Touring Beijing

Good morning from Beijing!  We had a good night's sleep and we are now getting ready to go to breakfast.  LiFeng will meet us at 8:00am (Beijing time) to start our tour.  He said to be ready for a lot of walking.  It would be nice to have our stroller!  We are hoping it and our other bag will arrive today.  We'll post more later when we get back.
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WOW!!!  That was a LOT of walking!
Brinley has done great! We toured Tian An Min Square, The Forbidden City and The Summer Palace today. She only had one tiny melt down but she was okay after just a few minutes when I gave her her much loved Diego fruit snacks.  She keeps asking us "We get Bailey NOW?" and she wants to know "Where Olivia baby??"  Olivia is Chris and Leslea's daughter. They will be leaving us tomorrow to get her! She is 15 months old and such a cutie!!! We can't wait to hear that they have their sweetie pie!

Brice, Daddy keeps saying, "I sure miss Brice Man on this trip!". We all miss you!  Brinley keeps asking me, "Mama, where my Bricey???"  Of course I miss you lots and lots and lots and .......lots!!! I hope you are being good for Dee and that you are having a lot of fun!  Tell Dee to send us an email to let me know what you are doing!

Keith, I hope your vacation at Pigeon Forge was a lot of fun! I can't wait to hear all about it! Daddy said you got some new shoes that you like! YAY! I know how much "good shoes" make you feel better! :)  Daddy hasn't eaten anything crazy yet but I will let you know if he does. I think you would like the buffet here at this hotel. Brinley asked me today, "When Keith coming home, Mama?"  I know she misses you since she hasn't seen you in a week now. I know I miss you! I am so proud to be your Yaya! :)

Lola, so far not too many people are giving the stare to your baby so you wouldn't have had to get the Jie Jie attitude with anyone today. Benni was playing with her toy phone today and she was talking to you on it and then she looked at me with sad eyes and said, "That not really my jie jie. Call my jie jie now, Mama!"  We are getting a phone card in the morning and we will give you a call. She misses talking to you.  I know you probably miss hearing "What doin' Jie Jie?"  I miss talking to you everyday!  We will have to go shopping with the girls when we get back!  I LOVE YOU!  (No LV yet but we are looking.)

Josh, we are taking lots of pictures and will try to get more video tomorrow. I hope you can use some of it. Our friends Chris and Leslea are taking a lot of video and photos too and I'm sure they would let you use some of their footage too.  I told them I'd get you to do a video for their baby like you did for Miss Wu.  Have you and Kit made any more plans for the wedding?  Even though you are all grown up, you are still my baby.......I love you!

Granny Mae and Boss, we hope you are both doing okay. Brinley has asked us where you are several times. I know she misses seeing both of you! I hope you are able to get to this site to read about her adventures. She is being a very good girl! You would be so proud of her!

Dee....take good, good care of my baby boy! I know he is probably keeping you busy! Please give him lots of hugs and kisses from me! I sure do miss him! Thank you for letting him stay with you while we are here to get your grandaughter! :)  LOVE YOU!!!!

Okay.....I will let Marty add the photos. I'm sure we all look hot and sweaty in them but we are happy to be here to finally get our sweet little Bailey!! Two more days and we will have her!  HOOOOOOOORAY!!!!!

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Our luggage and double stroller have arrived!!!!!!!!!  THANK YOU, LORD!!!!  :)

We are in Beijing!

Whew!!! We finally made it to Beijing! We are all really tired but happy to be here!  Brinley did GREAT on the trip and the folks we are traveling with Leslea and Chris are a lot of fun!
When we left Charleston, our plane had to be diverted to Allentown, PA due to the weather in Newark.  Time was running out so we called our travel agent Sue Sorrels and before we could even get off of the plane she'd reserved a car for us!!! (WE LOVE YOU, SUE!!!)
So, we got our rental car a Chrysler Sebring complete with car seat for Miss Brinley and we we headed off to Newark, NJ!!  We felt like we were in the Amazing Race!!! LOL  We made it Newark with just minutest to spare.  We made it through checkin and God sent an angel for us! We walked through that gate and Marty was putting Brinley on his shoulders and saying, "Hold on, Baby! We have to hurry!"  A man driving a little cart for the airport just happened to be right in front of us and he asked where we were going. Marty told him "Gate98".  He said, "Get in!"  We zooooooooooomed through that airport and made it just in time to make our flight!  God was definitely watching out for us!
Now we are at the hotel. The one suitcase that we checked hasn't arrived yet and neither has our stroller. We might be wearing these few clothes we had in our other bag "just in case" for a while. We have plenty to make it through if we have to.
Brinley has had a bath and is passed out sleeping on our bed. She was so good on the flight.  Granny Mae, she even got some cherry tomatoes in one of her meals! She was so happy!!!
Keep us in your prayers and we will post more tomorrow.
Brice, Keith, Josh and Lola .....WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Won't be posting here!

