We are getting ready at the hotel in Houston. We had a long trip but one that went better than we could have ever expected. Emelia was a great traveler. Evelyn, who is a great traveler, was sick for most of the trip. She has had fever and upper respiratory problems. The drainage made her have a queezy tummy and she never has that, poor baby. It was certainly good to look out that window flying in to Newark and see our flag flying. Thanks for praying. God has taken good care of us. For some reason the internet at the hotel in Hong Kong did not cooperate for me so I just posted those other days. Love you all and see you very soon!!!!

From Friday 06/27 - Okay, we are truly counting down now. We have not had internet to post for a couple of days so will post two while here in Hong Kong. The consulate visit was uneventful which is a good thing. They are in a different location than our first visit. Grace, our guide, had Scott ask the person in charge to rush us through to get the the train station for a 5:15 train rather than a 7:00. We made it but barely. Getting settled on the train was rough. I showed my ticket and asked for direction to the correct car. The lady used her arm and pointed me on in that car. It was the wrong car and we were dragging two children and a ton of luggage. Any of you out there who consider the train, it is fine but pay the extra $10 per bag to check your luggage. It would be worth it not to drag it around and especially if you are on the wrong car. We did not know the cost and our guide advised us not to check. Emelia did well until then and she was a very ill pill. She only wanted Scott as is the case most of the time now and he had a very rough ride from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. She felt really bad yesterday and part of the day today. I think it is the medicine she is on. I don't think I shared yet that we took both girls to the clinic at the White Swan. That was interesting. Our guide had to interpret for us. Both were put on cough medicine, some other brown stuff I think is for the runny nose and an antibiotic. Evelyn is not doing bad. I think she just has issues due to the poor air quality and we are using her inhaler. She did run a low grade fever night before last. I think the meds have zonked Emelia out. She slept 13 hours last night and then took forever to perk up after that. She did need the rest. We were in the mind set that there was no way we could make a 15 hour flight from here to Newark with her in this state. The whole plane would be ready to throw us off. So as you have been so faithful to pray for us continue to do so and pray that Emelia will do well on that long flight. We are in a different section of Hong Kong, the New Territories. It is very nice here and the Hong Kong Gold Coast Hotel is truly a 5 star. You never know. We needed this room for that long stay in Guangzhou The White Swan was nice but we are in a large room here. We have a king and a twin (like our double) and we have a large bath. Scott needed a break after the train ride so he got the twin and the girls slept with me in the king. The rain has held off today. Their very nice pool was closed earlier, I think due to the nasty weather they had been having. We had already decided not to let either girl go swimming anyway. Today we took a taxi to a shopping center. It was very nice with about six levels. I guess you have to go up here. We had saved a good bit of money by taking the train to Hong Kong rather than flying so we made a purchase. : ) I wish we had known about the savings and done this on the early end of the trip. We purchased a Nikon D40 DSLR camera. I think it was a good deal. I hope so. The 40s are the older model so not quite as expensive. We had one crazy ride getting to this hotel last night. I don't think I could type all it would take to describe it all. The guy was absolutely crazy. We will just have to tell you about him. I was just glad to get to the hotel. I have a funny story I forgot to tell you about our visit to the gardens. I took Evelyn to the toilet, another squatty potty. My shades fell off and into the potty. Evelyn's face was so funny. I just flushed them. There was no way I was going to fish them out. Oh well, they were a cheap pair I had purchased for this trip anyway. We are going to walk out in a bit and hope to take a few photos with the new camera to share with you. We are so ready to see you all. Thanks again for praying for us. Our flight is at 10:25am so we have a fairly early start to get there 2 hours ahead. That is 9:25pm your Friday night. We fly to Newark and then Houston, TX. Our layover was long so we have a hotel there and will fly in to Gulfport on Sunday morning. Wahoo!!!!

