Today was, well, pretty much uneventful. Eric, the guide, Saxton and I went to Wal-Mart to get some essentials and came back home to eat lunch. After lunch, we tried to go for a walk around Green Lake and go to the Green Lake Hotel to get some Green Tea Ice Cream, but it started to rain once we crossed to street to the park. So we headed back to the hotel and no sooner did we walk in the front door, there was a bright flash which was immediately followed by a huge crash of thunder. Thank goodness we were inside when that happened.

Sawyer got over being sick and by noon he was back to his normal self. Saige, Saffi and Sawyer had some bonding time while Saxton and I were away to the store. Saige seems to be adjusting fairly well. This afternoon, I had her in my lap as we were looking at the days pictures. As we were going through the pictures, I was pointing out Sawyer, Saffi and Saxton while I was saying their names. She was repeating their names back to me as clear as day.

Tomorrow, we go to the orphanage. This should be interesting, not only for Saige, but also for Sawyer. I am wondering if he is going to remember the short time he was there. Even though it is a day that is necessary for closer, it is the day I am dreading the most. I hate to see my children in any sort of pain, emotionally or physically. We know that tomorrow can be a rough day for Saige and we are prepared for it. We have been through a similar day three times before. But they were all different.

Well, it’s time to try to get the kids to bed. For some reason, I can not upload the pictures tonight. I will try again tomorrow.

Well today started a little differently than we expected. Sawyer woke up at about 5:30, after sleeping almost twelve hours, and proceeded to drink some water, then he threw it up. So we cleaned him up and went down stairs for breakfast, where he ate some water melon and then proceeded to throw that up. Finally, he ate some bread and drank some juice. We then went back to the room where he laid down and watched his favorite tv show, “The Wiggles.” After about two hours of lying around and constant hugs from daddy, he is back to his old self.

Saige is adjusting nicely. She is already bonded with Mommy and gets scared if she is left alone with Daddy. At the buffet this morning, Mommy was going to get something and she walked away, Saige screamed “MAMA!!” She has also adjusting fairly nicely to her siblings, but we need to work on the sharing. I think she’ll pick that up pretty quickly though.

This morning, I am going to go over to Wal-Mart with our guide and get some essential items we need. Then we are going to go for a walk around Green Lake and take in the sights. Here are some pictures from this morning:

WOW!! What a first day. We did not expect what we were in for one bit when we came to China for our fourth adoption and this is our second trip to Kunming. She has been tearing, scribbling and destroying. Tear the backs off of stickers and making a collage with her sister. Taking her crayons and scribbling on the paper next to her new collage as if she was trying to describe what her collage is about. THen she has been destroying the room as her and her sister play chase behind the couch, under the tree and around the light. Overall, it has been one of the most, truly amazing days I have ever experienced.

BTW-If you didn’t notice that I said her and her sister and you are asking what about the boys and what they were doing? Yeah, they were asleep at 5pm, shortly after we got back from a walk around Green Lake. Should make for an interesting early moring. Enjoy the pictures.

At about 9:30 am local time, on July 19th, 2010, our lives changed for the fourth time. Saige Xuelian walked into our lives. This beautiful little girl, and I do mean little, is very precious. She has been a part of our family for only five hours now and she is already bonding very well with Saffi. As I write this, her, Saffi and Saxton are taking tape that Sawyer is giving them and breaking it apart with plastic knives. Saige is smiling up a storm when she see her brothers and sister start laughing.

She also enjoys pushing Saxton in the stroller that we bought for her.

We can tell that she is extremely sharp. Saffi and her were handing back and forth some toy when Saffi said thank you. Then Saffi handed her a toy and she said thank you in return.

We know that this could last for just a little while, but we are throuroughly enjoying it right now. She is so cute and her new brothers and sister are all about making her feel a comfortable as possible in her new forever family.

BTW-no pictures of the six us together yet. We still have not received Shelby’s suitcase from the airlines, yet. We should get it tonight. So stayed tuned.

