An Exhausted Girl

Emotionally and physically, so exhausted that Ruthi had to hold her head from the seat behind her in the bus , while she slept on the way back to the hotel.

We Have The Big Brown Envelope!!

We have the BIG BROWN ENVELOPE. Everything is in it, everything is correct, and we are ready to come home! Photo is taken on the bus.

7/28/2008

To continue the saga of happenings~last night when leaving a resturant here in GZ I ran into our guide Thomas from Vicky's adoption. What are the chances of that? How crazy!

Penny was a champ getting three shots AND oral polio yesterday. The poor thing. Today her arms are sore and I am giving her Tylenol. Bev and Dad were still with watches set on U.S. time and thought we left tomorrow ( I wish) so Bev was tickled for another day to shop. Today we go to the pearl market and jade market. The guide has us down for two hours there. We are asking him to send us early. Penny seems to be doing well. She is looking at her photos of her foster family now. I hope she does ok. Claude said the girls are all helping him ready the house for Pennys first sight of the place. They are all working hard. I am praying the Beijing airport has English printed books for the long ride home. Take care all.

For the girls at the office: I got almost all the purses. Lalette I have not found the one yet... :)

Mother and daughter

Spaghetti!

This is Nan, Ruthi's little sister. I'm going to add photos that we've received from Ruthi so far, they are not necessarily in the order we received them in. This one is of Li having spaghetti for supper--do you think you could eat spaghetti with chopsticks?? I think we all need to try this at our next family gathering. I've seen Vicki, Addie and Kate eat noodles with their chopsticks and it amazes me how easy it is for them.

On 7/25/08, wrote:

We have all of the paperwork and officially Li is our daughter on paper. To us it seems as though that was just a formality. She has always been ours ....today she had Eric cut her bangs and then she had him retrim them about four times til they were perfect. I wonder how long before he drops this sister as a client. She is still doing so well, only this afternoon I did ask her if she was ok? She seemed sad...but she said she was ok and I left it at that. Tonight we are packing and get to head to "heaven." I mean Ghanzou (sp?). It is great there, not a city of 32 million people like we have been in here. For all of the luggage that we brought over with us, we are now able to put several empty suitcases inside of others.

The donations to Nanchuan were so welcomed and needed. I found that I went there thinking we had made such a change there vs. when Addie was there. I welcomed the visit....I now have a copy of Addie's finding note. Pictures of Addie on the first days she was at Nanchuan,she was so weak she could not stand on her legs and so bug bitten....they assigned a 24 hr a day caregiver to her for care. But I came away knowing that the only way the SWI will be changed for these children are with them being adopted. I feel so helpless it is difficult to describe it....Lori I have copies of Jay's footprint as a little boy. It is on a photo we took of his records. His finding spot was a long ways away they said.. I am sorry I was not able to get photos of it. We have a flight tomorrow to Gz.

How We Spent Thursday

This is the email I received from Ruthi today.

Today Dad and Bev left us at 5 pm for a 4 day cruise on the Yangtze river~how amazing in a city of 32 million people that the guide that comes in to take them to the ship was the same guide that helped me in '05 for Addies adoption. Amazing too as he was amazed to see Min Lan's mom Min Lan being Addies chines name. Zoe and Helen from Zunyi City are here to see us. They were Vicky's English teachers. It has been wonderful having them here so Penny has someone to talk to. Eric went swimming and Penny put on her suit and did get in. Tomorrow is our last full day here. Oh we were at the book store and Vicky showed me how well she can play the piano. Tears were in my eyes. Vicky, Addie, and KateI love you....Claude I so appreciate the e-mails you send me. You know I have a hard time being here away from you all at home.

It is always so exciting to get Ruthi's emails. I'll keep posting. God Bless you all and keep holding the Coats Family up in prayer.

We have a picture!

This is when Ruthi got Li (Penny). See her dress, it has the butterfly on it that Claude referred to in the post about her name and her room decor. Isn't she beautiful!!!!

