McNaughton's China Trip

Well, this was a long day for us. Here's mommy and Saray when we were on the Express train from downtown Hong Kong to the airport.


Baby girl decided not to take her mid-morning nap until we got on the airplane. She took a bottle and slept for about two hours.


Then she got up and played for about five hours. She wasn't interested in eating a regular meal so she filled up on biter biscuits and gold fish. She then went to sleep for about six hours. That may sound good but she could not get comfortable so every hour or so we had to hold her and put her back to sleep. Neither of us slept very well.


Here's Sarah right before landing in Chicago...


...and here's mommy. Poor dear.


It's 11pm Sunday night now and Sarah does not believe it's night time so I'm taking the opportunity to do the blog. Sarah became a US citizen at 3pm Central time on 10 Sep when we passed through immigration!!

Hi, everybody on the last full day of our trip. This is Sarah having a little breakfast in the room. She is making what we affectionately refer to as "the China face." We had breakfast in the room too with some stuff we bought in the supermarket last night. If you had a chance to go to the hotel's website you'll know why. Brian wasn't up for paying like 50 bucks a piece for an orange. Yes, I exagerate but not by much.


We went a morning sightseeing tour around the island. First we went to some funky temple, but it was a quick stop and not worth the effort to even take a picture.
Then went to Victoria's Peak via the cable tram. Here's a couple of shots from the top -- a little cloudy.


Believe it or not, there's a Burger King at the Peak...I paid about $3 USD to verify the quality of a double cheeseburger. Yummy!


Next we went to the Aberdeen Fishing Village. The "village" is where the fishermen live on their boats. They say this will all be gone in a couple of years as the government will develop the South side of the island. Here's us on a sampan and a big floating restaurant called Jumbo.


Then is started raining...Sarah is still happy.


But by the time we got to Stanley Market it wasn't raining there.


If you think our expressions are looking kind of resigned or tired, it's because we're about ready for this trip to be over. We're leaving HK tomorrow at 12:45p.m. and scheduled to land in Chicago at 2:17p.m. (still on Sunday). Not bad, 14 1/2 hours in the air and only 90 minutes go by on the clock. It's mid-afternoon now. I may add some more later.

We figured out how to use the subway which was very foreigner-friendly and we went to...


this market teeming with people. It's like every HK moive you've ever seen. After a little shopping we went on the hunt for a little supper and found...


...this place. The orange pickled squid was a little much for us so we ended up at this nice little Japanese restaurant and had some tasty bowls of sweet soy chicken in rice. I got a beef and chicken combo bowl. Sarah ate both the beef and chicken plus a biter biscuit then she discovered...


...Hagen-Daz. She just loved the Coffee Almond Crunch bar.


It's Sat. night now and we're packing up to go home (at least to the U.S.) tomorrow. We'll be out of touch until Sunday late-afternoon. We're staying at an Embassy Suites in Downtown Chicago on Sunday night. Will visit the Brazilian Consulate on Monday morning to get a visa for Sarah, then we should be in Wichita around 5p.m. on Monday afternoon if all goes well.
I'll try to post something on Sunday afternoon in Chicago. I hope you've enjoyed following our journey. It's been fun writing about each day we've had. We have a ton more pictures than I've been able to post plus some video. We enjoyed great health and good spirits throughout the trip, thanks to all who have been praying for us. We're ready to go home. Like I said before, if you have any questions just post as a comment and I'll try to answer or you can email us at faobr@brturbo.com.br
We'll be back in Brazil on Sat. 16 Sep and it'll be a while before we get back to the States. Bye.

Hi, everybody. I didn't take many pictures today as all we did was travel. But this nice tater-tot shot was taken at our last breakfast in Guangzhou.











We left Guangzhou around 2:45p.m. today and flew to Hong Kong, about 45 min or so flight. Once in HK we said tearful good-byes to all the families we'd got to know in the last two weeks. All of them were spending the night in the airport hotel and leaving the next morning. We were the only ones staying in HK for the weekend.At the airport we boarded this really cool Express train that took 23 minutes to reach downtown HK then we boarded a transfer bus that dropped us off at our hotel. I can't even begin to describe how nice this hotel is. I had called a guy in the US Defense Attache Office in HK to get a reservation at a nice place. No picture I can post would do this place justice. We are on the 53rd floor!! If you're interested to see it just go to http://www.shangri-la.com/ and look up the hotel on Hong Kong Island.We had Thai food, went to a supermarket to get some stuff for Sarah then headed for bed. Should have some nice pictures tomorrow as we're taking a four-hour island tour.

