Michael is officially ours!

On Tuesday morning, we returned to the Civil Affairs office to complete the adoption registration and paperwork for Michael. It was a little scary for the kids to go back to this place, as this was where they were given to us so I think it brought back some scary memories for them. But overall, they all did well. We had to sign a bunch of paperwork, which was all in Chinese. We just followed what our guide said and signed away. For all we know, we just acquired a piece of land in China!

Seriously, though, the paperwork we signed made it official with the Chinese government that our adoption of Michael is final. We received a beautiful certificate, with our first family portrait attached. Now, we just have to get through the U.S. paperwork, and we can come home!!

Here are a few more pictures of our past couple of days:

Michael loves his Daddy!

It's official!

Michael's new girlfriend, Kaylee.

The director from Michael's orphanage.

Our happy little boy!

Today, we went to a local supermarket and did a little shopping. Wow, was that nice to be able to get some things that reminded us of home. We never thought a bag of M & M's would taste soooo good!

We are here in Nanjing just a couple more days, then it is off to Guangzhou to take care of the US side of the paperwork. In about one week we prepare to come home. Michael is looking forward to meeting all of his new family and friends!

GOTCHA!!

We are thrilled to announce that we are OFFICIALLY parents, to a beautiful little boy!!! We received Michael at around 10:15am this morning (Monday morning China time) at the Civil Affairs office in Nanjing.

It was quite a site to see as all of the families in our group received their babies. We knew who Michael was the first minute we saw him. This round-faced little boy came in to the room, and in to our hearts! Here are some first pictures....check out the look in the first one that Michael is giving Brian!

Michael does not look very happy in these pictures, as it was a scary morning for him. But by the end of the day today, he was laughing, showing his wonderful personality, and imitating everything Brian was doing. He is quite a character, and was very popular down in the hotel lobby. We have been matched with the perfect child to join our lives. He is just like his Daddy!

It has been an exhausting but very rewarding day. We are tired, and so is Michael, as he is now sleeping soundly. We hope he is dreaming sweet dreams of his new life. Our dream has already come true!

We are going to be parents!

In just 12 hours, we will finally be parents!
We have arrived in Nanjing, the capital city in Michael's home province. Tomorrow morning (Monday) we will be going with the other families in our group to the Civil Affairs office, where we will all meet our children. We are scheduled to leave our hotel at 9:30am, to be at the office by 10:00am. We should be meeting Michael for the first time somewhere around 10:30am.

I can't begin to describe how we are feeling. It is unbelievable that this day has finally come!!!

I will post again as soon as I get a chance. Thank you to everyone for your great support and for helping us get to this day that we have been dreaming of for so long.

Updates on Michael!!

We had another wonderful day in Beijing today. It is time to pack up, as we leave tomorrow for Michael's home province of Jiangsu, and to the city of Nanjing.

We had an orientation this morning with our adoption agency, and at the end of the long meeting they presented each family with a book filled with updated information on our children, and updated photos! Here is a new pic of Michael!!!

His hair has been shaved as is the common practice in China for the young children in the summer. It helps keep them cooler in the hot and humid weather of the summer months. Kind of looks like his Daddy! And he sure still has those chubby cheeks that we fell in love with!!

Some other updates on him: he now has 14 teeth, and has gained about 2-3 pounds since our referral. It doesn't appear that he has grown in height, still being around 31 inches. He is also spoon fed most foods, and from what we can tell, he may already be potty trained, or at least on his way!

He has been cared for by 9 caregivers, with one being his favorite. They even told us who his good friends are in the orphanage! We feel sad that he will have to leave his friends, but he seems to be very likable so we are sure he will make new friends in no time!!

So our journey in Beijing is coming to a close. It has been a fantastic visit here, and we are grateful to have had this time to enjoy and tour this great city. But now it is time to go and do what we came here for, and that is to get our son!

