Safe trip back home

Leaving Guangzhou airport Wed. morning 6:30 with our friends we met in our group from Memphis.

This is what we looked like in Shanghai airport we needed to recheck our luggage to fly to USA.

Brock relaxing and patiently waiting after bags were checked.  He and the other kids traveled great, better than we could of even asked for!  

Last picture in China. 

Hanging out in the airplane. 

Sleeping beauty on the airplane.  Braelyn slept 6 of the 12 1/2 hours from Shanghai to Chicago.  She is a Awesome traveler.

Arriving in Grand Rapids, going to meet all of our friends and family.

Braelyn with her new friends.

2 prayer partners with their precious little girls from China.  Oh, how we have prayed for these girls and God as answered our prayers.  God is SO good!

Arriving home around 10:30 and we were welcomed into our subdivision by this.  We have the BEST friends. 

Surprise more signs and balloons in our house. 

 Braelyn loved all the balloons. 

Our garage door with signs. 

More signs!

More signs! I told you we have the best family and friends :)

Every door had a sign.

Signs even in the garage!

We started our day off by leaving our hotel in Guangzhou  at 6:00 a.m. ( a 4:30 wake up call).  We flew from Guangzhou to Shanghai.  We had a 6 hour layover in Shanghai.  By the time we did all our paperwork and rechecked our bags we had about 4 hours.  We traveled with one other family from our group so that made the time go faster.  We ate lunch together and did some shopping.  Our flight to Chicago was 12 1/2 hours.  It went great.  This time, the t.v. screens worked ( unlike our flight to China) the kids did fantastic.  They watched movies, slept and ate.  Little Braelyn was a trooper.  She slept for 6 hours, played and ate.  She did amazing considering there isn't much room in a airplane seat. We had 2 hours in Chicago but needed to go through customs and recheck our luggage once again. Everything went very smooth.  We found that traveling with a big family had advantages because the airport employees would bring us to the front of the lines!  We soon were on our way to Grand Rapids. We arrived in Grand Rapids to a outpouring of love from our family and friends.  It was a overwhelming feeling to see the support from everyone.  Thanks also to Herk, Jeff and Tim (maybe others not sure-it seemed to be a blur) for loading all our luggage into our truck and delivering the items that did not fit.   Braelyn seemed to do well, she just took it all in, by the time we left the airport she was giggling with the kids.  In China children don't ride in car seats, some ride on the back of bikes right next to all the fast moving cars.  Braelyn did very well her first time in her car seat, she got right in and of course on the ride home she was "hamming it up" with everyone.  She has figured it out that she has us all wrapped right around her fingers!  I couldn't help but think of the changes that she has endured in the last 10 days.  She has gone from her foster family back to the orphanage for 3 days then with us, her forever family!  But looking at her in her car seat she is just where she is supposed to be with us in our  family.  God certainly had this all planned out perfectly we just needed to trust him and follow his direction on the timing.  I am certain that Braelyn is going to BLESS us more than we will BLESS her.  She has already added so much to our family.  Yes, we are BLESSED!  5 times as a matter of fact!  Life is good, God is GREAT.

THANKS to ALL

Last day in China

Our new friends from Lakeland Florida left tonight.  We are hoping to visit them when we see the Tigers play next year.

Hotel lobby

Don't you just LOVE those eyes? We sure do! ( Is this Jim or Steve? )

Grandpa "I found Diamond Rio in China!" haha 

We were shopping today and I recognized this man.  I asked him his name and yes it is Dong.  Steffie... Can you believe we ran into him?  He remembers you.  He said Jesus sent us!  Love this guy!

Walking hand in hand with mom and dad.

Brody gave Braelyn his lollipop and man did she love it.  I can't wait to give her popscicles. 

Subway... Brocks favorite and we found it in China!  Turkey sandwiches again! :)

Blake and Braelyn playing on the bed.

Last night all together, we ordered Papa Johns pizza as a group. Then said our goodbyes before we packed.

No time to write, we have a early wakeup call to catch our flight. We will try to update in Shanghai. We have absolutely LOVED China and have mixed feelings about going home. It will be nice to be home because there is no place like home but I can truly say it will be hard to leave China. We have made some great memories and have had a fantastic 2 weeks here. This has been a trip of a lifetime we are very BLESSED! Thanks for following along and we appreciate your prayers. God is so Good!  

