Day 5- Kisses for Daddy

A little bribery never hurts. Daddy got some kisses today with vanilla wafers and French fries. Her little personality has really came out this evening. We were out and about earlier and she was absolutely a monkey! So good to see her smile and laugh. She actually is already calling me mama and while we were in a store this evening, I pointed to Kevin and asked, "Who's that?". She said it was baba (Chinese for daddy). Don't stop praying for us, though. She still won't let Kevin hold her or sit in a stroller. I'm either going to have really big biceps when I get home or my arms are just going to fall off! Today we visited an Asian village that was 600 years old. The weather here today was wonderful about 70 for the high. Tomorrow we will have a little free time and then we fly to Guangzhou where we will spend 7 days for more appointments and getting her passport and visa and then we go to Hong Kong for one night then home sweet home. Please continue to pray for our kids back home, we miss them very much. FaceTime is good but it's getting old. Pray for us as we travel. Love to you all and good night from Guiyang China.

Day 4- She Smiles

Here's a few pics we took just today. The first one is of our Sleeping Beauty this morning. The next one is where she smiled and giggled a little playing peek-a-boo and the third one is daddy getting her to warm up to him a little with some French fries. Well, maybe the pics are all out of order. I'm still learning to blog on this crazy iPad. We have so much to share about our adventures here and plenty of pictures to post, but all that will have to wait until I get home and can upload them on the laptop. There's so much beautiful scenery here in this province and then again in most areas so much poverty. This is one of China's poorest places. We've gotten a lot of stares from people. Here we are...5 American families walking around with Chinese babies. Some people smile and wave, some just get right in your face and stare, some try to talk to you and some even point and laugh. I have to say, little Miss Maggie has got a lot of attention even among the Chinese. They comment on how cute she is and what a lucky baby she is to come to America. Little do they know, we're the lucky ones! Some of the old people get her attention by blowing kisses and waving to us. A LOT of people want to photograph you if you're American! I got a bit harassed yesterday at the monkey zoo. As I'm typing it's 4:00 in the afternoon here and 3:00 in the morning at home. Still so strange. We are going out with our group for pizza at 5:00. That and KFC are the only western places here and trust me, Chinese food gets old after one day! Love to all of you at home. Continue to pray for our safe travels and health. And especially Maggie bonding with Kevin. Also, she won't get in a stroller, highchair or shopping cart right now. I'm really afraid of the drive from Nashville to home. I figure she'll have a fit when I put her in a car seat. Please help us pray for that. Here there is no seat belt or car seat law. Well, good morning to whoever is reading and goodnight from the Dyes here in Guiyang.


This is the Lord's doing; And it is marvelous in our eyes. Psalm 118:23

Day 3 with Maggie

Well, let me start off by agreeing with Kevin that we are not in Tennessee anymore! Our daughter's homeland is nothing like we've ever experienced before. It's been a whirlwind so far and our guide is keeping our group pretty busy to pass the time quick. By the end of the afternoon we are pretty exhausted. Even with napping and sleeping all night (their night) your body is still saying, "Hold on something is way off here!". Right now, Maggie is in my lap as I type. She does not let me get out of sight or reach. And poor daddy....he wants to get ahold of her so bad! But she makes him keep his distance. So far, she's very shy. She keeps mostly to herself even with the other children in our group. She likes to be on the go and doesn't mind all the bumpy bus rides. Sorry there are no pictures to post this time. They're all on our small camera and I'm blogging on the iPad, so there's no way to upload them. I will post some soon, though. Both in size and behavior she is very much like a one year old rather than a two year old. Let me just say there is so much about China that is soooo different. The air quality here is very poor and everyone smokes. And smoking is not prohibited in public places like it is in America. So, you pretty much have the smell of a stale cigarette in your nose all the time. The amount of people here is unbelievable. We are in the capital city, Guiyang, of Guizhou and it has a population of 3 million and is considered to be small. And no wonder Chinese people are all skinny....they walk everywhere they go and let me tell you they walk fast! Our guide has to slow down a lot for us. The air here is also very dry, so it's easy to dehydrate. I think that happened to me the first day we were here. As Kevin said we were on a plane and off to find out that our children were waiting for us. We went straight from the airport to the civil affairs office with no time prepare! We followed our guide into a very old run down looking place and up to the 15th floor. We rounded the corner and there sat my daughter on a couch with her orphanage director. My heart nearly stopped and my feet did. I think I remember saying, "Oh my gosh, that's my baby.". She didn't want me as much as I wanted her at first so that part was rough. Even now she will have very little to do with Kevin. I ask all of you to please pray for her warm up to him. We know all of that is typical, but it's just hard. The hardest thing of all is being away from my 3 little munchkins at home! Oh I miss them so bad! We Skype with them every chance we get. Well, we still have a few more days to go. We fly from here, Guizhou, to Guangzhou on Friday. Our flight back to the USA can't come fast enough! We are blessed to be in good company though with the other families in our group. Good night for now from Guiyang. We love and miss you all!

We Are Not In Tennessee Anymore!!!

