It's Official.

Today, we made the adoption official.  We went to the same government building that we did yesterday to sign the final papers and receive the official adoption certificate.  Emotions were much more relaxed than they were 24 hours before, but the event was just as important.  Q is now officially ours!!  We thank God for the blessing of Q in our lives.

The start of the first full day as an official family.  What would it bring?  Would it be as good as yesterday or would reality set in and Q regress because this was something more than just an outing?  Would see be a mommy's-girl, a daddy's-girl, or accept or reject us both?  Well she is definitely mommy's girl at this point and makes daddy work for every bit of attention (don't worry, it's what was expected);-)  She woke up at 7:30 this morning, sat up, looked around and stared at us for a few minutes.  After she was fully awake, we skyped home for the boys to see Q again. :-)  Then it was off to
breakfast.  She loves food.  She's been willing to try new things but will shake her
head no and squinches up her cute, little nose when she doesn't want or like
something. :-)

We returned to the hotel at noon having all of the official stuff done.  After lunch we needed to go shopping for some shoes and clothes that fit Q.  She fits in the 12 mo. size, but with the exception of two oufits, we brought 18 - 24 mo. clothes and the shoes we had were too big.  Rita, our social worker, went with us and we were successful in find some pants and shoes to fit.  Still need socks as we forgot to pack some for her.

Tomorrow Q turns 2, so we also ordered a cake while we were out.  We will have a small party tomorrow with the other families in our group.  What an ordeal to order a cake!  The bakery is concerned the cake will not be pretty enough.  Who cares, she's only 2!  I'm sure it will be great.

Nothing scheduled for tomorrow other than the party.  Thursday we will go the orphanage that Q was assigned to and her "finding place".  That will be very interesting to say the least.

Check out some of the photos from today.

The official certificate.

Q wearing mommy's shoes.

Q playing hide & seek.

Today's The Day!!

Where to begin?! Today has been a day (so far) filled with many emotions.  First there was nervousness, then excitement, then some more nervousness, finally pure joy.

The morning started out meeting our group so that we could travel to the place where we would meet our children. We were driven to a government building about 15 minutes away from the hotel. In the lobby of this building was were the exchanges would be made. There were two other families with us from our group. When we arrived, the children were not there which only added to the nervousness. Since it was a nice day and the front doors to the lobby were propped open, we all paced in and out, watching intently as each car/van drove into the parking lot. About 15 minutes after we got there, the first child arrived. Not ours. It was a little hard to watch as this child cried a lot. Reality set in at this point for us, but the family handled it well as this was their second adoption. About 15 minutes later, another van pulled up. Again, not ours. This exchange went a lot smoother as the child didn't cry at all. This family was also on their second adoption. OK now our turn. Another 10 minutes pass and we get word that Q would be here in 10 more minutes. We went outside and prayed together. Right on time, an SUV comes whizzing in parking lot. Surely this isn't the vehicle carrying our child - they're driving way too fast. A young Chinese man hops out, goes around to the passengers front seat and pulls out a tiny toddler. He comes up to us and asks, "Liang Qi Ying"? He givers her to B and the waterworks begin (for both of them), but it was all good. After about five minutes, the crying ended as snacks were brought out and the eating began. Papers were signed, pictures taken and a quick bus ride back to the hotel - everything was good.

Once in the room, we broke out a few toys and started to see some smiles and hear giggles. A quick bath and new set of clothes made it even better. Tried to put her down for a nap, but she didn't sleep. I'll stop with the play-by-play for now and post some of the many pictures that were taken today. Just know she is doing well and the bonding seems to be going good too.

The only downer is she has a low-grade fever and cold so she needs cough medicine which she doesn't like. She knew exactly what it was when we tried to give it too her and fought it. One more thing, she is tiny. She weighed in at a whopping 15 lbs!!
Thanks for all of your prayers and comments on the blog & Facebook. Enjoy the pics.

God's Blessings to you!!
S & B

The new addition at the govt. bldg.

Q all prettied up after a bath.

Mommy's being funny.

Hi!!

Fun in the hotel play room.

I might be small, but I can do stairs (w/ daddy's help).

Ni hoa!

Greetings from Zhengzhou!

We made it safely to Zhengzhou a little earlier today.  We spent time getting
the room ready and taking a trip to the local Wal-Mart.  I'll post pics of that
trip tomorrow as we're wiped and need to get some sleep before the big
day tomorrow.

