tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89622968820023902582024-03-05T15:19:43.000-08:00The Smits Family Journey to Adoption from ChinaAdding a little girl to our familyAaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-35339134832299830302016-07-04T08:18:00.002-07:002016-07-04T08:18:43.107-07:006 monthsToday marks 6 months that we were introduced to Myla! Time has sure flown by! She has brought so much joy and spunk to our family and we couldn't imagine life without her. We feel so honored that God chose us to be her forever family.<br />
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Over the last 6 months, she has changed quite a bit. A few of the big changes are her english and understanding of english. She does still talk in jibberish sometimes, but for the most part, there is no mandarin left in her vocabulary. She speaks really well and you can understand it for the most part. She potty trained really easily a few months ago. She loves going to church and playing in her Sunday School class. She started gymnastics recently and absolutely loves it. She loves playing in water, but isn't a big fan of swimming. We have her in swim lessons to hopefully help her get over that fear. She plays really well with her brothers and sister. There are definitely alot of times I want to pull my hair out because they can't get along, but that's normal Right?!<br />
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We have had a few doctor appointments which have all gone really well. Her Thalassemia is very mild and will not need any medical attention. She's a very healthy little girl with nothing to worry! Her only medical issue now is we have been working on getting her immunizations caught up. (She's NOT a fan)<br />
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In the last months from her coming home she has experienced several holidays and her birthday! It was so much fun celebrating her birthday but I think she didn't really comprehend what was going on. She would say "It's Myla's birthday" but we didn't get the hype like we usually do from the other kids. I'm sure next year though she will be fully aware of her birthday and what that means. We have had a few other birthdays and she is quickly catching on.<br />
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Overall, she continues to amaze us with such a smooth transition and we can't wait to see how she continues to grow and change. These first 6 months have gone so fast so I'm sure the next 6 months will go even faster!<br />
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Here are some pictures that a dear friend took for us. Our first family pictures as a family of 6!!<br />
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Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-1048613853318511042016-02-04T11:01:00.002-08:002016-02-04T11:01:52.188-08:001 month already!!1 month ago today we got to meet Myla for the first time! It's crazy how fast time goes! At times it feels like she's always been with us, just one of the gang, while other times it feels like we just got home from the long plane ride.<div>
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She is doing fantastic! We are blown away with how well she has transitioned. She loves the kids and our dog Leyny. She likes to do whatever the kids are doing. I was a little worried with how the food transition would go. In China she wasn't exposed to lots of different foods so I didn't know how she would do. When we were in China she seemed very nervous about some foods. She wouldn't even eat a french fry or try a chicken quesadilla. But once we got home, she blew that out of the water! She will eat anything and everything:) I haven't found a food yet that she doesn't like. The kids love sitting by her at the table. We have to rotate who sits by her at each meal because they all want to sit by her!! I also haven't had to cook much yet. We have such generous friends who have brought us meals to help us in this transition! We are so grateful for you and thank you for the delicious meals!!</div>
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As far as sleep, only the first week was a bit of a wreck, but that's very understandable because she was jetlagged and we were too! The first night she was awake from 1-4am, but after that it got a little better each night. I would say after the first week, she was back to sleeping through the night and on a good nap schedule. She was sleeping in a crib in China, but here she's sleeping in a big bed with rails on the side. She is also sharing a room with Leah so I think that has helped her transition as well. She would cry for a few minutes at the beginning, but now she will hop in bed, say "good night, I love you" and go to sleep. She did just recently discover that she can crawl out of her bed, so we've been working on staying in your bed:)</div>
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Her English is improving everyday. She didn't speak much English when we got her, but she understood us. Her foster mom in China was from Holland. She spoke fluent English and lots of Mandarin so I think that has helped us a lot of making that transition. There is still a big language barrier, but it's getting there. She is a parrot and will repeat anything you ask her to, but she may not understand quite what she's saying. She sometimes calls Aaron "mommy" and Owen "Leah". Riley Children's Hospital in Indy has an international adoption clinic so we took her to see a few doctors there. The doctor said "It's so nice to meet you Myla". So I told Myla, "tell Dr. Hamby, it's nice to meet you." Usually she will say the end of what you want her to, but she shocked the doctor when she replied, " It's nice to meet you!" The doctor couldn't believe that she would respond that way after only being home for a week. She had to get several vials of blood drawn and she was just a pro! She sat on Aaron's lap and didn't even flinch when they poked her. I on the other hand was sitting on the floor, not looking, trying not to pass out!!! She really shows me up!! We also took her to meet our family doctor who is Chinese. She was so excited to meet Myla! She couldn't wait to talk to her in Chinese! When she started to talk to her in Mandarin, Myla never really responded back to her. She would just smile and giggle. So far all check ups have gone really well and she looks great! We have a few more appointments in a few weeks, but she is super happy and healthy!</div>
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She is not shy! She loves people and is very easy going. She makes friends wherever she goes. The doctors just think she's a genius and so adorable. We took her to church for the first time two weeks ago and she was just adored! Of course it felt like we were celebrities! Everyone was so excited to meet her and hear how things were going. She was a little shy at first because of all the people but you could tell she loved all the attention! And it didn't take her more than 3 seconds to make new friends. I feel a little bad for whoever sits by us and wants to pay attention in church. She's too cute and makes it easy to get distracted:) We also have several friends at church who have adopted from China so it's been fun to see how she interacts with them. Again, if they speak in Mandarin to her, she just smiles and giggles, but I think she is excited to hear her native language and know that there's someone who can communicate to her.</div>
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So far so good! God continues to bless us with a smooth transition and we couldn't be more excited to see what happens in these next few months as she continues to adjust. The Chinese New Year is this Sunday and then we get to start planning her 3rd birthday which is right before Easter!!:) Thanks you for all of your love, prayers, and gifts!! We are so blessed and are so thankful for each of you!!</div>
