sweet, tiny baby!

The pediatrician confirmed it - she's tiny (and cute!). At 15 months, Meili weighs 18 pounds and is 28.5 inches tall. That puts her in the 7th percentile for height and 5th percentile for weight compared with other kids her age. Had fun today - playing and taking more pictures!

a little bit crabby before her afternoon nap...

Here's what happens when it's Daddy's turn to play.

more pictures

SO BIG!!!!

Meili with one of our dogs (Otis)

A favorite book: Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Meili's Arrival in GR!

WOW! What a blessing!

Hey, we're home!!! We are SO thankful to report that our trip was wonderful! (well, as wonderful as flying halfway around the world can be). Meili did SO well! She slept for a few hours on the 4.5 hour flight to Tokyo, slept several hours of the 10.5 hour flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis, and slept completely through the Minneapolis to GR flight. When she wasn't sleeping, she was playful, happy, and befriending the people around her. What a BLESSING! Thanks for all of your prayers. We are just so thankful that things went so well and that Meili was such a good traveler. We purchased a seat just for her thinking that she would sleep on it. That didn't happen.... but, when she was awake, she sat there, climbed all over, and played with toys on the seat. It was totally worth it!

Now we're working on adjusting to the 13 hour time difference. We did pretty well last night, keeping Meili up until about 7:00PM. She went right to sleep when we put her in the crib. I think it was around 3AM when she woke up. I took her into bed with us and after talking and playing with me for about 15 minutes, she went back to sleep until about 6:00AM. Then we got up. I can't believe we got up before 7AM on a Saturday! Now Henry and Meili are both taking naps. Looks good but I'm trying to stay awake so that I can sleep tonight.

I'm moving pictures onto our main computer. I hope to post some later today. See ya!

high point, low point

We're in Guangzhou and no longer have free internet in our hotel room. That was a nice perk in Hangzhou. So we're at a coffee bar where we get free access since we bought something. Things are going really well here. We're getting ready to come home. All the paperwork is done and tomorrow we go take some kind of oath and pick up Meili's passport and U.S. visa. We leave early Friday morning. And now, we bring you "High Point, Low Point".

High Point - We're having a great stay. The temperature has been in the mid 70s here and it's just WONDERFUL! Our hotel is nice and we've had a pretty open week so lots of time for relaxing, playing and some shopping. It's a nice way to wind down before the long trip home.

Low Point - Meili screamed for 40 minutes on the plane on the way here. She was really tired and would NOT let herself go to sleep. She threw an absolute fit no matter what we tried. We passed her back and forth hoping that she would finally go to sleep. Finally, this really nice flight attendant came over and asked if we would like her to take Meili for a bit. We were happy to! Three flight attendants played with her and rocked her for about half an hour until she fell asleep. We're not looking forward to all the flying we have to do Friday. Once Meili falls asleep, she's a really good sleeper. It's getting to sleep that is hard for her.

This will probably be our last post before we get home. We'll post more pictures then! We enjoy reading the comments - thanks for checking in on us!

Liz, Henry & Meili

Guangzhou

Tomorrow morning we check out of our hotel, pick up Meili's passport, get some papers notarized, and fly to Guangzhou. We have some final paperwork to complete there - including applying for Meili's visa to travel to the U.S. I just checked the weather forecast for Guangzhou. LOOK!!!

Guangzhou Forecast
Monday: low 55, high 76
Tuesday: low 56, high 75
Wednesday: low 57, high 78
Thursday: low 57, high 79

We're hoping that Meili does well with the taxi rides and airplane travel tomorrow. She doesn't like sitting around much so we're hoping that she takes a nap or something. We took the last two days off - just relaxing and hanging around. It was good for Meili to have some days to get into a routine. She's had some good naps in the morning and afternoon. She is just such a delight to be around - exploring and learning new things all day. It will be good to get home so our family and friends meet her!

Farewell from Hangzhou!
Liz & Henry

Sleeping!

Meili was SO tired tonight but it's been hard getting her to sleep here. We don't want to leave her crying in the crib very long since there are people in the rooms next door. So we paced with her and played with for a while and then, finally, set her in the crib. She cried for about three minutes and then fell completely asleep sitting up. Here's a picture before we sort of pushed her over so she was laying down. CUTE!


Taking a morning nap in her daddy's arms! CUTE!


One more cute picture - I couldn't resist!

Video!

the weekend!

One week left.... it's hard to believe but we're already coming to the end of our second week in China. We have Saturday and Sunday completely free which will be really nice. So far, our days have been filled or partly filled with scheduled sightseeing events, paperwork, and official government appointments. It will be really good to relax and not constantly be shuffling Meili from place to place. She does really well except when we get in a taxi. She has meltdowns (sometimes) when we get in cars for some reason. Hope it isn't a sign of what it's going to be like in the airplane with her.

