Saturday Afternoon In Guangzhou

Well, it's 2:30 PM, here in the hotel room, and in an hour I have to go upstairs for our paperwork party - all of the stuff that can't be done before coming to China, like Visa applications and other prep work for leaving China has to be done this afternoon.

Sophie is supposed to be going to sleep for her nap right now, but she's standing up and talking to me so that I pay attention to her. She's hard to ignore, especially when she lays on the cute.



Here's Sophia with her white whale stuffed animal that we got for her at the aquarium on Thursday.



The face looks awfully similar, doesn't it? She is a big ham for the camera - at least when I'm taking pictures of her. This is from this morning - the whole crew went to the medical office to get the kids medical examinations done. There was a lot of screaming and crying from everybody's babies, but we all made it through okay.

I think the doctors were surprised by Sophie's condition - they took her to a different exam room for the examining doctor to consult with, what I assume was, a senior physician. But as I said, everything turned out okay - all of the kids passed.

Here's our friends Faith and Jason, and their new daughter Zoey! Isn't she adorable!




After the medical exams, we went to the "supermarket" which was really like a Dayton's - sorry, Macy's - with a supermarket floor. We bought a much needed stroller, and a Fisher Price Counting Friends phone - she loves playing with it - there's a phone book at the top that she can flip, it speaks English, and the numbers all make sounds - she even holds the handset to her ear like she's talking (of course, she also like giving the phone to you so you can talk - she likes to share).



The weather is beautiful here - it's 70 degrees, sunny - feels like late spring in Minnesota.

Tonight we'll be going as a group to a Japanese restaurant and tomorrow I believe we will be doing some sightseeing - though I'm not really sure yet...

Hope everyone is doing fine back in the USA, and we'll be home in six days!

Love you guys!

Larry

Saturday Morning In Guangzhou

Well we arrived here in Guangzhou just after 9 PM last night local time.

The flight turned out to be around 5 hours in the hair, with a half hour layover in Dalian.

Sophie had a temper tantrum (we wouldn't let her kick or throw the seats in front of us) about every half hour, except for the hour she slept during the second, longer leg of the flight. It was not fun.

We have three more flights until we get home, and then I'm not getting on a plane again for a long time...

We met up with Tammi, Greg, Kristen, and their new addition Matthew last night at the airport - but there wasn't a lot of time to catch up.

We're in the China Hotel, which is apparently a Marriott hotel. It's pretty nice - definitely 4.5 stars. We have a soft bed, and there's good water pressure in the shower, Stacy is happy to report.

We aren't sure what's going on today, except that we have some paperwork to do, and we get to meet up with all of the other families!

We need to go to a store today and get a stroller and some beverages - hopefully we'll find something that's not too expensive.

Gotta run and eat breakfast, we're meeting everyone in an hour...

Hopefully there'll be a standard nap time post later on today (Saturday morning for those at home) with pictures and video.

Talk to you all later!

Larry

Two More Videos Before We Go

Okay, I have time to post two videos before we head off to breakfast.

First, this is Sophie at breakfast yesterday morning:



And This is Sophia talking as she gets ready to go to sleep last night:




Share and enjoy!

Talk to you all later!

Larry

Last Day In Harbin

Well, it's a little after 5 AM as I begin this post this morning, our last day in Harbin, China.

We leave the hotel at 12:30 for the airport, and our six hour flight to Guangzhou leaves at 3:05 PM.

Since we don't get in till 9 tonight, we're a little disappointed that we may not see any other families in our travel group today. We're kinda hoping that other families will be coming in as late as us so we can meet them in the airport.

Sophie has been complaining a lot when we change her diapers, but as soon as we are done, she'd fine. Sophie also takes after her mom and is crabby when she wakes up :)

We had a pretty good bath last night, Sophie is starting to have good fun in the bath, doing her hair is still the worst part, but we'll look for the shower hats as Jen suggested when we get to Guangzhou.

I took some pictures of China Street last night, but first a picture of Sophie getting ready for bed...



Isn't that the cutest smile ever? And she does it a lot!

