Shanghai...What a neat place

This morning we flew from Beijing to the providence, Shanghai, where our little girl will sleep in the orphanage for her very last night. We can't believe it is finally here...tomorrow at 1:30 we will get to see, meet, hold and love on her!!!  Shangahi is MUCH different than Beijing and I am loving it!!  Bright lights everywhere, familiar stores, very friendly people, a beautiful hotel...we couldn't ask for more!   We walked the street when we were settled into our hotel room.  We decided on Pizza Hut for dinner.  However Pizza Hut here is HIGH CLASS compared to ours back home!!  They have a spiral staircase, played classical music and served much more than pizza.  Steak is even on the menu over here!! :) It was really, really good!! We can't wait to get out and explore Shanghai some more!!  We ended the night with a quick meeting with our guide, Zita, to finalize plans for meeting Riley tomorrow and a quick dip in the pool.  This pool was much warmer!  I even got in!!  Rheagan was shocked.  Swim caps are required and I really wanted to take a picture of all of us in our caps but Shawn and Rheagan said....NO!!  You will have to use your imagination to know what we looked like swimming!! Looking forward to tomorrow!!  Butterflies are setting in!     

 

The view from our Hotel Room:

 

 

Inside the Hotel Lobby:

 

 

 

The street right outside of our Hotel.  Our hotel is in a great location!  There are tons to see and places to go.  Rheagan has bugged and bugged us to ride this trolley below.  We have told her that before we leave we will ride it! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AND..........Guess who tomorrow night will be sleeping in this bed in our hotel room..... 

 

Riley Jiner Handy

 

What we know as of now about tomorrow...  We are meeting our guide, Zita, at 12:30 to head to meet Riley.  We are suppose to be meeting her at 1:30.  Our driver is taking us to the supermarket afterwards to purchase any needed supplies for Riley.  We are getting so excited!!  We hope to ask the Nanny tomorrow for a tour of the orphanage!!  The next post Shawn and I will be parents again!!  Our fourth beautiful child will enter into the life of the Handy's!!  God is GREAT!!    

 

Tiananmen Square & Forbidden City



Today was a much colder, windy day in Beijing!  We learned a lot about the history of China at the Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City.  History is not my thing however it was neat knowing these buildings have been around a long time.  First we went to Tiananmen Square.  It has a lot of of HUGE buildings all government related.  This week and next the Congress here in China are meeting right here in Beijing.  It is pretty neat knowing the big wigs have been in town.  Across the street from Tiananmen Square is the first gate into Forbidden City.  There are three gates you have to go through to enter Forbidden City.  We finished the afternoon off with lunch with the Holt Staff and a visit to a silk factory.  Tomorrow we will check out and head for Shanghai.  We have a late morning flight.  The flight to Shanghai is about 2 hours!  While at lunch we did get our RED FOLDER!!  The special red folder is more information about Riley.  We saw her schedule and a little bit more information about adjusting and bonding with her.  We were hoping for updated pictures however they were unable to get any for the orphanage she is in!  :(  We were a little sad but we know we get to see her on Monday.  We did find out that it will be Monday afternoon so that will be midnight Sunday night!!  We will be taking lots of pictures and posting them soon!!

 

 

Rheagan is still the center of attention in China.  She is feeling pretty famous.  We have 5 kids in our group, and Rheagan is the only girl.  The boys are getting the attention too however Rheagan is a picture taking pro. 

 

What a day....

Last night when we got in I was so tired I feel asleep.  It is Saturday morning here, 7 am. 
FIRST, I want to tell my sweet little boy, RYAN...HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY!! 

We had a blast today.  The Great Wall, Jade Factory, and Hutong Lane Tour.  It was busy but so much fun. 


The Great Wall- What a sight to see!  Truly amazing and unbelievable!  So many steps!  I kept telling Rheagan we were going to walk on The Great Wall.. we didn't walk we CLIMBED THE GREAT WALL!!  We learned so much history about China, Beijing, and The Great Wall with our hour bus ride.  Well...suppose to be an hour-- Beijing has 22 million people in it so traffic is unthinkable!!  There are people, cars, bikes and scooters everywhere!! We learned that due to the number of people here- you have to apply to get your license and even when you get selected.. you then have to apply to the right to purchase a car.  And then once you get your car-- your license plate number lets you know when you can drive in the city or not.  Depending on your number, depends on which days you are allowed.  ITS CRAZY!!!

