Ni Hao Mile High

Home Sweet Home

noreply@blogger.com (Shanna) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:43:00 +0000

We're home! It was a 23 hour day full of travel but we finally made it home. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes while we were away. We had an absolutely amazing time and loved every bit of the experience. The adjustment to the time change has been a little challenging as we were all up at 3:30am and now everyone is sawing logs at noon but hopefully our bodies will adjust over the next few days. The trip was nonstop and actually a lot busier than I had anticipated. Hopefully over the next few days I can get caught up on pictures and updates from the last part of the trip. Can't wait to see you all soon!

Party of Five

noreply@blogger.com (Shanna) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:34:00 +0000

Yes, we are officially a party of five :) Since I am a little behind on posting I wanted to catch you all up on the past 2 days. Yesterday, we decided to take an optional tour of the Shaolin Temple. This is a very famous temple in China where kung fu was started. You might be more familiar with it from the movie, Kung Fu Panda. We got to enjoy a kung fu show, tour the temple area and see the pagoda forest. The weather was not cooperating and we had a few little issues with our tour guide but overall it was a good time. One moment we will never forget.....Did you see the picture of the little boy with split pants? This is very common in China. The babies don't wear diapers and walk around with their little tushies hanging out. And when they need to use the restroom they just squat and go wherever...including the steps to the kung fu theater. Let's just say it was a blowout moment :) One we all are still laughing about.

I still cannot get over how the Chinese people are so fascinated with us especially now that we are carrying around a chinese baby. Some just stare completely confused while others smile and approve. In Beijing, it is more common to see Americans visiting and touring but in Zhengzhou not so much. Last night at dinner a man just stared at us the whole time. I can't help but wonder what thoughts they are having.....what do they think of the one child policy? Are they happy to see these children being adopted and moving on to a better life? Are they ashamed? And finally, you have to wonder if they themselves have abandoned a child and when they see us it stirs up emotions. I guess we will never know.

Today, we finally had a day to rest! We slept in and enjoyed our breakfast without being rushed. Afterwards, we went for a walk to a local park and enjoyed some kite flying and the kids got to take Maili on some carnival rides. And of course, Ethan was once again mobbed by the papparazi! He asked if we ever come back to China can he shave his head :) We have really enjoyed getting to experience the local culture and the Chinese people. They are all so friendly and eager to practice their english. We were waiting outside of a local shop the other day for our bus and the family who owned the shop immediately came out, gave us seats to sit on, and wanted Lauren & Ethan to teach their daughter english. It was so cute to see the kids trying to communicate with each other.

At the end of the day, we received our notary papers for the adoption.....Maili's birth certificate, abandonment letter, and finding ad. It is customary in China when a child is abandoned that they post an ad in the local paper to see if they can track down the parents (which never happens) but they feel it is their obligation. It brought tears to my eyes to see her little picture at just a few weeks old with the description of where she was found like a classified ad in the back of the paper. What a story she already has. I can't wait to see the plans that God has for her. She is doing absolutely amazing! We fall in love with her a little more and more each day. She has incredible fine motor skills and is so content just unbuckling and buckling her cute little china doll shoes. We're going to purchase them in every size to bring home! She smiles constantly and loves to be held. If she had to pick who gets to hold her, I would say Daddy would be the winner. But overall, she has attached to all of us and of course we are a little attached ourselves :)

Next stop.......Guangzhou.

