Yes...we are still alive!

We are all still alive and kicking. We got home on Dec. 24th and the last few days have been a blur of activity between the jet lag, Christmas and just re-adjusting to being home (hey - when is the maid coming in to clean my room and make my bed and John wonders where the nightly turn-down chocolates have gone??).

We arrived in Hong Kong on Dec. 23rd after an uneventful flight. We checked into our hotel and then headed over to Hong Kong Disneyland. The girls were so surprised and so excited to get to go. We got there just as the parade was starting so it was great for them to get to see everyone they would want to see in one fell swoop. We then went and enjoyed a lot of the rides. By 8 that night we were all wiped out and went back to the hotel to crash. The next morning, Dec. 24th, we headed over to the airport and caught our flight back to Chicago. We were so blessed with a less than full flight. The row of seats in front of us only had 1 person in it so my dad was able to move up there giving Kate a place to sit and sleep. Once again, the girls did awesome on the flight, including Kate. Kate slept for parts of it and then was content to just sit and play in the seat. She truly is such a sweet, content and calm baby.

We arrived in Chicago and proceeded through immigration where Kate became a US citizen. The immigration officer was a little persnickety (I guess I would be too if I was working on Christmas Eve) but warmed up after he saw Kate's sweet smile! We drove home and were in bed by 7 pm that night. Of course, the next morning we were up at 3:30!! EVERYONE was so we just threw in a movie and started our day. Kate has actually done fabulous with the jet lag. Lauren, on the other hand, was killing us the first few nights. She's never a terribly great sleeper so this has thrown her for a loop! We hit the wall, per say, with Lauren on Wednesday night when we were literally up with her every single hour from 10 to 3am! Yikes - I wasn't sure we were going to live through it! :) Fortunately, last night she went to bed at 7am and didn't wake up until 6 this morning. I'm prayerful we are over the hump with sleeping difficulties for Lauren. Kate went to sleep last night around 9 and woke up around 7am! Oh, happy day - another good sleeper. I think God knows that one tough sleeper is about all I can handle! :)

Well, here are a variety of pictures from this past week. They range from Disneyland to Christmas to just cute shots of Kate. This has been such a fun journey to be on and we count it a privilege that you take time out of your busy lives to follow along with us! We hope your New Year is filled with Christ's blessing!

Kate's Home

Our final night in Guangzhou...

Well, the time has finally come for us to pack up everything in our room and get ready to move on down to Hong Kong for a night. Believe me, packing up everything was a FEAT to behold! You have never seen so much luggage. I think the only downside of being in Guangzhou the whole time is that you have loads of time to shop, shop, shop! Normally, a family is in the province for a week and then Guangzhou for 5 nights - well, we've been in Guangzhou for 13 nights since this is Kate's province.

The last night in China is always a sad one for me. We love being in China. We love so many things about China and feel so connected to this place that is the birth country of our children. I think leaving is bittersweet to me because I really feel such a sense of loss for Kate. She is obviously gaining so much in her little life by being in a forever family and coming to the US but she is also losing as well - losing her native language, losing her birth family, losing everything that is familiar and losing a piece of her culture. We try to teach our girls so much about China and where they have come from and what the language is like, etc. but it is obviously not the same as being here. We know that God has purposed this union and it was meant to be from the moment He knit Kate together in her mother's womb and I am so thankful for that! I am constantly in awe of God's goodness and faithfulness in our lives. Six years ago when we left the infertility doctor's office for the last time, John and I could have never even fathomed that God would have such an amazing and awesome blessing waiting for us! I am so glad He is in control as His ways are so much better than our own!

We are planning to take the girls to Hong Kong Disneyland tomorrow as a special treat for being such amazing troopers this whole trip. They don't know yet so tomorrow will be a fun day to tell them and then go explore Hong Kong Disneyland. We will then fly out of Hong Kong on Sunday morning, Christmas Eve. We will arrive back in Chicago around noon on Sunday and then will head home in time to celebrate Christmas Eve in our home with our sweet, sweet Kate. What a beautiful Christmas gift we have been given.

