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I have to say we may be money poor but we are friend and family rich. Filty Rich. We have the best support group surrounding us. Words are so inadequate to thank all of you. We know this journey to Lolah would never have run so smoothly without your prayers and encouragement and help.

Trudi and Jake for keeping the fort running smoothly with the precious boys we left at home. Cooking, laundry, grocery shopping, driving to school, emotional support just to name a few of the chores they took on with zest. They cleaned the house cleaner than I have seen it in a quite a while. I cannot even begin to tell you the extras they did for us. Oh ya the homemade soup waiting in our fridge when we arrived home. Had some of that soup before we went to bed. We thank you deeply.

Rachel, Adam, Caleb, Ben and Kate the weekend team. They kept the boys pumped all week with the vision of a sleepover weekend that was never long enough. Leevi and Simon are so comfortable in your home and that is a reflection of your acceptance and love for them. Thanks Rachel for living this dream with me for what seems like an eternity and not passing judgement just encouagement. Again words are inadequate.

Karen the tech support girl. She was the one who made the blog look pretty and posted it for us. She has some great computer expertise that I certainly do not have. If you could have read the emails that went back and forth between us just to get the blog rolling you also would be amazed by her ability and patience. The girl knows her stuff and if she doesn't, she knows where to find it. You know girl how I feel about you. She also was our Canadian guide, before we left. She gave us packing lists, travel tips, calming and reassuring peptalks that we could do this every time I called and post it notes in our file folder telling us to relax and focus on the most important goal, "to meet our daughter and bring her home". Everything else was to be enjoyed and not taken too seriously. I think we did that.
Cheers to you Karen. I appreciate you very much.

Those of who who I will not mention by name but have mentioned many times in prayers, we thank you for your financial support. Thanks for being still long enough to hear God and then act upon what you believed needed to be done. Many time we questioned if this dream was just a little to BIG for us. You have all renewed our faith in a God who can and still does BIG miracles. Lolah is a Canadian citizen and a Shutt because you dared to dream with us. You gives me "warm fuzzies" :)

The staff and students at Northumberland Christian School we are proud to be a part of your family. We knew someone was praying daily and we should have know it was ALL of you. To the staff who took the time to have Simon sit on their lap and show him the blog, the teacher who took the extra time to make sure Leevi was put together to go home because he just needed it, we are so grateful. These boys are special not only to us but to you. Another gift we do not take for granted.

For those I have not mentioned know we have not overlooked you. I have to stop at some point and get to how we are doing.

Sleeping is back on track for Lolah but D as always has sleep issues. The poor guy was going on 2 hours or less a night. Sunday night out of shear exhaution he slept 6hours. I decided to skip jet lag. It did not seem to bother me which is a good thing as someone had to keep the show going. I was back doing paperwork Monday morning and I think all is complete.

About Little Miss Lolah. Well, she is amazing. She has been stellar in all ways. The communication does not appear to be an issue for her but sometimes I just smile, give eye contact and offer my hand so she will show me what she wants. She is learning very quickly to use Shutt family sign language. Hey , it works, I cannot say she has learned an english word she uses regulary but I am sure it will be coming soon. She counts to 10 in english all the time now. The copy cat game is played often as a joke but she really does say the words she repeats very well. She is loving all the boys. Jordon seems to be the favorite and she has him wrapped. Arms stretched upward is her most common stance when she sees him. They are quite a pair. He is in awe of her incredibly happy spirit and huge smile. Ge Ge is the Mandarin word for older brother and she has a few of those, so the phrase is often heard throuhgout the day in a loving and caring manner. I guess the best way to tell you how she is doing is by posting some pictures.

I will keep posting so you can follow along as she begins to communicate with us in english. Thanks for your comments they are read and appreciated.

Janet, Darryn, and 6

They are home

Karen here! Janet has asked me to post to the blog as her computer has been down since arriving home. I think that when they were trying to get her internet access up and running from China, they may have changed some of the email properties. Regardless, she will post again when able. In the meantime, she asked me to tell you all the following:

The flight home was uneventful. Lolah and Janet both managed to catch 3-4 hours of sleep, while Darryn was a little less fortunate only shutting his eyes for about an hour.

Their passage through Customs and Immigration took about 75 minutes. Darryn and Janet were overjoyed to see the boys as they stepped through the baggage doors. Poor Lolah was overwhelmed and began to sob uncontrollably. On top of her exhaustion, I think her perception of "brothers" was a bit tainted and inaccurate, so she was not looking forward to meeting them. Thank goodness for our dear friend Hannah, who began reassuring her in Mandarin. After a few minutes, the sobbing was reduced to crying. Several minutes later, Hannah discovered that she liked chocolate ice cream and so the boys were off on a mission with Hannah to find an ice cream cone in the Toronto airport.

