Merry Christmas!

Ok Ok Ok, I know many have been waiting for an update. Well, as weird as it may sound, I found some quiet time on Christmas day to write. After an early morning wake up for Santa, all three of the girls are taking a nap. I also layed down for a bit, but woke up well before the others will (I hope).

When I last wrote we were about to get on the plane to come home from China. 21 hours of travel later we arrived at home. Katie slept for 3 hours of the journey. Heather and I...not a wink. Katie screamed at the top of her lungs in two different 45 minute bouts. Other than that, she was content for the rest of the time.  The trip was long and hard, but we made it and boy is it ever nice to be home. It's great to be home.

Once we were home it took about two weeks to get totally adjusted to the time change. Katie had some real issues with sleep. After sleeping for most of the day following the trip home, she reverted back to the early days in the hotel room. Scream, scream, scream...but only at bedtime. Which was better than before. It took several weeks to get her comfortable sleeping in our house. We tried every sleeping arrangement possible and every sleep technique known to man without much success at first. After about a month, she finally became comforatble going to bed and sleeping all night. With jet lag, Katie screaming for bedtime and waking up frequently at night, plus having another child who did not go through the time change and was sleeping well every night, the first month was rough. Things are much better now.

Being home has definitely had it positives. When we first received Katie she would only sit in one place and play with whatever was in front of her. She did not crawl, scoot, or move around. She did not like me at all, which was well documented throughout our trip. She could not feed herself. She did not attempt to talk. She did not smile or show much expression at all. She cried a lot.

Fast forward almost two months. Katie is now: walking, running, climbing, feeding herself, talking (about 15 words in English and expanding daily), she likes daddy a lot, she likes Ellie a lot, giggling, laughing, smiling, interacting, learning "no", getting into everything, gaining weight, riding in a carseat for about an hour without crying, the list goes on and on. With every day comes more comfort with her surroundings and new behaviors. We are so thankful to see her personality and get to know her as a person. She is bringing us great joy.

The pictures will tell the rest of the story. I will attempt to update possibly monthly now that we are home. I know many of you missed the daily updates from China. It was an amazing journey that was really only the beginning. Merry Christmas!

Final Thoughts, Praises and Coming Home

Final Thoughts

One of the pictures that was posted yesterday were from the famous "red couch" at the White Swan Hotel. It is a tradition among adoptive families from China to have their photo taken on the couch.

Wednesday was a bad day and good day. Katie woke up in the middle of the night for the first time...oh joy. She was then extremely cranky for the morning. Cry, cry, cry. Mostly crying during pictures. But we got through it. We've pretty much resigned ouselves that she is going to cry a lot. We're trying to enjoy the times that she's not crying. Like yesterday afternoon. Katie took a four hour nap while I was at the consulate picking up her travel visa. The last piece of paperwork completed. Ready now officially to come home. After the nap, Katie was absolutely content, sometimes smiling and easy going. A different kid. We really enjoyed seeing more snapshots of who Katie might become in the days, weeks, months and years to come.

Look at this precious little smile!

So much for that. She woke up crying at 1:00 am and then again at 6:30. At 6:30 we just decided it was time to get up. She screamed for awhile (I think we called her bluff). We had breakfast, she calmed down and is now playing with Heather on the bed. She's fine unless Heather moves. This has been much of our existence.

Praises

I have been amazed at the number of people I have heard from that have referenced our blog. The internet is far reaching that is for certain. Some of you that have been following the blog know of the faith Heather and I have in Jesus. Some of you don't. Part of our faith is the belief that God had guided our steps here. That God and God alone has ordained our adoption of Katie. And that He deserves all of the credit for this incredible journey. Specifically, we want to praise Hime for:

Speaking to Heather February 5th, 2007 through His word in Isiah 43:5 which says, "Do not be afraid for I am with you. I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west." These words started our journey. We took His word as a promise to us. God fullfills His promises.

Giving us Katie Some of you know that we had completed paperwork to receive one little girl, but did not receive her. We had then received an official referral from China for a second child. But, China made a mistake and referred that child to two families. We were told that she also would not be our daughter. Finally, in May of 2009 we were referred Zhan Yangting who would officially become our Katie. All of this was part of His plan.