I just want to add what a blessing it has been to have my Mom and Dad here to travel with us and to help. They have been so incredibly helpful with the girls, with Kate and just with everything. Mom spent an hour today making up bottle packets of food for Kate for the next 2 travel days! The girls have loved having them here too. It was so nice for them to be able to receive extra attention while John and I tend to Kate. We have had a fun trip!

Here are a few pictures of the last two days. You'll notice a lot of Kate on the bed but they were all so darn cute that I couldn't decide which one to leave out. She has learned to play peek-a-boo and that is what she is doing in the pictures! The last couple of pictures are of us eating last night at a local Cantonese restaurant. In one picture John is eating a sandworm and the other Leah is about to eat a water beetle. OK - really Leah was no way going to eat that beetle but wanted the picture taken! :) John did try the water beetle. He said it tasted like a roasted garlic clove inside a shrimp shell. The sand worm tasted like squid to him. I'm taking his word for it because there was no way I was going to try them. They made me sick just looking at them! :)

Enjoy and Merry, Merry Christmas! We hope your holidays are filled with the joy of Christ's birth!

Our last days in China...

Fabulous day at the Zoo...

This morning we took a couple of cabs over to the Guangzhou City Zoo. We didn't know exactly what to expect but we thought it would be a nice small zoo with a few animals in the middle of a very crowded and bustling city. Well, it is in the middle of the crowded and bustling city, but what a jewel it is. The zoo was absolutely beautiful! It's walkways were surrounded by trees and beautiful landscaping. It made you actually forget that you were in the city. There weren't very many people there so I guess that helped us in forgetting about the bustling city. We got to see all the usual animals at the zoo but the highlights were that for 10 yuan each (about $1.21) John and the girls each got to hold a chimpanzee! Well, John actually held the chimpanzee and the girls just stood next to it while it rode it's tricycle! What a crack-up. All I kept thinking was - I sure hope the shots we got would cover a chimpanzee bite! :) Of course, nothing of the sort happened. The girls got a hoot out of it! The other funny thing we saw in the Children's "Petting" Zoo area were Pomeranian (sp?) dogs! The other highlight for the girls was the small amusement park that is attached to the zoo. The girls LOVED getting to ride these little battery-type operated cars. The only difference is these things would scoot! Leah had the pedal to the metal and was cruising all over the little area. It was just a big open area that the girls could drive anywhere they wanted so they thought that was really cool. To any adoptive families that are coming to Guangzhou soon, I would highly recommend checking out the zoo! It was great fun! We went with the one of the other couples in our travel group. The girls absolutely love Shane and Angel and they have been so sweet with the girls. You'll notice in the photos that Leah is almost always holding one of their hands! Kate did great on our outing. She was content to be held by John in our hip hammock and then ride around in the stroller. She seemed to enjoy just taking all the sights in. My what a different world hers has become in such a short time.

I hope you enjoy the pictures from the zoo. I also included a few photos from last night when we bought fruit from a farmer on the street. Evidently, these men will bring in their fresh "harvest" into the city and sell them until they are gone. We bought delicious mandarin oranges from him. I have never eaten a mandarine orange that didn't come from a can...boy, the fresh ones are delicious!

Just click on the picture below and it will take you into all the pictures.

A day at the zoo!

More of Kate's arrival

Kate's arrival

OK - this post is way out of order but I wanted to upload some of the pictures from the day we got Kate. At the time, I hadn't figured out how to upload a lot of pictures but now I have. So here are the pictures from when Kate was brought to us. Forgive me if some are repeats.

As for Kate, she continues to do good. She is crawling around everywhere and likes to play with all the toys. She is babbling and talking. She is taking the bottle so much better now but still will not let us get anywhere near her mouth with a spoon or cheerios or bananas or anything! I think it will be slow going on that side of things. Her bottles are made with half formula and half rice cereal (really thick bottles) so she is at least getting some rice cereal in addition to the formula. It will come, I know.

