Monday, January 30, 2006
Originally posted on Tuesday, September 13, 2005 3:12 PM CDT
Originally posted on Tuesday, September 13, 2005 3:12 PM CDT
Emilie is now in school and is loving every minute of it! She is in a pre-school class for 3 year olds at a local church here in Berne. She only attends class on Tues. & Thurs. from 8:30 am to 11:00 am right now. She likes it so much, she wants to know why she can't go to school every day. :) I hope hope she maintains this same like for school throughout all her school years. :)
We did get one small tid bit of information last week about our second daughter as well. Nikole is now 32 months old and our agency tells us she weighs 13.5 kg = 29.72 pounds and her height is 82 cm = 32.28 inches. The orphanage that she is fostered through, called the foster family and said she is doing well. And the orphanage says they are getting ready to move her from her foster home back to the orphanage to prepare her to meet us. We have mixed feelings about that. The good thing is, that probably indicates our "Travel Approval" should be coming soon, but we fear that Nikole will not get as good a care in the orphanage as she would if she could remain with her foster family until we get there. At least it will only be for a few weeks.
That is about all the news we have for now. We will post again as soon as we get new photos or travel approval.
God Bless,
Lisa, Steve and Emilie
16:55 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originally posted on Monday, October 31, 2005 10:13 AM CST
Originally posted on Monday, October 31, 2005 10:13 AM CST
For our family and friends who may still be watching this website, here is an update on our current upcoming trip to China. We recently received our detailed itinerary, which tells us where we will be and what we will be doing each day we are in China. I posted a copy of it on our yahoo grou last week and will copy that same post to this website as well.
In case you are not aware, we have started a yahoo group for everyone to follow our trip to China this time. We are going to post to the yahoo group as often as possible while we are there and hopefully even upload a few pictures. If you want to view the photos we post from China you will need to log on to our yahoo group to see those. I will try to copy all of our post to this site as well, but to make sure you don't miss anything, you might want to check out the yahoo group. You can find it at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hammellfamily
The first time you visit the yahoo group, you will have to create a yahoo login and password and request to join the group. Once your request has been approved you will be able to see all of our past posts to the group, view links I have added and view the few photos I have already put up. Some photos of Emilie and the only referral photos we have of Nikole at this time.
Here is our itinerary. I have added a few website links so you can check out some information about the
hotels we will be staying in or find information about the tourist attractions we will get to see while we are there. Here it is!
Nov 4 = Fly from Fort Wayne to Chicago - Flight UA7255 - United
Airlines (D: 6:00a - A: 5:55a)
Fly from Chicago to Beijing China - Flight UA851 – United
Airlines (D: 12:05p)
Nov 5 = Arrive in Beijing at 2:30 pm (Beijing time) and stay at the
Wangfujing Grand Hotel. Here is the website for our hotel:
http://www.wangfujinghotel.com/english/ssfw/xxsg.html
Nov 6 = Tour the Great Wall and the Summer Palace
The Great Wall Info – http://www.crystalinks.com/chinawall.html
http://www.thebeijingguide.com/great_wall_of_china/
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/
The Summer Palace Info -
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/summer.htm
http://www.thebeijingguide.com/summer_palace/index.html
Nov 7 = Meet Nikole!!!! Go to adoption registration and
notarization appointments
Nov 8 = Tour the Forbidden City
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/forbidden.htm
http://www.thebeijingguide.com/forbidden_city/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City
Nov 9 = Tour the Temple of Heaven
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/beijing/heaven/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Heaven
Nov 10 = Tour the Lama Temple
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/China/Beijing_Shi/B
eijing-1024960/Things_To_Do-Beijing-Lama_Temple_Yonghegong-BR-1.html
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/beijing/yonghe.htm
Nov 11 = Get Nikole's Passport
Nov 12 = Go to Hutong Tour
http://www.cbw.com/tourism/hutong/eindex1.htm
http://www.sinohotelguide.com/travel/beijing/hutong.html
Nov 13 = Fly to Guangzhou – Flight CZ3102 – China Southern (12:05p –
3:00p)
Stay at the White Swan Hotel
http://www.white-swan-hotel.com/eng/Public/index.asp
Nov 14 = Take Nikole for her Medical Check and get her Visa Photo
taken in the afternoon
Nov 15 = Go to 11:00a Visa Appointment at the U.S. Consulate
Nov 16 = Get Nikole's Visa
Nov 17 = Fly from Guangzhou to Hong Kong – Flight CZ301 (8:30a –
9:30a)
Fly from Hong Kong to Chicago – Flight UA896 (11:35a HK time –
11:40a Chicago time)
Fly from Chicago to Fort Wayne – Flight UA6828 (3:45p
Chi time – 5:45p Fort Wayne time)
Lisa Hammell
11:40 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originally posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 5:07 PM CDT
Originally posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 5:07 PM CDT
Just a quick note to let you all know that we received Travel Approval to go to China to get Nikole!! We don't have exact travel dates yet, but expect it to be the first couple weeks of November. We will post again as soon as we have travel dates and our itenerary.
