handsful

Smiling in the Beijing airport

We survived our first night on the rock-hard mattress (Randy was in heaven, Donna not so much).  We’re headed to meet our group for breakfast in just a minute, and then we have a full day of touring…the Forbidden City, Tian’anmen (how do you spell that?) Square, lunch at an authentic Chinese restaurant, and then an acrobat show.  Whew.  We’ll check in later and hopefully more than time to post more details about our trip so far and add more pictures!

Thank you SO much for the comments today, you have no idea what it means to read that you are holding us up in prayer.

Jet lag is beginning to hit full force, and my head is about to fall onto the keyboard, so this will be short :)We made it to Beijing today, at 3:30pm (which, I believe, was about 2:30am for you guys on the east coast).  Our flight was great, we were fortunate to have all 3 seats in the row to ourselves.  I’ll go into more detail about day 1 (and post pictures) tomorrow, for now I’m going to bed!

Abbey, Marley, Payton, and Ethan we MISS you so much already.  Hugs and kisses to you!

Our journey begins today!  We are driving to NC, where our family is keeping our children while we’re in China.  Our flight on Wednesday leaves early, so we’ll be up before the birds…not that we can sleep very soundly right now!

See you in China!

She’s been celebrating for about 2 weeks now…a slumber party a couple of weeks ago, out with the family to the Melting Pot for dessert and a trip to Build-A-Bear, the Winter Jam concert last Friday. The girl knows how to celebrate! We can’t believe our baby turned 12 yesterday…only one more year before the official teen years begin. We see glimpses of that teenager already, and most of the time we’re happy about it (grin). Here are a few more pictures to enjoy…

Abbey’s party…she was so nice to her momma and only invited a few friends this time!

Having a neighborhood scavenger hunt on Saturday morning…bringing back ice cubes was tricky ;)

Us girls at the Melting Pot

flaming chocolate and marshmallows anyone?? Yum…

I don’t think I’ve ever posted a picture of Lainey’s orphanage. This is the front and a view from one window. She is fortunate, and the recent storms haven’t affected them at all, they are warm, dry and well fed. We are so thankful. Her orphanage is new, built last year. Just recently, they were able to receive generous donations of new clothes and fruit for Chinese New Year, through the charity Packages of Hope. I hope she’s enjoying her fruit!

4 days till we board the plane!

Happy Year of the Rat! (I know you’re not happy about the “rat” part, Kathy, sorry!!)

We’re busy working on our “to do” lists, getting closer and closer to being ready to travel! It’s hard to believe that we will be on the plane in 6 days.

We’ve been checking the weather in the three cities we’ll be in, Beijing, Hefei, and Guangzhou. Highs for those cities this week around around 36, 42, and 55. As you can tell, we begin up north and go farther south with each city change. The lows in Beijing are in the teens…ouch. Did I mention that it’s been in the 70′s and 80′s here in Florida? I’ve been searching for winter clothes (we don’t have much need for gloves, hats and thermal undies here!)

Better get back to packing, etc. The days are slipping away!

Here’s what we know so far…we’ll get more detailed information from our guide, Lisa, in Beijing when we land.

2/12 Drive to NC to drop off our children with family…it’s going to be hard to do!

2/13 leave for China (NC to NJ to Beijing)

2/14 arrive and celebrate Valentine’s day by crashing in the hotel room!

2/15 Beijing tour (Great Wall?)

2/16 Beijing tour (Forbidden City?)

2/17 We leave Beijing and fly to Hefei, Anhui province. Lainey’s orphanage is in Anhui, in the city of Bengbu. We will be staying in Hefei which is the capital of Anhui. It’s about 3 hours from Bengbu.

2/18 Lainey Day! We’ll receive her in the morning, at the registration office in Hefei.

2/19 Go back to the registration office to finalize our adoption…she’ll be officially ours after this!

2/20-2/22 These days are rest or tour days, our choice. There is also paperwork going on during this time. During registration on the 19th, we apply for Lainey’s passport so it takes these days for her paperwork to process.

2/23 We leave Hefei and fly to Guangzhou.

2/24 Free day

2/25 Lainey has her visa physical done and visa photo taken. We also do some paperwork that day.

2/26 Free day

2/27 We have our US Consulate appointment

2/28 We go back to the US Consulate to take the oath, promising never to abandon her and to always care for her. We receive her visa today, too.

2/29 We leave Guangzhou for US (Guangzhou to Hong Kong to NJ to FL) I’m sure we’ll be so happy to be home.