Home At Last

We arrived back in Charlotte at 7:40p.m. Sat. June 21. What a wonderful feeling to finally be home. The flights were all good, but so long. Our first flight to Japan was 4 1/2 hours, then the flight to the US was 12 hours, then another hour and half to Charlotte. In Detroit we went through Immagrations and at that point Emma Grace became a US Citizen. As we arrived back in Charlotte we were surrounded by family and friends. It was an overwhelming feeling to step out of the elavator to everyone. Emma Grace did great, she was all smiles and giggles. She wouldn't let anyone hold her but she would smile and interact with everyone. She was so happy to meet all our her cousins, she loves other kids. As we got ready to leave the airport we received a real treat not just for us but all of the kids to. Paw Paw Roy had rented a long white Limo to bring us home in. We felt like celebreties! Everyone's love and complete acceptance of our new family is such a blessing. One day the pictures and memories will mean as much to Emma Grace. In the last airport there was a lady that was talking to me about Emma Grace. She commented to me how blessed Emma Grace was to be a part of our family and to have us as her parents. My response to her was "No we are the ones that are truly blessed by her". Standing in our "crowd" at the airport looking at the faces of our family that's all I could think of "Thank you God for all of these blessings!"!

One Last Beautiful Day

We spent one last beautiful day today in the city of Guangzhou. It has rained so much but today was beautiful almost "Carolina" blue skys. It is 10:30 Friday night here and we are all packed up and ready to go. We are surrounded by happiness and a little bit of sadness. China has been amazing and I will truly miss the sites and sounds and beauty of this country. I have learned to love and respect my daughter's birth county and my views and opinions have changed so much during this amazing trip. I thank God for being with us through out this trip and pray this we will arrive safely home tomorrow night. Thank you all for following along with us, but thank you mostly for sending us your love and prayers through the computer. You have truly been wonderful and we look forward to being home with all of you. So goodbye from China & God speed for us home.

We Gotta Visa!

Our Visa for Emma Grace was approved without any problems. That means we have an appointment tomorrow for Emma's oath and we are finished. Thank you God! We have a really great day. All of the children did really well for the group photos. Then we visited a Buddhist Temple. They were going to do a blessing for the babies, but I talked with our guide Bruce about not doing this part of the visit. It just didn't feel right to have her blessed in a Buddhist Temple. There were a few other families in our group that felt the same way. Our guide Bruce is a very open Christain & understood completely. We also visited the Chen House. This is a museum from the Chen Family in China.
Today was also wonderful for another reason. Emma Grace woke up happy, not crying fit like we have had since her Gotcha Day. Also tonight she went to sleep with me rocking her & no fit or tears. She has made such progress in just a week. It is so hard to believe we have only had her a week. It seems like she has been with us forever. All I can say to any family reading this that is waiting like we did. I can promise you with all my heart It is so worth the wait.

We arrived in Guangzhou China after a very long 7 hour delay in the Hangzhou airport. As you can see from the picture below Aaron did a wonderful job entertaining our two girls in the airport by riding around on the luggage carts. Emma Grace is a little dare devil and loves riding on anything that moves. So yesterday we bought her a cheap stroller to ride in while in the city. As you can tell she loves it. Yesterday she had her physical that clears her medically to receive a visa and enter the US. She did well but got very upset when they tried to look in her mouth and ears. She would not stop crying, and then the “doctor” had to take off her clothes and diaper. This really made her mad & it took a while to calm her down. She weighed 9.16 kg that about 21 pounds and was 79 cm long.
The city of Guangzhou is amazing. It was a British colony for trading about 400 years age so a lot of the buildings are British influenced. Our hotel is the White Swan & it is beautiful. The hotel sits on the Pearl River in the Shamian Island. Inside the lobby of the hotel is a two story waterfall with a river that includes koi and goldfish. The hotel sits down the street from the physical exam building and a few blocks away from the US Consulate. Elisabeth enjoyed the pool yesterday while we were at the physical exam. It has been great to have Grandma to take Elisabeth when we have appointments with Emma Grace. Elisabeth has really enjoyed this hotel. Yesterday both girls received a gift from the hotel. It was a Barbie Doll holding a Chinese Baby. This is a special gift that you cannot buy. It is made especially by Mattel for the White Swan for families that are adopting and stay at the White Swan.
Today we are in our room waiting on our phone call from Bruce our guide. He has all of our paperwork at the US Consulate to apply for our entry Visa for Emma Grace. He will call us to let us know everything went through ok or if there is a problem. We will also have our traditional “Red Couch” picture today. This is a picture with all our children from our group. The children will wear traditional clothing and sit on a couch the in the lobby like all the other families before them. We will also visit a Buddhist Temple and the Chen House today. Only 4 more days until we come home (insert big smile here).

