The good news is that we picked up Ali this morning without incident!  (OK, so it has been brought to my attention that “Ali” may not actually be the correct spelling of her name.  Going forward, I am going to use that name with the understanding that it may well change at some point in the future. )  The bad news is that she has been sick the last couple of days and, while being a trooper, really isn’t feeling well.  Our understanding is that they gave her some IV fluids to help “perk” her up a bit, but we went for a walk this afternoon in the park and she ended up feeling terrible.  We went to lunch and she had to go back to the hotel with Kelly and one of the teachers from the orphanage who is here to help with the transition.

Below are pictures, but they are pictures from Brittany’s iPod as I have yet to find a card reader.  I think we will be able to find one on Wednesday, so until that point in time your are stuck with whatever I can do with Adobe Lightroom and the low quality picture that the iPod produces.

Here is a picture from the hotel restaurant on the 29th floor of the Holiday Inn.  The restaurant rotates and that rotation starts at about 8:30 every morning.  Someone SHOULD have told me that!  It kind of jerks as the gear mechanism takes hold and I seriously thought we were having an earthquake or the building was falling.  Now I understand that everything is just rotating … really, really slowly!

 

This is right after Ali had arrived.  She seems pretty nervous and unsure about the entire thing.  Poor girl.  There were three other families receiving children at the government center this morning, so it was a zoo!  The other children were significantly younger than Ali.  

The lady on the right is Kathy, the music teacher from Ali’s orphanage.  She cares very much for Ali and agreed to come to Hefei and spend the day and night here during Ali’s first day just to make sure the transition went smoothly. It was really nice to have her with us this afternoon and be able to tell us that Ali wasn’t feeling well and get her back to the hotel so that she could rest.  We have to head back out to the city where Ali’s orphanage is tomorrow to process her passport, and that is a 1 – 2 hour drive, so we are are hoping that she feels better by then.  No fun to have all this happen AND have to spend a bunch of time in the car when you are sick!

Note that Kelly and Ali have matching sweat suits, just reversed colors!  Nice …

Here I am signing the paperwork making Ali’s adoption official …

Kelly added her signature…

And our guide, Cherry, overlooked all the documents to make sure they were correct.  I had a little bit of a panic when I thought the the immigration official in China had not stamped my entry Visa.  But, after hunting around awhile, i found it!  Phew!

We are farther along in the process than we were yesterday!  We will continue moving one step at a time!

Cameron

P.S.  I took Abby and Brittany to the grocery store today to pick up some fruit.  On our way down the steps we ran into a Dairy Queen.  Seriously!  It was great.  There goes my foreign country induced diet! 

So, we are 24-hours in and Abby has about had her fill of people staring at her.  We tried to warn her.  We really did.  But tonight, as we stood outside Pizza Hut waiting for dinner, we were like a circus side-show for all the passer-bys.  In fact, the girl that was taking reservations out front went into the restaraunt several times to bring people out to stare at us.  I thought they were going to start taking pictures.  Abby said she was going start taking pictures of the people staring at her and see how they liked it.  I had to inform her that she didn’t have enough space on her memory card!  I’m dreading when they start touching her hair.  It won’t end pretty!

We found that the breakfast buffet is pretty good.  All things considered, this hotel was a good choice.

We found out that the pool, while quite beautiful, requires you to wear a swim cap.  That went over like a lead brick.  We will have to revisit that plan later in the week.  

We found English speaking HBO on the TV and watched Jaws this afternoon while we tried to figure out how we could overcome our jet lag and actually become motivated.

We warned Abby that what we order at Pizza Hut may not be what is actually delivered.  We ordered Hawaiian Pizza.  We received a Supreme.  It was still quite tasty and we enjoyed it.  However, we had to walk through about a million people to get to the restaurant.  And … there is this … smell.  I can’t tell you what it is.  It might be a spice.  It might be meat.  It might be trash.  We haven’t figured it out.  It is amazingly offensive and, while traveling to Pizza Hut tonight, we had to walk through a fairly large section where the smell was almost overpowering.  It does a little something to your appetite.  I think it completely took Brittany’s away.

Tomorrow is the big day!  We leave at 9:00 AM our time and head to the governmental offices to sign the adoption paperwork.  Ali will be brought to us there and then we are on our own! It is exciting and nerve racking all at the same time.  Not really sure how the next several days are going to go, but happy that we finally have the opportunity to experience it!

I have tried several options to try and get pictures off my camera on onto this website.  I went into an electronics store today and could have bought a 24″ Mac or an air conditioning unit, but NO card readers.  I’m hoping tomorrow I can figure out a better option with our guide.

