Now she's walking!

Well after we got back from China, it took us quite some time to recover from the trip. Plus Kyle had to make up the 3 finals he missed and then take his qualifying exam in late June. (I'm happy to say that I passed, even if it was marginal!)

But we wanted to show some updates at long last so you can see what the girls are up to. The big news of the last week or so is that Julia is really walking, mostly unassisted now -- we never know where she'll go in the house anymore. This is something she has been wanting to do since we got home in May. Now we wonder what her next project will be!

Here are a couple of our favorites of Emily & Julia together:






In late June, after Kyle's biggest test was over, we all spent some time with the grandparents in Corpus Christi at the beach.

We also worked on getting Julia's US passport. Here is the picture we ended up using:




Another picture of Julia playing at home:


And once again, I'd like to share a couple of favorite translations with you. This one requires a little explanation: on one of our domestic flights within China, we were provided a handi-wipe with this helpful translation:


On that same domestic flight, I had a free moment and was looking through the in-flight magazine. (I'm not sure quite why I did this, as my Mandarin is really rusty these days.) But I noticed that the editors helped us English speakers out with a headline from time to time, apparently to give us an idea of what the article was about. I found this headline interesting. It seems that their spell-checker broke down:

Praise and Prayer

Thank you for all who have written in and given us your support on this incredible journey. There are so many things to give praise for I can not even list them all. May God receive the glory for all that has been done and that he will do.

We are still in need of prayer. Jet lag has taken its toll on everybody more than I thought mostly Julia which in turn takes its toll on us. Please pray that she will adjust quickly and that the Lord will give us strength and endurance during this time. Please pray for hope that sleep will be in our future.

Kyle said he has taken some time off from blogging so you will probally just have me when I can.

Thanks again to all you wonderful people giving us support and praying for us.

love, shannon

Finally Home!

A picture from Guangzhou a few days ago: Big sister Emily feeding her little sister.



Well, we all made it home safely last night. All in all, it was a fairly uneventful trip home. Luckily the flight from Beijing to San Francisco was fairly empty. Julia and especially Emily were real troopers through the whole thing. There wasn't much crying or screaming at all, given the circumstances.

After sleeping off and on until about 2:30pm today, we took Julia to the park nearby for what may have been her first experience in a swing. She really liked that!

So for a few pictures, I thought I would focus on our big day in Beijing on May 8. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. We got to see Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and then we drove by the Olympic Village on the way home. It was a long day, but it was great to get to see all of that and keep those memories.

Here we are at Tiananmen Square, just before going into the Forbidden City.


Now our excellent guide Grace is showing us that we need to touch the door into the Forbidden City for good luck. (I was thinking about the millions of hands on the door and skipped out on that one.)


Now we're on the Great Wall:


Emily, Kyle & Julia climbed up higher on the wall, along with some of Sarah's family (Emily's friend). Here we are coming down the extremely steep steps:


Shannon may kill me later, but this is a shot of family and friends greeting us at the Austin airport yesterday evening. Julia was doing real well at the time.


And to wrap up, here is another translation I liked. This one was posted prominently all over the Great Wall. (It appears that talking cellphones pose a real danger at times.)

Last full day in Beijing

Well we made it to Beijing yesterday, safe and sound. For some reason, these little flights are completely exhausting. (Of course getting up at 4:30am probably contributed to that.) We were all getting on each others' nerves yesterday.

Today (May 8) is our big tour of Beijing. Somehow we'll see part of the Great Wall, Tiananman Square, the Forbidden City, and maybe the Olympic Stadium? We'll see how all that goes. Then the next day we head home at noon.

Maybe I'll have time to add pictures later, but thought I'd publish another quick update while I had the chance. Landing in Austin at 5:07pm on May 9!

Final days in Guangzhou

Just a quick note to say that all has gone well with the medical exam required for the US Consulate, and our paperwork was in order. (a sigh of relief) Tomorrow (5/6) we will have a quick ceremony at the Consulate and will have official permission for Julia to enter the US and become an American citizen. Here is a picture of Julia (and Shannon) talking with one of the doctors we had to see yesterday for all of this.

Also, here is a "clear" day in Guangzhou from our hotel room today. Not sure if the sun was out or not.



Then here is one more picture of Julia (and Kyle) taken at a park in Changsha a few days ago. A Chinese lady really wanted to see and touch Julia. That happens quite often.

So on 5/7, very early, we'll head to the airport and fly to Beijing for a final day of sightseeing. We're starting to pack now. Hopefully we'll blog one more time before heading home on 5/9!

