Pictures!

 Smog that causes headaches and sore throats.

 Sweet potatoe vendors.

 Chess on the street.

 Selah Grace Ruihe Miller

 She is quite the whirlwind and keeps my parents on their toes!

 The curls are fake but she melts my heart!

 Checking out Baba's phone.

 Enjoying the park together on a day with little smog.

 New apartment buildings going up.

 Experiencing a park.

 Quality time with Baba.

 Its official, she's adopted!

 Shane celebrated his 14th birthday on Saturday. My parents gave him a watch and someone brought a cake over.



Bonding as much as possible.

Hefei

Last night we arrived to Selah's provincial city Hefei.  It's an industrial city of 5 million people.  We walked around this morning and came back with burning throats and headaches.  Smog is really bad. How do these people live in this?  Fresh air will not be taken for granted again!  There is little English signs in this city and no one is fluent at our hotel.  So our day has been stuck in our hotel room because of the smog and no way to communicate what we want out there with a son who can't communicate with us and who doesn't want to do anything because it's all new.  No new games, no swimming pool, no city walks, no interaction with us, and no smiles.  You can say it's been a hard day for all of us!  Today it's also soaking in that we are going to be in China for longer than expected due to paperwork for Shane and we are missing our kids in America.  Tomorrow morning is gotcha day for Selah Grace Ruihe.  So the next 3 days will be busy with paperwork.  Then Thursday or Friday we hope to visit her orphanage.  Saturday we will fly back to Guangzhou to finish the rest of our time.  There isn't much sight seeing to do here besides a museum and walking the city which is so interesting.  Sweet potatoe vendors carts, deep fried chicken feet, and lots of other food we don't reckonize.  Hopefully my daughter can post pictures to the blog later to share with you some of what we are seeing.   Overall it's been a great time so far.

Adjusting

Yesterday we went to the park which is a beautiful place.  Shane Lin helped us figure out how to go for a paddle boat ride around the pond.  About half way through the ride he started shutting down so we soon headed back to the hotel where he zoned out for awhile with TV in his language.  Last night a sweet guide Lily took us out for dinner at an American place and even bought the dinner for us.  She broke down and cried I think probably because most people don't want to adopt older children and she has worked so hard to make this all happen for Shane and seen so many miracles in the process.  Today is Shane 14th birthday.  We have a cake coming soon and will celebrate in a small way to not overwhelm him any more.  He was able to call his foster mom this morning who he is missing really bad.  He is grieving a lot today.  Then after lunch we are checking out to fly to Hefei for a week to pick up Selah on Monday and do all the paperwork up there.  We will then return to Guangzhou for the rest of the process.  We don't know what our internet situation will be like up there but will keep you posted if we can.  We was able to Skype with our Washington kids today for the first since we were having problems getting everything to work.  That was so nice to see and hear their voices and see that everything is going good there like I knew it would be.

                 Introducing Shane Lin Miller.  Gotcha day was January 14, 2015.  

 

 Signing yes to be adopted.

 Found a Washington apple in China!

 Playing basketball in the city. Great bonding time!

 Shane skyping Lily from Montana, who came from the same orphanage..

Brothers. 

Finally here

So much has happened since we landed in Ch*na Monday night.  The first thing was none of our luggage arrived and it was 11:30pm and we were so tired after flying for over 24 hours and not sleeping much at all.  Then when we got to our hotel which by the way is a awesome place to stay we found out that the U.S. consulate had located a half brother which doesnt live in Ch*na and they need him to sign off before releasing a passport for Shane.  This is proving to be a fight to the very end!  Tuesday was a much better day with being able to rest and our luggage arrived which made everything better.  Our travel approval was cleared at 4:59pm on Tuesday which made it possible to have a Wednesday gotcha day.  Tuesday we discovered that the VPN that we had in place didn't work why it did Monday night we will never know.  So we didn't know that we had received our TA or about what was happening with the half brother.   Wednesday we spent walking the city and getting a feel for where everything is.  Then at 3:30 we met our new son who we have fought so hard to make ours.  It was an experience that I don't think I will ever forget.  He has a sweet personality and so willing to please.  The language barrier is hard for him and the city seems to overstimulate him so we are spending a lot of time in our room right now.  Today the moment we have waited on for weeks finally arrived when he signed the paper to become ours.  He had a choice but he was brave and said yes to the unknown.  Tomorrow we apply for his passport believing that all papers will be done in time for a consulate appointment the last week of January.  Saturday we will celebrate his birthday and fly to Hefei in the afternoon.  Prayers for the language and for him to feel safe with us.  And then there's the whole TV issue which some who have adopted older kids know what I'm talking about.  He would rather watch TV then anything else but we are trying to bond and also walk a fine line of knowing when you can start placing boundaries in place.  Right now we have been having problems getting pictures in our blog so I will send them at a later time.

It's here!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow morning we leave.  Is it real??  So many emotions going on here by leaving four kids at home and taking one along and then picking up two more.  I've had my moments today that have been very emotional!!  We were given a rough schedule today of our time in Ch*na.

Here's our schedule for China:

Jan. 12th, fly into Guangzhou
Jan. 13th, rest if we can't get Travel Appointment
Jan. 14th, Shane's Gotcha date
Jan. 15th, adoption paperwork
Jan. 16th, passport application
Jan. 17th, fly to Hefei
Jan. 18th, city tour
Jan 19th Selah's gotcha day
Jan. 19th to Jan. 22th, adoption paperwork and city tour
Jan. 23th, fly back to Guangzhou
Jan. 24th to Jan. 30th, visa process and city tour
Jan. 31th to Hong Kong

We leave tomorrow morning from Pasco airport at 9:20 am.  I think some are showing up there to say good-bye and have a prayer with us.  Anyone is welcome.  It has taken all of you to make all this happen.  These are your kids too!  Next post will be from CH*NA!!!!!!!!!!!   Thank you still hardly seems strong enough to express what we have felt and experienced from all of you.  We love you all!!

Moving Mountains

So much has happened in the last 24 hours!  The National Visa Center today, after many hours of waiting on the phone and receiving literality 100's of busy phone signals, finally released a pfd for us so we could start filling out another form to get visas for Shane and Selah.  Another huge praise is the US consulate office in China said things are okay to proceed with adopting Shane.  We have no idea if they found their answers or not but are looking at it as a green light.  It has been crazy around here with Andrew deciding to build a table and built in benches since he had a little time.  He works best at the 11th hour unlike me.  So now I have piles to pack, lists to complete, saw dust, and drilling noises all over the house.  We will try to do our best to update our blog while in country but if not the girls will be taking over.  This blog is a place for a timeline of events and happenings that we can later share with Shane and Selah so if you are looking for something far out then you will have to find it on another blog.  Never had any desire to be a blogger!!!