Early Monday morning we go pick up Meili's passport, get some forms notarized, and fly to Guangzhou, our last stop on this journey. We'll have more appointments there. We'll also be back together with the other families that are in this Bethany group. It will be interesting to be together again because now we all have new kids.

For now, we're going to enjoy this relaxing time with each other and our daughter! Good evening from China!

a funny story for today

Today I have a funny story for you all. It's about Meili and eating. Because Meili still has a large cleft through her hard and soft palate, we were advised to feed her only soft things like porridge, pudding, jello, applesauce, etc. Well, we were eating lunch in the room today and Meili got really excited when she saw my rice so I decided I'd give her just a little of it. I fed her a few small pieces at a time. She was LOVING it so I gave her some more. Well, a little while later, pieces of rice started coming out of her nose. It wasn't bothering her at all, in fact it was kind of funny. She would laugh or something and suddenly, some pieces of rice would squeeze out one side of her nose. We laughed about it and also learned our lesson, no more rice! (at least not until that hole is repaired) How cute though! We're having such a great time getting to know her and all her fun facial expressions and moods. What a blessing she is!

Pictures!!!

Meili

Well, the day finally came! We met our beautiful daughter this afternoon at the civil affairs office here in Hangzhou. We left Beijing very early this morning, checked into our hotel and then had lunch and a short nap. At 2:30 we hopped in a cab to go meet Meili.

It's almost impossible to explain what the day was like after that and exactly how we were feeling. It was just unbelievable to finally have her in our arms! She seemed a little shy at first but didn't cry at all when we were first holding her... almost seemed more curious about who we were. By the time we finished some initial paperwork and left to go back to the hotel we were getting smiles and giggles from her. She did NOT like getting into the cab - it was the only time she almost cried. (Maybe that's because she took a 4-5 hour car ride here this morning.) We walked to a grocery store to get stuff for supper and we attracted a lot of attention on the way.

When we got back we fed Meili and then tried putting her to bed. That's when she seemed to get a little bit scared. She didn't like the crib at all, in fact, didn't like being put down anywhere. We let her cry for a while but it didn't think it was so nice for our neighbors. So Henry built towers with stacking cups over and over, knocking them down until Meili finally tipped over in exhaustion. She and Henry are sleeping on the bed right now. It's SO cute.

I'll try to have my sister post pictures on here. The first picture is in the taxi, heading back to the hotel and the second is Meili spacing out while Henry was building stacking towers. We'll post more soon!

Tomorrow!

We leave for the airport tomorrow at 5:15 AM. Our flight to Hangzhou is from 7:55-9:55 AM. Someone from Bethany will meet us at the airport and bring us to our hotel. We get Meili sometime in the afternoon - someone is bringing her to our hotel. We can't wait! We hope to be able to post pictures soon! See ya, we're off to enjoy our last night together in Beijing!

Flipping and Climbing

Yesterday we went to the Beijing Zoo and to a Chinese Acrobat show. We already saw the zoo this summer but they have dogs so I REALLY wanted to go back. There were lots of really nice dogs but the best ones were the two Pekingese dogs that looked like Simon and Otis. We also saw the pandas and lots of hilarious monkeys.

The acrobat show was AMAZING! We saw people flipping each other, others jumping through hoops, many spinning plates, and one lady contorted her body while balancing various objects on her feet, head, and hands.

Today we went to the Great Wall at Badaling. It was cool and really COLD!!! We're guessing that the temperature was between 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit plus some really cold wind. We did a lot of climbing which warmed us up a bit We also toured a cloisonné (enamelware) factory today which is where all kinds of cool vases, plates, etc. are made. Expensive stuff to buy!

Tomorrow is our last day in Beijing. We'll be visiting Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City, and doing a hutong tour by rickshaw. Half of the Bethany families are leaving tomorrow morning to get their kids and the other half leave Tuesday with us. It's hard to believe that our time here in Beijing is almost over but we're excited to go get Meili! Don't know when we'll post
again… perhaps from our next destination, Hangzhou. We leave Tuesday morning and get Meili that afternoon. Hopefully we can figure out how to post pictures by then!

duck brain...

Hello everyone! Today's update includes more food and more sightseeing notes. Yesterday afternoon we did some shopping at the Silk Market and the Pearl Market. One of the best finds was a tiger hat for Meili. It's SO cute! "In Chinese folklore, babies wear this hat on their first birthday in order to catch, between the tiger's ears, all the heavenly goodness falling from the sky." We're a few months late for Meili's birthday but we got it anyway!

After the Pearl Market we went to what's considered one of Beijing's best roast duck restaurants. The duck was DELICIOUS! Our China friends will remember making the pancakes with the duck, sweet sauce, and green onions. Our server last night also showed up two other ways of eating duck. It was so good! Most interesting part... at the end of the meal they brought the duck's cooked head out to the table. Apparently it's one of the best parts. Henry didn't want to try it so I went for it. (He ate duck feet this past summer and I didn't so it was my turn to try something new.) It was... interesting. Not slimy like I thought it would be, but not my favorite Chinese food item. It is good to try new things!

