The Great Wall

From Ruthi - Saturday, October 31 at 2:37 p.m.:

Today we went to the Great Wall. We were a bit more prepared today with me passing out the Dramamin! Maybe with this group of children we will need it in larger than the "to go " type bottle that i have. Morgan Xie did much better than yesterday although she put her head down and napped a bit so at least she was not throwing up. I did not give any to gracie Qing...and should have. it wasn't to long and she was warm, then looking about to cry, got her on my lap and she got clammy...then i got out the bag...we got a bit of med in her and at least it took the edge off. only a couple of false uurps and she got control of it.

ok, first...Claude is on a plane to us. the beijing adoption seems to have their own reasons/rules and our power of attorney is "out of date" and it was either me be here an extra week minimum or for him to come here and be part of the adoptions. time and costs it was better for him to come here. he will get here on sunday afternoon. yeah! we get to see him and have his company and get this train moving....boo he has to miss work and the girls had to be lined out for care etc..thank you to everyone that was involved in getting this to happen. cwa, andy for driving him to chicago for the emergency visa, to the visa dept, to tina for typing and emailing the needs...to lalette and the rest of the office for covering for me and andy both on friday...to my sister carrie for jumping in (Carrie thank you from the whole of my heart) and caring for the girls. for whoever is missed that i had no idea what you did to help us...so we are looking forward to seeing claude!
next is about the girls. the clothes i brought were not a hit at all. gracie qing likes the lime green sweat suit, and is wearing a pair of dark pink sweats we got her..she likes the pj;s oh and she got to bring her bear with her from the orphange! she will compete with addie in the doing the hair a dozen times a day dept! she redos and does her hair all day!she is the sweetest littlest girl...dozens of angels wrapped up in this little girl. i am wondering about needing glasses for her and you should see this child hang in there moving...today at the Wall she was ready to go to the top. her and i got to it. Eric i took her one level higher than i had been last summer...remember the spot where i said i stopped to rest hoping that if i passed out from the heat that you would stumble over me?? well she and i went up one more level. at times she was almost crawling up the steps on her feet and hands...but she went up...i decided that i was the one going to be carrying here down these steep steps and said we were done...and she did ride down on my back piggy back style! thank you to one of the dads, kevin, for walking in front of me several times on some of the horrible steps. keving had also offered to carry her but we did ok!
morgan xie darts everywhere...she loves tv, and seems very independant. i believe that the agencies term of "sassy" will apply...but right now i also feel she is still very nervous, and has this shield all around her like "well what is this going to be like?" she liked the pj's but has not yet changed her socks although the socks i brought for her are all the same as what she has on. she wears a 7 1/2 shoe-i wear the same 7 1/2 to and 8.for once we have a girl that does not like pink. she wants me to take her shopping so she can get some pants that make her legs look skinny-the sweats are baggy and loose fitting..so we will be heading out soon to do that. penny morgan xie has chongqing bangs the same as you did...but her hair seems thinner than yours, not so think.
this morning we had a sock fight...just to have fun, throwing them like snowballs. almost got them in carols coffee :)
we went to the great wall...then to the friendship store that as we walked in i remembered this was where claude had gotten sick in 2004 from the beefy noodle soup...so i ate very carefully..no soup for sure. Carol is taking it all in, i have not had to hold her hand and guide her around yet while she is staring or anything...she is really going with the flow! dad and bev are doing good too. i think for a lot of us that the jet lag hit us last night and several of the couples did not sleep well...hopefully we will all sleep well tonight
penny and vicky i have the lists of music and books and movies and hope to go to the book store tonight to see what i can find....addie and kate i am still looking for doll clothes etc is there more that you wanted? kim you called in on skype and i could not answer as i was on the skype with claude about him coming over here...we will get together i promise!
as far as how the girls are doing, they are doing great. they seem ready to go and are not looking back. just the way i like it! say a prayer please for the girls both at home and here in china to do well, for claude to do well traveling both to and from, and for continued good health and one last thing...please pray the beijing adoption will fly us thru the process so that we can stay on track with the trip.
in God's hands, Ruthi and the rest of us here!