Here's our hotel, the Harbin Holiday Inn:



And the place we had lunch at a few days ago:



A view down the street:



This is one of the places that they shot Blade Runner:



Just kidding - but it sure looks like it!

Lots of neon and lights:



A sculpture about halfway down the street:



Another Blade Runner setting - at least it could be:



My earlier comparison to Nicolet Mall in Minneapolis is pretty accurate - it has stores big and small along it's length, though China Street is a lot busier at night, and doesn't allow buses on it.

We only have two seats for the plane trip today, so it'll be good practice, I guess, for the trip from Tokyo to Minneapolis next week. So far we have an open seat from Beijing to Tokyo, so at least we'll have some space for part of the trip home.

I don't know if I'll make another post today, as we'll probably be very tired when we get into Guangzhou.

Talk to you all later!

Larry

Thursday Afternoon

Good afternoon, everyone!

Here's Sophie eating breakfast this morning...



Here we are at the world famous Harbin Polarland Aquarium!



We started with a wonderful sea lion show - Sophie loved it!



We went through the aquarium, saw a ton of fish, some penguins, a couple of polar bears, and some sharks!

Sophie was jumping, kicking, pointing, and smiling the whole way through.

We got her a balloon dolphin at a shop early on, and then a very soft stuffed white whale at the end of the tour.

We figured out how to make Sophie's baby carrier bigger, and were able to use it today. It worked great!



After the aquarium, we went to Pizza Hut for lunch. As you can probably guess what I'll say next - it wasn't like Pizza Hut in the States.

It wasn't bad, but the pizza had no tomato sauce at all - we even asked (with the help of a young lady also dining there) for a side of marinara - and they didn't have any on the premises! At a Pizza Hut!



Sophie ate some sausage, cheese, and crust, as well as some garlic bread - she didn't seem to like the apple juice that we got her though. We'll try again later.

After lunch we went to a real live Walmart in downtown Harbin.



W picked up some more water, some bigger shoes, some more chocolate, and some rubber duckies for Sophie's bath time here.

Everyone was pooped, so we came back to the hotel room so the girls can take their afternoon nap.

Tonight I'll be taking some pictures of downtown Harbin, then we need to get ready to head out tomorrow afternoon, when we leave for Guangzhou. We're at the half way point - we'll be back home in a little over a week!

Talk to you all later!

Larry

Tomorrow

Thursday Morning

Good morning, everyone!

Daddy's up for the day, so it's time for my early post!

We had a successful bath last night!

I got in first, then we sat Sophie on my lap so only her calves were in the water. Then we brought in her stacking cups, which she loves to play with, and started playing with them for a five or ten minutes in the water. The cups have holes in them so that water will drain out - we actually planned on them being bath toys too, and they worked out very well.

Next, I sat her down in the water in front of me, in the middle of my lap, so that I was still touching her and comforting her. She almost cried, but we started playing with the cups right away, and she slowly started to get into that game.

Once that was accomplished, we started splashing, and then I'd take a full cup of water and let it drip onto her arm or back, letting her get used to the water.

After about ten minutes, I started soaping her and rinsing - and she was doing fine, still playing and splashing.

Then came the dreaded hair. Again, we were slow and calming. This is definitely her least favorite part, but we got through it without any crying or too much fussing.

Then we let her play more, so that play and fun would be the biggest part of a bath. I got out slowly, so that she could play by herself, and get a taste of bathing by herself. We created a monster - she didn't want to get out. She kept splashing and scooted forward, because she noticed the lever for the drain, and wanted to see what it was.

I moved the lever to start draining the water, and Sophie reached out and moved the lever back down. Which didn't do anything, because the drain on our tub sticks. So she pushed the drain plug down, stopping the water from draining. In the words of Dave Barry (who also has a daughter named Sophie) "I am not making this up."



So she played for a few minutes more, and then after shaking her head "no" at me when I reached out to her a few times, I pulled her out anyway and dried her off. My timing was off a little bit here, but that is the tail end of her smiling in the bath tub!

