Our last day in Guangzhou

Whew! Today is our final day in Guangzhou! Tomorrow morning we will be heading off to Beijing...then on to Newark and then HOME to SOUTH CAROLINA!!!!

We are going out to do some shopping today to buy the last of the souveniers we want to bring home. We go to the consulate today at 2:40 to take our oath and finish up Brinley's adoption.
We'll probably order pizza again from Danny's Bagel! We've eaten food from there for two days and it has been really good. In fact, I like it better than the food at Lucy's which seems to be the favorite place to eat for most folks around here.

Brinley is doing great!!! She is such a sweetheart! We can't wait to get home so that all of you can meet her!

We'll try to post again tonight before we pack up everything!!!

LOTS OF LOVE TO ALL OF YOU!!!!

Medical Exam Day

The adventure continues! Today was medical exam day for us. We woke up early for breakfast because we had to meet Daniel at 8:30am for the walk to the visa office and the physical examination office. The visa photo was painless, but the medical exam was another story.

We went to a special exam room for adoptive parents and children. Several doctors and nurses were in the room at different exam stations. Brinley's first stop was the Medical and Surgical area. In this area they checked her heart, looked at her feet and took a peek under her diaper. This may have been the area where they listen to the lungs, but that wasn't necessary as Brinley was using her's to their maximum capacity!!! She did not like the medical exam one little bit. Next stop on the superhighway of health was the Weight and Height check. Brinley weighed in at just under 25 pounds. Her height, however, is still unknown because we missed the results in all the crying and wiggling. But all is not lost since this information is in the sealed envelope which Daniel will personally deliver to the consulate at 9:00am on 12/21/2005. Just trying to add a bit of international intrigue to this posting. If you haven't figured it out by now, this is Marty posting again tonight. Sharon is putting Brinley to bed. Meanwhile back at the exam room Brinley has moved on the ENT ( Ear, Nose, and Throat) room. This room was a breeze compared to the others. Sharon was able to hold Brinley on her lap during the exam. That was the end of the road for us. The older children also took a vision test and color blind test. I checked Brice's vision while we were waiting and I'm glad to say he passed with flying colors. I guess we just need to work on his hearing, but that seems to work just fine when he wants it to. Come to think of it, that's the same thing Sharon says about me some times - must be a guy thing.

After the medical exam we were free to roam the streets of Guangzhou on our own. We checked out a few more shops and had lunch at Lucy's Cafe.

Tonight we ordered in pizza and lasagna from Danny's Bagel. It was quite good and very reasonably priced.

Okay, that's all for me tonight. Brinley is asleep and we are tired as well. Sharon and I are still waking up at 4:00am no matter what time we go to bed. Some of the other parents are going through the same thing. Brice however has adjusted well. He's just as hard to wake up here as he is at home!

Marty

Our Visit To The Orphanage

This is a message I wrote to our friends in the Children's House group about our visit to the orphanage.

December 14
We took Brinley to the orphanage yesterday and she did great....although her nanny and I both had a meltdown. Her nanny is so young and she has cared for Brinley ever since she has been at the SWI. When she saw Brinley she pushed the baby she was holding into the arms of another nanny and came running to her. I handed her over because I could tell that her heart was breaking and it meant so much to her to see her again. She hugged her and took her into the room with many cribs and she held her close and cried. Then she had one of the other nannies take some pictures of her holding her sweet Wei Ya. I cried and cried. It broke my heart. I know Brinley must be the first child she has had to give up after caring for. We took several pictures together with her and she handed Brinley back over to me and squeezed my hand and walked away. When we came back by the room, she was still crying and so was I. I have to say that she has done such a wonderful job with Brinley. She is sweet and loving. Of course, she is a 2 year old so she acts like any other 2 year old ..... but she has been loved.......and that is so wonderful to know. We owe this young girl so very much for all of the love she has given to our sweet little one. Brinley did fine through the visit and didn't cry at all. She was glad to see everyone but she was fine leaving with us. Would we visit the orphanage again??? YES!!! Yes, we would. If she had been grieving hard, we may not have but we felt like everything would be okay if we went and we are so glad that we did.
On the trip to the orphanage we saw the homes of the people in the area. There were children picking through trash beside the water and it was so sad to see so many doing without so much. In the orphanage it was overwhelming to know that these children didn't have families. Brinley and all of the children in this orphanage are very fortunate to have such great care. We have met other families whose children were not given the care they deserved and they are having to overcome the obstacles that the neglect has put in their way. All of these children deserve to have a family and until they do, they deserve to be loved and cared for.