His provision Adoption is not cheap. I am a teacher. Heather does not work (at least for money). Yet, He has provided everything that we have needed financially for the adoption. He blessed us with a $4000 grant from Shaohannah's Hope, a foundation created by Christian artist Steven Curtis Chapman. He helped us raise almost $3000 from garage sales, thanks to donations from many of you. He even stole our car. Which doesn't sound like provision at all. We needed $6000 for travel costs to China. Our car was stolen. Willy and Melanie Newhart from our church gave us a Volvo. The insurance company gave us $6000. We were ready to go. God provides.

His peace Throughout this 2 and a half year journey we have had peace. Throughout this 17 day adventure in China, we have had peace. As Katie screamed with no end in site; peace. His peace has been abundant.

His protection Through the airports, on the airplanes, from the germs, in the taxis, through all of the paperwork, through six vaccinations, through anything and everything that could have gone wrong He has protected us.

His praying people He has propmpted many people to pray for us and your prayers have been heard. Thank all of you who have interceeded to God on our behalf.

Our belief in Jesus prompted this journey...our belief in Him has been strengthened from this journey...we will continue to serve Him with all of our hearts. He is worthy of all of our praise.

Coming Home

As we come home I'm sure that all of you will be very excited to meet Katie. We are thankful so many of you love us and want to share in our excitement of bringing her home. With that said, getting home is just the beginning of the process of uniting Katie fully to our immediate family. First and foremost, Katie needs to know with complete security and confidence who her mommy, daddy and sister are. She needs to become comforatble in our home. She needs to have a familiar routine and know what to expect with each new day. Because of these things, we will be a reclusive family for awhile. We will not be out and about introducing Katie to a whole bunch of new people; even realtives. In time, as Katie adjusts, we may get out and about more, but when we do, Heather or I (maybe) will be holding Katie. We will be at home for Thanksgiving. We are holding loosely to any plans we have for Christmas. It took two and a half years for us to wait for Katie, you might have to wait a month or two to meet her yourselves. Thank you for understanding how important it is that Katie fully accept and attach to us as her family. Going forward it will help her immensely to become a well adjusted little girl. If you would like to come and visit you may certainly call and ask. Please do not be offended if we happen to say no.

A Day of New Birth

Katie started the day cranky, cranky, cranky. And then she got cranky (see pics). Instead of fighting it, we decided to go with it. We took pictures! As mentioned in the prayer request from Monday, Katie was having some issues with her lower intestinal track that had not yet been resolved on day 6. We decided that this was the most probable source of the crankiness. So, with some hesitancy we decided it was time to take action. Operation relievin' constipation was underway. The solution...a glycerin suppository. And since she doesn't like daddy yet anyway...guess who was the applicant?

With the medical remedy in place, the event was on. Katie held tightly to Heather like a baby gorilla on its mother's back. The medicine bottle said the remedy would produce in 15 minutes to an hour. We were hoping for 15 minutes...we got an hour. The contractions started mildly at about the 10 minute mark and we thought, "Ok this is going to be easy." But the contactions only picked up from there. A half an hour in, we timed the contractions at about two minutes apart; she was close. But then they leveled out. She still clung tightly to Heather. Doug caressed her back while she gave dirty looks. Heather spoke to her softly and Katie gazed at her lovingly. Doug spoke softy...more dirty looks. At the 45 minute mark the contactions kicked in again. This time closer together and stronger. Katie was fighting through them with everything she had; obviously holding on to the prescious package she needed to deliver. At exactly 11:48 am Nov. 17th Katie gave birth to twins. Two diapers full of beautiful gifts from heaven.

Our visa paperwork was being reviewed by the U.S. Consulate while operation constipation was taking place. We received a surprise phone call from our guide that our Consulate oath had been moved from Wednesday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon. We put an exhausted Katie down for a nap, woke her up from a dead sleep and headed to the U.S. Consulate at 2:15. Katie was in a much better mood, having taken a load off of her mind. We headed off to the Consulate. This was to be the last step of paperwork to complete our adoption of Katie on both the Chinese side and the American side. It all came down to this.