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Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-31296845481863807032016-02-03T14:02:00.002-08:002016-02-03T14:56:40.166-08:00Our trip home! (Jan 13)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Today we fly out!! We grabbed our last breakfast in the hotel and brought our luggage down to the lobby. We said goodbye to Judy and got in a van to drive to Hong Kong. The drive was really pretty. We drove through a few tunnels and very close to the ocean. Once we got to Hong Kong, we had to change drivers/vans. A new driver took us to a customs check point. Before you can enter the country and even drive on the road, you must go through a borders checkpoint. It was a little intimidating! You had to get your temperature taken and look at our passports, papers, and luggage. Once we made it through three separate check points we were free to travel onto the airport. The also drive on the other side of the road so that was an interesting change. The scenery was gorgeous! Once we arrived at the airport, we got our stuff checked in and grabbed a quick lunch. We were shocked when Myla asked for our french fries! Up until this point she has been really picky. Wouldn't even eat a fry with ketchup on it. For the flight, she did really well. She sat in the seat, put her seatbelt on, watched tv, and ate the food with no problem. She only slept a little bit, and was awake most of the time. Besides just a few minor meltdowns, she did really great! We discovered she is kind of a bear when she wakes up. I didn't sleep much at all. There was a lot of turbulence so most of the flight I was just praying we made it home safely!! When we finally landed in Dallas we had to go through immigration and get myla's paperwork figured out. She's officially a US citizen!! We had a pretty long layover. We boarded the last flight to Indy and were excited to get moving so we could see our other kids! Of course, Myla was charming the passengers and flight attendants. After about 24 hours of traveling, we landed in Indy and couldn't get off the plane fast enough to see the kids! Of course we were in the very back of the plane, so it took us awhile to get off but we were so excited to see the kids waiting at the end of the hallway holding signs, balloons, flowers, and big smiles!!! They were so excited to see us and Myla! They loved Myla right away and were so sweet to her. We got many looks and smiles from people passing by. Since we landed so late in Indy we decided to stay at a hotel and drive home on Thursday. The kids were pretty funny. They were fighting over who held her hand. Poor Liam had a meltdown because there was no hand for him to hold! :( The kids didn't sleep that great in the hotel. I think they were just so excited!! We drove home Thursday morning and were greeted by a very excited dog!! Myla took to her right away and I think she will do just fine with her. It was a long trip but so worth it to bring Myla home to join our crazy family! And I have a feeling she will fit right in;)</div>
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<br />Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-33028352593844938332016-02-03T11:14:00.004-08:002016-02-03T13:27:20.273-08:00Our Last day in China!! (Jan 12)<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Today was our last full day in China!! Woohoo!! We spent it mostly at the zoo. It was quite the zoo! It was huge and had several animals of all kinds of species. The most interesting part was the safari park. This part of the zoo you could ride the train through or drive your own car through! This winding road took you SUPER close to zebras, lions, elephants, rhinos, hippos, leopards, giraffes, tigers, and so many more. Some animals were being fed so they were very active and some performed tricks. I’ve never been so close to those animals before! Some roamed right next to your car! The lions just had a little wire fence keeping them away from us!! It was pretty amazing! There were several people visiting that part of the zoo, but once we kept moving through to the other parts, it felt like we had a private tour of the zoo! We saw some koalas which were very sleepy. The snake exhibit had giant snakes on the ceiling and under your feet! We got to feed an elephant which was really cool! We saw lots of monkeys and baboons. And then of course we saw some panda bears! There was even a 5 month old cub! We had some lunch in the panda restaurant which only made sense to have a panda shaped meal for Myla! After lunch, Myla fell asleep so we just walked a bit more and then headed back to the van where our driver was. Overall, we really enjoyed the zoo. At times Myla got excited to see the animals, but she wasn’t as excited as I thought she would be. If our kids would have been with us, I think they would have flipped!!! She did enjoythe train ride lot! It was nice to not have each exhibit so packed. I was kind of surprised because a great zoo like that one in the states would have been packed all the time!!! </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">We came back home so Myla could get a nap and we had to wait for our guide to drop off Myla’s visa! After we received that we went back to our favorite restaurant, Oggis (an Italian place) to celebrate our last meal in China! When we got there we saw some friends who adopted a cute little boy eating there. They invited us to join them for dinner so we had a little date night with our kids:) After we got back to the room, we gave Myla a bath. (Her favorite activity!) Once we put her to bed, we got all of our things put together and packed away!! So now our bags are packed and we are ready to fly home in the morning!! China has been so good to us, but we can’t wait to get home!!!!! Please keep us in your prayers as we travel home tomorrow. Pray our flights don’t get delayed or cancelled! I know there was some snow and cold temps at home. (This cold weather will be a shocker for us coming from 60’s) boo!!!!</span><br />
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<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxQylGg-mvF1tfA2lO3fTIx3sIqiv-uqRKN3UPuGiCb1PEUQpllGlWSmO7pAyBYxclxCcURQiWy681w-5xkqA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span>Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-24745901428255925212016-02-03T11:14:00.000-08:002016-02-03T14:04:23.239-08:00An Update :) (Jan 11)<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Hi friends! It’s been a few days since we last updated. Saturday we spent just hanging out. We played a bit in the hotel playroom. We walked down the street to a busy flea market. We then went across the street to a big shopping mall and did some window shopping. Lunch time was a little stressful. Myla didn’t want to eat and was very cranky. So we ate quick and went back to the hotel so Myla could get a nap. When she woke up she was sweating and was so hot! Her temp was 103.6!!! Luckily I brought some Tylenol with us so I gave her some and after a bit she perked up. We got some take out for dinner and just hung low for the rest of the night. The rest of the evening she didn’t have a fever. She wasn’t sweating and was her normal laughing happy self.</div>
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Sunday was another free day. We were supposed to go the the zoo. We decided not to go because it was supposed to rain all day. So we went back to the shaiman island and did a little shopping and walking around. The trees, flowers, and buildings are really beautiful. After a few hours we came back to the hotel for lunch and noticed she had a fever again. It wasn’t as high as the first day but pretty close. This time she was freezing! Her lips were blue and her hands were frozen. So we layered her up and put her in our bed with some Chinese cartoons and more Tylenol. Again she perked back up to her happy self. It was raining pretty hard the rest of the day and we didn’t want to get all wet, so we went to a Japanese restaurant in our hotel which was pretty tasty. We walked around the lobby a bit and saw a wedding in the grand ballroom.</div>
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Today(Monday) was our big appointment day!! We had to be up and ready to go by 7:45am to make our appointment at the US consulate. We don’t have any pictures of the appointment as we were only allowed to bring in our passports, the paperwork, a diaper and snack for Myla. We were with 5 other American families in the room. We had to grab a number from a window and wait for them to call us up. Once they called our number, they looked over our paperwork, asked us some questions about Myla, and then took Aaron’s fingerprints. We then had to get some instructions about flying back home and had to take an oath basically stating we would care for her and never abandon her. And that was it! It went quickly and only took about an hour! Our guide will pick up her visa tomorrow for us and then we are officially set to go HOME! China has legalized the adoption and now the US has. She will become a citizen the second we touch US soil. Woohoo!! Once we were finished with the appointment, we went and toured the famous tomb of the Nanyue King. It was very fascinating to learn about him, see his tomb, and look at over 1000 artifacts that were found in the tomb. We then walked around a big park and got some lunch. While Aaron headed back to give Myla her nap, I took a taxi with our guide Judy to a tea market. We were wanting to bring home some different teas as gifts. That was really interesting! There were so many teas in the small shop. The lady was very nice in helping us buy and package them. She even let me sit in her big “tea master” chair and wanted a picture with me:) after Myla got up from her nap we ventured outside again to find some dinner. We found a yummy Mexican restaurant that had good tacos and fajitas. Myla wasn’t too excited about her fries and chicken quesadilla but hopefully she will learn to like it. One of the couples from this morning ended up eating there too so it was nice to talk to some Americans for a bit!:)</div>