Today was our first full day in Guangzhou. The breakfast buffet at the White Swan is very good. Eat a late breakfast and you won't need any lunch! After breakfast we struck out down the street and shopped a little. We also found the gymnastics park. It's a playground, but it also has exercise equipment for the adults. Brice and I tried a couple pieces out ourselves.

At 2:00pm we met with our guide, Daniel, to fill out our paperwork. I think it was also a parenting test! We met in the lobby and then went to the children's playroom to sit (or should I say kneel at one of the kiddie tables to complete all the important documents that must be just right). Children are running by and knocking off papers as toys are flying by! It was quite an experience.

After the stress test, we had a dinner cruise on the Pearl River. The lights were pretty, but the food was only so so. As we went on the boat, one of our group bought a flower from a little boy selling them on the sidewalk. Harmless enough right - wrong! As we were leaving the little boy latched onto this fellow's leg and would not let go. That 's him in the picture with the little boy locked onto his leg. Our guide had to come back from the bus and peel the little boy off of his leg. As the commercial says: Bus ride to river cruise - 20 Yuan, Flower from street vendor - 10 Yuan, Street vendor boy attached to adoptive parent's leg - PRICELESS!!!

That's all for now. Brinley has her medical exam tomorrow so we may have more adventures to post!


Marty

Guilin

We are posting from the White Swan in Guangzhou! We've made it past the halfway mark and are now on the home stretch!

Our time in Guilin was very nice. We both wish we could have spent another day or so there. Our guide was Annie. She was fantastic! Brice got along great with our driver and now has some cool tricks to show his classmates went he gets home.

Brinley has become very attached to Sharon and is acting more like a two year old every day. She smiles and laughs and plays more and more with Brice. She has picked up some English - hello, oh my, and some other words. She is such a sweet little girl!

She's learning more about us and we are learning about her. She doesn't like some foods so we are trying different things. So far the top items are fruits, vegetables, and a yogurt drink.

Last night we went to Lucy's Bar and Cafe. The food was great - fish and chips and cheeseburgers! Brinley had cucumbers and mixed vegetables! Maybe we should all start eating like her!

I'll let Sharon post about the trip to the orpahanage in Guilin. We could tell that the workers really did care a great deal for the children. We passed out candy and went to several of the rooms.

As I said before, Sharon is the writer. I'm more of a bag carrier! I would like to thank everyone for keeping us in your prayers as we make this trip. It has been a great experience and one that will have an impact on us for the rest of our lives. Please continue to pray for us as we head for home at the end of the week.

Marty

A funny thing happened on the way to the hospital....

..........yep. That's right! I had the fabulous opportunity to make an unscheduled stop at the NanNing Publice Hospital. I woke up yesterday morning around 2. I really, really didn't feel good. Marty called Roger around 6 and he came and took me to the hospital. Roger said, "No worries. Happens, many, many times." So, off we went with my passport and a wad of Chinese currency in my pocket. When we got there, Roger went up to a little desk and told them that I was sick and we needed to leave on the train in 2 hours. He paid the registration fee at a little window in the same room. They gave him a receipt and we went back to the desk. A very nice young nurse motioned for me to sit on a little stool beside the desk. She took my blood pressure. She gave Roger a little book and another piece of paper and we went around a corner to a little cubicle where a man was sitting at a desk. The man didn't even look at me but asked Roger a lot of questions. He wrote me two prescriptions and told Roger that if we weren't leaving, he would put me on an IV for fluids. We then went back out to the same room we'd originally been in and went to another window where Roger rang a doorbell and a very sleepy young man came out and filled the prescription. We were there for about 15 minutes total and the grand total for my visit including 2 prescriptions was 42 yuan or $5.25 US.