"Meeting Maili"

noreply@blogger.com (Shanna) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:27:00 +0000

So I'm sure some of you have been wondering where in the heck the Taylor family has been and why are they not keeping up to date on their blog? Well, if you read the last post you'll know why. It has been a crazy couple of days! We jumped off the train in Zhengzhou at approximately 12:25pm on Monday. And when I say jumped I mean jumped......2 adults, 2 kids, 5 suitcases, 4 carry ons, and 2 bags of souvenirs we had purchased all jumped off that train in record time. George had warned us that there was not a lot of time between stops so we would need to be quick. So off we went. Cindy, our local rep in Zhengzhou, was waiting right there as we got off the train and whisked us through the crowds of people to a van. I can't even begin to describe the amount of people, cars, mopeds, taxis, buses, bicyclists, etc that were on the roads. Absolutely crazy!!!! And no such thing as following traffic signals. People just drive wherever whenever. Keith was able to catch a lot of it on video and it is truly unreal! So as we got in the van, Cindy told us that we were headed to the hotel and that Maili was there waiting for us! This was not at all like we had imagined. No time to unwind, get settled in to our hotel room, nothing! We rushed to our room and within 10 minutes she was at our door. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of her right when they handed her off to us as we really wanted to just savor the moment and not overwhelm her with all the paparrazi photo taking. She was absolutely beautiful! She did fine until the nannies handed her off to us and then the tears began. She cried a very quiet cry as we held her and tried to console her and within about 10 minutes she fell right asleep in my arms. When she awoke 2 hours later she had 4 smiling strangers staring at her :) At first, she took it all in with wide eyes and then we got her to smile. And she hasn't turned back since! She has the sweetest personality. So quiet and soft spoken with just the cutest little smile. She lights up the whole room. We are all so in love with her and so far she is doing well with all of us. Today, we traveled with the group to the registration office to make the adoption official. Welcome to the family......Maili Grace Taylor

Are Those Chickens in Your Goat Ranch?

noreply@blogger.com (Shanna) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:19:00 +0000

Sunday, October 9, 5:30am "Got tickets?"

Today we woke up bright & early to catch a plane to Zhengzhou. All of the families made it through the ticket line except us. You see, we decided to go against the norm and stay separate from our group at the Westin in Beijing ( we are suckers for the heavenly bed or maybe we're just a little high maintenance). Since I travel a fair amount for work we decided to take advantage of my go-zillion Starwood points that I have accumulated to pay for a majority of our hotel stays since we are required to book two rooms in each hotel that we are staying (Chinese hotels only allow three people per room no matter your size or age). It had really worked out just fine except the local agency rep forgot to include us in her numbers when purchasing the airfare tickets to Zhengzhou. Oops!!! No worries though, George got us booked on the next flight out and we're just an hour behind the rest of the group. We feel like we're on the Amazing Race :).

Detour #2- 12:20 pm "Go with the flow........."

We were able to board our later flight from Beijing to Zhengzhou but 30 minutes into our flight time the pilot announced that we were turning back to Beijing due to weather conditions getting worse in Zhengzhou. It turns out that there was dense fog which was made worse by the local farmers burning corn husks. This is the time of year for the corn harvest and ALL of the farmers burn the husks after the cob has been removed by hand. It was interesting to see this process along the busiest of roads in Beijing. You could see hundreds of yards of corn just lying on the sidewalk and huge piles of husks next to them. Even in Beijing we experienced very smokey skies because of all the burning going on (in addition to the thick smog). The terminal inside the Beijing airport also had a smokey haze. Yeah, that's what you want to see inside of an airport and around planes.......smoke!