For Saxton’s Birthday late night, Susan, the guide, who is now our friend, who was with us when we adopted Sawyer took us to this awesome restaurant that only serves the Bai Minority style food.  For those of you who don’t know that much about Kunming, out of the over fifty minority groups in all of China, the Yunnan Province has the largest diversity with 25 minority groups.  The Bai Minority group is one of the largest ethnic minority groups which live in the Yunnan Province. 

Also, a little about us. In our four trips to China as a family, we have very rarely eat any McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut or any American food.  We love to try out the food of the region.  It goes back to what my parents used to say, “you don’t know that you’ll like it until you try it.”  Luckily our kids our the same way, they will try anything.   So, last night, Susan took us to this restaurant and ordered us the best  and tastiest food I think I have ever had in China.  We had this beef dish where ground beef was mixed in with diced vegetables and spices which was unbelievable.  We had this bacon and potato dish that Sawyer devoured the whole thing by himself.  We had a chicken dish that was sweet and spicy at the same time.  But the best tasting food of the night the night was the duck’s tongue.  Little pieces of tender duck’s tongue that was so good, I had to eat the leftovers for breakfast.  And believe it or not, all of our kids eat some or all of these dishes and thought they where “yummy,” Saxton’s words not mine.

For Saxton’s Birthday, Susan also got Saxton a beautiful cake made of fruits and chocolate.  We didn’t get to eat this last night, so we were going to save it for tonight when Saige is with us.  In 2 1/2 hours, we go to the Kunming Civil Affairs Office to meet Saige for the first time.  We will post later today with some more pictures and an update after we get settled in.  I hope you all have a good day.

Today is Saxton 5th birthday and we get to celebrate here in China.  Susan, our guide when we can to Kunming to adopt Sawyer, is coming to the hotel to have dinner with us and bring a special cake for Saxton.  For his presents, we went to the Wal-Mart close to the hotel and let him choose anything he wanted.  Well, the first thing he wanted was one of those battery operated cars that the kids could drive. Of course I had to tell him that we can’t get that on the plane to bring it home and he said, “of course we can.”  I think he thinks we can bring it on as a carry-on.  Needless to say, we got him a bunch of toys at the Wal-Mart.  Happy Birthday Saxton!!  We love you very much!!

Here is some pictures of the kids:

Tomorrow we meet our guide, Eric, at 8:30 to go to the Civil Affairs Office to meet Saige for the first time.  So far, this trip has been in kind of a fog for me, like it is almost a dream.  But, that might be the lack of sleep for the last 48 hours.  Anyway, wish us luck.  Tomorrows another big day in our Clan.

We are finally in Kunming.   We had a very long and interesting journey to get here, most of it was not fun.  First we had to drive into NYC to leave out of JFK, that was not fun.  We ended up get to the terminal 20 minutes before the flight started to board.  Then we sat on the tarmac for almost an hour, waiting for clearance to take of.  The flight over the top of the world was pretty uneventful.   But, when we got to Beijing, our flight was late getting in.  Then, we had to go through customs.  When we got to the line, it was extremely long and we would have had to wait about 45 minutes.  So I went and used a little charm of some ladies from Croatia.  They were kind enough to let us in right at the front of the line. 

Then we proceeded to got to the baggage claim, only to find that the airline lost one of our bags.  It was a very important bag.  It was Shelby’s bag.  Now she has no clothes for tomorrow, at least.  Hopefully we will have the energy to find some tomorrow.  Kunming Wal-Mart here we come.

Then, we got lost in Beijing’s airport, mainly I got us lost because I didn’t listen to Shelby and almost missed the check in for our flight to Kunming.  Come the find out, the flight was delayed until 10:00 pm.  Well, at 10:00pm, we boarded the plane and the proceeded to sit on the plane on the tarmac for almost 2 hours.  We finally got into Kunming at 3:00 am.  Once we get this blog figured out, we will update with pictures when we can.