Cameron

Just checked into the Holiday Inn in Hebei and took that BEST hot shower!  We were all a little worse for wear after being up for almost 36 hours.  We had not even left Shanghai yet and the girls were already making a shower schedule.  Somehow, I was picked to be first.  I didn’t understand why such an honor was bestowed upon me, but I wasn’t going to complain nor question it!

Our guide is a cute girl named Cherry.  She isn’t quite Ting Ting from when we were in Beijing last year, but she seems to have a lot of motivation and always has a smile on her face.  I think the week should go well with her.

The hotel is very nice, albeit the room is a little on the small side.  But we can make do.  The real test of a hotel in our world is the breakfast buffet in the morning!  It is on the 29th floor.  We will hold final judgement until the morning.  The other thing that is always important is the presence of a swimming pool.  And, there IS one on the 6th floor.  So, it looks like we are pretty set for the next five days.

I will post some pictures as soon as I can either figure out what is wrong with my card reader and/or buy a new card reader.  I tried to upload some pictures earlier today and it didn’t seem to be working.

I think we will try and get some sleep tonight.  The beds feel soft, but we probably wouldn’t be too picky.  Kim told us all about how her little Abby needs to have all this cushy stuff to sleep on.  Yeah, right.  Tomorrow I will post the picture of her deep in sleep on a hard bench at the airport.  You take what you can get!

We will post more tomorrow.  Have a great Saturday!!

Cameron

Well, we are sitting in the Shanghai airport after a LLOONNGG 14 hour and 40 minute flight from Newark to here.  We flew right over the North Pole, down over Siberia, Mongolia, overflew Beijing, and here we are!  Weather is dreary outside but relatively warm.  It is about 3:30 PM local time (3:30 AM back home) and we have SIX HOURS to wait until our next flight into Hefei!  But, that is OK because the flight from Newark was pretty nice.  Brittany was a trooper and didn’t throw up at all.  Wasn’t even sick.  Slept a lot (must have learned that from Taylor’s behavior modeling).  She did have a little bit of a melt down at the Cincinnati airport where she wanted to go home, but she stuck it out and has done great!  So has Abby!

The flight over was nice because it was a brand new Boeing 777 and they had on-demand movies.  I may never watch another movie again, but it sure was nice to have 160 movies to choose from to pass the time.  I think Kelly and I watched six or seven movies each!  We are pretty caught up on everything so would be happy to offer you movie reviews!  The food was pretty good, also.  We all were able to sleep (or, more accurately, doze) for a lot of the flight and I think everyone is feeling pretty good, all things considered.

We get into Hefei around 11PM local time and have a free day tomorrow, so we will probably just relax and get used to the time change.  But, all-in-all, a pretty good day!  Looking forward to tomorrow!

Cameron

Six hours left until we walk out the door at 3:30 AM.  Yuck!  But, we can’t wait to see Ali on Monday!  It’s a LONG trip from Newark.  Over 14 hours out and over 15 hours back!  Yuck again!  But worth every minute.

Kelly and Brittany have been ready for days.  Me?  I’m still not quite ready, but I am a LOT farther than I thought I would be!  Was thinking it was going to be an all-nighter, but I am seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.

If I don’t get a post off on Saturday, I should certainly be able to get one off on Sunday.  Stay tuned!!

Cameron

This weekend went by in a blur of activity as we prepare to leave on Friday morning.  Lots to be done, lots of arraignments to be made, lots of stress!  Every day seems filled with something else that can take away your joy.  Brittany has been feeling it also.  The last two days have been rough on her.  She has felt a lot of emotion and some fear about the entire process, especially about being sick on the flights like last time.  They prayed for her specifically about this on Sunday at church, but she still has been battling her emotions and the last two nights has ended up crying and going to sleep in our bed.  This morning she actually got mad at Kelly for school work, and I can probably count on two hands the number of times Brittany has been mad.  She even joked with us later today that the “mad” Brittany showed up this morning, but the “regular” Brittany was back.

Anyway, tonight I put her down in our bed and went downstairs for awhile.  Below is the message Kelly found beside our bed:

I don’t know if everyone who reads this believes in God or not, but I can tell you that I believe there is an aspect of spiritual battle when it comes to international adoptions.  Call me kookie if you want, but this is the third time around and I do believe that “someone” doesn’t want these kids to leave their home country and be loved here in the US.  This place isn’t perfect, but I DO believe their lives will be better for being here.

Hopefully I will have a chance to update this later in the week before we leave.  If not, I will post from China.  Thank you for all of your prayers.