Wednesday - Six Banyan Buddhism Temple

We went this morning to the Six Banyan Buddhism Temple to see the sights. The pagoda was 9 levels high and 17 stories high. Today was some special Buddhism day so there were lots of people there burning incense and leaving fruit offerings. It was very interesting but also very sad to us. In fact, when I took the little group picture of John, Mom and the girls, John and the girls shouted, "Jesus loves you!" instead of saying cheese.

We were quite the spectacle at the place with 3 Chinese daughters. We had throngs of people surrounding us on all sides wanting to know about these 3 girls. Of course, they were talking all in Chinese and we were speaking in English so it was a bit of a trick. We did get lots of thumbs up from the local people. I don't have a picture of that but I did get a picture of several people checking out Shane and Angel's (the other couple in our travel group) baby. There was a sweet little Chinese grandma that came up to us and started pulling on Kate's pant legs because there was a little skin showing. In 3 adoptions that is the first time we have had that happen. John was holding Lauren too and she even tugged on Lauren's pants a bit. Then gave us the thumbs up. She was very sweet and cute - reminded me of my sweet Mamaw who died this past May.

The last photo is just for viewing enjoyment...all the shoes I have bought. I think total I've bought 18 pairs but only about 15 are pictured. YIKES! But they are so cheap here - like $3 & $4 for Kate's shoes and $5-7 for Leah and Lauren's. I still have to go out and get Kate just a few more pairs of sandals because you know, a one year old can never have too many pairs of shoes, and then I'll be all done. :)

Buddhist Temple

Kate is on the move!

Well, it is official. Kate is a crawling machine! She has been crawling all around the hotel room this afternoon. We went out for a walk this morning and then came back to the room. Once we got back, she took a little bit of a bottle and then wanted on the floor to explore. She's really funny because she likes to push her little bottom up into the air with her head smushed on the floor making a little bridge. It was cute because at one point all 3 girls were doing it...where's my camera when I need it!

We went out to a little park on Shamian Island today to let Leah and Lauren run around a bit. They had a great time playing. Leah made friends with another little girl and they had a great time playing. Lauren, however, felt left out...she went up to John and said, "I just need some time with my friend, Leah." It was sweet! Of course, once they were back to the room it was fun playtime again!

Here are a few pictures from the day:

Kate's on the move!

A recap of the last few days...

Hello! Sorry I haven't been posting but life gets a little busy with 3 little girls running around. By the time, we get everyone to bed, I'm exhausted and just go to bed myself. It is the morning time now and hopefully I will be a little bit more coherent for posting. We have spent the last few days just hanging around the hotel and Shamian Island. The weather has been absolutely beautiful so we've spent lots of time just outside walking around.

Kate is doing so great. What a difference a week makes! She is taking full bottles now, 4 times a day! And she has even began taking the bottles I brought from home which is great because ours have disposable liners whereas the bottle from the orphanage is just a regular bottle. It was a bit tricky only having one bottle that she would take. We were having to do a lot of cleaning of that bottle. She is smiling a lot now and even crawling a bit. Our paperwork said she could crawl and pull up on things to walk but we didn't see any of that until yesterday. In fact, last night while John was feeding the big girls, Kate was on the bed and before they knew it, John and Lauren both had to grab a leg to keep Kate from falling off the bed. She still is content to stay in one place most of the time but it's obvious she knows how to crawl. She just continues to come out of her shell a little at a time. She is such a sweet girl and is so content most of the time. She right now is sitting on the floor next to Lauren looking at toys. She'll look back over her shoulder at me and flash a big smile to me! It's very sweet. The only time she really cries is when she is getting her clothes changed. The girl likes being in her jammies!

Yesterday we had the required medical exam for her US visa and she did great. She weighed in at 21 lbs! I can't remember how long she was. It was funny though because when she went to the part where the doctor listens to her chest and looks her over, the doctor was laughing at her big chubby thighs! She is so healthy! She doesn't even have a cold or anything - truly remarkable. And hence, we have all stayed healthy which is such a huge praise!