 

After the Great Wall, we went to the Jade Factory. Saw how they create Jade into fabulous pieces, and then how to determine real vs. fake jade!!  We had a fabulous Chinese lunch.  They served each table of 8 many different dishes so we could try out many different foods.  One thing, Rheagan learned was that they do NOT give you a fortune cookie after your meals!!  :( 

Finally we ended the day, with a tour of Hutong Lane.  It is a group of houses, more like communities that the entire family lives in.  We went inside one of the houses and learn about life in Beijing.

 

We have met some incredible friends here that are also adopting little ones.  Angie and David are from Georgia and they will be with us the entire trip.  There little one, Nicole, is in the same orphanage at Riley.  We have had a lot of fun hanging out with them and getting to know them better. 

 

okay, sorry about the delay in post.  Last night, we could not get the internet to cooperate and I was so tired.  Looking forward to another fabulous day in CHINA!!!

 

Today we get to go the Forbidden City &Tiananmen Square and have lunch with our fabulous Holt staff.  Today is the last day in Beijing!  Tomorrow we fly to Shanghai.  Guess what....we have only 48 hours left before we hold Riley!!

Our first day in Beijing

Today has been a very relaxing day.   We are still trying to get our bodies caught up on sleep. 

 

Our Hotel is very nice! We are staying at Beijing Novotel Peace Hotel.  All the Holt families are staying here too! Shawn is impressed with all of its energy saving techniques. Actually he is impressed with China's construction and lot of their advances! There is a hotel being built right outside our window and he is taking it all IN!!  In order for our room to have power, once inside the room...the room key must be inserted into a power slot! The drawback is that when I could inside I want the room to be cooler than it is!  Its a little muggy!!  I am just trying to not produce a lot of energy myself, and I cool down pretty quickly!   Here is a picture of our hotel.

This morning we ate at the breakfast buffet and as we were eating there were 3 other families that had recently received their children.  Watching them feed their children and help one another out makes me so ready and anxious to meet Riley. We found out that we were the first in our Holt group to arrive. Everyone else arrives today! We look forward to meeting the other families in our group as we will become one large extended family. Being in a county where your language is not used or used very little has its challenges.  We are much less talkative that's for sure!!  We went to the supermarket and loaded up on bottled water.  When Shawn was in line, people just started going around him and literally standing on top of the person who was paying.  This was different for us.  I think we will have to learn to be a little more aggressive but when you do not speak the same language we are holding back waiting for clues on what to do next!!   The pollution here is pretty bad.  In the mornings it seems worse.  With Shawn having asthma, he is definitely noticing the poor air quality.     He did not wear the mask this morning but this afternoon when we got out he didn't hesitate. :) 

Rheagan had her first meal in China at her favorite spot!!  McDonalds!!  Everything we had seem to taste about the same!!  Coke is the only choice of drink, so really there is no choice.  The lady working there was ready for us.  As soon as we walked to the counter she had the picture menu out and ready!!  As we were eating, a young gentleman was sitting at the end of our the table and he popped out his I-phone and started snapping pictures of Rheagan!

Rheagan is the definitely the center of attention everywhere we go.  I told her it was like she was famous.  She just smiled.  I do not see her being on stage or doing anything that draws a lot of attention to herself because she is feeling a little uncomfortable.  I am sure by the time we are ready to go she will be a pro at just smiling and going with the flow!!  We told her that pretty blonde hair little girls with bows in their hair are not commonly seen over here!!  :)

We have spent A LOT of time in our little room and if you know ME- its driving me crazy to just lay around and not have things to do, places to go or people to see!!   Rheagan and I have played several games that we brought from home.  She went swimming for a FULL 5 minutes.  Shawn joined her for about 2 minutes!! The pool is indoors but still pretty chilly.  Tonight we are going to order room service and hang our some more in our room!!  :)

We are set to head to the Great Wall with other Holt families tomorrow! We are all looking forward to this!  Rheagan is REALLY looking forward to walking on the Great Wall.  I  am just hoping it meets and exceeds her expectations because they are set pretty HIGH!!  Peace from CHINA!!!