We arrived and went through security. Years had been spent preparing paperwork for this moment. We came into a room that looked a lot like the DMV. A voice over the speaker began to call family names one at a time to come to the counter. Heather and I decided to have some fun and started clapping and cheering every time a name was called. Pretty soon all of the families in the room (about 30 of them) were all joining in the party. When the first family from our group was called, we made a tunnel like at a kids soccer game and the family ran through it. We had a lot of fun with it. I'm not sure the U.S. Consulate will ever be the same. The officers their continued to be very businesslike and stoic.

Then, it happened. It was our turn. The moment we had been waiting for. Hours and hours and hours of paperwork. Years of waiting. All for this. We ran through the tunnel. Picture it in slow motion in your mind. All were cheering wildly. Champagne corks were popping. It was like we had just won the world series. Pure excitement!

We made it to the booth, they said, "sign here." I signed. They said, "let me see the baby." We showed them the baby. They said, "take a seat." We took a seat. Done.

After each family had gone through the same experience, we all stood together and with tears in our eyes, took the citizens oath on Katie's behalf for her to become an American citizen. The interview had been anti-climactic. The oath meant something. It was closure to a very long process. The only thing left to do now is get her HOME! When we land in San Fransisco on Friday. Katie automatically becomes a citizen of the United States. She is already officially recognized by both nations as our daughter. It was a day of new birth on many fronts. Praise be to God!

This is all of the families from Bethany

This is all of the moms and kids

This is all of the kids

Praise the LORD !

Monday - A little better again

Monday was a day off from paperwork, so we had one objective; get out of the room. We ate the hotel breakfast again, which is absolutely outstanding. Breakfast is like Holiday Inn breakfast except not at all. There are really no similarities to speak of. The comparison should have never been made. If the White Swan breakfast was a trout it would be a 24" rainbow that took 30 minutes to land on a remote Montana stream. If Holiday Inn breakfast were a trout it would be store bought with the head on wrapped in plastic. Purchased on the way home from getting skunked so you could make up a story about how good the fishing was. Anyways, we went to breakfast.

After breakfast we decided to head for the mall. This involved another taxi ride. We are gluttons for punishment. But, it was either taxi or hotel room. We chose taxi. You'd think after several near death experiences we would choose otherwise. We have grown to savor the near death experience. I think we are becoming Guangzhou taxi adrenaline junkies. Katie's dislike of vehicles only adds to the adventure. Katie screams, so the taxi driver goes faster, so Katie screams more and so on. Actually, Katie did well in the taxi today, the driver still went fast. Maybe there isn't a correlation.

I'll pause the story for a prayer request

Katie hasn't pooped in five days.

Anyways, the mall was seven stories of different shops. We went looking for a deal. We quickly figured out that there were no deals to be had. Every store was very expensive. This was the upscale mall of China apparently. Seven floors of expensive. We just walked around, found a spaghetti place for lunch and then got back in another taxi. We arrived back at the hotel with that feeling that you get after a ride on the scrambler at the fair.

Katie got a nap. Her fever went down. She played well on the bed most of the evening. After that bath and bed. A pretty good day. No pics today, I'll take more tomorrow. I promise.

Sunday - Another Toughy

The top two reactions to vaccinations are: fever and irritability. We got both. Katie woke up in a good mood yesterday which was different than previous days. We were thinking, "wow, this is gonna be a great day!" After breakfast, I had to meet with our guide at 10:00 to get paperwork in order for our U.S. Consulate appointment on Wednesday. Heather stayed in the room with Katie. Katie was playing great when I left. When I came back an hour later, the girls were sitting by the window having a cry fest. Katie had started screaming about a half an hour after I left. She would not allow Heather to move more than a foot from her the rest of the day without letting loose with all she had.

Turns out she had a fever of 102. The vaccinations of the day before made for a very long day, especially for Heather. At dinner time I was able to feed Katie while Heather talked with the rest of the people in our group. This was a much needed break for her and her sanity. Bedtime was great. 5 minute fuss and out. Definitely the highlight of the day. For all of the issues we have had, one of them hasn't been sleep. Once she's out, she's out.

