More Photos From Tonight

We Have Her!

We met Cai this morning around 9:30. She is such a beautiful little girl! We noticed immediately that she was not going to warm up to us as easily as Cate did or be won over with our toys and candy so easily either! We were told that she is a very strong willed little girl, but also very brave. They told us that after her surgery, she was the only child in her orphanage that did not cry. She wouldn't have very much to do with us at first, but when when we pulled out the pictures that we brought, she went over to her bag and pulled out some of the same pictures of our family and named every one of us as Mama, Baba, Jie Jie ( big sisters) and Gu Gu ( big brothers). When it was time to leave the civil affairs office and get into the van, I expected a fight and tears, but she just sat in my lap, silent and still. She dozed a little on the way back to the hotel and when we arrived, she started crying and calling for Mama. But it wasn't me that she wanted. It was really hard and sad to see. But when we got to our room and started pulling out toys, she warmed up to us a little more. We have even been able to get some smiles and hugs. She is one tough and brave little girl. Cai is taking a nap now, so I am going to fill out more paperwork for tomorrow. Please pray for our transition and that all of our paperwork is completed so that we can leave Wuhan on Friday as planned.

Made It To Wuhan

Sorry we are so late with news from our China trip so far and pictures. We couldn't use our computer in Beijing. We made it to Wuhan this evening and have settled in our hotel rooms. Our guide here is Grant and we already like him very much. We will meet him in the morning at 9:00 and he will take us to meet Cai. I need to prepare our paperwork and fix Cai's backpack. I am very nervous and am praying that she will like us. I promise to post more tomorrow- we are so tired and need to get ready for a big day!!!

We Have LUGGAGE!!!

I hate that I haven't been able to use my laptop. Tomorrow we fly to Wuhan so I hope I will be able to post pictures to catch up. We are also anxious to skype. Our luggage made it last night, and boy were we happy to see it!! It made a lot of things better- that and a good nights sleep. Yesterday we did some shopping and saw an acrobatics show. It really was fun and the boys enjoyed it. Today, we went to the Great Wall, the Jade factory and cloissone factory- we also rode past the Bird's Nest for Rion and Pressley to see. It was a full day and that's exactly what we need to keep our mind off of home! I think Rion and Pressley are really enjoying their trip so far- I hope it continues! Our guide, Steven has turned out to be much better than we thought at first. He is so funny! And thankfully knows how to take care of us! Yesterday morning was very hard- I pretty much lost it on the phone with poor Greg- It's so hard to be away from him during this time and combine that with all of the smells, the jet lag, no luggage. But I have made up my mind not to think about that and to try to soak in and appreciate my daughters birth country. I can't think of much else- we have eaten some great Chinese food and the boys enjoyed McDonalds as their first meal in China. I hope to send you pictures next time. Thank you all for your prayers.

Made It To Beijing!

We are in our hotel in Beijing- I am using their computer and can't use mine here. We arrived around 1 AM but our baggage did not. So, we are handling things the best we can right now. I'm hoping when our luggage makes it here, and we can get a night's sleep, things will feel better.

We are going to China!!!!

We are so excited to say that we are finally going to China!!!!! We have prayed for this for so long and it's time to meet Cai!! We will be leaving on Wednesday morning, May 26 ( Yes, 5 days!) and we will return home on Saturday, June 12. We will be meeting Cai for the very first time on Monday, May 31 and will officially adopt her on Tuesday, June 1. We will spend that entire week in her province, Wuhan , getting to know one another and seeing the province she is from. We will then fly to Guangzhou on Friday evening, June 4. In GZ, Cai will have her medical examinaton, we will do all of our paperwork and appointments with the Consulate, and Cai will get her visa to enter the USA. Please pray that all of this goes smoothly! We will try to post something every day with pictures on this blog. Cai, Ready or not, here we come!!!!!

Happy Mothers Day!

Tonight

Tonight, while we are sleeping, our Article 5 will be picked up and sent to the place where Travel Approvals are processed and sent. Please say a prayer for us that our Travel Approval will come quickly, and also that we will be able to get a quick Consulate appointment. The Consulate appointments have been filling up and even with our TA, we can't leave until we can get an appointment.