Thanks so much for visiting us during our journey, Steve, Patty, Caleb, Danae (daughter-in-law), Logan, Drew and Annika!
For this child I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him.
So I have also dedicated her to the Lord; as long as she liveth she is dedicated to the Lord. I Samuel 1:27 - 28
A very Merry Christmas to you and yours from the Mears in China. Today is finally Dec. 25th and it does not seem like Christmas at all. We are so looking forward to the snow (yes, I am feeling alright, I said snow) and being with all three of our boys, Annika and Danae to celebrate Christmas when we get home. Yes, it is an honor and an experience celebrating Christmas half way around the world. But I will have to quote the song "there is no place like home for the holidays".
We had an Old Navy shirt on Annika today and if you can read it from the picture it says BEST PRESENT EVER, with a big red bow on it and this is so true. This Christmas we couldn't ask for anything more than to be in China and finishing our paperwork to bring Annika home.
Later on in the day we were able to put the Christmas dress on her that I brought from home and got some cute photos of her. I also put in a down moment one. Yes, she is like any other 16 mos. old, she has her good moments and her bad. But we will take them gladly as they come.
We are having alot of fun seeing the sights of China even though we are very much ready to get back to our own home and our beds. The beds in China are extremely hard. When we were at the Chen Family Temple the other day. I was looking at jewelry boxes to buy one for Annika and this one beautiful one has a U shape on the top of it. The lady explained to me that it was a pillow, not a jewelry box. Okay.....wood pillows..no thank you.
The one picture in this post is a lady tapping on granite to put a picture of me, Steve and Annika. It is so amazing to watch the intricacy with which they do this. And the other picture is of a guy using the side of his hand dipped in ink to make pictures. I had to get one of those. WOW!!! these people are talented.
I asked our guide the other day when driving through town, why so many shops and alot are copies of the others. She said everyone wants to be bosses, no one wants to work for anyone...hmmm interesting.
We went to a Chinese Tea House today. It was really quite interesting and at the end we got to sit on little chairs and taste a bunch of different teas. After my issues with food in Beijing I decided that since I was not a tea person, that I would just video tape and take pictures and let Steve and the others enjoy their tea.
We were going to do a bit of sight seeing on our own today, but Annika did not do well at nap time and was not in a good sort of mind, so I told Steve to go down and do the foot massage and Annika and I had good quality one on one time for a couple of hours.
She seems to come to life at night time. We put her on the bed and she giggles and rolls around and just is so sweet. She is practicing her standing alot today. She was even trying alot while on the bed and was balancing really good. I'm thinking a walk behind car or something is in order when we get home and she will be good to go.
Three more days and we are on the plane to Beijing, then Chicago O'Hare, then to Pittsburgh, PA. I heard that Chicago cancelled a ton of planes due to bad weather. I am hoping that things get cleared up before Friday.
Well again, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night from Guangzhou, China!!