From Wednesday 06/25 -
I am typing this tonight (Wednesday) and will post it hopefully tomorrow. We did not purchase any more internet time here at the hotel. It has rained all day long here. It is from the typhoon. It is headed for another location and we are just getting the rain. We tried to get out and shop a bit but could not stay out long. We did go to dinner with several families. The family in our group met us and two families from near Macon, GA. We went back to the Italian restaurant. We again enjoyed the meal and the fellowship. One of the dads had us hold hands and asked the blessing. : ) Now you know why we so easily connected with them. Emelia felt really bad most of the day and was quite an ill pill because she felt bad. She can be such a pill and so sweet as well. Evelyn coughed while in the restaurant and she reached and gently rubbed her cheek just like I had done her earlier in the day. She copies so much that we say and do. We had better take seriously our example. Earlier today I went and had a massage. I did not have an opportunity while here before so that was on my list. I was most interested in the foot massage but got something totally different. Scott was sweet to stay with the girls while I went. He had one early on in our stay. Anyway, I was just going to get the small bucket. There was a communication barrier however I did understand that it was not available at that time, maybe later. I knew if I went back to the room that I would never make it back so I took what they could do then. I thought I was getting the large bucket massage like Scott had but it was not. I don't know what it was considered. It was the entire back, shoulders and neck. Scott's lasted 90 minutes and mine only lasted 30. When I went to pay it was 101 yuan and I had only carried 100. I had to tell them I would come back later. Scott's 90 minute visit only cost 69 yuan (about $10). Mine was still cheap, I just did not have the cash with me. Oh well, leave it to Alicia. We are pretty much packed up and ready to begin our journey towards home. We check out around 2pm tomorrow and go to the consulate for the oath around 4. We will leave after that via train for Hong Kong. We will be there Friday and Saturday night and will fly out Saturday morning. Wahoo!!!!!

Quick update - We went to a beautiful garden here in the city this morning, Yun Tai Gardens. It was beautiful but hot, 97 degrees. Whew!!! We hit the pool shortly after lunch. Miss Evelyn can now swim underwater without any assistance at all. Yeah Evelyn. Mamaw Flora, can you believe it? You would love this pool.

Just a short note. Emelia ran a fever last night. We are not sure what is going on. She has had a cough and we had already started her on the antibiotic we brought. She slept rough with the fever. I blame it on going in the clinic. : ) I know it should not be that quick. I wiped them down after we got out of there. We met a family from New Orleans. They are here adopting their third child. They had two girls and now a son. There were two MS families here last week but we only met one of them, nice folks. : ) I will add a few more of yesterday's photos. I might have initially had it rough but the tides did turn.

Scott and Evelyn went to the pool and I am here in the room with Emelia who is napping so this one might get a little long. The weather is still good but really hot. We went and made "red couch" photos earlier today while on our way to make the visa photo and medical exam. Emelia did fairly well. She did not like it at all when they made her lay down. It was a much better experience than we had when we did that with Evelyn. The lines were not nearly as long so that made it better. I am not sure the conversion on her height but she weighed 25 lbs. That is about what we had guessed when comparing her to Evelyn who weighs 35. Emelia's last update had said 30 lbs. We knew that would not be accurate. Anyway we are still doing well. She still shows that temper but Scott Kimball is beginning to work on that. The last two nights she has slept with us. Yes we need a king size bed at home and even that is crowded. The fact that she went to sleep with us shows she is trusting us more and more. It was not so easy getting her down last night. We were all wiped out and she still wanted to ramble the room. When Scott made it clear that she could get in the crib or lay down on the bed, she chose the bed but layed down at the lower end not near us. : ) Whew, but she did make the right choice. It is also fun to watch her copy Evelyn. It makes lots of things easier. If Evelyn changes clothes she is ready to as well. The last two nights when she got in the bed by Evelyn she put her thumb in her mouth just like Evelyn. Lets hope she is just copying sister and does not make that one a habit. She repeats tons of words and knows when to use a lot of them already. At first when we were out she would pretty much not mix with people but now smiles and waves to almost everyone. It is so fun to introduce her to things she has not had before. Today she shared a slushy with Evelyn and liked it. We have not found a lot that she does not like. Even though we are homesick there are some nice things about being here. There is one particular girl at breakfast who is just so sweet. She asked did I want more coffee and I said yes please amd then thank you. She responded, "Oh, it is my pleasure," and came back later and asked, "how is the service today?" You will not get that in the states. We have gotten a number of stares from the locals but also a number of very big smiles. Another neat thing here is the packages you get food to go in. It looks like presents. We ordered pizza to go from the Italian restaurant last night and it was in a fancy box with ribbons around it. Today we got some scrumptous desserts from the deli here at the White Swan and they were packaged the same. I took photos because they were so pretty. I bet ya'll are thinking we are eating terrible. We have eaten local cuisine but we have to mix the other to make it. When we were waiting for the pizza they insisted we come in a sit at a table. Emelia had fallen asleep and one of the girls came with tissues and wiped her sweat so that the air conditioning would not make her sick. They also brought us water while we waited. I could get spoiled. Now for one of the neatest experiences we have had, we talked with Shiyan yesterday evening. Adele and our Pandamonium family will be as pleased as we were. Shiyan was our representative here when we came to China for Evelyn. We did not get to chat long but she was very pleased to see Evelyn and how well she is doing. Her son finished college and got some prestigious sounding scholarship in Germany. Her daughter has completed one year of college. She is just as we remembered. It is funny because Scott has called our guide Grace Shiyan several times. Evelyn is doing much better. Thanks for praying for all of us.

