Last night we also went on a wonderful river boat cruise to see the all the lights. The buildings are all lit up along the Pearl River that is right outside of our hotel. It doesn't look so great during the day but in the evening it is just beautiful. Some of the big buildings are like a big giant TV screen and will run commercials and sometimes different scenes that are like short cartoons and different pictures. It is pretty neat.
For once we let Tersea be in a picture. This is our little China family!!!

We took the picture at left because it always seems that whenever Teresa is along we are going to be in trouble somehow and so they had to show us how to use life Jackets because she got on the boat.

(You know I love ya Teresa!! LOL) It is a huge joke here in Guangzhou that it seems what ever Teresa touches lately falls apart) NOT really it just seems that way.

When she sat down at the Passport office the other day the computer suddenly broke and we had a great laugh about that and now we find out today that we were suppposed to get the kids passports today and now because of that computer glitch we cannot get them until Monday (about 15 families have this problem) they do not think it will hold us up any as the US consulate knows about this problem but we were supposed to go to the consulate on Monday morning and now we are not sure what time we will go. We are not worried but and we were told that it shouldn't hold us up from coming home but I will update more when I know on Monday.

One other funny story as we had to get our own taxi's coming back from the River boat. That is all find a good but we thought we would all cram into one. Oh my that was an experince.

I cannot say it near as well as Teresa can so I am borrowing this from her webpage.

Now on to the taxi ride back to the hotel. Imagine a zillion people just getting off this boat and trying to hail cabs on a curb on a Friday night. Now imagine three adults and four children from where taxis don't exist trying to hail a cab and not get ran over. So Nate grabs one and says get in. Brenda gets in with her two girls and I figure I'll take the next one that I can get with my two girls and make the statement to come back for me if they don't see me in an hour. Well, Nate had intended on staying back himself and was telling me to get in. Needless to say, cars were honking, people were yelling and next thing I knew we had Brenda and I with four girls crammed, and I mean crammed, into the back seat of a very small taxi! Nate jumped in front and the taxi driver looked back and about had a cow!! I guess it's a good thing we don't speak Chinese. He had some things to say. Brenda and I decided he could probably lose his license over this so we decide to duck the kids down as much as possible. These girls were squished. Poor Alyssa was curled on my lap like a snail with my arm over her head, and I kept saying stay down, stay down. Alyssa then decided to announce to the entire cab that my armpits stunk! At that point, I was laughing so hard I snorted! (I guess you had to be there.) Apparently, the driver was lacking in a sense of humor and kept hitting Nate on the leg throughout the trip and pointing to the back and scolding him in Chinese. (I'm not sure the uncontrollable laughing helped.) You should have seen the doorman's face at the hotel when we piled out of the taxi! The taxi driver ended up demanding 30 yuan for a 10 yuan trip. We gladly paid it! (About $4) I decided it would best not to have taken a picture while in that taxi. You'll just need to use your imagination for that one. What a day!!!

Like I said I can't tell it any better than that. We were still laughing when we went up to our room and we had some people putting their heads out of their door shushing us. For those of you who know me you know how hard I can laught and you can x's that my 7 of us plus the floor lady that we have befriend and she was laughing hysterically as well after we told her the story.

Hope you all had a good night. Miss you all!!!

To all of my COP friends!! Wow I can't wait until you come here!!! You will LOVE it!!!!

June 17th.

We did not get a chance to post yesterday as we had a very busy day doing lots of nothing!

Actually we had a fun day. We always meet Teresa and her girls for an 8 am breakfast. The place where we eat breakfast is just beautiful and one of these times we will actually remember to take a camera to show everyone where we eat every day. We are near a beautiful indoor waterfall with a small river that is loaded with Large golfish.

we have been spending tons of time at the pool and today for the first time things have stayed dry and it is more hot than humid. Thankfully. Humidty is NOT my friend. However Heather seems to do well with it as her hair has never looked better and she is just glowing.
China has been good to her.















Abby, Hannah, Heather and Alyssa are becoming very good friends. They has so much fun together and we have hardly had any incidents of fighting between any of them.

Last night we went out to our favorite Chinese restuarant. I do not know the name of it but the sign says its the best cantonese food in Guangzhou and it is very good. On the way to the restaurant you have to pass a place where you can pick out your own food. Let me just say that thankfully we ate BEFORE we went in their to take pictures. It was NOT pretty. Cheri, I wish you were here because I would have to take you to lunch there!!! :)

It would make a great diet plan to visit this place before every meal!!!



