We made it to our train on time and the four and a half hour ride was very nice, even though I felt like mud. The scenery was both beautiful and saddening at the same time. There were mostly businessmen in the car we were in. They played cards and talked on their cell phones. Toward the end of the trip, some of them started talking to Brice and they were talking about Brinley because they would motion towards their faces and they were looking at her. Everyone was very nice. It was odd that t he man sitting in my line of view was a Chinese businessman but he reminded me very much of my dad in the way he would nod and laugh.

Today we are getting ready to go to visit Brinley's orphanage. We think she is going to do fine. She is very attached to me and she will usually go to Marty without hesitation unless she is very tired. Brinley has learned her first English word and she says it with lots of enthusiasm. HELLO!!!! When she sees someone looking at her she will say in a loud little voice HELLO!

After our visit to the orphanage we are going to Seven Star Park. Our new guide is Annie and she probably thinks I am a troll because I don't think she understood that I was very sick yesterday when we got here. Hopefully today will be much better!

We are getting ready to go to breakfast now. Lots of love and big hugs to everyone! We miss all of you and are very ready to come home. We leave here tomorrow and fly to Guangzhou. We will be there until 12/23 and then we can come HOME!!!! The White Swan Hotel in Gunagzhou is mainly used by adoptive parents so it will be nice to see some other families we have met along the way and through the internet when we get there.

Rebekkah Brailsford

Rebekkah, could you do us a HUGE favor???? As far as we know, Keith hasn't been able to see any of the pictures of Brinley yet. Could you ask his teacher if she will let him come to the library with you to see the blog? The last time we talked to him he hadn't been able to get online from home yet. I know he is anxious to see his sister.

He is in Mrs. Bull's class.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sharon

Our last day in NanNing

We couldn't post to the blog yesterday for some reason so today we will have to post double photos. We were able to post to the Yahoo group.

Yesterday we went to the Chinese consulate and the notary. That means we have officially adopted Brinley as our daughter. As far as China is concerned, she is ours! :) It all went very smoothly and quickly.

Today we went and did a bit of sight-seeing with our guide Roger. We went to Green Mountain Park. It was beautiful! We saw a Buddhist temple where the monks were having a prayer ceremony and Brice and Marty climbed up in a huge tower with Roger. Brice said his legs felt like noodles when he came back down. We also went to eat at a very nice restaurant where they had singing and dancing. We all enjoyed it very much and the food was very yummy! We bought a strand of pearls for Brinley.

At the People's Park, we walked around and you could tell that some people approved of us having Brinley and others most definitely did not. Most of the people here are so nice! There are people doing Tai Chi, singing and playing musical instruments. There is a little amusement park there and many places to eat. It is a very peaceful and tranquil place in the middle of a huge city.

Brinley is a little character. She is so funny. She'll give me the sweetest smile and then look at Brice and give him a little smirk. She let Marty carry her around at the pearl market and she calls him "Dada".

The picture of Brice beside the television screen was from our looooooooooong flight over here on the plane. We were flying directly over the North Pole when I took this picture of him.

Thank you for all of the emails! Vallie, Brice was really glad to hear from one of his CA friends.
We leave in the morning at 7 to get on the train to travel to Guilin. This is the town Brinley is from. It is known as China's most beautiful city. We will be visiting her orphanage Friday.

Gotcha!

Hooray!!!!!! GOTCHA - BRINLEY IS IN THE HOUSE!

This is Marty, posting for Sharon who is brushing Brinley's hair after her bath. Gotcha day went very well. Thank goodness for Cheeerios! Brinley was a little uneasy about going to Sharon, but after a few Cheerios all was good. She is now a "mama's girl". She goes to Sharon with no problems and hasn't cried at all. She has played with all of us.