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Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be sunny and in the high 60s so we are going to the zoo! We will meet our guide in the afternoon to get Myla’s visa, and then Wednesday morning we wake up early to catch a ride to Hong Kong where we will fly HOME!! We are sooo ready to get back home to our kids and our beds!<br />
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Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-82136085494559707212016-02-03T11:13:00.000-08:002016-02-03T13:13:13.104-08:00Medical Appointment (Jan 8)<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Today was Myla’s medical appointment. After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we met Judy who took us to get Myla’s visa picture taken and then to a clinic to have her physical and TB test done. When we walked in, the office was PACKED with several Chinese people. Luckily there was a special area for international adoptions and besides us there were only two other families!!😃 Myla did a great job! She let the doctor listen to her heartbeat and let him look her over. They got her weight, height, and head circumference. We had to wait a bit for her turn with the TB test, but when it was her turn, she walked right in the room without us and came out just a few minutes later. She’s such a trooper!!! She didn’t even cry!!! I may have been a bit of a mess all worried, but she did well. She made sure to show us her ouchie when she came out. Once that test was done we were free to leave. We stopped at a store to buy a few things. We grabbed her a new pair of shoes because the ones I brought with us ended up being too small. She is definitely a fashionista! When we went to leave she was so insistent on wearing her new shoes and didn’t want anything to do with her other ones.😃 We headed to the Shamain Island (a famous island in Guangzhou) where we had lunch and walked around a bit. There was a little park by the water that Myla enjoyed playing at for a bit. We got to visit the famous “white swan” hotel which used to be a big hotel for international adoptions several years ago. We took Myla’s picture with the famous adoption statue that is on the island and then headed home so she could get a nap. (And us too!!😉) For dinner we walked down to an Italian restaurant called Oggis which had some really good pizza! And Myla liked the spaghetti too!!! Tomorrow is a rest day for us so we plan to sleep in a bit and just roam around the city and hang out at the hotel on our own without our guide! Wish us luck!!😁😁😃😃</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span>Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-25375040859056406872016-02-03T11:12:00.002-08:002016-02-03T14:04:33.968-08:00Guangzhou (Jan 7)<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
We have made it to the Garden Hotel in Guangzhou!!😃 This morning after breakfast we had a little bit of time to get things packed before our guide drove us to the airport. He gave us Myla’s passport and made sure we had all our luggage checked and the right tickets. This was Myla’s first flight so I was a little worried about how she would do. She has been a little timid lately, but this morning she was much more quiet and very clingy to me and more less to Aaron. I think she was scared and realized she was leaving. I would love to be in her brain right now! So much change, confusion, and fear! Poor thing!!😕 On the plane, she seemed excited to sit in her own seat. She didn’t like the seat belt at first but eventually forgot about it. (In China they do not have car seats, so she always sits on my lap! So I wasn’t sure how she would do with sitting by herself) When we get back home I’m sure that will be a fun adventure!!) at take off she was a little startled but as soon as we were in the air she fell straight to sleep and slept the entire flight until we landed!! After we got our bags we met our final guide, Judy who took us to The Garden Hotel. This is a pretty famous hotel for adoptions. Most families will stay here if they are adopting a child from China. It is VERY large with a big lobby full of different stores and restaurants. There is also a big playroom for the kids to have fun! We got upgraded to a suite here so it is so nice to have a little more space!!! Judy took us to a really yummie Chinese restaurant just a few blocks away. We ALL ate very well and Myla showed off her chopsticks and noodle slurping skills (we didn’t know that she knew how to use chopsticks!😃) we just hung out in the room for the rest of the evening playing and coloring.</div>
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For the most part Myla is doing so well! (Especially for all that she’s been through in the last few days) She has only cried a few times and that has been when it’s time for bed. She will cry for just a few minutes and then calm right down. She’s very outgoing and we are beginning to see her stubbornness come out. She and Liam I think will be quite the duo when they get together!! She is picking up English quickly and likes to repeat what we say. There is still quite a language barrier but she is a quick learner. She knows mommy and daddy and all the kids names too! This morning we did FaceTime to the kids. When she said Owens name he said “ha she just said my name!!!!!”</div>
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The kids love her!! They like to FaceTime and talk to her. She sneezed and Owen says “aw I just saw her sneeze for the first time!” It will be so fun when they get to meet each other for the first time!!! They seem to be having a blast back home but do we sure miss them!! Looking forward to getting these last few days over with and back home.</div>
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Tomorrow is her doctors appointment and tb test. Apparently it’s a US rule from the consulate that we are not allowed to be in the room with her while they perform that test. (I guess they have concern we will switch the results) so I think that will be hard on her and us! So please be thinking of us tomorrow morning/evening. Once that is finished, we plan to do a little shopping and sight seeing in the afternoon.</div>
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Thank you all for all your sweet comments! You are the best! We can’t wait to get back home so you can all meet her! We think she is a doll and definitely think she completes our family!! We are still in shock that she is finally with us! We are just so blessed!!<br />
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Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-168893588452448612016-02-03T11:11:00.002-08:002016-02-03T13:58:43.009-08:00Last two days in Guiyang (Jan 6)<div class="post_title" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Gibson, 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 42px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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Howdy y'all!!! I hope you are all enjoying the “brisk” Indiana weather right now. As I write this I have the window open in our hotel room because the thermostat apparently wants to keep increasing the temp. Last I checked it was 29 degrees Celsius and rising (too stinking hot for me). So I shut it off and opened the window. Now it allows me to hear all the sounds of Guiyang. One of which is a truck playing “it’s a small world” as it drives around town. I know what your thinking…why on earth would they have an ice cream truck going this late at night? Thing is it’s not the ice cream truck…it’s the trash man! Yup you heard me right, the Trash Man! Too funny!</div>
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Anywho, what have we been up to these past two days…well yesterday we had to go back to the welfare center to finish the paperwork. We got there around 9:30am and left around 12. After a quick lunch our guide, Jacky, took us to the local historical landmark in Guiyang called Joshua’s Pagoda. It’s apparently about 400 years old. It’s really pretty on the outside but it’s currently being renovated so you couldn’t see much. Then it was back to the hotel for an afternoon nap, dinner, and then some play time with Myla before heading to bed.</div>
