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We arrived safely at LAX after a 14 hour flight. Karis did wonderfully on the plane and was a great little traveler. An answer to prayer! We got through customs and immigration with little hastle and Kari immediately became a US Citizen. I wish we had some photos of our arrival at LAX, but my dad took all the photos and we've yet to get them from him (yes, it's been a true whirlwind as my dad left for Thailand on Sunday!). We did arrive to the open arms of our 3 children, my parents, mys sister and the many smiling faces of Pathway Bible Church family. What a wonderful way to arrive!
We must admit though, the jet lag for the next week though, was really tough for all of us. Mike had to start back to work after only one day home and the other 3 children were as energetic as ever since they didn't have jet lag. Mike, Kari and I often found ourselves all awake in the middle of the night, tired, but unable to sleep. And then we were like walking zombies during the day. Thank the Lord for his sustaining grace, as we made in past that difficult week! I must mention though the ministry to us by Pathway Families was a tremendous blessing. They cooked dinner for our family for several nights. Every night we'd sit down and eat, I was SO thankful b/c I don't think my family would have been eating those nights. I was so out of it, it would have been really hard to buy groceries and make something decent to eat. God truly used the church body to minister to us that week.
So, we thought Kari would be thrilled to meet her 3 siblings, but instead her reaction was more like, "Hey, I thought I was an only child, what's the deal here?" She spent a week stiff-arming the kids and pushing, shoving or hitting them when they got too close. Thankfully a one year old can't hit too hard! The three kids though thought Kari was wonderful and still fight over who gets to feed her her bottle. After two weeks now, they seem to have won over her heart. She lights up when they enter the room and she's right in there rolling around with the rest of them. I'm sure hoping it will be that way for the rest of their lives. Lydia's reaction to a new sister has been great. We wondered if it would be a difficult jump for her to become a big sister ("jie jie" as they say in Chinese), but she loves it. She is constantly reminding me that she is the big sister and gets all the priveleges of being a big sister. She loves the fact that Kari sleeps in her room. Another answered prayer.
My little sister got married this Saturday - thus the continuing whirlwind for our family. I'll have to write more of my reflections on that later when I get some picts. For now I'll just say that we're thankful Kari handled all the new faces so well. She did great! Another answered prayer. Please join us in Praising God for his faithfulness and goodness to our family.
We have now spent about 10 days here in Guangzhou and we leave tomorrow. Though it's been very nice here, we're really looking forward to getting home and getting on w/ our lives w/ the rest of our family. I must admit, it's been nice to have breakfast cooked for us every morning, and our apartment cleaned every day too. But there's more to life than a clean apartment and breakfast! Guangzhou is surprisingly modern, even more so than when we were here 3 years ago. Compared to being in Lanzhou, this is not what you think of when you think "China".
The subway system here is excellent. Super clean, fast, efficient and cheap (like 70 cents). You can get almost anywhere you need to go in the city. We were surprised as well to find that people actually stood up so we could sit down w/ the baby. Is it true that someone's actually been teaching the Chinese some manners? (But they still do cut in line when you're trying to buy your ticket.) The hotel apartment we've been staying in is very modern w/ excellent service as well. This one really does fit the 5-star standards, unlike the hotel in Lanzhou. The shopping malls are crazy huge (there's two we could walk to from here). We were always surprised when we were able to find our way out of those mall mazes. Though the air here is not so clean, there are surprisingly not that many public smokers and we've seen very few spitters either :), and only one snot-rocket! They're building like crazy. Building cranes fill the sky and we listen to construction building all night long (they work 24/7). I expect that if we have the opportunity to return when the girls are older, we will visit a much different city.
It's super HOT and HUMID here. Almost unbearable, so we try to stay inside, or use the subway tunnels to walk from one place to another. Here's Mike looking kinda dorky. I think he was the only guy in the city carrying an umbrella, but he was trying to shade Kari from the sun. Come to think of it, he was probably only one of maybe three guys in the whole city carrying a baby on his back too :). Good thing is, when it's hot here, boba tea is cheap! About a dollar. Mmmm... my favorite. Oh, and from our hotel there are like 3 Starbucks w/in walking distance! Talk about modern. But Starbucks is even more expensive than it is in the States - about $3 for an iced coffee.Just for kicks, we have to include some funny random photos.
Gigi and Boppy have now survived one whole week of the 3 Chau children! Actually they've more than survived, they've outdone themselves - keeping up with their regular school schedule and taking them to San Diego as well! We're not sure Micaiah, Mimi, and Lydia will even want us to come back! We're so thankful that our children have such great grandparents with whom they can have such a close relationship. We know both we and our children are blessed. They've even set up a day by day blog to keep us in the loop. If you want to take a look, you can see it at http://chaukids.blogspot.com. We've enjoyed keeping up w/ the kids via Skype Video on a nearly daily basis. Even enjoyed sitting through dinner w/ the whole family a couple of times. Please continue to pray for our kids and their grandparents. 10 more days to go!
Today we leave for LA. Please pray for us, as we will be in flight for about 14 hours. We're really hoping the plane is not full so we can have a little more space. Our flight on the way here was packed and the seats were so close together that our knees were touching the seats in front of us! Having Kari on our laps in addition is going to be really tight!
We arrived in Guangzhou just in time to celebrate the Autumn Moon Festival on Sunday. For the Autumn Moon Festival, people gather together with their families to celebrate (sort of like we do for Thanksgiving). Lanterns are hung everywhere and Moon Cakes are given and eaten. Karis (we've been calling her by her nickname "Xiao Xiao" since that's what she responds best to) enjoyed munching on Moon Cake (see picture). Here's also a picture of Kari w/ her lantern.