So...........we picked up our luggage and got in the long lines to try to re-book our flight. All of the flights to Zhengzhou were cancelled for the rest of the day and the first available flight out was Monday evening at 10:20pm. BUMMER! The airline was required to provide us a hotel for the night so we went with the flow and jumped on a shuttle bus to the hotel. From the looks of the shuttle bus I told Shanna that it was very likely that the hotel would probably resemble a goat ranch, at best. Boy did I call that one! You wouldn't believe the scenery surrounding this "hotel". There were wild chickens running around and it looked like a war zone around there. We couldn't help but laugh at the situation. When the bus pulled up to the hotel I told the driver not to worry about removing our bags from the van. As luck would have it, our driver didn't speak not one lick of English. Since I can only say enough Chinese words to order off of an extra value meal at McDonald's we had a rather comical exchange as I played charades to try to tell this driver to take us back to the airport (using my arms like wings and making airplane noises, to boot). We were then approached by the one, yes only one person in the hotel that spoke broken English. He happened to be the hotel manager and he REALLY wanted us to stay at his swank establishment. I started off trying to let him down easy by telling him that our flight was very early the next day (little white lie) and we needed to stay much closer to the airport. He was insistent that we were very close to the airport and all would be fine. Finally, I had to fess up and call his baby ugly..."Sir, you're hotel is not nice and I have traveled too far to stay in your goat ranch for the night" (I added the goat ranch for your whimsical benefit). He smiled, chuckled and relented knowing that we weren't " goat ranch" kind of folk. The reality of the situation was that my gut was telling me that this was not a safe place for my family.

Did we mention that we're hotel snobs?

7:00pm "Just what the doctor ordered......."

But have no fear, the amazing George is here! We seriously don't know what we would do without our beloved George. He swept in and saved us from the free range chicken goat ranch and put us up in a nicer hotel in the city. George felt so bad about our day that he sent three gentlemen to our room that were experts in Chinese traditional medicine and gave us the most amazing massages complete with a full body "pressure point" massage. Just what the doctor ordered. I bet we all sleep like a rock tonight! George was also able to get us on a 7:00am train from Beijing to Zhengzhou. We were excited about the 5 hour train ride since we had seen enough of the airport in Beijing (10 hours). We also new that fog, smoke or any other weather condition wouldn't keep that train from departing. I wonder what amazing adventures await us tomorrow............picking up Maili is definitely one of them. WE CAN'T WAIT TO MEET HER, HOLD HER, LOVE HER!!

"Extreme Stair Stepper......"

noreply@blogger.com (Shanna) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:17:00 +0000

So, we're trying our best to keep you updated. Unfortunately, we are having technical difficulties with blogger along with limited wifi access. I think it is blocked here. Anyway, my awesome brother, Shane, is posting for us via email.

Yesterday, we conquered the Great Wall! Or at least part of it :) It was absolutely amazing!!!! Unfortunately the smog/pollution is really bad and the view wasn't as clear as we would have liked. Our guide, George, gave us about 1hr and 45 minutes to reach the top of the section of the wall that we were climbing. Wow!! Talk about a workout! I can't even begin to explain how steep the steps were and how uneven. Ethan practically ran the whole way. The rest of us kept up pretty well and with no complaints. It was so cool to see all the different people from all over the world. I think it finally hit me as we were climbing that we are in China. The past few days have been nonstop activity topped with not a lot of sleep. The kids are sleeping great but Keith and I keep waking up around 4:00am.

After the wall, we headed to the Olympic Village from the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Bird's nest was an incredible sight to see first hand. I can tell you that the images on TV did not do it justice! We also saw the Water Cube, Dragon Hotel and, of course, the Olympic Torch . Ethan was quite popular with all of the young Chinese girls as we wandered through the Village. That blonde hair, blue eyes and fair complexion instigated many photo opportunities from these young girls. The Chinese people are so polite and have always been respectful in asking "picture? picture?" before swarming our Goldie-Locked Justin Bieber phenom. Several of these girls snuck in a feel of Ethan's golden coif before sending him off, smiling and giggling the whole time. We figured we could pay for a large chunk of our trip if we started charging these girls to take a picture with Ethan. It has been entertaining to say the least.

After spending some time wandering through the Olympic Village we then headed to a Chinese Acrobatic show in the Central Business District of Beijing. Wow! The stunts that these young Chinese acrobats performed were stunning! Just when you thought that they couldn't do anything crazier than what you just witnessed, they would go a step further and blow your mind! The acrobatic show was a great end to a very exciting and exhausting day.