I have to admit the pictures are diminishing at this point. We have been in Guangzhou for 7 days now and the area around the hotel is very, very familiar. We have eaten at every restaurant and walked every street and still have five days left. We are certainly reaching the point where we are ready to come home. The hotel room is getting smaller and smaller.

Prayer Request:

I'm gonna throw out the prayer request now for the plane ride home. We will leave Guangzhou on Friday morning at 7:55 am on a two hour flight to Shanghai. We will have a three hour layover in Shanghai and then an eleven and a half hour flight to San Fransisco followed by a two hour flight to Seatac. Needless to say, Katie could make some friends, or perhaps some enemies, on the plane.

Heather's Moments

• So I get to share about how the Lord met my needs on Sunday. I was emotionally wiped out from our sweet lil girl. We decided that I should take a 30 min break while she was sleeping (she has in past woke from naps in 30 min.) So I headed out. "MY" desire was to go shopping, but I instead went to the church here in the island. I thought what I really need is time with the Lord. I missed the services, but sat in the back and observed the people and prayed. It was after about 10 min a young gal "reached out":) for gcc attenders you'll understand this. She asked why I was lonely? I shared i was tired from baby. we talked for awhile about churches in USA, China how we serve the Lord etc. it was cool to hear about and share. we ended up praying for one another, swapped email, and took pictures. I am thankful to the Lord for allowing me to meet this dear sister in the Lord!!! our time ended right at 30 min!!!! Again a lesson in the Lord directing my steps perfectly and that HIS timing is perfect. I left refreshed and ready to attend to my lil girl!!!

Medical Exam Day

Katie in her jammies

The doctor's office is always tough for kids (and sometimes for adults) but you should try it in Chinese. Katie had to get a medical examination yesterday morning, which is why I didn't send out a blog at the usual time. Katie is usually a little cranky in the morning anyway, so the early morning appointment did not sit well with her. We went through the medical center in stations she cried at each one. We did find out some useful information through our guide that translated what the doctors were saying. She weighs 19.8 pounds, she's 30 inches long, her tempature was normal and...the doctor described her heart condition as "extremely mild." He had to look at her paperwork to confirm that she even had a heart condition. We were praising God for this report. We thought that her condition was mild, but to have it confirmed was a big relief. It will be even more so when confirmed in the U.S. as well.

The down side of the exam was that Katie had to get six shots. Ouch! These hurt Katie as welll as mom and dad. They gave us a choice of doing all six in one day or three a two different days. We chose to only put her through this trauma once. So, they use four nurses and administered two shots to her arms and four shots to her legs all within less than a minute (which seemed like 10 minutes as she screamed. She was not happy and neither were her parents. This was the toughest thing we have had to do since we got her on Monday.

After the doctor, the rest of the day was pretty laid back. We decided to lay low and just stay in the room. We did give her a bath in the sink which she loved. At nap and at bed time we had five minutes of whimpering followed by sleep.

We didn't take a lot of pictures yesterday either,

I'll throw in a few. Two are Katie.

Two are of the Pearl River waterfront right outside of our hotel at night.

Heather's Moments

• As Katie was getting her shots. I (Heather) was holding Katie as tight as I could. Doug was behind me rubbing his hands on my back. I felt the comfort of Jesus through Doug as he comforted me at this very stressful moment.
  

Each day gets better - plus cultural experiences

Katie is settling into a pattern, which is nice. She tends to be cranky in the morning. We have found that putting her in the sling and going for walks really helps her when she is cranky. We have put a lot of miles on around the local area here just walking out the crankies. She progressively gets better up through lunch. After lunch she takes a nap and then is pretty active and pleasant the rest of the afternoon and evening. Bed time is also getting much better. Last night took 30 minutes...a new record.

Despite the patterns that are developing, yesterday was not without adventure. The morning started with a trip to the zoo. Katie loved all the animals. This was the most animated we had seen her yet. Her favorite seemed to be the giraffes.

