China Day 2: Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square

We had another full day in Beijing today.  Our morning was spent at our agency's orientation, which Jason already commented on.  Towards the end of the orientation, they showed a map of China and then they started putting pictures of our children up on the map, one at a time.  After the picture came on the screen, each family identified their child (if they were able).  Hannah's picture was the second one they showed, and of course we recognized her right away since she hasn't changed much since the last pictures we have of her.  I was once again stunned at how beautiful she is.  They said she had just woken up before they took the picture, so maybe that's why she looks so sad.  After they showed everyone's children, they began passing out the red books.  These books contain the new pictures and information about our children.  There were four new pictures of Hannah, two being recent pictures, and two of the others from last August.  Tomorrow we'll have the real-life version, but it was still so wonderful to get some new pictures of her, and I can't stop staring at them!

After lunch, we went on a tour of the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.  The Forbidden City was the emperor's palace that was built from 1406-1420.  I had no idea how vast the Forbidden City was.  It was amazing to see the architectural details and walk through courtyard after courtyard and take in the rich history that is held there.  It was amazing and a bit overwhelming with so many people there and so much to see!  Then we went over to Tiananmen Square and took some pictures there as well.  We've really enjoyed getting a glimpse into China's history the past couple of days and have learned so much!  Of course, what we are really excited about is meeting our little girl tomorrow.  We can't wait!!

China Day 2: Updated Photos!

At the end of an orientation from Holt this morning, they passed-out a nice red book to each family with updated photos and some answers to basic questions.  Xia (whose nickname is Xiao Xia), likes stuffed toys and colorful toys, is shy, and likes staying with familiar things and surroundings.  She likes to do things by herself.  We also got updated measurements which were consistent with what we had before.  So, not a lot of new information, but we're grateful for what we got, especially the new pictures.

China Day 1: Great Wall & Hutong Lane

Today we went with a group of Holt families to visit the Great Wall and then to Hutong Lane.  Unfortunately it was very foggy, so we couldn't see any sort of view from the Great Wall.  But, it was amazing to see the Great Wall and we discovered quickly how exhausting it is to climb it!  We made it up to the second tower, thinking that it would get easier from there (based upon what our guide said).  Rather, someone told us that it only got harder on the way up to the 5th tower.  So we turned back and went to a different segment of the wall, which turned out to be a bit more interesting, anyway.  We engraved Hannah's name into a padlock and attached it to a chain along the wall, as is a fairly common tradition.  Our guide also shared a lot of history about the Great Wall and how many Chinese people lost their lives during the construction of the wall.

After the Great Wall tour, we had lunch at a factory that makes copper pottery and other goods.  It was interesting to learn how much manual effort is involved in making  and then went to Hutong Lane where we rode in a rickshaw (a two-seated cart pulled by a bicycle) and saw an old Chinese neighborhood.  It was really fun to see where many Chinese people live.  Apparently it's very expensive to live there, but it appeared quite dirty (and was very smelly!) and rundown in places.  The buildings are very old, and we actually got to go in one family's home.  You enter the house's courtyard through a gate, and then there are several buildings that make up the house. 

It was fun to see a lot of Beijing as we had a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the Great Wall and back.  We rode by Olympic Square and were able to see the Water Cube and Bird Nest, but didn't get a good picture of the Bird Nest.

It was a great day learning about Chinese culture and seeing a really important part of Chinese history!  We found out today that we're going to meet Hannah on Sunday night instead of Monday morning. Only two more days of waiting to meet our daughter!!

Thanks for all of the prayers and well-wishes!!

We're in China!

We wanted to let everyone know that we made it safety to China!!  We arrived in Beijing at 10:45 PM (China time).  Although we were slightly delayed leaving Willard, we had no problems making our connection in Chicago and had a nice 14.5 hour flight from Chicago to Beijing.  I had tears in my eyes as we landed in our baby's home country.  We're so close now!!  It's 1 AM in China now, and we're leaving for a tour of the Great Wall at 8:30, so we're going to try to get on China time and get some sleep!  Wan an!  (Goodnight!)

Pictures:
Last picture of our family of 4
Jason & I on the flight to Beijing!
6,570 miles!!
We flew over the North Pole! 

Prayer Requests for our Trip

Two more days, and we're off to China. The forecast for Friday in Beijing is 98 degrees with a heat index of 118 degrees!! What will we be doing on Friday? Climbing the Great Wall and drinking lots of bottled water!

The suitcases are packed, and now we're just working out a few details to prepare for the trip. It feels surreal that it's finally here!

We will be praying at our house tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 7 PM and everyone is welcome to join us. For those of you who can't make it, here are a few prayer requests:

• safe travel without delays as we travel to China, in China, and back home
  
• Hannah's transition-pray for her as she moves through a healthy but painful grieving process. Pray that she would quickly attach to us and know that she is safe with us.
• that Hannah's passport and visa would be processed on time
  
• that we would be able to visit her orphanage and meet the foster family
• for a peaceful time for Elijah and Isaiah while we're gone and a welcoming attitude towards Hannah when she comes home
  
• that God would be glorified through this whole process

We really appreciate all of your prayers!

Boys getting excited and testing video to blog and Facebook

Really I'm just testing if videos can be posted to the blog and Facebook via email, but in the process you get a glimpse of how excited the boys are about their little sister coming home soon.  :-)

Hmmm... limited to 25MB attachments, so we'll only be able to send small size, short duration clips.  Good to know.

Update on Hannah

We received an update form our agency on Hannah. We asked them to see if she is in foster care or not. It turns out that she is living at the orphanage during the week and with a family on the weekend. Now we understand why the last report we got talked about her being at the orphanage but showed pictures of her in someone's house. We are so thankful for the family that is taking her home on the weekends and the love they are showing our daughter. It also means that she will probably grieve harder than if she was just in an orphanage.

It feels surreal that we are leaving for China in a little over a week. I still have so much to do to get ready! I just can't believe it's really happening!!

Pink!

We got Hannah's room painted last weekend, and Jason installed chair rail on Monday. Her crib is up, and the room looks girlie! We're getting so anxious and excited and our minds are reeling with all of the details to think about to prepare for our trip. Two weeks from now I will be holding my little girl for the first time (since it is already Monday morning in China right now)!

Itinerary for China Trip

Here's what we'll be doing while we're in China! We'll leave on July 28 to arrive on July 29. Since China is 13 hours ahead of us, we leave here at 4 PM on Wednesday and get to China at 11 PM on Thursday. We're going to try to tour the Great Wall on Friday. Hopefully we're not too jet lagged! Then we'll have our agency's orientation on Saturday, July 31 with some sightseeing in the afternoon. On Sunday, August 1 we will fly to Zhejiang, which is Hannah's province. We'll meet Hannah Xia on Monday, August 2!! We'll be in her province until Friday, August 6, when we'll arrive in Guangzhou, which is in southern China. We'll stay there for the remainder of the trip. We'll have her visa appointment on August 10, get the visa on August 12, and hop on a train to head to Hong Kong and fly home on August 13. There are other appointments and activities during the two weeks, but this is what we know for sure so far. I can't wait for August 2!!

Travel Plans!

I just realized I haven't updated the blog with our good news! We found out yesterday our travel dates. We booked our tickets last night, and we'll be leaving for China in three weeks! We'll leave on June 28 and return on August 13. So exciting!!

Test post

You can ignore this... I'm just testing both the email to blog and blog to Facebook tools in preparation for our travels to China!

There should also be a picture in this post, but we'll see....