We have him and he's amazing!

Ok so here's how it went down. We drive 10 excrutiating minutes to the civil affairs office. The whole time I'm fumbling with my brand new camera that I decided I didn't need to read the manual for because I can figure it out on my own. ha, ha. Let me just say that the adrenaline rush folks get from bungy jumping, parachuting or mountain climbing cannot possibly compare to that few minutes before you meet your child for the first time. Mere words cannot express. We walk in, take an elevater up one flight, step out, and there walking toward us down a dark hallway with two young ladies is the tiniest little guy! I'm thinking, "that can't be him, he's too small!" But it was and we stopped and he stopped and the ladies with him pushed him forward and said Ma Ma and Ba Ba (Daddy) and Jie Jie (big sisters). He just stared with the biggest eyes you've ever seen! He was holding the little toy flashlight we had sent him. Then he walked right to me and sort of lifted his arms up (kind of like he'd been coached), but needless to say I melted right there!!! The girls instantly swarmed all over him, cameras flashed, Wayne videotaped and that was that.

We played with him for a while in the office and then when it was time to leave he cried (loudly) the whole time I carried him to the van, but was fine when we settled in and he could see out the window. Like all boys he seems to love cars. Back at the hotel he cried for a bit until Baelyn started blowing bubbles and then he played with us for about five hours straight. Turns out he's quite a little comedian. He not only likes to laugh, but likes to make us laugh!

It took him about five minutes to fall asleep in his crib while sucking his finger on one hand (the same one Londyn sucks) and holding my hand with his other little hand. In the words of one of the girl's, "I think we'll keep him!"

Enjoy the pics. Jo

The Great Wall.

FIVE HOURS TO GO

Well, we thought we would get Kai this morning, but we aren't actually getting him until 3:00 this afternoon so now we're trying to kill some time and keep calm. Not easy.

Tiayuan is interesting. We've had wonderful weather, but the pollution is very bad. The sky is a thick grey color all the time. We know Shanxi province where we are is one of the worst polluted areas in China.

Everyone, everywhere is very interested in us. We went to a large park yesterday and were quite the attraction. Our girls stand out in their western attire with their funny looking white parents. Some little kids screamed and ran from us. Funny!

Last night in an attempt to keep the girls awake we decided to use the hotel pool. We were escorted to a tiny locker room where half a dozen naked Chinese ladies surrounded us and proceeded to watch us get into our suits. They were talking excitedly, laughing and pointing at us. It was obvious they couldn't wait to see a naked white woman. Very unnerving. I dissapointed them because I'm pretty adept at getting into a swimsuit under my clothes without showing anything. The girls got a big kick out of it and found it very amusing! Wayne and I didn't end up getting in the pool because it was FREEZING! The girls swam for a while, but then got kicked out because they didn't have on bathing caps.

I'll try to post this evening after we have Kai.

Jo

A post from Emelia

I had fun in Beijing. I miss you. Today I will get Kai. I am excited. The food is good.
LOVE, EMELIA

A Post from Baelyn

The Olympic Park is realy cool. I got to see the Bird's Nest, the Cube and the Olympic torch stand up close. Our hotel is inside the Olympic Park. I got to walk there and take pictures at night. It was awesome! Baelyn

We're here, we're here, it's so surreal!!!

Greetings from China!
We're doing great so far. We traveled for exactly 24 hours from the time we left on the airport shuttle in Indy to the time we arrived at our hotel in China. The girls did amazingly well. Not one complaint about the long flight and still happy after being awake for 24 straight hours (they only napped a wee bit on the flight. I'm so happy because no one is sick, everyone is eating well and the jet lag hasn't been too bad. Yesterday we went to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Tiannamen Square. The weather was perfect. Very warm, but not too hot.
This morning we fly to Taiyuan where we will meet Kai tomorrow morning. We have butterflies in the stomach and are both excited and terrified at the same time. We are traveling with three other wonderful families, but will split off from them today and go to different areas of China. They are all adopting little boys ages 7 1/2, 5 and 2. The 7 1/2 year old and 5 year old have both been with their foster families for a long time. I cannot help but think about how rough the next few days will be for them. We will meet up with these families again in a few days with their adopted children.
Please say a little prayer that these little boy's and Kai's adjustment will be an easy one. I think Kai will be so happy to have lots of attention since he's been in an orphanage, but he will be so confused and scared. Poor little guy. We're planning to win him over with lots of yummy treats. After all, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Right?
I'll try to post after we get him. Jo

A little history

We're starting this blog just before we travel to China to pick up Kai so here's a brief history on our family and our journey to Kai. Wayne and I have been married for 20 years next month. Wow 20 years!!! We are truly soul mates/best friends and do everything together. We have three adopted daughters from China. Baelyn is 8 1/2 and in the second grade. Emelia is 5 and in Kindergarten and Londyn is 4. All three girls were adopted as infants and are truly the light of our lives. In late 2007, Wayne and I decided we would add one more child to our family. We assumed it would be another baby girl from China. Well, as sometimes happens in life, little things happened one after another that changed our direction from girl to boy, healthy to special needs, baby to toddler. We found Kai on a list in July 2008. Another family had been in the process of adopting him for many months and it fell through. I'll never forget the first time I saw his picture. After 8 months of viewing hundreds of darling little faces available for adoption, I saw a name had been added to our agency's individual list. My heart jumped and I started to scroll down to see his picture. The top of his little head was barely in view and I KNEW he was OUR SON! It was the most amazing feeling. The following days were a blur of activity. Our agency sent us updated pictures that were taken just two weeks before. The girls all gathered around as we pulled the pictures up and Baelyn's eyes filled with tears of joy when she saw Kai for the first time. They all three cried out "Can we go get him right now?" They too, knew he was meant for us! Kai has un unrepaired cleft lip and palate, but my girls seemed to not even notice. They instantly loved him, wanted him, oohed and awwed over him, accepted him as their brother. Our girls are truly amazing!
Well, that was ten long, agonizing months ago and we're finally preparing for travel. We will leave on April 30th and will hopefully get our precious boy on May 2nd. Hope you enjoy our blog. This is a family blog so you will be reading some postings fom each of us. Thanks for following along.