We talked to Shellye's mom this morning and she told us Shellye's grandma died the day we got to China two weeks ago. No one told us so as not to add a cloud to our trip as we were getting Sarah and learning what she needed from us to take care of her. Shellye was pretty sad, Grandma Inez was her last living grandparent. But the good news is she believed in the Good News. Shellye's mom talked to Inez' pastor at the funeral and the pastor said he had an opportunity to talk with Grandma about what he would say at her funeral. She told him, "to tell everybody about Jesus, just keep talking about Jesus." What a testimony from a women who knew her death was near, she wanted others to know where she was going and for them to have an opportunity to know Jesus as Savior too.

Hi, everybody.
This is our last full day in Guangzhou having a little breakfast.


Here's a funny sign I saw in a bathroom. If you have to click on this picture to read it, please do so and check out points three and four in English.


We finished all our last minute shopping today (that is until we get to Hong Kong) and after lunch we went to the US Consulate to pick up Sarah's passport w/visa and immigration paperwork. Here's mommy and Sarah when we got back to the room diplaying Sarah's IR3 immigrant visa.


Then apparently mommy wasn't done shopping after all so Sarah and daddy stayed in the room and started getting stuff ready to pack. Sarah is thinking about the pizzas daddy just ordered from Danny's Bagel. We obviously didn't eat Chinese tonight.


This was a free gift from the Mattel toy company. They must have a factory over here or something because there is a big Mattel play room on the first floor of the hotel. These Barbie dolls were placed in the rooms on the second day we were here. The funny thing is I wasn't in the room when Shellye walked in an saw the doll and she was trying to figure out why in the world I would buy such a thing. She didn't know whether to be offended or laugh. If you can't quite make it out, Barbie is in fact holding a Chinese baby girl. All the new moms got one...I talked to the lady who got twins -- she got two!! I looked around but there were no Ken dolls holding extra suitcases to hold all the stuff that Barbie bought on the adoption trip.


The next picture is truth in advertising. Yes, I am guilty of selecting only the nicest pictures of Sarah to put on the blog each day. This is Sarah when she did not get her way this evening. Little does she know mommy and daddy are not amatuers and that four others have tried to pull this on us. It may have made her angier that we had no sympathy for her, she just got her bath, diaper and jammies while she screamed her head off. Once she calmed down she got her bottle. Little sweetie pie.


We leave the hotel at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow. Not exactly sure what time we get in to Hong Kong but we'll definately put something up on the blog before we go to bed so ya'll can see something when you get up on Friday. Bye.

Hi everybody! We fired up the camera late today but this is Sarah after lunch. We bought her some stacking cups, she really likes them.


We had picture time with our group of ten families. All told our agency had 67 families in China these two weeks. Of that group 27 families went to our Province which was Jiangxi. Our 27 families were broken down into three groups -- two of ten and one of seven -- each group with a guide from the agency. This is our group of ten.


Then we tried to get all the babies to sit together on the couch...there was much crying from some of the little sweethearts. Sarah pretty much has the same expression in all the photos.


Hello, I'm the princess of China...


Then we took a break from Chinese food and went out for Thai. This young man is one of the sons of a family in our group. When you order a chicken dish here your meal comes complete.


Nice hot bath before bedtime.

Hi. Is everybody back to work after Labor Day?
The hotel we got to last night is the famous White Swan in Guangzhou, China. There are some people staying here who have not adopted kids but they are the minority I think. Very nice. Here's a shot of the indoor waterfall by the breakfast area.

Mom -- I forgot Char's new last name. Can you call Jinny and ask her? Then email me and I'll try to find her. It'll be nice to get the story of their baby.


Here's baby girl when we woke up this morning. She's good sleeper, usually wakes up crying a little until she gets her bearings then she's pretty happy.


Mommy went to the gym in the morning while daddy took Sarah to her mandatory medical appointment. Here she is when it was over. She is very healthy. 8.2 kilos, 75cm, small for her age but she's packing away the food now that she's pretty comfortable with us.


We found out two more things about Sarah today. First, she really likes the water...
But she hasn't cracked the nut on holding her breath when she puts her head in the water.


