An Exhausting Day!

I can barely hold my eyes open as I'm doing this so it will be short.
We went to the Forbidden City and Tiannamen Square--interesting
A jade factory- pretty but expensive
A Cloisonne factory-- very amazing-didn't buy anything
The Great Wall--unbelievable but freezing cold

Dinner-Harrison had an allergic reaction-benadryl in the room--but OK now

We leave for Jiangxi at 8:00 am arrive at 2:00 should have Lillie Mei by 5:00.

You guys are 13 hours behind us now that the time changed.

Can't WAIT to see Lillie Mei tomorrow!!!!!

Obviously Communist

This is a picture of the ESPN brochure in our room. Obviously China is a communist nation. GO HEELS!

Happy Birthday Braxton!

Today (Nov. 4)is my nephew's 8th birthday! We obviously couldn't be there but we love and miss you Braxton! Have fun in Atlanta!

We can't send e-mail

I said I probably couldn't post until tonight but I didn't count on being up at 2am this morning! I guess my jet lag was worse than I thought. The boys slept until about 4am. We went downstairs and did school work from 4:15-5:30 and came back and woke Kirk up. Breakfast was a mixture of all kinds of foods--everything from corn flakes to fried rice. Everyone found something they could eat and now we're getting ready to head to the Forbidden City/Tiannamen Square and the Great Wall.

We can receive e-mail and read comments on our blog but are having trouble sending e-mail so we may have to post somethings to specific people on our blog.

Talk to you again soon!

We're Here!

We made it to China! It was an extremely long flight. We took off almost 2 hours late b/c there was something wrong with the plane--the bad part was we were on the plane while they fixed it. So, we were on the plane for over 16 hours! Once the plane took off I (Cindy) began getting a brown, stinky water dripped on me from above. Kirk tried to stop it, I put a blanket on my head until the flight attendant came and tried to help. About 15 minutes later, the dripping stopped--it was condensation from the air filter. They were very nice and gave us a form to fill out to get extra miles or a travel voucher (we're hoping for an upgrade on the way home)! The boys did OK but are excited and exhausted at the same time.

At the airport we went through immigration, a health check (we just had to turn in a form), and customs rather quickly. Everyone's luggage arrived and then we headed to a bus then to our hotel, a 30 minute break and then dinner. Dinner was interesting (I hate a snickers bar afterwards if that says anything).

We are all tired and ready for bed. We meet our guide at 8:30 in the morning to head to the Great Wall, etc. It will probably be 24 hours before we get to post again.

We can feel your prayers--so please keep praying!

We made it to Chicago!

Our flight to Chicago went very well--it was shorter than expected and Kirk took a long nap--should've taken that picture! We're only 5 hours into the trip and I've already broken out the suprise toys! Less than 18 hours until we land in Beiijing!

It's 6:15!

We made it to Greenville Airport. Kirk and I are going on just over 2 hours of sleep which is better than the alternative of no sleep (which I thought was possible as I was still packing at midnight)!

We made it through security and to the gate with more than an hour to spare. Harrison began his school work and Zeke began drawing to pass the time.

We'll talk to you from Chicago!

The Day Before....

We are very busy getting ready to leave at 4:00 in the morning! I still have a tremendous amount to do but hope to get a few hours of sleep.

I thought I'd post a few pictures of Lillie Mei's room. It looks a lot different right now b/c it is my packing room-with everything for the trip scattered on the bed, floor, etc. It might never look like this again! Say a prayer for some extra hours in the day!

Our Shower at Church

This is the group from our Sunday School class that hosted the shower. They did a wonderful job!

The boys had fun helping open all the presents while Nana helped write it all down.

Showers of Blessings!

We were blessed with 2 showers this past week. This is from the shower that Kirk's office gave us on Tuesday. We had a great time and received many wonderful gifts.

Lillie Mei's New Measurements

We got new measurements on Lillie Mei on Wednesday. She's very small but her head circumference is in the 5th percentile now which is better than it was before. She only weighs 18.7 pounds and is 26.8 inches tall. Based on clothing sizes she's between 9 and 12 months. She's not on the American growth charts at all but hopefully that will change when we get her some good food! She has 7 teeth so she will be able to eat! We can't wait to get our hands on her!

Our Final Travel Schedule

November 3 Arrive in Beijing stay at Wang Fu Jing Grand Hotel
November 4 Sightseeing the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace
November 5 Fly to Nanchang from Beijing
Meet Lillie Mei in the afternoon, stay at Sofitel Trilec Hotel
November 6 Registration and Notarization
November 7 Local sightseeing: visit Teng Wang Ge Pavilion, Shopping for baby
November 8 Local sightseeing: visit countryside
November 9 Local sightseeing: visit the Zoo
November 10 Get passport, Fly to Guangzhou from Nanchang
Stay at the White Swan Hotel
November 11 Local sightseeing: visit Family Chen’s Temple and Yuexiu Park
November 12 Physical test and Photo taking,
Local sightseeing: visit Six Banyan Temple
November 13 Visa application
Local sightseeing: visit the walking street
November 14 Getting the visa,
Local sightseeing: visit Liu Hua Lake Garden
November 15 Leave Guangzhou for HK; then fly home

November 2nd!!!

It's official! We leave on November 2nd. Our consulate appt. to get Lillie Mei's visa was confirmed yesterday. We are now in the process of booking our airline tickets and Cindy is in major list making mode. We don't have our set schedule but based on the normal schedule for our agency this is what our trip will look like.

Friday, Nov. 2- Leave -looks like from Greenville/Spartanburg
Sat, Nov. 3- arrive in Beijing at 5:30 pm
Sun, Nov. 4- sightsee- Great Wall, etc
Mon, Nov. 5- Fly to Nanchang, Jiangxi to get Lillie Mei!!!!
Tues, Nov. 6-Sun, Nov. 11- Stay in Nanchang, sightsee, get to know Lillie Mei, and SHOP
Mon, Nov. 12- Fly to Guangzhou
Tues, Nov. 13-Lillie Mei will get a physical and we will apply for her visa
Wed, Nov. 14- pick-up her visa
Thur, Nov. 15- depart from Hong Kong; arrive in Greenville @ 5:30 pm (it will feel like 5:30 am Friday to us)

We'll try to post more often as we learn more details about the trip.
Gotta go make more lists!

October 26???!!!!!

We just got word from our case manager that they are planning for us to leave on October 26th and return November 8th!! She asked that we not buy tickets yet just in case our travel approval doesn't come in time. Based on past timing from other families, I'd say were about at 90% chance of leaving on October 26th! That's less than 6 weeks away!!

Letter of Accceptance is on its Way!

We just got word that our Letter of Acceptance is on its way! That means we are just waiting for Travel Approval and then we're on our way! The earliest we'll leave is October 26th because of a trade fair in China. I would put money on leaving no later than November 9th! Lillie Mei here we come!