Blessings,
Lisa
11:30 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originally posted on Wednesday, May 4, 2005 3:22 PM CDT
Originally posted on Wednesday, May 4, 2005 3:22 PM CDT
We are happy to announce that we are officially DTC (Dossier or Documents to China). We have finished up this preliminary round of paperwork and gotten it sent off to our agency. They contacted us yesterday to let us know that our dossier is complete and everything looks good, so they sent it off to China yesterday. As soon as they get word back from CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs), they will let us know our Log In Date (LID) and that will officially start our wait. Currently the wait time from LID to Referral is running 6 to 7 months. If everything stays as is, we expect to find out who our next daughter is sometime in November or December of this year. Then we would be traveling sometime in January or February of 2006.
Emilie is extremely excited about getting a little sister. She talks about her daily and tells us things she wants to do with her little sister when she comes home. I hope her excitement and enthusiasm holds out once we have her little sister home. :)
As for Emilie, she is doing very well. She talks all the time and she is getting so big. She is quickly moving into 3T and 4T clothing because she is getting so tall.
Last week we took her to one of the local churches and got her registered for the 3 year old preschool class for this fall and she is absolutely overjoyed. Every time we drive past the church she says, "There's my preschool" in an excited voice. She also loves her children's church class and her Sunday school class. Her sunday school teacher has told us that she is quite a talker in class. :)
We have also started a Hammell Family yahoo group. The yahoo group is probably where we will post most of our updates while we are in China for this next trip. The yahoo group will allow us to post messages to everyone who is signed up and they can respond to us for everyone to see. There is also a place to upload pictures if we are able to get us a digital camera before this next trip. If it is possible I will try to post any messages we put up on the yahoo group to this site as well, but I'm not sure that will always be possible. Computers are limited and very slow in China, so we are trying to come up with the most efficient method possible. I you are interested in joining our yahoo group go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hammellfamily
We will continue to post updates when possible.
God Bless,
Steve, Lisa and Emilie
11:20 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originally posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 9:01 AM CST
Originally posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 9:01 AM CST
Just a quick note to let you all know how Emilie is doing. As you can probably tell by the new photo I have put on the homepage, she is growing like a weed. This picture was taken around the first of February as we were preparing to attend one of the Chinese New Year Celebrations. Emilie is very nearly 3 years old. She will be 3 on June 13. She has grown nearly 7 inches since we brought her home, weighs about 32 pounds and is wearing 2T and 3T clothing. Other than a recent bout with bronchitis, she is healthy and doing very well.
As many of you know, we have been working on the paperwork to go back to China to adopt a second little girl. We have nearly completed the paperwork process, as we are only waiting for our homestudy from our social worker.
We will continue to try to post updates to this site periodically, however, we have also begun a yahoo group for anyone who wishes to continue to follow our adoption journey. Through the yahoo group we can post messages, as well as it makes it easier to receive responses from you while we are in China and we can post more picutres than we can from this site. If you are interested in joining our yahoo group go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hammellfamily
Hope you are all doing well and we look forward to hearing from you all when you have a chance as well.
