So close

We said goodbye to Beijing and our new buddy George. We will always remember the great care he took of us and how he nicknamed us his "sticky rice" to remind us to stay close to him at all times. Also he shared his life story with us and it was deeply touching in showing how Gods protection shows up in miraculous ways. I will have to share that later.

We safely arrived in Zhengzhou in the Henan province,which is about an hour flight to the south of Beijing. Laikyn lives about an hour from here and will be brought by van to the office where we will meet her. We were met at the airport by our new guide Yishi and her assistant Vivienne. On the bus to the hotel we were given new information on our girl. She is still in diapers, and on formula at night as she wakes often during the night. Hmmmm I think we have another Korbin/Jillian combination. She is active and gets along with other children. She likes toys that make noise and doesn't like it when people talk loud. It makes her cry. Not sure she is going to like our family then...
Lol!
We checked into our hotel and just walking into the room reduced me to tears as I thought of how this will be her first home with real family. While Rob went to the bank to change US dollars to RMB, Jilli and I unpacked and I started packing her diaper bag and orphanage gifts. While I worked on that, my sweet girl set up a makeshift play area for Laikyn in the corner of the room. Love her heart!! I paced nervously the rest of the night and alternated between excitement and weepiness. I finally thought about my fears in comparison to hers. however difficult this is for us, it must be compounded greatly for her. I fell asleep with the thought that God loved her long before I did and He has met all of her needs this far, why worry that He will stop now! This morning we have been to breakfast and are waiting now for our 9:30 am appt to go meet her along with the nine other families meeting their kids. I am unusually calm right now! I hope I stay that way after getting it all out last night! I know that she needs me to be strong. Please pray for us all today as this huge life changing event unfolds.

Day 2 Beijing

It feels more like I lived a week in a day with all of the things we experienced today. We started with a trip to the Jade factory and watched the process of carving jade into beautiful works of art. Next was the Great Wall where I did no better this time than ten years ago. I made it up two sections, but they were very steep in my defense.Rob and Jillian made it to the top while I sat and enjoyed the view. We've had beautiful weather but the smog was so thick this time, that we could barely view the wall from the higher altitude. As I sat and took in the scenery, I thought how the climb is much like the adoption process. Slow, uneven, rocky and never knowing how much farther it is to the top. We are almost there though! After the wall, we had another Chinese meal of various unknown foods...mostly good though. Then we drove to the Olympic village, which was the site of the 2008 games. The architecture was amazing, especially the birds nest. I warned Jillian not to drink after lunch as it was an hour orso drive across the city. She didn't listen and therefore had to experience the dreaded squat pot that is so famous in Asia. She said that the smell of Chiba is the hardest thing to deal with! We ended the night with an amazing Chinese acrobat show.We are now packing up for our flight to Laikyns province in the morning. It is about an hour and a half flight South of here.
The schedule is to get her on Monday as of right now. Please keep her in your prayers!

Day One in China

Today we went on our first tour of Beijing! Our guide George wanted us to experience how the locals live, so we went to the Hutong district which is on the outskirts of the Forbidden city and is about 200years older than the city. This was a first as a we rode around the area in a rickshaw. One of the locals invited us into his home and explained how it had been in his family for 150 years. We then went to the silk factory and watched the harvest of silkworms to the production of blankets, clothing, etc. After a lunch at a local restaurant, we toured Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. We fell in bed at 7:30 trying to force ourselves to stay awake. It was neat to see China from the eyes of my first Chinese princess, but she was quick to say KY is much better. Beijing has changed so much in ten years! The population has grown from 13 to 20 million with many more cars now, although people are regulated on which days they can drive. Gas is 5.50 per gallon in US dollars and everything is much more expensive!!!
I know all of this busy running has two purposes,to introduce us to the culture of our child and to distract us while we wait two more days, but every child I pass on the streets reminds me of why Im really here and it's enough to catch my breath! Two more days!

