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