Ni Hao (Knee How) Ya’ll
We are so ready to come home!! It is Sunday evening here @ 5:30 so Happy Father’s day to our Dad’s at home and a special Happy Birthday to Paw Paw Roy. We love & miss you guys. We have had a busy & fun weekend. Saturday we took of tour of the West Lake. This is the oldest lake of its kind in the area. It is over 4000 years old & is very beautiful. We took a ride on a dragon boat on the lake. The girls really enjoyed this. Then we visited the National Tea House Museum. They did a full tea ceremony for our group and Elisabeth really like the tea cookies. Tea is a major harvest in this area & a big export. I included pictures of our visit to the West Lake. This afternoon we got a wonderful treat. Our guide Rebecca has been wonderful. We have gotten to know her really well and met her daughter yesterday. This morning we were talking about her church because we noticed the cross that she was wearing. She goes to a church here in Hangzhou and invited us to the afternoon service. They have services at 9:00 and 2:00pm due to the children being in school even on Sunday. She explained a little bit of the religious “freedom” that they are given here. They are able to worship freely whomever they choose and 85% of the worshipping population is Buddhist. Rebecca’s church is Baptist. It was so wonderful to sit in the huge service and feel God freely being worshipped here. Everything was in Chinese but so much was familiar. They sang “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and Elisabeth recognized the music quickly. We also had a “God” moment when they read the scripture and we recognized it as Psalm 139. This verse tells us that God knew us even before he formed us in our mother’s womb. I believe this not only about each of us but have known that God knew and has held Emma Grace in his loving care for us. The verse concludes with God telling us he would never leave us. It is so reassuring to here God’s voice telling us he it with us here. To hear his words in Chinese today was so powerful. It reminded me just how small this world is to our powerful and loving God.
Tomorrow we leave Hangzhou for the final leg of our trip. We will be flying out at 4:00p.m. Monday, that’s 4a.m. for you guys at home. We will be going to Guangzhou. This is where the US Embassy is located. There Emma Grace will have an appointment with a US physician to clear her to enter the US. Also she will apply for a Visa to enter the US and we will take her oath of citizenship for her. At that point she will become a US Citizen. All of these events take place this coming week. We will conclude everything Thursday, wait on paperwork Friday, and fly for home Saturday.

I have spent an amazing 4 days with this little wonder & I wanted to take the time to tell you all about her. She is simply amazing!! Emma Grace is so loving and sweet. She loves to play and laugh & is all smiles. You can tell that she has received loving care from her nanny. She knows what affection is and wants it from us. This has answered so many of my prayers. I know that someone has loved her & from that she will bond with us. She is sitting up on her own & will pull up with help. She is not walking, but wants to try. She went back and forth between Aaron & I yesterday. I know that she will make leaps & bounds with us. I can also tell that she is very smart. She lets you know just what she wants and has figured out many little things on her own. She seems very clever. She is also very stubborn(just like mommy: ) Yesterday she only wanted to eat french fries at dinner. To show me this she would take the fry and shake her head yes & then eat it. Then she would pick up the other food, drop it on the floor and shake her head no. Let just say she is strong willed!! She loves to be held and kissed by all of us. She is already bonding so well. Last night after I put her in her crib she said mama & held her arms to me(my heart sang). She is such a blessing & we are so thankful.

