Answered Prayers

This morning arrived almost as pleasantly as the others. I got up to work on our blog and was not successful in obtaining Internet access. It took awhile for me to figure out that I needed to pay...but that didn't even help. Tony worked on it for about 3 hours total with the hotel technical support people - and finally asked for a new room. Fortunately, Carol and Cal were there to help us move and we ended up with a beautiful river view of the Pearl River! We're still on the same floor in the hotel as they are. By the time we got things in working order, it was too late to "Skype" home - and I know Mom and Caitlin will be worried.


We met Carol, Callen and Kelly for another delicious breakfast. This buffet has a favorite for Ty and myself! Who doesn't like a few toasty, warm tater tots for breakfast? I normally hardly ever partake of tater tots - but right now...they are appealing! As we broke fast, we noticed a head bobbing across the river. This is a big river - with big boats cruising up and down. And this was just a little red swim cap bobbing along. We watched him go back and forth - and on his second trip, Ty began waving at him. We had no idea if he could see us through the floor-to-ceiling glass panes, but Ty kept waving. All of a sudden, we saw a little red swim cap and a big smile on an elderly, yet healthy gentleman's face. We all smiled and waved and went back to breakfast. In a few minutes, we were surprised to see the swimming gentleman climbing up onto our hotel and waving to us up close - in his little bitty swimsuit! I think it surprised more people than just ourselves.

Ty is really bonding with Carol, Cal and Kelly...and everyone else that he meets! We met a friendly family from the metro Denver area who were adopting a lovely 11 year old girl. I think she is the only adoptee older than Ty that we've seen. Cal hit it off with her as well - and was teasing her and Ty this morning. I loved the photo of Cal holding Ty upside down. We continue to play in small doses with Kelly -and when he flashes you a smile - it makes your heart leap. His smile starts out as a tiny grin in his eyes that lurks behind his long, thick eyelashes. He is precious.


Ty didn't let us forget to go to church. We found a Christian church just down from the White Swan hotel that had services in English and Chinese. We stepped out into the tropical air (aka humid!) and meandered down the block to a lovely yellow stucco type building. It was standing room only! We squeezed inside and initially sat on the floor at the outer edge of the pews. In a moment, a man stood up and offered Ty and me his seat. We accepted and found ourselves sitting next to his wife and their newest family member - an adorable girl with a very severe cleft lip and palette.

The pastor spoke about faith - the faith of the early church. And how faith is our response to God and his desire to have a relationship with us. And how this faith inspires us to do good deeds in the world, but is NOT what grants us eternal life. Our belief in God's Son as our Saviour is the only way to have an eternal relationship with our Father. The pastor would speak a few lines, and then it was translated into English by an assistant. Several times during this message Ty would gently rub the arm of the little girl next to us. He would smile at her and play with her and her stickers. He was so very tender to her. It was touching.

Following the pastor's message, we were privileged to hear the testimony of one of the congregants. A lovely Chinese lady got up and spoke about her faith being strengthened through her work with orphan children. It seemed as if she had been on a mission to Africa and her faith was stirred by a chance encounter there with a young boy named David. She noticed a spark in this young boy and prayed for a chance to witness about Jesus to him. Her prayer was answered and she was able to witness to David and his entire family. She was not comfortable with sharing her faith and had not done that before. And now, she was witnessing to us!

Our heats were happy as we left the church. We had prayed for a chance to worship with Christians. We had prayed for a chance to share our faith with others while in China. And we had prayed that somehow our son would know about Jesus. And everyone of these prayers was answered - in better ways than we could have imagined. For those of you praying with us - know that it is immense comfort to us. You are a vital part of this adoption journey.

Lunch was an interesting experience. I had realized that our lives were not going to be about buffets and fine Chinese dining and at some point Ty would need to eat something that we provided. This had been bothering me some. Plus, his stomach was not so happy with him. Tony and I talked and decided that he just could not be the only child in China that didn't eat rice. We figured that he was choosing things to eat that he had maybe only dreamed of and that he probably was not used to. We looked back and realized these things were perhaps very rich to him. So - we got "tough."

After church - Ty and Tony went up to our room (with a beautiful view). I went to the deli between the hotel and the church and ordered two plates of their hot lunch specials. There was an ox meat soup with rice and a barbecued pork with rice and greens plate. I got a side dish of hot sauce, some kiwis, oranges and apples and some bottled juice and tea. I felt pretty good as I entered the hotel and smiled at the valets. Up the elevator I went - trying to feel as confident as I had downstairs. I entered the room with the bags and Ty smiled that killer smile he has and I took a deep breath and announced food! He eyed me a tad suspiciously as I laid out the food on the little side table. He surveyed the offerings and announced that he did not like this. I looked him right in the eye and told him this was lunch and it was all there was - and he could choose from what was there.

He pouted and I went to type on the blog. I had my back to him and typed on the computer but I could see him in the mirror over the desk. He climbed onto the bed and punched on the pillow for a minute. I calmly got up and hugged him and told him quietly that I loved him forever and then I went back to the desk to type. After a minute, this amazingly resilient kid scooted over to the spread of food and began to pick through it. The ox meat soup was not a hit - but everything else was tasty. And the rice went down just fine! I was so proud of him, and so proud of Tony and I for taking this step towards being the "ones in charge." Not that we relish the idea of that...but it is necessary in the scheme of things.



After Tony felt we had waited the appropriate amount of time before swimming - we hit the pool (I think this is a wives' tale!) This is the number one favorite thing to do of Ty's right now - so it becomes the cornerstone of how each day goes. Everything revolves around "yo yong" or swimming. Today - Ty had a blast going back and forth under the waterfall. Tony said the pool was a little colder than the other days. Therefore, swimming didn't take as long :)

We spent some quiet time in the room - with more "school" on the white board, and playing a dice game that Ty devised using eight quarters and a little jar that the hotel delivers chocolates in! He assigned me a number and himself a number and we took turns shaking the jar to try to get our number. If you got your number, you got one of the other player's quarters. We did this for a long time and had a good time. He asked me if we could take the jar to America. I sadly told him I didn't think so, but that we could find another way to play.

Ty spent some time watching television. This is an escape for him so that he doesn't have to listen to us and our English all the time! About an hour after that - we decided to take a walk to Lucy's for some fast and easy food. Ty ordered the lamb kabobs and I had soup. Tony had spaghetti bolognese. And the iced tea - better than anything I've had so far (besides the eggplant dish I had near the waterfalls!) By the way, I borrowed this photo of Lucy's from someone else's photos - so I really have no idea who this is in the little photo. But - you get the idea of what it looks like in case you are ever in need of iced tea while in China!

By the time we strolled back to the hotel - Ty was zonked. So we got Ty bathed (not quite so many antics in the tub now)and in bed. He fell asleep once again holding our hands and was out in about 30 seconds. I crept down to Carol's room and joined them as they tried to get Kelly convinced that sleep was really a good thing. Poor little fellow was just sitting in his crib with his head nodding and nodding and just wouldn't submit to the sandman. This led to me calling Kelly "Bobby" for being a bobble head! At last - he literally fell over and slept. Carol, Callen and I crawled up onto the bed and whispered about our kids for awhile before I headed back to my sleeping boys and joined them in my own dreamless slumber.