First morning together...

This morning Rylee woke up and sat up quietly in bed. She studied each of us intently and silently. We waited quietly to see her reaction and she let out a couple of sighs, fingered the blanket a bit, looked back at us... then she raised both arms up in the air, plopped back on the mattress and let out a squeal sat back up and we realized she was laughing, big gulps of laughter. I had just commented to Pat that I guess she is not a happy, jump out of bed kind of morning person like Hanna is - apparently I was wrong! She was all smiles and giggles this morning and has really enjoyed playing hide and seek with Hanna. Although the first time Hanna disappeared Rylee started to whine, but she caught on quickly.

She ate a great breakfast this morning and it was time to head off to the Civil Affairs office. When we got there the orphanage workers were there and came up to speak to Rylee. The smiles left her face and she turned her head away from them. They kept talking to her, but she ignored them completely. Finally the assistant director took her from me to talk to her. Rylee told her she wanted to go back to Mama. We had our interview, which went really well. They finalized our paperwork and gave us a gift for Rylee. While we were waiting the women were talking to Rylee again. They were telling her that it was time to leave and did she want to go with them. She shook her head no and pushed in closer to me. They kept trying to get her to go with them, but each time she shook her head no and tried to turn away from them. She was like glue to me today, the only thing that could get her away from me was Hanna and even then she looked torn about what to do. She was such a good girl at all the appointments and she is so happy! We saw lots of adopting families today, but Rylee is much older than all of them. Many people have commented on us adopting such an old child. I sat in one of the waiting areas today and listened to all the crying, oh so very cute babies and I just couldn't help but think... we may have missed so much in the first four years of her life but to me, to us, she is absolutely and wonderfully perfect!

We have her!!!

We woke up to clear skies this morning and arrived in Nanchang at 2:40 this afternoon. We arrived at our hotel at 3:30 and Rylee arrived about 20 minutes later. She was looking very timid and not at all happy when she walked into the room with two orphanage workers and the assistant director all speaking to her at once. She looked at Pat first, looked very solemn at me and then at Hanna. She turned back to Pat and lifted her arms and said "Baba", she stuck to him and only to him for about the next half hour. I could tell all the women were telling her to got to Mama, but I did not push her at all. She sat on Pat's lap and let out such deep serious sighs as if she new that she was here and she may as well just accept it. She studied everything we did very intently. Hanna pulled out a few toys and played with her a little bit. Slowly she slipped out of Pat's lap and followed Hanna into the bedroom. Hanna showed her the crib and the monkey slippers that we had placed under the bed. Then she got out the matching pajama's that we had gotten for the girls. Then they walked out of the bedroom so that Hanna could show me that Rylee was holding her hand. I was keeping my eye on them while I was asking the orphanage workers questions about Rylee. I could see Rylee by the bed studying the pj's and she started tugging at her shirt. I told Hanna that Rylee wanted to put the pj's on so they went into the bathroom and came out in their matching pj's. Rylee was so thrilled to show them to everyone and she was smiling a little more.

Then she tugged Hanna back into the bedroom and came teetering right back out with the slippers on (I don't think she ever wore anything so thick on her feet). From that point on she started mimicking Hanna. When Hanna would say something Rylee would copy her. She followed Hanna everywhere or pulled her where ever she wanted to go. The did stickers and played with some of the toys we had brought. They came to show me the page they had made with the stickers and I gave Hanna a big hug and Rylee tugged her away from me. She just kept studying me the whole time, arching away from me if I came too close. I just spoke softly to her whenever she was close and lightly touched her whenever I was close enough. The staff taught Rylee how to use the American potty before they left because she has never seen one that is the American style toilet. The next time she had to go, she took Hanna with her. She got more and more comfortable and was smiling a lot and looked much more relaxed. She LOVES Hanna and by the time the orphanage staff decided they would leave she called out "bye bye" waved at them and never let go of Hanna's hand. A while later after we were done with the paperwork and it was time for our guide to leave Rylee again said "bye bye" waved and gave her a big smile. I played with her some, showed her some of her clothes and we tried a couple of things on. She is tall and thin with very tiny feet. The shoes we brought were way too big! I tried the new Dora shoes on her but they were so big, I took them off to put her old shoes back on since they fit her but she let me know that she did not want those old shoes on, she most definitely wanted to wear her new ones no matter how big they were!


