Journal

Home

Guest Book

Journal

Mailing List

Links

Photos

Order Prints

Site Theme

Shopping Cart

A Service Of

Kylee and Lily


	Journal

Title	Journal Entry
12-10-08 Visit to Wuxi SWI 12/10/08	We started out on the 3 hour bus ride to Wuxi swi and wondered if it was a good idea. we had to change two really bad diapers on the way and Kylee had to stop and go potty. The van was hot- chinese people love to bundle up and keep cars and hotel rooms very hot. But nothing would keep us from seeing where Lily had spent most of her life. The SWi is very beautiful and the preschool is really great. Everytime someone would see us walking toward them they would yell out "Xiao Wan" (sounds like Showwan) and come running to hug Lily. Her name means "Little Beauty" and they all told us about how tuny she was when she came to the SWi at about 2 days old and needed ER surgery. She was very loved by the staff and happy to see them but content to stay in Grandma's arms-- yes- Grandma-- She is not too sure about mom right now. When I try to hold her she cries and then Kylee informs me, "She doesn't like you mom"-- Great! But she is coming around. I even tried Kate's suggestion and let Bo be the one to take her from the nanny on Gatcha Day but she sill prefers Grandma or Daddy over me...maybe b/c I had her most of the first day-- who knows. We went into her room where she had slept on a cute little bunkbed-- she was on the bottom bunk. she did not want to go near it, but it was nap time and the other little friemds were settling in to go to sleep. Then an adorable little boy on a top bunk called out to her and the nanny told me that the little boy is her friend and he wants to go home with his friend. I thought i was going to lose it and was ready to call Bo over to find out how to bring that cute little guy home. Then they said they have been friends b/c they have the same special need...so I asked if he was being adopted and they said "Yes" so I asked if his name is "Ren" and it was!!! One of my online friends will be adopting Ren very soon. So now I just need to find out where they live so the kids can visit sometime! I was able to take a few pics for his mom. After an "interesting" lunch- fish staring at you and such, the group was preparing to leave and we had made plans to stay behind and visit the international school in Wuxi. A lady from the school, Lori, has been visiting Lily on Saturdays and getting her used to seeing foreigners. I am convinced that it made a huge difference. So we took a taxi to the school and toured the facitilites and talked with the prinicpal and his wife. Everyone who had been visiting Lily stopped to meet us and told us how excited they are to see Lily have a good family. When school was over Lori and her daughter were planning to take us to the local Christian bookstore and then to TGIF to eat. Unfortunately we had a tough time gettng a taxi and ended up taking the bus-- I loved the experience-- but it took longer. Lori called the bookstore since we would not make it in time but she wanted to stay open for us so we went. Then walking back the the area where there are restaurants we realized there was no way to make it to the train on time if we went to TGIF so we decided on Papa John's pizza-- it is a sit down restaurant with all kinds of things to eat. The pizza was AMAZING! Don't know if the ingredients are that much better or if we just missed USA that much, but it was really fun. Then we caught taxis to the train station and got on the most amazing "fast train". we paid and extra dollar for the better class and had big cushy seats like in first class on a plane. We had headrests and footrests and within 70 minutes we were in Nanjing. It was a long day and the girls fell fast asleep on the ride home. A really nice young man helped us fight our way out of the terminal and get into a cab to the hotel. It was an incredible adventure! We slept very well!
12-09-08 She's Ours!!!!! 12/09/08	Lily is finally ours. We finalized the adoption today and Lily is officially part of our "family" as Kylee would say. Lily slept great last night. She slept the entire night. No wimpering just sleeping. She also passed the "Nanny" test. When she saw her nanny today at the notary appointment she didn't cry at all. She was very content with being in her new mom's arms. After a little while we let her nanny hold her and when she gave her back to us her nanny gave us a big thumbs up. We feel so blessed to have Lily as our daughter. She is soooo sweet and soft spoken. Keep us in your prayers as we continue to take one day at a time in China. We our anxiously awaiting our return to the states. We can't wait for everyone to meet her.
WE HAVE LILY! 12-8-08 12/08/08	She is SO ADORABLE!!! She was so attached to her nanny that she cried but the nanny told her that we are her family and to not cry and had her call us mom and dad (mama and baba) and tell us "I love you" (in chinese). She is settling down now in the room and even let Grandma give her a sippy cup of milk. Kylee got her playing and laughing just now. I am trying to enjoy it all and get some pics posted to...so i will go for now and post pics as I can. BTW-- Lily fell at the orphanage last week and is missing a front tooth and has a bruised chin...it wasn't me! Whit-- You can download skype without a webcam and just talk online..without the video and you still should be able to see us. Ask Lindsay she doesn't have a cam but sees us.
