Snowball Fight on the Great Wall of China

Today we stopped by the Olympic Village, a Jade factory and the Great Wall of China. 

Tomorrow we fly to Fuzhou to meet Andrew! 

Beijing Tourists

We've spent the past two days touring Beijing. 

Temple of Heavan & The Summer Palace

Tiananmen Square & The Forbidden City

Rickshaw Ride, Lunch & Tea

Locals continue to request pictures with the kids. 

Andrew, we're on the way!

We made it to The People's Republic of China! We left our house at noon on Tuesday and arrive at our hotel in Beijing at 10:00 p.m. Wednesday evening (8:00 a.m. Chicago time). Not bad!

We all survived the trip quite well. When I selected our seating assignments, I chose alternating seats, leaving an empty seat in-between each of us. Miraculously those seats didn't get filled by other passengers and we enjoyed all the extra space.

Zachary had a fan club of Chinese grandma's (and some grandpas). The Chinese are not shy about their curiosity. They would hover around him and stare, some talked to him as if he understood Mandarin. I also witnessed one of the fans reach from the seat behind him to touch his hair.  In typical Zachary style, they all became instant friends and he hugged many of them goodbye. 

Seeing a large family is also not something that the Chinese are accustomed to. In addition to Zachary, we all got our share of gawkers and have already fielded many questions about our kids. One young man even took a video of us exiting the train at the airport. Wait until we add Andrew to the pack! 

New Pictures of Andrew

Happy 2nd Birthday, Andrew James!

Andrew,

We are very excited to be making room for you. The boys' room has a bunk bed and a crib, perfect for 3 boys! We started the long adoption process 2 years, 3 months & 11 days ago, before you were even born. Hopefully the wait will be over soon and we'll travel to China to bring you home, sometime in November!

Today is your 2nd birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I bet you're getting big. We wish we could have celebrated it with you. I'm sure you had a little party; we can't wait to see the pictures. Don't worry, we will be there soon. We have just a couple more steps to take before we can travel. It's been a long wait for all of us, but the tedious process is almost over. Here is a timeline of what we have done so far:

1. We were ready to start the process to adopt another child - 5/2013
2. Contacted our social worker to initiate home study - 5/30/2013
3. Completed our required in-person interviews for each of us and the kids, medical (whole family) & psychological exams, criminal background checks from LZ Police, FBI,  Home Land Security and every county we have lived in our adult life. Provided birth certificates, our marriage certificate, financial statements, several reference letters, employer reference letter, copy of our driver's license & passports and a summary of how we were going to raise another child. 
4. Finally got our home study back from social worker - 10/2/2013
5. You were born - 10/11/2013
6. Sent home study to U.S. Immigration - 1/4/2014
7. U.S. Immigration approved us to adopt - 1/15/2014
8. Sent dossier to China - 2/13/2014
9. Update our home study - 3/2/2015
10. U.S. Immigration approved again - 4/1/2015
11. Received your referral - 7/28/2015
12. China sent us Letter of Approval - 8/13/2015
13. Sent 1-800 & LOA to U.S. Immigration - 9/17/2015
14. U.S. Immigration sent your visa to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou - 9/2015
15. Request immigration approval from China - 9/2015
16. Went to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago to get Chinese visas. 9/30/2015 & 10/10/9/2015
17. China sends us travel approval to come to China - Still waiting
18. Make Consulate Appointment
19. Fly to China to get you!

We love you!

Daddy

Here is a picture of Mommy talking to the adoption agency about you. We got your referral while on Big Thunder Mountain at Disney World. We all screamed with joy! We'll bring you there someday and show you where we first learned you were going to be our son. You'll love it, it's a lot of fun! 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas friends and family! We are so grateful to be home as a family of 6 to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 17:3

Packing to come home!

Getting ready for our trip 1/2 way around the world. We can't wait to have our family of 6 all under one roof.