Travel Day

10 am from Chicago... We had a good night sleep in Nashville and then left at 5:00 am for the airport. Check in went fine except that mine and Jillian's shared suitcase was too heavy so was going to cost $200 extra! Rob starting unzipping and rearranging/cramming stuff into other bags and we
finally made it with no overage! The agency warned us to pack light and I tried, but how on earth do you pack light for three weeks in China?? The flight from Nashville to Chicago was smooth and we are now sitting in our terminal waiting for the next flight. We are supposed to leave at 12:08 on a 777 air bus. Praying for safe travels!

May 17, 5pm We arrived in Beijing and were greeted at the airport by George, our very kind agency rep who brought us to our hotel. It is about 4am at home as we Beijing is 13hours ahead. We had a smooth flight but got little more than a couple hours sleep here and there, so we are exhausted. We watched lots of movies between naps, and are hoping for a good nights sleep since there is a lot of touring scheduled for tomorrow starting at nine am. Oh I almost forgot that Rob got stopped at immigration and asked why he was in China. When he answered "adoption"they didn't understand and he got held up for a while as Jilli and I were nervously waiting on the other side!!
We just checked in and walked down the street to get some McDonalds and now are enjoying our lobby before heading to bed! Hope everyone at home is having a great day!

Graduations and Goodbyes

This has been a long couple of days with so many emotions. I've been working nonstop for the last couple of days to get everything ready for the trip and everything squared away at home for the boys. Last night was Korbins Kindergarten graduation and it was so sweet! Of course, knowing I was leaving him for three weeks and the emotions of the upcoming adoption made it a little hard, but there was lots of laughter as well. As we left, he told Jillian to be sure and wear her good shoes because he looked super handsome and also not to wrinkle him. He was beaming as he walked down the aisle and turned and waved at us throughout the ceremony. Today was a blur as we finished packing and getting the house ready. We left Korbin a surprise in my closet and told him that he could open it after we left. He practically shooed us out the door! LOL! So much for him missing us! We made pictures outside as our last time as a family of five! Also made some of the house and each family memmber to show to Laikyn. Then we drove to Whitehouse and had supper with Gay and Steve. They brought us on to Nashville where we are staying at an airport shuttle hotel to catch our flight at 6:50 am. We had to change flights for a longer layover, so we will fly to Chicago and then have a three to four hour layover and then catch a nonstop flight to Beijing. Hopefully I can post more when we arrive in China! We appreciate all of the prayers for our travel, our boys and our new daughter!!

An award winner!

Jillian has always been a great student! She takes a lot of pride in her work and rarely has to be asked to do her homework! As a kickoff to our testing week, we passed out awards for the previous year tests, and Jillian scored a proficient in reading and distinguished in math as a third grader. She earned a purple ribbon and an engraved plaque as a reward for her scores. As she took them, I flashed back to last year when she laid in bed with a tummy ache the night before testing worried she wouldn't do well. I have been able to watch her grow even more this year as her fourth grade teacher and especially enjoy her talent in math. She loves problem solving and works until she figures it out. She has caught on to bar modeling so well that she does Fraction word problems in her head now. She has also grown so much in reading and is challenging herself with higher level novels. She especially has enjoyed the Percy Jackson series and has most recently begun to read classics like Secret Garden to expand her vocabulary. Can't wait to see what she will do this year!! Proud of her accomplishments! You keep reaching for the STARS Jilli!!

Korbins Day

In preparation for our upcoming trip, we decided to have a special day with Korbin since he wont be traveling with us and we hate to leave him. He has been asking to go to Sunrise Park in Evansville since stopping there last winter. We had a nice lunch at Red Robin and then spent a couple of hours playing at the park. He had such a good time with all of the wooden forts for
running and climbing. After the park,we took him to Build a Bear to pick out an outfit for his stuffed dog. He picked out a Harley with a biker shirt and do rag... Lol! I also secretly got a Darth Vader one that he will open while we are gone. I told him to sleep with it and let it remind him how we are thinking about him. He said Granny will take good care of him and I know she will,but It will not be the same without my boys! Love them both so much!