And.....Baby number 3.

In a blink of an eye - and in a blink of an email, the Thornton Family will grow by one more family member this year.

We are blessed beyond measure to have the opportunity to adopt our new daughter Aimee. She will be 4 in June and we hope to travel to receive her by September.

Home at Last!

We arrived at Will Rogers World Airport (minus one piece of luggage) about 10:15 p.m. Wednesday. As good as it felt to be home upon returning with Abbey, it feels even better this time because of all the, uh, obstacles we faced this go-round. And it was wonderful to see our family and friends waiting for us at the airport. That has become an amazing part of the adoptive family network.

The kids finally fell asleep sometime after 1 a.m. As of 11:15 a.m. Thursday, they and their mom are still catching up on some much-needed sleep.

Thanks again to everyone whose posts and prayers bouyed our spirits during our two-week roller-coaster ride, first trying to get our of the States, then trying to get out of China.

-- Tony

Better today

Tony and I are both feeling better today thankfully. And thankfully the kids haven't gotten sick. They are both rather ornery today though, so we are just trying to keep them occupied for our last 24 hours here. Our consulate oath appointment is this afternoon, our last step before we come home.

While I'm typing this Alex just bit Tony. He has bitten Tony several times in the last few days. He bit Abbey the other day too. This is a bad habit we hope to break him of soon. It will take some time to communitcate that this isn't acceptable behavior. Tony put him in his crib for a time out.

We can't thank you all enough for your posts and emails. They mean so much to us.

We should arrive home at around 10:20 pm on Wednesday night. We just can't wait to be home.

Talk to you all soon!

Food poisoning, etc.

Well, the Murphy's Law trip continues.

Gayle and both other mothers in our traveling group got food poisoning Sunday night, although one is experiencing just nausea. All ate hamburgers or sandwiches from, get this, a place called Lucy's, which is the only "American" restaurant on Shamian Island. We've determined that either the meat was bad, or else they got bacteria from lettuce and tomatoes that had been washed in Chinese tap water. I won't go into details; let's just say that the prescription meds Gayle brought for nausea and diarhea aren't doing their job. Fortunately, all three moms have husbands or a friend here to take care of the kids untl they feel better. However, please consider this an APB (All Prayer Bulletin). I'm not usually one to ask God for specific things, but we could sure use your prayers in a speedy recovery for Gayle and the other two moms.

Speaking of which, both of us are feeling like absolutely incompetent parents right now, and we could use your prayers in that area, too. Two kids require double the time and double the work, and we are struggling to get used to our new life. So are the kids. Alex has quite the temper when you lay him down to sleep or when you don't feed him fast enough or decide his meal is over. He throws tantrums. This afternoon he wouldn't take a nap and just kept screaming. A few minutes later, Gayle said, "You know, he's probably grieving." Ouch. I feel like a horrible parent right now, especially when I think of the American couple who are here adopting their eighth Chinese child (in addition to four biological children). Again, we seek your prayers.

Our first trip to China left us with such fond memories, which is largely why we returned. This one has tested our spiritual, emotional and physical limits.

We leave Wednesday morning and fly to Beijing for a three-hour layover before catching another flight to Chicago and another to OKC. We are scheduled to arrive at Will Rogers World Airport at 10:20 p.m. Wednesday. It's going to be a brutal day. We're thinking this time we'll break out the Benadryl so the kids can sleep. We can't wait to be home. We'll post more photos later.

-- Tony

Around Guangzhou

Today was our free day. We ate a big breakfast at the wonderful White Swan buffet. Alex likes so many things - he likes the Asian fruit called "Dragon Fruit", congee, watermelon, hard boiled eggs etc.. He ate for nearly an hour. We have almost the exact opposite problem with Abbey. She barely eats anything. Then we did a little shopping then back to the hotel for a nap. It is actually very cool here in Guangzhou today - maybe only about 60 degrees. After the naps we went for a walk with a nice Asian couple we met on the plane to Beijing. They are US citizens and are adopting here in China. Their baby girl is from Chongqing, which is where Abbey is from. We all went to Blenz a cool coffee shop nearby, then we took Abbey to the local playground. All of that went well until it was time to go. Abbey had a screaming meltdown when we tried to put her into the stroller. I'm just not comfortable yet with dozens of local Chinese people staring at us because our daughter is having a fit. It is so embarrassing. We took her back to the hotel and her punishment was not allowing her to go to the playroom in the White Swan this evening. (Mattel sponsors a playroom in the hotel with lots of toys ). We know she is stressed by all the changes, but we also are trying our best to set her limits. Alex is doing great. I'm trying to start teaching him some language sounds - he doesn't make many sounds yet, but we can tell he is trying now. His 'babbles' sound better and better each day. We are shopping again tomorrow. Our guide is taking us to a museum and the Pearl Market.

