It's OFFICIAL!!!

Yesterday, January 13, 2009, we visited the civil affairs office. This is the same office where we met Amelia yesterday. I was a little worried about her remembering leaving her nanny and her being upset but, she did just fine. After 24 hours of being her "foster parents" she is now our daughter.

Once there, we filled out some paperwork, took a family photo (see below) and were interviewed by a notary. We were able to meet a young man from the orphanage who spent time with Amelia. He was very nice. He and his wife our expecting a baby (sex unknown). We have decided that it is not a good idea to visit the orphanage because Gotcha Day was so traumatic for Amelia. But we will visit the Hefei Orphanage with Mike and Sandy where Grace is from.

After that, we will visit the Hefei Wild Animal Zoo. Look for photos tomorrow. Our day would not have been complete without walking around the city. We went to Parkson's (very expensive). Dodging the traffic was a fun part of the day. They do not stop for anyone even babies in strollers.

The weather was not so bad and the girls did fine. We had dinner at McDonald's, saw a monkey on a chain (the monkey was on the chain as opposed to "off the chain" - Franks comment) the lots of locals from Hefei City.

Frank: I was stuck in an elevator for 15 minutes today,,,it seemed like hours. All lights went out I managed to pry the doors of the elevator open but could not get the doors to floor 12 open. Then all of a sudden it was over...... if you have ever been stuck in a dark elevator, you know what I mean.

Dominic and I went to the gym yesterday and worked out with weights and treadmill and bike. I am glad he is here. He is very helpful and funny. He pushed every button on the elevator yesterday, made some folks kind of unhappy, 28 floors....He is a great kid who I am extremely proud to be his father. God has great plans for him.

UPDATE and So AMAZING

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that Amelia had a great night last night. She played for a while after we finally got her out of her 3 layers of clothes plus a coat. She bonded with Frank at first. We changed her diaper, changed her clothes and she played for hours.

Finally at 9:45 pm I put her in her crib. For the first time after 4 children she didn't cry. She looked around a lot and then sat up drifting asleep. I layed her down and she slept until 7:00 am. She is not very happy when she wakes up but warms up after a while. Breakfast went well and she ate a lot of congee. Like Hope, she didn't like the highchair at all but we made her sit in it. She cried for a few minutes and then calmed down.

Here is the amazing part of our journey listed below from a previous post on our adoption website.

Adoption Agency Website Post - So Amazing

Well, if you have taken a look at our blog, you will notice something different about Amelia. Our referral stated that she had a unrepaired cleft lip and cleft palate.

Melissa Blauvelt our FC told us that there was a chance that she would be repaired. Well, you guessed it. Amelia's lip was repaired April 2008 almost one year ago. Our referral was from Oct. 2007. We had prayed for God's healing and did not even consider it coming about this way. So, now all we need to do is have her receive palate surgery.

Another amazing thing about this story is that Amelia was in the same orphanage with Tonya Torkelson's little girl Matti. Unfortunately, we did not get to travel together but what we discovered was that Amelia was present in a few of Matti's birthday party pictures at the orphange and we didn't even know it until just yesterday.

Amelia is standing right beside Matti. I am so happy about this because I wanted a picture of them together but would not have gotten one with Matti and her family because our families would travel at different times to China.

God allowed for them to be pictured together and I am overjoyed. Thank you God and thank you Tonya for sharing those pictures with me. Especially since the orphanage did not receive my package with a camera in it so I did not get pictures of her in the orphanage.
Thanks for listening and sharing our journey with us. Love you guys!
Djuna in China (from MD)

GOTCHA DAY!!!

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that we have Amelia! Our day started with us arriving in Hefei City at around 9:30 am and settled in to our room at about 10:00 am. We were to meet our local guide in the lobby at 2:30 pm. All of this seemed so unreal even after such a long wait; two years and one day later since we began the process.

We settled in to our room. I took a nap and Frank loaded SKYPE on the computer so that we could show the kids and family Amelia. Dominic chilled while we waited to meet her. The hotel has a revolving restaurant on the 29th floor (Holiday Inn) so we met the Marrone Family for lunch at 12:00 pm. Count down began at 1:00. Before we knew it, it was 2:30. Frank and I got off on the wrong lobby not knowing that there were two. But, thankfully we figured it out.