Last night for dinner we went to a chic little local place called McDonald's. Actually, I went and brought it back - it's about a ten minute walk away, but Stacy requested it, and I was hardly in a mood to deny her :)

Like in Ukraine, the menu is very different, but they have the Big Mac, double cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, and fries. The guy at the register looked at me for a second, and whipped out a bilingual (Chinese and English) picture menu, and all was good. I also ordered two pies that I thought were apple - learning later that they were pineapple, not apple. Who ever heard of a pineapple pie?

Also like in Ukraine, the best McDonald's can be had after eating local food for a week. Sophie had about one chicken nugget, with most of the breading taken off (we wanted her to get protein) and a few french fries. I haven't had a Big Mac in years, but it was very good. Stacy was also happy with the meal - no peanut butter sandwich last night :)

We all went to bed about 8:30 - I can't believe how tired I've been - but we are very busy with our little girl, and I just need to adjust, I'm sure.

We keep having plans to reorganize the bags, or to sew her mitten clips to be shorter, or some other thing - and it's not getting done. We keep just spending time with little Sophia (and that is a good thing). As new parents, we are going to need to work on getting ourselves to get things done as well as spend as much time with Sophie as possible :)

On that note, I have been lacking in my Documentarianographer duties - haven't taken any pictures of Harbin yet, and very little new video. I will get back to taking pictures like a madman today.

Here's a few from our first two days as an appetizer to new pictures:


Part of the Summer Palace



A small part of The Forbidden City



A very very small part of the Great Wall (which is not the only man made structure visible from space, in case you were wondering)

We will be visiting the Harbin aquarium this morning, I hope that Sophia likes it!

Well, I've rambled on for an hour now, I think it's time to call it a post.

Thank you everyone for continuing to comment and to let me know that the videos worked!

More to come at nap time!

Larry

We have video!

The ladies are napping again, and now I have had the chance to start grabbing and processing video for you all!

I'm not able to watch it from China - even with the tricks I'm using to be able to see Blogspot blogs (ours and others) the videos aren't available to see - so please let me know if this works

This is from just before her nap - we started putting some lotion on her cheeks and "nubby" - her right arm end - and she started helping us. She is very very smart - she mimics us quickly and loves to do things herself...



Also from earlier today - she can "walk" if we help her...



More from today (okay, the tape that I captured first only has stuff from today and yesterday on it) - Sophie is very kind and will share her Cheerios with us...



Stacy found one of her tickle spots - her laugh and smile are amazing!



We walked down the local pedestrian street today, called China Street (a lot like Nicolet Mall in Minneapolis), to try and find some local food. We found a place called Mr. Lee's California Beef Noodle King USA (seriously!) and decided to give it try. Needless to say - nobody spoke a word of English, and I had to order our lunch by pointing to the menu pictures. We had two huge noodle soup bowls, and a chicken thigh that had been cut into strips perpendicular to the bone (yes, it was bone-in). Half of the chicken had a pepper sauce on it, the other half an onion sauce - both were very good, though it was hard to eat with chopsticks, and you had to eat around the bone. Stacy didn't care for it too much, but we had bought some bread yesterday, and brought from home some Jif peanut butter, so Stacy didn't starve :)

Sophie is so amazing. We have been blessed to our very core with her. She's smart, funny, happy, and we love her so very much. I pray that we can be the parents, the home, that she deserves. We will do our very best, and when that's not enough, God will help us. She is so wonderful. We are all three very happy.

That's all for now - I'll give another update either in the morning when I wake up, or later tonight if I get time to get some more video up.

Larry

Reflections

Daddy is showing Sophie how to use the computer.

