Favorite toy number two, the little red car. He loved rolling it back and forth with Mama on the table at the notary office. He also loved stuffing it in his pocket or clutching it in his hand and carrying it around.

It's after midnight here, I'll post more tomorrow.

That smile's going to break some hearts some day. Gotta love the stickers ;o) Mama opted to take hers off her face before taking the picture. These are the two nannies that brought Ethan to us.

Ethan loved playing with the mini magnadoodle that we brought him. He would scribble on it, erase it, the scribble again. He also had a fun game going with our guide on the train back to Beijing. She would draw him a picture then he would look at it, erase it then hand it back for her to draw something else. Once when she drew a stick figure, he handed it back and told her it didn't have hands.

He's just a little more weary of Baba, but he will let him hold him, and hold his hand but you can tell he prefers his mama, even at times calling me mama by himself without prompting.

We have Ethan!!!!!

A little after 9:30 we arrived at the civil affairs office in Shijiazhuang, our guide knocked on the door and led the way in and there was Ethan with two of his nannies with them telling him Mama and Baba were here, and having him say mama to me. You could tell that they prepared him well, only a couple of teary times and both were more because he wasn't getting to do what he wanted. When his nannies left, he told them goodbye and kept playing for a while, then I think he realized that they were really gone and he looked around for them a little bit and asked for them. As you can see in the picture, he's a little chunk, and it's not just the three layers of clothes that he's wearing, he easily weighs more than Brandon, and when he's being carried, he's like dead weight, he won't help out by holding on, tomorrow we're buying a stroller. ;o) He has the biggest grin for the camera.

Tomorrow is the day!!

We traveled to Shijiazhuang this afternoon on the train. I loved riding the train and seeing the real China. Fields and fields with workers hoeing and weeding by hand, the small villages and the small towns with factories.

We are scheduled to recieve Ethan at 9:30 tomorrow morning. We are supposed to be finished with all the paperwork by 4:00 and will take the train back to Beijing, that will get us back fairly late. We will be checking out of our hotel before we get Ethan, so we won't have Internet again until we check back in to our hotel in Beijing. I'll try to post about Gotcha Day then, if not, it will be the next morning.

Please pray for Ethan's transition.

Qian Men, also known as Zhengyang Men, this tower on the southern edge of the square is one of the nine gates of the inner city wall.

2008 Beijing Olympics countdown clock on the front of the Museum.

China National Museum, this is also closed for renovations getting ready for the olympics.

Great Hall of the People, the parliament building.

The revolutionary statues that flank the mausoleum. I had to get a picture of the guards at attention.

Tian'an Men Square

The Monument to the People's Heros.

Tian'an Men Square

This is Mao's Mausoleum in Tian'an Men Square, notice the gift shop. The mausoleum was closed for remodeling, getting ready for the Olympics.

Heading to Shijiazhuang tomorrow

Tomorrow afternoon we'll take the train to Shijiazhuang which is where we'll get Ethan. Originally we were told that we would receive Ethan that day, but now we think it will be the next morning. We're praying that we'll still get Ethan on the 16th and be able to come back to Beijing on the 17th as had been planned.

The time is clicking away until we're a family of four.

Dinner

The head was all that was left of the fish that we had during our dinner at the end of our touring. The meal was wonderful. There was fish, pork, chicken and beef, as well as rice, corn, eggs with tomatos, and many more items. After our meal, we went to a tea house were we had a tea tasting.

Olympics

This is another building under construction for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

We drove past some of the construction for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This bubble building will house the swimming events.

Cloisonne

This is the fireing process. When the bowls came out they were red hot and as they cooled you could see the design. After it is fired, they will polish it then add gold plating over the copper parts.

Every color is added using eyedroppers. then the piece will be fired. The enamel will shrink during the fireing so the process of adding color will repeat 7-8 times.

Siteseeing Cloisonne factory

This might be my favorite part of the tour yesterday. The process to make this enamelware took a lot of time and patience. The base is made out of copper, then thin copper strips are bent into the shape of the design and glued onto the copper base. Then it is fired and the enamel is put on using eyedroppers.

