The Great Wall

Day 1 & 2

We arrived in Beijing at 4:00pm (China's time). 3:00 am USA time. I hadn't slept at all on the plane I was WIDE awake the whole time. Scott and dad dozed a little but we all were exhausted the first night we arrived. Charlotte or Du Yong, is our guide and she met us at the airport. You can see her is the pictures holding the Faith International sign. Joanie is is the picture with her she is here to bring her sister home wither her mom and grandparents. We all loaded onto a bus and had about another hour ride to the hotel due to traffic. Du Yong taught us a few Chinese words and then suggested taking us to a local grocery store to get anything we still needed. Scott and dad went and picked up some snacks and McDonald's Teehee, yes all the way to China for MceeDee's. We all had a great night sleep and were ready to do some sight seeing the next day. Du Yong is like a living encyclopedia. The amount of information we got from her on the first day alone is AMAZING. The pictures above are of the Olympic grounds,The Forbidden City (now called The Palace Museum) and Tian'an men Square. We went out for an authentic Chinese lunch and had a wonderful selection. The food here is unbelievable! I really do wish I could come home with some recipes. I am also amazed that there are so many foods I have never seen before. The fruits we have encountered already on the first day is just incredible. We also went to a silk factory and learned a lot about the process. Then we got to SHOP! Yeay. We ended our day with a 90 minute, yes 90 minute foot massage. What more could we ask for, other than to receive our daughter,on our first day here.

Oh yeah. We have met a lot of wonderful people. Our group has been a lot of fun to be with. Also, we have all realized how our group is drawing a lot of attention by the locals. There are 3 women taller than me so you can only imagine. I almost feel as if we have reached celebrity status. People are trying to get us into their pictures all of the time. If you smile and they realize that you are o-kay with them taking your picture you get mobbed. We'll try not to let this go to our heads.

Our Itinerary in China

Nov. 19-Wednesday
Leave Milwaukee at 9:18 am Arrive Chicago 10:07 am. Leave Chicago 12:33pm.
Nov. 20-Thursday
Arrive Beijing 4:25 pm. Our guide Charlotte will meet us at the airport with all of the other families that will be traveling to Beijing. Off to the Jianguo hotel.
Nov. 21-Friday
We get to tour TianAnMen Square, Forbidden City and the Olympic Green Park today
Nov. 22-Saturday
The days big adventure will be to tour The Great Wall.
Nov.23-Sunday
We will be leaving Beijing at 11:15 am and flying to Guangzhou. We will arrive in Guangzhou at 2:20pm and met at the airport by Cordelia our guide and transported to the White Swan Hotel.
We will get no sleep , I'm sure because Monday will be...........you guessed it! GOTCHA DAY!
Nov.24-Monday
This day will be one of the most glorious day of our lives. We get to see and hold our daughter for the first time. This all will happen in the afternoon, I'm not so sure how we will be able to make it through this morning with out exploding. There are no word so I will just end here.
Nov. 25-Tuesday
We need to go through 2 interviews to swear that we will take Lucy for our daughter and care for her as our own. Of course! One is with the Civil Affairs Bureau and the other is with the Justice department. Our adoption registration will also be completed.
Nov 26-Wednesday
We need to apply for Lucy's passport in the morning and then we will be taking a 5 hour bus ride to Maoming City. Uuugg! Hopefully Lucy likes buses because she will have made this same trip to us on Monday.
Nov 27-Thursday
We get to visit Lucy's orphanage. I'm sure it will be a very emotional day for all of us.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Nov 28-Friday
Make the trip back to Guangzhou. Yes another 5 hour bus ride for Lucy.
Nov 29-Saturday
Lucy will be getting her official medical check up that will allow her to leave the country and get pictures for her passport. Hopefully Lucy will smile for this picture. :)
Nov 30-Sunday
We will be touring the zoo in Guangzhou. Can't wait to see the pandas.
Dec 1-Monday
Our agency has listed rest and relaxation for this day. Who needs that? Teehee. Hopefully we will have time to get a foot massage. We hear they are worth traveling to China for.
Dec 2-Tuesday
We have yet another interview. This time it is with the U.S. Consulate.
Dec 3-Wednesday
The plan is to get Lucy's visa so we can go home Thursday.
Dec 4-Thursday
Home Sweet Home!
We will be flying out of Guangzhou at 8:40am. Arriving in Beijing 11:20am. Flying out of Beijing 5:20 pm. Arriving in Chicago 4:24 pm. Leaving Chicago 5:58 and arriving in Milwaukee 6:48pm.

Yippee!