She will fit right in at our house. She tried to use the TV remote as a phone so Brice gave her an old cell phone he brought along. She put it right up to her ear and pretended to talk. She even knows how to work the flip. Kristen, I guess you can train another "Welcome Specialist".

She acts like she has a cold so Sharon is giving her some of the medicine we brought.

So far everything is going very smooth. We were both very nervous right before Roger came by to pick us up, but not any more. She seems right at home with us and is playing with the cell phone again. That's my girl!

Sharon is calling Kristen - it's 5:43AM at home!

Sharon is much better "blog poster" than I am, so I'll finish and post some pictures.

Marty

HERE WE GO!!!!

Stay tuned!!!! We're about to leave to get Brinley!!!!!! The three of us are sitting here excited and nervous all at once. Well, Marty and I are.....Brice is cool about all of it.

Watch out, Brinley!!!
HERE WE COME!!!!!

Lord, please help Brinley to have an easy transition. :)

Sharon

Site seeing in Nanning

These are some sites we saw today around the hotel in Nanning. We walked down the street to the Peoples Park. It's a beautiful park with a lake, paved walkways, paddle boats, children's rides, and vendors. It was a nice quiet walk. We passed a lot a local shops along the street. Brice bought a pen and a pad to keep his travel notes in.

We ate lunch in the food court next door to the hotel. The food was good and quite inexpensive. The three of us had lunch for less than $10. Brice had a plate of spaghetti and we had sweet and sour spare ribs.

We are back in the room now getting ready to meet Roger, our guide, and go get Brinley!

We are in NanNing!

Ni Hao from NanNing!
We finally made it to NanNing this evening. The flight was only delayed by a few minutes and it was relatively good except that the skies in NanNing were very overcast so we had to go through a LOT of cloud cover before landing. I was pretty nervous about it. Flying is not my favorite thing to do!
When we arrived in NanNing we met our guide Roger. He is the same guide Rachelle and Melissa had when they were here last week. He doesn't know yet if he will be our guide the entire time we are here. He is very nice and very easy to understand. He asks a lot of questions but he also gives lots of information and he is very friendly. He said he has a son who is in first grade. He asked us to take a package to his niece in Guilin when we go there because that is where he is from.
Roger said we will get Brinley tomorrow at 4:30. When we arrived and walked into the hotel room, we found a crib waiting for her. So, this time tomorrow night we will be trying to soothe a very scared little girl. Please keep us in your prayers!
Tonight we ate at the Garden Restaurant here in the Majestic Hotel. We ate club sandwiches and Brice ordered a hamburger. :) Yep.....I just wasn't in the mood for eel spaghetti or edible fungus.
Marty is going to add some pictures in the morning. We are all very tired. In fact, Brice was so tired that he fell asleep in the restaurant. Everyone thought he was very cute. All of the young girls grin at him and say "Hello Boy". Rogers says Brice will make many friends while he is here. :)
I hope I'm not too excited to sleep tonight. I still can't believe that tomorrow we will have our daughter and siser! :)

Sharon

Brice's Blog

Brice has his own blog if you would like to read the messages he types and see the pictures he is taking with his camera.
http://hellofrombrice.blogspot.com/

Grits In Beijing!

Our night in the Beijing International Airport Hotel was pretty good. We have three twin beds in our room and the beds are really hard but I think we were so tired that it really didn't matter! The hotel seems to be old but it is clean so we are very pleased with our stay.
We brought some food with us just in case something like this happened so this morning Marty and Brice enjoyed Quaker Instant Grits with redeye gravy and I had some instant oatmeal. We all enjoyed a nice, hot cup of cappucino, too! Ahhhhhh, the joys of traveling with grits! LOL

Brice is going to tell me what to type:
Ms. Rebekkah, I hope the class was not too wild Friday without me. (He is laughing like crazy!) We've seen atleast 10 planes take off this morning. Gabe, don' t have too much fun without me! Sissy, I miss you and Josh! Hope you are having a good time. Keith, I miss you, too and will bring you some cool stuff. We might bring you a Coke can for your room. It is cool!

