Saturday in Changchun

Playing with big brother Chase!


Carts like this are seen all over. Some are even pulled by donkeys and some by men not even bikes.






Cuddle time with mom!

A man painting with his feet. He has no left arm and his right arm is useless. The suitcase is laid out there for donations for his paintings.

Fresh and clean after a bath!

Joshua's first happy meal at McDonald's.

Cuddling with Olivia & William.

Photo of his first bath.
He loved it! After he got out he still stank so bad!! We had to get

q-tips and soap up his belly button and scrub it really good several times to get the stink out! It was black! After we got it clean he smelled fine!


Saturday morning we spent a lot of time on Skype talking with friends and family. It has been really nice to have that option!! We did a little school with the kids. Went to eat lunch at McDonalds. We came back to the hotel for another round of bowling and we brought our guide with us. She did not want to bowl though. She just watched. We stayed up later last night and feel like we are finally about to get on schedule.

Joshua is getting more comfortable with us which means several things. He is more loving to all of us, but is also beginning to test the limits. He also seems to be having a few emotional issues today. He is adjusting to a lot of changes - people, language, food, schedule and environment. We are very patient, but consistent with him. He loves to carry around a jar of peanut butter whereever he goes. We bought it at Wal-Mart and let him carry it through the store and he must think it was a gift. He took a nap with it yesterday. He also loves to look through the photo album we had sent him some time ago. He loves to watch video of himself on the camera. We taught him how to lace cards yesterday and to color with crayons. His fine motor skills seem to be quite lacking. He is also regressing with the toilet training, but that is partly our fault. I can't stand to take him in any of the public toilets. They are disgustingly filthy.

As we walked the streets Saturday to McDonalds we say an elderly man begging in the street and the man in the photo above painting with his feet. He did not have a left arm and his right arm is useless. You could see the scars on his right hand where he had had some kind of surgery on his hand. We also saw a 7 year old boy who was walking down the street with his family. Apparently he had to urinate and well he did - right on the sidewalk. Apparently that is very common. No one else seemed to mind!!

Well, I'd better go! We are getting ready to go eat dinner and make our daily Wal-Mart run for essentials that we forgot the last time. I think it will be Pizza Hut again. Last time a fight broke out between two ladies! That was quite an experience.

I hope you all are doing well and time seems to be going a little faster for us. It is Sunday here. So, 5 more days in Changchun and then off to Guangzhou!

Saying Goodbye

After our dinner at pizza hut last night we were all so tired, but could not go to sleep that early (5:00 p.m. here) so we went to the hotel bowling alley. Four of us bowled for 5$!! That kept us awake and we had a good time. Joshua watched and loved every minute of it and especially when it was time to clap for someone!!

His affection for Lawrence is really great! He wants him to hold him a lot and always wants his attention. He spontaeously gave him a kiss on the check twice today. He also gave Olivia a kiss on the check. He is doing so well. He already knows a few English words and it has only been 1 1/2 days! He can say hello, bye bye, and no. The last one is very important. When he gets really tired he gets extremely hyper and agressive. So we need him to understand the word no! When he gets like that we hold him close and rock him either standing or sitting and he goes right to sleep.

He slept all night last night in the bed with Chase. I found him at around 1:00 a.m. standing on the floor with half of his body on the bed and he was still asleep!! It was funny! He has woken (not sure that is a word) up from every nap or night time and been very sweet. He wakes up very pleasant.

Today we spent the morning in the hotel room eating, playing with Joshua, and relaxing. It has been a very dreary day. It is cloudy and rainy. We went to eat lunch at KFC. As we were arriving there we saw a woman sitting on a square board with wheels on the bottom and pushing herself along the filthy ground with her hands. As she passed we noticed that her legs were not quite right and she had two club feet. It was an extremely sad sight.

After we ate at KFC, we went to Wal-Mart (our daily excursion) to get bigger pullups for Joshua, some light up spider man tennis shoes for Joshua and some more peanut butter and jelly for us to have some sandwiches in the room.

We got back to the hotel to find out we had to go and apply for Joshua's passport at 1:20. I did not know that the man (his caregiver from the orphanage) would be there. Joshua was happy to see him and gave him a kiss on the check. We did what we had to do there and he came back with us to the hotel to receive the donations for the orphanage. We were told we could not visit the orphanage due to some road construction, so he came to get them here. We helped him get them all down to the taxi and it came time for Joshua to say goodbye to him. I am not sure if he realized this would be the last time he would see him or not. He told him goodbye, kissed him on the check and hugged him . He watched him with longing eyes and waved goodbye. He kept his eyes on him as long as he could. I was just about to break into a cry, but I managed to hold it together for his sake.

