Merry Christmas!

We survived her first Christmas, jetlag and all! Only thing is we got zero pics! Great huh? Little too tired to care I guess. I was so very surprised how well she did at the crazy family parties with all the noise and people. She loved all her cousins though and of course they were so excited about her. They've been waiting so long for her :)
She has to be taught basically everything we have come to realize. You don't think about things that way, but she has no idea how to act or what she can and can't do. She is about an 18 month old maturity wise. But she is catching on quick! She knows no now and a few other words and is trying more English words every day. She is still having issues with going to daddy at evening or when she's tired. Just cries her head off. She is getting more interested in toys. At first nothing at all held her attention. A few things she got for christmas she is
Really liking. Hopefully now that she has explored so much she will settle down some and stay out of the cabinets, drawers, etc. her eating has become very picky too. The first few days she shoveled in whatever she could! She and Grayson are head over heels. Eli not so much. He likes her but doesn't like her in his stuff or falling on his train tracks etc. And her falling has improved alot! I honestly thought when we first got her she had cerebral palsy. I was ready to call mom to get a eval set up. Her legs were so weak she fell constantly and when you held her she didn't hold on. She was dead weight. Her legs just dangled. That has improved so very much in the last two weeks just from being able to walk on a regular basis. This was a wonderful Christmas!! I know this next year will be so much fun :)

Home!!!! Merry Christmas!!

The BEST Christmas ever!! We are home safely with all three babies! We are so very blessed. We were met at the airport by great friends and family AND at home by some awesome seafood AND chicken and sausage gumbo. What more could we want?? A huge howl of gumbo, ICE water, and a bath in my tub and my bed was absolutely heaven. Merry Christmas to everyone! Thanks for blessing us with your prayers and comments! It has meant the works to us!

Pics of Six Banyan Temple

Buddhist temple we went to yesterday. It was not where we wanted to go and Eli told me over and over he wanted to go to Louisiana while we were there. I prayed the whole way through especially for those bowing down to them. The three in the room were enormous. At least two stories high and weighed ten tons. They were pure bronze. Everything had symbolism and meant something. I was a nervous wreck that my kids were gonna desecrate something.

Squeaky shoes

Loves stomping to make them squeak. Notice she is stomping a bow??

Crazy last day in GZ

Today was insanityx2. So very time to come home. You know how I said the driving is crazy?? Well we got in a wreck today. First time in a taxi here and we getting a wreck. Only the Frydays. Praise Jesus no one was hurt. Our driver pulled out directly in front of another taxi. I've seen it so many times here though it's usually missed by a hair. Not this time. It was on Eli's side so I tried to reach over to grab him and brace Isabel in my lap but it was too fast. We all hit our heads on something pretty hard and me and Gray's neck jerked. Isabel hit her head on the window and Eli has a knot. The taxi driver got out, he and other driver screamed at each other, then he pulls spray paint out of his trunk and painted the car where it was hit!! Crazy!! No police called, and we got out and walked the rest of the way. The boys were crying when we had to get another taxi back. Our mission was squeaky shoes though and we got them! Lol. We are waiting on her passport which we should get at 4:30 then to Hong Kong in the am then home Friday!! SOOO very ready!
Oh and I won the bow fight with her this morning! ;)

Pics of zoo

There were mamas and babies everywhere. They must feed them a lot. The only thing separating us was a small electric wire!

Safari Zoo

We went to safari zoo yesterday. It was so fun. Good to get out of the room. The weather was perfect. 70s and sunny. We went on a safari train ride first. The only thing separating the animals from each other and us was a few flimsy looking electric wires. They must keep them well fed! Then we walked through the zoo part and saw lots more white tigers and pandas. There are 300 white tigers in the world and this zoo has 150 of them! The pandas were so cute too. After we went back and took another nap. We are so very tired. Then McDonald's! It was soooo good. Tasted like home. Isabel wasn't wild about the burger but loved the fries!
Things we miss most:
-Clean clothes! We have been hand washing (PM has) in the tub. We got some done in Changsha and it was almost $60 for some underwear and shirts.
-our beds. The beds here are amazingly hard. Your pressure points (hips, shoulders) hurt so bad in the morning
-food. Even though there is familiar restaurants it still has a different twang to it.
-drinking water from the tap. You have to boil all water here. All hotel rooms have water boilers
-our family and pets! We miss our family of course but we miss the dogs and cat pretty bad too :) we saw a lot of dogs in Changsha but haven't seen any here