Kate is not only the first baby of ours that hasn't been sick but also the first baby that really doesn't have a ton of tickle spots. Last night we found the spot to make her laugh, though, right near those chubby thighs! We can tickle her there and she just laughs and laughs.

Mom, Dad and I went on a river boat dinner cruise last night on the Pearl River. The views were just beautiful. Tons of neon lights everywhere. John stayed back at the hotel and watched the girls. The cruise was really nice but the food left a little to be desired. I'm pretty good about eating while we are in China and can almost always find a few things that I like. Well, last night, I found that I liked the cookies and the rice - that's about it! It was so funny watching Dad turn his nose up at most everything he tried. You'll see the picture in the photo album below of what he ended up eating!

Yesterday (Monday) we had the red couch photo of all the kids in our group. For those not in the adoption circle, almost every travel group that comes through the White Swan Hotel has the babies pictures taken on the red couch. I'm not sure why but it is pretty cute. You can see from the pictures that it is quite impossible to get all those children to smile at the same time...actually, almost impossible to get them all to not cry at the same time. But it was fun, none the less.

Well, I think that is enough for now. We are going for massages this afternoon. A one hour massage for $10! You can't beat that! Enjoy the pictures.

Sunday-Tuesday

Happy Birthday Kate!!!

Today is Kate's birthday and we had quite the celebration! We have 2 other families in our travel group so we invited them up to our room for cake. Kate was not overly impressed with the birthday celebrations as she was pretty tired. She would not eat any of the birthday cake either but she has had a couple of bottles today so that is good news! I thought for sure the chocolate birthday cake would turn her onto food! Here are some pictures from the festivities!

Happy, Happy Birthday sweet Kate!

Kate's Big Birthday!

Shamian Island Shopping...

The girls sporting their new dresses and umbrellas from the shopping trip.

We spent Friday just hanging around the hotel and shopping around the island. It was so nice to have a free day with nothing planned. We went and visited all the little shops on the island and looked at all the great stuff! I can already tell that we might just have to get an extra suitcase for this trip home! But how is one to resist the cutest little leather shoes for $3?? There are lots of different things that the shops have this time that they didn't have when we were here in 2004 so it's fun to shop for all the new stuff - like baby quilts made out of the pretty Chinese silk, diaper bags and clothes, clothes, clothes! Cathy - you just wait until you get her. I told one of the shop owners that if she thought I shopped a lot - just wait until my friend comes...she shops circles around me! :)

Kate is doing a little better each day. She still only wants to sit in my lap or John's. We can't really put her down. She did let my Mom hold her for a little bit yesterday, too. Lauren was that way to so I was prepared for that. She is eating a little bit better but still no where near the amount of formula the orphanage said she was eating. I did find out yesterday that she prefers to take the bottle sitting up. I let her just play with the bottle for about 5 minutes and eventually she leaned her little head forward and started drinking some. She only drank about 2 oz. but she did that a couple of times yesterday. She slept pretty good last night so I'm hoping that she will wake up good and hungry! Kate is beginning to babble a lot more, too which is really cute to hear.

Leah and Lauren are doing so awesome. They are just the best big sisters ever! It is so nice for them to have one another to play with. Yesterday afternoon I bet they played for an hour and a half without ever coming in to ask us for anything. They truly love one another and it is so neat to see their friendship flourish. They do love Baby Kate but I think they probably think, "she doesn't do much!" Yesterday, Leah reminded me that "she's still getting use to us, Mom". In other words, don't rush her, Mom! Ah, the wisdom of little ones!

Thanks again for all the comments and emails. We love reading them. Here are a few more pictures from the day.

The orphanage visit...

I only have a minute but just wanted to upload some pictures from our visit yesterday to the orphanage. We feel very blessed that we got to visit it. The assistant director and the lady in charge of all the nannies were both so nice. We got to visit Kate's room and could tell that all the staff really loved her. We saw the room where they make the formula and bottles also. The lady in charge of the caretakers tried to give her a bottle and she fought her, too so that made me feel a little better. At least I wasn't doing something wrong. She did get Kate to take some of a bottle. I think Kate might just be a bit stubborn and says, "hey, I may not be in control of anything else but I'm going to be in control of when I eat." In the van on the way home, she began to babble quite a bit and is slowly coming out of her shell.