Today we walked to Jing Shan Park. It's located just behind the Forbidden City. It's way up on a hill - built with the dirt taken out when the moat around the Forbidden City was dug. From the park we had a bird's eye view of the Forbidden City and Beijing in general. We could also see the mountains off in the distance. It's sunny and somewhat clear today and the view was just stunning. We walked to Tian'anmen Square next, hoping to go into Mao Xedong's mausoleum. His body is on display at certain times but it was already closed for the day. We'll probably go back tomorrow morning.

The other Bethany families arrived last night. This is their free day. I wonder what time they all woke up this morning. Tomorrow we start our group sightseeing and events by going to a Chinese acrobat show.

I guess that's it for now. We're having a WONDERFUL time! We'll post again when we can. Internet access is somewhat inconsistent - we've not been able to post pictures on here and Henry can't get into his email at all. Apparently an earthquake near Taiwan last month made some internet sites really difficult to get into.

location, location, location

We've been at our hotel for about 24 hours now and we're right in the middle of things! Take a 15 minute walk to the east to visit the Silk Market.... walk 15 minutes to the West - Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City... 10 minutes west - the Night Market with all sorts of yummy, interesting, and somewhat disgusting things to eat (at least by American standards). For example: fried silkworm pupa, fetal bird on a stick, fried scorpion, centipede on a stick, and a variety of things that are still moving on the tray. We choose strawberries and hawthorne apples covered with sugar glaze. YUM!!!

We're here!

Hello everyone. It's our first post from China. It's around noon on Wednesday for us, which means Tuesday midnight back at home. So far, we've had several WONDERFUL meals - one of the best was at a tiny little mom-and-pop, hole-in-the-wall restaurant with a seating capacity of 9. It was AWESOME! We've been visiting with friends (Lynn, Wayne and Lorraine), been scroll shopping, been awake at 4AM each day, and LOVE being in China again.

Two great things about the 13 hour Detroit to Tokyo flight over here: Henry had two emergency exit row seats to himself and I had a row of three seats behind him to myself. It was GREAT!

Our friends left this morning for Thailand and so we're heading over to our next temporary home which is the Beijing International Hotel (http://www.bih.com.cn/enviews/). We'll be there until Monday morning. The other Bethany families in our group will be arriving sometime on Thursday. We're excited to have a few days on our own to explore this awesome city and find more good food! We'll post again soon!

And they're off!

I just dropped Liz & Henry off at the airport. Here's what may be the last childless photo of them!

See you in a few days!

Well, we're about to shut things down here in G.R. This will be our last post from the U.S. We'll be heading out to the airport around 6:00 tomorrow morning and should arrive in Beijing around 9:30 Monday morning (G.R. time). That will be 9:30 PM Monday in Beijing. Not looking forward to that 14 hour flight. Maybe we can get emergency exit row seats.... Anyway, probably post again after a day or two in Beijing. Blessings everyone!

Intinerary

We received our itinerary over email yesterday. Looks like we are traveling with 30 Bethany families!!! That's a HUGE group. Here's what our schedule looks like:

January 22-24 Visiting with friends in Beijing

Janaury 25-29 Time with Bethany families - Chinese acrobatics show, the Great Wall, Cloisonne Factory, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Hutong Tour, and free time

January 30: GOTCHA DAY!!!!!! AM Fly to Hangzhou, PM - GET MEILI!!!!

January 30-Feb 4. Paperwork in Hangzhou, Sightseeing planned: West Lake Cruise, Six Harmony Pagoda, Tea Plantation, possible visit to Meili's orphanage in Wenzhou, free time

Feb. 5 PM Fly to Guangzhou

Feb. 5-8 Paperwork, medical exam, consulate appointment, pick up visa, and free time

Feb 9 Fly home

Wenzhou

We've recently joined a yahoo group of all people who have kids or are in the process of adopting kids from the same orphanage as Meili. It's so great to hear stories and see pictures from those who have been there recently. We've seen pictures taken in December of groups of toddlers in the orphanage. Is Meili in one of the pictures? We can't tell. All of those kids have hair. The pictures we have of her we think are from July and she doesn't really have any hair. I just can't wait to meet her in person!!!

Packing makes things seem a little more real... like this is really going to happen. We're mostly done... one big suitcase and one small one. I only woke up three times last night to add things to the list. Yesterday we weighed the suitcase that has all of Meili's stuff and a little of mine - it's already over the weight limit... and we're packing light. Oh well. The last load of laundry is calling, and we have some cleaning to do. I can't believe we're leaving TOMORROW!!!

READY!!!