She was doing so well we decided to go to dinner instead of room service (which is what we had planned). As soon as we started to go toward the door she got very solemn again. She took my hand and kind of pulled back. I told her it was okay and asked her to come. She kept looking back at the room and looking at us. I think she thought we were going to take her back and she looked so sad. I picked her up and she let me carry her to the elevator. Once we got in the elevator she got distracted by the mirrors and pointed and said "Hanna" and then pointed to herself and said "Xiao Bao", a few giggles slipped out. Once we got downstairs she let me fix her plate for her and nodded yes or shook her head no for things she did not want. I tried to put some cucumbers on her plate and she protested, I was still going to put one on there but she actually tugged on my arm and emphatically shook her head no! She wanted and ate things I did not recognize and never would have put on her plate. She ate everything on her two plates plus some of Hanna's ice cream, something she obviously had never had before, but loved! She also tucked an orange and some small apple like fruits into her new purse before we left.

She took food from me and let me feed her a few things, but she is fully capable of feeding herself and is a very neat eater. The few times she dropped a piece of food on the table she quickly looked at us, picked the food up off the table and placed it back on her plate. There was not a drop of food on her part of the table when she was done. She studied us intently and copied the way we ate. If we used a fork on something, she used a fork. If one of us wiped our mouth or fingers with a napkin, she did too.

Hanna and I brought Rylee back to the room while Pat waited for the bill. I gave Rylee a bath and tried to get as much of the layers of dirt off of her hands and feet that I could. I got her ready for bed and tucked her in the crib and Hanna and I laid down beside it in the bed. Rylee gave us all hugs and kisses before she laid down. She just laid there, but I could tell there was no way she was going to sleep yet, so I let her lay in the bed with us. Hanna was coloring and Rylee wanted the pen. She took the pen and started writing small markings on the paper. She wrote them all the way down the paper and kept going until she had filled the page. She was very meticulous and it really looked like she was trying to write Chinese characters. She was so proud to show me what she had done and then she went out to show Baba. She is talking a lot and can understand Mandarin, but she speaks a dialect. We have had no trouble understanding her, and if we are unsure Hanna tells us what she wants or needs.


Hanna also explained to me what was going on during the My Little Pony cartoon that was in Chinese! I also found out today that Rylee had been in foster care for the first three years of her life and has been in the orphanage for the last year. She was really close to her foster dad and not so much to the mom. She has also been going to kindergarten and the director wanted to make sure that we put Rylee in school soon.


Back to getting to bed - Rylee was kind of laying on me but eyeing Hanna and she stood up on the bed walked over to Hanna, said "tickle tickle" as she rubbed her hand over Hanna's ribs and then doubled over in complete and total belly laughter. After she caught her breath she did it again and again, each time laughing so hard she could not even stand up! It was so hilarious that we all were laughing! She is adorable, sweet, a bit timid and so very brave! When I finally got her settled down she was laying between me and Hanna. She kept feeling my face in the dark and then Hanna's, finally she grasped my hand, wrapped my arm firmly around her and tucked my hand around her belly and drifted off to sleep. It has been an amazing day!

The Great Wall...

I was thinking about how best to describe our day because today we have fallen in love with our daughters country. It is so beautiful and so very different from home, we love the sites, sounds and people that are here. It is rich in culture and history and the people are curious, genuine and happy. There are bicycles everywhere and at all times of the day. It could be old men, young men, mothers or fathers with their children riding on the back, weaving in and out of traffic or carrying large boxes or even furniture! There are mothers carrying their babies that are wearing split pants - so cute! When we were in the rickshaw we saw one little boy squatting and peeing on the side of the road, split pants can be really handy I guess :) Today we saw a group of people with their new babies here at our hotel. Tomorrow it will be our turn!


