Coming to America!!!!

Just a quick note before bed. We have to be up at 4:30 am to get ready to leave in the morning.
It will be an exhausting 17 hrs. on the plane before we land in Ft. Myers at 10:30 pm Friday night.
We finished at the Consulate this afternoon and Meigan is free to come home! We are all very ready and miss our friends and family so much!!
Thank you everyone who followed along our journey to Meigan!!
Goodnight one last time from China!!!

update Wed. night

Sorry I haven't posted the last couple of days. I'm pretty sure I had the flu and have been bed ridden the last 2 days. It's bad enough being sick, but to be half way across the world and not be in your bed is brutal! We think Jennifer is finally over her ordeal of running high fevers this past week. We are ready to head home Friday! A 14 hr. flight to Chicago doesn't sound too fun, but at least we'll be on our way home.
Our guide, Connie, took care of our Consulate appt. this morning. She did the interview for us and our paperwork was fine. Tomorrow we go to the U.S. Consulate to do the swearing in and receive Meigan's visa. We leave Guangzhou very early in the morning, Friday, for Hong Kong.

Good afternoon !

Yesterday we visited a Buddhist temple where we had the babies in our group blessed. Neat experience for all.
Tonight we are taking a dinner cruise down the Pearl River. Looking forward to that!
Both jennifer and I have been under the weather. We're both taking antibiotics. it's wonderful having a pediatrician along with our group to check us out.
The rest of the family is fine. Meigan continues to eat like a little piggy! She said mama very clearly today. She's finally taken to my mom which is nice since she's pretty much wanted only me. So much for being a daddy's girl, at least for now.

Good afternoon !

Update from Guangzhou!

Hi everyone from beautiful Guangzhou, China!
We arrived here last night and are staying at the infamous White Swan Hotel. It is just spectacular and it's so neat to see some many families with Chinese babies walking around! Yes, Allison, our guide is Connie and she is awesome as is our national guide, Rose.
Today Meigan had her visa physical and she did fine considering the mass chaos of adoptive families waiting for the same thing. She is a whopping 21 lbs. and 78 cm. long. Guess she's destined to be tiny like her big sister who is 5 and weighs 31 lbs! The way Meigan has been eating, she should fatten up in no time! Two yogurts for breakfast, eggs, and toast. Tonight she chowed on mashed potatoes, eggs, my cheesecake and decided Jennifer's spaghetti was pretty good too! Logan has some competition in the eating dept. now!
Logan and Jennifer are really enjoying their little sister. The last 2 days she has become a mama's girl and doesn't like Jennifer stealing her mama! Should be interesting!
Hope you enjoy the pics!

Thursday update

Hi everyone!
Yesterday we visited a Buddhist temple which was very incredible and beautiful and we visited Greenlake Park, which is a hugh park with a lake in the center of Kunming. We strolled around the park and listened to some of the local people singing and playing instruments. You would have thought that we were stars with lots of people surrounding us and wanting pictures taken with us. Logan and Jennifer's hair really fascinated them. People especially wanted their babies pictures taken with Jennifer. You would have thought that she was a princess or a movie star.

Bought Meigan squeeky shoes today. They're so cute. Everytime she takes a step, they squeek because they have built in squeekers in the shoes. Actually, her Pop Pop bought them for her. Jennifer also got a new pair of shoes. They're really pretty pink dress shoes with a little heel. They also have beads on the top. She just loves them.

Tomorrow we leave for Guangzhou. We will be there until next friday, sept. 29th. We are anxious to see the other families again that flew over with us from Chicago. They all have their babies now and we will all be staying at the same hotel in Guangzhou. Hopefully, in Guangzhou, we will be able to post some new pictures. They don't have internet service in the room here so we have had to use a computer in the business center and it's too hard to figure out how to post pictures. Most of the words on this computer is in Chinese, so we pretty much guess at most things or just try to remember from our computers at home.

Will try to post tomorrow or the next day for sure.

