Last Night in Zhengzhou

Well, we're packed and ready to go. After 7 days here, we are ready to go. We leave for the airport at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow and fly out at 11:30. I am not exactly sure when we arrive in Guangzhou because the flight schedule our guide gave us is in Chinese. HMMM. That helps a lot.

Nyah had a good day today. At lunch today she fed herself. She did a good job. The picture that you see is of Nyah eating. She kept putting her right arm on the bowl of noodles. She didn't want the servers to take the bowl. She kept it on there the whole time.

Nyah also likes baths now.

The first several baths she screamed the whole time.

And finally... Nyah is a true American.

She had her first Oreo cookie.

She loved them!

We will probably not email until tomorrow night. We are headed to China paradise. We love Guangzhou. Good American food, great massages, great shopping and the most important... Starbucks Coffee! :)

Take Care,

Melody and Eric

A Few More Pictures

Mobbed at the Park

Well, we were not expecting to be mobbed when we stepped out of the hotel today. We should have known that something was up when there were a ton of cars, t.v. camera's and a park so full of people and balloons that you had a hard time walking through.

We started walking towards the park and saw a man holding live turtles tied to a rope, probably somebody's lunch. We saw a bike laden with bags, obviously a homeless person's bike.

We were barely in the park when we were mobbed by a bunch of elderly people. Some of them looked like they would blow over with a stiff wind. One toothless wonder talked to us and kept us captive. He wanted to know why we were with a Chinese baby.

Our Chinese is limited so we had difficulty explaining. We know "sisi-" which means thank you, "Ni-How" which means hello, "soon-ya" which means adopted, and we know "1,2, and 3" in Chinese. You can imagine that this is not very helpful when you are literally surrounded by curious people. Once we got away from them (and they really were nice people) we just kept walking. We walked along the side of the river. It was beautiful!

We saw one man who had a musical instrument and his back was to the river and he was reading music from an old music book that looked like it was hand written and from 30 years ago.

We eventually made it to the main street. We caused such a commotion that people actually whipped out their phones and took pictures and video tape of us. We just smiled and waved.

The parents told their kids to say "hello" in English to get us to say it back. Quite humorous. We were afraid to stop in that we may get mobbed again. There were so many people that it was very crowded. We decided that we did not want to be out there anymore and that a boring afternoon in the hotel was better than walking through crowded streets.

As we walked we realized that we were walking into the busiest part of the park. There was some sort of talent convention going on. There were booths, balloons, people selling things. It was almost like a convention or a carnival. Not sure which fits most here. There was a grand piano on a stage with a kid who was maybe 10 playing very well. There were dancers, people dressed for a recital and people everywhere.

We stayed for a little bit, but it was obvious that we were more interesting than the programmed entertainment. We decided to leave. We tried to get through all the people and were stopped frequently by well meaning Chinese. One woman came up and touched my hair and Nyah's. She kept rubbing it like we were a good luck charm.

We took the main street back to the hotel rather than venture back through the park. We finally made it back and saw security at the hotel. Not sure what that was for, but we were glad to get back. We did not get the needed suitcase though. We will have to make do with what we have.

I'll send more pictures!

Mel

Emma's Broken Leg

We were up late last night and early this morning talking with our family in the States. Emma fell off a couch yesterday and hurt her leg. It turns out that she has two hairline fractures in her leg. She went to the doctor today and had an X-Ray. She does not need a cast but will have to crawl around until it heals.

She is fine but it is hard to be clear over here when she needs us.

We have a lot of family over there taking care of her but we wish we were there.The pictures are of us talking on the phone with family and the doctor. Emma is playing with her friends at daycare. Isn't she just so stinken cute. She is showing her hurt leg. Melissa, our daycare provider took the pictures.

Cute Nyah!

Chinese Writing

To my Reading Buddies:

Hi guys,

Just wanted to say Hi and tell you I was thinking of you. The pictures attached are of Chinese writing. Chinese writing usually goes from top to bottom, vertical. Each figure is a word.

When you watch T.V. and on signs you sometimes see the figures horizontal.

My guide said that numbers are now written the same as we write them in the states. I am not sure about this though because I have seen characters of numbers as well.

She taught me how to say one, two and three.

One is E

Two is ER

Three is Say

I will buy a book and bring it in for you to see when I get back.

Be nice to my teaching staff and READ, READ, READ!

Take Care,

Mrs. Lund

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Well, we had kind of a crazy morning and a lazy afternoon. Nyah woke up not feeling well. She threw a fit at breakfast and we had to take turns taking her out of the restaurant. She was upset that I made her wear a bib. Boy, she can sure throw some whoppers. Wow!

We had to meet the guide in the lobby at 9:30. She brought us our notarized adoption papers and Nyah's passport. She also gave us our plane tickets for Sunday. Technically, we should be able to go to Guangzhou now but we're unable to go yet because there is a trade show going on and there are no hotel rooms available.

Anyway, we got a taxi and went to a the Henan Province Museum. It was very neat to see the 7 to 10 thousand year artifacts of pottery, bowls, knives and other items. Pretty impressive! We took some pictures. One is of a Chinese man with his hands spread out holding back two elephants. This is supposed to symbolize that man has conquered nature. Another is of a ding. It is the large pot with three legs. It was used to hold beer and wine. There were many of those.