I'm sorry we don't have pictures yet

Hi it's Vickie again. I still don't have pictures to post. I am posting an email I got from Ruthi about Li (Penny's) name. It tugged at my heart and I know it will yours too.

hey Vickie I am sitting here on the floor of the bathroom reading it is 3 am here. Maybe you can forward this back to Claude if you want but you don't have too. So emotional days Vickie. Can you just sit and imagine how my whole being was when I thought to ask again if she had an English name? My God Vickie It was like I was slapped. Bev was crying I was crying, it was just crazy. Penny I feel so far is so ready to be our daughter, and Eric has really been at bat for her and I. I admit I have been not a lot of fun as I still feel weak but at least better. But how God has put Claude and I on this path and how he has sent us these last two girls even with the English names we have chosen. It is more than awesome. just shattering. I just am not able to sleep right now so am reading here wishing Claude had the opportunity to share these moments. and you, you would be blind with tears! the foster mom through Penny sent us an invitation for coming to their house for a meal and a visit but the orphanage director said no. We did not tell Penny this but did tell her she can call her Friday to say goodbye again. Zoe and Helen are going to be here then, and I am going to have them talk to her for me and share the blog etc. which I feel will help. The little foster sister is doing amazingly well and just as cute as ever. Well I will close. take care and hopefully you can upload to the blog.

As I get other emails I will post them too. I did get one that said they went to Addie's orphanage yesterday. Things seem to be going good. Please keep them in prayer, not just the travelers and Penny, but also Claude, Kate, Addie and Vicky here at home. This has to be hard for Claude with his wife on the other side of the world with his new daughter. I know he is longing to wrap his arms around both and them and hold them. Therefore we will hold them all up in prayer right? Until next time.

We finally have word from China

Hi! My name is Vickie and I am a friend of Ruthi and Claude. I helped Ruthi set up the blog and so she has asked me to maintain it for her since her computer died once she arrived in China.
Below is a story Claude wrote about Li Juan's new name. Get the Kleenex's ready.

Ruth and I decided that we should pick a name for Li Juan on the outside chance that she didn't have one already chosen. We weren't sure if she had one, would want one, or would like to keep her Chinese name as her first name. We always make the girls Chinese names their middle name. Well we struggled to come up with a name that we both really liked. Finally I ask if there was a way that she could contact someone that would know if Li already had a English so we could stop guessing. If she had already picked a name she wanted then that would be her new name. Ruth made some inquiries and was told that Li didn't have a English name picked out. So we went back to trying to figure out a name. After another day of tossing names around I decided I really liked the name Penny Li Juan Coats. I ran it by the other girls and they thought it was a very nice name. Ruth wanted to know what it meant. I told her it meant I liked the name. The girls agreed and at supper time on occasion would start chanting "Penny, Penny, Penny as though they were in a prison mess hall about to riot. I thought it was kinda cute. I don't know if Ruth thought it was. Finally we agreed to have a list of back up names in case she didn't like the name Penny. Fast forward to the day Ruth receives Li. Li arrives at the appointed place and Ruth ask the translator if he could ask Li if she had an English name she liked picked out. Li nodded her head yes and said her name was "Peney". Of all the names in the world this beautiful child could have chosen she choose the same name as we had. A few months ago we had our four daughter shared bedrooms remodeled. Ruth fixed the rooms up with a butterfly theme, butterflies hanging off of everything. When I looked at the dress that Peney was wearing I was absolutely blown away. She has a large butterfly on the front like the ones handing in her new room. No one will ever convince me that they are all coincidences. I truly believe that this beautiful child is and has always been our little girl just waiting for us to come and bring her home. Claude

As soon as the pictures the Coats's are sending me come through I'll post them. It may not be until tomorrow morning. But I'll try.

Leaving!