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Today was our last day in Guiyang. The past several days have moved quickly. It’s hard to think that in a week we will be getting back on a plane to travel home. Today’s final adventures included a trip to Monkey mountain, which is another local landmark. The scenery is beautiful there, and the mountain is home to several hundred wild monkeys. Jacky did warn us that the monkeys are pretty brazen and are known to steal anything from people. Apparently they’ve been known to steal cigarettes and alcohol from people. Jacky explained that the monkeys even know how to smoke, and when they stole the liqueur they got drunk and fell out of trees. After seeing the monkeys I wouldn’t be surprised at what they can do. Today they’d stolen a bag of sunflower seeds from someone and they were eating them like a pro baseball player does. CRAZY! Our last stop today was at the local cultural center which has on display many artifacts from the minority tribes in China, and they also sell arts and crafts that are still being made by people in the minority tribes. To the best of our knowledge Myla comes from the Bouyei tribe which is the 2nd largest minority group. Everything was so beautiful. I wish you all could have seen the things made by the local artisans. Amazing!</div>
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Well that’s all for now folks. It’s time for me to get some rest. Good night!<br />
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Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-14653094366833206662016-02-03T11:10:00.003-08:002016-02-03T11:10:56.411-08:00Monkey Mountain (Jan. 6)<div class="post_media" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.6px; margin: 13px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="1" href="https://41.media.tumblr.com/917e0c4facc5a48fbc9658d6b241b4aa/tumblr_o0itzdoNIo1v4285oo1_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136734469538_1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136734469538/today-our-guide-took-us-to-monkey-mountain-it-is" src="https://41.media.tumblr.com/917e0c4facc5a48fbc9658d6b241b4aa/tumblr_o0itzdoNIo1v4285oo1_400.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 268px;" /></a><a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="2" href="https://40.media.tumblr.com/8d5ae6b86889e96b7aa87e0d5e74ef2d/tumblr_o0itzdoNIo1v4285oo2_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136734469538_2" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136734469538/today-our-guide-took-us-to-monkey-mountain-it-is" src="https://40.media.tumblr.com/8d5ae6b86889e96b7aa87e0d5e74ef2d/tumblr_o0itzdoNIo1v4285oo2_400.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: -77px auto 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 268px;" /></a></div>
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<a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="3" href="https://40.media.tumblr.com/0227955683447b15080865633d720ef7/tumblr_o0itzdoNIo1v4285oo3_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136734469538_3" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;"><img alt="" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136734469538/today-our-guide-took-us-to-monkey-mountain-it-is" src="https://41.media.tumblr.com/0227955683447b15080865633d720ef7/tumblr_o0itzdoNIo1v4285oo3_540.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 540px;" /></a></div>
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Today our guide took us to monkey mountain. It is a park with a big lake and several paths to the top of a mountain. At the top there is a big Buddhist temple that many visit to pray. There are also several hundred monkeys that live on this mountain! They were pretty fun to see up close! On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Guiyang culture center. We wanted to buy a few gifts for Myla that were from her home province. We are all doing well and she seems to be adjusting well. She has been a little more quiet today than yesterday. She also has attached really well to the both of us. She’s just the cutest! She is picking up English really well! Likes to repeat what we say:) Tonight is our last night here. We will fly to our last destination, Guangzhou tomorrow afternoon.</div>
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Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-89033261285641157472016-02-03T11:09:00.001-08:002016-02-03T11:28:33.441-08:00Video of meeting Myla!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzyXpRckkTDBHHoB_kxtMIGpntl26JDFX7ABUGI_z-Q8xGIvrqTVFGdIHmTinMxHujTShYUCv-vCTbg_wGLUw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">sorry for the delay everyone, but it took me a while to figure out how to get the video compressed and rotated for viewing on the web. Here is the first meeting with Myla. Both mom and dad somehow were able to hold it together ;-D</span>Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-51771383075091890052016-02-03T11:08:00.000-08:002016-02-03T11:20:57.771-08:00Myla's infectious laguh<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">While it’s not the video of our first meeting, I wanted to share her laugh and smile with you. It’s an infectious laugh! :-D</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span>Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-30040008050593811662016-02-03T11:07:00.001-08:002016-02-03T11:07:15.294-08:00Gotcha Day! (Jan 4)<div class="post_media" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.6px; margin: 13px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="1" href="https://40.media.tumblr.com/5ba1b4ed7183078044be794f43c938fa/tumblr_o0fbxtkPUT1v4285oo2_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136600200198_1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;"><img alt="" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136600200198/gotcha-day-words-cannot-express-the-joy-in" src="https://41.media.tumblr.com/5ba1b4ed7183078044be794f43c938fa/tumblr_o0fbxtkPUT1v4285oo2_540.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 540px;" /></a></div>
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<a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="2" href="https://41.media.tumblr.com/1f1a6ddebfabcd7e7152be244ae4c9b4/tumblr_o0fbxtkPUT1v4285oo1_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136600200198_2" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136600200198/gotcha-day-words-cannot-express-the-joy-in" src="https://41.media.tumblr.com/1f1a6ddebfabcd7e7152be244ae4c9b4/tumblr_o0fbxtkPUT1v4285oo1_400.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 268px;" /></a><a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="3" href="https://40.media.tumblr.com/813450dcfb6a908e913e476ac85b67d6/tumblr_o0fbxtkPUT1v4285oo3_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136600200198_3" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136600200198/gotcha-day-words-cannot-express-the-joy-in" src="https://40.media.tumblr.com/813450dcfb6a908e913e476ac85b67d6/tumblr_o0fbxtkPUT1v4285oo3_400.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 268px;" /></a></div>
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GOTCHA DAY!!!! Words cannot express the joy in Anita and I’s hearts right now. Our cups runneth over!!!! Thank you Jet for the love you’ve shown Myla and how well you’ve cared for her. I have a video, but it will take a while to upload and post. stay tuned!</div>
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So I wanted to put a little more information behind the pictures that were posted a little earlier. Today was our “Gotcha Day” for Myla, but that didn’t happen until around 2:30pm (while everyone in America was sleeping). So that meant that the entire morning was free for Anita and I to do whatever. So after breakfast she and I went for an adventure. Or as Crocodile Dundee would call it a “Walk-a-bout”. We walked down the main street in Guiyang until we found the park that our guide had mentioned to us. The park was very peaceful, and it was situated right next to a river in the heart of the city. It was very nice and there were several people there mostly elderly people doing “exercises”. I say that because exercise for them could consist of playing cards with other friends, singing Music (an old man was rocking a Brittany Spears style of microphone singing to some chinese music), or using bull-whips. The whips were probably the most interesting thing because they would use them to spin things that looked like tops. </div>
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After our walk and a quick lunch we took some time to prepare some things for Myla. A short time later it was time to head off to the welfare center to meet Myla, start the paperwork, and meet her caretakers. We got there a little early which gave us some time to settle in. When she arrived it was all I could do to keep the tears under control. Anita did really well also, but she did look like she was about to jump out of her skin with how excited she was. She was brought in by the people at the Starfish Foster Home (Jet is the owner of the foster home). Jet was accompanied by several others. You could tell that it was difficult for them to say good by to her. We got to spend quite a lot of time with all of them, but at one point they were instructed someone that it was time to leave. We also met the principle of the orphanage in Guiyang. She was a very sweet woman, and our translator told us that after Myla’s adoption she would be retiring very shortly so she was happy to see her go to a nice family.</div>