I hold in my hand one American passport (mine) and one Canadian passport (Henry's) - each containing a valid China visa!!! They came via FedEx this morning! I woke up early, knowing they would be coming. I laid in bed, wiggling my feet with excitement until I heard the rumble of a delivery truck outside. I ran downstairs and grabbed them off the front porch. It's the last official paperwork we needed before we could go! We're ready!!! (Now just a lot of cleaning, laundry and more packing to do.) Two more days!

I love my class!

We had a fun party at school today! Kids brought books for Meili - favorites from when they were little. They gave us a beautiful wood toy box (which I assembled tonight.) We ate wonton soup, chow mein noodles and fortune cookies. One special gift was a dress they decorated for Meili. Each kid put their thumbprint and name on it. It's SO cute. I'm going to miss them when we're gone. But Meili is a good reason to go! You guys are GREAT! (Thanks Lynn and Jill!)

When we are there...

Some have asked what our schedule will be like once we arrive in China. Here's a possible list of the way things will go when we are there.

January 22 & 23: Spend time with friends in Beijing
January 24 - 26: Free time and touring with other Bethany families in Beijing
January 27?: Fly to Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province
January 27 or 28: Meili is brought to us at our hotel. She's ours! She will stay with us the rest of the trip.
January 28-Feb. 2: Paperwork, bonding time and sightseeing in Hangzhou, possible trip to Meili's orphanage in Wenzhou
February 3-8: Fly to Guangzhou for paperwork, free time, sightseeing
February 9: Fly home

Getting closer

Now we can start to count down this way...
"This is our last Sunday nap before we leave."
"This is our last Sunday evening at home with no kids."
"This is my last Monday at work." (says Henry - Liz had the day off for MLK's birthday.)
"This is my last ___ choir rehearsal before we leave."

Or we can count this way...
"Only 10 more errands to do."
"Only 25 more things to pack."
"Only 3 hours of cleaning left to do in our house."
"Only $20 left in our bank account."

The first way is much more fun. Henry's on his way to London right now. Hopefully the nice passport man will call him early tomorrow and say that his paperwork has arrived. Henry will be only about 35 minutes away so he can bust over and get it. Once he gets home we can FedEx everything to Washington D.C. and get his Chinese visa. Only 5 more days until THE DAY!

9 days left...

It looks like our consulate appointment will happen on February 7. Early next week Henry should get a call that his passport paperwork is ready - then he will drive to London, ON and will have his passport printed right there. The very next day we have to overnight his passport to Washington D.C. where they will complete his Chinese visa. It's tight but it should work. We're confirmed for a flight that leaves the morning of Sunday, January 21, arriving in Beijing on Monday, January 22!!! We'll spend some time in Beijing - a few days with friends we taught with this past summer and a few days touring with some other Bethany families. Then we'll fly to Hangzhou (the capitol city of Meili's province of Zhejiang) where we will meet and get Meili. We'll be there for a few days to complete paperwork. Then we'll fly to Guangzhou to complete paperwork at the American Embassy there. We fly home on February 9. Just think, in less than a month, we'll already be back... with a daughter!!! Praise God!

TRAVELING!!!

Looks like we might be leaving on Sunday, January 21!!! We're waiting to hear confirmation on our consulate appointment and to make sure Henry's passport stuff comes! I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!

TRAVEL APPOVAL!!!

It's here! At our house! Our Travel Approval has arrived! Our case worker called this morning to say that our paperwork was coming via UPS and would arrive by the end of the day TOMORROW. Well, thanks to a wonderful friend from church (who stopped by a little bit ago) we have our TA one day early. Now we can apply for visas, start planning travel dates, etc. Only thing were waiting on is Henry's passport. His first application was returned in December. Seems like they thought his face was too shiny in the picture AND there were shadows under his ears. Can you believe it??? He got new pictures taken immediately and we sent them overnight. Now we have to wait for the passport to come. PLEASE HURRY PASSPORT!!!

a letter!

First of all, a little bird tells us that information about travel could be coming in the next few days. Hmm... I can't wait!!!

Second, friends have translated the letter from Meili's orphanage for us. Thanks to Jimmy (parent's neighbor) and Lorraine (friend in China). Here are some of the things the letter tells us about our daughter.

1. Who chose her name and why? "The name was given by the staff and it means to have faith(confidence)."

2. What are her favorite foods and activities? "She eats everything and is not picky with food. She likes to watch TV and to be carried outside by adults."