P.S. - We have borrowed a second stroller. Emelia has taken to it now. We originally had a double and took it back now we have two singles. Evelyn always like to ride.

Just a note to Yovita - yes I picked up two for you. Hope you like them,

It certainly does not seem like Sunday here. People are just out and about shopping and such. I am sure somewhere here there are a few that have worshipped today. We miss worshipping with you all. We have had a good day. Evelyn seems much better. Emelia continues to progress. We ventured out with our guide. We went to the pearl market and a shopping center. You can see from the photo of Evelyn the size. Not only is it multi level but has a labyrinth of shops on the sides. We went in one area and I wondered if we would find our way out. We bought both girls a moderate quality string of pearls to give when they are older. Grace, our guide, took us to a local restaurant for traditional Chinese lunch. It was an adventure. Grace told us but I was glad Mandy H. had mentioned the first tea was for washing your dishes. Will have to tell you all more later. Evelyn also had to experience her first squatty potty there. At least we made it this far without that. Other than some paperwork our afternoon is free. Scott and Evelyn tell me I spend too much time on the computer. Ya'll need to tell them to leave me alone with your updates. Oh, we went in a candy shop and they loaded our bags much more full than we requested. For three bags of candy it cost US $20. The last photo is in the taxi.

Great Day

Better and Better

I am uploading a number of photos for a slide show. Hopefully it will work. The photos should tell the tale. Today has been the best day. We have had a few sister issues (both ways) and I am sure there are many of those to come. Emelia did not like the pool yesterday but loved it today. We had a free day today and have enjoyed not having any specific thing to do. Notice she was introduced to iced tea. That was at lunch at Lucy's. Scott and I keep going on Coke Zero, coffee and now the iced tea at Lucy's. We love hearing from you guys. It helps so much to have that contact from home. There are also a few photos of the scenes right around us as well.
P.S. - I had to come back and edit this post. Evelyn had quite a rough time earlier. I know she will be fine once we get back to her familiar environment. I know it is a lot for her to share parents that have been totally hers for four years. Pray for her through this.

Today has been a very good day. I will post a few photos and let you see why I say that. Wahoo!!! We went on a Guangzhou city tour for the earlier part of the day. We visited a Buddhist temple, the House of Chen (now a folk art museum) and a store. We came in and rested for a while and then got in the pool. Today was an entire day without rain. We actually saw the sun shining all day, another wahoo. : ) Emelia is a funny girl. She still had a few of her moody times but has been a better girl today. She has picked up on a few words as well. On the phone last night she keep saying hello over and over again while talking to family. Today she said bye bye, thank you and ready. I am sure there is more to share but my mind is getting tired.