We are in Beijing

  It is 5:07 AM Thursday morning right now and I can't sleep! We are in China though!!  THANK GOODNESS! I really can't believe it!!  No delays, no cancellations of flights!  24 hours prior to flying out I was afraid the winter storm that was hitting Chicago would keep us from making our flights but it did not.  It was not the most ideal flying situation, especially landing and taking off but we made it.  I have come to realize I will be experiencing a lot of FIRST for me on this trip!  The biggest and most important one of all is ADOPTING A CHILD!!  1st time adopting and so I  would have to say lets do it again!!  But, there were others over the last 15 hours!  1st time landing in a plane where the ground, roads, even runways were completely covered in snow!  They have huge bull dozers out pushing the snow to clean paths for the planes.  It was one of the smoothest landings I have never had!!  1st time seeing the plane you are getting ready to fly to Beijing on completely covered with snow and they were having to de-ice and de-ice that plane!!   1st time truly realizing how long 14 hours is!!  Our flight from Chicago to Beijing was 13.35 hours!  It is a long time, A VERY LONG TIME!!  Rheagan was excellent however at the 2 hour mark she did ask the question--  Are we almost there??  We watch the flight path on the TV screen in front of us and it showed how far we had gone and how much farther we still needed to go.  We watched TV shows, movies, we colored and Rheagan wrote a lot in her journal!!  Luckily, it was not a full flight so we were able to spread out!!!  We have decided to try to stay awake as long as possible knowing that when we would land it would be midnight in Beijing!!  Rheagan actually beat Shawn and I on this one.  When I woke up it was 3:30 AM and the girl was still up!  I think she is just so excited like we are for the next 18 days!!  We are so thankful we are in here in our Hotel Room.  It is very nice and our guide, Emily seems very sweet.  She will be with us until we leave for Shanghai.  Today, is a relax day--Rheagan told us last night she wants to eat at McDonalds and go swimming.  And Yes, they do have a McDonalds!!  We are going to take it easy, trying to get our bodies adjusted to the time!

We are at the airport!!

We are at the airport waiting to head to Chicago and then Beijing!! We are so excited... We can't even sit still!!! God is truly wonderful!! We have no one else to thank but HIM!  This last year has flown by literally!!! Rheagan keeps asking questions.. Some of curiosity and some of concerns.. We are able to talk with her about God in ways I only thought someday I would love to.  It is happening now at the age of 9!  We are very lucky to be sharing the WORD with her!!! Please keep praying for our journey!!

8 DAYS To Go.....We are ready, we think!!!

8 DAYS UNTIL WE LEAVE!!  

We were talking last night and can not believe the time is here!!  We are trying to finalize our packing list and I believe I have purchased all needed items.  Yippeee!!!  However, I am sure I will think of a couple more things between now and next Tuesday!!

 We were a little stressed two days ago but we have a plan!!!  We still do not have Riley's furniture!  The January 18th delivery date that has changed 5 times is now set for APRIL 5th!!  This is the 6th date changed!!  We are staying patient...Kind of!!!  Ok, not really!!  All we know is that when it does arrive-- they will be delivering and setting it up for FREE!!  We know it is completely out of our control!!  We put our minds together and we knew we had to come up with another crib!!  Thanks to our good friends, Jason and Rochelle..... we will be using their crib until ours finally arrives!!  Ordering nursery furniture 3 1/2- 4 months ahead of time seemed like we were planning for our little one to arrive in March but I see that we needed to order it a lot sooner!!  Oh well... She will have a fabulous crib to come home in and we will switch it out later!!

We have truly been blessed with the donations that are funneling in!  THANK YOU!!!  THANK YOU!!!  We are on our way to our goal!!  We can't thank you enough!! This time next week we will be trying to make sure all bags are ready to go and praying we have not forgotten anything important!!

We are having a lot of emotions-- We are so excited and happy to call Riley our own!!  We can't wait until our family grows to 6!!!  Rheagan can't wait to have another girl in the family!!  We are nervous and scared about the unknown...who wouldn't be!! We have butterflies about the trip and staying in another country for 18 days!! We are sad that we have to leave our 2 active boys here at home but I know we will be complete again as soon as we land and walk through the gate at the airport!!

Traveling to China to pick up our daughter will be an experience of a lifetime!!  We will capture it all with pictures, videos and blogs!!  We hope to blog daily and include lots of pictures!!  We hope to can come along and follow us through this incredibly journey!!  Keep praying for us and keep checking the blog!!

Right now, Here is Kansas City....We are getting ready for the 2nd winter storm of 12 + inches in 5 days-- They are calling this storm-- Toto's Revenge!!  My guess is no school Tuesday, maybe even Wednesday!!  We have 2 birthday parties this weekend!!  We are celebrating Rheagan (9) and Ryan (6)!!  Family birthday on Friday and friend party of Saturday!! Sunday and Monday will be busy packing and TUESDAY WE LEAVE!!!  The Countdown is truly counting DOWN!!