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A short time later Anita and I finished signing several documents and then we loaded back in the van to go back to the hotel. Anita looked so content to finally be holding Myla in her arms. The Smits are now a family of 6!</div>
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Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-14711193908657742712016-02-03T11:06:00.001-08:002016-02-03T11:06:11.334-08:00Guiyang touring<div class="post_media" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.6px; margin: 13px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="1" href="https://40.media.tumblr.com/58c2c50a82c7982519e9c422aae96283/tumblr_o0ejnyOs1n1v4285oo1_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136568210493_1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;"><img alt="" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136568210493/guiyang-day-1-we-arrived-in-guiyang-around-3pm" src="https://40.media.tumblr.com/58c2c50a82c7982519e9c422aae96283/tumblr_o0ejnyOs1n1v4285oo1_540.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 540px;" /></a></div>
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<a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="2" href="https://41.media.tumblr.com/4656775b956d18bb83b2da14a6ef396a/tumblr_o0ejnyOs1n1v4285oo2_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136568210493_2" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136568210493/guiyang-day-1-we-arrived-in-guiyang-around-3pm" src="https://40.media.tumblr.com/4656775b956d18bb83b2da14a6ef396a/tumblr_o0ejnyOs1n1v4285oo2_400.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 268px;" /></a><a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="3" href="https://40.media.tumblr.com/d577720dae2c657059274799af4b8b12/tumblr_o0ejnyOs1n1v4285oo3_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136568210493_3" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136568210493/guiyang-day-1-we-arrived-in-guiyang-around-3pm" src="https://40.media.tumblr.com/d577720dae2c657059274799af4b8b12/tumblr_o0ejnyOs1n1v4285oo3_400.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 268px;" /></a></div>
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Guiyang day #1 - we arrived in Guiyang around 3pm and went to our hotel to drop of our bags. Then our guide, Jacky, showed around some of Guiyang. We found a couple shopping malls and a Starbucks (very important).</div>
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<a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="1" href="https://41.media.tumblr.com/e64237b6765fde32e84ecdad72a6f2e0/tumblr_o0ejz6xheb1v4285oo2_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136568632238_1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="this fruit has a really pungent odor and has the texture of coconut inside." class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136568632238/guiyang-day-1-after-cruising-through-the" src="https://41.media.tumblr.com/e64237b6765fde32e84ecdad72a6f2e0/tumblr_o0ejz6xheb1v4285oo2_400.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 268px;" /></a><a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="2" href="https://41.media.tumblr.com/43b1d0d85f2b4847f06ae960e3feb6ac/tumblr_o0ejz6xheb1v4285oo3_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136568632238_2" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="dried fruits are apparently really popular among the young ladies here" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136568632238/guiyang-day-1-after-cruising-through-the" src="https://40.media.tumblr.com/43b1d0d85f2b4847f06ae960e3feb6ac/tumblr_o0ejz6xheb1v4285oo3_400.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 268px;" /></a></div>
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<a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="3" href="https://36.media.tumblr.com/0eddde4a1b4bb02841008cc381b76cf4/tumblr_o0ejz6xheb1v4285oo1_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136568632238_3" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="the locals want to see the whole chicken to know that they are getting a good product" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136568632238/guiyang-day-1-after-cruising-through-the" src="https://41.media.tumblr.com/0eddde4a1b4bb02841008cc381b76cf4/tumblr_o0ejz6xheb1v4285oo1_400.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 268px;" /></a><a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="4" href="https://41.media.tumblr.com/75c3092e4276e77d9300ad4c6f1400c0/tumblr_o0ejz6xheb1v4285oo4_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136568632238_4" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="smoked meats from local farmers. they use EVERY part of the pig. even the head" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136568632238/guiyang-day-1-after-cruising-through-the" src="https://40.media.tumblr.com/75c3092e4276e77d9300ad4c6f1400c0/tumblr_o0ejz6xheb1v4285oo4_400.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 268px;" /></a></div>
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Guiyang day #1 - after cruising through the shopping mall we walked into a local supermarket. They apparently have a Walmart, but Anita and I were feeling adventurous ;-). Suffice it to say we saw some really interesting things.</div>
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Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-65185347869378109102016-02-03T11:05:00.001-08:002016-02-03T11:05:18.897-08:00Beijing touring <div class="post_media " style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.6px; margin: 13px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<a class="post_media_photo_anchor rapid-noclick-resp high_res_link no_pop" data-big-photo="https://41.media.tumblr.com/9b79f74c265a3d9ed5ce3607fcb76cf6/tumblr_o0ei8tM7Qk1v4285oo1_1280.jpg" href="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/image/136566260368" id="high_res_link_136566260368" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="post_media_photo image" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136566260368/beijing-day-1-tienamen-square-and-the-south" height="405" src="https://41.media.tumblr.com/9b79f74c265a3d9ed5ce3607fcb76cf6/tumblr_o0ei8tM7Qk1v4285oo1_540.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 405px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 540px;" width="540" /></a><a class="photo_exif_flipper" href="https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard#" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); background: url("/images/dashboard_master_sprite.png?2e4f84941e5fe8e787621df55b990e29") -500px -130px no-repeat transparent; border: 0px; bottom: 8px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 17px; left: 9px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; transition: opacity 0.1s linear; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px; z-index: 15;" title="Show EXIF data"></a></div>
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Beijing Day #1 - Tienamen square and the south gate</div>
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Beijing day #1 - just outside the Forbidden City (its not forbidden anymore ;-D)</div>
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Beijing day #1 - Intertwined Cypress trees. The saying is that if you have your picture taken here your marriage will last forever. I’m not letting this little lady get outta my sight! :-D</div>
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Beijing day #1 - Hutong tour in downtown Beijing. Our tour guide’s name was Tina (pic #2), and she asked us to help her pic an American name for her daughter. Mrs. Fan opened up her home and played a beautiful song for us on her harp-like instrument (forgive me I don’t know that name of it).</div>
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<a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="1" href="https://41.media.tumblr.com/21c2a2e5d6122e290d029eac765c7bf6/tumblr_o0ej1huzIj1v4285oo2_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136567358328_1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136567358328/beijing-day-2-a-quick-trip-to-the-birds-nest" src="https://36.media.tumblr.com/21c2a2e5d6122e290d029eac765c7bf6/tumblr_o0ej1huzIj1v4285oo2_400.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 268px;" /></a><a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="2" href="https://41.media.tumblr.com/16ab474bfc6653ff5aa26b53a9bb3d83/tumblr_o0ej1huzIj1v4285oo3_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136567358328_2" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136567358328/beijing-day-2-a-quick-trip-to-the-birds-nest" src="https://40.media.tumblr.com/16ab474bfc6653ff5aa26b53a9bb3d83/tumblr_o0ej1huzIj1v4285oo3_400.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 268px;" /></a></div>
