Happy Mother's Day from China!!!

There are many events and decisions in life you have no control over and other events that are directly and totally within our control. God smiled graciously on us both as Shyla and I marvel at God’s goodness in bringing us into families with our mothers Annette and Phyllis. These two remarkable ladies define much of who we are today and we are grateful…Happy Mother’s Day!! On defining our lives in choices we make, I remain grateful for my wife and mother of our children, as today was a special reminder welcoming Brooke into our family.

We will update our last two days as they have gone quickly without much time to check-in with updates! Saturday AM found us heading to the medical clinic for Brooke’s review…basically a formality. We then enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Papa John’s Pizza followed by Dairy Queen. This area is home to a significant amount of shopping and business centers so it is an extremely busy and active…grateful for the pizza break! In the late afternoon we made our way back testing our navigation abilities with the local taxi service. We enjoyed, I should say Erica and Brooke REALLY enjoyed, a swim in the pool, which is located on the roof of the hotel with minimal barrier when looking over the edge 14 floors down. The weather is quite Oklahoma-like right now and quite warm with occasional afternoon thunderstorms…plenty muggy following the rain!

Made it to our hotel in GZ- loving the hotel pool again!!

Baba with his girlies!

Time for the medical appointment- you guessed it...cartwheels. 

Brooke did so well! 

Papa Johns for lunch!! 

Sweet girls!

Brooke was excited for Dairy Queen!!

The view outside our hotel- lovely, huh?

Erica being such a good big sister- helping Brooke see the displays!

Mother’s Day morning we went to a Mandarin/English church service. Brooke was not too excited to spend an hour and a half so I took her for a walk and got caught in a torrential downpour, which Brooke thought was a blast. Shyla and Erica remained for the service and hearing familiar hymns brings a unity across language barriers…they really enjoyed it. Brooke’s personality is really fun and she continues to amaze us with her mimic of our English words…she is quite bright. The nursery rhymes continue to be a delight as she can sing through most of them with Erica, favoring Jack and Jill exclaiming…”Poor Jack” with Erica. The rest of Mother’s Day we spent in the park-like island we are on and visited all the statues, which will be familiar to all who have adopted in China…we reminisced on our trip 6 years ago with our children replicating the statues.

We also happened to run into some "bloggy friends" of Meredith's and Shyla's as we were shopping on the island!! They are a precious couple who are adopting two sweet girls from China with heart defects- Lily's is very severe and is similar to our Brooke's condition! Jacques and Emily are here in Guangzhou for a few more days- hoping we get to see them again! The adoption community is incredible- we have run into multiple families over here in CHINA who know Meredith, or who recognize Brooke in our arms- either from the New Day site or from our blog/adoption yahoo groups! They have all been such amazing families- it is incredible to see how children are perfectly placed in their forever families. What a small world!

Leaving for the church service...and cartwheeling our way out! Brooke is trying to learn now!!! Oh my- one cartwheeling girl is all I can handle! 

Loving playing with mama at the park!

What a chunker!!

Hoisting herself up! She loved playing on the playset!

We had the chance to go to church in GZ- it was pretty amazing.

Brooke is so happy and is doing so well :)

Beautiful Shamian Island!

Fun with the statues on the island- our sweet girls!

Mama and her baby girl!

Favorite statue :)

Now for the Engineering test…

…Johnny owns a bicycle and wants to start a business moving boxes and containers from one area of the city to another. Johnny has to traverse traffic-packed roads on his bike and has only his bicycle, rope and a small bookrack on the back of the bike. How many cubic feet of containers can Johnny carry in one trip?

Answer? Just take a look at the picture…what’s your guess?

Email us anytime at toeringclan@cox.net…great to hear from home!

Larry for all

Praise…Allison returned home safely from college and Meredith wraps up this week! Grandma and grandpa have been amazing as usual with the boys…thanks!