Blessed!!

Well the last few days with our new little girl have been pretty amazing.  Since we are first time adopters, I really had no idea what to expect so I figured I would expect the worst and it would have to be better than that.  But all of my anxiety and fears of it going terribly wrong, so far have been overshadowed by a attaching little girl who each day makes steps to show us that she trusts us and wants to be with only us. 

Yesterday we went to the Yellow Crane Tower, and this was the first time that she would actually get down to walk and hold my hand.  Otherwise it was baby clingon!  She also; since there were tons of steps; would let daddy take her hand so we could help her down the stairs.  She also, calls him BaBa which is super cute, but doesn't want him to take her yet.  She will hand him things and wants him to open food for her.  If I say "go give it to Baba or Dada", she already knows what I am saying and will take it to him.

Today we went to the Museum, and she would get down and sit on the floor and just look at me.  I would say come on get up and she would put her hand up for help.  She even let go of my hand and walked in front of me for a couple of seconds.  It wasn't long though and she turned around and wanted to be picked up again.  She played a bit more freely in the room today and is definitely being more interactive with Cass and Daddy.

She hasn't been eating a lot at meals, and had a little meltdown at supper last night.  We are managing to keep her eating snacks and drinking a lot, but it is so hard to know what she will eat.  She puts stuff in her mouth, chews it and then spits it out, so hopefully when we get home we can get her eating some healthy stuff.

She also has been sleeping about 10hrs at night.  She only will fall asleep if she is laying on top of me though.  She goes into instant panic mode if she thinks I am going anywhere.  We have a King size bed here, so I am not sure how our little Queen bed is going to do when we are home. 

Tomorrow we head back to Beijing, which we are actually really excited about, here in Wuhan the streets are literally packed and you basically risk life and limb if you leave your hotel room.  So from about 9:30 to 11:30 we are with our guide and then she drops us off to spend the rest of the day in our hotel room.  We are staying at the White Rose Hotel and it is a bit out of our league.  If you even go near one of the elevators, a bell boy is there to push the button for you, if you enter onto another floor there are about 5 people standing wondering what you would like.  The food is not good at all(we have spent a fortune on trying to find something on the menu edible, even the American Hamburger didn't taste like meat), so at this point we are dehydrating and starving and a 5 Star hotel in Wuhan. lol

So overall, things are going well with our new little princess, she is very smart and is like a little Molly Made.  I was eating one of her cookies as she was drinking a milk box and she put out her hand for my garbage and took it and her empty milk box to the bathroom and put it in the garbage.  Too cute.  Tomorrow will be her first plane ride, but I am sure she will do fine as long as she can sit on my lap the whole time.

Thank you to all who have been praying for us on this journey.  God has definitely been in every detail and we are very thankful and blessed for the many answered prayers.

First Days Together

Here are a few pics of the last few days.  Things are going very well, she has become my permanent attachment and will barely let me put her down for a second.  We signed paperwork today and we were nervous about her seeing her orphanage worker again.  When he walked in she turned her head and snuggled in as close to me as she could possibly get.  Then when we went to have a pic with him she didn't want to be even close to him, so I am assuming that is a positive!  We are supposed to be going to see the Yellow Crane Tower today, but it is raining so I am not sure.  It may help though if we go to have it a bit cooler, especially me trying to carry a 2yr old up 9 flights of stairs. :op

 

Gotcha Day!!

 

More to come, we have been up since 3AM, waiting in the very crowded Beijing airport for 10hrs and finally got to our girl around 5:30.  She was a bit upset at first and literally sat on me like you see in the pic for about an hour.  It didn't take her too long to come around though and now she is sound asleep, so who knows what the night will bring.  She is so sweet and happy, she wouldn't eat much other than cheerios and drank some water so hopefully tomorrow we can get her to eat more.  More updates and pics hopefully tomorrow!  Off to bed!

Drum and Bell Tower Tour!

Today, we got up and actually made it to the western style breakfast in the hotel restaurant.  Chris was very excited about eggs, bacon, sausage and toast.  He thought he should eat a fair amount to hold him off for awhile.lol

Bell Tower

Drum Tower with 69 steep steps to the top in a lot of heat!