Please continue to keep our daughter in your prayers as tomorrow will
be a very difficult day for her.  We are prepared for whatever the day brings,
but please also pray for us that we get good rest tonight (last night wasn't very
good---up at 4 a.m.).

I'll post more pics of the outing to Wal Mart tomorrow.  Boy the things you can
buy here! :-0

Before we sign off for the night, I'll post one special pic and a bit of info about
our daughter.  We found out from the info provided by her foster family that she
loves cars!  Can you believe it?! :-)  We didn't bring any cars with us, so while out
at the store we found something we hopes she likes...it's on the floor next to the
crib in the picture.

Please forgive us for not posting any pics today but the days have now started
running together and it seems like we lose steam about 5-6 p.m. each night.
We're hoping that since we're not doing much sightseeing the next few days,
we can get caught up on pics/posting.

Goodnight from Zhengzhou!

J & D we love you and we can't wait for you to meet your sister!

Last Day in Beijing

Today we spent our last full day in Beijing.  Tomorrow we leave early for
our daughter's province.

We toured a jade factory, climbed the Great Wall, and visited a cloisonne
factory.  While at the cloisonne factory, we ate lunch at a resturant above
the factory.  The food was served family style and it was wonderful.

Travel Group 1713 ready to for the Great Wall.

Looking up the Great Wall.

Looking down the Great Wall.

Soldier's weapons at the Great Wall. 

Lunch at a resturant above the Cloisonne factory.

A Tour of Beijing

We had a wonderful day touring Beijing.  We toured a silk factory,
Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and did a Hutong Tour.

For the Hutong Tour (Hutong's are small regions or districts within the city),
we got to ride a rickshaw.  That was pretty cool.

It's almost 9 p.m. our time.  We're wiped.  Trying to stay awake during dinner
is difficult.  On another note, we've met all but one member of our travel group
and they are great!

So, please forgive that I'm not writing about each picture that posted tonight...I
just really can't put a proper sentence together.

Oh D, you didn't give me the low down on all the squatty potty's....found out
the hard way that the public bathrooms in one of our tours had both. 
Oh well....at least I can say that I've been there and done that. ;-p 
We also found that the public bathrooms are on a rating system similar to
hotels.  We saw one that was a 4 star...the bathroom I visited definitely
wasn't 4 stars.

Enjoy the pics.  Tomorrow the Great Wall!

P.S.  Captions provided by S, since B is incapacitated.

Two rickshaw riders in Hutong of Old Beijing.

S & the rickshaw driver (now BFF's).

Machine used to combine small silk threads into a usable-sized thread.

B and travel group members stretching silk layer out for filling in a quilt.

S & group members gives it a try.

Tiananmen Square

Walkway bridges within the Forbidden City.

We Made It

We finally arrived in Beijing after a 2 hr 45min car ride and
13 hr plane ride.

A shot of our ride. :-)

The flight was long but wasn't as bad as I had predicted.  Not too much

sleep for either as the seats weren't very comfortable.  We had three meals

while in the air and no, we didn't get burritos like our friends Deb and Steve.

Instead, we got a cheeseburger in the middle of our flight. 

It was neat to be able track your flight on the tv screen above your folding tray.

We flew out of NJ over Canada and Greenland.  We then flew over the Artic

Circle. Lastly, we flew over Russia and then into China.  I got to see the sun

rise over the Artic Circle.  Very cool!  Will need to get pics on the plane

ride home.

Tomorrow is a tour of Beijing.  Off to force ourselves to eat some dinner and
then hopefully get some rest.  J & D we love you and send hugs your way!

One More Day

One more day until we get on a plane to China!  It's already been
a busy morning.  J has been complaining of a sore and slightly
swollen heel since the weekend.  So, we went to the doctor
yesterday and for x-rays today.  Initially I was told the heel
did in fact have fracture only to be told sorry, it was a growth plate.
Talk about head spinning.  Just as I had accepted the fact that he
had a fractured heel and we would not be here to help him deal with
it, they came back in to say, sorry, our bad.  Totally not complaining.
I'm actually thanking God for watching over J and protecting him.

So, we're almost packed.  Finishing up last minute things to get ready.
In the meantime, we have guitar lessons, an orthodontist visit, and
Confirmation class this evening.  Whew, maybe the long plane
ride is just what I need!  ;-)

We would truly appreciate prayers for safe travels, and for our
daughter waiting for us.  We also ask that you keep the boys and
my mom in your prayers as well.

We look forward to sharing this journey with all of you!