God Bless,
Steve, Lisa and Emilie
11:10 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originally posted on Tuesday, April 6, 2004 1:25 PM CDT
Originally posted on Tuesday, April 6, 2004 1:25 PM CDT
Just a quick note to update everyone on how Emilie is doing these days. She is now nearly 22 months old and seems to be adjusting quite well. She is nearly 34 inches tall and weighs about 26 pounds. She talks all the time. She has picked up English so quickly, she surprises us nearly everyday with a new word and repeats nearly everything we say.
She is still having a few sleeping problems, but they have improved tremendously from when we first got home last September. Last September Emilie was having nightmare or night terrors every night and sometime 2 and 3 times a night. She now only has about one each week or so. However, she still doesn't sleep through the night yet. She still wakes up at least once and sometimes 2 to 4 times a night crying. But at least she is not hysterical from a night terror.
Other than that Emilie is doing very well. For the most part she seems to always be a very happy little girl. Always making us smile and laugh and always ready to give a hug and a kiss. :)
As many of you know, we are planning to go back to China to adopt another little girl, but we are not sure yet when that will happen. We hope to start the paperwork as soon as possible, but that will all depend on the financing and how soon we can afford to start the process again. If you are interested in taking a look at some of the things we are selling to try to help raise money for adoption fund, please go to http://www.geocities.com/pocahontas_in.
Thank you all for your prayers and support and we will continue to keep you updated on Emilie's progress.
Love,
Steve, Lisa and Emilie
11:05 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originally posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 10:44 PM CDT
Originally posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 10:44 PM CDT
We're Home!!
Yes, we finally made it home after a very long day last Friday. We left the White Swan Hotel at 6:00 am China time on Friday, Sept. 12 (which would have been 5:00 pm Indiana time on Thursday, Sept. 11). We had a one hour flight from Guangzhou, China to Hong Kong. (For anyone who ever travels through the Guangzhou airport, good luck. This was the most disorganized and confusing setup an airport could ever possibly have.) What was supposed to be a 3 hour layover in Hong Kong, ended up being around 40 minutes after finally making it through the tranfer line and all the security / SARS checkpoints. We took one last group photo with our travel group and then we all boarded the plane for a long 14 1/2 hour flight to Chicago. Emilie did absolutely wonderful on the entire flight. She slept nearly 12 hours of the flight and what time she was awake, she was playing nicely on Lisa's lap or on the floor right in front of Lisa.
Due to a typhoon near Japan, our flight was detoured which added about 40 minutes to our flight. This caused us to miss our connecting flight to Fort Wayne. We were then told that United could not get us on another flight to Fort Wayne yet that night and neither could American Airlines. Our best option was to take a flight from Chicago to Indianapolis. (One little bit of irony - the flight to Indianapolis left out of the same exact gate we left out of just 2 weeks earlier to fly to Beijing, China - How's that for closure?) We landed in Indianapolis around 7:15 pm where Lisa's parents picked us up. After waiting for luggage, struggling with the car seat and stopping for a bite to eat, we finally made it home around 12:30 am Saturday, Sept. 13. By this time we had been up an entire 33 1/2 hours with nearly no sleep. Needless to say, we were a little tired.
The last 3 to 4 days of our time in China, Emilie had really begun to open up to us and was doing much better. However, she was still very attached to Lisa and didn't like for Lisa to be out of her sight. If this happened, it was met by a lot of crying and screaming on Emilie's part. Now that we are home, we have had a little bit of a set back the first couple of days. Emilie has been back to doing a lot of crying and clinging to Lisa just like she did the first 2 or 3 days we had her. She also is not sleeping through the night. We think this is partially due to her still being slightly on China time and it appears that she may also be having some nightmares.
We are seeing improvements almost daily. When Lisa's parents met us at the airport on Friday night, Emilie really didn't want to have much to do with them. Then on Sunday evening she was having a blast at their house. She was being quite the little ham wanting Grandma to take more and more pictures of her. :)
Today has been one of the best days Emilie has had yet. Today we visited Steve's workplace where Emilie got to meet many of the people Steve works with. While we were there Emilie was laughing and giggling and really enjoying meeting everyone and showing off her squeaky shoes. She loved the bear that was given to her as well. Up until this point she always acted shy and rarely responded to new people. We spent some time today doing a little shopping and Emilie seemed to emjoy it all. She has been rather animated all day.