Good morning. Eric just confirmed he is up-about to leave for the airport...Dad and mom should be heading out soon too! We are letting the girls sleep another 10 minutes then will wake them...all in pj's to Gretchens. I have each of them a present hoping for the big distraction! Thank you first to all of the prayer warriors for us, not only for Li but for us travelers and the family here at home. Second to everyone still at the office covering for me. They do a fantastic job. Thank you for making this time away from the office able to happen. Today is a long one! Very long...Til later, Ruthi

Kate doing a twirl into the pool

Addie (aka Junebug) swimming

Count down to travel

We spent a great weekend this last weekend. Saturday we went shopping for some gifts for Vicky's friends still in China at Zunyi City. We are to meet her English teachers and will give them the gifts then for the girls still there. She also bought each of the girls, Zoe and Helen a small gift too. Then when we got home she got out the English to Chinese dictionary and wrote each girls name and the item is marked in Chinese so they know which one goes to who.
I did some last minute shopping, mainly books to get thru the two weeks with...two 14 hour flights and then the time change will create times that i cannot sleep. I also take a small flashlight to lay in bed and read with on those 3-4 am mornings I suffer thru....
Last night our bible small group prayed over all of us, asking for our daughters acceptance of us, safe travels and for Claude and the girls still at home during this time to do well. It is a huge relief to be able to leave knowing our family is so prayed for and that God is with us.
Our group of travelers, our son Eric my dad and mom are leaving this Friday July 18th out of Peoria and will be in Beijing China on Saturday afternoon. This is Eric's first trip like this and maybe by the time it is time to be home he will be either ready to travel a lot more with his mom, or will be waving flags forever saying "never again!" My dad traveled before when we went to China for our daughter Kate and i must have been ok enough that time to want to repeat the experience...
While in China we will fly to Chongqing where Dad and Bev are leaving Eric and I for 4 days for a river cruise to see the Yangtze and the huge dam project. This is a trip my dad has wanted to take forever! They will then meet us in GZ Sunday night at the White Swan hotel. We know we will have a good trip but....
When we travel like this our first concern is the child. The whole trip is about bringing her home and then the next thing is to stay healthy, the third thing on the list is to hopefully see some of the girls great country China. Please continue to pray for our daughter and this coming time! I have included some photos from the last few days at our house.

Addie's 4th of July hat

We celebrated the 4th of July in style

Here are a couple of photo's of the girls in there hats they made for the 4th! We went to the fireworks and really enjoyed them....counting down the days now til I leave...at 11 right now! I admit a bit of panic that I am going to be so overweight on luggage that I won't be able to pack any clothes for me. I am taking 100 bottles of infant vitamins and 30 bottles of a Tylenol type product for the SWI in Nanchuan, China which is where our Addie is from. We and other families support this SWI thru a formula program with http://www.lovewithoutbounderies.org/ and if you want to support a great organization please check them out.

Addie and Vicky's friend Karyn after shots..Kate still is saying Karyn is not her friend...both girls today with sore legs...Kate is throwing a limp in there occasionally when I am looking. But she was able to run to the door to greet our Gretchen when she came for the day. :)

School Shots-not fun to say the least

This afternoon was the last shot for Addie, to catch up her vaccines and for Kate the set of shots to start kindergarten. Addie was very brave as always and only had tears well up and not over flow....Katie Poo though started wailing the moment we walked in the door of the clinic and did not stop. To say that it was bad...not even a close description of the following 45 minutes. Kate says that Karyn is "not really my friend" after getting done with her shots...but Addie says Karyn is her best friend and wants to go back to see her. Thank you to Karyn and her helper...and we hope yet that no one out in the waiting room was to scared to go back and see her after them hearing Kate for the time we were there.
Tomorrow I hope we have our final travel info for the trip! It will be nice to have these all wrapped up before the 4th.

Travel Dates confirmed!

This will be a very short post. We have our travel dates confirmed, we leave Friday July 18th thru Chicago to Beijing, home on the 31st of July. Our youngest son Eric, 28, my dad (Tom) and mom (Bev) are traveling with me. This is the quickest i have ever left for a trip to China, but am ready! It sort of feels like going into labor 2 1/2 months early though as we had all along felt we would not be bringing Li home until Sept. Getting home the last day of July will at least give Li almost a month to get used to things before school starts.