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.