3. How would you describe her personality? "She loves to laugh, smile and listen to music. She is active."

4. What makes her happy? "Hold her, carry her outside. Play games with her."

5. Is she close to a particular nanny? "She is close to several caretakers."

Letter from the orphanage

Well, we didn't hear anything this week. It's possible that nothing was sent to our agency this time around. We'll just keep waiting. An exciting thing this week was receiving a letter from Meili's orphanage on Thursday. In December we sent a letter introducing ourselves and asking the workers at Meili's orphanage to answer some questions about Meili. We had someone translate and mail it with a self-addressed-stamped envelope. They filled the sheet out and mailed it back! Henry and I were so excited to look at it. We sat down together and opened it up. All in Chinese! Oops, duh!!! We didn't even think about that. Right now my parents' neighbor Jimmy is translating it for us. He thinks he will have it done on Monday. Here are the questions they answered for us. We can't wait to know what they answers are!

1. Who chose her name and why?
2. Has she had any health problems or allergies?
3. What medical treatment has she received?
4. What are her favorite foods and activities?
5. How would you describe her personality?
6. Does she have any likes/dislikes/sensitivities?
7. What makes her happy?
8. Is she close to any particular nanny? What is this nanny's name?
9. Was there a note or any other memento found with her?
10. Do you have her finding ad? Can we have a copy?

How long?

We're hearing news that travel approvals are arriving. We don't know if ours will be in this batch or not. We might know something by the end of the week!

Can't WAIT!!!

I can't wait until we can take pictures like this with Meili!!! This is our adorable nephew Jean - taken during Christmas break!

Meili's name...

We're doing a little bit of research into Meili's name.
A new friend we made in China this summer, Lorraine,
is helping us out.

MEILI
We chose this part of Meili's name. It means beautiful or
pretty. Here is the character for her first name.

美

The next parts are the three names Meili was given,
either by her birthparents,
a relative, or the caretakers at the orphanage.
Here's what Lorraine told us about the rest of her name.

JIANG (first tone)
I was actually a little surprised by her name. First thing,
orphans in Chinaare usually given a family name like Dang,
(meaning the Party), Guo (meaning the country)
or some other patriotic family names.
Meili's family name is Jiang, a very common,
probably not very patriotic family name.
I guess maybe her birth parents
or some people who were close to her
gave her a name before giving her away.
The character Jiang itself means
ginger, but it's just a common family name
and does not carry that meaning
when used as a family name.

XIN (forth tone)    YI (first tone)
What's more surprising, is her given name,
which consists of two characters.
The first character, Xin, means to believe
(belief, faith, if used as a noun), to trust.
And the second character Yi
means to depend on, to rely on.

I say it's surprising because these two characters
carry strong Christian connotations to me.
So I am wondering if her birth parents
(if they are the ones who gave her the name)
actually have some kind of religious belief.
Maybe I am reading too much into it
and the name was just given by a Christian orphanage or
just the adoption agency.

A Package to Meili

We recieved confirmation today that a package we sent to Meili was delivered on December 5. We sent this package through an online service. It contained a teddy bear, two disposable cameras, and candy and nuts for the orphanage workers and director. The package was sent with a letter in Chinese explaining who the package was for, who it was from, and asked Meili's caretakers to take pictures of her, her cribmates, friends, and her caretakers. There's no guarantee that they will have time to take pictures or that they will be able to get those cameras back to us but we think it's worth a try. We sent her a birthday cake too, which also arrived on the 5th. Birthday cakes are really decked out in China and are a really special way to celebrate a birthday.

My Grandma

My grandma died today. I haven't seen her in a few years. She had Alzheimers. My last visit with her (and her roommate, Myrtle, who also had Alzheimers) is a favorite memory of mine. My grandma knew who I was and remembered Henry too. She and Myrtle talked and talked, sometimes about the same things over and over, not realizing they were repeating themselves.

One of my favorite parts of that visit was that Myrtle kept asking Henry if he was from Canada (he was wearing an "I Am Canadian" shirt.). After about the 10th time she asked Henry the question, my grandma said "For heaven's sake Myrtle, quit asking him the same question!"

My grandma did all kinds of great grandmotherly stuff. Here are some of my favorite memories:
- picking green beans with Grandma in her HUGE garden
- watching Grandma crochet while the Wheel of Fortune or Family Feud was on TV
- eating Grandma's chicken soup
- at Grandma's house we got WHITE bread and we could put SUGAR on our cereal
- eating Grandma's chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the freezer
- going to "The Green Farm" for Christmas each year
- playing in the hay loft at "The Green Farm"
- playing with the barbie and other doll clothes she meticulously sewed for us
- the thick blanket Grandma crocheted for me for my high school graduation gift
- going to church really early, Grandma passing us a mint from her handkerchief, and then leaving church right away to go home and have a REALLY yummy meal

I keep thinking of more, I'll add them later.

Gertrude Jeanette Kempema Blankespoor
1921 - 2006

Fingerprints extended

We got our new I171 form in the mail yesterday stating that our new fingerprints are good until 2008. We continue to wait for our TA, and hope that Henry's new passport comes BEFORE that does. Otherwise we'll have to wait for that before we can travel.

What's next?

