We Have Nyah!!

Well, it's been an adventurous day!

We went down to get lunch at 11:30 and saw a bunch of people sitting on a couch holding a little girl who looked a lot like Nyah. Our guides were not here yet so we did not know what to do. We went back up to our room to eat some noodles because we knew that we would not have time for lunch.

Ten minutes later we were called by our guide and told to come down. We walked down and were surrounded by people. They introduced themselves and brought in a beautiful little girl. She is truly beautiful. She is so little. They had her bundled in pants, a long sleeve shirt and then almost a snow suite on top of that. She was suffocating. We talked to the group that brought her and then they told us to go outside to the water fountain because Nyah liked it. We went out and she kept pointing at things. She let each of us hold her at that time.

We then went back in and signed some papers. They told us to give her a nap and be back in 30 minutes. We decided that giving her a half hour nap is out of the question. We then took her up to our room and took off one of the layers of clothing and gave her some noodles to eat. She ate as much as we could give her. We then went on quite the little jaunt. We went to get her picture taken, interpreted papers, went to the child welfare center, to the notary and the police station. It was very different than Emma's adoption time.

Nyah loved the toys we brought. She plays with them and talks to her self. She says mama, papa, and other things we don't understand.

We are now back in our room trying to get Nyah to take a nap. Not Working So Well! She just wants to be held and is so tired that she can't even make herself sleep. Our hopes are to give her a bath, order in room service and play with her. Hopefully she will go to sleep early. It has been a long day for her.

I will post as many pictures as I can. We miss you all and are thankful for your prayers. We are so blessed to have this little angel.

Melody

Awake at 4:00 AM

Email 1 from Gotcha day.

Hello Everyone,

It is 4:17 in the morning here and I can't sleep. This happened last time too. Eric is snoozing away and I am wide awake trying not to wake him. Boy, do I hope Nyah is a good sleeper because this will probably be the same pattern this time too.

We are going to go look around the hotel later this morning. We asked our guide, and a fellow American, about safety...they both said that "it was very safe."We need to find our way around since it's a long stay here.

Our guide is a very beautiful girl. Her name is Queen-ar, I have no idea why she chose that name as her guide name but she did. She is a college student who is majoring in English. She does not speak very good English and can't understand us much. We are learning quickly to come up with many different words to express what we need or want to know. The same problem at the front desk. I am sure they think, what we often think when we have foreigners coming to visit, "Why can't they learn our language before they come?" But, they are patient and kind with us.

The hotel is huge. They have a swimming pool (so, J and J, it's safe to come out with swimming suites on :) ). They have a ball room and a pool table room with tables triple the size of our pool tables. They have bar and the lobby of the hotel goes up through the middle of the hotel to sky windows. This is 20 some floor building so that's really high. It's really, very fancy, even by US standards. We are on the 14th floor so needless to say we are not going to walk the stairs instead of the elevator. :)

We're so excited to get Nyah. Just a couple hours now and our lives change, again. They are supposedly bringing Nyah to the lobby of the hotel. That is a strange place to introduce her to us. There will be many people around who will be watching this transition take place. I feel so bad for Nyah, how overwhelming! We'll have a short time to get to know her before she is handed over to us, then we pile in a van and head to an office somewhere in the town where we'll sign the papers for Nyah. A little different than when we adopted Emma.

Please pray for Nyah. What an awful day for her and a great day for us.

Love you all,

Mel


P.S. My kids are doing well. Jeremy got a 4 point deer hunting with my brother. He is so excited. What a great gift for him. He does not get to be with us on his 15th birthday, but this may make up for it. Thank you so much Jim! I don't know how to thank you. I love you!

Jordan is staying home taking care of Emma. My parents and my good friend Jen Norris are helping to transport and keep the girls busy. Thank you my friend! and thank you Mom and Dad!

Emma wasn't able to sleep our first night away. She woke up with a bad dream and wouldn't go back to sleep. Jordan offered Emma her cell-phone, with our picture on it. She slept with the phone and wouldn't let it go. My Mom printed a picture of us from the blog, copied and laminated it so Emma is sleeping with it now and carrying it all around.
Oh, my Mama's heart is breaking. I miss them!

From Zhengzhou!

