What We Know

Posted by Lorraine... for those of you pushing "refresh" to look for news! I think you can sleep in peace:)

The Kings left Japan at 4:30 this morning and arrived at 1:35 p.m. in Minneapolis. They had a 6 hour wait until they could board the plane for Asheville. The plane landed at the Asheville airport a few minutes ago! I'm sure they will fill us in on the 48 hour trip home as soon as they get over it! Don't hold your breath for the next "tell-all" blog entry! They will be hugging the girls for a long while!

Message to Mom, Dad, and Mia!!

We love you and miss you!! Come home!!!!!

(Posted by the girls in WNC!)

Pit Stop... Japan

Well - we wish we were writing you from Minneapolis where we dreaded the 7 hour layover... We are still in Asia, but we have made it as far as Tokyo, Japan! The plane took off toward Minnesota, flew for 1 1/2 hours, dumped fuel for an hour (heard you needed that in Western NC), then flew 1 1/2 hours back to Japan. We had to actually go through immigration, gather all of our luggage again, and check into a hotel. We are hoping for a flight out Saturday.

Words cannot describe our disappointment and our desire to be home with our girls! Please pray for us!

Mia's Musings

Hmmmm, I wonder how much I'm going to sleep on the airplane! I heard my Mama and Daddy say that it was a lonnnnnng flight and I think they are a little concerned about how a 2 1/2 year old spitfire like me is going to handle it! I'm going to be really good, color on paper, keep my clothes on, and make my mommy the happiest woman in the whole world!

I heard Mommy and Daddy say that they were hoping for a shorter layover in Minneapolis! Right now it is seven hours! You might want to pray with them for a miracle of a shorter stay! All I know is, I want to get home! That's ALL they've talked about!!

Thursday Photos - Red Couch and Elvin

Today our trip to China is officially over! We have had our pictures made on the "Red Couch", a tradition for all of the adoptive families who stay at the White Swan Hotel. Mia was not really thrilled about that tradition! You can see she had a get away plan from the start!

We have loved getting to know the other families and Elvin! He has truly been a gift from God to us and will always be part of our Mia memories. He truly pours his heart into his job! We asked him to come back to the US with us, but I think he's afraid of having to look for cameras for the rest of his life! So he is staying in China.

Thank-you blog-readers / friends!! Your comments and emails have encouraged us on this exciting, exhausting, hard, and wonderful trip! You have blessed us daily with all of your words of wisdom and empathy. Just to know you are praying for us will get us through the next 28 hours of travel!

So we are clicking our heels as you are reading this! There's no place like home! There's no place like home!

Can't Wait to Meet My SISTERS!!

More About Mia

Just before I left our home, I went through the clothes that I had saved for the girls. There weren’t many but I threw a few into the suitcase. I put one of Emma's on her today and she looked so precious. It just reminded me of how badly we missed the girls. We have been so fortunate that grandparents have stepped in and cared for our older girls while we were gone and we will be forever grateful. Seems like they are enjoying getting spoiled and all of the attention the grandparents lavish on them.

We can’t wait for our family and friends to meet precious Mia. Each day she is changing and we are noticing improvements. She went down to bed easier last night and didn't have any night terrors. We were so thankful for an easier night. She loves a bath and being naked. Sometimes we will turn around and she will have all her clothes off and is just standing in the corner giggling. She sure knows how to make us laugh. She still loves the hide and seek game with her daddy. It is hilarious.

Tomorrow is our American Consulate appointment, the last step before we are allowed to take Mia home. She has her passport – doesn’t it look like she treasures that thing and wants to eat it??

Since we had to stay in the room this morning, I decided to take out a few more toys I had brought for Mia instead of saving them for the plane ride home. I got out crayons and coloring books. At first she seemed to like them so I began typing on the computer and Kevin took a nap. Our bed sheets are now beautifully colored with 2 year old art. Oh dear!!


A few random notes!
It is still raining…We went to an Italian restaurant on the island today (avoiding the roads that were still covered in rain). It was delicious!
The room service here at the hotel is amazing. I always get a wake up call, but I’m usually up before they call. I took the phone off the hook one morning so I could shower before they called waking up the rest of the family. So they came up to the room and knocked on the door! Talk about room service!!

Mia's Doctor Visit

A few days ago, she had the doctor’s visit here. This is required for all of the children leaving China with their new parents and entering the US. The place was not your typical doctor’s office. There were tons of people and children there. We had 3 stations to go through and the 1st and 3rd were a problem. The first one…when the doctor laid her down on the table she was fine with that to my surprise. Then the doctor began taking a long time checking her heart. Well I had heard not to put too much into what the docs said here, but my baby was lying on the table. So Mia became a little frantic. I hollered for Elvin to come and translate. The doctor said that she heard something in her heart so then I panicked. She ran to get
another doctor. He checked Mia out and said her heart was fine. But during those 2 minutes seemed like a lifetime when I thought something else was wrong.

