Last Day in Guangzhou!!

Spraying for mosquitoes. Can you believe this?
Hanging out at the park and sweating like pigs!
Taking a quick break from all the action.

This is Ana. She is the sweetest little thing in the world. She is 4 years old and here with her family adopting their second daughter Isabella. They have been a great family to be with.
The remaining survivors. There are actually 4 families left. Kim, a single mom, will be here until next Saturday with her daughter Della. There were some problems with her initial referral and it didn't work out. She is adopting Della, who is a little sweetie, and will have to wait to finish all the paperwork. Please pray for her as she waits it out by herself. Her friends that were with her had to go home after the 2 weeks and now Kim and Della will be here alone. That cannot be easy and I know she would appreciate all of our prayers.

Me and my daddy just hanging out. We do a lot of that!
Watching T.V. with my bubba.

Brady and Ashton managed to ride a few rides at the amusement park. Put it this way, their idea of an amusement park and ours is quite different.
Hollywood! Emma loves Brady's sunglasses.

Emma isn't too fond of hats. We tried to get her to wear this one to keep cool, but she was not too impressed.
A huge school of fish at the park. They were very pretty.

Okay, so where do I start. Let's just say, a stroll in the park was not exactly that! All of the remaining families met up yesterday afternoon and went to a local park. You have to go under the street to get to the park, so that was fun. Up and down escalators with strollers! We finally got to the park and it was pretty. The kids finally discovered the "amusement park" and rode a couple of rides and went through the haunted house. The boys described the haunted house as being like Spencer's in the mall at Halloween. Really lame according to them and then a Buddhist shrine at the end. Weird. Let me also say, it is so hot and humid here that it's hard to enjoy anything that involves going outside.

After the park stroll, 3 of families decided to head out since we were so hot and the babies (well Emma) was getting cranky and her face was getting more rashed. As we were heading out, we passed the lake and they were fumigating the entire thing with this horrible pesticide that I'm sure was pure poison. We ran with our faces covered out of the park, which was quite a distance. The poor babies shouldn't have ever been exposed to this stuff. It was horrible. Can you imagine the uproar this would cause at home? This stuff was reaching the street as we exited. People were just covering their mouths. Nothing else to do! Okay, so we are out of the park and on the street. That's where the story even gets worse. We were on the other side of the park and went the wrong way and then took a very long tour of China that wasn't intended. It was also in a rather seedy part of town and I have never felt more uncomfortable. I was approached by a Muslim guy who wanted to know where I was from. Totally scary situation and after walking forever and asking numerous people, we finally saw the tower that is in front of our hotel. It was our landmark. At long last, we made it to the street and saw our hotel. Once again, we had to go underneath the street and come out on the other side to our hotel. It was an awful experience and I have never been so glad to get back to our rooms. Along the way, we saw several beggars and it was just heart breaking. There was a child laying on a platform against a wall with blood on his/her neck and was just laying there waiting on you to give them money. There was a policeman very nearby and he didn't seem to be doing anything about it. There was also a man in the tunnel begging with horribly deformed hands and looked as though he had been burned. I couldn't help but thing how glad I am that Emma is coming home with us. What if we would have said no to her referral? I don't even want to think about it. Suffice it to say, it was a day that I will never forget and we are not leaving this hotel on our own again!

Today we have our consulate appointment for the oath taking and then little miss is officially our daughter. It's a very simple and quick ceremony, and then it's over. She will be a McGowan according to the law, but she has been a McGowan for 10 days now!

I keep thinking back to the first few days and how hard they were. She still has some of the "tics" that she had from the beginning, but they are getting less each day. She is not grinding her teeth much at all. She still touches her head with her hand in a repetitive motion, but it's not as much. She loves to spit on her hands and rub her cheeks too. I don't know what that is all about. She is still clicking her tongue some and sucking her imaginary thumb, especially when she is getting sleepy. She is such a good sleeper. We went to bed at 8 p.m. last night and she slept until 6:30 a.m. She wakes up quietly and is so sweet when she looks up and realizes that we are there for her. She just smiles and reaches for us. She really wraps you around her little pinkie. She is a doll and I can't wait for everyone to meet her.

Bo and I were talking about adoption and what it has meant to us. It's hard to believe that you can love someone so much. I have had the privilege of giving birth and I am thankful for that, but this little girl is as much ours as our boys are. Yes, I admit at first, I didn't feel that way and it really worried me. But after a couple of days, God allowed my heart to feel what it needed to feel and she is so our daughter. We are in love with her and are so thankful that on the day we received the call about her that we said yes. We both know there are going to be some hard days ahead and we don't know what all will be involved with her hands and feet, but we will take those days as they come. We can't stand to think what might have been her future if we wouldn't have said yes. God had such an incredible plan mapped out for our lives and hers and we are looking forward to seeing what is ahead for all of us.

We love you all and this will probably be our last blog from China. We have to leave very early in the morning to fly to Beijing. We are not exactly looking forward to the long day ahead, but it will be bringing us home and that is the most important part. We can't wait to get there and see grass and smell the fresh air. There is no fresh air here!

Please pray for our flights home and that Miss Emma will sleep most of the way home. It would be an answer to prayer. We will see you all soon!!!