Pictures

Well, our babies are asleep, so I wanted to post a few pictures from the last couple days.

On to Guangzhou

We arrived in Guangzhou last night after a rather difficult flight. Abbey was on her worst behavior, probably due to the lack of a nap and some trepidation about her new role in the family as big sister and no longer as The Princess. Poor Alex's ears hurt so much as we were landing in Guangzhou, we were afraid his eardrums were rupturing. It was pretty traumatic. He cried harder and fought harder than I thought any 20-month-old could. He is one strong and strong-willed little boy. When he's particularly angry or uset, he throws his head back as hard as possible, not really caring whether he hurts himself or the person behind him.

I've decided we misnamed him. Instead of Alex, perhaps we should have named him Allen, which is the patriarchal surname of Gayle's family. He is much like the men in Gayle's family: large head, built like a linebacker, strong as an ox, and doesn't say much but grunts a lot.

It's like heaven here compared to Lanzhou. Those who have adopted from China will know what I mean. Guangzhou is wonderful, especially this time of year. It's probably 80 degrees and humid this afternoon. This morning we shopped at a government-owned market and then went to the Guangzhou zoo. The kids are napping now. Shortly we will make the 10-minute walk to get Alex's required medical exam and visa photo. We have a free day tomorrow to go shopping and maybe even take the kids swimming in the White Swan Hotel's outdoor pool.

Last night I wrote a lengthy and rather critical post about Lanzhou's polluted air and the obvious lack of joy in its people. It disappeared from the blog after a few minutes, making us wonder whether the Internet police had intercepted it. This morning we determined that Gayle had inadvertently removed it. Anyway, it taught us a lesson about being a bit more discreet, so I'll e-mail it once we get home to anyone interested. Darned shame. I was pretty proud of my writing on that post.

-- Tony

Reflections on Lanzhou

We arrived tonight in the virtual oasis of Guangzhou, passports in hand. Now that we are safely out of Gansu Province, let me provide a mental and visual image of the city we just left.

A search on the government-approved Google site found a 2002 article ranking Lanzhou as the most polluted city in China. Couple that with a previous (unfiltered) Google search showing China with 14 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, and it’s not too far a leap to conclude that Lanzhou is the most polluted city on the planet, or at least in the top three. The reasons are coal and cold. Coal is the main energy source used for heating. Because it is so cold here during the winter and so much coal is burned, local law forbids people from turning on their heaters until November. Looking outside our 17th-floor window yesterday, we counted a dozen factory smokestacks within 1.5 miles of our hotel. (We could see that far only because a late-morning mixture of light rain and snow had cleared the skies temporarily.) Lanzhou is a valley surrounded on all sides by mountains, so there's no place for all that smoke to escape.

What's bizarre is that you'd think people would be concerned about their lungs. Nope, they're far more worried about the cold. You see about one out of every six or seven people on the streets wearing protective masks. Assuming it's because of the smog, I wore one during the 10-minute walk to the grocery store. I received many, many stares, and then I noticed that no other men were wearing them. Our guide told me later that people (women) wear them to protect their faces from the cold and wind, not to save their lungs. That is so messed up.

I'm reminded of a line from The Blues Brothers Movie. The scene takes place in Elwood's skid row flop house next to the "L" Train. As the train roars past, shaking everything in the room, Jake, newly released from prison, asks his brother, "How often does that thing run by?" Elwood responds, "So often you won't even notice." So it is with public hacking and spitting in Lanzhou. They even aim for certain targets as they ride past you on their bicycles. After a few days, you've heard it so often it hardly fazes you.

Christmas is huge here. You see Christmas trees and various displays all over downtown, which (not coincidentally) is the main shopping district. I even heard "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful" blaring from the intercom outside one of the city's nicest hotels. When I asked our guide if people understand the meaning of Christmas, he said the stores use it as a way to boost sales, while residents see it as a reason to host and attend parties. Hmm ... Not too different from America.

