America 1

 Maybe you are dreading this whole series of posts. I was, but now that I am starting, I think it may be fun. I am sure I will get things out of order, miss things, not pick the best pictures or pick too many or too few, but I will document our wonderful time in the States...starting now.

 Arrival at the airport. Six Williams cousins, Julie and Travis, Poppy and CC, Heather, and others from our Community group at TCC. We felt super-loved.

Back in B-town the first week, hanging out at Poppy and CC's house.
Side bar: today I was unwinding a balloon that got caught in our ceiling fan and saying that the fan might be broken. I stepped up on the ladder and Bella said: 'do we need to get Poppy to come fix it?' Laughed hard, I did. If only. When I relayed this story to David he said, how do they know that Poppy can fix anything?  Bella said: 'well he fixed our door' (in the U.S.). Then Bella said: you can fix anything too daddy!

After lots of doc appts the first week, we made it to see the Williams' new house and have a fun day with them.

Tea party and dress up

We got to meet the newest cousin, Asa, cutey!

We loved our 'home' in the States. The Cokers filled it with the essentials, like this Incredibles costume for Tobin

By the weekend, Laura and her kiddos arrived. More cousins...what a crew, With two three-year-olds, an almost two-year-old and a ten month old, this could also be called chaos.

We frequented some pretty awesome parks, safe and fun, something that is lacking in our part of China.

Green fields, big sprinklers....awwwwww.

 And lots of pool time! Lots. Bella learned to fully swim and by the end of the summer was swimming at the bottom of the pool and jumping off of the diving board. Tobin actually got nearly there as well. Any time we were in town we were swimming in the pool!

City park with the Coker-Craft crew.

Ryan and Tobin. These boys, too cute.

1st Day of School- Take 1

I had to look like an adult today. I put on slacks and a unwrinkled shirt. I really could of slept for four more hours. Three of the four kids conspired to wake me almost all night for various and legitimate reasons. Only Tobin remained out of the action, though the night before he wet the bed at midnight, something he has hardly ever done...

So, I was tired, but I knew I had to be responsible and on time. Don't laugh, it can be a struggle sometimes. David was taking Sophia to her first day of Chinese elementary school while I took the others to kindergarten. I was driving because I needed to take G with me.

I left early and still had to park a bit far. We were greeted in the parking lot by Burmese beggars, an 8-year-old giving a baby a bottle. They bowed and begged, I vowed I would give them something on my way back.

By the time we got to Tobin's classroom, David and Sophia were there waiting. We were surprised. Her 'school' was simply to pick up a form and come back at 3 p.m. for a meeting. They did not want to miss Tobin's first day of school. He walked in, started playing and did not look back. Bella did the same. Wow. They had both said they were so excited but I never would have guessed that. There you have it. The first day of school.

I also have zero pictures to commemorate the occasion. But it all really starts tomorrow, so I will try again.

Our trip

Our trip over the ocean was one of the best yet. Beijing was a different story, but the long flight was really good even with four kiddos 7 and under! God's grace abounded for sure.

Here is what we did:
Our first flight was short and exciting for everyone. The kids dug into their bag of goodies and colored. They were content. I wrangled G a bit that flight.

The long leg: 
The most dependent and independent sat with me: Gabrielle and Sophia. The other two were with David in the row right behind us, those are the semi-independents, they need help navigating the touch screen and making sure their food tray doesn't end up on their lap.

Our flight was at 1 p.m. EST, meaning that most of this flight would be the kids wake time. Thank you Delta movies/programs, etc.!! Tobin and Bella played together some, watched tv some (they had age appropriate, like Doc McStuffins, Frozen, etc.), ate and then by about 9: p.m. they went to sleep for the last 4-5 hours of the flight. Bella on the floor, Tobin sprawled over two seats. David meanwhile, watched his own movies, and lots of them, until he helped me rock G to sleep and held her the last four hours while she slept.

Gabrielle played in her seat for a good while, I held her most of the time, fed her bottles at the appropriate time and gave her solid food meals throughout. She was hard work, but she remained content, not fussy. She ate the pasta and carrots from the airplane meal. She slept fifteen minutes of her afternoon nap. Then David put her in the ergo to rock her to sleep for the last four hours of the flight or so. Sophia watched movies and colored. She watched Frozen, Mary Poppins, Despicable me, and Discovery Bears (a real nature movie), and I think some Doc McStuffins.

During all of this I was able to watch some movies as well. My intention was to read my kindle, but my brain was mush as it was, and since we watched zero movies in America, I caught up. I enjoyed Draft Day, Million Dollar Arm, Despicable Me (I watched it with Sophia), half of Monuments Men, and I started watching Grey's Anatomy, a TV show I had never watched before. Yes, the kids were that good, no grumbling (with TV at your fingertips why complain), no screaming, no fussing. I was not able to sleep at all, which caught up with me in Beijing, where things were less than smooth, completely amplified by my lack of sleep and grouchiness.

In BJ I sat with the four kiddos while David dealt with all of our bags, and ran back to get a bag we forgot. The swarms of people taking pictures did bother me...but I didn't snap at them, I just ignored them. In the capital city, after some sleep, I actually engaged people pleasantly.