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<a class="photoset_photo rapid-noclick-resp" data-photoset-index="3" href="https://40.media.tumblr.com/1c82c24d101cbb42df3f8e1e81946c87/tumblr_o0ej1huzIj1v4285oo1_1280.jpg" id="photoset_link_136567358328_3" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.298039); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;"><img alt="" class="" data-pin-description="China Adventures" data-pin-url="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/post/136567358328/beijing-day-2-a-quick-trip-to-the-birds-nest" src="https://40.media.tumblr.com/1c82c24d101cbb42df3f8e1e81946c87/tumblr_o0ej1huzIj1v4285oo1_540.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto !important; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 540px;" /></a></div>
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Beijing day #2 - A quick trip to the Bird’s Nest and Olympic village, then off to the Great Wall. amazing views even in spite of the smog.</div>
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Beijing day #2 - concluded our day with an amazing performance at the Happy Valley Dream Village (great name ;-D). It truly was a beautiful display of dance, music, and theatrics. They even provided some english subtitles on screens on the side of the stage. Really neat show. I wish you all could have seen it.</div>
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Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-30468569835372276702016-02-03T11:01:00.000-08:002016-02-03T11:01:13.443-08:00Time in Beijing (Jan.3)<div class="reblog-title" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Gibson, 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 47px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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Hey Everyone, thanks for taking time from your day to read up on Anita and I’s adventures. Sorry for the technical difficulties, but because of unexpected issues with access to our old blog I’ve opened a Tumblr blog to allow you the ability to see the pictures/videos we’re taking.</div>
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This quick message is just to let you know that I’ll be posting a handful of pics from our time in Beijing. Then later this evening we’ll post some pics of Myla. Holy smokes I can hardly believe we get to meet her today. I couldn’t sleep so I’m writing to you all! :-D</div>
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I hope you have a marvelous day/evening (the 13 hour difference is really messing with my head :-D).</div>
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Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-74113801936003047262016-01-03T16:51:00.002-08:002016-01-03T16:54:16.044-08:00Quick update. Because of the technical issues we've had getting to this blog we've opened a Tumblr site. Tumblr doesn't seem to be blocked and we were able to post pictures to that much easier. From here on please see this site for updates. We will also try to post links in Facebook to this new blog but it is very challenging to access in China.<br />
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The new web address is as follows:<br />
<a href="http://a2smits.tumblr.com/">a2smits.tumblr.com</a>Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-86020816520406180992016-01-03T05:40:00.002-08:002016-01-03T05:40:57.974-08:00GuiyangWe made it to Guiyang! This morning we had breakfast one last time at our hotel in Beijing before our driver and Candy to us to the airport. We said our goodbyes and then went back to our gate to wait for our flight. It was about a 3 hour flight southwest of Beijing. It is much warmer here than it was in Beijing. There is was in the low 30's and here is in the 60's. Guiyang is a vey beautiful city surrounded by mountains and a river through the city.<br />
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We met our new guide Jacky who took us to our hotel which is in downtown. It is a very modem hotel room! We are on the 22nd floor so we have a good view of the city! The room decor is interesting! The shower is all glass with a remote shade and a rainfall shower head! So it should be interesting trying to get Myla clean without a bathtub!!😬<br />
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Jacky also gave us some background information about this city. He said that this city has a population of 1 million! After we got situated we walked around a bit. He took us to Starbucks (they just opened the first one in this city last year), a shopping mall with several chinese and American stores, and finally a supermarket. The supermarket was pretty interesting! We saw some similar things like snickers, dove chocolates, and Coke but also saw some VERY interesting things like chicken feet, pig heads, and spikey fruits.<br />
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Once we arrived back at the hotel Jacky left us for the evening and we were on our own for dinner! Luckily he gave us some good meal suggestions and there is a KFC, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut close by! So we caved and got some American food at McDonald for dinner:) Tomorrow morning we will probably tour the city a little more before going to pick up Myla!!<br />
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Tomorrow is the big day!!! Hopefully we Will be able to sleep tonight!! We are so excited to get to meet her tomorrow!!! Jacky is meeting us around 1:30p to take us to the civil affairs office to pick her up!! Once we get her tomorrow she will be with us for the rest of the trip. Woohoo!!! Our next blog will be to introduce you to our sweet daughter Myla!!!:)<br />
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Ps. In China several websites are blocked like Facebook and google, and our blog (so we have to write these by phone) So we cannot access them on our computer. Only by Aaron's phone. So that is why we can't post pictures. We will try to figure out a way to post a picture though!! We may be able to upload one to Facebook from his phone. But the internet here is much better on the connection side.Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-83368461038065697982016-01-02T05:43:00.001-08:002016-01-02T15:57:38.057-08:00Day 2: Birds and Dogs...So Anita gave me the opportunity to write to you tonight. You may see the title and wonder how this is connected to china, but bare with me and I'll try to explain.<br />
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Today was our last day of site seeing in Beijing. We had another delicious breakfast in the hotel and then we reconnected with Candy and Mr. Hao (our driver). The first stop was to the Olympic village from 2008. We got to look around at the different buildings like the Birds nest and water cube. Very interesting buildings. Candy explained the buildings are still used today for various sporting events and concerts. From here we jumped back in the car.<br />
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Our next stop was the Great Wall. On our drive Candy shared with us some interesting facts about the Great Wall. I wish I could remember them all, but that's what Wikipedia is for right :-D. There are presently only three sections of the Great Wall open to tourists. The section we went to had a very nice visitors center at the base of the mountain, a tobagan run and a cable car to the top. From the visitors center we took a shuttle to a path that would lead us to the Great Wall. As a side note, up until now the only pets we'd seen were the birds we saw in the restaraunt yesterday. Well that all changed today. There were so many dogs here. And they knew how to beg for food really well. The interesting thing is that they are all strays and belong to no one. Anywho...the Great Wall...it was beautiful. The views are impressive and the thought of how this was all constructed is mind boggling.<br />
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Once we finished at the Great Wall and got some food we made one quick stop at the pearl market before heading to a show. The show was called Golden Mask Dynasty. The show is a love story about a queen and king from warring nations, how they fall in love, and how their live joins the nations. The story obviously has some sad parts in it as every love story does, but had a happy ending. The stage performance was amazing, the set was incredible, and at one point about 20 some ladies came out and danced with real white peacocks on their heads. It was one of the most interesting things I've seen. I wish each one of you could have seen it. Overall Anita and I both loved the performance with all the music, dance, and aerial portions of the show.<br />
