It's Official!

Hi All!
Sorry we disappeared for awhile. Our time in Guangzhou was very busy! We stayed at the famous White Swan Hotel - it was non stop adoptive families all the time. It was a very beautiful hotel on a gorgeous island in the south of Guangdong Province.

The shopping in this area was fantastic so between appointments we would run out to the shops. We had to buy another suitcase to make it home. Addie will have plenty of squeeky shoes, Chinese dresses, and porcelain to last her quite awhile.

Our travel group mates have been awesome and we had a celebration dinner with two of the couples last night. We will miss them when the trip is over, but the experience we have shared will bond us together for a lifetime.

We went to the U.S. Consulate and took the oath yesterday and they gave us Addie's immigration packet, passport and visa. We are now official in the eyes of China. She is still a Chinese citizen until we touch down in Chicago.

We left for Hong Kong this morning and after a 30 minute flight we were here. We will overnight here and travel back to the U.S. tomorrow. We can't believe that the trip is almost over. Addison has been such a good little travel dispite having a cold - Mommy too!

We are ready to get home to our family and friends, our house, comfy beds beds, and dogs. We can't wait for Addie to meet you all. Please come by later next week and pay us a visit.

Our Day in Nanchang

Today was a semi free day in Nanchang. This mornng we went to the Teng Wang Pagoda - it was amazing and the views were spectacular. It is one of the oldest and most well known pagoda in China. Addison slept through almost the whole thing. The did have amazing porcelain there and we bought several pieces - this is a specialty in Nanchang and Jiangxi Province. Her orphanage brought us a special piece of porcelain from Ji'an and we also received a piece from the civil affairs office in Nanchang.

Then we spent the afternoon hanging around at the hotel. Addison is quite a ham and she keeps us very busy. As you can see she really enjoys the mirror.

Tomorrow we have to do more paperwork at the civil affairs office in Nanchang and the we will be able to pick up Addisons passport to fly to Guangzhou in the afternoon. We should be at the White Swan hotel by 7pm. Guangzhou is the last stop for the adoption. Then we head to Hong Kong and then home. Our appointment with the consulate in Guangzhou is on the 23rd. We leave for Hong Kong on the 25th at 4:30am (ouch)! Signing off until Guangzhou - we sure have enjoyed the free internet in Nanchang.

And then there were three...

Yesterday was GOTCHA day and we are now the parents of a moving and shaking 10 month old. She is too sweet for words. We got to Nanchang, Jiangxi Province at about 2:30pm yesterday to be told that the babies would be arriving in two groups because ou girls came from two orphanages. The Ji'an City group would be at the hotel in less than an hour and a half. The girls from Rujian would arrive at 5:30pm. Addie is in the smaller group from Ji'an City.

We scrambled arounds to get ready and Brody even went to the store to get formula. We walked into a small conference at the hotel and the babies and there caretakers were already there, we picked Addie out right away with her unmistakeable cheeks. Two friends from our group filmed at took pictures for us as they handed the babies to their parents one by one.

Addie came to us really calmly and it wasn't until after we gave her the first bottle that she had a little meltdown (she only cried for an hour and a half which isn't bad considering some babies in the group are still crying today).

She is a ray of sunshine. She loves music and people and actually prefers to be in a room of people all the time. She can sit fairly well and likes to stand assisted by us. She loves to bop to music it is the cutest thing ever.

Today we spent the morning making the adoption official in the Province so she is officially ours here in Jiangxi. We leave for Guangzhou in two days to make it official in China and to obtain her passport and visa to travel home.

She is in great shape healthwise. It is obvious that she was well taken care of and the workers from her orphage thought she was so special. They came to wish us well this morning.

We're doing well and hope that the rest of the trip goes smoothly.

Greetings from the Great Wall!

We climbed the Great Wall today. It was truly awe inspiring. The views went on forever and the moutains were fantastic. We leave for Nanchang at 9:30 tomorrow morning and we get Addie in the afternoon so stay tuned for pictures.

We did have one electronic casualty - my camera charger blew up two days ago - I just hope we have enough batteries to get us through the Gotcha moment. A friend in our group brought a backup camera so we may have to borrow that until we leave.

Enjoy our views from The Wall. Wouldn't you know I would have to shut my eyes in the photo. Oh, well!

This is the last post from the family of 2 - soon we will be 3!!

Great Day in Beijing!

Hi Everyone,
Our trip is going so fast. Only two days until we get Addie!! We had an amazing day exploring Beijing. We saw Tiananman Square, The Forbidden City, and we took a rickshaw tour of old Beijing. Tomorrow we are headed to the Great Wall and the Cloisanne Factory. Our tour group awesome and we have made a lot of wonderful friends already. A few more people will arrive tomorrow to complete our group. Enjoy a few pictures from our day.

We're here!!

After a really long day of traveling we made it in last nigh at about 3:30pm. We were to the hotel by 5:30pm. We both had about 5 hours of sleep in 48 hours. We went to the pearl market and the silk market today and did quite a bit of shopping. Here are a few shots from today.

We leave in 8 Hours!!!

Our ride to the airport will be here to pick us up at 7:30am. I can't believe that the day is here! We are all packed--very anxious and excited. I imagine neither of us will be getting much sleep tonight.

We are not looking forward to the 15 hour flight, but can't wait to touch down on Chinese soil - the birthplace of our sweet little girl.

This trip will be difficult, yet amazing. Only five more days until we hold Addison in our arms.

We'll post from Beijing!!

T.

1 Week!!!!

We are leaving one week from today - I can't believe it!!

Time is flying by so fast and we have so much to do still before we leave. In less than two weeks we will hold our beautiful daughter for the first time. Thanks to everyone for you words of encouragement on our site.

We have our complete travel itinerary and we hope to post it soon!

The Count Down Begins

14 days from now we will be somewhere over the ocean on our way to pick up our precious Addison. So much to do before we leave. I have clients to see, papers to write, work to finish (3 months worth in 2 weeks), packing and dog care instructions to write for our fur children (Harley & Stella). Thankfully, my wonderful Mother-in-Law will stay with the dogs and house sit while we are gone. Brody has decided that he will do the packing, although he said I can't blame him if we are missing anything. I will likely double-check everything three times if that makes sense.

Wow-it seems surreal that this is happening and that we will hold Addison for the first time in only 18 days. We'll keep you posted on how the packing is going. Right now it looks like a baby store exploded at our house. I hope I remember everthing.

Please leave a comment if you can think of any baby must-haves to bring with us to China.