In Yangdong, we went to this kite shop and bought kites for the girls as evey September they hold the largest kite festival in China in Yangdong. Then we went to a knife shop because the Yangdong region is famous for their knives. You would not believe how beautiful and SHARP these knives were and how incredibly inexpensive they were! We got a beautiful kitchen set with about 7 knives and a pair of scissors and the block that they go in for $60!!! Unbelieveable!

Here are a few pictures from the day:

Yangdong SWI

Kate's first bath!

Kate had her first bath the other night and did just great! She loved the water. Funny thing, though, she's got such a little Buddha belly that when we put her in the sink for the bath - she filled it right up! We had to move her to the tub! Anyway, here's a pic from her first bath.

God is Good!

Yes, that is an empty bottle! Praise the Lord! Thank you all for your prayers! Kate took a little bit of a bottle this morning, a little more before naptime and then just sucked down a whole bottle around 4pm! Yeah!! By the way, the M&M's are for us - not for Kate! :) We are not there yet as tonight she wouldn't take the bottle again but we are making progress!

Here are some more pictures...

I've switched the place where the photos are going to be uploaded at because it was taking too long to upload to the other space. You can just click below on the picture and you can see more pics from the first few days! If you click on the smaller pictures it will take you into larger ones! Enjoy! Kate is such a beauty! She has the longest eyelashes of anyone I've ever seen!

Kate China Trip

Wednesday Morning...

I only have a minute but I just wanted to give you a little update on sweet Kate. She is such a sweet little baby but she is grieving so hard. Just crying and moaning so much. It just breaks our heart to see it! We have had some smiles also so I know that we are making progress every minute. She is eating so very little and that is a bit scary for John and I. Please pray with us that she will begin eating soon. We will be going to the orphanage tomorrow so we are anxious to ask them exactly how she likes the bottle and how she likes to be fed. The first day she wouldn't even let us get the bottle near her mouth but yesterday we got about one bottle in her. This morning she took about half of another one. In the orphanage she was taking about 6 bottles a day! No wonder she is so healthy and chubby! We know that she will eat soon but I can't help but worry about her. I am trusting in God every minute to sustain her! I know He is faithful to do that. When the bouts of crying stop she does have some good minutes and will flash a very toothy smile at us on occassion. Those little smiles keep us going. I don't have time right now to post one of those pictures but I will when we get back from the Grocery Store. Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments and emails you all have sent. Knowing that we have such strong prayer support for us back home sure helps us! I'll post more pics soon!

Kate is here!

We received Kate today and she is absolutely beautiful! The handoff was actually very uneventful because sweet Kate was sound asleep. Even when the Ayi handed her to me she didn’t even bobble! Woohoo – a good sleeper! She is so beautiful – she has the longest eyelashes you have ever seen. She was wearing this sweet little yellow outfit with her name sewn on the chest. She probably slept for about 30 minutes more after the hand off and then began waking up while we were still at the Civil Affairs office. She was OK for a couple of minutes after waking up but then began to cry. It was a heartbreaking cry for me because it wasn’t a screaming fit kind of cry but a low, slow grieving kind of cry. No matter how many times I have experienced that cry and even know to expect it, it still breaks our heart to watch them go through the process. She is such a sweet baby and to have to see her cry and mourn because she is so scared is so hard to watch. The girls were really great with her. They kept bringing out lots of toys for her, singing to her and just touching and patting her very sweetly. Leah kept saying, “Mom, she’s just not used to us yet.” How true that is! Kate loves looking at the girls. In fact, she would look at Leah, quit crying and then look up at me and start crying again! Poor thing! When we got back to the room, she would play for a bit and then cry for a bit, play a bit, cry a bit. This went on until about 8:00 when the crying really kicked into high gear. She wouldn’t take the bottle we had prepared – and by wouldn’t take it, I mean wouldn’t even let the bottle get near her lips. We changed her into her jammies and then just lay beside her on our bed until she finally fell asleep around 8:30. We had a bottle ready for her in the night when we figured she would wake up starving but it is now 6:30am and she is still sound asleep. The poor child was just exhausted. We are excited for her to wake up but by the 3rd one I’ve learned, “NEVER wake a sleeping baby!” The director and ayi from the orphanage were very sweet and said that they loved Kate very much. It certainly appears that she was well taken care of as she is very big – weighs 21 pounds – and they told us she takes 1 and a half bottles each time she is fed! She looks so healthy. She had a bit of a cough last night but I think it might have just been from all the crying so we’ll watch that. Now I’ve got to go get dressed so we can go down for breakfast as soon as Kate wakes up! We praise God for this beautiful blessing He has bestowed on our family. She is a true gift from God and we feel so blessed to have her! I'll post more pictures from the day later - I've got to get a shower! :)