Larry has been doing such a great job at posting. He thought it important for me to share some of my thoughts too. So here they are. Its been pretty uneventful today; except for playing with Sophie of course. We have been going a little stir crazy sitting in the hotel room. Hopefully we will be able to get outside to go somewhere or at least take a walk. As Larry said, it was pretty awesome to see Sophie not wanting to go to her previous caregivers yesterday. Sophie had a foster grandma soon after she was first brought to the orphanage. She called her "Nana". Our guide Lynn said that Nana cried for 3 days before she had to let Sophie go. There were tears of joy too she said. Since she didn't really spend much time in the orphanage, we opted not to visit it. We will try to keep in touch with the directors who can then send pictures to her Nana. All of the officials (orphanage director, adoption center director, and others who were there) really cared about Sophie. The director said that when she was sick, since Nana couldn't take her, he drove Sophie to the doctor himself. They told us that they were happy to see her go to a good home and they thought we were a nice family. We told them we could tell she had been very well taken care of. It was hard for them to let her go.
It appears our little Sophie is a genius. All parents think that don't they? :) She is a master at imitation. She only has to see it done a couple of times, even if it was a few hours ago, to repeat it herself. Larry and her have a new game. Instead of "give me ten" its "give me six". She is so happy. Unfortunately it has been hard to capture a smile on film. We did get it on video though.
Nothing new to report as of yet. We are really looking forward to joining up with our travel group again. It was really hard to say good bye to them in Beijing. Hope to have more to share soon.

Gotcha Day: Epilogue

Well, it's about 4:30 in the morning here in Harbin, but I'm wide awake (I usually get 5 hours at home, so 7 hours is sleeping in for me).

I thought I'd take this opportunity to fill in some details on the trip overall, on what we've been doing with Sophie, and the like.

First, a correction - the picture from yesterday that I posted of Sophie waking up was from her nap after we first got her in the clothes she was brought to us in.

This is our baby girl in her new jammies waking up yesterday morning (note her Panda is in her arms - she loves it, and it was part of the care package that we sent a few months ago)



I mentioned yesterday that Sophie put her hand print on a document as part of all the paperwork yesterday - here are two pictures of that event, one of us after she put her print on, and the other of the document itself.





The double image is due to Sophie not being very cooperative in putting her hand down flat, but it seemed to be okay with the officials :)

Last night, Sophie again hated her bath - we tried making it a little cooler, but she started complaining before we even put her in the tub. She calmed right back down as soon as we take her out and held her with a towel, and she wasn't shivering. I'm not sure if maybe a little separation anxiety is going on - so I think tonight one of us will take the bath with her and see what happens.

Sophie is a very good eater - she opens wide when we give her food, and can feed herself with her hands too. She also communicates well when she does or doesn't want something - so we can give her her water bottle or more food and we can very easily tell when she wants to switch.

Sophie is very talkative, and we were getting a little worried that she was speaking a lot of Chinese, and that we were missing out on things that she was saying to us. We asked our guide Lynn about many of the things she was saying, and it turns out that most of it is just baby talk - so we aren't missing out.

Most of our time is spent playing with and just watching Sophia. Boy does the time go by fast! She loves crawling around on the furniture (we are keeping her off of the floor - no telling how dirty it is) and she loves buttons and stuff that makes noise. She played with the phone for over an hour last night.

It's also funny that she uses her middle finger to push things right now - just so everybody knows she isn't giving you the bird :)

We bought some soy sauce at the store yesterday, and boy does that help with the food. As fasr as we can tell, it's not really used here - not in the cooking process, and not available as a condiment. I think that is one major difference between American Chinese food and Chinese Chinese food.

We have a few little games with Sophia besides the "throw toys on the floor and laugh" game. One is where I pat my cheek, and then Sophie reaches in and pats both of my cheeks with her hand and nubby. Another little activity is that she likes to wipe her cheek with a wet wipe, and then she'll wipe our cheeks if we ask her too. She also shares her cookies and crackers with us - holding it out to our mouth until we take a bite (and she can tell if it's a real bite or a fake one, so you'd better really have some).

Yesterday the directors were impressed with our preparation for Sophie - we brought some mitten clips to hold her boot onto her right leg - they thought that was a great idea.

Sophie was standing last night, holding herself up against the room service tray as we were feeding her some fried rice (which, of course, is just white rice with stuff mixed in, not fried rice like we think) - we're very confident that she'll have no trouble learning to walk and stand on her own once she gets a prosthetic foot.

We do feel a little isolated here - every one of the ten families in our group is in a different province. That isn't normally how it goes. We are very much looking forward to meeting back up with everyone from our travel group (which is really a big family, as far as I'm concerned) and sharing a week together with our new additions.