We ask that you all continue to pray for Emilie's adjustment to her new home. This will be the last offical journal entry of our China trip, however we will continue to periodically post entries to update you all on Emilie's progress. If anyone has any questions about our adoption, our China trip, etc. that we have not answered in one of these entries, please feel free to e-mail us at hoosier925@hotmail.com and we will be happy to answer any questions.
Thank you all for your continued prayers and support during this process. We know all the prayers is what has helped us get through a few rough spots along the way. And a special thank you to our wonderful travel group. We could not have asked for any nicer people to share this experience with and hope we can continue to keep in touch for our sake as well as the girls. We wish you all well and hope to see you all soon.
Love,
Steve, Lisa and Emilie
11:00 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Orginally posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 10:09 PM CDT
Orginally posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 10:09 PM CDT
Hello from Guangzhou!
We are very sorry for our absence the past few days. We were just very busy our last two days in Nanning. Then on Tuesday morning we flew from Nanning to Guangzhou where we are now staying in the White Swan Hotel. When we checked into the White Swan we found that using the internet was very expensive there ($5 US for 15 minutes). But we just found a wonderful store owner near the hotel who has his own store (Jordan's) and he also offers internet use for just $1 US for 30 minutes.
As soon as we got into Guangzhou on Tuesday afternoon we had to immediately take Emilie to get her Visa photo and then to the hospital near the hotel for her physical. We found out that she definitely does not like doctors. :)
Guangzhou seems like a very nice city. It is a much more modern city than Nanning and has some very beautiful buildings. All of the hotels we have been in during our time here in China have been very nice, but The White Swan Hotel is by far the best hotel so far. It has a beautiful waterfall in the center of the hotel.
We are seeing more and more improvements and changes in Emilie each day. We are getting many more smiles and giggles from her each day and she seems to just chatter away many times. Only wish mommy and daddy could understand the chinese words she is using. Our guide in Nanning told us that she has a rather large chinese vocabuly. She can speak words in both Cantonese and Mandarin. She was doing very well at conversing with our guide, Alice, in Nanning. We have also found that she loves riding in her stroller. Many times when we are in the room she will start pointing to her stroller and try to get mommy or daddy to put her in it so we will take her somewhere.
We have found that she also loves musice. She dances and moves around any time she hears music. The little see and say we brought has been a big hit.
This is our last day in Guangzhou. A friend of mine from college, who is a missionary in Macau (an island off mainland China about 2 hours from Guangzhou) will be visiting us this afternoon for a few hours. We are trying to also finish up some of our shopping this morning and later this evening.
We leave for the airport tomorrow morning about 6:00 am. We will be flying from Guangzhou to Hong Kong where we will have about a 3 1/2 hour lay over. The on from Hong Kong to Chicago. We will have about 2 hours in Chicago before we head on to Fort Wayne. Tomorrow is going to be a very long day, but hopefully Emilie will do well on the plane. Please keeps us in your prayers during our return flights home.
Best wishes to you all and we will write again once we get home to let you all know how the flights went and how Emilie is settling in at home.
Love,
Steve, Lisa and Emilie
16:15 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originally posted on Saturday, September 6, 2003 2:34 AM CDT
Originally posted on Saturday, September 6, 2003 2:34 AM CDT
GOD IS GOOD!!!!!!
The last 24 hours have shown such a tremendous change in our daughter that I know it was your prayers and God's goodness that have helped bring about the change in her we have seen.
Emilie has started to show us the sweet little girl we knew she was. She laughs, smiles and plays with her toys some now, where all she did before was cry. Lisa and I have been taking steps to break the bungee chord that she has attached to Lisa and she even will let daddy hold her for a few minutes now. (but only when Lisa is in the room.) Small victorys, but we are getting there.