Then we went with some of the group on a 15 min walk to the Drum and Bell Towers.  They were pretty amazing.  We went on rickshaws through the oldest village in Beijing that surrounds the Towers.  Most of the families that live there have been there for generations.  We went to visit at a Kung Fu Master's house and had Jasmine tea with him.  They are so friendly and welcoming.  He showed Chris a few moves with his swords, and got him to do a Kung Fu pose.  It may become his new hobby who knows.

We also did a bit of shopping today, but it was sooo hot that for most of the afternoon we came back to the hotel and had a nap before supper.  Tomorrow is the BIG DAY, I am not sure how much sleep I am going to get tonight, but I at least need to try.  We have to get up at 4am, be at the airport at 5am and our flight leaves for Wuhan around 7am.  It is around a 2hr flight and we will meet Keely for the first time at around 2:30 pm local time.  So for those folks back home you will be in dreamland because it will be like 3:30am.  So maybe when you awake we will have had time to post some pics.........if not they will be added soon!

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we add our daughter to our family!! 

Adventures in China

Well today was our second day in China, we left our Island on Wed, July 20, flew out of Moncton at 6:30am, landed in Newark Airport in New Jersey and flew to Beijing from there at 12:05pm.  We had a 13hr and 40min flight to Beijing. Our guide Fay met us at the airport and we arrived at our hotel at 3:30 in the afternoon, very tired and ready for showers.

We went to a local supermarket to get some bottled water and snacks, lets just say the variety of foods and the way they are handled are very different from what we are used to.  With the heat, and the other smells around, it doesn't take long to kind of loose your appetite.   We then met up with another family from NS whom have done this twice before and are back for their third daughter.  They were headed to go eat supper, but we were just ready to go to bed, so that is how we ended our 1st day in China.

Today we met the others in the lobby at 9am and left to go on a little walking tour.  We walked to The Temple of the Earth park.  There were lots of people dancing, little kids in their split pants(if you don't know what split pants are it is when toddlers and babies have a split in their pants from front to back without a diaper  So they just do their duty wherever they want!)  There was a live band playing, and lots of interested locals in the couple with the two adopted daughters.  It is such a different way of life here and just because there is a crosswalk doesn't mean that you really dare cross because bikes, and cars definitely don't care if you are an inch away from them, they just honk and you have to get out of their way very very quickly.

We ate dumplings and noodles at lunch with chopsticks and drank Chinese Pepsi.  At supper we went with Yulin, her daughter and the other family and had a variety of different dishes. (Chris figures the Peanut Butter we brought is going to get used a fair amount in the next two weeks. )  The heat here is unbelievable, you walk out of the hotel and it is like a blanket of heat consumes you almost making it hard to breath, and that is with no sun, just smog of fog.  The people here are very calm and friendly, we feel very safe walking around Beijing.

Tomorrow we are headed to do some more sight seeing, and visit some local homes to see how they live.  In 2 more sleeps we will be getting on a plain and going to Wuhan to meet our girl.  Then the real adventure will begin!  I will hopefully be able to journal each day so I don't miss or forget anything of this awesome journey.  Trying to savor every moment, even the smells in the streets that can turn your stomach in an instant. (Well I could do without that part.)

CHINA HERE WE COME!

Well it is official that we are going,  the past couple weeks you could say have been a tad bit stressful.  We went from having to decide within an hour whether we wanted to go on July 23rd, to it looking like it was too tight for us to go, to it looking somewhat promising to 95% sure that we were going!

So yesterday we finally booked the tickets because we couldn't  really wait much longer and Yulin thought it would work out, but she still wasn't 100% sure.  So we took are chances anyway and finally tonight; after a lot of stressful and anxious days; we got the 100%!
 YAY, so we head off our island tomorrow, because our flight will leave Moncton early Thursday morning.  Then we will go to New Jersey to Beijing.  Air Canada's flights sky rocketed just within the last week, so we are taking the cheaper route.

