Friday and Saturday, Sept. 10 and 11

Friday morning we got and ate breakfast and then went swimming for a little bit.  My sister stayed in the room to chat with her hubby on skype.  Erin wasn't in the mood to swim much as the water is really cold.  The rest of swim for a little bit.  Katie is getting really good with her strokes and is getting to be a stronger swimmer, now we just need to work on her keeping her mouth shut so she doesn't drink the water.  Once we were finished with swimming we packed and met Jade's dad for lunch.  He took us to a place called Disco which I think is supposed to be like a KFC like place.  The food was ok.  We checked out at 3, met our guide, she stopped at the police station to pick up Erin's passport.  We then got checked in at the airport.  Jade's dad came with us and flew with us.  So while at the gate we ran into the couple that I had written about on Adoption day.  We get to talking and I find out they live in North Branch which is about ½ hour from us.  It was nice visiting with them and their daughter Libby is adorable.  Our flight left on time and went smooth.  Erin suffers from motion sickness, but did well on the plane.  We arrived on time for the first time this trip.  Once we collected our luggage we came out of baggage claim expecting to see our guide.  We ended up waiting for about ½ hour before she showed up.  We tried calling Madison (our adoption agency) without any luck and then our guide in Guizhou.  Finally she showed up, got us load in a van and we came to our hotel in downtown Guangzhou.  We get in the lobby and Jade's mom was there waiting for us.  I didn't know she would be there.  We got checked in and came upstairs and things started to fall apart.  I was talking with Jade's mom and dad about the schedule for the week, Erin discover that the bathroom is all glass (you can see thru).  We pulled the blinds down but that just made it so you can see the body outline.  So while trying to talk to Jade's parents, Katie is constantly interrupting , then Jade starts saying she is sleeping with Cindy in her room.  Dave tells her "no", she gets upsets and gets my attentions and tells me she won't change/shower or go to the bathroom with Dad in the room, you could see the fear in her eyes, meanwhile Monika and Jenny are getting hyper.  So I am trying to deal with all this and feeling the pressure.  Jade's parent's leave, I deal with Erin, Dave and I figure out a way to make the bathroom more secluded, so Jade is a little better, I get all of Katie's question answer and get the kids calmed down.  I still feeling a little stressed and not in a nice voice (didn't mean for it to come out that way) I say to Dave "you forgot to exchange the money", he is tired and feeling a little left out with Erin, since she doesn't really want anything to do with him, he snaps back at me.  Then I discover that we don't have clean laundry for the girls as we have been doing our own laundry and it not fun handwashing it all and waiting a couple of days for it to dry.  So I start crying, which then upsets Dave.  Then we discover that it is a 40 minute drive to the Island and it is already 1 in the morning and we would have to be up by 7.  So we both go to bed feeling irritated with ourselves and each other.  We overslept, lucky my sister woke up on time and came over and woke us up.  We wake up to a very bad smelly room.  Poor Katie, she had gotten sick during the night, threw up on the blanket/pillow and had diarrhea in her underwear, she had also gotten up and went and did it in the toilet.  She didn't bother to wake us up and went back to sleep.  I asked her why she didn't wake me up, she said she knew I was tired and didn't want me to get mad.  That broke my heart, and I started cry again, meanwhile the kids and Dave are scrambling to get ready while I am working on cleaning up Katie.  Dave takes all the girls down to breakfast with my sister, as I spend 40 minutes trying to wash the clothes Katie had on.  Dave comes back to the room bearing toast and bananas for me and said we got to go, so I threw on clothes and out the door we go.  We get Cindy and the girls from the dining room, go to the lobby of the hotel and Katie throws up again.  So we are now running over 10 minutes late and Katie not doing to well.  Cindy stays with Katie and we take off think we are going to be really late and no money.  It took us 20 minutes to get there vs the 40 minutes we were told it would take.  Then we discover we don't have Erin's passport with us and they needed that.  So not a good first `12 hours in Guangzhou.  We then met up with 3 other Madison families and our guide and went to the have the Erin's picture taken for the visa.  While waiting there, we ran into our dear friends Nancy and Doug and their beautiful daughter Lily.  Their other daughter was feeling under the weather and stay back at the hotel with Nancy's sister.  We then headed over for the medical exam.  There had to be over 5o families in there.  We went thru everything.  A guy doctor wanted Erin to take her clothes off, and she didn't want any part of that, so I asked for a female doctor, which they found for us.  Erin ended up with 4 shots and a TB test, she didn't flinch to much.  Once we finished there, we went to Lucy's for Lunch and then walked on the island for a little bit before heading back to the hotel.  We then met up with Jade's parent and right before walking out of the hotel, Katie informs me that her stomach was upset again, so her and I stayed behind while the rest went out.  From what I have been told, they went to a huge mall that is worse than Christmas season in America.  They went to about 10 stores in search for clothes for Erin and didn't have any luck finding anything her size.  Erin hung on very close to my sister since I wasn't there.  Once done shopping, We (including Katie and I) went to supper at one of the best restaurants in Guangzhou.  I wouldn't let Katie have much of anything.  The food was wonderful.  Before I got there, Erin started to misbehave by playing with the dishes/chopsticks and Dave told her to stop a couple of times, she refused, so he took it all away from her.  She was not a happy camper at all.  We made it through supper and came back to the hotel, bid farewell to Jade's parents and got the girls in bed.  Katie is still sayings she isn't feeling right.  For me things are fine now.  I think I needed a good cry for whatever reason.  We have been very lucky with Erin and the transition.  I thank the Lord for that.  Dave is feeling left out, but is trying to remain positive that it will happen, we have received encouraging emails from others that have had experience with that.  Erin is showing more and more of her personality.  We still have some language barriers as we will ask her questions and she will nod her head yes even when it isn't a yes or no question, also when we were leaving her province we asked her if she was sad that she was leaving, she nods her head yes with a big smile on her face.  We asked in a couple different ways and she answered yes with a big smile.  Sometimes when she is corrected or asked to stop doing something, she will and then she will like mutter under her breath (she doesn't use her voice, but her lips are moving and her body language is showing sassying), so we will have to work on that.  She is good with her sisters, likes to play with them, sometimes to much and needs to be told to stop.  Please say a prayer for Katie to help her feel better.  We are going to the zoo in the morning and she really wants to go.  We are also going to spend time on the island and know she would enjoy that.  Also say a prayer that things continue to go as well as what they have and that Erin's TB won't be positive.  Erin has been writing all our names in English, she really wants to learn and said she likes school.  We haven't totally figure out badminton.  She competed in different parts of China, she complains about being taken out of school to play badminton and that they made her keep playing/practicing even when she was tired.  When asked if she wants to play in America, sometimes she said yes and other times she says no.  I found out that there was a family that disrupted less than 24 hours after they got their child, please keep all parties in your prayers.  I don't know any details and not judging anyone, but all parties suffer a loss and I am sure it was a painful decision for them. Don't forget to look at previous post for more pictures from today.