Video. Yes, I know. Time got away from me last night, and I frankly crashed at about 8. I promise everyone that I will try to get some video posted today. The only thing planned today s to triple check the notarized documents this afternoon, so I should have the time, Sophie permitting.

I think I've rambled enough for now - expect a new post at nap time!

Larry

PS, Madison and Emma, you can meet Sophie in a week and a half when we get back!

Gotcha Day II: It's Official

Good morning, Sophie!



We found out last night that Sophie is not a bath person. She does not like them, Sam I Am - not one little bit. But, after the fastest bath I've ever seen (even the cats complain less), we threw away her old clothes and put on her brand new PJs.

Sophie kinda woke up a few times during the night, but went back to sleep a few minutes later. Not too bad for sleeping with new people in a strange place. In fact, she slept longer than I did!

We got up at 6 AM, and went down to breakfast about 7:30 AM after getting ready. Sophie helped Stacy get her hair ready...



Sophie had a bottle before we went down to the buffet, but we wanted to give her something more substantial to eat too (she normally has hot rice cereal, we are told). We found out that she loves pancakes, rice, and noodles (of course). We tried some fruit - bananas are okay, as are apples, but she didn't go for oranges at all.

The chinese family that sat down at the next table came over to look at her (we stick out just a little bit here, and we tend to gather observers wherever we go.)

She's a pretty clean eater, which is good, because she hates the disposable bibs we brought with.

After breakfast, we bundled her up in her new coat and hat, and left for a very busy morning of more paperwork.



On the way, we had to stop at the bank so I could exchange a very large amount of US dollars into a very large amount of chinese yuan. In this province, some of the fees are paid in US dollars (the orphanage donation), and the rest are paid in local currency. It would have been nice to know this a few days ago.

The bank we went to didn't see US dollars very often, so it was a 15 minute ordeal of waiting and watching them check and recheck the bills, and then have everyone in the bank scrutinize my passport and visa.

I should mention that it was about this time that we realized that we didn't have Stacy's passport with - we didn't know where it was - and it wasn't where I thought I'd put it. You might think that we would be freaking out about that, seeing as how we'd be stuck in Harbin until we could get a new one sent to us. You would be right (at least, inwardly).

Our guide, Lynn, called the hotel, and they sent a team of people up to our room, and they called back saying that they'd found it! This was great, because it was going to be a worry point until we got back to the hotel in the afternoon.

We then went back to the adoption center, had our family picture taken for the registration form, and then went back to the conference room from yesterday to fill out more paperwork and answer more questions.

The way that it works, at least in this province, is that we have her for a trial day, then the next day everything is finalized. I suppose, technically, we or the directors could say no after the trial day, but that was not going to happen today :)

It was clear to everyone that Sophie was already bonding to us (she didn't want anyone else to pick her up, for example - even the people who she was with the day before), and that she was very happy with us.

We signed and thumbprinted some more forms, answered some more questions about our plans for her education and health treatment, and why we wanted a special needs child, and then Sophie got to put her hand print on a document (I assume it was her saying she wanted us to adopt her).

Very large amounts of money disappeared from our posession, we gave the orphanage director gifts, and then we got to take some more pictures of us holding very official documents...



The first is us with the Orphanage director, and his assistant, and I believe his release of Sophie to us.



This is us with Susan, the director of adoptions in the province, with the official adoption registration. My eyes in this pic are looking at the other camera taking pictures - sorry!

What does all this mean? At approximately 11AM local time, Sophie became our daughter officially!

We said good bye (Sophie waved) and we got back onto the van to go to the Carrefour (everyone calls it Walmart - it's the generic chinese name for a department store / supermarket) and bought some formula, water, pop, noodles, a stuffed puppy (for her second birthday - she was born in the year of the dog), and some chocolate for Stacy and I.

This store also has a mall attached to it, which included a KFC! Yay, we wanted to have a little western food!

It is nothing like the KFC in the US. Sure, they have "chicken" but it is, how do you say, "wrong"? We got the popcorn chicken and fries - the fries were good (pretty hard to mess up) but the popcorn chicken was made out of the meat that the McDonalds Chicken Nuggets used to be made out of before they switched to all white meat. Dark, gristly, and with just the wrong texture and flavor. Not going back to KFC in China.