Cameron

We are leaving to finally meet our Ali in a matter of days and I am so excited and just can’t wait to finally see her darling face in person, and yet my heart is breaking. My mother’s heart sees a 12 year old little girl, who in order to gain a family, has to give up everything and everyone she has ever known. The depth of her grief I will never know, and yet I feel some of it. I pray we will somehow be the hands and feet of Jesus to her during this process – and to that she will be drawn. The lyrics to this song have become my prayer for her and for my own troubled heart – that God would be the healer of all her hurt inside as his song of Mercy covers her.

(lyrics to “I Will Lift My Eyes” by Bebo Norman)

God My God, I cry out

your beloved needs you now

God be near, calm my fear

and take my doubt

your kindness is what pulls me up,

your love is all that draws me in

I will lift my eyes

to the maker, of the mountains

I can’t climb

I will lift my eyes

to calmer, of the oceans

raging wild

I will lift my eyes

to the healer, of the hurt

I hold inside

I will lift my eyes, lift my eyes to you

God my God let mercy sing

her melody over me

God right here all I bring is all of me

Your kindness is what pulls me up,

your love is all that draws me in

I will lift my eyes

to the maker, of the mountains

I can’t climb

I will lift my eyes

to calmer, of the oceans

raging wild

I will lift my eyes

to the healer, of the hurt

I hold inside

cause you are

and you were

and you will be forever

The lover I need to save me

Cause you fashioned the earth

and Hold it together

God so hold me now

I will lift my eyes

to the maker, of the mountains

I can’t climb

I will lift my eyes

to calmer, of the oceans

raging wild

I will lift my eyes

to the healer, of the hurt

I hold inside

God My God, I cry out

your beloved needs you now

 

It is 9:30 in the morning in China and we just received our appointment with the US Consulate.  That means …

WE ARE GONG TO CHINA!

Been a very long week.  Very stressful.  Always seems to be like that right before things start to break.  But, it is nice to be heading out!  We will be leaving Friday, October 28th and returning Friday, November 11th.  Now we just need to find someone to watch all these kids!

Cameron

We received our TA this morning and have applied for an appointment with the U.S. Consulate.  We are hoping to get a November 8th or 9th appointment with the consulate, which would have us leaving on October 28th.  Man, that is coming quickly!  We will know if that will work out tomorrow morning.  If that doesn’t work, it will be later in November.  So, be praying that we can get one of those dates!

Cameron

I have tried to type this out several times and have yet to get it finished!  Several months ago Kelly noticed that Ali had swollen gums in one of her pictures.  She inquired about it and we were told that was all it was.  However, this weekend we found out that it is a little more than that and has been increasing in size.  The hemangioma on her face has caused some abnormal tissue growth on her gum line.  The updated pictures of her condition were a cause for concern. In addition to how it looks, the growth is causing her some discomfort, especially while she is eating.  They were asking us what we want to do about it and if we want the growth taken care of while she is still in China or if we want to wait and take care of it when we get her here?  This wasn’t the best news we have heard, especially since we already feel like this adoption is taking forever!

Sunday night we spent a fair amount of time on the phone.  Kelly was in one room talking with the medical director of Love Without Boundaries trying to get a handle on what Ali’s condition actually was. Then, she was on the phone with her cousin, Corinne, who is deeply involved with an organziation that works with kids that have hemangiomas.  I was in the other room talking to and texting some of my friends at University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center.  We were both looking for a surgeon who specializes in vascular tumors.  When we both got back together, we had come up with the same results.  Cincinnati Children’s has one of only a few pediatric hemangioma and vascular tumor clinics in the U.S … a short 40 minute drive away! 

Corinne helped us get in touch with their medical director.  The medical director reviewed Ali’s file and called Kelly on Monday and talked to her about Ali’s situation.  She felt that it would be in Ali’s best interest to get her to the U.S. and let the team at Cincinnati Children’s deal with the situation.  Corinne then helped us send the file to one of the surgeon’s who is a leader in this field and works on the East coast.  Seemed like it would be a good idea to get a second opinion.  He, too, called Kelly and spent a lot of time assuring her that there is much that can be done for Ali and that we just need to get her into the U.S.

So, we talked with out adoption agency yesterday and we are going to petition the Chinese government to expedite the adoption process for medical reasons.  Both of the doctors that reviewed her file are willing to write a letter requesting this and supporting our request.  The only issue (like there is only one in this process) is that the entire Chinese government is on vacation this week.  Really?  The entire place??

We were thinking we were going to end up in China picking up Ali in mid-November.  This situation may in fact push that process up, but we just don’t know.  I will try and keep everyone up to date on how this process is progressing over the next several weeks.  Keep Ali in your prayers as she will have to deal with these medical issues for a little while longer while we work to get her home. Please also pray that we can get some pain relievers to her as she is currently not being given anything to help her with pain.

Thank you to Corinne, Ty, and Sean for being so available to answer our questions on a Sunday evening!

Cameron