It took about an hour to get back to our hotel which was about 1.5 miles from the Chinese Acrobat Theater. Yes, I said an hour to go 1.5 miles. This was "typical" Beijing traffic for a Saturday night- one big parking lot! Next stop.....Zhengzhou.

Planes, trains, automobiles and rickshaws

noreply@blogger.com (Shanna) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 15:29:00 +0000

Well, We made it to Beijing! The 13 hour flight was actually not too bad. The kids did awesome and are adjusting to the time change really well. When we arrived in Beijing we were greeted at the airport by one of our adoption agency reps, Cindy. We met up with two of the other families that are in our travel group and headed to the hotel. Our travel group consists of 14 families from all over the US. Including kids, the group is about 45 people in all! Some of the families have been waiting 5 years for this time to come. I think I'm still in a daze....here I am sitting in the lobby of a hotel in China, half way around the world, anticipating picking up my daughter in 3 more days, somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming.

Today we started the day off with a rickshaw tour of the oldest part of Beijing.... Hutong. This is where the upper class lived back in ancient times. We also got to take a tour of the inside of one of the homes. Next, we headed to the silk factory to see the process of making silk from the silkworm and then on to a delicious lunch at a local area restaurant. After lunch, we toured Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

Today was the last day of the Chinese holiday so the crowds were't too bad. They have been celebrating the birth of the People's Republic of China which was actually announced on the steps of the building behind us on Tiananmen Square.

Ethan has become quite the celebrity!!! The Chinese are fascinated with his blond hair! Luckily we had heard that this would be the case and had prepared him ahead of time. People would just come up around us and start smiling and pointing and wanting to take their picture with him. We also got to experience our first squatty potty :) The toilets are basically a hole in the ground that you squat over to do your business. Just a little challenging!

Beijing has been amazing!!! We are having such a great time soaking in the culture. So far it has been fairly easy to navigate. Most of the people at the hotel speak English and when we have been out and about we have been with our tour guides who have had everything set up for us. We did however go out on our own tonight for pizza. It was quite comical to see us trying to order! Nevertheless, our pizza arrived just the way we like it. Next stop......The Great Wall of China.

The Journey of a Lifetime

noreply@blogger.com (Shanna) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:29:00 +0000

That's what we're calling it.....The Journey of a Lifetime. Our lives will forever be changed by the events that will take place over the next 2 1/2 weeks. But not only will our lives be changed but most importantly the life of one special little girl. I can't even imagine what her little mind has been processing lately.

We found out a few weeks ago that Maili was moved from the Healing Home back to the orphanage where she was originally placed when she was found at the age of 2 days old. She only spent 1 month there until she was moved to the Healing Home where she lived the majority of her little life. It breaks my heart to know that she was taken from everything she knows and is familiar to her and put some place completely foreign. And speaking of foreign....in a few more days she will become a part of our family, a group of people she has never seen before. Please pray for Maili and all of the transitions she has endured and will endure in the next few days. We are so excited to hold her in our arms and pray that she will feel our love immediately.

So, where are we? We are in Chicago awaiting our connecting flight to Beijing! I cannot believe the day has finally arrived! We arrive in Beijing at 3:00pm Thursday (their time) 2:00am Thursday (our time). Friday we will tour the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, take a tour of Hutong, and finish the day off with an acrobatics show. Saturday we take on The Great Wall :) Should be real interesting to see how we do all of that when you throw jet lag into the equation! Sunday we depart for Zhengzhou where we will officially be handed Maili on Monday (Sunday evening for you all). We'll be posting pictures and updates every evening.

