Day 4 - More Paperwork........

This morning we went back to the Adoption Center for another round of paperwork and a lot of just sitting and waiting. We were able to get a copy of Jacob's "Finding Ad" which is what they put in the papers when a child is found abandoned in a public place. We also received his adoption certificate making him officially ours! Yeahh!!!.

We then finished up some paperwork so his passport application could be completed. We then had to go on another "half hour drive" (each trip we have made so far we were told by our guide that it was a half hour drive) to the "new construction area" to deliver the the rest of the passport paperwork to the office responsible for issuing passports.

It will take about 5 days for Jacob to get his Chinese passport. We should get it back on Friday so we can depart for Gaungzhou that evening.

The rest of the day we just chilled out in hotel room playing with Jacob. And I went to the business office center in the hotel to get some of the blogging done. Fortunately I wrote most of it out on paper so I could remember it. That night we discovered one challenging habit that Jacob has. He sometimes likes to spit and then laugh really big because he thinks its so funny. Mommy and daddy are going to have to work on that one. Jacob went to sleep much easier tonight.

Tomorrow morning we are off for a tour of an ancient old town village.

Day 3 - Gotcha Day!

We don't go to get Jacob until 4:30 this afternoon. So after breakfast we ventured out of the hotel for a very short walk. We were surprised to find the weather very pleasant. It was about 75 degrees with a nice breeze blowing. We were not so surprised that we were the only non Chinese people on the sidewalk. One man kept staring at my K.C. Chiefs t-shirt and smiling. I'm not sure if he was a fan, or if he thought I was a real Indian Chief. After that we went back to our hotel room. That's when I encountered our second snafu of the trip. I discovered that I had left one of my medicines behind. Oh well, that is in God's hands. We decided to take a nap to kill some time before going to get Jacob. We didn't wake up until 3pm. I guess we were a little tired.

The government Adoption Center Office was being renovated so we went to their temporary office. It was located on the top floor a very old hotel. That's where we met our son Jacob for the very first time! He had a little shortsout fit on and pink "Hello Kitty" clogs on packing a water gun and a Mickey Mouse backpack. He was there with his foster family. His foster mother told Jacob we were Ma Ma and Ba Ba (Daddy) and she made him give us kisses. Trish was able to ask the foster mother several questions through an interpreter about foods he liked, sleeping habits, pottying, and all those other things that are important to mothers. All this time Jacob is running around and shooting all of us with his water gun. He thought that was just so funny and would giggle each time he did it!

After awhile and some picture taking, it was time for the foster family to leave. The foster mother had done a wonderful job of preparing Jacob for this moment as he had already taken to Trish and I he didn't cry much at all when they left. She had shown him pictures of us, told him who we were, and that he would be going to live with us. Trish and I hugged the foster mother. We thanked her for taking such good care of our son for us. Trish told her we would meet her again in heaven. That's when the tears came, not from Jacob, but from Trish.

After that Trish played with Jacob while got to fill out a whole lot of paperwork. I had to sign and thumbprint my signature in triplicate on about 5,000 documents that were all in Chinese. Ok, maybe not 5,000, but they were all in triplicate.

Finally, we were finished and we went to Walmart to get some bottled water, snacks for Jacob and us, and look for an A/C voltage converter. This was a very unique Walmart in that it was all underground including the parking. And this place was like a small city it was so huge. About 3 times the size of our supercenter at home. It had everything from fresh fish and seafood still swimming around in the tanks of water, to a deli which had stir fry made to order with the "fresh" meat hanging up right by the woks. With the help of our guide Michael, we found all of our snack stuff and we got Jacob some milk since his foster mother said he loved milk. I struck out on the converter though. Of course Jacob had to go to the bathroom during all of this. I stayed with the cart while Michael helped Trish and Jacob find the bathroom. Trish saw a mother lift a little girls dress and she went to the bathroom right on the floor in the middle of Walmart. I guess Trish is old fashioned as she preferred to find the bathroom for Jacob.

There was also a KFC in Walmart so Michael helped me order dinner to take back to the hotel. Jacob got a bath before bed and he loved playing in the water! He was splashing around and giggling most of the time. However, he did not want to go to sleep that night. Mommy and daddy wanted to get to bed because we had to get up early next morning for another round of paperwork. But, all he wanted to do was play!

