awhile, listening to the caretakers chat in Chinese- they all just wanted to see Teddi. We exchanged gifts and they gave my mom a scrapbook of Teddi. This is somthing pretty special that I don't think they do for every child. They flipped through it and Mr. Li translated some of what was written. Each one of the caretakers had actually written a note to her with a picture of themselves with Teddi.

They also brought in a couple of Teddi's friends so they could see her again. They shared candy and hugged on one another and we took lots of pictures for her. We went to the playground too, and she was so happy!

We took some family pictures outside before we left. The Johnsons were there too, with their daughter Hai Ping, and Ms. Zhong and the other orphange director.

Leaving was the tough part. Ms. Zhong held Teddi one last time and kissed her cheek. Teddi didn't cry, but Ms. Zhong did. So did my mom. It was heartbreaking, but they both know that it's the best for Teddi. Ms. Zhong is so strong and so sweet. I was honored to shake her hand before we left.

We also drove to Teddi's finding spot, the place where she was abandoned. I bet you can imagine the emotion here. Hard, but important.

So- a very long morning, and we were all quite hungry after all of this so Mr. Li takes us out to lunch, again. He again orders lots of diffent items and they bring them out to the table and place them on the large spinning serving tray in the middle so we can all eat. He tells us he ordered a number of things: chicken, noodles, rice, vegetables, kalamari and pumpkin cake. Sounds good, right?
Not the case. The "chicken" turned out to be duck (which I was not made aware of until after lunch and after I had eaten some :P) the noodles were garlic noodles underneath some hard-to-shell shrimp, the rice was alright (probably the best part of the meal), the vegetables were some green spinach-artichoke-bean thing (not good), the kalamari was whole squid on a plate complete with tentacles (which I did not eat), and the pumpkin cake was some kind of fried vegetable thing with some pumpkin in it. Thanks, but no thanks Mr. Li.

Long trip back home, and then pajamas. Pajamas are wonderful, combined with this bed and some Colbie Caillat, everything is better! :D The next few days should be very relaxing, we don't have any big plans again until Tuesday.

Thanks for all the prayers, guys! One more week and the Winders will be home!

Night,
Taylor - sleeping in :)

I love the rain, even in China

quick post - late night - stay focused, Taylor
(It's now AM already because after waiting for my mom to post to her blog, we looked through a CD full of pictures of Teddi at the orphanage from infant to present. All were adorable and some will be posted in the future. )

Today was the perfect day for rain. I woke up early, but didn't get out of bed (my favorite!) but got on the computer to post from last night, and to catch up on uploading pictures. Then went to breakfast late, came back, finished uploading pictures, watched the kids go to school out my hotel window (also my favorite!!), and then decided to get ready for my day. : ) We walked down to Dong's store again to chat and have some tea. This guy is amazing! He poured us cup after cup of green tea and red tea and flower tea as we sat and chatted about tea and other miscellaneous things. It was so China-like!

Today was also a day to simply relax- to recooperate from yesterday and to rest up for tomorrow's big day. Tomorrow we are going to Teddi's orphanage in Zhu Hai. It's going to be incredibly exciting yet, I would think, quite emotional also. I have no idea what Teddi will think or how she will feel. It must be confusing to her, though. So far she has lived in an orphanage for as long as she can remember, said goobye to sisters, met us and said goobye to Ms. Zhong, lived in a hotel for a week, been reunited with sisters, and now will revisit the home that she left, then return to the hotel for another week, then to our house. Poor girl, we can only pray for good things for her, Ms. Zhong, and the rest of her orphange friends. Another bump on this roller coaster will be visiting her "finding spot". Teddi was abandoned at a bank in Zhu Hai, and our guide will take us there tomorrow. It will surely be sad, but hopefully good also. It's going to be a very long, very crazy day. Please pray!

Goodnight!

