We Are Up! (August 16)

Last night was definitely our hardest night.  Lyla screamed herself to sleep.  She did let me comfort her, but still it was hard to watch!  It makes us a little nervous about visiting the orphanage today but we are hoping it will bring her some closure of some sort.  We are up this morning and she is happy!  Eating as we speak.  And having seen Grace using the potty I’m afraid we are now full blown into potty training!  Not something I really wanted to do in China but when she’s ready she’s ready right?  Say prayers for us today.  It’s always hard to see all those babies needing families!  Lots of love from Jinan…

Paige

Tuesday in Jinan (August 16)

Well today we have done absolutely nothing.  We have stayed in the hotel.  Mostly because it’s raining and everything we would go see is outside.  So we slept in, ate breakfast, and then just came back and played.  We also used this morning to catch up on our communication with home.  We skyped, used facetime, and got to see lots of beautiful faces from home!!!  Made us homesick a little more!  Thank you so much for all your encouraging emails!  We also painted toe nails, ate, watched a movie, ate again, colored with crayons, ate again, ate lunch, and then it was nap time.  This kid eats all the time. And I mean alot!!!!  We are hoping that will slow down with time.  Today, I used nap time to have some quality time with Grace.  We colored, made silly faces, and just caught up on some hugs.  She is doing really good with having a new sister.  But we are competing for attention and most often times it’s not in a good way.  So getting in the extra time with her today was good.  Tomorrow we go to the orphanage.  Please pray about that.  Not sure how little Lyla will handle it.  And pray that I don’t snatch a few of those other kiddos up and bring them home!!!!

Mine and Grace's masterpieces....

Painting toe nails....

Good day....



Today (August 15)

Today we spent what felt like years in 3 different government offices doing paperwork.  First was the Civil Affairs office where we completed the first set of paperwork which we needed to take to the passport office.  At the passport office things got a little tricky when we learned that one of the officials that the orphanage had built a relationship with was gone on holiday.  We had to leave and go back to the passport office after lunch.  We were still  not convinced that it will be ready by Friday!  John, our guide, said that he would call on Wednesday and check on progress.  If it’s not as far along as it should be he said he would call the orphanage or some other adoption official.  But for me not to worry.  Yea right.  He obviously doesn’t know me.
Overall, we cannot complain with how Lyla is doing.   Night time seems to be our only issue, and we’ve made some adjustments and tonight worked much better.  We had one uncomfortable moment at the Civil Affairs office today when the orphanage administrator, the lady who brought Lyla to us, came in.  Lyla quickly abandoned everything she had, sippee cup and play phone, grabbed the administrator’s hand, looked at us and said, “bye!” and waved.  Really, I believe she was saying, “See you suckers!  I’m out of here!”  I thought, “Here we go.  Here comes the fit.”  But she didn’t.  The orphanage administrator said something to her in Chinese, Lyla shook her head no, the administrator repeated it, and Lyla came back to me.  End of story.  Please continue to pray for us.  We can feel them!  We are ready to come home, but we have 4 more days here and then we will go to Guangzhou.  Jinan is a little harder to be in than where Grace was from.  Our guide told us there are only about 120 adoptions a year here so they are not use to seeing Americans.  We are very much not liking the attention we are getting.  They are very nice and are just curious.  But the momma in me worries that they are staring at Lyla.  I hope they see that even kids with physical deformities are worthy of families too.  So tonight we want to thank you for your prayers.  Things are going way better than we could have ever dreamed.  Please continue to lift us up.  If there was anything specific I would say to pray for an on time passport for Lyla, and better transition to sleep for her.  We love you guys and we miss home terribly!!!  The only pic I managed to get from today…(for some reason I’m WAY busier than I use to be)

Few More Pictures (August 14)

We’ve talked to lots of people today via Skype and Facetime!  And for some reason I’m having a hard time uploading photos.  I’ll stick with these for now!!  Love you all!!  We miss our family and can’t wait to come home!  Surely now that we have her we can come home tomorrow?  Yea right!
Sisters…

 Facetime with Ms. Melissa and Mr. Kelly…

Playing with the stacking cups....