The great wall 4

Here is Jamey's view from the nosebleed section

The great wall 3

This is the view from as high as Lisa climbed. They had some really good ice cream bars being sold here. I opted for ice cream, Jamey kept climbing.

The great wall 2

Half way there!!!

Siteseeing - Great Wall

Yesterday, Saturday, we had a day of touring with our group. First we went to a jade factory, then to the Great Wall. The Great Wall was amazing. There are few places in the states that have given me the same awed feeling of walking where ancients have trod as I felt while climbing the wall. Lisa went as far as the guard station that you can see at the top of the picture, Jamey went farther. He said that the farther he got, the fewer people there were still climbing. It was Saturday, so it was very busy there. It wasn't an easy climb, the steps were uneven and many were very worn. The steps might be a few inches tall, to well over a foot tall. It was beautiful, and the craftmanship of the wall and the guardposts were amazing.

We're here!!!

We're here!!! We woke up at 4:30 am Thursday morning to go to the airport and start our journey. We landed in Beijing before 3:00pm on friday. Its now 7:30pm here, 6:30 am at home and we're very tired from the trip, especially Lisa who wasn't able to sleep at all on the plane.

We got checked into our hotel, which is an apartment hotel, so the room is a suite, it has a small kitchen, a living room area, a seperate bedroom and bathroom. The space is wonderful!

We walked around and found a Bruce Lee fast food restaurant to eat dinner at this evening with another family in our group that we met today. Then stopped at a little market to buy some bottled water and bottled green tea to keep in our fridge to drink.

Tomorrow we will do siteseeing with our group of three families. We will visit the great wall, a tea house and a jade factory.

Things to pray for:
1. Praise God that we made it to Beijing safely.
2. Pray that we will get good sleep tonight and adjust to the time difference easily.
3. Pray that Ethan will be prepared for the huge transition into our family.

Itinerary

We received our itinerary yesterday.

We leave from Kansas City tomorrow morning, and arrive in Beijing on the 13th. (don't forget the 13 hour time difference) We have two days of sight seeing, that will help get us used to the time difference then on April 16th we'll take a train to Shijiazhuang and receive Ethan! The 17th is the official adoption day then we'll take a train back to Beijing and stay until the 20th. We hope to be able to visit Ethan's orphanage one of those days, but we won't know until we get there if that will be possible. On the 2oth we'll fly to Guangzhou and have Ethan's medical evaluation done, then a couple days of sightseeing and shopping, or just hanging out in our hotel and playing with Ethan, then our consulate appointment is on April 23rd at 9am. We'll receive his visa on the 24th, and leave Guangzhou on the 25th, with the time change, we'll touch down back in Chicago, just a few hours after we leave China. That's pretty quick for a 15 hour flight.

Please pray for safe travel and there will be no flight delays or issues.

Where we'll be

We don't have our full itinerary yet, we're told we should have our in country hotel information tomorrow. We do know that we will fly into Beijing and spend a couple of days there, then travel to Shijiazhuang Hebei where we will meet Ethan. Ethan is currently in Chengde, which is northeast of Beijing. The capital of the Hebei province is Shijiazhuang, which is where they will Bring Ethan to meet us. Shijiazhuang is southwest of Beijing. The last 5-6 days of our trip we will be in Guangzhou, in Guangdong province.

Just testing how to post with pictures, in case we can't access our blog in China. Here is a picture of Brandon at the Easter egg hunt this morning.

We have TA in hand!!!

We arrived home from the Easter Egg Hunt at church and there was a FedEx
envelope in our door.

It was our actual TA.

After waiting so long for this piece of paper, it was nice to actually hold
it in my hands.

We have our travel plans!

We were very surprised this morning to have an email from our agency saying that they had a confirmation of our consulate appointment. We weren't expecting that until early next week. Our CA (consulate appointment) is April 23rd. Which US time will be the evening of the 22nd, Jamey's birthday! What a birthday present.

We will be leaving on April 12th and back on April 25th.

The agency is still working on our hotel and in China travel arrangements.

13 days and counting until we leave for China!