On to some more news.....the past 7 days have been a whirlwind!!! We sold our house and bought a house all in the past week. Yes, you read that right! We are so extremely overwhelmed by how amazing God has provided for us. Every little detail has been perfectly planned out and timed by Him. So much better than we could have done ourselves. What a peaceful feeling to know that we can begin this journey without worrying about the house & move. So, here we go!!! Next stop.....Beijing.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Travel News

noreply@blogger.com (Shanna) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:10:00 +0000

Yes, we got the call this week (yippee!!) that we received our travel approval which is the official invitation to travel to pick up Maili. We were really hoping that we would be able to get a consulate appointment the last week of Sept or first week of October but unfortunately that didn't come through. I guess China has decided to close down for a week to celebrate my BIG 40th birthday coming up on Oct. 2nd so it has delayed our trip a little. Actually, they are calling it a national holiday. Whatever you wanna call it, it's a big deal :)

So our official plans are to leave on October 5th and return either the 19th or 20th. We're still trying to squeeze in a trip to Disneyland in Hong Kong at the tail end of the trip :) Heck, if you've traveled half way across the world you might as well see Mickey! We'll keep you posted on all our plans and we hope you check in to follow us along on our adventure of a lifetime!

Showered with Love

noreply@blogger.com (Shanna) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:33:00 +0000

We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family in our lives. This past weekend we were showered with love as we prepare for the arrival of Maili! What a beautiful day it was as we celebrated her anticipated arrival. Thank you to everyone who attended and showered us with many beautiful gifts. It was also so wonderful to recognize Lauren & Ethan's upcoming role as big sister & big brother.

And yes, our Article 5 arrived this week on Tuesday so the countdown has begun!!!! We are now officially waiting to receive the call that we can travel to China. Our agency estimates the timeframe as 2-4 weeks however I think the average time frame right now is around 13 days. We'll pray for 13 days or sooner! As soon as we get the call, we can start booking the flights. Yippee!!!!

And then more good news.....we received new pictures of Maili yesterday! And she is smiling :)

Kinda China

noreply@blogger.com (Shanna) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:10:00 +0000

Where has the time gone??? Somedays I sit here and think time is flying by while other days it seems to just barely tick by. Keith recently described the wait as "torture" and I have to say I agree. It seems like forever since we first laid eyes on our little Maili and yes we have been blessed with photos along the way but still this waiting is hard. Another friend of mine recently said I've been pregnant for 21 months!! Yes, very true. And while I am not usually the patient type :) I've learned to take deep breaths and sit back and wait. My recent fortune from a fortune cookie said...."Time and patience are called for many surprises await you." Boy, am I ready for those surprises!

So to pass the time, here's what we've been up to lately....

Two weeks ago we traveled to Chicago to visit friends and get our visas for China. We had a great time hitting our favorite spots...Ghirardelli for yummy sundaes, the Lego store, Navy Pier, Rainforest Cafe. We also headed over to Chinatown to give the kids (& myself) a little taste of the sights & sounds ( & smells) of what we would soon be experiencing on our trip. I forgot how much they like to burn incense ( I better pack a lot of Motrin) and it was quite funny to try to explain to the kids who Buddha is :)

We also set up Maili's room! Now, it's starting to feel real. I can't believe she will be sleeping in that crib before we know it. Thanks Becky for the super cute bedding!! Minus a few finishing touches we're ready to go.

Originally we reported that we would probably be traveling in late August/early Sept and it looks like we are headed for mid to late September. We had a little hang up with our immigration approval getting ready to expire so we had to get fingerprinted again and fill out some more paperwork :) but things are now moving along. We are currently waiting on "Article 5" which is the last step before they issue our travel approval. Once travel approval is issued, we kick in to fast gear to buy our tickets and make all of our arrangements for the trip.

I also made a new friend :) She just happens to be the adoptive mom of another baby at the Shanghai Healing Home! We found each other online through one of the yahoo groups. It was so great to talk to someone else who is going through the same process. She sent me a link of more pictures of Maili!

And here she is taking a stroll with one of her little friends....

We found out a few weeks ago that our sweet baby girl had her palate surgery. We were informed early on that her surgery was scheduled for June sometime but were not sure if they would go ahead with it or not. Our friends that visited the healing home reported that indeed she had the surgery and was recovering really well. We can only hope and pray that everything went smoothly and that she has had a lot of love & care during this recovery time.

