The Church In China

While we were in Wuhan we went to church. It was a school with a court yard. It was unique in the fact that there was not a pastor at this church but it was a feed from a near by church. Every room in the school was full with a tv for the congregation to watch. We arrived a little late and all the rooms were full but the court yard. The people there were soooooo friendly. They brought us out hymnals ( in Chinese) and Bibles ( also in Chinese). We just pretended to follow along,lol! I had no idea where they were in the Bible or the hymnal. All of the chairs were full so we sat on a little bench. Several of the older women in the congregation did not like the fact that A. we were sitting on the benches with the babies, and B. we were in the sun with the babies. We spent the next hour being moved from spot to spot in chairs so we would not be in the sun! It was very sweet and very funny! Kai was sleeping in her carrier when we first arrived and one of the older women leaned in to get a peek, she kissed her on the cheek and then whacked her on the cheek! This is a very normal thing for the Chinese! They are always whacking the babies on the cheeks.Its a way of showing affection. We really had a wonderful time and it was so moving to see the Chinese worship.

Lost Pics of China

We had several pics that did not get transferred from the laptop we took to China and our home computer. We just realised they were missing a week or so ago. So here are a few extra random pics from our trip!The first is Kai setting in the window of our hotel in Wuhan. The second is one of my favorites,and the third is of the three of us after dinner in Wuhan.

Cowgirl Kai

Kai has some new pink cowgirl boots! She LOVES em! She is a bit of a shoe hound. She will bring me a pair of shoes and say shhhhhhh shhhhhh, that means " I really think these shoes are cute, please put them on my Yedi like feet so I may admire them!"

Flower Girl

Olivia was a flower girl in a wedding this weekend. I think it was the most beautiful wedding I have ever been to. It was amazing! Here are a few pics.

Kai's Shower

Liv was the photographer at Kai's shower last week. Notice the lovely picture of me,lol! We had a great time and Kai made out like a bandit! I love all of my home school girls who worked so hard to organize such a great shower!

On a totally different note, Liv was playing in the new stroller box last night and was standing in it ( it is tall and narrow). She tipped it over and feel backwards onto the tile. She had a nasty knot on her head but I really thought she was fine. This morning she woke up and immediately started vomiting. We took her to the ER and after a CAT scan they said she looked fine. Not sure why she was throwing up. Who knows. She is still a little weak, but is doing much better.VERY scary for the mama!

Princess Kai

Princess Kai had a short photo shoot in the back yard today! She is wearing a dress a very sweet friend made for her. Isn't she BEAUTIFUL!

Shannon

Fall .......

A few pics of the girls. They were taken a week or so after we returned home. Olivia and Kai are really starting to play together.

Shennong to 3 Gorges Dam

From Shennong Stream we went on to the Three Gores Dam. It is the largest dam in the world. It was huge! I actually liked the little town around the dam more than the dam itself.

Back To The Cruise

So, when I last posted about the cruise we were going from Chongqing to Fengdu, after that we cruised on down the Yangtze to a place called Shennong Stream. You take a large ferry to a small stream where you board small boats and are taken through some beautiful country. You also see the hanging coffins. They are these caves in the side of the cliff where coffins were found. They are like 2000 years old and they have no idea how the managed to get the bodies into the caves. This part of the trip was a lot of fun.

You Gotta Love The Hair!

A Few Pics Since Our Return

Chongqing to the Ghost City

The first leg of the trip was from Chongqing to the Ghost City of Fengdu ( I think that how you spell it). It was great. I was not really in to the whole ghost city thing. Kinda creeps me out, but the architecture was beautiful. You have to take a ski lift thing up to the ghost city!

yangtze river cruise pictures

Several people were interested in pictures of the cruise. I will try to post them in order so if you are thinking of doing the cruise you will know what to expect. The pictures on this post are of the ship and the room we had ( VERY TINY,LOL). If you notice the shower is connected to the sink! You turned a knob to change the water from coming from the sink to the shower head. You basically showered in the same place you washed your hands and brushed you teeth, heck, it was even the same place you used the bathroom! The toilet is just a few inches the the left out of the camera view.

Yangtze River Cruise

We decided to do the river cruise instead of the standard Beijing. Mostly because we were going to be in Wuhan and that is where the river cruise ends. We are so glad we did.
We flew from Dallas to LA and then from LA to Guangzhou. From Guangzhou we flew on to Chongqing where the cruise started. We arrived in Chongqing around 10:00am and was met by a guide. we could not board the cruise till 6:00pm so we thought we would tour the city for a couple of hours. Now for the honest part. Not sure if it was all of the travel time, the fact that I HATED our tour guide or culture shock, but I HATED Chongqing. It was rainy when we arrived and the city was very overcast and very dirty. all I could think about was thank God we were taking Kai from this horrible place. After a couple of visits to some tourist trap, high pressure sales type places we finally told our guide that we would skip dinner and board the cruise a little early. She was not very happy. She took us to the area where our boat was docked. We were greeted by men begging to help with our bags. I was horrified and told Sean to not let our bags out of our site. a good guide would have told them to leave us alone, but not our Chongqing guide. She allowed them to baggier us and follow us all the way to the boat where the staff of the cruise finally helped us with our bags. I was almost in tears and was so sad that I had this horrible feeling about my daughters birth country.
The nest 4 days were WONDERFUL! We loved the cruise. We met some great people and would not trade that experience for anything. The boat itself was supposed to be a 5 star. I would say it was more like a very nice 3+. It was very clean with very small but adequate rooms. But most of all the scenery was wonderful. The food was pretty good and the staff was always so helpful. I would recommend this cruise for anyone. Just know it is not a plush Caribbean style cruise. It is a very clean Yangtze river cruise with amazing views and wonderful people.
I will add more on this later, but by the time I left China I had fallen in love with my daughters birth country and was so very sad to leave. It is hard to explain, but I will always have such a love for the Chinese people and that beautiful country!
If any of you getting ready to travel have any questions please feel free to leave a commit or email me. I will post pictures when I can get them down loaded.

A few more random pics....

It has been a week since I posted last and I wanted to show you a few more pics from our trip. The first is of a steamed chicken head that our guide in China LOVED! The rest are just random pics of Kai on our trip. The one of her hitting the other cutie is our friend L. She is half the size of Kai and I think Kai was being a bit of a bully,lol!