As you can see in one of the pictures below Alyssa bonk was quite unsure of her selection!!

The girls were very happy that we did not eat in this restaurant.










We did quite a bit of shopping last night as well and we laugh so hard at times. We have a ton of fun teasing Teresa. Last night she bought 7 t-shirts for her family. They all say something like big brother, grandpa, grandma, mom, dad and so on and got them quite cheap we were in a hurry as we were on our way to the river boat ride. Well after a few minutes she realized she forgot to get Abby and Alyssa one and off we went back to the store. She bought two more and when the clerks gave her a higher price than before she stomped her foot and said BUT I just bought 9 t-shirts wheres my deal and we all laughing so hard and we were so tired we were almost giggly and we were teasing her so bad because she stomped her foot at the girl. Now most of you that have been in GuangZhou know how they beg you to come into their stores and they they will give you best price for adoptive parents so when the price was higher teresa just let loose.

We have to take pictures of the stores yet so when we get back I will update my blog with all the pictures off of our camera. I am very sad that we cannot upload them from our camera.

Daniel our guide told us today that he is 52 years old and when he was a boy that their was not food and in a 2 year period from about 1960-62 around 10 million people starved to death. To get meat they used to eat Cicada's. That is how they stayed alive. Just a interesting tidbit for you today.

Nikolas, Caleb and Katie have a lot of fun camping!!! Love you guys very much and miss you terribly. Hopefully we can talk to you this time when we call as I so much want to hear your voices.

Good night from Guangzhou!!!

Today we went to the GuangZhou Zoo. We were supposed to go to the Folk Art Museum but we begged off that one and asked to take the kids to the zoo instead. Good Choice.

Heather was able to see her first live panda. It was big, lazy and fat!! But Very cute!!!! Unfortunately I do not have a picture as we cannot upload our own pictures onto this computer and Teresa's pictures did not turn out as it was so dark. However we did see giraff's, elephants, Zebras and other neat animals.

The zoo was very empty except for a few Kindergarten and preschool classes. The kids were darling.

Heather is not fond of the bathroom situation over here and giggles every time she has to use one. Quite a few of the bathrooms are normal but most of them are like this picture below. Hannah is an old pro but Heather would rather not get

used to this.

We have seen some strange animals here. a very large snail right in the middle of town which we did not get a picture of and a strange looking Catepillar.

The first picture is of us out for dinner last night. We had Amy, who is the daughter of Shiyan who works for Bethany, take us to a good Chinese Restaurant last night. We had walked past this place before and we had seen the food swimming in the tanks in front of the restuarant and our appetite would go away. However last night we went in and what we saw was a very nice place to eat. Amy ordered for us and we had a really awesome dinner!! It was so good!!!!

We are getting spoiled with all the good food here.













These pictures of Nathan and Hannah were take at the exact spot where she was found. She was found at the entrance of a biscuit and cracker factor. Near the spot is also a large shopping district which mean her birthmother left her in a safe place where she was sure to be found. We were also told that her birthfamily were probably farmers that lived somewhere nearby.

These are some typical pictures of China. GuangZhou is a very big city with tons of buildings very close together and a lot of people. A lot of people ride motorcycles here.

These pictures are very typical of what you see.






Some of you have asked us what the Weather is like here. It is HOT and HUMID!!!!! We have a thunderstorm or 2 every single day. The weather is like a big wet blanket on the city and you can't hardly breathe its so humid. However there are 2 very nice pools here that we try to use in between rain drops.

The kids are having so much fun swimming!!!












A little more about Hannah. She is a very sweet tenderhearted girl but she also has a small temper. Wow! Just like the rest of our kids!! She has a huge smile and she loves to show it to everyone! She loves to yell out hello to those passing by!! If you really want to know what Hannah is like just spend 20 minutes with our little boy Caleb!! Yep you guessed it! they are just a like!!!! Hard to imagine. She loves hair and when we asked our translator to tell Hannah that we would let her hair grow out she was so happy and so excited. She also loves to dance and we will be happy to show the world how well she can dance!!! It is precious!!!

These are pictures from the GuangZhou Social welfare institute where Abbey and Hannah spent the first years of their life. It was a powerful day. Abbey and Hannah were thrilled to see their friends again but it was hard for Hannah to leave again and cried for a little while. Hannah has a little friend that is just adorable. His picture is on our camera and we are now in a mission to get him a home!!! He is a doll and we would love to have a family near us bring him home as Hannah and this boy were good friends.