Look at this adorable little girl

The day before yesterday Katie had taken a three hour nap. So, when Katie went down yesterday Heather decided to go do some shopping at the local shops. Forty minutes later...she woke up. Katie is still not fond of daddy. I stayed calm, changed her diaper, offered her food, and then decided we needed to find mommy. After a screaming elevator ride and walk through the hotel, we went out onto the main street still screaming. As we started down the street Heather came running out of a shop. She had recognized Katie's cry/scream. All was well with the world.

After that we continued to shop. We went into a shop and bought a few items. The shop owner invited us to have tea. We sat down around a makeshift table as he prepared the tea. He spoke relatively good English. We had tea and talked about a variety of subjects from his home town, which was the same as Katie's, to politics to history. We probably conversed for a half an hour. By the way, Katie loved tea. She drank several small cup fulls of black decaf.

At dinner time we decided that KFC sounded good. We have grown weary of the local restaurants. We asked the reception desk if there was one within walking distance. The answer was no. She gave us written direction for a taxi driver instead. Without thinking it through we hopped in the taxi and off we went...FAST. Chinease driving is kinda like bumper car racing that comes just short of bumping. It's every car for itself and the taxi drivers seem to take pride in moving as quickly through the traffic using the tightest spaces available. 10 minutes later we arrived at a huge outdoor mall. I think all 1 billion Chinese people were there. We were the only white people in sight. We found KFC, but the menu was all in Chinese. We navigated ordering through pointing at the pictures. The chicken was good, but much more spicy than at home. After that we did some shopping at some of the stores. We bought two pairs of shoes for 250 Yuan which is about $40. It was then time to catch a taxi to go back. This was like a street hockey game. Their were 20 people fighting for every cab that showed up. After a few failed attempts because of being polite, the big American man took over. I fought my way through to the next taxi, knocking people out of the way (slightly embellished). I put my hand on the roof of the taxi and jogged beside it until it stopped. As soon as it stopped I jumped in the back seat before the people that were in it were able to get out. I got that cab!

Lastly, Katie is making great progress. We have been able to coax a few slight smiles and even one little, tiny giggle. Each day we see something new in her. It is truly an awesome experience.

Heather's moments

• In the elevator a man said, "cute baby, you wait a long time?" Heather replied, "Yes, a long time." He replied, "Worth the wait?" Heather replied while tearing up, "Yes, worth the wait."

Day 4 - Better, Better

Heather has told me that I am too matter of fact in my entries and that I need to add a more personal touch to what I write. So, here it goes.

As I gazed out the hotel window this morning thoughts of yesteryear wandered through my mind. Days when life was like a bouquet of daisies held tightly in my hand. In yesteryear the daisies that I held were two. But now another daisy had been grasped from a land far away. She was a daisy that had yet to bloom. My yearning was that I would be like the sun that would shine upon her and bring her to full bloom. In my mind it was still early spring, when the sun is dull and the cold still creeps in during the night. But the dawn of April was nearing and hence the flower was beginning to bloom.

Yes that is doug writing. DID you know he was quite the poet?

I call myself a poet of cheese.

Yesterday morning Katie was more wimpery than screamy (if those are words). She would give an occasional whimper or cry and then settle down as Heather comforted her. In the morning we visited a "family house" which was a couple thousand year old mansion like place where the Chen family used to gather for special occasions. It was a beautiful place. There was a lot of ornate artwork and architecture. The pictures from today are mostly of the artwork in this place. Katie whimpered through most of the tour and the car ride (she hates the car).

We had lunch when we got back and then put Katie down for a nap. She slept for three hours. When she woke up she was a different kid than we have seen so far. She played and interacted and even (not too much) raised the corner of her mouth just slighty as though she was thinking about smiling. We spent all afternoon and evening just playing with her on the bed. It was awesome. We were thanking God for getting to see just a hint of who Katie really is. At bed time, she fussed (not screamed) for 30 minutes and then slept all night. She is still asleep. It's been 12 hours. Praise God for a much, much better day.

