- Sort of..Tomorrow we pack up and fly to GZ at 6:30. But we have nothing really planned for tomorrow except seeing the Maglot's. Which is a big something since we will not see them for a while.
Last night while waiting for Elise to go to sleep, she started saying, "I love you mommy. I love you daddy. I love you big sister. Elise An Xin Hong." Of course, this was all in Chinese but I can't spell it. We were so excited about this!! She also said "I love you Spiderman" which is something Peter says that we taught her to say to him. ;-) Last night was the best sleep I think we've all gotten so far. It was great to sleep until 7! Before you think we're totally lazy, we all wake up multiple times during the night, mainly at 2 a.m. I am wide awake every night at that time so I normally take a melatonin to help me go back to sleep. When we woke up, Elise showed up the contents of her backpack! This is the only thing from their formal life that they come with. This is a huge step and we were thrilled to have this moment.
After breakfast we headed to the Maglot's room to watch their kiddo's while then went out for a day date. We had such a great time! Their kids are such great kids, so calm, fun, playful, adorable and many other great adjectives. There were many, many giggles and fun times. Until an unnamed person let Elliot fall off the bed 5 minutes before his parents walked in. Best. Babysitters. Ever. But they took it in good stride. Thank goodness!!
After we left there we headed to the orphanage to visit. Elise lived here maybe a year and lived with her foster parents for 7 years. It was neat to see where she lived and how things are set up. There are 800 orphaned children in Xi'An city. 400 live in the orphanage area and the rest live in rural areas with foster families. There are 130 foster families who live on site in apartments that the orphanage supplies. They are small apartments and most families takes care of 4-5 kids. Some go to school on site and others go to school in the city, depending on their needs. The foster parents are actually grandparents. They are mainly retired, married couples or couples where the husband is out of a job for the moment. This program seems to have it together from what we saw. Their rooms were bright and cheery, they had rooms for the children to play act in, the foster parents had pictures of all their previous foster children. We were able to take video and visit with two children who will be adopted soon. We will share these videos and what we learned with their soon to be parents. Most of you know I am passionate about adoption but I do not get on my soap box often about it. We are all called to different things. God intends for us to work in many different places and areas in different times of our lives. This is the one time I am going to get on my international adoption soap box so be prepared. ;-) We've been asked why China? Our answer is why not? The need is great. 800 kids in one city? Oh my word. And a country that only adopts 'perfect' children. And let's be real. There's not a lot of those in any kind of foster care system. The need is so great. If you ever considered international adoption, start praying. It may not be for you and that's fine. And if not, pray about how you can help. There are so many incredible programs that you can support. Half the Sky, which helps run the program at this orphanage, is one of those programs you can support. And another thing....did you notice I said that the foster parents are actually grandparents? That's right. Grandparents. These are retired couples giving up their time to care for orphans. And not just one orphan. 4-5 at a time. So many of us can't wait for our kids to turn 18 and move out. (For the record, I am not one of those. I am already dreading that time) When the last of my kids move out, I will be 48 years old. That's still quiet young. Eric and I will have a lot of years left. It's just something to think about.
For dinner, we met up with the Maglot's and went to a restaurant called "The Hot Pot." On our way, Jess and Jon were surrounded by several Chinese women who were quiet passionate about something with Elliot. We're still not quiet sure what it was but they kept pointing to his hands. They were very opinionated but ok.... The restaurant had a massive buffet bar filled with raw meat and veggies. You would take them and grill or boil them at your table. Oh my word, it was good! SO GOOD! And it was $22. $22!! Our blondes captured a lot of attention. We were stared at the entire meal. With Abi, groups pretend they're taking selfies while really taking pics of Abi. So tonight she did the same with them. With the Maglot kids, they don't even try to hide it. They will come and just pick their kids up and start snapping pics then pass them around the table. It's crazy. Elliot was not crazy about this and started fussing. This tickled the entire restaurant who started laughing. Then Jess accidently dropped Eva's ice cream in the boiling water and she started crying. I'm sorry but Eric and I had to laugh. Jess and Jon are great sports about all of this. We help them layer their children (because if they don't, you get yelled at) while a couple of people were still snapping pictures. We left as quickly as possible, walking past the 100 people waiting to get in, and breathed a sigh of relief when we got out. And this is the Maglot's at least once a week. Goodness! We laughed about it on the way back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we say goodbye to Xi'An and, sadly, to the Maglot's. We have enjoyed our time with them so much. We are looking forward to seeing Grace, our college student that visited a year ago, in GZ. There will be so many adoptive families in GZ and it's much more westernized. We will visit the zoo, do a river cruise, things we did with Peter that stir great memories. Miss those kids!
Some of Elise's favorite sayings: Mommy, Babby, Jei Jei, (Big sister) Oh no, 1 2 3 4 H, Uh Oh, Yes, Yes, Yes, Ready, Set, Go, Barbie, Peter, Andrew, Chelsea, and Eva.
We may not be able to write tomorrow so we'll chat on Saturday! Love you all!
- Sharon Mirick I loved reading this smile emoticon Praises for the milestones with Elise. I am happy to read she likes to say Barbie. I have a t-shirt set aside to make a Barbie dress for her smile emoticon Praying for safety during your flight today LOVE ALL OF YOU. Give those girls a hug from Mimi
- Jaime Stoddard Rinehart So neat to hear about her sweet words before bed. Precious. I pray that her transition is as smooth as possible with her sharing when she's sad (as much as possible). Such big changes for everyone. I love hearign about y'all's time with the Maglotts and all your adventures. smile emoticon
- Rachel Larson Ahh, the layering...it was the same in Russia. Babushkas on the street would yell at you if the kids weren't bundled up enough. LOL
- Lara D. Wallace Rose Hello to Grace from us smile emoticon Enjoy!!
Cindy Parker Westbrook Wow! U have been very busy! Such wonderful news!! What a beautiful heart Elise has! Thank u for sharing all this with all of us smile emoticon and so excited u get to see Grace. Please give her a hug from the Westbrooks and for the Maglotts also!
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