Gotcha Day!

We had a great day today! We left our hotel at 9:30 and headed to the civil affairs office to meet our daughter, Joy Xin Ping, for the first time! We were told that she would arrive there at 10:00, which was the same time we arrived. When we arrived and walked into the building, there were two babies being carried into the building, but neither of them were our baby girl. The office we were supposed to go into was locked shut with a chain, so our guide left us standing there and she went to find the appropriate staff. As soon as she had left us, in walked two ladies and one was holding Xin Ping. I couldn't believe my eyes! Neither Greg nor I expected everything to happen so quickly! We had planned for our guide to video our union, but that didn't happen. So we don't have video or many pictures. Greg and I both wanted to be with her, not taking pictures and our guide had not returned. So, we immediatly walked up to the ladies and Joy and they of course knew that we were her parents, because we were saying, "Ping Ping! Ni hou, Ping Ping!" They didn't speak English, so I gestured with my hands asking if we could take her and hold her. She nodded yes and I held my daughter for the first time! It was everything I hoped for, prayed for and thought it would be!

She never cried until we got in the car to go back to the hotel. She does NOT like the car. Once we arrived back at the hotel, it was time for her nap, so we played a little and then tried to settle down for a nap. She is doing SO GOOD! She looks both Greg and I in the eye. When she has played a little, she "checks in" by looking at Greg and then me. We have found we can get her to smile and laugh by raising her up in the air and then lowering her down quickly. She also likes to play with her bottle and when she takes the bottle out for a break, she smiles when we tease her about putting the bottle back in her mouth or maybe not yet, back and forth. When we first got to the room, we sat her down on the floor and I got down on the floor across the room and held out my arms beckoning her to come to me. She smiled and crawled to me!!!

As Greg and I took turns trying to get her to sleep, she got to where she didn't want to be put down at all. There is a little battle going on inside her (probably bigger than I know). She wants to explore her surroundings, but the desire to stay close to one of us is stronger. This is a good sign!!!  

 

 

 

She did not want to go to sleep! She fought sleep for an hour and a half and she finally gave in at 2:20 (two hours later than normal). That's really not too bad for her first day with strangers and with all the major changes that have taken place for her today.

 Look at our sleeping beauty! 

 

 

Tour of Beijing



Tienenman Square



Forbidden City- Where the Emperor and his wife and concubines used to live.



The Summer palace. The emperors daughter lived at the summer palace.



Gate to the Summer Palace. She came and went by boat to the palace.

There are trees here that are very old. it is common to see the trees have a structure or poles helping to hold the tree and its limbs up.

The Silk Factory- They taught us how silk is made

We visited a chinese family that lives in the Hu Tong district.  this is how most of the Chinese people used to live in a complex of four buildings connected with an garden in the very center.  Many generations live together.  Not so much any more.  Many complexes like this have been replaced with business and other more modern buildings.  This is what Beijing used to be like.

The GREAT WALL



Some of the steps on the Great Wall were very steep!



Our View from the Great Wall



Riding a rickshaw through the Hu Tong district



I think we are going to enjoy Nanjing. Our guide has been so very helpful this afternoon. She picked us up at the airport and checked us in at the hotel. We just got back from lunch, a REAL chinese restaurant within walking distance from our hotel. She had to order for us. The food was delicious. We will probably go back. We ordered rice, brocolli, kung pao chicken, and a huge bowl of spicy beef and vegetable soup. Everything we ordered was too much to feed the three of us and it cost 123 Yuan, which is $20. There are many shops around our hotel, selling lamb on a stick, a small supermarket, a hair cutting place, a place we can take our laudrey to be cleaned, etc. Everyone walking around look like locals. Can not believe that we are leaving our hotel in the morning at 9:30 to go to the Civil Affairs Office. Melodie, our guide, told us that Xin Ping will arrive about 10:00am!!! I can not believe that I am now within 30 miles of Xinping! Our guide in Beijing and our guide in Nanjing have both told us that Xin is pronounced "Shin".

We're Here

We made it to Beijing without a hitch! I was worried that we or our luggage would not made the connecting flight between our landing in Chicago at 12:17 and our next flight to Beijing leaving at 1:00, but our flight out of Birmingham left early and we landed in Chicago at 11:45. We found a shuttle to Concourse C and had time to stand around for 30 minutes before boarding. The flight to Beijing was SO LONG!!! I don’t want to do that again for a while…at least for two weeks! We arrived in Beijing at 3:30pm and thankfully after we went through customs and luggage pickup, we had a guide waiting for us who had a cab ready to take us to the hotel. As we rode to the hotel, Greg and I were both struck by the cloudy haze that engulfed us. It is nothing we have ever seen. Like fog that hangs around all day. Greg and I halfway joked that God was leading us by day with a cloud the way he led the Israelites. Our guide said it is always like that. The smog never leaves! How sad not to see the blue sky!

