Some down time

Well, I have no new pictures to post, but I'll give you a little bit of an update of how everything is going. Today we had a little bit slower day than what we've been experiencing. Our guide took us to a temple in down town Kunming where people go to worship Buddha, and then we went to a local tea factory. We were able to taste different teas that are grown hear locally, and learned about all the different benefits they supposedly possess for the body. Cole and Branham did not care so much for the tea-tasting, but I found it pretty interesting. There was even one that was supposed to help you lose weight--unfortunately, it also tasted the worst out of all of the teas we tried. After that, we ate at McDonald's for the first time since we've been here. Cole was most excited about that, and Branham was able to experience his first chicken McNugget--at least we think it was chicken! He seemed to like them anyway.

The rest of the day we just hung out and rested. Branham and I colored some in his Spiderman workbook and worked on the alphabet a little bit. He was already familiar with about half of our alphabet. Then he showed me how to make some some Chinese characters which is quite fascinating to watch the intricate detail that goes into each one--learning our alphabet should be a piece of cake compared to all that. He and Cole played some games, and then we broke out the hand-held Nintendo games, which of course were a big hit. I'm afraid we've created a monster, but there's not much else to do when you're couped up in a hotel room in the middle of a very foreign setting. We had a hard enough time finding our way back to our hotel from McDonald's.

All in all, Branham has a very sweet countenance and has been no trouble whatsoever so far. He seems to love to look at books and really enjoys coloring and playing with the toy cars and figures we brought for him. When we picked him up yesterday, they told us he doesn't talk much, but we have not had that problem. He's had no problem talking to us, unfortunately we can't understand much of what he's saying, but we are managing to communicate pretty well anyways. He doesn't seem to be getting frustrated, and it's been fun watching him experience so many new things. He's been a true delight so far, and we're looking forward to getting to know this precious little one more and more.

We have enjoyed ourselves so far, but we are already experiencing some homesickness. We're the only family from the group who came to Kunming to adopt so it's a bit lonely here. I think when we meet back up with the rest of the group on Friday in Guangzhou we'll have a bit more fun. Just seeing some familiar faces will be welcomed, and there's a Pizza Hut and a Starbucks near our hotel there. Yea! We also plan on doing a "trick or treat" for the kids at the hotel once everyone arrives. Cole and Branham are dressing up as Ohio State Buckeye fans--imagine that! Well, I guess that's about it for now. Tomorrow we're supposed to be visiting a local park and museum. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers! I'll be in touch again soon.

Party of five becomes party of six!

I'd like to introduce you to Branham Phillip-Tian Hammond. I started the day with so many butterflies I wasn't sure I was going to make it, but things went as well as they possibly could have. We met Branham at around 1:45, Monday, October 29, 2007. He was shy for about 2 minutes, but as you can see from the pictures, he warmed up to Cole very quickly. We're so glad we brought him with us--even with the broken leg! He and Branham hit it off wonderfully, and Cole says he already feels like his brother!

Branham is already trying to pick up some English, and we taught him how to play war with some playing cards we had, and he picked it up very quickly. I think he's quite bright, but I am a little bias. We had dinner, and he was a very good eater--someone may finally eat my cooking at home! We're getting ready for bed so we'll see how the rest of the night goes. So far, things have gone almost too smoothly, but I'm not complaining. He is already calling me "mommy," and he likes looking at pictures of the rest of the family and calls Raegan mei-mei for sister. All in all we feel very blessed so far and can't wait for you all to meet him. Continue to pray for things to go as smoothly as they have so far. Hopefully we'll have some fun updates for you throughout the rest of the week. Love ya!

Well, we made it to China in one piece. The flights went as well as could be expected, and because Cole has a broken leg, we were able to sit in bulk head. At least we had a little extra leg room and no one was in front of us. We had dinner and crashed as soon as we arrived at the hotel. There are 12 families here for this trip, and everyone is very friendly.

Today we went to see the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Both were quite awesome, and we were able to share a few pictures with all of you. As you can see, Cole has already made some new friends--they're both named Jacob. Cole has been a real trooper so far. Phil has had to carry him only a couple of times when conditions were just too difficult to navigate on crutches. Most of the time he was leading the pack with our tour guide "Maggie."(her American Name) The food has been ok. Nothing too scary or weird yet, but nothing too spectacular either. The Chinese people are fascinated with the fair-haired boys in our group. They're like rock stars. People are constantly stopping them to have their pictures taken with them. It's really funny. They also are fascinated with Cole's broken leg. Apparently, in Chinese culture if a child is hurt, the parents are very protective of them and don't let them get around too much so they find him very intriguing. He gets a lot of stares and cheers as he maneuvers up and down stairs etc. So far it's been a lot of fun, and tomorrow we're supposed to see the Summer palace. We leave to go to Kunming tomorrow evening, and the next morning we're scheduled to meet Branham. Hopefully this post will go through ok. We're having a few issues with the internet. Depending on how tomorrow goes, we may not post again until we meet Branham. We love and miss you all! Now I must go crash--it's been a long day.

counting down

Well we're just about ready. Things are finally packed and ready to go, and we're all a bit too wired to sleep yet. We're hoping by staying up late we'll sleep better on the plane tomorrow. We fly out of Dallas at 9:30 to Chicago, and then we leave for Beijing around 12:45 if all goes well. We get to Beijing on Friday night and crash in our hotels. Saturday we get to see the Great Wall and some other cool stuff so hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to download some pictures. Next post should be after we've landed in China! Later.