The great wall was amazing and the fall colors are out. The smog was still pretty thick, but I still have pictures to post.

If you look really hard in this picture you might be able to spot Pat a couple of levels below Hanna and I (he is wearing a light blue shirt).

There were several people that wanted to pose with Hanna but she was not real sure about that. We did get a couple of them when she was willing. A few people tried to explain to Hanna that she needed to make a Victory sign for photos - she prefers bunny ears!

Many of you have emailed me to let me know that you are praying for Rylee's transition tomorrow and we appreciate that so much! We are praying that her heart is open to us and that bonding will start quickly. We do not want to see her hurting, but know that grieving will be part of the process and that it is actually a good thing. I hope we can be everything she needs...

Our guide said if the smog does not lift we may be delayed, so we are hoping the sky will be clear tomorrow! It seems to be clearing up tonight so we hope that continues and we can get there on time tomorrow! Thanks for the comments too - we love getting them! We will post from Nanchang!

Forbidden City, Hu Tong Tour...

This was the view from our hotel room this morning. There was so much smog that you could hardly see the other buildings. They said on the news that this was considered a light pollution day! It was fairly nice out despite the thick smog which stuck around for the entire day.

We went to tour the Forbidden City today. It was amazing to see and Hanna even found it interesting. She sure generated a lot of attention (lots of pointing and stares), but she was either ignoring it or she was really in to the tour because she didn't seem to notice. After the Forbidden City we took the Hu Tong Tour, which our guide told us was where/how the common people live (or used to before they started replacing them with high rises). I rode in the rickshaw with Hanna so I got to experience this tour from a 7 year old point of view.

After the tour we went for lunch which was ordered for us by our guide. There were a few courses and then a final course of soup. Hanna picked up a white chunk of something and pronounced it turtle brains and popped it into her mouth. She next picked up a brown piece of something and said "what's this, sloth?" SLOTH - where does that come from? Who has ever even heard of sloth and turtle brain soup? I have to say China from her view point is quite an adventure!

We also went to the Chinese Acrobat show tonight, but it was just too much for the first day here and it was all we could do to stay awake. Some of us did better than others, but the show really was amazing and beautiful!

Tomorrow it looks like we will be touring the Great Wall in the rain! Two more nights and Rylee will be with us - can you believe it????????

We are in Beijing!

Well, we did the very thing we were not going to do! When we got here it was about 2:00 in the afternoon (2:00 am for us at home) and we were going to stay up so that we could sleep tonight but somehow we all fell asleep and just woke up at 9:30 pm. So now it is night and we are awake! Pat was desperately trying to get someone to help him turn on the air conditioning in our room and has finally gotten someone that could explain to him that the hotel has only "natural wind" for cooling!

Our flights were wonderful and on time. Every time we fell asleep it seemed they were waking us up to give us more food! We are amazed that you can get half way across the world and arrive within minutes of our scheduled time but try to fly through Atlanta and you will be delayed for sure!

Our guide was waiting for us when we arrived and he got us safely to our hotel. The hotel is nice and located in the business district. He gave us lots of instructions for going out, but I think we will be saving that for tomorrow! Now we are just going to get dinner in the hotel.

I'm still trying to figure out about blogging from here, so hopefully this will post okay! We will update tomorrow!

We are at the airport!

We are at the airport waiting to board our first plane! We got up at 3:00 am to be at the airport by 4:00 for our 6:00 am flight. We are so excited this morning and ready to go! Even Hanna is wide awake. We know that there are so many of you following along and praying for us as we make our way toward Rylee and we appreciate knowing that you are "here" with us. As the time gets closer we focus in on how many changes Rylee has coming in the next few weeks and we hope that it won't be long before she knows that she is safe and loved with us! Now we are off to board the first plane!