From Changsha to Guangzhou

On Thursday (5/1) we left our hotel in Changsha, our home for the past 9 days, and headed to the airport. It was quite a sight to see all of us families (8 groups) loading up and heading out together. I thought we were getting to the airport way too early. But this was the beginning of the 3-day May Day holiday in China. As it turns out, a new regulation about carry-on luggage went into effect on May 1. They are now extremely strict about "one bag per person," and very focused on the size (as well as weight) of the carry-on luggage. As we had traveled with a laptop computer and video/still cameras in two separate carryon bags without any incident earlier, we assumed that would be no problem. But in the end, we had to reshuffle our bags and check just about everything. Even though all this work was only for a one-hour flight, we were completely worn out and hungry by the time we got on the plane. Above is a shot of us in the middle of our long wait at the Changsha airport.


Then we made it to Guangzhou (along with all of our bags). It was nice to grab a quick bite at McDonald's as we headed to the White Swan Hotel. It's a great hotel. Here is a shot of us in the lobby. It has taken us a little while to recover from the trip. That's one reason we're just now getting around to posting anything. Thankfully Emily has finally found a friend her age who is in the other Great Wall China Adoption group that has also landed at the White Swan. They are getting to spend some time together as we wait.

Tomorrow (5/4) the babies will have medical exams in order to request visas to enter the US. We are getting closer to the end! We'll leave here on May 7 for 2 days in Beijing. Hopefully we'll have time to post again in a couple of days.

Now for some more humorous photos... This first one is from the Changsha zoo. In addition to the great English translation on the sign, you can see a black and "tan" panda in the background if you look closely.
Then our group's favorite translation so far: "Stuff Only" -- intended to say "Staff Only." This is at the entrance to one of the parks we visited in Changsha.

Now we're smiling!

I thought I'd start off with some of our most exciting news - we're getting smiles and giggles now! Especially today. These top two pictures are "hot off the press." We just needed to figure out some basic things like what formula to use, how hot to serve it, and in what bottles. Also a few good days/nights of sleep and bonding didn't hurt.

In the last couple of days we have been to a couple of parks and then the zoo today. The zoo was a little different, of course. As usual, our group of families was the center of attention. Here are a group of girls who wanted to tell me that Julia is cute. Of course they had to touch her also.


Then Emily got a dinosaur balloon that walks. Pretty cool for $3. She wanted me to show this one.




Tomorrow (Wednesday) we'll be packing, then on Thursday we fly to Guangzhou to get ready for our US Consulate appointment. It will be interesting to see how we'll get all our junk into our 3 bags to check.

Couple more pictures

OK, so it's taking us longer than we want to get those pictures out here. We've had another couple of good days. Each day is better. But there are some difficult parts -- Emily has had problems with the food (and the culture in general). We can't always get Julia to eat or drink much. But we're getting there.

Here is another shot of the "serious girl" -- taken by Emily. In the last day or so we are getting to hear Julia do some cooing, and even a smile or two. At least she can look at us now! This is all so traumatic for her, I'm sure.

Then we have a shot in front of the Hunan Museum we went to yesterday. One random Chinese mom had her little girl come up to Emily so she could get a picture of them together. We went along with it too.

Finally, some of my Changsha Wal-Mart pictures. If someone can tell me what all of these animals might have been once, I would be interested to know. I think I just figured out the Wal-Mart mouse in the picture. 2008 is the Year of the Rat. So maybe that's a clue here..?


By the way, I think we have the comments figured out again. So fire away if you'd like to add comments. (If we moderate them, we can see them.)
-Kyle

Wow!

First of all, let me say that for whatever reason (I have a few suspicions...), we cannot see our blog or any comments posted to it. But we are able (allowed?) to post to our blog, luckily. So anyway, if you have any comments for us that you'd like to have us see while in China, please send them directly to us either to sltippens@gmail.com, or tktippens@yahoo.com. Thanks.

So where to start? A couple of days ago (Thursday 4/24), we had our "Gotcha Day" and it was quite an experience. It has taken awhile to recover from it, so that's why we're just now reporting in. It is so hard to describe the emotions involved. We may have to do that in person.

Thursday was the day we met Julia for the first time, and we brought her home to our hotel. It was a day full of paperwork and waiting. Lots of anticipation. Here is a shot of Shannon, Emily, and my Mom (Mamo), waiting at the Civil Affairs office before the fun began.

Then the only 2 babies to show up were the ones from Julia's orphanage. The others were delayed. So after we got to meet Julia, all the families piled back into the bus and headed back to the hotel, where the other families met their babies. It was a little chaotic on the 31st floor of our hotel for that meeting!

Below is a shot of us with the women who brought Julia to Changsha. I believe the woman on the left may be the orphanage director. [Update - she is not.]

It was a long day, but a good one. Julia has been a little sick, so we have been spending a lot of time on that. We will post more later. Baby is sleeping so we need to be sleeping.