An amazing day in Beijing

Today, we had a full day of sightseeing, and it was our most amazing day yet since arriving in China.

We left the hotel early this morning with our travel group and boarded a tour bus for The Great Wall. A really nice bus ride for about 1 1/2 hours outside of Beijing took us to areas we had not yet seen since arriving. Hard working farmers in the fields, and factories out in the middle of nowhere. We arrived at the Great Wall, and boarded a cable car which allowed us to get to the top of the Wall, without having to walk. You should have seen how high up it was. We were so grateful to have that cable car to bring us to the top!

Once at the top, the view was simply awesome. I can't describe just how amazing it was. It truly is a wonder to see. We spent about 1 1/2 hours on the wall, walking from "gate" to "gate". We had an overcast, smoggy day today, so we could not see long lengths of the wall. But what we could see made it all worth it.
Here are a couple of pics that we took.

We boarded our bus after the Great Wall, and had lunch at a traditional Chinese restaraunt. NOT like the Chinese food we get at home, that is for sure! It was all very interesting. Then we got to go through a cloisonne factory to see how it is made, all by hand!

We returned to the city, and they took us to a local neighborhood, where we got to ride on rickshaws. For those of you who have seen "The Amazing Race", that is exactly what we felt like as we were pedaled through the alleys (hutongs) and streets of the Beijing neighborhood. We then visited with a gentleman who opened up his home to our tour group, so we could see how they live here. A courtyard home, complete with birds and crickets in cages!

The sights and sounds we experienced today were none we had ever seen or heard before. And so many that there just is not enough room here to share it all. It was truly awesome and we have so many memories from this day to bring home with us!

And our trip is only going to get better! Tomorrow, we meet as a group for an orientation with our adoption agency, and tomorrow we receive updates on Michael, and new photos of him! We can't wait to see what he looks like now, almost two months since we got his referral.

After orientation, we will tour Tianamen Square and the Temple of Heaven. We leave Beijing on Sunday for Nanjing, the capital city in Michael's province. We will then be getting Michael on Monday!

Like I said, our trip is only going to get better! Bye for now, from Beijing!

We are in Beijing China!

After a very long flight (I think it was just under 14 hours), we have made it to Beijing!! And thanks to some wonderful medicine, I was able to sleep throughout most of the flight, except of course when we hit turbulence, which was not fun. We were greeted at the airport by a local tour guide who was very nice and got us to our hotel. Our hotel, by the way, is very nice! We have a view of the city, and were upgraded to one of their "executive" rooms.

Anyway, we are here, safe and sound. It is early morning now on Thursday. A little overcast and foggy today, but I think it is supposed to be very warm. We met two couples who came over on the same flight with us, and rode with us to the hotel. One couple is here for their first child, and the other is here for their second. The couple here for their first are from Milwaukee, and they seem very nice. We are going to meet with them this morning and go over to the Forbidden City. It is nice they live nearby so we certainly have alot to talk about.

Brian is still sleeping, so I thought I would send out a post to keep you updated. Hopefully this post goes through. I am still learning the ways around the internet from here, but I think this should come through.

Anyway, I will try to post daily to keep you all informed. All I can say is that we are very overwhelmed that we are sitting in Beijing China. It is truly hard to believe that we are here. It is very surreal, and feels like a dream. And very soon we will become a family of 3!!!

Michael, here we come!!

Well, we are packed and ready to go!!

We were supposed to leave on a 12:40pm flight today, but now are not leaving until (hopefully) 5:30pm today. We are sure glad we have that "free" day on Thursday once we get to Beijing.
We will continue to post to the blog throughout our journey, as long as we can get good internet connections. So keep watching and I will try to journal as much as possible during our trip.
In the meantime, here are a few pictures of Michael's room, that we just finished over the weekend. Check out the great "murals" on the wall that Daddy painted for Michael. Just adorable.

Thank you all for your support and well wishes! Zaijian!!! (Good-Bye!!!)