To our PBC family: Please keep praying for us! So far, so good! God is watching over us and all is well! Y'all take care of Lola for us and Josh, too when he comes home Saturday. We love all of you!

Marty, Sharon & Brice

We are in China!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are here. I posted on the alternate website so if you dont mind, please click over there to see our message. I am awfully tired!

Sharon

Brinley Elizabeth WeiYa: NEW PHOTOS OF BRINLEY!!!!

Brinley Elizabeth WeiYa: NEW PHOTOS OF BRINLEY!!!!?

NEW PHOTOS OF BRINLEY!!!!

Today we were blessed with new photos of Brinley!!! What an awesome and totally unexpected gift! These were sent to us from the wonderful Half The Sky organization! :) They came in the mail today! If they'd come tomorrow we wouldn't have received them until we return from our trip! Half The Sky runs a preschool in the Guilin SWI. We have heard so many fabulous things about Half The Sky and we are so very thankful to all of the people who work so hard to make it possible for children like Brinley to attend preschool and have so much love in their lives!
***You can be a Half The Sky sponsor and you will get updates on the child you are helping every 3 months.....makes a wonderful Christmas gift for the person who has everything! ;) Marty & I recently signed up to be Half The Sky sponsors and we are waiting to receive the information on the child we will be sponsoring. Pay It Forward***

Oh my! What a beautiful child! I already love her every bit as much as our other four children. Some people may question us putting her cleft pictures on here but to us she is simply Brinley...no matter what. If she hadn't had cl/cp, we may have never become her parents since we found her on a list for special needs children. It is our hope that other people will look at her photos and see how perfectly wonderful she is before and after her surgery. We are amazed and thankful when we look at her earliest photos. What a miracle her surgery was! Look at what an amazing change in her! There are so many cleft affected children who need this life-changing surgery. You can help by making even the smallest contribution to Love Without Boundaries. http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com .

We are all packed and ready to make our way to China tomorrow morning! It's hard to believe that the day has finally come! Please keep us in your prayers!!! :)

PLEASE NOTE ALTERNATE SITE!!!

We may not be able to post to this blog from China. We have an alternate site set up if this happens. Please go there to check for new information and photos if you don't find any news here.

This is the link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brinley/ Just click on it and it will take you there. This is a Yahoo group. You'll need to click on the box that says "Join This Group" and follow the simple instructions. Please feel free to post messages to us and to our other friends!

We are ready to go!!!
Please keep us in your prayers!
Sharon

A special thank you to our friends!

**I originally created this post back in July but today I decided to update it because there are so many more people that I feel like I need to thank!**

Today I've been thinking about all of our friends and relatives who are so happy for us and so very supportive. Last night we had a church from West Virginia's mission team over to play in our pool. Our preacher was with them and he told everyone about Brinley. They were all so happy for us....and for Brinley. So many people have been so kind and full of love from the start about Brinley.

*Alyssa F....always ready to listen to any news about Brinley and so happy for us!

*Mrs. Velma....so full of smiles and congratulations when I shared our news with her and always ready to notarize Brinley's papers!

*Mrs. Diane I....thank you so much for your support! You are one in a million!

*Lindsey....listened to me talk about China and babies the entire time she was pregnant with sweet little Anna and wrote the most wonderful reference letter for us.

* Lori Flake....happy, happy, happy for us! Our girls will play together in the church nursery! :)

*Preacher Judy....our prayer warrior and support from the very beginning! We can never, ever thank you enough for all of your advice, support and prayers!

*DEE (my mom)....the proudest granny in the world! So eager to have this new little person to spoil rotten!

*Annette I...so happy for us! Such a sweet friend!

*Mrs. Millie at Calhoun Academy....gave us the "green light" to take Brice out of school so that he can travel with us to China.

*Mrs. Tommie Sue....sooooooo happy for us!!!

*Mrs. Harriet C...so encouraging to us!!

*Rachelle....my newest bestest friend! What would I ever do without the supportive emails and prayers from this person I have never met?