Day 1 and Day 2? The 30 Hour Day....

Graciously the Lord has brought us through 30 plus hours of flight time and layovers safely to our destination of Guiyang City. We left St. Louis on Friday at 8:00 am, and arrived here Saturday at 11:00 pm. Somewhere at 35,000 ft. we lost about a half a day. So I guess this is really the end of day 2 of our journey. Or, what I like to call the 30 hour day. We are thanking and praising God for guiding us through the airport mazes of securtity checkpoints, customs, and immigration stations without any issues or getting lost.

We had a 3 hour layover in Chicago so we had plenty of time to eat and find our gate for our international flight to Beijing. We got to see our plane pull into the boarding gate and its nose was just huge! It is just amazing something that large could even get off the ground!

We just happend to choose to sit in the waiting area at the front by the checkin counter. When the flight agents arrived at the counter I went up to ask them if there was any way Trish and I could sit together on the flight. Our seats were a row and 2 seats apart. About this same time they told everyone to get in a single line so that they could start checking passports, visas, and tickets. So, I managed to be 2nd in a very long line. Coincidence? I don't think so! Anyway, we were able to board the flight shortly after that, and a nice young lady traded seats with Trish so we could sit together.

The 13 hour flight was uneventful, but very very long. We watched 3 or 4 movies, talked, slept (but not much), and read to pass the time on the flight. Trish spent some time talking to a young couple who sat next to us. The husband was American and his wife was from China. They had gotten married on 08/08/08 during the Olympics and were on their way to visit the wife's family in a province north of Beijing.

When we arrived in Beijing it was just as we had remembered it the first time we were there 5 years ago. Very hot, humid, and lots of Smog. I have to say though, that the new Beijing airport was very nice and a state of the art airport. It was very easy to find our way through it as there were clear signs that had both Chinese and English. We found our bags and made it through security to our gate just fine. Although, we thought they were going to confiscate the miniature pair of scissors from Trish's sewing kit. :) Our layover was for 5 hours, so we just kind of walked around and Trish has some TCBY yougurt.

When we were finally able to board our flight to Guiyang we were the only non-Chinese people on the flight. That was a little intimidating, but we survived. We slept most of the 3 hour flight, and arrived at Guiyang about 11:15 pm Saturday. We were extremely relieved and very thankful to see our guide Michael standing there holding a sign with our name on it. Michael is very nice and speaks very good English.

It wasn't until we reached the hotel that we hit our first snafu. Our voltage converters would not work for some reason and we have phones and cameras to charge, and our laptop to run. Michael asked at the front desk if they had a converter and they brought us up an extension cord with multiple outlets. I wasn't sure what to do with that.... By that time it was about 2:00 am so we decided to call it a night and go to bed. BTW, the beds are like "Fred Flinston Beds", as hard as bedrock.

Finally Online, Sort Of.....

Hi everyone, still no luck with the power situation with our laptop. So, I am in the Business Center of our hotel and trying to get caught up on some postings.

The Almonds are in China!

Hello everyone! This is Donna, Trish's sister. They are having some technical issues right now, so she asked me if I could please do a quick update on here. No problem, sis! (I hope I do this right; I've never "blogged" before!) :)
Trish & Ken made it to China, and they have a really nice guide helping them around town. And the best news yet....drum roll, please.......I am excited to say that they have Jacob!!! Yay! They got him probably around 4am Sunday St Louis time. I was very fortunate that I was able to Skype with them for just a few minutes before their computer battery quit. Like I said, I only had a few minutes, but I was able to see my sweet adorable little nephew! He is so, so cute! I want to squeeze his little cheeks! He was very happy and full of smiles! He even tried to say "hi" back to us.
They had paperwork and a doctor to visit on Monday, (that is Sunday night for us). I'm not sure what else they will be doing, hopefully they can find a new battery for their computer. This might be the only update they will have on here for a while.
Please continue to keep all of them in your prayers. I know it's been tough on sweet little Ellie to be away from Mom and Dad, and vice versa. Thank you all!