Leaving on a jet plane

In just 48 hours, we are on our way to China to bring Michael home. We feel every range of emotion right now, including being excited, nervous, anxious, scared, AND happy! The car seat is now in the van, and we are ready! We think!?!

Anyway, there was a slight change to our scheduled itinerary, and we found out that we actually will not get to see Michael until Monday, July 30th, at a meeting scheduled for 10:00am that day. One day later than we thought, which is disappointing. We hope the day gets here quickly!

In the meantime, we are looking forward to our trip over and to all the great things we will see during our first few days in Beijing, including the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven.

We had an opportunity to meet one couple from our travel group, who live just 40 minutes north of us. We met for lunch this past weekend. They too will be getting a boy, who will be only 2 months younger than Michael. They were very nice, and we look forward to traveling with them during our 16 days in China.

We have a laptop ready to come with us, and plan to update this blog (with hopefully no problems) throughout our trip. So please check back and follow us on this wonderful, exciting journey to Michael!

Our Travel is Confirmed!!!!!!

We finally received written confirmation from the US Consulate in China, and so our dates are official!! Here is our schedule:

Depart Chicago: Tuesday, July 24th (one week from today!!!)
Arrive into Beijing: Wednesday, July 25th
Thursday/Friday - we will have time to rest and do a little sightseeing
Orientation meeting with our travel group: Saturday, July 28th, plus more sightseeing
Travel to Michael's Province and "GOTCHA DAY": Sunday, July 29th
(we will be staying in the city of Nanjing)
Consulate Date in Guangzhou: Tuesday, August 7th
Visa Issued: Wednesday, August 8th
Return HOME: Thursday, August 9th

We could not be more excited!! I'll post more later.

So what day will be "Gotcha Day"??

No news yet, so we are once again "patiently" waiting to find out our confirmed dates for travel. We did go ahead and research flights, and do have some on hold for the next 72 hours. We certainly hope to hear something before then so we can get them ticketed. Right now, we are flying out on July 24th to Beijing, with a return home on August 8th from Hong Kong.
Hopefully we get news tomorrow so we can be more sure of when we get to see Michael for the first time!!!

Our TA has arrived!!!!

Our Travel Approval has arrived today at our agency!!!! We just received an email from them letting us know that the TA's were in, and they are now waiting to get confirmation on the consulate appointments. We are tentatively scheduled to be in Beijing on July 27th!!!!! Holy cow, that is just 3 WEEKS AWAY!!!!!!
They are hoping the consulate appointments can be confirmed for the week of August 6th, and we would then return home around August 8th. We should know in the next couple of days the dates for sure.
And, we are planning to arrive a few days earlier than they want us to be there, so we have time to do a little more sightseeing, so that means we could be leaving in about 2 1/2 weeks!!!!!! WOW!!!! We have soooooo much to do!

No travel approval news yet.....

......at least not yet for us. We are still waiting. Others, though, who received their referrals at the same time we did have been getting calls that their TA's are in, and they are traveling within the next few weeks.
It is not unusual for some agencies to receive TA's, and some to come later. It depends on the processing of the acceptance paperwork over in China relating to the specific orphanages. So, we will continue to wait (patiently?) for the news of our travel dates.

In the meantime, referrals for July are finally arriving, so it is exciting news for our fellow adoptive families who are getting referrals this week. Dates covered this time were from November 8th through November 14th. Referral time is so wonderful!

TA's are beginning to arrive!

The latest news from my favorite adoption website ("Rumor Queen") is saying that some agencies have received travel approvals as of today. That is good news for us, as that is the next step we are waiting for... to receive our travel approval. Once we get that, our agency will work on getting our appointment set with the consulate, and then we will get confirmed travel dates! We could get those dates pretty quickly once the TA is received, so we should know soon when we will be leaving for China! So hopefully we will hear something from our agency within the next couple of days!! One step closer to Michael!!!!!!