I am adding a new section to the blog called

 "Heather's Moments"

• We were given a pair of shoes by a shop owner who commented as Heather had Katie in her moby wrap baby carrier whatsamacallit, "You hold your baby close to your heart."
• As we toured the family house a group of Chinese high school girls were fascinated with us and obviously wanted to take our picture but were too shy to ask. We asked them and they were giddy to get their pictures with some Americans.
• As we were riding in the car, Katie put her hand on the window to try and feel the rain drops. (picture included)

Katie Day 3 - Better

Day 3 was strategy day.

Objective...
find ways to help Katie not cry.

Strategy 1: Food

On the advice of the Clarks we went looking for cheetos. None to be found. So, we used whatever else we could find. In the orphanage Katie was fed a food called congee. Which is kinda like rice cereal, but really watered down. We stocked up on the stuff. Whenever Katie began to cry, we gave her food; congee, bananas, yogurt, egg noodle soup, french fries, etc. She really is more like an 8 month old when it comes to food. Srategy one worked quite well. She would litteraly go from screaming to quiet when food was presented. We'll deal with the food addiction issues later on in life. For now...less crying = good.

Stragegy 2: On the move

We decided to get out of the hotel room. We decided if she was going to cry, we might as well see some stuff around Guangzhou. It is a beautiful place. So, we strapped her into Heather's baby wrap thingamajiggy whatsacallit and wlaked around Guangzhou. When we were out and about, she was fine. In the hotel, better, but still fussy.

Strategy 3: Drugs

During one of Katie's screaming sessions I happened to look in her mouth. Her gums on both sides were very red and swollen. The darn kid is teething. We kept her dosed up on tylenol regularly with some pretty good results.

Strategy 4: Go to sleep

Strategies 1-3 ranged from mildly to wildly successful (see strategy 1). Strategy 4 was a miserable failure (although not as bad as day 2). The little girl has an opinion. At bed time, she let her opinion be known...loudly. We strated bed time at 7:30, we acheived sleep at 9:30. Then she slept without a peep all night. Between 7:30 and 9:30 she screamed like a banshee. At one point, we did an experiment. We picked her up out of her crib which did nothing to console her. We walked out of the hotel room with her. As soon as we were out the door she stopped screaming instantly. We then knnew that she was just not fond of the sleep idea and there was nothing else wrong with her. We went back into the room, put her in the crib, rubbed her back while she was screaming and eventually she relented. There will be a new strategy this evening.

Overall, the day was much better. However, Heather was exhausted at the end of it all because she is the only one Katie will be held by, fed by, comforted by, etc. If Heather leaves the room, Katie cries. This is a good thing. But it is hard on Heather. I, on the other hand, am getting a lot of reading done in between logistical support. Sometimes I have to hold the book in front of my face so that Katie won't cry from looking at me. She did let me feed her some banana in the car. I had to take a nap after that...I was worn out.

Lastly, we recieved the official certificate of adoption yesterday and have completed all of the paperwork and processing for China. Katie is officially ours according to China. We will spend the rest of our time here making her a U.S. citizen.

Thanks all for the prayers and comments, it is good to here from all of you. Thanks for being part of the journey.

Day 1 - Honeymoon, Day 2 - Grief

The first day we had Katie all was well. She was content to play quietly. She ate well. She slept all night. We were like...wow, this adoption stuff is easy. Then, day 2 came...

Katie was fine when she woke up. More of the same from day 1. We went to the hotel breakfast. We tried to feed her too many different things and she brought it all back up onto her cloths and the high chair. All to be expected with a little one. We had to meet our guide at 8:45 to go back to the adoption center to finalize the Chinese part of the adoption process. As soon as we got in the van she began to cry. She cried almost the entire trip until we got back to the hotel, but then settled down again. We took her temp at the hotel and she had a low fever. We gave her some tylenol and fed her, then put her down for her nap. She went to sleep fairly easily, but then...

She woke up! From that point on she would cry in about one hour sessions and could not be consoled no matter what she tried. Food and water would calm her down to start with, but then pretty soon we couldn't get her to stop. At 5:00 she had exhausted herself and fell asleep on the bed. She was out for about an hour, but then...