Both of our parents are on dial-up and the blog takes a long time to load for them so we have decided that we will be posting on our other site. http://www.goingbackforbailey.com/ Just click on the link and it will take you there. You don't need a password.

We hope to hear from many of you through the guestbook and the email link on the site!! Please keep us in your prayers as our family separates and goes in many different directions. Pray for Brice to have fun with Dee. Pray for Keith to enjoy his vacation with Maria and her parents. Pray for Josh who is back in classes in Charlotte now. Pray for Kristen who is loving her new job and independent life in her own apartment. Pray for all of us to have safe travels and to be healthy. Pray for Brinley to travel well and to understand all that is going on and pray for her acceptance and love of Bailey. Pray for Sharon's fear of flying and that she won't be sick again this time! Pray for Marty......that he will be healthy during the trip. Pray for little Bailey....that she is prepared to meet us and that her transition will be an easy one. Pray for her auntie at the orphanage who has loved her for her entire little life and has cared for her as her own child. This same young lady cared for Brinley and we are so delighted that she will have the chance to see her little Wei Ya again.

Keep us in your thoughts as we travel all of these many miles to bring our little blessing home!

Hugs to all!
Sharon

What's in a name?

A very kind lady who lives in Nanning has digitized Brinley and Bailey's Chinese names for me and she also told me the meanings of their names.

Aren't they beautiful???

This is Brinley's Chinese name.
" Wei Ya means: elegant"

This is Bailey's Chinese name.

"Xin Ru means: gentle and fragrant; warm;be softly fragrant"

Leslie, if you read this, thank you so much for digitizing our girls' names for me! You are so kind! I hope we will get the chance to meet in China! Xie Xie!

I belong to a group of adoptive parents. We all were DTC around the same time. By some small miracle we received our TA on June 22, only 16 days after LOA.
It breaks my heart that so many of these families are still waiting. I would gladly share my TA with any of them if I could. We have been waiting for Bailey for over a year now but some have been waiting even longer.
We are all parents and we all just want our children home.

We have decided to make our blog private. We will do this before we travel to China. Our friends and family can email us and we will be happy to add you to the list of people who are allowed to view it. Some of you should have already received an email about it.

We will post our journey on www.goingbackforbailey.com so that everyone can follow us there. I know that some people we've never met before have been following along on the blog since before we brought Brinley home but our times for adoptions is drawing to an end and we will be focusing on our family and helping other waiting children find their families through my work with Grace & Hope and any other ways that the Lord leads us.

Sharon

Itinerary

Friday, July 20 Arrive Beijing
Arrive Beijing on your own. Trader’s Hotel for 3 nights.

Flight: CO#89 Newark to Beijing arrives at 1:45pm

Trader’s Hotel Beijing (4 star)

Saturday, July 21 Beijing
Tian An Men Square, Forbidden city in the morning. Summer Palace in the afternoon.
Lunch is included. Dinner on your own.

Sunday, July 22 Beijing
The Great Wall in the morning. Rickshaw tour to the old neighborhood of Beijing in the afternoon.
Lunch is included. Dinner on your own.

Monday, July 23 Beijing/Nanning
In the morning you will be transferred to the airport to catch your flight to Nanning. Upon arrival, you will be transferred to Majestic Hotel for 2 nights.

Flight: CA1335 Beijing/Nanning 7:30/10:45am

Majestic Xindu Hotel (5 star)

In the afternoon, you will go to Guangxi adoption center to meet your daughter. She will stay with you from today. A family photograph will be taken later in the afternoon (at the hotel).


