New Photo's taken on 7-23-07

Isn't she just adorable? Mel took these at her house yesterday.

New Pictures

Back home getting settled into something totally different. It's amazing how a little person can change your life so much. We went to church on Sunday, and when we walked in with Sarah the congregation broke into spontaneous applause. They have been very supportive. After church we went over to Rob and Mel's house for lunch and Tabitha took some pictures of the baby.

Diana is now on antibiotics for a sinus infection, she hasn't been feeling well since we got home

Back in the USA

Wow what a trip! We got back last night, well actually very early this morning, after the 14 hour flight from Hong Kong to Newark, NJ, the 5 hour layoverin New Jersey because of a late flight, the 2 plus hour flight from Newark to Atlanta, then the one plus hour drive from Atlanta to home. We are home again finally.I've posted some pictures of our group at the Newark airport. There were two other families from our group on our flight. The babies port of entry was Newark so we went thru immigration with them turned inall the paperwork we so dutifully gathered in China, and they are now US citizens.

Diana and Sarah are still out like lights as I write this. It was along day of travel for all of us, but I'm sure it was hardest on Sarah. She is getting used to new things everyday of her life now. When Susan picked us up at the airport last night, we had to put Sarah into her new carseat, something she had never experienced before, and she cried for the first twenty minutes even with me sitting right next to her trying to comfort her and talking to her. She finally fell asleep and slept the rest of the way home. She is now sleeping soundly in the room we have had prepared for her for over a year.

Rodger

Greetings from Hong Kong

We made it to Hong Kong last night. Took a train from Guangzhou to Kowloon, then a cab from the train station to our hotel. Sarah slept most of the way on the train. We took a cab into Hong Kong this morning to do a little shopping took some pictures and came back to the hotel.Diana's cold is flaring up again and she's feeling rundown. We are all looking forward to getting back into the States tomorrow.The oath taking at the US Consulate yesterday was pretty noneventful.It was basically all the adoptive parents swearing that all the documentation they had filled out to that point had been truthful to the best of their knowledge. So we have the baby's Chinese passport with her US Visa and are ready to travel. Our flight leaves tomorrow morning at 10:25.

Well we've been in Guangzhou for several days now and they are going very fast. There is much more to do here than there was in the province. Lots of shops near the hotel and a beautiful pool. Sorry we haven't been in touch much lately but they have been keeping us busy. Saturday morning we had to get up for visa pictures, then Diana spent several hours in a paperwork meeting. Sunday we went to church at a local Christian Church had a great time and even sang some songs we recognized (Heart of Worship) in English. Monday we had the physicals for the baby's then the red couch photo in the afternoon. The red couch photo is a tradition for all the adoption babies. It's almost impossible to get all of them looking at the camera and not crying. It turned out to be a little traumatic for Sarah.
Today is pretty much a free day, so the girls are upstairs sleeping. Tomorrow we head off to the American Consulate for the visa briefing and the taking of the oath. Then we are off on the train to HongKong.
Unfortunately here in China they don't have all the freedoms we're used to so I'm unable to view my own blog or your comments. The only way I can get in to post is thru the edit function. I looking forward to reading your comments when we get back to the states.

Last Day in Nanchang

Here's Sarah laughing at Daddy's funny face.

We have an afternoon flight today so I have time to post some more pictures. We leave for Guangzhou this afternoon

Update from Nanchang

Diana and Sarah are up in the room now napping after going for a swim this morning. The baby loved the water, she loved to splash with her hand but it surprised her when it splashed up in her face.

Tonight is our last night in Nanchang, we hop on the bus in the morning back to the airport for the flight to Guangzhou where we finish up the process by getting the baby's visa to travel to the US.

It's been an amazing trip so far but we are both looking forward to getting back home where we can recognize the food, and drink the water out of the tap. Not to mention not living out of a suitcase.

Will update you tomorrow from Guangzhou, hopefully if not, then Saturday for sure.

Wednesday July 4th in China

Sorry for the delay in posting, the Chinese blogger format is not always easy to navigate. I'm not able to actually view the blog but I can get in to do updates thru the edit function. That is when I can find my way to the english language version of blogger.

By the way if you ever order a hamburger in Nanchang this is what it will look like.

We got the babies on Sunday, and Monday was a full day of visiting Civil affairs offices all over town to finalize the adoption, so now it is official, we have a new daughter Sarah Liana XinJiang Low. The photo shows Sarah and Diana waiting our turn at one of the Civil Affairs Offices.

Today we visited the Nanchang Social Welfare Institute, it is much more than an orphange. A place where they take care of all the castoffs of society, from old people with no one to take care of them, to special needs children, to abandoned babies. Sarah came from a place much like this in Shanggao, a couple of hour drive from Nanchang. Our adoption agency, Holt International sponsors a wing in the orphanage section where they will help support foster families who take in abandoned children.