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So in summary we had many bird and dog sightings today. Anywho, that's about all that went on today. We're pretty pooped after all the walking at the Great Wall. Tomorrow we leave for Myla's province. As soon as we can get some good internet we'll make sure to upload some pictures. Have a marvelous day everyone!<br />
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<br />Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-16444994862550491772016-01-01T06:35:00.002-08:002016-01-01T16:22:09.327-08:00Day oneToday was our first day of sight seeing in Beijing. After a good nights rest, we got dressed and headed downstairs to have breakfast. Our hotel had a very big breakfast buffet full of both American and Chinese foods. We were pretty impressed by their selection. We met our guide again, her name is Candy and she will be with us while we are here. She took us first to Tiananmen Square where she gave us a lot of background information about the history of it.<br />
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After touring that we walked down to the forbidden city which is very close by.. Here she explained the dynasty of the emperors of China as well as several other interesting facts about the Chinese culture and symbols. The buildings are just beautiful! There is so much intricate wood carving details and the buildings are just incredible!<br />
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Once we finished that Candy took us to a restaurant called old Beijing noodles king which is well known for their noodles in a type of soy sauce. They were DELICIOUS!! I could have eaten the whole bowl!:) one funny thing Candy mentioned was that in Beijing people like to take their birds out on a walk down the street!!! The restaurant had several birds in cages and we just found that very different:) after lunch we did the hutong tour where we had a different tour guide show us around the "old Beijing" on a rickshaw. She gave us a lot of information about the symbolism about the entrances to people's homes, the thresholds, statues, and no number of knobs above the door. Another funny moment was when talking to Tina, we were learning about how she got her name. In China they like to pick themselves an American name. So as she was telling us about her family we asked her if her little daughter had a name. She said no but wondered if we had any suggestions. So we just kind of randomly said Sarah. She said she liked that name but wanted to know the meaning. Once we found out that Sarah meant princess she said that was a perfect name!!:) so we helped name her child!!;)<br />
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once we finished there we rode the subway to the pearl market where we did a little shopping. That was our last stop. We made it back to our hotel and called home quick to talk to the kids. They were very excited to at hi to us! For day one we have done pretty good with the jet lag, but now it is catching up! We are off to bed so we can be well rested for our second day of sight seeing tomorrow!:)<br />
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Our internet here is awful! We are hoping to get that fixed soon! Hopefully we can upload some pictures soon!Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-48806957031439488982015-12-31T23:39:00.001-08:002015-12-31T23:39:05.855-08:00We made it!Just a quick update:<br />
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After a very busy day of traveling, we made it to Beijing! Because of the weather in Chicago, our flight was delayed in Indy and Chicago. Our flight was long, but we made it safely last night. We met our guide at the airport and she and her driver took us to our hotel. We are ready to get a good nights rest!!! Tomorrow we will do some sightseeing around Beijing!Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-27778422894963584842015-12-29T18:16:00.001-08:002015-12-29T18:26:35.977-08:00Here we go!!!!<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8962296882002390258" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>This is it!!!! Tonight I checked off the last item on our "to do" list!!! Tomorrow morning we will get up early to make the drive down to Indy to which we catch a flight to Chicago and then fly from Chicago to Beijing!! Tonight we had or last dinner at the table as a family of 5!! Next time we eat a meal together it will be as a family of six and every seat at our table will be filled!!! That is so exciting and at the moment hard to wrap my head around! It's here!!!!<br />
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It's crazy to think that this is finally happening! Everything we have imagined is about to become a reality! Our emotions are all over the place! December 30th will not only celebrate our marriage, but now will hold a special place in our hearts as the day that we began this last leg of the journey to bring home our final piece to our family puzzle!!<br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8962296882002390258" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>We are so excited to get on a plane!!! I will try my best to send daily updates on here! So please check in if you would like to see all our adventures. You can also subscribe to our blog to receive updates by email:) I'm not sure if we will be able to get on Facebook but will link my blog if possible.<br />
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After we get Myla on Jan.4th she will be with us the rest of the trip. She will be legally adopted that day according to China. She will be legally adopted by the US and a US citizen on January 11th. And just as a note the time difference is 13 hours!! A rough outline of our travels is listed below! We love you and are so thankful for all of you!!! We couldn't not have done this without you!! We can't wait to introduce you to her when we get home!!<br />
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12/30 flights to China<br />
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12/31 arrive in Beijing<br />
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1/1 sight seeing day<br />
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1/2 sight seeing day<br />
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1/3 flight to guiyang province where Myla is<br />
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1/4 1:30p travel to civil affairs office to get Myla<br />
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1/5 return to civil affairs office to finish paperwork<br />
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1/6 possibly a visit to her orphanage<br />
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1/7 flight to Guangzhou for US consulate appointment<br />
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1/8 Myla's medical appointment and visa paperwork<br />
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1/9 rest day<br />
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1/10 sight seeing day<br />
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1/11 consulate appointment @8:30a<br />
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1/12 pick up Myla's visa<br />
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1/13 fly home from Hong Kong!!!!!!!Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-64729752124364067132015-12-22T12:51:00.002-08:002015-12-22T21:03:19.873-08:00A special Christmas I will keep this short and sweet!<br />
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Happy Holidays!</div>
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Merry Christmas!</div>
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Happy Anniversary!</div>
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Happy New Years! </div>
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to us! We found out yesterday that we will be boarding a plane to China December 30th to bring home Myla!!!!!!!!</div>
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I love the holidays but am so anxious now to get them over with!!! We have A LOT to do now to prepare the last minute details before we leave! </div>
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And it will be super special to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary on a plane! Next year is our 10 year so that will be hard to top after this trip!:)</div>
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Anyways! Wanted to let everyone know our wonderful Christmas news!!!! We will keep you updated with information as we get it! </div>