We left after Lynn got back from her lunch, and Sophie fell propmtly to sleep on the ride back to the hotel.



When we brought all of our groceries up to the room, Sophie woke back up and we gave her a bottle before putting her back to sleep for a nap. And that is where things sit right now - Stacy and Sophie are sleeping, and I am blogging.

I'll be working on putting video up tonight - we found the cables, now I just need time

Tomorrow will be an unplanned day, and Thursday we are going to the Harbin aquarium - it's supposed to be really neat, especially for kids.

We leave for Guangzhou on Friday afternoon. Which reminds me - please pray that the local govenrment gets Sophie's passport ready by Friday - apparently it usually takes longer than the time we are staying, so our agency is expiditing the processing - but prayer will bring it to fruition.

Thank you everyone for posting comments - please continue to do so - it's very touching and wonderful to read them every day. We feel your love and prayers through them!

More to come soon!

Larry

Gotcha Day: It happend so fast!

Holy Shnikeys!

We got to the airport a little after 6 AM, and our guide, Sherry, started giving each family their boarding passes. As each family departed the group, it was getting harder and harder to say good bye - tears and hugs went all around - it's amazing how diffierent people from all around the US can be brought together by God and a common journey in just a couple of days. It felt a lot like a mission trip, how we quickly became close friends. Absolutely wonderful.

Suddenly, we were given our information - our plane was leaving Beijing for Harbin at 8:15 AM - we had just over an hour before it started boarding. We didn't have to pay any over-weight charges, and it went pretty smoothly through security (though I did embarass a young lady security officer - apparently my money belt set off her wand metal detector, so I pulled up my shirt to show her what it was, and she definitely blushed - but I wasn't going to try and hide anything from the security people!)

We got to our gate, and 30 minutes before boarding, we were sent a dozen gates over, on the other side of the terminal - apparently or plane was reassigned gates at the last minute... We boarded, and had a very quick flight (about an hour and a half) to Harbin - we landed just after 10 AM.

Our bags were in the baggage claim five minutes after we got off the plane - I have to give China credit for rapid baggage claim processing - it takes an hour in the US, if you're lucky!

We were greeted by our local guide, Lynn, and told that we needed to move quickly, because we were going straight to the adoption office, and would be meeting Sophie right away! We were shocked, suprised, and amazed! We assumed we wouldn't meet her till later in the afternoon, after settling into our hotal room, etc...

After an hour van ride over bumpy roads (I'm glad I took the extra anti-motion sickness pill) we arrived at the adoption office. We were whisked into the main conference room, and quickly met the adoption office director, the orphanage director, and an assistant who had a few forms for us to check and sign.

After about ten minutes, we were greeted by the sight we'd been waiting three years for...



SOPHIE!

Sophia Allison Ziegler was across the table from us, being held by a local caregiver.

Then we were asked a bunch of questions, which I won't ever remember (I do think I have most of it on video, though). The orphanage director let us know that they received the care package, and brought the blanket, cameras, and Panda that we had sent to Sophie as part of the care package. We can't wait to see what pictures they took over the last few months!

Then came the next big moment...

The caregiver gave Sophie to Stacy. I'm sorry for the blurriness of the image, but I was shooting video and taking some stills at the same time - but the look here is priceless...



They gave us her schedule, what she eats, as well as a starter of milk and crackers that she likes, since we wouldn't be going to the store today.

A few minutes later, we were going out the door (we'll be returning tomorrow to complete paperwork and pay donations and fees) and back in the van to the hotel.

The trip went well, Sophie didn't cry, and was in a pretty mellow mood (which is better than we expected). She ate a cracker and even smiled a few times!

Lynn checked us into the hotel, and within ten minutes, we were up in our room trying to dig stuff out of bags so that Sophie would have her toys to play with.

When we brought her Panda out she reached out for it - it's clearly been a good toy for her, and our intent for it to help her bond to us definitely seems to be working. She likes putting the teething ring on the Panda, playing with her stacking cups and books that we brought, and of course, throwing them on the floor for daddy to pick up (she laughs and laughs every time she throws a toy on the floor)



She uses her nubby very well, and can hold a sippy cup or bottle without any problem.