Another is a sign that Eric thought was funny! It has three things not to do while you are in the museum. You're not to smoke, spit or urinate in the building. This was hilarious to us. :) The Chinese people spit all over the place. It is not uncommon to see the old, young and glamorous hacking up a huge loogie and spitting right in front of you. It is also not uncommon to see children peeing in the middle of a walk way or on the side of the street.

Nyah was great about throwing all kinds of fits today. It was difficult to control and she knew it. We had all kinds of people watching us and the Chinese people do not discipline their children until they are older, in general. So, we had to wait or deal with it in a quiet manner. FRUSTRATING!

We went down the street from the museum to eat lunch. It was crowded and the people were, of course, starring. One of the families that helped us financially, by giving us a grant, had emailed us about this issue. He said, when they were adopting he felt like he was standing on the wrong side of a monkey house. We laughed because that is exactly how we feel. :)

Well, we hopped back in a taxi and came back to the hotel for a long nap...Nyah did better after that. We went to a store, got some food and hung out at the hotel for the evening. We are working on teaching Nyah sign language for the words "please," "thank you," "more" and "minding her manners." And, for now, she is getting better. She's beginning to say words like "hot," "no," "mama," "da" and several things in Chinese that we don't understand.

She is, however, still very cute. She can be a pill and is demonstrating her personality in many ways. She does not like to be the center of attention. Whenever we are surrounded by a lot of people who are trying to talk to her or get her to smile, Nyah looks down and almost gives a pouting face. She doesn't know what to do with new people, thus the no smiling in all the pictures that we got before we came to China.

Tomorrow we have a day off! We are hoping to sleep in, pack and get ready to go. We need to figure out or find another suitcase or we will have to pay a $50.00 fine at the airport. The only bags that we have found are $65-100. So hopefully, we can find a cheaper one.

THEN, WE ARE OFF! We can't wait.

Well, by for now. I'll send more pictures of the day.

Answers to Questions

I am getting questions from friends and family.

Here is a quick answer to some of those questions.

It's easier this time without our kids here with us. I don't have to worry that they are getting lost or hurt. I would, however, take them with me a 100 times over. We miss them so much! We wish they were here, especially when we're missing games, birthdays and life with them.

On our trip, we drove with our guide and a driver. The driver was very kind, especially when I was crying like a baby about Nyah. We were the only family on this trip. But, we've had several different drivers since we've been here.

Seeing all the babies broke my heart. I do feel that we are done adopting for the time being. I'm not going to state that for a fact because we didn't expect to adopt Nyah. However, the babies in the orphanage do need homes. I can't even describe the babies yet, but know that I have to give them and that situation over to God. I do hope, that I will be able to make a difference in the world. I can honestly say that I was not prepared emotionally for what happened this time. Last time, when we met Emma's foster parents, went so great! I was astonished how poorly it went this time.

The weather has been in the 70's with a high humidity. It has actually been perfect. We have enjoyed it. It is also smoggy enough that we don't have to worry about it being too bright either.

We did not bring enough clothes for Nyah because we didn't know what size she would be. She is in size 12 months clothes. She is wearing the clothes that we brought for Emma last year. Emma is in 2 T so Nyah is a lot smaller. We had to hand wash some clothes for Nyah so that we had enough. We are still looking for cheep shops for clothes for her. If not, we will get our clothes done in Guangzhou.

The Nanny and Foster Mom are the same person. It just depends on what I write at the time. I'm blond in the US and China. :)

But, I think that the foster mom did better than Nyah. She did not cry in front of us. I think that she had already said good by on the day that Nyah came to us. Also, I think that she was better prepared for it since it has only been a couple of months since she said goodbye to Joy, Nyah's foster sister. I don't really know for sure though.

I hope I answered some of the common questions. Let me know if you have anymore. I am glad to answer as many as you want to ask. :)

This list of questions were from my sister Angela.

Love you Ang.

A Different Nyah

We have a different Nyah today.
She ended the day laughing and playing with us.
It was a relief after yesterday.
She did, however, threw some major fits as well.
But, we're learning her personality,

slowly but surely.

More Pictures of the Park

We saw a whole bunch of people fishing at the park.

It looked like so much fun!

The men were using long fishing rods "without" a reel.

They used a long stick as a bobber

and were using this brown blob stuff for bait.
But, they were catching 4 or 5 inches long.

It was a cool thing to watch!

McDonald's

To my reading buddies:
One of my student's asked that I take pictures of

McDonald's and their menu.
So, here you go!

It is a lot like the US.

Jeremy's 15th Birthday!

It is a hard day for me as a mom. Jeremy and Nyah have the same birthday. We had to choose which child's birthday we would have to miss. Sadly due to the scheduling of everything, we had to miss Jeremy's.

Jeremy is truly a gift from God. He is the kindest, loyal, fun loving guy. He loves God, his family and is a great son and brother. Jeremy is a true friend and someone that we can depend on. We are so proud to call him our son.

We love you Jeremy!

Happy Birthday, Son!

The Park

The park is huge and in the center of the city. We went two times today.

The first time we caused quite a stir. People stopped to talk to us and starred at us.

The second time there we almost caused a full on traffic stop.

In the evening is when the people come out to relax. The elderly are everywhere. The young, married couples and their babies, you name it they all come out for an evening stroll. China has a sea of people and that's amazing to see.

The people in China are very nice. They are a curious people and have no problem stopping to stare or ask questions. It doesn't seem to matter that you can't understand them or that they can't understand you.

We didn't stay as long this evening. We didn't want to cause anymore of a scene than necessary.