WE WILL MEET LILY TODAY!!!!!!!! 12-8-08 12/07/08	Last night we arrived in Nanjing and Bo was waiting at the airport. We almost missed him but we found him before our ride took us to the hotel. The driver did not speak English so it was a little challenging...he had a sign with our name and Bo was on an earlier flight from Hong Kong and did not see him. We are awake now ..it is 6am Monday here (5pm Sunday EST) We slept a little - up about every 2 hours. Kylee had a bad dream or something and was crying for a while, but she is back to her happy self now. We will get dressed and have breakfast and meet our guide at 10 am to go to the office to meet Lily! We will update with pics as soon as we can. They said we could be gone for several hours so most of you will be sleeping when we post. Bryan and Whit we have looked for you on skype but haven''''t connected yet...make sure you get on and we will let you talk to Lily. Thanks everyone for your support and prayers...we do feel it!
12/6/08- Peking Duck Dinner 12/06/08	On the way home from the Wall, our guide took us to a great Peking Duck restaurant near our hotel-- the same one our CSU group went to in May. We explained that we were amzingly not very hungry, just incredibly tired. Kylee fell asleep om the drive back to town and we encountered traffic that made the journey a little longer. I carried her into the restaurant thinking that she would wake up by the time the food arrived,but she didn't. She slept through dinner, through the taxi ride back to the hotel, into the room, while we packed and repacked and skyped with Dad and talked to Lily...and slept thorough changing into her pjs and all the way until about an hour after we went to bed. The rest of the night she tried to be good, but would ask for things and then sleep a little and then talk a little,,,so for us it was another night of not quite enough sleep. If you are coming to China, please remember that you can only have 44 pounds of luggage per person and whereas last time we could have as many carryons as we wanted, we were told only one so our plan to take stuff for Lily as carryon to check once we have her ended up in packing, weighing, repacking for a while last night. Well it is about 4:30 pm back home and 5:30 am in China on Sunday. We are up so we are getting ready to visit Beijing International Fellowship and catch our plane to Nanjing...where we will see Daddy (Bo) finally and meet our Lily on Monday. I will try to get the pics downloaded for you all to enjoy. Keep praying for us and keep leaving messages in our guestbook, It means so much to us!
Sat 12/6/08 The Great Wall 12/06/08	We had an exciting day visiting the Great Wall. We were looking forward to touring the wall with our guide, Lily but she has a few other families she is working with and we hoped to be going with and one of the babies fell and hit his head on the marble bathroom floor and needed to go to the hospital for stitches. Another family was sick too so the group did not want to be split up so Lily sent us with another guide to go on our own while she went to the hospital with the family who needed to get stitches. So not the plan we had in mind...but it turned out to be wonderful. I had hoped to take mom to the section of the wall where Bo and I went with Kylee in Dec 2006-Muytinyu (sp?) Lily had warned me that it probably would not happen since it was too far by bus, but since we were going alone with our guide and our own driver in a minivan the beautiful scenic drive took less than 1 1/2 hours. The drive is awesome! We saw all kinds of beautiful sites and mom got a good taste of China. Then when we arrived at the Wall, we walked to the ticketing area and with a 3yo who had decided that her feet hurt (after touring Tianamen Square earlier in the morning-- I think we had her feet so layered with socks that they got sore.) and with two of us feeling the effects of the altitude and lack of sleep, we opted for the cable car up to the Wall. It took some effort to be able to purchase the true cable car vs the old and a little intimidating chair lift, ski lift kind of thing that Bo and I had taken. It was Very cold so I was so happy when we got into our warm enclosed car-- and the scene was so beautiful-- it takes you much much higher than the lift had taken Bo and I and then we walked down to the section where the lift and the alpine slide are. We got a second wind seeing all the amazing sites and our guide so graciously took our pictures and helped with Kylee, etc. There was plenty of walking and climbing on uneven and broken steps and steep inclines. We definitley felt that we had walked the Great Wall. Then we took the fun alpine slide to the bottom. The ride lasts for quite a while and Kylee loved it! Glenda managed a few bargains before leaving, In general the vendors are much more overpriced, but the area is more remote and even on a Sat there were few visitors. I enjoyed having the place to ourselves, but I did feel sorry for the vendors who needed some business...of course not bad enough to be ripped off so on a few occasions, I offered way less- more than 1/2 what they asked and pulled out that much money. They said "no way" so I wallked away and they could not stand to see the money walk away so they gave in every time! My mom said I am "just like my Dad". It is fun to think that you spent quite a few minutes bartering over what sounded like a big difference- not paying 68 RMB but getting something for 34 RMB-sounds good but only a differenc of $5 USD vs $10 USD. Mom is more like Bo who won't argue over 5 RMB which amounts to about 72 cents...but I love the thrill-- Thanks to my dad!!!! It was such a cool experience to be able to walk the Great Wall with my mother. I never thought it could happen and it was a memory I will never forget. She is an amazing woman with such good health and strength and she has been such a help to me-- always and already on this journey. I am looking forward to having her there when we meet our daughter...SOON!
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16