Oh did I mention we went to Walmart on Monday they have at least two of them here in Nanchang. The one we went to is a four story building with groceries on the bottom floor and other stuff on the floors above. We caused quite a stir with the locals when we all got to the baby section. In this part of China they get very few western tourists so when they do see one they tend to stare. On top of that when you put 10 or so western couples together all with little Chinese babies, and you have yourself an event. There were actually people taking pictures of us, we kind of felt a little like Rock Stars! The Chinese ladies like to touch the little ones. They call our babies the lucky babies, and they touch them so they will have good luck themselves.

A couple more days here in Nanchang then we are off to Ghuongoe, yeah I know I spelled that wrong, oh well.

Tiananmen Square

Well it rained again today. Wouldn't you know it when you want to do some sight seeing. We visited the Temple of Heaven and Tiananmen Square today in the rain. We also had our orientation meeting and were able to see some more recent pictures of the baby.

We travel to South China and get the baby tomorrow so the next time we are posting we will have her.

Greetings from the Great Wall

First, we must apologize for the lack of postings and email. The internet connection has been spotty, it’s expensive when it’s working (they charge by the minute), and we haven’t been in the hotel much. We’ve been on quite the adventure – and this is all before we meet Sarah on Sunday.

Today we went to the Great Wall of China. We went to the Mutianyu section, a relatively new section that’s 600 years old. The oldest part of the wall dates back to Jesus’ time. It was cool and overcast, which was great for such a strenuous trek, but not so good for photography. We did catch some long shots as the fog rolled in and out between the hills.

Dad, this one’s for you – we geocached on the Great Wall! As it was overcast we couldn’t even use the GPS, but the clues were so specific we found it anyway. And we took the doll you bought in Paris for Sarah with us to the wall and got a photo J

After that we went to a cloisonné factory, got a tour and had lunch. Very interesting and complex process. Photos later on that.

We also took our whole group on rickshaw bicycles through the Hutong Lane section of Beijing. It’s about 100 years old, and the houses are built in quadrangles, with common courtyards. This section of town has lanes that are so narrow that rickshaw is the only way we could get through. We stopped at the home of a local family, and were served jasmine tea and cake by the matriarch of the family. She used to be an accountant, but is now retired, and invites tour groups to come in and learn about her, her family and this fascinating section of town. Photos and lots of videotape to come.

We’re finally back at the hotel after about 10 hours of touring – whew! We’re posting a few photos here (they take a long time to download), then have dinner, and then go out walking along the shopping promenade, which is probably quite busy tonight, since it’s Friday night. We’re going to the Beijing 2008 store – they are all over the place, they’re government-sanctioned stores that sell merchandise for the Olympics, which will be held here in summer 2008.

Tomorrow morning we have our adoption orientation! This is where we get all last-minute info and get to ask all remaining questions. We’re very excited!

Love to you all,
Diana & Rodger

In China

Well we are here. Made it to Beijing yesterday afternoon, and were pretty wiped out after the flight. So we got to the hotel and just kind of sacked out. Went to McDonalds for dinner right around the corner from the hotel. The internet was "broken" last night so I couldn't post anything, then when I came down this morning to check, the internet is back up but I brought the wrong cable with me to post pictures, I have the right cable in the camera bag up in the room, so I'll have to do that later.
Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall so we expect to get a lot of pictures there as well.

First Leg

Good evening from Atlanta.

Well we made it to Atlanta, this afternoon. Had a pretty good rainstorm coming in but the weather is nice now and we are looking forward to a short night of sleep tonight. We have to make the 4:30 AM shuttle to the airport in the morning to check in for our flight.

Well check back later

R

Packing Up

Well tomorrow is the day we leave. Diana is busy packing up the various things we'll need. Removing excess packaging and putting things into ziplock bags that take up less space. We will be driving to Atlanta tomorrow afternoon, spending the night there then getting up early for our morning flight. Our flight leaves Atlanta at 8:00AM Tuesday, and we arrive in Beijing at 1:45PM Wednesday(12:45 AM EDT Wed). Going through Newwark NJ and then over the North Pole to our destination. We are both overcome with a mixture of joy, gratitude for the all people who've helped make this possible, and a little bit of terror, wondering what we're getting ourselves into.

Travel time is getting closer

Well we are getting down to the wire now. We leave Atlanta on Tuesday morning Jun 26, and are flying thru Newark NJ and on to Beijing, arriving there on Wednesday afternoon. We are going on a Great wall tour with several of the other families traveling with us, on Friday morning. Then on Sunday July 1st we all fly down to the Jiangxi Province to get the children.

Travel Date

We got our travel date yesterday. We need to be in Beijing on June 29, so we have our work cut out for us over the next couple of weeks. What with making sure we have everything we need and then making sure we can actually pack and take with us everything we need. We have been in communication with several of the other families that will be traveling with us and it looks like several of them will be doing a Great Wall tour with us on the 29th. Our plan is to get there a couple of days early so we can do some sightseeing.

China Trip 2007

Diana and I have been in the adoption process for the past three years. We are in the China program of Holt International, and on May 1st we got the referral for our new daughter. Her Chinese name is Shang Guan Xin Jiang, she was born on 9/25/06, and as you can see she is cute as a button. We are looking forward to traveling to China to pick her up around the first week of July.