She woke up! From 6:00 until 11:00ish she screamed her guts out. Nothing would work to calm her down. We tried to stay calm. But when a kid is screaming and cannot be calmed down you know that something is wrong. We tried food, bottles, diaper changes, tylenol, standing and bouncing, laying on the bed, giving her a bath, on and on. She fell asleep on Heather's chest at about 10:00. But then...

She woke up! More crying and crying and crying, and then...

We made the room completely dark, put her in her crib, rocked the crib for about 10 minutes and she fell asleep. But then...

She slept the rest of the night and is still sleeping this morning at 7:30. Whew!

Sorry...no pics for this post. We were kinda busy.

Pray that Katie has grieved fully and will now attach to her new mommy and daddy.

P.S. - She pretty much hates me. If I looked at her to long yesterday she would start to cry. Pray for Heather because she is doing most of the work with Katie right now.

Katie Yangting Louise Wolff

Katie is now officially our daughter!

She has been in our arms since about 3:00 pm local time, which is 11:00 pm your time. By the time we met her, completed paperwork, returned to the hotel and fed her it was well after 5:00 our time. I am now writing at 7:45 pm our time as we have just put Katie (Ting Ting so far) to bed. We will introduce her to Ellie and grandparents via Skype tomorrow morning our time. Tomorrow afternoon for them. Here's how the day went.

We met our guide Joy in the hotel lobby at 5:45 am. We arrived at the airport at 6:30 am. We parted ways with Joy at the security gate and found the gate for our flight. We boarded the plane at 7:30. Our flight was supposed to leave at 8:00 but we were delayed for and hour sitting by the runway. The delay was explained thoroughly in Chinese. We arrived in Guangzhou at 12:00 instead of 11:00 beacuse of the delay. The hotel had sent a driver to pick us up, but they chose not to stick around and wait for the extra hour. So, we hired a taxi to take us to the hotel. What a ride! We arrived at the hotel at 1:30. We contacted our guide who had left a note for us at the desk. She arranged to meet us in the lobby at 2:30. In the meantime, I had to go to the bank and exchange U.S. money into Chinese Yuan. The conversion is 6.75 Chinese Yuan for every U.S.dollar. Needless to say, I walked back to the hotel and to our room with obviously bulging pockets. We had about 20 minutes to freshen up and get paperwork straight, then we met our guide in the lobby. A half an hour later we received Katie amongst at least 15 other families that were receiving their kids as well. The day was crazy!

Katie cried quite a bit when we first got her and for the entire time we were in the adoption center. Once we left however, she calmed down and has been so ever since. She is very observant of everything going on around her, but has been very quiet. Probably to be expected as she had never left the orphanage, seen white people or heard English before today. As we fed her and then went out to dinner, she seemed to be taking it all in and also very content to cling to Heather. She's not too sure of me yet. Probably not a lot of men around the orphanage as well.

Tommorow brings more paperwork, and more time getting to know our new daughter. Thank you all for your prayers as we have been on this journey. I cannot tell you have we have been guided, sustained and reassured by Him over and over again. Looking forward to a good night of sleep (hint, hint, wink, wink) maybe :)
P.S. For those of you participating in the trivia quiz the answers were:
d) all of the above
and
b and c) tears and screaming followed later by a) silence....so d) all of the above

Reminiscing

Well we are wrapping up Beijing. We had a nice dinner Lasagna and Chocolate Cake for a celebration of Katie!!

As I reflect upon our days in beijing I would like to say.....

Enough about that TOMORROW WE GET KATIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oH MY Goodness after 2 years of waiting. We meet her and we'll be a family of four. WOO-HOO!!

POP Quiz time-
1) When first meeting Katie how do you think Heather will respond?
A) nervousness
B) excitement
C) Happy Tears
D) All of the above

2) How do you think Yangting aka Katie will respond?
A) silence
B) tears
C) screaming
D) all of the above

Answers to this quiz will be posted tomorrow. So check back for details.