Readers of this blog who are of the praying sort should consider praying for this city of 3 million. The lack of joy, or anything resembling it, is apparent. They have little to live for. They are mostly poor and always will be until the pollution kills them 10 years early. There is nothing in their lives that can envision a heaven where they can find health and fullness of life. They are desparate for something -- for God. They just don't know it. Forgive me if that sounds boastful or haughty. That is not my intention. And without question there are good people here. We were fortunate to have one such person as our guide. Steed is an intelligent, caring man who rescued us from our passport predicament, spending countless hours as detective, driver, intermediary and interpreter. He has a fascinating and insightful perspective on where China has been and where it is headed. I wish I'd had a few more car trips to pick his brain a little further.

-- Tony

Passports Found at Airport!

Just after we received news that the local barneys were going to give us approval to fly to Guangzhou--- our guide received a call from the Lanzhou airport saying they found our passports. They must have been stolen or dropped as we were getting our luggage. They were found in the cafe at the airport - which we were never near. What an ordeal! I must say that seeing the inside of a Chinese police station is something I never want to do again. Our guide says it took the police about an hour to decide that they would let us go from here - he said they were fighting about it amongst each other.

Can I even begin to count the lessons in faith that have been tossed at us these last few weeks? Did I pray for patience or something? I feel like I'm in spiritual boot camp. I'm so grateful that Tony is calm during these times. I'm fine through some of it -- but when it comes to my kids, I'm not that unflinching.

So.. our paperwork for the adoption was brought to us a little while ago and we can leave tomorrow for Guangzhou. We will pick up our passports at the airport before we leave.

Alex and Abbey are doing great - they are both napping right now at the same time - a tradition I would love to carry forward!

Thanks so much for your prayers and love. It is felt and it is effective!

===Gayle

Unexpected tours of Lanzhou

Yesterday (Tuesday) we experienced things we never anticipated. Then again, we never thought we'd have our passports stolen.

Our guide, Steed (that's right, as in horse), walked me to the local police precinct. It was the first required step in getting emergency replacement visas issued so we can leave this city. He explained our predicament to a police officer and filled out a report in a smoke-filled room while I sat on one of the two iron bunk beds in the 12-by-12 office. Turns out the beds are for the night-shift cops. After Steed filled out the report, the officer stamped it to make it official.

In the afternoon, all of us had to go Lanzhou's main station. Again we sat in an office while Steed showed our police report to the Foreign Affairs supervisor and explained the situation to him and three lower-ranking officers. I won't go into great depth, at least not while we're still stuck in Lanzhou, but let's just say the custom among investigators here is to treat crime victims like they are the criminals. Our answers to their questions didn't satisfy them, and they began asking questions about Abbey, hinting that they thought we were trying to steal her. One of the officers even spoke Abbey's Chinese name, Yu Zhou.

Thank God Gayle brought copies of Abbey's Chinese adoption certificate and her American citizenship documents! Unfortunately, they were still at the hotel, so Steed told the police officers we would return with them in 30 minutes. He and I drove back alone with the papers to the police station, but when we arrived, everyone in the foreign affairs office was gone. Steed has to return to the police department with those copies this morning. He seems confident this will be taken care of today, allowing us to leave for Guangzhou on Thursday.

Let our experience be a lesson to all future adopting families, whether traveling to China or somewhere else: Make sure to make copies of the passport information pages and visa pages (perhaps even keep the visa numbers in your wallet). And if you have adopted other children, make sure to bring their papers. I can't imagine what would have happened if Gayle hadn't done that.

We'll update later today when we get (hopefully) a resolution.

Tony

Great Quote, etc...

I think we have the quote of the trip. I don't have much to add to it - but here it is: During one of Alex's first diaper changes, Abbey said, "Look mom, he has a noodle".

Okay -- moving on. .... So, we never found our passports and airline tickets, but everything is working out just fine. Our tickets have been re-issued, thanks to a family friend who used to work at United and calls from our parents. We should be able to get new passports issued in Guangzhou. Thankfully, we brought our birth certificates, copies of Abbey's papers etc...

The lessons have been that this has brought our marriage and our entire family closer together. It was most stressful yesterday afternoon when our hotel room kept getting smokier and smokier - both from outside pollution and people smoking in the hotel. So Tony asked that we be moved to a better room and we were moved last night. It makes a world of difference. Me, Abbey and Alex really aren't going to leave the hotel much at all here in Lanzhou because it is really smoky outside -- more than anything we have ever seen. There is no wind here and it is in a valley - plus everyone burns coal as the primary source of fuel. Anyway - thanks for your prayers and love and support.