Visa appointment and fun day in Guangzhou

Few pictures from our hotel playground and courtyard.

A chinese hat Brock got while shopping today.

Braelyn and Brody playing with a ball while shopping.

The DeWitt lineup :)

Dog gone cute!  :)

Our Visa appointment today, we weren't allowed to take pictures so we had our friends snap one quickly.

DeWitt girls

We had another great day in Guangzhou.  Our Visa appointment went smoothly, most important paperwork in China and it was the easiest.  Tomorrow we can pick up her Visa so we can leave Wed. morning.  The rest of the day was free.  We went with 4 other families by taxi to a Island for shopping and dinner. It was so much fun.  We are going to miss all of our new friends.  Braelyn is doing Awesome as you can see in the pictures she is so precious.  I just can't imagine what we did without her.           

Tomorrow is our last full day here, then we travel home. Thanks for your prayers.

Mothers Day spent in China

 Visiting a museum today. Happy Mothers Day to all, especially to our 2 moms.  My first Mothers Day with all 5 kids! Doesn't get any better than this! :)

Jim wanted a picture with this elephant tusk carving, reminded him of his Grandpa. 

Braelyn sharing a banana with daddy. 

This little girl loves the swimming pool.

Having some fun with 2 of the guys in our group.  Jim and Brody went shopping and surprised Danny and Shane with Chinese undies at dinner.! 

Brock and Braelyn with their swim caps on.

Back at the pool for night swimming.  The boys wanted to swim and guess who wanted to join in the fun.  So back up to the room to get her suit. :)

This is what happens to Blake when he spends too much time with his family. 

First time in big bathtub. We have been cleaning Braelyn up in the sink. Tonight we thought we would try the tub and she wanted to make sure everyone was watching her. 

Today was another great day!  We started off at the museum where it was "smokin hot" it was 90 degrees and super humid! Came back to the hotel and ate lunch, Braelyn took a nap and I went shopping with some of the other Moms.  We had so much fun together. Of course we made a trip to the pool with the kids to cool off before we had dinner all together.  The last 2 nights we have been having dinner as a group. Our guide commented today that we are a really fun group!  Yes it has been a blast. Dinner was delicious Chinese buffet. 

I can't believe we have only a couple more days left it is going by so fast.  Looking forward to tomorrow, we have Braelyns Visa appointment early in the morning then we are going with a bunch of families to an Island for shopping and dinner!

Medical exam in Guangzhou

Waiting for our turn for Braelyn's medical exam. It is a requirement that every adopted child has an exam before leaving China. So it was very busy.

Getting Braelyn's height and weight. She did so good, just looked around.

Our precious baby :)

Waiting to go to the pool.

Playing in the pool with Blake! I think she is going to like Gun Lake, she loves the water! Thanks Aunt Lisa and family for the adorable swimsuit and swim cap!  Stinken cute :)

We found a 7 11 outside our hotel. We wanted Slurpee's, but decided we better not as we are advised to not drink the water or ice. Took this picture for "the double buckle gang!"

Ice cream at McDonald's by our hotel.

Our day started off by a incredible breakfast buffet in our hotel.  It was so good!  We also were reunited with families we started off with in Beijing.  It was so cool to see all there "new children".  Going into the trip I wasn't real big on being with a group and meeting new families, but it has been great we have met some fantastic families and developed great friendships.  One requirement in Guangzhou is a medical exam.  It was super busy and took us 2-3 hours, it wasn't anything like a "check-up" back home, but we had to do it.  I have a appointment for Braelyn when we get home to get a more thorough exam.  She did very well when the Drs. examined her.  Our afternoon involved a meeting to get all our paperwork together for her Visa appointment then some fun at the pool.  It was 90 degrees today so the pool felt great!  Dinner tonight was with our entire group (10 families and our Bethany representative). She took us to a restaurant where she ordered for us. The food was great. Blake ordered Lamb and it was "amazing" as he said.  Everyday little Braelyn becomes more fun.  She just makes us laugh all the time.  I think she has figured out she has all 6 of us right where she wants us. Yep!  She has ALL of us wrapped right around her little finger.  How can you not melt when you look at her.  We have so much to be thankful for, can't even put into words what she has added to our family.  It almost seems like she has always been a part of us.  Looking forward to making many more memories in China and then back home.  We have 2 more days here in China.  Someways I'm ready to get home but it will be hard to leave China too, it has been a Amazing journey!