Second Half of our Trip and Home Coming

Here's the pictures from the second part of our trip to China.  We had a wonderful time bonding with Abe, our agency did a fabulous job with the paperwork involved, and we were blessed by traveling with some great families, but we were definitely ready to come home!! Hotel rooms get small with a toddler!

Visiting Steven Curtis Chapman's orphanage, Maria's Big House of Hope.

His first visit to McDonald's

Loving the french fries!!

At the zoo in Guangzhou... just love the pandas with our panda!

Watching the koi fish

Like father, like son...

Abe and Chris watching a man carve our name chop (a stamp with Morris in Chinese)

Our travel group with all of our kiddos! Such a great group and now wonderful friends!

Can't get enough of his sweet smile

My new friends, Brittani and her daughter Louvee and Tiffani and her daughter Maylee. Such sweet girls who answered ALL of my many questions about being a mom!

Our boy loves noodles!

Love him!

Getting ready for his first flight (to Guangzhou)

Boarding the plane (he didn't like his hat).

On a river cruise in Guangzhou

The third tallest building in the world 

We found out that Abe LOVES balloons!

Swimming with daddy... so happy he loves the water!

Swinging

And he loves his daddy's hat...

On our way home... preparing for the 13-hour flight!! Should have brought a vacuum for all the Cheerios we left behind. We were driving the flight attendants crazy!

We made it!! Yay!!

We are finally home!! My parents, Chris' mom, and some wonderful friends greeted us at the airport.  After a long trip and super long flight we were thrilled to be back in Monterey with our friends and family!

Our sweet friends, the Homans, greeting us at the airport. Their youngest son has been waiting for his new friend to come on a plane for 6 months.  He was thrilled!

My parents decorated our house for us when we arrived. Abe LOVED the balloons!

The next day, my sweet friend Cara hosted a welcome home party for Abram.  Our friends from church were able to finally meet the little guy they had been praying for all these months. It was such a wonderful day!

Grandparents with Abe at our welcome home party. They were in heaven!

Granddaddy playing with Abe... trying to teach him how to jump!

Such a sweet picture with Gram

With my sweet friend, Cara, who hosted our party. It was wonderful!

A curious toddler.. what is he thinking?

And so now our life begins with a toddler... we can't believe we are parents to such a fun and amazing little boy!  We are definitely blessed!! We want to thank all of you for your prayers while we were traveling, we definitely felt them all! 

First Week with Abe

Here's a few of our favorite pictures with Abram... We've been busy with paperwork, road trips, and getting to know our sweet son. Enjoy!

Waiting in Beijing (part 2)

Sorry... This is my first time to update our blog from the iPad, and I'm experiencing some difficulties. So, the easiest thing for me to do is to post this in two parts.

Our third and final day consisted of seeing and climbing a very small part of the Great Wall. There were a TON of steps, but so exciting to finally see!

We repacked our suitcases tonight because in the morning we are heading out for Abram's province. It has been a wonderful time in Beijing, but we are ready to leave so we can finally meet our son!! 

But before we go, I wanted to post some funny pictures about common things we have seen in Beijing... 

1) We take tons of pictures everyday with the Chinese. They just walk right up to us and ask in their best English if they can take a picture with us. We feel like we are famous; it is so fun! On the Great Wall I think I took about 15 pictures in a row with different people. 

2) The men here are always walking around with their shirts up because it is so hot. You see it everywhere! Chris and one of the families we are traveling with couldn't resist playing along and taking a picture with a local, and finally... 

3) The famous split pants. I've heard about these and couldn't wait to see them. It's the pants they put their toddlers in to make potty training easier. So funny!!

Waiting in Beijing

Our agency advised us to arrive in Beijing a few days early to sightsee, rest up, get ride of jet lag, and get to know other adoptive families. So while we are waiting for our Gotcha Day we have enjoyed exploring Beijing.  While we lived in Japan, we never visited China. We wanted to save it for our adoption trip. We have been looking forward to this trip for awhile. :)

We arrived a day before the other families, so we had a day to explore on our own. Chris assigned me the job of finding something to do, and the first thing I saw was the water park. I love water parks! After breakfast, we headed out in a taxi with our swimsuits in our bag. The water park is in the water cube from the Beijing Olympics. It was quite an experience! After we walked around the Olympic park and also saw the Bird's Nest (where the opening ceremonies were).

The water cube from the Olympics

On the next morning, we met our travel group in the lobby while we waited for our bus and travel guide. We are with five other families. It's been fun to share each others stories and pictures. 

Our morning started off on a rickshaw ride through an old Chinese village where we had tea and snacks at a sweet lady's house.

Also, on our second day we toured The Forbidden City,  Tiananmen Square, a silk factory and saw a Chinese Acrobatic show. We had a fun, busy, and long day. For dinner, Chris and I set out on the subway to find our favorite place to eat while we lived in Sasebo... CoCo Curry! It was about 45 minutes away, but it was so worth it! We were in heaven!