Hopefully our little care package will make her feel a little better...

Amazing......

noreply@blogger.com (Shanna) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 02:52:00 +0000

Okay, so it seems like I've been slacking a little bit on keeping you posted via the blog but actually I've been relaxing!! This is probably a good thing considering we might be a little busy the next couple of months :)

The Taylor family enjoyed a much needed week of rest & relaxation in Florida....

We had a great time hanging out on the beach, jet skiing, eating lots of yummy food and we even spotted a family of dolphins while taking a boat ride one afternoon. How wonderful it was to get away. At the end of the trip, one of the kids mentioned that this was a great vacation but it would have been so much more fun with Maili. It's so cute to see how they have already adapted to the idea of having a baby sister and are always thinking and planning for her arrival. Hopefully the transition of actually having her with us will be a smooth one.

We have had lots of fun preparing for our trip to China....reading lots of books, eating the occasional Chinese meal (although I'm sure it's nothing like the real thing!), and learning a little bit of Mandarin. We can all count to 5 and say hello. That should get us real far! And of course, we have purchased some cute little girly outfits :)

So speaking of Maili, we recently received some updated pictures. I titled this blog post "Amazing" because the way that we received these photos is truly amazing. In a typical Chinese adoption (meaning the child is at an orphanage or foster care home) the adoptive parents would maybe receive 2-3 updated photos of their child prior to their trip to China. I had received some updated pictures of Maili from the Shanghai Healing Home back in May but since we had to stop all further communication with them (so as to not jeopardize the adoption) we thought that we probably would not be receiving any more.

Obviously, I've been reading a lot of blogs and posts on yahoo groups, etc. from other families who have adopted from China. About a month ago I came across a post on a yahoo group about a family who was in the process of adopting a little boy from China and at the same time decided to adopt a 13 year old boy as well. Sounded like a neat story so I clicked on the link that led me to their blog and just started reading. It turns out that this family has 2 older sons who were getting ready to travel to China to volunteer at....The Shanghai Healing Home!!!! I couldn't believe it! Here is an opportunity for me to connect with someone who will be holding my baby in a few weeks. This is so rare and unheard of in the adoption world. I immediately started searching their blog for some way to contact them and sure enough the dad's phone number was right there! The family was in the process of fundraising for the adoptions and were selling chickens (yes, chickens :)) and there was the phone number. I contacted the dad and explained who this crazy woman was on the other end and then asked if his boys would be willing to send me pictures and updates of Maili while they were there. It turns out the whole family was going to stop by the healing home on their way to get the boys they were adopting. So on June 26th, I woke up to these precious pictures in my inbox...

What a serious face! When I look at these pictures I always stop and wonder what she is thinking. She definitely looks content and well cared for but part of me wonders why she doesn't look happier. It dawned on me one day that it's because she still needs to know the love of a family. We can't wait to wrap our arms around her and show her what it means to be truly loved.

You know years ago if you would have asked me if I would adopt, I would have honestly answered no. My biggest fear was that I could not possibly love someone else's baby like my own. But the minute I received "the call" and opened the email that contained the first glimpses of our daughter, I was in love. Truly in my heart this child was mine. And every day that goes by that love grows deeper and deeper. Maybe on another date I'll share why I changed my mind about adoption :)

We are so thankful to our new friends that were able to take these pictures for us. By the way, they sent us about 25 pictures! I want to show you another picture of the playroom area at the healing home....

I've already mentioned that I've been reading a lot of books on China adoptions and especially ones that talk about the conditions of the Chinese orphanages. And I guess I'm okay with reading them at this point in the adoption process because fortunately we know that our sweet girl is not having to endure those conditions. We sleep well at night knowing that she is being cared for in such a loving environment. But that is not the case for so many orphans. I came across a video the other day that a family took of the orphanage that they picked their daughter up from. Here is the link..
http://ouraussiechinababy.blogspot.com/2006/09/yangxi-swi-video.html

Looks a little different than the above picture doesn't it? Did you notice that there are no mattresses in the cribs? As much as I've read nothing could prepare me for seeing it live on that video.