Sept.20 update

Good morning from Kunming! As I type this, you all are getting ready for bed! Sorry we didn't post yesterday. Busy day, and then we crash at night. We will have to post pics from Guangzhou as we have to use the business center's computer and took us 2 hrs. to download the pics we did get on the site. I promise we'll get them up asap!
Anyway, yesterday we visited the orphanage and it was hard to fight back tears. Most of the children that are there are 0-1 yrs. or special needs. Most orphans from Kunming are in foster families. We first visted with a group of children around 6-7 yrs.old. They were watching Tom and Jerry cartooons. They happily greeted us. They were so sweet! The next group of children
we saw had severe needs and that was quite heartbreaking. They had people working with them doing different skills. The last room we visited was the baby room. We all had an opportunity to hold and cuddle the beautiful babies. Logan fell in love with a baby boy who had a cleft like Meigan. He didn't want Logan to put him down. Meigan just played in the room and didn't seem to care she was back. I have to say the nannies there are wonderful and really care for those children. They seemed to really enjoy caring for them which makes me feel better about Meigan's care there for her first year. If we could've taken them all, we would've! We were not allowed to take pics inside the orphanage unfortunately. It definately was a visit we will never forget.
Meigan is adjusting well. She still only wants Scott or my dad. Mom and I will do in a pinch. Her self help skills are incredible. She uses a fork better that Logan and Jennifer and cuts her food up in tiny pieces! She washes herself in the bath and reminds me of an otter when she washes her own hair! Each day, she surprises us! She is such a peanut, too! Probably barely weighs 20 lbs. and short as an American 1 yr. old. She looks healthy though and that's what matters. She eats like a horse and will try anything! Last night she was eating watermelon like there was no tomorrow! At bedtime, after she brushing her own teeth, she got mad at me for taking her tooth brush away. I put her in her crib and she is fine. She puts herself to sleep. It's so cute to hear her sing. We don't understand because it's in Chinese baby talk, but very sweet. She is really a little blessing!
Logan, Scott and Jenn are bowling this morning. We are to visit Green Lake Park this afternoon. Jenn was running a fever last night, but seems better today. Hope it stays that way!
Thank you all for your kind messages and for following our journey. I miss you all and my favorite restaurants! I think I've lost quite a bit a weight. My pants are getting very loose. That's ok. I can gain it back with a quart of Edy's ice cream when I get home!
Will post again soon!

We Got Her!!!

These are pictures from today when we picked up Meigan. She wasn't happy at first, but warmed up to Pop Pop and Daddy and then the rest of us. Within an hour, she was smiling and playful. Jennifer and Logan love playing with her. The picture of her in the swing was taken at a pizza restaurant with an indoor playground. She loved playing there and also enjoyed eating the pizza and fries. So did we! She didn't take a nap all day, but finally had a meltdown this evening after dinner and cried herself to sleep. She is very tiny, but practically runs all over the place.

Tomorrow we are supposed to visit her orphanage as the weather has been so bad, we can't do anything else such as things outside.

Went to Walmart and picked up a few clothes to do her for now. Will try to write more later in the week as having trouble with figuring out their computer here. Mostly in Chinese, so always need help.

We made it!!!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we made it after being delayed in Chicago for one night. Our flight on thursday from Chicago to Beijing was overbooked and we couldn't get seats. So we had to spend the night in Chicago and leave on friday. Several other people with our group also were unable to get seats, so we were not alone. Mom and Dad's luggage was sent on to Beijing without them on thursday, but luckily they had the guide in China pull the luggage when the first group came in on friday.

Jennifer got to celebrate her birthday in Chicago. She had a birthday cake with candles and had the rest of our group there to help her celebrate her birthday. We have a really good group of people and enjoyed the extra time to get to know them. So, some good did come from being left in Chicago besides being compensated for our trouble of losing our seats on the flight.

Tomorrow we will be going to the Great Wall of China. Looking forward to that. Then tomorrow afternoon we will fly on down to Kunming. Then on monday morning, we will meet Meigan!!

Beijing is a hugh place with lots of people and cars. We did see a McDonalds and a KFC.

We're really tired, so ready to go crash for the night. Have to be up early in the morning. Will try to send pictures later in the week.

It's almost time!

Hard to believe this is it! We are off to get our little China angel!
The bags are packed (for the most part). Everything and everyone is ready to go!
I hope to post from China as soon as I can! Can't wait to share our experience when we get back with Meigan!

First Day of Preschool and An Early Birthday Present

Jennifer started her 1st day of Pre-K today as a Barron Collier High School Cougar Cub. She said she had 8 teachers today! Her "teachers" are high school students who want to go into early childhood education after high school. She did fine. Kiss at the door and off I go!
She also received her birthday present 3 days early since we'll be leaving on her birthday. We baked the cake tonight in her easy-bake oven. She decided she just liked the frosting and gave the cake to her brother!

One week and counting!!!!

Hard to believe 1 week from today we will be leaving for China! Haven't even opened a suitcase yet because there has been so many other details to take care of, (money,
prescriptions, necessities, etc). It will all come together by next week, though.
Found out the care package we sent made it to China. Hopefully it will make it to Kunming before we get there.

Just got our travel package from CAWLI this morning! It had our plane tickets and itenerary and the official travel approval. Unfortunately, it's in Chinese, so I don't know what it says!
Really seems real now!
I have to give a huge thank you to my cousin, Kim, in Houston, who took time out of her busy day as an elementary school principal, and ran our passports to the Chinese Consulate for the visas. No longer can passports be sent. They have to be hand delivered to the CC.
Florida's juristriction is Houston, TX. She dropped them off , picked them up and sent them back same day! You are AWESOME, Kim!
Ok, gotta get crackin'. We are going away this long weekend to Orlando and Tampa. One of Matt's best friends is throwing a "Celebrate Matt" party. Wouldn't miss that for the world!
Have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend!