More Morning Pics and Her New Favorite Pastime

She LOVES being on Jim's shoulders as you can see below. This was one of Taylor's favorite things to do and Jim tried it this morning after she woke up. She had the biggest smile on her face. When Jim tried to take her down she wrapped her legs around his neck and bent over to look at his face. She is SO funny!

Can I Get a Burger With Those Fries?

This child screamed for french fries when she saw them! The pictures don't show it well but we couldn't get them to her fast enough and if we stopped for just a second she would hop up and down and point to the plate they were on.

Tomorrow is a shopping day for the baby. We will be going to the Walmart in Chongqing. This city is HUGE. We are at the JW Mariott and it is top notch. The rooms are very spacious with sitting areas, king size beds and cribs. Since we will be here 8 days I am SO thankful for that. The resturant staff are making congee especially for the babies tomorrow for breakfast which was very thoughtful.

Internet access is relatively expensive in the hotel so we are probably going to blog every couple of days. The next couple of days are shopping days and then we will be going to the Zoo, Eling Park and The Flying Tiger Museum so we will post pics in between there sometime.

Catching up...The Great Wall

The Great Wall is simply unbelieveable. It's one thing to see it on tv or in pictures but it is something else to see it in person. How in the world did these men create this on the slopes of the mountains here? It was too steep for us to walk very far simply because I'm ridiculously out of shape and Jim's knee just couldn't take it so soon after surgery. There were a couple in our group who made it to the top!

Loving the Camera

Isn't she photogenic? The camera loves her. We are finally back at the hotel after a long day. Normally the adoption isn't final until the next day when the registration paperwork is done, but for families adopting from Chongqing the registration is done the same day so we are officially her parents as far as China is concerned. We have her adoption certificate to prove it! She is so tiny. She is not the baby in the video I have posted before as she was in foster care. She really doesn't look like her referral photo and I could not pick her out of the babies in the room.

We were told we would be called one by one to get the babies. We got off the elevator in the Civil Affairs office and turned the corner and there they all were! It was chaos as everyone tried to find their baby. The orphanage director and the nannies came up to each one of us and asked the baby's name and pointed them out where they were in the room. She has a pretty bad runny nose and a croupy cough. Lots of spots all over her that look like bites but other than that she is ok

The Happiest Baby in the Whole Wide World!!

Miss Katiebug was a little shy at first and then she turned into a giggler! She smiled and giggled the whole time. We could not believe it! Most of the other babies were crying and upset but Katie was calm and playful. We are so blessed!! We will post more pics in a few minutes. She is so awesome! She weighs about 18 lbs and we were surprised to find out that she has been in foster care for the last 5 months and just returned to the orphanage 3 days ago. She can wave bye bye and we just found out that she LOVES frenchfries. She hasn't crawled yet and can't walk but she can roll over and sit up.

Great Marble Boat at the Summer Palace

This is the marble boat at the Summer Palace of Empress Dowagger Cixi. It is enormous!

More from the Forbidden City

The first two pictures are of the Emperor's chairs in various halls in the Forbidden City. The third is of Place of 10,000 Springs and the last is of rocks below one of the room areas.

Tian'anmen Square

Here we are at Tian'anmen Square. They were having a marathon starting in the square today and we could not go in. These are the adopting families in our group who are going to Chongqing with us. They are all wonderful people and we are having a great time! This picture was taken in front of the People's Congress building across the street from Tian'anmen Square. You can see the famous picture of Chairman Mao in the square. He is actually embalmed using a special technique that has preserved his body and you can go in and view it but it was closed today - whew! The lion below is guarding the square.

Forbidden City and Summer Palace

Ok. I can't view my blog but I can post to it. Here we are in the Forbidden City which is awesome! We are having beautiful weather which is nice! The last pic was taken at the summer palace. We will post more later! Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall and then fly to our province!

Hello from Beijing!!