We got back to the room and he played for a while and is taking a nap right now. Everyone else is getting stir crazy and has gone to the fitness center for some exercise. We were told today that we must stay here until next Friday, but there is nothing left here for us to do until Thursday and that is when we get his passport. Please pray that the time will pass by fast for us. There is not much to do here. You can only walk the streets so much. EVERYONE stares at us everywhere we go. We just thought it was bad before we got Joshua!!

I found out today that Joshua was found in a park. I hope to go and visit the park with him and take some photos of the park if it is not too far from here. As I look into the eyes of the many Chinese women here I can't help but wonder if one of them could be his mother. I would love to be able to tell her that we already love him so much and will take care of his medical needs so that he can live a healthy and happy life. And much more important than that, we will teach him how to live eternally and bring glory to God something which she may never get the chance to know or understand herself.

I hope all of you are doing well and know that we long to be home already!

Where to Begin???

All of these photos are of us at the Notorial interview where we met Joshua for the first time. The man in the photo below with Lawrence and Joshua is the caregiver at the orphanage.

The photo on the left is at the hotel after an exhausting day of paperwork, crazy cab drivers and meeting his parents for the first time!!

I want today to be forever ingrained in my memory. We all did not sleep well last night and are still suffering from major jet lag. We are hoping to stay awake until about 9:00 p.m. so we can get on the right schedule. We got up early and ate breakfast in the hotel. That is always interesting. We met Emma, our guide, at 9:00 a.m. in the lobby to go to the Notorial Interview. Since there were so many of us and the cabs are so small we had to take two cabs everywhere we went! The streets here are so busy and the taxi drivers are crazy. I am not sure I can count all the close calls we had today and there are no seatbelts! You don't realize how much you appreciate those until you don't have them.

We went through all the paperwork at the notorial interview, met Joshua, went to take passport photos and a family photo and then back to the hotel! It was about 11:30 when we got back and about 1:00 when Joshua finally just crashed in my arms. He was soooo tired!

Our initial visit with him in the notorial office went extremely well. We were going over paperwork with the officer and all of a sudden we looked up and there was a man standing in the door with Joshua!! We were not expecting it yet and were completely surprised. He was a little hesistant to come to us at first, but really took to Lawrence right off the bat! We were so happy to finally see him. After a few minutes of receiving several toys from us (including a stuffed mickey mouse that he will not let go of) he came to me. He had to go to the bathroom two times while we were there at the first visit so we are wondering if there are issues there or not. We also noticed later after getting back to the hotel and giving him a bath that he has something wrong with his feet. He walks fine except maybe a little clumsy and we think it has something to do with his feel. They are not shaped exactly right or something. He may need surgery or braces to correct the problem! I hope it is not too late to correct it! He does have an extremely large scar on his back that goes between his hip bones and it runs horizontal across his back.

We all went to eat a late lunch and early dinner at Pizza Hut around 3:00 p.m. He loves pizza. He apparently loves food period!! He has eaten everything we have given him and more!! He is really chubby!! I am not sure, but I am guessing he weighs about 35 lbs. He seems to understand us more than what I thought he would. He can tell us by gestures when he needs to go to the bathroom. This is really important!!

As we drove from place to place and have walked the streets of Changchun, I become deeply saddened by the way of life of so many people and I realize that I will never really understand or experience what poverty is. I have been brought to tears many times over the past two days as we walk these streets. We have seen blind people walking with sticks, old people barely able to peddle their bikes up a hill, people living in a tent on the sidewalk and poverty striken people just trying to sell something to be able to eat. The conditions in which most of these people live are unbelievable to say the least.

I hope my thoughts are clear enough for you to understand! I still feel like I am in a fog! I will update again tomorrow. I can't believe how smooth this has gone and can almost feel that we have been lifted up in prayer by so many! Thank you for those prayers. They are working!!

Finally in Changchun!!!