And she likes corn-on-the-cob. This is her at dinner. We haven't be feeding her a lot of solid food but when I was breaking off kernels to give her Shellye said just give her the cob. This picture is the result. Uncle Bruce will be so proud. Sarah gnawed on the cob for a good 15 minutes longer than justified for the size and amount of corn. We not sure, but we're guessing she may have eaten this before and liked it. We'll know tomorrow if it likes her when we check her diaper.


During our whole adoption process as we've talked to people many have said they've thought about adoption but just didn't know if they could love an adopted child like their own. That is a good honest question, "Can you love an adopted child just like your own?" Shellye and I want to give testimony that the answer is an overwhelming YES!! Just like when each of our four children were born, we felt a well of love open up we did not know previously existed. We have been praying for it, and that's probably the only way to explain it...that God answered our prayers and gave us the love for this child as if she were created from our bodies. For those of you that have children, you know the feeling you have that you don't know how life could be so wonderful without them? It's the same with an adopted child. It's the same for us with Sarah. We're already asking ourselves what we did without her.

Happy Labor Day!!

We don't know why we bought toys as Sarah now loves to tip over and dig in the garbage can. Some of you may be wondering why there is an empty carton of smokes in the garbage. Well, we were told before we came that American cigarettes would be good little gifts to give the men here who help us along the way. The smoking percentage here is huge, much more than we imagined and the cigs were welcomed gifts. Forgive us if you're offended.
Sarah likes to crawl under furniture for some reason. This is her this morning.


Today we went to pick up Sarah's passport, all OK. Then we went back to the hotel and went over to this really good Chinese restaurant for one more lunch.


This is us leaving Nanchang one week after getting Sarah.


And this is us arriving in Guangzhou.



At 4pm we left the hotel for the aiport and little Sarah had her first plane from Nanchang to Guangzhou. We arrived at the hotel well after bedtime but Sarah was as happy as could be. She did get quite upset during the landing sequence but then stop crying right after landing.
We're going for a mandatory medical appointment tomorrow (5 Sep) then our visa interview on 6 Sep.
Hope you all are having a lovely Labor Day weekend. We are. One step closer to home!

Good morning on the Lord's day to you.
This was me and Sarah last night at McDonald's that I didn't put on yesterday's post.



Sarah woke up very happy today. She played on the bed while Shellye and I snapped pictures of her. Some of you may be wondering if she is cross-eyed. She's not...not that there's anything wrong with that...but sometimes the camera angle makes it look as if she were.


Today we went to a little rural village on the outskirts of the city. This little band was the greeting party....


Then the kids came out of the wood work...this first picture is actually taken in front of the kids' school. We think they are happy because the sign behind and to the left of Shellye says that the start of school was delayed several days because of the heat. :-)

Sam Prugh -- I think this little girl maybe a Longhorns fan, what do you think?


This sweet old lady was an interesting story. I motioned with the camera to take her picture, she smiled. I took the shot then displayed it for her to look at. It took nearly 30 seconds of staring then it finally dawned on her that she was seeing herself. She started getting teary-eyed and tried to straighten her hair covering and tuck her loose hair under it. I don't imagine she's ever seen a picture of herself.


The older generation seem to be much more enthusiastic about a band a foreigners adopting their little girls. The shorter lady to Shellye's right said she was 77 but that she could still carry loads in the village. The other lady is 66 and had one tooth left. Both were engaging and happy to see Sarah with us.


A very good tailor came to the hotel. Shellye got several outfits for herself and dresses for all the girls. Daddy got this cool silk suit. I can see why these things are popular dress, it's probably one of the most comfortable things I've ever put on. And it helped me blend too, upon going out on the street, people mistook me for Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon.


This is Sarah after eating a jar of carrots with rice cereal, she then tried to eat her right foot but then decided she'd need it later.


We put these footie jammies on her the first night and she kicked and screamed, but now she's diggin' 'em.


Every day Sarah becomes more attached to us. We have no doubt the Lord gave us a precious gift when He set the events in motion for her to join our family. It's Sunday night now and we paused to look back over the week since we picked her up at 5p.m. Monday afternoon. The best way to describe it is like watching a flower bloom in fast-motion and I don't know if that really covers it fully. She was ours on Monday but now I guess we are hers.