***NEWARK***

We have made it to the Newark airport and everything looks good for our flight to Beijing. We were checking the monitor and Hanna said "look Mom there it is, there it is!! BEIJING! MOM, do you think there will be a lot of Chinese people there?" Pat and I both started laughing - she gave us that "7 almost 8" year old look of exasperation and said "I mean on the plane!!!" lol!!

We gave her a CD player to bring and she has her own music, so for the last two days she has been wearing it around the house, singing along to Hanna Montana and High School Musical with gusto and well... lets just say we hope people seated around us have brought their own ear plugs! We haven't yet had the heart to tell her she has inherited her parents musical talent... maybe her cuteness will make up for the off key singing, right now she is just mouthing the words, dancing in her seat and having a great time!

Next stop Beijing!!

We have an Itinerary!

I think we have finalized the details of our trip as much as possible and can hardly believe that we will be leaving in a little over one week! We will be leaving early Wednesday Morning (10/24) and arriving in Beijing on 10/25. Here are the details (click on the links to see where we will be):

10/25 arrive Beijing
10/26 Tour the Great Wall
10/27 Tour Hu Tong, Tian'an Square, and Forbidden City
10/28 Fly to Nanchang and meet Rylee at 5:30 pm
10/29 Civil Affairs to finish paperwork
10/30 Free Day
10/31 Tour Teng Wang Villa
11/1 Free Day
11/2 Fly to Guangzhou
11/3 Medical appointment for Rylee, Pearl River Dinner Cruise
11/4 Six Banyan Temple
11/5 Consulate Appointment
11/6 Pick up visa for Rylee
11/7 Fly home

Things are pretty crazy right now with the whole move and all. Since we are so close to traveling we have had to keep Birmingham as our permanent address until we get Rylee home, but we have been in Myrtle Beach trying to get everything settled so that Rylee doesn't have to do two moves so close together. I think it will be nice living so close to the beach, I can just imagine the girls playing on the beach and collecting shells together. We sure will miss our "Birmingham family" though, but can't wait for Rylee to meet y'all - she is sure to love you as much as we do!

2 Years, 11 Months and 3 days...

Is the amount of time that will have passed from the time we signed our initial application for adoption until we finally hold our daughter in our arms! We should have Rylee with us for the first time Sunday, October 28! Exactly one month from today!!! What a long and hard road this has been, but we know that all the details will seem insignificant once we are finally able to bring her into our family. It is the day, the moment, that we have been working towards this entire journey.

Thank you to everyone that has supported us, prayed for us, nudged us on and loved us through all of the obstacles, twists, turns and bumps along the way! We are forever grateful to have you in our lives.

I will post our itinerary as soon as all the details have worked out! Rylee we are coming to get you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is it!!! The highly sought after letter telling us that we are finally through the review process and they have officially matched us with Rylee. All we have to do is tell them we still want her - as if there were ever any question - of course we still want her!!!!!!!!

Of course this letter came while we were out of town for a few days - we raced home the 8 hour drive to get this letter signed and federal expressed back to our agency today, so they can send it back to China.

Since our travel now falls during the October holidays and trade fair we will not be able to go get her until early November - but at least we now know when we get to go!

Hanna tells us that she is going to be the best big sister ever! She is busy practicing her moves so that she can teach them to Rylee. It won't be much longer now and we will have her with us forever! We can't wait for that day to come!

Still waiting...

The package arrived at our agency, but nothing for us yet... Maybe next week!

Not Yet...

Well, no official travel news yet from China. We did get our "Brown Envelope" that included the paperwork we need to fill out for Rylee's visa. Hanna and I were outside getting the mail and visiting with a neighbor. Hanna grabbed the mail and opened up what looked like junk mail, didn't see anything interesting and shoved the papers back in the envelope and handed it to me. I am talking with our neighbor who was asking if we had heard anything at all from China. I am swinging this envelope around saying "Nope, nothing - not a word!" Then we get inside the house and I glance at the envelope to see that it is from the U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou with a letter stating that they have been notified that we will be visiting there soon with our newly adopted daughter! Hanna and I were jumping up and down while I was reading it to her. It's not our date, but it is something!

