The three younger girls

Read the post below this one regarding bringing Jade to school. I am trying to figure out how to shrink down my pictures, so I can post more then one picture on the blog thru email.  I tried to send 5 initially, that didn't work, then 4, then 3, then 2 and finally 1.  It is late for us in China and I am really tired,  We had a very long trip to China.  We boarded our plan 20 minutes late and then sat on the plane for over an hour.  Arrived in Chicago at 9:25PM and our connecting flight was leaving at that time, so we had to run fast and we and the luggage all made it.  The actual flight over wasn't bad.  We had the individual tv monitors, so the girls stayed busy.  They took small naps.  We arrived in China after 11PM and got to our hotel around 1A and back up at 6 to start our fun day.  As you see in the picture, the three younger girls are with us.  I have been meaning to write this post before we left, but it didn't happen, so I am going to write about how the girls ended up coming with us. Most of you know the story that when we saw Erin's picture for the first time on June 6, 2009, there was something about her that we felt she was our daughter.  We weren't even talking about adoption other then saving over the next 5 years.  When we started all the fund raising and grants to help us raise the funds to bring her home, we figure we would have no problem and that the girls will be able to go with.  During the past 15 months, many things have happen, I took 2 pay cuts totaling over 5 dollars, Dave hours got cut drastically, some of the fund raisers that I had hope to bring in a lot of money didn't,worked extra hours and we had to work hard for the grants.  We got one grant right before our TA.  We received our TA on Monday 16th and the CA on the Friday the 20th.  As of the 20th, we were still short by a lot and had 2 grants out there waiting still.   So 10 days before we are due to leave, we are still trying to figure out how we were going to get the rest of the funds.  We prayed hard and our prayers were answer along with a special present.  We received both grants and were still a little short.  A dear person that I know thru a good friend of my offer to help us finish paying off the rest of the fees to bring Erin home.  She also was willing to help us bring the girls with as she knew how badly we wanted them to go.  Dave and I did a lot of talking and decided to take her up on this offer.  So with not much time left, we changed our airline tickets, overnight the passports for the visas and now they are here with us.  We are so grateful for the dear person and everyone else that contribute to bring Erin home.  I will send more pictures and update all on our first fun filled day in Beijing.  We went to underground palace (part of the ming tombs), the Great Wall that included taking the speed chute down, very beautiful drive through the mountains, a wonderful lunch, stop at the Jade and Silk factory (oh I wanted to buy one of those silk comforters so bad). Finished the day off with the specatular acrobat show.  The girls are doing wello, just minor instances.  We are enjoying ourselves, but it is now night night for me.  Thank you again everyone.