Once we were checked in to the hotel, Greg and I decided to just eat supper in the hotel restaurant. By this time we had been awake for 26 hours. I was feeling overwhelmed and tired and didn’t feel like leaving the hotel. We did not know yet how to convert the Chinese currency to American dollars. We finally got in bed at 8:00pm, Thursday, March 22^nd (7am Thursday in AL). As I collapsed into the bed I prayed for our boys back home and tried to imagine what time it was there and what they might be doing and then I prayed for Xin, and as I tried to imagine what she may be doing, the thought occurred to me that for the first time ever, we are on the same time! So tonight as we sleep, she is hopefully sleeping peacefully too. This morning I woke up about 1:00 and couldn’t sleep. I am eager to talk to my boys back home. I miss them so much! This morning I turned to Psalms for some encouragement and I happened to turn to Psalm 121. The Lord provided the perfect encouragement at a time when I feel very lost in this world where I can’t communicate with the people or understand the ways. Thank you so much for your prayers!!!

I raise my eyes toward the mountains, where will my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to slip; your protector will not slumber.

Indeed, the protector of Israel does not slumber or sleep.

The Lord protects you; the Lord is a shelter right by your side.

The sun will not strike you by day or the moon by night.

The Lord will protect you from all harm; He will protect your life.

The Lord will protect your coming and going both now and forever.

Ready, Set, Go!

It is travel day!
Yesterday we packed and packed and PACKED!!!  We thought we were doing really well on luggage size limit requirements, but when we finally packed everything, we actually had to pack an extra bag to take every thing we "needed" or had planned to take.  Wow!!! we are taking five checked bags!
We slept great last night and we got up at 3:00.  We left home at 5:00 and arrived to the Birmingham airport at 6:30.  It is now 8:45 and our flight leaves at 10:00.  Praise God!!!  We arrive in Chicago at 12:17 and then our next flight leaves Chicago at 1:00 headed to Beijing!  The flight from Chicago to Beijing is almost 14 hours.  We will arrive there about 3:30p.m. which will be 2:30a.m. in Alabama.
We will be flying from Beijing to Nanjing on Sunday and then on Monday, March 26th we will meet our daughter face to face for the first time!  What a blessed day March 26th will forever be in our memories! 
In 1996 Greg and I were in a very bad auto accident.  We slid off the road and hit a driveway embankment that worked as a ramp and the vehicle was propelled into the air.  We flipped and landed in trees.  Greg had a brain injury and the doctors told us that they didnt expect him to live.  I had crushed vertebrae and wasn't sure if I would be able to walk again.  God healed us both miraculously and we knew then that God had work for us to do still here on earth.  That accident was on March 26, 1996.  We will forever celebrate this day.  Not only as the day we lived through an horrible accident, but now as the day we will be united with our precious daughter.  We are so thankful to be alive and have the opportunity to have two awesome sons and one beautiful daughter!!!
Thank you so much for your prayers.  You all mean more to us than you'll ever know!
Gotta go, next post will be from Beijing!

Were going to China!!!

We are SO excited to share the good news with you that we have received our travel approval today and we are ready to book our flight to China!!!!  We are leaving in two weeks!  WOW!  I (Angie) can not believe the time is here!  I think that through all of our adoption paperwork and process this past year and 3 months, a part of me has never really believed with all my heart we would ever make it.  Maybe it is a defense mechanism to protect myself if and when bad news came.  So, now, here I am thinking about ALL the things that need to be done, all the final preperations, and I can't sleep.  I am just too excited!  We just received the call from AGCI tonight about 6:30.  I have been laying in bed trying to go to sleep, but sleep just will not come right now.  It is too bad, I have to be up before 5:00 in the morning.  But, I have been waiting to post this post on the blog for 15 months and it is finally here.  I have to share the news before going to sleep with you all that have been waiting on this news for so many months.

We will leave around March 20th headed for China.  Greg and I will fly first to Beijing and spend 3 days sightseeing, getting over jet lag and enjoying each others company.  Then we will fly to Nanjing on the weekend and be united with Xin Ping for the first time on Monday, the 26th.  We will spend a week in her province taking care of adoption appointments and paperwork and then fly to Guangzhou for the last week to finish the process.

We just received an update on Xinping and found out that she weighs 19lbs and she is almost walking.  She can walk if she has something to hold onto.  
I can't wait to be with Xin Ping.  I can not wait to get to know her, her likes and dislikes, what cute thing she does when she is tired, what facial expressions she makes, to watch her sleep, to hold her, to count her fingers and toes...
Yet, I am also anxious.  It has been my prayer that God prepare our hearts for the arrival on Xin into our family and also that He prepare her heart for our family.  Even though God communicated to me more than a year ago that we had a daughter waiting for us on the other side of the world, I still wonder how those first moments and days will be as we are getting to know each other.  Oh, I pray for peace for her little heart.  One of the required classes Greg and I took to prepare us for adoption asked us to imagine how we would feel if we were dropped off with strangers who don't look like us and don't speak the same language as we do and we can't understand why we were left with these strangers.  And these strangers keep smiling at us and getting really close to us, all up in our face and then start touching us and examining us all over as if to make sure we had all fingers and toes.  I get homesick just thinking about it!  The food we will cook for her will be different, the smell of our home will be much different, she will leave behind all familiar faces and her favorite nanny and her best friend. 
This is why we decided we would not change her name.  Her name will be the only thing she gets to keep that is familiar to her.  We decided we couldn't start calling her a name she has never been called after all the other difficult changes.