Well... now we have to wait for a TA (travel approval) to come from China. This comes once our acceptance form has been processed. A TA can take anywhere from 4-10 weeks to come. Once that comes, our final appointment at the US consulate in China will be set and we'll know when our last day in China will be. Then all of our other traveling and appointments will be planned. We would likely leave about 2-3 weeks after receiving our TA. More waiting...

Update on Meili...

Fun, Fun! We got an update on Meili today. Her cleft lip has been repaired and the cleft palate surgery can wait until she comes home.

Here are some other updates:
Height: 75 cm or 29.5 inches tall (I was 22.5 inches when I was BORN!)
Weight: 9 kg or 19.8 lbs
Teeth: 5

They also said that she can sit, crawl, and is learning to stand. Her fine motor skills are good and she pick up toys and holds a bottle. She likes to watch TV and holds toys with both hands. She knows caretakers and her name. She understands her caretakers' facial expressions. She is active, busy and alert.

CAN'T WAIT!!!!

Shopping fun!!!

This weekend we went to Chicago to hang out with my parents for Thanksgiving. It was so nice and relaxing and fun. One of the fun things we did was go shopping for baby stuff. We went to a bunch of thrift stores and found a lot of great stuff including lots of really cute clothing and sleepers, a coat, and a snowsuit. One of the fun and unexpected finds was a stroller for tall people (with extendable handles) for only $28 (used but in great shape). Those strollers are SO expensive when they are new. We also found the Little People barn (the original kind - from our childhood) that moos and a bag of the original Little People and cars. We also went and registered for other stuff at a baby store which was fun too. Here are some fun pictures of the Little People stuff we found! I can't wait until Meili can play with these toys (and us too!)

Happy Birthday!

It's Meili's first birthday tomorrow. Too bad we're gonna miss it. She got her first birthday card in the mail today, how sweet! Happy Birthday Meili!

the process...

Last week we met with our caseworker to sign some papers. Now those will be sent to China. Once they have been translated and processed (could take about a month) a travel approval (TA) will be mailed to us. After that comes, we can start working on visas, plane tickets etc. Here's a map of China showing Zhejiang Province, where Meili is living right now.

MEET OUR DAUGHTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here she is:
Meili Jiang XinYi (pronunciation: May-Lee Gee-ong Chin Yee)
Date of Birth: November 21, 2005
Current Home: Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China
Estimated GOTCHA DAY: January 2007
Proud Parents: Liz & Henry

Waiting Child

Please keep us in prayer this week as we consider two different girls from the "Children of Promise" list. These are two young girls who have some unique needs and are waiting to be placed with a family. Pray for wisdom for those in the decision making process - that they will find the best placement for these two special girls.

the ticker again...

While we wait...

Right now we have a lot of waiting to do. One fun thing is hearing from other people who are getting or have gotten their referrals recently. It helps remind me that things are moving along. I've also been trying to find some kind of simple stroller that's made for tall people. So far, I can't tell if that even exists. There are some pretty hefty strollers with extendable handles but we want something simple and light. And, since I'm bored with looking at these recent posts, I'll post a favorite picture from our China trip.

Home study update

We met with our case worker today to update our home study. We have to be re-fingerprinted by the US Department of Customs and Immigration (in case we committed any crimes in the last year.) We also have to get updated physicals and security clearance from the department of social services or something like that. More paperwork. Boring... Oh well, soon we won't even remember all this paperwork stuff. =)

time to re-apply

Well, it's been over a year since our home study was complete which means that next week we have to meet with our case worker to update our home study. Also, since our immigration fingerprinting expires in November, we'll have to re-apply for that soon too. All told, another $600 or so in paperwork. Too bad the US government refused to extend the time frame for fingerprints to be good or to make a easy renewal process. This is the kind of stuff that gets me really bummed out.

HILARIOUS! Panda Attack...

Panda bites drunk Chinese man, man bites panda back at Beijing zoo

Gu Gu, a six-year-old panda, eats near the entrance to its enclosure at Beijing Zoo on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)Audra Ang, Canadian Press

Published: Wednesday, September 20, 2006

BEIJING (AP) - A drunken Chinese tourist bit a panda at the Beijing Zoo after the animal attacked him when he jumped into the enclosure and tried to hug it, state media said Wednesday.

Zhang Xinyan had drunk four pitchers of beer at a restaurant before "stumbling to the zoo" nearby and stopping off at the pen holding a sleeping 6-year-old male panda, Gu Gu, on Tuesday, the Beijing Morning Post said.

"He felt a sudden urge to touch the panda with his hand" and jumped over a waist-high railing down into the enclosure, the newspaper said. "When he got closer and was undiscovered, he reached out to hug it."

Startled, Gu Gu bit Zhang in the right leg, it said. Zhang, a 35-year-old migrant labourer from central Henan province, got angry and kicked the panda, who then bit his other leg. A tussle ensued, the paper said.