They returned to find Lolah in a much more relaxed state and the ice cream ended up being the ice breaker (pardon the pun). Within minutes, Lolah was doing cheers with her cone to Simon and Leevi's cones. It became a family party right there in the airport!

The drive home was again uneventful and they all crawled into bed at 12:30am. The sleep thing has been going well - Janet is probably closest to being on Canada time, with Darryn and Lolah lagging behind slightly.

The relationship between Lolah and her brothers has been very positive. She and Simon are getting along famously and enjoying playing together. This morning Simon said, "I really like having a sister". Leevi has taken his role as a big brother very seriously and is always making sure that she has what she needs. Jordan is in love with her and enjoys her VERY sweet and snuggly disposition.

All in all, things are going better than expected. Janet said to say thanks to all for their prayers and well wishes! She will post when able (hopefully by end of the day Monday.

The Blue Zoo

Well our last full day in Beijing. We are very happy to have only one more sleep until we leave. Don't get us wrong we have had a great time , but like everything there is nothing like home. I just want some homemade food.

The Blue Zoo was on the agenda for this morning. It was a great call for the kids, and hey the adults really enjoyed it also. We started off and a rough note when Darryn was fooling around with Lolah outside the Zoo(aquarium). He was pretending to throw her in the mouth of this big model shark. She is always such a card and D thought she would laugh. The poor thing was frightened and started to cry. D felt so terrible.

She stopped fairly quickly and was laughing in no time. Once inside we saw all kinds of cool fish, sharks, turtles and mermaids. The mermaids were the highlight for Lolah. There was a huge fish tank with a tunnel underneath. The mermaids jumped in and swam around. The tunnel underneath had a moving sidewalk and well as a walk path. The glass was approximately 2 inches thick. It was also magnifying. So all the fish appeared larger although the mermaids did not look bigger. Oh well it was just really cool. It was here while looking at a large tank of goldfish that Lily told us that was the fish we ate yesterday. I was grossed out because I actually tried a piece of fish yesterday. D said not to worry it is just like carp. Oh, that really helped.

We had a free afternoon to rest up for our "Last Supper". The guide agency took us out for a nice dinner. It was the best Chinese food I have had. I ate more in one meal than I think I ate the entire time in Xi'an.

Lolah was struggling to stay awake after a huge meal. She ate lots of Peking Duck and dumplings. We had walked to the restaurant so we had to walk back and D was going to have to carry her. It was a fair distance so we decided to take a rickshaw. For 10 yuan, $2.50 CAD we hopped in ready to have our first rickshaw ride. You have to picture two large North American people hopping into a cab. It looked funny and I felt bad for the driver. Well I did not feel bad for long because he started up his gas powered 3 wheeled moped.

We were off and 20 seconds later the motor stopped and he started pedalling. We had no idea why as we could not see out of the cab. I just figured it was so he could weave through traffic easily at a slower speed. A few seconds later after trying to pedal us he stopped. The door was opened and we were directed to another rickshaw by a smiling lady. Turns out he ran out of gas. I don't blame him for not wanting to pedal two large people who had just ate a huge dinner. The lady took over and we were off again. We all really enjoyed it.

Now it's off to bed for a good night sleep for the big day ahead of us. Not at all worried about the flight. I think Lolah will be fine as she will have her own tv with childrens channels. We are really hoping she sleep a good portion of the trip only because this may help with the transition. We asked Lily to prep her a bit for tomorrow. The mention of the boys only brought about a solemn, non expressive look. This could very well be because she was tired. Time will tell. We decided not to mention it again. She knows. Everthing will be as it should be. Thank goodness Hannah Sun-Reid will be there. For those who do not know her she is our chinese speaking child development worker. We appreciate you Hannah.

See you tomorrow.
D,J and L

Tiannamen Square and Forbidden City

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Had a good time today at T Square and Forbidden City. Not so interesting for Lolah but she was a good. Beautiful architecture.

We are stared at quite a bit when we are in a group. Especially the little girl who came with her parents to adopt her brother. She is so tired of being asked if they can have their picture taken with her that she just pulls her hat down. Rachel, I cannot imagine what they would do with Katie! Her blond hair and fair skin would make you some money - all she would have to do is get her picture taken.

This couple also decided to buy a book at the Forbidden City from a vendor. They were handed back some change and decided to give a 20 yuan to a beggar. The man would not take it. They could not understand why until our guide told them it was counterfeit. Smart beggar knows his stuff.