Things to pray for:
1. That we can get everything packed and ready, not only for us, but for Brandon who will be staying with Grandma and Papa.
2. That Brandon will have a good time at Grandma and Papa's and not wear them out too much. ;o)
3. That Ethan will be healthy and safe until we get there.
4. That we we will get our hotel and other travel arrangements soon.

It's here, it's finally here!

We found out today that we have TA (travel approval)! It's been a long road and it feels so good to know that China says come.

We should have a confirmed CA(consulate appointment) next week and we'll be able to post our travel plans.

Please pray:
1. That we get our requested consulate appointment.
2. That our agency will be able to get us the hotels and flights that we need.
3. That Ethan will be prepared for us and the huge transition that he will be making from orphanage to family.
4. That Brandon will be prepared and ready for us to be gone for two weeks and for the huge transition of adding a brother to the family.
5. That God will grant safety in our travel.
6. That Ethan will be safe and healthy until we can come and bring him home.

Isn't package tracking wonderful

Our LOA arrived back at our agency on Wednesday March 7th, they sent it on to China that afternoon. It made it's way from Tennessee to Ohio then to Beijing China, arriving at the DHL facility on the 10th at 2:13 am China time. They tried to deliver it on Saturday, our Friday night, but CCAA was closed. I checked the tracking this evening to see that it was delivered to CCAA on Monday morning at 9:04 am, which is Sunday night at 8:04 pm here.

Now we wait for CCAA to issue our TA.

Things to pray for:
1. That our TA is processed quickly.
2. That we will be able to travel before the trade fair that is during the last two weeks of April.
3. That Ethan will be healthy and safe until we can bring him home.
4. That all of us will be prepared for the transition, especially Brandon and Ethan.

This is what we have been waiting for!

This is it, this is the LOA that we have been waiting for. At the bottom there are boxes to check if you accept this referral or if you do not accept this referral, then a place for each parent to sign. We obviously are ACCEPTING the referral!!!! We will sign the letter this afternoon and send it back to our agency who then in turn will send it on to CCAA in China so they can process our TA (travel approval)

LOA!!!

We received the email this morning, our LOA, or letter of acceptance, has arrived at our agency!!!!

God helped me to be forgetful this morning, otherwise I would've been out running errands, instead of coming home to pick up something I forgot and I wouldn't have gotten the email until afternoon.

It has been a long wait, 144 days, much longer than the average which is around 100 days but God is so good!

The agency is overnighting the letter to us, we will sign it, then overnight it back to the agency. When they receive it, they will send it on to China then we will wait for our TA (Travel Approval) to arrive, and that is taking around 2-3 weeks right now.

We are one huge step closer to bringing Ethan home.

Things to pray for:
1. Our LOA will arrive here to be signed and get back to China quickly and safely.
2. CCAA will process our TA quickly.
3. That we will receive our TA and be able to travel in early April before the Trade Fair that is during the last two weeks of April, that will make travel almost impossible.
4. That Ethan will be safe and healthy until we can bring him home.

Update

We have an update, but it’s not the one we were hoping to be able to give.

CCAA has decided to add another step in the adoption process. They are now requiring all parents to sign and return a form that says we still accept our referral and still want to adopt him. This was a surprise to everyone including the adoption agencies. Most agencies found out about this new form when they received them in the mail for some of their clients. Our agency received a couple of these forms for people who have been waiting just a little bit longer than we have. Once this form arrives, is signed and returned, we really don’t know how long it will take for them to issue our TA. There are rumors going around that it could take as little as a couple of weeks, or as long as a couple of months. Since this is a new process that they’re adding, we really won’t know how long it takes from this point forward, until the people who received these acceptance letters this week receive their TA.

We were hoping to get the call this week that our TA had arrived, instead, we found out about this new development that will delay us.

Things to pray for:
1. That Ethan will be safe and healthy until we can bring him home.
2. That Brandon will be prepared for the changes that will occur with adding to our family.
3. That we will receive our acceptance letter very soon, can get it returned quickly, and that our TA will come quickly afterward.
4. Patience and understanding for us as we continue to wait.