STEFANI is HERE!

This morning after flying in from Beijing, we traveled to complete the first part of our paperwork and to get stefani. Her name that she goes by is Miao Miao. She is absolutly wonderful. Excellent personality, wonderful giggle, and great smile. She stands and cruises but seems timid to walk. When we met up with her and the nannies, she cried a great deal. Jill's ability to speak to her in Chinese made a world of difference. By the end of the night she was drinking milk and eating tofu and noodles. Kati loves her sister so much.

We have been extremely busy running from place to place for paperwork and sight seeing with our wonderful guide Nelson. After finalizing the adoption in Changsha today, I will need to get Kati back on some type of school schedule. The traveling is very exhausting. Jane and Rachel are doing very well. Rachel is a very adorable child, happy and outgoing. Jane and Isaac are very blessed.

I will post some pictures of our great wall adventure and the very tearful and joyous receiving of Miao Miao (Stefani). This experience is amazing.

Blogging technical difficulties

I am not able to view the blog from Changsha but it looks like I can post. I am not sure if we can ready your replies but I am working on it. It is currently 3:00 a.m. and I am trying to blog without waking everyone up. Since my last post we visited the great wall and yesterday we got Stefani. See next post, as it is deserving of it's own.

Thanks for all of the support you have given us.

shannon and jill

Forbidden City/ Mass at Beijing Church/more

Yesterday was another huge day, very busy and very wet. We started the day with breakfast in the Hotel, and then went to the Forbidden City. As we entered, the rain came down. It didn't stop until evening. The Forbidden City is extremely huge - it really is a city built for one. I will try to upload some pics of this soon. We also visited the Temple of Heaven, which is a man made wonder in and of itself. I will upload pics ASAP. There are wonderful stories that go with all of the places we have visited, and will most likely fill in the detailed story part later. The Temple of Heaven is 800 years old and is very majestic.

We went to Lunch and had many wonderful dishes, including pigeon soup. They had pictures in the menue, and Kati and I naturally wanted to try this dish. It was awsome. It was a pigeon cooked in some type of soup. The soup retains the pigeon flavor, and is simply wonderful. Kati loved seeing the head floating around in the soup - how very Cantonese of her!

Last, and most definitely not last, was mass at the oldest Catholic church in Beijing. The church is 600 years old, but had to be rebuild 100 years ago when the Boxers burnt it to the ground during the Boxer Rebellion. Mass goes beyond description. The spirit is so very strong, enough to bring tears to peoples eyes - even if you couldn't understand everything spoken. There is great passion here for Christ. The music was out of this world - very angelic and interactive. Words do not do justice to this experience. I can't really say a lot about details which Li gave me regarding the Church here but suffice it to say, the lay people have a very strong and resiliant faith. The kindness was also simply wonderful. I can talk more of this when I am back.

Kati was completly zonked out when it was time to go to mass, so we let her sleep. Jill was not able to attend the mass which she had so much wanted to be at. I hope there is another opportunity while we are here because it is phenomenal.

Li is considering Vocations - seriously, and it is very moving to talk with him about faith. Tomorrow is "gotcha day" for Stefani. I can't wait!

Arrival in Beijing

We arrived in Beijing around 2:15 p.m. The sun never went down on our entire flight, so I don't think any of us slept more than an hour during the whole airport/ flight time. We awoke at 5:30 a.m. befofe departing on our Chicago flight. All in all, we were awake 28 hours in a row. After arrival in Beijing, our guide Nelson took us to the Redwall hotel to rest. I told him we have a friend in Beijing, Li, and that we might call him to go out for dinner before we called it a day. I know he found it hard to believe we didn't just want to go to sleep but, we are only in Beijing occassionally.



Mr. Li came and got us around 6:00 and we went to Chinese Hotpot. It is an unbelievable meal. In front of you lies a spread of razor thin sliced lamb and beef (raw,), fresh mushrooms of differening varieties, several types of roots, and other stuff of which I cannot currently describe (it is 3:00 a.m. currently). Next to each person there is a pot of water above a flame (this was not an OSHA approved establishment). You grab a few pieces of meat, mushrooms, seaweed, roots, etc, and drop them into your hot pot. when you think it is safe to eat, usually one to two minutes, you pull it out with chop sticks or a fork, eat it, and repeat it. I will post pictures of this tomorrow. I must say, Kati did amazing during this adventure. A seven year old up for 28 hours, walking around the streets of Beijing, and avoiding a major meltdown. She is a real trooper. My mom, Al, and Jane also had a great time. Jane needed a memory card for her camera, and we haggled with a street vendor (which was quite fun) before finally negotiating a price of 150 yuan. I think this is roughly about 20 dollars U.S. Pretty good price for a 1 G memory card, I think.



I am going to sign off and try to go back to bed. We need to get up in three hours to get ready for breakfast and then sight seeing of Tienammen Square and the Forbidden City. We will post again soon. Thanks for all of your support. Two more days until our families become

20 hours till take off

Well, it has been a three year wait for Stefani and now we are down to our final 22 hours before travel time. I dropped Kati off at school today, and Jill and I are now frantically trying to think of anything we are forgetting. Dossier -, check, passports - check, tons of other stuff - check. But what about the house - is it ready for a 17 month-old? It works well for a seven year old, but that is much different. We have done pretty well getting things ready and all should go well. It's funny, you think about this day for three years and believe that you will feel perfectly ready when the day comes to get your new baby but, alas, you never feel ready. With some things in life you have to just trust God and go for it, putting anxieties at ease. The temperature in Beijing when we arrive will be 88 degrees. Hot and sunny. I know we are ready to be parents for the second time and, certainly, Kati is ready for a sister, but we are still a slight bit nervous.

Kati is looking forward to the dinosaur museum in Beijing, and hopefully the thought of going to it will keep her mind peaceful and joyous on our 15 hour travel adventure.

Packing up and waiting

Well, it's Sunday, April 27th, and we are nearly finished with packing our luggage. It is not as simple as it might sound at first glance. The luggage allowance from the US to China is 2 bags with maximum weight of 50 lbs. per bag, whereas within China it is 44 lbs. combined for all checked bags. As you can see, this requires a bit creativity for packing. Jill has been our primary packer, and has done a marvelous job. Kati has also been a big help in organizing and getting things in order for a new baby. We are looking forward to Stefani at the end of this week.

Travel Approval!

We received travel approval today (04/04/08), and are very excited about traveling the first week of May. Beth called and let Jill know that we had been approved, we need to up-date our visas, and prepare to get our new daughter. This is a time of great changes in our family, and we are very happy and excited about all of them.