Pics of Yuela Academy and med exam

We made it to Guangzhou

Hey all!! I got a few posts asking if we are ok. We are..just long day yesterday. Went to the Yuela Academy. Aka Confucious academy. Then packed to get to Guangzhou and flight, waiting on other families, etc we didn't get into hotel til after midnight and had to be up at 7 to eat and go to Dr evaluation for tuberculosis test and other tests that can't enter the US. Haven't had time to upload pics. Isabel has had an extremely runny nose since we got her and it turned into fever/cough yesterday. I knew we were going to dr today so that worked out. The medical eval was CRAZY. So many kids in there. But we got antibiotics and mucinex type stuff for her. I was worried about the cough bc we found out when we went to orphanage that last march she was in the hospital almost a month for bronchial pneumonia. Her nannies were told not to expect her to make it. Well we already know she is a miracle from birth. I have met my match with this one. She doesn't know the meaning of no. Literally or if I show her. I think most of them are like this. It's dog eat dog in the orphanages for food, toys, and attention.
My throat is getting really sore too. Please pray we don't all get what she has. This is a hard enough trip without being sick. I believe all the prayer for my foot healed it fast. It still swells from walking all day but no more pain or limping. Praise Jesus!
We have a down afternoon thank goodness! We are all going to nap then go eat. We are so happy to get here. It's very "westernized" so a lot of things to do and eat that are familiar. Lots of families from USA and other countries (England,Canada,Ireland) that are adopting. So very nice to see and hear familiar voices. I will post pics as soon as I can get them uploaded. Thanks again for all the prayer! Love and miss y'all!!

Martyr park

Sooo ready to get to Guangzhou. We are leaving for there tomorrow! The weather here is so depressing. Wet cold and thick and foggy with pollution. And I was told no less than 10 times today to put more clothes on my kids. People here have to concept of what's their business. I think our guide was getting nervous all the glares I was giving people. She is pretty matter of fact about things too though. She will cut people off or walk away.
We went to martyr park today. It was really pretty with so many different colors every where and many people out doing tai chi and dancing for exercise. Then we went to the embroidery museum. Some of the pictures were amazing. They looked like real photographs but up close you can see its many different stitches. They take years to make. There were some really cool tiger ones. They were very pricey though as you can imagine if it took years to make. Pics are posted below.

Dec 14

This girl has two gears. Stop and go. She is like a bull in a china closet. Constantly all over the place. Her nannies called her the little bulldozer. It fits her perfect. Then when it's sleep time she is like a rock. All the kids are like that though. The pace here is so very fast And constant I guess it begins at birth ;)
She has done so well though. We had a meltdown moment last night when PM was telling Eli to pick up his trains and Eli cried. It scared her and she whimpered and cried for an hour or so and would go to PM. Broke my heart. We had our meltdown together last night. Both very homesick and the emotional day yesterday did me in. I thought about how many more days til we get hm and all I miss that most here never have seen and it did me in. But we woke up better this morning and she was all about baba again!

Orphanage

We visited the ICC side of hengyang swi. It was so enlightening. We were able to get some pics for waiting families which was a huge plus. The nannies there were so awesome. They absolutely loved the kids. And the kids were so sweet. All of them followed us and just wanted to be picked up. If i could find the mama of the little girl i am holding in the pics i would love to. She was so precious I wanted to eat her. Isabel was so happy to see her nanny. But she did so well when we left too. She waved bye bye and blew kisses :)
We are going to donate to this organization that supports her orphanage. The staff was so great and welcoming. We had a traditional Chinese meal with the director after. No forks in the house. Only chopsticks.

Orphanage visit