We were able to see where they go to school and we were able to video Hannah doing a dance with her class. Talk about a tear jerker. So sweet!!!!! In the top picture Abbey was showing the group how she could do Heather's hair. Heather was not so sure about this and was a little scared of all the kids. She was out of her comfort zone and it was very good for her to see how these kids are growing up with out parents. It also remind us why we are always on the hunt for finding adoptive parents for the kids in the world so for all you families that have thought about adopting watch out!!! :) Just kidding!!

Just a few more pictures for today.

We went to the orphanage today and got to meet Hannah's teachers and nannies. It was a very emotional experience for all of us that I will write more about later when we get the pictures uploaded. We also were able to to see the exact spot where Hannah was found when she was a baby. It was hugely emotional but a very awesome day!!!

Nikolas, Katie and Caleb!! We love you and miss you!!!

June 14, 2006.

Happy Birthday Nathan!!!

We have been having so much fun in China, but today for the first time we realize how good it will be to get home to the other kids. We so miss them. Robin, sorry we missed your call, we were out shopping yet and didn't get back until late. The shopping here is incredible. We can buy and buy and not spend much money!! The funny thing is its not me that wants to buy it all!!! :)

I am going to try to add some more pictures here for you to enjoy. Everytime I try something happens and they end up not posting. The two pictures above were from near the beginning in Beijing. The two families we are with are so much fun. The one picture above is of Teresa and Alyssa Bonk, Al, Carey and Zachary Richardson, Us, and our tour guide for those 3 days Silena.

Some of you may remember that Nathan had a vision about Hannah just before we left that he had help her up over his head and she giggled and when she smiled her teeth were kind of bad. We had never seen a picture of her smile before so we had no idea if her teeth were bad or not. Well the very cool thing is when we picked her up at the Civil Affairs office the first thing Nathan did was pick her up and she giggled. It was precious and Nate said it was the exact same giggle that he heard in his Vision. Then she smiled and her teeth are NOT too good and we were just in awe that the Lord showed us this BEFORE we knew Hannah and it was just HIS way of showing us that we were truly in HIS will and what an awesome feeling that is!!!

Chad B.-- Nathan wanted me to remind you to turn in your Spirtual Journal!! :)
Tammy B-- Squeaky shoes are coming!!! :)

HANNAH FAITH YONKER
ADOPTION DAY JUNE 13TH, 2006

Yes it is official. I apologize for not writing more today but I had a really long post written and the computer froze up so we will write more as soon as we can. Hannah is doing great yet and we are thrilled with her.

Hopefully tomorrow we can write a really long post again.

If you want to read some funny stuff about Teresa please check her blog again as she is having a ton of fun too!!! :) You can find her blog address in one of the above posts.

We are getting the emails just fine so keep emailing as we love to get mail from home.

you can still email at tearsofjoy@highstream.net

We are all doing great yet!! Off to make some phone calls! Good night!!!!

Gotcha


June 12th 2006

Wow what an awesome emotional day. We went to the Civil affairs office at 10:00 am and
the girls were not there yet and they asked us to sit in the waiting room. After about 15 minutes of waiting the elevator doors opened and out walked Hannah and Abbey Bonk.

Wow!! We recognized her right away and she was so cute and she went right to us. She was laughing and playing and would sit on our laps. She loves her bear so much and would not let it go. When it was time for the nannies to leave Hannah started wailing and the grieving began. She cried and cried. After we filled out a bunch of acceptance document we went back to the hotel and Hannah was very, very quiet. We thought she was hungry and so we gave her some oatmeal. she loved it and started to really come out of her shell. She loves playing with her ball and with bubbles and balloons and Mom she loves all of her birthday presents!!!! She is sweet huggable girl and has a wonderful smile!!!! God is so awesome and for those of you I told that I prayed to God that Hannah would speak English her first words were Hello momma and Hello Papa!!! It just put me in tears!!!!! Right now the 4 girls are having a blast with eachother and we found out Hannah and Abbey were in the same room at the orphanage and they even came dressed in the same clothes.

She is very active and fun and really reminds me of Caleb.

Oh by the way we did walk the Great Wall of China and wow!!! I can't wait to tell you about that walk. It was something else!!!!! However it was a very cool experience.

We are having a small problem with pictures so we are using some of Teresa's pictures and hopefully we can get some of ours on soon.


Love and miss you all!!!

We are having the time of our lives!!!!