Monday Monday

Started this morning with a trip to the medical office to have Levi's TB test read.   Good news, no TB.

Just a side note, anyone in the US who is a fan of gov't funded health care, I don't want to hear from you until you bring your family to another country who has it and experience it for your loved ones.  Absolute craziness.  And no, thank you.

Anyways, then we were off to the zoo!

Jorie was blessed to be taken under the wing of another really nice adoptive family here from Texas to go with them to the water park!  She had so much fun!

These are my friends, Lisa and Katie!  One lives in Vancouver and the other in Silverton.  Soooo blessed to share this experience with them!  A gift from Jesus!

Notice what Levi is doing when we were focused on something besides him.  :)

 And as for my little Levi.  He didn't even know he was at the zoo today.  But that's okay.   We love him.

 Papa, this picture is for you.  Luke said it was nice to hang out at the zoo with you today.

 Although it was a dreadfully hot day, it was really fun to visit a zoo here in a different country.  Luke loved feeding the animals.  Here, he got about 8 bananas, split them in half and then threw them at the elephants to eat. 

 My favorite part of the zoo was the pandas.  They were just so cute!

 This is our friends', Scott and Lisa's, little girl.  Isn't she wonderful!

 The white tigers scared me.

 Luke loved playing with the giraffe.

 I've never been this close to these guys before.  Their heads are huge!

 What we liked best about this zoo is that they had sooo many of each kind of animal. 

Tonight we came home, grabbed some dinner, gave Levi a bath, he was asleep by 7pm, played a game with the older kids, and now am hitting the sack early.  

Tomorrow we have an early morning.  We are heading to the US Consulate for our last piece of adoption paperwork here in China.  We will be completing Levi's US visa paperwork.  Then we will do some last minute shopping, have our last meeting with our Holt travel group and then head out for a night cruise down the Pearl River.

Then Wednesday we hopefully get to visit Levi's orphanage before we pack up, receive Levi's US visa, and take a train to Hong Kong.

Time is flying.  We have enjoyed our time here immensely.  Cannot thank our small group enough for all of their prayers for the last couple months over the details of our 2+weeks here in China.  God's hand has been so evident in every single detail.  I have had a few emotional breakdowns and have had some really really hard times, but Marc has remained rock solid and only God can be the explanation why I am feeling such intense peace and so strong in the Lord now.  This trip has proved to be yet another intense spiritual journey where I have been so struggling and so humbled and then blown away by how God has picked me back up, filled me with His strength, and renewed my perspective with His.

We head home soon.  And we are ready.   Ready for the next chapter of whatever God has for us in the Skipper family.....with all 5 of our precious kiddos!

When I am weak, He is strong.

And I am weak.

And He is strong.

Oh, praise Him!

Thanks also to all of you who have left notes on here and sent encouraging emails.  We have gotten them all and I have been so encouraged by all your words.  Thank you mostly for your prayers.  Oh, I have needed them and felt them!  May God richly bless you for your love and support you have given us!  Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Sunday in China

Lucky for you all, I start these posts too late at night so I am too tired to say much.

But let me just say this, I GOT TO GO TO CHURCH IN CHINA THIS MORNING!!!!!!!!

Seriously, I can't even tell you how much it meant to me. 

Nothing excites me more or gets my passion fired up than the spreading of God's word. 

THAT is what life is about.

And to experience it in THIS country, for sooo many reasons, is just incredible.

The church we went to this morning is one of the few registered churches.  Therefore, no Chinese citizens could attend.  For people who even looked a little bit Asian (and there were a lot), they had to show a passport (from another country) as they walked in the door.  We were also told to bring our own passports just in case. 

 In each Province in China, they have their own "religious bureau" who determines the exact "rules" for the registered churches.  In the Guangdong Province that we are in now, the registered churches are not allowed to have paid staff. 

 We've been learning a bit more about the underground churches too.  You know, there are just thousands and thousands of them here.  Some of them are sooo hidden and some of them meet more openly.  We were told that there are sooo many that the police just can't keep up with the persecution of all of them so they try to make examples of just a few of them.  Although you never know when the police in your jurisdiction could choose your church to target.  And the different police jurisdictions also just have different ways and ideas of how to deal with Christians here (some harshly and some just ignore them)....there is no standard.