We arrived in Zhengzhou this afternoon. It was like deja vu. It felt like we were back in Hohhot, where we got Emma. Coming off the airplane, the town, the drive. The hotel is beautiful and the rooms are huge. There was a crib for Nyah in the room and a HUGE bed. We could fit my whole family in there if we wanted.

The city has a mix of fancy buildings and a lot of shacks. The city is surrounded by agriculture. We saw a lot of kids riding on the scooters and bikes with their parents.

We will get Nyah tomorrow at 12:30 China time (that will be 9:30 p.m. Sunday for all of you). We are excited and ready. Eric is doing well and eating all kinds of new food. Melody, on the other hand, is barely eating and feeling very nauseous. We're going to bed early and watching a movie.

Hear are some pictures.

We Made it Safely!

Hello Everyone,

We made it safely to China. We landed in Beijing at 9:00a.m. (Saturday morning your time.) This was approximately 24 hours from when we arrived at the airport in Spokane. Needless to say we were very exhausted.

Everything went smoothly and we were very relieved to sleep.

Here are some Beijing Pictures.

Our hotel, the airport and of course and Starbucks.

The Long Journey!

Well, we are down to our last day in the states. The bags are packed, the kids are packed, the paperwork is done and the flights are finalized. I AM EXHAUSTED! I honestly will be relieved to sit on the plane.

The kids are anxious, we are anxious and all of us need to breathe.

Thursday Night (Tonight), after work, we have a volleyball game, a football game, get home and get everyone into bed. Then, Friday morning we'll get up early, finalize our packing, go to breakfast, pick up my parents and be at the airport by 9:00 a.m. Whew!!

Our flight leaves at 11:30 and 30 some hours later we will arrive in Zhenghzou, China.
We'll get there, approximately, Saturday night at 11:30 p.m. (USA Time). And, we could get Nyah anytime from Sunday morning (1:00 a.m.) to Sunday night (6:00 p.m.)

Don't plan to hear anything from us until we are settled in Zhenghzou. Approximately 36 hours of silence from us. Just know that we are in God's hands and we will be fine. As soon as we can we will call our kids, email everyone and update the blog. We hope to add to the blog a couple of times a day to help our kids adjust to us being gone and to see pictures. We have a wonderful friend, Dawn Moen, who will be adding to the blog for me.

Please pray for us! This will be a very, long journey but so worth it when we have Nyah in our arms by Sunday. :)

Love to you all,

Melody and Eric

Nyah, We are coming for you!

3 Days to go!

Hello everyone,

It has been a crazy effort for us to try and pack and repack. It is near impossible to pack two suitcases at 44 pounds each. We can take 2 per person at 77 pounds each internationally. The problem is that once in China we can only have 1 bag per person at 44 pounds. Thus, the problems. It is difficult to pack for 2 weeks, 3 peoples clothes, diapers, enough meds to start a pharmacy, shoes, toys and ... We are going to have to pay some fines because we have gone to the bare minimums and still are over.

THEN, we have the carry on bags. We can only take an 11 pound bag each.

That is our computer, cameras and paperwork for the adoption.

Not a lot of room for books, snacks or neck pillows.

Boo Hoo for us. It will be fine,

I am just being a baby.

Now on to the true issues...


Across the ocean is a beautiful little girl whose life is about to change. She is loved by a beautiful nanny who has been with her since she was 3 months old. They have entered the last couple of days together. Please pray for them as they begin the last time they will ever see each other.

Here are some pictures of them together.

The hard part begins

We have gotten packed, paper work almost done and we are getting ready to go. The hard part now is saying good by to the kids. Jeremy is doing great. He has great faith that God has taken us to this place in our lives, so of course nothing bad will happen. Emma is happy go lucky and doesn't understand that we will be leaving soon. Jordan goes back and forth, worrying about something happening to us and being fine. How do you explain to a 12 year old girl that all will be fine. She could use lots of prayer and attention while we are gone.

We took the last family pictures today of the five of us. When we get back there will be six. I am so excited to have Nyah in my arms by this time next week. WOOO HOOO!

I don't think that is spelled right but you get the gist.

4 Days to Go!

Keep praying for us as we have a crazy week with work, school, sports and getting final things done.

Enjoy the pics.

Melody