We had our one last fundraiser on Saturday.  We did a car wash/ bake sale/ BBQ and made over $2600, so that definitely helps!  The last one we had back in June, was in a downpour/ thunder and lighting storm and we made about $900.

Everyone on our quaint little island have been so generous and supportive of our adoption and we are so thankful we live in such a wonderful community.

Well it is hard to believe that all of the dreaming, planning, waiting and praying for a little girl is finally coming true.  It still hasn't really hit me yet that we actually are doing this, but I am sure once we land in China it will sink in pretty quickly.  Can't wait to get Keely in our arms and kiss those chubby cheeks in 5 DAYS!!

Thanks for following us on our journey, we will keep the updates coming and definitely pics ( Thanks to my lovely photographer niece that is traveling with us!)

TWO YEARS AGO TODAY!

"Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone, but still miraculously my own.

Two years ago today, a young mother chose to give you a life and a future the only way she knew possible.  In hopes that one day you would find your forever family who would love you and take care of you.  

We are very grateful to this woman, because she has given us a daughter, sister, granddaughter and chance to love you as our own.  I know we haven't met you yet, but very soon we will be holding you in our arms.  You probably have received our present we sent you and we hope the nannys take lots of pics of you today and that you love your little raggy blankie.

So soon, very soon you will home baby girl.  We love you and can't wait to get to know you and make up for the two years that we missed.

"Never forget for a single minute, you didn't grow under my heart, but you grew in it." -Fleur Heylinger

* WAITING FOR MEI MEI (Little Sister)

Hopefully we won't be waiting much longer.  We are still waiting to see when our LSC gets to China.  Yulin said her brother has been diligently checking and talking with the lady from CCAA(China Centre of Adoption Affairs) and she said once she has it she will do her best.   The agency has really been trying hard to have this work so we can travel on July 22nd.  So I really hope all of our hard work pays off!

We sent her a good chunk of change today to cover our in China Travel and Accommodations, plus the agency fee, translation fee and Visa application fees.  I feel a bit of relief knowing that at least that part is taken care of, now we just have to worry about flights and the orphanage donation.  Which, might I add the money transfer that I did today pretty much took every last penny that we have saved or received in the last few days.  So what does that mean?  That we need to do as much fundraising as we could possibly do in the last week.  I think this Saturday we will have another car wash/ BBQ and bake sale and see how we do and we are also waiting on another donation, but we have no idea how much to expect.  The funds have never really panicked me and for some strange reason they still aren't.  Maybe it is because I am so panicked over whether we are actually going on the 22nd or not that I haven't had time to stress over the $$.

We are so looking forward to finally holding our girl and getting to know her ON THE 25TH of JULY, that I really don't care how it happens, all I know is that it just needs to happen!!  PUSH!!

Roller-Coasters Are Supposed To Be Fun

Well this past week has definitely be one heck of a roller-coaster ride and not one that I am particularly fond of, but this to shall pass! 

So I am going to make a list; mainly for my own recollection of the things and issues that have arose this past week.
1. Received our Visa Application Form through email.  Had to print it off and fill out, (reminder reread directions before filling in all of the paperwork).
So we needed to print off more copies, to find out that we are out of printer paper and this was at midnight!  So we hopped in the truck to my husbands work to reprint the papers.  Home at 12:30.

2. Get on the first boat Tuesday morning, pick up my son along side of the highway from his grandmother, go to my Dr.s appt about shots, then rush my son over to his orthodontist appt.  We then went to pick up a car seat from my aunts and headed back to the cottage.
I dropped him off and had to rush to Fredericton to get my niece's passport photo, to mail with our passports to FOI.  The Fedex shipments leave at 4 and we arrived at 3:50.  Whew another thing done!  Then I went shopping for things for our trip.

3.  LSC still hadn't arrived anywhere and Yulin is afraid that it will be too tight to fit us in the July 23rd group.  We were a bit stressed over this.

4. Called Gentle path on Thursday morning to see if he knew where it was and he said that Elaine had just received it yesterday and he wouldn't get it until tomorrow. OOOKKKKK  we don't have all that time to wait, so I called Elaine myself and she said if I wanted to come to Fredericton to sign it, then we could.  So Chris came up on the 11 ferry and we headed to Fredericton.  There were some issues with Postal services, but we got it figured out and the letter was mailed Friday.

