Extra Tour Day

Guy and I decided that we will be going over to Beijing two days early to take an additional tour. Great Wall will have someone meet us at the airport and we will stay in the group hotel. The tour is called The Beijing Cultural Tour. This tour will take us to The Temple of Heaven, The Beijing Zoo (lots of Pandas) and the Summer Palace. It doesn't cost that much and hey, what is money anyway!!

Once the rest of our group arrives the next day we will take the Beijing Cultural Tour. We will see the Forbidden City and Tian'an Men Square and the Great Wall! Both tours start at 8:30 and go until dinner!!!

More on this later!

We Got Our Travel Approval!

Last night we got the email from our agency that our Travel Approval had arrived. Great Wall is requesting appointments at the U.S. Consulate for November 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 7th. If we get one of these dates, we can be travelling in three weeks!! OMG! It is finally almost here!!!

Visa Application Off To New York

We sent our Visa applications off to New York yesterday! The Chinese Consulate in New York City does not allow you to mail Visa applications to them for processing, so we had to hire a courier to do the legwork for us. We sent the package off Federal Express so they should get it this morning. Hopefully we will get our Visa next week -- although, there is yet another Chinese Holiday next week and the Consulate is probably closed for a few days.

There are also rumors that our TAs will be coming this week...let's keep our fingers crossed!

Waiting on TA and Shopping!

While we are waiting for our Travel Assignment (TA), we are preparing for our trip to China. Last night we went to Robinson Luggage and bought some items: electrical converter, money belt, TSA locks for the luggage, a back pack so we can put the laptop, digital video camera and digital camera all in one spot and various other little travel stuff. Then it was off to Cherry Hill Mall. I needed some Clinque stuff (I know, not trip related, but I needed some stuff anyway) then to the Walking Store. Guy and I each bought a pair of Merrells -- they are light hiking sneakers -- we need comfy feet in China!

We got to put a lot of checks on our To Do List!!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth

Today is Elizabeth's first birthday! We are happy and sad at the same time. Happy that it is her birthday, and sad, because she is not yet with us! We will be coming soon!

New Picture of Orphanage

Here is a new picture of Elizabeth's Orphanage!

Waiting on Travel Assignment (TA)

We are still waiting for our TA. The TA comes from China after they receive your acceptance of the referral. Our acceptance went to China on Friday, September 9. Our agency said that it could take 3-4 weeks to get the TA. Apparently the people who got referrals the month before us are just getting their TAs, so they are a little behind. Great Wall said that we should be traveling the last week of October/first week of November. They also said that all travel will be done by November 12.

Our Translated Growth Report

We received our translated growth report today. Here it is:

Growth Report on Cen Xiaobei

Cen Xiaobei (Cen is the surname of child in the institute, Xiaobei means bud.), female, was born on Sept.20th, 2004. She was found abandoned before the gate of Hengfeng Civil Affairs by the staff Wang Yonghong on Sept.30th, 2004 and sent into the institute the same day. When she was found, she was wrapped in the quilt, next to her were a bottle, 2 bags of milk powders and some clothes. We did a full checkup for her, she was in good health. Our doctor estimated her DOB to be Sept.20th, 2004.

She is living in the institute. She is healthy and develops well. When she was 1-month old, she had good sucking ability and normal appetite. When she was 2-month old, she began to laugh. When she was 3-month old, she could make sounds like Ah, Oh. When the caregiver talked to her, she would burble to reply. If the caregiver patted her hands, she would giggle. When she was 4-month old, she could locate sound if she heard someone called her, and then smile to the one. If she woke up without seeing her caregiver, she would cry sadly. But she would stop crying as soon as she heard the caregiver’s voice. When she was 5-month old, she began to understand the adults’ facial expressions, recognize familiar people, and babble to people or objects. When she saw her bottle, she would be very excited. Her thumbs are flexible. She would hold a toy but stare at another one. If the toy dropped down, she would look for it. She liked to listen to the music. She could raise her head when sitting and could stand up with assistance. When she was 6-monthold, she became lovelier. She could walk in the walker. All the staff of the orphanage loves her very much. She likes them to take her to play in the outside.

Now her main food is mixture of milk powders, cereals and honey. She has 5 meals per day and about 200ml per meal. She also eats some noodles, eggs and biscuits. She sleeps through the night with the light on and likes to sleep with her caregiver. She is outgoing and energetic. She likes shopping best. Her relieving is good.