"I bit the fellow in the back," Zhang was quoted as saying in the newspaper. "Its skin was quite thick."

Other tourists yelled for a zookeeper, who soon got the panda under control by spraying it with water, reports said. Zhang was hospitalized.

Newspaper photographs showed Zhang lying on a hospital bed with blood-soaked bandages and several seams of stitches running down his leg.

The Beijing Youth Daily quoted Zhang, a father of two who was visiting Beijing for the first time, as saying that he had seen pandas on television and "they seemed to get along well with people."

"No one ever said they would bite people," Zhang said. "I just wanted to touch it. I was so dizzy from the beer. I don't remember much."

Ye Mingxia, a spokeswoman for the Beijing Zoo, confirmed the incident happened but would not give any details. She said Gu Gu was "healthy and uninjured."

"We're not considering punishing him now," Ye said in a telephone interview. "He's suffered quite a bit of shock."

China has more than 180 pandas living in captivity. A 2002 government census found there were just 1,596 pandas left in the wild. But state media has said a new study by Chinese and British scientists has found there might be as many as 3,000.

In 2003, a college student trying to take a photo of a panda in the Beijing Zoo jumped into the enclosure and broke his bones in the fall, the Beijing Morning Post said.

It did not say which panda it was or if it attacked the student.

© The Canadian Press 2006

Out of the review room!

The December 2005 dossiers (including ours - December 5) are out of the review room. That means all of our paperwork was done right and everything has been approved. It doesn't speed anything up for us. But it's one more step that we are through. Now there's really nothing to do but wait.

In the meantime....

Here's another favorite picture from our trip to China... Some of our nice traveling friends at the Great Wall.

Rumor Queen

The "Rumor Queen" gets emails and info. from people all over the place and in various stages of their China adoption. She sometimes makes predictions based on the recent trends in referral times etc. This is one of her latest thoughts on referral times.

Quoting Rumor Queen "As a reminder, my most recent good and bad case scenarios are:

	Good Case Scenario	Bad Case Scenario
September Referrals	08/16/05	07/28/05
October Referrals	08/30/05	08/22/05
November Referrals	Well beyond 9/11	08/29/05
December Referrals		09/07/05

So, she predicts referrals coming in December for people whose paperwork was logged in (in China) last September. We weren't logged in until December 06. Based on the time frame here, it could be July of 07 before we get a referral. Hmm... patience...

Estimating.... traveling....

A family from Bethany who was logged in on July 26, 2005 reported that their case worker estimates that they will travel anywhere from mid to late November. We didn't get logged in until December of 2005. There's a possibility it could be next spring before we go... We'll just have to wait and see. Depending on how things go, we'll likely have to re-apply for our I171 immigration form (filing cost is $545). Like I said, guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Highlights (newsletter part 4)

- Forming relationships with Christians in China

- Worshipping with our students in Chinese and English

- Having delicious Chinese food for almost every meal (Henry ate a duck foot!)

- Climbing the Great Wall

- Learning “Jesus Loves Me” in Chinese

- Developing strong relationships with our teaching team

- Singing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” really fast and erupting in laugher with our morning group

- Leading worship before and after English lessons each day

- Witnessing the passion that Chinese Christians have for God

- Hearing familiar hymns like Amazing Grace sung in Chinese

- Learning more about the history and culture of China (and of our future daughter)

- Being treated to Peking Duck

- Buying cute squeaky shoes and traditional Chinese dresses for our future daughter

- Squattie potties & split pants

- Getting even better with chopsticks

- Seeing Pekingese dogs all over the place!

- Being immersed in a different culture

- Hearing Chinese spoken everywhere

After Christmas?

Many people are trying to make predictions about how long families are going to be waiting for their referrals (to be matched with a child). There's really no way to tell how long or short things will go. Apparently one large agency is predicting the time frame listed below. LID stands for the date your application was logged in at the Chinese agency. (Our LID is December 5). If things go like this agency is predicting, we would not be matched until around March or April. We can't say for sure, things could pick up a bit. Either way, it's not very likely that we will get a referral before Christmas.

LID 7/14/05 to 7/28/05: August referral (13 month wait)
LID 7/29/05 to 8/12/05: September referral (13-14 month wait)
LID 8/13/05 to 8/29/05: October referral (14 month wait)
LID 8/30/05 to 9/13/05: November referral (14-15 month wait)
LID 9/14/05 to 9/28/05: December referral (15 month wait)
LID 9/29/05 to 10/13/05: January referral (15-16 month wait)

A Typical Day in Beijing (newsletter part 3)

7:30 A.M. delicious Chinese breakfast in the guesthouse restaurant

8:10 On the bus to Kuanjie Church

9:00 - 11:00 Whole group time (learning Scripture and worshipping together) and Small group time (English lessons)

11:15 Walk to a local restaurant for lunch

12:30 On the bus back to the guesthouse

1:30 – 5:30 Lesson Planning, Free Time and Supper

5:30 On the bus to Gangwashi Church

6:30 - 8:30 Whole group time (learning scripture and worshipping together) Small group time (English lessons)

8:45 On the bus to our guesthouse

9:45 Free time – often bedtime!