It is now Wednesday evening at 10:45. We are concluding a very busy day. Last night Emma slept wonderful. She didn't wake up until 6:45 this morning. Our day has been very busy. Today we started off by going back to the Civil Affairs Office and receiving our "official" paperwork that makes us Emma's legal parents in the eyes of China. We then traveled by car to Linhai which is the city of Emma's birth. This was about a 3 hour car ride. Emma and Elisabeth did wonderful. We were met their by the assistant director and the director of the orphanage were Emma has lived. They took us out to lunch and then let us come back to the orphanage. We presented them with lots of gifts that we were able to purchase with donations people gave us. We gave them 14 packs of diapers, 6 larger bags of formula, wipes, cookies for the children, bath soaps and lotions and a car seat. They seemed very grateful. We were able to walk around outside the buildings but they would not let us see where Emma has stayed. Emma, Elisabeth and Maw Maw stayed in the car. We felt that it would not help Emma to be back there. Linhai is a beautiful city with large mountains covered with Bamboo. It is also a very poor area. We saw many homes that were falling in with no running water or power. It was very humbling for me to see my daughter's birth city. It is very hard to think of the life that she has had. As we road through the streets today I couldn't help but wonder about her birth mother. As I looked at the poverty and the need is this area I thank God as I hold my daughter in my arms. I also thank her mother, that she loved this wonderful little girl enough to let her go with the hope of something better for her. I pray that God can give her peace so that she knows how loved our daughter is.

Finally after a very long wait she is ours!! We arrived at the Civil Affairs office just a little before nine. When we were taken upstairs to the room that the baby's are brought to Emma Grace and her nanny were on the stairs. Daddy spotted her right away. She was wearing the outfit that we had sent her in one of our care packages. When we went into the room the Director of the orphanage took Emma and handed her to me. After a little fuss she calmed down and even showed us our first smile. She is so beautiful and we are so in love. She is tiny, the 18 month clothes that I sent fit her with a little room to spare. It took a while to finish all of the paper work and then we had to go and have a family picture made for the documents. Overall I think she is doing really well. She will cry when you try to change her from mom to dad or lay her down, but only for a little bit(oh and she has a great set of lungs: ) She played a little with a Elisabeth and even smiled and laughed. She is doing well considering that everything normal to her is gone. We have had a little trouble getting her to eat, but she is taking in small amounts and drinking a little water. We will try and add more over the next few days, as she gets adjusted, just wanted to let everyone know that we have a beutiful new daughter and are blessed:) Thank you for all of the prayers and for thinking of us. The words from home mean so much. It has really helped Elisabeth to hear from friends and family and her school family. God Bless:)

Saturday we toured Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. It was very crowed and very hazy in the city today. There are so many cars and the air pollution is terrible. The Forbidden City was amazing, and huge. There are 9999 ½ rooms. The is no number 10 in Chinese numbers and 9 is a lucky number. Our guide Helen took us to a wonderful authentic Chinese lunch. I included a picture of our table below. We also visited a Silk factory and got to see the process that they go through to make silk. After that we went to an acrobatics show. It was called a “The Flying Acrobats”. The children in the group loved it. Elisabeth has made many new friends that are also here with CCAI to get new brothers and sisters. She has had a lot of fun playing with them. We also took a ride on a Rickshaw down the back streets of Beijing. It was very eye opening and made me very thankful for the blessings in my life. Saturday Night we visited a restaurant called the Roost Peking Duck. The food was amazing. All of the sit down meals here are served on a large round “lazy Susan” that is maybe four feet in diameter. They just bring out lots of dishes and you pick and choose what you want to eat.


