We need sleep

Lily is doing great during the day, she is pretty much staying up all day and is happy. We wish she would sleep a little more during the night. She must not be used to the time change yet. She will sleep in her crib for about an hour the she is ready to play. We have been trying to keep her up during the day so she will sleep all night, but it is not working yet. She is not fussy she just wants to play all night.

We are finally home

We finally made it home. The flight was around 15 hours, which seemed like twice that. Lily was very good on the flight and it is great to be home. Lily is still on China time when it comes to sleep. We tried to keep her up last night but she fell asleep around 9:00 pm and woke up around 1 am and she was up until around 5:00 am. Her and Amy slept in until 11:30. Hopefully we can get her adjusted soon. Other than the sleep schedule she is doing great, it seems like she is happy all the time. The only time she is fussy is when she needs changed or when she is hungry. We are so lucky and happy to have her home. It was great to see everyone at the airport and it was great to see Blake meet his baby sister for the first time.

Finally able to post again

I finally found a place that I will be able to post. If this does not work I will continue to send pictures by e-mail. Everything is going fine Lily is adjusted very well and she is sleeping much better. Today we went to a pearl market and bought a few pearls. Nothing too exciting. I can not add pictures so this is pretty much worthless. I know that everyone wants to see pictures so I won't post again until I can get pictures to load. If you want to get pictures get with my mom, Mike Gerkin, Bob and Janice or my Dad. I will continue to e-mail pictures using Vito's computer. See you soon.

Jeff

Last day in Fuzhou, we wil be heading to the police station for her passport later this afternoon and will be flying out around 7:20 for Guanzhou. All three girls got together in Gina's room last night for a playdate and did pretty well, mostly just starring and trying to grab at faces. Being here in Fuzhou has been amazing just to see their culture. In the evening they gather down the road from the hotel in an open area and dance, last night we had the joy of watching little ones learning to skate and ride bikes. We also had three little girls running around us and giggling, they later came up and asked how we were doing? They spoke very good english, although we are ready to move onto the next step to heading home, I will miss Fuzhou and the people. Think we have some photos of the girls from last night, enjoy.

Amy

Last day in Fujian Province

Today is the last day in Fuzou. We went to a museum today while we are waiting for Lily's passport. The weather here is very hot around 95 and very humid. Lily is warming up to all of us more and more each day. She is sleeping very well and eating alot. Last night we went down to a park that is close to the hotel. There were thousands of people out dancing in the park. It was very neat to see how when the sun goes down the people come out. During the day when it is hot there are very few people in the same park. We went shopping today at what I would call a flea market. They had about anything that you would want, alot of junk and alot of very nice handmade crafts, china, tea sets we bought a tea serving tray for 80.00 HBG which is around 13.00 us money. Nick bought a hand carved pipe for some reason. It was funny watching him bargain with the salesman, since they don't speak english they were typing what price they would sell for on a cell phone and Nick would type what he was willing to give. Eventually they agreed on a price.

It is almost impossible to make a phone call so Mom and Dad I have tried to call each of you, but I can't get a line out. The only person we have had any luck calling is Blake and I don't know if that is because we had him added to our international call package on our cell phone. I have been told that when we go to Guanchouz we will not have as much of a problem calling home. Anyway I will try to keep posting here to let you know that we are doing fine. We fly to Guanchouz tomorrow at 7:40 pm.

Fun day

Today we had the day free and our guides took us to a market that had mainly jewelry and stone carvings and artwork for sell by local artists. After that we went to a tea house which was very interesting. It had two girls that prepared different types of tea for us to sample. They prepared it the traditional way using clay pots, they showed us how to drink the tea which required alot of slurping. It would be like a wine tasting in the states. After that we went to KFC, chicken in China is the same as in the states. We really haven't had alot of traditional Chinese food to speak of. Our guides have only been to this province once and are not sure where it is safe to get good food. Lily is adjusting great. She is always smiling and very happy she is attaching to all of us very well even though Nick is still her favorite, she is warming up to Amy and I. The picture of Nick with the girls is from the tea house. The Chinese culture is amazing. Every morning around 6 am there are hundreds of people in the local park and on the streets doing tai chi and exercising. After around 10 am there are very few people out in the park because it is so hot. Most of the people that are out in the afternoon are playing cards in the shade. It is a real adventure to just cross the street. There must not be any traffic rules because you will see cars that look like they are driving the on the wrond side of the street and there are scooters and bikes everywhere. They will ride the scooters on the sidewalks so you have to watch your back or they will hit you.