Sightseeing and Free Time (newsletter part 2)

Although we spent a lot of time teaching and preparing our lessons, we did have a nice amount of free time each day. Our group was quite adventurous and had a big list of all the things we wanted to do during our stay. We came up with a master plan/schedule so that we wouldn’t miss a thing. This kept us pretty busy but it was worth it!

During the first weekend in Beijing we spent time at the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace and The Temple of Heaven. We also had an orientation session that weekend. It was all great but we were SO tired!

We took the first two teaching afternoons off and then jumped into our own busy plans. We spent free afternoons and evenings doing a variety of activities like: bowling, shopping at the Pearl and the Silk Market, foot massages (OW!), the Beijing Zoo, Hou Hai Park, Full Body Massages, the Night Market, a Hutong rickshaw tour, and some more shopping.

On the weekend, between our two weeks of teaching, we took a train to Chengde which was a mountain resort for some Chinese emperors. The architecture there is beautiful and quite different from buildings in Beijing. It was fun to have a weekend adventure!

Teaching (newsletter part 1)

This is part of a newsletter we wrote about our work in China. This article is about our teaching experience. The two pictures are of our evening and morning classes.

The stated purpose of our trip was to teach English but it was much more than that. In fact, the relationships we formed with our students were more important than any English lessons we taught. While teaching English made it possible for us to come, worshipping together was what really reinforced our unity as members of the worldwide church of God. We were blessed by the love and warmth we were shown by our students.

The two groups we taught were quite different. Our morning group was a group of mostly older people who spoke no English and were very eager to learn. We taught them Psalm 23, the Beattitudes, many worship songs, and basic English vocabulary. The students were very appreciative and encouraging to us and loved teaching us “Jesus Loves Me” in Chinese.

Our evening group was made up of high school and college students who all spoke English quite fluently. They wanted help with pronunciation and new vocabulary. We enjoyed teaching them, and especially liked playing Uno and just sitting around and talking with them.

stuff for our daughter

We spent some time shopping while in Beijing and found a few cute things for our daughter. The first thing we got was squeaky shoes. They have something in the bottom of the shoe that squeaks when the kid wearing them steps on them. We saw a few kids wearing them in China and they were so cute! We also bought two traditional Chinese dresses for her - the red one is for her baptism.

a few pictures...

These are most of the regulars from our morning group. They came to our class not knowing any English and really wanting to learn. They were so enthusiastic and appreciative. It's hard to explain the wonderful relationships we were able to develop with them! We taught them Psalm 23, the Beattitudes, basic vocabulary words and songs like Father I Adore You, God is so Good, etc. which have repetitious phrases and words.

At the Temple of Heaven

to China... and back again

Well, we've been to China and back. We had quite limited internet access so I was not able to post updates like I had hoped. Right now I'm waiting for all of our pictures to load onto the computer so I can see how they turned out. We've been traveling for 22 hours to get home and we're feeling a bit yucky - I don't think our bodies know what's going on. Beijing is exactly 12 hours later than Grand Rapids time. In our traveling today, we actually gained 12 hours. We left at 9:05 this morning (Beijing time) and were in Grand Rapids today at 7:00 P.M. (GR time). It was hard to do all that sitting. I hope to post some pictures later this week once I get them loaded and resized. More later...

babysitting...

We're taking care of our nieces until we leave for China (in 7 days!!!). Here are some pictures of them at the children's museum yesterday.

going to China...

We're leaving for teaching in China in two and a half weeks. Here's a very basic outline of our schedule:
- Leave June 28 (Grand Rapids, Detroit, Tokyo, Beijing)
- Arrive June 29 in Beijing
- Sightseeing June 30th, July 1, 2
- English Camp - July 3rd-July 7
- Weekend at Chengde - Qing Dynasty Summer Palace - July 8-9
- English Camp - July 10-14
- Final weekend - July 15-16
- Leave for USA - July 17 (Beijing, Tokyo, Minneapolis, Grand Rapids)
- Arrive in USA - July 17

We'll be working at the Gangwashi church (PM) and the Kuanjie church (AM) in Beijing for English camp. It's an outreach program that these churches provide free of charge to anyone who wants to attend. Our main job will be to help people with English pronunciation and conversation. We met today with a couple from our church who have lived and taught in China and had a phone conversation with a good friend who also lived and taught in China. They all had little tips for us - things not to do when we're there etc. All these little things make our trip seem more real. We're looking forward to it!