July 31, 2009

Another Small Update


We have had a super lazy day, I'm so glad we came a day early to rest up before our sight-seeing starts, the jet lag is awful. Here are a few pictures from our day of doing nothing. The view from our room is very nice, as you can see the housing here goes from super worn down apartment buildings to beautiful high-rise apartments. People driving BMW's and others riding worn out bikes with their family on the back. Eye opening for sure. Our hotel is wonderful, the staff is amazingly helpful.

Thanks everyone for the comments and e-mails. I am locked out of our blog here, so I'm sending my updates home. 2 more days and we meet Jadyn, We can hardly wait.

July 30, 2009

We Made It!!


After 25 hours of continuous travel we landed in Beijing around 8:45 pm last night That was the longest ride of our lives. I was soo ready to get off that plane. We collected our bags, found our agency guild and headed right for our hotel. The beds never looked so good. We slept all night, which is our daytime normally. We woke feeling great.

Here are a few pictures from our day of travel.
The picture of the map, is actually the TV screen in the plane that I watched for over 11 hours, anyway it shows our in-air progress, I snapped this picture right as we crossed the International Date Line.
Jeron was a great traveler, took a couple naps, played legos and watched some movies.

Tomorrow we will tour Beijing with the rest of our adoption group (18 other families)
The next day we fly to Jadyn's province and the day after that we will meet our baby girl!






July 27, 2009

It's time!


We are packed and ready to go. Our dog, Lucas and fish, Gold Tooth are with our awesome neighbors, Thanks Guys! We are leaving for Portland soon. We will drop G off with family and go to my sisters for the night, we need to be at the airport by 4 a.m.
I'm not sure if we will even go to sleep tonight. Not only am I not a early morning person, I'm not a good long trip car/plane rider, please wish Ames me luck.
We have waited for this day for over 3 years, it just doesn't seem real yet. We are both excited and nervous, worrying ourselves sick over what we may have forgot to pack, the weight of the bags, ect.

What has me the most worried is meeting Jadyn and how upset this entire life change is going to make her. Her grieving for her family at the orphanage is really going to tear at our hearts. We will do whatever we can to make this time the easiest for her.
I will try and update between flights tomorrow, we have a lay-over in LA and one in Tokyo.

July 21, 2009

Our Girl!

We sent Jadyn this little dress a couple weeks ago, this would be her first fashion show for Mom & Dad!

I hope they took the tags off after this picture was taken!!

One more week!

July 12, 2009

2 week from today........


We will be in the air, on our way to Jadyn.

I have a super sized packing list that I have narrowed down to what I think we might need in China. Scratched off what I know I won't need and what we don't have room for. I'm left with 4 pages of items I hope to fit into 3 suitcases. I'm by far packing the most clothes for Jadyn. I have put lots of baby outfits into a large zip lock, airtight bag and vacuumed the air out. It is now a flat bundle. Boy those thing are a great invention. A girl needs variety and this is a great way to pack it!
We have ordered an adoption medical kit that has just about everything you would need for skin infections to pink eye. I'm hoping we won't need any of it, but want to have it just in case. If we don't need it then another family may.

Did I mention we got our plane tickets for a mighty good price, 4 round trip tickets and 1 one-way ticket for $5,400.00!
We fly home during the middle of the night, so hopefully Jadyn we will get some sleep to help pass the time!

July 04, 2009

Happy 4th of July America!

I can officially say, in less than a month, we will have another little American citizen to call our own! The countdown has begun, our plane tickets are purchased, all our appointments in China are confirmed.
Ames & I have been busy getting more paperwork ready to take. Kim and I received our Chinese visa's to enter the country of Jadyn's birth. Ames & Jeron's visa's should arrive this week.

I have an appointment with our pediatrician next week to get prescription medication to take as a precaution for Jadyn & Jeron in case of ear infections, skin infections etc. We want to have western medication on hand.

As planned, we are flying out of Portland, Oregon EARLY the morning of July 29, and through Los Angeles and Tokyo before arriving in Beijing the evening of July 30 (China time). We'll spend 3 days in Beijing sight-seeing. On Aug. 2 we will fly to the Jiangsu province capital, Nanjing. Aug. 3 we will receive Jadyn!! We will stay in Nanjing for the next 5 days awaiting her passport. The evening of Aug 7, the 5 of us will fly to Guangzhou. This is where the American Consulate is located and where we apply for her visa to permit her into the USA. This process takes about 7 days.

We will fly home on Aug 13, again laying over in Tokyo and Los Angeles. As soon as our little girl's feet touch the ground in Los Angeles, she will become an American citizen! There, we will complete all our U.S. Customs paperwork so that upon arrival in Portland we are immediately free to meet with our waiting family members. I hear there will be quite a crowd awaiting our new little American. Not only have we awaited this day for over 3 years, so have our family and friends. We love you all!

July 01, 2009

WE ARE GOING TO CHINA!

We got our invitation to travel today (TA)!
Looks like we may leave July 29 for an extra day of sight-seeing in Beijing. I will post more information, as soon as we get it. Right now we are scheduled to get Jadyn on Monday, Aug. 3