We did get one smile out of Kate last night!

Here's Kate

OK - here are the newest photos of Kate. Only problem is we just got a color print of the page and not the actual digital images so what I am posting is a photo of the photo! We think she is just beautiful - she has tons of black hair - much to Leah's pleasure! It says she likes to smile and play, is crawling and pulling up on things, and eats 4 times a day! It should be lots of fun! It will be so fun to watch the girls with her.

Saturday - Great Wall tour!

Today we went to the Great Wall, for lunch and then on a rickshaw tour of the Hutongs in Beijing. It was a really great day. The girls were just awesome and total troopers, especially given that we were all up around 4am! Lauren slept on the way to the Wall and after the rickshaw ride but Leah stayed awake all day – amazing! We went to the Badaling section of the Great Wall and it was neat to see. Our last trip for Lauren’s adoption, we went to a very remote section of the wall and did not see one other person on the wall. This was definitely different as it was very full of people and tons of “sales” people, even on the Wall. I had expected to see them all around but I assumed that once we paid the admission and went up there wouldn’t be people on the Great Wall selling stuff. That was a wrong assumption! We had an absolutely beautiful, blue sky day for the Wall and that was great to be able to see it go and go and go. But, boy was it ever COLD and windy!! I mean frigid cold! One of the Holt staff that was with us said it perfectly, “on the Wall, it is a lazy wind – it goes right through you instead of around you!” He was right. The girls, my parents and I didn’t stay up there long. We walked up, snapped a few pictures and then headed back down to the warm hotel that is there for some hot chocolate. John ventured way up the other side and was rewarded with beautiful views! After that we went to lunch at a Cloisone factory and it was a really good lunch. Leah, my picky eater, was eating everything in site and with her chopsticks! She just looked so grown up to us.

After shopping, we went on the Hutong Tour and that was really cool. We took bikes through the Hutongs which are the old style community where all the houses are built very close together with very narrow alleyways connecting them. The alleyways are so narrow that a car won’t fit down most of them just bicycles. We stopped in to meet one of the lady’s that lives in one of the hutongs so that we could see inside one. Her house was really cool. She said she was very fortunate to have 4 rooms and a kitchen. The place was actually quite big but our guide told us it wasn’t typical of all the hutong homes. Most just live in one room. John asked the lady what she was going to fix for dinner and she told us dumplings – John’s favorite! She disappeared for a moment and then came back with a plate full of dumplings for everyone to try. They were DELICIOUS! It was hard to convince John to continue on the rest of the tour because I’m certain he would have been happy to stay at her house and have dumplings for dinner!

After that we came back to the hotel and went to Sizzler for dinner! By 8:30 we were all wiped out and in bed. We are going to the orientation today and should see Kate's updated photos! And then tomorrow we will be going to Guangzhou for sweet Kate! By the way, for those of you who might not be familiar - you can click on the picture in the blog and it will enlarge it. I'm going to try to upload more pictures to our other spot. You can click here to see if I was successful! :) Thanks for all the comments. We all love reading them!