Trouble posting

Everything is going fine except for the fact we can't access our blog from our hotel. Right now I am posting from a coffee shop, but the computer is in chinese. Hopefully I will be able to type and post pictures even though everything is in chinese. Lily is doing good and adjusting very well. The first day she was missing her foster mother and cried her self to sleep. She is becoming very attached to Nick. Amy is not liking this but she realizes that she needs to look to someone when she needs comfort and Nick is doing an awesome job of doing that. Anyway we are in Funzou for the next four days before going to guanchow. I will try to post from this coffee shop again Wednesday if this works.

We made it to Hong Kong

It was a very long trip, but we did make it fine. Amy handled the plane trip with no problem. I am not going to post alot since we have to get up early in the morning. Hopefully I will have more time to post pictures tomorrow.

The first picture was on the plane to Hong Kong. The speed and outside temp. kind of freaked Amy out, but she did fine. Will post again tomorrow.

Itinerary!!!!

Received an email this morning from our sw with our itinerary. We will arrive in Hong Kong on July 28th at 6:50 pm stay at the Regal hotel, get up the following morning and fly out to Fuzhou, land there around noon, and Lily will be brought to the hotel there at 3:30 pm!!!!!!!! Just about 2 more weeks and we will get to meet our daughter for the first time, what an amazing feeling. We can't wait to see our sweet Lily, we are coming sweetie!!!

The Shower

On July 1st my family had a shower to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Lily, and I cannot tell you how much it meant. It was a ladybug theme and they did such a great job!! Before people started coming we put on a cd my sister in law had bought of Chinese songs, it kind of hit me all at once, this was really happening!!!! After waiting 2 1/2 years it was kind of an emotional rush I wasn't expecting and I felt so truly blessed.

On the day her pictures arrived my desk top calender said these words which I found so appropriate, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fufilled is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12

Couple pictures from the shower, all I could say was, WOW!!!!

Thank you so much everyone!!!!!!

Three Weeks

Well it's been 3 weeks since we received Lily's pictures, they in three rooms of the house, in the purse, on my dash in the car, and of course at work. Can't get enough of looking at that sweet little face.

We heard on Tuesday ISS was looking into booking CA's appointments soon and were requesting dates of July 30th, July 31st and Aug 6th, of course we are hoping for July!!! What this means is, the (CA) Consulate Appointment is one of the last stops made during the adoption process. So we have been holding our breathe to hear when that will be so we can book our flights, could be as soon as three weeks to travel. Hope to hear something soon :)

Lily's pictures!!!!

We are so happy and in love with our daughter!!! Her name is Zhang Li and is just amazing we are just so excited to finally see her sweet little face.

Our Referral is Here!!!!!!

We are thrilled to announce the referral of our daughter

Name: Li Zhang
Birthdate: Nov.9 2006
Fujian Province
YouXi City
YouXi Social Welfare Institute

Pictures coming tomorrow!!!!!

Referrals arrived 6/5/2007

We are still anxiously waiting a call from our agency. I am beyond excited and am shaking as I type this. I cannot believe this day is finally here, we will soon know where our little waits for us and how old she is, we cannot wait to see her sweet little face.

Big Brother Graduates

Well tomorrow will be a big day for our family, our oldest son Blake will be graduating from High School. Where in the world does the time go to? Although Lily will not be here for his special day we will have many memories to share with her. She will just fall in love with her big brother, with Blake being the oldest grandchild on my side he has always been a favorite with all his younger nephews and any little ones for that matter. He has such a great way with kids and I know his heart will just melt the first time he meets his little sister.

Congratulations Blake we love you!!!!!

NEXT!!!!!!

Well it seems that we will finally be in the next batch of referrals!!!!!! The last set of referrals which came out in May went through Nov.1 our lid is Nov.3, we just missed it by 2 days this month. It was kind of rough the first couple of days being so close, but soon realized that a month would be nothing after two years of waiting.

Now the wondering begins, how old will she be, will she be tiny and laid back like Blake or have round chubby cheeks and be full of energy like Nick? Whatever her age, size or personality is, we know she will be perfect for us and we cannot wait to be her forever family.

We love you Lily

Mom, Dad, Blake and Nick

The beard

Many have wondered what's up with the beard? Before Christmas Jeff decided he was not shaving until we had our picture of Lily in hand, so 3 months later he is looking a little like Grizzly Adams. We are hoping 2-6 weeks is all we have left and boy am I ready. LOL

Amy

Lily's nursery