Take me out to the ball game!

Parker catching

Noah pitching

Noah

Yes, it is baseball season and unfortuately we missed a lot of it! The boys have played since they were 4 years old and Paul has been their coach for all but one season. We love going to the games. Claire even had her first (that we know of) boiled peanuts at this weeks game! The season will end soon and we're onto swim team for the summer. Never a dull moment around here!

Parker's slide home!

Brother's are nice too!

With Noah

and Parker

So are Uncles!

And Great Uncles and Aunts!

And some people (Aunt Amy) just make me LAUGH!

Sisters!

When Isabel was born I wondered what she would think when she was older and realized that she was not a twin like the boys. I actually felt bad for her because the boys always had each other and there she was, in her crib all alone! Well, she apparently felt the same way because from the time she could talk she wanted to know where her sister was. She would cry at night because the boys had each other to share a room with and "I have nobody with me" she would tell me. She promised that she really, really wanted to share everything, except her beloved blankie, with a sister! When we told her we were going to adopt a baby girl she could not have been happier. We started this process 2 years ago and she has waited, not so patiently sometimes, for the day we would bring her sister home to her!

About those flights!

Getting home involved three flights. The first leg began in Guangzhou and ended in Beijing. We left our hotel at 6:30 for a 9:00 flight and just barely made it! That would be because the airline did not have me listed as having a ticket! WHAT? That's right, even though I had an e-ticket and a confirmation number, China Southern said I didn't have one! It wasn't just me either. It happened exactly the same for the other couple in our travel group that were supposed to be on that flight. Thank goodness Elsie, our CHI coordinator was there. I have no idea what she said, but hopefully it was something along the lines of "This man is not leaving his wife in China, this mother is not letting her child and husband leave without her, I don't care what your computer says, now get her on that plane or we will ALL make a horrible scene!" Whatever it was, it worked! Twenty minutes into the flight, Claire helped me spill a cup of orange juice in my lap and we had to be moved to dry seats. Of course, I couldn't be moved to dry pants though! They were in my checked baggage!

Noodles will also keep me occupied on long flights!

By 12 noon we were in Beijing for our four hour layover before our flight to Newark, NJ. Thank goodness we had 4 hours or we never would have made it to our international flight! After disembarking the plane we had to pick up all our checked bags from the other flight, take them through security, again, re-check them for our international flight, go to another terminal, check-in for our international flight, fill out a form, go through immigration and go through security AGAIN! Of course, it couldn't go off without a hitch. This time the computer told us and the other couple that our flights had already departed! HELLO, what is up with this? Do they just not want you to leave China! So, we stood in another line to have someone fix that. Thankfully, they were able to and we had just enough time to eat a quick bite before boarding our 3:45 plane to Newark, NJ. Mind you, we have now been in transit for 9 hours and Claire slept through most of the layover. So, she had a melt down as soon as we got on the Continental airlines flight. I guess another flight was not what she had in mind! This leg of the journey lasted 13 hours. Claire managed to sit and play for the first 3 hours, sleep for 4-5 and alternate fussing and napping for the rest. She was not interested in walking the plane but did enjoy the edited version of 27 Dresses! Actually, she just liked wearing the headphones and didn't pay much attention to the picture.

23 hours after beginning the trek home we landed safely on U.S. soil and Claire became an American Citizen! We dragged our behinds off the plane, got through customs and headed straight for immigration where we turned in our super-secret-sealed-brown-envelope given to us at the American Consulate in Guangzhou. This envelope must make it into the immigration officer's hands unopened. Then we had to go get our checked bags....again, and recheck them for the next flight! Boy, did we get tired of hauling those bags around. We made it to the terminal in time to find out, that our flight was delayed! At 9:15 we boarded our last flight. Claire passed out 10 minutes before boarding and slept until we touched down in Charleston! Not a peep out of her until then.

Both sets of grandparents and the children were there to greet us. It was so nice to see their faces and get hugs! WE'RE HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The car seat was an experience, just as we knew it would be. But she quieted down after a few minutes. When we got to the house she just looked around at everyone, kind of in shock I think! My friend, Michelle and her baby, Casey were there too, so it was a full house. When Isabel came to sit beside us, she pushed her away but fortunately, Isabel did not take it personally. Then she opened a few presents, got a snack and a bath and CRASHED from 3AM until 10:30. She was not overly crazy about the crib but actually stopped crying faster than when she was on the roll aways in China.

Walking with Papa!

Today, we took Claire to the doctor to have her checked since I had put her on the antibiotics in China. She still has a full blown ear infection so we put her on stronger antibiotics. She did not even flinch when then nurse pricked her finger. This evening we took her to Moe's for dinner and out to the boy's baseball game. She did wonderfully and even fell asleep in Papa Stroud's arms. Overall, I would say she has had a good first day at home. And, she let Isabel play with her, push her in the cart at Walmart, brush her hair and sit beside her in the car. Isabel is quite the little mama! The boys just try to make her smile and disappear if she needs a diaper change!

Love my new push car!

My first baseball game with my Papa!

Flirting with one of the players!

That's all folks!

Practicing my strut!

Well, at least for China. Today was our last day here! Like I said, I am a little sad to be leaving Claire's country. You never know if you will get back this way one day or not, so it is kind of sad to leave it behind. We have also made some great friends in our travel group and we will miss them. But, we are excited to get this girl on U.S. soil! We want to see our children and sleep in our bed and get Claire on a SCHEDULE!

We really didn't have anything we had to do today until our appointment to pick up Claire's visa in the afternoon, so we did some last minute shopping. First, we headed off the island into a local market just for kicks! We weren't sure what to have for lunch.....

SNAKE or

SCORPION!

YUMMY! Of course our choices didn't stop there. Oh, no! There was eel, turtle, and gigantic (like bigger than your head) mushrooms! But in the end, we decided to race over to Lucy's for hamburgers and fries! Then we headed out to the little shops around the hotel.

Since this is a small Island, we have been in most of the stores and haggled our way into some pretty good deals on a few things. We have even gotten to know some of the local shop owners and workers and have cut up quite a bit with them. So, we revisited our favorites today for a few last minute deals and laughs! I don't know who has more fun haggling, Paul or the shop keepers!

Paul with Angel in one of our favorite shops

A happy girl!

In the afternoon, we took a bus ride over to the American Consulate so we could pick up the visa's for the children to get into the U.S. We were taken into a large room filled with adoptive families and asked to take an oath that everything in our adoption documents was truthful to the best of our knowledge and then we were handed the visa's! That's it, so we got back on the bus and went back to the Island. We decided to celebrate by eating at the Italian restaurant on the Island with our travel buddies. We got a table for 18! The restaurant was the cleanest and prettiest I'd been in in China and it had good air conditioning! However, the service was awful! Some people in our group never even got their food! We did and the food was very good. But, still, I wouldn't recommend it. Turns out, our Chinese girl LOVES Italian food. She ate gobs of my spinach ravioli with ricotta cheese and tomato sauce.

Well, the bags are packed, again! Luggage pickup is at 5:45AM so I better get to bed! Please pray for us because the next two days are not going to be the most pleasant. We will spend the next 30 hours in transit! Sounds like a fun time! The next time you hear from me, Claire will officially be a citizen of the United States of America!