The Bostrom Family

Today was a very long and HOT day!   It was our last day in Jinan which is bitter sweet.   It is our daughter’s home town and probably the last time she will be here, but also means that we are getting that much closer to taking her to her forever home in Knoxville.   Our guide, John, took us to an area of natural springs that had a park build around them.   Originally the springs made up a mote around the city walls, but when the Communist party “liberated” them (as John says) they turned it into a park and monument where the exact spot where the Communist solders penetrated the city of Jinan.   It was really beautiful and was filled with lots of people enjoying their day.   We did a ton of people watching and photographing as we walked around, but I’m pretty sure we were more of an attraction than the springs to the locals.    We were stopped so many times to have our photos taken with the people.   Most people asked for photos with the 10-12 year old girls in our group or

Day 5, July 30, 2014 Today we got the opportunity to visit Miley’s orphanage and meet her foster mother.  It was a very big and pretty nice place.  Our guide said they have anywhere from 600 to 800 orphans there right now.   Kind of a big range, but he’s probably guessing since he doesn’t work there directly.  Her foster mother seemed very kind and wanted to hold Miley.  Miley smiled at her while she was being held.  It was sweet to see that her first caregiver really seemed to care about her.  Her first question through the interpreter was if she was crying a lot while away from the orphanage.  She hasn’t cried much at all!  Maybe she just isn’t use to us yet and can’t relax enough to cry (it’s only been 2 days right) or maybe God has been working on her little heart and preparing her for us and she knows she is home.   She did cry a few short minutes this evening because she was overly tired.  (She did eat 1 piece of Papa Johns pepperoni pizza before crying though…hehe

Day 4, July 29 Our first full day with Miley!  Also her birthday.  We woke up after a good night sleep to a huge breakfast.  Our hotel has the biggest breakfast that we have ever seen.  After a full breakfast, we went to the very large pool on the fifth floor.  It had a nice shelf on the edge that was about 5” deep where Miley could sit and splash with her Bamboo cousin Ben.  After the pool Miley took a good long nap.   Jeff took a walk out on the town with Minsan.  After naptime we walked to Tesco Hypermart to buy Miley some cloths.  Most of the ones we brought from home were too small.  We picked up a few gifts for the orphanage while there.  After a little shopping we played in the hotel till dinner.  Tried out the hotel restaurant buffet.  It had everything from raw octopus to crayfish.  Our favorite item was BBQ with cucumber.  It was extremely garlicky, but very good.   Next we celebrated Miley’s birthday in our room with Tim and Tonia and their kids

Today was THE day!  Miley Mengcong Bostrom’s Gotcha day!  We woke up anxiously at 5am and waited until 6:30 before going down to breakfast.  Breakfast was wonderful.  There were all kinds of food we had never had before and some that looked familiar like fruit, sausage, and bacon.   We had to wait until 10:30 until finally getting to meet Miley so we walked around the inside and outside of the hotel.  There is a lap pool that is amazing. We can’t wait to swim in it….maybe tomorrow.  We found a bakery that sells the cutest cakes in the shape of cars or cartoon characters.  We will probably buy one for Miley, because tomorrow is her birthday.  We were mainly trying to waist time… When it was finally time, our guide told one family member come outside and get your new child.  Well that wasn’t going to happen, Jeff and I both went with him….and….we….waited….again!  It was probably one a couple of minutes, but suddenly we saw three people with three babies walking toward th

July 27, 2014- Day 2 First half: We were only able to sleep until about 1am.   Our bodies are still on Eastern time.   I woke up thinking about my 3 wonderful kids back in Tennessee and just had to try to talk to them.   I got out of bed (which was a very hard circle bed) and turned on Skype.   If felt so good to get to talk to my kids!   Cooper still had face paint on from Dollywood and both boys sported glow in the dark vampire teeth from Chuck E. Cheese.   Piper was stuck like glue to Aunt Julie.   Those kids are getting some very special attention while we are away! After our Skype conversation Jeff and I still couldn’t sleep.   We found a new station on TV that was in English and a soccer game that at least we could follow the game and tune out the Mandarin.   It was useless to try to sleep any longer so we got dressed and reorganized our luggage.   We made a few more Skype calls to our parents before it was time for breakfast.   Breakfast at this airport ho