Then the ears, nose, and throat were checked. Kevin had to basically hogtie her so the doc could get a look. At one point I heard a crack and I thought she had bit into the tongue depressor. One more step down!

Guangzhou Photos

The first few photos are of Guangzhou without the rain. But as I write this, everything is flooded here. We can't leave our hotel because of all the water. I guess the city planner forgot the drains. We read in the newspaper that it was supposed to hit Guangzhou at noon today and then could turn into a SUPER TYPHOON. Isn’t that lovely? Fortunately this weather coincided with the morning that we had to stay in our rooms anyway. All of our paperwork is at the American Consulate. If there is a problem with any of it, they will call to let us know. (Fortunately… they did not call and all is well!)

I have included a picture of the 7-11 just because it is one of my favorite places in China! We would have never made it without that store!

Monday and Tuesday

Monday was an exhausting day. We went to the Pedestrian Market where there is everything you can imagine including KFC and McDonalds. We walked through a mall that is similar to ours but of course we couldn't read any of the signs.

We also went to the pearl market. It wasn't at all what I expected. It was a small store inside a shopping center and of course NO AIR. So there were about 6 families there trying to buy pearls and you don't just go in, pick out pearls, and buy them. The salespeople show you the different quality of pearls. You pick out what you want and then they thread the pearls right there. By the way they are helping 5 other families at the same time and only 1 of the 5 pearl stringers speak English. Of course all of the families are English speaking like us. So.... I tried to be patient. Kevin had Mia outside of the store and she was great for the 1st 15 minutes and then it was over. She wanted to leave. Well I was in the middle of picking out pearls and if anyone knows me they know that I can not make a decision quickly. I need time to think of it. Well Kevin was done and wanted to leave. So I thought it would be a great idea to take a picture of the lady beading Mia's pearls. So I did. So after much fussing and fighting with Mia, we left and finally got back to the cool bus.

We got back to the room to put Mia down for a much needed nap and guess what? Yep! I couldn't find my camera. Again! And no… it wasn’t on my arm this time. So of course we called Elvin! (At this point, are you wondering if he is paid enough to deal with Bridget King in China??) Elvin called the stores and even went back to the market to look for it. Of course with the population being 11million here and 10 million at the market today, I didn't really have hope that he would find it. I was devastated and very upset. So no luck -- no camera. Fortunately I had put most of my pictures on my computer, but still I had to have a camera for the rest of the trip. So Elvin took Kevin to a nearby electronic store to purchase another inexpensive camera to finish out our trip. I did have all 3 of my camera cards in my camera bag and had some pictures that I hadn't downloaded, but all is well. Now we have a new camera, but the handbook and the camera are in Chinese. So we went to the concierge and he changed our camera to English. I will try to download a handbook when I get home so that I can learn how to operate it.

When Mia gets mad at us, she climbs into her stroller and sits. We decided to buy a stroller to take back on the plane. We will use it for our layovers because she loves it so well. We figured it might diffuse some problems that we will likely encounter.


We went swimming last night and she loved it. She has no fear, but will not put her swimmies on. So we were a little concerned with her enthusiasm since she likes to run and play games so much. It unnerved me at the pool. But thankfully she was okay and she absolutely loved it.

Elvin has made contact with Mia’s SWI and has gotten more information for us about her first 2 and ½ years. Some of it is intimate information and we will keep it private for her. We have been able to learn a bit about Mia’s foster family. The father worked in business and she spent most of her time with the mom and their biological daughter who was 5 years old. The family lived about 20 minutes from the orphanage. They miss her so much and Elvin told the director to relay the message that she was in good hands and would be cared for forever. It adds to our sadness for Mia’s grieving to know that the foster parents are also grieving.

This afternoon, Kevin had some paperwork to do. We hope it is the last of it! It took him 2 hours so we planned to go out and shop. Kevin left the room and we agreed on a meeting place. Just as Kevin left, Mia managed to get under the desk and trip the breaker, so we had no lights in the hotel room. So I fiddled with it and couldn't fix it. I called the desk and of course “no speak English” she said. She would send someone. About 10 minutes later a lady came and I tried to explain through hand motions that we had no lights and once again said, “no speak English”. Getting frazzled at this point she went and got the repair man. Through my “sign language” (waving arms…) he understood what I was saying and fixed the problem. By now we only had about 30 minutes left to shop.

