We are home!

The US State Department and CDC, in their infinite wisdom, allowed us to travel home within 24 hours of a medical exam clearing the children of the chicken pox.

K-mom was stressed to the max, trying to rearrange the travel plans; R-dad was our rock and did all of the packing; K-sister just wanted get home to "Brown" blanket; and Alyson was not sure what she was getting herself into.

The trip home was long and uneventful. W-uncle, who traveled home a day before us (on our original schedule) had a four hour delay out of Norita (Japan.) The one-day delay in a strange way worked out well for us.

As we are more awake, we will write more.

Coming Home Delayed

We will NOT be returning home to Portland on Thursday, January 24, 2007, as planned. We are being delayed in China (from a few days to ?) by the US government because one of the babies in our group has been diagnosed with the chicken pox. We should know more on Wednesday afternoon (China time) about the wheres/whens/whats.

As soon as we know when we will be traveling, we will be posting the information on the blog, so stay tuned. At this point we do not need your assistance. We will let you know more as we do.

I gotta tell you... we really want to come home. We hope to see you sooner than later.

Love,
K-mom

Home Sweet Guangzhou

This has been an amazing trip, but we are ready to come home.

We got to Guangzhou on Sunday and are staying at the White Swan Hotel. Prices have certainly risen in the last four years, and there are fewer adoptive families and more Chinese on Shamian Island. We did a boat trip on the Pearl River last night and were amazed at the endless development (and neon) along the river. We continue to fight colds, intestinal problems, and back problems. We hope we are on the other side of all of these problems.

The people on this trip are great, and all the children are beautiful. Today is our consulate appointment for Alyson's visa, and tomorrow is the swearing-in ceremony at the consulate. We lost the wheels off one of our suitcases, so we had to buy a new one (of course for all of the shopping we are doing too.) We look forward to being home and seeing you soon.

If you plan to meet us at the airport on Thursday morning, please make sure you check the arrival time so you are not left at the airport for a long time.

We are excited about bringing our new daughter home. K-sister has been a great big sister.

On Our Way To Guangzhou

We are on our way to Guangzhou in several hours to complete the US visa work for Alyson. The last several days have been very cold, and cabin fever has set in. We have split up the group and done different activities (orphanage, temple/museum, bookstore, etc.). There was snow on the rooftops yesterday morning, and it is very foggy today. Hopefully it will be much warmer in Guangzhou. The C's have had a rough week between sickness and sore backs. We really look forward to getting home. Alyson continues to be a happy baby.

Here She Is...

In Need Of Cable And Driver

We have not been able to download pictures because we do not have the driver for my camera and a USB cable. We will get a picture from one of the Holt people and post it later today.

On Monday, we went to get the adoption registered and to the police station to apply for Alyson's passport. The adoption is complete and Alyson is ours, through thick or thin.

On Tuesday, we (the girls) took a trip to Wal-mart, to buy diapers, a watermelon (K-sister's choice), and drinks. It is currently snowing and raining in Nanchang, so we are encouraged to put as many layers on the babies as possible. I was told today that it only snows once every five years here. Of course, it had to do it while we were here.

We are now just hanging out in Nanchang, where we get Alyson's Chinese passport, and then we move on to Guangzhou. The Holt staff has been great.

Until later today when we post THE picture.

Wow wow wow

We are now the proud parents of two beautiful girls from China. We traveled from Beijing to Nanchang today and met Alyson about 4:30 PM. K-sister is a proud big sister and wants to do everything. K-mom and R-dad both have sore backs, so we are glad we bought the Ergo; think the BMW of baby carriers. Alyson is quite the chubby baby (20 pounds) and very cute; she has the most amazing laugh and giggle. She, like many of the girls, has a respitory infection, so we have already seen the doctor.

We are so glad that L. and W. made the trip with us. They will make awsome god parents.

We know, we know... you want pictures. We are really tired right now and are heading off to bed. We promise we will post pictures tomorrow.

We would like to thank all of you (and you know who you are) who helped us get here today. You are the best!

We Made It To China

The trip was long, but uneventful. K-sister was great. We left Wednesday at noon PST and arrived Thursday at 9:30 PM Beijing time. We have toured the last two days and will fly to Nanchang to meet Alyson on Sunday. When we have more time, we will post pictures of the Great Wall, etc.

I have a big favor... if I sent you an attachment version of our itinerary, would you please send it to my comcast account? I need a copy with Alyson's name on it, and of course, the version I have has her name off the page.

Getting Ready

We meet our daughter on Sunday, 1/13/2008, in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, PRC.

We plan to update our blog while in China with pictures and posts. Although we will only be able to update the blog in China, your comments are welcome, and we will read them when we get home.

Alyson, ready or not, here we come!