Fun day of touring, and Holiday dinner

Hi All-

Today was so much fun. Ali and I braved the Great Wall, and I think we got our exercise for the next week. It was just incredible. Aleda did her favorite thing in the world while we climbed... SHOPPED! (Just wait til the Tianjin kids see how much she enjoys it!!!)

It is the last night of the Chinese New Year today so the streets are covered in red lanterns and there are fireworks wherever we turn. We had an incredible traditional Chinese dinner and I have fireworks going off outside our window as I type. We really picked a great time to come.

The Chinese are as polite and welcoming as ever. We had about 3 people grab Ali and I to take our pictures. We decided that they must think we are Allison Hanigan (How I met your mother & American Pie- Band Camp girl) and a chubby Natalie Portman. Well, this is what the Americans tell us anyway....

We truly had so much fun fooling around in stores, just being goofballs. I am posting some pics and am thanking God it is not video as you would all think we had lost our minds. You will probably think that anyway, but who cares? Life is short, laugh hard!!!!

Tomorrow we meet with the CCAA all day and have dinner with the directors. It is a big day for us so please pray hard for us.

That's it for tonight.

Good night, God bless...

Diana, Aleda and Ali

Two more videos

Its 4 am and we are ready to go!

Hi- It is 4 am here. We are all awake and STARVING! lol! We slept through dinner last night so are ready and waiting for a nice big breakfast this morning...

I probably sound like a broken record, but we are so excited. The orphanage we are going to actually has about 700 children! We thought we did great by packing 4 FULL suitcases (using the space bags!) of all clothes, shoes and toys for the kids. Now Im thinking we will need 40 more! I will have to take pics later of all the stuff. It looked like Macy's blew up when we were packing. Sara told us we were crazy before we left. When you buy it a little at a time, you don't realize how fast it adds up. For our families that will be travelling in the near future... Please carry donations for us!!!! (May as well get that request in now!!!) My hubby is freaking that I am going to shop so much to refill the suitcases. (Don't worry, hunny! I promise I wont bring back too much. Maybe just a child or two.... hee hee)

So, today will be our first full day in China... Here's what we are doing!!!

7:30 Breakfast (come on 7:30!!!!)

8 am- Visit with Chinese Dr.- We are going to see what we can do naturally to take better care of ourselves. There has been WAY to much stress in our office the last few years... I am thinking we are on an upswing now though! ;)

9:30 Shop for MORE stuff for the Camp- we need to buy paint for arts and crafts, more clothes for the older girls (we have a ton of little stuff and older boy stuff), try to find a pinata (couldnt fit in my suitcase-dag gone it!), and whatever else we find for our angels.


Afternoon tour of Great Wall

Chinese Holiday dinner with CTS (China Travel Service)- This is the last night of the lunar new year and we are attending a special dinner celebration with traditional sweet dumplings. (YUM!) We are going to meet with the officials who arrange our travel for our families. We are going to talk about our ongoing relationship and how our clients can be better satisfied!!!

Coming up tomorrow... Our first day with CCAA and Bridge of Love. =)

We will post tonight as I have told everyone we are NOT going to bed before 9 pm as we need to get on a schedule. Thanks everyone for following along! Enjoy some videos of our trip! (We have pics too but took them on Ali's camera and we don't have her USB cable to upload them. So we will take lots of pics today with my camera!)

Lots of love,

Diana, Aleda and Ali

PS I read the book "Fireproof" on the plane. (THANKS KIM!) It is a good read if anyone is looking for a Christian, inspirational, appreciate your spouse more novel. I am now reading "The Shack". These are the first books I have read in almost a year! I REALLY miss my kids, but I have to tell you, it was great to actually get to read a bit. I also have "China Ghosts" and "Silent Tears" to get through as well before I come home. Anyway, anyone read any of these and have any comments?

I gave Ali "Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son" and have to buy her "The Lost Daughters of China" to read too. These were probably the first China adoption books I ever read and LOVED them. It is great to see the same wonder and excitement on Ali's face. She is wide eyed and taking it all in, just like I was when I started.... Pretty cool!

WE ARE IN CHINA!!!!!!!

Hi all! We are here! Tired and exhausted, but happy. Ali and Aleda are already snoring, but I just wanted to write and say hi. We are so excited to be here!!! I will get more details about the Camp tomorrow. I will also post some of our goofy travel pics! (No sleep will do that to you!)

That's it for now. Thanks everyone for all the prayers. Just wanted to let you know we are here and are safe.

More tomorrow, now off to sleep...

Diana

OMG- Three more kids!!!

I am so happy but holy cow!!!! I would like to introduce you all to Shayne (4 year old/ CL/CP repaired), Gretchen (4 year old, "spinal column disease"- will get info on what this is), and Hank (11 year old, "brain disease")!!!!

We are up to 39 kids!!!! HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My hubby is warning me "Dont fall in love... Dont fall in love!" Fat chance, Carl!!!

Also, our MAA movie/slide show is done. We are selling copies for a $25 donation. It is 20 minutes long and I think EVERYONE who sent me photos is in there. Thank you everyone so much for sending them. Sara thought I had pink eye because Ive been crying so much making it! lol

We leave tomorrow morning... yay!

d

Meet the children of Camp Ox!

Meet our angels!!!! We are currently at T minus 2 days until we leave for China... Our flight leaves Saturday morning to Newark, NJ, then we head to Beijing that afternoon!!! After some R&R, we will spend 2 days with CCAA, see some sights, shop (YAY!), and head over to Tianjin!

If you haven't done so already, please visit our yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MAAWC/ We currently have posted as much info as we have on each child. Of course, we will be bringing back info while we are there! If you are able and willing, please consider bringing home one of these children. This is possibly their last opportunity as they will not be posted to the online list. (For my non-adoption friends, I will translate our "adoption-speak" at a later time...

Thanks for reading and I will be writing again soon!

Love,
Diana

A Personal Post- Happy Birthday Dani!

Many of you may remember my 4 month labor last year which ended on 2/3/08... Yes, can you believe it? My little angel, Danielle Aleda is 1 year old today! Just a pic to share of the birthday girl!

Also, thought you may enjoy the photo of my son, Charlie as well. I've been a bit rushed and uptight the last week or so... In an effort to kill his bathing procrastination tactics, while I was getting his clothes for the day, I yelled, "Charlie, you better get in that bath right now or your in big trouble!"

I guess he REALLY didn't want to get in trouble...

Kids are so funny, arent they?