Tuesday, July 24 Nanning
You will go back to Guangxi adoption center to start paperwork. You will be interviewed by a civil service official. You then will go to Guangxi Notary office to be interviewed.

Wednesday, July 25 Nanning
Take a train to Guilin in the morning. Upon arrival you will be transferred to Guilin Bravo Hotel for 3 nights.

Guilin Bravo Hotel (4 star)

Thursday, July 26 Guilin/Yangshuo
Li River cruise.

Friday, July 27 Guilin
Visit the orphanage in the morning. Remain of the day as leisure.

Saturday, July 28 Guilin/Guangzhou
You will be transferred to the airport to catch your flight to Guangzhou. Upon arrival, you will be transferred to Victory Hotel for 5 nights.

Flight: CA4381 Guilin/Guangzhou 1:55/2:40pm

Victory Hotel (4 star)


Sunday, July 29 Guangzhou
Half day city tour.

Monday, July 30 Guangzhou
Child’s visa picture taken in the morning followed by medical examination.

Lifeng will submit your documents to the US Consulate in the morning.
Leisure day for you.

Wednesday, August 1 Guangzhou/Hong Kong
You will come to the Consulate to take an oath in the afternoon.
The visa will be ready by 5:00pm.
You then will be transferred to the train station to catch the train to Hong Kong. Stay overnight in Hong Kong (hotel reservation on your own.)

Thursday, August 2 Hong Kong depart
Flight: CO#98 Hong Kong to Newark leaves at 10:25am

ON OUR WAY HOME WITH BAILEY & BRINLEY and HOME TO BRICE, KEITH, KRISTEN & JOSH!!! :)

Raffle Update!

So far, we have had raffle ticket sales of almost $400!!! I am just humbled and amazed and thank the good Lord for the kindness of so many! Two people that I know (Tonni & Tina) have bought tickets. The rest are families who heard about our need and have reached out to help us. We are so thankful and so very blessed.

In the future, we want to be the ones reaching out to help!

Thank you so very much to each and every person who has sent wishes and bought raffle tickets! Our God is indeed an awesome God!!!

Bailey is coming home! :) In two weeks we will be traveling to China!!! I can't believe I will finally be looking into those beautiful little almond eyes in just a few days.

RAFFLE!!!

My wonderful friend Donna is holding a raffle for us! She will be raffling off this absolutely gorgeous Mei Tai that she's created!
This is a post she made to one of the wonderful groups we both belong to.

Introducing
~Tava Tai~
Well, actually I have some tweaking to do & I wasn't going to debut until later this summer. But......this will give you all a taste of what is to come & it will help out a friend of mine at the same time.
Sharon (MyLittlePretty) and her family are going back to China to bring back her second Asian beauty. They weren't planning on adopting again so soon, but she didn't know what was in store! Her story and faith is amazing. They have worked hard to raise the neccessary funds to return to China! Including starting her own WAHM business. They only have the last little bit to go. They need $2,835 more for the orphange fee. They are leaving July 18th!
I would love to help her reach this goal.
All proceeds from this raffle will go directly to the children left behind in this sweet girls first home. On to the details.
This is a Mei Tai designed for the big kiddo. The front is decorator weight "Flashback" reversing to turquoise Dupioni silk with khaki denim straps. It is a "baby" size at 20 x 16 inches, but I carry my 2 1/2 year old in this design all the time. It has about 74 inches top straps.

The hood reverses to green silk.

The waist & shoulder staps are padded. The straps are sandwiched between two layers of denim & extend all the way to the waist strap creating an internal x for extra support.
The sleeping hood attaches with a clips to a side strap loop. Attention to every detail.
But wait.........I saved the best for last!!
NO MORE PARKING LOTS STRAP DRAGGING!!
Sorry, I don't have an action picture, but this works great!! There is a single snap on the waist band & midway on the shoulder strap. Snap them up like shown above and tie the waist strap, put your kiddo on your back & pull to unsnap & tie the shoulder straps. The straps don't touch the ground!! At least they don't on me & I am 5'5" and there is some wiggle room.
So there it is..If you would like to take a chance on something new & super supportive and help a great momma at the same time..............than this is the raffle for you.
Sharon will be adding something from her store to sweeten the pot a bit.
Auction ends July 8th with winner to be announce July 9th. Tickets are $10 each. Please send FUNDED paypal only to 2China4Bailey@gmail.com for as many tickets as you desire. This is Sharon's account. Please put "Flashback MT" in the memo when you pay. Then send a email to me at slipskinz@yahoo.com with the number of tickets bought.
Donna

Very blessed wife to Charlie and mom to 3 homeschooled, home & water birthed, boys (13, 9, 5) & one born in my heart asian beauty!
~Maker of SlipSkinz ~

I will be adding a tote bag from My Little Pretty! I will embroider the design of your choice from one of the hundreds of designs I have available on to one of these great bags I offer! Your choice of color and embroidery design!