Today our guide took us out into the countryside where we visited a farmming village. We got to go into a farmers house and meet his family. The people in the village were wonderful, but let me tell you we all have a real appreciation for what we have in America because most of these people here have so little.
This afternoon after Lisa and Emilie wake up from their naps, we plan to go explore the streets around the hotel a little bit. That should be an experiance. Let me tell you, the traffic in China is organized chaos. We are all amazed that not more people are killed around here. Our bus drivers have been the best.We have all agreed that they could put Nascars's best to shame with their ability to drive fast and in traffic.
Thank you for all your prayers, please keep them coming. We have crested the hill with Emilie but still have the long road down the other side to go.
Steve and Lisa
Nanning China
16:05 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originally posted on Friday, September 5, 2003 1:55 AM CDT
Originally posted on Friday, September 5, 2003 1:55 AM CDT
Hello from Nanning,
Well things with Emilie have improved a little bit in the 3 days we have had her. She is eating, but only when Lisa feeds her. She will basically have nothing to do with me at all. She cries and throws a fit whenever I try to hold her and pulls away when I touch her. I know it is normal for an adopted child to attach to one parent,but it still hurts after waiting and dreaming all this time to find out that your daughter does not like you. I know she will come around and hopefully soon.
Emilie will not let Lisa put her down at all. And with all the crying and screaming Lisa's nerves are getting very fraid also. We have discovered that she was a very stubborn and spoiled little girl and we are both working hard to change that.Basically Lisa and I are ready to come home, neither of us has enjoyed this trip at all since Wendsday morning. We are definitley thinking twice about starting this adoption process over again in a year.
Yesterday we got to visit the Nanning SWI and Mothers Love orpanage. At mothers love we actually got to go inside the baby room. Let me tell you it broke our hearts to go inside and see all of the beautiful little girls laying in cribs and on straw mats. What was really sad was the one little boy of about seven who had no eyes and was just sitting on a straw mat weeping. I know I was in tears when we left that room. I had to leave early because I was holding Emilie and she started throwing a fit.
I forgot to mention that Jane, CWA China program director joined us in Nanning Wendsday night and went to the orphanage with us and took clothes and toys.
We then went to the Nanning SWI where we got to meet the director again and a doctor looked at Emilie to see if she had any physical problems. The doctor gave her a suppository because she had been constipated and that seemed to help some.
We were able to drop off two gifts that we had bought over for CWA families to the orpanages were the children were. We gave the Thompsons gift to the director of Mothers Love. We did not get to meet thier son though. At Nanning we dropped off a gift for Rob and Debbie Hard. We have some very good news for Rob and Debbie if I ever can get hotmail to work here.
Please continue to pray for Lisa, Emilie and I, We really need all the prayers you can send our way.
Tommorow is one day closer to home!!!
God Bless
Steve
16:00 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originally posted on Wednesday, September 3, 2003 3:37 AM CDT
Originally posted on Wednesday, September 3, 2003 3:37 AM CDT
Hello from Nanning
We arrived here after a 3 hour flight on China Southern airways from Beijing. The flight was very interesting as people were standing and talking during taxi, and I think the pilot spent more time in the back of the plane than the cockpit.
We arrived in Nanning around 4:30 PM local time and met our guide Alice. Alice took us here to the majestic hotel where we checked into room 1105. After dinner(let me tell you we are all very tired of Chinese food already), we took our bus to the civil affairs building where we were to meet the girls.(around a 20 minute drive from the hotel).
At civil affairs we were taken to the 9th floor and all waited in a room with the Chinese and american flags for the babies to come in.
The first baby through the door was our Emilie!!!!. She was wearing the same orange dress that she was wearing in the pictures of her and her foster parents. The foster parents were not there, so it was the director of the Nanning SWI who handed her to Lisa along with a bag of snacks,toys, and pictures that her foster parents sent along.
Emilie was as beautiful in person as she was in all the pictures. She was not crying until the other to babies in the group started to, but that ended on the bus ride to the hotel when she fell asleep in my (steves) arms.