*VJ....my fingerprintin' partner! So much helpful information through this paperchase maze! Thank you, VJ!

*"Grandma Bettie"...thank you for being "Grandma" to Josh, Kristen, Keith, Brice and Brinley! We love you!

*Aunt Mae, Uncle Bill and B'linda.........you are all so wonderful and we just love all of you so much! Thank you for loving Brinley!

*Rebekkah B. (Brice's teacher).....the best second grade teacher in the entire world! Hoping she'll stay at Calhoun Academy and teach Brinley, too! :)

*Donna Lott....supportive from the beginning and always there for us!

*Heather H....mama of the beautiful Leila! Thank you for always being there to listen! Hoping that someday we can sit and watch Brinley and Leila play together!

*My LateAugustDTC family! I love each and every one of you! I can't thank you girls enough for always being there through the highs and lows of this journey! We are all finally making it to the end of this phase! Some of us have already brought our little one home, some of us are in China now and some of us are getting ready to go or are waiting on our TA.......all of you are so special! I hope we will all stay in touch after we've all returned from China!!!

*Troy & Beth Jacob......Troy & Beth are also adoptive parents. When I was wondering how on earth people deal with special needs children, Troy was posting to the Children's House International group about his beautiful daughter Shiloh. He unknowingly let me know that cleft lip and palate was something we could deal with. If he hadn't shared so much from his heart, I don't know if I ever would have truly believed that cleft lip and palate could be so easy to deal with. Thank you, Troy & Beth for sharing Shiloh's story!

*Sandi P....mama of the beautiful Sabra! Thank you for sharing her sweet photos with me! She is so special! I hope we can get together someday so that Sabra and Brinley can play!

*LeeAnn M....how many questions can one person ask about an SWI? If you want to know the answer to this question, you can ask LeeAnn because I am sure I must have pushed the limit by now! LOL LeeAnn is above and beyond special and will always have a very special place in my heart for her kindness! Thank you, LeeAnn!

*Nona M....thank you for sharing so much of your information with us! I feel like we are better prepared for the trip thanks to you and your helpful info!

*Darlene & Lulu......thank you for the pictures of Brinley in the SWI! Those photos are invaluable to us!!!

*Nina....this lady gave me so much hope and inspiration when we first started talking about adoption! Nina, I can never thank you enough for your prayers and talks! You are truly an angel!

*Beth E....mom of the beautiful Mei Mei and Liza! Thank you for caring! Your girls are so sweet! I hope that Brinley will have many play dates with them in the future!

*Tina P....thank you for being my friend and thank you for caring so much! You and Bud are so special to us!

* "Lola"....my baby girl....my buddy....my confidante....thank you for being such a wonderful daughter. Someday you'll be making your own trip to China to bring home my grandbaby! You have blessed my life in more ways than I could ever count! I love you!

* "Joshie"....my oldest baby boy....my techno wizard! I miss you so much! How did you grow up so quickly??? I'm so glad you will be home for Christmas! I am so very proud of you! I love you!

* "Wubbie"....my middle baby boy....for almost 3 years we have been a family and you have blessed my life and Josh and Kristen and Brice's lives so much! You are going to be an EXCELLENT big brother to Brinley! Thank you for making me laugh! I am so proud of you!!!! I love you!

* "Tootie"....my baby boy....thank you for just being "The Brice Man". I love you soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much and I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo proud of you!!!!!

*Marty.....today is the day we met 5 years ago. The time has gone so quickly and yet it seems like we have always been together. You are such an awesome husband and a wonderful daddy! My life has been so very blessed each and every day that you have been a part of it. Thank you for opening your heart to all of us......and to Brinley! I know that she is going to have you wrapped around her little finger and she will definitely be a Daddy's girl just like her sissy! I love you......you still amaze me!

So many good friends....I know I missed a LOT of people with this little list....everyone is so special! Our "families" at Providence Baptist Church and Calhoun Academy are such a blessing to us! My online friends have truly amazed me with their caring and compassion!

~Sharon