Darryn as always loves to engage with the guys and gals selling things on the streets. If they do not listen to his no thank you, he puts his arm over their shoulder and has them walk with us for a while before they figure it out. I guess that is one way to get them off your back. By the way it is illegal to sell stuff on the street, this yet it is done so much I am guessing they cannot control it. D did get a hat though, check it out.
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It was off to lunch and Lily had arranged for us to go to this traditional restaurant from a minority group. I did not catch where she said they lived in China but they sure have beautiful girls. We had entertainment of singing, dancing and musical instuments during our meal. Lolah loved it. Check out the concentration she had while watching them. I enjoyed a snuggle with her also during the show as you can see.

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We decided to eat food we had in our room instead of going with our group to McDonalds for dinner. Loalh had a long bath and quite enjoyed it.

Tomorrow we are off to Sea World. I do not know anything about it but I think the kids will love it. Then we have dinner our our guide, actually the business that she works for. We are having a traditional chinese dinner.

Oh by the way on our way this morning Lily pointed out a food market along the street that sells dog meat. No mystery meat for me while I am here. If I cannot be 100% sure of what it is I have not eaten it.

Good night from Beijing.
D,J and L

D already has 2 suitcases packed. I think he is having a good time but is also eager to see those special boys.

Oh No! Now I have market fever!

A pretty mellow day on the agenda. All passed the immigration paperwork
test. Lily checked all the paperwork here and it was done in 1/2 an hour
in total. She went to the embassy for us and she paid with her credit
card so no one had to go. The girl gets things done and very very
efficiently. We will pay her back of course.

With that looked after we headed off to the YaShow market. I had not
really enjoyed it like D did before now, but today all changed. Much nicer markets in Beijing. We headed downstairs where we were told the shoes were. Lolah had a blast but I was a little concerned because so many people were asking her questions and I knew they were about her adoption. She often looked uncomfortable. I finally gave her our tag that explained our story and let her show interested people if she wanted to. She was quite cute wielding the power. She grabbed a pair of sandals that were purple and white with tons of fake gems on them. Totally princess! We distracted her and hid them. She was easily distracted by a pair of tall black fashion boots. The girls got some class. I am so happy she has some "pretty" in her. She just about flipped when we saw nail polish and bought her a bottle. She immediately pipe up tzee tzee momma and off she skipped. She carried that bottle of nail polish for the entire time we were in the market. We could not convince her to put it in her or my pocket. The hour and a half passes like 5 minutes. Then we were off to the next market and we hit the toy room. What a blast. I believe we are
going back as a group and I will hit the clothes floor.

I have an issue I want to mention just in case someone reading this is coming to China and has a quezzy stomach. "horking" Oh my goodness.

There is clearing your throat and spitting then there is horking. The chinese people HORK. It really does not matter where you are you will hear someone working on some agressive phlem release. We were sitting in our room with the door open because it was 90 degrees. Numerous times D would mention how disgusting it sounded and it doesn't even phase him at home. I am particulary sensitive to this while dining and often this is when I heard it most. I can tell you the time we were out for dinner at the buffet and an elderly lady was working something up. I almost lost
what little dinner I had consumed. Excellent at consumption control. I have not had an appetite while I am here and this is one of the reasons. Maybe this will toughen me up.

On to something a lot more pleasant. The minute we arrived back in our room she was eager to get her nails done. How fun was this. I think the picture tells the story. After an extended drying time. She was off to do laundry again. Our very own laundry service!

Tomorrow it is Forbidden City and Tianmenan Square.

Later
Janet

PS.Hello again. I know I already posted today but I am doing this more for Lolah.

On the day we went to Lolah's orphanage we were given a tour of the
property near by that the orphanage shared with a seniors building next
door. This property was on top of a hill with a paved road leading to it. On the way up we were following Penny, the liason officer and the Orphanage director. We were passing by a site where a building obviously had been taken down. I asked what had been there. The liason officer did not answer that question but he did tell us that a building was once there and it had to be taken down because it had a huge crack in it after the earthquake. D and I were quite taken by the comment and started our own conversation about it. We were both so happy Lolah's building was not affected. After we had heard about the earthquake at home we both commented on how we prayed God would protect Lolah and the other children in her orphanage. We were in awe of the fact that it had affected a building so close to her yet she was safe. Penny later told us that the children were likely evacuated from the orphanage and slept in tents.

To tie this together, move ahead to yesterday on our way home from the Great Wall. I asked Lily if she would ask Lolah if she remembered the earthquake. Lily told us that yes she did remember. Lolah told Lily that all the children were crying but her. She was not crying. The nannies had to carry all the other children out because they were so scared but not her. She ran out all by herself. Lily asked if they slept in tents and she said yes.

This little girl has been through so much in her young life. It is no wonder she is so grown up in so many ways. I could not help but wonder if the nannies told her she was big enough and had to walk out seeing she was the oldest and most able. Sort of the "suck it up" approach. Just a thought. We are just so thankful she was kept safe.