Beijing was less efficient and dirtier than our provincial capital's airport. For it being the capital of the country, we expected more. But overall we saw God's blessings throughout in so many big and small ways. (the guy waved us through with all of our bags instead of having to take them off one by one at the exit and put them through the machine, awesome.)

We got to the provincial capital, ate a nighttime snack and went to bed. This time David let me get sleep and he took Tobin and G (on the way out to the U.S. these two kept me up all night). David did get some sleep but not much, he had to rock G and keep her on the bed with him, she refused the tent bed we brought. My room slept a solid 3 hours, then Bella got up and played for 3 hours and talked to me on and off. Sophia slept until 8 a.m. as did Tobin....

Our flight home was not until 11:50 a.m. and we needed all of that time to get up, eat breakfast, and wrangle the bags. Sophia helped at every airport push G in the stroller while David and I pushed luggage carts, and she did this that morning as well, she was a pro by then. Because David had our bags tagged to our town, he did not have to pay another round of baggage fees.

A man next to us on this flight had three kids of his own, a huge surprise.  He was very sweet to ours, but not overly aggressive, he gave them waffles also, which everyone ate including G. It took two cars and a taxi to get us and all of our bags home. Thanks M and K for coming to get us!!! It was great to see familiar faces.

There you have most of it. We are so thankful to be home. We are hitting the ground running. Kids start school tomorrow! And no we are not over jet-lag.

We're back...

Because I am jetlagging, literally scrubbed floors all day, and my back hurts, I am sitting here posting. My brain and body cannot do anything productive at the moment.

Our friends did just host us for a cook out to catch up on things a bit. K already filled our freezer with stuff and helped get so much stuff ready for our return. Not to mention that J almost endured a riot (another post) in order to get Sophia registered for school. These are good friends.

Some pics from our last days in America:

 Gabrielle crawled to the front door  and pulled up, so the others followed suit.

Granddaddy (my dad) and Poppy help with the bags, 14 in all (not counting carry-ons).

The scale was needed.  Not much wiggle room.

They fit in the van, but no one else did. 

 The ladies at the desk at RDU were so helpful. They checked our bags to our final destination, and gave us the proof that we paid the extra fees. This was so helpful in Beijing and in our capital city, no extra extra fees needed to be paid. They also gave Granddaddy, Poppy and CC, and Laura and her two kiddos gate passes so they could see us off.

Granddaddy went all the way to our gate and waited until we boarded. We were distracted a bit as we boarded because David ran into someone he knew on our flight waiting to board as well. Crazy.

Tobin had a great time with granddaddy looking at all the airplanes.

Look, I think they are putting your bags on the wrong plane!
Granddaddy, always the jokester.
Thanks for seeing us off Poppy, CC, Laura, Ryan, Seth, and Granddaddy.

Girl shenanigans with baby sis

Sophia and Bella sometimes fight over Gabrielle...but one thing is for certain, they LOVE her something fierce. This day they played with her so well for a long time. Yes, I did check on them (some), and I did approve of most it. I was surprised that I heard zero crying from Gabrielle. Have I mentioned she is a chill baby, not realizing she is being used as a toy most of the time? This day I seriously think they thought she was their baby doll.

 First they secured her in this doll high chair. The high chair was made by David's late grand father.

"come look mommy." I think she had been in there for awhile. I was not too sure about this, I didn't want her to break the chair, or her face falling out of it. To their credit, they tied her up. But she did love it.

 She just kind of sat there for awhile.

 I finally took her out and let them continue playing with her.

This is what the next 'look mommy' brought me to:

 "she really likes it"

 Yes, baby G is trapped in the basket
And, apparently does like it. All smiles. This girl.

Finally something semi-normal (on a different day of play):

 They put toys in there and cushioned the bottom and pushed her around. She really loved this.

Packing, Moving

Our house is NOT baby proof. Check out the big mattress about to fall and the headboard and metal slats all at her disposal.  She has been full-on crawling for a while now and is FAST!

Finally, we made a little corral for her as we packed up the house and moved all the furniture out.

We leave Monday and hopefully will arrive home on Wednesday! We are excited. Still a few things left to do...

Winding Down

Our time in the U.S. is winding down. It has been a blast....more to come here.
Some quotes to remember (before I forget).

One week in, as I was getting off the interstate and there was a long line of cars..
Sophia: "mama can't you just 'cha dui" ('cut in line' in Chinese)?'....
"Honey, we are not in China anymore" (not that I have ever done that in China, wink and a smile)
I had to explain how laws differ in different countries, again. (this discussion comes up about car seats, among other things).

Also driving, Tobin said: 'Mama, slow down!' I actually was also merging on the interstate and going around a curve, actually going the speed limit, but we are not used to driving this fast, so 50 mph feels really fast, it scared him. This took me about about a week to get used to as well. Okay, more like a day. I LOVE driving in America.

6-8 weeks in, Sophia says: 'Mama, I think America is a bit cleaner than China'
I laughed hard: 'There is also about a billion less people in America and they are more spread out, that makes it easier to keep clean'

We still do not have return tickets....but we are ready to return! Keep you posted and unleash a back log of pictures.