I finally got the kiss in a photo and had to share. The photo with Evelyn is a tickle fight that had to follow. : ) We had dinner at the new Italian restaurant on Shaiman Island. It was wonderful, spinach pizza and lazagne. Emelia liked it really well. Thanks Mandy H. for this recommendation. There are some beautiful trees here. Also notice Evelyn in the double stroller. She likes to ride anytime.

First Kiss

Right now Emelia is standing at the bathroom door saying ooo ni wah which is her word for potty. She is playing a game with it as I just put her on the potty about 4 times in a row. Scott ran out for a minute. He kissed Evelyn and Emelia puckered her lips for a kiss too. That was the first and then she did the same for me. We didn't have cameras ready naturally but I would say that was great progress. The zoo was good but hot. At least it did not rain until we were on our way back to the hotel. At the zoo Emelia would not let me put her down or let Scott hold her UNTIL Scott got her an ice cream. Then she would not let us help her with it. In the end we both had it all over us. We saw one panda that was extremely lazy. We are just trying to relax a bit in the room and hope that Emelia will nap.

Just a little addition to the earlier post today. The temper continued to come out today. I think Emelia is testing the waters and it had been rough on all of us. I wanted to ask you all to continue to pray for us. I know this will pass but it is rough while it lasts. A two year old can be trying no matter what and Emelia has had so much in her short time. She has also given us her best laughs today. After bath time Evelyn was tired and hugged on me. Emelia immediately reached for me and there I was with both girls in my lap. That was a nice first. : )
As far as developmentally I can't tell what level she is at due to the language barrier but if she sees something once she immediately picks up on it. Tonight after I got her out of the tub, she went right to the drawer where the hair dryer is for me to dry her hair. That was after using it once before. Tomorrow our guide is taking us to the local zoo. That should be interesting.

Whew. I will be honest and say that we are having good and rough times. Emelia is one strong willed girl. She has giggled and played and has also pitched some fits. I don't think anyone has ever told her no. She is warming up and beginning to feel comfortable with us. When we first brought her to the room she would not take her shoes off. She now takes them off when we come in without thinking twice. All of those little things are important. We took her to the pool this morning and she did okay. She held on pretty tight to me. She is jibber jabbering some while we are in the room. We do know which word is potty and we think we know what her word for no is because she says it a lot. She also shakes her head no a lot. She was introduced to a moon pie and loved it. She any Evie were hungry after the pool and had two each. : ) The rain seems here to stay. It is hard to hold Emelia and an umbrella and get around. We borrowed a double stroller but she will not have anything to do with it. She wants me to hold her. I am probably beginning to repeat some of this, sorry if I am. Enjoy a few more pictures.

Its Official

We completed the official paperwork for the adoption today so Emelia is now officially our daughter. We had a very good night last night. She is a little slow warming up to us but all is well. We have gotten smiles so I am confident we are on track. She would not get in the bed with Evelyn or the crib. She fell asleep on the floor at the foot of the bed and we were able to move her without waking her. We all were dressed and ready this morning and had to wake her up. She didn't like that but was soon fine. We had to meet our guide by 8:30 to go complete the paperwork. We were then able to go to Carrefore, a multi level Walmart type store. We bought quite a bit of stuff. We found some pull ups. I forgot the ones I had at home. She has been wearing diapers but has only wet them at night. I prefer the pull ups espcially since miss independent wants to do it all herself. She did well with the shopping except I had to hold her the entire time. She seems to be warming up to me the most. This afternnon Scott took our laundry out to be done and Evelyn and Emelia helped me do some small pieces in the bathtub. That was a trip. I wish Scott had been there to video. Emelia is taking a nap right now. Scott and Evelen went to get in the pool but the rain came again and they are back and Evelyn is falling asleep as well. Emelia has not cried unless she has not gotten her way. She eats very well and appears healthy. I know there is more but will update later. We love hearing from you all. I cannot view the blog here but my sister in law copies and pastes the comments into an email for us. Thanks for doing that Jen. We love and miss you all.