So, there is so much to do and so little time, and I am so excited to finally start packing and finishing up the rest of the details here. 

Please pray for God to work in Xin's heart and our hearts a divine bond and attachment to each other from the very first moment she is placed with us, like she has known us and we have known her all her life!

We love you guys and our Lord, who has blessed us with a daughter!

Happy LOVE Day!!!

When Greg and I began our adoption process, we knew we would face spiritual warfare.  A couple of weeks ago Greg and I found ourselves at two separate events about marriage and I was reading a book about marriage, "Have a new husband by Friday" (every married woman needs to read this excellent book!).  That weekend Greg and I talked a few hours and we became painfully aware of some cracks in the foundation of our marriage.  We decided to make some big changes and some new commitments to fight for our marriage.  We are very happy with the changes we see already in our marriage.  However, even as we are trying to make new better habits and choices, satan continually attacks.  So, I was studying in I Corinthians 13 about what love means.
I Corinthians 13:4-8: "Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails..."
The Greek word translated "is patient" in the NIV is "makrothymeo".  Makro means long and Thymeo means anger, wrath!  Wow!  I have been angry a lot lately!  Does that mean that I have loved!?!  Makrothymeo means to suffer long, long suffering, as opposed to being given to hasty anger or punishment.  OUCH!  That hits a sore spot.  It seems I have been given to hasty anger toward my husband and hasty punishment toward my children.  When I am angry and frustrated at Greg, it seems I also have a shorter fuse with the children.  Makrothymeo involves exercising understanding and patience toward persons.  Makrothymeo frequently suggests a refusal to retaliate.  I definitely need to exercise and practice this kind of love!  Love is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs!  This phrase comes from a Greek word, "Logizomai" which means to count, reckon, regard, consider, to occupy oneself with reckonings or calculations.  To reckon anything to a person is to put something to his account, what he must be answerable for.  I have such a bad habit of keeping a record of how my wonderful husband has wronged me and I become angered so easily.  Instead I need to always hope in and believe that what he does, he does not do to hurt or harm me, always protect and faithfully stand behind my man, always trust that he is fighting for our marriage, always persevere and endure the hard days.  I have decided to enjoy the good days and pray like crazy for God's perfect love to flow from me on the more difficult days.  Thank you all for your prayers and letting me share with you what I have learned and am still learning about love!
Yesterday, on 2/14/12, valentines day, our consulate approval was overnighted to the CCCWA in Beijing! :)  So, we are at our final step in our journey to get to our daughter!  I can't believe we are finally at this point!  It sure felt like we would never get here.  Now we are waiting on our travel approval from China and then we book our flights!!!

We Got it!

We received our provisional approval! Yeah!!!  We are so excited!  We are one step closer and counting down!  We are so close that I can actually list the remaining steps while in conversation!  Well, it seems that some of you were itching for news nearly as bad as we were because I have had two good friends call out of the blue (whom I haven't spoken with in months) yesterday and today asking for updates.  Sorry it is hard for me to keep the blog updated.  After spending all day on the computer, it's not what I want to look at when I come home.  It also makes it hard that we don't have internet at home.  To do anything online, I have to go to one room in my house, in a certain corner of the house to access wireless internet from my neighbors.  :)  (Don't worry, its my parents and they don't mind.)  Anyway, I will try harder to stay up to date as we get closer to reaching the light at the end of this tunnel.  The waiting has been so hard!  I was warned it would be.  It is miraculous, the way God has grown the love in our hearts for our daughter and sister over the past months. 

Are remaining steps are as follows...
We are now waiting for a letter from NVC which should arrive in a week.  Once we get that to the consulate in Guangzhou, we will wait about three weeks to receive a Consulate Approval.  Then we send that to China and ask for Travel approval to travel in to China.  The travel approval usually takes about three weeks.  Once we have that, we can plan our travel and we should travel three weeks later.  So, put it all together and we should travel about two months from today.  Or at least, that is typical.  However, I'm finding that you can't ever expect anything to happen as it typically does.  So, we will travel when and only when our Almighty God is ready.  And that I know for sure!

As we are nearing travel we are busy getting immunizations (measles, mumps, rubella, polio, tetanus, and typhoid, ouch!), applying for visas, getting documents notarized and ready to go, racking our brains trying to think of everything we will need to take and need at home, toddler proofing the house, getting Rx's to take for us and Xinping just in case we/she gets sick while we are in China, etc.

We have MORE exciting news!!!  We applied for a matching grant through Brittany's Hope and they are going to match $7000 that we will raise to make a total of $14,000 to go toward our remaining adoption expenses!!!!  And our adoption agency is donating $500 toward our expenses!  God, our Father provides!  He is faithful.  He is a God who gives and takes away, but HE IS always FAITHFUL!  He has taught me and molded me so much this year and I have so much yet to learn and so far to go.

You are all SO AWESOME and I'm so thankful for all of you!  Thank you for helping to carry the burden when it has been too heavy to bear alone and thank you so much for lifting us up continually in your prayers!