We have Kelly and she has us!

Wow, what an amazing 2 days it's been. First of all, everything is great. Second of all, sorry for the delay in posting....our time has been chock full of screaming baby, giggles, paperwork and more paperwork. Also, China has blocked Blogspot, so we had to work around it, more than just "anomouse" and stuff like that, but my computer whiz of a husband figured out a way, but it's super slow for me to post, let alone find the time and get a chance at the computer (lots of skyping).

So, what you are waiting to hear....Kelly is adorable. We are all doing well, and Kelly is slowly but surely adjusting to us, and moving past her grieving for her nanny. We were given a memory book from Half the Sky and it's clear from the pictures in it that Kelly has had the same caregiver from the time she was an infant. She is basically healthy, and bonding well, just slowly as anticiapated. She is miserable with an ear infection, a few digestive issues, and a bad rash, but getting better by the minute.

Ok, that first paragraph was written yesterday and not posted...I was interupted and have finally gotten the chance to get back on. We are now here at Thurs. am and doing better by the minute. Kelly is now playing with Ron, happy to walk away from daddy to play with her sisters, and didn't cry when she woke up this morning. She's eating better, and scratching less. We have giggles, and much more inter action.

There are 7 other families here getting their kids and doing well too. We all finished our Chinese paperwork and they are officially "ours" and tomorrow we leave for GZ to do our American paperwork. We hope to do a little shopping today, and maybe the pool again, we'll see how it goes, R and I are remembering the lifestyle of parents to toddlers...naps and meals being the most important part of your day!

I'll try to post some pictures here now, and do another post soon....just got to get in line for this computer to do it!

Beth

we're here!

Well, we make it to Zhengzhou, and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Kelly! Our flight was ALMOST uneventful, but true to Darling tradition, the trip here HAD to have some type of drama. For those of you about to travel and are keeping tabs on the way things are being dealt with regarding Swine Flu, you'll love this..... On the flight over, Ron sat across the asle from a man who was obviously sick (cough, runny nose ect.) so as the plane was not full, I moved back an asle and over, then Ron, Cory and Jamie all moved over...then Cory moved next to me and Ron over again. The plane landed, the crew with the forehead temperature scanners came on board and scannned everyone. Of course the man who was sick passed, but the young woman next to ME was the only one on the whole plane who didn't pass. Poor girl, it took 30 min.s of 5 masked, goggled, clipboard wielding officials interrogated her, then took her away!! After sweating it out, they did not take me, or Cory or anyone else. Whew. They DID put an odd purple stamp on all our medical paperwork we had to fill out on the plane.
We made our way to ZZ, had dinner, slept, and this morning we went with the 6 families getting their children....an amazing experience, truly amazing. All went well for them, and we are supposed to get Kelly, here in our room in 2 hours!! We are headed off to eat, then will be back and try to stay calm. Bye for now. Beth

Sat. June 13th
Well, we have our tickets, and are finally fully approved by both China and the U.S. to go!! Our itnerary is as follows (at this time)

Fri. 6/ 26 leave for LAX
Sat. 6/ 27 our flight leaves at 1:40 am
Sun. 6/28 land in Beijing 7:40 am, change planes
Sun. 6/28 land in Zhengzhou, Henan, 8:55am, go to hotel
Mon. 6/29 Gotcha!
Fri. 7/3 leave Zhengzhou, land Guangzhou
Thurs. 7/9 leave Guangzhou for LAX via Beijing
Thurs. 7/9 land LAX 6:00 pm

Looks like we have at least 6 other families in our travel "group". Our agency, CCAI, tries to have families travel in groups to get their children that are being adopted from the same Province (Henan). We will all stay at the same hotel in Zhengzhou, get our children at the same time and then travel together to Guangzhou to finish the paperwork before going home. These families children come from all over Henan, different cities, different orphanages, all but one child, who I believe is coming from Kelly's CWI.
I'll post more later, but this is the latest.