Going Home...

It's been a great trip, but we're all VERY ready to be home. We arrive in Nashville at 11:55 pm on Wednesday night after 30+ hours of travelling. UGH.. I am so dreading tomorrow. It's going to be soooo loooooooong. But it's okay. Please pray for an ABUNDANCE of patience and joy for our family tomorrow as we are stressing and rushing and being bored and all kinds of things like that...

Love you everyone. Thank you for all of your encouragement with Mom and the baby. Things will work out just fine, I'm sure.

See some of you within a few days!!!

Abbie

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple days... we just haven't been doing much. We're in Guangzhou now, and our flight here was fine, only about an hour long. Ruby is bonding very well with Dad, but she and Mommy haven't bonded very well yet, so they're spending some more time together tonight. Please pray for Mom... it's hard for her and Ruby not to bond very well. But everything will work out... Ruby is just more drawn to men. She won't let Mom or any women hold her, but she'll go to men that are pretty much strangers to her. It's crazy... but once we get home especially, it'll all work out. This happens often where the baby will bond better with men, but the babies always come around and bond with the Mommies. :)

Just wanted to post a few pictures of the last few days. Enjoy!

Abbie

These first two are pictures of the view out of the window of our hotel (the White Swan) at night and early in the morning...

All the girlies...
Sisters..... and my new parasol :)
Phoebe and Ruby
They always take the traditional Bethany "red couch" photo of all the babies together... they were all pretty upset

All the Mommies with the babies (Mom and Ruby are all the way on the far right)
Ruby in her little Chinese outfit for the red couch photo



This is our hotel from the outside at night.

Changsha

Hey everybody... I want to post some pictures of the city tonight, because we've taken a ton, but I've been trying so hard to get Ruby pictures up that I haven't put up anything else...

We also have pictures from today and yesterday. Yesterday we went to a museum about the Han tombs. It's just these tombs they found here in Hunan province. An empress from the Han Dynasty was buried there. I have a few pictures that I took in there before I was informed that we're not allowed to take pictures... Today, we went to Yue Lu Academy, a 1000 year old school. It was very pretty there. We also went to an emroidery factory and an embroidery institute/museum. We got to watch some women in the middle of special order embroidery projects. You can bring a photo there, and they'll embroider it for you, but it takes like a year and it costs a ton. It was so cool to see them do it though.


Tomorrow is a free day... we'll probably do some shopping and get packed for our trip the next day to our final stop - Guangzhou. I am so excited to finally shop a lot in Guangzhou... they have the best prices there, so we've all been holding out for the deals! :D

Love you guys... Enjoy the pictures. :)

Abbie




Changsha Pictures

these next two pictures are of the view outside our hotel window












The Han Tombs Museum


some SUPER old embroidery found in the tombs





Yue Lu Academy


There was a gallery at the Academy of all these sand paintings... it was really fascinating!

a little music show at the Academy

Ruby and Claire





Embroidery







Oh, and we went swimming today in the hotel, so here's a couple of pictures of Ruby in her little swimsuit. :)

FINALLY - the pictures are uploading!

Some more pictures from the Civil Affairs Building where we got Ruby...









Just hangin' out...

Ruby can do the splits!



bathtime...

her little Chinese hat from Walmart :)
breakfast