We are in Beijing!!

We made it to Beijing without any troubles! Praise God! The flight was right on time and as smooth as can be. The girls did really great! They were content to color, bead necklaces, play with their magnetic dolls and watch a few videos. We didn't even end up with a dead battery on the DVD player which was surprising to me. I thought we would burn through it pretty quickly but Leah was the only one that really watched it and by that time Lauren had crashed as you can see in the picture! We are now just hanging out at the hotel. John has gone today to do some business in another city but will be back tonight. Mom and Dad have gone to see the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City. I think the girls and I will go out walking around here in just a bit! We are so very excited to be here. We have heard that on Sunday we will receive some updated photos of Kate! Yeah, we can't wait for that. I'll post them when we get them! Tomorrow we will go to the Great Wall and probably freeze to death but it's always fun to go to the Great Wall! I'll post more tomorrow!

4 days and counting!!

We are getting so excited!! We are in full packing mode at our house. Lots of errands are being ran today and tons of last minute details are getting taken care of. It's amazing that there are 22 more shopping days until Christmas but for us there are only 4 shopping days left! Thankfully, we have most everything done but I had to send John and the girls out for errands this morning because there are Christmas gifts for everyone under the tree except one...guess who!!

I thought I would attach this picture so you can see what it looks like to try to pack things up for a family of 4, soon to be 5, to be gone for 2 1/2 weeks to China! It's pretty interesting. John's official title for this trip is Pack Mule! I'll be sure and snap a pic as he schlepps all this stuff through airports! :)

Mom & Dad arrive tonight and will be traveling with us which will be wonderful to have the extra sets of hands to help. At least, we initially won't be out numbered! And for those of you who know my dad, it should make for some interesting stories, as well!

I probably won't post again until we are in China - that's what you guys really care about anyway!! See you on the other side of the world!

Cristi

Our trip photos!

I am just testing this out to see if it is going to work. We plan to post our pictures here for the trip and I just wanted to see how it works. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Kate's Referral Photo

Kate's Referral Photo
Originally uploaded by our girls2006.

I thought I would upload a picture of Kate's referral that was given to us and give a few details about her! We received Kate's referral on September 19th, 2006. We sent our paperwork back in and received our travel approval on 11/20/06. Kate was born 12/16/2005 and we will be fortunate enough to get to celebrate her first birthday with her. She is currently residing in the Yangdong SWI in Yang Dong, Guangdong, China. We will travel to Beijing first for sight-seeing and our agency's orientation and then spend the remainder of our time in Guangzhou. We will leave Dec. 6th and return home Dec. 24th. What a blessing to not only get to celebrate Kate's first birthday with her but also be able to have her home for Christmas! We'll be updating this site all along our journey!

Operation Christmas Child

Here we are getting ready to load up all the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes from our church. The girls were excited to help load them up.

We're going to China!

We received our Travel Approval. It looks like we will be traveling to China from Dec. 7 - 24! We are so excited...lots to do!

Travel Approval is coming!

Well, we have found out that we should be receiving our travel approval and travel dates within the next week or two! We are beyond excited! It looks like we just might have Christmas in China!

Fun Summer Days

The girls had a great time playing out in the water sprinkler! Lauren felt compelled to wear her life vest though...just in case! 

Another Cold & Windy Day

We had a big snow storm yesterday with about 8” of snow and today it is FRIGID up here!  The girls and I cannot wait to go down to Texas to visit my parents and soak up a little warm weather! 

Happy Chinese New Year!

A picture of us celebrating Chinese New Year at the end of January. Leah made all the paper lantern decorations. We went out to eat with friends, the girls got red envelopes and we had a great time!

Our giant snowman we made...well, John really made it. The girls and I just played in the snow and added the finishing details!

Lauren & Leah at Christmas, 2005 

Just getting started

We decided to start a blog to detail our wait for Kate. It turns out that this wait is taking much longer than we had anticipated. There have been slowdowns recently and it appears we will not be hearing about our sweet Kate until this summer. All we can do is wait...