 The one thing that I have heard consistently here is how the underground church is flourishing.....alive and well......lively......spreading rapidly......

Seriously, the Christians here just light up when they speak of what is happening here.

 And I just can't help but contrast that with how people speak of the "American Church".  We have a country where we are FREE to worship, speak about Jesus, read His word, teach about him....and what do we have, the opposite of flourishing.....apathy.

And here you have a country where it is against the freaking law to evangelize and Christians are killed for their faith....and what do they have, a Church that is "alive and spreading rapidly".

hmmmmmmmmm.......

Really just freaking incredible to be here and hear what God is doing in this place.

And SUCH a gift to experience corporate worship amongst these people.

After church we got to go out to lunch with another missionary family who lives here.

Then my mom and I went to the Jade and Pearl Markets while the rest of the gang stayed back to relax.

Then tonight we braved another local Chinese restaurant.

Really, I could write a novel to you about our food experiences.......

but tonight we may have found a winner.

 After about 15 minutes of trying to explain to the staff what we wanted to eat, we finally got some delish food.  (think NO ENGLISH and me doing lots of body gestures and practically going in the kitchen to show them what we want)  They make their own noodles here.  yuuuuuuummmmmmy!

 Jor and Luke have been such sports with the food here. However, they have started begging for McDonalds every night lately.  I am pushing them to keep eating the crazy Chinese food with us!

 Maybe in this picture you can see how small the restaurant is?  It was a bit scary, but it was really yummy.  These hole-in-the-wall restaurants only have chopsticks.  hee hee.  I think it is funny.  I don't think my mom finds the humor in it.  ;)  But she is being a good sport too.

 Pretty standard here that if you want to have a napkin then you better just hop up to grab some toilet paper from the wall. 

 Ah, we are having so much fun.  Trying to soak up every moment of China we have left. 

Then after dinner we had our, now routine, night swim before bed.  

So nice.  And so fun.

 Two cheesers!

 And finally, we end our nights with our McFlurrys.  

We are going to have quite few things to recover from when we get home!

Only 2 more full days. Monday and Tuesday.  Then Wednesday we head for Hong Kong and fly home on Thursday.  We're gettin there. 

progress?????

We had all day free until a paperwork meeting at 3pm so we enjoyed a nice relaxing morning and then a midmorning walk to the nearest park.  This park was similar to the one we hung out in Beijing.  Marc and I just love these parks here in these big cities.  They have so much going on.  And are so beautiful.

 Levi hangs on to our fingers just like Meili did when we got her.  Love.

 Praise the Lord, he did a bit better today with his wanderings.  He still went up to a few Chinese people, but seemed to want to stay closer to us most of the time.  I am definitely celebrating the small victories.

 Just like the park in Beijing, this one also had a nice big lake in the center.

 And we all love our paddle boat time. 

(except for Dad when he has to do all the work.) (Marc made me say that.)

 Have you ever met an almost 3 year old who doesn't know how to clap?  Mormor spent lots of time on the boat trying to teach him. 

 I finally got to spend some good time with the Lord this morning.  It was a sweet sweet time.  In short, He spoke to my heart Colossians 3:12 - "Clothes yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience."  Sadly, I have not felt these things towards Levi.   I suppose I have been too consumed with my own selfishness, fears, worries, concerns, etc.  Ah, God is so good.  I had such a better day.  God humbled me and then filled me up with His Spirit.  God is in control. One day at a time.  He will lead.  He will provide.

 This park had about 10 ping-pong tables out in the park.  Marc was like a kid in a candy shop.  Finally he was able to get the nerve up to borrow someone's paddle to play with.  He decided to start with a 60 year old woman to help get his confidence up.  funny.  And you KNOW he was competitive with her.

 Finally he found someone a bit more his age.  He wants me to tell you this guy was the reigning Guangzhou City Champion.........for the last 5 years.  (don't ya'll wish Marcus would sit next to me everytime I blogged?) 