Shower for Lucy

Well, I think we are all set for Lucy. We had our family shower this past weekend and Lucy was given A LOT of nice things. We had a great time visiting with family and friends. There is so much to be excited about and this just adds to it all! Thank you everyone for your generosity it is definitely helping us with the all of our preperations to bring Lucy home. I thought I knew that babys came with a lot of stuff but WOW!

What a Weekend!

Our weekend started Friday night. We thought we were going to our friends house for a "end of volleyball season" party. Instead it was a shower for us. We are really lucky to be blessed with such awesome friends! We were overwhelmed with all of the gifts. First of all by the generosity and thoughtfulness of everyone and secondly by all of the things babies come with!! Thank you everyone. Then on Monday we received our final travel approval. It is official we will be leaving on Nov. 19th and returning Dec. 4th. Our flight leaves from Milwaukee goes to Chicago and then directly to Beijing. Only 13 1/2 hours from Chicago. Yiippeee! It travels the same route only backwards :) on the way home.

Lucy looks healthy!

Today we received the translation of Lucy's medical records. After talking to the nurse practitioner down at Children's hospital...who by the way also has a daughter named Lucy. Weird! But our daughter looks healthy and from all that they see she seems to be right on track developmentally! Yeah! Some of the fun things we found out about her is...her height 68cm/27.75in, 7.8kg/17.2lb The nurse said she is tall and skinny. Wouldn't have guessed that from them cheeks. :) She wakes up at 6:00am naps between 12:30-2:30 and goes to bed at 8:30. We will see about that. Her favorite toys have motion, sound and lights. Between 1-2 months she was holding her head up and her eyes would follow movement of toys, 3-4 months she would hold head up while lying on stomach, turn her head to follow things, grab toys to put them in her mouth and roll to side when on her stomach. Between 5-6 months she could sit up, roll back and forth freely and crawl backwards. As far as her personality they described her as quiet, lovely and a ready smile. But of course! Be tween 3-4 months she started making sound like "yi -yi and ya-ya" and by 5-6 months she was able to laughed loudly. I can't wait to experience that for the first time. The thought of it brings tears to my eyes. We are happy to have some more information that everything seems to be great with our daughter. Again more answers to our prayer.

Lucy Gill

She is here! What more could we ask for! Born 1-25-2008. We recieved the call yesterday around 1:00 and saw her cute face for the first time around 1:30. I can't wait to hold her in my arms. Today we recieved the Letter of Confirmation and need to get that back to the agency A.S.A.P. so they can start planing our trip to China!!!!! We expect to travel mid November and will probably be there for Thanksgiving. Quite appropriate! God is Good!

Bucky

This is Bucky. He has no idea what is in store for him over the next few months. Poor guy. :)

Scott-n-Carrie on our Wedding Day!

The beginning

Scott and I(Carrie) decided to start our adoption journey in June 2005. Both of us newbies to this entire process really had no idea what we were in for! When we first stepped into our adoption agency we REALLY thought all we needed to do was fill out some paper work and it would be smooth sailing. Boy were we in for a rude awakening. As most of our close friends and family are more than aware of, it didn't really go just like that.
Over the past 3 years Scott and I have had to ask ourselves many times what to do, we wondered if we made the right decision, and we would think are we really cut out for this? Individually I don't think we would have made it this far but, together I truely believe that this is exactly where we are meant to be. How could we question it. I mean come on, we got fingerprinted 3 times, had our background checked locally and by the federal government, we proved that we are finacially ready, we even proved that we are healthy by having our Dr's give us every test known to man.......among numerous other things that really don't seem to matter anymore. Honestly the fact that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel brings such anticipation and joy.
During this process we have been told by people who had completed their adoption already, that once you hold that baby you will forget everything that you went through to get to this point. And I know that they are right. I chose to start the story of our journey now because all of that which is behind us may have been a struggle at times but we know that our story will begin once God brings our family together. We have trusted that God knows what he is doing and that is what has allowed us to wait patiently (sometimes no so patiently). I am grateful everyday that I had Scott to go through this with, I don't think I could have managed to move forward and keep the faith without Scott's insights and humor (of course). It has all been a matter of perspective and Scott is always good at putting that twist on things. When Scott pointed out how difficult these little babies lives are from the start and how good we have it, it was like wow! I started to focus on all the blessings we have around us daily. I also started to realize that waiting which seemed like such a hard thing really became, well no so hard. When realizing that when I'm hungry I can eat whatever I want. When I am cold I can grab a blanket or turn up the heat. When I want a hug I have plenty of willing arms around me. Many of these simple things that we take for granted, daily, these little babies go without. So that is what kept us going strong and with a smile on our face. I'm lucky to be blessed with such a smart man.