Meeting Lyla....



We've Got Her! (August 14)

We’ve got her!!!  All 3 ft. 30 lbs of her!  She walked through our hotel door this morning like she owned the place.  Panda in one arm and swinging the other!  I think she’s gonna fit in just fine in this family!  Don’t have time to post a lot.  And might not over the next few days.  Be patient with us!  Here she is…

Betterton family of 4…

Surprise! (August 13)

Well we are here!  Relatively uneventful flight.  I don’t think we were in the air for 45 minutes.  Not to crowded which was amazing for an Air China flight!  Our guide, John, met us at the airport and brought us to our hotel.  Our room is fantastic.  I don’t think I’ve ever stayed at a place so nice!  We have a suite with a connecting room so we have plenty of room.  Also, they have put a crib in our room for Lyla which is about the size of a toddler bed so we should be good to go!  And now for the surprise part…

We are getting her tomorrow!!!!!  One whole day early!  And the therapist in me is very happy with the fact that they are bringing her to our hotel room.  Her nanny is bringing her to our hotel room.  This is great because it will be just us and we can have calm and quiet and play and not have to worry about 30 other people being in the room with us and it being so scary and chaotic.  This is a huge blessing.  We will be able to take pictures of her with her nanny and ask her questions, and very quickly try and connect with her before the nanny leaves.  Of course I had to get prepared.  We learned today that she is not potty trained (yikes!) so we had to go to the store.  We took what I’m sure will be the first of many trips to Wal-Mart (yes I said Wal-Mart.  And it was interesting.) to get Pull-ups, wipes, sippy cups, a few toys, finger nail polish (great for attachment) and a few items for ourselves.  Now we are back and unpacking and setting up “home” if you will for the next week.  The only other thing we have to do tomorrow is go and take a family picture.  So….pray friends.  Pray that there will be a smooth transition from her nanny to us tomorrow.  Pray that she will grieve quickly and find her place with us.  Pray for peace for us, and pray for Grace as the idea she’s had of having a sister becomes reality tomorrow.  I am not sure if I will be able to blog tomorrow.  But know that I will be getting pictures up as soon as I can!  Thank you for lifting us up!

The Great Wall (August 12)

This is my all time favorite thing to do here.  The Great Wall.  I don’t really know why except that is one of the 7 wonders of the world and it’s just neat to see such an unbelievable part of history.  I forgot though about how horrible it is to climb it.  It is so steep!!!!  Brandon, Grace, and Lauren went all most to the top but I didn’t make it.  I had Jello legs about 2/3 of the way.  Here are some pictures from the day….

Carvings of Chinese into the brick on the wall…

And everyone wanted their picture made with us.  Which I found strange.  I think it’s because everyone was so inquisitive about us having a Chinese little girl…

My sister certainly wins the prize for the best pics of the day.  These are great!  Love the one with the kids in them.

This next one I love.  I would love to get a hold of the cheeks on this little guy!!!



After the wall we went and shopped a little.  Grace got her first piece of Jade.  Jade is very important here.  Everyone has a piece and its something you pass from generation to generation.  Here’s Grace’s piece up close…

I had a very good encounter on the wall today with a Chinese lady and her daughter.  It’s not unusual to see girls here in Beijing or in any other big city in China.  It’s in the smaller cities and villages that you really notice it.  But today on the wall there was a lady who looked like she was my age with her daughter.  She was hugging her and giving her water and the little girl was laughing.  This typically wouldn’t catch my attention but this little girl had down syndrome.  And her momma was loving all over her.  It truly made my heart happy to see this special needs baby being taken care of by her momma.  So great day here.  Tomorrow we fly from Beijing to Jinan and we will be in the same city as our daughter!  Every day I ask Grace what her favorite part of the day was.  And everyday she says, “It hasn’t happened yet.”  She is so excited about meeting Lyla.  There is alot on my heart that I want to share but I will wait.  Next post is from Jinan!!