Sunday we went to a Jade Factory and learned the process it takes to make jewelry and other items from Jade. Then we visited the Great Wall of China. All I can say is that it takes your breath away. You are driving along on a flat road and all of sudden these huge mountains appear. You are then able to see a section of the wall sitting on the side of the mountain. It is a very surreal feeling to be able to see it in real life. Our guide Helen said that the Chinese say that you haven’t been to China until you have stood on the Great Wall. Well we can all say we have been to China and have a picture and the burn in our thighs to prove we climb the steps. We concluded our day on Sunday by stopping by the Olympic Village. We were able to see the hotel that is in the shape of a dragon head that will house the athletes’. Also we saw the bird nest stadium were the opening ceremonies will be held and the torch will be lit. They have done a lot of work to prepare for the Olympics and the city is very beautiful.

Monday morning started bright and early. We had to leave the hotel at 5:00 a.m. to go the airport. We flew from Beijing to Hangzhou. Our new hotel is fabulous and we were very glad to arrive. We had a wonderful surprise waiting on us. Josh and Lily the owners of our adoption agency have been visiting China and assisting in the earthquake zone with the ophanages that were damaged. While here they were able to meet us at the hotel. It was a very overwhelming meeting for me. I am so thankful to both of them for what they have done for us and also their compassion and love for the orphans of China. Also I am very emotional today anyway; I am prone to tears over the littlest thing. When we walked into our room and saw the crib they had placed there it was hard not to sob. It is so hard to believe that in just over 16 hours we will have Emma Grace. We are going to the Civil Affairs Bureau and will receive her at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. That will be at 9pm Monday night for those of you in NC. We will try to call everyone that night if she is doing ok. Also thanks to all of you that have left messages! You will never know how much it means to have these words from home. It is hard to not be so homesick & your words are such a blessing.

Yesterday we went to visit the Beijing Zoo and Panda Garden. This is a huge zoo located in the middle of this major city. We took a taxi to the zoo, and let me just say you have never ridden on a roller costar that is more scary than this taxi ride. They don’t wear seat belts and the cars seem to fly. The traffic pattern is hard to figure out and cars just cut in front of you and blow the horn. The zoo itself was amazing. There are lots of animals that you could see at any zoo at home. What makes this zoo special is the Panda Garden. They have around 15 pandas in different observatories. They have also brought the pandas from that were affected in the earthquake zone here, and have built areas to care for them. We also got to tour the Zoo with a celebrity, the all famous Elisabeth!! Here in China it is very rare to see a child with blonde hair and blue eyes. They think that she is good luck and will bring good fortune. So as we are walking through the zoo, people curiously look at us and then focus on her. We had several groups of people approach us, and want to have their picture made with Elisabeth. They always asked Aaron and were very friendly. At one point we are standing in front of this huge aquarium and a family with a young boy came up to Aaron and wanted their son’s picture made with Issy. As you can tell from the picture below neither child was thrilled. We also got to experience public toilets in China. Aaron included a picture for your viewing pleasure; I will leave the rest to your imagination. I also included a picture below of the split pants that we were told they put on the potty training children. Today we will visit Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, we will also take a Hutong Tour (no clue yet what this means) and go to an Acrobatics show. Our guide Helen is fabulous. I am posting this at 5:30 am our time. My body hasn’t adjusted yet the time change so I am only sleeping about 3 hours at night. They told us the 3rd Day your body begins to readjust so maybe tonight will be better.

We are there.. We arrived safely in Beijing at 9:25 p.m. last night. Keep in mind we are 12 hours ahead of you guys. We also made it with all our our stuff. I can't believe no suitcases were lost. I'll try to post more later.

Well the first flight is behind us. We are currently at Detroit Airport waiting on our long flight to Tokyo. It will leave at 3:40 if all goes well. Elisabeth loved her first flight even though it was a little bumpy. She was very excited and ready to get on the plane. The next plane we will be on is huge.

It so hard to believe but the day is finally here. We are just now at 12:40 am packed and ready. We leave for the airport at 5:30 a.m. I am not feeling well tonight. I think I am trying to get sick. I had a last minute trip to the doctors today for a shot in the rump to make me feel better. Pray it does cause right now I feel yucky. Elisabeth was so excited and scared. We finally got her to sleep around 11:30 even though she was in the bed by 9:15. I guess the next time we post we will be in China, or an airport: ) Only 6 more days till we get Emma Grace...