Thank you so much to everyone who has bought a raffle ticket! Your generosity amazes me! Please note that Donna is requesting "Funded PayPal" only. This is so that we will receive 100% of your donation instead of a percentage of it going to PayPal. If you would really like to buy a ticket but you don't have any funds in your PayPal account, you can use "ChipIn" on our site and Donna will still receive the info for your raffle tickets.

One very blessed mom,
Sharon

TRAVEL DATES!

Thank you, Lord for this blessing!!! We are so humbled that we were chosen to be the parents of our precious children and that our beautiful Bailey Shay will soon be joining us!

We rec'd our travel dates this morning!
We arrive in Beijing on July 20. As far as we know, we will receive Bailey on July 23. Our consulate appt. is July 31 and we will be HOME on August 2. More details later. :)

BAILEY IS COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Working On The Princess Suite

Marty has been working all weekend on Brinley and Bailey's bathroom. It must be 'just right' for our girls. Since jie jie moved out I haven't had the heart to work on it very much but now with our TA here we know that we have to get things going. The bathroom was a mauve pink and now it is a bright and sunny yellow. Their daddy is building a new vanity for them and they will have a new sink. The really cool thing about their vanity is that it will have a bottom drawer that pulls out and is actually something for them to stand on when they use the sink. When you lift the part that they can stand on, there is storage space under it. I can't wait to see our two little princesses standing there brushing their teeth together! :)The bathroom will be decorated in Raggedy Ann. I have always loved Raggedy Ann and I have a large collection of dolls and other items. Kristen has never had much interest in Raggedy Ann but Brinley does so we are going with the Raggedy theme.

The bedroom is going to have some ladybugs in it but no specific theme. I bought Brinley a comforter at my friend Michelle Lee's yard sale and Brinley absolutely LOVES it. I was lucky enough to find another one just like it on eBay for Bailey so we will be using those. Brinley is so excited about the new bedroom that she will share with Bailey!

Their daddy is building new beds for them too! I can't wait to show them off! We are so lucky to have such a talented daddy around here! We just tell him what we want built and he can do it and it always turns out even better than I hope it will! He is THE BEST DADDY in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD and WE LOVE HIM VERY MUCH!!! :)

He even lets us put pretty bows in his hair!!!

WE LOVE YOU, DADDY!!!

TA!!!!

It has taken 12 months and 1 week for me to be able to type the words,

WE HAVE TA!!!!!

I still can't believe that it's true!!!

Our agency is requesting a CA for 7/30, 7/31 or 8/01 for us!

We should be leaving around 7/16!

God is so good! We thank you, Lord, for this blessing in our lives!

Bailey Shay Is Coming Home!

Brinley Loves Books

I took these photos of Brinley recently while she was "reading" one of her favorite books. :) She is such a sweetheart!

One Year Ago....

On June 13, 2006 I looked into the eyes of my daughter and KNEW in my heart that she was my child.


Create Your Own

This is the post I made on June 16, 2006.

"On April 18 I was emailing back and forth with my friend who has a child from Guilin and she mentioned that there was a little girl from Guilin on the Cradle of Hope Agency's list of special needs children. I asked my friend how I could see this little one's picture. She told me how I could view it. This little girl was just the sweetest thing. Her name was Yang Xin Ru.