So while we are still waiting, I thought I would share this picture of Rylee sleeping. I can't wait until I can peek in and see her sleeping in her own bed. For now, I still get to see what she looks like sleeping... Sweet and adorable!

Look at this BEAUTIFUL smile!!!!

Oh my gosh, does this picture ever make me want to scoop this baby girl up and shower her with kisses!!! What a sweet, sweet smile she has! Yes, that is our sweet little Rylee in the yellow dress. We received a surprise email from a family that just completed a homeland trip that included a visit to Rylee's orphanage. They got to spend the day with Rylee and WE get to experience it through their words and the wonderful pictures they sent to us - thank you so much Marschall family!!!!!

Rylee was timid and a little anxious about all the strangers, but she did enjoy eating watermelon with them, touring the new orphanage, shopping and she even was able to go to dinner with them! The kids played with her and tried to help her be more comfortable. One of the boys was able to get some smiles and laughs out of her by picking her up and lifting her high in the air. They said her laughs were beautiful sounds and I have been imagining them ever since I read about that part of the trip. Rylee is out of foster care now and has moved into the new orphanage. We are hoping to be in China in August. Here are some more of the awesome pictures we received:

New Pictures!

Wow, it would be almost impossible to top this birthday gift! We got new photos of Rylee and she is almost smiling, and look at how they did those photos with "I LOVE YOU" in English in the background - how precious is that?! She looks healthy and has grown so much since her last photos (taken a year and a half ago). We are getting really anxious to bring her home and it seems to get harder to wait as each day passes. How do you miss someone so much, that you haven't even met yet? How do you ache to hold a little girl that has never even been in your arms before?

We are very fortunate to have joined this group of people that have adopted from Rylee's orphanage. So with very thankful hearts this morning, here is Rylee only two days ago:

Friday is Rylee's 4th Birthday!

Once upon a time
In a land so very far away
There was a precious little girl
Concern and fear her eyes did portray

One by one
Her beloved friends did leave
Would it happen to her?
Could she believe?

Then one day
A miracle did occur
A family stumbled upon her
And their hearts did stir

Could it be true?
Is this the child they had searched for?
Their hearts told them yes
But they had tried twice before

Courage it would take
To put their hearts on the line yet again
But they would push on
With conviction that was hard to explain

It was a mama’s dream
So many years ago
“A child will come from afar
Just look into her eyes and you will know”

Sweet precious Rylee
Child of my heart
Just wait a little longer
And our lives together will start

It is your birthday now
You are turning four years old
Your new family sends wishes and prayers
And dreams for a life waiting to unfold

A tear will be shed
Because we can not be there
But I promise my dear Rylee
No future birthdays will ever compare

With eyes shinning bright
And hearts holding true
We wait for the day
When we will finally hold you!

Getting Closer!

We have finally been able to make some progress this week. All of our paperwork has been notarized, county certified, state authenticated and is now on it's way to the Chinese Consulate's in Houston and Chicago!

My awesome friend Kristie was a big help getting our Michigan documents state authenticated and my friend Jean was here for a visit and drove to the capital (Montgomery) with me to get our Alabama paperwork authenticated. I sure do appreciate you both - I am so lucky to have you in my life!

This is big progress for us - it means that all of our paperwork has finally come in, been completed, signed and state sealed!!!!! Yay!

The next step is to get the paperwork back from the consulates and forward them on to our agency for translation and then on to China. Hopefully this will all happen in the next two weeks. Yesterday everyone that had Feburary log in dates got their Letters of Confirmation (LOC), Travel Approval (TA) should follow in about two weeks. Soooooooooo... maybe mid July we could get our LOC!