Farewell to Friends!

It's been four days since we said "goodbye" to the precious Ng Family. What a blessing it was to have them with us, and get to spend time with them. Besides the fact that we saw and did so many amazing things with them leading the way, I know their presence here made such a difference in Landon's transition to our family, and of course Kennedy also enjoyed having the girls to hang out with. They are a wonderful witness to this organization and were such a blessing to the team for their medical advice, which was much needed with this group. We will miss them and always be grateful for their love and generosity to our family.

We are on the final countdown! Three days to go. I guess there has been some advantages to being the last family here. Norman, the director of our agency is still here in China. On Sunday, he asked us to go and visit a new property with him where he is considering having the next group stay in China. As an adoptive family he wanted our opinion. Of course it received a thumbs up from us. It is a very secure new European property. Basically 5 star mini condo units. Very nice.. He then asked us if we wanted to move over for the rest of our stay and give him more thoughts after. Of course we said "Sure" It has been such a blessing as our 1 room hotel was getting a little cramped. The pool was under renovation, and you had to pay 20.00 to swim at a neighboring hotel and pay extra for the gym facility.

This place has an amazing pool, free workout gym, large master suite, dining erea with table, living room, 2 TVs, great bathroom, full kitchen and own mini washer and dryer. Back at the hotel we paid $50.00 for 1 lg load of laundry at a supposedly cheap company that came from downtown. What a blessing to now be able to do our own laundry, and even come home with clean clothes. Michael enjoyed the challenge of figuring out how to run the little machine with Chinese directions. Needless to say, we are very comfortable here, certainly a great change of scenery for our last week. The moms of future trips will really appreciate this place. Thank you Lord, for this unexpected blessing!

After our little experience with send out laundry back at the hotel, I opted to do hand washing in the room. A cute little story I'll share is that Landon came in while I was washing clothes in the sink and jumped right in to help- this kid loves to work.. He obviously is very accustomed to this method of laundry, as after we wrung out the clothes I was standing up on the edge of the tub hanging them on the clothes wire. Landon was picking up the clothes throwing them around his shoulders in layers like a pro waiting to hand them to me. It was so cute! He is in training in many ereas, but he is a great worker and helper, loves to help with the luggage, or whatever else needs to be done. I have had the boys make the beds and keep things tidy even though we have maid service. (There's no maid service at home) He is so efficient in helping pack that back in Dalian he even packed the hotel clock. Oops! Luckily I happen to notice before we left the hotel.. He takes very good care of and appreciates his little belongings. He has a backpack with his little items in it, and makes sure they're all put away just so. The first few days he wanted to take it everywhere, now he understands it will be here when we get back. His favorites are his 4 little matchbox cars and his dominoes. He is also very proud of his growing teddy bear collection from McDonald's happy meals. I think he has seven now. How gross!! Have we eaten there that many times????

Landon is not much into coloring or drawing. I think he hasn't had many opportunities to explore this basic arena of art. He didn't know how to use scissors... but loved the glue sticks. We think he has been living in the country for the past six months in foster care. We're hoping to get a little more information about this on Friday when we see Sarah our China team girl who is taking care of us this week. We were just sent some pictures via email from the orphanage . We were hoping for older ones, these are fairly recent. Landon has a great deal to say about this place in some of the pictures. It looks like he is standing in the back of a house, maybe his foster home? Of course, we can't understand him...So hopefully Sarah can interpret. From what we have put together, it does not sound like it was such a great place. The other day Michael was having a little father-son love fest with Landon, talking to him as if he could understand all that he was telling him.. He was saying how much he loved him and how special he is, and how sorry he was that it took us six years to get here...... It brought tears to my eyes...

We did an hour of school this morning after breakfast, went swimming, watched Garfield and then walked to the mall for dinner-Pizza Hut and Japanese Creme Puffs- Just amazing! We certainly aren't coming home any thinner. Today I got to do the run across the pool, jump and rescue maneuver after Landon inadvertently stepped off the shallow ledge and went under. He has loved the tub from day 1-----His all time favorite activity.. I am thankful we have a few days of swimming lessons before we come home. Thank you all for your continued prayers. More tomorrow- Sweet dreams!