We weren't looking for another child. I just wanted to see this Guilin sweetie. Maybe my cousin could adopt her!
Fast-forward to June 6. My adoption clock has suddenly gone into overload. God is constantly in my thoughts about adoption. I know we are suppose to go again but I know Marty isn't ready. I start gathering info on children. None of them are ours but a couple of them do tug at my heart so I put their photos on the refrigerator so we'll all remember to pray that they will find their families. One of the agencies I contacted was Cradle of Hope, inquiring if I could view their list of waiting children. I'd forgotten that Xin Ru was on their list. I received a very quick response that the children remaining on their list had been returned to the CCAA and that they would be receiving a new list soon. I asked to be contacted when the new list came out. Another family was adopting Xin Ru so her file wasn't returned. She was coming home. They had posted their good news on WCC on May 12.
I didn't read the Yahoo groups for several days because I was busy with the kids since school had just ended for the year and we were going camping. I missed the post on May 26 from the family planning to adopt Xin Ru. They were no longer adopting her due to cirumstances beyond their control. (They have since found their beautiful daughter Olivia on another agency's list and are in China RIGHT NOW with her and she is beautiful and perfect and so blessed to have Angela as her mother.) Xin Ru was available again and her file had not gone back with the other children's files to the CCAA.
On June 13 I read a post that said in part, "We're looking for a home for X.Y., a happy Chinese girl born in April 2004 with a cleft lip and palate. X.Y. had surgery to repair her lip. She is reported to be a healthy child who loves to walk and ride wooden horses. She enjoys being held and trying to sing along with her caretakers." I emailed Kelly at Cradle of Hope and asked if I could view X. Y.'s file. I had no idea it was sweet little Xin Ru. When I opened the file my heart almost stopped when I saw her sweet face again.

Xin Ru!!!

That name had been playing over and over in my mind. "Xin Ru" I remembered that Stephen Curtis Chapman mentioned that his second adopted daughter's name was Xin Bie Ru in a video. I thought that was why I'd had it in my brain.....but I hadn't watched those videos since we had brought Brinley home. That was 6 months ago! Why in the world would I remember that was their child's name? "Xin Ru"
Here was my answer staring back at me on the computer screen. Our daughter's name.

"Xin Ru"

I quickly emailed Kelly and told her that Xin Ru and Brinley were from the same orphanage. Brinley had in fact come over and patted the computer screen and said, "Xin Ru!" and laughed. She said, "Mama, Xin Ru mei mei." Which in Brinley's vocabulary means Xin Ru is a baby. I guess that is how she remembers her. Xin Ru is eight and a half months younger than Brinley. I told Kelly that I was going to talk with my husband about her but he was out of town at the time. She told me that would be fine. How in the world could I tell Marty that I'd found our daughter? I prayed and God reassured me that he too would be talking to Marty. My faith was strong but I didn't get my hopes up. Maybe I was just imagining all of this. I prayed. God reassured me. I wept......and prayed more. "But God....did you remember to talk to Marty about this???" My only answer was "Fear not."
Marty returned home the night of June 14. I didn't mention it to him. The next morning he asked me why I hadn't slept much. He asked if Brinley kept me awake. I said, "Yes, Brinley......and God." I'm sure he knew what was coming but he stayed calm. During breakfast he asked me what I'd meant. When I told him he still stayed calm but told me that he had doubts about whether or not we could handle another child...... I was crushed.
However, before he left for work, everything had turned around and we were definitely going to talk some more about it. Marty said I seemed to be more in tune with what we were suppose to do as far as adoptions. God must have been speaking to him. I emailed Kelly and told her that we needed a couple of days to look at our finances and would it be possible to let her know our definite answer Monday. I gave her some of our basic family info. She promptly emailed back, "I haven't had any other requests for information on Xinru so Monday should be fine as far as a deadline is concerned. " I had to answer a few more questions for her to let her know that we could truly possibly qualify to be Xin Ru's parents.
So, now I sit here waiting. Today is Friday. When Marty and I talk about Xin Ru it is in a positive light. She is our girl. The money is going to be tight and it will be a long road back to China but Yang Xin Ru is our daughter and it's time to bring her home."

We didn't know it would be a full year before we would be bringing our sweet girl home. God has blessed us with many people having the chance to meet her and send photos of her to us. Marty didn't even realize that it has been a year until I mentioned it to him. The time has flown by and it has crawled at a snail's pace too. The time has almost come to travel to the other side of the world to bring our little girl home. :) I can't wait!

P.S. I just realized that on June 13, 2006 I found Bailey and on June 13, 2005 we rec'd our packet of information on Brinley from Children's House. God is so good. :)