Taylor still in China

Guangzhou Zoo and Other Fun Things

Yesterday was a lot of fun! (I so wish I could stay up late and blog about the day instead of waiting til morning, but last night was late and I didn't feel well so I went to bed :P )

After an early breakfast, Mr. Li picked us up and took us to the zoo. We had a passport appointment for Teddi at 3, so we were hanging out with Mr. Li until then. We got to the zoo and it was so much fun! (Please excuse my overuse of the words fun and great in this blog, thats just what it is.) I put up all the pics on facebook...except this one that my mom took! I love it!

-at the zoo-

We had lunch afterwards at Dim Sum and it was amazingly delicious! It was a bit more fancy than what we've been eating and Mr. Li ordered all the food. I guess he ordered about 10 different items, and they continuously served us as we ate. First green tea and water, then dish after dish of a lot of interesting foods- I didn't take any pictures so you'll just have to trust me that this was quite adventurous. Although the meal was great, the mood of our mealtime was a different story. Teddi (I know she looks so innocent in all the pictures) is bursting- sometimes uncontrollably- with insane amounds of energy. It was a bit chaotic (for more details check out my mom's blog), but we made it through. Please pray for our 25 hour flight home next week- that it will be CALM! This little girl has the joy of Jesus in her, but needs a little more peace and self-control!

After lunch we still had some time time to waste so we walked around the mall beneath the restaurant. We did some shopping and Brady and I got some totally awesome shirts. We walked around outside a bit too and had dessert at Starbucks. It was delicious- a little taste of home. : )

We went to the police station for Teddi's passport appointment, then came back to the hotel and took a little swim. The view from the pool is amazing. It's nine stories up, and their is no wall - only gate so you are in the water looking out over 9 stories. It's pretty crazy. Maybe the picture gives a better idea-

Yeah- crazy!

We ate dinner at "Station One". It was a nice night, so we ate outside, and trying to be adventurous, I ordered some delicious-sounding pasta with shrimp and mushroom etc. etc. But, it ended up tasting quite different than how it sounded, so I gave it to my dad and ate his half of the pizza. That was delicious!

Well, sorry this post isn't very interesting. If nothing else, this blog provides me with a journal of my time here to look back on when we get home. : )

Finalization!

Another fabulous day in China! This is still so much fun - I hope it continues to be fun for the next 10 or so days.

There's not much to say except that Teddi is still doing amazingly well! She hugs and kisses, she laughs and talks, she plays and sleeps all so contently. It's just amazing how well she has attached to us and how quickly she has bonded not only to my mom, but all of us. She lets Brady and I hold her, she plays with all of us, she shares toys, she shares food- I just can't put into words how wonderful she is, and I can't wait for the rest of the world to meet her!

~

Well, a run through of my day for journaling sake:
For breakfast we ate at the hotel again (like we will every morning because we pay for it with our room) but this morning was great - as we ate our Western breakfast, we jammed out to Avril Lavigne! Not just one song, but the whole "Let Go" cd. It was great! (Brady later went to a record store and said Avril seems to be a pretty big thing here. Who knew?!)

After breakfast we returned to the Civil Affairs building (via Mr. Li's sweet ride) to finish up paperwork. This was the end of our adoption paperwork- a couple more signatures, a couple more interviews, and after today Theadora Fu Xiao is physically and legally ours! Can we go home now?! We still have a lot to do though, as far as travel goes and everything else.

Lunch was at the hotel - Cup noodles and pastries from 7-11. : ) Brogan took the picture!

Later we went to Susan's Place. This is a popular store for the adoptive families to go, and the ladies there speak a lot of English. Also, one of the men who works there, Dong, writes English names/words in Chinese that make great gifts for everyone to take back home. Anyways, we were hanging out there for awhile and one of the girls told me all about the Olympic mascots - they are so cool!! There's five different characters and they all have names and meanings. : )

For dinner we ate at Cow and Bridge - a big step up from Lucy's! It's actually Thai and it was really good! I had "Rice and Prawn with Coconut". There was some pork in it too, and cashews, and other fun stuff. We also had some beans, and some amazing sweet and sour chicken.