We are so truly amazed at God's provision during this adoption process. From finding out that Maili has spent the critical first months of her life in the healing home to finding this wonderful family who would be visiting our daughter in China. Each step of the way we are in awe. I never hesitate to recognize God's hand in all of this and of course I know that all of this is not just "by luck or chance" but truly by design. Amazing.....

Ni Hao Mile High!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Shanna) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 23:02:00 +0000

Welcome to our blog! We are so excited to finally get this up and running so we can keep in touch with everyone we love and share all of the exciting things that are going on in the Taylor house. I guess we should start by explaining our title....Ni Hao Mile High or in other words Hello Denver! This pretty much sums up what has kept us busy and excited over the past few months.

Before I begin explaining the title let me explain where our hearts have been the past few years....

In a recent sermon at church our pastor said these words..."If you never trust God with your life, you'll never really experience God's presence in your life." I have to say that pretty much sums up our thoughts & prayers over the past few years. We started really trusting God with all aspects of our lives and in turn we have experienced God like never before.

So back to the first part of the title, Ni Hao means hello in Mandarin. For those of you who haven't heard....we have been in the process of adopting a baby girl from China for the past 1 1/2 years. We started the process in late October 2009 and at the time we were seeking to adopt a healthy baby girl between the ages of 0-18 months. After 10 months of the paperwork chase, we were officially Logged In on July 13, 2010. The wait at the time was expected to be 3-4 years from the time we were logged in. After many months of research and prayer we decided in February 2011 to change our file from healthy status to "special needs" status which immediately put us in the fast track to get matched with a baby with one of the three medical conditions we had specified. At that point we were told that it could take any where from 2-18 months to be matched with a baby.

On Monday, May 16th, 2011,we received "the call" from our agency! "Are you ready for the call?" asked Judy at the agency. "You mean "the call"?" I asked. Of course we're ready!!! In a matter of moments, we had met our daughter. We would like to introduce you to our daughter Qian Ya Qi......

In China they always list the last name first so her name is Ya Qi (pronounced Ya Chee).She was born on November 1, 2009 in Wugang City, Henan, People's Republic of China and diagnosed with bilateral cleft lip & palate. We fell in love with her instantly! We received what info the agency had on her including details of her abandonment, medical records including when her lip was repaired at 9 months of age, development charts, and the name of her orphanage, Pingdingshan Social Welfare Institute. Everything looked great except there was one concern....she had failed a hearing test at the age of 4 months. Based on our research of cleft lip & palate babies we knew that it was very common for them to have chronic ear infections, drainage, etc. which would cause them to fail a hearing test at any time. We weren't too concerned however we did ask our agency to get some followup info on her hearing before we made the decision. About 2 days later, we received a call from the agency stating that her file was about to be recalled and we needed to make a decision in 24 hours whether or not we want to "lock in" her file. Panicked, we contacted doctors, parents of babies with cleft lip & palate, and other resources to make an informed choice to move forward based on the info we had. Basically, we had to step out in faith and trust God. We knew in our hearts that this was our daughter and that we would accept her and love her no matter what the diagnosis.

Here is one of the first pictures that we received of Ya Qi probably taken when she was about a year old....A very important detail here....when Lauren first saw this picture she mentioned that it was so cute (of course!) but also that Ya Qi was sitting on the rug right next to the mountains! This really stood out to Lauren because as some of you know we are also in the process of moving to Denver and obviously Ya Qi already has a tendency to want to be by the mountains!

