Bringing Belle Home: Leaving Lanzhou

Friday we departed Lanzhou at 8am. We drove an hour to the airport, in time for Belle to catch her flight to Beijing. Belle was so sweet to join us this past week and so very helpful. Not every family here had the privilege of traveling with a professional photographer!

Our flight left two hours later and baby Belle did pretty well for her first 3 hour flight. We arrived in Guanghoux, a much larger city in the southeast part of China, around 4:30pm. The temp was around 100 degrees- much warmer and more humid than last week. We drove an hour through traffic (again) to the China Hotel, a Marriott hotel with a Starbucks, ESPN and Bloomberg news channel, and met up with the other four American families adopting through America World that we had initially met upon arriving in Beijing that first night.

We strolled around the shops attached to the hotel, walked around the outdoor pool on the fourth floor, then had a really nice dinner at one of the four hotel western-style restaurants.

Today, we all had the required doctor's appointment for the children - not very comprehensive, but baby Belle checked out fine. No fever, ear infection, etc. Our little bus stopped at a grocery store so we could get some more diapers, formula, water, Pringles (barbecue flavored) and fresh chicken feet...

Thank you all again for your prayers. God has been so faithful and continues to go before us.

Tim

Saying goodbye to Bebe for good-she is on a 20 hour journey home and we are on a 4 hour flight to the southern part of china for more paperwork

"I was hot on the bus so my mommy took my pants off! I wanted to show off again that I would be a gymnast!"-belle qing

belle loves to be carried around by daddy in the bjorn! these teenage girls are from austin(sisters) and their parents were bringing them back for a "reunion trip."