We went to the rooms when we returned and took our family picture for our adoption certificate. Before that we played with Emilie and received some wonderful smiles. That changed when Lisa went downstairs to do paperwork and I tried to get her ready for bed. Emilie went ballistic.(I will probably be deaf in my left ear before we get home) We then paced the hall untill Lisa returned and we went back to the room and rocked her to sleep. She woke up twice during the night but nothing major.
We woke up this morning and let me tell you this has been a difficult day for all three of us. Emilie will not eat, and pretty much goes ballistic when we try to do anything but hold her. The other two babies in the group seem to be adjusting very well, but our little Emilie is having quite a rough time of it. Lisa and I would like to ask for your prayers that her adjustment to us and her new life be short. We have seen flashes of what is to come with her, but would like your prayers for her to get over her grieving her foster family.
After the paperwork we did today, she is officially ours in China's eyes, now we wait for passport for her and then off to guangzhou and then home.
God Bless
Steve and Lisa
15:15 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originally posted on Monday, September 1, 2003 7:24 AM CDT
Originally posted on Monday, September 1, 2003 7:24 AM CDT
Ni Hao!!
We have had quite a busy day today. We started out early with breakfast in the hotel restaurant. They have a breakfast buffet that has both western and chinese dishes. They even had Congee (chinese overcooked rice) on the buffet which we just had to try since that is one thing we know Emilie has had a lot of. And after tasting it, Steve says he now understands why Emilie is not smiling in any of her pictures. :) Congee is definite not something we particularly enjoy. Everything else was very good.
After breakfast we met our guide, Tom in the lobby to start our day of sight seeing. We took a 2 hour bus ride to the northwest of Beijing to climb the Great Wall. It was a beautiful sight. According to the Chinese we are now "heros" for having walked on the Great Wall. I must confess, Steve made it much further up the wall than I did, but we both had a wonderful time. While Steve was climbing the wall I became a celebrity with all the Chinese people who wanted to have their picture taken with myself and Dolores (one of the other ladies in our travel group).
After the Great Wall adventure we made our way back into Beijing where we had lunch at a restaurant / friendship store. After lunch we were able to walk around the store and see all the beautiful items they had for sale. One thing I am having trouble getting used to is their high pressure sales people. They are very adament that you purchase nearly every item in the store. Steve's not doing too bad at the bargaining so far though.
We then went to a pearl store / factory. We received a very nice presentation from one of the girls and then had time to shop for pearl necklaces, earrings, etc. Although the girls were extremely high pressure here (they follow you around the store), we chose not to purchase anything here, as we want to wait till we get to Guangxi Province before we purchase too many items.
From the pearl store we walked over to catch a ferry boat over to the Summer Palace. It was a very nice relaxing ride. The Summer Palace was quite an amazing site. It was very large with extremely ornate paintings and woodworking on all the buildings and walkways. It has the longest covered walkway in China at I think 700+ meters. Our guide Tom has been very good. He has been very good at filling us in on much of the history of China dealing with the sites we have visited so far.
This evening we just returned from a restaurant near our hotel where we got to experience Peking Roasted Duck. We all tried it and liked it, but it isn't something we would care to have too often. The rest of the dishes that Tom ordered were wonderful as usual.
Tomorrow morning we check out of our hotel here in Beijing before we leave to tour the Forbidden City. Tom said we would stop by McDonald's for a quick lunch on the way to the airport to catch our flight to Nanning. The flight to Nanning leaves at 1:10 pm and arrives at 4:20 pm. Tom said we will probably meet Emilie by 7:00 pm or so tomorrow evening. :) We can't wait!!
God Bless,
Steve and Lisa
14:30 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originally posted on Sunday, August 31, 2003 6:33 AM CDT
Originally posted on Sunday, August 31, 2003 6:33 AM CDT
Greetings from Beijing, China.
We arrived here at the hotel around 3:45 pm local time after a rather uneventful 12 and a half hour flight. We left Fort Wayne and 6:00 am and arrived in Chicago about 6:45. We had no problem finding the other two couples we are traveling with, the Murrays and the Hagans. They are both really nice couples and we think we are going to have a really good time with our small travel group.