HOLY MACKERAL!!! (that's redneck for oh my goodness). The journey that God has taken us on the past few days is filled with all kinds of emotions and right now Crystal, Maggie and myself are drained. After 3 days of traveling, missing flights, bad weather, 9600 miles,19 hours in the air and 3 days without my kids we finally meet Miss Maggie Mei-Ling Dye. We rushed from Beijing to Guiyang province got off the plane, meet our guide, got on 2 buses and headed to town to meet our princess. When we meet our guide he told us that our children were waiting on us and we were going to get them, right then, in just 15 minutes. My heart done a double back summersault and my stomach drew up in knots. At this point I could tell Crystal was getting emotional. We got off the bus and rushed up stairs and when we got off the elevator and walked through that door my eyes meet hers and we were overwhelmed. One of the most (5 my wife and kids) beautiful sites I had ever laid eyes on was looking back at me. She was a little upset at first but know she won't even let Crystal out her sight. She's not sure about Dad yet but she did let me feed her.
All I can say is God is AWSOME!!! My favorite verses in the bible are in Psalms 62:1-12, in verse 5 the psalmist says "find rest in God alone, my hope comes from Him. (6) He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken. (7) My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge. (8) Trust in Him at all times , O people pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge. We are a blessed people and we in America take that for granted Some of the things that we have saw over here is mind-blowing. WE ARE BLESSED!!! As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
Please pray for Crystal, she is so exhausted and emotionally drained that she is not feeling good. Pray for us cause we really miss our children. God Bless from China!!!

We have arrived and survived!

We made it to Beijing around 11:00 pm and finally made it to our hotel and checked in around 2:00 am. It's daylight hours at home, so I'm tired, but really feeling like it's time for bed yet. We left Detroit at night and arrived here at night, so we really haven't seen anything yet. And by the way, it's snowing here! Around 3 inches are on the ground. Oh yeah, very glad I missed the Great Wall and the outdoor sight seeing that was planned. Our hotel is very nice and somehow we're in an executive suite. Yay us! Tomorrow (well really today I guess) our flight leaves at 12:05 pm for Guizhou. Soon after, we meet Maggie for the first time. It will be quite emotional I'm sure. Pray for us as we deal with this time change. I will post pictures soon!

Ni Hao from Detroit!!!

Off to a bit of a rocky start....our plane was scheduled to leave Nashville at 6:12 last night, but due to storms it was delayed for 2 hours. Our flight from Detroit to Beijing was also delayed, but not enough for us to make the flight. We landed here in Detroit about 15 minutes after our Beijing flight took off. Oh yes, and I was in tears. The next flight to Beijing is tonight. After looking at different flight options and with different airlines, this flight is the most practical. There were no other flights to get us there significantly earlier. So.....we've missed out on a day of sight seeing with our travel group in Beijing. Not the end of the world or anything....just frustrating to not be there as planned. Now, let's look at the glass as half full. We got some sleep last night in a hotel, we're already here at the airport today, there's a Starbucks around every corner and this airport has places to shop! Yay!!! Today is Kevin's birthday and I have to say I'm glad I have him all to myself. We've walked around, shopped, drank Starbucks, people watched and he played a virtual game of golf at Pebble Beach. We're still one day closer to getting our girl and thankfully this bump in the road hasn't altered any plans other than a day of sight seeing. We are scheduled to arrive in Beijing at 11:40 pm (China time) and the very next morning we are scheduled to fly out of Beijing to go to Guizhou and get Maggie! No room to adjust to China time. Just pick up our daughter and keep going. Oh well, I'm used to life being that way with children :-) For whatever reason our plans got changed here in the beginning, I am thankful. Not so much last night when it was all taking place, but after some rest and a lot of prayer I know that God knew all this and planned all of this himself. I have to trust his reason. There was a lot of rough weather around Nashville as well as Detroit last night and I'm thankful we are safe. Now, let's try this again!

For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. Psalm 91:11

Operation: Bring Maggie Home!

The countdown is on! One week from today is "Gotcha Day" and Maggie will officially be a part of our family. We leave Nashville airport this Thursday evening headed for China. Much is still to be done and I think I'm about to suffer from exhaustion! This last week was already planned out for me as is this next week. The one thing our Dr. told us to do before going is to get plenty of rest, exercise and fluids. Well.....I got the fluid part down. Pray for my health if I cross your mind. All the busyness combined with the stress of leaving kids behind and traveling is beginning to take its toll. I nearly passed out this morning trying to get ready for church! On the up side of things, I hope to get some rest while traveling (got some meds to help that) and we'll meet our beautiful daughter soon after arriving. Also, I found out that I should be able to blog and facebook (after downloading VPN) while we're there.  Four more days until travel and seven more days until gotcha. I know the Lord has ordered our steps in this journey and I ask all of you to help pray for physical strength to see us through. Hopefully my next post will be from Beijing. So for now, Ni Hao (hello pronounced nee-how) and Zaijian (good-bye pronounced zi-jee-ahn)from Hohenwald, Tennessee.


 A man's steps are directed by the Lord.                                  Proverbs 20:24a


Do not be afraid for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.                                                                                       Isaiah 43:5