 Anyway, it was good times!

 And as for Mr. Levi......

let's see.....he is doing okay.  I feel like he has improved....uh....hard to know......he is making a SLIGHT bit more eye contact with us. I talked with our Holt guide a while today about him and she is herself puzzled with his actions.  She is going to try to help me get some more info. from his foster mom before we leave China.  I really want to ask her some specific questions about what his "normal" was with her.  That should tell us a lot and hopefully give me some good info that I can pass on to the doctors (and therapists?) that we'll be seeing when we get home.

He sleeps through the night!  yay!

Food is definitely an issue.  He will eat anything if we give him only one option.  But if he sees any options then he will just choose his favorite and refuse the rest.  He has no control, just stuffs food into his mouth until he chokes.  Started trying to teach him how to use a fork today.  I felt we made some progress.  LOTS of work ahead with all things food related.

I FEEL like he is trusting us a bit more.  He goes to all of us equally.  Of course, he would go to anyone.  

We love him.  

And we trust the Lord.  

Thanks so much for your prayers.

Yesterday and Today ;)

 Yesterday was a free day for us so we headed to Shamian Island for a full day of shopping.  This is the area of town that we stayed in last time we were here.  We love this place and were so looking forward to visiting it again.

One of the hard parts of this trip is that whenever we put Levi down, he looks for the closest Asian that he can find and begs them to take him.  

  No doubt about it, this trip to get the little guy has had some hard moments.  The trip itself and all of China has been sooo much fun and really, perfect.  And just about everything with Levi has been really hard.  In his own little way, he is really struggling.  As you can see from many of my smiley shots of him, he has some happy moments.....but mostly, it is hard.  For instance, whenever he has to transition (even just walking back into our hotel room), he starts hitting his head.  Sometimes he grinds his teeth, and sometimes he just goes cross-eyed.  And sometimes he does all of those things at the same time.  That's all hard for me.  No fun to watch your baby so frustrated and so hurting.  Meili never did any of this.  I know its common for these kiddos to really struggle in different ways.  But it's not easy.  And it's hard.  It's emotionally exhausting. 

 Nevertheless, it was nice to have the beautiful sites of Shamian Island to distract us (me) from the tough moments.

 And, as anticipated, the island did not disappoint.

We enjoyed my favorite comfort food, Starbucks......

....... Watching lots of models doing photo shoots all around..... 

(this guy was pretty impressed with himself.)

..... and there was a movie being filmed that was entertaining to watch.

And then today was Levi's medical appointment.

 He had his vitals and measurements taken.

He weighs a whopping 24 pounds.

 This is an ENT doctor.  Levi has had a really bad cold so I tried to get some info. from this guy as to what he thought about his ears, etc.  Let's just say, he didn't have much to say.

 Levi loves all the zippers on Mormor's purse.

 Then we had the "general examination" by this female doctor.  She was a sweet lady.  Ofcourse Levi clinged on to her and wanted her to take him home.  I tried to question her as to Levi's health.  After her 2 minute exam, she told me, "He is okay."  :)  Ah, it will be so nice to hear what our doctors at home have to say..........the little guy has got a lot going on.

 LOVE having Mormor here to share in the adventures.  :)

 Are you aware that rock/paper/scissors can be extremely competitive?  Leave it to these two to bring it to a whole new level.

 We ended his appointment this morning with a TB test that we will get the results of Monday.  Otherwise, he cleared his appointment.  (This medical exam was/is required by the US govt.  We must have it to get his US visa.)

And then after his appointment this morning,  we dropped the boys off at our hotel for nap time and us girls just had to go back to Shamian Island for some more shopping!!!!!!

 This place is sooo pretty that many Chinese brides from all over come to be photographed here.

 I am thinking of getting this sign to go over my front door.  Although it should say, "Laundry AND Kitchen services".

Blessings to all of you back home!

And BIG thanks and hugs to Grandma and Grandpa Skipper who have just about survived their week with Caleb and Mei.  And BIG thanks and hugs to my seester and bro-in-law for taking Caleb and Mei again today for their second stint with them and will have them till we come home!  Soooooo thankful for each of you!