Thank you for following our journey! !! Keep the prayers coming we are truly enjoying this adventure the LORD has us on!!!!!

heather

Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City and The Hutong Tour...Whew!

Today started early once again. We have given up trying to totally adjust to the time change. We went to sleep at 7:45 pm and woke up at 5:45 am. 10 hours of sleep that feels like six by the time evening rolls around again.


We started our tour today with our guide Joy at Tiananmen Square. This is pretty much the government center of China. There were huge amounts of people from all over China and the world visiting the square and the adjoining Forbidden City. Visiting the square and the Forbidden City is the equivalent of visiting The Mall in Washington D.C. Only the Chinese version offers a couple thousand years of government history.

As soon as we stepped off of the bus we were bombarded by vendors selling numerous goods, everything from watches to big fur lined hats with red stars on the front. We quickly learned the words Bu Yao which mean "I don't want" or "no'. We must have said this 100 times today. We broke down to the pressure twice. I bought a Beijing stocking hat because it was a little cold today. Heather bought a torquiose bag because she liked it.

We walked the entire square and through all of the Forbidden City. The whole distance is a little over a mile. We started at 9:15 and finished walking through at about 1:00. The forbidden City is where the former Emporers of China used to govern the country. Tiananmen Square is where the new government is located. It was a long walk, but well worth it.

After finishing our walk, we took a short bus ride to the Hutong area of Beijing. This area can be dated back to the Mongolian rule of China. The people that live here have done so for several generations. We took a Rickshaw ride through Hutong. A guy pedalled a bicycle while we rode behind him on a seat for two. This was by far the most "real" look of China we have seen so far. We were invited into a man's home during the ride. He offered us jasmine tea and told us about his family through an interpreter. He was a Kung Fu teacher. At the end of our visit he showed me a Kung Fu pose as I held one of his swords. This was one of our coolest experiences so far.

At 2:30 today we were on the bus. Heather yelled out, "We get our daughter in 24 hours!" and then teared up a bit. The next time we post we will have Katie! Pray for safe travel as we fly to Guangzhou in the morning to get her. Also pray for Ellie, who is missing her mom and dad.

A full day of touring

Today started early. We had to meet our guide Joy in the lobby at 9:00 a.m. This was really no problem at all as both Heather and I were awake at about 4:30 which is about 1:30 p.m. at home. I guess we're still adjusting to the time change.


We set out on the tour with all of the families in our group. Two of the families received their children yesterday. One family is adopting a 7 year old girl, the other a four year old boy. It was awesome to see these families with their new children. It made Heather and I really look forward, as if we weren't already, to getting Katie. We watched these two families adjust to their new kids all day. We watched the kids begin to adjust to their new parents. We were blessed as we watched.

Our first stop on the tour was a Coissione factory. We had no idea what this was when we started. Coissione is copper pottery that is hand painted in several enamel layers and baked. The process was very low-tech and primitive. The results were amazing. Really pretty, colorful artwork. The people creating it were very skilled artists.

 Next stop, The Great Wall. The pictures we took do very little justice to the awesomeness of this creation. The terrain the wall is built on is so steep it is nearly impassable already. It is unimaginable how someone could actually build a wall on top of these ridges. Some of the slopes on the wall which we walked on were at a 75 degree angle. We got a great calf workout. Words cannot descibe how amazing the wall was. There were also a ton of people there. On the way out Heather got yelled at by a vendor selling souvenier books when she used the wrong word for "no". The word she said meant no, but in a different context than this guy wanted to hear. We just kept walking as he called out to us in an angry voice. Oops

We arrived back at the hotel this evening at 5:30. We ordered pizza from pizza hut. Pizza Hut has great Chinese food. Tastes just like home. The only difference was that it was delivered by a woman on a bicycle who wouldn't accept a tip. The large pepperoni cost us 72 Yuan which is about $11. Not bad for Pizza Hut.

Tomorrow we see Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. Then, we pack our bags for an 8:00 am flight Monday morning to Guangzhou. Katie will be delivered to us at 3:30 Monday afternoon!

One more day to Katie. We can't wait to meet her and introduce her to you. Until then...God Bless