P.S. - The first photo is while waiting to do paperwork, the second in retrieving a toy under the couch there and the third is sharing big sister's funyuns. : )

Miss Emelia Hui Kimball

Well, this is what you have been waiting for. Your prayers have been answered. We are doing great. We now have another strong willed daughter. They brought her to us screaming but not because of us, it was because they took her from the playroom. : ) We did not know that until about 30 minutes after the screaming. We are back in the hotel and so far things are very good. It was too funny when I tried to put the lid back on a water bottle and she would not let me, she had to "do it herself." We have been there done that and all is good. Lets see, she has tried to turn off the TV, she sang the ee i ee i oh part of Old McDonald when it was on Barney and likes Evelyn's light up flip flops. I tried to take her shoes off while sittling on the bed and she did not like it but they came off quickly when she saw the light up flip flops. I know there is more and will be lots more to come. I will say that the nanny was very very interested and concerned about how Emelia was doing. I can tell she has had good care. Also, they call her Hui Hui (way way). I am glad we went with Hui for the middle name. Have I said that Evelyn has been absolutely great? I knew she would be a great big sister.

In Guangzhou

Well, we made the short but long trek from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. We were the early group, lucky us. Even though the flight was only 35 minutes, it took from having our luggage out at 6:45 until about 1:00 to get to the hotel. It feels really weird to walk around in the White Swan and relive those memories of four years ago. I felt like I should walk up and meet our Pandamonium families (the group we first traveled with) at our meeting spots. We sure do miss you guys. We have this afternnon and in the morning free. We got in the pool with Evelyn and then the rain came again. Our guide is Grace, the same one Mandy and family had. She is going to be great to work with. We meet Emelia at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon. That is 1:30am in the morning central time. I can post but cannot view the blog itself. I had heard of folks having this happen so bear with me on the outcome. We learned from Carla (the other family we are traveling with) that they are taking the train back to Hong Kong on the 26th. We found out we can do this as well. We are not sure if we can change the flight to one day earlier but will update you all if the return time home changes. Looking forward to posting tomorrow. : )

Well the tour was delayed until lunch due to the weather. We didn't think it would slack up by then but it did. We met with a pretty large group for the tour. There were three groups combined (14 families) going to different provinces from here. We will meet back up together at the end in Guangzhou. We were not impressed with the tour. We went to a fishing harbor and took a ride through it on a sam pan (ask Larry if you don't know). We toured a jewelry factory, a market and went to Victoria Peak. We could have just done Victoria Peak and been happier. Tomorrow is our flight to Guangzhou. We head for the airport at 7:45. Emelia day is Monday, not sure what time yet.

In Hong Kong

Okay, where should we start? All is well. Bro. Floyd and Daniel got up very early and took us to the Asheville airport on the new bus. : ) The flight was soooo long as expected but we fared well. Scott says the flight attendants were jerks and I will probably agree. Continental did have a wide choice of movies, programs and games that helped pass the time. Evelyn was a great traveler as always and we all got some sleep on the plane. Oh yes, princess Evelyn always draws attention but she especially did in her airport ride, the Ride On Carry On that we purchased to wheel her around. We got to Hong Kong just shortly after our scheduled time and were ready to crash after we settled in at the hotel. Evelyn had a little trouble with the time difference (waking around 2am) but with a little help from benedryl we all got about 8 hours of real rest. Hong Kong is as I remembered, bustling and crowded. We did fine venturing here taking a taxi and two trains to get to Disneyland Hong Kong. It certainly is not Disney World but was really a great first for Evelyn. I was glad Scott stopped and bought two umbrellas this morning because the rain is still here. It kept the lines down at Disney and we were able to do almost everything there with little or no wait. Evelyn got to meet four princesses, Belle, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and her very favorite, Cinderella who even had Prince Charming at her side. So even with lots of rain, the day was a success. We are about to settle early in as we meet with a group at 8:15 in the morning for a day tour of Hong Kong. We did meet Carla (the other CCAI family specifically in our group) in the hotel lobby this morning. Ta ta for now.