I did not sleep after 11:30 on Sunday night. I tossed and turned all night in anticipation of our trip. All three of our flights were nice. The one in Newark left one hour late due to mechanical problems, but we got to Beijing with no problems - 13 hours and 15 minutes later! My whole body is sore from the plane trip. They did have movies and video games to entertain you. We atually flew around the north Pole, to Siberia and then to Beijing. We had a four hour stay at the Beijing airport!! That was an experience!! We were all extremely tired!! There was no where to sit and Lawrence and William slept on the floor! Now that is being tired!! There were people everywhere!! All the children did great on our trip!! We got to Changchun by 8:30 last night and to our hotel by 10:00 p.m. We have a very nice hotel. It has two double beds which are like extra large twin beds and a living area and 1 1/2 bathrooms. I think we will be very comfortable here.

We had the breakfast buffet here at the hotel this morning and the food was good. Our guide, Emma then took us to Wal Mart where we bought some food items, drinks and a stroller for Joshua. Crossing the streets can be very dangerous here!!

We thought we would receive Joshua today, but we will have to wait until tomorrow. We will go to the Civil Affairs office and get the paperwork started. It should be interesting. All 6 of us will have to get two taxi's to get there. The cars here are much smaller.

God has been good to us to bring us to this point. I am so glad that we are finally here. We are disappointed about not seeing and receiving Joshua today, but maybe the extra day of rest will do us all good.

More to come later, I am really tired and need to rest for a while. We are trying to get on schedule. Thanks to all of you for your prayers.

Last Post from American Soil

It is Sunday afternoon. We have all bags packed! All the kids have a backpack full of stuff to keep them busy for the 26 hour trip! Lawrence will carry on the laptop bag with all the important papers and laptop and I will carry the BIG purse full of all kinds of necessities!!HA! You should see inside it!! We have 4 bags to check in - all under 50 lbs - hopefully! Two of which are donations to the orphanage! ( Thanks to all of you who helped with that!) We also have 5 carry on suitcases! I am not sure how we are going to get all these to where they need to go, but I am sure it will happen somehow!! I just hope I don't misplace a child somewhere along the way - those are irreplaceable!!

After services tonight, we will go to the LaQuinta and spend the night. They will shuttle us to the airport at 5:00 a.m. and allow us to leave our vehicle at the hotel while we are away. It leaves us with peace of mind about not missing our flight and no cost for leaving our car at the airport!! When we get back the hotel will come and pick us up and take us to our car.

The most recent great thing that we found out yesterday is Skype! What a neat thing! Anyone who downloads skype onto their computer can call any other skype member for free on their computer. The download is free - just go to Skype.com. All you need is a microphone! These are the people we can call using skype that we know of - Yvette (my neighbor), my mom and dad, Lawrence's mom and dad, Donna (one of my sisters and Zack (our exchange student from last year). We have a web cam and so anyone we call can see the actual image of Joshua or whoever the camera is on!! That is sooooo neat!! Technology is amazing!! If any of you should decide to get Skype on your computer in the next week or so add us to your contacts. Our Skype name is janice.marie.kelley or you can search for us by our email address - janicekelley@insightbb.com.

Please pray for us, especially our health, safe journey and Joshua's transition.

We will post again after we get to China!! TTFN, Janice

4 days until Joshua is with us!

The official countdown has begun! I have accomplished enough gathering and packing that I feel like I am ready to count down now!! We will receive Joshua in 4 days. If will be Tuesday night here in the US, but in China it will be Wednesday morning!!

We will go to Nashville on Sunday night after evening services to spend the night there. We don't want to take any chances on the ever so common hour long traffic problems that can occur. We will be able to leave our vehicle at the hotel and they will shuttle us to the airport. We have to be there so early due to our flight being at 6:30. I will be so happy to step foot on the first flight!!

Lawrence comes home today! We are so excited to have him come home! I can't wait until he gets back! Two weeks is a long time! I hope we never do that again!(I say that every time he's gone more than a week - so does he!)

I know this will be an extremely long and tiring journey. I am going to reiterate to myself and the children that we are christians and we must at all time display the kind of behavior that God would have us to. Gal. 5:22 "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." I hope that we can remember these through long lines, tired bodies, stressful deadlines and new toddler!

Have a great day and remember to praise God for all he has done!

"the God of peace will be with you"

Phillipians 4:4-13
This is one of my favorite passages. It tells us how to have peace, what to think about, and encourages us to persevere.

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you hvelearned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revivied your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in anyand every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."