Whew! So that was Monday-Thursday. On Friday, May 20th, we officially locked in her file and sent in our Letter of Intent to China which basically states that we want to adopt Qian Ya Qi. When I called Judy at the agency to let her know we wanted to move forward she mentioned that the reason we were unable to receive any updates on her hearing was that they had recently found out that Ya Qi was moved to Shanghai from Pingdingshan. This is a very important detail! She mentioned that Ya Qi could possibly be at a place called the Shanghai Healing Home. Of course, I had heard of these healing homes during all of my research on the internet and had even at one time mentioned to Keith that this would be the absolutely best place for any orphan with a special need to be.

We immediately googled Shanghai Healing Home and came across photos of the babies in their healing home. Most of these healing homes are non-profit organizations run by Americans who receive their funding through sponsors to cover the costs of running the home, taking care of the little ones and covering the costs of their surgeries. They give each of the babies an american name on the website. When I looked at all the pictures of the babies, none of them jumped out at me as Ya Qi however when I got to the very end of the photos something else jumped out at me......3 cute little babies sitting on a colorful rug right next to the mountains! It was the same rug that Ya Qi was sitting on in the pictures we had received. At that moment, I knew she was at the healing home. I immediately looked again at all the photos and came across Rachel....born November 1, 2009. Could this be her? We immediately pulled up our photos and compared them to the pictures of Rachel and yes indeed this was Ya Qi. We continued to explore the website and came across a video showing the 1 year anniversary of the healing home and with tears running down our cheeks, we witnessed the first glimpses of our daughter.

Now I can't begin to explain to you the intense emotion we felt at that moment. Remember, if you never trust God with your life, you'll never experience His presence. Talk about experiencing His presence! Here we are trusting God throughout this whole adoption process....being nervous about what was in store, what will she be like, how will she react when she meets us, what kind of care will she have had, will we have a lot of attachment issues to deal with, you name it and here we have been given the best news of all. She has been in a loving environment, cared for around the clock by 3 nannies assigned to her, held, played with, exposed to Americans, and so on and best of all someone who has taken pictures, videos, and has a record of all of her milestones. This is incredible news!

Of course, I immediately emailed the healing home in hopes of confirming that this was Ya Qi and getting an update on her hearing. They replied immediately and confirmed what we already knew...this was indeed Ya Qi. As for her hearing, they gave us every indication that it was related to her cleft palate. After a few emails back and forth with the healing home we realized that we were truly blessed to have this kind of contact with her caregivers and after a few days came to the conclusion that this contact could potentially jeopardize our adoption and the work that the healing home is doing. So, unfortunately our communication has been stopped. We look forward to the day that we might be able to meet the missionaries who started the healing home and thank them in person for the work they do and the love and care they have shown our daughter. Until then we will wait patiently knowing she is in good care.

About a year ago, way before we were matched with Ya Qi, we came up with the name Maili Grace (pronounced Miley) and we all decided this would be the name of our daughter/sister. In Mandarin, Mai means "elegant" and "ocean". Perfect we thought! When we were matched with Ya Qi we looked up the meaning of her name... Ya means "elegant" and Qi means "wondrous" or "jade". Hopefully you noticed the coincidence :)

So of course you are wondering when we will travel to get her! We are currently waiting for immigration approval, visas, and travel approval before we can travel to China. We will keep you all posted on our progress on all of these important milestones that bring us one step closer to meeting Maili Grace. Once we get our travel approval, the whole family will be off to China for 2 weeks. Right now the estimated departure will be late August/early September. We can't wait to introduce her to all of you!

Well, onto the second part of our title...Ni Hao Mile High. Yes, we are headed to Denver. When? That's a good question! It all depends on.....

The sale of our home!!!!! We are hoping and praying to be there by the start of school in late August but we'll just have to sit back and wait and see what God has planned. We are really looking forward to a new adventure in our lives and of course 300 days of sunshine and no humidity!

Believe it or not that is all for now :) Hopefully you check out our blog periodically as we post updates and you'll be able to track us as we travel across the world and across the country. I promise the rest of the posts will not be this long :)