Our guide, Tom, met us at the airport, helped us get our bags onto a bus and brought us to our hotel where he helped us get checked in. He then met all of us in the lobby at 6:00 pm this evening and took us to dinner at a local restaurant. Tom ordered a variety of dishes for us, which were served on a lazy suzanne in the center of the table so we could all try each dish. The food was excellent!
So far the weather here in Beijing has been very nice. When we arrived the temperature was 84 degrees with 5 mph winds. It was a little humid, but not too bad. Seems very much like the weather we just left behind in Indiana. This evening while walking back to the hotel from dinner it has cooled down a little with a really nice breeze. We may take a short walk a little later.
Tomorrow Tom is meeting us at 9:00 am to take us sightseeing for the day. We will first go to the Great Wall and then to the Pearl Market next to the Summer Palace and then we tour the Summer Palace.
Just in case we don't get to post again for a couple days, on Tuesday morning we will get to tour the Forbidden City. Then in the afternoon we will be flying to Nanning to meet Emilie!! :)
Hope you are all doing well.
God Bless,
Steve and Lisa
13:50 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originally posted on Friday, August 22, 2003 11:19 PM CDT
Originally posted on Friday, August 22, 2003 11:19 PM CDT
Ni Hao ("Hello" in Mandarin) Family and Friends!
We can finally announce our complete itinerary for our trip to China to get Emilie. On Wednesday we received our airline tickets, passports and visa's from Sunshine Travel. And today we recieved our itinerary for all of our in China travels. Our schedule looks like this:
Aug. 30
*United Airlines Flight 7519
Depart Ft. Wayne, IN 6:05 am
Arrive Chicago O'Hare 7:11 am
*** Meet our travel mates, Murray and Hagans families
*United Airlines Flight 851
Depart Chicago O'Hare 11:55 am
Arrive Beijing, China 2:35 pm (Aug. 31 - local time)
Aug. 31
Check into the Peace Hotel in Beijing, China (website for Peace Hotel= http://www.asiatravel.com/china/beijing/novetel/index.html)
Sept. 1
Tour the Great Wall and Summer Palace
Sept. 2
Tour the Forbidden City in the morning, then depart Beijing on Flight CZ8722
Depart Beijing 1:10 pm
Arrive Nanning 4:20 pm
***Check into the Majestic Hotel in Nanning and MEET EMILIE!!!!!
(Website for Majestic Hotel = http://www.nn-myxd.com/index_en.htm)
Sept. 3
Adoption paperwork (Registration and Notarization)
Sept. 4 - 7
Sightseeing in and around Nanning, Guangxi Province, China
Sept. 8
Get Emilie's Chinese Passport
Sept. 9
Fly to Guangzhou on flight CZ3308
Depart Nanning 10:30 am
Arrive Guangzhou 11:20 am
*** Check into the White Swan Hotel
*** Take Emilie for her Visa medical examination and get Visa photos taken.
(Web site for White Swan Hotel = http://www.whiteswanhotel.com/eng/Public/index.asp)
Sept. 10
Visa appointment at U.S. Consulate General 9:30 am
Sept. 11
Pick up Emilie's Visa at U.S. Consulate
Sept. 12
*Fly to Hong Kong on Flight CZ301
Depart Guangzhou 8:35 am
Arrive Hong Kong 9:20 am
** Hang out in Hong Kong airport for a few hours.
United Airlines Flight 896
Depart Hong Kong 12:40 pm
Arrive Chicago 2:15 pm (local time)
*** Clear Customs and hang out in O'Hare for a short time.
*United Airlines Flight 7522
Depart Chicago 4:26 pm
Arrive Ft. Wayne 5:25 pm
Here is one last website that you can visit if you are interested in seeing more pictures of Nanning where Emilie is currently residing. It also has pictures of the Nanning Social Welfare Institute, where she has spent some time and so much more wonderful infomation and photos. Have fun viewing: http://guangxi.crosswinds.net/Directory1/
Hope to arrive home around 7:30 pm to hopefully colapse into bed after and exhausting day of flying. However, Emilie may have other ideas at that point. :)
Just a reminder, if anyone would like to send us an e-mail while we are in China, we will be checking e-mail as often as possible at hoosier925@hotmail.com
Would appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers during our trip. Please pray that we all have a safe journey and that Emilie and the other two girls in our group will have an easy time adjusting to their new parents, homes and lives.
