Merry Christmas!!!

Well it's Christmas Day here in Guangzhou, Christmas Eve for you. We just wanted to wish everyone a merry christmas and a Happy New year. By the time you read this we will probably be airborne on our way back to the states. We are are all doing well and very excited about coming home. See you Soon. Keep us in your prayers as we travel.

May God richly Bless and Keep you this Coming Year!
Nathan, Debbie, Emily and Now Sarah

Passports today, Consulate tomarrow!

We are almost done. yesterday we saw Sarah's passport which means that all we need now is to get her Visa. We go to the Consulate on Dec 24th at 10:30 AM. they actually moved our appointment from the afternoon to the 10:30 am spot today, December 23. We've been doing a bit of shoping here and there for little things. We are really really really ready to come home though. We love being here but it's just not the same.
Sarah is showing herself to be a very easy going little girl, with the exception of feeding time. if she see's the bottle while you are making it...she WANT NOW. (my caps added for affect) She loves being in the Carrier going places and she has actually figured out that if she arches her back a little she can make the hood of her coat fall off her head. She is a typical tourist in that she would like to see where she is going and what is around her.
Talk to You Soon...
Nathan, Debbie, Emily and Sarah

A Trip to Remember...to the Zoo

Well yesterday we took a trip to a Local buddhist temple and to the local Safari, a zoo to the rest of us. It was fun; both of the Girls enjoyed seeing all of the wildlife up close and personal. Sarah is coming more and more out of her shell. She now goes freely to either Mommy or Daddy. Emily is adjusting as well to the new addition. She is always offering to help feed Sarah and anything she might think Sarah might need. Debbie got Sarah to walk holding onto her finger yesterday. And of course Emily is right there holding her other hand. Sarah thought that was worth a lot of Giggles.

Today, Monday Dec 22, was a day of rest. We woke up late and just relaxed. It was nice to play and unwind.

The totals are in!!!!

Well it's official. Sarah's height and weight. She measures 77 cm which translates to about 30 inches. And her weight....22 lbs!!!! WOW...no wonder we need extra rest time. today we did the medical exam and took a boat ride across the river. we also met the other three family's in our group. before the boat ride though we stopped by the local fish market...nothing frozen here. octupus trying to climb out of the tank, clam sqirting water at people passing by, and eels trying to keep their heads under water. Sarah started playing with Emily today. her favorite game appears to be...i give to you...you give back. it's cute watching the girls pass toys back and forth.
talk at you Later

Nate, Debbie, Emily and Sarah

Adventure Day

Sarah is coming out of her shell more and more each day and now lets Nathan hold her without crying. Yesterday, Emily had Sarah laughing and giggling. At the moment, Emily and Sarah are playing with small toys and having a good time. This is a big change from the last 4 days when all she wanted was to be carried around, mostly by me (Debbie). We have also witnessed new things about Sarah. A man and boy were waving at Sarah in the hotel and she waved back! She has also blown kisses at us.

Yesterday, Cordelia took us out to shop. First we went to a huge mall full of only jewelry stores. We bought a pearl necklace for Sarah. Our next stop was the electronics mall. We found a 10 mega pixal digital camera ($60 us) for Emily to use and she has taken about 300 pictures already.

The highlight of the day was when Nathan video taped Cordelia translating a "Child's Memory Book" which was kept for Sarah from when she was a 12 day old baby through October 15th of this year. We really appreciate this gift and someday Sarah will appreciate this as well. The Child's Memory Book was made possible because of Half the Sky Foundation which was created to "enrich the lives and enhance the prospects for orphaned children in China..."

Smiles, Smiles and more Smiles!!!

Lucy's...Chinese institution (or at least it should be)

We don't know what we would do without Lucy’s. It’s close, it's good and most importantly it has French fries for Daddy and Rice for Emily. Another good thing that we discovered is that Sarah loves noodles. Aid i mention Debbie got the first smile from Sarah. She still prefers mommy most of the time but she is becoming more accepting of the big scary man, especially at bed time. to answer a question about Sarah...she big. We are not sure about her weight but we think she is about 100 lbs. No, not really. She is around 19 to 20 lbs though. We’ll know for sure when we have our medical checkup later in the trip. Yesterday we applied for Sarah passport, so we are done with the Chinese aspect of the adoption. What can we say about Cordelia, She is the BEST. This whole process would be a lot more complicated with out her. And Emily absolutely loves her. We will probably do some shopping today, Thursday December 18th. But we are playing it by ear.

Nate, Debbie and Emily

Mommy's Girl

Well we made it thru the first full day and it's official. Sarah is a momma's girl. When daddy holds her she cries, correction...she screams. At the top of the vocal range, we've had several glasses break.
Sarah is feeling much better. Her fever broke in the evening and she took a bottle at 3:30 a.m. Since we were still getting over jet lag, 3:30 a.m. is the time of day we are all bright eyed and busy tailed. We hope to post pictures later, more to follow.

Gotcha Day!!!!!!!!!

Well it finally happened...We now make 4. Baby Sarah is adjusting. she didn't cry at all at our fist meeting. A prayer request: pray for her health. At the meeting with the nanny we discovered that she is not feeling very well. A little high fever and not much of an appetite at the moment. Later in the evening she started crying, wow what a set of pipes. Sarah finally let me put her in her crib around 9:50 pm after about 2 hours of being in the baby bjorn (she really enjoyed that). she still hasn't eaten anything, but like all babies when they get hungry enough they will eat. At the moment i'm having trouble loading pictures so as soon as i can i'll put them on the page.

nate

Here At Last! a day late but Here at Last!

Well we finally made it to the White swam. we are a day late due to a delay in San Fransisco. which made us late getting in the Beijing. China Air put us up for the night in a nearby hotel. Emily...what can we say about emily! The energizer bunny would get a run for his money. We don't know how, but she stayed awake for most of the entire flight from San Fran. She was a real trooper on her fun adventure. As it turned out the delay was actually a good thing. we were able to sleep in a bed, we got showers and most importantly "STARBUCKS." We were picked up by our Faith Guide Cordelia whom we are excited to see again and taken to the White Swan. We are now getting settled in Guangzhou putting everything together for the big day tomarrow.
Nathan

Santa Claus!

Emily tells Santa Claus what she wants for Christmas...

Meet Baby Girl Oden!

After a little more than two years of waiting, we received a referral for Baby Nan Qi Lan who is currently in Maoming/Maonan District of Guangdong, China. She just turned 1 years old October 10th.