5. Emailed the agency to see if there anyway to fax or email copies of the letter we just signed to China and that the originals would be there by Tues. or Wed.  So Friday morning Elaine sent the email to them with the info they requested.

6.Saturday morning we wake up and have an email from FOI saying Travel Notes 3 and that there were eight families traveling with the July group.  Including us, so this gave me a glimmer of hope.

7.  Another email stated that they would check on Tuesday or Wed. for our pkg in China and if they found it quickly that Yulin would ask for our Travel Approval to be expedited.  So hears to them finding it quickly.

8.Today Monday, July 11th got an email stating the Purolator tracking # was wrong, so we got a different one that seemed to work I guess. 
Then I get an email from Canada Post stating the pkg that FOI was sending us was going to be delayed for an undetermined amount of time!!!  It's not like we have a lot of time CAnada Post!

So you could say after the last email of something else messing up, I lost it!  There is only so much one can take before you think really, is this how it is.  Paperwork and the Postal Service are the two things right now that are standing in the way of us getting to our daughter who has lived in an orphanage for 2 years of her life.  So ridiculous and unfair, but what can you do other than trust in a God who is SO much BIGGER than any of this nonsense.

We CAN Do This!

You could say today has been a bit stressful trying to figure out what actually needs to be done in order for us to travel in 19 days. 

We currently are awaiting our Letter Seeking Confirmation which was supposed to come today, but didn't.  I just received and email with more paperwork to print off and fill out for our Visa Application and we have to get everything filled out and Fedexed no later than tomorrow!  Whew!

I am headed to the mainland tomorrow for a Dr.'s appt to discuss vaccines and Noah has an Ortho appt., I have to go to Fredericton to get Cassidy's new passport pic for her China Entry Visa, find Fedex before 4 o'clock and at some point I need to fit in picking up a car seat, and try to get items that we need to take with us like.  Are you tired yet?  I know I am and 5:30 am is going to come very early!

All of this is happening so quickly, it is hard to believe that just over a month ago, I was wondering if we would even have a referral this year.  God has done miracles for all of this to happen so swiftly and I am very thankful.  I know in the midst of the stress of planning, packing, waiting and fundraising God has made every part of this process more amazing and such a blessing. 

We're Coming Soon Baby Girl!

I have to remind myself on a daily basis that this will soon have passed and we will have sweet Keely home with her brothers.  All of the planning, paperwork, stress and the running around will be a distant memory.  So I am trying to cherish this time and know it will be so worth it once we hold her little hand and kiss those chubby cheeks!!

CHINA BOUND ON JULY23RD!!

I am still pretty much in shock over this one!  I got home from work yesterday afternoon and had an email from Bob asking if I could call him.  So I did and he said, "China had sent out our Letter Seeking Confirmation and that we should receive it by Monday, and that we could travel in the group at the end of July".......O.K. so that is 3 weeks away???

July 23rd is the date, and when he said that, I couldn't believe it because that is the day that my husband's brother is getting married.  What are the chances of that?  So basically Bob said he would call back in an hour after I talked to Chris, whether we wanted to go with this group or wait until Sept. 14th group.  Of course we want to go,but considering we still have a substantial amount of fundraising to do, the wedding, and flights may be possibly double what we were planning.  Can we do it this soon?

It probably sounds ridiculous to even question going to pick up our daughter sooner than later, but we never expected that it would be this summer that we would travel.  We were told 3 months min. and 5 max.  it will have been less than 2months from the time of referral until we have her in our arms!  Amazing or what?

So all things put aside, we are going to get her!!!!  So we will fly out on Friday, July 22nd and she will be in our arms on Monday, July 25th!!!!!!!  We will return to Canada on Thursday, August 4th and be home on August 5th!

So much to do and so little time, but I know God is in control and I have to trust Him with all of the little details and believe everything will work out great!  Can't wait to meet Princess Keely!  We love you and are coming soon sweet girl!