Prepared by Hengfeng SWI
March 25th, 2005

A Week Ago Today...

Our lives changed forever! We received the call from Great Wall that they had our baby! Now we are just waiting for the CCAA to send our our travel assignments. Elizabeth's orphanage is located in Jiangxi Province, near the city of Nanchang.

Jiangxi is known as the "porcelain city" with a history of 1700 years of porcelain-making. It is a subtropical climate (lucky me and my hair)! It is situated on the eastern bank of the Yangtse River.

The orphange HengFeng Social Welfare Institute seems very nice, but old. From what I have been told it is a very poor orphanage, but they take very good care of the children. Here are some pictures:

There is always tons of information on the web about everything! I found a Yahoo Group that is just for HengFeng parents! They have so much information!

That's it for now!

Cathy

Elizabeth Looks Like Us!

They say that the CCAA really tries to match the baby with the parents. What do you think? I have looked a many of the other referral pictures for other families and it is really amazing how they match the parents perfectly!

Elizabeth was born in The Year of the Monkey

People born in the Year of the Monkey are the erratic geniuses of the cycle. Clever, skillful, and flexible, they are remarkably inventive and original and can solve the most difficult problems with ease. There are few fields in which Monkey people wouldn't be successful but they have a disconcerting habit of being too agreeable. They want to do things now, and if they cannot get started immediately, they become discouraged and sometimes leave their projects. Although good at making decisions, they tend to look down on others. Having common sense, Monkey people have a deep desire for knowledge and have excellent memories. Monkey people are strong willed but their anger cools quickly. They are most compatible with the Dragon and Rat. (Guy & I are Rats!)

Introducing Elizabeth Grace Harris

It is with great joy that we announce the referral of our daughter, Elizabeth Grace

DOB: 9/20/04
JiangXi Province
HengFeng Social Welfare Institute
17.25 pounds
24.5 inches long

Hopefully we will hear very soon when we can go to China and bring her home!!

THE STORK IS LANDING!!!

We just heard that our agency is starting to make the calls!!! More later!

The Waiting Continues......

We got an email from Great Wall that said the referrals should be here on Tuesday! :( Now we have to wait all through the long weekend for word, and there is nothing we can do about it!

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

Still waiting for "The Call". We both really hope it comes before the weekend or it is going to be a long, long weekend! Everyone keeps asking, "Did you get the picture?" I want to yell Yes, but I can't!! Please let it come today!

Stork Is On The Way!!!

Just a quick update: We received an email from our agency today saying the the Stork has left China! We should be receiving the baby's picture very soon!!! It could come as early as Friday!!

Word from our Agency

Our agency, Great Wall China Adoption, sent us an email yesterday saying that the CCAA (Center for Chinese Adoption Authorities) will be mailing the referrals by the end of this week (today). We should have our referral by next week sometime! It is so hard to believe that it is finally almost here, after almost a year. We started this whole process on August 7, 2005! Keep your fingers crossed that the referral gets here fast! I don't think we can stand another weekend of waiting!

Where Are the Referrals!?!?!?!?!?

We are expecting our referral any day now so everytime the phone rings or an email comes through, we get excited. I am expecting the referral on Monday, just because it is my mother's 65th Birthday! Let's keep our fingers crossed!! In the meantime we are still working on the baby's room. Here are some pictures:

Closer and Closer

Our referral is so close now! Everyone around us is so excited for us! The best estimates we can get is that the referrals will start coming out next week some time. Even though it has been a year since we started this whole process, it has gone pretty fast!

The baby's room is almost finished. Lisa, my sister, is coming over to paint a mural on the wall on Saturday. We are also picking up the bureau/changing table on Saturday. Hopefully the carpeting will be installed next week. I will be sure to post some pictures once the room is complete. Right now it looks like a baby warehouse!

Baby's Room Update

The room is coming along. We finished all of the painting last weekend and picked out carpeting. The room is pinkish/lavender so we chose a pearl gray carpet. Hopefully the carpeting will be installed next week. My sister Lisa, is coming on Saturday to start the mural painting. She is going to do a tree in one corner and then we are going to stencil some butterflies, ladybugs and other nature characters on the walls. Once we get that done, we can finally start to set up the room!!