We ordered some chinese food for lunch: noodle soup (which we were told was her nromal lunch), noodles with beef, and spicy chicken, and Sophie ate the noodle soup like a pro! I actually fed my daughter her first meal with us! I also changed her first diaper with us!

Right now, both my ladies are taking a nap. Sophie didn't want to, I think she's pretty excited - she's gotten really chatty in the five hours we've had her - I think she's comfortable with us already (thank you Lord!). She hasn't cried at all, and seems to be starting to bond with us already - it's all we hoped for!

I'm not sure what we'll have for dinner, but tonight we find out what her sleeping habits really are (they claim she sleeps in till 7 AM)

I might do another update tonight. If I don't here's the schedule for tomorrow: we will be finalizing the adoption stuff, and going to the supermarket - and that's probably it (besides playing with Sophie).

We've only taken 24 still pictures today, but over an hour of video.

I'll be posting video soon, I just need to find a cable or two...

Talk to you later!

Larry

Gotcha Day: Prologue

Well, it's 5 AM here in Beijing, and in 40 minutes we leave for the airport, and our flight to Harbin will leave sometime between 7 AM and 9 AM (we don't know our in country flight details yet, but our guide, Sherry, told us as a group last night that this was the flight window for everyone).

Three years. Thousands of miles. Thousands of dollars. Hundreds of pieces of paper. Megajoules of emotional energy. It all leads to today.

Today is the day we get Sophie!

I'm already crying as I type that...

We aren't sure exactly when we get her today, it all depends on the policies and procedures for her province, but we can say with relative certainty that we'll have her in our arms, hugging her tight, giving her all of the love she needs, in less than 12 hours.

I will be capturing the first moments with Sophie on video (and of course, tons of moments for the next 25+ years) - thought I've seen it a million times in my head already.

I'd better get going, and since it's still Sunday back in Minneapolis, Happy Birthday, Allison!

More to come, so stay tuned!

Today's camera metrics:
1 hour of video
87 pictures

Larry

Another busy day

Four weary Wall climbers at the top of the hill.

Just to let you know in case we suddenly stop posting, my computer is giving us problems. We will keep posting as long as its still cooperating. Today we went to an English church service for foreigners. Only non-Chinese people are allowed to attend. Our guide Sherri said if the service was open to all, the Chinese people would fill the church because they would all want to see what the caucasians look like. After church we went to the jade factory. It was very similar to the pearl store; there was a large variety of items and sales people following you all over the store. I have to say I'm glad we won't be visiting another one of these stores for awhile. Its alot of pressure. They want you to buy everything you look at. So you don't get a chance to look at much. We purchased a couple of more gifts for Sophie to give to her in the future. Then we had lunch and looked a little bit at the store next door (low pressure shopping this time). After lunch we went to the Great Wall. I only went up about 1/4 of the way. Larry went all the way up to the 2nd tower. He thought there was about 500 - 1,000 steps. It was really nice to see but everyone was exhausted afterwards. We drove back to Beijing (about 1 hour) and had dinner. Beijing is so big that most of the 1 hour drive was actually driving through the city to the other side. Its only been 2 days and Chinese food is already getting old. We can't wait to have our first McDonalds! Tomorrow we leave at 5:40 am for the airport. We leave somewhere between 7:00 and 8:00. After we get to Harbin, we go to the hotel, unpack and get to go meet Sophie! Wow!!

Beijing Day 1 Is In The Can

Well, it's just before 9 PM here, and we have had a full first day in Beijing.

In fact, we are exhausted.

We walked for several hours today, from Tieneman square, through The Forbidden City, around The Summer Palace, and of course, what felt like miles getting back into the bus after every destination.


(Stacy and I in front of a Dragon statue in The Forbidden City)

In between stops, we did a little shopping at the Beijing Pearl store - below you see a small group of the happy Pearl Ladies, all ready to sell you something. When we arrived at the building, it was eerie - there were two dozen of these ladies all standing at their assigned stations, waiting for us to come in and see the presentation. We did end up getting a good deal on a necklace and set of ear rings for Sophie...