We made it! Whew...that was a LONG, Squishy flight. I don't know how we are going to make it back with a one year old in our laps on the way home. We are pretty much wiped out. It's 8 in the evening here and we feel like we have toothpicks holding our eyes open! This is a photo of the entrance to our hotel for the next 3 days. We fly out of here Monday for the province. Tomorrow we visit the Forbidden Palace and visiting an international church for a service. The mainland Chinese population is forbidden from attending this church but we are allowed in with our passports. We are going to crash and hopefully feel much better tomorrow. All of the families traveling with us are great! It's so nice to finally put names to faces. Be on the lookout for more pics tomorrow.

I also wanted to publically say Hello to Katrina! You now have your fifteen minutes of fame as I have called out to ya on the blog! Keep us in your prayers as we travel!

Taylor and Cody, we will talk to you again in the next day or so. We love ya!

Kim and Jim

Here We Go!!!!

We are on our way Katiebug! We can't wait to see you! Mom and Dad will be there soon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIEBUG!

Today our babe turns 1 year old! We were praying that we would be there by now so she wouldn't have to be in the orphanage on her birthday. Things didn't work out that way but we know God has a reason for that! We will be there to get you on Tuesday! We love you...

Busy Bee Part II

The Very Busy Bee

Ok, this has to be the cutest popup book I have ever seen! I found it today at Barnes and Noble. This author has written several of these and I picked The Very Busy Bee. I'm going to have to go back and get the other ones too! They are so bright and big. Tooooo cute!

What's In A Name?

When we decided to adopt over two years ago we almost immediately knew what our daughter's name would be. Even before we sent in the adoption application. I had come across the Hebrew name Mari one day. The meaning of this name in Hebrew is "Wished For Child". What name could be more appropriate than that for our daughter? We were both also drawn to the name Kaitlyn which means "Pure". In an instant, Kaitlyn Mari was the name we would give our daughter. Over the past 2 years Katie certainly has been wished for and longed for. We have been so blessed to have been given the honor of taking hold of this tiny life and raising her the best way we know how. These last few months have been filled with uncertainty, heavenly highs and heartbreaking lows. The last few days have been no exception. The TA was late getting here, the CA seemed like it would never show up and we would miss out on travel before the trade fair, the travel agent was impossible to get a hold of. But, thank you God, all of the kinks have been ironed out, plane tickets confirmed, travel buddies in tow and we will all leave for our babies on Friday. Our wished for babe will become a precious daughter and we can not wait to hold her and bring her home, finally...forever.

We're Outta Here!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you again Lord for your timing and answered prayers! We are leaving on the 23rd and returning on the 6th! I can't believe it's finally happening! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we travel this journey to bring Katie home for good!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow....

Our agency said this morning that we will have confirmed consulate dates tomorrow and to be ready to purchase tickets as quickly as possible. I assume this means that they are getting the dates they requested which I don't see how as it's so late in the game. So we will be glued to the computer tomorrow morning waiting for confirmation. Keep on praying that God moves this mountain!

No Confirmation Yet

Well, it's Monday morning and our agency just let us know that we still do not have confirmation for our consulate appointment so we can not make our travel arrangements. We are not allowed to move forward until China confirms the appointment request as this is what drives all of our travel dates. I would think that if we didn't receive confirmation today that we would not hear anything else until tomorrow so that stinks! I hope and pray we get confirmation today or else we may not be traveling until May, heaven help us if that happens.

WHOOOOHOOOOOOOOO

Praise the Lord!! Our TA has arrived!!! Whew, I can't believe it. Now we have got to get it together and get packed! Looks like we will be leaving on the 22nd if our CA is confirmed! Yahooooooo!!!

Whose Visited?

If you scroll down on the blog and look to the right you will see a city/country counter. It is soooo cool to see all of the different cities and countries where someone has looked at my blog! I don't know who is in Boise, ID but they have hit my blog more than I have??!

Hope to post some news tomorrow if TA's arrive.