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Thank you for your prayers and support!! Love you all!!!</div>
Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-25454200820518201532015-12-10T14:17:00.001-08:002015-12-10T18:41:56.742-08:00Quick update!Things have been moving quickly once again these last few weeks! I guess when you are obedient to what God calls you to; he will make it all happen and fall into perfect place! We filled out Myla's visa paperwork last week and sent it in. Then we also had our paperwork sent to Guangzhou for our article 5 approval. For us, this was the last set of paperwork that was to be filled out. This morning we found out that our article 5 has been sent on for approval and we are just awaiting our travel approval from China giving us permission to enter the country. Once we have our travel approval in the next (1-3 weeks) we will pick our US consulate appointment at the US embassy and get our flights arranged!!!! With the expedite letter that we have written that could help speeds up the travel approval. We could definitely be leaving the end of the month if all works out!!! The earliest they thought we could leave would be the 30th which would be super special! That is Our 9th wedding anniversary!!! So ready or not, we are getting on a plane SOON to bring Myla home!!! We are so excited, nervous, anxious, and so many more emotions! Can't wait to begin 2016 as a family of 6!!:)<br />
<br />Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-11040217990373090632015-11-27T19:31:00.002-08:002015-11-27T19:31:33.660-08:00a little hiccupHi friends!! Alot has been going on this last month! Yes it's been a little over a month already that we have been matched with Myla and we are just so anxious to get on a plane and bring her home! We love starring at her pictures and wondering how she is doing or what she has done that day.<br />
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We have been busy filling out all kinds of papers from I-800 immigration papers, to visa applications, article 5 papers and so on. (I'm sure none of you know what those are, but just thought I'd put them on here in case you were curious about adoption and for my records too;) We also consulted a few doctors/specialists about Myla's medical condition. (Not sure if you remember, but in China when adopting a child, it is MUCH faster to adopt a child with "special needs" than it is to adopt a "perfect child". And a special need could be something simple like needing glasses/asthma to the more severe special needs like heart defects/cerebral palsy/downs syndrome.) She has been diagnosed with mild a thalassemia which is a genetic blood disorder. It deals with iron levels, anemia, and low red blood cell counts. If severe, you would need routine blood transfusions medication, and more. In consulting a pediatric hematologist at Riley, after looking over her medical file, they believe that she doesn't "have" thalassemia but is a "carrier" for it. Since it is a genetic disorder, she has it in her DNA, but doesn't suffer from the symptoms. Once we get her home we plan to have some more tests done to determine the degree of her condition, but we are happy to hear that she is a healthy and thriving little girl! Because of the condition we were able to get one of our doctors to write an expedite letter for Myla to try and speed up these last few steps so we can travel a little sooner. That way the doctors can do further testing here rather than in China.<br />
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A few weeks ago we overnighted a bunch of papers to the USCIS Immigration to get our approval. And we ran into a little hiccup. They say typical turnaround is about 3 weeks. We may have been counting the days but approaching our 3 week period, we received a letter from them that stated that one of the forms we filled out had expired (as in the document format) and that we needed to fill out a new one. They didn't tell us or our social worker that that change had taken effect. So we quickly filled that paper out with some help and overnighted it back to our officer. In the meantime, we filled out our personal visa applications and sent those to Chicago to the Chinese consulate to get those ready for our passports. Early this week we received our passports in the mail and then today we finally received our I-800 approval letter!! We weren't expecting to get the approval letter until next week. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO US! So that is now checked off the list and we just have a few things left to do.<br />
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Our next steps are to send our papers to China to the US embassy in Guangzhou and get our article 5 approval which takes about 2-3 weeks. Once we have that, we apply for Myla's visa and wait for travel approval which can take about 2-3 weeks. Once we have travel approval we will make our flight arrangements and BOARD A PLANE TO CHINA a few weeks later!!!!! We were hoping to travel sometime in late December. That is still a slight slight possibility, but it is looking more like January possibly February. (with Christmas and the Chinese New Year we may run into another little hiccup), but she will most likely be home before her 3rd birthday in March!!<br />
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Thank you so much for all of your sweet wishes and congratulations about our new daughter! We are so excited to get things moving again and bring our sweet girl home. I can't wait to introduce you all to her and for her to see how many people love and care for her! It's because of you that we are making it through these little hiccups! There have been so many of you who have been praying for us from the very beginning, have wrote us notes of encouragement, have helped us fundraise, and have just been there for us through those hard times. We are so GRATEFUL for you and couldn't have done this without you!<br />
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Please continue to pray for our adoption, that our paperwork would keep moving, and that things would fall into place in God's perfect timing. You could also pray for her safety and the big transitions ahead for all of us.<br />
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Hopefully the next update will be about our travel arrangements to China to pick up and bring home our little girl!!!Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962296882002390258.post-9840636434656277382015-10-26T07:27:00.001-07:002015-10-26T07:27:30.054-07:00He is Shout it, go on and scream it from the mountains, go on and tell it to the masses, that HE IS GOD!!<br />
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That song has been in my head all week. He is God and he is such a good God!! It is with great JOY that we announce to you we have been matched!!!!! </div>
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Meet Yun Xuan (we are naming her Myla Jayne and using part of her Chinese name as a second middle name) a beautiful two and a half year old little girl!! We are just over the moon excited and can't believe that this has happened:) We received notification this past week about her and we hardly looked over her file before we fell in love with her cute little cheeks and adorable little lips and really felt in our hearts that this was our little girl. And as a little added touch to how God works is that her birthday is March 26th which is the same day that our dossier was registered in China!!</div>
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Our emotions have been all over the place! We trusted, we were patient (with his help), and waited on God's timing and have we ever been blessed. When I told Leah after school, she screamed and was so excited! The boys were super excited to show off her picture to Leah and Aaron. They kept saying "Mom, she's so cute! She's so adorable!" And they are so right! She's adorable! She's perfect! And she's OURS!!!!!</div>
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We don't have a timeline yet of when we will travel to get her, but hopefully we will have that soon. We have received our letter of acceptance from China (LOA) basically stating that after looking at our paperwork, they approve us to be her parents!!!!!</div>
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We want to thank all of you who have been going through this with us each step of the way! You mean more to us than we could ever say. Thank you for your continued prayers. Please continue to pray for us. Pray that our next stages of paperwork go smoothly and quickly so that we can bring sweet Myla Jayne to her forever home!!!</div>
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Aaron, Anita, Leah, Owen, Liam, and little girl Smitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08040560949125630046noreply@blogger.com1