-serious deliciousness-

It was beautiful and delicious. My dad had ostrich, but I'm not quite that adventurous yet- just reading half the items on the menu made my stomach turn. :P The coolest part about dinner was that we ate with my mom's friends (who she knows through her Yahoo group) who adopted last week, a 10 year old from Teddi's same orphanage. She is also precious, and was so happy to see Teddi! How good for them to see a familiar face! It was sweet, and my mom and dad got to have some quality American conversation, too!


Well, that's all for tonight. Brady and I are finally going to watch the season finale of The Office!! Woohoo!! : )

~Taylor in China : )

Gotcha!

In adoption lingo, today was our "Gotcha Day" and it was amazing! Only God can work the wonders that happened today!

We left for the orphanage at about 3pm with our guide, Mr. Li. (Nothing else much interesting happened before that except walking around the island in the rain, which was cool too, though.) So, we got in his super cool car and drove about 15min to the Civil Affairs office. There were quite a few other families there (I'm pretty sure this is where all the children meet there families for this province.) After only about 5 minutes of anxious waiting, Mr. Li said "She is ready." We walked to a sectioned off room and there she was! The little girl whose face we had been waiting almost one year to see was standing right before us! She was so beautiful! Ms. Zhong, the orphanage director, was there along with another man from the orphanage. They talked and talked to Teddi in Chinese and then pointed to each one of us- "mama", "baba", "goh goh", "gei gei". My parents filled out some more paper work as we sat and played with Teddi. She was interested in the MagnaDoodle right away, it was a great icebreaker! Also, Ms. Zhong took out some snacks from Teddi's bag and told her to share them with all of us. It was so cute! She was hardly shy, and only cried for a couple minutes when it was time to leave. But those couple of minutes were heartbreaking and about all that we could take. As we walked away from Ms. Zhong (the only "mama" Teddi has ever known) she got scared and cried, not stopping until we got off the elevator and outside - which was actually pretty amazing. Some kids cry for hours uncontrollably, and some don't talk or play for days. We have been praying that God would prepare her heart, and indeed He did! She was ready to be a part of our family! I don't know what was more sad though, watching Teddi cry while my crying mom was trying to console her, or whatching Ms. Zhong cry while watching another one of her babies leave her arms forever. It was quite an emotional afternoon!

The rest of the evening has been great! We came back to the hotel, and Xiao Xiao played and talked and smiled, she even laughed - a lot! She is a constant bundle of energy! We went to dinner and she ate well. (We ate at Lucy's again for the sake of normalcy, but this time I had the sweet and sour chicken with rice - we're getting there.)

We just can't believe how wonderfully she is transitioning, but then again, how wonderful is the God who created her and brought us together?! Praise be to Him!

-Me and my sister- :)

First Day in China

-from the top of our 9 story hotel-

Yesterday was our first day in China! We didn't have anything planned so we just got to hang out and explore the city around our hotel. We didn't get very far before we were surrounded by a group of Chinese students who were very eager to practice their English. They asked me my name, where I was from, my age, and if I liked Chinese tea and Chinese food! They were so happy to talk to us and they asked us to sign our names in their notebooks. One of the kids gave Brogan a teddy bear and a little snack, and one of the girls gave me a little eraser thing. I was so honored! : ) I love little eraser things!

-flock of school kids-

After saying goodbye to the students, we kept walking checking out all the sights and sounds and smells of China. We came to a park full of families. It was fun to just watch everyone enjoying their Sunday afternoon. We watched badminton, hackeysack, and kids playing. Also, their was about a dozen brides with their grooms having their pictures taken by this one wedding picture place.

-Dad and Brogan at the park-

-random bride and groom-

On our way back to the hotel, we passed by the school that we can see from our hotel window. There weren't any students around here, since it was Sunday, but the school looks really cute!

-Brogan in front of the school-

We ended our first day with dinner at the "Western restaurant" Lucy's, and a walk through a nearby Rose Garden. At Lucy's I had grilled cheese and french fries. It was delicious, but I promise to be more daring later on. I just needed some normalcy in the midst of all this craziness.

Well, we are off to explore again. And in about 6 hours I will have a new sister and the rest of this trip won't be the same!! Teddi, here we come! There will be lots more pictures! : )

Check out the rest of yesterday's pics on my facebook!