Gotcha Day!!!!!!- Here we come Faith(Nov.2)

The anticipation and anxiety builds as we board our plane for Gui Yang, the capitol city of the Guizhou Province. We arrived at the Ramada Hotel at 5:00 p.m. and scheduled the ceremony for 6:00 p.m. After a quick change of clothes and gathering of gifts, we headed down stairs to the meeting room where our little princess awaited us! As we entered the room she quietly sat at a long table with a great look of confidence on her face and a calm countenance. Months of anticipation and longing for her released itself in waves of tears as we awaited our turn. We were to be the 3rd family of 4 to receive our daughter, however Faith had other plans. After the first family(the Schefletti's)received their daughter, Faith hopped off her chair and calmly walked over to us. Thankfully they graciously altered the original plans. There seemed to be no fear and there were no tears from her either. I bent down and hugged her and she called me mama as if her long wait had come to an end. As I introduced her to Daddy, who she called baba and Alissa , who she called Jie Jie she pointed to Alissa's necklace reminding us of her locket we had boughten her at Things to Remember.When we placed it around her neck and showed her the picture of her inside a huge smile came across her face. After the signing of papers in agreement to keep her for the night we headed off to our room and even to dinner with still no tears!
A restful night sleep followed. God had answered our prayers as it seems as if shes always been ours.

Touring Beijing

Saturday November 1st we went on a tour. Are first stop was the Ming Tombs built 600 years ago holding several Chinese Emperors and their concubines of ancient China. A museum of artifacts recovered from open tombs during the revolt of the 80's showed clothing, silver, gold, head dresses, jewelry, ancient writings, and and cooking utensils.








Next we toured the largest jade factory in China run by the government. It was obvious that they are quite skillful in the arts as we observed detailed sculpting of many different designs of all shapes, sizes, and colors of jade.

Our next stop was our favorite,The Great Wall! They say that you are not a man until you have climbed it and boy are they right! Our guide took us to the most challenging section of the wall. It was all climbing without any flat areas as some parts are. Most of the steps were up to your knees! Alissa and I made it all the way to the top! It was a great feeling of accomplishment.

Our last stop was the Silk Factory. They showed us the process of making silk quilts. We saw everything from gathering the silk from the silk worms to then the making of quilts from start to finish. It was quite amusing.

Forbidden City & Tianamin Square

We started with a pancake breakfast at the Alley Cafe which should be called the Alley Cat Cafe. The food was GREAT the company quite hairy! (ha ha) Let me explain. As the mother cat laid next to my mom her kittens frolicked about, EVERYWHERE! It was quite the experience. Now we're off to the Forbidden City. WAIT, I forgot the bartering for Alissa's new camera. That was quite the experience as it was difficult to understand the broken English, but finally was able to make a pretty good deal. And now were off! OK so, on the way there, we encountered many interesting sights and smells. People riding bikes down busy streets, cars parked on sidewalks, guards everywhere, and I almost forgot the lovely smell of bakery (as my dad would call it) ha ha. No it was actually the fresh smell of sewage! (yummy) After hitching a couple taxis we arrived at the Forbidden City. Wow, I have never seen so many beautiful buildings and to think they were all made by hand! Words cannot describe the BEAUTY of the endless emperor dynasty of the ages. And to think it was built in the 1420's is enough to blow your mind. After exploring for a couple hours we were off to our next destination... Tianamin Square! ( the largest public square in the world!) This is known for the famous picture of Chairman Mow, and is the current place for morning exercises and meditation for thousands. A long walk back, a little resting, and now off to dinner with Amanda Infield! The restaurant we ate at was known for their Peking duck. It was delicious. Kind of like the Christmas story though. It was brought to the table head and all. It was very nice to see Amanda shes doing very well. She ordered all of our food. As you can see in some of the pictures we are quite jet-lagged, especially Me.

We're Finally Here!

Milwaukee to Minneapolis & a 7hour layover found us at Mall of America visiting Rich's lifelong friend, Doug Shilts. We also did a little shopping & bought Faith her first baby doll. She's Asian & adorable. On to Japan, the longest flight, almost 15 hrs. Alissa lost her camera at the airport & we thought she had lost her passport too. Thank God she was sitting on it! Then 4 hrs. on to Bejing airport followed by a taxi ride that tested our communication skills & Yes we made it to the Shntan Hotel almost 30 hrs. from the time we left home. It's now midnight on 10/30/08. Upon our arrival we found a little surprise, two twin beds! If you can believe it I shared a bed a bed a little larger than a twin with Alissa. Hey, when you're exhausted you can sleep anywhere, at anytime, with anyone.

Finding Faith

I'll tell you her amazing story later, but here are the pictures we got of her throughout the process. I organized them in order from the first pictures we received to the last ones that were sent.