Finally-- if you want to read the comments from other people on this blog - you need to right click on the 'comments' button. You can also email us personally on our regular emails.

We love you all and miss home! Can't wait for you to meet Mr. Alex. He is adorable!!!

Love , Gayle, Tony, Alex and Abbey

2 Little Monkeys

We are starting to see a new part of Alex's personality. He is a little naughty. We had been warned..when we had our guide ask the orphanage director about his personality she said "naughty". When pressed for more about his personality.. she just said "naughty". We went to dinner tonight in the restaurant in the hotel and we really felt like we were taking monkeys to dinner! At first, I started thinking I must be a really unqualified mom, but then some reason came as I realized hardly anyone would be good at taking 2 toddlers to eat at a nice restaurant.

We are off to Guangzhou in the morning! I am so ready to eat at Lucy's and do some shopping. (Wendy - I will get some boys' size 8 Chinese pajamas for you:) We will be in Guangzhou for 6 nights and if all stays on track we will be back Wednesday, Dec. 13th around 10:15 pm.

---Gayle

More pics

New picture

As you can tell, Alex is a happy little boy. It doesn't take much to make him smile. He laughs when we tickle his toes or when his sister is being silly (or naughty - which is often).

Abbey calls him "big brother." Come to think of it, she is probably right even though she is a year older than him. She woke up in the middle of the night and sat up in her crib and looked over in his crib just to make sure he was okay and that he was still there. When she was satisfied her little brother was still asleep, then she went back to sleep.

We are off to breakfast and errands. We will post again later.

Love -- the Thorntons

It's a boy.... a BIG boy!

We have Alex! He is wonderful and everything has gone very well. He didn't cry when we got him - in fact - he walked straight into Tony's arms. Abbey is doing great as a new big sister. She is helpful and caring. Alex's nickname is "Bei Bei" - so that is what we are calling him. He has been very docile and easy going all evening until bedtime and he cried and cried. I think it finally sunk in that this is really different and that things have changed.

Alex is a big boy! Obviously, the cleft palate has not held him back in the eating department. He probably weighs 30 lbs at least. He is much heavier than Abbey. BLAS gave us a stroller and we are definately going to need it with him. He can walk a little, but he is not very mobile. He also isn't talking much - but it would be difficult for him to talk anyway with his palate. We are just so happy. He is very, very cute and sweet. We couldn't have asked for a better Forever Family Day.

However, there has been one little problem today -- we can't find the pouch we had our passports and plane tickets in. They have been gone since our 'gotcha' time. Can anyone say "Murphy's Law" trip? We had about 10 people in our room with the babies and guide and orphanage director etc... and we saw our pouch then when we were getting out documents. So, we think it has just been accidently picked up by someone. So...we are just going to trust God again on this one. If they don't turn up we know we can get our passports replaced when we go to Guangzhou and new tickets can be issued.

Morning in Beijing

We feel great after a good night's sleep, at least for Abbey and me. Of course, we woke up at 5 a.m.! The hotel had a wonderful breakfast buffet, and in an hour we are going to go do a little shopping before we go to the airport for our flight to Lanzhou. We should receive Alex around 5:30 p.m. China time today (China is 14 hours ahead of Oklahoma time). I'm trying to prepare to be a mom for the second time. Everything is about to change!

Abbey did pretty well on the plane. I don't think we could ask more of a 2 1/2-year-old! We had great seats on the plane. I think they took pity on us. We were in Economy Plus, which has about 5 inches more leg room, and we had 4 seats for the 3 of us, so Abbey could lay down and sleep. A 12-hour plane ride is mind-numbing, as you can imagine. And with a baby it is like a carnival. I know we will have an "interesting" time on the way home - but I can't really think about that right now.

My health is great right now. Abbey is doing great, but Tony isn't feeling so well. I imagine the stress of getting us here has affected him. I think he spent a total of 3 hours on the phone with United over the last 3 days -- in addition to waiting about 4 hours in the airport in Oklahoma City for the weather to clear -- twice (Wednesday and Thursday evenings). He had to change our reservations so many times we stopped counting. We finally got to Denver on Thursday night. We missed our connection to San Franscisco, so we spent the night in Denver. Then we flew to San Francisco on Friday morning and made our Beijing connection just fine. Complications that made the trip interesting were: our plane in OKC had been struck by lightning on its way in to OKC, so the mechanics had to check everything out; the same plane had to be completely de-iced before we took off; our plane from San Francisco to Beijing blew the front tire as we were backing out of the terminal, so they had to change that (I'm super grateful that happened when it did); then we missed our routing over the Pacific and Russia, so they had to reroute the plane. That all took 2 hours. And on and on it goes.