Praise: God is amazing! He can handle anything and wants us to come to him with our struggles.

Prayer requests: Sleep

Julia to trust us and be well, that she will eat and drink more

Emily: finding food for her to eat, culture shock because so many people are bothering her because they do not see US girls

Kyle and Shannon: wisdom! understanding, to relax and let God take over, to pray more, strength and endurance, rest.

Anne: not to overdo, stay well rested, take time for herself, to have fun

More pictures of Julia later on, plus bonus pictures from the Changsha Super Wal-Mart visit (Kyle is dying to post those...)

We're Here!

Yesterday we arrived in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. (This is Kyle's first attempt at a blog, by the way.) Our trip here was hard, but it could have been much worse. The most difficult part was getting from the international to the domestic terminal in Beijing - something we weren't prepared for. We had to dodge passing cars while we loaded and unloaded our luggage onto the airport bus. Luckily our final flight was delayed, so we were able to make it there in time. The domestic security check was also a little bit of a challenge. You may think the TSA can be intrusive in the US, but that's nothing! Also they just put a "no liquids" rule in place for carry-ons here, so it's something everyone is having to get used to.



Here are some shots of our nice hotel (the Dolton), and the view outside.













Then here is a view of the children's playroom in the hotel-->


Tomorrow is the big day: we'll meet Julia for the first time. It sounds like a very tiring day for everyone, so expect another blog later on after we recover.

And then one of my personal favorite activities: finding great English translations. I'll try to provide a few of these along the way. I wish you could enjoy this cozy and salubrious tea with us!

Ready Set Go!

Hey Everyone,

I can't believe we leave tomorrow. Looks like we are packed and ready to go. Now we just have to fly halfway across the world. Please pray that the flights will run smoothly and safely. We are hoping to blog from the hotel. So be on the look out.

We're packin' our bags!

Hey,

We just got news that we will be leaving April 21st! Everything has been confirmed. I am shocked and more excited than words. We will get to hold Julia in 2 weeks. Thank you to all the people praying and supporting us on this roller coaster. Looks like God answered the prayer about CeCe and Dolly(pets) too. I will write more on our travel schedule as soon as we have it. Please pray for the peace to flow over all of us. Please pray that satan will not steal our joy by us worrying about details and the future and pray that we will always put God first.
Thank you for being in our lives!
love, shan

Roller Coaster

Hey Everyone!
Well we got our travel date last week of May 15th. We just found out that they want us to go April 21st!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are in complete shock. Kyle was worried that he could not get off because it takes place right during finals. God works wonders ALL HIS PROFESSORS LET HIM OFF AND GAVE THEIR BLESSINGS. We are in awe. But now we are in crunch mode! The date is not confirmed yet. This would mean we could get Julia a month earlier. I went up to the attic to see what I have and it seems I have not thrown much a way. I did not know baby clothes could go out of style in 8 years.
Will write more when I know more should be a couple of days.
Please pray for us to get everything together and not stress, find a place for the animals and to always put God first.
love ya, shan

Update

There is no update. We are just waiting to hear when we are to travel!!!!!!!!!!

Last Trip as 3

New Orleans and Plantation homes,

We had a great time in the New Orleans area and the Plantation area. Emily is at an age where she was just soaking the history all in. It was not crowded and everything to me looked like it did 10 years ago.

This is the Ninth Ward. All the houses are pretty much gone and there was not much of the ruin houses left. Some people were rebuilding, but not many.


(Still figuring out the pictures, so just turn your head a little)

This is Em eating a Beignet donut at Cafe du Monde.

We went to the New Orleans Zoo. It was great fun.

Then we went to the Plantation road. This is Oak Alley. Lots of movies filmed here.



This is the Nottoway Plantation. A couple of Em's friends went along for this one and guess who got to hold them.

Well until next time. Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome!!!!!!!!!

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to my blog!!!!!!!
I am trying to catch up with the computer age as much as I can. Most of the time I think it is hopeless, but we will give it a go.

As I wrote a lot of you. We received our referral March 3rd! We were very excited to say the least. After 3 years of waiting it is really is going to happen and have peace about it actually happening.

Here are some answers(or tentative answers) for all the questions some of you might have.

Name! Julia Anne XiaoYu Tippens

Place: Hunan, China
Birthdate: August 20, 2007
rough estimate time of travel: 2nd week in May 2008
people traveling: Mom, Dad, Sister and maybe Kyle's parents
Whats next: Wait on travel approval
Wait on travel dates
Get visas

Once again thank you for all the friends and family that have prayed for us, supported us and encouraged us we love you all.
Be on the lookout for the prayer request and more info.