We saw this sign in The Forbidden City and had to take a picture - apparently, they really want you to rest in the restroom over here!





(Our full tour group listening intently to Sherry in The Forbidden City)

We had two authentic meals today, served family style. We are eating about half the stuff put in front of us - we don't do fish or mushrooms... And by the way, Chinese food doesn't taste much like Leann Chin, in case you were wondering...

Tomorrow we will go to the official church, then have lunch and go to a jade factory, then go to the Great Wall. Afterward, some people will be seeing an acrobatics show - we'll be repacking our bags to meet the weight restrictions and trying to get some sleep...

We are less then two days from getting Sophie!

I took about a half hour of video today, and 262 pictures - not bad for one day and having to switch constantly between cameras!

We'll post again tomorrow!

Good night,

Larry

We're in China!

After a very grueling plane trip with a two hour layover in Tokyo, we have finally arrived in our hotal room in Beijing.

It is currently 10:43 PM Friday night here, but 8:43 AM Friday morning back home in Minneapolis.

We met up with two other families on the flights from Minneapolis and Tokyo, the Gundersons and the Schmidts.

We are all very very tired...

This is a picture of our room in the Radisson in Beijing.

We have to leave the hotel at 8:30 tomorrow morning, so we are going to bed now...

Tomorrow we see Tieneman Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall!

Our email does work here, too! (Though we can't say when we'll check it next...)

I'm Leavin' On A Jet Plane...

Wow.

Six hours from now, we leave Minneapolis, Minnesota for Beijing, China.

We have most everything ready - we even bought a used minivan to replace our crossover truck yesterday!

The last minute stuff seems to take so much effort - we were gone all day yesterday running last minute errands, and we still have to stop at the bank and Walmart on the way to the airport.

My stomach is roiling, and I am aware in every fiber of my being that our lives are about to change forever, in the best way possible.

Please pray for us for safe and comfortable travel, health, and for Sophie to connect with us quickly.

Thank you, everyone for your support, and we will hopefully be able to update the blog once we get to China!

Leaving Tomorrow!!

Wow! What more can I say. Its so hard to believe its actually happening. We've been walking around with that "deer in the headlights" look for the past few days. Now the reality of the awesome responsibility of being a parent has set in. All of these questions and fears (rational and irrational) are filling our minds. Will she look very different from her last pictures? Will she like us? Will we make big mistakes and cause her to need therapy for the rest of her life? Will she like traveling in an airplane or will our fellow passengers vote us off the plane? All of those and so many more. Can you please pray for us regarding the things already mentioned. Also, please pray for safe travel and no complications, for a smooth transition for Sophie from her old world to her new family, that all paperwork and adoption appointments go well, and that all 3 of us are in good health. Thank you so much!
To the right it says "Links you should follow". This is a link to a blog for Kristy and Mark whom we will be traveling with to get our daughters. Kristy is the sweetest person! Please stop by her blog from time to time to see a different perspective on our trip to China. That first week we will each travel to the province where our child is located. But then we will all join each other again in Guanzhou. I have attached an image of our in-country itinerary. We will try to keep the blog updated but its not certain if we will have access to it in China or not. We hope to have something to update soon.

Picture of fabric for quilt.

Sorry. I forgot to include the picture in the post below.

8 Days to go!!

It so hard to believe we will be leaving in 8 days. We're not really too nervous about going yet. Both Larry and I have been too busy being sick :( Larry has the flu and I have a cold/sinus infection. So both of us have been out of commission for the past few days. Please send up some emergency prayers for us that we will be healthy before we leave! Friday we have a travel meeting (conference call) to go over details for our travel group.
Here are pictures of some of the cute fabric we have received for Sophie's "100 Good Wishes Quilt". I apologize if you don't see your fabric pictured as I only have some of the fabrics (Mom has the others). For those who may still be stuck on what to write, there is alot of poetry on the internet that you can customize to fit what you would like to say. Thank you so much to everyone who has sent fabric for her quilt!! Its been amazing to read all of the good wishes you have included. I will try to include more pictures later.