On the flight to Beijing we met 3 other families who are adopting in China, including one family adopting their 8th child here! That family has their Consulate appointment on the same day we do in Guangzhou on Dec. 11th. So does an Asian couple from San Francisco who are adopting from Chongqing, where Abbey spent the first year of her life. Spending some time with Abbey on the plane seemed to heighten their excitement. They were smitten with our little girl.

All and all, this journey here has been a great learning experience -- we are being taught to trust God more and more. We have to know He is always in the details. To tell you the truth, I'm grateful we got here to Beijing a day late. It is very, very smoky here right now (like forest fire smoky). I don't think it would have been beneficial for my lungs to be here longer than necessary. It was also probably the best for Abbey to break the trip up into several days with rest in between.

Well, the next time we post we will have Alex. I'm nervous, but not stressed. Right about now, his nanny is probably packing his things and preparing him for the long car ride to meet us -- maybe the first time in a car since the day he was found outside a pharmacy. We wonder what will be going through his mind during that ride, and how his caretakers are preparing him for his new life.

Thanks for all your prayers and love. -- Gayle

At last, we're here!

Just a short entry before we crash for the night in Beijing. After so many delays and flight changes we lost count, we finally arrived here at 5:15 p.m. Beijing time (3:15 a.m. the same day in Oklahoma).

Gayle got no sleep at all on the longest flight, and Tony got maybe 45 minutes, so we're signing off for the night. Tomorrow we leave Beijing for a flight to Lanzhou, where we will receive Alex, probably in the late afternoon.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers.

Close, but no cigar

The ice storm has us stranded for one more day.

Once United Airlines issued a weather waiver yesterday afternoon, we decided to try to leave OKC before our scheduled departure time, ahead of what local weathermen began calling the worst winter storm in several years. We finally got cleared about 7:30 p.m. to leave for Chicago on a 10 p.m. flight (which originally was supposed to leave at 2:30 p.m.). Gayle's parents took us to the airport, and we waited at the gate with our plane in sight the entire time. About 10:15, shortly after ice began falling, the pilot canceled the flight.

We spent the night at Gayle's parents' home and got rebooked for this afternoon. The first leg takes us to L.A. After a seven-hour layover, we leave L.A. at 12:30 a.m. for a direct flight that lands in Beijing at 5:30 a.m. Saturday (about 13 hours after we were scheduled to arrive there).

All of this is rather iffy. We don't know yet whether the flight leaving OKC will be delayed or canceled.

Meanwhile, the flight we originally were to leave on apparently left as scheduled at 7:45 a.m. today. Arrggh.

Warm Hats for Orphanage Babies

I wanted to share with you all about a wonderful gift that has been made by one of the girls in my church high school small group and her mother. Jenna, who has been a part of my small group for 4 years, has been crocheting baby hats for months.(Our daughter Abbey models a few of the hats in the photo) Jenna's mom Julie has been helping her and together they have made dozens of baby hats for us to take to the children at the Pingliang orphanage where Alex has been living. Pingliang is located in Northwest China in Gansu Province. Gansu lies just south of Inner Mongolia - and it is very cold there in the winter. Although we don't know the specifics for our sons' orphanage, our guess is that they do not have heat. These warm wonderful hats are going to make lots of babies and children very happy. And these hats are soo cute too! Jenna and Julie have made them colorful and whimsical. The best thing about these hats to us, is that they were made by hand and they took lots of time to make. As a person who (badly) knits on occasion, each stitch made is like a little prayer for the recipient. It is impossible to not think about the person who will be receiving your gift as you are making it. So thank you Jenna and Julie, for your precious gift.

We are going to China!

We finally received our travel approval today to go to China! We couldn't have asked for a better morning - we got a call from our agency at 8:30am and they told us the great news. We are scheduling to leave next week and returning mid-December. Alex is now 20 months old and we will most likely schedule his first cleft palate repair surgery for some time in January. We are so blessed and happy that he will be home with us for Christmas.

Say a prayer for us as we learn the whole new world of having not one, but two toddlers. Say a prayer too for the nice people sitting by us on the plane ride home:) We are going to offer all of them some ear plugs as a peace offering.