The ride to the civil affairs office was only 15 minutes away. YIKES! We walked in to the building, went up to the 7th floor, down the hall and into a room. Before we got to the room, my nerves had taken over and I said, "I'm not ready". To late right.

We filled out paperwork for temporary custody, set out our gifts and waited. The nanny had not arrived yet. After a few minutes, I heard a noise in the hallway. Oh my, they were squeaky shoes. These are a type of shoe that the children wear I guess to keep track of them. Their here I said. The door opens and in comes a lady with a cute little girl all bundled up. I didn't know who she was until they said this is Huanqing. Her cheeks were really red as you will see in the photos, her hair longer than I expected and the unbelievable part is that her unrepaired lip is repaired. They did surgery on her lip April 2008 almost 1 year ago.

Our family coordinator told us yesterday that there was a chance that her lip could already be repaired. Wow, could it be. Frank and I felt like her lip had been repaired but, we would have to wait and see. So, needlesstosay, we were quite surprised.

Amelia didn't like either of us at first and cried pretty much the whole time we were there. Of course her nanny hanging around didn't help at all. Finally, Frank and I took over and took turns holding her as she cried. The nanny left and after about 20 minutes or so , we got to ask several questions before she left. Then we left also. She began to calm down and didn't cry anymore all the way to the hotel. She sat with Frank the whole time.

Once we got to the room, Frank held her for a while with all of her clothes on (3 layers). After a little bit of fussing, we took off her clothes, changed her diaper and put on pajamas. From then, on I kept my distance a bit while she clung to Frank, eased my way in and we have been inseperable since. She likes both of us now. Praise the Lord! We prayed peace over her at the civil affairs office and God has blessed us once again. She is truly amazing and smart as a whip.

Continue to pray for us during this week as she transitions. Hopefully bedtime will be a breeze.

Djuna

She is sitting in her crib watching Djuna prepare for bed. My guess is she will end up in our bed. Frank

Monday - The BIG DAY!

GOTCHA DAY!!!!

So long from Beijing -

It is 4:30 am here in Beijing and we will be leaving for the airport at 5:30. I got up at 4:00 am with the wake-up call promptly so we would not be late for the airport. Yesterday, we got ready with only 45 minutes to spare because they do not have snooze buttons here :). This day is to important to miss.

Dominic and I attended the acrobatic show last night. It was amazing. My guess is that the girls perfoming, do not have spines in their backs LOL. The strength, balance and concentration was amazing. Frank stayed back at the hotel to change the money over and to rest. When we returned from the show, we found him dead asleep. I had to wake him after a while to pack. They pick your bags up outside the room to have them ready for the airport. Thankfully, we did not have to much to do. I was very tired and just wanted to go to sleep.

Dominic met a young guy (Jordon) here on the trip and they went on to the sauna for a little bit. Very relaxing he said. Jordon's dad had gallbladder surgery 3 weeks ago and on Thursday was not feeling well but made the trip any way. Saturday, he ended up going to the hospital in Beijing. We prayed for him to feel better. The tests were inconclusive so he was discharged. I think that he was to have some other tests done or go to another doc but he felt better so he will be able to join his wife and Jordon in their province to receive little Amy Joy. Praise the Lord! They think that the elbow to the side in Tokyo (10 inch cut) could have made his body respond in someway that made him not feel well. Anyway, thank God he is doing better. Please keep him in your prayers.

So far everyone is healthy and feeling good. A little tired but we're making it.

Our trip to the Great Wall was good. A little cold. I didn't go very far this time. The air was hard to breathe and I hurt my left leg below the knee so, I decided not to make the hike. Frank and Dominic made it to the 3rd tower. A little girl named Chloe (3) went pretty high. She only started to cry when her daddy said that it was time to come down. Chloe asks why and he says "daddy is scared". It was so cute. She had waited for this day for a very long time. She is from the same orphanage as Amelia in Anhui.

Well, signing off until we get to Anhui. The next post will be of Gotcha Day. Please pray for us and our first evening with Amelia. Thanks!