A typhoon is hitting Hong Kong tomorrow, so we will have winds and rain. We are “looking forward” to a day inside with our little version of a typhoon on wheels!

We are counting down the days to hug our stateside girls!! Can’t wait to be home!

Monday and Tuesday's Pictures

Mia's Sunday Antics...

Today was much better. We went to the zoo and then went our own way to enjoy some family time. It was good. She handled the day very well except for a breakdown at nap time. It was heartbreaking, just a deep sad cry. We do believe we are making headway with her and the bonding process. It is very hard to see her so sad in those moments at bed time.

Funny... watching Kevin teach our Chinese guide phrases and hearing him try to explain the meanings! Elvin now knows "redneck", "I'm eyeballing you," and "blowing your mind."

A few more things about Mia... we took her swimming and she loved it! This was probably her first time in a pool. The pool is beautiful here at the White Swan and it was a great break from the intense heat. Wish I had pictures of it - but the camera batteries are dead AGAIN! Her eating has slowed down now. I think she knows that we will always have food for her and she doesn't need to eat as much as she can whenever she is offered food. She doesn't care for sippy cups, just whatever we are drinking from is fine with her!

Sunday: A Trip to the Zoo

Today we went to the zoo! Saw... well judge for yourself! The dogs are not looking at zoo animals... they ARE the zoo animals!

Pictures from Saturday

A Hard Day... Saturday

Today was a touring day.... traveled on a cable car up to see the whole city of Guangzhou! It was 108 degrees and Mia threw tremendously long temper tantrums. She is grieving deeply and it is very hard to deal with it when we don't speak Chinese. And that is all we have to say about today. Please pray for us!

Friday Pictures

Dreams Do Come True

A few days before we left for China, I had the most vivid dream! Mia was laughing and was quite the spit fire! She was full of herself and we soon realized we had our hands full with this third daughter... Fast forward to today! Dreams come true!!

It all started last night when she insisted on sleeping in her silver shoes again. It was so funny waking up in the middle of the night with someone kicking me with shoes on. Then a little later, Mia got mad at me for taking a toy away because she kept throwing it against the wall. I think anger management may be in our future! So she took her clothes off! I mean everything and refused to put them back on. I guess in her mind she was like "I'll show you Mama". She is a hoot even at all hours of the day and night. We were so worried about her not smiling, but she is a ball of fire.

Today was a free day until 3:30. So after another delicious breakfast downstairs, we went to the play room again. There were lots of children in there and it was fun to talk to the other newly adoptive parents about their experiences. Funny story in the playroom... a little Chinese girl about 20 months - precious... took up with Kevin. At first it was funny and then the daddy got jealous, in a fun way. The little girl was all over Kevin and Mia didn't seem to mind (which surprised me).

Then we walked around the island to find the famous Italian Restaurant but could not find it. So we went to Lucy's. It was awesome. American music, food, decorations, posters,...it was so comforting. I had a grilled cheese and Kevin had a BLT. It was yummy!!! We learned that Mia did not like grilled cheese, but loved tomatoes and fries. She also had her first experience with crystal light today and loved it (of course there is not much that we have found that she does not like).

Then we came back to the room to try to give Mia a nap before our tour to the Six Banyan Temple. We cut all the lights off and both laid on the bed. That's all it took for Mia to become upset again. She knew that it was time to lay down & she was not having any part of it. After 11/2 hours she finally gave in and fell asleep, just as it was time to leave. So we left & got on the bus and went to the Temple.

Here is where the dream becomes even more eerily familiar. It doesn't take much for Mia to get excited and want to run wild. On the bus she began to talk more Chinese. So we have a very spirited 2 yr old that is speaking Chinese so fast that it is blowing our minds. While in the temple, Elvin was quietly talking to us about the temple & how important people's beliefs are in relation to this building. We were observing people serving Budda and praying to him just as Mia is beginning to get wound up again. At one point Kevin looked at me and said that he was afraid that we were going to get thrown out of this temple .

Everything with Mia is about having fun. I anticipate that when we get home and try to discipline, she will be a challenge. It's all fun and games to her. We have laughed so much today that at one point my belly was hurting and I had tears streaming down my face.

Just after we got on the bus following our visit, Mia let us know she had to go to the bathroom. She points to the front or back and so far she has not had one accident. So she started pointing and we just tried to pacify her at first. Then she began insisting that she needed to go. I asked Elvin how much farther and he said that we were in a traffic jam. So he brought me a trash can and said let her use it. I was dying because this was a first for us. So Kevin & I went to the VERY back of the bus and I held her over the trash can while Kevin held the trash can still and just shook her off. It was hilarious!

See what I mean? Dreams do come true!!