13:35 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originally posted on Wednesday, August 20, 2003 10:50 PM CDT
Originally posted on Wednesday, August 20, 2003 10:50 PM CDT
Hello Family and Friends,
Just a quick update to let you know that we received our United Airlines tickets for our international flights today. We also recieved back our passports with our Chinese Entry Visa's. We are now officially allowed to enter China one time. :)
We are expecting our in-China travel schedule in the mail any day now. As soon as we recieve it, we will post our entire travel schedule here for you all to see.
10 days and counting til we leave to go get Emilie! :)
13:20 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originally posted on Sunday, August 17, 2003 11:13 PM CDT
Originally posted on Sunday, August 17, 2003 11:13 PM CDT
The past few days have been a very exciting time in our journey to go get Emilie. On Wednesday evening we found out our confirmed travel dates and international flight schedule. We should have our airline tickets, passports and visa's in our hands by Friday of this week or before.
The most exciting news came on Thursday morning when we opened our e-mail. A few weeks ago, we met a lady in Ohio (Theresa) via one of our adoption e-mail groups. She was preparing to leave for China, in particular, Nanning, Guangxi Province, where Emilie is currently residing. Theresa offered to take a few questions about Emilie to the orphanage director for us to see if she could get us some answers. Well, she did better than that. She not only got our questions answered, but she even got to meet Emilie and her foster parents and she took 6 new photos for us. We were both in tears as we looked at these new photos of our little girl.
Theresa told us that she was able to speak with Emilie's foster parents through a translator. The foster parents were told who she was taking the pictures for and were completely happy to help. They are thrilled that we will soon be coming to take Emilie to a better life. Theresa told us that is was very obvious to see how much the foster parents love our little girl. I'm sure this is going to be a very hard adjustment for them as much as it will be for Emilie. Theresa even told us that the foster father took off work so he could be there that day. Considering how little they make each year in China, that was quite a sacrifice on his part. We are very grateful for all the love and care they have shown to Emilie over the past few months she has been in their care.
We should have our confirmed schedule for all our in China travels sometime this week. As soon as we have it we will post the information here in another journal entry.
God Bless,
Steve and Lisa
13:10 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Originially posted on Sunday, August 10, 2003 10:05 PM CDT
Originally posted on Sunday, August 10, 2003 10:05 PM CDT
As most of you already know, we received our referral for our little girl on July 7, 2003. Her Chinese name is Yuan Zhan Min and we will be giving her the name Emilie Mae Zhanmin. She was born on June 13, 2002. Emilie is currently residing in foster care out of the Nanning Social Welfare Institute in the city of Nanning, Guangxi Province, China.
We just received our travel approval on Friday, August 8, 2003 and hope to know our travel dates by Monday or Tuesday. We will post another update as soon as we know more.
12:55 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: China Adoption
Getting Strated
This is my first attempt at a blog, but feel that it may be necessary. During our first trip to China to adopt our daughter Emilie we used a "Caringbridge" Site to journal about our trip. That worked well, but it limited us on the number of photos we could upload. So for our second trip, we decided to use a yahoo group. This too worked good for our daily journal entries and it allowed us to post many photos for everyone to see while we were in China. The only problem was, we have had many people tell us that they were unable to get onto our yahoo group. Whether there was a problem with the Yahoo group, or they just didnt' know how to sign up, or chose not sign up, I'm not sure. But the end result was that some friends and family who wanted to read our trip did not get to do so on the yahoo group. So, that brings us to this blog. I think this may just solve our problem. We can post daily journal entries, post photos with our journal entries, and no one has to join anything in order to read our journal.
I am going to go back through our other two sites and copy all of those posts to this blog as well, so we will have everything all on one site.
I hope you all enjoy reading our past posts and future post about our daughters. And if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Lisa
12:45 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this